Sew-vember

I only had one project that was a must sew this month and thankfully was an easy finish for November’s Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. I already had the strips cut from Lily & Loom’s High Sea fabrics for several years for another strip pattern but since I’ve been on a Rambling Rows kick, I couldn’t resist making another one.

I purchased the High Seas fabrics years ago when Craftsy sold fabrics. I decided to make a smaller version of the Rambling Rows quilt since I also had a three yard piece of the dark blue whale pattern which would be perfect for the backing. I added several Basic Grey Grunge and print fabrics to the mix because you can never have enough variety.

A different variation to the Rambling Rows pattern was to only use the dark whale print for the rectangle blocks in two widths. 

The High Seas Rambling Rows quilt measures 48”x64”. This was an easy make with the usual wavey and straight line machine quilt with the blue gray Aurifil thread. Only two problems, the first one being that I did not follow my rule of always buying yardage for binding when purchasing a precut bundle. I was happy to have found the  triangle check in the perfect shades of blue in my blue stash.

The second problem was that I did not noticed until after I pieced the backing that there were numerous brown stains in several areas. This coupled with piecing the batting which I don’t like to do made me decide that there would be only one person who I would feel comfortable giving this quilt to and who also is my favorite person to bequeath one is the darling granddaughter..and don’t I alway make her a Christmas quilt? I’ll be bringing it to the GP House this weekend so she can muck it up so I can wash it and hopefully these brown stains will wash out. Not an affiliate link but the Dawn Platinum Powerwash Dish Spray is a wonderful laundry tool.

No glamour outside photo High Seas because of the below freezing weather we had for the past few days; neither  the Master Quilt Holder nor I weren’t ready yet to brave the cold weather. I should mention that the High Seas Rambling Rows quilt was finally finished until last weekend due to some other projects not planned or maybe took precedent over like a “Dreamii” which replaced the “NO” in Sew-vember.

First project to interrupt High Seas which I thought would be okay since this is a Mary Etherington/Country Threads pattern is the Baby Bullseye. There were several days of pulling and cutting fabrics and definitely will be a Post for another day. I will mention that the Peeps and I who did the original Bullseye Quilt almost twenty-four years ago are back together to make this one.  We did exchange fabrics again with the rule of modern prints and no calicos even though it’s popular again. I will also say that we were a little bit more “ornery” or loose with the pattern which may be due to the fact we were twenty-four years younger and less experienced than we are now. This is definitely going to take me awhile to finish and I can’t wait to finish this quilt and write a Post about it since I need to “narc” on the Peeps.

While I was sewing my own busy-ness with the Baby Bullseye blocks, karma came knocking with an e-mail from Sandra, mmm quilts asking me if I wanted to do a pattern test which if you read any of my previous posts, I don’t do well but I have a lot of fun. Here’s a sneak peek which I will post my finish once Sandra does the pattern release of Sunset Strip in early December.

Demando reminded me that he needed a Christmas table runner so after High Seas Rambling Rows was finished I spent some time digging in my Christmas stash for prints he would like. I thought I would make him a Winter quilt using Holly Taylor’s Moose, Bear and Pine Cone prints in quiet colors of forest greens and maroons but No, he wanted cheery and bright and really liked the red trees which I think is an Anne Kelle print so I relented by making the above one which measures 18” x 40”.  I love the combination of this print with Stacey Hsu, Victoria Findley-Wolf, Cotton+Steel, etc, all of them scraps which I love plus using scrap batting. I like to mention while digging through the Thimbleberries, Basic Grey and Sweetwater Christmas stash, I now have two more Rambling Rows quilts I want to make.

While I was digging through the Christmas stash, I came across leftover blocks and scraps from the Hoot and Loot Quilt which I thought was made last year but instead in 2020. Is it just me but the last few years seem to blend into just last year. 

