And That is a Wrap!

I am working on a custom quilt this week.  I scheduled 6 days for it but by Friday I was thinking I’d better work on it Saturday so I won’t be overwhelmed on Monday.  I’m glad I made that executive decision.  This quilt is just a bunch of blocks, but there sure is a lot of quilting on it. 

 

I have never made a quilt like this, many of the small blocks are the same size, but there are various sizes up to at least 36” square for a single block.  I think my brain would have been on overload trying to work out the logistics of assembly.

The quilting could have been daunting as well, but I asked my client just what exactly did she have in mind.  She told me the inspiration quilt for this project  was done in modern quilting.  She did not like the quilting on that. I did breathe a huge sigh of relief, as I’m capable of doing straight line quilting, but I don’t think my inaccuracies would have been unnoticed in this quilt with only plain fabric.  There is no pattern on the cloth that would detract from a wobble in a straight line!

My favorite block is this yellow and white one.

It was still a study in patterning for me, though; mixing stencils with feathers and some back fill.  The quilt itself lends itself to a creative mindset and it has been a wonderful challenge to mix it up and make it beautiful.  It was already beautiful; perfectly pieced.  There is not one point that is lost or cut off.  This woman is a master sewer.

Decades ago I amused myself with drawing.  I favored pen and ink.  Looking back at the self-taught artistry, I realized that medium lent itself to no fixing mistakes.  So I either didn’t make any, or I found creative ways to overcome them. This realization of what I choose to do to amuse myself makes me see I set pretty lofty goals for satisfaction.  I am pleased with the outcome of this quilt.

As I mused over the progress I kept thinking of the drawing and how hard it was to know when a picture was finished. It's all about balance. I knew then, as I am aware again, there is a time to stop with the process, as you can do too much.  It is a fine line to know when you need a little more, or when it is just right.  I hope she is pleased.  I love how it turned out.

Happy Birthday Tom

Today was a special milestone for Tom, he turned 70.  I tried to tell him he was going to be 80 a couple of days ago, but he was slick enough to catch my error.  Thank goodness for that, it means I’m younger, too!

We went for a day trip today for a fun birthday kind of day and did some things we both enjoy doing together.  One of my favorite quilt shows is in Coshocton, Ohio each year.  It isn’t a big show by any means, but I try to go each year because there is usually something special going on that always makes it worth the 2 hour drive there and back again.  I have gone with several different people over the years, and the show has been held in a few different venues.

Last year and this year (and possibly a year or two I missed the date for one reason or another) the show has been held in a church in town, right across from the town square.  Something fair like is going on in the square at the same time and the street gets blocked off and it’s hard to find the entrance to the church parking lot, but there is always plenty of parking and the church is a nice venue. 

You get to wander through almost the entire church and you get to see lots of beautiful things.

The special display this year took my breath away.  Walking into the chapel, the pews were covered with an amazing collection of antique quilts.  I was so taken by the display I forgot to read the labels.  Tom was talking to one of the white glove ladies and she explained that many of the quilts were made by “unknown maker” because they had no identifying label.  I took lots of pictures and tried to get close ups of the ones that spoke the loudest to me.

After we exhausted ourselves looking at the quilts we decided to walk the square and see what was going on.  When we had pulled into town, we stopped to ask directions of a couple of ladies waiting to set up their booth.  The place we wanted to be was on the other side of the blockade and we had to figure out how to get around it.  The ladies had 3 goats in the truck.  One goat was in the front seat and 2 in the back of the truck bed. It was the goats we went looking for, but alas, we did not find them on the square.  (Of course I did not think to take a picture of the goats in the truck.) The heat was oppressive and the street fair was full of children getting faces painted and singers on the square; it was noisy and we figured the best thing was to work our way back to our parked truck.  We drove around town looking at all the business that Tom used to deliver product to in the good old days.  Most of the businesses are no longer in business!  The town is quaint.  The houses are magnificent Victorian mansions in various states of disrepair.  A whole lot of them need TLC.

We wandered the back roads to the freeway and came home.  It was much greener in that part of Ohio and we could see a marked difference in the lushness of the trees about the time we crossed into the county just to the south of us.

Tidying Up

I have been busy these past few months on various projects.  The chaos needs tamed and the clutter needs to be attacked and organized again. Yes, again.

I have this zipper bag full of bonus half square triangles that I have gotten from various projects I worked on in the past 18 months.  

It is amazing how many bonus half squares you can get just from one quilt!  I did two with lots of rectangles that had squares sewn at an angle on each end of the rectangle and I think I had over a thousand bonus HST’s from each.

I am currently working on another project making more bonus HST’s and I decided to trim and sew them as I do each block so I don’t end up with the plastic bag full of “stuff to do.” It just won’t go away by itself. The current project is Bonnie Hunter’s Boxy Stars. A free pattern on her website.

I didn’t have the energy to do pressing it was going to take to empty this bag and today I decided I just needed to get it done. 

Now I have a very full box of bonus half square triangles and I need to find another project to use them in.

I used a lot of them in the Stars over Challotte quilt I found in a Bonnie Hunter book.

  

I liked the zig zag of the setting triangles.  The dark fabric really lets the stars shine.

I also figured out how to make a bear paw block using the half squares as well and that is a pleasing manly quilt. I found the perfect fabric in my stash for the large square and had fun matching the four I needed for each paw.

I’m sure the mess will never go away but I feel better knowing I no longer have that bag of unpressed triangles looking at me.

I’m going to go outside and enjoy this perfect summer evening.

Organized Scrap Usage

I have a lot of scrap fabric to use in my life time.  Every time I see the light at the end of the tunnel another bag of fabric finds its way into my studio.

I have two industrious helpers who sort and press the fabric for me.  Last summer Laura and Emily cut two huge rubber maid tubs of fabric into every useful shape imaginable. Their countless hours netted me a medium sized tub (12” x 14” x 16”) of 2 ½” x 5” rectangles, a small tub (10” x 12” x 5”) of 2” strips and a shoe box full of 2 ½” strips.

I already have two big rubber maid tubs of 1 ½” strips sorted conveniently into plastic Ziploc bags by color.  My goal is to use this fabric up.  I was making a decent job of it and then I looked and away for a minute and 3 huge rubber made tubs are again full of uncut, unsorted fabric needing some TLC. (HUGE SIGH!)

I have made 4 large block log cabin quilts already from the tub of 2” strips and they just don’t seem to go away! The only thing that seemed to happen in the 2” strip tub is they all got short.

By big block log cabin #4 I decided to make one of the borders be tiny log cabin blocks made from the 1 ½” strips.  I also chose to make the BBLC in just blue and red instead of light and dark contrast.

My friend, Pattie, has been utilizing my Accu Cutter trying to tame her own fabric collection by making 6” tumblers and I suspect the two tubs of recent small stuff acquisition is from her.  I like the tumbler quilts she has made and one of them was tumblers on the front and back. I decided the tumblers  was an excellent way to use the plethora of scraps I just can’t seem to eliminate.  I sorted through the tubs and found all the red and blue and creams I could find and sat with Pattie one fine Monday and cut my fabric into tumblers.

I’m so in love with how the tumbler backing came out I am planning on doing another two big block log cabins with tumbler backings.

I was sure I was pushing my tolerance of doing the same quilt more than once by the time I hit big block quilt number four, and it just goes to show that you never know!