An Old Finish

I have always admired wool applique, but have not done much myself. In 2017 or so I purchased a kit on sale from a LQS. It was by Hat Creek Quilts, one of their Pantry Club series. I started one of the squares, took it with me when I traveled, left it by the sofa, stitched a bit but finally put it away where it became hidden deep in my sewing room. I found other wool applique designs I liked more, but vowed not to start a new wool project before I finished this kit. I pulled it out again a few weeks ago to asses my status. One block was finished, the second was half done. Just a few nights by the TV finished the second block. The kit was designed for four applique blocks, but if I did just two it would fit perfectly on a small table in my living room. And if I did just two, it would be that much closer to DONE. The included border and sashing fabrics were not to my taste, so I pulled from my stash to make it just the right size. I did simple quilting with my walking foot and finished the binding this week.

I am pleased with how it turned out, and my daughter even mentioned that it looked much better than she expected! I love having an honest critic. I will use the remaining wool with some new wool I purchased in December to make a whimsical house design I found in a new book.

I also finished up my version of Bonnie Hunter's Unity Quilt Along. I knew I wanted to make my version smaller than hers, and when I saw the clue for this week, I decided I was ready to call it done. I completed the first two steps just as she designed, but I modified the rounds for weeks 3, 4 and 5. With the solid blue border, my version measures 68" x 77". I used a single fabric for the background, but lots of fun scraps everywhere else. Lots of leftover golds and yellows will make my scrappy binding.

Linking up with Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun Than Housework where there is always lots of inspiration!

Shirts and Memories

This week I started creating memory quilts and pillows from my father's shirts. He passed away in April of 2018, and it took awhile before cutting up his shirts invoked good memories rather than sad ones. I have two nephews who live near my father's home and grew up very close to him. I am making throw size quilts (these tops are 50" x 58") for each of these young men. I included fabric and patches from my dad's cub scout and boy scout shirts from the 1940's.

These 18" throw pillows are for my brothers, my step-mother and one for me. I mixed an matched squares and rectangles in the pillow tops, including at least one piece of each shirt in each pillow. I used large pieces of the shirt backs for the backs of the pillows.

After I get the quilts finished, I will make some special labels for both the quilts and the pillows.

This week I finished quilting and binding this sailboat quilt which uses a fun border fabric. This will be donated.

I also quilted and bound my RWB Elvira quilt. I did an edge-to-edge square spiral design. This will go to the state QOV coordinator whenever it is safe to make presentations again.

Linking to Sarah for a Whoop Whoop Finish! Lots of wonderful inspiration there!

Orange, Orange Everywhere

Spring 2019 I made this triangle quilt using the Chopsticks pattern by Jaybird Quilts. My daughter requested this pattern for her dorm room in a "bright color." I decided oranges and pinks fit the bill. I used different gray prints for the middle of the orange triangles, and a common light grey fabric (Connecting Threads light silver chambray) for the narrow borders around the orange triangles. This is the second time I made this pattern and I love it. However, there are a pile of half triangles left over after the edges are trimmed. I hate to toss big pieces of fabric, but they are an awkward shape to use, so I put them into a box ...

Fast forward to February and I still had a box of orange and pink scraps. The color for February at Angela's Rainbow Scrap challenge was orange. I had decided to try making some Checker Blocks using Elven Garden Quilts tutorial. I dug into my box of scraps and quickly made seven orange blocks. The angle cut end pieces for the Chopsticks quilt worked well for the half square triangles in this quilt. However, I wanted the quilt to be rainbow, so I put the breaks on making orange blocks and made some other colors to balance out the orange. I decided to finish the quilt top right away rather than wait for each color to be announced on RSC.

Last week I finished up the quilting and binding on this donation quilt. I quilted it with some wonky ribbon candy and lines.

Meanwhile, I still had a box of orange and pink triangle cut-offs from the original quilt. When sorting through projects in my sewing room as the stay-at-home recommendations rolled in, I decided to make some random blocks and empty the box once and for all. This scrappy orange quilt was the final result and will be a happy quilt to donate. I quilted it with big swirls in hot pink thread.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict!

Another Week in My Scrap Pile

Although I really miss seeing people, like many other quilters I know I am making lots of progress on projects old and new.

