Cause I Wanna

There was a time when I had a quilting habit. Every day my husband went off to work I would too. I'd go of to my sewing space and lose myself in my quilting for hours on end. I was concerned that when he retired he'd cramp my style and he did. I don't mean to be blaming him but I lost that habit soon after he retired. I guess it is fair to say that now instead of quilting I spend that time with him working out in our woods or prairie. I could still quilt in the evenings but I don't and I don't think it's cause I am tired. At any rate I want to develop a new quilting habit whether it is doing Just One Thing or JOT in the sewing room or several hours at several tasks, I don't care. I just gotta do it. Cause I wanna.  Now having said that I should have more success. Documenting it can make me more accountable too, so stay tuned.
Recently I started making 9-patches from 1 3/4" wide strips leftover from a log cabin quilt. Yes I have a bit of a plan in mind. I'm joining them in sets of four. Next I need to decide how I will set them, then how big, then if borders will be absent or pieced or plain. You know the routine. I've been enjoying it immensely. I'm loving the little bit of yellow in this project. I like the tic-tac-toe I see too.

In the old days, this top would have been done in a few days. Its been several weeks already and I expect it will be another one yet.

More aimless sewing

It seems that sewing both at home and at Studio 3 is making it difficult to focus on a project.

When I first started sewing at Studio 3 on my own time I brought over a box of Civil War scraps and thought it might be fun to just plug away at using those scraps. I have them pretty well organized now and use them while I am there. So I have been piecing blocks  without a real plan. Sounds like me. These are the latest blocks I've made while there. I love 'em.

While I sorted the box of scraps I came across lots of 1 3/4" strips suitable for a log cabin. That pattern would be a good choice to work on with friends around cause it would take little concentration. First I need to decide what I want to use for the center square. I already did this one with black in the center, so maybe red next.





My Crazy 8's quilt is still waiting for assembly. I am feeling better now and hope to tackle it this afternoon.  Here's a preview of the plan.

Clarifying How I Handle Scraps

 Martingale posted to their site and sent a newsletter about how I sort my  scraps, but omitted some info.
They also have their scrap books on SALE this week. 

 So to clarify, I generally do not cut down my scraps to fill my boxes of specific sized strips. I do for the squares and triangles, but only if the right sized strip is about 10" or shorter. Most of the scraps are truly leftovers. I set aside in a separate drawer the chunks or other larger scraps till I know what I want from them. The shorter odd width strips are also set aside for either string quilts or odd-width log cabin quilts. Once this system is set up it takes very little time to maintain. You could sort and file your scraps as you go or throw them in a small basket on your cutting table and empty it periodically. I am ready to do it again now.

Fabric for most of my quilts are carefully chosen to color coordinate or be in the same style. I do NOT do the kitchen sink variety where any and every scrap the right size is used. I do not hesitate to cut a strip from the main stash to use in a quilt. If i don't use it all, it goes in the basket then later gets filed in the correct box of strips.

Also since I use the Easy Angle ruler for cutting triangles, I do not need one box for 2 1/2" strips/squares and one for 2 7/8" strips or squares when I only need the 2 1/2".
I am sure many quilters don't generate enough scraps to use this system, but there are many of us out there that use a similar system and find it very efficient. Hope this helps.
To view the scrap quilts I made in the last year, click on "2012 top" in the sidebar under labels.

Worth the Effort

I am making a small dent in my pile of tops waiting to get quilted. On the frame now is the crumb quilt that I posted about here.  My pile would go down faster if the ladies at church didn't keep producing tops. But that is what I want them to do. Here is the next one waiting in line. It is a  Roman Stripes variation.

All the strips for this were donated to our efforts at church when I went to a retreat a few years ago. Everyone thought I was nuts when I said I'd take the tangled mess of scraps in the two laundry baskets. They were brought for people to rummage through and help themselves. But I knew mom would enjoy sorting and pressing and trimming the threads. She liked to pick at things. I was right. It took her a while though. And yes, there are some blue and green strips left. These strips were from the pile of strips under
 2 1/2". I don't remember all the other piles she had going.

