String-along's "Sing the Blues" is a Finished Top - At Last!

"Sing the Blues Mama Lou" was the first quilt top I began when Lori at Humble Quilts announced her 2019 String-along Challenge. Pursued diligently for a few months, then abandoned mid-summer to work on a couple other more easily completed string tops plus several donation quilts for our ministry.

I finally got back to Sing the Blues toward the end of January. After several long days of slogging through the string piecing and trimming of the last 108 quarter blog segments, there were a couple more days of piecing the blocks and rows.  That was completed last Friday evening, at which time it looked like this.

Taken at night with incandescent lighting

That looked a little too unfinished to my eyes with the half and quarter blocks at the edges, so on Saturday morning the remaining longish strips of solid whites in the stash were pieced together to make a 4 inch border and I'm thinking this helps finish off the top.  What do you think?

Mid-afternoon with the sunlight streaming in

I had originally thought I might use about a 2 inch white border, followed by a 1 inch border of pieced blue scraps, and another wider white border, but there wasn't enough white solid fabric left and the top as it is now measures 87 by 76-1/2 inches.  I wasn't about to order any more white solid, because, to tell the truth, I really don't like working with white solids which I know are every modern quilter's fabric stash staple!  Personal quirk, I guess.

Anyhow, after fussing with all the bias seams on all those strippy spider web blocks, an amazing thing happened when the final borders were sewn on.  You won't be able to tell from my wonky photos, but this top, for the first time in my entire quilting life, measures exactly the same at each parallel edge!  Exactly 87 inches long on both sides, and exactly 76-1/2 inches wide, both sides! No 1/8, 1/4 or 1/2 inch difference from one edge to the other.  How on earth, with all those bias seams??  Never fear, it won't go to my head, 'cause it'll never happen again!

I'm really, really happy with this quilt, all those little bits of blue fabrics from quilts made over many years, plus gifted scraps from some lovely quilters near and far.  A few of my favorite spider webs:

I'm planning to use big-stitch hand quilting to finish this top, so planning to order a wide back, most likely in a medium blue print, if I find one I like.  There's enough piecing on the front that I don't want to add more seams on the back.  Still need to decide whether to use my staple Hobbs 80-20 or wool for the batting.  I'll need to finish Westering Women and give it a first wash to assess shrinkage of the wool before ordering.  WW should be finished in the next week or two, at least that's the plan at the moment.

Completing the Sing the Blues top was my One Monthly Goal for February so I'll be linking this post with Patty at Elm Street Quilts at the end of the month when she posts her linky party.

My Mini Valentine

For a number of years we haven't really done anything special for Valentine's Day.  I used to bake a decadent chocolate cake with raspberry liqueur filling, and a chocolate-whipped cream-raspberry frosting.  That was before it was just the two of us to eat the entire cake, while both struggling to maintain a healthy weight.  But earlier this week while shopping at our favorite supermarket 25 miles from home, we spotted a display of sweet mini orchids and that was that.  We also hadn't splurged on flowers in the midst of the cold winter months for quite a long time, but this little plant simply said 'take me home and let me be your valentine.'

Two stems, one plant, a perfect metaphor for our lives together.  Two independent people, different,  joined together into one.

I don't have a red and white heart quilt to display, but I'll show you my February mini quilt, finished just in time for tomorrow's holiday (there's never a time when red and white Christmasy fabrics are truly out of season is there, lol).

This little quilt used up 144 additional HST cutoffs from the star blocks in my Christmas quilt of last fall.  That leaves somewhere around 80 more to empty their blue swiffer refill box, but I think they will just percolate for a few months while I think about what to do with them.  This little table topper measures 22-1/2 inches square.  It was ditch quilted in a square pattern around rows of triangles in the above view, though the quilting is difficult to discern from any of my photos.  The quilted texture may show a little better in the next close-up.

I'll link this post with Wendy at The Constant Quilter when she posts her monthly mini roundup.  In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy a very happy Valentine's Day, and maybe even a little slice of decadent chocolate cake!

A Midwinter Outing and Progress

You know you live in the boonies when the nearest world class museum has a 50% discount "resident" rate and you're still eligible with a zip code that is over 60 miles away!  That was the case earlier this week when we visited the Corning Museum of Glass with our daughter, SIL, his mom and our one-year old grandson.  It was a lovely, if cold day, with no snow or storms in the forecast - perfect!  And we took the "long way" (not interstate highway) to get there, which made for a perfectly delightful early-morning ride. 

I had never been anxious to visit this museum, being more a lover of handcrafted pottery than glass.  Wow, was I mistaken - this was a fabulous museum, so inspiring, with absolutely amazing works of art.  Silly me, wanting to shed excess weight in my purse I didn't tote along my camera, figuring hubby would have his fancy camera to do the job.  And he did, although his newly charged battery only lasted for 15 or so photos before dying - sigh.   But, we'll be visiting there again soon, before the summer crowds arrive.  And I will have my camera next time! 

