2025 Plans, well some of them

Ringing in the new year (late of course) with a small finish, a completed flimsy, and some possibilities.  Let's just ignore last year's accomplishments since they were so few and far between. Nothing to see here!

Starting the new year, I pulled a stack of lovely flannels gifted by Lizzy (Gone to the Beach) from a few of her recently completed projects (thanks Lizzy!).  The quilt ministry bins have been sadly lacking in completed quilts since last fall's auction and the local flooding that uprooted a number of folks in the hurricane (Bonnie?) that hit just before the Carolina disaster called Helene. My plan was to cut 6-1/2 inch squares of the plaid flannels and see how large a quilt could be made from them.  Here is the first finish of this year, lap quilt size about 50 inches square, already designated for a chemo patient friend of one of our church members.

and the back

I fell in love with Jolene's (Blue Elephant Stitches) Hollow Stars quilts, and for the past couple months have been making star blocks during our quilt ministry meetings.  I began this flimsy with a small fat quarter bundle of 8 or 9 mostly blue/green (and one bright, bright orange) prints and expanded from there with enough to make this top, now pinned and ready for some quilting love. Haven't yet decided whether it will be hand quilted

One block with the last of my most favorite Paris fabric:

I can see more of these blocks in my future since they're a fun, easy make and each block takes only a bit of fabric.  Noticing that my stash doesn't seem to dwindle as much as I'd like but there sure aren't many large pieces anymore!

I'm determined to empty at least one or two fabric bins this years, so next on the list for piecing at our meetings are these two brighter than bright tops in the making.  

and this one

I'm thinking about adding a bit of applique in the black blocks of this second one before stitching the blocks together.  More to come.  

I know that Blogger has been messing with our ability to comment, and to have comments come to our emails for response, etc.  Has anyone figured out the magic formula to change settings so that we can once again receive comments in our email?  I've tried the old way of changing the email address, then resetting to my gmail account as before, but nothing seems to work.  Any help greatly appreciated! Also it seems my comments to other blogs are being listed as 'no reply blogger'.  Blogger seems to be going to great lengths to discourage us from using it, not caring that some of us are old and not computer savvy enough to move an entire blog to another format.   Very discouraging.

I've been thinking about Bramble Blooms III but haven't yet begun the design sketching process.  Hoping to begin tackling that soon.

The Polar Vortex is heading our way, but for now the temperature outside is nearing 40 degrees and beginning the January thaw.  I don't expect the snow to completely disappear before the bitter cold descends on us tomorrow evening, we may find ourselves walking on top of the icy remainder before mid-week.  Stay safe and warm, and enjoy this winter quilting time!

Bramble Blooms II - Link-up

Back from a long blogging hiatus, between life in general and a camera that died in mid-October and attempting to learn all the nuances of a new one. I've been busy working on the second border for my version of Bramble Blooms II.  And without further ado, here it is in all its just-completed glory.

A quick review of my Bramble Blooms progress (more for my own record-keeping than anything else), here is my first fabric pull at the beginning of this series.

I had early-on decided that this series would have a loose theme of "seasons" and Bramble Blooms I represented early spring tulips and the typically gray rather dismal weather we experience in April around here.  At this point I'd already diverged from my initial fabric pile, adding a couple of Japanese yukata fabrics that kind of took over as the focus of this particular quilt.   Applique efforts in the borders consisted of half-circles which were then repeated in BB II's second border.  This is BB-1 as it sits currently awaiting additional border inspiration.

With Bramble Blooms II, I returned to the original fabric pull, and even utilized quite a bit of the original inspiration fabric.  An attempt at replicating Sujata Shah's old Italian blocks for the center wasn't as easy as I'd thought, so stopped at just four blocks.  Didn't really care for these blocks at this point, but didn't have any more of a couple of the fabrics to start over, so they stayed.

Then began a series of "filler" borders until I arrived at the "official" first border using the nine-patch blocks as suggested by Audrey's first border prompt. At this point the quilt seemed to be taking on a happy, more summery vibe and we were ready to attempt the second border prompt.

This was the most intensive hand applique work I've ever done outside of Quilty 365 from several years ago.  In keeping with the lighter vibe of the 'early summer' theme and the rather wonky look of the central blocks, the second border attempts to achieve a more informal look with the floral shapes used - I've called them summer tulips.  

I don't consider either of these quilts finished as they both need at least one additional border to bring them to a useable size for anything other than wall quilts, and with BB-2 the need to stabilize the outer edge as the background fabric turned out to be quite ravelly.  Both may see more action in the new year after a couple other projects reach the finished stage.

