Quilt Therapy

Why did I need quilt therapy on the 4th of July?  Long story short...my neighbor asked me to feed her dogs while she was out of town this weekend.  While playing outside with them in the afternoon one of them took off on an adventure.  Two hours later and a lot of driving I found the dog.  I managed to keep my wits about me while looking for him, but horrible things ran through my head.  Upon returning home I broke down and let the bottled-up emotions out in tears.  After calming down I knew I needed some sewing therapy. Quilting on the frame won't cut it today.  I need to cut some fabric!   Something quick and easy to get a shot of dopamine (feel-good stuff) to my brain.  Since it's the 4th of July, might as well play with the red, white and blue scraps.

Rummaging through the scrap bins took the edge off of my stressed brain but the real hit of feel-good hormone didn't kick in until cutting the fabric.  Sigh...it was just what I needed.  I love red, white and blue.

I was as good as new by the time the fabrics were sorted into stacks for the blocks.  This was a good stopping point for the day.  Time to recharge my batteries with a good night's sleep. 

Middle Of The Night Sewing

 Last night was the second night in a row a very little sleep.  About 4 hours of here and there sleeping each night.  Nothing on the internet or TV worth watching so I had to find something to do that wouldn't wake up Mr. Podunk.  As you know I've been quilting up old UFO quilt tops.  The Strawberry Shortcake quilt is still on the frame, but my quilter is kind of loud, and Mr. Podunk is a light sleeper, so I opted to sew at the sewing machine. 

The lights came on in the sewing room at 1:32 a.m.  As I stood in the middle of the room considering my options I spied the two tin boxes above my pressing table.

One of them holds my pin stash.  The other is full of pink and green squares of fabric.

These were cut about a few years ago when I took a notion to cut all my scraps into usable sizes.  After a couple of days of cutting I realized it was a bad idea.  Most of the fabric cut was added back to the scrap bins.  I'm not sure why I put these in this tin.  Anyway, the 1.5" squares were just what I needed.  My first thought was to sew them together as is but y'all know how I like white background fabric. So, the plan changed.

Under my quilter is my white scrap box.

The white scrap box is overflowing so this is the perfect time to use up some of the overflow.  

In the mess under the quilter, I found a fairly good size piece of backing scrap.  Using the larger piece of scrap makes cutting the background fabric quicker.

Within no time I had my assembly line set up and it was pedal to the metal time.

By 2:34 a.m. I had used up all of the background fabric, and I was starting to feel a little tired but not tired enough to go to bed.  So decided to edit these pictures and write the blog post.  While writing the post for today I started thinking about what to do with what I had sewn.  Writing the blog post came to a screeching halt and put off until this morning because I needed to use EQ8 to draw up a plan.

At 3:17 a.m. I started playing in EQ with ideas.  The plan is to keep it simple and big.  You know I like big quilts, at least 90 x 90.  So why not just make a four-patch quilt?  This will require a lot more four patches.  

I'm not sure how many two patches I made last night but I can tell you for this layout I'll need 1,089 four patches.  Whoa! That's a lot and I love the plan!  Here's a close up that looks a little better.

Then I started playing the what if game.  That's pretty much how I roll all the time when designing quilts.  The new plan is... Instead of using only green fabrics I could go super scrappy and use all the colors and low volume fabrics for the alternating block.  I love it!  By this time, I'm sleepy.  At 3:38 it was finally time to go to bed.

It didn't last long....awake at 5:58 a.m.  Fed the dog, made decaf coffee, read e-mails, watched some news, surfed the internet, and decided decaf isn't going to be enough for today.  It's errand day and sunny outside. 

 8:30 a.m. I'm drinking full octane coffee, writing this post I'm praying for a better night sleep tonight. If not, I may start cutting for the quilt above.

Bumpkin Baskets And Strawberry Shortcake

Over the last couple of months I've been working on small projects.  It's been a fun ride and there's plenty more small projects to finish but I'm ready to move onto a larger project.  My Bumpkin Baskets quilt has been waiting patiently for about two months.

The backing was loaded to the frame. Then the quilting design plan began. I spent many hours over a few days working on a quilting plan.  Drawing designs, erasing designs and not having any fun.  At the end of the day three or four (I lost count) it was time to toss in the towel, put this gal in the UFO storage and find a different quilt to finish.  The problem is I LOVE the Bumpkin Baskets quilt top.  This LOVE of the quilt top puts a lot of pressure on the quilting design.  What I need is a quilt top I don't love and don't care if I love the quilting design

A quick dig in the UFO quilt tops and.... a Strawberry Shortcake quilt top is perfect. I'm not a fan of novelty prints or the color purple. She's cute but didn't make my heart go pitter-pat.  I'm sure some little girl will love having her on their bed.

 

How old is this quilt top?  13 yrs old.  The top was started on April 21, 2012 and finished on April 24, 2012.  Wow!  That's a quick quilt top!  Obviously, I had more time and energy 13 yrs. ago.  

