Quilting the House Quilt

I keep calling it "The House Quilt," but really it's a village now that the blocks are all together.  It was a swap this spring with seven or eight others around the world, and I also made a few extra blocks.  As one person said, "you can't make just one" like you "can't eat just one" potato chip.  I added a couple of trees which are nothing more than snowball blocks with stems.  This was a fun quilt to make.

It was a free pattern from Moda (I think).  I had just the right size piece of polka dotted backing and did a little piecing of batting scraps.  So it's a true scrap quilt, measuring 38" x 44".

I'd been thinking about how to quilt this as I was putting it together, and I just didn't want to do all lines or curves across or down.  I find free motion quilting, while very nice, just not for me, as I get too tense.   And I can't seem to adjust the tension to make both the back and front look good.  So I depend on my trust walking foot.  Here's what I've come up with so far.

I quilted a big X off center a bit and now I'm echoing the lines, about 1/2" apart.  It's a rather mindless process, but I like the final result.  It should take me a few more days to finish.

Another top finished

The Heart of Vermont sampler top is finished!  I moved the blocks around and around, made a few more blocks, and worked steadily over the last few days to put them together.  This doesn't show the whole top, of course, but a good bit.   I like the cornerstones and skinny colorful border that tie all the blocks together.  There's a wider black border on the outside. 

It measures 69" x 69" so I'll need a twin-sized batt.   That means another trip to the quilt shop.  I was thinking of using Warm & Natural now that Joann's carries it again, but they don't have it in a twin size.  So it'll be Quilters Dream which I like better anyway.  I just wanted to buy it from Joann's so they'd keep carrying it.

I still have to make a back for this top.  There are several leftover blocks and lots of scraps left, so it will be pieced.  Sometimes putting the back together is harder than making the front.  But this gives me time to think about how I'm going to quilt it.  My favorite way with samplers is to do each block a little differently.  We'll see how it goes.

Vermont is having a heat wave, which officially means we've had temperatures over 90 degrees for at least three days.  I think this is day 5 and we have another one to endure before rain brings slightly cooler temperatures.  It's humid but not as bad as sometimes.  Instead, it's been very dry, and the grass is parched in spots.  Paul has been watering the blueberries daily in hopes of getting larger berries than last year.  We installed the air conditioning in my sewing room Saturday, thank goodness, and that's why I've been at all productive.   

After I finished the quilt top, I got the house blocks from another swap out to look at.  It was a free pattern from Moda, and I think 9 people joined in.  So I have 38 blocks, including some I made for myself.  I have some light blue fabric with cream dots that I'm thinking of using as sashing and borders.  I'll cut a few pieces and let them sit on the wall with the blocks for a few days while I think about them.

Decisions

I got my "block robin" blocks back on Saturday, after touring around the area with five other quilters in one of my guilds since October.  Every month, I made a block or two myself to go along with the ones others were making.  Now I need to figure out how to put them all together.

The spaces in the middle are where I plan to make three more blocks similar to the rainbow one so that the three Dresden Plate blocks become a focal point for the quilt.  I'll put that together and then figure out where all the other blocks are going and how many more I need to make.  I would like to end up with a twin-sized quilt at least.  The blocks finish at 9" and I still have about 1/2 yard plus scraps of the black background left.  To sash or not to sash?  Cornerstones? On-point or straight on?

I need to go to the quilt shop on Thurs. to give Marie my Good and Plenty II quilt to longarm.  While there, I'll look and see if they still have some of the black left.  That may well guide my decisions.  Meanwhile, I'll enjoy moving the blocks around, squaring them all up to size, and thinking about the possibilities.  

Memories of Keukenhof

        We finally managed to get outside to take some photos of the quilt I finished over the weekend.  It is based on the Jen Kingwell pattern, The Avenue, and designed by Louise Papas.  She said she was inspired by a trip to Paris and its many trees lining boulevards.   Her quilt was scrappy, just as mine is, but when I had it all together, the motifs looked like tulips to me.  So I quilted leaves into the blocks, using my walking foot.  I tried free motion quilting with this, but just wasn't satisfied with the result.   It measures just under 60" x 60" so will make a nice throw.

        I really enjoyed making the blocks, using the scrappy backgrounds and favorite colors from my stash.  I did have to buy a few more black and white fabrics, but I used scraps for everything else, including the binding.  The curved pieces were easy to do with my 1/4" piecing foot, and I'm so glad I took that "Quick Curve Ruler" class last summer, even though I used the Kingwell templates to cut the pieces.  I just felt more confident sewing the Drunkard's Path-like shapes together.

