December Duo-ings

‘Twas the day before Christmas and all of the projects which needed to be finished, are and then some, so I am saying, I’m done with December. I had a pretty productive month with five Finally Finished quilts and two Flimsies. It helped that I spent more time at home than the Grandparent house although I did miss my darling Granddaughter but we were playing it safe by staying home for two weeks after Thanksgiving. As in November, I once again have dueling “Duos” which included Doll quilts and a Dirty Dozen which puts the “D”in December, along with Delightful. (It’s that time of year when the photos are all interior shots; no snow but it’s cold outside).

First up, were the two Christmas quilts which needed to be finished before we left for the Grandparent House on the 12th which wouldn’t have been hard to do except I was deterred by some recently purchased fabric but more more about this distraction later in this post.

The Christmas Hoot and Loot quilt has been in the makings for the past several years with indecisions if I should make a Staggered Strips and Squares quilt but decided against it so the pinwheel and eight-patch blocks were made last year. I finally decided this year that the Hoot and Loot green fabric would be cut into 8.5” squares rather than using long strips or rectangular blocks.  The eight-patch blocks were made mostly from a jelly roll of Me an My Sisters Red Dot and Dash. Sadly these were cut last year and if I knew my Bee Sista Jan was looking for this, I would have happily sent this to her. We have a Me and My Bee Sista fabric friendship.

Surprisingly, when it came down to quilting it, I couldn’t decide on the backing since there was nary a Christmas fabric in my stash and I was determined to use something from my backing vault so this is what I came up with-not very exciting, right.  Also, how to quilt it was a challenge and decided on wavey cross-hatching with straight grid lines so I didn’t have to do any marking which is a pain to do when I can’t depend upon the blocks.  I used a green thread for the top and for the bottom I used an Aurifil thread in Natural which I love how it blended with the back.  The binding is the red dot fabric used in the pinwheel blocks which is almost or at least a twenty year old Piece of Cake fabric line.  

This quilt measures 56”x72” and is now hanging around the Grandparent House which was not the plan since I was envisioning this being thrown around the floor by the darling Granddaughter.  The Hoot and Loot quilt is covering the red and black quilt which normally drapes on the ladder and sort of has a Christmas tree effect,  doesn’t it?

While I was finishing the Hoot and Loot Christmas quilt with just a few days left before leaving for the Grandparent House, I still had to make a quilt for the darling Granddaughter.  The plan was to make one using the leftover blocks but I was sort of tired looking at these blocks plus I thought it wasn’t too exciting for a little girl.

I had hanging on my design board some 4” HSTs made with Lori Holt’s Cosy Christmas fabric and the plan was to make two zig zag table runners.  I thought of using these for her quilt but it would only measure 32”x40” which be way too small for my very tall for her age Granddaughter.  I then had an epiphany that if the HSTs were placed horizontally and I could find a perfect fabric for the sashing to make it longer, this would work.

No surprise that I found an aqua mint with red pin dot stripes in my stash which is also a 2016 Riley Blake fabric like Lori Holt’s but from a different designer.  I love when I buy fabric with no project in mind and finally am able to use it.  Plus, I found this right away and knew it would be perfect. When this happens, I feel vindicated for buying so much fabric and let Hubby know about it.

I decided to use fleece instead of batting and backed it with a red star minkee which was leftover from another Granddaughter quilt from Christmas past, another nice happenstance in making this quilt.  This quilt has weight which is perfect since she likes her compression blanket.  I quilted vertical squiggly lines with red thread.  I named this quilt Holiday Hearts and it measures 40”x52”.

Holiday Hearts was well received and immediately shared with the darling Granddaughter’s dolls and menagerie. Remember this image of the other quilt on the floor which inspired another duo of quilts to be mentioned later in this post.

Upon our return from the Grandparent House on the 17th, the next project I needed to finish was my #4 of Country Threads Dirty Dozen QAL which is my I Love London, the flimsie made almost six years ago. This was the last of the 2016 Flimsies waiting to be finished and happy this one is off my plate now.  I made this after I had accumulated London fabric from different lines which was popular around the time I retired eight years ago.  I always dreamed of going to London since it holds a special place in my heart because my father had fond memories of this city (not the devastation-but taking violin lessons while he was on furlough)when he was stationed somewhere in England during WWII.  Sadly, I don’t like flying and my trips are limited to places where we can drive to our destination.