Anyhow, here are a few of the photos we were able to capture.  A tiny sampling of all this museum has to offer.  Not all our photos have attribution, although I believe many will have info either on the museum's website or the google's search engine.  Keep in mind that these are all created of glass!

larger than lifesize - stunning!

I wish I had the attribution and description of this next one.  I remember that Japanese newspaper pieces are somehow added to the glass.  Next time!

As you would expect the museum shop was filled with gorgeous tempting items, here are just a couple that caught our eye(s):

My favorite item from the museum shop, but at more than a car payment or two, no.

Info on the artist who created the item shown in the previous photo

The most expensive item in the shop - I'll let you guess.   We didn't get the attribution, sorry.

And here's one for Lizzy; I had our daughter take the photo with her smartphone after our battery died. I loved this piece, from one of the modern exhibits.  It immediately reminded me so much of one of Lizzy's sunset photos of the NYC skyline from her beach.

Here's a link to the museum's description:  https://www.cmog.org/artwork/cityscape.

On the quilting front, progress is being made on Sing the Blues Mama Lou.  All the quarter segments are done, and now joined into half blocks; with blocks to be sewn together tomorrow if all goes well.  So happy that each step is getting shorter as there are half as many pieces as the previous step!  Looking forward to a finished top soon.

Wishing you all a happy, storm-free weekend!  (We had over six inches of snow last night and a few more inches today - hopefully finished now.)

Singin' the Blues Again

Last week I was finally able to clear the decks and embark upon slog through some strippy stitching to get the remaining blocks for my Sing the Blues Mama Lou quilt started.  This pile represents part of the 108 additional quarter-block segments with on average 10 strips sewn to each, going from this

to this

to become these (still unstitched)

and these

After the comparative drudgery of stitching all those strips for nearly a week, I've been relishing the task of slowly trimming the excess off and laying each segment on one of four piles to see the effect of this chaotic grouping of vintage to modern 'blues' accented with occasional strips of predominantly green or purple strips.  And enjoying recalling some of the other quilts these fabrics have been a part of, not to mention a few sweet fellow bloggers who contributed pieces from their own stashes:  Janet, Cynthia and Lizzy, plus some of my quilting buddies from our quilt ministry group.  This is becoming a real memory quilt, for at least as long as my memory continues serving me, lol!

After stitching these new segments into blocks, they will be added to these blocks, completed late last spring, as part of Lori's String Challenge.  Better late than never, right?  Then to contemplate whether to add a border, knowing that every single edge of every single block is on bias - one of the pitfalls of assembling these spiderweb blocks.  I think it will look better with an added border aside from giving the top a bit more stability, but we will see what remains in the stash.

It's time for setting a One Monthly Goal for this new month, and getting these blocks stitched and assembled into a completed top is going to be my goal for February.  I'll be linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts for her February Goal Setting Linkup that you can find here if you'd like to join in.  The rules are easy and motivating: you don't have to complete a quilt, your goal can be as easy as making one or a couple blocks for an ongoing project.  Patty is a great motivator, and what's really fun for me is that we share both first and last names, plus I grew up on Elm Street those many years ago.  How's that for coincidence!

For those who left sweet comments on my last post, my friend was gifted her quilt yesterday when she and her husband were able to come for a simple supper of homemade cabbage and beef soup and  dill bread still warm from the oven - yum!  She loved her new quilt and remarked how her legs are always cold in winter and that she needed something to wrap around her.  Always good to know a simple donation quilt will be well loved and appreciated. 

Til next time, happy quilting!

A January Finish

The end of January already, and it turned out to be a rather productive month.  The quilt I started for my friend is now finished, ready to be gifted as soon as they can safely descend from their mountaintop home (the warmer weather has made their old logging trail impassable due to mud).   Anyway, here it is, looking not so different from the top posted earlier, just finished.

Machine quilted with the simple meandering leaf and loop design we learned in our first 2012 FMQ Challenge lesson.  Still one of my favorites because I can actually keep the meander going for a bit before running into a corner or border!

The piano key borders are ditch quilted, no close-ups, my free-motion was pretty shaky on those! At least the thread blended well with the darker colors so they're not too obnoxious (or obvious) I hope.

The batting was a cotton Pellon from JoAnn.  Shrinkage was more than acceptable in my opinion, and I won't use it again.  Unquilted top was 51 x 70; finished and washed once in cold water delicate cycle and partially dried on delicate cycle, the finished size is now 66 x 48-3/4".   Four inches in length on a 70 inch quilt seems out of line somehow.  Especially since it wasn't quilted heavily. Live and learn, I guess.

Til next time, sunny days and happy quilting!

One Monthly Goal - January Progress

This month my One Monthly Goal was to continue hand quilting my Westering Women quilt with the hope of completing all the blocks and perhaps begin work on the outer borders/edge.  As of today I've almost completed that goal and am on target to finish the remaining row by the end of January, which will take me well into the top border.  I'm posting my progress now because I'll no doubt forget to link up by the end of the week!

So, here's where I am as of this afternoon.  The front, where I hope to finish off the bear paw block in the upper right with tonight's quilting session:

Here's what the back looks like, the color is closer to true on the left side of the photo, although there are two slightly different light yellow prints on the back, accounting for some of the color change.  I'm loving the texture the combination of wool batting and Baptist fan quilting are giving the quilt.  The lone rogue block on the back is one that turned out too large for the front - waste not!

Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal January Finish post. 

January Mini or There's More Than One Red Holiday!

As you might recall last November I finally finished our very first Christmas quilt,

and every one of those 30 stars had eight flippy points, translating to 240 leftover tiny triangle squares!

So, what to do but start stitching some of them together.  January seems to be a clean-out month for a few of the swiffer boxes of scraps that are underfoot, littering piling up in every spare spot on shelves, under tables, etc.  And so was born this little table topper, just in time for the next red holiday in mid-February.

At just a bit over 13 inches square this is one of my smallest minis, other than a few mug rugs and potholders.  Simply machine quilted in the ditch with a wavy machine stitch in the border, it finished up fairly quickly.  And the bonus being I got to use a few more hoarded scrappy strips of my vintage Quaker Reds for the borders.  There are just a few small bits left now for another scrappy project.

I love the back as much as the front of this little quilt, a leftover piece from a fat quarter of a 2009 In the Beginning print by Jason Yenter.

Especially this little scenic vignette:

So, this used up 36 of the 240 triangle squares - guess what's coming up for February!

After reading Wendy's (The Constant Quilter) and Cynthia's (Wabi-sabi Quilts) posts earlier today about their tree blocks for Australian fire victims, I was inspired to create one to send along.  Since the blocks are being requested by the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild in New South Wales, I attempted to make something a bit ad hoc and improv, or at least a reasonable facsimile!  Here's the block I'll be sending along in a few days:

Since modern really isn't my forte, and I was working with fairly narrow background strips, the piecing got wild and wooly toward the end, and all the white edges are on bias.  They've been stay-stitched to keep everything in place, and after starching and giving it a final press amazingly everything laid flat and square. There's a dark strip of green print at the bottom which may or may not be visible in the photo depending on your monitor as the photo was taken after dark.   I may try again tomorrow and see if I can improve the improv in a second block.

If you are interested in joining in and making a tree block for this cause, more information can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/WollongongModernQuiltGuild/.

Linking with Wendy's Peacock Party, and I'll also link with Wendy at The Constant Quilter when she posts her monthly mini round-up next week.

First Top of 2020

By day three of the new year my plans for January were flipped upside down, and resulted in stitching up this top for a comfort quilt.  I didn't mind the change of plans too much, because the quilt will be for a good friend who is recovering from her most recent heart incident.  She is just a couple months shy of 86 years young, so it's about time she had a warm colorful quilt to wrap up in. 

Here's the completed top.  My friend loves birds and so the panel and cornerstones will please her.

A little more about my friend.  She and her husband live off-the-grid at the top of a mountain about 15 or so miles from us.  Their power comes from a combination of solar panels and a small windmill, their heat is natural gas piped through the woods in some sort of suspended plastic pipe from a neighboring gas well about 1/4 mile away.  There are many old gas wells in this area, long ago abandoned by the industry because of low production, but useful for a number of our friends who live in the mountains.   Being on the mountain top they have no well, and depend on a cistern to capture rain and snow for their water supply.  Access to their lovely home is via a long-abandoned logging road, full of hairpin turns and sharp drop-offs along the side.  There are periods of time (prolonged rain or when conditions are icy as they are today) when they are literally stranded on their mountain-top.  They were fortunate that when her latest heart episode occurred they were able to travel into town to our local hospital for transport to the city hospital nearly 100 miles away where she had a pacemaker implanted.  She is now making a great recovery, an amazing woman of unwavering faith who regularly shares her testimonies with others in our church family. 

The backing has been pieced, and I'll plan to layer and pin the quilt at our ministry meeting next week, and hopefully complete the machine quilting and binding in a week or two.   Finished top measures 51x70 inches, a nice size for a throw quilt for her chair or sofa. 

A closer look.  Many scraps from both quilt ministry and my stash were used for the piano key border.  I think there are 24 or 25 different fabrics used. 

Linking with Wendy's Peacock Party here.   And wishing you all a happy quilting weekend!