Simply Sweet (1/2017 FNSI III)

I can't believe I finished this quilt top in a weekend!  Of course, I did not finish the laundry and some of the housework!

(I  need a design wall, but I no longer have a good place to put it.)

The four patches were pieced from a charm pack of  Northcote Range (Moda) in 2012.  They were done shortly after the assault/brain injury, and I don't know why I didn't finish them sooner, except that life became even more complicated, and I just persist in designing quilt after quilt in my head, and it takes much, much longer to create a real quilt.

This did take many more hours than I would have predicted.

 The four patches include all but a few of the charms from the pack, because the stripes were large and wouldn't have worked.  Five strips of seven 4-patches.  The rose on white strips were cut 2.5 inches, and the borders were cut six inches. And now that it's all assembled, it still reminds me of quilts from my childhood, except that where I grew up in the Midwest most of the quiltmakers at that time would have used a solid white instead of the rose print.  I just love that rose print.  I also have another pack of the charm squares, but not enough of either the blue or the rose print to make a twin to this quilt.  It's about 46" by 56", and will be smaller after quilting. I don't have yardage that will work for the back (imagine that!), so it will be a while.

It's so quietly sweet and simple. So, I'm naming it Simply Sweet.

While it's just the top, I'm going to count it as my first finish of 2017.  It was good to focus on this quilt top instead of other things, like the national news, for example.  (I'm pretty sure there has never before been this kind of ugliness this long after a Presidential election within my lifetime.) And while I was praying for whoever will receive this quilt, I'm also praying for my 20 year old nephew Thomas who's been hospitalized in Houston.  So, good use of my weekend.

Back to work tomorrow, and expecting more winter weather.

I linked to Freemotion by the River, Let's Bee Social and My Quilt Infatuation.

Happy quiltmaking and creating,

January FNSI Two

This is how far along I am now....

I've finished three strips of seven four-patches.  I haven't decided whether to make two more or just one more.

 First I added smaller triangle to the top block and bottom block of the strip set.

 Then I began attaching the larger triangles to each four-patch on the diagonal and setting those sets together.

 This is the large print I plan to use for the borders and the spacers between the pieced strips.

My brother-in-law pointed out that my niece Blanche is now five, and I've had this fabric since she was a baby.  Of course, it's far from my oldest fabric, but given how much I like it, I'm not sure why it took me so long to use it.  The four-patches were already pieced when I opened the project box.

I'm getting a bit frustrated about how little I get done, but chores like laundry pull me away from piecing.  Oh, and I did have to use my seam ripper several times.

The wind is howling, so I'm going to bathe and snuggle in bed with my knitting and a book--and try not to think of how little I accomplished because I have a lot more done than when I opened that box yesterday.

Happy quiltmaking, knitting, and creating,

January FNSI Sewing

This is all I managed last night, and all I've managed as of 11:00 this a.m.  I have spent hours looking for rulers, specifically for a 25 year old Omnigrid triangle ruler that is no longer being manufactured.

I'm thinking this means I am probably going to have to order Bonnie Hunter's new Essential Triangle Tool. For today, I'll have to make do with something else, and rejoice that I relocated some rulers I'd stashed on a shelf and forgotten. I didn't forget the rulers; I merely forgot where I stashed them!

We had wind, rain, sleet, and snow this morning, so we cancelled our Victory Prayer Quilt Sew-In. Now the snow clouds have dissipated, but the wind is so high that with the temperature a little above freezing, the snow is both melting and evaporating.  I'm thinking I don't need to go out and check how bad the mud is, right?

Happy creativity, dear readers,

Decisions, Decisions!

I get to participate in Friday Night Sew In!

The hard part is in deciding what to do on this rainy/snowy night.  (Yes, we need the moisture--someone should write an anthem to that theme!)

I've narrowed it to these choices:

Borders for Mrs. Lebo's Legacy.  The two fabrics at the top may or may not become inner borders.  The red on the right will be the outer border.

I may use either the blue or the yellow for inner borders, or maybe both, if I have enough blue left for binding as well.

 This is the College Girl's panda quilt, for which she chose fabric in intermediate school or mid school and which finally was bordered with five different sets of unpieced strips because for years I thought I'd do piecing around the blocks.  Then I decided finished was more important.  She cuddled with it until she went back to the university, and it still needs a binding.

These are for my eldest brother's prayer quilt.  (The tactor panel is under the fabrics.)  Quilt is planned, but nothing is cut.

This is an unfinished prayer quilt from years ago--I'm leaning toward this one because I'd have to do only some minor triangle cutting to get it together.

This is the honeybee quilt I said I'd work on next, but I haven't finished designing it.  Since I want to spend time actually sewing, this probably won't win.

These are my newly arrived Anne of Green Gables fabrics--from Penny Rose Fabrics.  But I haven't designed anything yet.

