Two finishes!

Friday, I shopped for and added a binding to the white on white piece (about 12" square) I have been working on since the early 1980s.  Yes, that long!  I took a class on white on white quilting at the Vermont Quilt Festival when it was still just 10 miles down the road from me in Northfield.  One of the vendors sold printed squares, so I bought one to work on while traveling for some years until I started taking Dear Jane blocks with me on trips.

I found the white on white piece a couple of years ago at the bottom of a bin and have been taking it to work on now and then at monthly Calico County Quilters meetings ever since.  After I finished quilting it, I soaked it in warm water to get the blue lines out.  They faded but were still visible, so I washed it in hot water with new Dawn dish soap and some Oxy-clean.  That did the trick and also removed some of the stains acquired over 40 years of dragging it from meeting to meeting.  

The binding is a cream-on-cream that contrasts just enough.  Eventually, I'll hang the nameless piece on the wall after taking it to guild for show and tell.   I finished it at our Calico County meeting Saturday and also worked on the Sashiko I started on vacation in March.  I'll take the Sashiko along to Colorado next week as it's small enough to fit in my suitcase.

Over the weekend, I also pieced a back, pin basted, and quilted the Manx/log cabin quilt.  I used my walking foot and echoed the barn raising setting.  The binding is the same cream-on-cream.   I noticed that when I spritzed some of the quilting lines some of the red centers ran.  Ugh!  I'm not quite sure what to do now - maybe wash in the machine with color catchers and Oxy?  I'll ask folks at guild what they recommend.

Funny how, whenever I finish a quilt, I need to take a break for a day or two before working on anything else.  I spent quite a bit of the day yesterday reading Paper Cuts, a new installment in the cozy mystery series, The Secret, Book, and Scone Society, by Ellery Adams.  I enjoy this series set in a small town with the main character being a former librarian who owns a bookstore and offers a bit of bibliotherapy to her customers.  Could be my alter-ego!

Traditional log cabin

It's been a while since I made a traditional log cabin quilt, and I always like the way they look.  I started some Manx blocks by hand last fall and also participated in a block swap with an online group this winter.  Yesterday, I laid out all the blocks I have made or received, and I made three more Manx-style blocks.  These were machine sewn and I already had strips cut, so they didn't take a lot of time at all.   Manx blocks make a fun take-along project.

Now I have 36 8" blocks! 

Someone in the swap group said she was planning a "streak of lightning" setting.  I'm not sure if this is what she meant, but I like it.  The Manx blocks all have printed background fabrics while the swap and other blocks have plain cream backgrounds.  There is some dimension to the Manx blocks, so I'm wondering how I will quilt it.  But I need to put the blocks together first and then decide on a border.  This week is pretty free, so I hope to get it done by the end of the week.  Then it will languish in the closet for a while - I'm planning a pieced back with some leftover log cabin blocks.  Two swap blocks from London have not yet been received.

Saturday is the state quilt guild meeting, so I've been accumulating stuff to take in the dining room.  My sewing room has a slightly smaller pile of stuff I'm gathering for the local guild meeting on the 21st.  I am doing a demo on hand quilting then, so I want to finish the white on white piece I have been pecking away at for many years - since the 1980s!

Farewell, my lovely

I was surprised yesterday by a message from Etsy telling me that I had sold a quilt.  I made this quilt years ago, sold it last year, and had it returned to me.  The buyer said the person she'd bought it for didn't want it.  Imagine my disappointment.  I loved making this twin-sized curved log cabin with a bundle of florals!  And Marie's quilting couldn't be beat.

Finding a mailing box wasn't easy, but I settled on one in the basement.  I will need to find a large sized priority box, just in case I sell something else this year.  Luckily, the parking lot at the post office was clean(ish) so I had no trouble walking.  Otherwise, I would have recruited Paul to carry the box.  

I'm happy to have reduced the inventory by one good sized quilt, and hope this buyer will love it as much as I do.

A couple more finishes

I managed to put the binding on and photograph two quilts yesterday.  Lest you think I'm really productive these days, quilts in progress hang around for months here, and then sometime in August I realize the year is flying by.  I get busy and finish things, and then I start a whole new batch in September or so.  I already have some in my "mind's eye."  And then there's the never ending Modern Dear Jane!

I made Rainbow Log Cabin (previously Floody Log Cabin) during the flood July 10-11 and its aftermath.   While our house wasn't affected, many others in the area were, and roads were washed away.  Our favorite pizza place decided to close up for good after being nearly crushed by the pandemic and then the flood.  The lake outside their building in the middle of town was unbelievable.  

Nervous energy helped me finish this quilt, made of "strings" for an overflowing basket.  Every day, I'd work with a different color. I quilted it last week, very simply going vertically and horizontally about 1/2" either side of the seam lines.  It's an airy quilting design but with the Australian fabric on the back, it's very soft.

Next, I turned my attention to the older UFO that I spent about a month quilting in two sections and then adding some hand quilting and embroidery.  I started the Hankie Quilt last winter and used vintage hankies, a set of curtains, an embroidered tablecloth, and a little shirt I think my mom made and mended when I was a baby.

I'm happy with the way this quilt turned out.  It will be staying with me since there are mementoes in it.  And there is a section I had to repair after catching the walking foot in it, and then putting my finger through the resulting hole.  It will be a cozy throw at the bottom of our guest bed.  Someday, if Chris ever marries and/or has kids (seems unlikely at this point!), I'll pass it along.

I'm sorry these photos are so blurry.  It was a day when the sun and clouds fought for attention.  I made a loaf of bread, took a walk, and read most of the day.  Today it's raining (what else is new?) so I'll be in my quilting room playing with fabric once again.  Life is good!

Honorable mention!

The small quilt I entered into the Gypsy Moth Quilt Shop's summer contest won an Honorable Mention this week!  Today I hope to go over and get a look at it and the other entries.  Like a few other quilters I know, I wasn't thrilled with the fabric we needed to use - the floral that I used for the flower's center and the aqua that I used for the flower pot.  So I'll be curious to see what others did with that pesky fabric.

Also on the schedule today are a trip to the bank, baking a cake for tomorrow's guild board meeting, and baking another loaf of bread using the "5 minutes a day" method.  (This takes a lot longer than 5 minutes - 40 min.. to shape and rise, 40 min. to bake, and 2 hours to cool before cutting.)  In between I do a little more quilting on the "Floody Cabin" quilt.