Merry Finishes and Makings for December

 

‘Twas just a few days before we leave to celebrate Christmas week at the GP House and my two projects for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge are finished. The quilt on the right was my December UFO and the quilt on the left is an extra finish which I will explain later.

Rec-tango is based on Alexa Abegg, Ruby Star Society, Swatch quilt pattern which I saw on Pinterest and I made the flimsie back in March of 2020. This was one of the twelve flimsies I made back then and I now have only three flimsies left to machine quilt.

I really loved this pattern with the simple pairing of two fabrics similar in color vertically to create the stripe look. 

I knew I wouldn’t have any problems finding fourteen fat quarter in my Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society stash and I changed the measurements so I could die-cut the rectangles using my 3”x6”(f) die.

Vertical straight and wavey line quilting was done using an Aurifil medium gray thread. The Waverly gray  print was used for the backing and is one of my favorite to use for modern quilts. I was planning on using the light purple cross print for the binding when the flimsy was made but decided to use the gray strip instead since I thought it accented the prints better. Rec-tango measures 42”x 60”.

 

Since I still had some time left, I decided to machine quilt the Sidewalk Quilt which was a flimsy made in March and was part of my 2021/22 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO finishes. It was an UFO projects which I had rows of charm squares from Riley Blake’s Sidewalk fabrics and brown strips from Windham/Bari Ackerman Country Lane collection ready to be sewn together for more than five years. My plan was to back this flimsy with a light pink plush since I wanted an easy and fast finish but then I purchased Jinny Janome and wasn’t sure how she would like machine quilting plush fabrics. 

Since machine quilting Rec-tango with the straight and wavey lines went well, I decided that the Sidewalk Quilt would be a regular quilt with batting and backing and quilted it the same way but horizontally.  I knew that I had several prints in my brown stash which could be used for the backing and chose the large daisies which I thought was whimsical like the prints in the Sidewalk collection. Would you believe I purchased four charm packs of this collection many moons ago and I’m pretty sure a Craftsy sales was involved. Like with Rec-tango, I made a binding change since my original plan was to use the brown stripe but changed to a brown check which I thought would accent the quilt better. Sidewalks measures 40” x 52”.

I just love making quilts which showcase the fabrics with simple cuts. I will be adding these two to my ever growing Baby Boomer Blankie collection.

Another Merry Finish was the Chair Runner which in my last post was just a flimsy. Machine grid line quilting with a white thread went well. I am just pleased with how this turned out and the 20” x 72” size fits perfectly on the wingback chair. I know I will be making more of these but not too many since I already drape quilts over my chairs and sofas. Maybe I can come up with something for my Queen Anne dining room chairs.

Here’s a sneak peek of My Merry Making for this month which was making this flimsy from My Quilt Infatuation’s Bubble Bath pattern with Carrie Bloomston’s Happy Collection. It’s a combination DrEAMi and a project listed in my 2022/23 CT DD UFO Challenge. A pieced back is already made and I’m planning on this being the first quilt to be machine quilted in 2024.

And if there was any mischief, it would be coming across some C+S/RSS scraps and wanting to die-cut more HSTs and strips so I can make the quilt on the right even though I should have been finishing my UFO quilt. I was easily distracted this month because I kept finding projects and stash I wanted to sew. I really surprised Hubby by telling him that I didn’t want any fabric for Christmas and just wanted a new cutting mat.

And per usual, when I knit, I need to have three projects going despite one of them being a Christmas present. I had a pretty productive December even with being at home for only half of the month. We already celebrated Hubby’s birthday which marked with some illness and very much sadness with the passing of my beloved Granddoggy Duke. I am looking forward to the remaining days in December with celebrating Christmas, another birthday and, of course, spending time with the precious Granddaughter. In the event of a lull, I will be bringing some sewing and knitting projects with me.

April Amazement

Despite being away from home for a total of fifteen days in April due to a Maine vacation and going to the GP House several times,  I was not expecting to have a Finally Finished this month. This past week when we were done with our travels, I worked on a somewhat secret project for one of my favorite Quilt Designer’s new book launch for early June. I thought if I was going to properly participate, I needed to first sew a top using one of my favorite patterns designed by her. I finished the flimsy this past Friday afternoon, several hours before dinner and thought I could possibly have a flimsy finish for April’s Country Thread Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. I was thinking that I was going to skip doing a project this month but when you soon realized that there was still time, the Peaceful Kingdom Cabin Fever quilt was a big finish last night and amazing for several reasons.

