Just a minute

 I thought I'd catch up my blog on my quilting this winter. I've quilted 17 quilts so far this year. I don't have photos of all. Most all are donation quilts either I pieced or someone in our group. Here they are.

Dorinda made the dresden plate flower and first 2 borders. 

Hmm. Not so sure I quilted this last one. I've got another ready to quilt this afternoon. 

I miss piecing a quilt. I need to do something about that. Maybe I need to look in the warehouse at all tops waiting to be quilted. That whould be a good dose of medicine. 

Always Leftovers

 These two tops are recent finishes. The Broken Dishes was inspired by an antique quilt I saw with 8" blocks. I've done this in 6" and I prefer that but I like these bigger pieces too because they cover alot of area fast. And a bunch of the triangles were leftover from another quilt top recently finished. It's buried upstairs so I haven't shown that yet. I did not plan for this to look Christmassy so I don't look at it that way. I still hope to find something for the border. 

The crumb quilt is one of two I've been working on at Studio 3. Lois was asking for scraps to make a courthouse steps style string quilt. She'd just finished one and enjoyed it so much she wanted to do more. So I pulled out a tub of scrapstrips and I joined her. We each made 2. This one started with strip set ends I collected from several years. Little pieces were joined to make a row. It's very freeing because there are no seams or points to match. The navy/black sashing I used was donated precut at 9" long. I think someone cut the wrong size or decided on a different color. There are enough to make another quilt. Some other day. 

I started this small quilt when a small baggie of 1 1/2" squares were donated. I like this variation of a 9-patch, but if I do it again I'll make bigger blocks. I quilted it with a simple meander.

I've got several more that are almost together. Not sure if I will quilt them soon or just add them to the pile. I'm kind of interested in getting some of the old tops moved out. 

I 

And It's Quilted

The quilting is done a day later than planned on the string quilt the church group put together with strip set ends. I quilted swirls freehand. I need to change that swirl design a bit to go faster and use less thread, less backtracking. I'll doodle on a whiteboard after I look at pantos online. Pantos slow me down so I need to find something I can do without messing up freehand. Often I have a problem with the size and or space of my motifs not being the same size from beginning to end. I know the tricks to help prevent them. I guess I need to focus on that. I will pass this one on to someone else to bind.

 I quilted another one this afternoon. This is a smaller version of the quilt "Midnight Madness", a pattern in my book Twin Peaks. It could be a 15 year old UFO. This one I called "Good Enough". It seemed I was saying that a bunch after we moved mom and dad to be closer to us. She said that often. I was never sure if she was pleased with whatever she deemed good enough. 

Quilted freehand flowers in the pinwheels and leaves and loops in the borders. I used a continuous curves treatment in the small triangles. Fast and Fun! I will add it to my binding pile.

 

Some I Quilted

 To continue updating here this post will show pictures of some quilts I quilted in 2023. 

In May we moved my longarm up out of the basement and into my main floor sewing room. Its a little bit crowded but preferable to the cold cellar. When I bought my longarm in 2008 I had 120 tops or flimsies waiting to get quilted. I never intended to quilt them all. Many I used in my lectures as is. Since then I've quilted about 24 per year on average but apparently most of them are donation quilts for the church quilt group I belong to. I have continued to piece tops and quilt some of my own too. I now have about 130 tops waiting to be quilted. I plan to quilt more of them, whittling away the pile slowly.

This is a top here but it's quilted. The blocks were made from 4" four-patch blocks. 
I didn't rememer what pattern I planned to use them in. Now they are out of the house. text-align: center;">

The name of this pattern is Delectable Mountains. A variation made from
authentic vintage fabrics. I pieced the top about 10 years ago. Sue my SIL loved it and
its the quilt she picked out when she heard that I was gifting a quilt to some in the family.
Sue is a quilter too. I've got a top from her to quilt someday too. 

Prairie Wife pieced perhaps 20 years ago. I always liked it and often hung it as a top over an open door
just to display it. 

6" Ohio Stars if you double click on the photo you should be able to see a close up
and check out the quilting. I thought if draping it on the chair  the light would hilight
the quilting better. Well, maybe. I think I finished this last week, I've been quilting up a storm.

Many of the quilts I make now begin from leftovers from previous quilts, mine or donated pieces.
No doubt the twin-peak triangle units were in my collection of scraps. 

These Monkey Wrench were the other half that Dorinda made. A quilt sure goes
together fast when the blocks are already made and they're alternated with
a plain square. No complaints from me.

I made these little pinwheels at Studio 3 and finished up the top 
a year or 2 ago. I never thought I'd have it quilted already. The binding will be 
done later. I think I will start building a pile to bind. 

No doubt there are a few more I missed. I think I have the camera figured out now and glad to see they didn't change Blogger much. If I can get a decent picture I'd like to post more often. No promises. 

Monday, January 8, 2024

SURPRISE

 WHOA, I didn't realize that I never posted last year. That was not intentional. I kept quilting though. I managed to quilt 30 quilts, mostly donation quilts for our church group. I did not take pictures of it all. But I do have some pictures I will share. I will show the tops first in no particular order.

