A Finish

I finished sewing the facing on the second HST quilt.

Here are the two quilts laying on my bed side by side. The one I finished today is the one on the right and it is much more graphic;  it is easier to see the block. Both quilts are 16 patch blocks and both have an equal number of HST patches and plain square patches and they are laid out the same way with alternating HST and plain square patches  The quilt on the left does not have any light plain square patches and therefore the block is harder to identify.

























I like them both but I think I like the one on the left better. That is probably because all of the plain squares being dark give the quilt more color. For me, the more color and pattern the better I like it. My guess is that someone who does not like so much busyness would like the other one better.

I ended up with a lot of left over HST's and 3 1/2 inch squares so I will most likely be making another quilt.  I won't be  doing that soon but I am mulling over the design options. I will be playing with it in EQ7 while I work on some other things.

Almost Finished

I was ready to layer up this quilt October 22 and I posted that I thought it would take 2 weeks if all went well. On my October 29, post I showed the 2 sections of the layered quilt folded up on my sewing table all ready to quilt.
Well it is quilted and the sections joined and the prairie points and the facing/binding is sewn on. I have started hand stitching the facing to the back of the quilt. There were a few bumps in the road. Besides Jack being in the hospital 4 days, there was a follow up doctor visit, which took another whole day out of my quilting time. There were leaves to be raked and hauled to the wooded area. We also went shopping for a more comfortable chair for Jack (and a bonus find of a chair for me). That led to time spent rearranging furniture. There were many distractions dealing with Lucy and a few timeouts along the way for me and vertigo episodes. All things considered, I guess that getting it this far in a month isn't too far off the mark.

Here it is spread out across my bed for a photo shoot

 There seems to be a mystery lump here. I wonder what who it might be.

Mystery solved, it's Lucy. One of her favorite things to do is to burrow underneath something. She suddenly appears whenever I make the bed in the morning or when I lay something out on the bed to photograph it or when I dump the laundry basket of clean clothes on the bed to sort and fold them.








Another thing she likes to do is remove the pins from my pincushion and even from the seam that I had pinned on the back of the quilt where the sections are joined. I am now much more diligent about putting the loose pins in the pincushions and putting the pin cushions away.

This photo on the left shows the back of the quilt with the prairie points and binding/facing stitched on but not yet turned.



On the right are the prairie points, shown from the front, after the facing has been turned and stitched.

Below  is the facing stitched on the back at the corner. I used 2 1/2 inch scrap strips, mostly bias, because I wanted bias when going around the rounded corners.

The edge finishing was much easier this time because I knew I would be trimming the corners round. On the last quilt I tried to have square corners but because of a seam at the corner of the block there was too much bulk. It required the use of my seam ripper and there was much frustration.


I have my needle,thread, scissors  and the quilt ready by my chair with my Ott light and I am going to spend the rest of the evening hand stitching the facing.

Life Happens

I said sometimes life gets in the way of our plans. I thought I would get started quilting the other HST quilt but that didn't happen. I no sooner got the last basting pins in than we had a medical emergency and Jack was in the hospital for 4 days. He is home again and after sleeping 12 hours last night he is feeling pretty good.

Here are the 2 sections of the quilt, all folded up and ready to quilt. I had to be sure to fold the quilt sections so no batting was exposed. Lucy will not leave the batting alone. I had to shut her up in another room when I was pin basting so she wouldn't tear pieces out of the exposed batting.

Here she is  on an old quilt on my cutting table, hanging out with me and napping guarding the quilt sections.

A Finish

I finished the first of the HST quilts. I have been trying to figure out when I started this quilt and I remember when it was on my design wall in the first room I used for my sewing room in our apartment. If it was on the wall in that room it had to be at least 15 years ago. I remember when I stopped working on it and why. My daughter stopped one day and when she saw it on the wall she couldn't see the overall pattern. I kind of lost interest after that. I left it up on the wall and I didn't sew the blocks together; eventually I took the blocks down and put them away.

Well it is together and finished and I like it. I think the overall pattern shows up well, at least in the photos.
















Here is a little bit closer shot. It has been a while since I sewed the blocks together into 3 sections and today as I was looking at the quilt I had a hard time figuring out what the original block was. I looked at the Quilt in EQ7 and colored everything black and white and I could easily see the block and what my block layout was.









 This is a block cropped from a photo of the finished quilt. Every solid square is a dark or medium print and there is a diagonal line of HST's across the center from top right to lower left. The points of the light triangles on both upper and lower corners point toward the center line. The light fabrics are a mixture; some are near solid and some have more pattern and approach being medium value. I remember not giving any attention to trying to color coordinate the individual blocks. the placement is truly random.

 This shows my finished rounded corner.

 I tried to fold the quilt so I could get a shot of all the binding on the back of the quilt but Lucy kept jumping up on the bed and burrowing under the quilt. I finally gave up.











This is the folded quilt showing all the many fabrics used for the prairie points and some of the binding. I used a lot pieces of leftover binding from my binding box. It was all cut 2 1/2 inches wide and turned to the back as a facing; it finished about 7/8 of an inch and added a little color to the all one piece wide backing.





This quilt also has alternate squares and HST' but the value layout is different and many of the blocks were color coordinated.
I plan to layer up this quilt in 2 sections and I have a backing for it that is the same pattern in red and white. I will finish the edges with prairie points and the same kind of binding/facing but I will round of the corners first and this time I will know what to do so there will not be any much ripping of stitches. Unless life gets in the way I am estimating that it will take 2 weeks to finish this.

We'll see!

WHAT ! The Middle of October?

The middle of October already, WOW! I didn't accomplish much in September. As the saying goes "life happens" and there was a lot of that happening in our family. It wasn't all bad, our grandson got married in Missouri and it was a lovely wedding. Half of our family didn't make it to the wedding because of our great-grandson's ruptured appendix and two separate stays in the hospital. Great grandson is finally doing well.  After coming home with a rash, nausea, and not eating much for 3 days he told his mother that  he felt amazing and couldn't wait to eat scrambled eggs and sausage for dinner.

Just before the end of September, our granddaughter and her 10 year old son moved in; we are now a 4 generation household. We are all in the process of adjusting.

This is a photo or all seven great grand kids; there are 2-10 year olds, 2-11 year olds, 2-13 year olds, and one 14 year old.  Last weekend we had a birthday party for 5 of them.  In the past we were having a birthday party every 2 weeks through September and October and then one more party combined with Thanksgiving.  Maybe next year we will have one party that includes the 2 summer birthdays as well. As they get older it has become increasingly difficult to get them all together at one time.

I did have some time to quilt.

I quilted this quilt in 3 sections and joined them together. It has been a while since I did it this way and I was surprised that the hand sewing on the back at the joined seams went as well as it did. I took my Advil ahead of time and my hands were not so stiff, though it was slow going.



I did not use a border but finished with prairie points. ordinarily that is fairly easy to do but the edges of the quilt were already quilted and I planned to add the prairie points and then the folded binding as a facing. That did not work well at the corners, too much bulk. After much fiddling and fussing, I ripped out the (several layers of) stitching and cut the corners round. I am still working on fixing the next 2 corners before I sew on the rest of the binding/facing.
I will keep this in mind when I work on the other HST quilt.

I sew several stings of prairie points together and adjust the spaces between the strings as necessary when I sew them to the edge of the quilt.
As usual Lucy settled down for a nap on the quilt as I was working. You can see her at the center top of this photo. I wasn't working on the quilt body at this time so I left her there but sometimes I have to remove here from my sewing room and close the door.

She likes to hang out with me and she sometimes watches what I am doing intently

 as though she was learning how to do it herself.

Other times she just settles down and purrs herself to sleep.

Last 2 Blocks

I finished he final 2  blocks for the HST quilt I have been working on for over a year.

