Gumballs top

Even though I had a lot to do last week (Heritage Days, after all), I started a new quilt.  It's a scrappy one called Gumballs, a pattern I saw in another blog and which appeared in McCall's Quilting some years ago.  I decided to try to use up some blues and, unusual for me, cut all the pieces before sewing them into blocks.  I needed 120 nine patches and 120 half-square triangles, plus other fillers!  I can almost close my blue fabric tub now.  

Over the weekend I managed to get most of the blocks together and finished the 60" x 72" top yesterday.   I have some pieces of previous backs ready to put together today.  But I'm not all that thrilled with the whole thing.  Maybe I'll like it better once it's quilted.  At any rate, I'll take it to Marie for quilting when I have the back ready, and I'll probably give it to Bags of Love after that.  

Meanwhile, Dear Jane has been languishing on a chair, waiting to be bound, and I did get half-way around over the weekend.  Our perfect weather has come to an end, and it looks like I'll be indoors watching the rain for the rest of the week.  

Our blueberries are coming in strong right now, and I've already frozen several bags.  I want to bake another blueberry buckle for Friday (my birthday) so will try to get outside in between showers to pick two cups more.  We're planning to go out for Chinese on Friday with Chris and Paul's sister Pat.  I'm sure we'll be too full after dinner for cake, so I'll give them each a piece to take home afterwards.

And speaking of blue, I must be in a blue period as last week I also finished a blue tote bag for my brother Axel to give to a friend who has been driving him around.  It's hard to see, but both sides have a pocket between the handles.  I used pre-quilted fabric from "Connecting Threads" for this bag and another one I need to put a button on.

Yesterday I went to the quilt shop where they offer a discount of half my age around my birthday.  I bought about many yards of mostly neutrals, stocking up for the coming year.  Phew!  Had a nice, long awaited chat with Robin while she cut everything.  That in itself was a birthday gift as we don't get together often enough.

A couple of projects

Most of this past week was spent preparing for the Friends of the Library's school vacation mini-golf session yesterday.  We had 140 people of all ages, a lot of them families, play the nine hole course throughout the library - on all three floors.  Most of the Friends took a turn at directing traffic, taking donations and handing out equipment.   People from neighboring towns came, and I overheard adults say they had never really been in all the parts of the library.  The little kids were adorable, and everyone had fun.   The owner of The Portable MiniGolf Company couldn't have been more helpful and encouraging.  It was a great day, but we Friends were all beat at the end.   Today we'll take it easy!

This week I finished my round for Donna's round robin quilt.   It's not due until April but I like to get these projects out of the way.   I also managed to finish a tote bag I started last week.  I needed some magnetic snaps before I put the whole thing together and found them at my local quilt shop.  I didn't know they carried them and the webbing for handles, too.  I used my old favorite retro print for this bag.

I also tried making the state quilt guild's tenth anniversary block, which was designed by a guild member back in 1989.  I'm not sure paper piecing had been "invented" yet, but this pattern sure could have used it.  I followed the pattern as shown, but I plan to revise it before I show it at the spring state quilt guild meeting.  I'm hoping to challenge folks to make it for a block raffle at the fall meeting.

I do like the colors which were all scraps in my seemingly endless supply of blues.  I was intrigued that the block includes half rectangle pieces which are a little tricky, and as you can see, the side triangle points will be cut off if I sew sashing or another block to this block.   Paper piecing should take care of that (I hope!).

Meanwhile, I started on another tote bag which is quilt as you go.  Guess I'm channeling my inner "Elsbeth" (the funny lawyer/detective in the TV series).

Quilt repair

I realized that I need to insert the magnetic clasp into the lining of the tote bag before putting it together, so I set it aside until I go to the quilt shop Saturday for a state guild board meeting and local guild sew-in.  I really miss Joann Fabrics!  Walmart just doesn't have what I need, and, when I looked on Amazon.com, I could buy clasps in bulk but not just one or two.  I sure hope the quilt shop has a couple or I will order some via Etsy.

I noticed some of the fabric in the quilt on our bed was deteriorating - probably because someone (not me!) sits there to watch TV.  Just two blocks, side by side, thank goodness.   The quilt was finished in 2015, so I guess that isn't too bad.  Today I made two new blocks and appliqued them over the old ones.  Then I quilted them from the back.  It looks pretty good.  This quilt is never going in a show but I do like it.  Luckily, it was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge sampler so I just pulled fabric from my stash.

