May it be well with you this Sabbath.
"There will be peace in the valley..."
Sunday, March 29, 2020
It is Well
This link was shared as part of our on-line service today. A powerful message for these troubled and uncertain times.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Making my March Mini - Supersized
It all started with the leftover piano keys from this finish from a couple months ago.
Not wanting to begin another leftovers box, they seemed like good candidates for a little coin quilt.
Then I looked at our little porch bistro table and thought how cute it would look in mid-summer with a sweet tablecloth topped with a pitcher of sunflowers or zinnias. A border from a backing fabric cutoff, a scrappy binding of leftover reds to finish perhaps?
And seeing those colors reminded me of a lot of leftover strips from making placemats for our daughters, and how they might look on the back, alternated with this little red/brown check. Always better when the back is as much fun as the front, right?
And so it grew into this
Finishing at, ahem, 39x39 inches. What can I say, I love it! And even better, there are still enough wider strips of that olive oil/salad fabric and the check to make at least 4 more placemats for us and possibly some napkins. Win-win-win in my book. Linking with Wendy at The Constant Quilter as she posts her month-end roundup of mini-quilt makers.
One more gratuitous photo featuring my silent but ever-faithful companion during these photo shoots. So soothing to stroke all that fur. For both of us.
May you all find peace in your hearts during these troubled times.
Not wanting to begin another leftovers box, they seemed like good candidates for a little coin quilt.
Then I looked at our little porch bistro table and thought how cute it would look in mid-summer with a sweet tablecloth topped with a pitcher of sunflowers or zinnias. A border from a backing fabric cutoff, a scrappy binding of leftover reds to finish perhaps?
And seeing those colors reminded me of a lot of leftover strips from making placemats for our daughters, and how they might look on the back, alternated with this little red/brown check. Always better when the back is as much fun as the front, right?
And so it grew into this
Finishing at, ahem, 39x39 inches. What can I say, I love it! And even better, there are still enough wider strips of that olive oil/salad fabric and the check to make at least 4 more placemats for us and possibly some napkins. Win-win-win in my book. Linking with Wendy at The Constant Quilter as she posts her month-end roundup of mini-quilt makers.
One more gratuitous photo featuring my silent but ever-faithful companion during these photo shoots. So soothing to stroke all that fur. For both of us.
May you all find peace in your hearts during these troubled times.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Three for the Donation Pile
In this time of sequestering ourselves in our homes, there are two things to do - begin spring housecleaning and quilt. Oh, let's not kid ourselves, there's really only one thing to do!
This has turned out to be a productive month. Last night I finished the third of three quilts for our quilt ministry donation stash. The first two are my One Monthly Goal for March, and I'll be linking this post with Patty at Elm Street Quilts when she posts her end-of-month linky party.
The first is Occasional Stars:
Finishing at around 57x68 inches, I quilted a diagonal grid within the blocks and free-motion quilted a simple stencil design in the borders. You might be able to see the quilting a bit better in the next photo, along with the back of the quilt.
I've been more than a little hesitant about quilting this one mostly because the homespuns were so finicky as they were being pieced, stretchy, and the seams kept rolling up on themselves rather than staying pressed flat. The diagonal grid was a perfect choice for this one though as it turned out, the fabric seemed to behave better diagonally than it might have by just attempting ditch quilting with the walking foot. So yay for this one!
The second quilt for my OMG is this baby quilt, based on a pattern called Sweet Dreams found in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, Nov-Dec 2005, page 52. It's actually a smaller version of my original quilt made of the same fabrics from the same pattern back in 2012.
This quilt measured 39x49 inches and was quilted in an overall meander. Binding is made up of bits and pieces from my leftover binding strips bin. I love this little quilt as much as the original, and hope some little person will one day love it just as much.
I love that Grandma is also a quilter!
The back:
The third quilt, completed just last night, is another homespun. The top was donated to our quilt ministry, and I decided to quilt it. This one shrunk up quite a bit after washing, the top started at 63x63 inches and after washing it now measures 58-1/2 inches square. The backing is a heavier fabric, donated to the group, definitely not the usual quilting fabric, but it softened up in the wash, and I think this one will make a great camping or tailgate/stadium quilt, or just a really durable quilt for a hunting cabin. Diagonally quilted through every other square with alternate squares free motion quilted using a wonky star cardboard template. The first photo taken before the quilt was washed so the markings are still visible.
