Not Quite Back to Normal

Well, I wasn't quilt back to normal, at least I hope this is not the new normal for me. After I put all the Christmas things away, I decided to work on some organization in my sewing room and it has been increasingly chaotic. My scraps and leftover blocks and block components are simply out of control.  I keep trying to make order out of chaos and there is just too much of too many things that don't really make any sense to keep. I will not show any photos or go into detail but it borders on lunacy, yes really! I am shelving ALL plans and goals until I am out from under the burden of  all the "stuff".

That doesn't mean I am not going to do any sewing but I am keeping it simple and limited to whatever needs to be done NOW.
So..... the first thing was to catch up on blocks for the Friendship group. I got these two sets done yesterday and this morning. In the middle of all the mess it wasn't easy or fun but it was satisfying. I hope I will be caught up, I missed some meetings so I am not sure.

The request  for these  8 inch variable star blocks was for colorful fun fabrics with pieced centers. I think I hit the mark on the one on the right. I might have used a center with too many colors for the one on the left.




The "candy cane"  are also 8 inch blocks. These were easy to do once I found suitable fabrics in the mess I had created with my "organizing.



 I need to get out and buy something for binding for the heartbeat quilt. Then I can get started (or finished) with making my sewing space workable again.

Backing and Ready to Quilt

I'm ready to quilt my Friendship Churn dash. I sewed the borders on early in February and then went on to finish other things. This is one of the UFOs I listed as a first quarter finish for the 2018 Finish Along. Last week, when I was working on the Dresden Rings, I thought I wouldn't get around to finishing this after all. I didn't even have the backing for it.
Yesterday I finally got out to shop and after making a quick stop at Joann's, where I found nothing, I went to the quilt shop and found several choices.  Yes, I know..... I should have gone to the quilt shop first but I had a coupon and I was going to get batting (I didn't get that either).





I  decided in this large floral print and I am so happy to have decided on this instead of  one of the others I considered. The quilt top is 48 inches wide and the fabric is 43 inches wide without the selvages. I bought enough to piece the back but I didn't want to fuss around matching the print  so I looked through my fabric stash to see what I might use to insert  2 long strips. I was not having any luck until I looked in my recently sorted scraps and found 5 inch wide strips of the border fabric and YES!!! I had enough. I pieced the backing and layered and pin basted the quilt and I am ready to get it finished.

 I have about 1 1/4 yard of the floral print left; maybe I will start rebuilding my stash of floral prints. In 2010 when Melody Johnson had a "Quilt Along with Melody" I joined and my goal was to use up all the floral prints that I had collected when I was making  "colorwash " quilts. I've made a lot of quilts with the floral prints since that time and really pared down my floral stash to almost nothing (nothing that I like much, I should say). I like all of the quilts I made using those fabrics and I realize that I miss them in my stash. On the other hand, I am not so sure I want to accumulate a large stash of fabric again; maybe I will just start buying floral fabric for what I am going to make. I guess we'll see how that goes.
 For now, I am going to move some furniture and set up to quilt.

Friendship Blocks

For a number of years I belonged to the "Friendship" group at the local quilt shop. We met once a month and one or sometimes two of the members presented a block pattern with color preferences that they wanted the other members to make for them. Depending on the size we could request either 2 or 3 blocks. I asked for "Triple 4 Patch" blocks at least 3 times and made 3 quilts that I loved. I made quilts from almost all of my "Friendship" blocks.

So..... Saturday I was rattling around wondering what to do with myself and decided to have a look in my box of odd blocks.  I found a number of blocks that I made to try out a pattern or a colorway, some that lead to quilts and some that didn't. I did find a large size zip lock bag with 12 inch "Quails Nest" Friendship blocks. 

There are enough blocks for 2 quilts, one with lighter nearly pastel fabrics and these that are darker, richer colors. I am going to work with these first. 
I picked out 9 blocks and then made 3 more to make a more useful size quilt. I dragged out 3 flannel covered insulation panels that I didn't use on my wall and started arranging; I think I am finished moving them around.

I am considering sashing strips and border fabric from my stash or maybe I will shop for something.  I have time to think about it, there will probably be no more sewing till next week.

