Blue Ocean

 The sun finally appeared, just for a little while, allowing me a chance to take a picture of Blue Ocean.

I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.  As you can see, I quilted a simple horizontal/vertical grid, and it measures about 40" square.  I'll give it to Bags of Love after I take it to Show and Tell at guild later this month.   I've been cleaning my sewing room diligently but still have not found the Blue Onion pattern this is based on.  Still, I really enjoyed making it improvisationally.  That was quite freeing and went quickly.  My box of blue fabrics is still overflowing so I will be making at least one more blue quilt as soon as I finish working on some holiday projects.

Up too early

Do you like Daylight Savings Time?  I really do because it's lighter longer in winter.  Now it will be dark by 5 pm - ugh!  I tried to head off the change by setting the kitchen clocks - stove and microwave - before going to bed last night.   I expected my watch, cell phone, computer, and Alexa all to change on their own.  But no!  My watch wasn't synched to change with the cell phone by itself.  I woke up at what is now 3:30 am, made a cup of coffee, and noticed the actual time.

I guess this is good as I have plenty of things to keep me busy.  Besides coordinating the Light Up the Library event, I am putting together a genealogy series for January-February at the library, shopping and sewing for Christmas, sifting through and organizing the state quilt guild's history files, knitting myself a sweater, changing dentists, and who knows what else?  Still, I will probably fritter away the hour I've gained by looking at quilts online!

It looks like it will be another gloomy day today, so I will probably spend some time sewing, knitting, and reading a book I started yesterday,  I finished the lengthy mystery for this week's book group meeting - it was a doozy,  The group seems to enjoy big books, and The Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariane Franklin was agony until half-way through when it got very exciting.  It's set in the year 1171 and Franklin seemed to want the reader to know that she knows all about what went on in the Middle Ages.   I was glad to read it on Kindle so that I could easily get definitions of some of the words.  Today I'm glad to read the seventh book in a cozy mystery series I enjoy - The Secret, Book, and Scone Society by Ellery Adams.  It will be a "palate cleanser" before I start the new Louise Penny mystery.

In the sewing room, I'm putting together a sampler with 15" blocks.  I have three rows of four blocks sashed and now need to put those rows together and work on a border.  I initially wanted to make all 20 blocks in the "Optimism" pattern designed by Aby Dolinger, but "life" got in the way.  The result will be a nice throw for a child going into foster care via Bags of Love.

Feeling productive

 It's amazing that finishing small projects can lift my spirits on a gloomy day.  After weeks of wonderful, sunny days, it has turned gloomy most days lately. but inside, bright things are happening.  I finished a few potholders yesterday.  Two will be raffled off during Light Up the Library in December, and one will be given away to the friends for whom I made the Christmas tree skirt.

I still have some of that Snowflake Bentley panel left to make a few table runners, but I'm not sure I'll have time to do so before Christmas.  That's OK - I like to sew with holiday fabrics during the holiday season.

Next, I made a raffle block for the upcoming state quilt guild meeting.  It's a rail fence using wintry snow flake fabric.  Hope I win the raffle!  I like the positioning of the rails which, when put together will zig zag a bit.  

I'm looking forward to the meeting as it will be my first since I stepped down as president or secretary, jobs I've held for close to 20 years.  I am dragging my feet as historian but hope to make that my winter project.  I want to get everything organized so that it can be archived at the state historical society library.  Anyway, it will be fun not to have any real responsibilities for the meeting!

Yesterday, I started quilting the little Blue Ocean quilt in a vertical/horizontal grid.  In this picture, I'm using green painters' tape to help me create the straight lines for the quilt.  It's a pretty small quilt - 40" x 40" - so by the afternoon, it was pretty much quilted, and today I hope to get the binding on.  I'll eventually give it to "Bags of Love" for kids going into foster care.  

First, however, I want to sandwich and quilt another little red and cream quilt that's hanging in the closet.  I'll probably do the same grid-like quilting pattern on it.  I heard that there's a need for things for babies and toddlers right now, so I hope these little quilts will help.  I'll post a picture of the finished quilt when it's done and (hopefully) the sun comes out.

Blue Onion... errr... Blue Ocean

 

A few weeks ago, I took an online class with Beth Ann Williams on sewing curves.  I'm pretty good at sewing Drunkard's Path blocks, but I wanted to learn more about complex curves.  Her class really helped me feel more confident about machine piecing curves.  In the past I would opt for hand sewing sometimes, but with my 1/4" foot, I feel I can do these more accurately.

I especially wanted to figure out how to cut the Blue Onion pattern which I bought some time ago.  Beth Ann explained it clearly, and she also referred us to some helpful You Tube videos.  Due to some infusions from friends, my blue fabric tub is overflowing, and this seems like just the pattern for me.

