It has been fun designing all the 32 pieces in the Gaa Barge series. I have enough scraps taken from the wastebasket or swept off the floor to finish the remainder of my challenge. I had originally planned to make one a week for a whole year, but gardening got in the way and the series wasn’t finished. Maybe, I can finish the series next winter when the snow flies.
The cat and dog pieces were made with purple and other dark fabrics for the background and tan fabrics for the animals. The made fabric was made in the mile a minute method. The patterns for the animals came from a child’s coloring book. The cut out animals were fused down and then zig zaged around the edges with tan thread. The lines of the drawing were zig zaged with black thread.
Shortly after I made these two pieces, I taught a class on this procedure at a local quilt shop. The pieces were my sample pieces. They were at the shop when a photographer came to take a picture of the owners. One of the pieces was grabbed and put under the needle of a sewing machine. The colors went with a piece that was on the wall behind them. I enjoy seeing my animal in the picture on the wall when I go to the quilt shop.
I’m so very thankful for snow days. Meetings are cancelled and I can stay home and sew all day long if I want to. I wrote a list of the projects that I am currently working on. There were five projects, not counting the ones in the hand sewing basket. There are three in there waiting for the binding to be hand sewn down. I’m not even checking the bins and baskets all around the sewing room. These five are current projects.
The Blue Basket quilt is up to date and even beyond up to date. There are twelve baskets. Each time that instruction come they are the same. We’ve had instructions for six and the other six should be the same. I have completed twelve. Now, I will have a few weeks off by doing advance work.
This week, we made seventeen nine patch units. They will be the corner squares.
This has been a fun quilt. I had hoped that it would use up more of the Kaufmann fabric, but I still have a lot. I have found three new patterns that will hopefully start deleting that fabric. The Blue Baskets has appliqued flowers on the borders. I’ll save scraps for this and cut out at least one of the quilts for the retreat from the stash,
The Stay at home Round Robin is complete. The last row is the pinwheel block. I have made lots of pinwheels, but for some reason, these pinwheels didn’t want too corporate. I had intended to have pinwheels all around the last row. Most were so terrible that I used the good ones at the top and bottom corners. I do like the way this quilt finished. It may be my most favorite SAHRR to date.
I also finished the Escher Stairs. Illusion quilts are fun to make.
The blue Basket block of the week is in its fourth week. The fourth week is another set of two baskets. Three of the weekly instructions have been for making baskets of different colors. All the baskets have the same pattern. I may just make all the baskets at once and be done with it.
I’m using white scraps for the background. All the fabrics for this project will come from my stash.
The third week, we were instructed to make sashing with a center white and a color on both sides. There are 48 rails that are 3 1/2″ x 11″. These were easy to make but did take time because of the number of rails. Strip piecing and cutting at 11″ was the easy way to make the rails. The center of the quilt is pieced, but the border is appliqued. That will take more time.
This week’s row on the SAHRR is a square in a square. I wanted to do an easy row, so just made four square in a square blocks for the corners.
The side brought in colors from the center. There is one more row. I already have my colors picked out. They may change when I get the hint. This has been fun. I thought that I had a handle on using up the Kauffman Japanese fabric, but along with the drawer, I have a laundry basket full. Checking out the Kauffman free patterns on the Internet, I found some scrap quilt patterns that look like stash busters
Another round of the stay at home round robin is finished. This round was the flying geese block. At first, I made a row of geese with red geese and different colored sky.
When I laid it on the quilt, it was too busy. Four rows were made. Should I add them even though I didn’t like them, or should I go another way? I decided to cut my losses. I can use the four rows of geese in another project at a later date. I could even piece them to the back of the quilt.
This was much better. It brings in the fabrics from the center and is much calmer. I’ve enjoyed working with the Kauffman fabric line. I’ve hardly made a dent in the fabric drawer. Even making the block of the week, Blue Baskets, doesn’t make the drawer less full. I’ m a week behind on Blue Baskets. This week’s pattern was the same as last weeks. The only thing changed is the color. It won’t take too long to catch up.
I’ve been cleaning out quilting files. It’s amazing what I have saved over the years. I did find a great easy pattern that I have used before. The Guild retreat is in May. I may use this pattern with the Kauffman fabric at the retreat. I have a few months to decide. Maybe, as I go deeper into the files, I may find something that I like better. An easy, no thinking quilt is best for a retreat. I usually have all the pieces cut so I can just sew.
I found a pattern for Escher stairs in the file. The Guild quilt show is coming up. The theme is Illusions. I couldn’t resist making four blocks.
The community quilts have been put aside for a little while. I will get back to them later. I do have one on the basting frame to baste. I baste while watching TV. Then they go into the ready to quilt pile. There are still a few left to baste.
I am back on the track with new quilts.
The “Are You Crazy” quilt has over 2000 squares. That is about half of what I need to make a decent size quilt. I have piles of 1 1/2″ squares on the sewing table to put together when I want to do some sewing without thinking. The seams are all pressed to the dark side, so they go together effortlessly.
It will be an awesome quilt when finished. This may be my last little piece quilt. After it is finished, I will put all my little scraps into a flannel pillowcase. I knew there was a reason that I saved the pillowcases. It makes a very comfy dog bed.
The third row is on the Stay at home round robin. The block selected for this row is the hourglass block. At first, I made multicolored hourglass blocks. It was too much color. Then, I made navy and white hourglass blocks. I needed to pull out some white from the center. I surrounded the blocks with red fabric. Half square triangles with a red stripe in the middle was made for the corner squares. The multicolored hourglass blocks are set aside for another quilt at a later date. They will find a home sometime. My orphan block box is filling up fast.
It’s important to take a picture of the block. I thought that the piece was finished and took a picture for the blog. it was very obvious that one of the hourglasses was turned the wrong way. I unsewed it, turned it and it is fine now. It’s a much better picture.
Instructions for the second week of the Blue Basket Quilt have come. They are the same as last week, except they are made with a different blue fabric. The instructions are for making two baskets each week. Where I’m using the Kaufmann Japanese fabric, I’ll use a different fabric for each basket. They are easy to make, and I only have to make two blocks a week. Eventually, I’ll have a nice quilt.
Along with basting while watching TV, I’m hand quilting a nine-block star quilt. The blocks were hand pieced also. I started quilting by hand piecing and hand quilting. It’s going back to the beginning. I am on the fifth star. Before I started hand-quilting this one, I hadn’t hand-quilted in a while, It’s very relaxing.
The stay at home round robin 23 is in the third week. The Robert Kaufmann Japanese fabric is perfect for it. I chose one of the small blocks for the center. The first row is the spool block. I set the small block on point and placed the spools in the corners.
The second row is a star block. I made four little Ohio stars for the corners and added three strips to the side.
Between the spool and the star block, I placed an inchy. An inchy is an inch strip of fabric. When placed between two blocks, the size does not change. It is a nice accent. The fabric is the back side of this fabric. After all, we pay for both sides of the fabric.
The color is exactly the same as the background of the front of the fabric. There is no problem in matching colors. I will probably make inchys in several places during the construction of this piece.
So far, the piece is small. and doesn’t use much fabric. In order to use all that I have I’ll have to make a few more quilts before the bin is empty.
January is almost over. It has been a busy month in the sewing room. I decided to slow down on making community quilts for a while. I will have the completed tops on the basting frame to baste in evenings while watching tv, but the actual quilting will be on hold.
A baby quilt is finished and will be heading to Florida for a friend shortly. The blocks and pieces of blocks were won at a teacup raffle many years ago. I just had to complete the unfinished blocks and put the quilt together.
There was a small box in the corner of the sewing room. When I finished a quilt, I cut the scraps into 1/2″ strips or small square pieces. They went into the box. One day this month, I decided to work on these tiny pieces. They were jammed in and pressed down. My sewing machine has been working hard to put these pieces together.
This is just a small image of the mounds of small squares. I sewed two together. Then, two twos for a four patch.
Four of these squares will be sewn together for a 4 x 4. I’ll keep sewing until I have a bed quilt or two. There are a lot of tiny pieces in the box. This is a no think quilt. Just a dark and a light. While sewing, I was thinking about what people would say when this was finished. They would say “Are you crazy/”? It’s a good name for this quilt. There are times when you just have to sew and not think about what you are doing. The seams are pressed so that they nest. There are so many fabrics that color doesn’t matter.
I follow a blog that is called Daily Fiber. Laura Kate is the ultimate artist. She belongs to a group that does Stay At Home Round Robins. The SAHRR has started for 2023. I have never met a round robin that I didn’t like. I’m going to follow along after Laura Kate gives the clue of the week. The center block is a found item in the sewing room. I have auditioned several pieces. At first, I found two blocks that were made with Robert Kaufmann Japanese fabric. They were both too big. Then, I found some blocks for thread painting. They would take too much time. Down in the bottom, I found a strip of three small blocks made with the Japanese fabric. Perfect. I’ll use one of them for the center. It fits into my plan for purging all the Japanese fabric. The next row is a spool block. I’ve already thought about how I would attach spool blocks to the center. I’m not sure which block will be the center.
There is also another block of the week pattern on another blog. It’s supposed to be blue baskets on a white background. I have lots of white scraps. They don’t have to be the same white. I could also use some of the Japanese fabric for the baskets. If there is any fabric left after that, I could cut the remainder into a Potato Chip quilt. Or two. You can’t make just one. Then, there is a pattern for strips that I found on the internet this morning. That Japanese fabric will be gone by the end of the year.
Miss Molly is 13 years old today. She is doing very well for a dog of her age. Because of her age, she had to have a blood test which showed everything was working well. Her saddle is turning gray and red from a very dark black, but her energy is the same.
Miss Molly when she was a baby.
Miss Molly’s hole.
Miss Molly’s best friend, Mr. Max.
Miss Molly inspecting a quilt.
Miss Molly’s beauty picture.
There are days when I call her “that dog”. It’s when she steals my thread, pencils or anything else she can find. She likes all things that are mine.
I have gone back into the sewing room. A friend has graciously long armed 10 community quilts for me. They are back and the bindings are on most of them.
I have also quilted others. All the unfinished community quilts are organized in four piles. Pile #1 is the quilt tops that need a batting and backing cut to fit. Pile #2 is the pile with the backing and batting cut, ready to baste together. Pile # three is quilts that are basted and are waiting to be quilted. Some of the quilts are machine bound after they are quilted. Pile #4 is quilted quilts that the binding was sewn to the front and will be hand tacked to the back. Pile #4 is in a basket in the living room. It contains anything that needs hand sewing or hand quilting.
When I go into the sewing room, I can decide what I what to do for the day. I can even start with a pile #1 quilt and finish it in the same day.
When I decided to make quilts from all the unfinished blocks and cut scraps in the bin, I didn’t think that it would be such a large job. Now that I have had help in the quilting and are organized, I can choose to either work on this project or go on to something new.
Some of the finished quilts
Miss Molly inspecting the quilt.
Made with quarter square triangles that came from someplace else.
Cute rabbit fabric. Also, from another person’s sewing room.
Pinwheels from who knows where.
I did sew this one. Many, many years ago.
I have been following the justgetitdonequilts blog. Karen Brown is doing her second sewing room declutter challenge. I did the challenge last year. I’ve realized that I didn’t clutter much this year. Most everything is where it’s supposed to be. When I get around to declutter, I’ll do it my way It will be area declutter, not item declutter.
There is a new block of the week challenge that I may do. It’s supposed to be blue, but. I can make it in any color that I want. Instructions are coming soon. 2023 will be a fun year to quilt.
When I receive a package from one of my daughters in laws, I run back into the house and open it before I take my coat off. She is an artist in so many fields. I have many beautiful earrings that she made. She is also a master beader. This week she sent a beautiful big Christmas card. Each page has so many little objects in it.
The cover has sticky notes, post cards and another single Christmas card tucked in the slot.
Second page
This looks like a quilt. I may copy the quilting pattern on one of my quilts. Under the little quilt are more sticky notes and another Christmas card.
A little guest book tucked into this one.
The little kitty is a diary to be filled in.
Little items tucked into this page.
More little things.
A writing pad tucked into the back page.
I’ll keep this card intact on my memory shelf. The shelf contains artwork from my friends and family. Also on the shelf is a piece that she gave me on Mother’s Day.
It’s beautiful and I’m so very thankful to have it. Thank you V, Pw.
My Miss Molly blog website has just renewed. They suggested things that I could do to improve the site. I have accepted the challenge and changed a few things. I know nothing about working with a website. It’s hard to push the last button and make it live. The sidebar with archived posts looks ok. Maybe, I can make a few more changes in the future. I’ve printed a list of tutorials that sound interesting., but this is enough for now.
Winter has finally come. It’s been snowing all day, but there is not much accumulation. It’s still snowing so maybe there will be more in the morning. It gave me a day to spend in the sewing room. I worked this morning on the Ugly Quilt. There is still a lot more quilting to do. It’s queen-size. It’s a medallion quilt and I have four more borders to quilt.
I have three quilts back from the long arm quilter.
This one was made with scraps left over from a mystery quilt challenge. A friend also did the challenge and gifted me with her left-over pieces. There were enough to make this quilt. It will be a Christmas present. The binding is almost finished.
This was all 2 1/2″ leftover scraps. The binding is on and ready to tack down. It will also be a Christmas present.
This is a mile a minute quilt with a poor color choice for the sashing. The picture actually tones it down. Orange was not a good choice. I haven’t decided what to do with it yet. I can take my time with the binding and work on other things in the meantime. Someday it will find a home.
My class is going well. The ladies are still excited about quilting. My class sample blocks are all pieced, and I’ve hand quilted four out of nine. They are hand piecing their blocks, but I machine pieced mine to keep ahead of them. They are learning the lap quilting method. In the next class, they will learn how to bundle the backing, batting, and top. Then, they will learn how to hand quilt. Their fabric is beautiful. After a lesson on color and fabric choice, they went to the store by themselves and picked out their own fabric. It’s nice to teach when the students are having a good time and are excited about learning.
October and the first part of November was a busy month for Miss Molly and me. She had her wellness checkup and several necessary shots. Also went to the spa for a day. She came home beautiful and well-trimmed. She is very healthy for an almost 12-year-old dog. I had all my necessary medical appointments. Just regularly scheduled appointments. We are both set to go for the next six months.
In the meantime, I have been giving quilting lessons to two ladies. They wanted to piece and quilt by hand. This has been fun. It’s how I started quilting, As I prepare each lesson, I remember how hard it was for me in the beginning. The ladies have learned how to read a block. Also, color and how to choose fabric. They are excited. Last week, they went to the fabric store, without me, and picked out the most beautiful fabric combinations. They had several quarter square triangle block components pieced at their last lesson. Next week, at least one block should be finished. They should be ready to layer the block, batting and backing. and learn how to quilt. I am teaching Georgia Bonesteel’s lap quilting method. They will quilt each block and then put the quilt together.
While I was preparing the lessons, I showed the ladies the first sampler quilt that I made. They chose one of the blocks and want to repeat it for a baby quilt. I made three-star blocks in different colors. The blocks do not play well together so I have to make three different quilts.
One quilt will be a reproduction of the original sampler quilt in much different colors. I’ve finished two of the twenty-four blocks in the quilt. This should go faster than the original. I’m using a sewing machine this time.
The second one is a pretty green, with red star points. I fussy cut the center, The ladies also fussy cut their centers. I have a baby that will be born next year in mind for this quilt.
The third has fussy cut triangles. I have cut enough triangles to finish this quilt. The rest should be easy. I’ve been hand quilting this block in the evenings. The dragonfly section is finished as are all the white corners and outside triangles. I should finish quilting this block tonight. Then I have eight more blocks to piece and quilt. I’m not hand piecing. I am using the machine. It’s much faster. The other blocks will be hand quilted because I hand quilted the first block.
In the meantime, I saw a pattern for a quilt that I just had to make. The original pattern was for a full-size quilt. I wanted a baby quilt, so I made only nine blocks. The center is finished. The borders and binding are cut and ready to be sewn. It is a baby quilt, so it won’t take long to quilt. Hopefully, I’ll stick to my new plan of quilting every new quilt that I make. I don’t want it to go into the pile of ufos and never resurface. If you look closely, you will see that the center of the block in this quilt is the same star block as above blocks. It has sashing that is flying geese, squares and half square triangles. It is made differently. There are just squares and half square triangles.
My sewing room is an absolute disaster. I need to spend a full day organizing and getting things in order. There are too many projects going on at the same time. Maybe tomorrow will be a good day for that.
The cat and dog pieces were made with purple and other dark fabrics for the background and tan fabrics for the animals. The made fabric was made in the mile a minute method. The patterns for the animals came from a child’s coloring book. The cut out animals were fused down and then zig zaged around the edges with tan thread. The lines of the drawing were zig zaged with black thread.
Shortly after I made these two pieces, I taught a class on this procedure at a local quilt shop. The pieces were my sample pieces. They were at the shop when a photographer came to take a picture of the owners. One of the pieces was grabbed and put under the needle of a sewing machine. The colors went with a piece that was on the wall behind them. I enjoy seeing my animal in the picture on the wall when I go to the quilt shop.
Miss Molly quilts 