My Five Year Blog Anniversary

It was five years ago today that I closed my eyes and pressed the key to publish my first post which started with a whimper.  I thought I would observe this milestone by keeping it simple, no photos, but with some interesting stats. I’ve come along way now having posted 193 times mostly about my almost 200 Finally Finishes and, yes, my Blog was a good way to do some Show and Telling and keeping me accountable. What I didn’t mention or realize back then was this would be a good way to meet and connect with so many quilters all over the World. I appreciate all of the readers whom some have become dear Blog Buddies or Bee Sistas, for the inspiration and support provided and, of course, the laughs; may this always continue. I wanted my Blog to be about Quilting and Patchwork but somehow with the birth of my first and only Grandchild, family talk crept in plus sometimes I have to brag and thank the Master Quilt Holder who help hold up many of the quilts in all kinds of weather and surroundings. While the technical aspects of blogging is still a big annoyance, like Bloglovin’ no longer picking up my Blog and sometimes a mystery (creepy comments and questionable views)  which makes me want to stop, but then, there isn’t any other way to  share and keep a record of my activity, is there? I am thankful that I was able to use my Blog as a way to see how much I have grown as a quilter and also to use as a way for me to maintain a certain level of creativity and productivity. 

I thought I would share some interesting stats and/or observations I noticed while rereading some of my posts from years past;

• My top five posts are listed on the sidebar on my blog and I find it amusing that in this group is my 2017 post about being a Bee-ginner Blogger and participating in the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop where I met some of my dearest Blog Buddies.
• Around one-fourth of the quilts/patchwork I finally made were either gifts or donations and half of this total was for my most favorite recipient, my beloved granddaughter followed by donations to the blanket ministry at my Church and gifts for new babies.
• Before I started blogging, I did not have much confidence or experience as a machine quilter and I have since improved. Out of all the 191 quilts/patchwork which are Finally Finished, only fifteen were quilted by check. Also, I only have around ten quilts made during the last five years which are still waiting to be quilted, pretty good in my books, considering there are around twenty-five quilts made before Blogging which as we say are UFOs. I will say that straight-line quilting is a great way to quilt your worries away.
• I participated in 40 QALs, some being with only one other person but mostly with the rest of the country or the whole wide world. This is a wonderful way to be inspired and stay motivated and  also to be introduced to patterns you would never dream of making like anything Jen Kingwell or her family of which I have developed a “fond fright”.
• I imposed upon myself a new fabric purchase fast twice and yes I need to do it again. I should mention I see a correlation with purchasing new fabric and weight gain.

Just for the record and I wasn’t going to mention, but it’s good to have this info since I know I can refer to it later, is that less than a handful of the Finally Finished were bedside quilts, 92 were lapsize, (my favorite size), 50 were baby quilts and 40 were wall size or decorative. I don’t think I could have compiled these Stats if I haven’t set up Page sections where I listed all of my activities for each year.

Before I end my “simple “ post, I have to thank again, Susan of Patchwork and Play for being my first friend I made in Blogland (she lured me with of all things a Jen Kingwell quilt) for her encouragement and guidance in starting my Blog, always being an inspiration, assuming the position as the best torMENTOR and fabric coach down under and my most favorite person to throw under the bus. It would be the most wonderful surprise if she ever came knocking on my front door but hopefully she won’t bring Jen Kingwell (just joking) with her.

I hope Quilting will always stay being an adventure for me and worth sharing. Cheers and Happy Quilting!

Skyfall

Since I wasn’t home on National Sew A Jelly Roll Day on September 18th, I still wanted to observe it and just finally finished my Skyfall Quilt this past weekend. Looking at this quit, you may think it’s an improv quilt made without a specific intention, but it’s not, it’s more improvise to me because it was made from fabric already set aside and a pattern which didn’t quite worked out as planned.