        And why Keukenhof?  That's the wonderful garden in the Netherlands which we visited last spring when every type of bulb imaginable was blooming.   A lifelong dream of mine was fulfilled!

The Virtual Round Robin

Over the weekend, I finished a quilt and worked on a few others.  I'll post a picture of my rendition of Jen Kingwell's The Avenue when I get a chance to take a picture outside.  

Saturday, I met with the five other guild members who participated in this year's "block robin," to give back the bag of fabric and blocks I've had since February and to get mine back.  Everyone was pleased with their blocks.  When I got home, I laid the blocks out on the bed in the sewing room and added the blocks I'd made over the last few months.  I need to make a few more blocks for the on-point setting I'm hoping to make, but when I get it all together, I'll have a nice little quilt in bright colors with a black background.  

I have the fabric all cut out for the back of my Good and Plenty II quilt.  It's a black and pink granny square quilt that I plan to take to Marie on Thurs. for quilting, whenever she gets around to it.  I'm not in a hurry - it's been hanging in the closet for a few months anyway.  The back needs ironing and just one seam which I'll do tomorrow.

Most of Sunday was spent cutting out and sewing pinwheels out of navy and white scraps for the Virtual Round Robin I'm doing with a small group of online friends.  

Each month, we have an assignment, chosen at random, for another border.  This month's is half square triangles, which offers endless possibilities.  I was thinking about just arranging one row of HSTs at random, but then decided 4" pinwheels would be a little more informal and scrappy.  The quilt is now 32" square and I plan to I'll add a few more borders to get to bed-sized.  Each subsequent border will take longer to make as the quilt grows, but I love medallion quilts so will enjoy the challenge.

A nice weekend

On Friday night, we got a little dressed up, Vermont style, and went to dinner at the country club with our neighbors and friends, Mary and Manny.  When I say "dressed up," I mean real sandals instead of flipflops and, for Paul, khakis instead of jeans.  The country club is really in the country and is reached over dirt roads.  Manny drove so we all wore masks.  It was surprising how many others had the same idea, and we even saw some neighbors dining out on the big deck overlooking the fairway.  It was a relaxed and fun evening.

I spent much of the weekend reading Kristin Hannah's book, The Winter Garden.  It started slowly, and seemed to be a story of two conflicted sisters and their cold mother.  But a secondary story started to insinuate itself, making it a real page turner.  I really liked it, perhaps even more than the author's The Great Alone (about a family subsisting in Alaska) and The Nightingale (about two sisters in France during World War II).  I think I'll get it for my mom for Christmas.

I did take a little time out to do the usual things around the house - laundry, a little cleaning, etc. - and some machine quilting on The Avenue, punctuated by some walks around the neighborhood.  I also went over to Samantha and Vicki's to dig up some of their lily of the valley to transplant into a flower bed out front.  It gets no sun, but I notice the lilies fill in nicely among the perennials.  I'll have to keep an eye on them, though, because in Samantha's garden they are choking everything else out.  They were on their way to Stowe for a hike, as they usual do on weekends.  But it was good to chat with them a while, at a distance.

Today's tasks include getting the Friends of the Library all a few raffle tickets to sell, making an appointment for a haircut, and quilting some more.  Hope your day goes well!

And BTW, this new version of Blogger seems a bit more clunky than its previous version.  Anyone else finding that?  I suppose I'll get used to it!

Works progressing

This is the sixth month of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and this month's color is, thankfully, pink.  I have lots, despite having made the Good and Plenty 2 quilt (looks like a granny square) earlier this year.  I still have to quilt that, by the way.  Anyway, here are my three blocks for the rainbow quilt.

Yesterday we did quite a few little errands, but they were all really useful.  We got rid of a month's worth of compost at the dump, delivered gardening raffle items to the library which is going to open soon (our trunk is almost empty!), and planted more flowers in the back yard.  Then I finished basting The Avenue, a Jen Kingwell pattern by Louise Papas.  I managed to do three anchoring quilting lines in the ditches and will work on more machine quilting today.  I think I'll echo quilt the "trees" and do simple straight lines in the sashing and borders.

I really like the way this quilt is turning out.  It used up a lot of my black on white/cream scraps, and I'm using white on black scraps for the binding.  I actually machine appliqued the tree trunks which was a first for me.  I think that will be it for Jen Kingwell patterns for a me for a while, although I do love the scrappiness of them.  I have quite a few UFOs still waiting in the wings.