Show n tell

During the "Luminarium" I attended a few years ago, Ricky Tims, with his Texas drawl, said that he called one of his quilts "Chantel" because someone who attended his classes way back when thought that was what he was saying when he said "show and tell."  I always think of that when we have show and tell at guild meetings.  Anyway, at last week's guild meeting, I showed two quilts.  

First was the finished Pineapple quilt.  It took 2 years and vaguely followed the Rainbow Scrap Challenge although I did a few extra blocks here and there.  I used 6" foundations from the Fat Quarter Shop and can't say enough about how great those are.  I even got to like paper piecing through this project.  Making a few blocks each month helped me avoid the boredom of taking the papers out.

I also showed a purple Floating Stars quilt made with blocks I won in a guild Block of the Month raffle.  Not all the blocks were the required 12.5" - some people misunderstood the term "finished size" and cut their blocks down to 12".  I had to add some coping strips to quite a few, but it all turned out just fine.  I will quilt this soon to give to my friend Jane for her homeless shelter project.

Today I'm going to try to get more Hunter's Star blocks put together.  That will make 5 quilts waiting to be quilted.   These will be nice projects for hot days when I can crank up the AC in my sewing room.

This n that

 

Yesterday was a good day for sewing (isn't every day?).  I finished quilting the Pineapple quilt and started adding the binding.  At that point, my machine began making a horrendous noise, and every time I stopped and lifted the "dual feed" presser foot, the foot would not come down until I started sewing again.  When it did come down, it was with a loud "thunk," and the whole experience was noisy ("clackety clackety").  

I need to take it my machine in for repair again as there is something wrong somewhere.  Perhaps the dual feed foot has worn out?  That will take another few weeks which was not on my "schedule."  (I'm retired and have no real schedule.  I just don't like inconvenience!)

I worried when I finished the binding that the presser foot would not go down with a regular piecing foot, but everything was just fine.  I made the eight blocks for this month's "Rows Parade" quilt along with no problem.  They finish at 6", and I left them detached because I'm not sure how I'll arrange them yet.  Aby D., the quilt along's designer, has suggested a couple of ways to arrange the blocks, include a row by row.  I'll wait til I'm nearly done before deciding.

This morning I got busy making the first of seven sections of a quilt using vintage linens and hankies.  I have a lot of hankies and am always looking for ways to use them.  Rhonda Cox Dort has a Facebook group called "1914 Boehm House Vintage Linens Class" and offers one or two patterns each year.  

Although we can use any fabrics we'd like, she suggested two colorways for this quilt.  

I chose blue and white because I have quite a few hankies with blue in them and quite a few blue fabrics.  I'm using left over quilt blocks, scraps, and various white prints to go with the hankies and other items I'm including.  This is fun - somewhat improvisational.  

I'm going to set this aside for a while and work on some more Hunter's Star blocks for the next couple of days.

Daily snow

We have had a fairly quiet winter so far, and the temperatures have been pretty nice.  The sugarmakers got an early start, too, with the much-needed above freezing days and below freezing nights.  I think that's still the case, but now we have been having snow every other day, making for slippery roads.  Tuesday, we were to go to Burlington, an hour away, for the musical The Book of Mormon.  I bought the tickets in November, and we planned to spend the night at Pauline and Bob's.  They live about 1/2 a mile from the theater, and Pauline was going with us.  

It snowed all day, but we headed out at 3 pm anyway.  I took it easy driving, and we made it without any problem.  There was an accident that closed the interstate, but we were luckily on the other side.  Pauline's dinner was great; the show, too; and we were able to catch up with Bob at breakfast.  The roads home were clear and dry, as is typical of Vermont.  If it's not snowing, all is well.

Today it's snowing again (every other day, remember?), so I'll stay in and continue quilting on the pineapple quilt.  I'm doing "organic" wiggly lines across with my walking foot, and so far, it's looking good.  There was a little bleeding of hot pink when I spritzed the lines, but I don't anticipate selling or giving this one away.   It took so much work that I want to enjoy it myself, at least for a while. 

Pineapple quilt

Did you hear me sigh a huge sigh of relief this morning?  The Rainbow Scrap Challenge pineapple quilt top that I've been making blocks for over the past two years is finally finished!  I think.  I may add another border if I can figure out what color to make it.  Turquoise?  Purple?  Black?

Right now there's a 1.5" gray border made out of the gray print that's in each block's center.  The top measures 64" square which is fine for a throw.  I am planning to take it to my friend Marie for long arm quilting.   I have lots of the gray print for the back, which is a relief.