 I had planned on adding  one row of 7 blocks to both sides, to complete the pattern, and to add one row of 4 blocks on the bottom to the 4 blocks by 6 blocks section I had already sewed together. I have a slight change of plans.
Instead I will sew a row of 4 blocks to the bottom but I will sew the other 2 rows of 7 blocks each to together and sew them on one side. I am going to quilt this in two sections; my original plan would have had 3 sections making one more seam to sew. The new plan will still complete the pattern with less work.

I ordered fabric for the backing and it should arrive tomorrow. So.......... in the meantime I am going  to clean up my space which is so bad that I am not even going to show a picture of it.  Then, I am going to get my space set up to quilt. There are the 2 HST bed quilts to quilt and this 24 inch square table topper that is layered up already so I will probably quilt it first.

That's the plan for the next few days but you know what they day about the best laid plans.

Two More HST Blocks

Almost all quilting and sewing has been on hold this past week. When I  wasn't picking produce from the garden or cooking I was shopping with my DIL(clothes) or Jack (chair) or dealing with vertigo.
I did have a nice relaxing time when we went out to lunch on Thursday with Jack's sister and her husband. so I am not feeling sorry for myself.

I still have this quilt up on the wall and it is 6 blocks by 6 blocks. I decided to make 6 more blocks for the bottom edge to complete the pattern. Idon't really care if the pattern is complete at the top as that part will be under the pillow which will have a cover to go with the quilt.
















These are the 2 blocks I started and finished today. Only the blue one is sewn together in this photo.

Lucy likes hanging out with her people and I guess it was my turn this morning.
She has to inspect everything and she had a good time hiding behind my small design board and attacking various pieces of fabric, scissors, seam rippers and other objects; she can make a toy out of anything. She will also eat tiny shreds of fabric, causing me to become more careful to clean up small shreds of fabric and string.

Before we went to the sewing room this morning she managed to sneak out the door and she wore herself out tearing around the yard like a streak  of lightning. I caught her when she plopped down to rest.

So here she is ready for a nap. About two minutes after I shot this photo she was out like a light and I was able to sew the block behind her without interference.

Two HST Quilts

Because I am already set up for quilting,  I decided to see what I have to layer up the HST quilt that is on my wall.  I have this 4 blocks wide by 6 blocks long section sewed together.  I am going to quilt it in sections.

I have 12 more blocks made that I will sew into 2 strips for either side to complete the pattern. I am going to add the borders to those 2 strips and quilt them in 2 sections for right and left sides. I am thinking about making 8 more blocks for the bottom of the quilt and adding a border to that and quilt that as a section, Can you tell I am making this up as I go along? I have a plan for using this quilt so It may not have borders on all 4 sides.















When I pulled out the basket with batting in it I found another HST flimsy that is in 3 sections all ready to be layered up and quilted in sections. It is a similar layout but the individual HST's are 4 inches finished instead of 3 1/2 inches.










These are  4 block sections showing the pattern of the 2 quilts.
The one on the top is what I came across yesterday. A 4 block section is larger by 4 inches; I am not sure what I will do about borderers for it. I will finish both of them and they can be used in the extra bedroom.

I need to decide on backs for these two so I am going to clean up the sewing room and look through some of the hiding places to see what other UFO's are lurking. I need to make a list of thing that need to be finished or given away and then get it done in some sort of organized way.

Maybe I should make a rule "NO NEW PROJECTS UNTIL ALL THE OLD ONES ARE DONE OR GONE.  I wonder if I could stick to it. Over 15 years ago  I finished all my UFO's when I wouldn't let myself start anything new until I had made/finished 7 Log cabin Christmas quilts for my family. It was a year long project and when I got bored with making log cabin blocks I worked on something that was waiting to be finished.

Hmmmmm.

Pinning and HST Blocks

 I am giving my back a break from pinning the Disappearing Ninepatch quilt.  It is about 1/3 of the way pinned and bending over the table isn't as easy as it used to be.
I  am going to have to do some cleaning up and rearrangement of  furniture to get set up for the quilting.
Wow! I just noticed that the angle  from which I shot  this photo distorted the squares that are flat on the table top. The are really square as in the forefront where they hang off the table.




















I have this back up on the design wall again. The six blocks on the right are not sewn on to the rest of  the quilt yet. They are blocks I just made and I have 3 more to put together and then either 3 or 9 more to make. I am mulling it over in my mind; I am not sure how big I want to make this one.

Here's Lucy again. She had a big morning, watching the birds, chasing her shadow,  laying under the bed and grabbing toes as we walk past, tearing around the house like a streak of lightning and slipping out the door when I went out to the garden and I couldn't get the door closed fast enough. I caught her easily because she is more interested in inspecting everything than she is in running away.
I had to shut her in the bedroom while I  spread and layered up the quilt. She thought it was a game. I hope I can get it done before she wakes up and Jack opens the bedroom door.

Four Blocks

I have been cutting 4 inch squares and 3 1/2 inch squares and making 3 1/2 inch half square triangle units. This is what I have up on my design wall.

I have been tweaking these blocks all week as I make more HST's and cut more 3 1/2 inch squares. I have to sort through everything and organize my squares and HST's by color so I can finish the rest of the blocks.
I have part of one more block up on the wall; it is pink but it may not stay that way. I keep changing pieces as I look at these blocks for a  while. The quilt is a scrap quilt and really random; everything is mixed up as far as color goes on the 24 block section I have sewed previously. However, I do  fuss around trying to make each 12 inch block cohesive. I'll bet that in the end I am going to have enough HST rejects to make another "something".







I would be further along it it were not for distractions.

I have been planting flowers and weeding and watering. Some of the flowers have gone into pots on the edge of the patio.

Some  along the walk to the patio and front door.

And then there is Lucy. 

Here she is on the her footstool on which there is a 24 inch hand pieced hand quilted "Mariner's Compass" made before I knew about paper piecing.

She was the star of the show yesterday at the family picnic. Everyone made a fuss over her. Our son's dog is apparently enchanted with her and  won't leave her alone. She was afraid of him initially but soon got over it and now she only considers him a nuisance; he gets a hiss and a swat when she has had enough attention from him. He does get an occasional show of affection when she rubs her head on his chin or legs.

A Flimsy.....Maybe

I finished up the HST quilt top yesterday. As it came together I could see that some of my first blocks didn't look as good as the later blocks, however I am not going to take them out. Well, maybe I won't. The things that don't look as good really show up in a photo but not so much in real life.

As it is now it is 48 x 72; even with borders, that is not exactly a usable size. I have a bunch of 3 1/2 and 4 inch squares cut and a pretty sizable number of HST's. If I make 12 more blocks the top without borders would be 72 x 72; that is getting closer to king size. Depending on how I handle the borders it could be a king size. Of course I could make 12 blocks and see where to go from there.

I started this because I wanted to clean up some of the stuff in boxes in my sewing room. I had a large number of 3 1/2 and 4 inch squares and a fair number of HST's. I have generated almost as much as I have used because I needed different colors and values. I probably don't need to cut more squares, except a few light colors.

I am tempted to keep going on this and I am even thinking this could be the wedding gift after all.

Moving Along ...............Slowly

I am moving along with the HST quilt but not very fast.  There have been enough snow days that it would seem as though I would get a lot more sewing done.


This is what is up on my small design wall; I have only finished 11 blocks. I thought I had more than enough squares and HSt's but I needed more variety and more "'sparklers". That meant dragging out more fabric to cut squares and then making more HST's. This is probably the layout I am going with unless I decide to make a larger quilt and then I might change my mind.

I'm much happier with the new arrangement in my room. It is easier to work now; when the weather improves and we can get some more insulation board, I will probably have a larger design wall.

Sometimes you have to stop and sew

It took me several days to get back to straightening up the sewing room. When I got around to it I decided it was time for a major cleanup and rearrangement. Jack and I moved a large cabinet from it's original place, a few feet from the door, to a corner where it should have been in the first place. It opens up the room and if that were the only change it would be worth the effort. I had to empty the cabinet in order to move it; while everything was out I went through all the contents and discarded a few things and set other things aside to go to storage in the basement. That gave me the incentive to go through everything in the room( I really mean everything)  desk drawers, bookcase, sewing chests, boxes, shelves, yes.... everything. When you put things away haphazardly just to get it put away, it gets to a place where it is impossible to find anything. I was there!

I am not finished yet; this is a table of stuff that has to be put away. There is also a bunch of stuff in the hallway that is not coming back in this room. When we moved I reached a point where I couldn't decide whether or not to get rid of some things; a lot of it came along with us. I am much more objective now about what I really want to keep.
However, sometimes you just have to stop, clear a bit of space, and sew.








 There were two finished blocks on the design wall (yep, I now have a design wall of sorts) and two blocks ready to be stitched together. I sewed the 2 blocks together and put the four blocks up on the wall in this arrangement. This is not what  I thought I wanted originally But the real life version looks a bit different than the EQ version. I am going to wait and see how it looks when I get all of the blocks made before I decide which I like better.

These are two mock ups using photos of the four blocks to see the pattern that would develop. I thought the pattern below would be too static but in actual fabric I see how much variety there is of color and pattern .   I will wait and see which I  like best.
Actually there are several other variations that I saw and eliminated when I was playing and manipulating the blocks in EQ. I might revisit those before I make up my mind.



Meanwhile it is back to making order out of chaos. It really has to be done! The way things have been, I have not been able to work in this room and sustain my interest in anything.

256 HST's

I finished quilting the baby quilt for the church closet. the next one I make with HST's will have larger pieces.  I quilted this in the ditch and to me it looks like there is too much quilting. I  am also not too happy with the quilting in the borders.  Maybe it was too few pins or the poly batting but it starts out nice and flat at the beginning of each side but it is rippled after about the center. I am not going to fix anything because this is not going to hang on a wall and will probably end up on the floor or in a playpen and no doubt it will be washed often.
When I decided on the border and backing fabric I found that I had cut out a small chunk of it for something and I would have to do some piecing to stretch the backing. That's what happens when you have something for a long time and after every audition you put it back on the shelf; eventually you cut a piece of it for something. Very soon after doing that you will decide it just the thing you need and it WONT be enough. These two shots show the backing . I found another fabric that I had for awhile and had auditioned many times but never used and though they were from different designers and bought several years apart I think they are a perfect fit.

These two shots above show the front and back of the binding. (I still need to clean up the stray shreds of thread  which are hard to see sometimes but they sure show up in a photo close up).
I really have a hard time doing a lot of hand stitching anymore so I do my binding completely on the machine. I used to stitch it to the back and turn it to the front and finish with the machine on the front. Recently I started to stitch the binding to the front and then press it toward the binding and turn it over and press the  binding down and use 1/4 inch stitch witchery to hold it in place. I finish it from the front by stitching in the ditch along the edge of the binding or on children's quilts or something whimsical I use the #4 stitch on the Bernina, as I did here.

Front                            Back               

These photos on the right are showing the front and back of a corner of the binding, stitched in the ditch, on the T shirt quilt. I finished it on Sunday and I will post a photo soon, after I have given it to the recipient.

I guess that when I shop I tend to get what I came to get and don't look around. That is probably because Jack is usually waiting in the car for me.
I had no idea that stitch witchery came in 1/4 inch width until I ran out of the 1/2 inch and had to buy some more. I had been cutting the width in half; before that I was using strips of Wonder Under cut 1/4 inch wide. I got the whole idea from something Melody Johnson said on her blog and something Mari from The Quilting Edge wrote (probably from someone else too). Someone was using glue to hold the binding down until  it was stitched but I hate getting glue on my fingers and then sticking to everything. I think this works pretty well and it is so much easier for me than using pins. It works better on fabric that is not black or navy blue or dark brown.