The original pattern calls for purchasing a rather expensive template for cutting the oval pieces.  You stack 5 squares and cut the pieces, flipping the stack as you make the cuts, then shuffling the pieces after cutting.  Beth Ann explained and showed how this works, and I finally got it.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find the pattern in my stack of Patterns I'd Like to Make Someday.  Grrrr!  Did I maybe give it away last year out of frustration?

I also didn't want to buy the very expensive template (nearly $50 for something I won't use that much, if at all).  So I decided to go improv and cut the pieces freehand.  My blocks ended up at 9" after trimming, and I ended up making 16 in all for a finished size of approx. 40" x 40".  After cutting, the sewing goes fairly quickly and is actually fun.  I'm going to call the quilt Blue Ocean, because that's what it looks like to me.  I'll try to post a photo later today after I get it sandwiched.  My dilemma now is the usual:  how shall I quilt it?

Raffled off

The Friends of the Library book and jewelry sale this weekend wrapped up at 1 pm yesterday, and we drew a winner for the month-long quilt raffle.   I called the winner, Shannon N., immediately when I got home, and she was thrilled.  She wanted to meet me right away, so I headed back down to the library with the quilt.  Shannon told me that she has been getting a room ready for a baby and is using the same colors as in the quilt, so I couldn't be happier to have her win the Barn Star Sampler!

I'm at the stage these days of having too many quilts, so I've been giving some away.  I make at least one purple quilt a year because purple is my favorite color, and this was 2023-24's block of the month with Aby Dolinger.  It ended up a somewhat odd size, and, while I had it for sale in my etsy shop, it did not sell.  After I closed the shop, I decided to raffle it off.  I hope it will make a little girl happy as she grows.  It was fun to meet her mom-to-be!

Loose ends and future plans

Our summer guest will be moving into her new condo early next week, we hope.  The financial stuff related to the purchase is coming along well, and her sons are planning to come to help with the move next Monday.  Having just finished two big projects, I decided not to start anything new this week.  Yesterday I finished a rug I started for my brother out of a quilt I made him years ago.  I cut some non-slip stuff to fit and used my walking foot to attach it.  Today I'll pack it up to mail to him.

While I was in the basement, I started a couple of mug rugs with left over Christmas fabrics.   I have a stack of them to give to library staff and need a few more.  I'll continue making them today and will quilt them when I get back up to the Elna which I have missed very much.  

On tap when I get back to my sewing room will be finishing some UFOs - the guild block of the month, a Kristin Laura block of the month, and Optimism blocks of the month by Aby Dolinger.   Now that the guild year has begun again, I will plan on making something out of a fat quarter swap this month to show at the November meeting.  There's a little scrappy red quilt hanging in the closet for quilting, too.  And speaking of guild, I hope not to be tempted to make the block of the month each month this year because that just adds to my backlog.  If I can finish up the UFOs I have before plunging ahead, I will be happy.

Having taken a class in curved piecing with Beth Ann Williams a few weeks ago, I hope to use my overflowing tub of blue fabric for a Blue Onion quilt or table runner.  The directions were a bit confusing when I first got the pattern, but Beth Ann helped make some sense of them.  It involves layering, cutting, shuffling, flipping, etc. piles of six fabrics.  This was the third class I've taken with Beth Ann this year.  Her instructions are incredibly clear.  

I have a pile of holiday fabric upstairs set aside to work on a Jen Kingwell Wensleydale quilt next year.  I have the papers from the Fat Quarter Shop all ready to go and have viewed a You Tube video from Quilted Chicken about how to put fabric together so that blocks end up scrappy.  I will probably watch it again as my memory isn't what it used to be.  Each block ends up as a rectangle about 6" x 9".

Finishes!

I finished two projects this past week!  One was begun in May and took most of the summer to complete.  The other was started about a month ago. 

Here's Double Date, a pattern by Jen Kingwell, which is mostly paper pieced.

I spent the summer paper piecing this using scraps of green and neutral backgrounds.  I hate taking the paper out, but because I was sewing in the basement away from my stash, I was not distracted by other projects (I have quite a few UFOs).  I used my not-so-great little Brother to do the sewing, and it proved quite good for this.  In between, I did sew the binding onto a friend's quilt, but that didn't take too long, especially because I sewed it all by machine.

Here's an up-close version:

I say I will never make such a project again.  Nonetheless, the Fat Quarter Shop's paper foundations were a godsend, and I have a book of papers to make a Wensleydale quilt out of Christmas fabric waiting in the wings.  Maybe I'll work on it this winter...

Meanwhile, I made a Christmas tree skirt using the Bentley's Snowflakes fabric.  This one is for my friend Pauline with whom, with her husband Bob, we enjoy going on historical and artistic jaunts.  Bentley was a Vermonter who photographed snowflakes long ago and discovered that no two are alike.  His original plates are owned by the Smithsonian.

The snowflakes came as a panel to cut up into 8" squares.  I still have some that I plan to use to make a table runner to raffle off at the Light Up the Library event that starts in November.  If there are any squares left, I'll make some potholders.