"Options" quilt top

It's finished!  Measuring 70" x 70", this scrappy block of the week was set on point with a 5" border all around.  I've really enjoyed making the Options blocks by Aby Dolinger this year.  Her directions are very clear, and three 8" blocks per month were fairly easy to do.  Each of the three was a variation on a basic block, and I only bought a little white to add to my black, red, and gray scraps.   Today's assignment will be to figure out a back, possibly by going to Joann's.  I just don't have enough of the Aboriginal fabric to piece into a back.  I do have dark gray fabric cut out for the binding, though.

Because I usually only machine quilt items 60" square or less, I'm going to take this to my friend Marie who is a whiz at long arming.  I hope it's ready to mail to Ken for Christmas as a thank you for all his help with my brother Axel's recovery from surgery.  

This week, I also made the guild block of the month - maple leaf - and set aside a box for those blocks with various scraps to go with a print background featuring burgundies, golds, and a hint of turquoise.   These are different colors than I usually use, and I'm looking forward to using them.  The guild is going to have a lottery each month, so I made a second block (on left) for that.

Meanwhile, it's almost Halloween, and I have candy but haven't yet decided whether to give out treats or not.  Last year, I  put a bowl out for kids to take as they wished.  They were quite good about not taking too much, or maybe we didn't have that many stop by.  Whole car loads full of people we don't know descend on our neighborhood on Halloween, causing a bit of a traffic jam.  Some people love seeing the kids in their costumes (not me, the Grinch! I'll be watching my favorite shows, Call the Midwife and Grantchester).  

Busy times

 

This is the quilt I took on Saturday for Show and Tell at the state quilt guild meeting.  Made up of leftover pieces of last fall's Bonnie Hunter mystery, I call it Vermont Spring because the bigger quilt ended up being called Green Mountain Spring.  At any rate, this quilt won first place in the state guild's virtual show, and for that I received an award at our first in-person meeting in two years.

We didn't have a huge turnout, but the program was excellent.  Roz Daniels, a friend and fellow guild member, told about her life as a quilter, from the 1970s with polyesters, through travels to exotic places, and now as an award-winning modern quilter.  I admire her creativity and approachability, and everyone seemed to enjoy seeing many of her interesting quilts.

Sunday, I got out my Options blocks of the month to see if I could put them together into a throw for a friend of my brother's who's been very helpful to him lately.  Ken has been driving Axel around to various doctor's appointments and helping him clean up his apartment - actually, it's with much-needed hoe out.  Why does a single guy need 46 water glasses?  Anyway, I started putting the blocks together on point and realized I didn't have nearly enough fabric. 

Of course, the quilt shop was closed Sunday and Monday, so I was chomping at the bit until yesterday when I found they are out of the fabric I was using for sashing.  So the whole setting is going to be more scrappy than I had planned.  I always have a lot of trouble figuring out the size of the setting triangles around the blocks in an on-point quilt.  Today I'll do the math and try to get everything cut out and start sewing.  I found some nice Aboriginal fabric in my stash for the back - hope I have enough.  

In between all this, I had my monthly pedicure/get together with my friend Debb, went to a Friends of the Library meeting, did laundry and some housecleaning, started knitting a hat while I decide if I'm going to continue with the very slow going sweater, and watched the rain pour down.  After a few days of gloom, we are hoping to see the sun some time today and finally get out for a walk or two.

Finished!

I put the last stitches into the border of Harriet's Journey on Monday, and it felt so good.  It's not a huge quilt, but the components took quite a bit of time.  I've been making 8 or so blocks a month since January, using Moda's "Moody Bloom" fabric with a few coordinating scraps here and there.   You can barely see the outer border, which is the dark, colorful print in that line that caught my eye first.  I started with a fat quarter bundle but added more along the way.

Each 6" block is a quilt in itself.  As is typical of Jennifer Chiaverini's patterns, the blocks are a mix of pieced, paper pieced, and applique.  That drunkard's path appeared pieced in her book, but I sewed it by hand because the pieces were so tiny.

