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!

Green Mountain Spring

I thought I had posted a finished picture of my newly finished Green Mountain Spring quilt top based on Bonnie Hunter's Grassy Creek mystery.  But we had some internet issues off and on due to Saturday's heavy snow.  Guess my post didn't make it online.  That's OK - it gave me time to think of a name.  My favorite colors - purple, pink, bright green - the colors of spring are all here.

This "flimsey" is going to my friend Marie, the long armer, on Thursday.   Its size (79" x 79") and many small pieces and seams make it a bit difficult for me to quilt myself.  The historical building where I often pin baste larger quilts is closed due to COVID-19.   This will get it out of the house and off my mind.  I'll get some backing fabric and batting when I take it in, too.

It is so nice to finish a project and move on to others!  I finished knitting the lavender and gray hat and popped it, along with a little scarf, into the mail for my sister Jenny.  Her birthday is in March, but if I wait until then she won't have a chance to wear them this winter.   I started knitting a new hat in purple variegated yarn yesterday but made a big mistake, so took it apart and restarted it this morning.  It will be a nice project for watching the inauguration today.  

Hoping for better days ahead!

Busy, quiet days

 It is typical weather for January - increasingly cold days with wind making it feel even colder.  Some sun has appeared after about two months of gray, so I have been hand sewing a bit more.  I appliqued some hearts for the guild's February block of the month and worked on a new quilt that features a bunch of hankies I won in an auction and from my friend Karen.  It's the 1914 Boehm House Vintage Quilt Along by Rhonda Dort.  Long ago, I received a pile of vintage hankies for Christmas and have been making things with them now and then.  Lots of times, I've forgotten I had them.  This quilt seemed like a good one to use with the "Jane at Home" fabrics I couldn't resist buying from the Missouri Star Quilt Co.  One of the fabrics is called Marianne, after the character in Sense and Sensibility. 

The hankie quilt finishes around 54" square and starts with eight 12" saw-toothed star blocks with vintage linen centers.  Yesterday I made a Dresden Plate for the center of the quilt using scraps from all the star blocks and another hankie in the center.  I don't like the way the fabric underneath shows through, though, so I will set it aside for a while until I figure out how to fix it.  I'm thinking about making a smaller piece anyway, because I'm not sure those vintage hankies will hold up well when washed.  This is how UFOs are born - too many choices!

The final clue - 9 pages long - for Bonnie Hunter's Grassy Creek mystery came out Friday, and I've started on the first part, which involves making 6" Ohio Star blocks.  These will be the center of a 12" block, and so far I'm liking the way they are turning out in my different colorway.   I'm not sure if I will make the suggested border which is string pieced.  More papers to remove!

I'm glad to have these involving projects right now considering how turbulent the US has become.  This week's destruction of our beautiful, historic Capitol building and the threatened hostage taking of our Congressmen were just plain scary.   As a young teen, I remember safely walking all over downtown DC with my friends, and I am still in awe whenever I visit my favorite city.  To think that the violence was encouraged by a manipulative, uncaring President is just too much to bear.   I worry that more is coming during the next weeks, and even our state Capitol police force is on high alert.   May we all stay safe and healthy during this tense time.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

 I took a little break between clues of the Grassy Creek mystery quilt to make a few blocks toward my Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2021.  I decided to continue making Jenny Doan's Pop Stars blocks using various gray backgrounds and also to make some 6" pineapple blocks.  I don't plan to use these two sets of blocks together in a quilt.  I'll see how it all goes - you never know!

Pop Stars is a very easy variation on a saw-toothed star, with points that float.  The January RSC color is pink, so I dug deep into my pink box for these odd fabrics.  The one on the left is about the last remnant of my aunt's stash that I inherited after she passed away around 2003.  There were several UFOs and a lot of scraps.  I finished all the UFOs, made other quilts out of most of the scraps and gave many of them to my cousins.  I do love using a few of Tante Wil's scraps in my own quilts, though, as it keeps her memory close to me.  She seemed to love pink and brown.

Then I decided to make a scrappy little pineapple quilt as part of RSC also.  The Nov./Dec. colors were gray and black, but I used a variety of odd strings to make four 6" blocks, and then I also made a couple of pink ones for January.  I figure if I make at least four of these a month, I will have enough for a small quilt by the end of the year.   

