Showing posts with label Sandy Gervais fabric. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sandy Gervais fabric. Show all posts

Thursday, August 31, 2023

August Three for Fall Finishes

I have three Finally Finishes to end August with and they are all for Fall; two were table runner flimsies made last month and one was an unexpected make and finish.
First up and the one that needs the most explaining because it was an unexpected make is the Sunflower Bouquet, a pattern by One Day in the Country/Sarah Sporer. My Quilt Peeps, Mary and Linda, whom I’ve known for over twenty-five years around the time I started quilting, met last week for a slow stitching day. We used to get together regularly, before grandchildren, and used to go gallivanting to shops, etc. Now we get together not so often and when we do, it’s with our hubbies and we end up playing cards. We decided it was time for just the peeps to get together for some slow stitching. I hadn’t decide what project I was going to work on until Mary mentioned the Sunflower Bouquet pattern which she was going to applique with wool. I had the same project stored away in the same cabinet where I already found two twenty-year old UFOs mentioned in this Post and the fabric pulled for Sunflower Bouquet would have been around the same time as the pattern is dated 1997. I did change some of the prints since I bought some newer ones which I liked better.
This is done in raw-edge applique which I love and have done some of Sarah Sporer other patterns. Before meeting with Mary and Linda, I did prep my project by fusing the pieces to the background. I usually do not use fusible when I do raw edge applique but since I had the flexiFuse sheets and Joan Shay’s Appli-bond needles I spent hours copying, cutting and fusing the patches down. Once with the peeps, all I had to do was sew a running stitch down the edges with one strand of #3371 Dark Brown DMC Floss. Surprisingly, during the 4-5 hours we spent, I was almost done with all of the stitching which usually when we stitch together I hardly get anything done because I’m either distracted by what the other peeps are working or too busy yakking. I must be staying focused in my old age. BTW, Mary decided to crochet instead of doing her Sunflower Bouquet project.
Quilting at home and at the GP House was done with two strands of the floss and I did use the appli-bond needles which really are very sharp needles and went through all the layers very easily. I decided not to quilt the numbers “1898” as in the pattern since I thought the quilting was enough.
Sunflower Bouquet measures 21”x29” and is going to look very lovely hanging on the hallway door. Although I thought prepping took too long, this project could be made and finished in a weekend.
These two FALLoween III tablerunners were flimsies made last month using my Sandy Gervais Fall stash. I wanted to machine quilt them  in August so they would be ready this Fall. It was an easy pattern of using what I had already cut, 2.5” strip sets with yardage of focus prints cut either 4.5” or 8.5” wide. The one on the left measures 32”x64” and the one on the left measures 20”x34”.
Machine quilting was with straight wavy line quilting using CT Essential Thread in light gold. The binding was the same stripe fabric used with in the runners.
I wasn’t going to show the backing fabric used for both of the runners but decided to after I saw how the Master Quilt Hokder laid the small runner on the table at the GP House where it will be used. In his defense he did not have to hold up the runners up for pics and may not have been aware how much prettier the front is. He claims the darling Granddaughter did this even though she wasn’t then at the GP House. The nice thing about making table runners is they can be made quickly and uses up the scrap batting and I was even planning on making then more regularly. But then sew and behold, several days ago, Demando who lives in his own apartment now and has a new dining table asked me to make him some table runners which is music to my air since he wants more than one.
I’m happy to end this long month of August with six Finally Finished; two lap quilts, two wall hangings and two table runners. Am I the only one who is ready to welcome Fall? Usually I don’t start Fall decorations until late September but come tomorrow, September 1st, the Fall quilts are coming out in hopes this will beckon the cool weather to arrive, even though it supposed to be another scorcher this weekend.