Linking with Audrey at Quilty Folk with thanks for your constant encouragement and inspiration!

Another baby quilt finish

This is the final baby quilt finish for the summer, and the first for September.  It might also be the fastest quilt I've made, five days from start to finish late on Labor Day. Photographed in the early morning sunshine yesterday.  It will soon be making its way to a neighboring state with the happy grandparents, and we are so delighted for them as they thought they would likely never have grandchildren - this baby is a tiny miracle!

This quilt is very similar to an earlier make this summer, except this time it's for a baby girl.  

The loft of the 80/20 batting and the Jester's Hat free motion quilting makes those cute quirky animal faces hard to discern, especially the bunny in the top center block.  He may show up a little better in subsequent photos.  

The back is totally feminine!

While outside I couldn't resist a couple photos of these glorious zinnias in the early morning light, quite possibly the best we've ever grown.

I love the deep shades, coordinating so perfectly with my "Almost Amish" mini from Lori's quiltalong of a few years ago.

Now that all the obligatory quilts are done and dusted, I'm looking forward to getting back to quilting and hopefully finishing another oldie, my historic panel challenge quilt.

We had an early light frost a couple nights ago, thankfully the tarps covering all the tomato plants saved them.  Our large romas are nearly ripe, so salsa canning will be underway this weekend.

Til next time, hoping you are enjoying these beautiful early fall days.

Bramble Blooms 2.0 - first borders

 How did August go by so fast!!??   I finally had a chance to get back to Bramble Blooms 2.0  a couple weeks ago, to add the first(?) border to this rather feeble start.

I wasn't totally (or even remotely) enamored with these blocks, but I loved that polkadot fabric and had used nearly all there was in these blocks, so decided to give it a try.   Waste not!

Mulling over possibilities for the outer sashing:

Loved the diagonal plaid cornerstones echoing the center blocks.

There were an abundance of flying geese left over from making Oriental Brambles (aka Bramble Blooms 1.5 - see previous post) so why not add them here?

Audrey's suggestion for the first border was to include something from Bramble Blooms 1, suggesting 4 or 9-patch blocks, in a low-key blending look so as not to distract from the next appliqued (final) border.  The next couple photos are some test backgrounds for this "first" background.

What finally seemed best were a little variety of light gray and blue-gray backgrounds, along with mostly pink 9-patch blocks.

Then my brain apparently turned to mush, since there was no way to make all those 9-patch blocks on point fit together into a neat square.  I'm pretty sure the math cells in my brain died after my 75th birthday, because do you think I could even figure out how big to make a coping border?????  Sigh.

Happily, for every problem there is a solution, in this case after finding that perfect mustard fabric for the coping border, the magic happened with addition of corner blocks and a few fudged seams in the 9-patch blocks until everything was forced into submission.

I still need to tweak the lower right corner to attempt to lessen the ripple, though there are plenty of other little ripples going on in this top!   I'm planning to leave the scraggly outer edges as they are now until it's time to add the next border.

OK, on to a rush baby quilt, though I thought there was plenty of time, doctors have decided to induce labor tomorrow.  I'd hoped to have the quilt ready for grandparents to take with them when they make the 7 hour trip to see their precious new one soon.   All for today!

Oriental Brambles is a Finish!

 So happy to have another quilt finished after a long hiatus over the last several months.  Here is the quilt I've called Oriental Brambles since the branches in floral center just looks rather brambly to me.  Maybe it should just be called Bramble Blooms 1.5 since it is after all a medallion quilt!

I caught a break in the near-continuous rain around 7 a.m. today, so did a quick photoshoot of the finish.  Some of the markings for the border may still be visible in the enlarged photos.  Later this morning I sponged off the markings and let it dry on the spare bed.

This was a joy to piece, and mostly the machine quilting went as planned.  I used a combination of free-motion quilting a leafy design in the center, serpentine stitching in one of the borders, a couple stencils, and finally made a cardboard template for the "arches" quilting in the blue outer border.  That was the difficult part, as my markings around the template were extremely hard to see, and there are enough bobbles to keep me honest as they say!

The back and binding are a vintage Joan Kessler fabric gleaned from our ministry bins.  It has a wonderful soft hand and the quilt is comfy and lightweight for snuggling in the recliner or sofa.  It finished at about 59 x 65 inches.  

Tomorrow I'll turn it in to the camp auction quilt coordinator to be included in this year's event over Labor Day weekend.  Though I'll admit to being a bit conflicted about letting it go - I never meant to love it so much!

Just a reminder to myself that the rain will not last forever, and to "keep on the sunny side of life!"

Two Finishes for July

 Almost forgot to post my finishes for July - two children's quilts, one for a newborn and the other for a toddler/preschooler.  You'll have to excuse my lousy photos, the lighting was less then optimal every time I had a chance to get outside for photos, or maybe I've just forgotten how to photograph properly, it's anybody's guess.  And, the quilts were washed and boxed up and shipped to their new home before offloading the photos from my camera.  

First up, the baby quilt, completed the evening before he was born.

 

And the back

I love the sweet gentle expressions on all the faces on the front of this quilt!  Happily I have nine additional blocks to finish a second quilt for a baby due around the end of September.  

I had a blast with the toddler/preschooler's quilt, made for a big brother.  The front is fairly plain, a panel of two brothers surrounded by several borders, the fun began with the back.  (sorry about the back shadowing in this set of photos).

 

I wanted this to be an I-Spy quilt that he could have fun with, after I'd had my fun putting it all together, from bits and pieces of previous quilts, leftover half-square triangles, a strip of Lizzy's wonderful beachball fabric from her Bramble Blooms 1 (thanks Lizzy!), etc.   I also appliqued his name in big 4-inch block letters, blurred out in the photos.  

The back before layering and quilting

and after quilting, unfortunately a bit washed out in this photo

I'm closing in on another finish with the Oriental Brambles quilt, hopefully by next week so it can be turned in to the quilt coordinator for the upcoming camp auction.   Hopefully the blueberries will all be harvested by that time too.  My daughter and grandson are coming this weekend and hopefully they can harvest the remaining berries to take home.  We have already put 39 quarts in our freezer, given away some, and there are still a ton of nearly ripe berries out there.  The most we have ever had in one season.  They will be most welcome come winter, but at the moment I'm ready for the tomatoes to begin ripening! 

Gibbs says Hi!  Til next time, enjoy these lovely summer days while we have them!

Busy Week - Some New Tops Completed

This past week has been extraordinarily busy with miscellaneous appointments and other obligations, but I did manage to wrangle a few quilts to the finished top stage.

First up, a quilt I'm calling Oriental Brambles (not BB-1 or 2) because the floral branches in the center just look brambly to me!

You may recall a couple months ago I showed the feature fabric, a decorator fabric of undetermined age found in a bin of miscellaneous fabrics in our quilt ministry stash.  No selvedges, so no identification, it had been cut into on all sides, but I loved the print and the possibilities, so it came home with me and straight into the washing machine on delicate setting to see if it would behave in a quilt.  It did, no shrinkage and no color bleeding, so it was a 'go.'  My inspiration for this medallion quilt was a quilt by Gwen Marston that she actually made twice with her same feature fabrics (decorator and chintz) and different border fabrics.  The earliest one I found appeared in her book with Joe Cunningham Quilting with Style, page 148, made in 1981. Her later version made in 2003appeared in the book Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again, page 22.  Some fabrics just age so well that we love coming back to them again and again!  

A lot of practice making flying geese.  By the time I got to the final border, I had absolutely no fabric in my stash large enough to create a lovely wide border in a colorway that would blend in nicely with the center of the quilt.  The dark blue piano key border seemed like the only viable solution since there were only bits and pieces of 8 or 10 dark blues, all less than a fat quarter.  Now, if I can get the quilting finished by the end of August this will be donated to the local camp benefit auction over Labor Day weekend.  And my sweet hubby loves this top (dark blues!) and wants to buy it back from the auction!  We'll see how that goes.  

So now I find myself in the middle of making two baby quilts and a "big brother" quilt for a 3-year old.  The first is this panel I bought years ago (around 2009 as I recall) and never had the opportunity to use it until now.  By the time my grandson had a little brother he was too old for a panel like this!

The quilt top is nowhere near as somber as it appears in this next photo.  The border prints are quite bright and cheerful.  I had in mind to add applique letters spelling out big brother's name on the back (not yet made) but now I'm considering adding them across the bottom of the front.  We'll see when I get the pieces cut out.  

Little brother's baby quilt top was completed a day ago, and the back finished up last night. No photos of the back as everything is packed up to go to the church for layering and pinning Wednesday morning.

Colors are a bit off in this first photo.  A bit better in the next two.

As soon as these are finished and in the mail (by the end of July?!) I'll be starting yet another baby quilt, the next one for a church family. Thankfully, I'll have until the end of September to get that one finished!

That's a wrap for tonight!  Hope you are all recovering from last week's sweltering heat dome!  The lower temps and humidity were most welcome this morning for sure!