Third Finish for April

Just finished the binding, labelling and hanging sleeve at 5:30 pm. on "Mountain Majesties in Blue". This was another idea from Bonnie Hunter, but my blocks were quite a bit smaller than hers. This measures 39" x 59". The fabrics were from a "blue" Fat Eighth exchange in February of last year. This February I finished the blocks and borders and began the quilting, but lost my energy. Today I went to work on it with a vengeance becaue I wanted one more finish this month! So I plugged away at the quilting for most of the afternoon.

Now it is time to decide if we are going to a Garlic Mustard "Pull" at our new Nature Park. It is scheduled, but it has been raining most of the day. Just stopped, but the trees will be dripping! May be a sea of mud, and we will all go home at once.

Sara

Orange Crush on the BED!

Yea! I finished the binding and label on Bonnie Hunter's "Orange Crush", and though it hasn't been washed yet, I put it on the bed so we can try it out tonight. [No, I didn't spill a bottle of pop on the bed.]

Here is a look at the quilting on the border again. Wide as the bottom border is, it is all tucked under the mattress right now.

This quilt feels heavier than the Double Delight. It can't have MORE pieces, can it? Maybe the fabric and/or batting is heavier. I do know that it is longer and wider.

Sara

Camera Found

Charlie found my camera on a table where he stacks the books he is currently reading. Did I put it there?

So here are a few of those projects from the last days:

These are four of the orphan blocks I sized UP with green and blue logs, and I think they will have a lot of white around them for a summer quilt. Made three more last night, so now I have 9, and that's all there's goinig to be! This qualifies as a "project improv".

And this is the layout I am thinking will use up a lot of 6.5" scrap squares once I have made them into 9-patches and hourglass blocks. This will be a form of Leaders and Enders as I work on other things.

Today I hope to make the binding and put it on the Orange Crush quilt. And make a label.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Slept under the Double Delight quilt last night and the warmth was perfect.

Lost camera

I don't like to post without pictures.....but I can't find my camera.
No doubt it is in a "safe" place. Some where it will show up--but no photos for a couple ofr days.

But I HAVE been sewing.
1) Using up 6.5" scrap squares to make 9-patches and then some Hourglass blocks.
2) taking 9 blue and white Orphan blocks and log-cabinning them up to 12.5 inch size with blue and green logs. I think this will be a "mostly white" quilt. In fact maybe all of the rest of it will be white.
3) experimenting with my Spoolspinners mystery blocks in an odd size to make them more Wonky.

Sara

Gratitudes:

leftover shrimp for dinner
still the yellow season here, tho' daffodils are wilting
Great music at Women's Chorus tonight

Another Favorite Quilt - Endless Chain

"Endless Chain" from one of those quilting novels that have been popular lately. I had bought some 'el cheapo" batik FQs sometime or other--you know the ones that are NOT a tight weave, but rather loose, and this gray yardage which was a very unusual color in those days. I wanted to try this pattern, but didn't want to waste any really GOOD fabric on it.The pieces were colored triangles and gray "tie" shapes which were sewn into hexagons. Each colored triangle was matched up with a colored triangle in another hexagon to make the "petals". The backing was made of other pieces of cheapo batik.Here's what the quilting looks like on the BACK. I like this photo so much that I have this as one of my screen savers. Here's the bag I made to store this quilt. It was the "wrapping" when I gave it to my Secret Sister in 2006.

I like this because---

1 It was a real challenge to me, piecing the triangles to come out right, appliqueing the circles in the middle to cover the hole, binding those pokey angles on two edges,

2 I made it bigger than the pattern (STILL not big enough, but the gray fabric was gone),

3 I like the bright against gray,

4 the storage bag was a nice final touch.

I'm not sure my Secret Sister really likes it, but I do.

Sara

Double Delight DONE

I finished the scrappy brown binding last night, and today I hung the Double Delight mystery from Bonnie Hunter on the kitchen quilt wall.

Scrappy light inner border and scrappy brown outer border together make this into a double size bed quilt--so big I had to hang it sideways or it would have drooped on the floor. Other people made more complex borders, but I think the center is complicated enough.

Here is a close-up of the Baroque lines of quilting Catherine used to criss-cross the blocks. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but she used twice as many lines on the Irish Chain blocks as she used on the Rolling Stones blocks. This leaves a pretty big UNquilted section on those blocks.

How shall I fix it? Right now I'm just going to say it is done. And live with it for a while.

Sara

Gratitudes:

100 calorie cookie packets

The YELLOW season of forsythia and daffodils

Sue is here for a visit

My favorite quilt (so far)

Interesting Blog Quilt Show going on, started by parkcitygirl at http://parkcitygirl.blogspot.com/2009/04/quilt-festival-spring-2009.html asking us each to blog about our own personal "Favorite Quilt" that we each have made. This request sent me back to looking at my quilt photo albums, wondering and wandering through the years.

I really like the one that is currently hanging on my kitchen "walk-past" wall behind the counter stools:

I just finally finished it this year, though it is one of my OLDEST, started back when Charlie was in seminiary, using scraps from the kids' toddler clothes. These kids are now 40 and 38.

I like the triangle shape, and especially how throwing a few mediums or darks into the light rows has made a lot of variously larger triangles show up.

This also may be the only quilt I ever hand quilted.
But tomorrow I'll have another favorite! Maybe I'll tell that story then.

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Sara

Big Quilt Action

Last night at our monthly Spoolspinners' meeting, Catherine brought me the too LARGE quilts she worked on while I was gone to Florida. I'm just showinig you the corners, so you can see the great quilting work she did on the borders. Below is the border on the Double Delight (Bonnie Hunter design).

And the next on is also a Bonnie Hunter design, Orange Crush. I just LOVE the orange/red thread for the border quilting. AND Catherine used the enormous paisley deaign on the backing fabric to creaste her own original pattern! This may be my alltime favorite quilt, and it is even big enoughf or our queen bed (if we lie close together).I need to get right to work on the bindings, and then I'll show you the whole quilt.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Sunshine, sunshine

Daffodils in bloom

Garden clean-up finished

Fresh bread fragrance

Wonderful return of quilts

Kona Stars

I am currently working on FINISHING this quilt top. I took a stack of 5" samples of solid fabrics along on our vacation to Florida, and had this pattern from "More Nickel Quilts" as my second, alternating project...for when I was sick and tired of the first project (Spoolspinners' Mystery).

I made my star points "wonky" with various White-on-White FQs I purchased in Florida. Everything else is from the sample fabrics.

Tonight I sewed all the blocks together in a long rectangle. Tomorrow I will give it a good pressing and then consider whether or not there should be a border or two. But how to choose a color?

Sara

Gratitudes:
Had my toenails trimmed by the foot care nurse today
Catherine has finished quilting TWO of my Bonnie Hunter quilts
Evening walk with Charlie and Zeke

Winter Aconite, eranthus

Blooming on Good Friday in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Mosaic Tiles gone to Kathie

At a lunch party I gave the Mosiac Tiles quilt to my friend Kathie for her birthday. This quilt is the result of the New Year's mystery.

And here is the back, pieced out of the left-overs and stash. I would call this a "Nap quilt" as it is a little small for a twin bed.

And here is a Liberated Star (or wonky) I made last night.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Happy Birthday to Kathie!

Made brioche dough for the second time

Getting diningroom cleared up for Easter dinner

Mosaic Tile quilt

I'm working my way around this quilt adding a little more quilting. The orangish pieces need to be outlined, I think, so that the octagonal medalions will stand up more.

Tonight I went to my first rehearsal of the Grand Rapids Women's Chorus since the end February, when we left on our trip. Oh, my! They are singing songs without looking at the music which I don't know yet. We don't take any written music on the stage with us, so I have a lot of work to do in the rest of this month. Our spring concert is May 9th. We have a new commissioned work this year, and the composer was with us tonight to share her thoughts about this work "Dandelion".

I may have to "fake" some of the foreign languages we are singing in other songs: Spanish, Arabic, Polish, Japanese, Hebrew. . . I hope I will get the musical NOTES nailed down!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Learning from the composer

Saved some of the two loaves of bread that got overbaked

Made it through exercise class today

Back Home from March Trip

We made it home, and it is good to be here, too.

The green of spring has not really come to Michigan yet,

but there are a few signs.

Snowdrops by the sidewalk.

Purple crocus under the bird bath.

Since we have not yet finished putting everything away, I will just show you the fabrics that I purchased along the way:

Photo #1 from various quilt shops in Florida:

-White on white FQs I needed for a project I was working on the trip. Of course, I ended up buying more than I needed. [So hard to estimate these things!]

- a couple of FQs that sang my name.

- three more or less "solids" that were on a remnant table

- batik sampler pack on sale

-Batiks, three packages and another half yard I bought on St. John Island.

Photo#2:

-FQ sale at Jackman's in St. Louis! Only 87cents! I think the number I picked out was 34. Yikes, I even put some back!

-and a book to use some of those pesky FQs that were so attractive.

I have picked up my Christmas Eve mystery quilt from Catherine [LA quilter], which I have bound. But I think it needs a little more tweaking of the quilting, i.e. a little more in some places, to make it "just right". So that is what I am working on now.

Then I need to do some MORE work on those vacation projects.

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

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Safe, sunny trip with variety of activities

House and yard stood up to our absence

First year to have a pussywillow bush!

Fulfilling Palm Sunday worship at Dominican Center