I haven’t even looked at Dear Jane for a while and decided to make a few more blocks.  Row A is complete.  It has been quilted and sewn together.  When I first started making the Dear Jane blocks, I planned to start in the center and work out. That worked out for a while until I changed my mind and decided to make the blocks by rows.

I’ve been working on Row B for the last two weeks.  They are all pieced, quilted and bound,  I’ve started to sew them together in a row .  When that is finished, I will add them to Row A.

           

The patterns and tips for Row C are printed. Sometime today, I will choose all the fabric for that row, place it in the baggies and continue on with Dear Jane when the mood strikes.  She probably will rest for a while while I go on to something else.

I’ve pieced last week’s Comfort and Blessing blocks.  I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a block of the week project as much as I have this one.  The instructions are the best that I’ve ever seen. Choosing the colors before beginning is a wonderful idea.  I have only had to change one red fabric.  It was too modern and bright for this quilt.  It has shown up in two blocks so far.  This week’s block patterns are here.  Making them will be a change from Dear Jane. I think that this will be a beautiful quilt.

           

My sewing room is a mess again.  With the shelter in place order, no one will come to my house so I don’t pick up after a day’s work.   I’ve found a few other ufos to finish.  Also a big tote bag of something is in the corner.  Someday, I’ll pull it out and see what is in it.  It’s a mystery.

The weather has been beautiful.. It has been great to go outside and clean out the gardens.  The perennials are coming up.  There have been a few blooming bulbs, but not too many.  The best part of raking the front yard is talking to the people walking by on the road.  More people seem to be walking this year than in years past.  It is a different world.  I won’t be able to go to Maine for a while this year.  Maybe by June or July or whenever the shelter in place and quarantine is over.  In the meantime, I’ll enjoy my gardens and sewing room in New Hampshire.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I’ve done it again after I said that I wouldn’t do this until I finished some of my ufos.  I’ve found the most wonderful blog with a blocks (three) of the week quilt.  The quilt is called Comfort and Blessings.  There are 32 pieced blocks.  They finish to 9″.  The quilt size is 87″ x 103″. The quilt instructions are on http://www.piecingthepastquilts.com.

There are several downloads before you start this quilt.  First, there is a picture of the finished quilt.  No guessing on what it will look like.  There is a diagram of the block placement.

In this quilt there are 6 different reds, 4 different oranges, 3 different golds, 5 different greens, 7 different blues, 5 different browns and 10 different neutrals.  The first chart tells how much of each fabric is needed.

There is a fabric key chart.  When the fabric is cut, a small piece of each color is pasted on the chart.  That way, you have a record of the fabrics that you used and their number.

Before you cut the fabric, you number quart baggies from 1 to 32.  A second cutting chart tells you what sizes to sub cut your pieces and what baggie to use for each sub cut.   This take a little bit of time, but it is well worth the effort.  At this point, all the decisions are done.

   Block #1   Nelson’s Victory

Last summer, there was a sale of Free Spirit fabric at Mardens. I bought several fat quarters.  The colors and patterns of the fabric was not what I usually buy, but it was a great sale.  That fabric is perfect for this quilt.  I just had to wait until the right pattern came along.  A few months ago I washed, starched, and ironed all my leftover white muslin.  I would use that for the neutral.

    Block #2   Whirlpool

I cut all of the colored fabric, cut and pasted a small square on the chart, and placed the fabric in the numbered baggies.  I didn’t sub cut the neutral. The pieces were small, so I decided to cut what I needed for each block as I pieced it.

    Block #3  Constellation

The instructions are awesome and complete.  With block #1, you take baggie #1 and use the fabric that is inside the baggie.   There is enough fabric to cut what you need, with a little left over.  So far, the blocks use squares, half square triangles, and flying geese.  The parts are a little oversized and are trimmed down to the correct size.  Pressing instructions are accurate so that seams can be nested.

     Block #4   Country Road

One of my red fabrics didn’t go with the other fabrics in the baggie.  It was too bright and too modern.  It was easy to replace it with another red.  When I come across it again in another baggie, I’ll do the same.

     Block #5  Dutchman’s Puzzle

When I was at Mardens, I also bought a large package of fat quarters of East Spirit fabric.  There are enough fat quarters to use as backing.   I can machine quilt each block, leaving enough fabric to flip and sew the sashing.  Then, when the blocks are all sewn, the quilt will be finished and I don’t have to put a large quilt under the arm of my machine.   Mardens has the best sales.