I substituted a few blocks, like that courthouse steps block, when the suggested blocks of the month seemed too complicated.  The substitutions came from previous Chiaverini books as well as The Splendid Sampler, by Pat Sloan.  

I found some of the easiest looking blocks, like that pink and dark "wheel," were the hardest.  I really enjoyed making the interlocking chain block.  

I made the alternating setting blocks out of leftover scraps, thinking that would allow the individual blocks to stand out more than they would with the conventional sashing with cornerstones setting.  That means there are 121 blocks in this top, which only measures 78" x 78".  I plan to take it to my friend Marie who will do the longarm quilting, but I'm not sure when I'll get over to see her.  I'll need to buy some backing and batting also.

As usual, I took a day off from sewing yesterday.  I always need to take a mental break after finishing something this intense.   I still need to clean up the scraps and put everything away.  But I'm reading Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny's new book, State of Terror, and it's really getting good.  I'm not sure how much time I'll devote to quilting today.

Options and a sale

I forgot to show the three "Options" blocks for this month.  Aby Dolinger has designed a scrappy block of the month with variations, and I have made at least three blocks in a black/white/red colorway all year.  This month's blocks are "Birds in Flight," which is very appropriate.  We've heard lots of Canada geese honking away on our daily walks lately.  

I'm looking forward to putting these blocks together, although it won't be soon!  I am a little behind on my blocks of the month because I've been putting my Harriet's Journey blocks together.  Hope to get the center done today.  My pineapple blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge will just have to wait, and I'm sure I'll be doing them in 2022, too, in order to get a quilt of any size.

This morning, I received news from etsy.com that a small, fall tabletopper has sold, so I'll be packing it up and mailing it to Washington state.  

Fall colors aren't usually my thing, but I did like making these wonky flying geese with a gray-tan background.  It's Are We There Yet? from a book by Sew Kind of Wonderful and uses their mini-curve tool.  

I quilted it modern-style and am glad someone else will enjoy it.  The back is a blue sampler made with swap blocks, so it can be turned around or used as a baby quilt.  My first order of business today will be a trip to the post office.  It's a rainy, gloomy day, but it will be nice to get out of the house.  Maybe I'll stop by the bakery across the street for treats?

More blocks

Aside from those yoyos, I've been working on figuring out a layout for my Harriet's Journey blocks now that I have about 64 of them.  I'm running out of focus fabric and seem to have bought an endless amount of white background fabric so far.  

What I have is draped over a bed right now, but I hope to start putting the blocks together as soon as I make some more "cobblestone" blocks using scraps of the focus fabric to serve as spacers between the blocks.  I've decided on a layout of 13 by 13 with two borders so that I end up with a quilt measuring 82.5" x 82.5".  I hope I can stretch my available fabric out to make this work!  I may have to make a couple for HJ blocks, but that will be OK.  I also have some of that lovely pink and two yards of one of the dark prints for borders and, maybe, binding.   Stay tuned!

Awash in yoyos

A few years ago, the president of the state quilt guild asked if folks would like to join her in creating a yoyo quilt, possibly the biggest one ever, that could be displayed at the Vermont Quilt Festival.  People worked feverishly through that year 2018-19 to make yoyos and then to applique them onto black and white 5" squares.  There were a couple of sew-ins, too.  The resulting quilt would have been enormous, so she opted to make a king sized quilt (actually, 112" x 106") that could be displayed at the festival.  She thought that, later, it could be cut into four pieces and given to charity.

I am not into yoyos, but, good sport that I [usually] am, I appliqued some yoyos onto squares for her.  Any leftovers I gave back.  She is no longer the president, and I am the current secretary and live in her town.  The board thought it would nice to show the quilt at an upcoming meeting.   She delivered the giant quilt, two finished quilt tops, one top almost finished, and a huge shopping bag of squares a week or so ago.  I took the tops to a long arm quilter who works with the Dept. of Children and Families to supply "Bags of  Love" to kids in foster care.