Next I spent some time looking for a pattern that I had yesterday but can't find today.  I have a bunch of Kaffe Fassett scraps and I thought would look good against a black background.  The pattern came from last year's Modern Quilts calendar, and I have been shuffling it around since the beginning of the year.  I will probably find it when I am in the middle of making the one I sketched out.  But that's for another day - I'm going to sit down and knit right now.  I don't have far to go on that hat.

Tote bags

Sometimes it feels good to work on something and actually finish it on the day you started.  Sunday I made a tote bag and, while I didn't finish it that day, I did finish it yesterday.  And it's very handy for holding my current knitting project, the burgundy/red Melt the ICE hat.

I really like the fabric I used on the outside - a big retro print - and the sweet pink gingham on the inside.  Both are polyester, and the big print is so old that the width was smaller than today's quilt fabric is.  I enjoyed making it, and I have a lot of both fabrics left.  

Today I cut out another tote bag out of the same big print but using a pattern from a new book, Make 100 Bags.  I hope to work on it today and tomorrow if I get a chance.   I am about halfway through knitting my hat, too.  Someone in my yoga class asked me to knit her one, but I declined because I'm really a slow knitter.  I referred her to Etsy where there are a lot for sale at a surprisingly large range of prices from $7.50 to $50.  I bought a skein of acrylic yarn at Walmart for $4.99 and can.probably make two hats out of it.

I knit a little in between working on organizing the archives of the state quilt guild yesterday.   The guild was founded in 1979 so there are a lot of papers to work my way through.  I'm hoping to turn it all over to the state historical society for safekeeping.  When I volunteered there, I helped organize a number of statewide organizations' archives, so I know that notebooks are too bulky for them and sheet protectors are a no-no.  They stick to the papers and remove the ink.  There's a lot of trash generated by this project, but it's a nice project to work on when it's cold and snowy.

February's color = green

I've spent mornings this week making blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   First, I made 10 log cabin blocks mostly out of strings in my stash.  While pawing through my greens, I found a few more strings that I added to the bag.  These blocks measure 8" finished.

Next, I made three Traffic Jam blocks, which are really nine patches with the center strips made of 2" squares.  

Yesterday I started working on a table runner made of blocks left over from Double Date.  I am now able to close the green box of fabric now that I have set aside a bunch of fabric to put on the "free" table at guild.  Today I sewed it all together, quilted and bound it.  Next week I'll go down to the florist's to sell this table runner and pick up the Christmas ones that she is probably sick of seeing by now.

I noticed that the quilt on our bed, made back in 2015, has some blocks that are beginning to deteriorate.  Before I put my green box away, I'm going to dig deep to see if there's any matching fabric I can use to repair the damage before it gets worse.

What's next?  Today I cut some very wild fabric from the 1980s into pieces for a tote bag.  The lining will be a pretty pink gingham poly-cotton blend.  I have quite a bit of that poly-cotton stuff that is pretty but I don't like it for quilts.  Tote bag linings seem like a good use.  

Tomorrow IF the weather cooperates (and it threatens not to), I'll be hosting a program on DNA and genealogy at the library.  We have a speaker coming from the Burlington area 45 minutes away, so my fingers are crossed.   We have an alternate date already planned just in case he can't make it.  Winter!

The red tote saga

How is that some of the easiest things turn out to be the most frustrating?  I made a red tote bag for the annual Friends of the Library Annual Winter Banquet/Auction.  I usually pull a quilt out of my collection for the auction, but this year Nancy, a new member of the Friends, announced that she was going to make one.  Not wanting to step on her toes, I decided to make a tote bag instead. 

I had a lot of red fabric which I cut into 2.5" strips to piece together in a manner similar to a bag I made last year and several people admired.  I also had two 6" appliqued heart squares in my stash of "orphan" blocks for pockets.  There are two pockets inside, too.   And I had a pair of old blue jeans to make a sturdy bottom and handles.

You can't see either the bottom or the handles in this picture taken with my phone, but those handles were a real pain!  I was going to put a zipper into the top but ended up making it an open tote instead.   I took it apart a couple of times and spent entirely too much time with my seam ripper.   I did do some nice quilting on it and like the way it turned out over all.   Since it is rather plain on its own, I added a book, The Noel Diary by Richard Paul Evans (sappy but sweet), a ball of yarn, a nice bookmark, and some hot chocolate.  Going with a cozy theme!

Anyway, I'm glad that's over and I can get back to machine quilting the Storm at Sea quilt.  We are having lunch with two friends today and tomorrow hope to see The Post at the movies.  That was my home-town paper, and it sounds like a great film.