Blue Skies ~Quilt Finish

 Last week I hit a bit of a quilting rut, I lost my "quilty mojo".  The secret to reviving that mojo is a quick quilt finish. Nothing like good a dose of dopamine, the feel-good hormone, to stitch your spirits back together!  That's right, accomplishing goals and finishing projects releases dopamine.  I had a little chat with myself: "Should we start a new project, tackle one of those quilt tops gathering dust, or finally finish a smaller UFO quilt?" As you can see, the nine patch quilt from earlier this month won the debate.

The quilt blocks had been stored in the order they were to be sewn, so all I had to do was open the box and start sewing.  To speed things up, the quilting was kept minimal, no overachieving here! Even without chasing a dopamine rush, I would have quilted it just the same. This 58 x 58 quilt is destined to become a cozy couch quilt or a snuggle quilt for a child.  Heavy quilting isn't cuddly or cozy.

For the quilt backing, I used the remaining yardage of the Paisley Denim fabrics in my stash, scraps from the quilt top, and a blue print from Hobby Lobby to create a border and make it large enough. I adore how those quilt block scraps add a touch of quirky personality to the back of the quilt.

The binding was made from the scraps of the backing.  100% machine attached because it was quick, and I couldn't wait for the dopamine rush!

While taking this picture I was given a little extra hit of dopamine.  The quilting fairies were looking out for me on this day and knew just what I needed.  The label is almost perfectly centered in the quilting.  How nifty is that?

Then I noticed the errors on the label, but I didn't let it rob me of my dopamine rush.  This quilt is not my own unique design.  The inspiration quilt for using the UFO nine patches was Cranberry Chain quilt pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts.  And it's not July it's August...LOL!  

A fun little quirky fact about making this quilt, at least to me, is how I named it Blue Skies. The name came to mind simply because the blue and white quilt top reminded me of a summer sky with fluffy clouds and distant blue gray storm clouds. While quilting and listening to country music on YouTube Music, the song "Blue Skies" started playing about halfway through the quilting.  Call me crazy...I took it as a sign I chose the right project.  

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Yo-Yo ~ A Bucket List Quilt

 Most of us have a bucket list of quilts we dream of making someday, but let’s be honest, my quilty brain is like a squirrel on caffeine. This year’s mission to tackle UFOs has been surprisingly successful with seven finished.  Starting another long-term project probably isn’t the smartest move. Then again, if I don’t start them now, they'll just be on the list forever...so here we go!

A Yo-Yo quilt has been a lifelong dream of mine. I remember seeing one in a magazine as a child and imagining how wonderful it would be to have one on my bed. After years of collecting enough scrap fabric for some truly amazing scrappy quilts, the time has finally come to start creating the quilts I've always wanted. On August 16th, I officially began my Yo-Yo quilt (coverlet) journey, starting with the color pink.

It was so exciting to be working on the bucket list quilt. Take a close look at the image below.  See the crinkled circle?  That's trouble.  Heavily started fabric does not like being gathered around the edges, so I had to remove the stitching...BOOHOO.

 

What was I thinking?  I should have known this.  It would have been easier to hand wash larger pieces of fabric. All I could do was hand wash the circles. 

I was certain soaking the circles in a tub of water would help loosen the starch.  After an hour of soaking in a tub of cool water I carefully squeezed one circle a few times to help the fabric release the starch.  Then pressed it between two washcloths to dry it well enough for pressing.  After pressing, it was still stiff with starch!  

Plan B...use hot water for soaking...again the fabric was still stiff.  

Plan C... warm water, detergent, soak for an hour and ever so gently agitate by hand.  SUCCESS!  Albeit with some fraying but I now have workable circles.

To cut the circles I'm using these nesting longarm quilting rulers and a rotary cutter.  Cutting a 5 inch circle of fabric will make a 2.5 inch Yo-Yo.  Kind of big for a finished Yo-Yo and they would be impressively cute if cut smaller but let's be real, smaller Yo-Yo's means more work!  I'll be doing good to get the larger ones made in a reasonable amount of time...HAHA!

Most tutorials for Yo-Yo's tell you to turn the edge of the fabric by hand as you make each stitch.  I'm pre-turning the edges using Kay Buckley's Perfect Circles. 

I definitely think it's faster, at least for me. I tried the old fashioned way once years ago, and let's just say it was a complete disaster!  

Cutting the circles produced some odd shape scraps. I decided to cut the irregular shapes into usable squares.  1 inch, 1.5 inches, 2 inches, 2.5 inches and 3.5 inches.

The 1.5 inches squares were added to my long term Four Patch quilt box.  Which reminds me I should work on this soon so it doesn't become a UFO.  Again, I laugh, like I need to start a new project with so many boxes of projects.  Better to laugh about my crazy than to cry.

The rest were stored in this Charm pack storage box made by Art Bin.

It's temporary storage until I start producing more scraps squares from cutting for this project.

