A Small Finish

Small...... but a finish none the less. I am not getting much quilting done these days. I have been busy with gardening and plant shopping and shopping in general.  Since we moved last year any kind of shopping is very time consuming.  This is big change for me as I was 5 to 15 minutes from most of my everyday shopping places.

I had intended to put a border on this and a striped binding but I could find neither fabrics. I am pretty sure I still have them but I may have bundled them up as a giveaway. I found something to piece  for the backing and some solid blue Kona for the binding. It is 24 inches square and as a table topper it is fine without a border. I quilted in the ditch over all the seams and then corner to corner with variegated red, white and blue using my Bernina # 4 stitch. I didn't want to leave the 4 inch square unquilted.                                                            

 I had planned to finish putting away all the leftovers and scraps from the big quilt project but I have not done it yet. When the weather turned nice I abandoned my sewing room and went out to play with the flowers and to take long walks with the dog. The mess is not going anywhere and I will get to it sooner or later.

Jellyroll Finish

I finished my 2014 Jellyroll quilt a few days ago. the top shot has it on the floor and below is over the back of the couch where it will live from Memorial Day until Labor day. Well at least until sometime in July or August when we will be moving and then I'm not sure where it will live for the summer months when I usually put out all my red, white and blue quilts because all the summer holidays are patriotic.



These next 4 photos show some of the steps for attaching my binding by machine. Not shown are the first 2 steps where I press from the front first, pressing away from the body of the quilt and then I turn it over and fold the binding down to cover the stitches and press again. Shown below, I trim away the ravelings on the edge and clean it up with a lint roller , then I insert a 1/4 inch strip of Wonder-under or  Stitch Witchery and press the binding over the fusible strip making sure the stitches are covered. I either stitch in the ditch from the front with a straight stitch or use the Bernina #4 stitch right on the inside edge of the binding; that is what I did here. I quilted with red, white and blue thread using the wavy lines in both directions.

Happy 4th of July

I like to bring out all my red, white and blue quilts from Memorial Day through Labor Day because all the summer holidays are American patriotic holidays so the quilts are my summer décor.

The only new red white and blue quilted items I made this year were some hutch mats; they don't say 4th of July like this one. This makes me think of fireworks.

Have a Happy and Safe Independence Day

Remember

to

Count your blessings

and

May God Bless America

Hutch mat #2

I finished the second hutch mat and this will be it. I decided that the coffee table will remain bare and I will dust it more often.

The reds show up here as brighter than they are; these fabrics are all darker and antique looking. The top mat is the second one I made. I decided to finish out the ends with strips instead of triangle corners.
I didn't want them to be the exactly alike; the center 2 inch square and the red binding are the same in both of them and many of the strips are used in both. Most of them are from the same box of strips left over from a quilt in made either 1990 or 1996. I wrote on the back with a Pigma pen but I can't read the last digit. That quilt was a pineapple log cabin and you can see it at the bottom of this post here.


When I opened this box of scraps I really opened a can or worms. I could probably make another RW&B quilt with what I have.  I had everything sorted by size and color and each wrapped with a piece of muslin with the length of the strips. Much of that is not longer nice and tidy as I combed through everything looking for strips that I wanted to use. I don't think I want to make another quilt with these RW&B 1 1/2 inch strips but I don't want to throw them away and I don't think I can get away with giving them to my friends as prizes again. As it stands now I am contemplating what to do with all of the other scraps I have  recently discovered hiding in various places.

OH WELL

 

I  am going to start  by putting away all my rulers etc. and clean up a little. then I will do a bit of hand quilting that I have committed to on my big UFO.

Summer is Coming

I know that summer officially arrives later in June but, I believe like most people, I think of Memorial Day as the beginning of summer and Labor Day as the end. All the summer holidays are patriotic and so I display all my red, white and blue quilts from Memorial day until Labor Day.

Last year in the spring I made some hutch mats in spring fabrics and made some for fall but I used red, white and blue regular sized place mats on the hutches in the summer. They were OK but after I used the ones I made specifically for the hutch I found they were much more useful as they cover the entire surface where I set things at meal times.


Hutch mat 14 x 28

Yesterday I looked through my red, white and blue scraps and it was a meager bunch. I bought a fat quarter bundle to augment my scraps and I set to work. In the end I didn't use anything from my FQ bundle. I looked through my 1 1/2 inch and 2 inch log cabin strips and found some I could use and I opened up a shoe box of long ago left overs from a RW&B Pineapple quilt. I had all the little strips sorted by size and color and wrapped in muslin strips waiting for the day when I would make another Pineapple quilt. Not only am I using these strips but what is left will go into the general pool and I will have an extra empty box. I plan to make one more hutch mat like this and I am thinking about if I want to make one to cover the top of the coffee table with it's always dusty glass top. If I do it will need 3 pineapple blocs along the length and then the chevron strips. I am thinking it might be overkill with the runner/mats and after I make one more hutch mat that might be enough RW&B sewing for me.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July

I always bring out all my red white and blue quilts and wall hangings Memorial Day and leave them up till Labor Day because all the summer holidays are patriotic. I have a small shelf just opposite my front door  and this is what I have there this year. I made the angels years ago when I used to make cloth dolls; I copied the wings and arms from a Country Threads pattern and made up the body so they would stand instead of hang by their arms. The original pattern was "Oh Suzanna" and had long dangly legs with knots  for feet. My friend gave me a piece fabric that was  just flags printed all over it and I hand quilted it. I bought the shelf at a craft show at about the same time (when "country" was in)  and it has always filled a blank space just inside our front door wherever we live.

I had planned on making one more wall hanging for the living room but this on my design board is as far as I got. I was going to fuse some stars from the border fabric that I have (somewhere) but I got sidetracked with Quilt Camp.

You can see my pictures from 2010 here or go to June 2010 on the sidebar and look for the red, white and blue quilts. Today Blogger will only allow me one link. some of my quilts I gave away
Some of those quilts I have given away and that is the reason I am making one more. 

Still more red white, and blue

This is the last of them.

This little flag is 10 x 7 inches. My friend Pat gave me the  piece of fabric from a flat fold that was repeats of the flag. I layered it and turned it pillow case style and hand quilted it. I pinned it to a small piece of foam  core so it will stand up and in the summer it sits on a shelf inside my front door, right across from Urban Renewal. 

Below is the Mariners Compass that I hand pieced before paper piecing came along. It is 23 inches square and hand quilted. It was for a quilt  guild challenge. We were given a fabric pack and  we could add up to 3 fabrics and a background. I think I only added the light background. At present it sits across a foot stool by my usual sitting place in the living room. I used to have it on a small table and I spilled coffee on it. You can see the stain  in the photo but it is not so noticeable in person.

Next is one of 2 place mats I made 2 years ago. I wanted to see how I liked using the that inner border with the small squares before I went ahead and used it on a large quilt. they spend the summer on the 2 hutches in my dinning room. 

These three little angels are about 7 inches tall and were made more than 20 years ago,  probably shortly after I first started quilting. I used to make and sell cloth dolls and designed them so I would have something small to sell.  I took the idea from the wings and the arms from a pattern called "Oh Susanna" for a little hanging doll. I think the pattern was from Country Threads. Right now they are on top of a shelf unit to the right of my desk but they will probably move because I set things there when I am on a ladder getting things off the higher shelves in my closet.

That's all of it. Well, I do have a big quilt that I made for my husband using some photos and Alexander Henry motorcycle fabric. I can't get a decent picture of it anywhere inside our apartment so for now it remains unseen here but it does spend the summer sitting folded up on top of the cedar chest and the rest of the time folded up inside the cedar chest.

You may have the impression that to have this much stuff around I have a lot of space. Not so!  I live in a 2 bedroom apartment.

My dining "room" is really a dining L and the dining room chair that hold the one quilt sits against the wall so we can pass in back of my chair in the living room. It is right for us; I can clean it all in one day and I have one room for a sewing room. I Try to keep the clutter down everywhere but my sewing room. That is the one room that is too small of all my STUFF.

More Red, White and Blue

I have a few more red, white and blue quilts; some of them I am using and some I am going to give to family.

The quilt on the left is not mine; it was made by another quilt guild member from a Country Threads pattern.

The quilt below is my quilt that I made after I acquired the unused house blocks from Kathy at our quilt guild flea market. I added the flag and the plaid borders and sashing. I call it "Urban Renewal". I hand quilted outline star blocks at the top of each house instead of the applique stars that Kathy has on her block. It was fun to make something from left over blocks that someone else made.   It is 29 x 52 and hangs right inside our front door for the summer.

I made the quilt below at least 17 years ago. It is 32 x 32 and it has been replaced by the Urban Renewal quilt. The writing  on the strip above the flag is The Pledge of Allegience. I am not sure why I had left over Debbie Mumm fabric; I don't remember what I made with the fabric but I wanted to use up left over motifs and strips from the Debbie Mumm fabric. I took the ideas for the blocks and the layout from somewhere but I am not sure anymore where; it was probably from more than one place.

The last quilt was for a flag challenge from my quilt guild. It is 32 x 24.

 Do you see a house and flag theme developing here? The writing on the light stripes is from The Constitution of the United States. The Courthouse Steps blocks are 5 inches square and the logs finished 1/2 inch wide. Someone gave a trunk show at our guild and one quilt was made with small log cabin blocks that were not paper pieced. At the time I did not paper piece and I still would never paper piece anything I could do any other way. Her quilt had a lot of small blocks, really a lot. When I was playing with ideas for the challenge I thought about the small Courthouse Steps blocks and told myself " Hmmm...... if she can do that, maybe I can too." And I did!  My thanks to Ruth for the inspiration. Of course I only made 4 and that was just right for me. A lot of them would have sent me over the edge.

These last 2 quilts I am going to give to anyone in my family who wants them; I know someone will. 

REd white and Blue quilts

I realized yesterday morning that Memorial Day was here and I had not changed out my quilts for the red, white and blue quilts. I usually have them out by Memorial day week end and they stay out till Labor Day because all the summer holidays are patriotic.

These  two quilts live in my dining room for the summer.  The one on the table is from a block swap that didn't turn out the way it was supposed to (everyone had a month and we were supposed to make a row of 6 blocks that represented that month) It turned out to be not a good plan.  I took the rows apart and used the blocks from them for small pieces that represented that month. This one was 4 of the blocks for July. The quilt on the wall is one of a series of quilts using and idea I found in a magazine for setting pictorial fabric with Birds in the Air blocks.  I made 6 or 7 quilts with different fabrics until I got "triangled out". I still have several fabrics I bought to use but sewing with my seam ripper in my hand matching all those points finally got to me. Enought was Enough !!

The quilt on the left is one that I made with blocks made by my Friendship group. I asked for them to be made in red white and blue It was going to be a tablecloth (one to actually use on the table when eating). I changed my mind after it was done as I really like it and didn't think it would hold up too well laundering the dark fabrics. It lives over a chair in the dining room for the summer.

My husband is holding the next quilt (under protest).

 It is folded up and sits on top of my cedar chest. This is another one with blocks from my friendship group. I asked for red, white and blue and yellow Jacobs Ladder blocks and then the next year I asked for the flying geese for 2 side borders.

This is a Pineapple quilt that hangs over the back of a rocker in a corner of the living room. I planned the layout so the blue fabric would serve as a border. It was published in the summer 2000 issue of Quilt Magazine. We saw the magazine in a store when we were shopping we bought 2 or 3 copies; my husband told everyone around us that it was my quilt in the magazine.  I am keeping him even if he does get grumpy when i ask him to hold up my quilts while I get the camera ready.

There are a few more but I will post them another time.