Jane Austen at Home

This morning, I finished binding the second of two quilts I made using Jane Austen at Home fabric by Riley Blake.  I started out with a layer cake and a couple of fat quarters.  Along the way I made at least three orders for yardage and fat quarters from "The Cute Little Fabric Shop" in Utah which I found on etsy.  I also added some scraps here and there.

The pattern was from Quiltmaker magazine and was a mystery quilt using blocks from Bonnie Hunter's "Addicted to Scraps" column.  I should have known better.  First of all, her tiny pieces don't always look good with small prints.  Second of all, those tiny pieces! And repetitive to boot!   It was supposed to be a queen-sized quilt, but I could see that the result would be far too busy at that size.  In fact, the twin size at left is pretty busy.  I took it to a friend who quilted it on her long arm.

I ended up making a smaller quilt with the leftovers which I spread out a bit with some sashing.  I do like the way the four basket blocks come together in the middle.  This quilt is baby/toddler sized, at  48" x 48, " so I quilted with my walking foot.  In fact, I was in the middle of doing so when my Elna decided it needed cleaning and other general maintenance.  

I was happy when my son and his friend stopped by this afternoon so that I could take pictures by standing in the snow.  (I now see that the top picture is upside down...)  

Our snow is melting which is very nice.  It's very possible that the maple sap is running these days - we need cold nights and warm days for that, and it sure has been that way recently.  It's unusual for February to be this warm, but we'll take it.

Finished top

Woohoo!  I finished this top yesterday.  It measures 48" x 57" and is designed to fit above a door at a nursing home.  The door leads to a courtyard garden and the board member was looking for something that would be reminiscent of Vermont's Green Mountains.  I hope this will fill the bill.  If not, I have offered an alternative quilt that's only 36" x 36" with similar colors and a bit of purple.  

I plan to quilt this myself, but not right away unless they want it ASAP.  I noticed they already have a curtain rod hanging for something.  When I do, I'll quilt it simply with straight lines vertically and then add a flanged binding in blue and green.  I love working with those two colors, and the pattern is Bonnie Hunter's free Scrappy Mountains Majesty.  My blue box is overflowing, so I'm thinking about a pieced back for this quilt.

While I wait for a reply, I will be putting together all the various blocks for Austen Jubilee, my take on this year's Quiltmaker mystery.  I am mixing up some of the blocks and adding a few "coping" strips to make it all fit.  I hope I have enough fabric to finish.  It's put together in sections which makes it somewhat easier to see what I'll be needing in the way of additional fabrics. 

Fall's next phase

 

We made another trip to Green Mount Cemetery Thursday to find what we hoped were the last three monuments for Paul's book.   Unfortunately, we had to return on Saturday for two more.  I help with the GPS coordinates, and he photographs them.  As I told my mom, you have to be a mountain goat to roam around that place.  Thursday was a warmish but gloomy day, but sometimes that makes the waning foliage shine better.  

It rained Friday and was windy, too, so I many leaves started falling and the colors began to fade.  The tour buses and RVs started moving south, following the color.  Our restaurants will again have room for us.  They had been posting on Facebook that they were booked up - which is good - but cautioning locals that they might have to eat at the bar after long waits.  The restaurant at the country club closed until spring over the weekend.  We like to go there to eat on the patio and look at the scenery but didn't get a chance this summer.

Soon it will be "stick season" in these Green Mountains.  We are hoping for a winter getaway, after three winters at home.   We're not sure how far south we'll go yet or even when we'll head that direction.  Our road trip this summer made us realize how much nicer it is to drive than to fly.  We enjoy seeing new places and having food and gear along.

Meanwhile, I've been cleaning up the quilting room for a guest arriving today.   Whenever this happens, I turn my attention to handwork and knitting.  I'm halfway through knitting a striped scarf and almost finished appliqueing melons in a starburst pattern onto a string pieced background for a wallhanging.  Maybe I can finish that this week.   I'm in a bit of a holding pattern until the next issue of Quiltmaker arrives with the last "clue" for the mystery quilt.  Austen Jubilee is my biggest UFO from 2021-22.

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!