Thursday, January 12, 2023

First Two Finally Finishes for 2023

And just like that, after lamenting in my Last post of 2022 that I was feeling I was falling behind in my participation in Country Threads’ 2022/23 Dirty Dozen UFO because I only had flimsies to show for the months of October through December, I machine quilted and bound October’s and December’s flimsies this  week. This was made possible by Mary Etherington declaring that during January and February there would be no number or color drawn so we can catch up especially since these are the months where snow and cold would make it possible for us to stay home and sew. Well, here where I live in the Midwest, we’re experiencing unusual warm weather in the 40’s and 50’s and there has been no measurable snow for the past two weeks, but I still stayed home to sew after returning from the GP House. Despite really wanting to sew a new project with some new fabrics I received for Christmas and Juki Junebug still not sewing perfectly (I really miss my threads being cut automatically) I am happy that Wonderland, the patchwork throw, and FALLoween I, the future wall hanging are finally finished. Here are the deets:
Wonderland was the last flimsy I finished for 2022 and the plan was for this to be a quick quilt finish since I was only going to back it with my favorite Gray Chenille Plush which I will again mention that this makes for a wonderful, snuggly quilt/throw. Since we’re leaving once again for the GP House this weekend, I wanted to take this to give to the darling Granddaughter in hopes I can reclaim the Carrie Bloomston Patchwork Throw I made last May for me to use in her bedroom. She decided that this must be shared with her and I’m lucky if I get at least a quarter of the throw to snuggle under. Like her Grandma, she likes the feel of the plush backing.
The fabrics for this quilt/throw is from Katarina Roccella’s Wonderland collection along with other Art Gallery prints and some Cotton + Steel prints. These fabrics have been set aside for several years and I decided that this collection would be added to the 2022/23 UFO Challenge list. I just love the combination of the pinks, peaches, plum mixed with the grays and  the minty green I call Aquamint. The focal print of the sweet girls of which I only had a fat quarter would determine the pattern since there was no way I could cut this print into small patches. The prints on the lower right were added since I thought I could use these colors, especially the plum/abergine print.
I’m calling this pattern Easy Ernie Eights, since the eight inch blocks are made up of with either 4”x8”(f) Ernie rail blocks  combined with 4”x8”(f) plain rectangle patches, two plain rectangles or two Ernie rail blocks. I first drew out the pattern on my trusty graph paper to determine how many of each rail blocks/patches I needed to cut and sew. You can see that the sweet girl print was fussy cut into 4-1/2” x 8-1/2” rectangles and I used every bit of the fat quarter; I even had to piece together one of the rectangles together and hopefully the darling granddaughter won’t notice.
Since there was no batting in between the top and the plush chenille backing, I only quilted vertical lines between the four inch segments in a gray polyester thread. The binding is the pink xoxo print from Cotton + Steel, one of my favorite prints to use for binding. The Wonderland Patchwork Throw measures 56” x 80”. If the darling granddaughter still won’t give up the Carrie Bloomston Patchwork Throw, then I will be happy to claim this one as mine, hopefully she won’t decide she needs both of them and Grandma will be left out in the cold.
FALLoween I was a flimsy finished last October and would have been quilted then had Juki Junebug didn’t need to go to the Spa. 
I just love the prints and colors in this quilt as they are a collection of Sandy Gervais prints from when I first started quilting in 1996 and she was with Moda to some of her later prints from Riley Blake. I knew these fabrics would look great with the Cinnamon Spice pattern designed by Ledine Watson of Sugar Stitches Quilt Company and this would be the second time I made this pattern with my Cracker Jack being my first one made last April. I did modify the size of the blocks.
The pieced backing was made with yardage of two Sandy Gervais prints sitting in the stash for way too long and it didn’t take me too long to decide that it was time to use it up for  this very deserving top. I machine quilted with a combination of straight and wavy lines with a CT Essential Thread in Camel. The binding is the orange grid print, one of my favorite prints in my stash and may be the first time I ever used it for binding. Because Juki Junebug sometimes is continuing to sew after I release the foot pedal, I wasn’t comfortable sewing the binding down with her so I had to hand sew which was a good thing to do while watching the three crossover NCIS TV shows. FALLoween I measures 60” square, the perfect size to hang in the family room. I also have a FALLoween II flimsy and considered finishing it also but decided to wait since I still need to quilt my November quilt, which I did before starting this post and does it look awful. Guess what  I’ll be ripping out after this post. I love my FALLoween I quilt and can’t wait to hang it up this Fall. I’ve been wanting a new Fall quilt for the last several years but never seem to be in the mood during the Summer when it was too hot to be working with warm color fabrics. I’ll be ready this Fall for sure.
Here’s some photos taken outside which usually is hard to do in January with the snow and cold. The Master Quilt Holder definitely did not have any problems assisting me. Once my November quilt is finally finished, I am so looking forward to sewing a new project, but then again, I may feel like machine quilting some more flimsies, especially if I order my new machine next week.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Thursday, October 6, 2022