Here’s a close-up of some of the prints which are quite fun.  The pattern of this quilt was based on the center 18” square of the I Love London print and the surrounding square/rectangles measure 4.5”x6” finished.  You can see the crosshatch and grid machine quilting I did in blue thread and I would like to mention that I wanted my crosshatch lines to be nice and straight and spent the time marking it with a Hera marker. Unfortunately, my lines were not straight and veered off course several times because I couldn’t always see the markings.  I guess you can see Hera marks better on solid fabrics.

I seem to be having mishaps with batting and backings lately and this quilt was a testament to this being that I had purchased 108” wide backing for this quilt but somehow cut into it to back another quilt thinking I had enough. I didn’t so I had to piece it together to what I thought would be the right size and still wasn’t enough so I sewed the blue/white ticking stripe which still only gave me an one-inch left to spare on both sides. Whew! This quilt measures 54” square and the stripe binding was from one of the fabric lines.  Even though the quilting is a little wonky if you look at it close enough which you may notice since this quilt is designated to be a picnic quilt or maybe a tea party quilt—something that can be laid down on the floor or ground-which brings me to the subject of the darling Granddaughter and the earlier photo with the quilts on the floor. 

During our last visit, she has been taking table toppers, place mats and even picking up the kitchen floor mat to place over her dollies, stuffies and any other toy she deems as needing to be covered.  Most of the time the toys are laying on the floor.  I don’t like seeing my quilts laying on the floor since at times, we have two to four dogs at the Grandparent House at one time and two of them are shedders. I was thinking of some of the small toppers at home I have made which would make suitable doll quilts and remembered these two quilts above which were made from Little Quilts’ panels and I started hand quilting them over twenty years ago.

What’s funny about Little Quilts is that my Bee Sistas this year had a conversation about them starting with Wendy who had posted about their book being her first quilt book and then turning out that three of us made the same little quilt pattern.  But that didn’t spark me to finally finish these two quilts, it was the need to give the darling Granddaughter a proper doll quilt.  I thought I just needed to bind the quilts, but the Star quilt on the right still needed to have some of the leaves hand quilted with my still intact big stitches skill.  I think I did this when it wasn’t acceptable but it’s hard to do fine hand quilting when using perle cotton or three strands of embroidery floss.  As for me being the big believer that calico is going to make a big comeback, I found the right blue Little Quilt fabric in my stash, just enough to bind these two quilts.  I thought Pipertown was going to be my oldest UFO finish for this year, but it turns out these two quilts are going to have this distinction.  Jan, previously mentioned in this post, commended me for remembering I had these quilts and finding them which I have to admit I had them stored in a clear bin under my quilting desk and were hard to miss. I’m rethinking about giving them both to the darling Granddaughter; I want to keep the Star Quilt to hang in the hallway outside her bedroom since I find it precious and don’t want to see it laying on the floor. Hopefully, she won’t yank it off the wall.  These panels really are nice and with some quilting, it looks like the blocks were pieced and yes, the yesterday colors still make my heart sing.

And now for the third “duo” quilts for December which are these two flimsies which were the distraction that deterred me from the finishing of Christmas quilts.  I guess these quilts could be called DREAMis  and the squirrel’s name would be Bernie since these two would not have been made if I hadn’t bought some of the fabrics from her. To put it in a nutshell (such an appropriate use of this word since we’re talking squirrel), after I made the quilt flimsie on the right, I realized the colors reminded of the yellow dot fabric seen on the left quilt so of course I had to find it which led me to the Julie Comstock 23 fabrics which I already had cut several years ago to make another Jack in the Box quilt. I then had to make this quilt since I seem to like sewing in duos. We’re not leaving for the Grandparent House until after Christmas, so I thought I could quilt them but decided I would add them to the Flimsie pile.  For the past two years, I’ve had no flimsie carryover but this year I have a dozen.  I should mention I have 29 Finally Finishes but still surprised at the number of Flimsies which will be waiting to be a Finally Finished in 2021.  I still think I should relax for the rest of the year.  

December wasn’t going to be “Done” until I finished sewing the last two blocks, Buff Breasted Sandpiper and Cardinal, of the 2020 Color Challenge QAL which I have not been on schedule as in the previous months. I bet you can tell by the colors which block is which bird.  I have to say after I finished sewing the Cardinal block, I felt like playing Angry Birds and not because there were so many patches.  Turning these blocks into a quilt is definitely on my 2021 To Do list.

So I’m finishing this lengthy post right before the start of Christmas Eve which will be quiet.  I appreciate you stopping by to read this post and I’m still not sure if Bloglovin will pick this up. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and may you be blessed with a very healthy and peaceful New Year and also may all your hopes and wishes for this year happen in 2021.