     Block #6  Double Sawtooth Star

Now that all the preliminary work is done, it doesn’t take much time to sew three blocks in a week.  Sewing a new quilt gives me a burst of energy.  It leaves enough time for the ufos.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

I’ve come to a standstill in emptying the bin of other people’s ufos.  Time to go on to other things.  There were several blocks in that bin that had no connection to other blocks, so I decided to make table mats for Meals On Wheels.  They workup quickly and will go in the bin for things to take to the Guild when we can have meetings.

         

I had an unfinished Noah’s Ark wall hanging.  It had probably been in my unfinished pile for over 15 years.  Most of the instructions were missing,  I checked the Internet and couldn’t find another image that looked like this one so figured out the math and  sewed the blocks together.  The applique is fused.  It is finally finished.  I don’t remember which grandchild was to receive it, but I expect that he/she is grown up now.

During the week, I organized the sewing room, again.  This time, I pulled out all of the completed tops that are waiting to be quilted.  Some had the backings ready to go.  There is enough battings in the batting section to finish most of them. This project will be the next one to concentrate on.

Then, there is Dear Jane, the applique quilt and the oldest ufo ever.  Lots to think about as I clean out the gardens.  It’s too early to plant, but the gardens will be ready at the right time.

When I started quilting, I was self taught.  Through a chance meeting, I met someone who invited me to a quilting group.  I never knew that women  got together to quilt.  I was introduced to round robins, mystery quilts, challenge quilts and quilt shows.  Throughout the years, I did have many teachers and read many books.  My quilting journey is a mix of all the things that I learned throughout the years.

The Internet has been full of instructions on all types of quilting. Recently, I read Bonnie Hunter’s instructions about cutting the leftover scraps into units of 2 1/2″, 5 and other measurements.   Apparently, I have been doing this for a while as I found an overflowing  bin of 2 1/2″ squares.

One of the first books that I bought was Georgia Boonesteel’s Lap Quilting.  In her second book “More Lap Quilting”, Georgia writes about making a back door block.  With the back door approach, you do the piecing first and then the designing of the block.  Using both Bonnie’s and Georgia’s ideas, I’ll use the cut out 2 1/2″ squares to make four patches.  At some point, I’ll figure out how I want to use them.  It might be in a block or a border.  Who knows?

I also found a bin of leftover 1 1/2″ squares.  A huge bag of 1 1/2″ squares was given to me years ago. I used these small squares as beginners and enders and made the Confetti quilt.  There are enough left to make two more quilts.  If I ever finish the 2 1/2″ bin, I can move on to the 1 1/2″ bin and maybe make another Confetti quilt.

Times are so different now.  I am making a Round Robin with friends from the Guild.  There was an exchange today.  The blocks that I had made were sitting on the front steps of my house,.  A friend picked up the blocks and left the new ones.  We chatted.  She was wearing a mask and was at the bottom of the stairs and part way down the side walk. I was at the top of the stairs.  We had air hugs before she left.  I hope that the days of inviting someone in for coffee will return soon.  In the meantime ——

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

It’s amazing how much can be accomplished when one stays at home.  My “other quilters’ bin” is getting lower, although there is still a lot more to finish.  I’ve ordered a bolt of backing fabric and will start quilting these quilts as soon as it arrives.

Trying to figure out what the first quilter wanted to do with her fabric is interesting.  I do want them to be simple and quick.  At least the blocks are sewn,  or at least the pieces were cut out.

In one baggie, I found pieces to two blue quilts.

 

 

I was able to make 9 blocks with one and 15 blocks with the other.  The nine block quilt top is finished.  I think that I can make two charity quilts out of the other 15 blocks.  

 

 

 

In one baggie was strips of pieces.  Some of the pieces had several fabrics.  There was enough to make eight squares.  I added another leftover square and it seem to fit.  This is a real scrap quilt.

 

 

 

This was supposed to be a table runner, but some of the pieces were missing.  It was like making a puzzle to find a space for everything to fit.

 

 

 

 

One of the baggies had quarter square triangles.  It’s amazing how there were just the right number to make this quilt.

 

 

 

 

This is a doll quilt.  There were only a few small four  patches.  It won’t take long to quilt.

 

 

 

 

In the evenings, I work on the applique wall hanging.  The applique on the right swag is finished.  I laid it on the floor to check out the colors and Miss Molly decided to do her quality checking job.  She looks as if she approves.

 

 

 

It’s April and the crocus are out.  These four are the only ones left from all the bulbs that I planted years ago.

 

 

I found this label on the back of the quilt that I hung over the sofa.  It says it all. 

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

 

I cleaned out the closet in my office and found a treasure trove of UFOs on the top shelf. There were projects that I forgot that I had.  I found antique blocks that I bought at auction years ago and intended to finish.  I’m putting them aside for now, but know where they are in case I have the desire to finish them someday.

I decided to take each bin and finish whatever was on the top and work my way down.  Maybe, someday, I can finish most of the projects.

The first bin that I chose was a large amount of squares that I had sewn in strips of three.  I started this last summer and I was supposed to make nine patches for Linus Quilts.  A friend had cut the squares and gave them to me to sew.  I sewed and sewed and sewed.  Finally, the bin was empty and  I had 126 nine patches ready for the quilts.

 

The second bin was parts of quilts that I obtained when I cleaned out other quilters’ sewing rooms.  I’m not sure what the quilters had in mind when they made these blocks or partial quilts.  Some of the quilts will be small and one or two will be bed size quilts. They are all individually packed in baggies.  In the first baggie, I found enough squares to make a charity quilt.  The quilter had specified that she wanted everything from her sewing room to go to charity..  I sewed the blocks together, then added white and black sashing and borders.  It came out very nice.  I’m sure that she would have been pleased.

I had always wanted to make a Blockhead quilt and a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt.  Both are now finished.  The Blockhead has been quilted and the mystery quilt is ready to be quilted.  Now that I’ve completed both of those projects, except for quilting the mystery quilt, both are out of my system.  I don’t have the desire  to make them anymore.  I can go on to finishing the UFO’s.

My two little babies have arrived and are doing well.  Their quilts are finished, but I can’t mail them until I’m able to leave the house.  Both quilts are the same, but one border is red and the other is green.  I have a little time to quilt their names and birth date on the borders.

The green March quilt is on the basting frame.  I should start basting it today and finish it shortly.

I’ve been working on the appliqued wall hanging in the evenings.  I’m pleased with the flowers that I’ve been adding.  When I applique the flower for the right side, I also applique the same flower for the left side.  I applique all the pieces for each individual flower and then applique around the edge of the whole flower on the quilt.  When I get to the left side, all the preliminary work will be done and it will finish faster. That way, if the colors aren’t right, I can change them before adding the flower to the quilt.

I may be confined to my house, but I’m having a great day and doing happy quilting.

You do so also.

 

It’s the middle of March and I just changed the wall hangings today.  I really enjoyed the February wall hanging and didn’t mind it being on the wall longer than it should.  Hopefully, I won’t be as busy by the time that April arrives.

I haven’t spent much time at the sewing machine during the last few weeks. When I was able to get there, I sewed on Bonnie Hunter’s Frolic Mystery quilt.  I am so glad to say that the center is finished, pressed and ready to trim.

 

I started to piece the border today.  Fortunately, Bonnie had us make lots of half square triangles and they are all ready to sew together.  The top should be finished soon.  Then, I can get on to other projects.

One of my favorite little quilts is a St Patrick Day art quilt that I made many years ago.  It is such a fun quilt.

 

 

 

 

   

I have finished one of the baby quilts and just have the binding to tack down on the second.  The babies have arrived.  Two little boys have been added to the family.  I’ll wait until they’re all home  before I mail the quilts.

This has been a mild winter.  The snow is gone, although more storms can come.  It’s time to think about going to the Guild retreat and the Vermont Quilt Festival.  I signed up for classes in Vermont today.  The new techniques sound interesting.  I’m still trying to decide what to do at the retreat.  I like to have everything cut and ready to sew.  Lots to think about.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

I have finished quilting my first quilt on the Grace frame.  It isn’t as perfect as I would have liked, but it is o.k.  Now, I have to slow down and put muscle memory to work.  I have a great older book by Sally Terry that shows the five different parts of quilting patterns.  She says that if you learn to quilt all five parts individually, you can combine them to make any pattern with ease.  I hope that she is right.  That, combined with the plastic template, and a lot of the three Ps, should help my quilting. I have a plan and will start my lessons soon.

We have a bookcase at the community center where anyone can leave objects that they no longer want for someone else.  One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.  One of my friends left a tapestry wall hanging.  I could see a tote bag.  I cut the tapestry in half so that both sides would be right side up. Then I added quilted bands and handles.  Also a large coat zipper in the top.  The middle has six pockets, one that has a zipper closing.  I didn’t use a pattern, but just kept adding pieces.  It looks like a brief case, not a tote bag and is perfect for carrying quilting supplies to sit and sews.  Now, I’m on the lookout for items that can be converted to something else.

The top for the Ten Commandments bed runner is finished.  Miss Molly has inspected it and it  is ready to have a backing and batting added.  It won’t take long to quilt.   There is enough left over lavender fabric to use on pillows, etc.  I’ll think about them after the bed runner is quilted.

 

 

 

I‘ve finished piecing six blocks for the Bonnie Hunter Frolic Mystery quilt.  They are coming out well.  Bonnie was right about keeping everything organized.  If I make a few blocks a day, this quilt will eventually be finished.  In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the journey.

My two baby quilt tops are pieced.  One is on the frame and I am tying it.  Both should be finished by next week.  The babies are due in a month so the quilts will be finished just in time.  Not knowing the gender of the babies, I made bright colored quilts.  They are neither boy or girl quilts.  The best part is that I used up all the bright cat fabric.  The middle stripes are different colored fabrics and the borders and backs are different colors.   I’m not sure if I will sew a regular binding and tack the back by hand or make a flange binding and sew both sides by machine.  I’ll decide that when the quilt is tied.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

It’s well into February and so far I haven’t been able to sew or quilt as much as I would like to.  Maybe, I can do more during the rest of the month.

I have finished quilting the first quilt on the Grace frame.  It has been a learning experience.  I’ve learned a lot. It will be much faster to load the next quilt on the frame.  I know that I can’t just jump in and expect quality work.  I have to take baby steps and practice, practice and more practice.  I originally thought that the little quilt was doomed, but off the frame, it’s not bad.  It needs a few tweaks and it will be fine for a baby quilt.  I hope that it will be well used and loved.

I have the center of the Ten commandments bed runner finished.  It needs two borders and then it can be quilted.  I had planned to complete it last weekend, but it is still sitting, waiting for completion.

The Frolic Mystery quilt is still in pieces.  All the pieces have  been pressed and organized.  There are 41 blocks with some other pieces in this quilt.  We are supposed to have a snow storm tomorrow.  Maybe, I can work on these two projects and finish piecing  one of them.

 

 

I have changed the wall hanging that is over the sofa.  In January, I had a gray and yellow piece.

It was drab and gloomy.  I was so glad to take it down and replace it with a red and white embroidered piece.

The little monthly piece has been changed also.  It’s a pretty little valentine

The Blockhead quilt has come back from the long arm quilter.  I didn’t like the quilt when it was finished, but the long arm quilter made it come alive with her quilting.  It is very nice now.  The quilt is queen size so it will take a long time to bind, unless I make a flange binding.  That is a good possibility.   I might even put it on my bed for a while.

The new Blockhead for this year has come out.  It is into week three already.  I’m going to save the instructions to a file for a while.  I shouldn’t start anything new until I finish some of the quilts that I’ve started. The new Blockhead instructions have three different sizes.  I will decide which one to make when I decide to start.

My first set of blocks for the Round Robin exchange are finished.  My secret Valentine project is finished and off to my secret Valentine.  The Maine challenge is almost finished.  It just needs borders.  It is so good to use the word “finished”.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve worked on a lot of little and some large projects this past week.  Frolic is still not up to date.  The reveal has been made and I can see where the pieces go.  I will keep sewing on this project for a few minutes each day until it is finished.

In the meantime, I have corrected the 8th commandment

 

 

and pieced the 9th commandment.  One more commandment block to sew and then the instructions to put all the blocks together should arrive.  One block a week is so much easier to finish than the multiple blocks in the Frolic mystery quilt. There will be enough lavender fabric left to make a lot of accents for the bedroom.

I was able to place a small quilt on the Grace frame this week.  Leah Day has excellent You tube videos that tell how to do this.  I’ve learned a lot, but there is so much more to learn.  The quilt is half quilted.  I find that trying to learn new things is not as easy as it seems.  It is sometimes very frustrating.  I am learning how to prevent my mistakes when I quilt the next quilt.  I know that I have to practice a lot, but I do get impatient when it doesn’t look as good as I would like it to be.  In the meantime, Miss Molly will get a new quilt.  Maybe, more than one.  My work should improve with practice.

   

Several more Dear Jane blocks are finished.  I try to have enough finished blocks on hand to quilt or tack the binding when I go to a sit and sew.  This project will keep me busy for a long time.  The next block to make has three circles appliqued on it.  My circles usually come out crooked. I have thought of a way to make a perfect circle.  If it works, I’ll tell about it in a future post.

I decided to finish the bird thread painting.  It will be ready to go to it’s new home as soon as I make a label.  I have another bird thread painting started in my stash of bits and pieces.  I may finish that one in the future and keep it.  The other bird blocks that I brought out to choose from are back in the stash of bits and pieces.

The bird block was made by color copying the picture of the bird onto fabric.  Then I lightly thread painted over the picture.  It’s very relaxing and like coloring inside the lines.

The tub of little fabric pieces is filling up.  Someday soon, I’ll have to take time to cut the fabric into small squares so that I can sew some little blocks as beginners and enders.

There are no meetings or appointments for the next two days.  Hopefully, I can concentrate on one of my projects and finish it.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I am caught up on the Ten Commandments bed runner.  Two more Commandments to go.  Each block is so pretty.  There will be enough fabric left over from the bolt that I bought to change the look of my bedroom.  I’m thinking valances, pillow covers, etc.  I do have a beautiful purple silk pillow cover that one of my daughters gave me for Christmas.  It will be a very nice accent to the room.

Commandment #7

Commandment # 8  This was finished, but when I looked at the picture, two of the pieces were set in wrong.  I’ll correct that and show the picture on the next blog.

When the bed runner is finished, I will quilt it on the Grace frame.  A friend from the Guild and her husband came on Monday morning and finished setting it up.  It’s all ready to go.  I will put a quilt package on it this week and start to practice, practice and more practice.  Hopefully, I can quickly finish a lot of my ufos.

The mystery quilt, Frolic, by Bonnie Hunter needs a lot of work.  I’m several weeks behind on this project.  I have downloaded the directions, printed them and saved them to a file.  The completed quilt has been revealed.  I can work on it between doing other things.

    This is all the little pieces that need to be sewn together to make a queen size quilt.

There are a lot of small pieces of fabric that were left over when cutting Frolic.  My intention was to cut them in 1 1/2″ strips and squares. Then I could sew them as beginners and enders and make 3 1/2″ blocks.  It’s amazing how fast the bucket is filling up with scraps.  All my meetings and appointments are finished for this week, so I have two full days of sewing ahead of me.  I may cut some of fabric and get started.

I made a folded fabric hexi.  It was fun.  The first one took an hour.  The second one took ten minutes.  They are really easy to make after the first one.  There is a pin clasp on the back so it can be worn as a pin.

 

I have a project that calls for a bird block.  I enjoy machine embroidery in the hoop and hadn’t done that for a while.  I found a pattern and machine quilted for many hours.  The pattern had a lot of stitches and color changes.  When it was finished, I found that it was a defective embroidery.  The body of the bird was missing and some of the leaves were not there.  It is in the round file. It was a wasted day.

Today, I embroidered a bird that I bought from Embroidery Library.  Their embroideries always sew out beautifully.  It did, but I think that there isn’t enough color  contrast between the bird and the foliage.  I will save it for another project.

 

I have a bin of quilt pieces in the back of a closet.  There are partially made quilts, leftover blocks and lots of things to choose from when I’m looking for something special. I found several bird blocks.

These two blocks are hand embroidered.  I think that my mother made them.

These two cardinals are redwork on the embroidery machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This bird block is partially thread painted.  I printed the picture of a bird on fabric and was in the process of thread painting when I put it away.  I need to have turquoise in the border so will thread paint some turquoise thread on the wing.  Thread painting is very relaxing and is something that I like to do.

The blocks are sitting on the kitchen counter, waiting for me to make a decision.  I’ll have to decide by tomorrow which one to use in the project .