Lakeside Picnic - Better Late Than Never

You never know what you'll find when you start cleaning out a closet, especially in a sewing room. Maybe treasures, maybe trash, usually both. My normal responses vary from “Oh wow!” and “I remember that fabric” to “Why did I even keep that?” or “What the hell was I thinking?”

This little quilt is one of two pretty unfinished quilt tops I found stashed in an unlabeled box. Looking back at my quilt diary, I worked on it in the summer of 2013. I'm not sure why I laid it aside, but the pieced backing and the border fabric was stored with it. I probably had several projects going at once and it got lost in the shuffle. But here it is now, all finished.

A simple rail fence block is arranged using blue prints alternating with a green & white check. Borders are a lovely solid green and a blue floral. I think it has a 1930's vibe going. The back is pieced with wide and narrow stacked strips. I quilted the center section using a straight stitch in green thread, following the rails. On the borders, I changed to a multi zig-zag utility stitch.

Lakeside Picnic is 45” square and ready to use now that it rested for 11 years. The other top with backing has been added to the To Be Quilted shelf in my decluttered and organized closet. You'll see it soon, I hope.

Better late than never!

Dreamtime

Dreamtime

As many quilts as I make, fabric scraps multiply quickly. Every few weeks I have a cutting session to keep the remnant baskets from overflowing. 

Using Accuquilt dies, I cut my most used sizes of squares, triangles, strips, and tumblers.  I sort them into inexpensive kitchen storage boxes, then label and stack in my cabinets. With all these pieces organized, my sewing room is neater and I'm able to sew a quick quilt anytime.

Today's project is made up of 4 ½” hourglass blocks in bright, cheerful colors and cool white/cream/gray neutrals pulled from my stash. It's an adorable 40” square baby quilt called Dreamtime. After piecing the blocks, I arranged them on my design wall to balance the colors before sewing them together.

I quilted it on Rockette, my latest Singer machine (see last week's post for that story). I used white thread in a straight stitch 3/8” from each horizontal and vertical seam line.  Perfect, neat and simple.  Love that Slant-O-Matic!

Accuquilt dies used:

55398  4 ½” finished Quarter Square Triangles

55017 2 ½” Strips

Come with me,

where dreams are born,

and time is never planned.

~ Peter Pan

Daydreams

Fun and color were on my mind when I designed this week's featured quilt. Using up some of my scraps is a happy bonus. I cut crossed canoe blocks and 5” squares in shades of aqua, red, blue, yellow, orange, green and purple with gray contrast.

I laid out the design in EQ8 software so that I could experiment with color placement. Daydreams is 45” x 54” in size. Backing is a white and gray wide print. I quilted with gray thread in a scallop stitch.

Accuquilt dies used:  

Crossed Canoes 55181

5” square 55010

Final 2019 project count is fifty-one. I've enjoyed sewing each and every one and though I always want to keep them, I have gifted a few.

I'm looking forward to the new year, even though the temperature here in Tennessee has been unseasonably warm. 

My 2020 quilt to do list is growing quickly, but first I'll take some time this week to organize the sewing room.

As for other resolutions, I say make a few, break a few, but always live the life you choose.

Crimson Glory

Crimson Glory

It's time to share my latest modern replica of a Granny Rose quilt. I have made several reproductions of her work, using EQ8 to design and Accuquilt to cut.  

This interesting block was one from her box of unfinished items. It's an old one called glorified nine patch, although there are actually 13 pieces. I guess that's the glorified part. I don't know if this was a test block or if it was left over from a scrap quilt.

I decided on red and white prints with a few gray accents for a cheerful Valentine touch. Crimson Glory features the kite block combined with 2½” squares, so no curves to stitch. My modified version has 21 pieces for each block.  I'd sure hate to cut all 550+ with scissors.

The pieced bright red border frames everything nicely. Quilting was done with white thread, following the outlines and crossing the blocks diagonally. 

The back is a red and white diagonal stripe fabric, split by nine patch squares in a row. Final 48” x 58” size is just right for a throw.

In addition to her completed quilts, Jerold's granny clipped design ideas from ads in Progressive Farmer and other magazines, and I saved them all. She cut templates from paper sacks, making notes on them for color ideas and number of pieces to cut. I'm lucky to have this quilty treasure.  More inspiration for me!

Star Crossed

Star Crossed

I enjoy combining blocks to make new designs with EQ8 software. Star Crossed is a combination of the ribbon star block, split by sashing strips to create a cross. I used 3” squares and half square triangles with 3” x 6” rectangles, all cut with AccuQuilt.

Refreshing navy, coral, and sea green prints contrast nicely with cream tone on tone fabric. Six large blocks made this one quick and easy to sew. Backing and binding are navy prints. For quilting I used single and triple serpentine stitches in a pale creamy yellow thread. 

