Cold, clear, and colorful

 Hello everyone! How is life in your neck of the woods? We have had a run of just incredible weather for January and it has been a joy to be outside for the last several days. Natives of the East coast here think it's cold, but it's been clear and sunny and in the 40s. Who could ask for more from January?

I have another finish to show off today! I told you I was busy over the break. When you don't have to ride off to visit the family, you can get a lot done. A silver lining of sorts, I guess. I'll warn you that there are a lot of photos here, because I am in love with this finish. Here she is:

 This is the Kaleidoscope quilt, and didn't it turn out magnificent? Not bad for a quilt kit that I picked up really cheap at a rummage sale!

 

 

For those who don't recall, I bought this kit a long time ago, waaayy back when we lived in Wisconsin and some time before I started this blog. I thought I was buying a wallhanging, but it had all the directions and fabric for a queen size quilt. The kit itself was a mess, but I straightened it out as I went. Somehow it worked out, even though the directions were super weird in some spots.

 

 

I worked on this off and on for a long time and finally finished the quilt top last year. Hurray! Then I sent it off to Alycia with a scrawled possibility for some quilting, a note that I like feathers, and another note that said she could do whatever she liked. And so she did!

 

 

The quilting here is unbelieveable and I am so, so in love with it! Just look at the quilt center! I was trying to get the texture and couldn't decide if it looked better in sunlight or shade, so you decide. It looks great either way.

 

 

Alycia must have had a great time because the whole thing is just really, really pretty. I pretty much followed a pattern and made a ton of mistakes, and she turned it into magic.

 

Can you tell I'm really happy? This quilt is staying with me and is on the bed in my guest room, which I cleaned off just to bring you this picture:

 

 

That bed hasn't been used in almost a whole year now, since we've been dealing with Covid, but I have high hopes that someone will be using the guest room this summer. According to our state's vaccination plan, my husband can sign up for a vaccine starting January 25, so we'll see how fast he can get in. I probably won't qualify until May (since I am so much younger and healthier! Okay, healthier at least.)

 

 

For anyone who is curious about the backing and can tear themselves away from the front, it's actually a print with stars from a snowman line of fabric. The binding is just the biggest piece that I had left from piecing the top. I wanted something lighter but there wasn't enough. Like the rest of the quilt, it worked out!

 

The "official" name of this pattern was Kaleidoscope of Kolor, and when I posted about it last summer when I finished the top Sue S (who is no-reply, so I didn't get to thank her) posted THIS LINK to the pattern, which is available digitally. (This would be a good time to thank all the no-reply commenters. I appreciate you, and respect that you want privacy!) I don't have another name for it, so if you have a suggestion, be sure to let me know! It looks vaguely Native American to me, but it needs a better name.

Okay, that's enough for now. I'm pleased as punch about this quilt, and I hope you've enjoyed seeing it as much as I've enjoyed sharing it. Many thanks to Alycia for the fabulous quilty goodness that really made this quilt come alive. (I'll bet she could work some magic for you, too, if you ask!) Hope you all have a lovely, happy weekend full of color!

 

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About your Beauties, and Finished or Not Friday.

Colorful summer finish

Hello everyone, and welcome to another summer weekend! Summer has certainly gotten away from me. It's no different from the rest of this year, really, just warmer. 2020 gets zero stars and a big thumbs down from me so far. How about you?

For today's quilty update, please join me in my happy dance, because I finished the quilt top I've been working on:

Yahoo! I am so happy to have this finished. If you recall, I pulled this long-term UFO out of the closet a few weeks ago and have been working on it ever since. Slowly, I admit, but working on it just the same!

I started this quilt in 2015 or so, when I made most of the blocks. This was a BOM from the Quilt Connection, but I bought the whole kit at once at a rummage sale for a ridiculous price, something like $50. I remember asking if everything was there, and the woman told me yes, but she just didn't feel like making something with so many pieces. I think we both felt that we got the best end of that deal.

The pattern is called Kaleidoscope of Kolor by Thea Jirak.  I looked for a copy of the pattern online, but didn't find any for sale. Not a surprise, since the kit was marked 2008. There was a *ton* of fabric in the kit, and all of it is Shadow Play by Maywood Studios. It really is a lovely fabric line, and they worked together so well in this quilt top. I had my doubts about "random" color placement, but it seems to have worked out!

The pattern instructions were quite odd in some places, but I managed to work around most of them. And I want major points, because this quilt was made on different machines at different times and the blocks and whatnot still fit together just great. The one thing that I've not done that was in the pattern was the 10-inch borders. Yes, 10 inches! I put a much narrower border around the quilt, mostly just to keep all those seams from popping open. There were also appliques in the pattern, and I made some of them, but I don't think they add to the quilt, and I've left them off. Maybe I'll put them in something else.

