Who's At The Door?

Welcome! Mr. Snowman is all quilted, bound and is guarding the door to the sewing room for the winter months. This was a wonderful Country Threads pattern to stitch up, you can find it here. 

I used a straight-line quilting approach for a quick and easy finish. Somehow I made twice as many flying geese units than I needed (?!!), they were relegated to the back. 

And, speaking of people at the door... our doorbell rang yesterday after lunch. Outside stood our next door neighbor with this roll of batting, it was accidentally delivered to his house. I've been waiting for this order since the 11th of November! I have been piecing batting scraps together (and making door banners and table runners) since that time. From what I understand the batting companies are still running wa-a-a-a-a-y behind in their orders. Hopefully this situation will catch up before I find myself needing to order again; this 30 yard roll should last me a good while!

Life is Good!

Hangin' with Harvey

There's a sameness to every day right now. Although I do try to keep to a normal (for me) schedule during these days-on-end of staying at home and quarantining- (getting up at 6, dressing for the day, morning walks, regular mealtimes, cleaning house on Fridays, ironing on Saturday mornings...) I dispensed with decorating the house for Easter this year. I can't remember ever NOT doing that before.  There were, however, a few exceptions... I did get out my bunny and chick salt and pepper shakers and an embroidered rabbit tea towel. 
And, I ordered a table runner pattern for NEXT Easter, it was just too cute to resist. It's from Up A Creek quilting if you're interested in the source. It will be added to my "to do" list for next year. There's great hope in looking forward!
But, for the most part, the sameness of each day- one. after. another. left me uninspired to decorate. But, of course, then there's Harvey! Harvey has been the large-as-life touchstone to this month of April for me. I greet him every morning when I enter the studio and blow him a kiss goodnight when I shut off the lights at day's end. He hangs proudly and faithfully on the door, performing sentry duty.

Harvey is a Country Threads pattern. I made him up a year ago and he went together quickly and easily. If anyone would like this pattern he's still available for $10 and a SASE to: Country Threads, 2345 Palm Ave., Garner, IA 50438 (make sure you indicate "Harvey' on your check memo). Harvey and I have been great friends since he came to live here and I'm grateful for his presence on days that seemingly run together right now. He'll be replaced soon by Uncle Sam. Along with my VISION 2020 scrap quilts that I'm cranking out; this will also be the year of American flag quilts for me. I have two more flag patterns calling my name and a big box of curated red, white and blue fabrics set aside expressly for that purpose. 

This shirt has more meaning than ever this year!😉 I've been wearing it a LOT lately. 

You know what they say about how people come to look alike after spending loads of time together?

I suppose there's some truth to that, especially since I've been hangin' all day, every day, with Harvey!

Life is Good!

 

Leaving It All On The Table

I have started out the month by finishing up a couple of table toppers for fall. Both of these were done from charm squares. The first, shown left, is called "Split Square" and came straight from Country Threads' book: "Sew Charming". This was the small quilt that I hurriedly pieced together before the all-important block "trim down" stage. 🙄 As a result, it touched down in the bottom of the trash can for a period of time. A cooler head prevailed; rescued it, took it apart, trimmed it down and finished it. I am SEW happy that I did!

The second table topper to land on the table where we eat our meals and play our daily Cribbage matches is this one, below. Also made from charm squares but this time assembled as nine patches. I used the "Charming Nine Patches" approach to stitching up this one from the Country Threads blog  linked here. 

 This one has an antique-y feel withe the blocks joined one to another without sashing. The squares in each block finish to 1"; giving it also, a sort of woven appearance. I quilted it with the same pantograph (Paisley Max) and same tawny gold thread color as the Split Square above.

These two have given the kitchen table a bright and welcome face-lift for the new season. Grab yourself some charm squares and see how you might brighten up your space by leaving it all on the table. 

Now-- a PSA: I got my annual screening mammogram done this morning; yes, it just happens to be breast cancer awareness month. I celebrated with a Pink Ribbon bagel from Panera afterwards. These cherry vanilla bagels also just so happen to be my very favorites! Available only in October, I buy them up by the dozen and freeze them for the rest of the year. Our local Panera happens to be observing 100% of Pink Ribbon bagel sales for this week only donated to breast cancer research, check your local store for details (I believe the remainder of the month it's a portion of the sales); either way it's a true win-win!  If you like cherry-vanilla, this treat WON'T be left on the table! I promise. 