All the great quilts from the Elvira Quarantine Quilt Along inspired me to use some patriotic batik fabrics for a QOV. To get the size I wanted, I modified the throw quilt layout slightly with 3 pieced blocks and one setting rectangle in each row.  I didn't have quite enough batik samples, but the blue and red tone-on-tone fabrics blend well. It was a fast finish which is next in line in my quilting queue.

An older guild member asked me to help her with quilting some comfort quilts, so I quilted her four 4-patch and furrow tops. I dropped them off at her front porch (while maintaining social distance, of course) and she can now work on the bindings. She lives alone and said she is going a little bonkers, so she appreciated receiving a project to complete. She made two of the tops from kits provided by our guild, then made two more from her stash. It's fun to see the same pattern in different color-ways.

I've joined Bonnie Hunter's Unity Quilt Along and still have row #3 to complete. There are lots of little star parts cut and sitting next to my sewing machine. This might end up as a Quilt of Valor, but I'll see how it goes. I'm digging through my blue, red and gold scrap bags to find lots of treasures for this project.

The quilting and binding are complete at last for this graduation gift quilt. I will be sending this to a college graduate in our extended family who will not have commencement ceremonies this spring. I finished the top in January, using the "Tangerine Dreams" pattern from Cynthia Brunz Desings. I enjoyed picking out bright colors for the top.

The graduate is hoping to work in the music industry, so I found this perfect fabric for the backing. My daughter, home and attending virtual college, voted for the lime green binding.

I quilted it with an allover double paisley design, with elongated spirals in the border.

Linking up with Angela at Scrap Happy Saturday. I didn't work specifically with blue this week, but I certainly included lots of blue in my scrappy projects!

Bee Fun

My husband keeps bees, so I've been enjoying all the bee fabric lines that are popular right now. I had an assortment of samples from the Andover Fabrics "Sunny Bee" collection and had fun making this modern square-in-square pattern (tutorial here.) I added a few fabrics to make 30 blocks, but I didn't have to look long to find several other bee-related hive fabrics in my stash along with some black and white prints that carried on the theme.

I quilted it with a large wonky ribbon candy design. Easy and fun for a donation quilt.

I finished the quilting and binding on my scrappy batik Urban Cabin (Atkinson Designs). I was glad to have a sunny day to photograph outside. I was pleasantly surprised that this project actually made visible dent in my batik bin. This will be donated to Habitat for Humanity for a new home dedication ceremony.

I quilted it with vines, swirls, berries and flowers.

Linking up with Alycia's Finished or Not Friday.

Creating With Border Prints

I have been having fun with some border print fabrics donated to our guild. These ducks were the start for this strip quilt, and I found adding some coordinating fabrics quickly finished off this comfort quilt.

This sailboat border fabric had cute tossed sailboats in between the borders at each selvage edge. I used some of the tossed sailboats with the arrows, inspired by the Onward and Upward quilt pattern. (Available many places including here.) The half square triangle row is leftovers from the arrows. And I had fun making a few sailboats for the center strip of the quilt. This flimsy is ready for quilting, and there was just enough of the border fabric left for the backing.

I spent time working on a tote bag using some of my late father's ties. I used extra firm stabilizer, and zig-zagged the intact ties to this base. Horizontal on one side, vertical on the other. It is a nice firm tote, and I had some good memories of my dad while I sewed. It's ready to carry a project next time I get together with sewing friends.

And I continue to make a little house block each day while I stay at home during these strange times.

Lots of Scrappy Sewing

The new normal of staying at home has me sewing from my stash. LOTS of sewing. Keeping busy helps distract me from worrying. I have a few client tops to quilt, but mostly I am making comfort quilts. And I even decided to do some blogging.

Early in March before everything shut down, I picked up a pile of fabrics from our guild comfort quilt chairwoman. So I have plenty of stash.

The cute monkey print was a donated fabric which had been cut into odd size pieces. I cut as many 6" squares as possible, and made it into this disappearing 9-patch.

This Urban Cabin (Atkinson Designs) had been on my to-do list for several years. I sorted through all my little batik leftovers and pieced the 4" x 8" sections, then used some larger scraps for the 2" strips surrounding the blocks. The tan background would not have been my first choice, but I'm using what I have and it looks better than I expected. I will donate this to Habitat for Humanity, our guild gives a quilt at each home dedication.

Next I pulled out a pile of 50 9-patch blocks. They had been languishing for years. I only needed to make a few more for this zig zag setting. Since the 9-patches had lots of white, I used yellow for the alternate blocks. Another donation quilt when it gets finished.