Americana August

I thought I would do my August Post now since I don’t think I have another finish left in me for the remaining six days. We just returned from the GP House with the darling Granddaughter being a little under the weather but recovered just in time for the first day of school; she does love going to school. Last month, I spent some time with Jan Patek Projects and I continued finishing more this month. My CT Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge project was supposed to be finishing a king-size quilt with Kansas Trouble fabrics but didn’t feel like working on it so I replaced it with several Jan Patek UFO projects.

The first finish was a modified version of the Two Hour Couch Quilt designed by Mary Etherington/Country Threads. The Geranium focus print and several other fabrics was from Jan Patek’s Front Porch collection was purchased at Mary’s shop years ago before it closed. I can’t remember if these fabrics were for this quilt pattern since I had to modify it because there wasn’t enough yardage of the Geranium print but am happy to make it 56” x 72” which is enough for it to sit on the couch. Another reason I’m calling it a modified version is because I accidentally made the top and bottom borders wrong. I wanted to finish the couch quilt thhis month since August is the last Summer month, and I wanted to take a pic of this quilt on our front porch; it really is a perfect quilt for the season.

Here are some pics of the fabrics used for this quilt, some from the Front Porch and past collections and maybe some designed by Barbara Brackman. The red backing was not from the Jan Patek stash and found in the backing vault. I have to mention the color thread I used for the straight line machine quilt; it was Connecting Threads #21582 Essential Thread in Cantaloupe. I thought it blended well with all of the fabrics.

Another sort of UFO project I wanted to finish is the last of the Season Wallhangings (Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall) designed by  Jan Patek and Sue Spargo in their Seasonings Book published in 2001. One of these wallhangings is twenty-five years old, one is several months shy of  twenty-five years, one is twenty-three years old and the last one was finished less than 24 hours old when this pic was taken. Can you guess which one? I’ll give you two hints,  the title of this Post suggests which one and after the one which was made twenty-three years ago, I was tired and thought it could represent two seasons.

If you guessed Summer, you would be correct. Fall was the first one made, then Winter and finally Spring. These wallhangings measure 28”x27” and instead of traditional applique, I did raw-edged applique, ala Sarah Sporrer, a style I prefer for primitive quilts. These quilts have always been hung from the mantel in the fireplace in the Family Room except for the past few years because Hubby had his huge Speaker used for his band gigs sitting on the hearth which interfered with the wallhangings. I didn’t have the heart to ask him to move it because of his back issues but now that he’s recovered, the wallhangings are back. The Summer wallhanging is now hanging on the fireplace where it will hang until the end of September.

Here’s a pic of the Seasonings book and the wallhangings which I have been enjoying looking through it again. I’m thinking I would like to make a modified version of the cover quilt with only four blocks and using wool for the applique.

The last of the Jan Patek projects was this table runner made from the bin of fabric scraps of past projects. This measures 20”x30” and will be used for our kitchen table. It was a nice and satisfying make which I always feel when scraps, especially batting is used.

And speaking of Sarah Sporrer, I finally made this wallhanging, measuring 22”x29” which has been on my project list since we bought the GP House seven years ago.I thought it would be fitting for the Americana theme this month and already has a place for it in our farmhouse kitchen at the GP House.

I purchased Sarah Sporrer/One Day in the Country patterns around the same time as when I purchased Jan Patek books, which I loved because of the raw-edged applique style. These wallhanging patterns were cards which included an envelope which could be used for sending greetings and were only $5. I purchased thirty of these cards during my Quilt Shop days which meant I bought them at a 40% discount and have made 10 of these patterns.  The previous wallhangings were made with all fabrics but this latest one I did do wool applique which I like very much. The background and borders were from my Sandy Gervais stash. Sarah Sporrer patterns can still be found if you do a Google search. 

Now that my Jan Patek phase may be paused and to be continued at another time, I have finished piecing my Smitten Says quilt and have started removing the paper pieces. Once this is done, I will add the top and bottom border. Also, I have to make some Patchwork Blankies for the darling Granddaughter’s classroom before the next GP house visit….and then there’s projects for the upcoming road trip.

I thought I would share the darling Granddaughter’s first day of school pic, for someone who doesn’t like smiling for pics, this was no problem since she loves going to school.

June-balaya

There was a lot of mish-mash  and jumbling of activities involving celebrations, Mother Nature paying a visit to our house, health appointments for myself, a family wedding and, of course, a whole lot of quilting that I thought June-balaya would be a good name for this Post.

June always involves the celebration of two birthdays, Demando’s and myself and it just warms my heart that we’re both the same age now (wink). And not to be forgotten, are Hubby and my youngest son celebrating Father’s Day. During the first two weeks in June, we experienced heavy storms and tornado warnings and the first of two storms which happened two days straight, we lost our 34 year-old Linden tree which had graced our parkway. So far this year, Illinois had 172 tornadoes and now leads the nation which makes me uncomfortable. As for my health, I had my annual vision exam, a bone density scan and a mammogram and thankfully all went well. To top off my had-to-do list, was renewing my driver’s license, which after my new photo was taken, the very nice security guard walked with me to the exit door when I told him a major crime had just been committed. I’ve been saying that mucho money can be made by charging an extra fee for a glamour or soft focus photo. But no...I have a photo of me looking like an old man.

We traveled to Wisconsin for the wedding of our grandniece who had her ceremony at a farm venue right across the road from her Grandmother’s (Hubby’s sister) house. Less than 24 hours before the ceremony I realized that I had  over fifty leftover signature blocks from my younger son’s wedding thirteen years ago and I contacted my niece (the Bride's mother) to ask her if I could make a wedding quilt with them. She said yes, so  during the two-hour drive, I altered the paper holding the signature blocks. The funny thing about doing this was, the Bride, was the one who handed out these signature papers during the wedding and reception at her cousin’s wedding. I jokingly asked her if she would have time to re-assume this duty but she was a little preoccupied so her future sister-in-law and my hubby did a great job passing and collecting them. Once the newlyweds are finished building their future home, we will decide  on whether a large quilt or smaller wallhangings will be made.

And finally, to the quilty portion of this Post. I had two quilts to finish and  a Post to write on June 15th for the Lyra QAL hosted by Sandra, mmm Quilts and another Post revealing my Secret Sewing project from last year which was my quilt made from Kelly Young’s 12 Days of Christmas Quilt Block Sampler Book released on June 16th. By then, I was ready to call it a month but then there were two weeks still remaining.

I thought I should finish my #11 of Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge which was the flimsy I made in 2024 after I had finished my Spectacle Square-tangle Quilt. For both of these quilts, I used the Easy Bricks pattern designed by Amy Smart, Diary of a Quilter which is a great pattern for a layer cake.

I enjoyed making the Spectacle Square-tangle quilt so much that I wanted to make the pattern again using a Whisper by Windham Fabrics layer cake which I had in my stash for several years along with other fabrics which went well with it. I had plans to make a queen size quilt but decided to make a 66”x88” flimsy instead. Unfortunately, straight-line machine quilting did not go as smooth as I wanted and I ended up having to rip out eight lines of machine quilting because I didn’t realize the backing was scrunching up. This has sworn me off of making large quilts for awhile but at least I was able to use my CT Essential Thread in Blush. I do like this quilt which I’ve named Birdsong though Bird Brain came to mind. I was tempted to make a simple one-patch Patchwork Throw with all of the leftover fabrics remaining because I may need a new one for traveling this September and I found the perfect plush in my stash, but I didn’t.

Instead, I decided to finally finish the quilting for my Peace Quilt which I started two month earlier. I made this 16” x 26” flimsy twenty years ago before going back to work full-time. During this time, I was making these small quilts which I call Patchbox quilts because I was making them with large squares of novelty prints. The Peace hands were fussy cut and then fused to two different black prints. My plan was to hand quilt this but after the Peace hands were  done I decided to machine-quilt the rest. It has laid on my table in front of my sewing machine when I finally realized that all I had to do was straight line quilting, grid style using a jewel tone variegated Star Thread. While machine quilting, I had another realization that this quilt needed to be finished, because……

I needed another quilt to hang on the front hallway door next to the gaMMMa galaxy quilt because the one I had hanging next to it did not complement it as much as the Peace quilt. I wonder if Eunice, my Studio Tormentor who lives inside my head and tells me what I should be finishing was guiding me. This time, it was most welcomed. Both of these quilts one days will be heading to the darling granddaugher’s bedroom at the GP House. I plan to hang the Peace Quilt outside her door as a reminder that her father when he was only in first or second grade, hung a handmade sign outside his bedroom door with a drawn peace sign and the printed words “Peace in Mike’s Room”. Hubby and I both thought what could have prompted him at such a young age to do this and realized he didn’t like our yelling at Demando to do his homework among other things.

There were still a few days left before leaving for the GP House for the weekend and thought the Rainbow House Flimsy would be a quick finish. While looking for background info on the Birdsong quilt, I saw that this flimsy was made in 2024 also and that it would be good to finally finish two 2024 flimsies.

The only problem I had was  I wanted to use the stripe backing horizontally which ran along the selvedge and would be too short for the 39”x45”flimsy by several inches. I added strips, of a polkadot print found in the scrap box, to the top and bottom. Since I already had the variegated thread still on my sewing machine, I used that to machine quilt with straight and wavy lines. The black print with teeny multi color dots was found in the stash. I’m glad the Rainbow House quilt was a finally finish because it reminded how much I love this rail pattern which uses only six fat quarters. I need to make some small quilts for the darling Granddaughter’s classroom by Fall and this would be a great pattern since it sew quick and very cute with the right fabrics which I’m sure I have in my stash. I will confess that I want to keep Rainbow House quilt because I love the prints so much but maybe will be ready to give it up by Fall.

Last but not least, all during June in the late evening while watching reruns of the Mary Tyler Moore TV Series on YouTube, I was handing piecing the Smitten Says blocks which I started planning on the last days of May. Fabric patches were cut for appoximately 500 diamonds and then basted to make 177 5”x6” hexagons. Originally I was going to use a combination of diamonds and equilateral triangles (like the Simple Smitten quilt) to make the hexagons but decided to use all diamonds instead.  All of the hexagons are now sewn and ready to be laid up on the design board. Then, the  next step is to sew the hexagons together in rows which I definitely will have to do on the big counter high kitchen table at home and, of course, watching more Mary Tyler Moore episodes which ran for seven years. The Smitten Says hexagons were supposed to be my road trip project for our upcoming September trip but I really enjoy EPPs now and was missing it after my Simple Smitten quilt was finished. I already have a new EPP project in mind for the road trip and can start cutting the fabric and paper pieces soon.

I’m thinking I should take it easy in July but July-balaya wouldn’t be a bad Post title and it’s also fun to say.  Have a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July holiday.