Dear Jane activity

Yesterday I finished Row G of Dear Jane.  I'm thinking of calling this quilt Scrappy Jane since that's what it is.  I'm using scraps from stash at whim - no particular order - with black and white backgrounds, and I like the way it looks.  I was torn between working on Row H and quilting Rows D, E, and F, and finally decided to get those three rows together for quilting.  They're all basted now and ready for quilting.

I finished these rows back in May, so it has been fun revisiting them.  I had to piece together some batting and also backing fabric for this long, thin section.  When I finish quilting this section, I'll add it to the one I quilted in May.  This Dear Jane is a slow but steady project.  I'll start working on the quilting today after I bake an apple cake or two to take to quilt guild tonight.  

I'm on the September "team" which means I need to get there early to help set up and plan to stay late to clean up.  I have my Round Robin from last year all quilted, so will take that and the Barn Star Sampler along for show and tell.  It will be good to see everyone - over 70 women and one or two men - again.

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.  

"Options" and more

Thursday, I started working on the blocks of the month for July.  I have at least four going, and this has turned into a problem.  I do like to finish things, and, when ongoing projects begin to feel like obligations, it is time to rethink them.

I did make my three 8" "Options" blocks in red, black, and white.  I have lots of scraps in these colors, which I like, so the only thing I've bought for this quilt so far is another yard of white on white.  I'll keep working on this for a few more months.

Next, I got out my box of "Pop Stars."   This is a Missouri Star pattern which calls for the stars to float on their background.  I have been making these as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and have 26 made so far.  I've been alternating the backgrounds between light and dark gray, so I can alternate 30 blocks, which finish at the odd size of 8.5", for a nice crib-sized quilt.  That's what I'll work on today.  The color this month is dark blue, but I see I have not yet used orange or burgundy, so I'll see what I have in my stash.

I do like the RSC because it helps me clean up the bottoms of my various scrap boxes.  I usually throw out little bits that I don't think I'll use or cut them up into 2.5" and 2" squares for future projects.  

After I finish putting this little Pop Stars quilt top together, I'll work on a few more pineapple blocks.  These are tedious to make, so four a month seems like a good pace.  I expect the pineapple quilt will take a couple of years to finish, but that will be fine.  I'm going to let my Harriet's Journey blocks slide until I get a handle on Pop Stars.  No pressure!

Yesterday, I joined my Calico County Quilters group for some hand sewing time.  It was good to see everyone and talk about what's happening in our lives.  I like these no-nonsense ladies a lot.  I brought along a pre-printed white on white piece I started hand quilting about 20 years ago,  It is actually coming along quite well now that I have my clip on magnifying glasses.  What a boon those have been for quilting and applique.

Scrappy Trips

This year, to keep members engaged in the Heart of Vermont quilt guild, I offered to coordinate a block of the month with lottery by mail and a block swap.  For the swap, we settled on Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World, and each person was to make at least 21 blocks.   The swap ran from October to June 1, plenty of time to make these scrappy blocks.  I used a lot of leftover binding pieces, stray jelly roll strips, and a few cut strips.  I didn't make a dent in my scraps, of course.

Beginning June 1, people visited into my garage to leave their blocks in the bin I had to collect them.  I didn't get to talk to everyone, but it was fun to see some after all this time without a guild meeting.  Unfortunately, several people had to drop out ("life happens"), so we ended up with 16 swappers, one of whom didn't want any back.   Some made a few extra, too.   I spread all the extras out among those who were left, giving everyone 24 blocks.   

I couldn't resist starting to put my blocks together, and one led to another.  Today my top is finished.  I had made some extra blocks for a bigger quilt and ended up with 36 blocks, set 6 by 6.  I plan to find a less busy fabric for the back and binding, but I do like the result.  Matching the seams was difficult, but as usual, I fudged a lot.

I plan to have my friend Marie long arm quilt it with swirls.  It will make a nice throw for a couch or dorm.  Here's another view:

A bunch of blocks

An organizer of one of my quilt guilds - the Heart of Vermont guild - who worked at my local quilt shop is moving over the river into New Hampshire.  We will all miss Paula's cheerful encouragement, good ideas, and sense of humor, so we're making 9" friendship star blocks for her to remember us by.  We like sending her a UFO!  

I appliqued the guild logo block to go with the star blocks.  My hands won't allow me to do much fine applique these days so I embroidered the heart in the mountains instead.  I see that red heart doesn't show up very well - sorry!  My blocks for Paula are ready to go once we figure out her new address.

My online group has been swapping 6" blocks this year in the color of each recipient's choice.  I chose purples and so far have received about 25 blocks.  Some of the members of the swap have had personal troubles or problems mailing, so they are dribbling in a bit.  But most have arrived so I can start sashing in a log cabin fashion with purples and creams to make each block 12".  I'm even making some crumb blocks to fill in the centers.  I'll see how it looks and may make a few more 6" center blocks if I want it bigger.   This is my annual purple quilt - it's my favorite color.