At the time of making this quilt my youngest child had just finished high school, and my fabric stash was a small bookshelf that was 24 x 32.  All of my fabric stash was Walmart fabrics and Goodwill sheets.

  The fabrics in this quilt were free.  Even the white muslin background.  It was gifted to me from an 81 yr. old quilter (a friend of my mom) who was happy and excited to share her years of stash building and quilting knowledge with a younger quilter, me.  She changed my quilting life with the gift of a 55-gallon bag of fabric and a bolt of white muslin.  All from her fabric stash.

 I may not love the prints in this quilt, but I do love its story.  I feel a little pitter-pat as the quilting begins.💗💗

Mini Granny Square Quilt Blocks

 Earlier in the month I made two cute little Granny Square blocks but forgot to share them with you.

Well, you might have noticed them when I shared my Love Blooms Circle quilt back on June 13th.  They were made from some of the scraps.

The idea came about after telling my quilty buddy Judy about Lori Holts new studio tour video. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend taking a look.  Lori has the whole second floor of her new home as her studio...A quilters dream!  I had watched it several months ago.  After sharing the video with Judy I decided to watch it again.  This time the Granny Square quilt on her bed stole my heart and before I knew it, I had the urge to start a new quilt.  Luckily common sense kicked in and it was added to my bucket list.

But I could see no harm in making just one block as a test and a reminder.  Lori's quilt came from her book called Great Grannie Squared.  I'm pretty sure I won this book online years ago but it's such a simple block made from squares I didn't a need for a pattern or taking the time to see if I still owned the book.  I decided to fly by the seat of my pants and just make a block.  

Once I had made the 6.5 inch block the wheels started turning...what if I made a quilt with even smaller blocks?!!  How low can you go?!  

Within no time I had a 3.5 inch little cutie.  If I should decide to make the quilt using the 3" block it would take (529) blocks.  The block has 41 pieces!  Oh yes, I think this will be my next big quilt with little blocks.  Of course, after I finish the Cake Stand Basket Quilt that I haven't worked on in about 2 months.

Making the two blocks into mini quilts was not as easy as I thought it would be.  Putting the binding on tiny quilts is not easy.  Heck, it's not exactly easy on large quilts.

For now, they are pinned to the wall as a reminder of my plans.

Another Mini Circle Quilt

 Hi Quilty Friends!  Y'all had to know when you first saw this scallop quilt stand a few months ago that I would eventually make a mini quilt with my blog logo.  

Over the years my logo has been updated a couple of times, but the original logo was my favorite. 

I played around a bit with the design and how I would make the applique letters.  My thought was the bigger the letters the easier they would be to make.  Nope!

Plan B: print the letters of my logo onto the fabric with my inkjet printer, then applique the cherries. A quick dig in my spare parts applique tackle box produced everything I needed for the applique.  The pieces were different sizes but that's okay.

Next, I needed to make the background fabric larger because I printed "podunk pretties" from my home printer.  The printer only uses a standard sheet of paper, 8.5 x 11, and my circle needs to be 10 inches.  So, I added a 2.5" strip to each side.

Within no time the quilt sandwich was made and was ready to quilt.

I even quilted around every letter to try to make it look appliqued.

It took all week to get this little gal finished.  The binding was added Sunday afternoon.  Well worth all the trouble!  I love it!

The first circle quilt I made can be found here with information to create your own Mini Dresden quilt.

And the other one, click here for the free pattern.

Flying Free Mini Quilt ~ FREE

I'm flying high after finishing the Flying Free Circle Mini Quilt.  I'm feeling like I could make 10 more of these little cuties!

The Flying Free pattern was designed for turned edge applique, but I decided quick and easy raw edge applique suited my needs better.  So, I had to trace some of the applique from the backside of the printout.

My applique looks pretty good until you take up close pictures, but I wanted you to see the tiny little blanket stitch.  It looks like a mess when this close but honestly it looks pretty normal when at a normal distance.

For the quilting and applique on this one I decided to use the thread I normally use when quilting on the longarm.  Superior Threads MicroQuilter 7002.  It's100wt polyester and melts into most fabrics.

If you're interested in making this little mini quilt, there's some things you need to know.  First, I had to reduce the size of the applique to 60%.  It took many trials and errors before finding the perfect size to fit the 10" circle needed for my project.  I also opted to print only the print the pages I thought were needed, which was pages 6-9.  However, after printing them, it dawned on me, I didn't need pages 8 and 9.  They were the templates for the hat and flag.  Both of these could be traced from pages 6 and 7.

If you're interested in make one of your own, here's a link to the free wall hanging pattern called Flying Free from All People Quilt.  

There's one more little circle quilt I plan to make this week before going back to quilting up another UFO quilt top.  If you would like more information about this Scallop Metal Quilt Stand, check out a previous post here.   I'll see you in a day or two with another mini!