Beauty for a small person

 Good day everyone! How are you today? I'm hanging in there. It's getting to be that time of year when it's dark when I get up and getting dark when I get home. This is no fun, especially because, somehow, the darkness makes people forget how to drive. Get it together, people! We can still see you trying to go 100 miles an hour through the traffic, even if it's dark outside.

Ah, well. Today I have something much brighter and happier to show off-- a finished baby quilt! Here she is:

Look at all that happy brightness. I almost took this little quilt apart because I wanted a print for the alternate blocks, then I remembered that I had looked for a print and didn't have an acceptable one. Good thing I remembered before I started in with the seam ripper. 

I made this little quilt top back in May, mostly to get those very cute churn dash blocks into a quilt top, and then hung it and the backing in the closet to age a bit. You know how that goes, right? Quilt tops have to age before they ripen enough to be quilted up. A friend needs a baby quilt for a girl, so I pulled this out and quilted it up to give to her. A win all around, I think. And Lord knows we need some wins around here right now.

I quilted this in a simple cross hatch, but used the serpentine stitch to make a wavy cross hatch. It looks great! Sometimes the simplest things are the best. The wavy cross hatch is also in Jacquie Gering's Walk book, along with some other cross hatch ideas.

 

The backing here is a fun dot that looks pink overall but is really a bunch of different colors. I originally had pink for a binding, but the aqua with the dots looks much better and goes with the fun owls on the front and the dots on the back. Overall, I am so happy with the way this turned out, and happy to pass it on to my friend to give to a 7 month old baby girl. 

 

With that, it's off to the weekend! Even though we're in this cycle where it's kind of nice all week and rains all weekend, I'm still happy to have a couple of days to rest a little. Hope you all get some rest, too, and maybe find something nice and bright to lighten up the darkness. Happy weekend!

 

 

 Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique

Coming back slowly

 Hi all. I hope you're all doing well! First, thanks so much for all your comments, notes, and emails about my mom's death. It's been a hard couple of weeks, and I didn't have the energy to respond to everyone individually, but I do appreciate you all.

As anyone who has experienced this knows, time takes on a different meaning in the immediate aftermath, but I'm starting to re-engage with the world again. One major step is getting back into the sewing room and starting back on my projects. I worked on a few things, including being a good grandma and making a fleece monkey costume for a certain tiny person, but what's really gotten me back are these blocks:

 

 

Wow, they do look good.  I thought I was fooling myself when I made them. Those petals in the block on the left are pieced, not appliqued, just so you know. These are blocks from the Solstice Sampler at Alderwood Studio. They're a little modern, so I wasn't sure about them, but they turned out to be soothing to make. 

The original sampler is shown in fall colors, but I chose to use these woodsy-ish batiks that were just sitting on the shelf. I don't use batiks very much, but I don't know why. They are great fabrics, very stable, and seldom run. And look at those colors! The only thing I don't really like is that some of them can get muddy when it comes to pattern, but I can deal with that. I may have to expand that section of the fabric shelves. (After I use a bunch more fabric, because I'm committed to keeping it small.)

 

 

These blocks are fairly complex so far, which I like, and they're soothing for me because they give me something else to think about. I actually have to concentrate on these, which is giving my brain a rest from everything else. I do feel guilty about neglecting other projects, though. But if you don't feel guilty about that, are you really a quilter?

 

 

These blocks are a whopping 18 inches, but see all those stripes? They finish at a half inch wide. And those dots are water spots from the grass, not flaws in the fabrics. I'm really enjoying the complex piecing, and I am learning new things, like don't try to piece a WOF section of 1 inch strips, because they will curve all over the place. Next up are some half-rectangle triangles, which should be a challenge. But really, check out these seams:

 

 

So there we are, back to the sewing room and making something nice. You can still join in if you're interested! Just jump over HERE and  get started. This week I'm going to try to work some more on my RSC projects, too. The medallion top is so, so close, and it might be a nice feeling to get it done.

Hope you're all doing well, and thanks again for all your support! It really did make a difference to me. 

Sharing at Midweek Makers.

