A Bit of This, A Bit of That

I really need to get my sewing room under control and I think the only way to do that is to finish things. In an effort to finish one project, I have been working with my leftover triangles again. I got them all sewed together into half square triangles units. Got all of those trimmed up and put them together into Broken Dishes blocks and then added them to all the blocks I have made in the past. 

I saw a quilt somewhere online using rows of blocks of various sizes. It had either grey or tan as strips in between those rows. I counted all the blocks and figured out how big a quilt I could make and it was going to be pretty big so I adjusted and decided to make two smaller quilts, thinking they would be easier to sell or give away or something. I sewed the blocks together by size into strips around 45-50" long and took them to work to lay out on the floor. As I laid them out I was talking to my boss about the upcoming Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner and Talent Show at the church and she mentioned having a silent auction also. I offered to add a quilt so I picked up what I started and took it all home to adjust the lengths of the strips to something more like 70-80".

Here is a picture of the rows hanging on the drying rack after pressing.

 Here are the rows laid out at work. As you can see the rows varied a lot in length depending on how many blocks I had of each size.

I took a few of the blocks to the fabric store to see what I could find for the 'in between' and my favorite was an apple green. I added green to each row to make it 85" and then put 1" finished strips between the rows. Here is a picture of it on the floor for basting.

I backed it with a barn red flannel - a king-size duvet cover that my husband got at a garage sale for $5 last summer. Here it is all finished and hanging at the church. 

I did a medium stipple using a variegated green thread. Here is a picture of the two smallest rows. There are 4 little 1/2" Broken Dishes blocks and then a strip of 25 - 1" blocks.

Tuesday was craft night next door and Sally had Linnea's quilt finished for us to see. Isn't that a cool panel?

Linnea also brought her quilt from Mary from one of the previous exchanges. Mary hadn't been able to finish all the blocks and get it put together so we didn't get to see it at the reveal and then Linnea brought it one night to craft night but I wasn't there so I asked her to bring it so I could see it. It is quite beautiful in person!

I finally finished my grandson's baby quilt. He is now 7 months old!

It was made from blocks I cut out of the quilt I made for his mommy almost 30 years ago. While pregnant I had embroidered the 12 old-fashioned babies on a piece of pale green fabric. When I had them done I just quilted around the embroidery and then between the babies. It was a pretty boring quilt though she loved it. When we talked about a quilt for her little one I suggested redoing her quilt and she was open to that. She told me she likes the 30's prints so I got some and cut 2 1/2" squares to frame the blocks. When I cut the blocks I left the original hand quilting around the babies and just cut through all the layers and used them that way. I machine quilted diagonals through the small squares and added another round of hand quilting about 1/4" out from the original. The back I used was fabric I purchased in Sitka when I visited my daughter when she was in college and I thought it was appropriate since little Karl visited Sitka when he was just one month old.

I have had everything done but the label a month ago but just didn't get to the label. Finally this week I wrote out a label and got it stitched to the back.

I have pulled out my denim now and hope to work my way through that next. That would mean at least two large bins will be emptied and I should be able to get rid of some backs and batting that has been given to me too!

I am hoping my next post will be an update on denim quilts.

A Few Accomplishments

I am not excited about getting moving and accomplishing anything yet this morning so I will share what I have been up to in the sewing room in the last month or so.

Over Christmas, when my sewing room was turned into a guest room, I pulled out a quilt 'kit' I had made up for quilt retreat and sewed up this top out in the great room on one of my Singer 301s in a cabinet. I really like how it turned out and will probably use it for the quilt exchange with the ladies at Tuesday evening craft night.

It looks especially nice against my great room's yellow walls with the Bing and Grondahl plates hanging above.

This next item is the table runner I made with the leftover One Block Wonder blocks that I used for my neighbor's Christmas table topper. 

After I had the top of this put together, I discovered one more block hiding in the sewing room and it was used on the back. Now I have a nice Christmas gift on hand or something to add to the sales table at the next bazaar.

Also over Christmas I finally figured out where to put a cool hook I found at a garage sale. Hubby got it installed and then I started the hunt for a hanging pot to put my spider plant in. Interestingly enough, nobody is selling hanging pots or any appropriate pots at this time of year. I came home from one shopping excursion and looked over my old pots outside and found this yellow one from the 70s. I had to do some scrubbing but it isn't too bad. Plant hangers are also not out there anywhere (even the thrift store) so I set about finding some sort of cord to see if I still have any macrame skills. Struggled to find cord too, but finally found this dark brown jute last Saturday and was able to whip up this hanger in about an hour. 

Nothing fancy but it turned out pretty nicely I think!

Next Saturday I will be teaching a class for the guild on the stained glass denim quilts so I had my son haul all the denim out of the attic and I pulled out what was stashed around the sewing room and started ripping and cutting it up in preparation for the class.  You see, my goal is to get rid of the denim that I have so I am offering the class for $10 per person and I am providing the fabric for the top. All the tops that are made will then go to the guild's Community Quilt program and likely from there to graduating foster kids in our county. As a bonus, the money will all go to Relay for Life. There were boxes and bags and bins full of denim. I have enough squares cut for 10 quilts so far and a couple of ladies from the guild have taken a couple of boxes of denim and ripped and cut for me also. Today I need to get started on figuring out the lesson plan for the class and how we will set up the space.

My boss asked me to make a denim baby quilt for her to give as a gift so last Sunday I pulled out some of my odd shaped pieces (I always get way too many 2" squares so if I have pieces that are 2X3, 2X4, 2X6, 3X3, 3X4 or 3X6 I don't cut them down and use them when I am feeling creative) and put together this top.

You can see my piles of 4" and 6" squares on the back of the table in this picture. Anyway, I need to get some fabric for the back and I can get it quilted and delivered. I will use it for an sample though for next Saturday's class.

I have been fighting a nasty cough for almost 3 weeks and went to the doctor yesterday and got cough syrup with codeine and prednisone in the hopes that I can get rid of it. Looking forward to the end of this one! 

I had an MRI on my ankle this week and will find out next Wednesday from the doctor if there is anything that can be done to give me more range of motion. This is one time I am hoping for surgery!

Well, it is time to head outside to prune some apple trees and then into the sewing room to maybe get a round robin project or two finished and ready to mail on.

Happy Quilting!

Starts, Finished and Progress

Just read over my last post and can't believe that I haven't written a post in a month and a half and how much has been happening since then. 

My foot/ankle is improving, if not fast enough for my tastes! My doctor had me taking massive doses of anti-inflammatories for 10 days and the swelling and inflammation went down at least temporarily. I was on my feet this past Friday and Saturday at the Guild Quilt Show on cement floors and Sunday was a hard day but both legs and feet were unhappy. Monday when I went to work I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could walk at close to normal speed without limping and even the stairs weren't bad. 

I got my two quilts finished for the quilt show and I was really happy with how they both turned out. I will do another post soon showing the quilting on this first one. The small tag hanging under the label says "A GUY likes this quilt." Every man who came in received one of these tags to put on a quilt he like. This quilt eventually received two of these tags and the other received on.

 This one is my 2004 Shop Hop Quilt. I had it in the Relay for Life Quilt Show in March but I added some more quilting in the block 'shadows' so the blocks would stand out a little more. 

Tonight I plan to take the hanging sleeve off so it can be put on our new bed. 

Fall is definitely here in Western Washington. We had about a week of fog that just didn't lift and now the sun has been out for a few days and it is gorgeous! Our son has been helping get the leaves picked up from the yard. Today we got 4 loads of leaves hauled away and yesterday and today I got most of the mowing done and let SIL finish it off. I can sure feel it in the muscles that I was out working in the yard!

I have gotten quite a few Harry Potter blocks done for the quilt I am working on but with other things going on I realized I would not have it done for the quilt show. I did finish the hand quilting on my 2002 Shop Hop quilt but I don't have any pictures of that yet. I will try to get that done soon. 

I finished a border on one round robin project and have one more I hope to get to tomorrow so I can pass them off to my niece and get some others from her. We need to get them moving along again. She and I have both have had crazy summers.

Our daughter and son-in-law got their little house on wheels moved out to its 'new' home and are pretty much settled in. Our son is settled into our Argosy until he finds a 'real' job. For now he is doing some math tutoring and helping around the house some.

There are rumors we will have grandkids here for Halloween so might have to do some quick planning for a fun family party. We are thinking decorating gingerbread haunted houses or maybe Halloween sugar cookies.

I need to pull some things together next week for a quilt retreat too. 

And the summer is nearly gone...

...and it didn't go at all as I thought it might.

Two months later and I am still hobbling around on my bum foot. I ended up in a walking boot for 6 weeks and now I just have to strengthen up my ankle. I bought myself a pair of Chaco sandals last week so I have some shoes that support my feet and can be adjusted depending on how much swelling there is.

Lots has happened but not what I had hoped. We had the grandkids here for 4 weeks of fun. They were great about helping Grammy because "your foot is hurt". They fetched crutches and glasses of water and the phone and various other things. They had lots of special things happening like spending the night at cousin Katie's house, fun Lego projects,

a Strawberry Festival, two new kitties at Grammy's

crafts,

two weeks of swimming lessons,

'working at Grammy's office,

rides on a little steam train ("we get to sit on it - while its moving?!?!?!), helping Papa prune the cedar tree

(they loaded the trailer at least 15 times for the trip to the burn pile - the little smarties figured out a way to load it and leave a 'hole' for them to ride in back and forth), Vacation Bible School, playing on Steve's slot machine, and a BBQ 

just to name a few! They had a great time and were so good. They are now back at home and started school - Kindergarten and 2nd grade!

Time in the sewing room was rather lacking over the summer but I did get the Bluegrass Festival Auction Quilt finished on time (but only barely). 

Since we had a booth for our crafts at the Festival I was able to listen as it was auctioned off for over $300. I also got it's twin quilted and it is almost finished. I also spent a couple days at my sister's and with her and my two nieces we sewed the top of a wedding quilt for our brother's son and his bride. Today my sister was here visiting and we got the quilt sandwiched and basted so I might get started on the quilting this week.

Once things started settling down from the kids and other things I started working on finishing up some quilts for the October Quilt Guild Show. I pulled out this UFO of leftover HST's. The lighter triangles were from one quilt and the rest were from two others. I had it to this point in February and then it got put away...

I had decided I wanted to put this on point using the dark read of the outer triangles and some form of sunflowers since I had found a border print with sunflowers and pinecones. I got a pattern for a sunflower with 3D petals but I just wasn't feeling it so I went with my original thought of New York Beauty type sunflowers. Since I wanted the sunflower to be about 8-10" I had to shrink the NYB blocks down to 4" finished. Then I made 4 each of 4 different patterns using the same fabrics as the darker HSTs. I used one of each of the 4 different patterns in each of the sunflowers. I was really happy with those other than I would not recommend 4" NYB blocks to anyone. Then I needed something else for those corners and found a paper pieced pinecone pattern that I again shrunk to 4" and reversed for half of the blocks. I then created the triangles to set this on point using the NYBs and pine cones and then added mitered border print and here it is:

It ended up about 60" square. I am thinking it would make a really great fall tablecloth. I am putting it aside for a bit but I can now fill out the registration form for the quilt show for it. 

I am now moving on to another Harry Potter quilt that I want to have done for the show also. I found that doing paper piecing is easy on my foot. I lower my ironing board and pull it a little closer to the sewing table and I can sew and then turn my chair to press and trim the piece and if I need to do any rotary cutting I have a small cutting mat on the sewing table. Hopefully my foot will improve quickly so I can get back to my normal sewing routines.

The garden has suffered from my lack of attention but my beets, onions, beans and Taxi tomatoes have flourished in spite of it. I am working on getting rid of all the weeds now that I can do some work down there.

The Quilt Show & #5 & Rearranging

Here is a close up of the quilting on finish #5 for the year. It was made from the leftover triangles of another quilt that I blogged about here. 

I was happy to get it done to hang in the quilt show which was March 16. The show went well with about 50 quilts hanging. I only had one quilt of mine hanging that had been in the show before. There were 11 local quilters who shared their quilts in the show. 

Here is a shot of the Eiffel Tower quilt my niece made to raise money for her trip with the Vivace Chorale to Paris. It is an adaptation of the Stained Glass Denim Quilt Pattern I have used so much. It is amazing to me how many people are still asking for that pattern.

This quilt was done all by hand by a local quilter. The base of the tree is hidden by the sewing machine that was for sale. The creator of the quilt saw a 3" X 3" picture of this tree and enlarged it to a queen size quilt! This quilter shared 7 or 8 quilts with us at the show!

Here are three more quilts on display. 

Another quilter shared these two quilts on the quilt rack with us. They were both hand sewn. The Cathedral Window quilt used 30 yards of unbleached muslin and 3 yards of the blue calico.

If you would like to see more pictures from the show, they are up on flickr.

I have been working on getting things rearranged in the house to allow for the new pieces of furniture that arrived a few weeks ago. I emptied out a bookcase and took it to my niece's house. I rearranged things in the great room and then started to add items to the new curio cabinet. I kept adding and found more things and added them and was rather surprised to fill it! 

I have also been working hard at cleaning up the sewing room. It was just such a huge mess! I am pretty satisfied with it right now but there is still room for improvement. I bought some bins to store fabric and batting, etc. and started filling the little drawers in the sewing cabinet and I even got rid of quite a few things. I will try to post some pictures soon but the weather is improving and I have a lot of work to do outside!

Minor Setback

My recovery had been moving along quite nicely and I was feeling great! Then on Tuesday morning, after a not so great night's sleep, I woke feeling rather crummy. I tried going into work but only lasted 2 hours. I came home and went to bed. After a few hours of napping I didn't feel any better so I called the doctor's office and got scheduled for an appointment first thing in the morning. That appointment was followed by a CT Scan which showed fluid built up in my abdomen so now I am on some serious antibiotics and we will see what happens. I am feeling better so that is a good thing but now everyone is telling me to rest! Do you know how boring that is?

I have spent a little time sewing but not much. I did manage to get three bindings finished before it got just too hot and got the blocks done for a baby quilt. Here is one possible layout.

I need to send the pictures of layout options for the baby quilt to the person who ordered it so I know how to put them together. Today the quilt for the Margarita Party will be delivered and I just need a hanging sleeve on the one for the Bluegrass Festival and that can be delivered also. 

Did you notice that the baby quilt is made from the leftover HSTs from the Margarita Party quilt?

Today I hope to finish the last binding and maybe get that hanging sleeve done while I watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I do need to find something else to do work on or I am going to go stir crazy!

Some Quilt Pictures

The weather has warmed up here (as usual for our area, that happened on July 5) so I took some quilt tops out to the clothesline for a photo op. This is the one for my friend's Susan G. Komen fundraiser. The pattern is Christmas Ribbons from Kim Brackett's Scrap-Basket Surprises.

This one is for the bluegrass festival and is also from the Christmas Ribbons pattern, just different color choices.

This is the little quilt made from the leftover triangles from the bluegrass festival quilt. It is an adaptation of the pattern Ice Cream Sundaes from the book Friendship Triangles by Edyta Sitar.  

The pattern was for a wall hanging with about 10 blocks or something and I could make 57 blocks from the leftovers. I drew up an alternate layout and discovered I needed 59 blocks so I quickly made up two more blocks, found some fabric for the setting triangles and figured out how big they should be (thanks Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville for the formula for figuring that out) and started putting it together. Since this picture was taken I have gotten the strips sewn together but haven't moved on to the border since I need to do some more figuring so I can add red to the green to extend the points out into the border. 

I finished up a second week of work and while I still am not excited about a full time job I am seriously considering a half time job. I just have to decide if I want to be a church secretary or a bookkeeper more. Each choice has its benefits so it is not an easy decision!

Today is a day to get things caught up around the house. We need bread and I have not had a day at home to make a batch or two; the kitchen is a fright as are several other rooms and maybe I can get a quilt or two basted. I would love to get 6 basted but we shall see if I have the time and energy!

Back in the Sewing Room

I finally finished sewing triangles together! I think I ended up with 452 broken dishes blocks in various sizes. I have some other projects that need to get finished so the blocks are going back in the drawer for a while.

One project that is now on the front burner are some graduation quilts. I came up with a plan that would use up some of my precut squares. Basically it is these two blocks alternating. 

My niece, Katie, used up some of her scraps making a quilt like this and I liked how it turned out. I started out counting my 2.5" squares knowing I would need 628 squares to make a nice size quilt. When I was done counting I had just a few over that number! I moved on to the 3" squares and again had just a few over what I needed! I made one of each block from each size squares to make sure I had calculated the strip sizes and then kitted up two quilts. Here are the 2.5" squares and their strips.

Then I started thinking about my 2" squares. I had quite a few but I didn't think I had enough to make the same type of quilt in a similar size but I counted them up and then got to thinking that I could make them into 16-patch blocks and then border the blocks with strips, using 2 contrasting colors on alternating blocks. I need something like 1008 squares for that so I started counting out those squares. I only had around 500 but I had quite a few 4" squares so I cut those into 2" squares and ended up with just a few more than I figured I needed. Here they are in a basket and I have started sewing them up as leaders and enders ala Bonnie Hunter.

This is what is left in the drawer that was almost full of precut squares! Pretty exciting to have so few left!

In other news, I continue to work on Owl Hats I have several that just need their faces sewn on and they will be done. Just need to sit down and do that. Maybe next week at craft night I will get them finished? 