After washing and drying, it looks like this, sort of. I could never get a really accurate color rendering as all the photos were either taken at night or in cloudy weather with only the light from the window. The first photo above is probably most true to the actual colors. Looking forward to the day when outdoor photos are a possibility again!
A bit of the back, again not true to color as the yellow background is really more of a butterscotch color:
So that's what I've been doing this week, and I'm so happy to have this trio about to go out the door. How is your week progressing? This is day 2 of our home stay-cation, not much different from normal life for us retirees living in the boonies. Hubby has ordered us a take-out fish fry for tomorrow since all the restaurants here are closed for dine-in service. We'll see how that fares after a 10 minute trip home and a quick warm-up in the oven.
Happy quilting!
This has turned out to be a productive month. Last night I finished the third of three quilts for our quilt ministry donation stash. The first two are my One Monthly Goal for March, and I'll be linking this post with Patty at Elm Street Quilts when she posts her end-of-month linky party.
The first is Occasional Stars:
I've been more than a little hesitant about quilting this one mostly because the homespuns were so finicky as they were being pieced, stretchy, and the seams kept rolling up on themselves rather than staying pressed flat. The diagonal grid was a perfect choice for this one though as it turned out, the fabric seemed to behave better diagonally than it might have by just attempting ditch quilting with the walking foot. So yay for this one!
The second quilt for my OMG is this baby quilt, based on a pattern called Sweet Dreams found in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, Nov-Dec 2005, page 52. It's actually a smaller version of my original quilt made of the same fabrics from the same pattern back in 2012.
This quilt measured 39x49 inches and was quilted in an overall meander. Binding is made up of bits and pieces from my leftover binding strips bin. I love this little quilt as much as the original, and hope some little person will one day love it just as much.
I love that Grandma is also a quilter!
The back:
The third quilt, completed just last night, is another homespun. The top was donated to our quilt ministry, and I decided to quilt it. This one shrunk up quite a bit after washing, the top started at 63x63 inches and after washing it now measures 58-1/2 inches square. The backing is a heavier fabric, donated to the group, definitely not the usual quilting fabric, but it softened up in the wash, and I think this one will make a great camping or tailgate/stadium quilt, or just a really durable quilt for a hunting cabin. Diagonally quilted through every other square with alternate squares free motion quilted using a wonky star cardboard template. The first photo taken before the quilt was washed so the markings are still visible.
So that's what I've been doing this week, and I'm so happy to have this trio about to go out the door. How is your week progressing? This is day 2 of our home stay-cation, not much different from normal life for us retirees living in the boonies. Hubby has ordered us a take-out fish fry for tomorrow since all the restaurants here are closed for dine-in service. We'll see how that fares after a 10 minute trip home and a quick warm-up in the oven.
Happy quilting!
Thursday, March 12, 2020
This Westering Woman has Reached the Final Destination!
And just like that, at around 1:15 a.m. today, the final stitch was put in the binding, and my version of Westering Women is now a finish!
Warning - photo-heavy post follows. And since it was a gray and muddy day outdoors, all photos were taken inside, and before the quilt had its first bath to remove the quilting markers.
I am loving the back as much as the front, just wish you could see the true beauty of the two buttery yellow tone on tone fabrics used, though my old camera has not cooperated all that well. Most of the photos are a bit washed out on the lower right, probably due to the light from the windows. Flash or no flash, not much difference.
Truly, I think I love the back just as much, or maybe even a bit more than the front. The quilting shows up so nicely and the loft from the wool batting. And I loved that lone block that turned out too large for the front - just had to include it somewhere!
The Westering Women quilt was a block of the month quiltalong on Barbara Brackman's Civil War Quilts blog from 2016. Here are the blocks I made during the BOM, in no particular order:
Lastly, a rogue block, when a bit of rebellion against 13 set-in seams occurred. Dirty snowballs seemed an appropriate substitute to me, since those weary travelers likely encountered muddy snow conditions in the final late autumn mountain passes before reaching their destination in the Yamhill Valley.