Friendship Block

I finally got around to making Gwen's Friendship block. I always grumble (to myself of course) when I have to make something that requires thought and creativity and I always procrastinate. Gwen gave us instructions for making a "shop'  of our choice from the pattern "The Shop Ladies" by Sue Pritt. Sue has several really sweet patterns on her website that are worth checking out "Sweet Seasons Quilts".
I read the instructions almost 2 months ago and set them aside until Monday when I read them over several times before I formulated a plan of attack. Once I decided on what kind of shop I would make the rest was fairly simple, not really easy with cutting all  those little  dresses but simple.  Some of the parts were stitched together and some of them were fused. I don't do a lot of fusing so that part was kind of fussy for me. After I sewed the first floor together I decided to put a name in the window so I scanned the background fabric and then made a sign in Word and printed it on fabric. I thought it might come out the same but it  is not as bright as the yellow background fabric in the window. I wish I had printed it on the window fabric but I didn't know what I wanted to do when I was at that point.
Gwen will add trees and lampposts when she puts the blocks together. I decided to skip putting a flower pot or anything else in front of my shop but I did consider a topiary. When Gwen gets all her blocks together she can decide if it needs something else.

All in all

it really was

 a fun block to make.

Bouquets and Blocks

About 2 times a year I get flowers, Sweetest Day and my birthday. Last week ,Dec. 20)I got 2 bouquets for my birthday. This is the last of them.









The one on the left was from my son and DIL and it is on the dining room table; the one on the right was from Jack and is in the bedroom. They both had red roses and the one from Jack also had 2 white roses. When the roses started to hang their heads I took them out and hung them up to dry and rearranged the rest of the flowers. The baby's breath will dry nicely too and maybe the red berries in the one on the left will dry nicely too. In a few days I will put the dried flowers on my dresser for awhile. The real surprise was the lilies. The first one opened after 3 or 4 days and the other one opened after I rearranged the bouquets. They are huge, nearly 10 inches across and very fragrant.

This is a shot of the roses drying. I couldn't get a good picture and had to lighten it up; the red and green are both a little brighter and  will stay that way for quite a long time.


Today I made my Friendship bocks. I started with 3 inch strips and right now they measure 5 1/2 inches square. There are 5 of each colorway; 10 total. I had trouble with my 1/4 inch again and did what Beth, the owner of Cottonpickers  LQS, told me. I removed the guide on the side of the presser foot and voila my 1/4 inch is right on.










The weather today in Willoughby, Ohio according to Accuweather.com (on my desktop) is 51 degrees. It would be a good day to take my Bernina to the sewing machine doctor but it is also a rare winter day here in NE Ohio and a good day for Jack to be out on his motorcycle. He is considering having total hip surgery and that will be the end of his riding days.

The Bernina can wait!!

Blocks

I finished my Friendship blocks yesterday. Two sets of red and white positive/negative blocks. It is a simple pattern but it requires precision. All it all it went together pretty easily, only a few sessions with the seam ripper. If these are going to be set block to block, I am glad that it will not be me putting them together; a lot of points there to match.




The sun is shining today and the view from my sewing room is cheerful with the yellow leaves against the bright blue sky.  The view from the living room is not quite so colorful; more bare branches on the other side of the tree. All summer we have much more privacy as no one can really see in our windows from the other buildings. The tree also hides the view of the parking lot for the other building in the summer and gives us shade which makes the AC more efficient. The bright side is now there will be much more light in our apartment which will be a nice change in the winter.

Friendship blocks etc

Friendship group was on Tuesday and it was my turn to receive blocks. I had chosen the Anvil block from "made fabric" and had asked for two 12 inch  blocks, one with a blue background and one with a lighter orange/yellow/gold background.
 I had asked for half of the blocks with blue backgrounds so I could send them to Victoria (Bumblebeans) for the quilts she makes with donated blocks for people recently diagnosed with cancer. I love these blocks. I especially find the block in the upper left corner endearing. It reminds me of myself; I will fix it before I send it. I didn't get blocks from everyone  this month, it was a very busy month for everyone. I will wait to get them all before I send them to Victoria.









Theses are the blocks in the other colorway and I love them just as much. I will  be keeping these to make a throw size quilt. I have one or two of my own somewhere but I didn't look for them because I won't be  putting these together for a while.