I remember when I first started organizing my scraps, they were a tangled mess too, though not as bad. I am SO glad I've kept them sorted ever since. No more ironing little scraps and all those messy threads from the fraying. Much more efficient, too. 

Thanks goes to Lousia for commenting on my previous post that the dark purple flower is spinning in the opposite direction. I didn't like that block anyway, so I will replace that. It will probably be easier for me to replace the whole block, than just the purple units. The purple block will join the orphan block pile.

Off the list

I'm still working on the pile of things I found laying around the sewing room. The Thimbleberries scraps were just a pile of 1 3/4" strips, so I made a dwarf version of the quilt "Autumn Applause" from my book S is for Scraps. It was nice to check another one off the list. And it'll be easier to tote this with me to lectures than the queen size version.

Notice I also made 3 maple leaf blocks. After seeing Judy's leaf quilt last week I was inspired to make a few when I was pushing around a pile of orange and yellow scraps from the Smoky Mountain Star.  It is still sitting out cause it is waiting for the border.  Yes, just one more of the items on the pile. Maybe tonight.

I've been liking the oranges and yellows for several months now and thought I'd do some sort of leaf design. After checking Google Images for autumn leaf quilts I decided to go with the traditional pattern. I guess there's no surprise there. I do have a setting in mind, but as always I will play with a pile of blocks and see if they try to persuade me to do something better with them.  I don't plan on a very big quilt so my block size is only 4 1/2". I love  them so far. Now, do I make red and green leaves, too?

I have NOT been quilting like I thought I would. We actually have been getting some rain, so I have been overdoing it in the garden, pulling weeds.  That means I hurt too much from weeding to do any quilting. It feels good though. So much is coming back to life and lots of new weeds have sprouted too. Today Mark warned me not to overdo it out in the garden and I said I had to cause he wasn't helping. 10 minutes later he stopped what he was doing and helped pull weeds in the flower garden.  I think that was the first time ever. Maybe his retirement won't be so bad after all.  So, I'm all smiles now and Brian is bringing over pizza . More smiles.

Say Cheese

My last few days have been good. The cheddar Rolling Stone quilt top is done. It does get one more cheddar border but then it wouldn't fit on my wall. Mark says it has too much orange. That's what he thinks. It's the orange that is making me smile. Say Cheese. :-D

I also met my other goal for the week that I just set Monday. I finished the quilting on another comfort quilt. I hope to get another one going right away. May as well, it is still HOT outside. It did cool off a bit, and we still need rain so I haven't been working in the garden.

One thing I will be monkeying with this week is my new camera.  So far, I am not very impressed with it. I'll have to try a few different settings. Wish me luck. Sew long.

Cooking up a Crumb Quilt

Things were kind of hectic with my people last week and it put me  in the mood for some mindless sewing. The bag of crumbs was getting full, so I thought I'd play with those to relax me. This is just a few of the 30 or so crumb blocks that are almost done. For this quilt I chose not to use any pieces with angles other than a square corner.

Normally I wouldn't keep individual pieces as small as those shown below.  I've asked the girls to keep the extra pieces left over from their comfort quilts or the ends of the strip sets that are too narrow for the pattern  as long as they are over 1 1/2" wide. Sometimes I can make an entirely different block with the leftover pieces and it goes in the orphan block pile. Otherwise, I save them for Crumb Quilts. They sure are fun and fast to make. I started the 30 blocks yesterday morning.

Other quilters call these Mile a Minute Quilts. A true Crazy Quilt would be similar, except they would have fancy embroidery. That is so NOT me. 

The ladies surprised me at church last week. We got the raffle quilt top together but not without a few glitches. I brought it home to put on the border and quilt. I will get a picture of it before it goes on the frame. I still have to prep the backing.

Cheddar in my quilt

I made two more blocks and had to spread it out to see how many more blocks I need in what colors.  There are one or two that I don't like and might remake. Otherwise I am loving it. I think it's the cheddar color that I like. Or maybe that there aren't any stars. I was planning to put the blocks on point, but changed my mind. It is always so much easier to set them straight and I don't think these blocks would benefit from being turned diagonally. 

I finally found the muslin I used in the border.Glad for that because I need to make two sides longer. It was hiding in the living room! It was in a basket  holding my grandmothers flower garden. I'm using the same muslin in that quilt.  I have been looking for it all year. Tells you how much I have been working on the GFG. But now I think I know how I want to finish that, so  maybe I will get back to that soon.

 I promised a picture of my birthday gift from my sister. Here he is. Ain't he a beaut? He looks so proud.  His body is covered with dried peppers. I guess if I don't want the real thing, he'll have to do.


Occasionally when I finally get a chance to do a little sewing,  I can feel the tension leaving.  Life has been a bit hectic for the Bongs lately cause the people we take care of haven't been well. I am so glad that they waited till I would be here to help Mark. I just might have to start worrying silly about him handling things alone when I am gone. This morning Lucrecia came over and I offered her a brandy. Get the picture???  Making those two blocks helped and now I will go for a walk. Who needs brandy anyway?

He told me to have fun

             Sue brought back quite a pile of scraps after she finished her top last month. I sorted through the box and made these few blocks for another sampler/orphan quilt with reproduction fabrics.Well, some for me, some for church.  Then I decided that later I will make a random width log cabin with the rest of the scraps in the box. Some of the scraps I made, so it's just another ongoing project that doesn't count as a PHD. 

        Before we left for the show on Sunday, Mark told me to have fun. So I did - buying more fabric. I thought I'd fill the void Sue made in my drawer when she used my Civil War fabric for her quilt. That is why I had her use it. So I could add all these new prints to my palette. Most of the gems in this drawer are fat quarters and halves.  I can add a triangle from each to the charm quilt, too. Just about ready to get back to that.

        The show was good, but the vendors not so much. I really don't care to buy bundles or kits and lots for modern quilts  too. Then we had lunch and hit the two shops before they closed at 4. That was worth it.

        At first I didn't think I'd care to go to the show because I didn't want to be buying more fabric I didn't need. Silly me. I wasn't thinking how a girls just gotta have fun. And NO, I don't feel any guilt for all the fabric I have that is not being used. I really don't understand it when I hear other women say that they "will never use it all". Who said they had to? I get so much pleasure just having it to say nothing of the good time I had buying it. Then comes all the plans and hopes and dreams. Well, I feel I get my money's worth before I even cut into it. I did when it was $8. per yard anyway.

Sew much for setting goals

 The girls are here for quilting Thursdays this spring.  Sue finished her triple 4-patch using my fabric. She is thinking maybe she will quilt this one next winter (always by hand) and piece another one this spring. I hope so.

 Shaggy brought along this tablerunner.  She made it several years ago for a challenge we had. The only rules of the challenge I remember were to use the scraps from the small boxful I gave them and that they could add at least one more fabric. I remember being careful to pack brights in her box, but I was really surprised when she produced this. I guess it is still waiting for quilting, but at least it is basted. I won't always have photos of everyone's work because really this is my blog.
 

Nothing from me this week. I had to do some cleaning at my people's houses and I forget what else. I guess the goals I set for myself last week didn't help me at all. They weren't even successful at making me feel bad for not working towards them. I attempted to work on some of those projects I thought I could finish quickly, but with one, I couldn't locate more of the matching fabric I needed. Don't know how that happened cause I am so organized. And with the other project I picked up to work on. Well, I cut the pieces too small. Sooo, I put them away and dinked around with some ideas for another quilt.

Then I went shopping and ended up at the quilt shops in Milton and Janesville. I guess those are the places to go around here if you like the Civil War reproduction type. Which I do. And I don't get there often enough. Does that give you the idea that I spent $. Well, I had a good time and I had to replace the fabric Sue used, right?

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a quilt.

My Birds-in-the-Air quilt is moving right along. I finally decided what I wanted to do with it. One of my thoughts was this arrangement, but I thought the variety of colors I used made it look too busy.

 I will use the plan I showed in my last post, but I'm going to arrange the colors randomly.  I organized the pieces I made and took notes on what else I have to cut and sew. Motivated by my new big mattress, I decided to make it bigger after all. The additional pieces I need to cut will be in brighter colors.
 