Unbelievably, this quilt top has a backing and is in a box ready to go off to a longarmer! I am keeping this one for myself and putting it on the bed in my guest room. Not that there will be any guests for a while, but I will enjoy looking at it every time I walk by the room, and isn't that reason enough to keep it?

Hope you are all doing well and staying sane in the midst of the really weird time we're living through. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, and Brag About Your Beauties.

Design wall updates

Hi all! Just taking a little time from this stupid paper that I'm writing to say hello and show a couple of things that I've pulled out to work on. I usually go to a conference early in June, but that's been cancelled this year, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing right now. Somehow sitting on the deck with a cool drink doesn't feel right.

Last week, when I was feeling pretty low (still feeling that way, but no politics today!) I started going through some of my project boxes to see the status of some things I have in there. It feels like forever since I looked at these, so it's like finding a bunch of projects started by someone else that I get to finish up. If I feel like it, you know.

First up is this project, if anyone remembers it:

I started this back when we lived in Wisconsin, which means it's been in that box for a long time. They aren't all on the wall, but I do have all the blocks and most of the pieces, just not put together. It looks like all I have to make for this is a bunch more flying geese and then it will be done.  There are some appliques, too, but I think I'll probably leave those off and not add the larger (unpieced) border. It will be a little smaller, but that's ok with me.

Then I pulled out these blocks, which are much more recent:

These are star blocks using some black fabrics I had and wasn't doing anything with. I think they look great together. I have the black pieces cut for 11 more blocks, which means that there are probably two more blocks in another box somewhere.  I have to cut the white backgrounds and the accent pieces that make the central stars, but then these should go together pretty easily.

Then I got distracted when I took the leftover pieces out of the box to put in a scrap bin and started on this:

Why not make a small fabric scrap basket like the ones I'm making for the RSC this year? No reason not to, except that I don't have much in the way of black scraps, except what I've already cut. Maybe I'll store some grays in there, too.

And then, of course, the modern blocks quilt top keeps growing:

This is turning out way better than anticipated. I'm just kind of sticking the blocks up there as I finish them, so I'm looking forward to playing with all the color distributions.

Whenever I wander into the sewing room in the next few weeks, I'll be working on one of these. I'm easily distracted, though, so who knows what will happen? There are a lot of fun things to work on in those boxes!

I hope everything is peaceful and calm where you are, and that you are enjoying beautiful weather.  I've been out walking a lot, and came across these beautiful flowers at a neighbor's mailbox:

These certainly cheered me, and I hope they cheer you, too! Have a good week!

Let's finish this!

Hi folks! I hope you all are having a great day. I had a great time at my conference and can relax a little bit now that my presentation is over.  It's always nerve-wracking for me, like taking a test, so I'm happy that it went well. 

First, congratulations to Rose, who has adopted my orphan project! Thanks to everyone for entering. It's amazing how great it feels to have that out of here.

Back in the sewing room, it's time to really push and get this Kaleidoscope quilt finished (and come up with a new name for it).  To that end, I've made the last of the four different blocks I needed:

Those are pretty good-looking, I think. I'm also putting together the "hopscotch" border, which is actually pieced into the quilt in sections along with even more log cabin blocks:

These are super-easy, because once again I'm ignoring the instructions and constructing them in a much more logical way. I have three more of these sections to make and then the border is done!

Finally, I cut the border pieces and the appliques for the border:

These are freezer paper appliques.  A lot of turning and basting to do! Still, this makes me happy, because it looks like progress.

So that's my big thing for this week, trying to finish this up.  I've been thinking that it would look very nice on my bed, so it would be great to have it all finished by the fall when it gets cold again.

It's pouring rain again here, so I think I'll go sew.  I really need to trim the bushes out front, but it's just been too wet!  Wish I could send this out to my friends and relatives in the droughts out West.  Oh, and I forgot that I need to go fabric shopping for the Floors quilt--  I think I'll have to do that too!

Happy sewing, everyone!

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, and WIP Wednesday.

Cold but colorful!

How's everyone doing today?  It has been very busy around here, made more complicated by the wind and cold.  Hard to paint the garage doors when it's only 45 degrees and very windy!  I am REALLY ready to start complaining about how warm it is.  You know it's coming. Any minute now. . .

In sewing news, the Kaleidoscope quilt continues to grow, somewhat slowly.  Here is one more section, pinned to the tree with four pins because otherwise it was going to blow into the neighbor's yard to amuse their dog:

It was very overcast and about to rain again when I took this picture, which I think kind of makes the quilt section look like it's neon or something.  Lots of contrast!  Turns out I made the lower star block there too small, but I won't tell if you won't!  Seriously, I think it's going to be okay since all four of those blocks are too small.  I read the pattern wrong, what can I say?

I also put together two more of the center sections, which look like they would be simple to assemble, but clearly we have all overestimated my abilities at the moment:

Billowing out from the wind!

Gosh, I love how the colors look!  These sections aren't sewn together yet. I think I said before that this quilt goes together like a puzzle, not in rows, so there is another small section that attaches to the middle before the section that was pinned to the tree can be added, and then another section on the other side as well.  Then the border is actually added in sections, not as a round.  Somewhere along the way I skipped making another set of (different) stars, so I have to make those before I can finish the assembly.  But I have all the other parts, so it won't be long now.

The largest border of this quilt has applique, and one quirk of this very strange pattern is the directions given for the applique.  Instead of stitching it on before quilting, the instructions say to quilt the quilt first, then stitch the applique on and quilt it using decorative stitches.  Has anyone ever done applique this way? Does it work?  Is there some advantage to this method that I can't fathom?  Let me know, because I'm just planning to do it the way I always have, before quilting.

Thanks for any advice you have! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. It's going to rain again, so no yard work for me! Looks like a good time for a movie.  Anyone know of any good ones?

Happy weekend, all!  Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and also Finish it up Friday plus the new linkup Crazy Comment Karma at Prairie Sewn Studios.Come on over and join in!

May first!

Hi all, and welcome to May! May is one of my favorite months because both our older daughter and our son have birthdays in May, but for the life of me I have no idea how it's May already. Another great thing about May is that this month gets steadily warmer, so I am definitely looking forward to that. But really, where is the year going?

This week was super-busy, but I did finish this:

The center block for the Kaleidoscope quilt! Hurray! It's a little washed out because it's an indoor picture, but you get the idea. The center of the quilt is pretty much the whole reason that I bought the kit to begin with, and I'm glad it's turning out as nice as I expected.

I even had a little time to add on the log cabins to the quilt center:

This quilt is assembled like a puzzle, not in rows, and this is section 1. At this point I can probably assemble a couple of other sections, too, but I do have a few more units to make before the whole thing can go together. This feels like a big step forward, though! And I love how the colors look in the sunshine. It's the worst-written pattern ever, but it's going to be a very pretty quilt.

Thanks to everyone who offered a suggestion for colors for the brown half-square triangles. All of them sound awesome and I'll be trying some others in different projects. For this one, though, I chose these fabrics:

That's a different green tone than I had earlier, with a little more of an olive and less of a lime cast to it, as well as a pale blue for a background. The print fabric is just a very few scraps that I have, but I think it looks spectacular with the other colors. I wish I had enough for a border, but I have a good idea to use what's here. If I get some time, I'll be making some hsts this weekend.

Finally, a picture of some flowers that are finally blooming to ease us into the first weekend of May:

Bluebells! We'll have leaves on that tree someday, I swear, but for now these are very, very happy. Especially since we had frost again this week, I'm really happy to see them.

Everyone have a great weekend.  I'll be outside, getting all dirty and loving it. Hope you get some stitching in, or at least some dirt under your fingernails!

Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and also Finish it up Friday. Happy sewing!

Wind and rain

Hi all! How is everyone? I am blown away--almost literally! We are having a very windy, wet time. I would show you a picture of the new hairstyle the weather has given me, but it would scare small children at this point.  And we actually had some sleet/snow this morning. Noooo! Go away!

So, I started a new small project. It's not really another mini! I think I got the minis out of my system for a while. Okay, maybe one more, but for now there is this:

This is a little wool and wool felt candle mat kit that I found while cleaning out the dresser in the sewing room. It will make a nice hand project for the evenings.  Seems like it should go fast, too, though it looks like I have to adjust some of those leaves.

And hey, I actually worked on some of my projects! Okay, one project, the Kaleidoscope quilt. Now that I've been away from it for a couple weeks I'm a little excited about it again. The first thing I did was work on these:

These are the large flying geese for the outer edges of the quilt.  I made 52 of them. And now I don't have to make any more! I used the Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers and they went pretty fast.

I also finished up the first cutting for the log cabin blocks:

Whoo-hoo! There are a LOT of those strips. The red and white pieces are the centers. The directions want me to stitch each new log onto an uncut strip of the next color, then trim it after stitching and use the next part of the strip on the next round, etc.  Anyone ever made log cabins that way? It seems to me that it would be better to measure, cut, and then stitch. (Easier, too.) Too many things to go wrong the other way. I know I could figure out how long to cut each piece if I sat down with it, but I think I'll just make one and write down the measurements as I go so I can measure and cut for all the others.

Finally, because Deborah asked to see my sewing space, here it is:

Yeah, not very impressive. An old kitchen table, an old desk chair (that seems to be marking up the wall--oops), and some sewing implements. The little plastic container there is what I use for threads and bits and pieces that get cut off.  Then it can all be emptied into the trash at once. The Ott light is essential, as are the glasses.

Here's the cutting area:

It's not very impressive either! This is just one of those craft tables that you can get at many places. It actually has another leaf this same size that folds out, but that was too big for me and I ended up just piling things on it. This works. And I finally took down the curtains, which gives me so much more light. It's actually a great space to work on. 

Now that I see it in pictures, I have this urge to repaint and redo this whole room. I better go sit down with some tea and chocolate until this feeling passes, because it could really get me into trouble!

Hope you get some sewing done this week!

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday.

Weathering the cold

Hi everyone! Are you all used to the cold yet? I have no more jokes about the cold, so maybe I'm used to it, but I'm still counting the days until spring. (26 days!) It cannot get here soon enough. I know spring brings its own troubles, but at least we'll be able to go outside without the air hurting our faces.

We had a quiet weekend, but we did leave the house many times, once for pancakes. (Yum!) I even went out and walked a couple of miles on Saturday. (I hate the treadmill that much.) I did a lot of cutting for various projects and also made up this guy:

This is the frog block for Lorna's Elephant Parade quilt along at Sew Fresh Quilts. I think he's adorable. I've taken to calling him Fred the Frog. Fred may need an entire quilt of his own. First he needs a mouth, but I'm planning to do all the embroidery of the eyes and other details at once at the end.

One notion that I found really helpful for Fred's eyes and many other projects are these Perfect Circles:

These are Mylar circles in many sizes that you can iron over, trace, gather fabric around, what have you. These are super useful if you're no good at drawing circles, like I am. The set I have goes from about 1/4 inch circles up to about 2 inches, and there is a set for larger circles as well. I really like these. (I have no affiliation with anyone who makes or sells these, I just find them really helpful.)

I've also got some baby elephants to show you:

Cuteness! This is about half of the elephants I have to make. I've cut the others but haven't made them yet. Looking at the pattern, now that I have Fred and some baby elephants, I might just have enough for one row of the quilt. That's progress, huh?

I love the polka dot elephant! Right now I'm feeling like I might have to make another one of these with multi-colored elephants. I suppose I should finish this one first, but the pattern is really easy.

For the Kaleidoscope quilt, I'm making up these two side pieces this week:

Not stitched together yet, but not hard at all. After I finish these, the next step is 12 log cabin blocks, which should also go fairly quickly. There are really only three more steps until I can assemble a large part of it! I am happy with the progress I'm making here, even if some of it has been frustrating.

That's what I'm up to this week. I need to make the turtle block and finish those baby elephants, and then I'll  be all caught up on the Elephant Parade quilt. I'm also anxiously awaiting March's color announcement for RSC15. I'm hoping for purple--how about you?

Hope you are all caught up and doing well on your projects. One good side effect of all the snow and cold is that it forces us to stay inside and sew. Or clean, but who wants to do that?

Linking to Linky Tuesday,  and Let's Bee Social.   Come on by and say hi!

Bellyachin'

Hi everyone! Is anyone else out there cold? This is getting just a bit ridiculous. We're in the single digits and supposed to go even lower (like a high of zero) later this week. It's light for a bit longer every day, so I know that it's getting closer to spring, but it sure doesn't feel like it. And here's my other question--how come the cold doesn't kill off every single mosquito egg? You would think they couldn't survive this, but I'm sure they'll be out in force again come summer.

I have some complaining to do this week. First, here is the next block for the Kaleidoscope quilt:

It's a lovely block, isn't it? It better be, because it was a bear to make. (Especially because there are 4 of them in the quilt.) All kinds of weird measurements to make a block on a 5 by 5 grid come out to 12 inches square. When was the last time you made half-square triangles that have to finish at 2 3/8? Yeah, me too. It was weird and frustrating.

Then there are these blocks:

 Double 4-patches, right? Easy peasy, except that the directions wanted them to be 16-patches, which makes no sense at all. Why sew together 4 squares of the same fabric? Sadly, some of the directions for other parts are also weird. One month's directions call for a specialty ruler (which I don't own and won't buy) and say "follow the directions that came with the ruler to make 8-inch square blocks." Arrgh!