I have been quilting the giraffe quilt and it is on hold right now while I decide what I want to do with the background around the giraffes. I am not entirely happy with the echo quilting and I want to add something to it. That may require some unstitching. I took it with me to Friendship Tuesday and asked for suggestions. One of them was to repeat the chevron stitching from the zig zag fabric. I drew a pattern in one corner with my white Sewline Fabric Pencil (I love that pencil). I am still not sure what I will  do.

As I sit here and ponder what to do, this is the view from my sewing room window on this rainy overcast day. In real life the leaves are a bit more yellow. Those blue blurry spots are the raindrops on my window. There is NO blue in the sky today.

 This is the view from the living room of our second floor apartment. That close up view of the green leaves shows the leaves that come up and brush our window when the wind blows. There is much more yellow on the other side of the tree and the other maple trees around are all yellow, it must be the proximity to the building that makes the difference.

 This carpet of leaves under the tree is much thicker that it was earlier when I shot these pictures. It is quite breezy and all the branches are waving and the leaves are coming down like rain. Soon the trees will be bare and the lawn people will come and gather up all the leaves.
I will miss them.

"Peak" color was late this year in our area of NE Ohio. We thought that this year the color would be nice but more subdued, then, last Thursday, everything seemed to burst into glorious color overnight. Who would have expected peak to come the first weekend in November?

Friendship Blocks

Yesterday morning we were awakened at 5 AM by Jack's cell phone ringing. It was a wrong number but by the time he got up and turned on the light and found his phone I was wide awake.  I tried to go back to sleep but after 15 minutes I realized it was futile so I got up. I am always surprised at how much I can accomplish before noon when I get up early.
I did some preparation cutting and joining strips for the T shirt quilt borders and sashings  in order to be ready to layer and start quilting when the backing fabric gets here.
What to do next...... Friendship Blocks! I needed some 6 1/2 inch squares of Halloween fabric and I had previously unearthed a fat quarter with several different motifs.

I wasn't sure if they would be alright as Maryann asked for  orange, lime green, purple and black  strips for 2 sides of the square to make wonky block. I wasn't sure if the blue background would be OK. I had checked with her and she said they are fine.

I dug out my bright strips and my black fabric and made the two blocks. When she gave us our instructions she told each of us where to position the motif squares so they would all be right side up in the quilt. The strips were cut 2 inches and the block was to be 13 inches and left untrimmed so she could do that herself. Because when you wonkicise a block, the size sometimes comes up short,  I used some 2 1/2 inch strips on the outside. That will make it easier to trim. It is my guess that she will trim to 12 1/2 inches.

I had missed a number of meeting this past year and I have blocks  I received from at least 3 years that I have not made into quilts.
I thought that maybe I would not join in the block exchange this year and only go to the meetings when I could get there. I realized that I really like to make the blocks when given the instructions and color palette.
It makes me explore new possibilities and try something new. Oh, and not to forget once a year I get to request either 2 or 3 blocks, depending on the size, and I get to make a quilt without making all the blocks myself.

So what if I have a stockpile of blocks!

No one is ever going to check up on me

 to see if I used them yet. 

A little light and some Friendship blocks

Wednesday Jack wanted to stop at Lowe's to get some cotter pins and I went in with him to have a look at the lamps. I  have been looking for a craft lamp for my sewing room. I am not sure what I want; I have thought about a floor lamp that I could move around when I reposition my sewing machine for what I am doing. The light in my room leaves a lot to be desired and an overhead light is not an option. I haven't yet found what I want but I did find something that I think will be useful.

This little purple LED lamp doesn't light up a large area but clamped on the shelf above my cutting table it gives me a lot more light than I had and seems just right.

This second photo  was taken without a flash and shows how well it lights up that small area.


I can bend it so it will light up the stitching area on my sewing machine and I could also clamp it on the right side of my sewing table and position the light to illuminate the stitching area. I tested it to see how it would work sewing black on black. It does a good job. It will be very helpful removing black stitching on black fabric. I can also move it across the room and clamp it on my bookcase if I want to use my cutting table on that side. It is small enough to take with me anywhere. For $15 it looks like a  winner, as long as it keeps on working.