FALLing into Piecing

For the past two weeks, which involved the darling granddaughter babysitting us for a week which we recovered nicely and being home this week, I have no finished quilt to post; only some new projects in the beginning stages and a hopeful solution involving fabric.
During the week we were at the Grandparent House, I started making Jen Kingwell Wensleydale blocks with foundation paper piecing after much hesitation but was finally inspired to make them thanks to my down under Quilt torMentor Sue of Patchwork and Play who is doing a wonderful job with her blocks. I won’t give too much details right now but only to mention before finishing the very first block, I was ready to call it quits and was planning an Escape from Wensleydale quilt. After much careful ripping of patches and finally making the first block which took more than three hours due to some fabric patches being too small and some distraction, I decided to do another block but this time cutting my patches larger resulting in some waste but was worth it. I originally precut my patches based on the templates in the Quilt Recipe book and adding 1/4”around. For me adding 1/2” around worked much better. I’m using several Jen Kingwell fabric lines which  include some bright colors and prints and to tone it down, I’ll be making neutral blocks to alternate with these colorful blocks.
Before I can continue with the Wensleydale blocks, I had to decide what I was going to do with the Jen Kingwell Glitter Blocks which I paper pieced last year. After making forty of these blocks, I decided to stop since I couldn’t see making a large quilt with these blocks. I came up with a plan to make a wall/door hanging for the recently vacated bedroom using  the gray/tan Radiator Cover print, designed by Amanda Nyberg purchased several years ago, for sashing with apple green cornerstones. Now that I have a plan for the Glitter blocks, this will free up the fabrics set aside and can now use it for the Wensleydale Blocks which will give them even more variety.
The October Project Number for Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge was Five and in my group of projects for  this number was two quilts using Sandy Gervais fabrics which I am calling them FALLoween #1 and FALLoween #2. I still have a nice stash of Sandy Gervais fabrics and my favorites are the ones she designed for Fall and Halloween. This week, I’ve been busy die-cutting  HSTs and squares plus sewing 2.5” strips together which were die-cut last year. BTW, the skinny strips leftover from die-cutting the strips were used to make what I call fabric marbles seen in the top opening photo of this post. I am hoping I will have both of these finished by the end of the month.
When we were with the darling Granddaughter last week and observing the napkin war she was having with her father who thinks she shouldn’t be throwing her paper napkin on the floor after one use or not using one at all, I decided to make her some fabric napkins. I know when we eat at Olive Garden she uses the fabric napkins and doesn’t throw them on the floor and may take disposable napkins to heart by throwing them on the floor. I remember seeing a post about fabric napkins made with terry cloth so I purchased a pack of 18 for under $7. These inexpensive washcloths are the right weight to go with the fabric. I trimmed the wash cloths to 10” square since the size of each one differed which turned out to be a good idea since I could use a 10” cut x width of fat quarter to make two napkins. After top-stitching around the napkin edges, I also did diagonal stitching on the center to make sure the fabrics stayed together after washing. I have washed the napkins after sewing 18 of them and I can say they are nice and soft, not wrinkly and probably will get softer after each washing. Here’s hoping the darling Granddaughter will use them so I don’t have to hear her father say “Napkin” at least twenty times during meals. In her defense, I will say her father was a very messy eater when he was her age.
Another thing that kept me busy was the slow makeover of the recently vacated bedroom once occupied by Demando along with other rooms. My yarn stash which has been residing in the dining room and the spare bedroom will now be residing in this bedroom since the nice IKEA shelf unit was left behind. And if I didn’t have enough Jen Kingwell during the past two weeks, my Gypsy King bedroom  ensemble was finally laid out this week; the king-size quilt was finished October of last year. So far, there has been no bad dreams sleeping under the Gypsy Wife quilt.

We’re once again heading off to the Grandparent House. It’s nice to know that upon my return I’m going to have some wonderful projects to sew but then again there’s also more room/closet reorganization to do. I need a magic nose.

Thursday, June 30, 2022

French Garden Patch Quilt

My French Garden Patch Quilt was a lovely finish to end the month of June and also the last quilt to be finished in time for the end of the 2021/22 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge.
A little background on the making of this quilt which was started around 2006, I think. One of the nice things when I used to work in a quilt shop was seeing all of the new fabric arrivals and being able to purchase entire collections of 1/4 yard pieces. This was how I was able to indulge myself with Sandy Gervais, Pieces of My Heart fabrics which I still dearly love but have not purchased new lines for quite awhile now. This is okay since I still have a lot of what I now call vintage Sandy Gervais fabrics designed for Moda Fabrics.  I think I was inspired to make these 9” blocks of three squares and three rectangles in her French Garden collection when I was studying the floor tiles in my home. I didn’t keep good notes of the making of this quilt but I do remember I made around 100 of these blocks in this fabric collection because I love mixing florals with plaids/stripes. The plaids and stripes in the French Garden collection were called “brush” because they were homespun on one side and flannel on the other side. You had the option of choosing which side and I always chose the homespun side for the top. I used some of these blocks for a baby quilt around that time and the remaining 65 blocks have been sitting around for the last fifteen years. I decided last year when I was planning my projects for the UFO Challenge to include these blocks for a finish since it was time.
Since I knew this quilt would be the last one for the UFO Challenge, I started working sewing these blocks in a 7x9 layout and positioning the blocks so the seams would nest during the last week of May. The flimsie was finished on June 1st. I was afraid that I would not be able to finally finish it though since I was participating in MMM Quilts’ A Roll of the Dice Pattern Launch and Pop Star QAL and we would be traveling during the last two weeks of June. But as luck and good Quilt Karma would have it, when I arrived home from our final trip on Tuesday, the 28th, I immediately started machine quilting that evening and was able to finally finish it yesterday. It was a good thing that this quilt was basted before I left.
Machine quilting was straight grid lines combined with wavy crosshatched lines in the most perfect #5014 Aurifil thread in a teal mint shade. It went perfect and fast which sometimes isn’t easy with a 63”x81” quilt. The only challenge in finishing this quilt was that I did not set aside any binding, highly unusual for me, nada was in the binding drawer and there was no yardage of any of the prints in the Sandy Gervais stash. Quilt Karma luckily, I found in my other stash a Moda Aqua/Teal Weave print which was perfect and accented the fabrics perfectly. I wasn’t so sure of my choice until after the binding was attached.
I have to mention the backing which was a flimsie I made in 2007 using Sandy Gervais Baby Talk fabric and Jan Patek’s Pool Party pattern. This measured approximately 50”x70” so I added some additional strips of plaid fabric from the Sandy Gervais stash so it would be large enough for the backing. I’m thinking this is a great combo quilt for a girl, start off with the baby side and when she’s older you can flip it over to the garden patch side. Maybe the darling Granddaughter who’s becoming quite a Quilt collector would like it. Coincidentally, for the 2020/21 UFO, I ended making it a Baker Dozen Challenge since I finished 13 quilts and I guess you can say I did it again this year although I combined two flimsies together. I now have one less flimsie hanging around the studio and this is the second time I used a flimsie for a backing which is a great way to make the UFO load lighter.
I thought I include a collage of the 2021/2022 Challenge quilts. For this challenge, I thought I would step it up by not including any UFOs that just needed to be quilted but only projects which were in the block stage and may have needed additional piecing or the layout still needed to be determined. What was I thinking I asked myself several times during the year especially for the larger quilts. I am so glad I met the challenge, although I was late several time, and can say although sometimes there were quilts I thought I was so over the fabrics, I fell in love again with them after the quilts were finished-especially this month’s French Garden Patch Quilt. 
This quilt was my oldest UFO for the Challenge and although the colors may not be current and not as bright as the other quilts, I know they’re going to make a comeback just like Calico is this year.

Mary Etherington, Country Threads, is changing the Challenge for next year which you can do either two ways. The number she pulls will correspond with a color she already chosen for the month or it can still be for a UFO. I’m planning on doing something a little different, a Que Sera, Sera QAL where the number she pulls will give me the option of working on either a UFO, Scrap Project, Designer/Color fabrics or finally finishing a flimsie. I decided to make commitment a little bit more fun for this Challenge so I need to come up with my list of 48 possibilities today. I hope this is going to be a good idea.

Wishing you a Happy and Safe Fourth of July.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Thursday, February 17, 2022

The New Grandma Quilt

Last week while searching for some backing fabric, I came across an UFO of a Valentine quilt which I started in 2014. I thought with Valentines Day fast approaching and the rail blocks made with 2.5” strips from several Sandy Gervais fabric lines which just needed to be QAYG, I would have a quilt to give to the darling Granddaughter. Whatever I was supposed to do could wait.
There were twelve 18”x20” rail blocks already paired with batting rectangles in which two of them were already quilted. The quilting was done with a pale blush pink thread from CT Essential Thread which has been discontinued. Fortunately, I had kept the spool of thread with this project probably knowing that it was no longer available and there was enough left for me to finish the quilting.
QAYGing the remaining ten blocks went fast with just pin basting and straight line quilting along the seam lines; it just took several hours. The top and bottom of the blocks were not quilted but would be once the backing was added. As I was quilting, I remember more about how these blocks came to being and why maybe I never finished this project.
I know that these blocks were started in 2014 after Jera Brandvig’s Quilt As-You-Go Made Modern was released. From looking at the two blocks which were already quilted, I knew I used my Elena 8900 and was unhappy with the way the straight line quilting looked and at that time I was looking to purchase a new sewing machine. I purchased my Juki 2010Q in 2015 but still did not resume working on these blocks and was packed away with another flimsy (seen below) made several years earlier with some of the same Sandy Gervais fabrics.
In March of 2017, I posted about this quilt, named  The Grandma Quilt and I quilted and finished due to the pending arrival of our future grandchild in which we didn’t know the gender. I, being the future first-time grandmother wanted a pink quilt to hold my grandchild in but I ended making another  quilt, The Grandpa Quilt in case we had a grandson who wouldn’t appreciate being photographed with a pink quilt. The Grandma Quilt ended up staying with the darling Granddaughter with the understanding that it would be returned to me after a suitable replacement quilt was made which I then told them I had one in mind. It was the rail block quilt I just finished, almost five years later.
After the blocks were quilted which looked so nice thanks to my Juki 2010, they were trimmed to 18-1/2” square which made a 54”x72” finished quilt. I decided to back the New Grandma Quilt with a pink plush fabric I had in my stash since it was dark enough to hide the QAYG seams even I thought at first it was too pink but it grew on me. I finished the quilt in two days and in time before leaving for the Grandparent house. Before arriving, I let the darling Granddaughter’s parents know of this quilt and that I would like my Grandmother quilt finally returned to me.
And why am I calling this quilt the new Grandma Quilt and not just a Valentines Day Quilt. Well, it turned out the original Grandma Quilt cannot be found or has been misplaced which I am a little peeved; lesson learned, you snooze, you lose. So, the once Valentines Day Quilt is now the new Grandma Quilt and will be staying at the Grandparent House and will be added to the darling Granddaughter’s collection. Do I feel guilty about not letting her take it home, Nope, I plan to snuggle with her and the new Grandma Quilt and tell her a once upon a time story about a Grandma Quilt which came to the hospital on the day she was born.
As disappointed as I am with not getting the Grandma Quilt back, I am glad that the new Grandma quilt is a Finally Finish and now I have one less UFO. It feels like I have a wee little more space in the studio now. I don’t think this would be considered a DrEAMi being that it wasn’t a new project but it was an interruption. I can resume finishing some quilts which I was in the process of doing until I happened upon long-forgotten, but should have been finished sooner, the new Grandma Quilt. I’m planning on finishing my January and February quilts for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge and hoping I don’t come across another long-forgotten project.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatutation/NTT