July's Blessings Big and Small

Our little quilting ministry has been blessed mightily this month!  First, we received three large boxes of gorgeous fabric from a fellow blogger who wishes to remain anonymous but who has blessed us previously as she downsizes her stash.  She is definitely our Quilting Angel!

Then, Debbie of Stitchin' Therapy blessed us with a large box of stencils, many of which are the continuous line, easy to quilt variety.  Some are even linear enough to be quilted with a walking foot, definitely a plus for some of our beginning quilters.  Thank you so much Debbie!  I know they will be put to good use!

The photo doesn't begin to show all the beautiful stencils we received.

A week or two ago, Jocelyn of Happy Cottage Quilter posted a photo of an older top she had made, wondering whether she should update it with new borders, or just trash it.  It was such a lovely sampler quilt I asked if she indeed thought of trashing it, to please send it our way to be quilted and given to a deserving person in our area.  She did, and also sent us three other tops plus backing fabrics for two of them!  What a beautiful gift to our ministry - thank you so much Jocelyn!

I sometimes enter giveaways from fabric companies for fat quarter bundles, and last week was lucky enough to win a sweet bundle of Amanda Murphy's Folkart Fantasy from Benartex.  Yay! I think this will make up into a lovely baby quilt or perhaps a lap quilt for a nursing home patient, or even another small quilt for next year's camp quilt auction.

Reviewing my quilting efforts for the month of July and my 17 in 2017 list, there really isn't a lot to say about my goals for 2017 except I've been plugging along very slowly on the hand quilting of Quilty 365 and the first basket quilt, and I got a start on a late arrival to that list - more on that in a future post.  On the reverse "Opportunity Quilts" side of the 17 in 2017 sheet, I finished the queen size camp auction quilt!

But the sweetest July blessing of all arrived last Wednesday with his mom for a 4-day visit. We had a blast, watching this little guy as he learns to crawl, studies everything and everyone around him, and eats his meals like there's no tomorrow!  And he loves blueberries, which are at their peak right now. We sent them home yesterday with three quarts of fresh-picked berries from our bushes.  What a little joy he is in all our lives!

Camp Auction Quilt is a Finish!

So happy to report that I put the final stitches in the binding of the church camp auction quilt on Saturday afternoon! Our wet weather of late hasn't been ideal for outside photography, to say the least, so here are the best of yesterday's indoor shots.

On our guest room queen size bed.  It finished at 76x87 inches, shrinking about 3 inches in both directions with the quilting and cold water wash afterward. I'm hoping it's a good size for the auction, since it will fit a twin bed with a full bedspread type drop, a double bed with a 12 inch drop, or even a queen bed with an 8 inch side drop.

This was the first time that I can recall using stencils for much of the free motion quilting (can I even call it free motion if I'm following a stencil?). Anyway, I'm very happy with the way the stencils turned out. This little border stencil was very easy to quilt.

As for that background fabric, it's a real chameleon - especially with my fairly limited photographic skills, hehe.  Previous blog commenters have found it to be green, gray, or blue.  In actuality, or at least in my eyes, it's a very light green, and the camera has an extremely difficult time rendering it as my eye sees it. Oh well, imagination is a wonderful thing isn't it!?

I chose two different stencils for the alternate blocks, using the simpler one above for the center blocks as I wasn't sure how well I could execute the more difficult one with my DSM in the center of this large quilt. It turned out to be really easy and the curves were small enough that it was possible for me to reach the end of one curve without needing to stop and adjust my hands.

The second stencil above was used for the outer row of alternate blocks.  A bit more challenging but still a lot of fun to quilt, and not hugely time-consuming. Can you tell I'm fast becoming a real fan of stencils for machine quilting?! They are so forgiving, and take away the angst of trying to recreate a chosen design with "muscle memory" which in reality has never worked well for me At All. At this time of life, there is no need to add more stress to my favorite pastime, and I may even become a fan of machine quilting again, though my first love will always be hand quilting.

A couple of my favorite blocks that haven't been featured in previous posts:

Overall I'm happy with the way this one turned out, and I think/hope it's a style that will do well at the auction. Is it my favorite quilt - umm, no, but still I think it's pleasant and scrappy enough that it will fit in with the primitive or country decor that is popular around here.

As I look at my version of the "17 in 2017" list, there are now five completions on the reverse side which I long ago labeled "Opportunity Quilts for 2017".  Only three small completions on the "17 in 2017" side. So for the remaining few months of this year I really hope to shift my focus to finishing at least two personal goals for the year.  Doesn't sound like a lot, but those two goals are to finish hand quilting the queen size basket quilt and my king size Quilty 365! Then there's the queen size top I've just begun for my son and DIL after seeing their wedding quilt is pretty much worn out after being in use for over 17 years now.  I'd like to be able to give them their new quilt for Christmas. This year. Guess I'd best get to work now.

Black and Blue and White

After an intensive week of family visits and sleepovers, we've finally begun to return to a sense of quiet normalcy around here.  Meaning the two hand quilting projects are back in their respective hoops and the auction donation quilt is sitting quietly beside the Janome, patiently waiting while I write this quick post and run a few necessary errands, and possibly pull a few garden weeds.

Here is a top I've been working on at our quilt ministry meetings.  When this is quilted, it will be donated to the local nursing home.

I love the off-center set of this top.  It's a rather shameless copy of a beautiful top that Janet O. recently featured on her Rogue Quilter blog.  I believe her original inspiration was a Pinterest photo. Hers is a memory quilt made from her father's shirts, and she used a consistent white solid to better highlight the darker plaids and checks.  Our quilt ministry stash is almost completely devoid of white or light solids or light shirting fabrics, so this one is definitely a make-do.   Some of the lighter prints I'm quite sure are mostly polyester blends judging from the way they misbehaved during stitching, but they're all nailed down into their final position now.  This top measures roughly 46x59 inches, a bit large for a lap quilt but should be nice for someone who is mostly bedridden.  I'll be looking for some bright cheerful fabrics to piece a backing.

A closer look - definitely some pajama stripes and prints in this one!

We'll be resuming our quilt ministry weekly meetings tomorrow after a break over the 4th holiday. I'm already looking forward to rummaging through the scrap bins for another top, maybe bow-ties? Time will tell.

Now, where was I?

Back, at least intermittently from an unintended blogging break.  Sometimes it seems life just takes precedence and everything else needs to give way.   I've been under the weather for a couple months now, nothing major, just nagging issues like the worst spring allergy season in over 40 years, intermittent sciatica, and an annoying carpel tunnel issue, all of which have interfered with getting a good night's sleep that in turn just made everything worse.  But enough of that, this is still a quilting blog after all!

So, when I left you last I had just put the finishing touches on one of the latest Opportunity Quilts of 2017, and now the machine quilting is very nearly finished.

The completed top

Before layering and pinning the quilt, for the first time ever I marked all the stencils onto the alternate blocks and the outer border, and some general guidelines for the setting and corner triangles. I always hated to take the time to premark since I love seeing the quilt begin to assume some loft as soon as that top is placed on the batting and pinning begins. But premarking  sure does save a lot of time in the end, and I'm glad that for once I had the patience to "get 'er done."

Quilting begun.  Amazingly, though it shouldn't have been, those straight lines in the patchwork blocks took a LOT longer to quilt than the stencils in the alternate blocks.  The carpal tunnel issues have meant having to limit machine quilting time each day to just a few hours rather than the extended periods I used to be able to do.  But I'm very thankful that hand quilting does not seem to bother my wrists or hands, and I've been able to hand quilt for an hour or two most evenings - yay!

Simple spineless feathers in the setting triangles.

The outer border stencils are now all quilted, and all that remains when I get back to the machine is to fill in the center 4 inch squares in those patchwork blocks.  I'm planning a simple freehand flower design for those.  Then I'll get the binding on as soon as possible so I can get the entire quilt in a cold water rinse to erase all those blue markings.  They always make me nervous even though I test the fabrics before marking.

Meanwhile the sewing room is dormant this week, all the machines and quilting hoops packed up and put away, as this is the week for company and lots of it.  We had 11 family members and 4 dogs join us over the 4th for an overnighter.  Lots of grandkids and activities!  Thankfully the weather was great and some tented out in the back yard while others chose to sleep inside in the spare bedroom, the sewing room and the living room couch.  Now, a day of R&R for us grandparents before another family group arrives on Friday for a late 4th of July weekend and a grandson's 9th birthday.  A lot of family fun packed into one short week!

I hope to have more to share next week.  But tomorrow we both will be mowing the lawns again before the next batch of rainshowers arrive.  And grocery shopping, and ...   we won't talk about the state of the garden weeds!

Thanks for stopping by!