 

Involved in the making of Skyfall was a Jelly Roll of Janet Clare’s Aubade along with a charm pack and yardage of the same line paired  with HST blocks and yardage of her Nocturne fabric line which came out afterwards. Four years ago, I designed a pattern for Moda Bake Shop called Jelly Roll Charm Chase and always wanted to make another one with the Aubade Jelly Roll and Charm Pack but never did partly because I designed another pattern later called Staggered Strips and Squares which for me is an easier pattern to make. If you’ve made a Jelly Roll Race quilt, there comes a point in the pattern where you have to cut a panel consisting of 32 rows and maybe 120” wide in half vertically and I always have a problem cutting up two equally sized panels. There has been several times I had to even up the panels by at least six inches. I find it easier to sew the rows with strip sets already precut to size rather than cutting the rows to size later. Also with the Staggered Strips and Squares pattern, you can space the fabrics more evenly and avoid globs of the same fabric/color being the same spot which can happen with a Jelly Roll Race quilt. My original plan for the Skyfall quilt was to use the Staggered Strips and Squares pattern but  modified it so the strip sets were 8”(finished) instead of the usual 4” to go with the 8”(finished) HST blocks made several years ago and four-patches made from the Aubade charm pack. Also, the rows would be set vertically instead of horizontally.

After the strip sets were sewn, I knew it wouldn’t look right with them mixed together with the 8” blocks on the same row so I decided to make separate panels of  strip sets  and 8” blocks. Fortunately this change did not affect the the number of strip sets already cut. 

But “dabnabbit” as one says while in the act of improvising, the panels of 8” blocks sewn together were shorter than the strip set panels by 2.5” or 3.5” so extra strips needed to be added and weren’t too noticeable. Of course I didn’t find out the differences in size until I sewed the two panels together the first time because I assumed the block panels were going to be the correct length. I found out while working on Skyfall, that Aubade and Nocturne fabric lines was inspired by the music composed for either the evening or morning skies so I should have been able to hear maybe Claude Debussy “Clair de Lune” playing in my head. But no, instead I heard the sounds of pounding, sawing and jackhammering trying to improvise to get these panels to fit together along with some salty language. 

After much noisy improvising, the top was done and surprisingly while working on it, I did not have a final name for this quilt. When I was going to make a quilt with just HST, inspired by a quilt made by Crazy Mom, Amanda Nyberg, I was going to call it Nightfall. Since there were a lot of light fabrics mixed in with the blues, I wanted to name it reflecting both the night and morning skies and maybe a little disappointment with the way the quilt looked at first, so I jokingly considered calling it Nightmare or Downfall.

Happily while quilting it with a combination of straight and wavy lines, I came up with the name Skyfall which came with a song with the same name by Adele. And yes I was singing it and playing the song while machine quilting which went well and liking Skyfall even more partially due to this quilt finally getting a nice proper name. I used Aurifil #2610 Light Blue Gray for the top and #2605 Gray for the bottom.

Here’s a photo of the backing which is the Jungle Jive print from Blank Textile found in the backing vault.  I thought showing the backing would answer any questions as to why I used  a different color thread for the bottom. The binding is a very dark Navy print from Aubade which I almost wasn’t going to use because it was too dark but decided to use it to justify the dark prints in Skyfall. Plus I had ordered it from a shop in Alaska several years ago after much searching for it and didn’t want the trip to be for naught.

Skyfall measures 64”x80” which is a little too large for the Master Quilt Holder to hold up comfortably. We went to the park for a photo shoot and he was willing to stand up on a park or picnic bench in order for the quilt to hang right but the Wind was just too breezy. Maybe Mother Nature thought I should have named the quilt Windy since there is a song that goes with that name.

Well it turned out the best photo was taken after our park visit from our front porch off to the side where all of the blues showed up beautifully, especially the medium blues. The Wind did not follow us home which made me think of the adage “there’s no place like Home” and did confess to the Master Quilt Holder that we didn’t need to go the park after all. I don’t think he really care since there was no falling off the benches involved.

I had a pretty productive month in September; four Finally Finishes which two commitments were met, a DrEAMi and Skyfall which I’m calling a just because I could when you’re home for five days. Also, with these Finally Finishes meant writing four posts in one month which is something I have not done in awhile. When I started my Blog, I used to write weekly posts which have now evolved into monthly posts for the past two years. But surprise, surprise, I will be writing another Post for October 1st which is the Five Year Anniversary of my something rosemade Blog. I’m doing this mainly to have a record of this milestone and mostly will be just stats, so now I’m off to do some compiling.

P.S., On my last post, I mentioned that I’ve been on a fabric purchasing binge lately which I attributed it to observing my 25 Anniversary of being a Quilter and maybe instead of buying 25 yards of fabric I should instead buy 25 lbs. Well, I am just loving the comment made by Nancy’s husband who said I should purchase 25 bolts of fabric which immediately put him in contention for Best Quilt Husband Ever and had me thinking which bolts of fabrics I would buy. So, maybe a new laptop for my 5 Year Blog Anniversary would be a nice way gift since there’s only so much fabric one can buy, right?

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT Thursday 

September Scream: Eerie Unruly

I wasn’t planning on making a Halloween quilt this year since I thought I was good with the three Projects finished last year. As I was putting away some recently purchased fat quarters of Halloween fabrics with the remnants of the Eerie Alley stash, I heard the screams of the Squirrels yelling that a Halloween quilt needed to be made for the Grandparent House. Normally, this would be considered a DrEAMi project but since this involves Halloween fabrics, it’s the month of September and I like alliteration in my titles, I’m calling this a Scream. 

Just having finished participating with Scrappy Improv Quilting Book Tour hosted by the author, Kelly Young, I knew just the right pattern I wanted to make. Kelly’s Unruly Pattern (not an affiliate Link) is one of my most favorite quilt patterns  and I now have finally finished three quilts with two more being in the processed of being finished. I describe this pattern as an improv version of a rail fence pattern made with big strips and definitely more merrier when made with lots of fun fabric. This pattern is fat quarter friendly and as you can see from the fabric above, it was just right for the Unruly pattern. I like that the Eerie Alley fabrics from years past went so well with the newly acquired fat quarters along with the addition of some blenders to offset the prints. Over twenty-one different prints were used in this quilt and although I only needed fifteen, like I said before, the more, the merrier.

I should mention that not only the Unruly pattern is great for fat quarters or stash fabric, it’s also is a quick and easy make.  It only took three days for it to be a Finally Finish. I did modify the width of the quilt in order to be able to use a piece of batting which would not have been wide enough and someone was too lazy to pull out the roll of batting to cut another piece.

Vertical straight-line machine quilting, spaced 1” apart, with Smoke Gray Aurifil #50 thread was done to showcase the many fun prints.

Binding was a thin black and white stripe found in the binding drawer and a black tone on tone fabric was used for the backing which I did not take a pic. I will say that I was committed to using  something from the stash but had a hard time deciding which one to use since I’m always afraid it may be needed for a future project, so I think. This quilt measures approximately 58” x 75”.

It’s been almost three years since I made the darling Granddaughter her first Halloween quilt and a new one was needed since  this one is almost too short for her long legs. I just love the fun colors of orange, purple, lime green, etc and glad they’re still around.

The Eerie Unruly Quilt was a Finally Finish just before we left for the Grandparent House last weekend. I was able to take a photo of it  on the front porch along with some Halloween/Fall decor I luckily had around the house. (Do you see the squirrel on the table, most  fitting, don’t you think?) I bet you know who would look sweet with her new Halloween quilt and I definitely will take photo of her in her Halloween regalia with the quilt next month. I’m pretty proud that for someone who in previous years could not make a quilt, etc. in time for Halloween and has now done this two years in a row now. There were an awful lot of new Halloween prints this year and I did buy another collection which you may see next year for my impending trifecta of yearly Halloween finishes.

BTW, I thought I mention that for the past month or two, I’ve been indulging in some major fabric purchases and finally realize that my heart knew before my brain that this month is my 25th Anniversary or my Silver Anniversary of being a Quilter. What a great way to acknowledge this milestone is with fabric and if I was keeping tabs on fabric purchases this year, this wouldn’t count because according to my rules, fabric gifts don’t count. I’m feeling a little less guilty now and wondering if I bought enough—I think it should be 25 lbs and not 25 yards which is a whole lot of fabric.

 

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Scrappy Improv QUILTING Book Blog Tour:Flutter

Today is the second stop of the Blog Tour and I am so excited to finally share my project from Kelly’s book. This is the first time participating in a book blog tour and even made more extra special because I am a big fan of Kelly’s patterns having made five quilts and at least two more in the planning stage. I already have her Stash Statement book and have been looking forward to this book and I will tell you it was worth the wait.

All of the participants in the Blog Tour were able to chose their projects from the 22 mini quilts featured in the book and I was happy with my choice of Flutter which is in the Single Block Beauties section. The description for this section is sew apropos:

“If you’re new to the improv game, single-block quilts are a great way to start playing with the process. Whether the improv pieces are color-controlled designs or multi-color explosions, whether they’re in the background or featured in the block units, a single focal point is a great way to make a big impact with just a little effort.”

The only improv piecing I’ve done was making Scrap Vortex quilts but never made improv panels specifically to make pieced blocks so I was up for this new challenge, especially with all of the scraps I keep on accumulating.

Before I started making Flutter, I had to decide on a color so I did some research on this website: https://www.color-meanings.com/butterfly-color-meanings-and-symbolism/.

As I read the symbolic means of Butterfly Colors section, I knew my Flutter needed to be Blue:

“A person who sees a blue butterfly is believed to be very lucky. It is thought to be our departed ones speaking to us. It can also be viewed as a divine intervention of God or higher power”

I lost a very, very dear friend, Nancy, this year, whom I worked with for many years and stayed in touch with after I left the company in 1997. To say she was one of the most loveliest and kind hearted person I’ve every known is nowhere near how I feel about her and am just very grateful she was once part of my life. What saddens me the most is that with all of the traveling and happenings of  last year, I missed our annual catching-up call of which I feel so guilty. Even if I knew she was ill, I wouldn’t have been able to see her because of COVID restrictions but how I wished I could have spoken to her to hear her sweet voice again. My Flutter Quilt is perfect for my remembrance of Nancy and the joy she brought to my life and others and will be hanging it in a spot where I will be reminded of her everyday.

Kelly gives very clear and concise instructions on how to make the improv panels. I made sure none of my patches, mostly C+S and Carrie Bloomston scraps, were less than 1”wide. Even though these panels can easily be made with just strips and squares, I knew I had to add an angled strip which you can see on the left side since I planned on using it for the wing patches.

Unfortunately, there was a problem once I cut the two patches since both of them were angled in the same direction and it needed to be opposite in order for the wings to be emphasized. I may have broken the que’ sera, sera rule of this improv technique but you can see what I did by reworking the left patch which may be a little controlling but I knew it would look better.

Once the patches were cut, assembling was fast and easy thanks to paying close attention to the instructions. Can you see the stain glass effect this improv technique has especially using Kim Schaefer’s Black and White Pick Up Sticks for the background?

I liked that I was able to quilt Flutter with my latest favorite way to machine quilt—quadrant straight-line and it’s so easy once you draw the X across the block. 

Having already made several mini or small quilts this year, Flutter was a quick, easy and satisfying make. I have to mention that Flutter was a Finally Finish more than a month before the start of the blog tour for several good reasons:

• In 2018, I participated in Kelly’s Classic Meet Modern QAL and towards the end of the year, I fractured my left knee while on vacation, so I was unable to keep up with the monthly blocks for several months. Not to tempt fate or a repeat of another “trip” while hiking, I wanted to make sure Flutter was ready for the Book Blog Tour before we left for Steamboat Springs at the end of August
• I knew we would be visiting Yampa River Botanic Garden while on vacation which would be the most perfect setting to take photos of Flutter

Flutter measures 14”x20” and the perfect size to hang it from a tree or trellis, lay it on a rock or by a sculpture. I even found a spot where there was a sign which included the name “Nancy”.

My most favorite photo of all from the Botanic Garden is this one which the Master Quilt Holder demonstrated his agility of hiding behind the sculpture named “The Joy of Life”. Those fingers you see holding Flutter, I’m saying they are golden butterflies which magically appeared to hold the quilt up.

As I was walking through the garden, I thought it would be a wonderful setting to showcase  all of the mini quilts featured in the book. There are so many places I could see them hanging or lying around. I’m even thinking of using a garden flag stand holder to hang future minis on my front porch. BTW, my tour cohort for today is Diann, Little Penguin Quilts and will be featuring her quilt Botanics, (which is the one of the quilts I want to make), lives in Colorado. I thought it would be fun for us to meet up to take a photo of our quilts together, but didn’t, because I didn’t want to put any pressure on Diann in case she wasn’t ready—she already knows me as being a little crazy when it comes to taking photos of quilts outside.

