May’s Blocks (and some of June)

June 5, 2016 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Because my husband is busy this afternoon recovering from our trip (see below), I used an online generator to pick a winner today for the felt, and it’s Elizabeth (what a great name, eh?) who goes by catskillquilter. Congratulations, Elizabeth! I’ll be in touch to get that sent out to you. I have two more giveaways lined up in the next couple of weeks, one courtesy of Uppercase Magazine, and the other from the Steam A Seam people (that one’s on June 13th–in conjunction with our continuing Hallowe’en 1904 QAL). I’ll have some great news as well about that fabulous pattern.

Here we go, first with quilt blocks from our Mid-Century Modern Bee: Carla of Grace and Favor asked for a modern churn dash block, saying she likes mustard and plum. Above is my block, but I was tempted by this, from @myquiltdiet:

I thought it would be fun to try, but Carla said “Too much work!” I could hear the laugh in her voice, so I smiled and went with tweaking the center bars to give it a bit of a twist. I hope she likes it.

In our Spelling Bee Quilt Bee, Susan of PatchworknPlay asked for words to make up her saying, which she’ll reveal on her blog. I first took three words with “w’s” but then Simone had none, so I gave two back, leaving me with the above.

Since NOT staying at home seems to be the thing I do the best lately, we headed out Friday for a mini-reunion with my husband’s family in Zion National Park, about 7 hours away. You can tell who has been coming there for ages (this makes about trip #20 for me) as we say “heading to Zion’s” as if there’s a possessive element there. (However, I do feel like it’s “my” park.) To try and catch up with my patchwork, I took some Chuck Nohara blocks on the road, stitching them in the car and in the park.

We invested in new air mattresses this year, twin blow-up beds, and those of you who have slept on a queen air mattress with another person while it slowly deflates all night long, know exactly why I replaced our aging air mattress. It also helps that my favorite camp quilt, Hearts in the Pines, is made for a twin. The pattern is out of print, but you can find the blocks in this previous post. My husband’s bed later on got a green nine-patch, but he left it off because it was. . .

…pretty dang hot this weekend. Snapshot was from the next day, where it turned out to have a high of 103 degrees F (about 40 C.)

My husband and I, my son and his wife and boys always go out to dinner at Zion Pizza and Noodle Company the first night, as we all love their pizzas, and who wants to cook after setting up camp? I love their scallopy crusts.

We were tasked with getting the S’more supplies. I cracked up when I saw a whole section just dedicated to this.

We rejoiced to have my husband’s niece (shown here in the Virgin River with the youngest of her six children) join us. Several weeks ago she underwent surgery for a brain tumor, and while under anesthesia, had a stroke. She awoke to a mostly paralyzed left side and has undergone significant physical therapy just to be able to walk with occasional hesitation. But she’s walking! She’s our own little success story, and she and her husband and family are our very own heroes.

Throwing rocks in the river was great entertainment for my grandson and the other small cousins. (No, he couldn’t lift that one.)

I left the river early because it was too hot, and went back to camp. I picked up my Chuck Nohara stitching, sitting quietly in the shade, watching (and chasing away) the squirrels. All of a sudden I hear a sound directly behind me, and using the reverse camera on my phone, caught this shot. One of the other little cousins came running over, saying “Bambi’s here! Mom, Bambi’s here!”

Because of the above sitting quietly, I’m all caught up with my Chuck Nohara blocks from April and May:

Now to head into June!

Chuck Nohara · Quilts

Chuck Nohara • January 2016 blocks finished

January 28, 2016January 27, 2016 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

Happy to report that I finished my January’s Chuck Nohara Blocks a few days early, even with totally redoing the house on the hill block (#cn968). (The upper left fabrics are from Sherri and Chelsi’s new line of fabrics, called Valley. Yes, that is a shameless plug for her two lines, as I love the colors and patterns.) By the way, that (#cn968) is how we tag them on Instagram if you are ever looking for a block, and want to see what others have done. After seeing what others put together, I switched out the house colors (previous version shown below):

Yeah. I didn’t like it much either, although I like all those fabrics.

Here they all are so far. No, I haven’t trimmed up all the blocks yet. Mine will measure 6″ when they are finished (6 1/2″ trimmed). Here’s February’s blocks, in case you want to think about them early:

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Quarterly Reveal on February 1st

See you on February 2nd to begin our Oh Christmas Tree QAL!

Chuck Nohara

Chuck Nohara Blocks • January 2016

January 1, 2016December 28, 2024 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

Note: This was supposed to be published in a few days, but the Flying Monkeys took over and things just got a little out of control over here. Over and Out.

Most of the time, I keep the Chuck Nohara blocks confined to the immediacy of Instagram, but as we start a new month (and a new year), I thought I’d show where we are.

Finished these. Don’t be too harsh a critic on my skills, as some were done in a car, some in an airplane and some while in a hotel room. But done is the operative word.

Starting to prep up these. Two choices are from Susan, of PatchworkNPlay, and two are mine. I love the ones that are a combo of hand appliqué and machine piecing. Come and join us! Refer to the earlier post for information about the book, 2001 New Patchwork Blocks, and follow our quilt-a-long on Instagram (#chucknoharaqal).

P. S. There’s a giveaway coming up in my next post for the magazine Simply Moderne, which has the fabulous Oh Christmas Tree pattern in it. Stay tuned.

Chuck Nohara

Final Finishes for 2015

December 7, 2015December 4, 2015 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

Thank you for all your kind comments on IG and on the last post. A lot of this post was mostly written before the San Bernardino tragedy, so it may seem lighthearted. But it still is Christmas and I still delight in making, in fact it is a great leveler in crazy times. Enjoy the quilting.

Rosette #5 is finished, so now I can start to plan #6. I loved the fabrics that fell into place on this one.

Here’s November’s Chuck Nohara blocks. These all measure 6″ finished, so they are like eating small bites of chocolate. I even got the “hollow” on the cherries embroidered since last time. The blocks on the second row on either end, are using fabrics from A Quilting Life’s Bright Sun line of fabrics, and the center one uses fabrics from their Valley collection.

Bright Sun is above. I like how different they are, yet they all coordinate. (Yes, Sherri is a friend, and yes, I bought these from Fat Quarter Shop.)

Here are some of the steps I took for two of the blocks:

I started here, tracing the outline of the handle with a chalk pencil. I then clipped the edges, and finger pressed it, rolling the chalked line to the underneath as I went (a trick from Becky Goldsmith of Piece O Cake). I centered it on the upper piece, but just pinned it. As I stitched (later on) I also ended up trimming down the seam allowance to a scant 1/4″–here it is a fat 1/4.”

I figured out where I wanted the flowers on the upper basket rim, then ironed down my freezer paper (I traced it from the book’s enlarged picture) and traced around it.

I traced the lower basket and side edges, labeled them, then clipped them apart so I could fussy cut the arrows from the fabric. I stitched it all together, and added the lower edge.

I gauged where the handle would fall in relation to the basket using a ruler, then appliquéd it down.

I double-checked it again. At six inches, there’s not a lot of leeway for mistakes, yet the blocks do sew up quickly.

I pinned the basket bottom to the top piece and hand-appliqued it down.

I trimmed the upper piece after sewing it.

Next. Start here. Seam together the flowery petal pieces, then lay them over the corner wedge.

I began appliquéing from the center, out to each side. Trust me on this.

Seam together two, then four. Then sew together each side.

The dots save you from agonizing over that center join, and are kind of fun.

Here’s what we have put up for December. Even though we have listed four blocks, you only have to do two to feel good about yourself, especially in the month of December.