Another baby quilt finish

 The baby quilt for the preemie is now finished and ready for gifting when I next see his great-aunt at church.  

I'm rather happy with how this design turned out, kind of modernish but the fabrics give it an old-fashioned vibe.  The quilt is backed and bound with an all-over print of happy children's faces, and you might notice there's a holiday theme involved, which I hadn't noticed for the longest time.  Funny how you can only see one aspect of a fabric, and completely miss the actual theme!   I chose to focus on the smiling faces, and suspect baby will too.

All of the fabrics came from our quilt ministry stash, and a couple readers may recognize some of them, having sent them from New Orleans and California - thanks again Angie and Lynn!

Happily we've had a few sunny days this week, though winter seems to be breathing down our necks with snowy days forecast for the weekend and well into next week.  Our immediate area is forecast to receive upwards of 5-6 inches - yuck.  The autumn oaks are fast losing their remaining leaves, and the larch trees, the last to show color around here, are turning a soft yellow.  

Another family of squirrels invasion, this time of the holiday sort, thanks to Marie at Quilt Bee blog, in the form of Christmas themed table toppers.  She indicated she had seen one on Pinterest.   Here's my first one under construction, awaiting borders

which I'll add later today

Easy-peasy, and will be perfect for a few of those little gifts we all want to have on hand for the season, or for our own use.  I'll make a couple more with the traditional red and green holiday fabrics, but also planning to try a version using some blues with white.  I'll mention here that those folded corners for the stars are SO easy using Doug Leko's Simple Folded Corners Ruler, and so much faster than drawing lines on squares before stitching.  No affiliation, just a happy user.   

Til next time, happy stitching!

Catching up at the end of the month

Over the past few weeks I've been cutting 2 inch strips from a box of fat quarters and smaller pieces donated to our quilt ministry a few months ago.  This Tuesday the final rows of blocks were stitched into this top, now awaiting quilting after the new year.   This one measures 64x76 inches at the moment.  Not inclined to add a border at this point, but we'll see.

The inspector was on duty of course ...

Next up, another smaller start for the quilt ministry.  We had a bin of scrappy leftovers from two quilts made from an older line of fabric donated to us a couple years ago.  And we just received word of a tiny two-pound preemie just born to the niece of one of our church members.  Who should of course have a special quilt awaiting him when he is eventually discharged from the hospital, expected sometime around Christmas.  These are the first four blocks, each block will finish at 9 inches.  Planning to add a border or two after the blocks are assembled. What do you think - too dark, too much pink, or will it be ok for a baby boy quilt??  I'm never quite sure when not working with "kid" fabrics.

Then of course there's the monthly mini challenge which I've been very delinquent about.  When Janet O. at Rogue Quilter issued a challenge to all the mini-makers to create a mini from the contents of our baggie storage systems, I immediately thought of all the little sandwich bags stored in a couple of my swiffer boxes.  Retrieved two of those baggies, one with tiny flying geese, and the other containing the leftovers from a gaggle of tumbler mini blocks Janet had sent me a few years ago plus a bunch of miscellaneous 2-1/2 inch squares left from previous projects. Decided to tackle the tumbler baggie first, so I made a cardboard template from one of the tumbler blocks and proceeded to cut up all the squares to make more tumblers, and that's as far as I've gotten with my next mini.  Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze this project into November's schedule.  This plus the remaining hand quilted projects should be more than enough to keep me busy and avoiding any unnecessary housework for quite awhile!

Til next time, happy stitching! 

Another Finish - or not

 Yesterday the sun finally showed its face again and I was able to take a few photos of the latest finish, the Black and White Triangles quilt.  It needs a better name than that, please chime in with something that seems fitting as my mind is blank!

Not sure why but this quilt is incredibly heavy considering the large piecing, the usual 80/20 Hobbs Heirloom cotton/poly batting, and a one-piece wide backing.  I should have weighed that backing fabric I guess.  It will be a warm one for sure.

I machine quilted it with double lines across each triangle edge, but thinking it might need more.  When my two big hand quilting projects are finally completed I might just get this back out and do some big stitch hand quilted circles in the middle of each triangle.  What do you think?  It is perfectly usable as it is now, and can be pressed into service when the grands come for their next overnight stay in the meantime.  So maybe it's finished and maybe not ...

The backing.  And here is a warning - I ordered this one from a well-known company, it "should" have been plenty large enough for this 80x80 inch quilt.  But, rather than the advertised 108" width the fabric was barely 100 inches in width, and it had been cut 'straight' as it was folded on the bolt, but in fact I lost a good 18 inches of length due to its not being on grain when it was folded right off the loom.   So, when layering and pinning the top, I had to angle it rather than having the backing straight across.  Thankfully it appears fairly straight now that the quilting and binding are finished and it has gone through its first wash.  

As usual my four-legged buddy accompanied me as we wandered around the yard for a few more shots. I think he's learned the art of posing for quilt photos!

Today was the last nice day before our next round of dreary rainy days and colder nights.  Weather forecasters are calling for snow flurries in the higher elevations Saturday and Sunday night. We've had very little fall colors here, many trees just dropped their leaves without changing color at all, others turned brown rather than the typical bright reds, yellows and bronzes.  

Last fall we had bought a bundle of three ears of Indian corn to hang next to the back door on the covered porch.  They stayed there all winter and into late planting season this spring.  Hubby decided to try an experiment and planted a row of the kernels along with some sunflowers along the garden fence.  Well, the sunflowers grew tall but the Indian corn grew taller, with some stalks reaching at least 12 feet high, a couple might have reached 13-14 feet!  The leaves were huge too.  And the stalks bore ears of corn which we eagerly awaited to see if they would have the wonderful colors of the parent kernels.  Checked a few ears in early September and were disappointed to see only whitish  kernels at the top of the ears we tested.  Hubby cooked a couple of those ears and tried eating them - very starchy!  But today, lo and behold, some of the ears yielded pure gold!  What a happy surprise, kind of like opening gifts on Christmas morning.  These are our fall colors blessing this year!

Glistening like agates just tossed by the waves onto a beach .

I only opened four ears today, there are more waiting in the wheelbarrow to husk on another day. Some are quite small and probably won't yield much,  but we're delighted with these and if we can get the kernels planted earlier next year, we may get a much better harvest to share and decorate the porch next fall.

And I'll leave you with the latest photo of Sammy in his favorite napping spot in the 'tent' created under the hoop stand holding my Quilty 365.

Til next time, happy stitching!

One Down and Three to Go!

 "Lady Sings the Blues" is now in the finished column!   This is the quilt slated for gifting to a birthday girl in late November.  So happy to have it completed!

I've been waiting for a nice sunny day to photograph it properly, and it looked like the skies were finally clearing mid-morning.  Though by the time I gathered up the quilt, clothes pins and camera, the skies were again cloudy, which has been our pattern of late.  When it isn't raining that is.  But still, it turned out to be a pretty good day for photographs.

A lot of stencils were used in this quilt for the free motion portion.  All marked with Crayola Ultra-Washable markers, which I've never had an issue with, until this quilt.  After it's first pre-wash bath in plain cold water I took it out to be sure the markings were removed and was horrified to find pink bleeding on the tannish backgrounds of several of the basket blocks.  And this was supposed to be a gift quilt!  The blocks with the creamier background fabric shed the marker with no problem.  Another rinse, the pink remained although slightly lighter.  A third wash with Synthrapol and warm water removed nearly all of the pink leaving only the faintest hint that probably no one else would even notice, but since I knew it was still there ... sigh.  The only thing that comes to mind is that my friend who gave me the pieced blocks (her rejects after making a quilt of the same kit fabrics) never prewashes her fabrics. Perhaps the finish on that one fabric held the color from the washable markers, though I don't know for a fact.  Anyhow, a fourth clear water rinse/dry after the outside photography seems to have removed the remaining pink, for which I'm really thankful!

I hand quilted the baskets with Aurifil 12 wt. thread, while the remainder of the quilt was machine quilted with Aurfil 50 wt.  I like the hand quilted details, plus dreaded forcing the machine to quilt into the multiple layers of all those hst seams, and figured the hand quilting "might" go faster with less angst.

The back:

And the so-called "beauty shots"

Our fall colors are slow to appear and seem much more muted this year, though time will tell when this area finally reaches "peak colors."  So a couple of the porch mums were pressed into service.

And here's our Sammy, now one year old, who accompanied me throughout.  He's such a character, into everything and just as sweet as he can be.  

Hide and seek -

Hope all is well in your world.  Now back to quilting!

p.s.  I'm having issues with comments either coming to my email twice, or in some cases not at all. Please forgive me if you don't receive a response in your email.  Maybe blogger will eventually get it right, or maybe go back to a system that actually worked.  Not holding my breath though.

Playing Blogging Catch-up

Seems the calendar marches along way faster than I can keep up anymore! Now that fall is officially here I'm hoping to spend more time in the sewing room once again.  Our trees and the underbrush are just beginning to show signs of color, so we're finding the best color right on our back porch, floppy headed sunflowers and late zinnias.

Lately, I've been feeling the need to finish up some long term projects and "clear the decks" so to speak.  Trying really hard to resist the lure of any new squirrel invasions and fabric purchases, but then Gladi just blogged about a new Julie Paschkis Christmas fabric collection and we all know what's about to happen -sigh!  My granddaughter hasn't had a new quilt in several years, and this would be so perfect for her! And if you've ever perused my finished quilts over the years, you know I can hardly resist Julie Paschkis fabrics.

So, back to my plans for the remainder of this year.  They are to finish four large quilts, two of which are hand quilted!  Here's where we are with each at this point:

We all remember Audrey's Quilty 365 challenge, way back in 2015 (I think?)  This may be the last holdout in the world of completed Quilty 365s!  Adding all that sashing and then outer borders made this monster somewhere in the neighborhood of 114x118 inches!  It's slated to become a to-the-floor bedspread for my bed, if only I can get it finished that is!  Trying to spend at least an hour or two every day on it, and it is progressing, however slowly.  I think it's getting close to being about 75% completed at this point.  I long-since abandoned the idea of hand quilting the outer borders since they will sit near the floor, and they will be simply machine quilted.

Secondly, Lady Sings the Blues - this will be a birthday gift so needs completion by the end of November.  Mostly machine quilted on the Janome, but I'm hand quilting the individual baskets.  I love mixing quilting styles, and trying to add hand quilted touches to many of the quilts slated for machine quilting.  Hoping to have this one finished later this week.

Next up is my Diamond Jubilee quilt, now resting for a few days while the aforementioned baskets occupy my hand quilting hoop.   At this point ten of the thirteen sunflowers are quilted, along with a LOT of the flying geese.  This has been a relaxing evening project, and I'm loving hand quilting through the Hobbs Heirloom wool batting.  

I'm planning to add more quilting in the sunflower background fabrics, as in the green/red block below.  Will need to take this to quilt ministry next week to get the stencils drawn on each block.  So much easier to mark and pin quilts on the tables we raise on bed risers than to break my back trying to do that chore at home.

As I'm hand quilting and looking at my stitches, I recall a blog post some time ago, I think it was from Barbara Brackman on one of her blogs, where she said a quilt looked "as if it was stitched with an aging hand."  Yeah, I can identify with that, and that's what this quilt will be named when I get around to a label "Stitched with an Aging Hand."  Perfect!

And just because I'm itching to do some machine work, this is the fourth quilt slated for a hopefully quick finish.

Shown here as the nearly completed flimsy, it's now under the Janome's needle.  This one I'm planning triple lines of walking foot stitching within each of the triangles, nothing fancy.  This will probably end up with one of the grandkids at some point although I am loving it, so maybe not right away.

Then, there's this project I've been working on at quilt ministry for the past few weeks. Now at home clinging desperately to the design wall as I try to come up with a final arrangement for the blocks.

Those blocks in the left column are taped and pinned in an attempt to see what's happening.  And this is not the final layout.  The off-center layout isn't pleasing to my eye in this instance so I'm planning to move things around to a more symmetrical arrangement.  No hurry with this one, at least until the design wall is needed for something new.  And it always is needed for something new, isn't it?!

My evening companion as I sit in my recliner and hand quilt (or try to, lol!)

Sammy celebrated his first birthday this past week.  Based on his age when he wandered into our barn, he was born around the middle of September last year.  Now he's a big boy at 10.3 pounds, full of mischief and fun, and keeps Gibbs on his toes.  They get along wonderfully most of the time, at least until Sammy has enough roughhousing and wants to go outside to hunt grasshoppers or nap on the porch chairs.

Though I really wasn't out squirrel-hunting, a few weeks ago Nann at With Strings Attached offered up a couple of completed quilt tops she had found at her church's rummage sale.  Thinking ahead to next year's church camp auction, I added my name to the giveaway and she sent these two gorgeous tops. thanks Nann!

This lovely queen size (86x86) top is beautifully sewn with machine embroidered/appliqued flowers, and is the type of traditional style that always sells well at the auction.  

After a lot of searching online I did find a wide backing fabric with suitable soft colors, though more modern appearing, for this top.  Looking forward to quilting this one sometime after the new year.

The second is much smaller, wall hanging size, and equally expertly sewn and machine embroidered. I sure hope I can do justice to both tops.  They will be donated to next year's camp auction.

A closer look at one of the embroidered embellishments:

With all this going on there's no mini quilt made this month, but hopefully when the "big four" are finished I can get back into the routine.  In the meantime, I hope to have some colorful fall photos in my next post.  Fall is progressing in fits and starts it seems.  A couple weeks ago we saw no hummingbirds at the feeder for over a week, thought they had departed on their southward migration, but thankfully left the feeder out for any stragglers.  The past few days we've seen a couple again, though not as frequently as during the summer months.

The Only winter squash we harvested from our garden!  This has been a terrible growing year, and it seems many of the seeds we purchased that did germinate either produced nothing at all, or sent out something totally unrelated to the package label.  Very discouraging, but we're fortunate to have a large farm stand in a rural crossroads hamlet a few miles north of our nearest shopping center that has fabulous prices.  We filled the van a couple weeks ago and plan a return trip tomorrow for more squash and apples and whatever else we can find.  The winter squash sell for 2 for $1, and the spaghetti and butternut squashes are huge, each one yielding at least 6-8 servings.  Thankfully we both love squash!

If you're still with me, thanks for reading!  Happy Stitching!