July Monthly Mini and other things

So... what happened to all this free time I'm supposed to be having? I'm retired, I can't go anywhere, I don't have kids or grandkids ... yet it seems like I still exhaust myself just trying to keep up with what needs to be done around the house and yard. (Granted, there's a LOT that needs doing.) That, and simply keeping in touch with everyone, whether by phone, text, or zoom. Good grief.

I did manage to make a mini.

I'm calling this Pineapple Squares, because the blocks were supposed to be pineapple blocks, but ended up looking more like square-in-a-square. Some of them are pretty off-kilter, one of them actually has a hole in it (I just noticed when taking the pictures).

Oops. See the hole? Apparently my chosen scrap wasn't long enough. Must repair ...

I recently purchased Barb's fan stencil (available here) and tried it out  on this little quilt. It was pretty easy, and I like how it turned out.

My friend Joanne described to me how you can backtrack over the previously quilted fan to start a  new line, thus avoiding all those starts and stops. You can see here the backtracking is well hidden, helped no doubt by the busy fabrics, the crinkling, and the very thin thread.

Yes I know, some of those black triangles are pretty darned cockeyed. Who cares. Overall effect - think galloping horse - it all looks good.

For the back I used a piece of this versatile toile, which my friend Shauna gave me an entire bold of ( !! ).

Please visit The Constant Quilter, hosted by Wendy, to see more of this month's mini quilts, which are always delightful!

On to "other things" ...

I'm almost finished quilting my "Little Orphan Scrappy" from said pattern by Lynn Wilder (Sewin' Wild Oaks). Simple grid, because I could not come up with anything else  wanted something uncomplicated.

I also went ahead and marked one corner of my Summer Sampler.

I've realized I was deluding myself thinking I could hand quilt this. Too many obstacles. For instance, I don't have a frame, hand-held or otherwise, that would accommodate a single one of those fans. And the fact that my hand quilting would disappear right into that dull blue with the white dots makes all that work kind of pointless. I'll save the stress on my hands for something that gives me more bang for the buck. Now that I know the overlap trick, I'm confident I can machine quilt this easily.

That's it for the quilting part of this post.

a couple of notes -

Comments:  I am no longer able to sign in to Google on my ipad, which means I have not been able to leave comments using that device. That's what I use to read the blogs, and I'm not often motivated to get out of my recliner (or bed where I do much of my reading) and go in the other room and turn on the computer.  I ordered a new ipad a week ago, but its delivery has been delayed. I'm hoping to be back in business soon. I have a lot of catching up to do!

Blogger:   I don't know if I am using the new blogger or the old one. I did not select "legacy blogger" when I began this post, so I assumed I was using the new one. I did not experience any problems, in fact there were only a few little differences, such as not being able to resize pictures. We'll se what happens next time. I'll admit I am not very sophisticated.

love,

Sandy

here goes nothin'

This is my experiment post using the new Blogger.
First I'll try to upload a photo.

my "Summer Sampler" from TQC sew-along

OK, that worked! I had the option of choosing a photo from my blog, so that was easy. Have we always had this option? I don't remember.

Now to import from my desktop.

antique "inspiration" quilt

That still works. Cool! OK, let's move on.

I finished my Summer Sampler top several weeks ago. I prepared the backing and batting, even made the binding, so its ready to quilt. Except ... I'm not sure how I want to quilt it. Ideally I'd like something traditional, and probably overall as I want it to be flat, but I don't want the quilting to be incongruous with the designs of the pieced blocks. 

I considered a grid, but ruled it out as too disruptive within the blocks, and too boring on those wide borders.

Last night I hung the top back up on my design wall, and meditated on it. I asked myself, what would be the ideal quilting for this quilt? The answer came pretty easily: Baptist Fans. However there are roadblocks with this pattern, which is why I was trying to find something else easier/faster. Pattern-wise though, I think the Baptist Fans might be perfect.

Now the first question (assuming I go with the fans) would be whether to quilt by hand or machine. Machine would be faster and in some ways easier, but the difficulty lies with all those starts and stops.  My thread of choice for machine quilting would be Microquilter 100 wt poly, which is super thin and ideal for going over a variety of different colors, but the deal breaker is, it doesn't want to knot. Hand knotting after the fact is a non-starter, as there would be hundreds of these. And I'm not confident even those would hold. I could use a thin cotton thread such as Aurofil, but I'm afraid it might look too "heavy" and detract from the pieced blocks. And what color would I use?   

So that leaves hand quilting. That I can do, but only in small increments, so I'd have to accept that it would take a very long time to complete. That's ok, I'm not in any hurry. I'm thinking that to hand quilt this, I'm going to have to sew a wide "border" around the entire quilt (and probably the backing) in order to be able to center each bit of the quilt, including the very edges, in my hand held PVC frame. Also doable, just more work. In any event, I'll need a Baptist Fan stencil, which I think I can order from Barb. I'm wondering if pin basting will work, or do I need to thread baste. More work again, and kind of a pain. Or ... have any of you tried hand quilting through basting spray, such as 505? That would save a lot of time.

Anyway, that's my conundrum for the moment. In writing this post, I already answered most of my own questions, so that's progress, I guess! I welcome any comments or suggestions, or advice on any of the above. Thanks!

love,
Sandy

ps Turns out I forgot to "choose" the New Blogger (I thought it had become the default) so no surprise that everything worked as normal, lol!

June mini (a cheat)

I confess, I never got around to making a mini this month. I have some ideas, but I've been busy on other projects and didn't want to break the momentum, and I didn't want to rush something out. But I figure if you are anything like me, you look forward to seeing what others have made, but maybe not so concerned with the "when". So I thought I'd post a small quilt I made a few years ago, but never posted about at the time.

This little quilt is my interpretation of the cover quilt on Kathleen Tracey's book, Small and Scrappy, which came out in 2014.

I had a lot of fun with mine, which ended up looking quite different than the one on the cover of the book. Hopefully Kathleen doesn't mind. :-)

Photographed against my usual props ...

Made with scraps I had on hand, and mostly hand quilted.

I was going for an "old" look, which influenced the border, and the randomly chosen scraps. Then contrary to that, I fussy cut the binding! Oh well. No judging here, right?

Click on the link to Wendy's blog, so you can view all the other little quilts for this month.

Meanwhile, if you follow the link to the Country Lane Books page,  check out Kathleen's yet-to-be-released Schoolgirl Sampler, which I'm really excited about, as I seem to have gotten addicted to small, uncomplicated sampler blocks. The small print on the cover reads: "72 uncomplicated 4" blocks (72 !!!) ... and seven charming quilts" My heart beats fast just thinking about it.
Be sure to scroll down to see the rest of her books.

Anyway...

I've been working on "Berzerkistan" the last couple of weeks, installing borders (it needed them!) and piecing a back. Then I proceeded to machine quilt the holy crap out of it, using closely spaced wavy lines, edge to edge on the diagonal. Its not really ready to show yet, but here's a sneak peak.

(The blue in the border and backing is just regular soft denim, and not so radiant as it looks in the picture.)

I inserted a row of unloved orphan blocks down the back, a bit off-center, to connect the larger pieces.

I'm currently stitching down the binding. Scrappy, naturally.

I predict this quilt will look much better - and feel much better - after a good wash and dry, but I may have to go to a laundromat with one of those big industrial machines, because this thing is heav - vy!! I'm hoping it softens up, and crinkles up (and ... wishful thinking ... lightens up! lol!) 

Until next time,
Sandy

ps I left well enough alone for this post, but soon I'll have to make the leap to the "New Blogger" !  Wish me luck ....

May Mini and other things

When creativity eludes me, as it often does, I usually fall back on copying recreating something that's already been done successfully.

This month it was this very sweet little antique quilt, which I've had my eye on for a long time.  

 

Apparently it was for sale at some point, as part of a group.
Wouldn't it have been fun to bid on and win these?

Well that didn't happen, so I did the next best thing and made my own.

Its just simple nine-patches, but the layout creates a really cool pattern. I'm not a big fan of pink, but I was lucky and found a piece in my stash that worked.

I was surprised at how much fabric it took! The quilt measures 13" x 17", with the individual patches finishing at 3/4" (more or less, haha) I think I had about a fat quarter and a half of the pink, and used all but the tiniest shreds! In fact I panicked near the end when I thought I wouldn't have enough for the binding. I did, barely, but because of my lack of planning I had to cut it on the "length" of the fabric, which means it had very little give. I used some magic though, and made it work.

I machine quilted it in the ditch between the blocks, and hand quilted the diagonal lines. It crinkled up nicely after a light wash and dry.

This is my mini for May.
Go here to view more Montly Mini's.,hosted by Wendy, The Constant Quilter.


Meanwhile, I've been working on what was supposed to be "Lil Orphan Scrappy" by Lynn Wilder. I've been wanting to make this quilt for a long time, but by the time I got around to it my tastes were changing and I decided to use a cooler color palette, and a little different layout.

I don't know about you, but no matter how "precise" I try to be, my small units never turn out perfect. To compensate for my lack of cutting/sewing skill, I sometimes like to use a scant 1/4" seam, which results in a little bit extra around the edges of the unit to trim.

 A tiny trim and now they are now perfect.


Other news:  For some reason your comments are no longer showing up in my email, so I cannot answer them there. I've checked my settings and everything looks right. Hm. I think others of you may be experiencing this? Any tips on how to fix it? Meanwhile, I went ahead and changed my blog setting to https:/ bla bla so it is now more secure.

love,
Sandy

strange and interesting things...

I've been running low (or running out) of some of my favorite thread colors lately, so a couple of weeks ago I put in an order with Connecting Threads. I filled out my order with a few other items, as they have good deals on many things. I noticed they are carrying one of Primitive Gatherings new lines, Indigo Gatherings, which I've been very interested in as good indigo reproductions are hard to find. So I went ahead and ordered a couple of cuts.

My order arrived yesterday. I want to show you what these fabrics look like.

Connecting Threads often prints their own fabrics this way, where the print shows only on one side, and white (or whatever color the base fabric is) on the wrong side. I don't know the term for this, if there is one, but I always have thought the quality was somewhat compromised, compared to what you find in a fabric store. Which might be a reason their fabric is relatively inexpensive. I admit I know next to nothing about fabric printing and might be completely wrong about this, and I would love to hear from anyone who knows more about the topic.

Apparently this hasn't bothered me enough to forgo their fabric, however (I love their "basics" and "blenders"). But the above fabric, albeit slightly discounted, is Primitive Gatherings, by Moda. Would I have gotten a different product had I purchased it from PG? or.. is this a new trend?  Curious minds want to know.

On to another strange thing -

Something slightly disturbing happened with my Pinterest account recently.  I admit I am addicted to  a frequent peruser of this website. Anyway,  few weeks ago I wanted to look at some pins on our desktop computer (as opposed to my  ipad)  and instead of seeing my usual sign-in screen, I was prompted to sign in with Google. So I did, using my Google email and password.

That appears to have been a big mistake. First of all, while signed in with Google, I could only view my pages as a guest. I could not see my  secret boards, and  I could not edit my pins. And I couldn't get in using my original sign-in info, as apparently my original account had disappeared.   Hmm.

Meanwhile, the Pinterest app on my ipad went blank.  Initially I thought it was due to my ipad being so old, and not being updated in forever. But.. very untimely, as the desktop version was already compromised. Then things went even more haywire, but I'm giving you the short version.

Thankfully, the folks at Pinterest dug deep and after a good week of back-and-forth, they figured it all out and was able to restore my account. No more Google (who I'm sure didn't really mean to hijack my account ~) And... they restored the app on my ipad! (so much for the ancient ipad theory) Kudo's to Pinterest!

But what the heck, right??

Anyway, all is resolved, and I'm a happy Pinterest addict once again. 

love,
Sandy

April Monthly Mini

You'd think with all this time off work, I'd be getting more things done. What I mean by that is, more things than what I'd usually be getting done. Maybe I am, but it doesn't seem like it. I did manage to make a tiny little mini earlier this month, but I couldn't seem to find the time to sit down and do a blog post. Well the time is at hand, so here goes.

My quilt, above, was inspired by this adorabe little quilt, below, which I first saw on Pinterest.

Come to find out, it was made by Katy (katyquilts.net) who's quilts I adore. She's made several mini quilts using vintage fabric, which you know I love, right? I just so happened to have the right bits and pieces to make mine.

All the fabrics except the binding are from my "vintage" bin. 

Getting those tiny snowballs to line up was a little challenging, but being sort of casual about perfection as I am, I just did my best. It was totally fun to make, and I'm really happy with the result.

l'll go ahead now and link up with Wendy, The Constant Quilter, who hosts the Monthly Mini challenge. She'll be posting our links any day now, so check it out!

Moving along.. I confess I didn't jump on the mask bandwagon as everyone I know was making them. Lots of them. I made one. I offered to make a second one for my husband but he prefers to wear a bandana. And with his hair down to his shoulders now, he looks like he's going out to rob a bank. (sorry, no picture) I hope he doesn't get arrested, or shot for wearing the "wrong" color.

Then my quilt guild got involved with another project, making isolation gowns. I was feeling guilty about the masks, so signed on to the gown project. I made three. It took me three days. A seamstress I am not. I had to channel my inner home-ec student to do this, but I think I managed a solid "C" grade, and I'm confident they won't fall apart in the wash.

Meanwhile, I got roped into was encouraged to join a virtual round robin with a group I otherwise would have been retreating with last week. What we're doing is taking turns "advising" each other on their next round. I'm really having to think out of the box, as we all have completely different styles.

Here are some pictures of our incomplete quilts:

Can you guess which one's mine?


love,
Sandy

ps  what happened to our emoji's? I thought we had emoji's. Looks like all we have now are symbols and arrows. (insert growl-y face) (ha ha)

One Small Step...

... can lead to unexpectedly cool things.

 Recently I saw something that inspired me.

Take a close look at the detail picture. Those little squares finish at 1/2". Look at the construction. Its so simple, and you never have to match up any seams. And so well organized, you end up with really cool looking blocks. I became completely enthralled with the idea, and so I bought the book.

What makes this really thrilling to me, besides the fact that I love working with teeny tiny scraps, is that I have a zillion of them and until now have not had a plan for anything more than a mug rug or a small mini. Which are fun and delightful, but don't make a dent in my little scraps.

The book arrived a few days ago and I immediatly went to work. One by one I went through every box, bag, tray, basket and other container of tiny scraps - and believe me, I had lots of containers full of these things - and methodically started cutting and organizing them for this project. I was surprised it only took me a few hours, and with a good playlist of music going, it flew by. 

Then the fun began!

I stopped here, thinking I'd like to make the four-patches as leader-enders. As of now, I'm not sure I want to make the exact quilt as shown above. But who knows. At this point I'm more attracted to the blocks themselves, and will work with these in my own way.  Whatever that may end up being ... ;-) !

Next up - I've been wanting to make Lynn Wilder's " 'Lil Orphan Scrappy" ever since she designed it (?) years ago. She recently posted a tutorial for the Ohio Stars on her blog (Sew'n Wild Oaks) for a sew-along. I was spurred on, and thrilled to be finally starting this quilt!

It helped that I actually had a head start on it, as I had several Ohio Star blocks kitted up and a few already made, leftovers from another project. So really, it can be considered a UFO rather than a brand new project, right?

My stars are slightly different from Lynn's, and my quilt will be similar but not an exact replica of Lil' Orphan Scrappy. Like maybe Orphan Scrappy's Illegitimate Daughter, or something like that.

My intent was to dig into my scrap basket for at least some of these blocks. But first I have to spend some time filtering through this mess to glean acceptable pieces. And that's going to take some time. My feeling is, there won't be as many as I hoped. Not to worry... I believe I have some regular fabric (as opposed to scraps) stashed away somewhere. I will meditate on this, but do want to attend to those scraps.

So I moved on, again, to another project, which is to make another one of these ...

... which, like this one, will go to the VA.

I already have a box of 2 1/2" squares, and another one of triangle squares, ready to go. Plus a giant bin of 2 1/2" strips, that I'd dearly like to empty, as it takes up far too much real estate in my closet.

Boxes of parts, complete with notes to myself, lol! Methinks I have enough of all of the above for several lap quilts. And its high time to get working on emptying some of these boxes and bins that have been hanging around far too long, taking up space.

Well, it looks like I won't be getting bored anytime soon!

Stay well, dear ladies (and men), stay in and be safe, and be grateful we have quilting to keep us sane!

love,
Sandy