A Twice is Nice November

I like to mention first that I thought I was going to be late with my November post thinking today was December 1st, so imagine my surprise and joy to find that I have an entire day to think and type this post. Usually I draft and type my post under the imagined deadline or the thought that my post is going to disappear into thin year.  While coming up with the title to this post which I like to tie it with my activity for the month, I found there were several things which happened in pairs, combos, duos, twice, double, etc.  There were three Finally Finished quilts and one Flimsy for his month and why they were twofers will be explained in this post.

I’m participating in Country Threads’ Dirty Dozen QAL and my #1 quilt to finish in November was near and dear to my heart.  The Dogma quilt top was made in 2014, but the Dogma fabric which was an In the Beginning fabric line designed by artist David Hearn was purchased in 2013, which I picked a kit up at Country Threads (a 5-6 hours drive), my first of several visits.  This is when my friendship with Mary Etherington truly started since, besides her, I became acquainted with Susannah, her late, great Goat and other four legged babies.  I called ahead to order a kit, since we were going to stop by on the way to Colorado, which included a pattern but if you know me, I chose instead to make a 42”x46” wall hanging to better showcase the fabrics. I loved the funky and organic prints which seemed to be popular at this time, since I also purchased Hot Flash and Primitiva too and already finished quilts with these fabrics. This quilt has been listed several times on UFO lists during the past years as one I wanted to finish and this year it finally was.

Before I could quilt the top, I had to choose a backing which I could not find anything to my liking in the backing vault and thought I piece one using leftovers from the Dogma stash.  Aren’t these prints wonderful?  However after looking at these prints I decided that another top needed to be made before I could quilt the original Dogma quilt.

Before we left for a Grandparent House visit, I made this top which I called Double Dogma Dare, a sort of tongue-in-cheek name since I was suppose to  be quilting the original Dogma quilt (Dogma One) and thought I could do that plus make the top plus quilt it, but no I was so wrong. More about Double Dogma Dare later.

We came home with less than a week left in the month to finish the Dogma One.

For some reason I thought this was a 54” square top and surprised it was smaller which meant I just need just under 1.5 yards of fabric for the backing which I was able to find a gray/black print in the stash. If I had known this beforehand, maybe I wouldn’t had to look at the Dogma fabric stash and maybe not have been distracted with making Double Dogma Dare. The binding was a print from the fabric line and grid machine quilting was done with black Aurifil thread.

As I was quilting Dogma One, I realized that this was the second quilt I made this year which had the color Teal and was a square, almost the same size; the first one being the Centred, a QAL hosted by Sandra, mmm quilts earlier this year.  When this quilt was finished I mentioned in my post that her cat, Bella, would look so gorgeous laying on this quilt.  I realized by looking at the dog in the center of the dog panel, this could be Sandra’s dog Rufus so I sent this photo to Sandra in a shameless attempt of finally getting my hands on Bella to let her know that I have proper sit mats for both of them when they come for a visit. Sandra, who is onto my Bella attempts, responded she would be happy to send only Rufus once the borders were opened.

Once Dogma One was finished this past Saturday, I started getting Double Dogma Dare ready for quilting. Fortunately, I already pieced a backing with black prints from the stash and took some time in deciding which prints could be sacrificed. It was during this time I realized that stash should not be saved for a maybe future project and should be used now for backing since I could always buy another equally perfect print if and when a project appears. Sadly, this epiphany came after buying fabric for almost twenty-five years. I would like to say that the finally finishing of this quilt was a breeze but it was not. One of the things that I am always afraid of when basting a quilt is that I would have the wrong side facing up  and not realizing this until after I was done pinning.  That didn’t happen but after the backing and batting was clamped down on my big basting table, I realized that the batting was not wide enough so that had to be taken off and a new piece of batting cut. After the backing and batting was clamped down for the second time and the top was then pin basted, it was then I realized I did not lay the backing down evenly on the table so my top extended below the backing so I had to unpin more than 100 safety pins, which my fingers became very sore and restarted the process again. They say three times a charm which almost wasn’t the case because after doing twenty lines of straight line quilt at 2am, I thought the back was just a little too puckered and thought I had to rip out all the stitching. 

