June Doings

Here it is, the last day of June, and I'm left scratching my head wondering if anything significant was accomplished this month amidst the days of high temperatures and humidity that has left us lethargic at best.  

We started the month with one of the largest floods we've seen since we've lived in this house.  My attempt at photos of the worst of it was a big fail, all too blurry to show anything significant.  The creek was probably nearing 100 feet beyond the bank and into our far back yard, and deposited a lot of crud, small trees, large limbs, etc. to be cleared.  Mostly accomplished at this point.  

The rainy days as well as the heat and humidity left me with more than the usual days of summer sewing time.  So, there is one small finish, a wheel chair/nursing home size quilt for our ministry efforts.

Yet another hollow star quilt that used up all the blocks that didn't seem to fit with the first and second quilts.  The first is yet to be finished since I'm hand quilting that one, though it should end up being a July finish.  

A lot of "vintage" fabrics appeared in this small quilt. Serpentine stitch to the rescue for quick quilting! It finished at 36x45 inches.

While I was outside I attempted to photograph some of our flowering plants, limited success there but here are a couple of the better ones.

We've had beautiful blooms so far this spring/summer, so far the intense heat hasn't diminished the flowering, though the hard thunderstorms do take a toll on the taller plants. Thankfully hubby has built tubing rings to hold the peony plants  upright as much as possible which has really helped a lot.

One last bit of quilty fun, I've continued to work on the small bin of "Kaffe to Cranston" brights, here is the third attempt at emptying the bin, a finished flimsy and now pinned for machine quilting. About 66x74 inches.

And would you believe, that little bin is still over half full!  Of course you would!  After I put together a binding, I think the remainder will be processed into 2-1/2 inch squares or strips and taken to the quilt ministry.  I'm tired of looking at them at this point.  

Many reasons for this month to be done and dusted, and I've already switched my calendar over to July in anticipation of some brighter, lighter days!

Til next time, happy quilting!

Between the raindrops, a finish for May

I've been having fun making up a bunch of Hollow Star blocks according to the tutorial that Jolene of Blue Elephant Stitches provided on her blog awhile back.  This latest finish is actually the second quilt made from her tutorial, the first is still in the hand quilting process.  

This latest finish is slated for donation to the church camp's annual auction over labor day weekend.  Measuring 63 x 72 inches, I quilted this one by ditch stitching around each block, then used a serpentine stitch down through each of the star blocks.  

I was finally able to grab a few photos outside when we had a bit of partial clearing yesterday.  May has been a rather dismal month here, fairly cold, windy and rainy much of the time. We're all looking forward to some warmth and sunshine, soon!  A few closer shots of some of my favorite blocks:

A bit of whimsy here and there, so the quilt doesn't take itself too seriously!

As I look at these photos, they all seem a bit blurry, almost as if viewing them through a light film of rippling water.  Please let me know if they appear clear to you, it's always possible that my eyes are the issue rather than the new camera I've used over the past few months after my beloved Sony died last fall.  I so wish they still made that camera, simple to operate and great pictures nearly all the time.  

Til next time, I hope you are enjoying some warmth and sunshine!

One Last April Finish

Just a short post to celebrate one last finish for April, just completed yesterday morning in time to grab a few photos before the T-storms and high winds hit.

These were the leftover blocks after I completed the first quilt in this little series (see my last post for that finish).

This was free-motion quilted throughout, the meandering jester's hat design.  It measures 50x50 inches after its beauty bath and dry.  

Used all of a couple smaller pieces of yardage for the back.  This will go to our Quilt Ministry for donation as the need arises.  

And that is a wrap for April.  Next up, a second hollow star quilt top nearly ready for assembling.  Next post ...

Happy stitching and looking forward to May and the blooming of the peonies and irises!

An April finish and spring doings

 A quick post, because that's the way life goes these days.  First a quilty finish for the camp auction later this year.

We finally had a day dry enough to get outside for a few shots in the early morning sunshine.

I machine quilted a large meander in the colorful blocks and stenciled the outer border.   Then had a lot of fun doing some hand quilting with a gold shade of 12 wt. Aurifil thread outlining the circle appliques and in the setting triangles.  The camera had a difficult time picking up the hand quilting except in close-up shots.

For the backing I used up all the remaining black tone-on-tone fabric and two black/red prints that have languished in the stash for more than 10 years. Never quite knew what to do with them.  All in all, I made a big dent in the bin of black fabrics.  As I age, it's more and more difficult to work with black since I can't see where I'm stitching!  

This was a fun finish and I hope someone will like it enough to bid on it at the auction. 

This morning my hubby came home with these little feathered fluffs.  For our daughter who hasn't been able to find any chicks in their area this spring.  They're scarce here too.  These are Rhode Island Reds and Sapphire Gems.  Their heat lamp went back on as soon as I snagged these photos as it's quite chilly in the garage.  We'll be babysitting them until Sunday when the family can make the trip to pick them up.

On that note, I'll close for today.  Hopefully back soon with some more quilting and life on the mini-farm!

Finally, a Friday Finish!

When I made this quilt top, and even after marking some segments for machine quilting, I never intended to hand quilt it!  But, I couldn't resist adding some hand quilting stitches to the center, and then one thing led to another ... and what do you know?  The last stitches on the binding were finally completed late last night.  

My new camera and I do not get along!  I have to shoot from near the ceiling to capture the entire quilt - of course holding the camera over my head and hoping.  So most or all of these photos only capture a portion of the quilt, which isn't all that big at 57x64 inches.   

Audrey's pretty center block which she gifted me several years ago.  When building this log cabin improv I tried to take my cues from her center, including the birds theme as well as coloration, etc.  It really was a fun make, and my interpretation of the Jen Kingwell Daylesford Quilt pattern using several orphan blocks and pieces from my stash.  I did not follow the pattern instructions precisely as far as sizes and types of blocks, width of strips, but used up strips and pieces from my scraps.  Only the outer border is from yardage.  

Some leftover Quilty 365 blocks made their way into the quilt!  

And, the finale, the back!  I think hubby actually likes this side better!?

A bit of a 'walk on the wild side' compared with the quilts I generally make, this one was great fun from start to finish!

A short update

 A short update on what I've been up to this month, Two tops finished and ready for quilting since my last post. 

The last time I posted the black alternate squares were plain, but I thought they needed something to jazz them up a bit.  I chose my favorite of the fabrics and cut circles to hand applique in the centers, using the same cardboard template that was used the year we created our Quilty 365 blocks.  I find hand appliqueing circles almost relaxing, other shapes not so much!  An outer border using a third (and my last) piece of tone-on-tone black fabric with a half-inch stop border and the top seemed complete.  I'll machine quilt this when I work up the energy to spend hours at the Janome, hopefully soon.

The second top is much simpler, and in some respects I think I like it better than the one above.  This one is also smaller, ending up around 53 inches square.  Both of these quilts will be donated to our quilt ministry.  The larger one may go to the camp auction at the end of summer.  

I'm also closing in on a hand quilted finish, hopefully in the next week or so.   This next photo is from about a week ago late in the evening, the colors are brighter than the actual quilt, but the best I could do with the incandescent lamp lighting and the new camera that I'm still trying to learn.  Have moved on to the outer borders, and will be very happy to have this one in the finished pile.  The top was completed back in 2023   https://amityquilter.blogspot.com/2023/09/an-improv-log-cabin-top.html

That's about it for today. Quilting time is precious and scarce, I'd best get to it!

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!