Those little pieces on my cutting board are Friendship blocks, here they are finished. Maryann wanted 2 nine patch blocks and 2 snowball blocks. They are 3 inch blocks and she supplied all the colored squares already cut and a 1.5 inch strip of the tan background. I whined more than usual when someone gives us the fabric they want us to use. Because the piecses are so small I was sure I would mess up and then I couldn't make more and Maryann is very precise; her work defines precise. Not to worry, they came out 3 1/2 inches right on the button.

This month there were 2 people  presenting blocks for us to make. These half log cabin blocks are for Susie. Susie wanted either a corner square or a set of strips from black and white print fabric. These are supposed to have 3 or 4 rounds of logs. I was busy working along and when I got to the 4th set of logs it dawned on me that I was not going to make 8 1/2 inches without another set of logs. Maybe no one will notice. Maybe I can just sneak them in the pile of blocks and no one will know it was me. Maybe it won't matter. Susie is Maryann's sister; maybe it will matter.

Caught up

I didn't do much else today but I finished the blocks for my Friendship group. I got behind because I missed 2 months and I couldn't go ahead with them because 3 of the recipients had passed out fabric with their requests and I just got the fabric last Saturday.

The top row is the one I finished yesterday. Sue supplied the black fabric for the blocks in the second row. It was the most time consuming because I agonized forever over all of the other fabric choices.  I have enough 2 1/2 inch squares and matching triangles to make a few more blocks with the fabrics I decided not to use after all. Once I made up my mind about the fabric they went together pretty fast. Sue requested that we not square them up because she wants to do them all herself. Smart Girl!

Maryann gave us the fabric for her blocks and a picture of how to lay them out so it was easy. No decisions at all to make.

For the blocks in the 4th row I  had to choose three different Christmas fabrics. Linda gave us the white fabric and she had marked the diagonal line on the wrong side of the fabric. That was good because it would have been easy to mix up the right and wrong sides as it is white on white.

It is good to get all caught up and now I am ready for our Friendship meeting next week. 

Friendship Blocks

This is all the sewing I got finished today. I needed to make 3 blocks with Halloween type fabrics or Halloween colors. I recently gave away all of my Halloween fabric and couldn't find any in the 3 quilt shops I  visited last week. Gwen said that was OK just use the colors that were suggested. I found that old Debbie Mumm fabric in my novelties fabric, it is stripes of those same motifs repeated. It is OLD and I vaguely remember buying it and some other fabric that had boxes around the Halloween motifs. I may make another block to replace that one as it is directional and I am not sure if that will work in the quilt she has planned. I should have thought of that. The triple 4 patch block is one of my favorites and I have made at least 3 quilts using it. I have also made it at least 3 other times for Friendship blocks.

Maybe tomorrow I will get the other 3 sets of blocks done. I got had my room all cleaned up and ready to sew so there is nothing else on the agenda for tomorrow. Maybe I shouldn't have said that......, that is often when some sort of disruption occurs.

A need to declutter

 I have a serious need to declutter and purge. Yesterday was our Friendship meeting and I received 2 more sets of blocks that I requested in my month, October. I asked everyone to trace their hands on their favorite color fabric and fuse them on a 12 1/2 inch background and also to  make their favorite 6 inch block  in any color. I decided I would photograph them all  today. Well, I got the ones I received last night and then looked everywhere for the rest. They are still in the logical safe place where I put them. For some reason logical  only remains so until I have a need  to find something  again and things are never in the most logical places.

I did  find odd blocks almost every place I looked, which is interesting  because I have an "odd block box" where I thought I had all of the leftover, practice, and demo blocks. I  also came across 4 stacks  of blocks that are destined to go in 4 different quilts when I get a few more of each made or I get around to putting them up on my design wall in preparation for sewing them. As I went through everything I put all of the blocks I found in a stack and put them all in a plastic box I emptied last week, so much for the empty box.

This picture shows the top of my sewing room bookcase. Before we  moved to this apartment I had a shelf about 6 feet up that went across the length of the wall; and I bought 8 of  those baskets to hold current projects. I only have these 3 left in my sewing room and they did not contain current projects. There were scraps, bagged up leftovers from different projects, odd blocks, 4 stacks of blocks destined for those 4 quilts and stuff that I was not able to identify for what reason I had them sorted out and bagged up or tied up.  Two of them are now empty and the other one has all the scraps and unidentifiable  parts. In the past 2 weeks I have come to realize that I have  boxes of scraps everywhere supposedly sorted out in a logical way.