I also made several blocks of the month for March this morning.  We were supposed to have 6-12"of snow overnight, and I woke up very early to the sound of the snowplow zooming by.  Paul estimates that we had about 4" of snow, and by noon the roads were very driveable.  Unfortunately, my neighborhood ladies' lunch was cancelled because at 9 am it didn't look that driveable out.   I had lots more time to sew, between getting up early and not going out for lunch. 

I finished several blocks of the month for March, including these easy ones for guild.  The one on the right I'm keeping because the center is from an old muumuu of my Mom's.  The one on the left is for the guild lottery.   I won the lottery blocks for February on Tuesday night - purple stars.  There are close to 20 in the group (it was a fairly easy block), and they will be really nice to put together, when I get around to it.

Yesterday I received my new-to-me (used) iPhone 12 to replace my iPhone 6 which I'll be giving to Paul who has resisted having a cell phone until now.  He has come to see the usefulness of one for emergencies.  I was amazed at how fast and easy transferring my data from one phone to the other was.  You just set one near the other and follow the directions on the screen.   I had to get a little advice from Chris via text message about removing the SIM card so I can make phone calls.  But I just felt so very smart when the whole process was finished.  Now the only problem is that, with the case that came with the phone, it doesn't fit in my purse which has a pocket on the outside for the phone.  I'll see if I can get a slightly less bulky case.

Lots of sewing, no photos

 I've been busy working on various WIPs over the last week or so.  First, I got busy making more blocks for the Arboretum quilt.  This is an old photo; I have about 60 blocks now.  I'm just waiting for two blocks from Karen in Ontario, the last two in the swap.  I'm also waiting for some orange batik because I wanted more color and less gloom in the final quilt and think I'll also use it for a border and binding.

It's going to be about 60" x 60" by the time I get done.  Some people in the swap group are lining up their blocks so that the tree trunks go all the way down.  But my blocks will be offset, 9 or 8 across and 7 down.  They measure 6 x 8" finished.  There will be half blocks at the ends of every other row.

I haven't sewn the blocks together at all yet because I don't know what colors Karen has used.   I may have to rearrange them a bit when hers arrive.  Meanwhile, I have them in bunches by row, carefully clipped together with plastic clips and in a plastic bag.

Saturday, I got out all of my pineapple blocks and decided to get those ready to put together.  I moved them around and around until I settled on an arrangement I like.  I knew I needed to make at least four more 12" blocks.  Each 12" block is made of 4 6" ones.  I realized I have been at this for two years, so it is time to get the whole thing together and move on in my [quilting] life!

I wasn't sure about colors until yesterday when I finished making the four blocks that make up another green block.  I will put the lone brown block on the back of the quilt and add orange, yellow and turquoise blocks.  Today I made three out of the four I need in orange.  Now comes the onerous task of taking all the foundation papers out.  Ugh!  There is just no alternative, so I'll watch TV while doing it for several nights, I'm sure.  Dear Jane and Hunter's Star have been set aside for a while as I concentrate on these.

Good news!  Mom wants one of my two Jane Austen quilts, so that has been boxed up and ready to mail out tomorrow.  It will look nice on her dining room table.

A few June projects

Because we will be heading to Mom's birthday festivities in Colorado soon, I haven't spent a lot of time sewing.  I did make a blue pineapple block as part of the RSC (June's color is dark/medium blue).

I also made a house block using Moda's "Brickhouse" pattern.  I don't really like the results and now I'm wondering how I'll set those houses with some of the other house blocks I've been making.  I decided to set them all aside until after I return from Colorado.  I may get inspired - at least I hope so.  This is how UFOs are born.

I also worked on embroidering the crazy block I made a few months ago at guild.  I was hoping Bronwen would be at Saturday's meeting, but she couldn't come.  I wanted some advice on what more to do, but I just forged ahead.  

I'm thinking of making a pillow out of this because I don't really feel like making any more blocks.  Embroidery is really not my thing, and I really want to get back to making a quilt with hankies.

Today I started working on the June assignment for the Bonnie Hunter Unity quilt, which my guild is working on as a quilt along.  Lots of mindless cutting and sewing awaits for this round.  I need 172 half square triangles, and I got about half of them cut before I stopped.  I sure hope I don't run out of yellow fabric before this is finished.  I think I have a yard left.  I do like the paper plate method for organizing these parts.  I also have to cut 68 navy and 68 light blue 2.5"squares.  I already have enough of an assortment of neutral squares cut to make the 8" blocks all these pieces go into.  Phew!

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