Pocketful of Starlight Quilt ~ UFO Quilt #1 2023

My first finish of 2023!  Yippee!  We know this quilt as The Hummingbird or Periwinkle but I'm calling mine Pocketful of Starlight.

The name comes from a song my dad used to sing when I was little.  I'm sure most of you know the song. 

🎵Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket....Never let it fade away.🎵  

If you've never heard it, I've got you covered just click on image below.  It's a catchy little tune that makes my little ole heart go pitter pat.

Okay... dance yourself over here and take a look at this quilting. The quilting is why this quilt became a UFO.  At the time, way back in 2014, quilting on a frame was fairly new to me.    My free motion skills were not great so this was all ruler work which takes FOREVER.  Fast forward today, and I finished this with the arcs being free motion and the straight lines where ruler work.  It was still pretty intense but went much faster than in 2014.  If you would like to see the original post about this quilt as it was constructed you can find them here and here and here is the finished top

Overall it turned out pretty good except for a couple things.  Take a look at this big ole drip of sewing machine oil.  BooHoo!  What are the chances of this coming out?  It's been setting in there since 2014.  

Oh but that's not all of the issues.  See those faint brownish lines?  My dear friends this is what happens when you(meaning I) don't wash a quilt after using blue water soluble markers.  Spraying with water does not remove the chemicals it just makes the blue disappear until you bring it out years later.  No worries, I have Google on my side.

So...option one without google is Dawn blue and color catchers for those bright reds.  Dawn cleans everything.  If you have never used it on your windows it's a must.  I love it.  No streaking!

Well it didn't work.  That's okay because as you know google has many answers.  Most of which have absolutely nothing to do with my problems at hand.  Who is charge of the algorithm these days? On page one of my search for "blue water soluble marker turned brown on fabric" 

And Google answers...

3 ways to erase old marks off a dry erase board

and

 how to remove permanent ink from skin

They got even stranger the farther I dug into google. 

On the bright side the fabrics didn't bleed much, that's a win to me.  I recently read that color catchers can be reused, did you know this?  Let's give it a try.

Back to Google and my goodness I found 1 article about blue water soluble markers leaving brown marks.  You can find it here.  It's short and sweet and to the point, unlike the current blog post your reading.  LOL!  To save you the time I'll let you in on her secret...white vinegar, an entire gallon on an already wet quilt.  She didn't say how long to let it set on the quilt or whether or not to add detergent.  So I poured it on the quilt in the washer, smooshed it a bit then let it set while I fixed a pot of decaf coffee.  About 5 minutes later I went back and started a small load wash, warm water, no detergents but I did add the color catchers. 

And would you take a look at this!  Happy Dancing to Pocketful of Starlight!  The brown lines are gone!  No trace of them at all.  Thank you Shannon!

As for that spot of dirty sewing machine oil.  It faded but it's still there.  I'll take it, no big deal.  I'm chalking this one up as a win.  One little spot is better than brown lines all over the pretty white background.

Into the dryer she goes and TADA, we have a finish with little vintage looking crinkle to the fabrics.

The oil spot is hard to find.  The old girl turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.  

The fabrics in this quilt are a mash of quilt shop quality, Joann's, Walmart, bedding and cloths I cut up.

I'm not tickled with the backing fabric.  But it was all I had at the time.  It's a older print from an estate sale.  Maybe dates to the 80's or 90's.  

If you like this quilt and would like to make one of your own I got you covered.  Mine was made with a free pattern(paper piecing template) that no longer exists.  Well it does but it now cost $4 for the PDF template.  If you want to pay for it you can get it here in the Red Pepper Quilts shop on Etsy.  

If you want a freebie I found one that is the exact same size as mine but free.  The free pattern is for what you see below.  This is (4) 5" Periwinkle blocks.  Putting 4 of them together it's called Mill and Stars.

The only difference is the background fabrics which you will see when you go to this link, click here.   

Mine was constructed using the paperless paper piecing method.  So I used templates that looked like the image below.  The link I provided above has this option or traditional templates that are also free.

If you are not familiar with paperless paper piecing the video below is for this method.  I prefer this method because I do not like ripping papers off the back of my blocks.  I'm lazy! 

Until next time....

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Here's a quick little video I made for Facebook back in November when the quilting was complete.

Pin It

Making a UFO Plan Again....HA!HA!

 Come on in and pull up a chair while once again I TRY to make a plan to reduce the ever growing stash of UFO's.  First I want to proudly say there was some UFO progress this year.  It was late in the year, about September is when the quilting marathon began.  Starting with the quickest to finish quilts.  It came to a total of seven UFO's quilted and then four new quilts for Christmas gifts.  Not bad, huh?  Yep I'm pretty proud of those numbers.  But there's so many more.  More than I thought.  Let's take a look at them from the easiest to finish to the hardest to finish.

On the left is four of the recently quilted quilts needing the binding sewn to back.  On the right is three quilts I started quilting and tired of quilting them so heavily.  Would they be easy to finish?  Maybe, my quilting skills have gotten better over the years.  Each one of these is at least 7 years old. 

From left to right... far left, five quilt tops with backing and binding ready to quilt. All are twin size and throw size.  In the middle stack is five tops with backing but need a binding.  And on the far right is 14 quilt tops ranging from large wall hangings to queen sized.  All 14 need backing and binding.

Next up is a tote full of projects in various stages of construction.  Let's get real, the chances of me getting to this box isn't good.  So I didn't even open, let alone count them.  Should I actually make it to this box this year, we'll open it then.  These are some of my oldest UFO's.  One is a hand applique 13 block quilt.  All it needs is the border to stitched into place.

UFO's are tucked away and hidden all over the Studio.  Here's another applique quilt.  All 13 blocks are complete but I've been looking for the perfect sashing fabric.  No hurry but should I find that perfect fabric, this one will get bumped up on the list.  If you want to know what's hiding in the basket, click here.

Hiding under the quilt frame is another cart with my tiny scraps Vortex quilt.  It's covered with a plastic bag to keep the dust off the fabrics.  As you all know quilting can be quite dusty.  You can see more of this quilt by clicking here.

Just imagine how much space can be gained by finishing all these projects!  Room for more fabric?!  Yes Please!  Thank goodness for pretty containers.  These baskets hold 2 dresden quilts. The love affair with dresden quilts is out of control.  It's my go-to quilt pattern when needing a quicky to make me happy.  To be honest I went down a dresden quilt internet rabbit hole this morning.  No credit card charges were made so all is good.  The aqua boxes contain my nearly 4,000 HST's of various sizes.  I've been saving them for years from the clippy flippy corners.  Last New Years I was determined to square up and use all of these by today....HAHA!  This year I realize they are not at the top of my list.

Moving on....The green bin holds strips of fabric 1" x WOF or a little less than WOF, rope and the start of a rope rug.  I've stopped adding fabrics to this bin with the hopes of someday making a huge rug for my studio.  Below the green bin is my stash blue jeans and flannel shirts.  Some have been deboned and cut to usable squares and some(a LOT) are not.  A blue jean and flannel rag quilt for Mr. Podunk.  It was started about 2 years ago.

This is not all of them.  As I write this post I realize I forgot three more UFO's in my other fabric cabinet.  A patriotic basket quilt, about halfway to top completion.  And two argyle quilts about 3/4 of the way to a complete top.

The next finish could be done as soon as tomorrow.  There's only 2 ft. or so of binding left to stitch.  This one is a cutie...(118) 5 inch paper pieced blocks!  Any guesses on the block?

Until next time....

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Pin It

Happy New Years! 2023

 

This time of year offers us a brand new start and I want to take this opportunity to start fresh with you and wish you love and peace in the new year.

Happy New Year!

Pin It

A New Year with a New Restart

The best explanation of my hiatus is...burn out. Months passed without stepping foot in my happy place.  Then it was "Enter with CAUTION!"  I thought Mr. Podunk was going to need the hedge trimmers to release me from all the cobwebs. 

via GIPHY

After knocking down the cobwebs I started quilting up a few older quilts tops.  I'll start sharing those one at a time on January 2, 2023.

The new Podunk will be more like the old Podunk.  Just me sharing my creations and Podunk happenings.  No YouTube and no pattern shop.  I just want to create and share here on the blog.  No deadlines, no algorithms to worry about and no more learning new technology every other month.

For those I let down, I'm sorry.  Please understand that my mental and physical health was taking a hard hit because I was a one man band doing it all, from writing patterns to editing videos.  My best quilting buddy told me I was wrong for stopping without letting everyone know.  I had to take care of me and get rid of a few negative things in my life.

I'm back, doing what I love, feeling better about everything.  If your still here, Thank you for understanding.  I look forward to our quilting journey.  And if your wondering...If I create it...I'll tell you how to recreate it here on the blog..FREE.

Until Next Time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Pin It