Fortunately, I waited until the morning to start ripping because my fresh eyes realized that it was the prints  which made it looked so puckered and quilting the rest of the quilt was a breeze. I used a dark gray Aurifil thread for the machine quilting. As for the binding, I didn’t want to use a print from the Dogma print line (maybe because a Triple Dogma Dare is in my thoughts) since I thought it needed a somewhat solid black and was happy to find a vintage Debbie Mumm skinny line print in black/gray. After spending much time foraging in my black stash, I really have some wonderful prints or as we use to say in my Quilting Shop days, old friends.  Double Dogma Dare measures 64”x80” and is based on Quilting Jetgirl Bundle Buster pattern. This is a wonderful pattern for making big blocks and this is the third quilt I made using this pattern. This pattern is also very versatile being that you can easily change the size of the strips and can be made from yardage as well as fat quarters. The first one was my Kiwi and Mango Tango quilt made last year.

And in case you’re thinking I miscounted, Highland Room is the second quilt I made inspired by the Bundle Buster pattern made this year.

This is the first top I made in 2020 and I used a combination of Violet Craft’s The  Highlands fabric line with Erin McMorris In My Room fabric stash along with a few other lines like Denyse Schmidt and Cotton+Steel. I thought these collection of fabrics which had similar colors went well together.

I especially like the Violet Craft Cat print, in a lovely shade of yellow which Wendy and I would call Citronickle, and wanted to be featured so I modified the Bundle Buster pattern to make this a 56” x 72” quilt.

The backing was pieced with a combination In My Room print with a gray and white Waverly print.  Straight line quilting spaced 3/4”apart with a Connecting Thread Essential Stone Thread went well, no problems thanks to the quilting guide on my walking foot.

Here’s another view of the fabrics used in this quilt; loved that I was able to use some Denyse Schmidt’s prints.

The Highland Room quilt is now residing in the darling Granddaughter’s bedroom along with some of the recently finally finished quilts from previous posts.  I was able to use it at our last sleepover which was needed since she doesn’t share the bed quilt very well.

Sorry for this post being so long, but I did mentioned that I also made a Flimsy which is the annual Christmas quilt I used to make for the darling Granddaughter’s house but will now reside at the Grandparents’ house instead.  My plan is to quilt this next.  I’ll also be making a smaller one for the little darling and hers will be a blankie since it will be backed with a leftover plush fabric from Christmas Quilts past.  Two-ing things will continue in December.

Just a little recap of my sewing double in November: two Bundle Buster quilts were a finally finished, two quilts made with Dogma fabrics, two square Teal quilts made this year, a twofer planned for December and also piecing two quilt backs which is a form of torture for me.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that I’ve been blogging for four years now. I’ve been posting only once a month for over a year and was thinking that maybe I should try to post more frequently so I can focus on writing about one quilt instead of several. But then, I found out that Bloglovin is not picking up my posts so maybe Blogland is trying to tell me something. I appreciate those of you who are reading my posts from another source.  I thought it was just me but I read that Quilting Jetgirl is also experiencing Bloglovin problems also. I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the two Bundle Buster Quilts I finished this month.  I contacted Bloglovin who did not respond so I guess I will be blogging under the radar if this post does not appear.

Wishing you a safe and healthy December.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation

It’s an OFF (October Fabric Foraging) Month

I’m using the word “foraging” loosely in this post since the truest meaning involves the acquisition of food by hunting and in my case I’m replacing “food” with fabric which helps explains how my Finally Finish and Flimsies came to be in October.  It started with my foraging in my Halloween stash  to make face masks after having a funny exchange with Demando asking me to make him a Halloween mask, responding with a “you know you’re 38 years old look” and then realizing he meant a face mask made with Halloween fabric. I came across some wonderful collection of past purchases and decided I needed to make some quick projects with them after putting it off for so many years.  I would like to mention that fabric foraging was very frequent during the days we weren’t at the GP House.

The first project which is a Finally Finished is the Mr. Halloween table runner which I had a charm pack, a fat quarter and some yardage of this past Thimbleberries collection.  I only had a fat quarter of the wonderful focal print which I wanted to keep intact so I designed a table runner around that and used the charm pack as accent squares along with the stripe fabric.

Quilting was simple wavey lines with black Aurifil thread.  Normally I don’t back my quilt with fabric from the same collection but decided to use the orange/black argyle print since I wasn’t able to use it in the top and didn’t think I would have another use for it since I have very few pieces left of the Mr. Halloween collection now; okay maybe enough for some placemats. This table runner measures 20”x38” and it’s a wonderful addition to the other Halloween/Fall quilts adorning the house now.