It seems my quilts suffer from being from the midwest where the colors are often dark. Or so I am told.  It doesn't help that my nearest quilt shop handles country/primitive styles. I like it all, but often find that I prefer the darker colors, and I definitely like high contrast. My printout from EQ6 shows a navy blue border, but I haven't made a decision yet. You'll probably help me make that choice. TIA

Flying Geese ARE Birds in the Air

We had snow Tuesday so quilting at church was cancelled. I spent the day straightening up in my sewing room and the studio downstairs. Then I cut triangles for the 4" half-square triangle units for the Birds-in-the-Air quilt. I sewed them together and started playing with them again. First I came up with this.

The bigger it is the less I like it. Maybe I will use the leftovers in a border. I planned to put a Flying Geese border on this one.  Lisa came over and suggested I arrange them in groups of color, so we played with that. I am not convinced I like that. Lisa loved it, Mark thought there was too much purple and I didn't like the red just in one corner. Sure glad I don't have to please anyone but myself, still I like to hear their opinion. It bothers me more when they don't say anything.

I'm a little tired of it now so will go downstairs to quilt.

binding by machine

The adrenaline from quilting with Judy carried through to quilting Thursday when Margie came to quilt. The fresh snowfall kept Shaggy home. It felt good to get back on track after the holidays. The snow is sure pretty, and I am glad I didn't have to drive anywhere.

I got the friendship stars together. I remember thinking the last time I worked on it that it wasn't very colorful. It is hard to believe that this border changed it so much. It sure reads "red" now. I don't know that I am thrilled with it, but when I was playing in EQ with the block I had a hard time deciding on a setting.  Then when I went back to those files while getting ready to finish it at Judy's, this arrangement struck me the most so I went with it without much more thought.  I'm just loving the colors.

In my last post I left to do Lisa's binding. That night I applied it  in 2 1/2 hours - start to finish.  I always finish my bindings by machine, front and back. Sewing the back down by machine always leaves questions, so here are some photos.

After sewing it all around and joining the ends, and starting at any corner turn the binding to the back, lapping the folded edge over the seam. Pin or hold in place as you place it under the presser foot and lower the needle into the ditch. This step is only accomplished easily with an open toe foot. Double click photo for closeup.  The bobbin thread should match the binding. The top thread can either be the clear nylon stuff (if the binding and border are two different colors) or match the binding and border (if they are the same color).      Stitch 2-4 inches in the ditch.

Every several inches, turn the quilt back to check that the binding is folded past the seam before proceeding to stitch it in place. 

I cut binding strips 2 1/4" wide, seam them together with a diagonal seam and attach to the quilt top with 1/4" seam. I trim the batting even with the binding, and the binding laps over the back seam about 1/8". If you prefer a wider batting, then the batting needs to be trimmed further from the edge of the quilt to fill the binding.

To finish each corner of binding, I backstitch before reaching the corner, then when I get to the end of the seam, I pivot and stitch the miter with a backstitch too. Maybe you can see the threads ending at the very tip of the corner.






And did I mention the 4 patches I was making for??? It seems sometimes I just gotta sew pieces together if for no other reason than they belong together. Busy week next week. It is Dot's 91st birthday and she has a Dr appt., there is a meeting with the church ladies and at Benny's and with our tax man. And I have to catch up with my bookkeeping. That will leave little time for quilting.

Birds in the Air

 I played with my Birds in the Air blocks yesterday. I usually find this sort of activity very soothing but lately these puzzles have left me feeling frustrated that I had another decision to make. In other words, I've made over 100 of these little blocks, I need to decide what to do with them next. Here are a few of my options.

 My first thought was to arrange them as shown to the left.Then I tried a few more arrangements. The only decision I made was to make some large half-square triangle units to play with them.   And then again, maybe I can use all these ideas in one quilt.

I decided I didn't need the stress right now and put them away and got ready for the meeting with the church ladies today. I just took in the two quilts I quilted and the two blocks I made for Mary and Rita for the block exchange.There was little other show and tell and all we did was put together kits for the next raffle quilt.