Spring in spite of it all

Hello from a socially safe distance, everyone! It has been a weird and stressful week here, but in spite of that, I've been outside walking (alone, I swear) and it turns out that spring is making a valiant effort to break through. This makes me super-happy. There are some things the virus can't change, after all.  No daffodils on my property yet, but there is a lot of periwinkle and some smaller bulbs.

I know this isn't a quilty picture to start with, but I think we all need something pretty:

Pink magnolias from my neighbor's tree! I miss our property in Delaware, and everything that we had done outside. I know we'll get there with this property, but I am so ready for flowers! I think I will plant myself a nice magnolia tree when it's finally time. All of our remodeling and landscaping has been postponed for now. Darn those communicable diseases, you know?

This week I forced myself to sew every day for stress relief, and I finally got the binding put on a finished quilt. Yay me! Want to see the quilt? Here she is:

Yahoo! This is a ribbon star quilt that I put together from blocks that I swapped with friends in a quilt group that I used to belong to.  I didn't make any of the blocks, but they are lovely together, aren't they? It's nice to think that the blocks I made are in other people's quilts, too.

I quilted this myself with a walking foot. I just quilted straight lines along the ribbons in the piecing, all across the quilt. This was not very creative and was a little boring to do, but it made a nice cross-hatch design on the quilt. It also kept things nice and cozy. This quilt is about 62 by 70 and is at the upper limit of the size I can actually handle myself. Someday I will get myself a longarm, but today is not that day.

Hand stitching this binding to the back of the quilt kept me sane this week, that's for sure. The binding is a pale blue batik from the basket o' bindings that I make from the backing trimmings of a quilted quilt. It was just about a foot short, but I stripped in another piece that matched it so nicely that I couldn't get a picture.

This quilt is a donation, bound for Bernie's Mercyful quilts project. I have another one for her, too, but it's not bound yet. I should have gotten to these long ago, but I think we all know that the actual quilting part is not my favorite part of making a quilt. Still, I'm embarrassed that it's taken so long.

My favorite block

I hope you all are hanging in there with our current crisis and are staying healthy. It's a challenging time, that's for sure. I hope everyone has something fun to do this weekend, too. Go outside! It's nice there. I'll be working some more, then going for a walk around the neighborhood and video chatting with the grandkids. I miss being with humans, but I have the hubster, and thankfully I like him and we get along. I'm keeping good thoughts for everyone!

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

Something cheerful

Good golly, it's June.  How did *that* happen? (The older I get, the more I say that.  If I stop saying it, will I stop getting old?)  No big surprise--we are having another rainy day.  Not sure about this weather pattern, but here's the perfect cure for a gray day:

The only dry spots were actually on the massive tree!

How cheerful is that?  I made this from Connie's free Chinese Forget Me Not tutorial at her blog Freemotion by the River.  It happens that she posted this tutorial a few days after I purchased some orange and yellow batiks.  I loved the colors of my batiks, and Connie added the turquoise flowers and I was sold.  It's so pretty!  If that's not inspiration, I don't know what is.

Connie's tutorial is for an Accuquilt cutter, which I don't have, but it was easy enough to cut the pieces myself.  The tutorial is really clear and it was pretty easy.  I made the bias stems with my bias tape maker.  The flowers are raw edged and are made from a poinsettia template I found on the Internet. Did you know that you can just use a soft pencil and trace the pattern right from your screen?  It worked great!

I hope everyone noticed that this is actually quilted! To do that, I actually built the applique on top of the layered pieced top:

There is no fusible in this top.  I just stitched it all down right through the layers, which quilted it as I went.  The background has a simple meander that I actually did last, after all the applique was in place. This was not without problems:

Overall it worked out okay, though!  I am really pleased with the finished product.  It's so cheerful, and I love these two colors together (even though they seem to be strobing in the pictures).  The one thing that I might do is add buttons to the flower centers so that they stand out a little better.

Hope everyone has a wonderful--and dry--weekend.  We are going to the ballpark!  I hope the rain is finished by then!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and crazymomquilts, and  Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.

