Finsh-A-Long–Second Quarter Report

July 2, 2013July 2, 2013 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

First, on July 3rd, I’m guest hosting today over at Leanne’s, of She Can Quilt, where I have written a tutorial for making a faced binding on a quilt (used on Kaleidoscope). This tutorial is in conjunction with the end of the second quarter of the Finish-A-Long, which she is hosting this year.

Now that you’re back, every quarter we monitor our progress and check in with Leanne, who is hosting this year’s Finish-A-Long program. So now it’s time for the second quarterly report of how many of our goals we finished. For a reminder, here’s my original mosaic, showing the quilts I was thinking about finishing:

And now the wrap-up:

Hunter’s Star–still in the closet (not finished)

Four-in-Art: Fire–Doloket, finished

Italy Quilt–Take Me Back to Italy, finished

Lollypop Class Sample I–(top is finished, but the whole project is not finished, because it’s at the shop for a sample)

Lollypop Tree Quilt–(not finished, still hanging in the closet)

Lollypop Class Sample II–Christmas Treat, finished

Friendship Quilt, still in the closet (not finished)

EPP Quilt–Kaleidoscope, finished (amazingly)

So that’s four finishes. Not bad. I also snuck in a few more that weren’t listed:

Spooling Around

A quilt for my sister Christine: Christine’s Philadelphia
(We’re in a pastry shop)

One really nice thing is the way that participating in the Finish-A-Long (FAL) keeps me focused on what to do next. So often I can be swayed by what I see on Instagram, or from blog reading, or the latest internet craze, ignoring my own goals and projects. I still have way more ideas and fabrics and projects that I will ever finish in my lifetime, but I like participating in FAL, where I least have a fighting chance of pointing to something at the end of the quarter that I did, that I finished, and that I’m proud of.

Now I need to think of things I want to try and finish for next quarter’s FAL. Hope you’ll join us.

Block of the Month: Starts and Re-starts

July 1, 2013April 27, 2014 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

I’ve been working on Amish With a Twist–part II, having sewn up some strip sets before I went under the knife for foot surgery, then cut them apart:

While this is how the pattern recommended we proceed, but when sewing them together I found lots of repeated colors. Think carefully about where you sew your lights and mediums, trying not to have the same order of colors from bottom to top, otherwise you’ll find yourself with the problem I have below:

So yes, today I’ll be unpicking and re-stitching in order to break up the two yellows. What you see up on my pinwall is where I got a bit smarter and laid out the strips and the stars and the sets, and could mix and match before sewing them up in a rush.

Actually, when you open that first package, I’d recommend making yourself one of these:

A swatch card. I wrote the name of the color on each clip of selvage, then also coded them as to whether the pattern designer considered it a “medium” or a “light,” as shown by the pink or yellow lines next to the swatch. While it was true that I was cutting these out while hanging out with my three younger grandchildren, and I was trying to follow the plots of their multiple episodes of Witches of Waverly Place streaming down on Netflix as their mother took a nap, I was also pulling out my hair over which color was which. The pattern does include a color chart, but as we all know, print colors can vary from actual colors. So, do your best to sort out which is what color and go forward.

I’m past the initial confusion and aside from the bit of re-stitching I’m going to be doing in a minute, I’m enjoying this process. I’ve never done a Block of the Month (BOM) before, and it’s kind of fun to get a package and a pattern on your doorstep. It is fun to pick and choose colors in the fabric shop, I admit, as well as patterns and ideas, but this summer, given all the sturm und drang (aka “storm and stress”) of the surgery, family trips, and other sundry complications in my world, it will be nice to have part of the creative process simplified. This is my inspiration (the finished quilt top) and I look at it often:

Hopefully, if I stay on track and don’t get too far behind (yes, I’m three blocks behind already!) I’ll have a gorgeous quilt like this one.

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On a side note: for those of you with tons of zucchini in your gardens, I finally got a handle on an interesting zucchini bread recipe, with dried cranberries and walnuts. Recipe *here.*

200 Quilts

Village Faire

June 28, 2013August 12, 2013 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

Village Faire, quilt #117 on my 200 Quilts List

A part of the Year of Schnibbles, hosted by Sherri and Sinta.

This quilt reminded me of summer days, of green lawns that you can lay down in and drift off, and of course, pinwheels that spin with the flick of a finger, or by holding them overhead while running. I was also reminded of local faires and immediately thought of Babe, the Gallant Pig, and Mr. and Mrs. Hoggett, cotton candy, ferris wheels.

I started it on the small machine, as the big machine was set up downstairs, quilting Kaleidoscope.

Here’s the original. You can see I changed up the border.

Given the bold prints of my fabrics, I felt the border was too busy for what I had going on in the center, and as we are given license to modify and create and have fun with Carrie Nelson’s patterns, I indulged and put a series of bars along the edges, with pinwheels for cornerstones. I have a fabrics from the Comma collection from Moda and from Thomas Knauer’s Asbury collection, which has summer-time things like bumper cars and soft-serve ice cream cones.

And on the back? Yep–a tea towel. This one is from Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales region of England. We went on vacation there a few years back and as we are enamoured of Wallace and Grommit, we knew we had to head over to Hawes and sample some Wensleydale cheese. (Even though it was raining. And rained all day, which explains why England is so green.)

A scene or two from Yorkshire. I can now get this Wensleydale cheese in Costco, during the holidays. Will wonders never cease.

This measures a little larger than the other two Schnibbles designs, coming in at 34″ square. I think this design would morph perfectly into a baby quilt, or a quilt for a child, by adding another row of the pinwheels.

After taking the outside photos, I gimped upstairs (yes, I can walk around now, but not much, and have that lovely blue boot on my foot) and threw the quilt on the guest bedroom bed. I really like these bold colors. Given that we are heading into a weekend of 100+ degree heat, I declare that summer has arrived!

This summer may you find a Village Faire to attend, and a pinwheel to spin with a quick puff of breath.

Quilts

WIP–Bee Blocks (post revised)

June 26, 2013June 26, 2013 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

UPDATE: I’ve revised this post, because this morning I realized that TODAY is Wednesday, not yesterday (when I’d originally written it: we’re a little foggy on life over here), so today I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

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I joined a new bee (newby! newby!). I am honored to be included in the Always Bee Learning bee, and the first block’s fabrics have arrived to be sewn (they have different rules than the Mid-Century Modern bee). But Linda’s blocks for the MCM bee still hadn’t been made, and I like to honor my deadlines.

So I gimped down to the sewing room, pulled out a drawer and put a pillow on it for the left foot, got out my portable iron and pad and put it on the table on the right. I figured it was good to be sewing as long as I wasn’t putting any weight on the foot, right? (I’m really hoping that MY idea of “partial weight-bearing” agrees with the doctor’s).

But had to stand for a few minutes on my right leg while I cut the strips, then I sat and sewed. And twisted to iron, but finished up one block before dinner.

After dinner I finished the other one (normally we only do one, but everyone else was doing two and I didn’t want to be a slacker); I packaged it to mail tomorrow, hopefully making it to Florida by July 1st. That small block in the front? We do signature blocks with our Mid-Century Modern (MCM) bee.

This is what Linda is doing with them: using them to border another set of blocks from another bee. She says she’s stuck about what to do in the corner–maybe a rounded version of the stack?–so if you have any ideas, head over to her blog and leave her a comment. It’s always interesting to see our bee blocks being used. Another quilter in this bee finished up her quilt (scroll down to the Mid-Century Modern quilt in neutral fabrics); I hope when it’s my turn I can be as successful.

As I lay in bed yesterday, I did make a button for that new bee:

At least I can be somewhat productive when I lay around here.

What else am I working on? Well, another July 1st deadline is for this month’s Schnibbles quilt. My husband brought up a camp chair (small chair we use when we go camping) and I could slide it in the cubby hole of my sewing desk, and yes, I did get some of that top quilted last night. While I can only quilt for a short while, it feels good to be productive and to see a quilt take shape.

hanging Kaleidoscope Quilt

Thanks, all, for your nice comments about Kaleidoscope (in previous post). My husband hung it up in the hallway this morning. It brings a smile to my face as I slowly make my way up the stairs. Here it is again: