Counting Down the Hours

 In a small effort to clean up in my sewing room I came across a bag of hourglass blocks.  Not too many, and they didn't match anything in particular.  Just perfect for a little scrappy quilt.  Cheri Payne had a sweet little New Year's Eve sew along called this Counting Down the Hours in 2013.  Ten years ago!  It's never too late to sew along, right?  This will make an adorable topper for a small end table, or maybe a perfect gift or give-away.  

Counting Down the Hours 14.5 x 18"

How did I find the pattern?  I was keeping a quilt journal at the time, and sketching quilts that I came across and loved, but didn't have time to make.  It's fun to page through and find just the right thing now for using up these little extra blocks.

Easter Memories

 When I was a toddler, my mother made a grey wool coat and bonnet for me.  Easter time in Minnesota often has cold weather.  The lining she used was a pretty yellow cotton, with bunnies, kittens and teddy bears, and little blue flowers.  

    I found some leftover fabric in my mother's boxes of fabrics after she passed away.  This year that fabric finally found its way into a quilt.   The border was a bit of a problem.  Straight borders just weren't speaking to me.  Finally, I looked at a book on pieced borders for inspiration and the on-point Seminole style blocks were just the thing!  It took a bit of math.  Using different size border strips on the sides vs the top/bottom got everything to come together right.

   

Easter Memories 2023  34.5x38"

Bats and Boos

 Last year the Fat Quarter Shop shared this mystery quilt along.  Such cute little bats and pumpkins!  The fabrics were pulled and pattern printed, but the season passed before I knew it.   I never even got started.  Late this summer I finally got tired of moving the pile of fabrics from place to place in my sewing room.  I pulled it out and got to work.  The purple border was an extra step I added, and it frames the quilt so nicely.   All finished- well in time for Halloween.  All fabrics from my stash too!  (5 1/2 yards worth) 

Bats and Boos 43.5 inches square

Wedding Ring for Jackie and Jeremey

 Yesterday extended families and friends came together to celebrate the marriage of our lovely niece and our new nephew-by-marriage.  What a beautiful day!  You can't have an aunt who quilts without receiving a wedding quilt.  Every stitch made with hopes and prayers for a wonderful life together.

Our niece has always enjoyed skiing, and their new home in Colorado will offer many opportunities for them to continue in the sport.  Fabrics chosen for their quilt kept that in mind.  The blue and white both are snowflake prints.  Navy and grey borders frame a field of single wedding ring blocks.  The pieced  blocks even reminded me of snowflakes.

The pattern was in a 2006 Quilting Block & Pattern-a-Day Calendar by Debby Kratovil.  Coincidentally, the blocks were featured over days that included the bride's birthday.  It was meant to be!

It's not quite queen size in width.  Perfect for cuddling up on the sofa on crisp winter evenings with a cup of hot cocoa.  Love and best wishes to the bride and groom!

Jamestown Landing in progress

 Bonnie Hunter has been a favorite quilt designer of mine for years now.  Every year I try to do one of her designs. They are challenging for me, and it's always interesting to give it my own twist.

For a number of years I've been saving blue and white half-square triangles.  I've also been saving selvage edges from fabric.  Instead of string piecing the neutral blocks on Jamestown Landing, I used neutral selvages.  It certainly gives a similar look, and it was a great way to use up the selvages that I didn't use in my basket weave quilt.  That being said, I'm all done saving selvages!  Three quilts is enough.  I don't think the method of topstitching them together is strong enough to withstand much practical use.  But, I did enjoy giving it a try.

Here's a quick snapshot of Jamestown Landing before I started quilting it up.  The quilting was finished last weekend, and trimming and binding are up next.  I hope to share the finished quilt with you soon.

Valentine Mystery

 Here's a sweet little quilt that seemed to take forever to get the binding handwork done.  I can hardly remember when it was started.  It was the Valentine Mystery sew-along from last February by Kathleen Tracy.  This little cutie finished at 15 1/2" square.  Usually these small quilts are part of my sit-and-wait handwork when I go to doctor appointments, but lately I barely get in three stitches before my name is called. 

A quilt for the June bride

Our niece was married last weekend and I finished their wedding quilt with just two days to spare.  Her favorite color is red, and she wanted a controlled color palate.  Nothing scrappy for her!  Classic and classical are her style.

As I thought about the design I wondered "Where does the time go?  Sand through the hourglass."  It has been a joy to watch her grow and change, and she was a stunningly beautiful bride. Disappearing Hourglass is the pattern I chose for their quilt, in a two-color red and white.

Disappearing Hourglass 92" square

The white fabric has a sweet gray swirl which softens the look of the quilt.  Her bridesmaids wore burgundy red dresses quite similar to the red in the quilt.  I'll call that a win!

While I was sewing their quilt, I was reminded how a marriage and a quilt have some similarities.  As much as I try, on my quilt blocks there are always points that just don't match up right.  But, in the grand scheme of things that doesn't really matter unless the quilt is going to be entered in a competition.  A marriage is NOT is a competition!  Some points won't be perfect, but focusing on those too closely just makes you dissatisfied with the whole thing.  With a quilt, and a marriage, you need to  see it as a whole.  The imperfections become insignificant, the overall beauty is revealed and you see that marriage, like a quilt, is truly a work of art.

Winter birds

 This little wall hanging cheered up our cabin this winter after the Christmas decorations came down.  

Winter Birds 3x44 inches

When I first purchased my Elna embroidery machine I tried out a number of Embroidery Library designs. These winter birds were stitched on a piece of blue linen I had on hand.  They turned out beautifully, but I never could figure out what to do with them.  They sat in the orphan blocks box for years.

This January I finally used them to make a wall hanging, and it worked out perfectly!  I trimmed the blocks down to 9 inches and added navy linen-look cotton sashing.  It gave me a chance to practice my free motion stipple quilting.  I quilted right through the embroidery and it worked out well.   I used two different shades of blue thread for the wavy line quilting in the sashing and border.

Many Happy Hearts

 This sweet little quilt has been a UFO for over a decade.  The vintage 30's colors look just like springtime, and I'm so happy it's finally a finished quilt!  My hubby was kind enough to put up an old brass curtain rod near the ceiling in the hallway so I can photograph quilts through the bathroom doorway.  Hey, it works for me!

Many Happy Hearts 45 x 54 inches

The pattern was printed in Spring 2007 America Loves Scrap Quilts from McCalls Quilting.  I may have the book/magazine or maybe found it at the local library.  A single photocopy page, and all sorts of fabric scraps, were put into a project pack and brought up to our lake cabin.  I worked on it for a season or two, then set it aside.  This winter I was looking for something to work on and pulled it out of the sewing drawer.

Of the original pattern's 20 blocks, I had finished ten.  Two more were cut out and ready to applique.  It didn't take long to finish up those two blocks and call it 'good enough.'  Those 12 blocks became this sweet little quilt.  

The borders didn't take long, but oops!  Problem...

Border before re-stitching to shorten.

 Using fewer blocks in the quilt put the pieced border pattern off kilter.  This was actually a pretty easy fix.  I needed to shorten the sides by one block width. (2 inches)  Nothing was getting ripped out! Oh no. Starting with every-other horizontal seam (and then adding in a couple more as needed) they were re-stitched right next to the old stitching line.  Just a thread width. This took up enough length to make the border fit perfectly, and no one is the wiser. (wink)

 The backing is a white and gray plaid fleece.  No batting.  So soft and cozy to cuddle in on a cool spring evening.  

Moda Love for Ukraine

 So many quilters are showing their support for the people of Ukraine as they both battle and flee the invading Russian military forces who are destroying their country.  A floral print in the Ukrainian national colors of royal blue and yellow inspired this queen size version of the Moda Love pattern.  

I used 8.5-inch blocks to best fit the amount of fabric I had on hand.  Seriously, the math is so easy with this pattern that any size block can be used.  The yellow grunge and the floral were entirely used up, and the blues were mostly scraps. I won the bobbin race a few times too!   

Next step is to figure out what designs I want to use to quilt it.  I use my domestic sewing machine, so there may be a lot of straight lines and walking foot stitching.  We shall see. The pieces on this quilt seem huge to me!  The past few years my quilts have mostly been 2.5-inch triangles and Bonnie Hunter designs.  At that scale a simple stitch in the ditch, or diagonal through the block quilting pattern works well.  That's not going to work on this quilt, but there's no hurry.

Two wedding quilts for nieces with summer and fall weddings are next on my to-do list.  Those both have specific wedding dates to be finished.  Stay tuned!

Vintage Christmas

 In 1984 I made a Christmas quilt from pre-printed blocks.  It was the sixth quilt I had ever made.  No classes or instructions, no teacher.  My lack of skills clearly showed.  Can you see any actual quilting in this photo?  I thought not.  The only quilting it has was stitched 1/4 inch on each side of the seams around each motif and where the red and green met.  Never having heard of a walking foot, I fought with this big quilt to get that little bit of quilting done on my old Bernina Nova.  (How I miss that little machine!  It was a high school graduation gift from my parents.  The foot pedal died, and can't be replaced.)

86 x 86 inch Christmas quilt made in 1984

Wall hanging 2021

My choice of backing left something to be desired as well.  I used a vellux blanket fabric and no batting.  Now, this wasn't too bad considering the light use the quilt was given.  It was on the bed a couple weeks a year at most.

Over time though, the rubber in the vellux disintegrated. Yuck!  It was a sticky mess!  In 2009 I ripped the backing off - which wasn't hard considering the lack of quilting.  It basically fell apart in my hands.  The red, and some of the green fabric was re-used in other quilts.  The four corner motifs were made into hot pads with insulated batting and denim backing. The rest went in to the orphan block box.

Now, in 2021, more of those panels have a new life.  Last weekend I made this wall hanging for our cabin to add a festive holiday spirit to the hallway.  It was a fun, quick project for the holidays.  It looks a little wobbly in this photo from the way it is hanging.  Some of the other motifs will probably become placemats.  

Wishing you, and yours a very Blessed Christmas!

Just Takes 10?

 A series of doctor appointments this fall had me looking through my orphan blocks to sew up a small quilt so I could hand-sew binding on as I waited.  You never know how blocks will speak to you, but inspiration struck, and the result is this very Christmas-looking red and green lap quilt.  

The blocks have been sitting neglected in my box for ten years.  In 2012, Gail at Sentimental Stitches had a sew-along called Just Takes 2.  It was a lovely two-color red and white quilt.  I chose green and white for mine and enthusiastically dove right in.  Eventually though, I just couldn't keep up.  After making about 1/3 of the blocks, I stopped.  Was my background fabric was too busy?  Was it all too green? I'm not sure what.  No matter.  

Some leftover pices of the background fabrics were with the blocks.  I framed eight smaller blocks to be the same size as eight larger blocks and put them all together with a barn red sashing fabric.  The backing and binding is a cute homespun plaid from deep stash with just the right shades of green and red.  

It has a new home on the sofa at the lake cabin.  So cozy!  Since it took ten years to get these blocks into a quilt, maybe I should call it Just Takes 10!

Dorothy's Rainbow table runner

 Here's how the little table runner turned out.  The quilt pieces and blocks came from a thrift store called Dorothy's Rainbow.  The finished 15 x 45 inch runner rightfully bears the name.  

The background is cream, but the photo makes them look yellow. Only a couple cream pieces and four HST blocks had to be added from my stash to make things all work out evenly. 

The navy and red look so sweet together in these vintage blocks.  The fabrics seem to be from the 1960's and early 1970's.

Bag of vintage blocks

 Sometimes it's just impossible to drop by a thrift store and not give something a new home.  Recently I stopped in at the little store that supports the food shelf in the small town near our cabin.  This little bag of 3-inch fabric squares and some partially made blocks came home with me for a mere $1.50.  Of course I also made a cash donation to the food shelf, and dropped off 5 boxes of items that will not be making their way into our remodeled cabin.  Win, win!

What sweet fabrics I discovered when I got home!  Clearly they were the discards and leftover pieces from some quilter's projects in the 1970's.  Some fabrics were much older, maybe late 50's or early 60's.  

The fabrics in the little 4-patch are adorable!
That red mini-print is definitely 1970's.

There were four finished blocks in red, white and navy.
Hopefully I can make another four to put with them.

Not sure what these were, but they're coming apart.
Every seam is double stitched and backstitched.  UGH!

What would you do with these seven blocks?

A Little Unity

 Last July, with the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, Bonnie Hunter graciously shared a mystery sew-along "Unity" on her Quiltville blog.  So many quilters, sewing as one.  Joined together in a sisterhood of creativity, even as we spent much of the year as isolated as possible to reduce risk of illness.

The first few rounds were enjoyable, and I was able to keep up.  But my attention was pulled away by other priorities.  By the time round 4 came my piecing was falling behind.  I wasn't sure I liked that particular star in the color values I had going.  I also realized that I didn't need another large quilt in those colors.  I love a pop of turquoise, but this was really too much for me.  It needed to be tamed down, and sized down too.  

So, I chose a different star block for round 4 and then added a dark blue border.   As it was being completed, the January 6th assault on the Capitol building was in the news.  Such an awful and divided time in our nation.  It's been named "A Little Unity" as a reminder of these stressful times and its smaller size.  The backing is 59-inch wide gray fleece.  58x58 finished size.

A lesson in (in)consistency

 Over several years my tiny 1-1/4 inch scraps have been turned into log cabin blocks.  The first 24 were done about the same time and put together into a rectangle.  This winter I picked it up again and added 8 more blocks on each end to create a table runner for our rebuilt cabin.  The original blocks were pieced on one machine, but the newer ones were done on a different one.   All seemed well until the quilting was finished and the edges needed to be trimmed straight.  Oops!  Looks like the earlier blocks in the center were smaller than the more recently made blocks.  The poor dear has an hourglass shape!  

You can see the batting showing along the sides in the center.  But all the quilting is DONE, and it's not coming out.  She'll get a black binding to try and camouflage the fact that I've trimmed a half inch or more off of each side on the ends.  You won't tell, will you? It will be our secret.

Storm at Sea

Storm at Sea is the one quilt that I have wanted to make for years, but was never sure I was ready to tackle that kind of challenge.  Fabrics were found and saved up a bit at a time.  Some yummy hand dyed light blues from Vicki Walsh that I won in a contest...  Leftover batiks from another project...  And a couple lucky Thrift Store finds... Finally, in June 2019 I decided to give it a try.  

Patterns were pulled out and examined from a number of books in my 'library'.   Not one of them was exactly right.  The dark blue diamond blocks needed to be a specific size to take advantage of a wide stripe fabric I wanted to use.  So, I drafted my own pattern to get the right size block.  Then came cutting and piecing sample blocks.  I had to adjust the size of the diamond block pattern a time or two, but finally got the right combination.  A bit at a time it came together.  All the fabrics were pre-washed, some a number of times because the dye ran.  

Over the past year Storm at Sea took shape.  One of the last things I did in August 2020 on the wide open spaces of our cabin kitchen floor was to sandwich and pin two queen size quilts.  Storm at Sea was one of those.  Then we turned our attention to a full-scale rebuild at the cabin and quilting was put aside.

By December the quilting was underway and the cabin interior was nearly finished.  Stitch in the ditch was done and then I stalled out.  Did it need more quilting?  Yes.  No.  Yes.  Maybe?

Last weekend I gave it a good looking over again.  From the back there seems to be enough quilting.  Or at least it seems balanced in density.  So let's call it a finish and put it on the bed in the brand new cabin.  

The quilt is actually scrappier than it looks in the photo.  There were at least five light blues used, two white prints, a purple batik and three navy prints.  The border batik makes an appearance in some half of the square-in-square blocks too. They all blend so well!   Here it is draped over the sofa.

Snow on the River

 A new quilt will soon be going on our bed as the season changes to winter.  My version of Barbara Brackman's "Snow on the River Wandle" was finished late this summer and has been waiting for a snowy day to make it's debut.  It's impossible to see in a photo, but the white-on-white background fabric has a winter trees and snowflakes on it. Here is the link to Barbara's free pattern:  Snow on the River Wandle.

This is the quilt that our little Woodchuck, who accidentally became locked in the garage for a week, tried to have for a snack.  I'm so thankful the damage was completely repairable.

I did finish one more quilt this fall, but still have a bit more quilting to do before I can share. 

Happy New Year to all.  May you be blessed with Health, Happiness and plenty of time to quilt awhile in 2021.

Shoo Fly Shoo finally gets her binding on

 On a sleepless night, what better thing to do than some hand sewing?  Instead of tossing and turning in bed I got up and finished the binding on this cute little quilt.  Relaxing, nearly mindless, and just the right recipe to calm my busy mind.  A bright and sunny morning was just right for her glamour shot!

Shoo Fly Shoo 34 x 40 inches

Moda Love finish

It is just a week short of a year since "Moda LOVE" quilt top was completed.  

Moda LOVE 90 inches square

This weekend the binding went on and it's DONE!  The hardest part was deciding how to quilt the last border.  I mulled that over for a couple weeks, marked and re-marked.  Finally my sister helped me get it all worked out, pinning and drawing lines to get things to line up correctly.  

The maple leaves in the red border give it an autumn look, but the free motion flowers in the floral border don't show up at all.  Well, at least no mistakes will be visible there!