The Quilt Closet Makeover

 One of the most frequently asked questions by non-quilters is, "What do you do with all the quilts you make?" In the early days of my quilting journey, most of them were given away. Nowadays, I keep more than I give or donate. What you see here is a small snippet of the quilt stash closet.

This closet was originally your average closet with a rod and shelf used for storing our coats and seasonal decor.  During my pattern writing years the closet was transformed into my office desk and shipping station.  The rest of the room was storage for my quilts, business supplies and quilt photo staging area.

After closing the business, the closet was used to store quilts and seasonal decor.  While the totes kept the quilts dust free, they are heavy and hard to move and stack when full of quilts. 

So, last week I decided to put a shelving unit in the closet to hold all the quilts.  I thought for sure they would all fit on one shelf.  They do not! The tote on the bottom left holds four quilts.  The other totes are full of decor and pillow forms.  I'm going to need another small shelving unit or one larger shelving unit.  

This isn't all of the quilts.  There're 21 quilts on display or in use throughout the house.  Sigh...I can see that in a few years my quilts will outgrow the closet.  I may need to make this spare bedroom a quilt storage room.  Oh well, for now I'm loving the easy access to the quilts and no more heavy lifting.

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What's Up Wednesday

 Hey Quilty Friends.  Just a little pop in to share my progress since my last blog post, which isn't much.  Well, I suppose it's all in how you look at things.  Below is the (300) scrappy 1.75" squares I cut last Saturday.  All of them where cut from the low volume scrap bins, and most of the time I could only cut one at a time.  It was a literal pain in the neck but in the end it's worth it. 

On Sunday I found a little time to make four more Old Town mystery blocks and add them to the design wall.  I need to put all my energy towards getting this one finished and off my design wall.  I'm tired of looking at it!  HAHA!

 

See you soon!

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Alternate Block For The Cake Stand Quilt

 Hey Quilty Friends!  The last couple of days have been scrap-a-licious!  Slicing and dicing through the scrap bins makes me one happy gal.

To be honest most of my time in the last couple of days has been spent outside the Studio taking care of this, that and the other.  That's what makes the little time spent playing with fabric so exciting and fun.  You know the old saying, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder".  That applies to anything in your life, not just your sweetie.  

In my playtime I decided to work on the alternate block for my Cake Stand quilt.  Many quilt blocks were auditioned and failed to tickle my fancy. They all seemed too busy for my little bitty Cake Stand block.

Ultimately, I chose the K.I.S.S. block. If you are unfamiliar with K.I.S.S., do not take offense; it stands for "keep it simple stupid" or "keep it simple silly" if you prefer. The block is not actually called K.I.S.S.; it is simply a basic 16-patch block.

Once the plan was set in stone, it was time to make a test block before cutting for all the blocks.

In just a matter of minutes the block was finished.  Some of you might be wondering "why would I not use just one 5.5" piece of fabric?"  Well, I think the 16 patch is more fun and adds an OMG to the quilt.  Yes, I want the OMG factor, even if I'm the only one to think it's OMG cute.

For this block I decided to press the seams open.  Open seams are not something I do often.  But if I don't do this, it might end up a pressing nightmare and bulky seams.  I would like to be able to rotate this block in the quilt if needed in order to keep matching fabrics from touching.  The only way I see to accomplish this is with open seams on both blocks.  I may regret it but I'm stepping outside my comfort zone and pressing both blocks open...oh this is so scary but I'm doing it! 

Here's the EQ drawing of the quilt.  It will finish at 91x91!  My little bitty blocks are going to be a BIG quilt.  I can't wait to see her finished!

This isn't a quicky quilt, it may take months because cutting the scrap squares for this block may take days or weeks.  Below is the (676) 1.75" squares for the basket blocks.  It took a few days to cut them due to my limited time in the Studio.  The alternate block requires 2304 scrappy squares! 

And let's not forget it's set on point so I still need to cut more than a few triangles.  As I plan this project and think about a timeline I need to consider the time of year.  My hope is for a mid-summer finish, but gardening season is quickly approaching.  Along with mowing as well as other outside chores. And of course, I like to project jump...so I'm thinking this could take months, maybe a finish by November or December?

An update for my fur baby lovers.  Miss Kahleesi's perianal fistulas are still an issue.  She started a new very expensive antibiotic ($198 for 30 days) this week and a new expensive topical antibiotic($84).  She will stay on the oral antibiotic for 6 weeks.  Then a vet visit will decide whether or not to start weening her off the antibiotic. 

The vet also suggested laser light therapy, it cost $75 a week and isn't guaranteed to work.  We're considering it.  I've done so much research on this autoimmune disease.  There is no set in stone treatment.  Each dog responds differently to treatment and foods.  

We feed my girl real food, meat and some veggies.  Going against everything I believe in, I've decided to change her diet to processed dog food that has worked for many other dogs with this condition.  Again, it's not guaranteed to help. 

 It's hard not to cry sometimes.  All I want for her is to be healthy, happy and pain free but no one seems to have the answer.

  You would never know her little bum has oozing open sores.  She acts totally normal except for excessive licking of her bum when not in a diaper.  We could put a cone on her head instead of diaper but I just can't do that.  The diaper keeps her from licking.

My hope is the expensive oral antibiotic will work magic and put her in remission.  We caught it early so the chances of it working are in her favor.

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The Quilters High

 Hi Quilty Addicts!  After my recent quilt finish, Delightful Daisies, I've been on a quilter's high.  I'm sure some of you can relate.  The quilt you've put so much time and effort into is finally finished and you LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!  The body puts out an intoxicating cocktail of hormones and before you know it, you're searching for the next high.  Wild eyed with quilt drool dripping from the chin, the dig for the next quick quilt fix begins.  I told myself to stop but the quilt finishing monkey on my back wouldn't listen until I found the perfect next quick quilt finish.  Oh yes!  This quilt designed by Gigi's Thimble is perfect!  

Perfect for many reasons. 

 

1. The (free) quilt pattern is called Cabin Fever and right now we are transitioning from winter to spring.  Perfect!  I don't get cabin fever in the winter but the quilt finishing monkey on my back had me feeling a little nutty and feverish.

2. It's small and will be perfect for a quick to finish, oh yes, the quicker the better.  I needed my quilt finish fix!

3. The first day of spring is March 20! Perfect!

4. The backing and binding were made and stored with the quilt years ago, perfect!

5. The backing fabric has daisies on it, my favorite flower!  Again PERFECT!

As the 70's tunes blared, the quilt top and backing were placed on floor to check for the quilt frame loading direction.  Oh, fiddlesticks.  The backing is too small.  The original plan must have been to quilt it on the sewing machine.  No worries, it's a simple fix.

As I boogied my way over to the stash cabinet, I realized the quilt finishing monkey on my back was barely hanging on.  Was this the result of the backing issue?  By the time I had found the perfect fabrics the quilt finishing high was gone. 

A quick look around the studio at the quilt blocks on the design wall and the new scrappy quilt on the cutting table and wouldn't you know it...that little monkey lost his grip and faded away.

Yes, I do love playing with my scraps.  The Cabin Fever project will need to wait.  Back into storage she went along with the fabrics to enlarge the backing.

Now that the quilt finishing high has faded it's back to the original plan for the week.

Today I think I'll work on the Old Town mystery quilt.  She's been singing to me all morning as I write this post...

Song sung blue
Everybody knows one
Song sung blue
Every garden grows one...

 

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Celebration of Life ~ Donna Jordan of Jordan Fabrics

 I was shocked this morning to hear of the passing of  Donna Jordan of Jordan Fabrics.  She was a quilting rockstar to so many and will be deeply missed.  Her husband posted her last video this morning, click image below to watch.

My heart goes out to the Jordan family.  

~ Lea Anne Brummett ~

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Delightful Daisies Finished

 When I started this quilt 11 years ago, I never dreamed it would take this long to finish.

Way back then my mind saw this quilt as quilted to death with tons of feathers and swirls.

She's been pulled out many times over the years.  Each time I would stare at her for a few days trying to come up with the perfect quilt it to death plan.  And then back in storage she would go.  My love for quilted to death quilts is still there, I just lost interest in doing all the hard work.

These days I'm just as happy with light custom quilting.

If you look at the daisies in the pictures above you will see they are not quilted like the one below.  The one below was the first quilted.  This daisy quilting felt too heavy for the large crosshatched background quilting.  A perfectionist would have removed the stitching in this daisy.  I did not, for no other reason than it doesn't bother me that it is different.  It's my quilt and I don't care if one daisy has a little extra quilting. 

The backing was made from scraps of a previous quilt back and Pioneer Woman fabric yardage.

Since the quilt is fun and kind of whimsical, I opted to have a little fun with the label by using a different color thread for each line.  I like it!  It gives the label a little character. 

As for the image below, there's nothing to say other than I love the daisy quilting.

The green striped binding felt like the perfect ending for this quilt.  It makes me so happy to finally have her finished even though it's not exactly what I had planned. 

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Juggling Quilting Projects Chaos

 The weather in Podunk has been absolutely beautiful the last couple of days.  Sunny and 70 is perfect for opening the windows and doing a little spring cleaning.  And that's exactly what I did for a couple of days. Then I was ready to get back in the Studio and play with some fun spring projects.

As you can see above the Delightful Daisies quilt binding is almost finished.  All that is left to do is hand stitch it to the back of the quilt.  Getting to this point was not easy due to juggling multiple projects and every station of my studio is full of projects.

 The Daisy quilt was quilted and the backing fabric needed to be trimmed but my cutting table was full of HST's needing to be sorted into blocks.  Instead of moving them and possibly messing up the counted HST's I decided to finish the sorting process.

By the way....under the quilt in the picture above is the fabric for the pillow shams I planned to make.  Maybe this weekend the shams and curtains will make into the rotation. 

Back to the cutting table mess.  The HST's on are bonus HST's I've been collecting for many years.  This batch of HST's will be used to make 169 cake stand blocks.

It took about two hours to clear off the cutting table.  The HST's were sorted onto design boards.  Below is (169) sets of (4) matching HST's for the basket handles.

The next board is (169) sets of (2) matching HST's for the base of the basket block.

The last board is a bunch of 3 inch HST's for the basket body.  I still need to make more but can't find my scribble paper with the amount.   I mentioned the amounts in my last blog post so when it comes time to make more I can look there for the number needed instead of counting again.

I stacked the full boards and added them to the works in progress cart.  The cutting table was finally ready to trim the Daisy quilt.  I thought is rolling cart would help me organize my projects better.  And it would if I would stick to the rule of no more than 3 projects in rotation.

Right now, I have 6 projects.

1.  Old Town mystery - top of the cart

2. Cake Stand Quilt - middle of the cart

3.  Bumpkin Baskets - bottom of the cart

4. Pillow shams and curtains - pressing station

5. 2 bucks a block BOM - in a block storage tote(I've only made Jan. blocks)

6. Delightful Daisies - ready for hand stitching the binding

Instead of working out a plan or setting a goal to get back on track with just 3 projects.  I'm going to just let things happen organically.  When I get to them, I get to them.  No muss no fuss.  Quilting is my hobby, not my job.  I like a to be organized but I don't like feeling like I MUST do this before that.  It takes the fun out of quilting. 

I would like to start hand stitching the binding on the Daisy quilt today...sometime.  It's going to be sunny and 75 today.  A great day to be outside prepping the flowerbeds for the soon to sprout spring flowers.  Now there's a plan!

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Bonus HST's Quilt ~ 5 Inch Cake Stand Block

 Hi Quilty Friends!  It's time for me to start using up those bonus HST's of which I have thousands. Just how many?  Well, I counted them about 3 years ago and there was about 3500 but I've added many more since and didn't count the additions.  So, my guess would be around 4,000 ranging from 1 inch all the way up to 5 inches.

The Cake Stand quilt will require (1014) 1.75" HST's and (169) 3" HST's.  The three ziploc bags of 1.75" HST's have been sorted by color into stacks of matching pairs.  In retrospect I should have counted all of them while sorting but I didn't, silly me.  After pulling all that is needed for this quilt, the remaining will be counted and the total added to the outside of the bags. 

This cute little block will finish in the quilt at 5 inches.  I would have preferred that all the HST's background to be a low volume print or all white but I'm working with 30 yrs of bonus HST's.  So, it's going to be a mishmash of both.  All of the 1.75" squares will be cut from my low volume scrap bins.

The test block went together quickly.

At this point in the block is when I remembered there will be an alternating block and my pressing was wrong...fiddlesticks!  

No use crying over spilled milk and definitely no reason to rip out stitches. Pressing the seams open on both blocks would solve the pressing issue without changing the quilt.  Sigh...something to think about while prepping the basket blocks for assembly.

The block looks a little wonky to me but she measured almost perfect.  Just a few raveled threads were trimmed.  The main thing is my seam allowance was good and I won't lose any points on the HST's when it's finished.  Maybe I should say, I shouldn't lose any points on this block.  Sometimes it happens anyway.

With the test block out of the way it's time to start sorting this mess into blocks.  The 3" HST bag was pulled and counted.  Just as I thought, I'm to need to make more.

But before making more let's trim down the larger HST's in the stash.

And... I'm still short 87 HST's.  HAHA!  The plan was to use up the HST's not make more...HAHA!  Reducing the size of the quilt to throw sized crossed my mind...but I'm dead set on a queen size.  No worries, my scrap bins are full of fabric and ready to assist.  But not today.  Playtime is over and it's time to get the Daisy quilt finished.

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