To make the yo-yos, I was using Lori Holt binding needles and Coats and Clark All-Purpose thread. Everything was going smoothly until I tried to bury the thread in the fabric...snap! The thread broke. That’s when I realized why most tutorials suggest hiding the thread tail in the folds of the fabric. But come on, a thread tail stuffed into a wrinkle could wiggle its way back out, right? I prefer my tails knotted, secured, and hidden deep inside the yo-yo, sealed with that satisfying little pop as the knot disappears forever into the fabric.

With just a few clicks and a day of waiting, I’ve got stronger thread and some impulsively purchased Milliners needles. Honestly, I couldn’t resist, John James needles are like the superheroes of hand stitching, always reliable and never letting me down. 

It's not that Lori needles are bad, I'm just a bit of a needle snob, I guess.  Milliners, also called hay needles or straw needles, are ideal for this project. Their extra-long design makes it easy to take more stitches at once. Below is a screenshot from the John James website. You can find the Needle Guide PDF here.

Some people swear by the Dritz Yo-Yo maker, but not me. I had one ages ago and tossed it straight into the trash. It took longer to make a Yo-Yo.  I’m fine with my stitches being a bit uneven. In the end, they all come together beautifully imperfect, just like me.

To create a 90 x 90 coverlet, I need over 2300 Yo-Yo's. My master plan is to make at least 10 Yo-Yo's a day while watching TV. If I stick to this ambitious schedule, I could have them all done in 230 days and ready to sew, theoretically finishing by this time next year. HA! Knowing how chaotic life gets around here, I'm giving myself a two-year deadline. So far, so good.  I started cutting on the 16th, made my first Yo-Yo on the 18th, and as of last night, I’ve got 73 finished. Looks like I’ll be doing some catch-up sewing tonight!

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Strawberry Shortcake Quilt Finish ~ UFO Quilt

Hello Quilty Friends!  After nearly three weeks of blog silence, I’m back! Where did I go? Absolutely nowhere! I’ve been right here in Podunk, buried under a mountain of quilting ideas and plans. Hopping from one project to another, rummaging through fabrics, planning, sorting, sewing, snapping pictures of my progress, and even managing to finish a couple of quilts along the way. I was deep in the quilty zone! This week, I’ll be sharing all the quilty goodness I’ve been up to during my blogging hiatus.

First up is the Strawberry Shortcake quilt.  This quilt top has been waiting to be quilted since April 24, 2012.  

I love everything about quilting...except for the feathers. It’s one of those classic cases where the design looks amazing in your head but turns into a hot mess on the quilt. Sometimes you nail it, and other times you just power through because ripping out stitches is a royal pain in the keester.

The rest of the quilting tickles me pink. I was shooting for a traditional quilting look.  Mission accomplished.

The backing is two pieces of yardage.  The purple is Joann fabric purchased from estate sale years ago. I bought two truckloads of quilting supplies for $200.  The white is not the bright white I normally use.  It's called Kona Bone, sent to me by mistake.  I ordered two bolts of Kona White from MSQC, they sent one White bolt and one Bone bolt.  When I pointed out the mistake, they sent the white bolt free of charge and let me keep the Bone bolt. I'll keep using it for quilt backings.

I discovered some of the pink border fabric hiding in the scrap bin and used it for the label. I named this one Strawberry Twirl way back in 2012 but totally forgot to add the name to the label. Geesh...I suppose I could write in on the label.

 Originally, I planned to use the same solid purple as the inner border for the binding, but I wanted something with a bit more flair. After searching two local quilt shops without success, I decided to check out Walmart's fabric. It felt like fate to find this purple plaid since the quilt top is made from cheap and upcycled fabrics. The purple plaid added a nice pop to the final look.

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Design Wall Monday ~ 5 Inch Cake Stand Blocks

The weekend began with an ambitious goal of tackling 20 blocks. Clearly, that didn’t happen, but hey, no stress, there’s only so much cake one girl can handle!

Sewing these 5-inch Cake Stand blocks is just as tricky as you'd imagine.  There's barely any wiggle room for mistakes or sneaky fixes. Once the quilt is done, those little uh-oh's will probably vanish like crumbs from a cake! 

One of the small annoyances I'm embracing in the quilt is the clash of prints I think don't mix well. Case in point, the bottom right block on the design board. Plaid and stripes together—ugh! But it's staying put, like it or not.  We'll just call it giving the quilt character.

It's the little imperfections that gives a quilt a tale of its own. When this quilt gets passed down, someone will undoubtedly give it a thorough inspection, spotting the flaws and jumping to conclusions. 

For instance, most of the cake stand bases have matching fabrics, but a few don't because I ran out of bonus half square triangles that matched. Instead of stressing over perfect matches, I just went for coordinating colors and declared it good enough.  Anyone inspecting this quilt might assume it’s a mistake on the maker’s part, but you and I both know it’s just sheer laziness on my end.

In other news...

Take a look at my new Zinnia patch, it's like a rainbow exploded! This year was an experiment to see if these beauties could thrive in what can only be described as a weed jungle. Turns out, they're loving it! So, next year’s master plan... double the flowers, double the color!

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