Life is Good!

Transitioning

I teased with this picture of stacked stars in a previous post. This quilt is a welcome transition from all those bright fabrics used when making Frank.
This is a long-abandoned project that needed to be brought to the front burner. I am inspired by Country Threads and their "Dirty Dozen" challenge this year. (The premise: identify 12 UFOs and give each a unique number from 1-12. Each month a number is selected and announced on their blog; that is the "assignment" for that month.) With determination and focus, the years' end will bring twelve completed projects! When I began collecting low volume prints I made a series of quilts for family members and cut this one out for myself. It was promptly forgotten. (I still collect low volumes; they're so appealing in their own, quiet, way. Sigh. Some habits are hard to break.) I absolutely LOVE this quilt and it is growing, it easily could become a master class in set-in seams!🙄 I have named it "A Kind of Hush" in honor of a old favorite Herman's Hermits song.

Eventually it will measure 56" X 72" when squared up, a good size; I'm already excited about quilting this one too! With all those set-in seams, though, there are lots of starts and stops. Quiltkeemosabe reminded me that I could make this without the set-ins by dividing the hexagons in half and sewing it in straight rows. yes, I could. But, I already had this all cut and ready. If nothing else, I am tenacious. 😉

Which means, with all those set-ins, that a bonus(!) quilt is growing at the same time; Leader-Ender style. You might remember that I cut oodles of tumblers this summer when cleaning out my charm square bins. I am in no danger of depleting the still-burgeoning tumbler basket! One can only use so many tumbler quilts, this one will be donated to a worthy cause. Waste not, want not. 

Speaking of using up what's on hand: a handful of leftover WOF scraps from the most recent nap blanket workshop (and a free afternoon) yielded enough to make this Streak of Sunshine child's quilt; another donation in the making. Yes, the machines are humming around here. We're finally transitioning, albeit VERY s-l-o-w-l-y, into fall and cooler temperatures here in the south. 

I discovered this friend when transitioning our front porch planters to colorful fall flowers!

Have you said your prayers today?

Life is Good!

Up next: leaving it all on the table. 

How Do You Quilt A Rabbit?

There's a rabbit in the studio this morning; a great big, white rabbit.  The pattern is an old one from Country Threads. I have wanted to make "Harvey" for years, well-- 2019 became THE year! You know how sometimes you just decide to drop everything, or push it to the back of the cutting table to make room for that ONE THING that you decide has to happen here and now? Well, Harvey became that one thing. It was now or never, Harvey pushed himself to the front of the line for Easter, you know how pushy rabbits can be.  This is the pattern, dated 1997. I collected all of the Country Threads patterns back in the day. If you go to the link above, reprints are still available, for a limited time only. He went to together quickly and easily, the pieces are big! He measures, as shown,  21" X 53".

Somewhere along the line I checked out the notions requirements for buttons, etc. I found these, at the same time, when cleaning out a drawer. They belonged to my MIL, they had been stashed in the old 301 cabinet that I inherited a few years back. They're the perfect size and were destined to become his eyes and shirt buttons. The cards were marked at 15 cents. That might give a clue to their age. I set them aside.

Then it was time to load "Harvey" onto Snowbird for quilting. But, I ask, how do you  quilt a rabbit? The pattern included those dreaded three words: "quilt as desired". Okay, no help there. 

I chose straight-line quilting with a ruler. It seemed to work well for this door banner. 

After quilting he received his features: eyes, whiskers and button embellishments. I just so happened to find one more thing while cleaning out yet another drawer(!); the perfect finishing touch!

Bunny buttons for his fancy French cuffs, ooooh, la-la! They're pewter and were found in my own mother's button box! His name has now changed. He is no longer "Harvey" but now his name is "Buttons"; Buttons the Bunny, it was a natural choice, with assistance from both of my Moms. 💗

Buttons is keeping guard of the studio door now as I come and go, he makes me smile. The following has been declared by both of our granddaughters: "he is my favorite quilt ever!"

And so, the answer to the riddle: "how do you quilt a rabbit?"

"Very gently!"

Life is Good!