Thank you Kelly for inviting me to participate in this fun blog tour and for writing another wonderful quilt book—the “teacher” in you really shines in this book and may I say that the size of it reminds me of the workbooks I used when I was once a wee little schoolgirl. Thanks for stopping by to read this post and hope you read the other Participants’ posts on their scheduled days. Also, if you already haven’t, I hope you will be inspired to purchase Scrappy Improv QUILTING (not an affiliate link). I can truly say there will be more than one mini quilt you will want to make for your home or office to remember a special day or holiday or even a special person in your life.

Linking up with:

http://www.myquiltinfatuation.com/2021/09/ntt-september-kind-of-project.html?m=1

Dear Tula With a Twist Quilt

My Dear Tula with a Twist (DTWT) quilt is my September finish for Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge but more importantly is the last of the three Dear Tula Pink quilts started in 2013. I posted about the Dear Tula Pink Quilts in 2017 in which my two Quilt Peeps (Mary and Linda, my 21st Century Bulls-Eye QALers) and I all made and exchanged quilt blocks from Tula Pink’s 100 Modern Quilt Block book. To make a long story short, neither of us made all 100 blocks and since we all used such different fabric combinations, there was no way one quilt could be made so I decided I would make three separate quilts. The first quilt comprising of Linda’s blocks was made in 2014 and my quilt was made in 2017.

Mary’s blocks were made mainly from a 2010 Sanae OZ fabric line from Moda which I loved and intended to purchase but never did. I was happy to see Mary used it for these blocks except for one thing; she also used a Thimbleberries print with is the cinnamon brown floral print which is also one of my favorite prints but wouldn’t use it with the Oz prints. I will say it did closely match with one of the colors in the print. When I describe Mary’s quilt style, I always say it’s mostly traditional but with a twist, thus the reason why I named this quilt Dear Tula With a Twist. I received her blocks in 2014 and later when I was in Arkansas and visited a small quilt shop by the resort, I was happy to find fat quarters and yardage of the focus print of the OZ collection. I still, though, was undecided with what to make but knew that strips and squares were going to be involved.

One of the challenges with making this quilt was to finally decided on the quilt design and the DTWT quilt is what I called making do with what I had; a two yard piece of the lovely focus print, yardage of the green and brown stripe, various fat quarters with twenty-one of Tula/Mary blocks. Not to throw Mary under the bus, but I will, before I could do anything, the blocks needed to be trimmed to a consistent size since they were not the 6.5” size as in the book and you know I hate making anything with increments that are not whole or half inch.

I’m quite pleased with what I came up with, a vertical row quilt with three rows of seven each of the Tula/Mary block offset with four rows of plain blocks made from the fat quarters. All of the blocks were sashed with the green and brown stripe fabric. Sadly, I only had enough fabric to make a quilt measuring 40”x52”.

The 40”x52” size turned out to be the perfect size because I only had two yards of this lovely focus print which I may have wanted to use for the front of the quilt. I could not bear to cut it and thought it would be best to save it for the backing.  This is really a big print, the flowers almost measure 12” tall and could be one of those quilts you want to show off the back.

Quilting was going to be tight since there was only a little more than an inch on each side and thankfully there were no problems.

I decided to machine quilt wavy lines, 1 inch apart, with #6001 Yellow Aurifil thread and love  the way it looks and feel.

Here’s another pic; I just love how this quilt turned out.

The size of this quilt is what I call a nice size for it to be a leg warmer or car quilt and I won’t have any problems using it for this reason. I am finding that during short/capri season my legs do get cold sometimes. As for the OZ scraps I have leftover, I promised them to Linda since she still hasn’t made anything with the Tula/Mary blocks yet. I’m pretty sure Mary has fabric for her quilt if she decides to ever make her quilt.

Just a reminder that next week is Kelly Young’s Blog Tour for her latest book Scrappy Improv Quilting and I am so excited to finally reveal my project on Wednesday, 9/15. I hope you visit my post as well as the other participants on this tour. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this book; the projects, instructions, the section organization, etc. and I bet you will find a project you will be inspired to make. You can check out the blog tour schedule Here.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation, NTT