I completed this one in mid December. I have one final finished quilt from 2018 to share next week, with a couple still in progress. 

By the way, my final project count for last year was 47, coming in slightly under my goal of one project per week. Still not bad...perhaps my newly organized room will improve my productivity. It's definitely kick-started my creativeness; I have six designs already done and at least dozen ideas waiting.

“Organize your life around your dreams,

then watch them come true”

- Unknown

Quilting Frame and Reorganization Update

Here's my new toy: the Flynn Multi-Frame Quilting System. It's a lightweight three rail frame to hold quilt layers taut while free motion stitching on a regular sewing machine. It is easy to set up once you watch the demonstration video. It's portable and stores in the original box. 

The Amazon price of $136 is very reasonable compared to other home machine frames costing $1,100 and up. Those are really big too, and I don't have enough space for that.

I made a test quilt first, which I've cut into sleeping mats for Callie cat. She won't care that my stitching is cattywampus. There will be a learning curve: most skills improve with practice. Yesterday I quilted my first quilt on it, and while there are a few mistakes, I chalk them up to experience. I won't use the frame for every quilt.  Larger ones won't fit unless I get longer rails, and some designs need more precise stitching with a walking foot. 

Follow up: If you read last week's blog, you know this purchase created the opportunity to make more space around my machine by rearranging my furniture. I did order two new under table cabinets to hold thread, accessories, and tools. They arrived on Friday, and we put them together right away. Don't they look so much nicer than the plastic containers?

I cleaned out my tall white cabinets, arranging supplies closer to where they are needed and moving seldom used ones to high closet shelves. Efficiency rules! I even tossed some things into my donation box. The room is not minimalist by any means, but I am hoping to keep my space neater and organized. Callie supervised the action, and I think she approves.

Last week was busy, now on to practice on a few UFO's that I never got around to quilting. And as always, I need to use up some fabric from my stash so I can buy more.

Quick Summer Sewing

While I haven't posted much about sewing lately, I'm at the machine or designing every week. Here are a few small projects I've completed this spring and early summer. 

 

A quilted tote bag in gray, blue and turquoise is strip pieced from scraps. It has a zipper closure and is large enough to hold my tablet, makeup bag, and more.

The black garden tool print wallet has three zipper compartments to carry anything I need for a quick shopping trip: coupons, phone, lipstick, keys, cash, cards and ID.

A bright and cheery sunflower table mat features decorative stitching. Another little table mat has bright turquoise and black prints on one side and neutral gray and white on the other.

My favorite so far is this smaller purse made in crisp blue chambray with a coordinating stripe. It's perfect for summer. 

Finally, I whipped up a new valance for my laundry room using black ticking and a clothespin print, tied on with homespun strips. 
 

Handy People

We fix things around this house. My husband is the most talented guy when it comes to repairing stuff, and I'm not too shabby myself. We both like the challenge of troubleshooting and figuring out what's wrong and how things work.

This weekend it was our ten year old dishwasher. It's been a little stinky, so the other day I ran it with vinegar, cleaned out the filters, and scrubbed the seals, but nothing worked. Sunday morning it leaked on the floor. Uh-oh.

We found two places that may have caused the leak and a whole lot of yukky gray and black gunk built up under a plastic flange.  How could you possibly keep that clean?  We had to remove and get inside the door panel to access it!   A new part is on order, and the air vent is cleaned and reinstalled.

I guess I'm lucky...we saved whatever service companies might have charged for a 2-3 hour repair visit. But if we weren't so darn handy I might have a brand new stainless steel dishwasher right now. Hmmm.

“He taught me that there is no shame in breaking something, only in not being able to fix it.” ~Hope Jahren

“She believed in getting as much use as possible from everything, and thought that as long as machinery, or anything else, could be cajoled into operation, it should be kept; to do otherwise, she thought, was wasteful.”  ~Alexander McCall Smith

Expectations

We all have expectations; whether they're high or low depends mainly on our current situation. Sometimes they give us a false sense of security. Other times we are pleasantly surprised when the outcome is better than we thought.

As we wait for the groundhog to appear tomorrow, enjoy a few of my favorite quotes on this interesting subject.

Coffee has given me unrealistic expectations of productivity.

This is not a bakery. I don't sugar coat anything. If you ask for my opinion, that's what you will get. Don't get mad when it's not what you want to hear.

People who wonder if the glass is half empty or half full miss the point.  The glass is refillable.

It is a mistake to set high expectations for people who have already let you down.

Too many people miss the silver lining because they are expecting gold.

I wonder if my expectations are too high, or if I am just expecting things from the wrong people.

Follow the trail of your dreams, not the highway of others' expectations.