I thought I would be making this for the GP House where the Hoot and Loot Quilt resides for Christmas but I realized, unexpectedly, that this would be perfect to hang next to the Tannis Keene quilt. During my sewing blitz, I managed to set aside some hours to take down the Fall Quilts and put up the Christmas/Winter quilts. I had decided that I couldn’t hang the Tannis quilt on the double front doors because I didn’t have another quilt which would complement it in color and prints so I left it out and was going to give it to Demando who was just over yesterday to pick up his Christmas runner. I forgot about offering this to him and glad I did because late last night I realized the Hoot and Loot Quilt would be perfect and it’s the same size as the Tannis Keefe quilt. I don’t have a pic of the two together in the front hallway as the lighting is just too dark. I am so glad my subconscious but conscience Quilt Mind who knows when I need to sew the right thing. I came up with a name for my alter-ego who I’ll refer to as Eunice, a combination of you and nice and means Victory, sew fitting, don’t you think? Oooh, does this mean, I would be refer to as Medieval….sewing Medieval would not be a problem for me.

I thought I would close this post with last night’s flimsy made during the waning hours of my Sew-vember. During the merry decorating in my living room which has several Cotton+Steel Christmas quilts, Eunice decided another Cotton+Steel Quilt but instead a chair runner size was needed. I made this with 4.5” squares from the Cotton+Steel scraps and measures 20”x72” which will fit perfectly on the chair, no folding needed if it were a quilt and a lot quicker to make. I’ll be quilting this upon my return from the GP House unless Eunice and her pals, the Studio Squirrels, decide on  another project.

Another Finally Finish: Rambling Rows and Squares

For someone who until this week hadn’t posted in over five weeks, this is now my second post this week; something I rarely do. I mentioned in my previous Post that I may have another Rambling Rows Quilt finished as long as there weren’t too many interruptions on Halloween. Sadly, the unexpected Snow kept many treaters away; I think we had less than 25 visitors and two snowball fights on our front lawn.

I wasn’t expecting to make another Rambling Rows but I am just having too much fun with this pattern. My stash of Just My Type fabrics by Patty Young for Michael Miller have been calling me for the past several years now. It doesn’t help that I can see the bin containing these fabrics from where I sew. Ever since I made the quilt above and gifted it to one of my Peeps’ daughter as a wedding shower gift in 2017, I’ve been wanting to make another quilt since I still had a nice stash left. I just love these modern retro/organic prints with fun colors in which there were a number of fabric collections which came out at that time and I think I may have purchased most of them. And I do love text prints which is expected for this aptly named collection. I did add some additional gray and solid prints and once again Basic Grey Grunge was happy to be included.

Four block types were used in the making of this quilt. I wanted to use large and small squares since these were leftovers from the previous quilt.  Once the blocks and strip sets were sewn, the quilt was a quick and easy make.

Once again, I quilted with straight and wavy lines with a dark gray Aurifil thread. The binding was the grey and natural crosshatch print which wasn’t my first choice. I wanted a darker print to accent the many prints but I was wrong, the gray was perfect. I didn’t make a pieced backing this time because I had eight yards of the stripe from the Just My Type collection and am glad I finally used it after sitting in the backing vault  for way over five years. The Just My Type Rambling Rows and Squares measures 56” x 80".

It would have been nice to take a photo of this quilt outside in front of a modern building or sculpture but it would take more than this to get me to travel downtown Chicago. I’m sure the Master Quilt Holder would agree and glad I settled for him dragging the ladder outside so I could take a pic outside of the quilt hanging from the gutter. I thought I would close with a collage of the quilt with paintings by, Twentieth Century Artists, Joan Miro and Jean ARP whom I studied in my Art History days about fifty years ago.

I was thinking that I could take a break from the Rambling Rows pattern but the fun will continue. The latest number has been pulled for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge and one of the projects on my list already have strips cut and perfect for another Rambling Rows. But I’m not going to stop with this one because somehow I pulled fabric from another stash which I “accidentally”came upon so #5 and #6, here I sew. 

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT