Housing Projects

My Housing Projects came home recently from my long arm quilter and I can say she is finished. 

 

I had so much fun making this quilt. I used up quite a bit of scraps from the scrap bucket, but not nearly enough! It is amazing how far those scraps go into making a quilt. Perhaps the rumor is true - that they multiply while we sleep. 

This quilt finished at 80" x 89" and I busted 16.5 yards of stash. 

The quilting design shown on the back is so pretty. It is called Tweet, Tweet. I chose this design because I thought it would give some cheer to the neighborhood. One thing we always notice in the fall, is the absence of the songbirds as they have migrated south. Every neighborhood needs some songbirds.

You may notice there are many different scrap pieces in this project. Many were from bits and pieces in the bottom of the scrap bucket. 

 

Part of the fun of scrap quilts is mixing prints and colors and it is always a joy to see them compliment each other. And often, it is a surprise. And then sometimes, it is just a few last pieces that just have to go together, complimenting or not. Can you find any combinations?  

So this is finish #5 this year. I reached my goal of busting through 100 yards and am so thrilled! 

As 2022 is coming up soon, I am already making lists and plans for goals in the sewing room. I have a long, long wish list which I always refer to, but I do not include these in my goal list. Wishes are hopes and dreams. Goals are actually working to completion.  Perhaps one or two "wish list items" will make it onto the cutting table to begin a fresh start before the new year. And then there is that New Year's Eve Mystery at Merry Mayhem's to ponder whether to tackle. 

 

How about you? What is on your list for 2022?

 

 

 

My oldest UFO

Where does the time go? I know I have been slacking here but did not realize that my last post was in July! I guess I have a lot to catch up with on...

I finished my Churn Dash quilt in August. These were blocks that I purchased a few years ago on ebay. Made with vintage calicos that were popular in the 80's, these blocks caught my eye. I made wide sashings from my own stash of vintage calicos and set the blocks diagonally for this present setting. 

 

This ebay Churn Dash finished at ___ and I busted 12.25 yards of stash. 

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Another fun finish was my Ladders of Success. This is a pattern from Judy Martin. Remember her? Has anyone designed more patterns than Judy? She's like the Lennon/McCartney of quilting patterns! 

This pattern really appealed to me because of the unique four square settings. I really had to pay attention to their direction as I constructed each block. It could get confusing fast. That is why we quilters have a design wall, right? It is so helpful. 

 

I made mine square because I love square quilts. They fit nicely on our queen bed. And you can rotate them for even wear. It finished at 83" x 83" and is really a large throw size but still works on our bed.

 

I love the colors I used also. They were chosen to compliment the main fabric, a black floral from rjr that I have had for many years waiting for the right project. The combinations remind of fall so it shall come out during those first chilling nights in October ... like now. 

 

And I love using leftover pieces to make a small block-label for the backs of my quilts. I will sign this, including the date completed, and an appropriate Bible verse (because His Word will live forever, whereas my quilts will not)

Oh, and I used up 15 yards of stash for this one.

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And on to my oldest UFO! 

I made this for our daughter in 1998 as her Bridal Quilt!  It was made using Rachel Pellman's book, The Country Bride. It is all hand appliqued, and I have many memories of sitting in orchestra practice (for our second daughter) basting raw edges of leaves and bird parts preparing for placement on the quilt. Is this how you do applique too? I love handwork so this preliminary step is not a chore for me. 

I decided on having it machine quilted. My long-arm quilter does excellent work and will soon be retiring, so I thought I had better get this done now. I sure hope Daughter #1 isn't reading this as I hope to give it to her for Christmas this year. You think she will be surprised? Why even the colors are coming back in fashion! <VBG>

 

This quilt is huge! It finished at 95" x 109" and I went through 20.25 yards of fabric to complete it! It is all bound and ready for signing. 

A closer look at the colors and placement that rests at the top of the bed. If I was sure it wouldn't take me another 23 years to complete, I would start another. I am really pleased with how it nicely it finished. It is a charming design.

On to my next finishes. I have 2 that are in queue for binding. And I am STILL plugging away at my On Ringo Lake quilt. My goal is to reach 100 yards of stash busted this year. I think I might make it! Yay!

I hope you are having success in your sewing room as well.

 

 

 

Trees for the Houses - Making it Fun

There have been many distractions and other commitments pulling me away from the sewing room this summer. I have been trying so hard to get this quilt to a flimsy stage. Then my heart was discouraged to hear that my long arm quilter is retiring in October. Am I being selfish? I mean, I am happy that she wants (and has worked for) more free time. I now need to find another long arm quilter that I can take my work to. I imagine there are a lot in our area thinking the same thing.  

I would love to take a domestic machine quilting class that use rulers to quilt. I was signed up before Covid19 hit. So there is that option too, but it would only be good for small-ish projects, and most of my quilts are large 90'x90" quilts. There is no way I am willing to wrestle that! If anyone has a lead to a long arm quilter who is reasonably priced, please leave me a comment below. (XOXO)  

Well I am onto working on my trees for the border of this "house projects" quilt. I made flying geese units that measure 2.75" x 5" (unfinished size that will measure 2.25" X 4.5" when finished).

 

I doubled up these units together and then sewed on a trunk piece that measures (2.25"x2.25") + (1.5"x2.25") + (2.25"x2.25"). Make sense? The two end pieces which are 2.25" squares are with background fabrics and the center piece is the trunk using a darker brownish fabric. 

 

The entire tree units should measure 5" wide by 6.75" long. I have them butted up on the design wall and not sure how many I will need but may use 1 or 2 inch spacers to make everything fit. This project is quickly growing in size which again as mentioned before, I will need to find someone to quilt it for me. 

 

I've really enjoyed working on this quilt. As like most scrappy quilts, it did not make a dent in my box of scraps! 

 

How do you rotate your scraps so that your quilts don't all begin looking alike? Cut into some fat-quarters to introduce new fabrics? Trade with friends? 

 

 

Sewing the Scrap out of March ... in April and May

Yeah, I am a little late in posting my progress but I've been steadily working on this scrappy house quilt project.

I have always been partial and in love with the patterns and ideas using this charming block. I have found numerous free and available for purchase patterns. But many of these patterns require odd size pieces or require trimming after sewing. That slows me down, creates confusion and mistakes, and creates extra work and mess on the sewing room table, so I redesigned this block to just using widths of pieces that are 2" and 2.75". Yep! Just two widths and no trimming! 

 

The house body requires: (2) 2" x 4.5" and (1) 2" x 2" matching pieces (2 rectangles, 1 square).

The House Door requires: (1) 2" x 3" contrasting rectangle.

The Roof requires: (1) 2.75" x 5" and (2) 2.75" x 2.75" squares in background fabrics. (Rectangle and Two Squares Method of Flying Geese Units)

When finished, block will measure 4.5" x 6.25" (5" x 6.75" unfinished size)

For the trees, I simply made the flying geese units the same way I made the roof units. Two flying geese units with a base of 2" x 2.25" background + 2" x 2.25" tree trunk color + 2" x 2.25" background piece. You can sew 2" strips together to make this 3 piece unit and then cut into 2.25" lengths.

Once your house and tree blocks are sewn the fun begins as you arrange your blocks. I used 2.75" x 6.75" background pieces as spacers. Two of these in each row will replace one tree or house block. Just a little addition and will make your quilt a little larger, if you desire.

 

I turned every other row upside down as if showing an aerial view of a street. I sewed the houses together to form strips that are 54.5"  long.

 

I may use simple borders and am still deciding what direction to go. I generally love working on borders and feature some element from the quilt blocks. Maybe a row of trees? 

 

Although I did not make the deadline in time, there are more challenge ideas at Kim Lapacek's Persimon Dreams. 

Back to towards a finish...

Happy stitching!

Kris

 

 

 

Mitford in Spring

My Stars Over Mitford is finished and ready to cover my bed, Yes, this one is a keeper. It began as a project to use up my abundant supply of Civil War fabrics. And you know how that goes. It hardly made a dent, which is okay because I really love those old calico prints and colors. I hope they never go out of style. (as long as we keep asking for them, right?)

This block is similar to several sew-along designs I have found online. It was what motivated me to get it out of the box and finish it. It began as a project perhaps 5 years ago (?) all because I am a big fan of Jan Karon's Mitford series. I even have her cookbook! So you see, there is a lot to love about this quilt!

 

My favorite part of making scrappy quilts is pulling fabrics together that contrast and compliment. A lot of surprises happen there and we kind of develop our own taste and skill for selecting fabrics as we progress, I think. I make a point to work randomly as well which is what I did in the arranging of the blocks in this quilt. I simply put them up on the design wall as I finished them.

While I was near completely sewing the blocks and sashing together, I remembered a tin I had stored away of Civil War 5" charms. My original intent was to sew these together into quarter sewn triangle blocks. I had many already completed but had put them away as I lost interest. 

So I was delighted to find that they fit into a perfect border along the outside of this quilt. I had to sew in a few "spacers" at the corners to make them fit but it blends well enough and doesn't draw too much attention as an after-thought. (The feather pictured is for a future project. It was sharing the design wall at the time.) I think I had to dig in the stash for a few charm squares to complete the borders, but otherwise the bulk of them were already done. Bonus blocks I'd say!

The quilting was done by my friendly Long-Arm Quilter in a Paisley Feather design. And for the backing I used some yardage of brown border fabric. The label sewn in the corner is from a simple orphan block, framed with muslin for easy writing of signature. The binding was some leftover background fabric saved for just this purpose. It has all worked together to a fine finish. Thank you Pat Speth for your lovely pattern. 

 

So I can claim this as a finish. She measures 93" x 93" and I busted a whopping 16.5 yards of stash!  

I hope this has inspired you to finish a project that is sitting in a box on your shelf. Sometimes they make the best stories as you make additions and alter your original plans. Time can do that. 

Now it is time to make a Hummingbird Cake to celebrate.

Happy Stitching!

February is for Lovers

Does that include Lovers of quilts, too? Quilts surely provide us with much warmth in these brutally cold weeks that we've had here in Ohio. I hope you are staying warm where you are. 

This month's focus for me has been my Patches of Blue BOM by Edyta Sitar. I have all the blocks completed now and am presently working on the several appliques of snowflakes, and  a gingerbread man.

My snowflakes are a little different. I am making mine using 1/2" hexagons. I love working with hexagons and these tiny pieces are definitely a challenge. Don't cut your nails if you attempt sewing these as there is not much to hold onto. 

I am also sewing up several hundred Half Square Triangles to make scrappy flying geese in the borders. I cut a few, sew a few, and keep a running record to help track to the goal of 348. I may have to make a few extra, depending on what the final dimensions are when all the units are sewn together. The first border should give me the fudge room I will need to make them fit. 

 

I have considered making a few extra blocks to extend the size of this quilt into a square size throw...but I really want to get this done and off the design wall. I am anxious to move on to the next UFO.

Another project I've been working on is Judy Martin's pattern, Ladders of Success. This is a very simple pattern because it is all squares but because of the arrangement, it tricks the eye and just looks complicated. 

I did make extra blocks for this one so it will be 7 blocks x 7 blocks finishing around 82" square. (Have you noticed I am partial to square quilts?) 

 

I have had this whimsical country fabric for years...like maybe 15years? It is Heritage Square by Sandy Gervais. When this pattern was mentioned on Stashbuster's group as a challenge, this fabric jumped of my shelf and said, "pick me!".  It was fairly easy choosing a few fat quarters that would coordinate and I had just enough of a quality backing from Maywood Studio to use for the background. So I really shopped my stash for this one! Almost feels like a "free" project, right?

 

For the month of March Tea and Brie is hosting a free National Quilting Month Scrap Challenge: Sew the Scrap out of March. Scraps are my favorite fabric choice so I just have to jump in. Besides, I have a project I have been working on and this might motivate me to get it to the flimsy stage by the end of the month. 

 

It is composed of crumbs that I have saved from the end of remnants used for other scrappy quilts. This should be a fun effort. You can click on the link above for more information. 

I participated in Sew the Scrap Out of March last year with Pat Sloan's pattern, Traffic Jam. It's a free one you can download here.

So, let's sew the scrap out of March and get to some finishes! Happy stitching!

 

 

 

January is no longer slow

Have you noticed that too? There was a time when it seemed like January would drag on forever, but now it just hums along with the rest of the weeks, months, years even. So here we are, nearing February. I hope you are making headway in your sewing room. 

Before we flip our calendars though, I have a finish to report! It is my first for 2021 and it is a doozy. American Patchwork & Quilting had a sew along in 2018, in April I believe. I knew I just had to participate since I had a box full of scraps that would work perfectly for this quilt. And I cannot resist a scrappy quilt of many pieces. Can you?

It is called Sew Many Strips and if there ever was an example to prove that "there are no ugly fabrics, you just need to cut them smaller" - this quilt is one of them. Each brick shape piece is 1.5" x 2.5".

 

It's finished size measures 96" x 96", with 5,560 pieces, and I busted 19 7/8 yards of fabric to complete it. 

I normally like to use up the stash in my sewing room, but for this one I just purchased one piece of backing. It is quilted in the feathered paisley design. I am so happy with the end result, and because of its size, it is a very heavy quilt.

So on to the next UFO finish I go. I am now concentrating on my Patches of Blue BOM with Edyta Sitar. It has taken me longer than I expected as I am adding my own little appliques to make it my own. It is such a lovely design, just as all Edyta's designs are. My goal is to have it to a flimsy stage by the end of February.

And because you read to the end, I would like to share something I found while purging my patterns and clippings. It was written by an unknown source so if this is you, thank you! It has captured my heart.

 

The Quilter

Once my fingers touch the threads

Washing, dusting, unmade beds

fade away to nothingness 

And I in complete happiness

Let my heart soar with masters past

The patches blend designs so fast

That time flies by

And there am I...

Peaceful, creative, contented, whole--

Quilting becomes my very soul.

                             ~ Author unknown