Placemats

Last year we made string pieced Christmas stockings for the  shut-ins and nursing home residents that our visitation pastor visits. He suggested that this year we make place mats that they can put on the over bed tables. These are two that I made yesterday; they are not finished as I need to get the backing fabric. One of the other ladies is going to put something bright on the back and that sounds like a good idea.

 I had a piece of that large scale print and I made the one on the bottom first and  then when I got to the borders on the second one I thought if I used something else I could have enough of the large print to make 2 more. I  think I like the one on the top best. I am one of those people thinks there is no such thing as too many fabrics in a quilt. I am not sure if this was something I bought or something one of my lovely friends gave me when I  asked for leftover pieces and  strings for our stockings last year. I seem to remember making place mats with it for a shower gift for one of my nephews and his wife. I like to include something  to use at Christmas in my wedding shower gifts.

House

 Beth over at Laugh,Love Quilt is collecting blocks to build a friendly neighborhood. She is asking for one  12  inch block. After January 1 she will  pick some winners and  a few lucky persons will receive enough blocks to build a neighborhood. Check it out here . It sounded like fun to me so....... here is my house.

I needed a diversion and a break from hand quilting. The quilting was going OK for a few days but now my left thumb and wrist are painful, that is the hand under the quilt. I will go back to it in a day or two but I may take  my friends up on their offer to help me quilt it. They are fun to be around  and that will  be a good excuse to hang out. Of course I may have to wait a while with the holidays coming up and they are all busy people anyway.  That should be no problem with a quilt that has been a WIP for 10 years.

My big UFO project

This is my big UFO that has been hanging around since 2000. The first year  I was in the Friendship Group I saw this quilt at a local quilt shop. It was part of a trunk show and I wish I could tell you who the designer is but I can't find the pattern.

 I asked the shop owner if she thought I could ask the group to make this block for me when my month to present a block came up. (I knew I would never make all these blocks myself)

 She said "sure".  I  am surprised that they are still my friends. It is a 12 inch block  and I asked for 2 blocks, that is the limit for a 12 inch block. I asked for as many different  fabrics as possible in each block. I said would be happy to have any extra Hourglass blocks or small squares for the connector corners. This was  pretty labor intensive and I would not have asked for it  had I been in the group longer and realized the time it took to pick out the fabrics and make the block. They are all busy people but everyone came through and no one quit.

The finished top was 83 inches square and that is too  big for me to machine quilt so I started hand quilting. I have 15 of the wheel or fortune blocks done with the surrounding 3 inch sashing and the secondary pattern where the sashings come together with the 4 patch cornerstones.

There are 25 Wheel of Fortune Blocks and 20 secondary blocks. I am too far along to quit and not far enough to feel encouraged that the end is in sight. I remember that I always think I am almost done when I get to the border but the border always takes as long if not longer than the body of the quilt.
I am quilting in the ditch along most of the straight lines with concentric circles in the center of the WOF blocks and 3 overlapping circles in the rectangles in the center of the sashing. I realized a couple of years ago that it is like sewing every single seam a  second time and then some.
Oh well.......................................................

I started out quilting in my Q-Snap PVC pipe frame but that is not very accessible right now having been put in our locker with a bunch of things blocking it. I will get it out  when we take our Christmas things out next month. In the meantime I have set up my oval  floor frame which is smaller but it is working well; the quilt is all  over the floor at this point but that is not a big problem.

I told my daughter in law and son that they could have this quilt when it is done so I really would like to be able to give it to them.

Another finish

I got all the yo yos made 2 days ago and today I finished tying them on the quilt. I used #10 yellow crochet cotton to tie them on and it wasn't easy! I cut a long piece of the crochet thread and  doubled it and put the loop through the needle and then I pulled the loop down to the end so I had four strands to pull through. I had pulled the blue yo yos tighter in the center so sometimes I was coming up through a gather. The red ones were a little easier because I wasn't able to pull the gathers at the  center so tight , probably because the fabric was Kona Cotton and a little  heavier.

You can see the entire quilt on my October 28 post.

I was congratulating myself  on having finished everything and then I remembered that I have a whole boat load of stuff that is in various states of construction.  I don't know how I could forget them because they are everywhere cluttering up my space. I guess I was just so happy to have finished these 4 projects and to have some of them  hung that I forgot about what is left to do. Most of them can wait for a  while. I eventually finish almost everything that I actually intend to finish and I never feel any urgency to get things done or any guilt about not doing it. Every once in a while I decide that something doesn't appeal  to me enough to finish it; so I don't.

 I do have one big project hanging  around for years and I am not sure I will ever  finish it but I am going to get it out and set up and see how it goes. More on this  another time.

QAWM All Done

My QAWM quilt "Garden Patch" is quilted and bound and all done. I even trimmed all the tail ends of the threads. Well, I think I trimmed them; every now and then I find untrimmed thread on a quilt long  years after I have finished it.

I learned some things as I was  doing the quilting  on this quilt. Because there were  so many stops  and starts I worked on quilting the little V's one block at a  time after I  quilted the whole quilt in the ditch around each block. I learned it really isn't so much about stopping and starting and as it is about turning the quilt again and again. Wrestling with the quilt and turning it and shoving it through the arm of the machine is HARD WORK. By making more stops and starts and thinking about where I  should go next I used more thread and had more ends to clip but I did not have to turn the quilt so many times. I also realized that when I am quilting across the  whole quilt I  do not have the same  appreciation for each block and the way the colors and patterns interact. I enjoy that aspect when I am piecing but I  enjoyed it again as I was quilting.

As I was quilting it I grew to like it more and  more with each block. By the time I finished I was sorry to think that my stash of floral fabrics is down to a not so full box. My goal  was to use them up and I have been using them to piece backs for several big quilts. I have been buying floral fabrics for all of the time I have been quilting and I realize the reason I am drawn to them is they usually have many colors and shades and  tones in each fabric.  I finished the binding this time by hand.  I was not happy with the last binding I did entirely by machine and I really like this one too much to mess up on the binding.

I forgot to take a photo of the back after it was quilted but here is the photo I took when I finished piecing it our retreat .this fall. 

This close up shows the  quilting in the setting triangles and the binding. I had a hard time choosing a binding but I found this orange and purple when i was looking for something else.

New gadget

This is my new gadget.  It is a Clover Yo yo maker. I  resist buying every special tool that comes out. I have a few specialty rulers but I usually figure out what I need to do to use the basic tools I have. I think early on I bought several duds and that kind of soured me on special tools. I LOVE this tool. I recently made yo yo flowers for my Diva quilt and I came to the  conclusion they were miserable  little things that I would be crazy to make again. I had seen this and considered it and decided that it probably wasn't worthwhile.I  was wrong! In light what I thought about it, I'm not sure why I bought one this week but I am glad it did. It has made making yo yos so fast and  easy that I even considered it fun.  Actually I bought 2 Yo yo makers this week the first one  was  too small  for the size i wanted for the 6 inch square but after trying it out I knew I wanted  a bigger one. The smaller yo yos  are really cute too.

 I decided to put yoyos in the dark 6 inch squares in my Warm Wishes quilt. I was going to do some FMQ but decided on the Yo yos instead. I am going to tie them on with yellow #7  crochet cotton. I just could not decide what to quilt in the squares and just tying seemed wrong for a flat batting. I thought about big  buttons but ruled  that out because I didn't want something hard. You can see the 4 yoyos in this photo. They are just laying on the squares, not tied on yet. I am going to put the red ones in the squares with the blue frames and the blue ones with the red frame. I think they show up more that way. I only have one red one  made  so far but all the blue ones  are done.

I decided  to  go with just a row of straight stitching in the border instead of something free motion. The reason is my binding is not so hot and I didn't want to draw attention to it. I stitched it to the back and turned it to the front and machine stitched it and  though I have done this many times and thought I pretty much had the technique mastered, this time my stitching was all over the  place and not right on the edge.(what's that about pride going before a fall)  I don't think it had anything to do with putting the binding on before I quilted the  border I  think  it was because I did not have my machine and tables set up the way I need them. I did this one before I got my second table. I used to have one attached to the  wall  that folded down when it wasn't in use but anything that is attached to the wall  limits what you can change around so we did not put it back up after we moved. Anyhow..............I thought it would  be OK because the quilt was small but it wasn't small enough and I should have known better. I got the table set up for the QAWM quilt and that went well. I am almost finished with that one and I  just have the binding to  put on. I  have to have a good look at my choices in the daylight before I decide what to use. I'll save that for another post.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

This is "Ethan's Houses" the quilt I am entering in the Bloggers Quilt Festival . This is a first for me but I am having so much fun checking out all the quilts that I want to join the fun.

I made it about 2 years ago for my great-grandson. He saw a quilt I had made for our community quilts project using leftover blocks someone else had made and he wanted a house quilt too. He chose the sashing and border fabric from my stash, I knew he  would choose this  one because his favorite color is green although  he likes all colors. We started baby sitting one day a week with Ethan and his sister when he was 2 and she was 1. He always wanted me  to draw houses and when he was old enough to draw he drew houses or used foam stickies cut in squares and triangles to make houses. He likes things to be lined up and orderly so this is not a wonky quilt. In the windows of the purple house in the second row are two people who Ethan recognized as representing himself and his sister. I think that made it special for him. 

More quilting

I am taking a break from the  Warm Wishes quilt while I think about what I want to do in the border and the dark blocks.

These are two of the blocks from my QAWM quilt. See the top here. I quilted in the ditch around every block and I am starting to quilt around all of the V shapes.  That is a lot of quilting with lots of starts and stops, 128 V's. I thought of going back and quilting a diagonal line across each block but I felt that the little V shapes should be  emphasized. So it will take longer but I like the way the three blocks look that I have finished. I often take the easy way just to get  something finished and then ask myself what was the reason to hurry. Well, sometimes there is a reason but most of the time that is not the case.

I do a lot of stitch in the ditch quilting and a lot of straight  line quilting with my walking foot. I think that the quilting should bear some relationship to the piecing if there is a definite pattern and my free motion skills are not up to doing something intricate on something large. I have done my share of meander quilting but it is not my favorite. Instead of meandering I prefer wavy lines randomly spaced usually following along the pieced seams as a general guide. I like to avoid marking if I can.

Progress - kind of

We hung the wall quilt over our bed and I am not sure I like it there. I was informed that it is there and it is staying there. OK....... I can go along with that for now. The truth is it was a big production to hang.

Jack chose not to move the bed and get behind it but instead to lean over the bed from the side. I was afraid he was going to fall and fussed around till  he  was tired of me. He took all kinds of measurements and drove the nails  and we hung the quilt but I never really had a chance to hold it up there and see how it was going to look. It is hanging nice and  straight and just where it was supposed to be but to me it looks like the whole wall is out of balance. I like the quilt but I am drawn to a lighter and brighter palette now and the dark quilt seems oppressive.  I couldn't get a  photo of the bed and the wall at the same time because our room is small but the quilt on the bed is the plaid "Jack's Quilt". what you see here are pillows I made with leftover  plaids.

This is the Warm Wishes quilt I have been quilting. I got all  the straight line quilting done and I put the binding on even though I have more quilting to do. We'll see if that was a good idea after I quilt the border. I also have to quilt the  dark squares.  My reasoning was that quilting the dark squares was not going to be any different to do if the binding was on or not. Same reasoning for the border only I think my reasoning was colored by the fact that I had enough thread to do the binding but need to get thread to quilt the  border. 

When I made the top I wanted to get away from using black in my sample for  quilt camp as I have used it  for the last three years. I  didn't quite make it but I have decided that I will not be  buying large amounts of black yardage but instead I will buy white or cream so that when I want to put something together  I don't choose black by default because that is what I have the most of. I have one more quilt that is layered up and ready to quilt and I will finished that but am going to take a look at what I have left and decide if I want to quilt them or give them away for someone else to finish. I  will do the same  with all  the pieces and parts that I  just went through and sorted out. If I want to work on something now, I will keep it. If I think I might want to do something with it someday I think it needs to go. Maybe someone  else will  do it "someday".

So you suppose all the black I have been working with lately has had a negative effect on my attitude?

Waiting and quilting

This is the back of the quilt that is going over my bed. The hanging sleeves are sewed down and the wood strips are in the sleeves and it is moving around from here to there to keep it out of the way till it is hung. I am still waiting for Mr Spontaneous to be redy to put it up. I would  do it myself but I never get things hung straight. It  is worth waiting for.
I had this border print  for a few years and I liked it but never found anthing to do with it. I  purchased it at a LQS as a "Flag fold" which was 3 yards folded in a triangle like a flag. There was also another flag fold in the same print only larger scale and not a border print. (click on the picture and you can see where I used it for the hanging sleeves. I had used some of both  pieces recently for backs and  now that it is all gone I am very fond of it and disappointed that there is no more. That happens  to me all the time.

I am currently quilting a  Warm Wishes quilt that I made as a sample for last summer's Quilt Camp. this photo shows the Hera marker, my favorite marking tool for straight lines.  For years I had it and didn't think it was much good because I had tried to use it on a quilt that was in the frame  and it has to be marked with the quilt on a hard  surface. I love it because the lines stay visible for a long time so I can  mark the whole top if I am going to do it all in one or two days. The best part is there is nothing to erase, or take off. Probably the one step I dislike the most is removing the marking. If you enlarge the picture you can see the marked lines.

quilt repair

This is what I found when I got out Jack's Quilt to put on our bed. I have one square repaired by covering it with another square of fabric which I appliqued  using the needle turn method. I knew this needed to be  done but I had forgotten about it.



The second picture shows the repair to all four squares and the little bit of hand quilting.  The quilt is now on our bed and I will start on stitching down the hanging sleeves on the wall hanging.

Before I do that I am going to dismantle my cutting table. We stopped at the store to get some celery and stuffing for dinner and I bought another Lifetime adjustable height 2" x 4" table.  My cutting table is to hard to move around with the carpeting on the floor in my sewing room. I used to have a flat rug with no padding and moving things was easy. I have been debating about what to do and tried out cutting on my other table and it works well. . The great thing is I can store both tables in a space behind my desk. I can use them side by side for one big table or use only one of them. In the low position they are great play tables when my great grand kids come. I have plans to re-purpose the parts from the cutting table.

Right now I am  set up with one in front of my machine and one to the left both at the same  height as  my sewing  table  and I am all ready to machine quilt the next 2 quilts. Let the finishing  frenzy begin!

A finish

I have not exactly gone into a quilting frenzy but I started quilting this yesterday and it is ready to hang as soon as I get the hanging sleeves stitched down. The quilting is simple, in the ditch throughout. This photo is one I took when I finished the top last February. It was my second QAWM piece using the dark blocks that didn't work in the other quilt. I liked the blocks as they were and decided not to divide as for the suggested QAWM block. I plan to hang it above my bed, the big white space is looking very bare.

The quilt below is the one that stays on our bed in the winter. It is king size and hand quilted in the ditch to outline the star points and then a plain crosshatch grid through the center of  all  the 4 ptches. I quilted close to the seams (almost in the ditch) for the piano key border. I made this for our bed about 17 years ago when our previous quilt would not cover our new fat mattress. It is about 116 inch square and all four sides are the same. All of the  fabrics are plaid except for the black star points and the  background which is a tiny open floral background type fabric.  If I remember correctly, I cut too many small red plaid squares and didn't have enough fabric to do what I wanted. Of course the fabric was not to be found in the quilt shops ever again so I had to improvise and what I made was much more interesting than my original plan. I named it Jack's Quilt because when I finished it I asked what he thought and he  said it was nice. I was a little huffy about "nice" and told him I thought he would say it  was WONDERFUL. He said "Well it is wonderful." I accepted that and told him that since he thought it was wonderful it was his quilt. He always  refers  to it as "my quilt".

I will post a photo when I  get Jack's quilt on the bed and the  QAWM wall hanging on the  wall.

PS. You gotta love this spell checker.

I had left one of the  r's out of correctly and fixed it before I turned  spell checker on. It always wants to correct words that were originally wrong even if they have been fixed. The suggestion for correctly was rectally.  Isn't that a bit much?