The next project is the door quilt made with Robert Kaufman’s Eerie Alley which I’ve accumulated some fat quarters and yardage. Again, I had just a fat quarter of the focal print and sort of used the same layout as the Mr. Halloween table runner but I’m calling it a storm door layout.  As I’m writing this post, it is still in a flimsie state and the plan is to quilt it the same way as Mr. Halloween.  This door quilt measures 28”x62”. Sadly, 31 days in October may not have been enough for me to finish in time to hang on the door for Halloween enjoyment.

As I was working on the above projects, I remembered the 8” appliquéd and embroidered Cat block designed by Half Pints made several years ago and waiting to be made into a pillow using the the fabric pictured above.  I am not a pillow person and can only see this in between the mouths of one of our dogs and not sitting pretty on the couch or shelf.  

So, I thought to finally finish this long waiting project, I would make a wall hanging instead by bordering with with a Thimbleberries black print and a wonderful fat quarter of a Simply Spooky print by Indygo Junction foraged once again in the Halloween stash.  Easy straight line quilting with Black Aurifil thread, which is getting a lot of use with these Halloween quilts, paired with the black and white mini check for the binding made this 20” square quilt what I thought was going to be my favorite finish of the month.  But it’s not, it’s the next quilt.

October was #6 for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen Challenge which was my Wizard of Oz flimsie made in 2006.  On a side note, that was the year I returned to the office workforce at the community college after taking a brief hiatus when I quit working at the local quilt shop, one of the reasons being I was accumulating too much fabric. I was then trying to balance working and quilting and made this flimsie after feeling bad that the fabric was sitting in my stash since 2000.  A simple quilt of double four patches with a plain block of the focal print which was also used in the border was made.  It was a flimsie for so long, I added it to the Dirty Dozen Challenge so it could be finally finished.  This flimsie, sad to say, was more of an annoyance and something I thought didn’t have any fondness for and was I wrong.  After quilting it with alternating diagonal straight and wavey lines starting at the border with soft yellow thread, I’ve become quite smitten with the many prints in this collection, especially the focal print.  The collection was designed by Beth Bruske, David Textiles and I don’t know the source of inspiration for the prints.  Even though it was approved by the L. Frank Baum Trust these are not from the original books.

I was ready to bind this quilt with a yellow print, not from this collection, but decided to use the perfectly pink gingham I found or foraged in my pink stash. I needed to offset the green and gold to make this quilt a little sweeter. For some reason, I did not set aside the binding in the drawer which I usually do. This quilt measures 40”x50” but it feels and look larger.

Some mysteries surrounding the making of this quilt is that I cannot find my remaining stash of this fabric which I know I had. After several time foraging around the studio I decided not to make myself crazy and just go with the thought that I must have donated it when I wanted to stuff the box full and made a mental note that I would remember doing this.  I don’t do good mental notes. But I’m hoping it will appear since I still have 1.5 yards of the blue fabric used for the backing left.  I’m also wondering why I didn’t make a Yellow Brick Road by Terry Atkinson with this fabric which would have been cliche’ but cute.  I know she just celebrated the 20th Anniversary of this wonderful pattern and guess I could commenorate or commenomake with the second collection of Oz prints from the MGM movie but right now I’m not liking these prints so much.  Maybe a little more fabric fermentation or another 10 years will make my heart grow fonder over them.

Some more finishes made possible with more fabric foraging:

A simple Ernie quilt made from Two Canoe Scraps given to me from Kathleen after sort of whining from me and foraging through the Cotton+Steel, Zen Chic and Crazy Mom stash so I would have enough for this 40”x50” quilt.  Right now it is in a flimsie state, but the plan is to quilt it with horizontal straight and wavey lines and then donate it.

And look at the fun greens I foraged from the many green bins for October’s College Challenge hosted by Patterns by Jen for the Ruby Crown Kinglet.  Olive Green was this month’s color and I think it looks awfully wild with the lime green, almost Citronickle print.  If you’re wondering what Citronickle is, it’s a yellow green which I call Citron and Wendy calls Pickle and she came up with this name which is quite fun as the color.

Since I used the word “forage and foraging” so much in this post, I thought I would include a photo of the many acorns I foraged in the park at the GP house during the past weeks to feed my squirrels.  I’ve collected at least three full boxes and am still feeling some aches but it was worth it.  Acorns and fabrics feed my squirrels.  I’m hoping one of the studio squirrels will tell me where the missing OZ fabric is.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween.  Also, please remember to VOTE! I already did.