Happy Houses

My local quilt guild has a monthly block lottery in which I usually participate. Last month the call was for any size house block, any style or technique, but the house needed to be lime green and the sky black on white or white on black. I love the combination of lime green and black and white. I also love house blocks. I made three. 😁

One of the things I enjoy most is putting images in the doors and windows.

And of course I wouldn't resist adding a touch of Halloween. 😉

There weren't a lot of other blocks turned in this time but I won the lot!

There are a couple of truly improv houses, which I love. And check out the duplex!

Someone else was thinking along the same lines I do:

Apparently some of her spools of thread got away from her!

These will be a fun start to a new quilt for a child in foster care or a hospital setting. 💕

Meanwhile, I've entered two quilts in another guild's annual show and will probably put them both in the county fair a few weeks from now. I've officially declared this one a wall hanging. (I thought for a long time it would be a child's quilt.) Six of my F2F3 blocks helped to carry out the theme. It was a fun quilt to build.

Let Your Dreams Set Sail

After being on exhibit it will be donated to Hospice of the Northwest for their annual fundraising auction. Sine we live relatively near the coast I'm hoping some of the folks who live in the expensive houses oceanside will bid on this to have in their home.

This one is going to one of my granddaughters for her September birthday.

August Nights

I'd really like to get a more official portrait of the finished product before then.

Scrap Happy Day is coming up on the 15th. I may not have a lot to share but there will be a few scrappy blocks at the very least. 😊See you then!

Easing Back Into Piecing

My local quilt guild has been working on a project for the community. They've been making Christmas stockings to be distributed to Meals on Wheels clients during the season. When it was first announced my shoulder injury was fresh so I declined to participate. Now they're very close to the goal of 250 stockings but not quite there. My abilities are still limited but much improved so I decided to see what I could do. I understand a lot of the stockings are whole cloth, front and back. Sorry, but that's too boring for me. 😉Plus this was an opportunity for me to use up (or at least use) holiday prints I've had far too long.

I started with what I believe is a Debbie Mumm print. I had a fat quarter. The angels are large-enough scale that I couldn't figure out how to use them at the time. For example, this angel is 8" tall. The stocking is about 12.5" tall overall.

I completed that stocking over the course of a day. Any other time I probably could have had it done in a matter of a few hours (or less!). This next one was built over three days. I was involved in some household chores at the time and had to pace myself.

During the process of making this one I came to realize what some of the movements are that aggravate my shoulder. Picking up my 6" x 24" ruler with my right hand is one of them. Of course I've set my studio up the most efficient way possible to accommodate my right handedness. {sigh} I will have to continue to go slowly with my piecing activities. These stocking fronts were foundation pieced onto muslin, so aside from fussy cutting the angels it wasn't too bad. It was laying out and cutting the backs and lining pieces that became problematic even though I used scissors for that process. Still, this is a step in the right direction. 😊

Win, Win Makes for Work, Work!

It's been a while since I've been online! I haven't been just laying around...

Although there's been plenty of that, to be sure. More than I'd like in fact. But when I've been able to be up and doing I've had plenty to work on. Suddenly I seem to be in the middle of several projects at once!

I've missed the last two Rainbow Scrap Challenge link parties but I have made a few 12" Ohio Stars in red for July and indigo for August.

Well, one is technically black but Angela said we could substitute whatever dark colors we felt we needed for our particular block collections. (Why does working with black and skulls make me so happy?!)

Vicki Welsh has generously donated packets of hand dyed fat eighths in the RSC color of the month each month. I won the palette for June, a lovely selection of light blues and aquas.

My photography does not do them justice. Or maybe it's the green background! In any case, they inspired me to begin a new set of blocks.

I won't show you more now but trust me when I say I'm already half way to a new personal-size quilt top. :- )

In July I was the lucky winner of my local quilt guild's block of the month drawing. Normally the blocks are divided into two groups to allow for two winners. This time they kept all the blocks in one group in hopes that the winner would create a big quilt that could be displayed in next year's quilt show. The theme for that show is Blast of Baskets. I was given some 38 ten inch basket blocks to play with, plus I had extra baskets I'd made when the pattern was handed out. I've only begun to explore the possibilities where they are concerned.

An added challenge is that already the blocks are too big/too many to fit on my design wall all at the same time. I hope I can pull this off!

I figure it's about time to get out the blocks I've made so far for the twins' bed quilts too, to see what holes there may be and to figure out just how I'm going to set those tops. Their birthday is very early in February; I can't let the time get away from me. I may have to resort to acting like a truly organized person and draw up a chart or timeline for completing these projects. Heaven forbid!

Let me extend my apologies to those of you who have come to expect my visits and comments on your blogs. I just haven't had it in me to be social lately. I have never before experienced the roller coaster ride my health is currently taking me on. Let's hope the ride will soon be over (or at least smooth out to some degree!).

Blocks of the Month

It has been a rough couple of weeks. Not all of it, but enough to keep me from posting - or even sewing much. I've completed a needlepoint cosmetic bag and have another one about halfway done. But no Bead Journal Project and no work on quilts in progress. {sigh} There have been a couple of bright spots however. :- )

My local quilt guild does a block of the month lottery most of the year. I don't participate in the block of the month all the time but every once in a while there's a block that especially appeals to me. Such was the case in May. The block request was titled "Spring's Flower Garden." I know the block as Seesaw. This is one where the placement of values within the block makes a big difference in its appearance. I don't think I have a picture of the Seesaw version to share with you. Let me go look...

Nope. But here's the block I made for the drawing:

That was so much fun to make that I did another one for the chicken quilt I've been slowly building:

Imagine my delight when my friend C~ informed me my name had been drawn as the winner of all the blocks at the last guild meeting! :D There were 21 blocks in all:

One block is noticeably smaller than the others. There was a paper foundation piecing option for creating the blocks and I suspect the maker of that block did not make her foundations quite large enough. Another block has seams coming apart right at the edges so those will have to be reinforced. The big question is, what to do with the blocks? I could make something out of the existing blocks and give it away or I could make more blocks and have a happy new quilt for myself.

Just for fun I made a couple more blocks to add to the collection...

They are the bottom two in the lower left corner of the picture above.

These are such pleasing blocks to make that I will probably make enough to have 30 blocks total. I'm pretty sure now that this quilt will be for me, at least to begin with. Then this morning it occurred to me that I could call it Birthday Bouquet since June is my birth month! Now I have an excuse to keep working on this project instead of building up the chicken quilt further. ;- )

Oh, and the block of the month for June is to use any technique to make a block that will finish at 12" for the "Dog Days of Summer." Since I have several dog prints in my stash I felt compelled to participate again. I started out by making a couple of 6" Double Pinwheel blocks and then combined them with simple four patches that feature fussy cut dogs.

I wasn't happy with all the different colors. It wasn't cohesive enough. So I remade the double pinwheel blocks:

Much better!

Whoosh!

That's the sound of time flying by. ;- )

My surgery went smoothly, nothing ugly was discovered, and as far as that procedure is concerned all is well. There have been other events that have conspired to keep me from the computer and blogging. Nothing truly serious, just annoying and debilitating.

Meanwhile, the weather has turned up here in our corner of the world. The first sign was to be seen in our shrubs:

Not the greatest picture, I know, but those are spider webs decorating the hedges. Here's a closer look:

Puts me in mind of fairy clouds or something. :- )

My local quilt guild does a monthly block lottery. I don't always participate (in fact, in the past couple of years I have rarely participated) but this time around I couldn't help myself. The assignment was to make a 10 or 12 inch Halloween block. Yippeee!

For a couple of days I debated whether to just plug some Halloween prints into a pieced block pattern. Then the idea struck me to make a haunted house. hehehe. This is what I came up with:

This particular house block has been in my notebook ever since the early days of my quilt making. Some of the very first blocks I made were houses. I can't tell whether this was one I designed myself or something I drafted from a picture somewhere. At the time I didn't have the skills to make it without using templates so I don't think it ever got made. After this first effort I decided to try again...

I have the most fun finding things to put in the windows and doorways! The first house was turned in at the last guild meeting but the drawing won't be until the next meeting. I'm keeping the second house.

This morning I decided to make another block for the drawing. There's a block called Buzzard's Roost in my block bible (Maggie Malone's 1001 Patchwork Designs) that I've always wanted to try. Halloween seemed an appropriate theme for such a block. Here is what I created:

I'm very happy with it. The witch is from an Alexander Henry print. She's on a true red background though it looks a little off in the photo.

And just for grins I made this little star (6") out of scraps I had laying around.

Hopefully it won't be such a long time between posts from now on. And I have a lot of catching up to do among my Blog Land friends...

Pioneer Medallion Progress

I'm happy to report that I'm finally feeling more like myself again. It seems like it has been a long time coming. I'm covered in hives but at least my brain is functioning.

While I've been gone this valance curtain arrived from the Victorian Trading Company. (Not spontaneously you understand. I ordered it. I'd never seen their catalog before but somehow I ended up on their mailing list. In this case I don't mind one bit!) It dressed up my naked design wall while I searched for the appropriate rod to use to hang it over my kitchen window.

I actually kind of miss it in my studio!

When I started feeling better I think the cobweb valance inspired me to choose these batiks for another friendship block for a local guild member.

Purple and green in these vibrant tones can speak of Halloween. In softer tones they can be very spring-like.

I've always found friendship blocks to be a good way to get back into my quiltmaking activities. I was grateful to have a couple to make. This is Rocky Mountain Puzzle, a block I've long admired but had never taken the time to try out.

It wasn't hard exactly, just a little on the fussy side if you know what I mean. There's a partial seam to deal with but it wasn't that bad.

At this point I still wasn't ready to do anything terribly creative or original but I wanted to do some more sewing. I pulled out my Pioneer Medallion project, which I don't think I've touched since last year some time. (Yes, you can see my last post about it here.) I made up the final Spinner block I needed for it and then started sewing the blocks and borders together.

If you look closely you can see the brown paper tags I used to keep things straight. You should also be able to double click on the photos to see them larger.

The last couple of days have been spent arranging the flying geese units and sewing them onto the medallion.

I only had one section of border come out too short because somehow I accidently left out a goose. Not too bad considering all the opportunities for screw-ups there were! The next - and final - step is to arrange my ten inch blue Churn Dash blocks around the perimeter. I have four more Spinners that will go in the corners. I don't want to jinx it but there's a very good chance that this quilt could be finished and on my bed before the end of this year!

Friendship Blocks

I've been trying to put together a another Priority Quilt but so far it hasn't gelled. I'm letting it sit while I make blocks for friends and for my Parts Department.

One of our guild members' mother is recuperating from a fall (or surgery - I don't remember which at the moment) and Diana wants to make a comfort quilt for her. Her mom loves cats so she asked for cat blocks or blocks featuring cat prints. This block is a variation on Pussy in the Corner. I guess this one would be Mousey in the Corner. ;- ) [double click to biggify]

The second block is for a member who asked for flower blocks. I looked and looked at block patterns for this one but finally settled on an old favorite, a variation of a log cabin block:

I sewed half square triangles together between the seams of the other blocks. The left column in the photo below are the blocks that resulted from this effort. The right column of blocks were created a while back.

The little paper ribbon with the school picture on it was recently unearthed from a box in the garage. It's my oldest son when he was in preschool or kindergarten. I had the cutest kids (if I do say so myself)!

Flimsy Finish

Woohoo! I have finally brought my collection of black and white and pink friendship blocks from 2002 to the first stage of quilt completion. {big sigh} What a relief!

When you last saw this work in progress the blocks had just been set together. That was quite an ordeal in itself. Fun, but time consuming and just a tiny bit tedious at times.

At that point I honestly thought this would be another double bed quilt. It was nearly wide enough. But I was tired of working on it and slightly tired out by it. So I put it away and worked on other things. It hung around in the back of my mind though. A couple of weeks ago I decided to make finishing this top one of my goals for Finn's New Year's Eve UFO challenge. Another goal is to make a back for it, but that will be another project altogether.

When I got the top out again I was happy to discover that I could look at it with fresh eyes. After some journaling about it I managed to get past the idea of a bed quilt. The top is nearly square in the picture above; I decided to let that be the shape it would keep. In order to make it more squre I needed to add a narrow border to the two sides. The right side is shown below in the process of auditioning possibilities.

The left side is in the picture below, pinned together.

I had to pleat the flimsy on my design wall in order to see both sides at the same time and try to achieve some sort of overall balance.

It hung there for a few days while I did some beading to get my Bead Journal Project caught up for this year. Once I had those skinny borders on, however, I realized that I no longer wanted a frame of pink like I had originally planned. Further auditioning of various black and white prints for a final whole-cloth border revealed that a predominantly black border was not going to work either. But a white with black print seemed to magically do the trick. Here's the right half of the quilt top on my kitchen floor:

And the left half:

I think now that I will use a pink for the binding. Long-time readers may remember a pink stripe I bought; it should effectively bring all the different pinks together.

I had to do a bit of piecing to get the final border on this top. Out of the one yard cut I started with this is all I have left:

A slightly off-kilter 4.5" square and a width-of-fabric strip that varies from 3.5" to 4" in width.

And to cap off my accomplishment I have come up with an actual name/title for this quilt: "Play Group." No doubt that's due in part to all the nice compliments I received on my 'play' block that ended up in the cover quilt of Tonya's new book!

Floral Shoo Fly

Here are eleven of the blocks I made to add to the 31 I already had for my floral Shoo Fly quilt top:


My blocks tended to be brighter and darker than those I started with. Which made it a real challenge to distribute values and colors evenly across the surface of the quilt. This didn't help either:

I did finally come up with a layout I could live with. There are places where I would make slight changes if I could but I'm more committed to including as many of the original blocks as possible. As it was I left three out of the top, and they were all made by someone else.

Once I had the blocks sewn together I discovered an issue I could not live with. Even as I was sewing the blocks together I thought I must have turned a couple the wrong way around. Did I really intend to put this yellow and this peach block side by side? Yuck! It hurts my eyes!

When I downloaded the pictures I'd taken I discovered what had happened. I was laying the blocks out on my bed, and even on that surface I was running out of room. To compensate I had overlapped the last couple of rows of blocks. The peachy block was barely visible amongst its' neighbors.

I let it rest overnight. Come morning I knew I would have to do something to correct the situation. The peach block had been made by someone else so I chose to remove the yellow block. I felt very fortunate to find a softer yellow floral print in my stash that was absolutely perfect. I don't have a lot of floral prints to begin with, and finding the right color to slide into that hole quadrupled the challenge. You'll have to wait to see the change because I don't have access to the camera at the moment. Trust me, it's a big improvement. :- )

It's Starting to Look Like Christmas...

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted! I guess it's because I was busy working on one last mystery gift. The one that's not like the others. It's done now, and gift wrapped. All we have to do is find a shipping box to accomodate it. And then take it to the post office, etc.

When I finished these gifts for far-flung family members I got down my box of Christmas UFO's. Turns out there's more yardage for backs of Christmas quilts than actual projects! (Of course I didn't think to photograph any of the contents of the box - duh.) I did find a few orphan blocks that I then tried to make into placemats for DD and family. Only succeeded in making one:


Not quite sure what, if anything, I will do with the remaining Christmas orphans. May have to wait until there are more to work with. There are a couple of block collections still in the box. One is from a swap I did with members of my church. The other group are blocks I think I won in a block lottery at my local guild. I knew I didn't have time to play with them so I didn't even look at them when I had the box down.

What I did find and leave out to play with were some abandoned crazy pieced ornaments. There was a tree, a completed stocking that had no means of being hung (I probably forgot to insert the ribbon when I was assembling the ornament, got disgusted with myself and put the whole project away at that point!), and another stocking with just the front pieced. I cut some additional batting and pieced a few more just for the heck of it:

These are still raw mind you. They will be backed with a solid piece of fabric - with a ribbon loop for hanging! - and be smaller when finished.

My dilemma today is what to make for our guild's annual gift exchange. Our Christmas party is held at the home of one of the members so it's a safer environment for me than the church where regular meetings are held. We can either make or buy something for the gift exchange but you know that amongst quilters a handmade gift is generally preferred! Unless it's an especially luscious bundle of fat quarters... Maybe I'll do my part for the local economy and visit the quilt shop tomorrow. I do have some options I'm considering that I could complete before the party next week. Guess I'm just feeling the need of a little retail therapy ;- )

Shock and Awe

I'm stunned by the news that Joan Colvin passed away in September. I only just learned of this when I saw that the La Conner Quilt Museum is having a special exhibit of her work. It opens November 23 and will run through the end of the year. I never had a workshop with her but met her on a couple of occasions at the museum. She seemed like a kind and generous soul. There's no question that her quilts are works of beauty. How fortunate the world is that her work will survive even though she is no longer with us.

And now I would like to humbly report that I have completed two of the six (or maybe it will be 7) gifts that I wanted to make for family members in the next few weeks. One has already been shipped. It's a birthday present, not a Christmas gift. Both turned out well, but the second one turned out even better than anticipated! (That would be the 'awe' part.) DH wants it for his own. We'll see ;- ) Hold a good thought for me as I embark on the next one, won't you?

I went to a smaller branch of the Post Office to ship the package yesterday. Actually, I went to two. The first one is so small they close for an hour for lunch. Wouldn't you know it, I got there half an hour before they were scheduled to reopen. So I went to the next one. Slightly larger, more people, but not as crowded as the branch nearest my house. From there I drove on to the site of our local quilt guild's semi-annual retreat. The church where they hold their meetings every month is too toxic for me anymore but the grange hall has been a safe place for me in the past. It was so good to see friendly faces again! I got to show off my Lincoln Logs top - for which they had made the blocks - and showed off my newly completed gift as well. I had a quick look at what everyone else was working on and caught up on some of their recent activities. {sigh} It was so pleasant. Unfortunately, something got to me and I had to leave after an hour or so. It was a challenging drive home, I have to say. I so wished I had someone with me who could have done the driving. But I made it home safely and crawled into bed. DH made dinner for me, bless his heart, and we watched a little TV before I went to bed for good. I slept deeply in spite of the exposure(s) and feel pretty good this morning. (whew!) There are two art shows going on this weekend that I would dearly love to go to. After yesterday's experience, however, I think I'll just stay home and sew...