Another sampler

I've had this little quilt waiting for a photoshoot, but it keeps raining and/or looking gloomy.  So today I laid it out on the living room floor and took its picture.  It's a little sampler that will be joining a few others at Bags of Love, which gives quilts and knitted items (I am also sending a few) to kids going into foster care.

I enjoyed making all of the individual blocks, especially the wonky stars, but I worried over arranging them all together.  It's a mishmash, but perhaps a kid can play "I Spy" with it.

I heard about a program to give "blankets" to new refugees called "Welcome Blankets."  My local quilt shop is a drop off point.  They are taking blankets, afghans, quilts, and more, but they all have to be 40" x 40".  

I had one 24" UFO left hanging in the closet after my summer finishing frenzy.  It was made with some yoyo blocks by quilters in the state guild.  We had a ton of blocks made and created 6 or more crib-sized quilts with them, as well as a little wallhanging for our outgoing president.  Yesterday, I expanded the little leftover quilt top to the 40" x 40" size the Welcome Blankets group wants.  I hope to get it sandwiched this afternoon, and I'll quilt away for the next few days. I find it difficult to go around those yoyos which are appliqued onto the center of 5" black and white charm squares.  That's why it's been a UFO, but I am happy to have a place to send it to.

Show and tell

 I took a couple of quilts to guild show and tell the other night.  First is a little (36" x 36") quilt made with blocks of the month I won in the lottery.  I made the purple one (top right), and all the rest were made by guild members.  One was smaller than the 12" suggested, but I just added a little sashing to make it work.  That was a tough block to make (because the pattern given was difficult to read) so only six of us participated in the lottery.

This Ohio Star Variation (?) will go to "Bags of Love" for kids in foster care.  I had the border and binding fabric in my stash.  The backing was a sweet purple and green print that I had found on the guild free table several months ago.  I quilted it in about a 2" grid, using a smaller one for the plain sections around the outside.

I also showed my Unity Quilt (a Bonnie Hunter pattern) at the meeting.  Several other people have been working on them, too, and I'm curious to see how theirs end up.  It was quite an intense experience, and I hope not to do another BH pattern for quite a while (if ever)!

  

The yellow fabric was a constant, but the neutrals (and there are many) and the light and dark blues were all scraps.  I had a lot of trouble fitting the last border on, even though each round's measurement were exactly as Bonnie had stated they should be.  In the pattern, she noted that the last border needed to be "eased," and I can attest to that.  It took me quite a while to get it on.

Marie quilted it in a swirly pattern and said she had no trouble with the last border, which was a relief to me.  It's now on our guest bed and looks great.  This is the best shot I've gotten, though, since the room is small.

Yesterday we drove over to Plattsburgh, NY, for calling hours for Paul's cousin who had passed away suddenly.  I had never met Susie, but we had talked about visiting sometime.  It's a good reminder to catch up with relatives sooner rather than wait. 

Guild Block of the Month

 We had our first Heart of Vermont quilt guild meeting Tuesday night, and it was so good to see everyone again.  Some hadn't been for several years due to COVID.  We sat in "teams" for the month we'd been assigned to.  With such a large guild (80 members?), we like being broken down into teams so that we meet new people.  When the guild first started, some of the people were very clique-ish.  I always try to sit by someone I don't know, but others were adamant that they had to sit with their friends.  I found it very annoying.  

We'll have a choice of where to sit during future meetings, but at this one, we made plans for our monthly programs.   We have some outside speakers coming, which is always fun, and then some home-grown programs this year.  I'll be doing the January program on UFOs, something I am very familiar with.  I want to encourage a little swapping of UFOs during that session, and I hope some will take me up on it.

There is always a block of the month, and last night "Indian Star" was introduced in a red and white colorway.  Above is my block to swap next month as introduced the other night, and here's my variation to keep.   As you can see, I wasn't wild about the suggestion to use just one red fabric.  I'll be curious to see what others do.  If I'd had a lighter red in my stash, I might have used that instead of the red on white.  But I like the way the block turned out.

We also were issued a challenge.  A quilter passed away, and her husband gave Suzy a batch of Asian panels and fabrics.  Anyone who wanted to, took one to work with in any way desired.  We'll have show and tell toward the end of the year, probably in June.  

I chose a panel with a deep purple background and what appears to be Mt. Fuji.  I'm putting it away for now and will get it back out later in the year.  Working on it will be a good snowy day project.  And yes, fall is here today, and a cold front with night temperatures in the 30s is predicted.  But there will still be warmer days, which is good because I have a little yard work to do.  

Austen Jubilee

 Quiltmaker magazine has been running a mystery quilt since late last year based on some of Bonnie Hunter's "Addicted to Scraps" blocks.  I'm using Jane Austen at Home fabric for the most part, but I had to add some other fabrics as I ran low, especially on the backgrounds.  I didn't expect to need so much fabric, and I wish I could have had a choice of size for the final quilt.  I would have chosen the lap size, but the final quilt is supposed to be a queen.  My project box is bursting now, and I'm waiting for the final clue next month.  Thank goodness!  I hope this is my cure for the Bonnie Hunter patterns.   I don't want to make another one for a very long time!  Here are my last blocks, which are the blocks from the issue before the most recent one.