A number of scenarios for my intrepid traveler went through my mind as I stitched the very scrappy blocks. My Westering Woman began her journey as a single young woman traveling with her sister's family. She had apprenticed with her aunt, an experienced midwife in the Allegany Mountains of the western New York-Pennsylvania border, and knew she would be able to support herself if necessary once she arrived in Oregon. She met and later married a young man from a neighboring county who also traveled with the wagon train, in charge of driving the second wagon for his brother's large family. Her little bundle of fabric scraps came from dresses of her family and friends back east, each a remembrance of a loved one who she was unlikely to see again in her lifetime. She stitched her blocks during the first cold winter months in Oregon in the tiny cabin her new husband had hastily built when they arrived, and after they harvested their first crop of wheat he brought home a length of fabric as a gift, enough for her to fashion a new dress and enough extra to border her quilt.
She accepted a lovely wool fleece in payment for delivering a neighbor's baby that next summer, and commenced to quilting her completed top.
Warning - photo-heavy post follows. And since it was a gray and muddy day outdoors, all photos were taken inside, and before the quilt had its first bath to remove the quilting markers.
I am loving the back as much as the front, just wish you could see the true beauty of the two buttery yellow tone on tone fabrics used, though my old camera has not cooperated all that well. Most of the photos are a bit washed out on the lower right, probably due to the light from the windows. Flash or no flash, not much difference.
Truly, I think I love the back just as much, or maybe even a bit more than the front. The quilting shows up so nicely and the loft from the wool batting. And I loved that lone block that turned out too large for the front - just had to include it somewhere!
The Westering Women quilt was a block of the month quiltalong on Barbara Brackman's Civil War Quilts blog from 2016. Here are the blocks I made during the BOM, in no particular order:
Lastly, a rogue block, when a bit of rebellion against 13 set-in seams occurred. Dirty snowballs seemed an appropriate substitute to me, since those weary travelers likely encountered muddy snow conditions in the final late autumn mountain passes before reaching their destination in the Yamhill Valley.
A number of scenarios for my intrepid traveler went through my mind as I stitched the very scrappy blocks. My Westering Woman began her journey as a single young woman traveling with her sister's family. She had apprenticed with her aunt, an experienced midwife in the Allegany Mountains of the western New York-Pennsylvania border, and knew she would be able to support herself if necessary once she arrived in Oregon. She met and later married a young man from a neighboring county who also traveled with the wagon train, in charge of driving the second wagon for his brother's large family. Her little bundle of fabric scraps came from dresses of her family and friends back east, each a remembrance of a loved one who she was unlikely to see again in her lifetime. She stitched her blocks during the first cold winter months in Oregon in the tiny cabin her new husband had hastily built when they arrived, and after they harvested their first crop of wheat he brought home a length of fabric as a gift, enough for her to fashion a new dress and enough extra to border her quilt.
She accepted a lovely wool fleece in payment for delivering a neighbor's baby that next summer, and commenced to quilting her completed top.
Quilting with wool batting was a dream, so easy compared with cotton, and I love the look of the Baptist fan pattern. I used Aurifil 12 weight thread, doing what I call a little big stitch. I wondered what the wool shrinkage would be, and was happily surprised that it was not as much as some of the most recent quilts made using a Pellon cotton batting. The quilt finished at 80x65 inches before washing, 77-1/2 x 62-1/2 after a cold water wash and 30 minutes of air dry, followed by 15 minutes on the delicate setting in the dryer. It's finishing drying on the guest bed and I'm planning to sleep under it tonight.
This was my second oldest UFO. Now to finish the quilting on what seems to have become my personal albatross quilt - my king-size Quilty 365. Maybe if I persevere, by the end of this year? Time will tell, but I'd love to see that one in the finished column soon!
Sunday, March 1, 2020
One Monthly Goal for March
It's March already, and time for setting some goals for the month! Over the past couple months I pieced a couple smaller quilts for our quilt ministry. We got them layered and pinned at our meeting a couple weeks ago, and my One Monthly Goal is to complete the machine quilting on these two quilts, and get them out the door.
The second quilt is called Little Bear's Day, measuring 39x49 inches. It's a slightly smaller version made from the leftovers of a quilt I made back in 2012, now living with my three-year-old grandson. Sorry for the out-of-focus photo.
Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts for her One Monthly Goal Setting for March.
Happy sewing!
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