Year End Finish

Here, at long last, is the finished "historic panel" quilt, from the challenge Lori at Humble Quilts issued back in 2022! You can see my first post about this challenge here.

There was "help" while completing the free-motion quilting earlier this month.

The center panel is hand quilted, the remainder a mix of serpentine stitching in the narrower borders, and some free motion in the wider border areas.

Sad to say my efforts at free motion have left me with a severe case of thumb/wrist joint stress, and I'm afraid that my days of free-motion quilting are pretty much over.  It has now been more than a week since completing this and the pain has not yet subsided.  No broken bones, just a case of stressed joints that will take a (long) while to heal.

Though I'm generally happy with the way this quilt turned out, when it was washed in cold water (with color catchers) there was still one star background fabric that gladly accepted the bit of red dye that released in the wash water, so now there are 3 or 4 stars with faint pink backgrounds rather than the cream/light beige of the other blocks.  You'll likely be able to spot the rogue blocks in some of the photos (like the one directly above).

A bit of the backing fabric:

We will keep the quilt here for the next year bicentennial plus 50 celebrations, and at some time in the future will give it to our second grandson, who is in the National Guard and hopes to be accepted for flight training school to become a helicopter pilot after completing his degree.

This December has until today been colder than normal for our area with snow nearly every day.  Today we awoke to 37 degrees and sunny, with a forecast high of mid-40s.  Hopefully some (or all) of the accumulated snow will melt without any major flooding.  There is more rain in the forecast for later this week, and Christmas could quite possibly be green in these parts.  

Wishing all of you the blessings of peace and joy during this holiday season.  Til next year ...

Historic Panel Challenge Top

Today is the day Lori at Humble Quilts is having her linky party finale for her Historic Panel Challenge. Of course I do not have a finished quilt ready, but do have my top finished, and since the photos taken in early December now have the quilt sandwiched and ready for quilting!  

So many decisions during the process.  I really didn't want to make another mini or small quilt - we simply do not have any more wall space to display little quilts, and I wanted to make it a useful size.  This ends up measuring in the neighborhood of 72x72 inches.  The biggest challenge was trying to make each round come out to an even number - my old math skills seem to have flown by the wayside in recent months! No one was more amazed than I was when all those sawtooth blocks came out even when they were sewn together into the borders!  

Next up is the decision of how this will be quilted.  I'm leaning toward a combination of hand and machine quilting, although nothing will take place until the Janome returns home from it's next visit to the repair shop (see my previous post).  

Anyway, I chose this Barbara Brackman Metropolitan Fair print for the backing - it was the only reproduction print I had enough of to make a backing, and it had been saved for enough years waiting for the perfect place to use it.  

I'm planning to incorporate the panel selvedge into the label eventually.  Not sure of the age of this panel since I wasn't able to find a reference to it online.  Does anyone (Lori?) know?

The new year has begun with quiet, calm, above freezing weather, and the ice in the driveway has departed leaving us with squishy ground underneath.  But if the sunshine holds, we may see it dry out enough that we don't feel like we're wallowing in little stones and mud when we try to cross it.  In the meantime, the kitchen and back entry room floors show lots of little footprints as I'm not keen on mopping every hour of the live long day.  I'd rather be quilting!

So, thanks Lori, for this challenge, and for sending this great little panel a couple years ago.  I'm hoping it will be a true-blue finish by the end of 2023!

Fall - going, going, but not yet gone

Once again, it's been a while since I've posted, and things probably won't change much for the foreseeable future.  But all is mostly well here, except for our continued lack of energy post-covid.  

We've had a spectacular autumn display of color in this part of the state. One of the best years since we returned to WNY.  I'll share a few photos taken a couple weeks ago on a somewhat hazy afternoon, just before an expected rainy spell.  At that time the maples were near peak.  Now they have faded and the more subtle hues of maroon, golds and bronzes of the oak forests have taken over.  I think I almost find the more subdued colors more inviting, there's a special softness about them that sings to my heart. 

So, without further ado, a few scenes from our yard:

I typically don't do much if any decorating for the season inside the house. Thinking on why that is, I came to the conclusion that it's because this house exudes autumn all year long  Many of the walls are paneled in knotty pine , the drapes are a small bittersweet hued check, and the somewhat eclectic furnishings are mostly antique or vintage pieces from family or local thrift/vintage shops.   We did pick up a few small gourds on our recent trip to our favorite old barn/farm stand to stock up on plenty of winter squashes, etc.  Earlier this summer we received a gift of 'fruit of the month' and the first shipment arrived packed in a little wooden crate too lovely to discard, so it was pressed into service as an autumn gourd backdrop.

More hickory nuts and a few bright leaves have been added since the photo was taken, and then today while cleaning up the side yard my husband brought in the last two sunflowers, tiny, now in a little bud vase until they fade.

Shall we talk quilting now for a bit?  I'm still plugging along, however slowly, on the historic panel challenge.  Long since gave up any hope of having it completed by the November deadline, I'm just concentrating on enjoying making each block as time permits.  Here are a few of the latest sawtooth stars that will eventually be added all around the center panel.

The quilt is quickly outgrowing the design wall.  

Thinking this quilt may eventually go to our second grandson, who just completed his Army basic training this week.  But we'll keep it here for awhile first, until he's settled a bit more in life.  Hard to believe he's all grown up now, seems like yesterday he was a toddler learning to throw spiral passes to his dad when he was just 2 years old!  He hasn't given up his love of football in the meantime, and played every year of junior and senior high school.  How time flies.

Til next time, hope all is well with each of you!

A Simple Donation Top and Panel Progress

 Our quilt ministry bin(s) of completed quilts is empty, and it was time to make up a couple more tops.  Here is the first one, made up of smallish pieces recently donated by one of our group who is downsizing her stash.  I'm calling it Autumn Squares for now.  At 52x70 inches, it will make a nice throw or single bed size quilt.  

Yesterday dawned crisp and clear and this photo was taken shortly after the sun rose over the mountain.  We've had quite cool nights of late, this morning's temp was a chilly 39 degrees.  We're seeing more and more color in the leaves and the morning dew keeps the lawn wet until well into the afternoon.  My favorite season of the year is just getting underway!  The canning kettle is put away and I'm ready to get back to some serious sewing again.

What has consumed much of my stitching time over the past month is the historic panel challenge by Lori of Humble Quilts earlier this summer.  From strips to four-patch squares, to 36 patch blocks, here's what 732 one-inch finished squares look like surrounding my panel.

The original panel before adding any borders.

While I could just add a small outer border and call it finished, it isn't currently a very useable size at 38x39 inches.  A wall hanging except we don't have any more wall space large enough without taking something else down, and not really suitable as a table topper either.  So yesterday the fabric bins all came out of the closet for a good rummage through.  Aside from practically no blue of an appropriate shade or pattern, I did find some reds and tans that may help finish this off nicely.  I'd like to see the finished size at least 50x65 or so.  We'll just have to see what happens, and no promise to have a completed quilt by November - a finished top is probably the best I can hope for.  

Hand quilting is chugging along at a slower pace on the log cabin quilt.  I try to quilt during the evening on days when my eyes are still able to focus on the work at that time of day.  It's slow work but still my very favorite finish for any quilt.

Til next time, wishing you a beautiful and peaceful weekend.