I drew this up several years ago and kept coming  back to it so I decided that meant I should make it. Since I had enough fabric it became  bedsize. Might just quilt and use this one. 

This was another fast fun one to put together. Strips already cut I

just trimmed them to random but similar lengths.

cute farm fabric for a fast donation quilt

My charm quilt using reproduction 1800's fabrics.  I think I have almost1200 different fabrics. I never realized it would end up so big. I could have quit collecting earlier. I didn't want to start assembly till 
I had enough cause it was easier to watch for duplicates if all the same color was in one pile. I think I do have 1 or 2 that was used twice. Plenty of other duplicates that were cut will go into a smaller one some day,

Dorinda made the Monkey Wrench blocks. Our group received a box or 35 quilt tops and miscellaneous

scraps and ufos from her estate. This is from half the pile. The other half had light backgrounds. Together the quilt would have been too big for our use. Most were already stitched to an alternate plain block.

These two I made at retreat this fall up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Above is a Shoo Fly variation. Fast and fun. Below is Amish Pavers.I have quite a collection of solids and have more planned with
them, I made a third but no picture yet. All 3 were cut before the 3 days of sewing. It felt good to sew that long.

This was a joint effort of the ladies at church. We had sewn strip sets for
a different quilt. The strip set ends we put together to make a bigger triangle and added the light. I will be quilting this one later today.

Thats it for this post. I made more but didn't get a photo. I'll check past posts and pile of tops for any I missed. It looks like my plan mostly worked to only piece across the street at Studio 3. And to quilt when I'm at home. I use my new machine mostly for piecing backs and bindings. More soon.

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

2022 ends

 I'm killing time in Dr's waiting room. It's the perfect time to update here.

Christmas was pretty good with daughter and girlfriend and mutual fella friend. New years eve was just another night but neighbor had a great fireworks display. New Years day was annual game day at friend Irene's. Fun fun. I hope you all enjoyed the recent holidays.

I've been busy quilting donation quilts for church ladies and even piecing a few. And getting  those quilted.   Here's the latest pictures.

Most of the quilting was something  simple.Maybe lazy loops. Or curls. I quilted the 9-patch with big flowers that I echoed.  A few starts and stops beats marking and following lines of a panto.

 This last quilt top is my Civil War charm quilt top finally done. 

I'd like more pictures but it's wet outside and too big for my wall. I'd call it Thousand Pyramids, but there are closer to 1200 triangles, each different. A little bigger than planned. What was I thinking? 

I have a dozen self-made kits waiting to piece, but I hope to focus on quilting this winter and saving the piecing for at studio 3. 

Till next time, happy quilting.

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Catch Up Time

I have quilt tops going back to July I think.

 The Churn Dash blocks I made a few years ago and they sat as I was undecided on the setting I wanted to use. They are a little busy being all scrappy. Glad I waited. I'm surprised how much I enjoy this little quilt. I think the green is singing to me.

The Blocks on point are one of only a few quilts I ever arranged on the diagonal. I think I made these blocks earlier this winter at Studio 3. I remember auditioning blue fabrics there for the setting pieces. But I bought the blocks home and checked my stash here where most of it is in the sewing room. I tend to like a gold like I used here. 

The quilt top on the left is a Robbing Peter to Pay Paul variation. I'm sure it goes by many names. If you know any of them. I'd be interested in hearing them. I started this well over 10 years ago. Ive done other variations of this before and can think of still others. Maybe some day.

 Cleaning out the closet I came across these 2 sets of 5 blocks. They are blocks using my Thirtysomething technique. I probably used the pieces for demonstrating when teaching. Time to finish them up and clean out the closet. Maybe just to move them to another location in the house though. I'm undecided where I'd donate them.

This is a disappearing 4-patch I think I pieced this spring. I did not enjoy the technique. I sure like the quilt though. Sue liked it well enough to make a pair for twin beds. 

Simple little squares and rectangles. Bright and fun and happy. Someone will like having it. Yes, the fabrics are from my stash. Fabric I bought! I bought many fat quarters over the years and just used little bits in my scrap quilts. I'm curious how many quilts some of  those individual fabrics have been used in. Impossible to count. 

The purple/blue is another simple one. Actually its one of two. I'd planned to set the blocks side by side without the white sashing added to just 2 sides of the rectangular blocks. But it was tooooooo much purple for my taste. The blocks I made at retreat in July. 

 This is a quarter of a quilt design by Bonnie Hunter. Lori1R, fellow Stasthbuster did hers in green. The 4-patches were made at Studio 3 in June. Then the top was assembled when I attended a retreat in October with Irene up at camp in White Lake, WI. I loved it there so much in the forest. We decided to plan on returning a few more times. I can see making this one again. 

I had the 2 blocks for this done and ready to finish at retreat too. I like to take projects all cut out and almost done so that I don't get confused. But I don't like to do borders at retreat. I often like to audition different border ideas. And for measuring the small ones I like to spread them out on my flannel wall to easily compare measurements to keep it square. 

I had hoped to keep this blog current, but its been a challenge to sit at the computer and I'd rather post from the computer than my phone. Part of my delay is that I never got around to taking pictures. I'm caught up now I think. If I didn't take a picture its cause the quilts were simple little 4-patch or 9-patch donation quilts. 

I did a fair bit of quilting this year so far using my longarm. Earlier in the year it was quilts for nephews family. I quilted a pile of donation quilts for church too. The other ladies do most of the piecing. I quilt the bigger ones for them and return them to the ladies for binding. We have one other volunteer with a longarm. She provides batting and backing and finishing and takes donations to her choice of charities. The church ladies like that. They just want to sew. 

I will check and see if that's everything, but I think so. No doubt it would be easier now to post from my phone, so we will see if that happens any time soon. Till then.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. 

Friday, September 9, 2022

Not like before

a 3 yard quilt using 4 fabrics. This reminded me of a  favorite color combination when I was a kid. Maize, carnation pink and midnight blue. 

A collection of 10" squares in a quick project. So satisfying. Looking forward to quilting it.

A snowball. Joint effort of several gals at church. A mystery who turned on the 9 patches. Lois made the snowballs and set the blocks. I bordered and will quilt and another will bind.

 So, yes, you can see I'm still quilting. Pretty much just comfort quilts for those in need. Just not like before when it was nearly a daily thing. I guess that's what retirement does to some people, change their way of life. I would like to quilt more and am making a bigger effort at it lately. It's been a challenging summer; my time is not my own. Things have calmed down and gardening season is winding down. Darker earlier when I prefer to quilt downstairs, so I should be more productive now. 

This week I prepped 7 backs and ordered batting so I'll be ready when it arrives. 

Today the Studio 3 Friday quilters met for the first time since covid hit. So fun catching up. We agreed we ought to meet just every other week and changed days to Wednesday. Thursday group attends quite sporadically. Maybe time to invite some new blood!

I have more to show but need pictures first!

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

REPORTING IN

 I've got 2 finishes to report. The  1st is a quilt from my great niece that finishes about 58" square. I made the top a few years ago using 1930s reproduction fabrics.

 This 2nd one is a broken dishes quilt my dear daughter asked for.  It was just twin size but when she saw it she said make it bigger for me so now it finishes 96" square.  To incorporate some new and different scraps I took the seam out of the middle and added 2 rows to mix up the prints a little better. Cleaned out the scrap box of old prints with this one. 

Thursday, March 24, 2022

SHORT STACKS

 Well these short stacks of coins went together quickly. I had to futz with the stacks a bit to get them the same length because the strips weren't the same width throughout but that's OK. It was fun. Maybe cause it was bright.  I'm ready to do something with triangles. next. That's not counting the pile of 20 blocks waiting to be set on point. The setting fabric is cut and the rows are pinned together in order. I hope a diagonal set won't be too confusing to work on while I chat with my phone friend. It is rare that I make a diagonally set quilt, but I am familiar enough that I should be able to do it without all kinds of ups and downs to the flannel wall. I hope. 

My arms still isn't all better after injuring it last year. I'm starting more therapy tomorrow so with luck it won't bother me to quilt forever. I'm concerned it will bother me more to work in the garden. Part of getting old? Maybe

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Coin Stacks

I know, this hardly looks like I would have made it, yet I did. The bright scraps I found at an estate sale a few years ago.  I knew the little scraps would work for this pattern and precut to boot, so I snatched them up.  A few bigger pieces of green and red pieces were in the mix but didn't work for this quilt. Not just the size, but the color. In exchange I added a few orange pieces.. Fun brights aren't my usual MO but couldn't resist. And the black sashing print with those fun bright little circles? Yes, in my stash.   And perfect for this quilt. Mark even asked me, Who made that quilt? He thinks it looks out of place here because it has no triangles. At least he didn't say it looked boring. Problem? Did I say there was a problem? 

Since this is as big as I want to go, I have plenty of leftover brights to make a second version. I even have another black that will be perfect. Sure wish black wasn't so hard on the eyes. Gotta love those LED lights.  Hopefully version 2 will commence tonight. 

Thursday, February 10, 2022

THE Right Time

 A year ago I opened a box containing these three curvy pieced strip sets.

 I made them in a class probably around 1994. The teacher, Sonya Lee Barrington, had samples of what could be done with the strip sets but did not provide a pattern. I didn't really need a pattern because I didn't particularly like my strip sets. It was rare that I took a class and I wanted to use some older fabrics and not buy new because I didn't know what I would be doing with them. Little did I know they would sit for almost 30 years!

So last January I made a decision to make a quick little donation quilt and empty the box. A few days ago I opened the box again and began cutting and sewing again to make one more strip set. I'd cut the other pieces last January so this time it was just a few hours to get them together. Why I decided rectangles and not squares is beyond me. And I still had to decide if I wanted them scattered or like I finally decided with matching sets all in a row.  And the 3 at the top and bottom was a quick decision when I didn't have enough to complete the row and didn't care to make more.. I thought I might use the scraps from the back for a pieced back but then remembered another fabric about the same vintage and in the right colors. I am now anxious to get 'er done. I guess the time was right.

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