I’ve been saving this group of fabrics for several years now and been waiting for a pattern which would showcase the Rae Ritchie by Dear Stella print on the left. I don’t know the name of this print and since it’s more than several years old and thinking I may have purchased it for a baby quilt for the darling granddaughter who is now six years old, I’m calling it Peaceful Kingdom since the orange tiger and deers are co-existing rather peacefully in the pretty landscape. Rae Ritchie prints are always interesting and the colors in this print are fun. Before deciding on a pattern, I’ve been accumulating prints from recent purchases and from stash. I was quite pleased when I finally put these group of fabrics together on the right which are Cotton+Steel, two Bonnie Christine prints (the mint green circles and yellow alphabet), the rose pink dots from Clothworks and the blue dotted line is from Blend’s The Adventurers. When I make a quilt with less than ten different fabrics, I think the colors need to snap together or match perfectly which means sometimes the fabrics need to be from one fabric line but with this quilt using different fabric lines made it fun and happy.

I’ve been buying/collecting Villa Rosa Design quilt pattern cards since 2011 when they first came out and now have almost thirty pattern cards which includes the ones from Pineapple Studio. I always like buying these  cards (not an affiliate link) since they can be inspiring for quick and easy makes plus you can’t beat the price. I can honestly say though, I have never made a quilt using one of these pattern cards until now.  When I decided to finally make something with my Peaceful Kingdom fabric grouping, I knew I could use one of the pattern cards and the Cabin Fever pattern by Running Doe was perfect. Thankfully I purchased this card back in January when two of my Bee Sistas ( Wendy and Kathleen) participated in a Villa Rosa Design QAL and seventeen of these cards arrived at my house. (With this many new cards, I better have found a pattern, don’t you think? What can I say- $2 each, free shipping plus an app to tell you which pattern cards you own-I just have to remember Rose Cards means Villa Rosa Design pattern list and not my list-confusing, right?)

Anyhoot, Peaceful Cabin Fever (I have to be careful typing Peaceful since I sometimes mix-it up by typing Pieceful as in Wendy’s Blog)  although it was Pieceful with the cutting and sewing of the flimsy completed way under two hours.

Imagine my surprise when I thought Saturday was the first day of May but instead the last day in April which meant I could have a Finally Finished for the month. Horizontal wavy line machine quilting was with Aurifil #2123 (a very pale yellow color), two inches apart which made it fast and easy. The blue Cotton+Steel print was used for the binding and thought I would have to hand sew it since Juki Junebug is semi-retired now. But, with finally purchasing the Even Feed Foot for Jinny Janome, I was able to sew the binding down and it turned out great. Do I dare say, Jinny performed better than Junebug for machine binding?  I’m just glad I can finally machine sew binding down once again. Peaceful Kingdom measures 39”x47”. It’s amazing that the Peaceful Kingdom Cabin Fever Quilt was made slightly over 24 hours, right? And yes, I hummed “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” song from The Lion King even though there was tiger and no lion.

I had two yards of the Rae Ritchie print which I used for the backing although I was tempted to save the leftovers for another Running Doe pattern which I did not purchase although I thought I had the Baby Goose pattern. It would have been perfect also for this print but glad I used it for this quilt instead since this makes it a two sided quilt. I just love this print so much and really should be used for a backing because it’s so pretty and interesting. I had purchased this fabric online and was not disappointed with it once it arrived and started the quest to make something with it. After I had cut the piece needed for the front, it was two inches short for the backing so I sewed two strips of a mint green print on the top and bottom and it’s not too noticeable.  I used  a Pellon Cotton/Poly batting which makes for a puffier than usual quilt, just perfect for a new baby tummy time playmat. I think the Cabin Fever pattern would be great for making tummy time playmat quilts, especially using bright colors and patterns to stimulate the baby. Also, if you need a quick quilt to make for a baby shower, this pattern would be just right.

I thought I give a sneak peek of the flimsy for the upcoming book launch. Could I name it Wild Kingdom? I seem to have a theme this month. I should be home more during May which means I will work on finally finishing my Rainbow Neighborhood Quilt, this secret Quilt plus the May quilt for the Dirty Dozen Challenge. It would be another amazing month if I finish all three since June will be another traveling month.

I thought I would end this Post with a snapshot collage of my Strips Ahoy Quilt, meeting up with Kathleen McMusing and my amazing fabric and one pattern (not a Villa Rosa Design Pattern) purchases all done while in Maine which truly was a wonderful vacation.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL

 

It’s time to say “Je ne sais QAL” because Sandra, mmmquilts announced her 2023 QAL, Rainbow Neighborhood and, once again, as I have for the past six years, will be participating which is now a rite of Spring and to celebrate her late father, the Famous Canadian, birthday. I had purchased her pattern last December and mentioned to her then that I thought this should be a QAL. As soon as I downloaded the pattern, I printed it which I hardly ever do and it’s been sitting on the studio desk since and knew I could start it once I decided on the fabrics. Imagine my surprise and happiness when Sandra first mentioned the QAL back on March 25th that the Rainbow Neighborhood was the pattern. I was at the GP House which meant the pattern and my stash was at home so I could only think or “mmmull” over my usual reasons for participating. Do I like the pattern, Big Yes, especially since I had the pattern and realized the blocks are 16” and the quilt blocks are 8” and not 4” as I thought they were; can I use fabric from my stash, I’m pretty sure I do but have to wait until I’m at home which won’t be for several days; and since I’m doing the throw size, the schedule for completion is doable since a block a week is sewn until the end of May and then have the month of June to assemble the top for the parade on June 30th. We have two vacations planned during the QAL so the chances of having a finished quilt may be slim but at least you only need a top in order to be eligible to win one of the many great prizes Sandra has lined up. But the main reason for making Rainbow Neighborhood will be explained later at the end of the post.

On the drive home, I decided the fabric I was going to use was my stash of Alison Glass which was the perfect choice since I’ve accumulated stash especially from buying a nice selection of yardage and scraps online from a blogger who was having a destash sale. Once I was finally in my studio I was able to choose the nine colors for my Rainbow Neighborhood along with the background, sashing, border and cornerstones.

I am so happy that I can use my Alison Glass fabrics for Rainbow Neighborhood and I’m having a little tongue in cheek moment by naming my quilt Glass Houses. I have some charm squares for most of the colors and will be using them for the 8” quilt blocks along with the black and white print. The multi-color light print will be used for the sky for each house. I should mention that the yellow green solid is not an Alison Glass print and will be used for the cornerstones. If I do any deviation from the pattern, it will be the sashing and border due to only having one yard of the multi-color black print which I want to use as the border but I don’t like pieced borders which I would have to do since I need at least 60”.

The official start of the Rainbow Neighborhood QAL is April 3rd and I’ve already started after checking with Sandra to see if there was a sequence as to which house to make and there’s not, really. My first block is already done and the cutting and sewing was easy but I need to be better with the quilt blocks measuring 8.5”. I do love that the house blocks are 16” finished, my sewing is much more accurate with large patches. I did press all of the seams open, except for the rows but in the future, will only do it for the 8” quilt blocks. My chimneys did not line up with the roof lines as well as I would have liked so pressing these two rows so the seams will nest might be better. My plan is to make three more blocks before we leave on vacation on the 12th so I will be on schedule once we return.

We did spend half of March at the GP House which the darling Granddaughter did a wonderful job babysitting us and we also celebrated her sixth birthday. Once we were home from our last visit and before I started working on the Rainbow Neighborhood QAL, I did finish my March top for the CountryThreads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. My plan is to make this a Patchwork Blankie by backing it with a pink plush which has been hanging around the studio. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use Jinny Janome since I haven’t sewn plush with her yet and Juki Junebug is stored away in the dining room or the formal sewing room now. BTW, the problems which I had with Juki Junebug could not be fixed by the last shop and they wanted to ship it to shop in Alabama who said they could fix the thread cutter plus the foot pedal problem. I decided I could live with these problems rather than spend any more money. There would be certain quilts, such as this patchwork blankie, that Juki Junebug could still do. It’s just a matter of setting her up on the dining room table which I may be now in a mood to do.

As mentioned earlier in this Post that I had a really good reason for wanting to make Glass Houses, aka, Rainbow Neighborhood is because I thought it would be the perfect wall hanging to go with my Petal Pop quilt which was finished last year. The plan then was that this quilt would be for the darling Granddaughter and now with the perfect wall hanging to go with it, this will be her new bedroom ensemble. After all, she’s now the big “6” and it’s time for a change. 

Mori Girls Quilt

My Mori Girl Quilt is my official finish for the August CT Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. I was confused at the beginning of August when I forgot I compiled my list a little differently from Mary Etherington who is pulling from two lists, one for a number and one for a color. I combined her two lists by using her color list which she numbered as my list. This month she pulled #12 and Yellow and my #12 is any UFO/project which were stripe or contained stripe fabrics. My Mori Girl quilt was a flimsy made in December of 2020 and this finally finish has hit a sweet spot with me. No surprise that the Mori Girl print reminds me of the darling Granddaughter, the one time baby who has morphed into a little girl.

I had purchased a remnant piece of Mori Girl along with a gray ticking stripe from Bernie/Needle and Foot and knew I would have no problem finding fabric from my stash to go with it. My palette for this quilt was black/white, gray, gold and coral pink. I love the black and white print with the red dots used for the QST which was perfect for the Mori Girl print with its crosshatched lines. 

And speaking of the QST, my plans originally was to use four-patch blocks but when I was drawing out the layout on my trusty graph paper and rather than marking the squares with a plus sign, I used an “x” and decided that this was a better block since it mimics the hair bows and butterflies in the Mori Girl print. I should also mention that this is a Dashwood print, the fabric line was Mori Girls and this print was called Paper Girls but I like the sound of Mori Girl better. This is a version of a Strip and Brick Quilt which I love making since it involves two of my favorite sizes; 2.5” strips and 4.5” x 8.5” rectangles. After the prints were paired, I made 4.5” x 8.5” rail blocks. Each row contains (5) rail blocks with (1) QST and (1) 4.5” patch, either a rail block or focus print.

Sewing the flimsie was quick and has been finished since late December, 2020. It languished since I was debating on whether to quilt it with a combination of diagonal quilting on the top portion with straight line on the bottom. I was still undecided as I was preparing Mori Girl for machine quilting and finally went with straight line quilting 1” part with diagonal quilting lines on the QST

Here’s a pic showing the cute Mori Girls, the sometimes straight quilting lines with light gray Aurifil thread and the fabrics. The binding is the black print used in the QSTs and the backing is a Waverly print. Mori Girls measure 48” x 60” which is a nice size lap quilt for which I intended, but have decided since I love this quilt so much it needs to hang in my studio. I think my Smitten Quilt which has been hanging in my studio for several years now deserves a much need rest.

One outside pic is a must. The Master Quilt Holder obliged me with a little stoop and clarified this by saying this is what I mean when I call him “Stupid”, Uh huh, wink.

In my last post, I mentioned that my plans were to quilt Mori Girls upon my return from the GP House unless the Squirrel distracted me with another one of my August Projects. I made this flimsie with Sherbet Pips fabric BEFORE leaving for the GP house. I thought I would show it since I love making quilts with 2.5” strips. My plans for making this a patchwork throw next has now been changed to another flimsie which needs machine quilting. There’s no surprise here with plans ever changing-the Focus Force is not strong in me. At least I can say I could be finish with this month’s Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Peri-Pinkle Nine Patch Quilt

The month of July started the Country Threads 2022/23 Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge and I was busy. New to the challenge is besides a number being pulled for a UFO project, a color will also be pulled (a list of colors and the corresponding number was posted in June) and you have the option of working on a new or old project. This gives the participants a choice of working on a UFO or a new project which I thought was a great idea since there were several months that I wondered if I wanted to continue participating since I was getting tired of finishing UFOs. I also added another twist to this challenge by gathering five projects for each month corresponding to the Color which were a flimsie waiting to be quilted, a UFO project (in a block stage or less), a designer whose fabrics I’ve have in my stash and always wanted to make something with it, a fabric bundle waiting for a project and a scrap project. I have a choice each month of deciding which one of these projects I want to work on and given myself the allowance that new projects can be a flimsy finish. Number 10 and the color Pink was pulled for July and I chose to finally finish my Peri-Pinkle Nine Patch which was a flimsie I finished in 2000 or twenty-two years ago.

One of the reasons why I wanted to finally finish this quilt is because of the other name I gave it; the Granddaughter Quilt #2. The Granddaughter Quilt #1 is also on this year’s challenge list. I was working at the Quilt Shop when I purchased the fabrics for this quilt; it was during this time when other fabric companies were coming out with their own reproduction fabrics which before only Marcus Bros, Julie Rothermel was designing. The fabrics used in the Peri-Pinkle Nine Patch Quilt were from Moda (Sharon Newman), In the Beginning (Sharon Yenter) and Chanteclaire (Darlene Zimmerman). When I made this flimsie, my two sons were still in high school and middle school and thought that someday this quilt would be for a future granddaughter. Now this future granddaughter, the darling granddaughter is now five and may be ready for a big girl quilt or several big girl quilts so I thought this would be a great finish to start the Challenge. You would think this would be my oldest quilt finish but it’s not if the Granddaughter Quilt #1 is finished.

I would like to say that the machine quilting was a breeze but it wasn’t. My plan to do simple in the ditch quilting combined with diagonal crosshatching on the nine patch did not go well with the Ditch Quilt Foot which I used before. I should have realized after the first line of quilting that something was wrong but I ignored it. Two thoughts came to mind after I quilted it the first time, you’re never too old to make stupid quilting mistakes and if the first line of machine quilting isn’t right, stop and get the seam ripper out. You can see on the top pic how badly puckered the machine quilting was and my thought was maybe this is what it would have looked like if I had machine quilted it twenty-two years ago and maybe it wouldn’t be too noticeable if I photographed it at a certain angle. But I decided I needed to rip out all of the quilting which took two days. It should be no surprise that I binge watched crime and murder mysteries. The second time I machine quilted this quilt I used my walking foot, the ditch quilt foot has been placed in the time out corner on my sewing table. You can see how much better the machine quilting  looks on the bottom pic. When I showed my Hubby these photos, he commented that if I left the quilt alone the first time,  I could have called it the Puckered Pink Quilt.

I did hand sew the binding down which I would have done twenty-two years ago because doing it by machine was almost unheard of back then. You can see the backing is the pink Chanteclaire ticking stripe which I almost wasn’t going to use because back then I thought I might need it for another project but now I’m pretty sure there won’t be and it was just perfect for the backing. I normally am a cheapskate when it comes to backing fabric; I use sale fabric which sometimes is not part of the fabric line or used in the flimsie. BTW, the Peri-Pinkle Nine Patch Quilt measures 60”x80” which was a pretty big quilt for me back then.

And here’s a photo of the darling Granddaughter with her Peri-Pinkle Nine Patch Quilt wearing her matching pink shoes. If you’re wondering how I came up with the name, it’s a combination of the periwinkle blue and pink fabrics used in this quilt.

The Peri-Pinkle Nine Patch Quilt was a finally finish before mid July so I thought I would have time to work on other projects I had designated for the month. I spent the last week in June organizing my projects, a total of 60 projects and making a photo collage of the five projects for each month. I have to mention that I love each one of the projects chosen and that there were lots more which could have been included. The left top photo is the flimsie, the bottom left is the UFO, the top right is the designer bundle, the center right is the fabric bundle and the bottom right is the scrap project which I have to mention since Pink was the color of the month, my scraps are Tula Pink. There are some months I tweaked some of the designations and changed one of the fabric colors from stripe to neutral or free for all. We’re only traveling to the GP House every other weekend now which gives me a nice block of time to do some serious quilting and that I did.

Four Flimsies in four days-leave it to me to turn a Challenge to a Choice and then to a Am I Crazy Challenge by working on the other four projects which I don’t expect I will do each month. It helps that these patterns were fast and easy. And you know what’s even crazier….

I finished another flimsie, instead of quilting one of the other four flimsies, which was a DrEAMi but right now looks more like a Squirrel Scream. This flimsie did not sew fast as the others and glad it’s a finish. I’m hoping once the blue binding is on, I will like it better. I’ll post more about these flimsies once they are finally finished. I’m thinking some of these flimsies finished during this year’s challenge are perpetual and are going to appear on next year’s challenge list. I do like the idea of having less fabrics sitting idly in my stash.

Even though the month of July isn’t over for another three days, I’m tired. We’re leaving for the GP House this weekend and I don’t think I’ll bring any sewing but who knows what I’ll come up with after I clean my table. There are some interesting scraps laying around…..

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT