Fast-Forward Fourteen

It only took FOURTEEN years for these blocks to make it to the finished flimsy stage! Yep, I know that's how long it’s been because I looked it up; this was a block of the month project that occurred in 2007! 😲 I have a large plastic bin in the bottom of the stash closet, it contains more "antique" treasures too! Last week I dragged that bin out into the light of day and emptied its contents onto my sewing table. 

Here is what was awaiting me as I pawed through, what seemed like, years of my quilting life; six sets of unset blocks from BOM programs at my local quilt shop. The quilt pictured on top from 2007 wasn't the only one that I did blocks for that year, oh no; I also did what was known as the "traditional colorway" and piled those blocks up too! They're in the #3 pile above; this BOM was the "Hidden Stars Sampler", done with templates by Marti Michell, I have all the matching setting fabric neatly bundled together with the finished blocks which certainly makes bringing them to that all-important "flimsy" stage that much easier. Group #1, above, was a program entitled "Creative Options"; those are relative newcomers to the bin, they're from 2015, only six years old. The black/bright blocks in stack #4 are from 2011; I don't have any setting fabric from those but I do have the fabric and pattern for two additional blocks as I'd only completed ten. Why? Who knows, that was ten years ago! The mounds of blocks numbered #2 and #5 are harder to put exact dates to, they're VERY old; at least fifteen years have passed since I started those. The mound of fabric and blocks identified as #6 are red and white "trial" blocks from other projects, they've been collected over the years as I've experimented with  new patterns. So, here's the plan: none of them are going back into the shadows of the closet! The bin is now empty and it will remain that way. These UFO's have seen the light (as have their maker) and each is destined to make it into the "finished" column ASAP. From there; who knows, one step at a time. They've been sitting this long, clearly there's no identified destination. 

Progress report: "Summer Stars" has been loaded onto the rails for quilting. Unlike fine wine, flimsies don't necessarily improve with age; but, what does increase their value is to be quilted, bound and done!  And sew it goes... "instant" vintage! 😉 

Life is Good!

Finished is GREAT!!

Stitching Up A Storm

Scrappy Shining Stars 65" X 83"

Remember all those piles of scraps that I have cut? Well, they're being used. I am holding fast to my guiding word for the year: VISION. I have a goal of making up stacks of scrap quilts in 2020 using what is right under my nose. Here's my first idea. This one will utilize 3.5" squares  in  9" 9-patches combining with 4-patches (2" UF squares for a 3" finished 4-patch) inside of wonky stars. My constant fabric will be a charcoal Essex linen which I've had on the shelf for years. I designed this setting for the over all quilt in EQ. If the border blocks make the whole look too busy I may ditch the border, we'll see.

This one will use us 2.5" squares stitched into 16-patches with X-blocks alternately. Again, all from the stash. I was inspired by this one when I did an  Internet search and found this layout.

Next up on my cutting table were these two blocks to get me caught up with the latest BOM at my LQS. You might remember that I made four of these blocks into placemats for my son and DIL a few months ago; these will receive the same treatment, giving them a set of eight for their kitchen table. 

Today our youngest granddaughter turns seven years old! 😲 Santa brought her a camper trailer for her American Girl dolls for Christmas. When she showed me how the table turned into a bed for the camper we decided that her doll needed a sleeping bag. I found just what I needed to create one, and a pillow, by shopping my stash. Score! Yep, VISION-- I can see more scraps being used up! I believe she'll like really like this. I found a few online sleeping bag patterns and combined three of them.

All that scrap sewing uses up load and loads of tumblers when they're used as Leader-Enders. 

More scraps being used, more quilt tops appearing; it's all good!

Life is Good!

Up next: A Finish and Another Sew-Along

Never Too Late

It's never too late to change your mind; at least not when it comes to finishing a quilt.  This one was a long time coming too, it had been loaded and unloaded off the rails more times than I can count; to quilt other quilts. Finally, last weekend, this Sampler saw that last quilting stitch go in and it was time for trimming and binding.

I laid it out in the foyer to get some quick snapshots last Sunday afternoon. As you can see, I heavily quilted this one; creating different fills and patterns in each block and filling in with whimsical feathers. This is why it took forever for me to complete, there was much auditioning and thought process involved.

This quilt is the result of a block-of-the-month from at least ten years ago. I had purchased enough of a small coordinating print (with that celery-green as its background) for the backing and had carefully stored it in my stash closet all these years, so I was good to go. I remembered, on Sunday, that I had also stored enough fabric to bind this one. Could I find it? NO! I thought, for sure, that I had enough of that brick red to cut 363" linear inches of binding. I tore the closet apart. It wasn't there. I was sad but undaunted, I knew that I could always use the trimmings from the backing to make enough binding and call it a day-- DONE! I meticulously cut the binding and attached it all around, even marking my stitching line so that it would be absolutely perfect. All the while, though, I wasn't happy with the binding choice. It needed to be darker, it needed more pizzazz. I talked myself into stitching it down onto the quilt anyway; after all, what else could I do? I stitched 7/8 of the way around the quilt (including all four mitered corners!) before I stopped. I decided to look for my designated binding fabric one. more. time. I walked to the stash closet. There it was! Sitting ever so sweetly mid-way down through the stack of neatly folded red fabrics; and, of course, there was exactly enough! I was speechless. Off came the binding pictured at the top of this post. Yes, it took me a few more hours to pick all the threads, make new binding, attach it and baste it down. I am ready to finish this one now for once and for all-- with a satisfied smile on my face. My mother's words ring in my ears: "if it's worth doing it's worth doing right"; that applies to finishing too! It's never too late to change your mind. Oh, and now this quilt has a name: "Never Too Late"; it is appropriate on oh-so-many levels. 

I need a better inventory system in that closet though!

Life is Good! 

 

Obedience School

"Obedience School"  50" X 57.5"

With the help of Sundance all the quilting is completed, at long last, on "Obedince School"; I'll be applying binding this afternoon. Luckily for me, I found the perfect piece (and exactly the right amount!) of dark blue/black fabric yesterday in the stash closet for binding; it truly has become the closet that just keeps on giving... oh dear, do I ever need to shop again?! This quilt top has been in the "to be quilted" queue for quite some time, making the (soon to be) finish on this one all that much sweeter. As always, Hannes is more than happy to pose on any right-off-the-rails quilt; he looks especially at home on this one though with all of his canine buddies!

This is the backside, giving you a feel for the density of the quilting on this one.

" Obedience School" detail.

Life is Good!

Controlling The Ruler Rebellion

 I have an ample-sized drawer in my sewing room cutting table in which I keep all my rulers. Unfortunately, the contents of which are more often than not... unruly! Every time I want a find a straight edge or a square ruler I constantly have to shift the contents of the drawer, digging through the layers to find the ruler that I need. All of my specialty rulers are also kept in that drawer and, for some reason, they continually migrate to the top making the search for one ruler all the more difficult. Enough was enough! I removed every one of the specialty rulers and went down to the workshop in search of a handful of small nails on which to hang them on the wall in the stash closet. This brilliant idea of mine was met with resistance, Mr. Goodneedle didn't share my vision, he wasn't in favor of making swiss cheese out of the sheetrock; he said he'd make me a ruler board instead and we could attach them to that. Yesterday was installation day.

One board wasn't large enough, I needed two... with room for more rulers.

Here they both are in the closet, this is a huge improvement over the mess I had in that drawer.

Detail shot, he added small dowel "pegs" to the board for hanging and kindly drilled holes in the rulers that had no holes. Now there's a place for everything... and everything in its place just like Mom used to say! No more fighting to find what I need in the "heap", exerting control in the sewing room is a good thing. Oh, and a side note: removing the contents of the drawer was enlightening; I found duplicate rulers! Oh, my!

Life is Good!