Time to Stop Strips

"Extra Extra Fancy" has reached the length of a queen bed.  Since it is to be a TWIN, I'm stopping with the strips now.  I will put a "stopper" strip down the sides and then a wider border.  I really like this strippy look!  And it is doing a good job working off some left over blocks and strips in my stash.

------------
Good last rehearsal before the Grand Rapids Women's Chorus winter concert this Saturday [7:30 pm at Trinity Methodist].  Lori, our Director, says that we are "ready for an audience".  No Christmas music, so it won't interrupt your observance of Advent.   Free will offering, no intermission [concert lasts only one hour], and refreshments afterwards.  A good deal.  Hope some of you can make it!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Warm bed last night, tho' TWO quilts are a little heavy
ipod lets me review last night's rehearsal
Progress on two quilt tops

"Extra Extra Fancy"

Still adding more to the Strip Quilt of Orphans.  I added the confetti blocks on the top of THIS half of the Strip Quilt.  And I want you to notice the words "extra extra fancy" on a part of a rice bag fabric.  I think it may be a good title for this quilt.

 And here is the other half with its row of confetti blocks.  To the right is my next row.  With four blocks like this I almost had the right width for the quilt, so I just added a little spacer bar between each to make it up to 48".  Not sure yet where this on is going to fit, probably in the center, so it will be sure to show, not be tucked under the mattress.

I found some time for knitting over the weekend while riding in the car, and while conversations were in progress.  I "turned the heel" in both socks and am now working on the heel gusset decreases.  Hope to get them finished for a gift.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Still turkey for lunch!
Making progress on the Two-socks-at-once project
A few more Japanese words made it into my head [for Women's Chorus]

Puss in the Corner blocks

Stack of 80 Puss in the Corner blocks in my UFO cupboard.  All I need in an alternate block to separate these and make them more interesting.

The solution:

was on the cover of "Nickel Quilts".  She has constructed her block differently, with four patches added in the corners, but I can simply use another of the Puss in the Corner blocks there!  Hoo-ha, this is going to be simple.

Using two shades of blue rectangles will make a "frame" for half the blocks in dark and half in light.  They are laid out on the design bed.  There's a minor problem with the edges finishing the design, but I'll worry about that later.  Now to sew them together.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Start of Advent
Leftover turkey for lunch sandwich
Saw the end of "The Wizard of Oz" last night on TV, 
     had forgotten that Toto is a hero

Growing Strip Quilt

Back to the Strip Quilt of Orphan blocks.  I had two strips of left-overs from a charity quilt at the beginning of the year, rather poor quality batiks in pink and green.  By piecing them together I got the right length, twice.

I added one to each section of strips I had started.
I think these various rows will look better with a spacer in between too, so I added a red strip on the right where my next idea was going..

I had found a basket of waste HSTs from a project of two years ago, so sewed them together into three rows that were a little over 48" long.

The fabric was not really the best for HSTs this small [finish 1.25"], but they were already made!  And just another example of scraps I can't seem to throw away.  "Some day" I will use them for something.  Today was "some day".

So here is the next step in the Strip Quilt of Orphans.
Next a couple of rows of Confetti blocks.  I'll check to see if I have 16 of those, or if I have to finish off a few more.

I chose 48" for the width of this top because I think that will cover the width of the top of a twin bed.  When I have made the top about 60" long, I will add borders to bring it up to 60" x 72".

Sara

Gratitudes:

Saved cup of Wendy's chili heated for lunch
Winterberry bush showing red in a gray day
Warmth, light, food, good health

Roll, Roll Cotton Boll, Step 2

Big stack of triangles cut in pairs this morning.  After lunch they were all sewn together into squares.  Quilters call them Half Square Triangles, or HSTs.

120 are made, and now need to be "squared up", or trimmed to the exact size, 3.5 inches.  I tried to pick out dark enough browns to contrast with the medium blues I had chosen for Step 1.  I found that I had fewer browns that I had thought-- or a lot of them were too light.  The ones that look RED are really more of a RUST brown.  Now I'll store these away until Bonnie Hunter gives us Step 3 of the Mystery next Friday.

I am challenging myself to add a row a day to a "strip" quilt I am making of left-over trimmings and blocks.

I started with the remaining strip-pieced HSTs and so far have added a row on each side of the two 48" long pieces.  Now I am looking through groups of orphan blocks.  I hope to find enough that are the same height to make a couple more 48" strips.

Just between the kitchen sink faucet and the window we have these "Christmas" cactuses.  My experience is that they decide the time to flower is Thanksgiving, rather than Christmas.  So I am enjoying them right now, and a hope for a week or two.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Lynne packed LOTS of leftovers from the feast for us to bring home.
Buttered toast and turkey for breakfast
No need to go out shopping with the crowds today!

Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll, Step 1

"Roll, Roll Cotton Boll" is Bonnie Hunter's current Mystery.  This week we are working on Step 1, in which she uses Pink and Green.  I have decided to substitute medium blue for the pink.  Mostly I picked pretty bright, limey greens.

I put my 2" strips of green and blue in these little bins, then I pulled out one by one and made the three strip strata.  Now they are all crosscut into 2" sets.  We are required to have 172; I have 201 because I wasn't using just one size of strip and I didn't realize how many I had cut toward the end.

---------------

I'm having some blurring in my LEFT eye, not the one I usually have examined by the retinologist, so we are going to check that out this noon.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Good health care, and Charlie to drive me there and home again
Warmth and shelter, now that the cold has come
MUSIC

Chopsticks Quilt

While at the Gwen Marston  Retreat I put together four "confetti" blocks into a larger block.  Then I slashed them and inserted narrow strips, like chopsticks.  Here are two corner areas blown up so you can see how the blocks were constructed.

I thought I would calm down the chaos by using blue sashing strips and yellow cornerstones. [When I said that to my Bee they all chuckled.  You mean that doesn't calm it down?]

Here's the whole thing,  47" x 60", not big enough for a twin bed, but a "snuggle" quilt.  For someone who likes bright colors!  Another UFO bites the dust.

Oh yes, here is  most of the back:

-----
Second to the last rehearsal for the Women's Chorus' Winter Concert to night.  We're getting there!  Mostly singing without the music; two more weeks to learn the rest.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Breakfast out with Charlie before exercise class
An incredibly warm day for November
Started pulling fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's new mystery

Blue Star Mystery quilt finished after 13 years!

Done!  Quilted, bound and labelled.  And hanging on the kitchen wall behind the eating counter.  It is 68" X 84".

My UFO album shows me standing in front of this top in 1997, no borders at that time.  The Ruched Rose Terrorists Bee made this as a mystery trial for Judy Hopkins.

Here's a close-up of one block to show the quilting that Mary Davis did on the center blocks.

And here is a fuzzy photo of one of my "unresolved" cable quilting corners.  The vertical border has a cable that just runs off the end.

Glad, glad, glad to have it done!  In Finn's challenge, this is #4 out of the five I said I would finish before New Year's.  And I am "on target" for my own "Two a Month" challenge at the beginning of 2010.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Charlie called to say he is only an hour from home
Got this quilt in the washer before going to church
Second temporary camera is still functioning

Regular Saturday: Piano Jazz and Opera

Saturday habit: listening to "Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland" in the morning and the opera broadcast in the afternoon.  That means that I am at the sewing machine at those times as a common practice.  This afternoon it is "The Queen of Spades", which is all new to me!

Sewing work is completing the borders on a quilt that may be 10-12 years old.  This was a "mystery" from a famous quilting teacher that my previous Bee tested out for her.

For some reason I had the main part quilted, and thought I would add the wide borders later.  "Later" was a long time in arriving.  On three sides the border, batting and backing had been attached (not quilted), but the fourth side was un touched.  Why?  Can't figure that out now -- the pieces of fabric were right there.  I found a possible weight of batting and pieced it together.  I have sewn the last border, etc. and am quilting this cable design from a stencil.

Since I am so eager to get this FINALLY finished, I am not trying to resolve the corners, but am just going to the end of each border and stopping.  I tell myself this is an ancient, traditional quilting practice. [I have heard well-known experts say this!]

Sara

Gratitudes:

- "Carmina Burana" was still interesting last night, tho' I'd rather something less often preformed
- Lots of time to sew
- Our kitchen eating counter the right height for cutting, pinning, trimming

Birch Lodge #2

Back from my LA quilter, Catherine Martin.  She put a sparsely leaved vine on the vertical sashing strips, and something like curling waves going across the panels.  Now when you look at the whole quilt, you might not recognize immediately that there are sashings and panels!

I put this together in early October at Gwen Marston's retreat.  I followed her example of making the sashing strips of the same fabrics that were in the blocks.  This makes the blocks not so obvious and creates some new shapes.  There are six columns of blocks and spacers and only three vertical sashing strips.

Trimmed it and put on the binding today.  Yoh, Finn!  This makes my 3rd UFO finish before the New Year.  Mark it on your list!

The blocks were the remnants of Birch Lodge #1, made two years ago on my first Beaver Island Quilt Retreat:

That one is not yet quilted because I don't think it is finished developing.  I think the Log Cabin is too low.  It loses its connection with the scene.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Cherry pie

Fresh haircut

Symphony concert tonight