There are a few other odd things about this quilt kit. See this wad of fabric?

For years, I thought this was quilt batting, not fabric. (Hey, if it was all wrapped up in plastic in a quilt kit, you might think so too!) That's why I thought it was a kit for a large wallhanging and not one for a bed quilt. It came with this note:

So, there should have been 9.5 yards of this fabric, right? There were more than 11. And, the envelopes for each month are a mess. Some of them have way too little fabric, and some have way too much. A bunch of them don't have the same colors as in the pattern. I feel really lucky that I got so much fabric so cheap, but the mess is annoying. Thankfully, a lot of the fabric in the kit is still available, so I ordered a few pieces just in case. If there's some that I need but can't exactly replicate I'll have to make do.

Okay, well, that's probably enough complaining.  Good to get it off my chest, though! As my grandmother would have said, "quit your bellyachin' and  get to work!" I guess I'd better do that if I ever want to finish this quilt. The colors really are pretty and I bet I can figure out the blocks with no directions. I'm sure I'll be glad I muddled through when I'm done.

It's entirely possible that the weather is affecting my attitude (is that why they call it "bitter" cold?), but have you ever bought something that didn't quite turn out to be what you expected? Or encountered really (really) awful instructions? What did you do about it? Did it affect how you felt about the finished quilt?

Happy sewing everyone, and here's to a break in the weather very, very soon!

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, and  Let's Bee Social. Be sure to stop by!

Recycling win

Hi everyone, and welcome to the weekend! Hope everyone on the East coast has dug out from the storm. Yesterday someone said "hey, the sun's out," so I grabbed my coat and went out and just stood in the sunshine. It was great! Then I walked over to the library so I didn't look like such an idiot.

I have started on the BOM kit that I pulled out of the closet. (For now I'm calling it the Kaleidoscope quilt, but I'll probably change the name later.) Here's the first block:

Cute, huh? We'll talk more about that quilt later, because that's just here so that there's a pretty picture at the top of the blog. Our real subject today is this:

(I know--the floor needs refinishing. We just pulled up carpet that was covering it, so refinishing is the next step.)

Yes, friends, that is a quilt with the center cut out. Very nicely cut out, but cut just the same. I did not do it! (Sorry for the bleached picture. I was so sure I had a good one that I went ahead and worked on the quilt before I checked them properly. My bad!)

I got this at the quilt shop, believe it or not. There was originally a panel in the center, and whoever made the sample decided that's all of the quilt that she wanted or needed. I didn't get the whole story, but this part of it ended up in the shop's scrap table. So I bought it, extra cheap! (Less than $10, because the scraps are priced by weight!)

After I got it home I had to think hard about what to do with it. There really weren't a lot of choices, and it seemed like a shame to cut it into potholders or something. I really wanted to save as much of the pattern as I could. I decided that the only thing to do with this was to cut it into two long pieces to make a wide table runner. (I took the binding off part of it first.)

I straightened the edges and then butted them up together and zigzagged them together, like you do when piecing together quilt batting. I used a closer zigzag than I use for batting, and also slightly narrower.

Then I made two long strips to cover the stitching on the front and back. Even though the strips weren't cut on the bias, I used a bias tape maker because they fold the edges in so nicely. I stitched these down with a straight stitch using a zipper foot to get very close to the edges:

I fixed the binding and ta da!

The strip is not crooked at the end! It just looks that way in the picture!

A long table runner! I'm happy with this, and it saved that mutilated quilt. I call that a win! This measures about 23 by 60 (which also tells you something about how big that table is.)

I was lucky enough to find enough pieces to match the fabric on the top of the quilt. I even pieced matching lighter pieces at the ends of the strip.

You can barely tell there's a cover strip there.

A plain strip covers the stitches on the back because I didn't have matching fabric, but I don't think it matters.

 What about the other pieces I cut off? A little binding and they'll be 4 placemats! Double win!

So, I'm thrilled with this. It was fast, easy, recycled, and cheap! Plus it looks good finished. What else can you ask for?

Everyone have a great weekend. We are going to visit some relatives this weekend, which is better than it sounds because we genuinely like our relatives and enjoy spending time with them. Hope you have a win or two and maybe some nice time with family. Happy weekend!

Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Amanda Jean at crazy mom quilts and also Angela at soscrappy, because what is this if not blue scraps?

(Just a small reminder that Tuesday is the February installment of the Classic Stitches BOM. Come on and sew along!)