Samplers

I love making sampler quilts, probably because I don't get bored.  The first bed-sized quilt I made took 14 years to finish.  In those days, before rotary cutters, we made cardboard templates that we traced around and cut with scissors.  That was truly tiring, especially since all the fabric was cotton/poly blend.  I did use a machine to put it together, but I hand quilted it also.  Tough on the hands.  I still have it, but it is stained.  Polyester holds a stain well.  That quilt has now achieved souvenir status!

I have mentioned making a Splendid Sampler quilt this year to commemorate my 70th birthday and in honor of my dear friend Yve who passed away last January.   It is amazing how often I think of her.  She was fun and also a true leftie when it came to politics.   She protested against the Vietnam War, for civil rights, and for equal rights for women.  Talking with her was always interesting.

Before the book came out in the fall, Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson would post a free pattern each week.  I got the book as well as the previous one and started making blocks in July.  Every month, I make 11 6" blocks from book 1 or 2, or Moda Blockheads, or made up.  The 12th block is made from a set of dishtowels thrift-shop-loving Yve gave me a few years ago.   (She gave us quite a few cashmere sweaters picked up at thrift shops, too.  Most of them didn't fit so I turned several into scarves for me and my sister Jenny.)

The backgrounds are all "low volume," mostly shirtings in different colors, and the sashing is a dark beige.  I am quilting this in sections, and when the year is finished in June I'll put the sections together.

The recent Bonnie Hunter mystery with its identical blocks made over and over just about killed me with its dullness.   I look forward to quilting it, getting it done, and giving it away.   I am looking forward to starting something else but am trying hard to work on UFOs at the same time.

I really like Jen Kingwell's quilts and have just ordered her My Small World pattern.  It's a sampler but more jumbled up than The Splendid Sampler.   It will be a project for summer, so between now and then I'll gather fabrics for it.  I especially love the pieced sky in this wallhanging.

Snow!

Our across the street neighbor took this from her front door looking toward our driveway and garage yesterday.  Just a little snow fell from Saturday to Monday!   The roads looked like those I remember in Wisconsin where my family moved when I was in college.   You could go pretty fast on those icy, snow-covered roads because it was flat.  Here, going up and down hills gets pretty tricky when there's a lot of snow with temperatures below zero.  I headed down to the library after dinner last night to attend a Friends meeting and ended up going about 15 mph most of the way.  The way home was a little easier as it was uphill all the way.   It will likely pack down a bit in the next few days, but I hope we don't get any more for a while.

What to do with those chevrons?

I have 100 scrappy green chevrons that I made for the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt that I made incorrectly, and I have a slew of "bonus" half-square triangles ready to use.  In between everything else I've been working on, I made a few star blocks out of the chevrons.  And I like them!

They work up into 7" blocks finished.  Guess I'll continue in a sort of "leaders and enders" way for now.  Maybe I can throw the HSTs in there somewhere, somehow, too.

For now, I'm working on the guild mystery clue for January.  We are now putting some of the pieces together.  Maybe we'll have a reveal in February?  Will take a photo when I get a chance.

Another top done!

Last year, I participated in a Missouri Star block swap that included quilters from Australia, Canada, and various states.  I think I made two sets of 12 blocks and then a few more, so that I ended up with at least 25 blocks.  The stars were to be made using gray backgrounds and were stash busters, so some are quite wild.  Here's the top I finished today.

I like the darker gray Robert Kaufman's Quilter's Linen I used for the sashing and setting triangles, and somehow I threw in a little black, too, as the cornerstones.  I may add a thin stripe of black to offset the gray triangles.  Is it finished or do I want to make it bigger?  Not sure yet, so it stays on the bed while I think.

It's amazing to think that this is the third top I've finished in the last two weeks.   Our below zero temperatures and yesterday's 18" of snow have really helped.

Good Fortune top done!

This measures 72" x 72" so it will be a nice throw for someone.  Who?  Who knows!  But I'm glad to be finished with the top and plan to quilt it myself eventually.  I'm hoping a little time in the quilting queue (a/k/a the closet) will tone the colors down a bit.  It's quite bright, but it is good to note that I didn't buy a single piece of fabric to make this quilt so far.  Because it has so many pieces, I may get a wide piece of muslin for the back to make it easier to quilt on my machine.

I have a lot of those chevrons - 100? - that I made incorrectly, and today I added some plain cream fabric to a few to make star blocks.  I can make 25 7" blocks which might make nice table runners or quilt backs or...

Book case row robin

Toward the end of 2017, I joined a row robin group online.  These ladies are great quilters.  Whenever swap blocks or rows come back to me, they are ready to sew with - no trimming, no fixing in any way.  Because there were seven in the group, I have been thinking of how I wanted to arrange the shelves.   I didn't really want to end up with a long, skinny quilt.  What would I do with it? 

I decided to make a throw, 60" x 60", with two ranges of shelving, as we might have here.  Above one set of shelves, I would hang a picture that I made in a David Taylor class a few years ago.  I was happy to be using two UFOs in one piece!

It's a snowy day - perfect for finishing my bookcase row robin flimsy.  I love all the rows!  