But what to do with all those loose squares?  I took a few to my Saturday sewing group, and two people took some home to sew into strips for another top to go to Bags of Love.  I'll take the unfinished top to the October state guild meeting to see if I can recruit someone to put the strips together.  

Today I bagged up the squares, 12 to a baggie, to give away, too.  12 baggies will make another quilt top.  There were still some left overs, so I made a little 20" x 20" something - wall hanging? table topper? dresser scarf?   I'll quilt it soon and bind it in black.  

There are more white squares leftover, so they're in a bag of their own.  I have an idea for using those, too, but not for a while.   As I say, I'm not all that wild about yoyos!

Dresdens and other stuff

 

Right now, my favorite quilt block is the Dresden Plate, so when I volunteered to make the local guild's December block of the month, that's what I decided to make.   I wanted to have one last year when I did the blocks of the month lottery for guild, but all of those blocks were 6" so they could be mailed.  That size would have been way too fiddly for some of the beginners in the group.

Here is a finished one in Christmas colors, and then I also have an unfinished one in wintery colors so that I can demo how they come together.  I usually use my Darlene Zimmerman template for the 20 blades, but this pattern from the state guild newsletter has14 blades.  It works up into a 12" finished block.  I enjoy fussy cutting the centers, although I didn't do that with the blue one.  It will have a glitzy center.   

Now that I've made these, I wonder if I should make them for next year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but - oh no! - I told myself I was only going to make pineapple blocks.  I'd like to work on the exploding heart and strippy Vermont quilts in 2022.  And what about finishing the 16" block quilt?   Too many ideas, so little time!

Fall!

The fall colors are at their peak and, while the chicken pie suppers are now carry out only due to COVID, everyone is busy enjoying the season.   I made my annual apple pie last weekend, and our daily walks have been very nice, with new color showing every day.  It's foggy every morning but by mid-day it's sunny and bright.   My neighbor made this sweet arrangement between our garages.  We are lucky she takes care of our decor as I was nursing my summer flowers for as long as I could.  They are finally all gone today when I cleaned the garage, put away all the planters, and scrubbed the house where the flowers were touching.

I have been busy making Harriet's Journey and Options blocks of the month.   Here are the HJ blocks.

I made some substitutions to avoid tiny appliqued pieces.  I have 64 blocks made now and am pondering how I'll set them.  And should I continue with the blocks of the month project or choose a few more to make before I put them together?  I have bought several yards of one of the black prints, some pink, and some white.   It's probably overkill, but I'd rather have options and some leftover fabric after I make up my mind.

In case you aren't as lucky as we are right now, here's another fall in Vermont photo - this is Paul's sister's home and island at Greenwood Lake, taken today.

Busy not sewing

 The last Friends of the Library book sale of the year was a great success, perhaps because of the off-and-on rain we had this weekend.  People came downtown for the fall festival but some events (like the sidewalk sales!) were rained out.  So they came inside the library to shop.  

We still have plenty of books returned to boxes and stacked up, but we'll spend the winter organizing.   Paula did a great job cleaning up the area under the stairs, which we filled afterwards, along with our "store" area which is available whenever the library's open.   

I was on my feet most of Thursday through Saturday, so yesterday I took it easy.  I did manage to get into the sewing room and finish up my Harriet's Journey blocks for this month.  I have at least 64 blocks so far and chose several more blocks to make before I set them together.  I'm running out of focus fabric and keep buying white on whites for the background.

I still can't decide how to set Harriet, however, so today I'll work on some other blocks of the month - the "Options" blocks and, if there's time, the RSC pineapples.  The latter will follow me into the new year since I only have 9 or 10 made so far.  Not enough for a quilt of any size.

I keep saying I won't take on any more blocks of the month projects in 2022, but of course one of my guilds has one that's just starting.  The blocks will be 12" instead of 6" as we did last year, so a bigger quilt is definitely possible.  I offered to design the December block and have been experimenting with various patterns.  So far, I haven't settled on The One.