It rained steadily all day yesterday so I wasn't able to take a picture of the red trellis quilt I finished Sunday.  Maybe we'll be able to today.

Whipping up little things

In an effort to keep members of our local quilt guild engaged during a time when we aren't meeting, I volunteered to coordinate the annual block swap and also the block of the month programs.  The person who usually does this is moving to New Hampshire by the end of the year.  I will miss her!

The block we'll be swapping this year is Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World.  We usually have 6-8 people participating, but this year 21 people have signed up so far.  Guess everyone is looking for a good project.  We'll each make one block for each other person and hope to swap them in person next May.  The blocks are easy to make - here are my first four blocks.

The guild Block of the Month is going to be a little different this year.  Before, we got instructions for a 12" block and just made our own blocks to use as we wished.  Some people made whole quilts out of a block they particularly liked, and some (like me) made samplers.  This time, I am giving instructions for 6" blocks all year with an optional lottery.  If people want, they can submit one block for the lottery, and the winner will be mailed all the blocks.  This month's block is an easy nine patch with cream and any color.  I made up five blocks in an afternoon with leftover 2.5" squares I had already cut.

One will go to the lottery and the rest will join a batch of nine patches I have stashed away for who knows what.  I'm already planning October's block - a maple leaf for fall - and hope to make them more challenging as the year goes on.

Yesterday was spent sewing Christmas mug rugs.  I have a bunch of tumblers in holiday fabrics that I cut a few months ago when I made some Christmas stockings and a table runner.  Now I thought I'd make some mug rugs for Mom and me to give as little gifts.  They're quite scrappy but I have some nice yardage for the backs.  I made eight so far and will quilt them later today and tomorrow.  

A new start

 It seems that whenever I finish a quilt, I almost immediately start a new one.  Yesterday my neighbor (he's definitely not a quilter!) was surprised to know I usually have about 10 quilts going at once.  And they are all on the "slow go," but they do get finished eventually.   I think I counted 16 finished so far this year, quite a record for me.

This year one of my local quilt guilds isn't meeting until at least January, if not later.  I volunteered to coordinate a block of the month raffle as well as a block swap for the year.  For the raffle, I will come up with a 6-9" block pattern and draw a name each month for people to mail their finished blocks to.   I thought I'd start with a nine patch for the first block and make the blocks a little more difficult each month.  People can also make a block to keep for a sampler.

For the block swap, I ran a poll first and a slight majority wanted to make Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World block.  It's 12" finished and is a nice stash buster because it's made with just six 16" x 2.5" strips.  I have a lot of leftover binding pieces that I cut up yesterday to get started.  I wanted to make a sample for people to see, and I noted that a single block isn't all that pretty.   I am learning that, with scrappy quilts, you need lots of variety and color to make them work.  

I hope people in the group (10-12 of us are making two blocks for each person) will persist through this swap.  They have all year to make their blocks and then we'll swap either in person or some other way in May.  This past June we all met in the classroom at our local quilt shop, all wearing masks, and swapped our blocks out.   It was good to see everyone, even though it was a very quick session.  We'll just have to wait and see, as with so many activities these days.

Heart of Vermont Sampler

We finally got outside to take some photos of the quilt I finished quilting and binding last week!  It was either too hot, too cloudy, too rainy before, but yesterday was perfect weather.  

The blocks in the Sampler were 9" (finished) and some were made by members of my local Heart of Vermont guild.  Here's a closup.

These projects are always tricky because some of the blocks are wonderful but others are a bit "off."   I deal with those in various ways, including taking them apart and making new blocks; adding some coping strips to get them up to size; and putting them in my "orphan" box to use another time.   In this instance, I actually made one very similar to another block a friend had made, because it seemed to need an echo.  I also put a few on the back and surrounded them with scrap fabrics for a pieced back.   As you may be able to see from the back, I quilted all the blocks differently, using my walking foot.  I love the inner border fabric which I also used for the cornerstones.

This quilt will eventually go to an old library friend of Paul's who has retired to Kentucky.  We have talked about driving out to visit him (I'd like to go to Paducah, too), but we're not sure when we'll be able to.  So I will probably mail it to him.

Yesterday, I also made a blueberry-peach pie, with peaches I had frozen last summer and some blueberries from our bushes.  I even made the pie crust from scratch, using a recipe from King Arthur Flour.  It's the first time I've encountered buttermilk powder in a crust recipe, but it was delicious.  We had salad for dinner and will be having lite meals until the pie is gone!  In the early evening, we played croquet with the neighbors and gathered for wine and conversation in the back yard, at social distances (of course).  These are definitely the lazy days of summer.

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.  

March blocks

I'm taking a break from machine quilting the appliqued floral table runner.  Laundry is folded and the dishwasher has been emptied.  Now for some photos of blocks I've made recently.

