Homemade Mystery

Some years ago I started a quilt. Early on I didnt like how it was looking,  so I gave up on it. Tbe thing is I'd cut enough for perhaps 8 or 10 blocks. Well I scrapped the plans  but left the pieces and matching fabric in a box on the shelf.  I conveniently forgot what I was going to make. A few years ago  I peaked in the box and labeled it a mystery and mystery it is.
Tonight I pulled it out and started playing with the pieces to see  what I could come up with.
These are the blocks I could make with he pieces I've already cut. The white table in the pictures would be the light pink fabric. I just didnt spread all he pieces out.  I'm sure I could come up with more block designs so maybe I'll do a sampler quilt. Your guess is as good as mine. Stay tuned.

Birds in the Birch

I knew when I wrote the last post that I was missing a photo. Only one that I can remember now. So here it is on the right. I finally took a picture. I loved the cardinal/chickadee fabric. Anyone that knows me knows that I don't like novelty prints. Most are too cutesy for me, but this is on the elegant side.  I plan to finish it up for my living room in the winter.

The pattern shown here, Midnight Express, is from my book, S is for Scraps. It's the pattern I used for the Birds in the Birch above. When I designed the quilt I thought the big gray squares would be a good place to showcase either pretty quilting design or a picture print like the birds above. I didn't like the idea of the birds with the scraps, but I'm sure the right cute fabric would still work with scraps. Ugh. So many ideas, so little time. Yes The book is still available from me for $15.00 plus $7 for postage. It's rare that I do the same pattern twice, but if I like it I will and good at lectures.

Next up is the Monkey Wrench quilt in browns and pinks. Recently I've been interested in reversing the position of the lights and darks in blocks. In other words, use a dark print in the area we usually call "the background". In this case I chose to mix up the prints of one color per block because I was cutting into a charm pack and couldn't get all the pieces for one block from the 5" squares. I made 6" blocks for this quilt. I want to throw this one on my dining room table and see how I feel about the size. I usually use square quilts on the table and sometimes I wish they covered the whole table top. I don't want them hanging over  the edge.  We'll see.

I have made the Monkey Wrench before. Maybe you know this block by the name Hole in the Barn Door. These are 5" blocks, made back in the day when I hand quilted. I bet this is over 30 years old.I see it's starting to sag and fade. Good excuse to make a replacement for that spot.

I'm going to plan to link up to a few linky parties. It's a good time for blog hopping.
Oh Scrap!
Design Wall Monday

not giving up

    A friend asked me the other day about what's going on with my blog. Have I been writing or is there something going on at her end.  No, I haven't been writing. I told her I spent little time at the computer in favor of the smart phone and I didn't care to post blogs on my phone.  Well, that is only part of my excuse. As I sat here at the computer off and on the last 2 hours I recalled it was my frustration with software updates or perhaps obsolete software UGH! enough said.

    This is my attempt to catch up since my last post in August. I will rely on the photos on my phone to get things posted in chronological order. I'll separate the projects into categories of piecing, quilting and charity quilts. Okay, a quick check showed I wasn't too productive.

     Actually I kinda was when you consider how I spent tons of time planning about 32 quilts, both mine and comfort quilts. Some are cut completely because I was low on kits on the shelf. Some were for comfort quilts at church and still there are lots of piles of potential quilts sitting around the room. Those are not completely planned. I need to calculate yardage on those where I won't be using scraps. My boxes on the shelf are full. My stash drawers are too. Late last year Sawdust and Stitches Quilt Shop in Elkhorn closed. They were a favorite and the closest. Yes, I stopped shopped several times. Then don't you know, there were a few quilt tops I overlooked when getting backs. I don't really want to wait on those, so we'll see.  Dare I call Sharon?

     Starting with quilting I'm almost ashamed to say how little I did. I loaded a big quilt, did about half of it and walked away.  That was last June. I'd had a rough start to last year with my gal bladder and sewed little. I thought I would be eager to quilt last summer when it was hot, but no. I guess I simply prefer to be outside in the summer. I don't know what happened this last fall. I thought I would be quilting then. But no. Finally I got it done. November, I think. It's still waiting for the binding.  Then I did a couple quick comfort quilts. Next I made plans to do some of my own. And I did!

      First I finished my valentine tablerunner. Wanted that done for this year. Yay. Apparently I never took a picture of that and it is at Studio 3 now. And Oh look, It started to snow.


Next I quilted "Heading South" for my dining room table.

Yep, that's Bob. He can't seem to nap without a quilt. He never used to go on the table. Then again, I never used to put quilts on the table! This became a bad habit in a hurry.

     Then a few days later I quilted the tulip quilt. That too I wanted done for this spring. So often I say "I don't need another quilt" but a few I've wanted for me. The tulip blocks were really made for class samples at Studio 3. I so rarely do applique, I thought I better have a class on it before I start doing it on my own projects in front of them.  The 4 blocks were fused and stitched 4 different ways. There was a 5th block where I turned seam allowances and did an invisible blind stitch. Once the blocks were done was the first I gave thought to putting them into a useful quilt. The white setting triangle fabric  and light green sashing fabric sat in my drawers for YEARS. I was delighted how they worked so well to finish this. I'll use this on my square coffee table in the living room where Bob also naps.

 

    As for piecing, I did these two for me. The gray thing is supposed to be the background for some appliqued Purple Coneflowers. It stalled there; little wonder. Actually I was trying to locate the right pink. It wasn't in my stash. I really like it just fine the way it is. Maybe the gray for the border. I originally did the applique class so I could applique this.
     I want to finish up planning the kits and a few bindings and ?.  Who knows, maybe I'll get back to this rather than sticking it on a shelf the way it is. Stay tuned.


     And last is the feathered star. I planned this for a wallhanging in my living room. The quilting is all planned now too and I hope to get it on the frame tonight! When Sue saw it she thought it was good that I did something challenging again.  I don't know what she was talking about. The only thing challenging about this is deciding how I wanted to border the feathered star. There is no pattern for the quilt. I finally took the time in Electric Quilt to design it. As much as I like that software I am not sure if it or how it  can calculate the width of the spacer borders needed to get following borders to fit. Much easier for me to just do it but not if you don't even have a clue what you want it to look like. That's where EQ comes in. I wanted to do this thing for at least the last 5 years. I've thought it would be fun to do a round robin with my self. Umm. I forgot about that when had this in mind. Guess I can still put that on the agenda.

So that's what I've been up to. I really do hope to keep things current here, but this wasn't so bad.