When I got home, I peeled off 30 quilts  that were spread out on the twin bed upstairs and folded them with 3 folds each. My sister helped me put them on the bed a year and a half ago and I found it wasn't a good way for me to keep them.  It was very difficult to pull one out to use when  there were not only those quilts on the bed, but also a big pile of smaller quilts folded on top of them. I also reorganized the remaining quilts and tops. It was getting a little out of hand up there. I was looking for a few in particular. The wool quilt to finish, a top to quilt for my daughter, and another two to put on my bed. I like to swap those out every few months.

I will be back up there in a day or two because I have some tops down here that I want to move upstairs and already I need to get ready for a lecture on Jan 2nd!

Quilting through the holidays

I hope everyone has been enjoying the holiday season.  I don't have projects to finish for Christmas. But I have got one or two I want to start. Those gifts are for recipients that may read this, so I will share later.

These two quilts went to the women's shelter a few weeks ago with the others from church. I love the nine-patch.

Here is another one of two that I quilted for the shelter. I did freehand feathers over the whole thing.  I see you have to pay attention to quilting the same size and space across the whole thing if you don't use a panto.  It was fun.

Last night I visited a friend I see maybe twice a year. She had "stuff" for me. I was expecting her orphan blocks and sure enough she had a nice pile of blocks we can use. But besides this she had two small boxes of fabric from a friend's mother's estate for our comfort quilts. I took it home to sort. No wonder she didn't keep it for herself. There wasn't much good in it. The pile I pitched was mostly small, old, wrinkled poly blend scraps. A small pile went to the garage for the rag bag. Another small pile I will pass on to one of the church ladies to decide if she wants to cut it into pieces we could use.  There was barely a straight edge in all the scraps. I am not so sure she was really a quilter. Maybe she did applique or other sewing. The good pile was has half yard and one yard pieces. I'm glad there wasn't more. We have so much fabric that is not getting used fast enough.
There was also a black quilt batt in her pile of stuff for me. Little did she know that it was wool. Which reminds me I have a wool quilt I started eons ago that I want to finish soon so we can use it this winter. I guess I should go upstairs and wade through the quilts to find it. I hope I will be able to report on that by the end of the year.  I didn't have too many finishes this year. It would be nice to add it to the list.

Sorting Scraps again

Last week I delivered 3 loads of quilts that the church ladies made this year. 24 baby quilts to the hospital,  22 kid quilts to the County Holiday Care program and 18 even bigger quilts to the Women's Shelter. I took a few pictures to share over my next few posts. Here's some.

 
I was anxious to get them out of the house.  I am still in clearing out and organizing mode after emptying mom's apartment. So this weekend I tackled my basket of scraps on my cutting table, and rather than just sorting them and filing them away, I cut the short ends of strips into squares and triangles. My supply of those was getting low. I also spent some time deciding what to do with them all. So I hope to make a sample block or two of those and share those with you in the next week or two. Some of what I cut was for my on-going  Birds-in-th-Air quilt like the purple block on the right. I have over 100 now, so I think I will start playing with those and decide what I will do with them next.

Sashed the quilt with stars

It sure felt good to do some sewing again. This is the pile of blocks that the quilting ladies from church made for me. I had no idea how I was going to arrange them, or even what fabrics I would use with the blocks.

 Rummaging around in my stash I found the itty-bitty gold flowers that worked great for sashing.  I considered a few other arrangements, but I didn't have enough yardage for those options. Not sure what I wanted to border it with, I took a few selections to a church meeting and let the ladies decide. They chose this red paisley.  I have had both the little gold flowers and the red paisley in the drawer for YEARS. I NEVER thought I would use them together.

The ladies liked this block so much that another gal decided to use it for her block exchange. She wants her blocks in white and pastel/30's prints. These are the two I did for her.

And believe it or not, they liked it so much that they decided that we should use the same block for our next church raffle quilt. So you will be seeing more of that block later, though in different settings.