I think the only sensible way to make a pineapple quilt is by paper piecing, so I bought some books of printed papers from the Fat Quarter Shop and figure I can remove the papers while watching TV.  Doing a few every month will get them done without too much moaning and groaning on my part.  Paper piecing isn't my favorite technique, but it is handy in the quilter's "toolkit."  I'll make two more pink blocks tomorrow because another mystery clue will arrive on Friday.  I like the pace of this year's mystery which is giving me time to work on a few other projects in between.

December "Sisters" block

This is the last month for the "Sisters" block of the month quilt along, created by Aby Dolinger.  I've enjoyed making the blocks out of mostly blue scraps.  Each month, there have been instructions for two similar blocks, one 12" and the other 6".   I have some nice cream fabric for spacers, borders, binding, and any sashing I might want to add.   The finished size will be about 71" x 78".  I may quilt it in sections.

At the beginning of each year, I say I'm not going to do any more blocks of the month.  Then as the year goes on, I miss having one to work on.  We'll see how the year goes.   I am organizing the guild block of the month so try to work ahead on instructions every month.  I will still be doing the Rainbow Scrap Challenge each month, and I have been making nine patch blocks out of scrappy 2.5" squares to use, somehow.  I also have  few other half-finished projects in boxes waiting for attention, as well as some knitting to work on this winter.

Today is Friday, so another clue for Bonnie Hunter's Grassy Creek Mystery was posted.  I got right to work, cutting and then sewing a few of the segments.  I like this week's results because I'm working with one of my favorite color combinations - kelly green and soft pink.  She confirmed today that we won't be using any more gold.  I had substituted purple for that color because gold is not a favorite and I don't have much of it.  This is a help since I've been working on log cabining my "Anything Goes" swap blocks in purple and don't want to run out.  Ha!  As if!

Double churn dashes and challenge

Because the next few months are a bit uncertain with our planned house sale and move down the street, I thought I'd better get a jump on making this year's Friendship Block Swap blocks.  They aren't due until Sept. 30, but as hostess I can't hold everything up.  Ten people have joined the Double Churn Dash swap, and the blocks finish at 20".  Even the nine blocks we'll receive will make a nice-sized throw.   I plan to have 12 blocks, including this odd one, so my finished quilt will be 60 x 72" without borders or sashing.

Above is my first sample, made last fall.  Later, we decided to make all the half-square triangles in dark blue and the center square in the cream background also.  It's a stash-buster so we can use whatever accent fabric we like.  The sheer size of these blocks makes cutting a bit daunting as I worried I'd run out of the scraps of cream background.  Tuesday I cut all the pieces out (unusual for me as I like to cut as I go) and was pleased that I had enough cream background to finish.  Yesterday I started putting the blocks together and found them easy to sew with a little juggling around due to their size.  Chain piecing really helps.  Another UFO done!

Because it was sunny yesterday, I took a picture of the panel challenge piece I made for one of my local guilds.  Each person bought the same panel at $8 and is to make something quilty out of it.

The panel is pretty generic and a bit too nostalgic for my taste, so I jazzed it up a bit with some mythological creatures.  You can find Big Foot, Pegasus, the Loch Ness Monster, and more here and there.   And Elvis is driving the truck!  All that grass made deciding on a quilting pattern difficult.  I tried big stitch quilting with embroidery floss but it didn't show and I took it out.  In the end, I simply followed the contour of the land using variegated fall-colored thread.  It's due in April (I think).  Next on my agenda:  the guild mystery quilt.

Samplers

I love making sampler quilts, probably because I don't get bored.  The first bed-sized quilt I made took 14 years to finish.  In those days, before rotary cutters, we made cardboard templates that we traced around and cut with scissors.  That was truly tiring, especially since all the fabric was cotton/poly blend.  I did use a machine to put it together, but I hand quilted it also.  Tough on the hands.  I still have it, but it is stained.  Polyester holds a stain well.  That quilt has now achieved souvenir status!

I have mentioned making a Splendid Sampler quilt this year to commemorate my 70th birthday and in honor of my dear friend Yve who passed away last January.   It is amazing how often I think of her.  She was fun and also a true leftie when it came to politics.   She protested against the Vietnam War, for civil rights, and for equal rights for women.  Talking with her was always interesting.

Before the book came out in the fall, Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson would post a free pattern each week.  I got the book as well as the previous one and started making blocks in July.  Every month, I make 11 6" blocks from book 1 or 2, or Moda Blockheads, or made up.  The 12th block is made from a set of dishtowels thrift-shop-loving Yve gave me a few years ago.   (She gave us quite a few cashmere sweaters picked up at thrift shops, too.  Most of them didn't fit so I turned several into scarves for me and my sister Jenny.)

The backgrounds are all "low volume," mostly shirtings in different colors, and the sashing is a dark beige.  I am quilting this in sections, and when the year is finished in June I'll put the sections together.

The recent Bonnie Hunter mystery with its identical blocks made over and over just about killed me with its dullness.   I look forward to quilting it, getting it done, and giving it away.   I am looking forward to starting something else but am trying hard to work on UFOs at the same time.

I really like Jen Kingwell's quilts and have just ordered her My Small World pattern.  It's a sampler but more jumbled up than The Splendid Sampler.   It will be a project for summer, so between now and then I'll gather fabrics for it.  I especially love the pieced sky in this wallhanging.

What to do with those chevrons?

I have 100 scrappy green chevrons that I made for the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt that I made incorrectly, and I have a slew of "bonus" half-square triangles ready to use.  In between everything else I've been working on, I made a few star blocks out of the chevrons.  And I like them!

They work up into 7" blocks finished.  Guess I'll continue in a sort of "leaders and enders" way for now.  Maybe I can throw the HSTs in there somewhere, somehow, too.

For now, I'm working on the guild mystery clue for January.  We are now putting some of the pieces together.  Maybe we'll have a reveal in February?  Will take a photo when I get a chance.

Good Fortune top done!

This measures 72" x 72" so it will be a nice throw for someone.  Who?  Who knows!  But I'm glad to be finished with the top and plan to quilt it myself eventually.  I'm hoping a little time in the quilting queue (a/k/a the closet) will tone the colors down a bit.  It's quite bright, but it is good to note that I didn't buy a single piece of fabric to make this quilt so far.  Because it has so many pieces, I may get a wide piece of muslin for the back to make it easier to quilt on my machine.

I have a lot of those chevrons - 100? - that I made incorrectly, and today I added some plain cream fabric to a few to make star blocks.  I can make 25 7" blocks which might make nice table runners or quilt backs or...

"Good Fortune" revealed

I've been keeping up with the weekly (and in one case semi-weekly) clues for Bonnie Hunter's current mystery quilt, but now that she has issued the reveal, I find I have loads of sewing to do.  Some people have finished their tops already even though the reveal "clue" came out on Friday.  They've even sent their tops out for longarming.  Do they not sleep? eat? have families? 

I am still slogging through the spinning star blocks although I have made one of the other blocks just to see how they'll look together.   Because I haven't had a lot of luck choosing colors for mystery quilts in the past, I decided to go with Hunter's suggestion which commemorates her trip to China earlier this year. 

My first problem was that I found I had cut my green fabric 1/2" too short, so I had to make a pile more chevron pieces.  I stopped now and then to put a few blocks together, and I didn't make "bonus" half-square triangles this time around.  I have plenty of those from the unusable chevrons.  I got a few blocks made and noticed I had put some of the segments together incorrectly - can you spot the mistakes on the top left block?  Here is the way the blocks should look.

I have just 10 more long seams to finish this set of star blocks.  Then I may start on the orange and red blocks.  But I've been neglecting my Splendid Sampler for the last few days, so I will probably take a little break and make a few blocks for that before returning to Good Fortune.  I did make one Splendid Sampler block out of bits and pieces of the green and neutral chevrons, and I'll probably make one out of the red and neutral squares, too.  That will be a good reminder of what I did in January, 2019.

A mystery of yesteryear

Back in 2011-12, someone in my local guild organized a mystery quilt which turned out to be Bonnie Hunter's "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll."  I chose Christmas fabrics because I had a lot of them, and I like red and green together.  I mixed in non-holiday fabrics with the others, but as it progressed I really didn't like it.  Now I'm not sure if it was all the fiddly little pieces or the way it turned out.  The pieced border was the hardest part.  But now I get this quilt out every year at this time, and I like it.  That's my hope for this year's BH mystery, "Good Fortune," that I've been keeping up with.

Yesterday I finished the second clue which took me most of the day.  But what a feeling of accomplishment!  I bag up all of the finished pieces - last week's red and neutral four patches and this week's blue and neutral half-square triangles - and store them in a shoebox.  Hope I can say the same at this time next week.