My daughter and her husband (here for his 'home time' this week) now have 6 of the 7 windows installed in their little house and are doing some thinking about lighting since wiring will be one of the next steps. If you are interested in reading more about their little house and seeing more pictures check out her blog.


I managed to get a little mowing done today between rain showers. I had to get the yard inside the fence done so Miss Lucy could find a place to potty without getting her tummy all wet from the tall grass! That went pretty fast so I strapped on Lucy's pouch and we rode the big mower around for an hour or so also. Here is a picture of us taken a couple of weeks ago.

Lucy is so excited when I am putting on the pouch and loves riding around with me, frequently taking naps even!

Less and Less Triangles

I am getting close to the end of the triangles. In the last 4 days I have made close to 120 broken dishes blocks! Those 120 blocks started out as 960 individual triangles! They are now all pressed and sorted into bags according to size - 

it is so much easier if they are sorted as they are made instead of when you want to use them!


I only have really big triangles left and I think I will cut them up into a square and 2 smaller triangles as I am not as excited about the look of bigger broken dishes blocks! That will probably happen today.


On Wednesday when I was done with my batch of triangles the weather wasn't too bad so I went out and started pruning the last two apple trees. I got as much done as I could without hauling the ladder out. Thursday was even nicer out so after some morning sewing I hauled the ladder out to the trees and finished the pruning! Yesterday after triangles I went out and pruned the grapes and after hubby got home and got the lawn tractor started (dead battery) we got all the apple branches and grape vines on the burn pile and disposed of them. So our big purchase on date night last night was a new battery! Such exciting times!


The shower door is now installed and today I will do the touch up painting and then hubby will caulk around the shower stall and we can call that project done! We still have trim in there to do but why should that room be any more complete than all the rest of the house?


I am plugging away on the frog eyes and now have 3 quilts finished. I would love to have the last one done this weekend but not sure that is happening. I want to get the labels on and get the quilts delivered!

More and more triangles!

Work continues on the shower stall. This morning I got the final coat of paint on some of the walls and the whole ceiling. It looks pretty great! Except where the blue painter's tape pulled off the paint! I gave my husband permission to smack me if I ever say I want to use that stuff when I paint again! It never works out for me!

I have decided the touching up will happen after we get the shower door installed so I don't have to do it twice.

Meanwhile, I have been working on turning these (thousands of leftover triangles)...

into these...

or these.

If I got these done I could cross at least half of a project off my list. I would really like to turn them all into a quilt top so it is all the way off the list. I have promised myself I will sew triangles together for at least 15 minutes every day and then press them, trim them and turn them into broken dishes blocks. 

Yesterday I think I made about 50 little broken dishes blocks and today there were 23 little BD blocks and 3 of the 12" BD blocks. At this rate I might be done with them by the end of the year. 

A little sewing, a lot of other stuff

Where does the time go? I have been so busy with so many things but not blogging. I get situated on the couch in the evening and blogging is the last thing I am feeling like doing!

My son-in-law arrived on the 16th and over the weekend we turned this...

into this!

Progress is being made on the little house on wheels again. It is looking very nice. Hopefully, they will be able to come over again soon and get a little more done. My niece was over helping with the siding but she also helped me make some crazy quilt blocks out of my Christmas scraps. All together we got 105 blocks made!

Here are six of the blocks auditioning a fabric for sashing. I tried out lots of options and this is the one I bought along with a cute print for the corner blocks. I am now working on getting the rows made and I would love to have the top done tomorrow but that could easily be sabotaged!


In my drawers of Christmas scraps there were all of these little triangles left over from another quilt. I got them all sewn together and I think there are 407, but I could be off by one or two!

I am doing some thinking of a new way to use these little babies. I have some ideas but first they must all be trimmed square! 


Here is another of my projects - garden produce! Here you see the last 'big' picking of green beans and some zucchini in my dishpan being dwarfed by one of my pumpkins! I also picked three dishpans full of Damson plums one day and had to come up with uses for them! Most of them ended up in the freezer to be pulled out later for snacking or jam.

This past weekend my husband and I rearranged 'stuff' from the garage and various outbuildings on our property. Here is how things looked early on in the process! 

As I said earlier, I hope to get a quilt top together tomorrow or the next day and I need to start getting things packed up for my quilt retreat next week. I have the Christmas fabrics cut but need the black packed for the strips between and all my paraphernalia and maybe a couple of other projects to work on. If I am really good I might get the crazy quilt top turned into a quilt and I can work on the binding at the retreat.