Carol included a spot for a photo and suggested I substitute one for her and her husband's.  But I like it the way it is - Carol looks very funny.  She and Pat also made up some cute book titles to put on the spines, and Pat included what looks like the whole Supergirl collection as well as the old reliable Betty Crocker cookbook.  Susan included some very colorful spines, a toy truck, and a little tchochke.  Fran embroidered some of my favorite book titles on spines - Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice, etc.  How did you know?  She also included a sleepy kitty.   Tricia included a whole collection of Jane Austens, my favorite author, and an interesting sculpture.   


I didn't want to end up with a long skinny quilt, so I took Leigh's row apart and made it into two shelves with an extra little quilt block accent.  I love the plant she appliqued.  I cut my own block down to fit and am using the rest on the back with everyone's labels.  

On the top of the bookshelf, I pieced a jar full of notions, a little loon picture in memory of my dad who loved them, and an Elvis snowglobe.  No, I'm not a huge fan, but I thought it would be fun.   Now I will be hanging the flimsy in the closet for a while until I get around to quilting it... eventually.

"Good Fortune" revealed

I've been keeping up with the weekly (and in one case semi-weekly) clues for Bonnie Hunter's current mystery quilt, but now that she has issued the reveal, I find I have loads of sewing to do.  Some people have finished their tops already even though the reveal "clue" came out on Friday.  They've even sent their tops out for longarming.  Do they not sleep? eat? have families? 

I am still slogging through the spinning star blocks although I have made one of the other blocks just to see how they'll look together.   Because I haven't had a lot of luck choosing colors for mystery quilts in the past, I decided to go with Hunter's suggestion which commemorates her trip to China earlier this year. 

My first problem was that I found I had cut my green fabric 1/2" too short, so I had to make a pile more chevron pieces.  I stopped now and then to put a few blocks together, and I didn't make "bonus" half-square triangles this time around.  I have plenty of those from the unusable chevrons.  I got a few blocks made and noticed I had put some of the segments together incorrectly - can you spot the mistakes on the top left block?  Here is the way the blocks should look.

I have just 10 more long seams to finish this set of star blocks.  Then I may start on the orange and red blocks.  But I've been neglecting my Splendid Sampler for the last few days, so I will probably take a little break and make a few blocks for that before returning to Good Fortune.  I did make one Splendid Sampler block out of bits and pieces of the green and neutral chevrons, and I'll probably make one out of the red and neutral squares, too.  That will be a good reminder of what I did in January, 2019.

Photos

I can't always take photos of what I'm working on.  It's been quite gloomy out.  Today, after a goodly dusting of about 3" of snow, the sun is finally out.  So here are some of the Dutchman's Puzzle blocks I've been working on for this year's guild block swap.

  

All 16 of these are made from scraps.  

The other set of 16 is Scrappy Star, found on www.quiltinaday.com, Eleanor Burns' site.  I found that this block was actually designed by Sue Bouchard.  Here's the drawing from Eleanor Burns' site.

I also cut out ten sets of black and white charm squares for a swap that I'm hosting for an online group.  Each person will send in sets of five charms all the same..  Most have signed up to send in ten, so that will give us each about 50 different fabrics to use.  I hope to make a quilt with these and an accent color, yet to be determined.  Maybe lime green?

Happy New Year!

While the sun shone yesterday, Paul and I managed to get two short walks in.  We go just a little farther every time, and he is doing quite well, recuperating from heart surgery.  He tires easily, but has always been good about resting - even when healthy!  He can now take a shower without me being right in the room with him, and he can put his own socks on, too.  We celebrate progress by small steps.

For New Year's Eve, I made a heart healthy stir fry for dinner and used some peaches I froze last summer in delicious tart for dessert.  We watched a movie, Life Itself, which didn't get great reviews but was very sweet.  Since I have gotten hooked on This Is Us, it filled a void until that TV show starts up again.

I've been sewing up a storm over the last week or two since Paul's been home from the hospital.  I finished Clue #6 of the Bonnie Hunter mystery over the weekend, and I've been working on swap blocks for the local guild swap over the last few days.  We need to make 30 12"(finished size) blocks, and before Christmas I already made 15 scrappy stars.  Now I'm working on "Dutchman's Puzzle" blocks.  We are to use brights with a white background and don't have to use all the same fabrics in each block.  So while I've been cutting my scraps, I've been going through the stash, eliminating what I don't think I'll ever use.  I also weeded my quilt books and will take them and my stash rejects to the next guild meeting for the free table.

Sunday, I took a little trip to Joann Fabrics for more white for the swap blocks, and I also bought some yarn for another scarf.  I have been knitting one or two a winter and giving them to the Salvation Army because I have a couple of scarves I really like, including a hand-woven one from Pauline.   But I do like to do a little mindless knitting - garter and/or stockinette stitch - while watching TV now and then.

Yikes!  I see Bonnie Hunter has issued Clue #7!  I thought I had a few days grace to work on other things, so I guess I will finish the Dutchmen's Puzzle blocks before embarking on #7.  I only hope she doesn't issue #8 this Friday.