 I do love these Anne fabrics--not only are the colors restful but happy; the prints seem to have more fidelity to one of my childhood favorite books, which I reread every few years.
(I was sooo excited when the Little House on the Prairie fabric line was announced, but they just weren't that true to what I imagined was in the novels.  So Little House on the Prairie will have to wait until someone else designs a line.)

This preprinted panel is almost quilted, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow to quilt it.  It's a workday for our Victory Prayer Quilts group, but snow and ice could change my mind about making the 40 mile round trip drive despite the fact that I'd love to have some social time with the ladies in our group.--I'd also probably want to drag along a sewing machine, which would probably be my turquoise hand-crank Singer 15 clone, although if the snow is light I may just use one of the sewing machines that are already there.

I need to decide so the evening can be productive as well as treasured.  I'm thinking hot chocolate would be helpful--as soon as I spread out my hand-knit wool socks to dry.

I hope all my readers get time to Friday-night-sew too--even if it's something small or knitting or embroidery.

Happy creativity, everyone,...

January Friday Night Sewing

I've been trying to snatch minutes to piece and quilt and have been almost notoriously unsuccessful.
Last night I worked on these:

I started these at last Saturday's Victory Prayer Quilts sewing morning, and tried to grab a few minutes during the week in the evening to work on them.  However, since I really lacked energy, most of the sewing was done last night.

These are pieced from 10" squares with a quick cutting method that produces a negative and positive block if there is a lot of contrast in the fabrics.

The fruit and veggie fabrics are from a Riley Blake line, if I remember, and were inspired because for years the College Girl has been telling me to make some food-themed prayer quilts for guys "because guys always like food" and because I seldom get inspired by "guy fabrics."

The floral blocks are leftovers from some other prayer quilts and a layer cake that was a big disappointment because I'd ordered it expecting purer colors.  With rare exceptions, peachy pinks are not appealing to me (or on me).  I realized a few months ago that in addition to my being allergic to most orange flowers, my parents often dressed me in orange tones, which were the opposite of flattering with my skin tones.  Seems somewhat comical now.

 We've had a bit of snowmelt since our storms, but probably more evaporation.  There's a crust over the top of the snow, which means it's slowly being absorbed by the earth, and that's a good thing.

With the big snow storms hitting the East this week, I hope all the quilters have plenty of fabric, thread, and, if they lose power, a working treadle machine and a source of supplemental light.

I linked to a Friday night Sew-In earlier this week, then updated my computer (which took hours and hours over the course of a couple of days), and resulted in the link being lost.  So if you've come here from that site, please leave me a comment so I can post the link.

Happy quiltmaking and knitting,

Friday Night Sew In...and more

For the first time in months, I actually took part in the Friday Night Sew In.

 I have a link on the right of my blog--but someone else is hosting temporarily--and I can't even find the post to link it.  So we are just hanging here.

I think it was last Monday that I finished the center and border one.

Because I had very limited yardage of the mossy green thread I wanted to use for the "basket," I used it for the vertical lines and a darker green for the horizontal lines--which was perfect, since these are Pepper Cory's Peppered Cottons [shot cottons] for studio e  fabrics.

My Friday Night Sewing was to finish the last two blue triangles.

I reverted to one of my decades-old marking techniques--slivers of hard-milled soap.  However, since we haven't used that kind of soap around here in years due to our hard water,  I sliced some slivers from an unused bar of Crabtree & Evelyn soap that has been lurking in my armoire for years.

That was Monday.  After an uncomfortable night, I awoke with a sinus/respiratory virus that knocked me flat.  I'd forgotten how miserable I could be when ill.  I'm doing better now, but can tell it's going to be at least a couple more days before I'm feeling somewhat "normal."  With my return to work scheduled for August 6, time is really, really flying, and I just lost five days!  Mostly, I slept, read, and dozed off again. (Truth be told, it's likely that any amateur sleuth could find me by following the trail of tissues and tissue boxes!)

We've had almost 4.5 inches of rain this month--something I don't remember happening in any single month in the entire quarter century that I've lived in the desert southwest.  The weeds are having a hay day (and I could use a baler!), and bug spray is now mandatory if spending more than a minute or two outside.  (I have the bites to prove it.)  However, we love the rain, and for the last few days it has missed us.

So, that reminds me to ask about something else.  Often, I read blogs on my Kindle. I've noticed that even on my computer, the font many people use is just so tiny!  Therefore, I'm wondering if my readers find the font I use is easily readable on their devices.  Please let me know--I can make it bigger and/or change to a different font.

Happy quiltmaking and knitting.....

FNSI and Quilting Mini-Tutorial

I was so happy to be able to take part in the monthly Friday Night Sew In last night--especially since there was so little time for quilting this past week.

As a result, here is a little mini-tutorial of how I'm quilting these blocks.

 This is a four-block section of the quilt I'm working on. I am sure my friend used a commercial pattern, so I don't know the name of it or who published it.  I have to admit that if I were piecing this I would have pieced two different blocks and put them together as alternating blocks.  (However, I also realize that in an attempt to publish "original" patterns, pattern designers and sellers create things that are a bit different in order to copyright the patterns.)

As one looks at the entire quilt top with these blocks set edge, one sees two basic and common blocks.

 Barbara Brackman's Blockbase and Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns lists this as Diamond in a Square (as well as a variety of other names).  In Blockbase it's referenced as 2375a.

For purposes of this tutorial, I've used colors in alphabetical order to show the order in which I stitched.  You may need to click on each photo to enlarge it or else view it in the photo viewer.

I began at the dot at the center right side and stitched first the ribbon in the corner of the block (blue, green) and then stitched a curve (violet) over to the next corner, repeating ribbons and curves around the block back to my starting point.  Then I stitched the center ribbon (blue, green).  At that point I cut my threads and moved to a new block or stitched in the ditch to a new block.

 Barbara Brackman's Blockbase lists this as 1262a, Broken Wheel, Pin Wheel, and other names. I began in the center of each of these blocks.

 I used my decades-old tracing wheel and a ruler to mark the center point on each side of the pinwheel. As you can see, the tracing wheel leaves a very faint line that remains just long enough for me to quilt each block.

 I actually use two designs in these blocks--one very minimal design because it's not going to show up against the busy pretty print, and a second more elaborate variation for the the solid pink triangles.

In the following drawings, the yellow portions symbolize the print, and the white background symbolizes the soft pale pink.

I begin at the center of the Pin Wheel block, quilting the print side first, [blue] curve to center, [green] petal shape, then [violet] curve to the outer edge of the block.  The penciled dashes are predicting the next curve, returning to the center petal.

 Then, once again with colors in alphabetical order, blue curve, green ribbon, violet central petal; followed by blue ribbon and curve back to the center of the entire pinwheel block.

 Once back at the center it's time to stitch the next print triangle [blue-green-violet]...

  

 until every section of the Pin Wheel looks like this.

I did cut the threads as I finished each block, but on some quilts it would be possible to just stitch in the ditch to reach the next starting point.

This is being quilted on my vintage Necchi BU in 1919 Singer treadle irons.

In some of these blocks I curved the tiny ribbons toward the central petal, and in some they curve in the opposite direction.  The same is true for the directions in which the ribbons curve on the Diamond in a Square blocks.  I'm doing this because this quilt will go to an elderly woman who has lost a lot of her mobility, and I think seeing the variations in the blocks will be more interesting than if every block were exactly identical.

If you head over to Heidi's blog, you'll find the linky party for the other bloggers who participated in the September Friday Night Sew In.


Also linking to Sarah's Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Amy's Show and Tell Friday.  (Icons are in my side bar.)

In addition, here is a new-to-me Monday Linky Party:

Happy quiltmaking....

Piecing Progress

First from the Friday Night Sew In:

 The Borders are on Little Miss Gardener:

I really do love this quilt.  It's my first Jane Sassaman fabric.  It's surprising how these solids sweeten the look.  
Sweet Teen was productive too.  She used gift bags to make covers for some of her text books:

She'd mentioned using a Hollister bag with a mostly naked guy on it.  I don't think sooooo!  I do not care how many other kids are using Hollister bags with the naked guy either!

I made  the curtain for under the counter where the dishwasher used to be.  I love the fact that I now have adequate room to hide away the wastebasket.  I do need to get something to cover the surface of the subflooring.  I need to take a closeup of the fabric too--it's a toile with hens on it. I do love walking into the kitchen and seeing and using the sink that is big enough!

The other big effort early this morning was more weeding therapy.  In Central Illinois where I grew up, someone was always remarking, "You can take the boy off the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy."  As an adolescent, I couldn't wait to leave the farm.  Imagine my shock to discover this late in my life that you can't take the farm out of the girl either!  And weeds are just like potato chips--I keep thinking, just a couple more.

Those weeds back there just grow like crazy on the city right of way.  I am fairly sure that there has to be a leak in the water main along there.  I've suggested that to the city several times, but they don't want to believe me, and keep suggesting there may be a leak on my property, but they won't come out and look at it.  When I stand in the alley, I can see a thick path of weeds following the water main.  I need to think of something to plant there to take advantage of the extra moisture and to squeeze out the weeds.
That mobile home back there had most of us really upset when it was moved in.  This area is for site-built homes only.  We were assured it was for a temporary construction office and would move on.  It's now been there for years--and, obviously, no one takes care of that property. 

Oh, I forgot that I'm linking to the Friday Night Sew In.  It's your chance to meet some more sewing bloggers.

P. S.:  Sweet Teen is on her way to the county fair dance--that's okay.  Except, we had the portico light on, and the moths are back!  Yuck!  Guess the moths are migrating again--signaling summer is drawing to an end...just in case I hadn't noticed how short the days are getting!

Happy Quiltmaking.....