More "Unity"

June is the month for the next-to-last round of the Unity quilt along for the guild.  I think five or six of us are sticking with it, and, as I work on it, I think about how I absolutely hate following a pattern!  So this is a developmental activity for me, with the end result being a lovely, rather large quilt.  There are five or six other projects sitting in boxes, but this is what I'm focusing my energy on when I'm not getting ready for our Colorado trip tomorrow.

June's blocks are rather complex and involve making a seemingly endless bunch of half-square triangles.  Luckily, they finish at 2" and can be cut with the EZ Angle ruler.  This allows me to cut the dark and light sides together and zip them through the machine.  I pile them up in groups of 10 on paper plates so I can keep a relatively accurate count.  I think I need 170-something HSTs.  

Then four patches are made, which go together in pairs, then halfsies, and then the final 8" block.  I have a little over half of the four patches made, and if I have time today, I'll finish those.  I like Bonnie's recommendation about pressing which allows the four patches to nest well together.  

I'll finish this round when we return in a week or so, and then I think I'll work on the July section to finish the whole top.  I'll try to use the bright yellow for the binding if there's enough left, and I'll take the quilt to Marie for long arming.   She's working on one, too, so it will be interesting to see what she recommends.

I really look forward to working on something else, possibly less detailed in the coming months!  I've neglected Austen Jubilee so I'll probably start with that.  I thought I'd made all the blocks for the Quiltmaker mystery, but now I see there are more blocks to be made over the next few months.  My collection of  Jane Austen at Home fabric is really diminishing.  Hope I can find some coordinating scraps in my stash.

Greening up

We had a fabulous weekend, weatherwise - sun, warmer temperatures, lots of things turning green outdoors.  I opened windows to let the fresh air in and got out pots to let them catch any rain that may fall today, and Paul even washed the car.  Tulips are about to bloom - one did open and I took it inside to enjoy.

I cut out and sewed a few of the 14 blocks for Austen Jubilee each day, my version of the mystery quilt using Bonnie Hunter blocks from Quiltmaker.  I had to dismantle one completely, but mostly, the May blocks are together. 

This morning, after our walks and a trip to the Dollar Store, I made the 42 flying geese for the last clue of this quilt (I hope).  Would someone please remind me never to do two Bonnie Hunter quilts at once?!?  The Unity quilt is intense enough.  

These flying geese used up almost all of what I have left of the Jane Austen at Home fabric.  The next issue of Quiltmaker should tell us how to put the pile of blocks together.  I hope it doesn't call for any more fabric, or I'll really have to improvise.   I am moving all of the blocks and what's left of the fabric to a large plastic bag, to free up a project box for a new tulip quilt I'm planning.  I think it will feature sawtooth stars in a variety of sizes.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for May is sage/forest green.  Hooray!  I really need to get into my green tub and do some cleaning out.  I'm not sure when I'll get to my various blocks of the month, though.  It's going to be a busy month, with Christine's memorial concert on the 7th, the state quilt guild meeting on the 14th, and lots of appointments and meetings in between.  I'm sure there will be planting going on here, but also a few rainy days for sewing pineapple, house, and bowtie blocks.

Spinners

I finished this time's Austen Jubilee blocks with these four 6" Bonnie Hunter "Spinner" blocks. 

They were really easy!  I am running low on my "Jane Austen at Home" fabrics and wonder if I ought to order some more.  Guess I'll wait and see what the next assignment will be before I do.  

This was a very easy pattern, and I finished the blocks within an hour.  I wondered if they might be a good block to make in quantity for my mixed RSC in April.  I also wanted to try having the background fabric as a true background and not as the focal point of the block.  So I made a few more with yellow centers.  Easy peasy.

They do look an awful lot like the Friendship Stars I made in January, but with different colors, they will be fine.  I'll put these aside for now and wait until I find out what the color for April will be.  In the meantime, it's time to get back to work on my Unity quilt and start getting fabric together to test Tess' It's the Point quilt.  

Yesterday was a blustery, cold day, so I finished reading Quilt City Murder and started on another cozy set in a bookstore on Maryland's Eastern Shore.  We took one walk which was about all we could stand.  Today it's warmer, but cloudy, so we will most likely get in a few walks.  We need the fresh air!

