Wordless Wayback (2014) Wednesday

 

Pin It

Quilting, Sorting and Ignoring

 A lot of quilty goodness is happening out here in Podunk.  The Delightful Daisy quilt is looking pretty cute.  I can't wait to get this girl off the frame and on display.  By my unreliable calculations it should be ready to share here on the blog by next Monday or Tuesday.  I'll blame the quilting design for my slow progress because the quilting is 99% ruler work.  The only free motion quilting is the stems and leaves of the large daisies.  

But let's be honest, this quilt shouldn't even be in the rotation. Remember me setting up a new plan to only have three projects in rotation on this cart.  Maybe I need a cart with more tiers. HAHA!  In order to get closer to my goal, I will be removing the Heart Pops project out of rotation. The one block will be moved to the orphan blocks box because I just don't feel like making the B plan for this project.

As for the Old Town Quilt I'm ignoring it right now but it will stay in the rotation.  A couple more blocks have been made but I'm not seeing any progress on this until after Delightful Daisies is finished. 

What will take the place of Heart Pops?  HST's! A bunch of them.  I've decided to start tackling the THOUSANDS of HST's I've been collecting over the years.  This is my second session of sorting.  The first sorting session of HST's was the bag of 1.5 inch.  It came up short of what was needed for the planned project.  So, I grabbed the bags of 1.75 inch HST's. 

After they were sorted by color, I started sorting by prints and how many I would need of each print.  Oh my, what have I started!  This is going to take forever! But I already have more than what is needed for the quilt.  Yippee! 

The quilt will have 169 blocks.  Each block will need (4) matching hst's and (2) matching hst's.  The singles are extras not needed for the block.  

I bet some of you are wondering what happened to the green gingham project.  Well, the ruffler foot I order was not delivered on time.  As you all know when things get lost in the mail you never know when they will arrive.  So, I carefully folded it up and placed it on the ironing station and that's when I decided to start the HST quilt.  As soon as all the HST's are sorted and carefully placed in the cart of projects the gingham project will be snuck into the rotation.  It's a quick project that should only take a day to make.  Well, that's the plan...HAHA!

Pin It

A Gingham Kind Of Day

 Yesterday was my weekly trip into town to run errands and do the weekly shopping. On the way home, I had to drive right past Hobby Lobby. Instead of driving past it, my car somehow ended up in the parking lot. It is funny how that happens.

I purchased several items for the grandchildren's Easter baskets. Then proceeded to the fabric department, where all fabric was 40% off. A few weeks ago, I had bought a lovely light blue gingham and hoped to find more so I could use it as a quilt backing. Unfortunately, it was sold out, so I bought six yards of green instead because I'm planning a new project.

Well, I might as well use the blue gingham I have on hand.  So, I decided to use it for recovering my ironing board.  It needed recovering a couple months ago.  The picture is nicer than real life.  Most of the white background is scorched brown and tan.

When recovering my board, I don't remove the old dirty fabrics until I get about 4 or 5 layers.  Well fiddlesticks! The gingham will be layer two and the old fabric is showing through.  UGG.  I can't leave it like this and I don't want to remove a gazillion staples that hold the fabric to the board.

My solution to the problem is to double up the gingham. 

And 15 minutes later the board is looking pretty cute!

Then it was time to deal with the green gingham.   It's was cheap 100% cotton.  $5.99 a yard at 40% off made it $3.60 a yard.  

  The lack of a selvage edge is a good clue that this is not a quilting cotton. I think it could be a woven or homespun. To be honest I don't know the difference between the two.  My plan for the fabric is to make ruffled pillow shams for my bed and curtains.

Prewashing cheap fabric is always a good idea since it could bleed and shrink more than good quality fabric. Raveling can also be an issue with cheap fabric.  But this one held up pretty well.

After ironing and starching the entire 6 1/2 yards of fabric I planned to put it back on the bolt.  This makes it easier to deal with on the cutting table. But for the life of me I could not get it the edges lined up without puckering. 

After about an hour of wresting with the fabric and not being able to get it to lay flat it was time for plan B.  I'll just fan fold the fabric at the end of the table and deal with the puckering as the fabric is cut. 

Today's plan is to quilt on the frame and cut the green gingham for the curtains and pillow shams.  If my ruffler foot is delivered today I'll start making the shams later in the day. 

Pin It

Loaded, Labeled and Loved!

 Hi Quilty Friends!  I did it! She's on the frame and ready to be quilted.  After 11 yrs this gal is really going to be quilted. SQUEAL!  This quilt has been pulled out of storage so many times over the years.  I would do the quilt stare for days, searching my brain for just the right quilting plan. Then back in storage she would go.  What changed?  Well, it's simple.  I no longer feel the need to quilt a quilt to death.  Just getting it done is good enough.

I'm sure I've mentioned this a few times over the years...I do not like quilting a quilt.  Thirteen years ago, I bought a quilter thinking it would make the quilting process more enjoyable.  It does but I still would rather be doing anything other than quilting.  

If I won the lottery, all my quilts would be sent to a longarmer for custom quilting.  Well, I don't play the lottery so unless a bag of money falls out of the sky, I'm stuck with quilting my own quilts. 

 I'm letting go....every quilt doesn't need to be masterfully quilted.

Sure, from time to time I'm sure I'll take a little more time quilting a quilt when the mood strikes.  Quilting is my therapy.  If it's not making me happy, why do it?

I was thinking that very thing yesterday when making the quilt label.  The quilt top is happy and bright so why not take that theme over to the label.  I played around with ideas of adding borders to the label or piecing a cute block but the best(quickest) I could come up with was different thread colors that match the backing fabric.  It's simple and makes me smile.  

This is what quilting is meant to be.  Happiness!  Even the tiny little blanket stitch makes my little ole heart go pitter-pat.  Maybe the next time I'll get really wild and crazy by using one of those fancy stitches on my machine for sewing the label into place.  This letting go and enjoying the process feels so good!

My playful inner child couldn't be stopped.  She needed more color and whimsy.  Might as well let her play while she's in the mood.  She pulled out a few striped fabrics before deciding on the green stripe for the binding fabric.

She wasted no time getting the binding ready for the quilt.  I like the way this girl thinks.  She knows it's the right amount of inspiration to keep me motivated to finish this quilt as quickly as possible. 

 

Gotta run!  Time to quilt this cutie!

  

Pin It

Delightful Daisies Quilt

 Hey Quilty Friends!  Guess what time it is?  Springtime! The weather here in Podunk for the last few days has felt like Spring with a whopping 60 degrees yesterday.  Today and tomorrow are supposed be about the same.  Since spring is in the air, I thought it would be good time to quilt my Delightful Daisies quilt.  It's been hanging out waiting on me for 11 years!

Did you catch my piecing mistake?  To me the mistake is very noticeable but I've had people tell me they didn't see it until I told them.  The bottom petal of the yellow daisy is wrong.  I knew it before the blocks were assembled into a quilt 11 years ago.  To me it wasn't worth changing and added a little character or whimsy to the quilt.  So, I call it a happy mistake.

The quilting is going to be kept simple.  A 2 inch crosshatching for the background and a little free motion work in the petals, leaves and stems. 

For the backing fabric I've pieced together the leftover fabric from my last quilt and a piece of pretty floral Pioneer Woman fabric.  Today I'll make and attach the label to backing, then get this girl on the frame...Yipee!  It feels good to work on one of my oldest UFO's.

Pin It

Bow-Tie Quilt Finished!

 Hello Happy Quilters!  After days of not stitching or doing anything quilty related I'm back!  This quilt has been finished for over a week now.  This morning all housework and chores have been pushed aside in order to photograph the finish.

Measuring 90 x 90 makes it difficult to get a good picture.

So let's get up close and personal with this girl.

As you all know I'm no fabric snob.  It's fun to see quilt shop quality fabrics alongside the repurposed and cheap fabrics.

This quilt has moved to the top of my list of favorites.  Each fabric holds a memory from my 30+ years of quilting.  A few fabrics have extra special memories.  Like this pink fuzzy swiss dot.  This is a vintage fabric from my moms stash.   Used to make cloths for me when I was a baby and for my daughter when she was baby.

And another one from her stash.

Here's something interesting that I didn't even notice until I was editing the photo.  Check out the two prints below.  The "newer" fabric is a Lori Holt print.  The vintage fabric I bought in 2011 or 12 at an estate sale.  SAME PRINT different colors!  Now we know where Lori gets all her great ideas.

As you all know I'm not perfect and like to share the good, the bad and the ugly.  So here's the ugly scorched label.  This happened while glue basting it to the backing fabric.  I decided to use it anyway because making labels with the fonts on the sewing machine is so time consuming.  I'll do my best to remove the scorching with peroxide before washing.  If it doesn't come out...oh well.

Today I'll get her washed and on the bed...I can't wait!

Because this quilt is so hard to photograph, I made a video.  You can watch it here on the blog by clicking the image below.  Or  Here's a link to YT 

Pin It

Quilt Binding Buddy

 Happy Valentine's Day Quilty Friends!  Wishing you a day filled with love and laughter and of course lots of time doing whatever makes your little ole heart go pitter pat. 

For me that means finishing up the Bow-Ties quilt.  She was taken off the quilting frame on Wednesday.  Trimming the backing fabric away from this 90 x 90 quilt was a real chore.  In my younger years it would have been tossed on the floor for trimming.  These days my knees tell me it's a better to wrestle with her on the cutting table, and I agree!

I won the wrestling match and promptly started auditioning binding fabrics.  That meant pulling my favorite ginghams and striped fabrics.  Surely one of them will tickle my fancy.

A few striped fabrics also made into the auditioning line up.  

While all of them were beautiful, they didn't make the cut.  Instead, I opted to go with plain ole white.  The blocks of this quilt are the stars of the show and they want to be ogled.  A colorful whimsy binding would draw the eye to the edge of the quilt and steal the show.  I wanted the binding to be a bodyguard not a part of the dance.  

The idea of a true quarter inch binding was also scrapped, simply because I didn't feel like a wrestling match with the bodyguard.  A compromise was made.  Two inches wide will give the look I want and avoid the hours of wrestling it into place.

Yesterday was a relaxing day cuddled up on the couch with all my favorite things...quilts, coffee and my sidekick Khaleesi.  Binding a quilt has always been my favorite part of quilting.  I think it's Khaleesi's favorite part as well. 🩷 It's nice having a binding buddy to remind me to get up and move (play with her).  We had a fun day and will get to do it again today.  I can't think of any other way I would want to spend my Valentine's Day.

Pin It