I made three teal scrappy blocks for the RSC20 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2020).  The previous colors for this year have been light/lime green and orange.  Doing this project keeps me reviewing and cleaning out my bins for those colors each month.  It's amazing what I have found.  At the end of the year, if I continue to make 3 blocks a month, I will have enough for a nice-sized throw.  I can always make more blocks, too, if there are colors not chosen that I would like to use.   I sure hope purple is next as my bin is pretty full.

In the same project box with the white for my RSC20 are black and brights for the Heart of Vermont guild "block robin."   Everyone who wanted to participate put together a bag with background and other fabrics, and said what size blocks she'd like to receive.  (We do have several men in the guild but this year's group is all women.)  The bags go from person to person each month, and in the end, we should receive enough blocks to make a small quilt, larger if we make some additional blocks.


I decided that I'd like 9" blocks using a black "linen" background with brights.  Here are the blocks I've made so far, with the top left - Wild Goose Chase - the one I made this morning.  I can see that next month I should make a block with purple, hot pink, or yellow.

Quilting after the election

I am so glad I had a big quilt to wrestle under my machine this week.  It offers time to reflect on the election and cool down after some annoying disappointments.  My friend, for whom I am again serving as campaign treasurer, lost his bid for Vermont House.   We weren't all that surprised since he was running against two incumbents.   I need to file his final campaign finance report later today, but it was a shoestring campaign, making it easy.  We took in and spent less than $1,000.  The good news is that two friends in the neighboring city won their elections.  Some other local election results were head-scratchers, though, so I'm glad to have other things to occupy my mind.

I've been working a little each day on the red, white and blue medallion quilt which is about 85" square.  After pin-basting on Sunday, it took a couple of days to anchor each border.  I did some straight stitching through a couple of the skinnier borders, and now I'm using my walking foot to echo some wavy lines I drew in the 18" center square.  It's looking good so far, but I take plenty of breaks to do things around the house or read.

Yesterday morning I went to my hand-sewing guild for a few hours and got some yoyos sewn onto charm squares for the state guild quilt.  Robin was cutting out more charms for the same project, and Bronwen was making nine patches and cutting fabric for a future project.  It is relaxing to sew and chat with these ladies.  After I got home, I continued knitting a dish cloth using "Scrubby" yarn.  I don't like the scratchy way it feels, so I'm not sure I will make any more.  I do like having an easy knitting project while watching TV.

We are heading to Washington, DC, for a few days Wednesday, just for a pre-winter getaway.  But Tuesday we're heading to Hanover, NH, for a consultation with a cardiologist for Paul, which means I need to get our stuff together for the trip Monday.  Today's chores will be laundry and some grocery shopping before I can get back to quilting.

UFO night at guild

Our local quilt guild met last night, and the topic was UnFinishedObjects.  As "homework," we were to locate all of the UFOs we had and then bring one that we would like to finish, one that we won't finish, and our oldest one.  Most of mine need hand work of some kind so are mostly small.  The oldest one is a white-on-white piece that I started hand quilting in the early 1990s.   The group at guild urged me to finish, so I will try to get back to it this winter.

The one I don't think I'll ever finish is the one I made in David Taylor's machine applique class.  I just don't need another little wallhanging, and I really didn't like using nylon thread.   Maybe I'll try making a fancy "frame" for it using some glitzy thread I bought at Ricky Tims' class.  Anita Shackleford, from whom I took a hand applique class, said that class projects rarely get finished, but that's OK.  She suggested we keep them as samples to refer back to.  I didn't finish the project from her class either, and I can't even find it.  :-)

My list of UFOs (which I keep on my phone) keeps growing even though I pride myself on finishing things.  Those with an * begin in the new year, and I hereby resolve to tackle at least a few of the long-term ones in the coming year:

• Red, white and blue medallion - working on applique for another border
• Splendid Samper - combining SS 1 and 2 with Moda Blockheads weekly
• Quilt guild block swap - make 32 12" blocks by May*
• Guild mystery quilt - finish cutting and do the October clue
• Double churn dash swap with online group - due 9/30/2019*
• Missouri Star block swap - blocks to return to me this fall
• Bookcase row by row with online group - to return to me this fall
• Hawaiian appliqued turtle (started in 2016?)
• Wool appliqued vase with flowers (started in 2017)
• Affairs of the heart block - embroidery and finish
• Selvage quilt - make a few more blocks and finish (an ongoing project)
• Recent applique class project (problem created by teaching!)
• Guild panel challenge*
• Bonnie Hunter 2018-19 mystery with online group*

There are also a couple of things I'd really like to start, but I'll leave that list for another time.  I should mention that two days ago I made 20 key fobs to give to the library staff for Christmas, and I'm feeling very smug about it.  The staff appreciation dinner will be sometime in November, and I'm already ready!  I bought the kits on etsy.com and cut scraps of fabric 2" x 10".  I ironed seam allowances and sewed them to the strips to the webbing using a jeans needle and my walking foot.  Then I hammered on the hardware.  Some of the hardware is a little crooked, but they looks great and only took a morning to make.  I enjoyed it so much, I might just order another set to work on before Christmas.