Friendship stars

Hi everyone!  Another Friday has come around and today looks like a great day.  I hear we're going to get up to a foot of snow later this weekend. Yikes! Winter apparently just realized that it forgot to do its' job this year.  

Today I have this little beauty to show off:

Friendship ribbon stars!  Okay, it's not so little.  The top is about 62 by 80. These blocks are ones that I traded with friends over the course of several months last year. I also traded blocks made from solids, so I have another quilt to make up later.

Yes, I joined two of the groups.  What can I say?  I had just moved and I was lonely.

This one was easy to make up since I already had all of the blocks.  The hard part was laying it out.  So many choices!  Finally got it set, though, and--miracle of miracles--everything fit!  It went together pretty quickly.

 
I'm really happy with how this swap turned out.  I was afraid that all of the fabrics would be ugly ones that people wanted to get rid of, but I worried for nothing.  One person even fussy cut her centers:

Isn't that darling?

This quilt is destined for donation to Happy Chemo through Sarah's Hands to Help challenge.  Doesn't it look like someone would like to take this to a chemo appointment? 

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  If it snows, I'm planning to sew some more! Who would have guessed?  If it doesn't snow, I guess I'll be stuck going to the grocery store or something, and who wants that?

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Finish it up Friday.

Roman floors

Hi all, and happy weekend! If you're reading this on Friday or Saturday, I am off at an academic conference, which sounds really dull but usually isn't.  Cross your fingers that my presentation goes well. I am leaving behind this post, though, to tell you about a new project that I just finished starting. Or started finishing.  Don't really know, but I'm quite excited about it!

We travel pretty often, and I've been to a lot of places around the world, many more than I ever thought I would back when I was a teenager stuck in a crummy school.  One of the places I've been to several times is Rome.  All of Rome is interesting, but one of the best places to visit is the Vatican, which I know is not really Rome but Vatican City, but you have to go to Rome to get there. If you like art, iconography, religion, symbolism, guards in very strange costumes, or random graves, St. Peter's is the place to be.

I'm always struck by the floors there. Weird, I know, but every one of them is a quilt pattern.  Take a look at a few pictures from my last trip:

Pretty sure this was one of the floors in a gallery on the way to the Sistine Chapel.  It's like someone threw several quilts on the floor. Or a really odd quilt show!

Here's another:

This one is also in a gallery, and I remember another artifact case just off the top of this photo.

One more:

This one is very near the Sistine Chapel.  The Chapel also has an interesting floor, but I was too distracted by the very large Michelangelo painting in there to remember to take floor pictures.  Plus the guards kept yelling "no photo!" every few minutes. It's one of our biggest memories of the Chapel.  (True fact--we got a wi-fi signal in the Sistine Chapel so we got to look up some of the paintings online while we were standing there. I love the 21st century.)

With all of this great inspiration, what's a quilter to do? Copy one of these for a quilt, of course! I've been meaning to do this for a year or more, and I finally got around to drafting some blocks and putting them together recently. I made drawings for a lot of the floor blocks pictured here, but I decided to make a quilt just like that bottom floor picture. Doesn't it look like a quilt already?

So far, I made up 6 blocks to test the pattern I drafted:

I think they look pretty good! These blocks will finish at 8 inches square. I originally tried to make them the same size as the floor blocks, which is about 5-1/2 inches square, but the measurements were so odd that I finally gave up.  (Yes, I measured the floor, down on my knees. I think people thought I was praying. My daughter practically disowned me right there.)

The blocks are all batiks, which I think mimics the marble pretty well. The dark is a navy blue, not a black, though I may use a black batik for a very narrow sashing.I haven't decided yet, or decided how big to make the quilt.

Anyway, that's my finished start for this week! Or started finish! I think what will really make this quilt great will be the fabrics, and I have to go shopping for some more because I really need batik solids for this. Won't that just be awful?

If you have floor pictures of your own, I'd love a look! Also, last reminder to leave a comment HERE if you would like to adopt an orphan project absolutely free.

Everyone have a great weekend! Hope you aren't spending it in a conference room!

Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and also Finish it up Friday.