Naming quilts

 

My Dear Jen-inspired quilt is finished!  After putting the binding on yesterday morning, I took it outside for some photos.   First I tried to lay it out on the lawn, but that didn't work so well as I am too short to get a full shot, even of this throw.  But I was able to get a few closeups.

Some of the blocks came from Jen Kingwell's pattern, and some from this year's guild blocks of the month.  The latter were 6" so that we could mail them easily to the winner of that month's lottery.   It was a fun thing to do during the isolation of the pandemic.  The guild hopes to begin meeting in person in the fall, when we'll resume rotating designing 12" blocks of the month.

I am having a time trying to come up with a name for this quilt.  I have several Dear Jane-inspired quilts, and I named my Splendid Sampler "Dear Yve" in memory of my late dear friend.  So what should I name this throw?  Or does it even need a name?  It will probably be sold or given away to someone in need.

At any rate, I like it much more now with the red sashing and borders.  Kingwell's quilt didn't have any, and when I tried that, I hated it.  It seemed very gloomy.  Many of the fabrics came from a box marked "wild fabrics," multi-colored ones that don't fit easily into my one color storage boxes.  

Now that this is finished, my sewing room has been taken over by piles of blocks from guild members for a swap of "Scrappy Trips Around the World" blocks.  They've been arriving a few bags at a time for the past week.  I'll swap them all out today and tomorrow for pick up over the weekend.  When they're all set, I'll have room to sew again.  Until then, though, I can't sew at my machine.  Guess that means I will spend some time on something I've been procrastinating on - weaving in loose ends on a few small knitting projects.

Busy days

 Paul has been home from the hospital for a little over a week, and he is doing pretty well.  We have settled into a routine centered mostly around his dialysis schedule - Tues., Thurs., and Sat., 5:30-10 pm.  Since we have always been early-to-bed people, staying up later took a little getting used to, but we are trying to sleep a little later in the mornings.  We are also eating larger meals at lunchtime on those days.  Every day Paul tries to walk a little farther outside, which has been nice although today it's muggy and gloomy.  Thundershowers are predicted later.

Little errands take up our days, and now that it's June quilt guild members are stopping by with the swap blocks they've been making all year.  I have a tub in the garage for a "contactless" drop off with a checklist for them to note when they do.  They have until the 7th to drop the blocks off, and then I'll do the swapping, probably using every surface in my sewing room.  Then they'll pick their swapped blocks up next weekend.   One quilter made blocks but doesn't want any back, so everyone else will get 22 12" blocks for their "Scrappy Trips Around the World" quilts.  I have a bunch more made so that I can make a bigger quilt... eventually.  I have a couple of other projects in the queue ahead of it, though.

I've been quilting the Dear Jen sampler in three sections, and today I finished quilting the second section and pin basted the last one.  I pieced a back of mostly muslins and also pieced the batting.  Now that the blocks are sashed in red, I like it a lot better, and it will be a nice throw for someone when finished.  I'll use more red for the binding.

May RSC blocks and a decision

I really like my blocks for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I have so many reds in my stash that they are stored in a tub rather than the plastic shoe boxes I use for most colors.  Other colors in tubs are blue, green, purple, pink, and cream (muslin mostly).  My favorite colors.

I like using the Fat Quarter Shop's paper piecing papers for the pineapples.  They come out looking really good, although at 6" I think it will take me ages to make even a crib-sized quilt.  No problem, really, as four is my limit for a session of ripping out the papers!

So I am finally finished with my blocks of the month for May although I do still have my Dear Jen quilt to work on.  I had been trying to make several strips of three 6" blocks each month, but I have been dragging my feet.  I don't really like most of the blocks in the pattern book.  They appear to have been written for hand piecing, and converting the patterns to paper piecing has been a pain.  

This summer I will simply make strips of three of any 6" blocks that I feel like making from The Splendid Sampler I or II, Bonnie Hunter's Addicted to Scraps, my All in One Block Tool, etc.  I have already been doing that to some extent since I've been adding in the guild blocks of the month.  So it will be "Dear Jen-inspired," just as some of my Dear Janes have been.  And I hope to finish more quickly so I can start something else.  I am itching to do so but have too many projects going at once right now.  The blocks from the guild swap for Scrappy Trips Around the World are due June 1 so those will be added to my UFO pile.

RSC and more

 I keep plugging away at various quilts being made simultaneously, a little at a time.   The Dear Jen quilt designed by Jen Kingwell is very intense because her pattern is meant for hand piecing and I am mostly machine piecing.  You'd think that would be easier, and it is, but I convert all the templates for paper piecing or rotary cutting.  

Nonetheless, here are my most recent strips (6" x 18").  I've made 17 of these so far, so I have a long way to go to get a good-sized throw.  I may end up quilting it in sections, too.  I like combining traditional blocks with Kingwell's more modern ones, and that makes the process interesting.  

April's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color is blue which I have lots of, so I started by making two 8" Pop Star blocks designed by Jenny Doan.  I'm using various gray backgrounds for these.  Because constructing the blocks requires cutting off little corners, I'm also making some 3" blocks out of those corners.  They'll most likely go into the same quilt in some way - as cornerstones or borders or...?

The bright blue floral fabric came from a dress my mom sent me to cut up.  She had bought the fabric in Hawaii years ago and had a summer sheath made of it.  I managed to salvage quite a bit of fabric from it and like having a little bit of Mom in the quilt.

Now I'm working on four 6" blue scrappy pineapple blocks.  They'll take a bit more time, but I do like using the pre-printed papers from the Fat Quarter Shop.  The result is really sharp.  I'm mining my string basket for these blocks before I cut up anything in my blue box.

Works in Progress

I've been working a little more on the Dear Jen quilt these days.  Currently, I'm hand appliqueing three pineapple blocks which are actually easier to make than I had initially thought.  Jen Kingwell's hardest blocks seem to be pieced, but the quilt seems designed for hand piecing which I don't do.  I have been quilting blocks for my Anything Goes purple quilt off and on, and the hand pieced ones are the toughest to quilt due to their lack of uniformity.  

Anyway, here are some more Dear Jen strips of 6" blocks, two from the book and two from my guild blocks of the month.  The angle of my photo makes it look as if they are different lengths, but they are all 18" long.  I'm not exactly sure how I'll set them,  but this is a long term project and I have plenty of time to think about the eternal question of sashing.

I've also been knitting quite a bit using some chunky yarn that self-stripes and also makes cute little flowers now and then.  It's on #11 needles so works up fast.

It will be a nice shawl for Mom to use on summer nights on her porch, I hope.  I've already used a skein of yarn, and luckily I have four more to make it a good size.  I'd like to finish before the weather gets warm, though, since it will be hot work this summer.

Yesterday son Chris took our car to the carwash - quite a relief.  My daffodils are poking out of the ground out front and we have very little snow left to melt.  We are getting our second COVID shots this morning - things are looking up around here.