I'm not sure this was the right fabric for this very busy quilt.  The one in the magazine uses just two colors, red and white, even though they are scrappy.   And Bonnie herself, who is working along, is using purple and neutrals.  I sure hope there aren't any spacer or filler blocks left to make for the final step of putting the blocks all together.

Pineapples!

I have finally gotten back on track with various projects.   Currently, I'm making two blocks to add to my pineapple block collection.   I've been following the RSC colors each month for a while and adding a few multicolored blocks here and there as will and whim allow.  

This month I'm making four brown blocks which I'll put togethr to make a 12" block, and I'm making four multicolored ones from my string basket.  I laid them out at random today and really love the way they look.   I think I'll make five more 12" blocks and call it quits, because the quilt will measure 60" x 60" by then.  

My Austen Jubilee fabrics arrived yesterday, so I'll work on some more blocks next.  When I finish those, I'll wait for the next issue of Quiltmaker to put them all together.  It's going to be a busy weekend with a Friends of the Library coin drop Saturday morning and a guild sewing session in the afternoon.  On Sunday we hope to get our COVID boosters at a state-run walk in clinic, so who knows how we'll feel after that?  Hoping not to notice.

Making progress

 

I finished hand stitching the binding on the Unity quilt this week as part of my clean up in advance of company coming.  Now it's waiting for its portrait, along with a bunch of other, smaller quilts.  Getting outside when the sun is blazing is not my idea of fun, and many mornings have been foggy lately.  All in due time!

I finished knitting my socks and will block them soon so that they may look a bit more photogenic.  I don't plan to wear these except as slippers around the house.  I found sock knitting quite difficult, so I took a break and started some mittens (using the same blue, of course, since I have lots of it).  I'm almost finished with the first one after just a few days of watching Jeopardy.  This pair will go to Bags of Love, for kids in foster care.

My online swap group is going swap some tree blocks in early 2023.  Several bloggers are making them and calling the resulting quilt Arboretum.  Even though I really want to work only on UFOs right now so that I have a clean(er) slate, I did make about 15 of these last week, too.  They are incredibly fast and fun to work with.

Batiks really make these easy to put together, improvisationally.  I need to get a few more batiks so that I have a variety to swap and to incorporate into a quilt.

The next to the last UFO I have to work on is Austen Jubilee, which based on a series mystery in Quiltmaker magazine this year.  I found myself very low on fabric, unfortunately, but managed to make several blocks this week.  Some have been pieced where they needn't have been, but they turned out pretty good.  

I finally broke down and ordered some more Jane Austen at Home fabric on etsy.  When it comes, I'll be able to finish the last bunch of blocks and then wait until the next issue comes out to put them all together. 

I don't think this pattern is really meant for such busy fabrics, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'll all look OK together when the time comes to put them together into a queen-sized quilt.  You may not be able to tell, but two of the triangles in this block were pieced.   Busy fabric has its advantages.

The next UFO to work on will be my on-going pineapple quilt.  I have several months of the rainbow scrap challenge to catch up on, which is OK.  I like making these foundation pieced blocks, and I will roll this project into 2023.

Happy Labor Day

I have always liked Labor Day, a "free" day at the end of summer and also the day before the first day of school.  I would lay out what I was going to wear in the evening in anticipation, and I usually loved school, too, even though it often meant starting at a new school.  We moved a few times between fourth and eighth grades so that, in those years, I switched schools.   But I really enjoyed using new school supplies, meeting old friends and new, learning new things, and reading new books.  Going back to work after a long weekend wasn't nearly as much fun, even though I loved my job.

I haven't done a lot of quilting in the last few weeks, and I am definitely behind on taking pictures of projects I've finished.  

I changed the quilts on our beds recently; I like to do that to keep them from fading and wearing out.  We are now sleeping under Cornucopia of Thanks, a sampler by Jennifer Chiaverini, and the guest bed has a Bonnie Hunter 2021 mystery which I call Green Mountain Spring on it.  I can't remember the official name, and when I checked her www.quiltville.com website, I couldn't find it.  It isn't my favorite quilt but I am waiting for a relative to tell me how much they like it so I can give it away.

I am half-way around stitching the Bonnie Hunter Unity quilt's binding down.  Then it will go outside for a photo shoot.  Today I'm hoping to finish the second sock I'm knitting as soon as I learn to do the Kitchener stitch.  (Kitchener, Ontario?  or is it named after a famous knitter?  it's always capitalized.)

This leaves only two UFOs in project boxes, one being the RSC pineapple quilt I'll carry over into 2023.  The other is Austen Jubilee, a mystery quilt using Bonnie Hunter blocks, in Quiltmaker magazine this year.  I am two issues behind in the clues so started working on blocks yesterday.  I had started with a Jane Austen at Home layer cake and also some yardage, but I am now down to snippets.   I pieced a few things together that weren't meant to be pieced, but now I think I will just order some more to complete the blocks.  I have introduced a solid brownish fabric that I can scatter around also.  I don't think I'll be doing another Bonnie Hunter quilt any time soon.  Too many tiny pieces! 

Waiting in the wings are a scrappy Hunter's Star and two other scrappy quilts for which I have patterns and background fabric waiting in project boxes.  Those and a modern Dear Jane should see me through the coming year, if not beyond!