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!

The little 9-patch that grew and Grew

I'm off and running on my latest 'Opportunity Quilt' of the year! Our church congregation helps support a Christian camp located in nearby northern Pennsylvania and our quilt ministry was invited to make a quilt or two for their annual auction in September. Our newer quilters are busy with lap quilts for the nursing home and other projects, so I started working on this, my more modern adaptation of the cover quilt on Carolyn O'Bagy Davis' book titled Quilted All Day, the Prairie Journals of Ida Chambers Melugin.

I finished the top yesterday.

Like so many of my quilts this one didn't start out to be as large as it ended up! It's pretty much a queen size top, measuring 80 x 92 inches! That's about the maximum size I can manage to machine quilt on the Janome. Which is the way it will be quilted, since there are already two huge quilts in hoops around here and there being no other hand quilters in our little group.

Last week we had a torrential thunderstorm that was about as close to a tornado as I ever want to experience. Lost power for 27 hours but thankfully other than a few small branches in the yard no damage to our property. Neighbors just down the road lost two huge trees next to their driveway, and all across our region utility poles and trees were twisted and shattered to the ground. I had been trimming all those 9-patches, and was able to finish that evening, thanks to my little LED lantern.

Hoping to come up with an easy-to-quilt stencil for all those light green alternate blocks, so I can get this top marked and sandwiched. Very happy that there are 3 months in which to get this one quilted and ready for the auction.

Quilty 365 - The Final Link-up

This may be the last official link-up for Quilty 365, but it won't be the last time you see these circles, because this baby is just in the beginning stages of quilting.  As of today I've hand quilted an area about 14 x 60 inches, working my way from the center to a corner of this giant.  It's going slower than I'd like, mostly because of all the 'opportunity quilts' that have come my way of late.  But I don't mind a bit, I love, love, LOVE seeing this in the hoop and spread across the carpet when I walk into the sewing room each day! Just having it there right next to my desk is enticement to pick up the needle and take a few stitches whenever I have a few moments.

Very simple big stitch quilting in the sashings and blocks.  I like how quilting down the sashing is making all those blocks puff up just a bit, though difficult to see in the angle of this photo.

I've loved working on this quilt-along from the very first block ...

through weeks of mulling over whether I'd have enough of my chosen sashing and setting triangle fabric...turns out there were just a few scraps to spare after putting it all together.

The back story of why I was so keen on using this sashing fabric for this particular quilt. My blogging friend, the late Kathy Porter (http://nanato4ts.blogspot.com) gifted me with a box of her beautiful fabrics when she was downsizing her stash.  This fabric was included in the box and the tone-on-tone circles seemed a perfect fit for the Quilty 365 project from the very beginning. I am reminded of Kathy's encouraging words and her generosity whenever I see this fabric.

Carrying the circle theme to the borders, though a bit less obviously, I chose these two dark fabrics to bring the top to its final size.

Teeny tiny circles in the border fabrics!

There aren't any photos of the entire finished top, because there isn't a surface in our home large enough to lay out anything measuring over 110x110 inches, and it was far too wet and muddy outside before the top was sandwiched for quilting.  Half of the quilt is shown in the next photo, taken while pinning the layers at the church fellowship hall.

I used 313 of my 366 circles in this quilt, the remainder to find their way into another project sometime in the future (looking for for inspiration for that future quilt among all the link-ups today!). But, these were not the only circles made last year! Oh no, Quilty 365 was just the beginning, and turned out to be the inspiration to include more circles in yet another quilt, Oregon Memories, completed for my husband last year.

When this huge quilt will be finished is anybody's guess, but I'm hoping to see it quilted, bound and in its place of honor on the guest bed before the end of the year.  My thanks to Audrey at Quilty Folk for hosting this fun quilt-along!  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's final creations, and you can see them too by following this link to Audrey's blog.

a glimpse of things to come - couldn't resist!

April's Friday Finish

A local nursing home requested some lap quilts from our quilt ministry group, and so that has been our focus over the past month or so.  This is the fourth "opportunity quilt" for the reverse side of that 17 in 2017 list of projects, and my one and only finish for April.

A whole lot of colorful scrappiness, with prints, plaids and dots from every season of the year and some novelty prints thrown in for good measure.  The quilt finished at 40 x 50 inches. And I didn't even make a dent in the huge bags of scraps we have accumulated.

This is the third quilt I've finished using those infamous phone book pages for the strippy block foundations, and it will be my last. Too many hours spent tearing off paper when I could be sewing ... Someone had the idea of trying used dryer sheets as foundations that would not require removal.  I'm thinking of trying that method, and wonder if anyone has made strippy blocks using these?  Seems like as long as they don't fall apart in the laundry they might work well since they're dimensionally stable and very thin.

I'll be making more nursing home quilts toward fall, but for the next few weeks will be working on a much larger project that includes a whole lot of scrappy nine-patch blocks, about 50 or so ...  Yet another opportunity.

So happy that spring has finally arrived and with it the fun of some outdoor quilty photos in the early morning mist.

Happy Friday!

Labeling at Last!

We've heard it over and over again, add labels to your completed quilts!  And while I've always added personalized labels for gifted quilts, and have even quilted the grandchildren's names into their special quilts, I'll admit to being totally remiss when it came to the ones I've kept for us.  Until now. Over the past two weeks, between other projects, labels have been added to 19 quilts!  I think I'm all caught up now, except for one antique quilt fragment that I squared up and bound the cut edges on two sides several years ago, that now hangs on a wall in my sewing room.

An older photo taken in our previous home

It all started when I was itching to get this old girl out to play for a bit.   She's a 1951 Singer Centennial Model 201 that we found twenty years ago in the attic of a big old barn-turned-thrift store in upstate New York.  I was shopping for an inexpensive bedside table and my husband spotted the Queen Anne cabinet and discovered the sewing machine inside.  The machine was a bonus, and a mighty fine one at that, as it worked perfectly right from the start.

At any rate, I was feeling the need to do some machine stitching but didn't want to start another big project, and labeling the many quilts around here has long been on my 'to-do' list.  I wanted to document some special quilts that we had picked up along the way, especially those for which we had provenance information, some that were totally made by others, others are vintage tops that I've quilted and finished, in addition to my own quilts. Quilts like this hand-quilted Mennonite broken-star pattern beauty from the Shipshewana, Indiana area that we picked up at a church school auction several years ago.

I don't have a date for this one, but it's fairly recent, the fabrics look like 1980s or early 1990s to me, and sadly one of those deep pinks still bleeds every time it's washed.

My labels tend to be very simple, printed on a commercial printer-friendly fabric, and bordered with pieces of leftover binding.  In this case I included information about the origin of the quilt, and where, when and who last purchased it.

My own quilts just get a name, location and year completed, unless I've given the quilt a name.  A simple job, so easily done. I'm so happy to have this nagging project completed, and wonder why it's taken so long to accomplish!  It's a pretty sure bet I'll add labels as soon as anything is completed from this point forward.  I hope ...