Interesting weather

Yesterday's weather was alternating snow, squalls, sun, and gray.  We woke up to a pink sky ("sailors take warning") and because I'd heard a little snow was in the forecast, I didn't go grocery shopping.  Instead, I cut fabric for the last four blocks of Austen Jubilee and made one.  Did a little laundry in between.   With no dryer, I do smaller loads these days so I can dry thing on racks and, for sheets, over two chairs and the treadmill.  Works fine, but I don't want to do it forever.  Hope the part comes soon.

As the snow was swirling around, I noticed we had a very real cookie shortage here.  Our supply chain had come to a halt.   I found a new recipe at www.sallysbakingaddiction.com and went to work.  The batter needs to chill for at least two hours, but the result is delicious.  The recipe for soft chocolate chip cookies says it makes 16 large cookies, but I decided to make them a little smaller.  Delish!

After I'd gotten the batter in the refrig to chill, I decided to make applesauce with some leftover apples.  While peeling, I nicked the tip of my pinky finger and bled all over the place.  After affixing lots of bandaids, I got the applesauce cooking and sat down to read for most of the rest of the day.   Didn't want to risk bleeding on my blocks.  I'm reading Murder in Quilt City by Bruce Leonard - not great literature, but I'm learning a lot about Paducah.  That's on my bucket list.  Hope to get back to those blocks today after a trip to the grocery store and another small load of wash.  The sun is shining!

Austen Jubilee

Down in Fairhope, Alabama, a place we have visited a few times in winters past, they experience an occasional "jubilee," an over-abundance of shrimp that wash onto the shoreline.  People rush down to Mobile Bay with buckets to fill up, take home, and cook loads of shrimp.  It sounds wonderful to me, t only because I love shrimp, but a local celebration that brings people together in this sweet community seems great.   Sadly, this seems to happen in July, if it happens at all, when it's hot.  We tend to think of visiting there in winter because of the easy walking, slow pace, cozy size, and plenty of fun things to do and see.  We hope we can go back next winter for a few weeks. 

This year Quiltmaker magazine is featuring a mystery quilt called "Ruby Jubilee."  It includes variously sized Bonnie Hunter blocks from her long-running "Addicted to Scraps" column.  I've been using "Jane Austen at Home" fabrics to make my Austen Jubilee quilt.  Every other month, there are patterns for a number of blocks in the quilt.  This month, I'm making four different types and sizes of blocks and a total of ten or so.  

I don't think this line of fabrics was the best to use for these blocks, but it is my way of honoring one of my favorite authors.  I probably should have chosen a darker background fabric to enhance the lighter blocks.  It will be subtle, that's for sure.  I do have a bunch of solid "nutmeg" colored fabric that I might be able to use to provide better contrast when I put the quilt together.  I'm keeping it in reserve for the last clues this summer.

It's been quite dark lately, even with my Ott light over the cutting table, and the print in the magazine is small.  Despite checking and doublechecking cutting sizes, I misread the instructions for Grandpa's Star.  Luckily, I only needed to make one, so I put it together without the sashing between the four segments.  It looks nice to me!  Today's project will include making four Spinning Star blocks and then setting the whole bunch aside for a few weeks.  Next up:  the March portion of the Unity quilt.

Austen Jubilee

 Quiltmaker magazine is offering a six part mystery based on Bonnie Hunter's "Addicted to Scraps" blocks.  The designer of the quilt is using red and white scraps, which is very pretty and a bit modern.  But I have a lot of "Jane Austen at Home" fabric, so I thought I'd use it up for a more old-fashioned look.  Here are my first blocks.

The block at the bottom left came out of my "orphan" box and I'm hoping I can work it into the quilt.  If not the front, then the back.  Naturally, as I was working on these blocks, I realized that the finished quilt is going to be fairly large.  Oops!  Do I have enough fabric?  I ordered a few more Austen fat quarters to see me through, and I'll slip in more scraps of cream here and there.  

The blocks weren't difficult, but they did take some time, especially the ones with all the nine patches.  Since the pattern comes out every other month, I should be able to keep up and stretch the work out a bit.  Although I usually avoid using brown in my quilts, it looks good with pink and it's good to get out of my comfort zone now and then.