Thursday's meeting at Benny's was well attended but the shop will now be called Quilt's 'n Such. I was a little distracted that day because my daughter was having surgery. She is home now and doing fine.

 This is Sue's quilt in progress. She was required to bring it for show and tell the other night when she called at 9 pm looking for more fabric. Since she knows I am up till midnight she didn't hesitate to call. I was surprised because she is one of those early to bed early to rise kinda girls. My fabric is looking pretty good there, I'd say.  I guess I arranged the blocks wrong, but she liked it and might not set it barn raising style after all.

It was sure nice to attend a quilt show in winter. The Winter Quilt Show was a little small as show's go, but otherwise had everything you could want in a show - a bunch of free lectures and lots of vendors. My Sweet Pepper class Friday was not well attended. This was the 3rd year of the show and the first time classes were offered on Friday. The gals in class did an excellent job however not all wanted to share photos. This work is by Melissa followed by blocks from her friend Sue and another Gail.

 

I didn't get any sewing done this weekend with Mark home. But it was still nice out and we went for several walks and discovered a huge patch of Bittersweet vines growing along a path I've hiked often in the past. Sue was over today for even more fabric (She always makes big quilts.) and a walk to see the Bittersweet.  While she was here I cut and organized my 1800's scraps for a couple more kits. Now I don't know what to work on next because I have so many ideas started. Maybe it is time to make another list, that always helps me to prioritize. Quilting at church tomorrow and Joy is bringing a quilt for the long arm on Wed.  Busy, busy, ain't that grand?

Quilting Season

I'm still enjoying this unusually mild winter and getting a good walk in on most days. I also enjoyed finding this picture in my in-box from Claudette Males of a quilt she started in a class she took with me in Cincinnati. The class was Kissing Cousins from my Thirtysomething book. It's always fun to see different fabrics used for the same pattern and no where is it easier or more fun than in a class.She did a great job.

This weekend is the Winter Quilt Show  north of Milwaukee near Jackson and sponsored by Material Matters of Cedarburg. There's classes, free lectures, lots of vendors and quilts. The weather should be good so I am expecting you to go. I'll be teaching, be sure to say hi.  There is also a new Wisconsin Quilt History Museum in Cedarburg. Maybe it would be a good time to go for some of you. I will be too busy.

There's a meeting at Benny's tomorrow and I haven't made my block yet, so I am off to do that now - maybe.
Have a good one.

Let the snow fall

This is as far as I got yesterday on the Birds quilt. The blocks are sewn together into rows for the first half of the quilt. (The rows are connected with chain stitching) I am working in two sections to make it easier to handle. The bottom half I started putting together this afternoon.

It's early Friday evening. The girls just left. I can't believe they came out in the snow for quilting. I don't mean to suggest they are desperate, but I live at the bottom of a hill and it can be wicked to drive in the snow. I will stay home thank you - and thank you girls for coming to join me for some sewing this afternoon.

Sue is starting a triple 4-patch using my reproduction 1800's. I have a system of letting certain friends  buy from my stash. She typically only buys 1930's prints and was getting bored with them. I'd like to lighten my load of 1800's. So it works out for both of us. Lucrecia started cutting out a grandmothers flower garden quilt. I worked on the birds.

Last night I dug out these orange batiks and found  more golds and oranges in the basket waiting to be washed. Then I washed and ironed them. They are sooo pretty. This was another case where I forgot I already bought some orange for the stash. I am low on blacks. I think that will have to be the next color to shop for.  See how that works?

imaginary quilts

I have been daydreaming about quilts more than quilting lately. Before the new mattress arrived we decided to clean the carpet in the whole house. That always means moving lots of stuff around and then straightening it all up afterwards. It needed it for a while and I am glad we did it. It just means less time for quilting. And gee, I guess my glass lampshades in the bedroom weren't frosted after all. I guess I could dust up there once in a while.

This is a peek at what I have been working on in the studio. I don't usually think to take the camera down there, but after my sister just suggested it, I thought I'd better.  The top is a sample from my 2nd book, Trouble Free Triangles. That goes back almost 20 years. Yes, the book is out of print, but used copies can usually be found online.

I kinda wanted hearts on this quilt, but I don't quilt them as evenly as I'd like them. So, flowers it is.

I have been thinking about how I want to use the oranges I pulled from my stash last week.  After much hemming and hawing I decided to do a maple leaf quilt. I wonder if it will be the next quilt top I put together.  Dinking around with that gave me enough of a break from the Birds-in-the-Air quilt. I hope to get back to that tomorrow night.


The people that I help need some attention these next two weeks. With mom gone now the work load is noticeably lighter. Between paperwork, cleaning and doctors for them, I probably won't have as much time for quilting as I've had in the last month. Unless...

Virtual Quilts

I can spend lots of time making virtual quilts. Electric Quilt software is a fun tool for narrowing down my decisions. Here are just 3 of many quilt plans I came up with recently.

 

 

 
 I am trying to come up with a plan to use a few of my orange fabrics. I have a few in batik besides these.

 And I wouldn't necessarily use blue with the orange. It just offers good contrast on my computer screen. The plans above aren't final either. The ultimate size would be based on how much I like how it is going. Unless I decide to keep it small for a sample for my lectures. These are all Thirtysomething designs, so that's probably a better plan.
 I have been doing some real quilting too. Both in the studio on an old top and the sewing room. I have a few more Flying Geese units left to make for the Birds-in-the-Air ARE Flying Geese quilt.

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

It's not a Bedspread

I  was saving this picture for when I didn't have any of my own quilting to show.  Dotty Huckaby made this using the pattern "Bosom Buddies" from my book Save the Scraps. She has made several quilts from that book. I like to hear that and I like to see that! It sure is neat to see how she limited herself to just a few fabrics instead of scraps. I sometimes like a design enough to want to make it several different ways. Makes it nice for lectures and workshops to show the possibilities. Thanks Dotty. It turned out great.

I am a little frustrated today because I ordered a new mattress. They sure do make them thick now.  I can't say I wasn't warned, but WOW. The new thickness will make some of my favorite quilts too small  - to use as a bedspread. And I have to emphasize that because everytime our church group makes a raffle quilt, there is at least one that whines that we are not making the quilt big enough for a bedspread. SO??????????

So just scanning my scrapbook where I have noted the sizes of each quilt, I see that I have plenty that will be big enough to cover the top mattress (including the sides), and some that will cover both mattresses. I know I don't want to make the others bigger, but that reminds me of bedspreads we had when we were kids. Back then a bedspread covered the pillow, included extra for a pillow tuck and reached to the floor all around the 3 sides. The only part that was quilted on our bedspreads back then was the area on the top of the mattress and pillow. The "drop" on the sides were just matching fabric that was gathered. Interesting how styles change. Anybody want to change some back with me???

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.

four-patches found a home

I played around with the four-patches I made and decided to put them in the corners of scrappy stars.

Then I tried this arrangement too.

Let's see, what else can I come up with. Oops, I can see I will need to be careful that I turn the four-patches the same way in each block.

I don't keep quarter-square triangles precut and waiting from scraps, so I had to cut those. I am making 12" blocks, so using 3 1/2" strips and the companion angle I cut 4 triangles for each star. Anytime I use the companion angle, I always cut a half-square triangle from the end of the strip first, otherwise that scrap is wasted. Here I am using the Omnigrid 96L ruler (The Easy Angle ruler works the same). I will finish the strip cutting half-square triangles too. If the scrap isn't big enough, then I will cut a smaller triangle or square. Those get filed  for a future project.

I'll get these large flying geese units sewn up quickly. I want to get back to the Birds in the Air blocks.

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.

The short list

Back to the retreat Friday with Judy.  I did 3 of these blocks for "Ladies in Waiting".  I will work on them when I am quilting with my friends.  Won't take much thinking. I think there are at least 24 blocks planned with a pieced border.

















On my flannel wall are the rest of the blocks I cut and sewed at Judy's. It doesn't look like much now, because they are stacked in order to sew. If you recall, the friendship star blocks I made a while back, what you see here is the border.







I was telling Judy the other day how I am lucky that I can do whatever I want whenever I want where my quilting is concerned. After looking around the sewing room tonight, I think I have to take that back. I don't think overwhelmed is the word, but sometimes it sure does feel like I have an awful lot that I want to do. I need to prioritize my projects. That's not usually a problem for me.  Take a look at the other piles I have around the room.

This 1930's quilt has been waiting for the border for just a few weeks. That's when I changed my mind about how to assemble and border the blocks, but now I have to locate the muslin that I used in the blocks to make the border. Also not usually a problem.

The binding for Lisa's quilt is half pressed.  I haven't gotten back to it because the table that will support the weight of it had a Christmas tree on it. Put that away this afternoon, so now I can bind. I have 3 others waiting for binding.  Oh yes, a basket of socks is always waiting to get sorted.

These are my newest red fabrics that I washed and ironed tonight. Some of them I have had almost a year and they waited in a special laundry basket in my closet.







This last pile (that I am showing) is actually 2 different piles. One for an applique quilt that has been waiting for at least 6 months. Yes on the floor in the corner behind my cutting table. The other pile is some fabric that I want to move into the cabinet cause I want to rearrange some of my fabric for easier access to the batiks. I wanted to wash the reds first. Sure hope that doesn't sit for another month.