For now I am going to put everything in apparent order (only I will  know what a mess it really is). In  January I am going to start going through every shelf, box, drawer etc. and get rid of what I will never use. I am going  to put all the various boxes and bags of scraps all together somehow, and give away or throw out what I don't  want or that I have had an not used for years. I have done this before but always think I need to hang on to something that doesn't see the light of day until the  next "organization". I  am going to set some goals and do my best  to stick to my plan.

I am already showing  some good logical common sense in that I am  not starting this project today.

Some blocks

I was up early this morning and got started on my blocks for the December Friendship Block. We meet tomorrow so I thought it best to get it done today. Laura gave us each 3 strips of the plainer fabric here and asked us to add 3 strips of our own pastel fabric and make 5 - 6 inch 9 patch blocks. This will be for a Project Linus community project quilt for her guild.  

After I finished the nine patch blocks I  made 3 blocks for a raffle  quilt for our guild. We were supplied with the packs of 5 inch squares of fabrics to make 9 inch Ohio Star blocks. One of our long time members passed away recently and her wish was that we use some of her fabric to make a raffle quilt and use the money to do something fun for the guild.

I would find it difficult to make an entire quilt with this color pallet as I  prefer something lighter and more colorful but it is very nice fabric and was easy to work with; all the points came together nicely. 

 When I stared quilting almost everything I made for a while was in shades of brown, rust and gold. there were not all the choices that we have today. Country decor was in and there were blue and mauve, red, white and blue and shades of brown and  gold. I guess there were peach and green as well. I  had nothing mauve, no blue, no green except for a green stain on the back of our cherry hutches so of course shades of brown it was. I have since graduated to a full rainbow of "favorite colors" and often reject brown. However........ I  have  put brownish borders on a number of scrappy quilts because it is the one fabric that didn't fight with everything else.

So.. after all I guess I don't really not like brown. Here are two brown wall  hangings  on my bulletin board. The cat quilt was a challenge quilt from our guild. Without looking we picked a crayon from a paper bag and had to use predominantly that color to  make a quilt. I moaned and groaned about tan. It is not my color; I never wear tan, but hey, I don't have to wear this. So I made it and I like it and it stays on my bulletin board most of the time.

Friendship blocks

Our Friendship block exchange group meets tomorrow evening. Last month was my month to present a block for everyone to make for me. I will be getting them tomorrow, always fun.
I made my blocks for the September presenter this week end. For some reason I just never thought about making them until everyone else brought out their blocks. I  did miss the meeting when she presented her block so that is my excuse' even though I  knew what she wanted as our friend Kathy always keeps us up to date when we miss.

  These are the  8 inch Triple 4 patch blocks I made. She requested 3 blocks, blue or boys prints. The quilt for be for a new grandson. I made an extra one because I don't like the one on the bottom.  The print was cute and colorful but it already had a patchwork look and cut up and pieced it looked like a mess to me. I made the one with the kids eating treats today and I like it better.
I always second guess myself with my Friendship blocks. It is hard for me to pick out fabric for someone else blocks. When I am following their guidelines for color I  think I frequently miss the mark. However, they are all nice ladies and if they aren't pleased with what they get they never complain.

Friendship blocks

Next Tuesday our Friendship group meets and I decided  to get my blocks done before the last minute. This month we are making Chinese Coins blocks for our friend Laura. This is the block right after I took it apart. When I was pressing it I noticed that the 2 small triangles at the center top really blended together. It took me a minute to realize that I had some how sewed the wrong components together in the preceding step. The larger dark and light squares are supposed to be in opposite corners, not next to each other.


Here it is below (top left, after I fixed it) with the other 3 blocks. They measure 7 1/2 inches.

As I was selecting fabrics and cutting little squares for these blocks I decided that I didn't much like making this block. Every block has 16 -  1 3/4 inch squares for connector corners and they were all different within each block. Now that they are all done I like them and I am thinking they were not so bad after all to make. I am reminded of the Quilters Fortune block I asked for my first year in the group, with 49 patches each one a different fabric. What goes around comes around.