Christmas will be here in less than a month, so I better get hopping. Not much for shopping anymore, but I will decorate a bit. I want to get that out of the way before next week, cause then I will need to focus again as mom's personal representative of her will. I sure hope I will find some time for quilting.  I pulled out a pile of quilt tops I want to work on next. This week I hope to prep backs and plan the quilting for them so I don't have to think  so hard in Dec, I can just quilt. Think it will work??? Sure, it's sorta like putting my own kits together.

I just need to make good notes and drawings. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Mine was. Sew long,

Playing Catch Up

Things have quieted down and I've been able to quilt again. I'll show that later. First I'll show you what I put together back in August. I think I didn't show it sooner cause I was considering putting another border on it.  I tend to border everything. But  I guess I decided to call it done when I picked it up the other day and looked at it.  I put the center together earlier this year from some old stash. Playing in Electric Quilt I came up with the pieced border.  I like it, but it is darker than I'd prefer. Looks masculine to me. I have no use for it so I will stick it on my pile of quilts that are finished cause the top is done.  Maybe in 20 years I will add more borders to make it a more useable size.

While I was waiting for my Edgerider Wheels to show up I quilted a few blocks to have samples of different batts that were quilted.  I figured I ought to as long as I knew which battings they were. It was fun, so I think I want to put one of my samplers on the machine next.

 The wheels arrived and we installed them the day before mom went to the hospital. I didn't get a chance to really try them until this week.They needed some adjusting and I think it could still be tweaked further. Not sure yet.

My sisters were a big help in cleaning out mom's apartment. We had a great time going through stuff and I was very happy that practically everything was divided  unanimously.  I found homes for most of her stuff and only threw away the real junk. Dealing with the will and probate is a long process, but not difficult, so things are pretty much at a new normal. It is November so that means Mark only works part time till the end of the year. I will sew as much as I can to maintain my sanity.

Life as Usual

NOT.  I sure wish it were life as usual around here. I have a case of insomnia getting increasingly worse. An hour or two of sleep at night makes it difficult to function during the day. I've always had trouble falling asleep and didn't call it insomnia cause I always felt rested the next day.  That 's not the case now. So I got little quilting done again.  I did get 30 friendship-stars finished. Now to decide what to do with them. Isn't that always my problem. I've narrowed my choices a bit already by adding the dark triangles to all the blocks. And I decided not to go with scrappy sashing, IF I use sashing.  I like all my options, but one I am not showing that I like is to use them for a border.  Of course, I'd have to decide on the  blocks they would border and then make them.  What do you think?

I've not done too much quilting in the studio either. I've been so frustrated with my longarm quilting  that I ordered the new Edgerider Wheels for the machine. Nothing wrong with upgrading the equipment. They are so new (to the company) that they aren't really even advertising them yet and they are selling like hotcakes.  There is a 2-4 week backlog. I can hardly wait.

I need to clean out the closet again. This time I need to get all the nooks and cranny's in the room too. Dragging everything out is a scary prospect, but it is usually inspiring.  Sounds like fun to me.

Looky what I acquired.

How do you like the antique quilt top I just got? Isn't it a hoot? I'm glad I don't have to 'Make do' with what ever fabrics I can get my hands on just so I can finish my quilt. I figured it's about 100 years old based on a book I have called Dating Fabrics. I counted over 40 different fabrics in it. It's got a few stains. I think I am going to check the reds for fugitive dyes before I wash it. I'd hate for the red to wash out and leave some of those patches just a pale tan. I might rather leave it stained.

With Mark off this last week I didn't have much time to myself to quilt. I started making some friendship stars. I'm not sure what I am going to do with them. Here's some on my flannel wall with some  bigger  triangles leftover from another project.

I don't know what came over Mark. He was off of work this week and I convinced him that we didn't have to stain the house again this year. So, instead we spent lots of time in town with everyone else celebrating the 4th. Highly unusual. The East Troy Lions Club sponsors quite a bit every year including a carnival and beer tent with live music, parade, tractor pull, fireworks and an antique car show. Also this weekend the Teal Sound Drum and Bugle Corp was in East Troy. They were here most of the week, staying at the high school and giving a presentation one evening.   We also went to his sisters on the lake a few times.  We had an unusually good time. Tomorrow it's back to life as usual.  I can't wait. I hope you had a great weekend too.