Sew, you say. Yeah, I should. Binding for Lisa first.   I mean NOW, I have 3 hours till bedtime.
 Wish me luck and good luck to you.

1 day quilting retreat

As I said in my last post, I'd post this picture of the quilt top I finished right after Christmas. I am not overly fond of floral prints and wasn't keen on this as I finished the blocks. When I pulled them out last week and put them together I felt better about them. Then my Lisa saw it and was practically drooling over it. Kinda unusual for her. Funny after all this time, you'd think I'd know my own daughter's taste.

Earlier this week I had the lecture to give in Lodi. I was pleased with the response to my Thirtysomething quilts.  And then there was a club meeting at BF. I took my hand quilted sampler for Show and tell. Sue came for a good long visit the next night. In between I got caught up a little on stuff around here that  I neglected last month when Mark was home from work. And then yesterday I had to get stuff together for a mini retreat.


That was today when I retreated to Judy's for a much needed respite from everyday life. I haven't done any piecing lately  and when I suggested to Judy that we get together, she asked if I'd come her way to spend the day. It's always exciting to spend the day with her because I have such a good time chatting and am so inspired and learn stuff too. She's the longarm quilter I used most till I got my machine.  I sure hope she feels I entertained her enough to do it again. I know she liked that she was able to finish quilting this Irish Chain while I was there. I'd love to give credit to the designer and piecer too, but I don't have that info.

A sewing marathon like today always gets my gears wound up. Even though I put several kits together so I could grab and go, I still take some time to look at them first to make sure I will know what I am doing beforehand so that I don't have to do too much thinking while I am sewing with others. Glad that all worked out. Stuff got done that I'll show later. Judy doesn't have the same kind of flannel wall for taking pictures and apparently I should leave the camera home in the future.  Thanks Judy. I had a great time.

Year end finishes

 Happy New Year everyone. I hope you had as good a weekend as I have. Mine was real quilty. It is not uncommon for me to finish a quilt on New Year's weekend. And this weekend I have several finishes to report.

This first one has been waiting the longest. The blocks were just orphans I made in my stash.  A few of them date back over 25 years. Then about 5 years ago, I put them together.  I liked how it turned out so much that I decided to hand quilt it using a wool batting. I quilted about half the blocks and removed it from the frame and put it away for a while.  Then I brought it out about 1 1/2 yrs ago and finished the blocks.  Then it sat for almost another year untouched because I couldn't decide how to quilt the border.  Then I decided I'd rather use it this winter than let it haunt me another year so I let Lenni finish it. The quilting was all simple straight lines so I didn't want anything elaborate for the border quilting. This is how I finally quilted the border. See? That was early yesterday.

In the afternoon I loaded this quilt top for my daughter. She had recently complained that the quilt she is using is to small for 2 people. So I chose this quilt from my stash of tops and she chose simple meandering loops. What a great kid. Fast and easy.  I didn't want to invest much time in custom quilting this top.

Thank goodness I took the picture. Otherwise, I don't know when I would have noticed that I sewed the star together wrong.  And I remembered to fix it before quilting it. Yeah.

There was another top I finished I will show next time. Otherwise, there weren't many  finishes for the year. Usually there are more, but it was a tough year again. And now my time is divided between the quilting  with Lenni and piecing with Bernie (my Bernina) and...
Well, once again, Happy New Year and thanks for visiting.

It's Later

Being later means it's quilting time!  In between preparations for Christmas, I was able to find some time to do some quilting. So now this top I made almost 20 years ago is finally quilted and waiting for a binding.

It wasn't a very quilty Christmas for me otherwise. Not complaining as I have just about all a gal could want in the world of quilting. One quilty thing I was excited about this week though was how I reorganized my quilts in storage. When I saw Joy a few weeks ago, we traded my quilting services for a quiltrack/ladder. So I put it up in the warehouse and hung just the quilts I use on it. This might simplify things a bit for me.

Even better, after that, I cleaned out the closet and made room to hang some quilts from skirt/pant hangers. I saw this on Judy Martin's website years ago. Lord, why I didn't try this sooner I will never understand, but I love it. Hanging the quilts like this will make it easier to access them and without the weight of them being piled on top of one another the creases won't be so sharp and maybe permanent. I am sure it would still be a good idea to refold in the opposite direction every year or so.  I had Mark move the pole up so I can hang  up to 72" long quilts. The longer ones would have to be on a pole up at the ceiling or folded and clamped at opposite ends. Either way, I ran out of room in the closet.  I will have to put Mark to work on that. 

 Have you noticed that my quilts are mostly folded wrong side out. I do that so they don't fade or pick up stains otherwise. I also keep a dust cloth on the piles cause I don't know when the cat may go up there and sleep or ... (ewww) and I also keep the blinds drawn in that room.

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.