Black and blue and quilted too

 Hello everyone! Well, the grading is over and I am experiencing this odd thing called "relaxation." So far I like it, but it's kind of weird. I still have a couple of meetings before this year is in the archives, but it's mostly done. I have a very full summer schedule, but I did plan for a couple of weeks of doing nothing, so I have a little time before I have to buckle down again.

I decided to start my vacation by tackling some of the many (too many) unquilted tops I have hanging. Some of them will require a long arm quilting reservation, but I've decided to tackle most of them with the walking foot. So, here is the first one:

It may not look like complex quilting, but this is a win in my book! Just about a year ago, I challenged myself to put together the black blocks I had without making any more of them. And I did it. And now I've finally quilted it!

Really, I'm surprised I persevered, because this was a bear to wrangle around. It's about 60 by 75, and that's pretty big for me to work on using just my machine. I quilted it in quadrants radiating out from the center where the four black blocks come together. Honestly, I did it this way because I thought that would be the easiest way to wrestle it through the machine, and it did work out pretty well. I used a pale blue Aurifil thread, which blends well with almost everything.

Instead of usng the straight stitch I used the serpentine stitch and I think it turned out really well. The only problem was the turning to make the radiating lines, but the only one who will worry about that is me. It just wasn't possible to make it flow perfectly, so there are a few wonky transitions. Oh, well. There are also a few places where the quilt dragged enough to make the serpentine lines a little straighter than they should be, but I'm going to give myself a pass on that. Quilts can be heavy!

The backing is a fabric from Fig Tree that I got on clearance a little while ago. I don't usually like the taupes and such, but they make great backings. With this particular one, you can barely see the stitches. There are two very tiny tucks in the backing, but I didn't even worry about them because they're so small. Once the quilt is washed, I don't think even I will be able to see them. The binding looks like a stripe but it's actually a very tiny text print.

Now that it's finally finished, this quilt is bound for Mercyful Quilts, which benefits a palliative care unit. I also have another quilt that I haven't quite finished quilting yet. I need some bigger backings! If you are interested in Mercyful Quilts, our friends Preeti and Bernie are running a free quilt along to benefit the palliative care unit. You can find more information and a lot of different mockups of the quilt right HERE.

So, one quilt down, about a dozen more to go! Good thing I like quilting, right? Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. And if you are wrestling a big quilt on a small machine, my sympathies!

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

A challenge in black prints

 Hi everyone! I hope you have been having a good week, though I acknowledge it's been a difficult one here in the US, again. (See the bottom of this post for some somber thoughts.) Once again today, we are in the rain. This week the grass was so long that there are clumps all over the lawn from cutting it. Seriously, it looked like a pasture or something out there. All the better for the flowers, though, right?

Did you ever have a project where you made a few blocks and thought you would really like the finished quilt, but you just didn't have the motivation to make the rest of the blocks? That's pretty much how I felt about the black blocks that I had been working on off and on for a couple of years. I loved them but didn't want to make any more of them. Before we go any further with this story, let me show you what they turned into:

 

Not what I had in mind at the beginning! I was looking through the project boxes to put away the pink and green star blocks, and I pulled the black blocks box (say that three times fast!) out of the stack. "I have to make some more of those blocks," I said to myself (with a dramatic sigh.) Then I thought, "but what if I didn't?"

What if I didn't make more blocks? What could I do with just the ten blocks that I had? The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I could have a personal challenge to use those ten blocks and make them into a quilt. I told myself I could make some easy alternate blocks and any kind of borders that I wanted, but no more black blocks.

Pull out the paper and start planning! Once I decided on the alternate blocks, it all came together pretty easily. The really fun part was choosing colors to go with the black blocks. I chose the light grayish blue and the very pale yellow, and I think they both worked. They're hard to see in the pictures but are charming in person. I almost went with a red, but I'm so glad that I didn't. 

 

 

I made the blocks for this quilt a couple of years ago from various black prints, and used a random half yard for the alternate blocks. The border is a very old print from Marti Michell and Maywood Studio. It's super pretty, but I am glad to use it up after all this time. There's about an 8-inch square left, which makes me seriously happy.

I think my experiment worked, though it's a bit bigger than intended. It's about 60 by 75, which would be great for a dorm, wouldn't it? Not bad for starting with ten blocks. Plus, I was left with an empty project box, which I quickly filled with some scraps so that another project doesn't jump in there when I'm not looking.

 

Hope you all have a great weekend. This weekend I'm planning to plant flowers while I pray for the children murdered in Uvalde, Texas. There's a lot that I could say, but nothing that really adds to any solutions. I find myself thinking a lot about my students who just graduated-- strong, brave, smart young people, many of whom are headed for their first teaching positions. Will they someday be forced to step over the bodies of their students and walk past the bodies of their peers? Or will they sacrifice themselves to save the children in their classes? How many of them will continue teaching in the face of preparing for violence every day? Every one of them would stand in front of a gunman without question, though they should never have to. But this is the country we live in right now. That's really all the words I have, because it's all been said before.

I could go on, but instead I'll just wish you peace and a restful weekend.

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique.

Lacy yellow stars

 Hi all. How has your week been? Our weather is up and down, and we are staring down the possibility of a "bomb cyclone," because "snow, rain, and wind" just doesn't sound scary enough. The good news, though, is that snow, rain, and wind on the weekend means (say it with me)-- sewing time! I think the hubster is working this weekend, so I have a plan. . .

This week I made some Twinkle Stars for the yellow month of the RSC. They're almost the only thing that I sewed this week, but it's something, right? Here are the "yellow" stars:

Hey, those don't really look yellow, do they? If you recall, I'm making all of the inner stars yellow, and I knew I would have to figure out what to do for the yellow month. The only solution, of course, is to use my black prints. They're a little bit bumblebee- ish, but I like them.

These stars will be 9 inches finished and are made from Angela's tutorial from a few years ago. Now that I look at it again, though, she had colorful centers. I kind of like the white centers-- they're kind of lacy-- but what do you think? I'm thinking maybe I should go back and add centers to two of each set. That would make an interesting quilt, wouldn't it?

Since I didn't show off the aqua stars from last month, here they are as well:

Yes, I really like the constant yellow stars. These look so festive, don't they? Aqua is such a great color, and paired with yellow it always looks so happy.

So those are my stars! I was also working on the medallion, but didn't finish it yet. Wait till you see, though. Spoiler alert-- it's spectacular. 

Hope you all are doing really well as we slide into spring. How do I know we're sliding into spring? Look at this:

Those are the daffodils on the hill between our property and the county property right next to us. They'll be blooming soon, and I am so happy! The sun apparenty bleached out the stars, but I'll take sunshine any time, you know?

Have a wonderful weekend! You know what I'll be doing!

Sharing at Finished or Not Friday and soscrappy for RSC22.

Going around again

 Hi everyone! Is it cold where you are? I'm sorry to tell you that our snow is gone, but we have somehow entered the deep freeze. It was 19 degrees when I got up this morning, but very sunny. It was lovely. I waited until noon to go walking, but my neighbors still stared at me. Maybe I should get a dog so it looks like I have an excuse to be outside. Do you think that would make up for the dog allergy?

Many of you may have heard about the Stay at Home Round Robin, a fun quilt along of sorts, hosted by Gail of Quilting Gail. You can read all about it right HERE. Last year, I made a cute child's quilt that I donated to the Little Lambs Foundation through Sarah's Hands to Help Challenge. I decided to jump in again and make another child's donation quilt.

Since it worked so well last year, I'm starting this year with another panel block:

That is a nice, bright block that will make a great child's quilt, don't you think? This is a panel that had been in my stash forever and ever. Check it out:

This means I moved this panel several times, including across the country! I think it's past time to make good use of it. The block measures 18 1/2 inches square right now, which means that a couple of my rounds are going to have to be small. I think I can deal with that. A while ago I got these star fabrics from one of Wanda's pop-up shops:

I think those pieces will be really nice with the panel and make a happy quilt. Unless I have some pieces already made from other things, which might get used here too. We'll see!

There are some other things happening in the sewing room, too. This week I'm working hard on getting the black blocks finished up and assembled into a top:

Yep, it's a mess. But-- it turns out that "past me" was being considerate of "future me" and cut and labelled the pieces for several more blocks. This made it easy to just sit and stitch some blocks together, which was super nice. "Current me" is hoping to get this top together really soon, so I can have yet another empty project box. What will I do with those empty boxes?

I'm also working on the neutral Gridlock quilt, which is in pieces on the design wall, and finishing up another top which is has been hanging out on the design wall way too long. It confuses my brain, though, so I've been putting it together quite slowly. 

Hope all of your projects are going well, they are not confusing at all to you, and that you're enjoying whatever your weather is right now. It's just good to see the sunshine, you know? Enjoy it!

Sharing at the SAHRR linkup and Midweek Makers.

Colorful trio

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? Hanging in there?  I ventured out into the previously-closed world once this week, and it was odd.  There are a lot of empty shelves at Target, folks.  Thankfully, Mr. Academic Quilter now has a replenished supply of essential snacks, so it looks like we may be good for a while. I did go to a farmer's market, too, which was a very happy experience. Tomatoes that taste like tomatoes!

I also made my way to the sewing room a few times. I may have finally gotten all of the fabric that I bought online over the last few months put away, and I worked on some of the projects I showed last time. It was quite invigorating! So much so that I finished up these three happy pieces this week:

Look at those flowers and the green trees! How happy is that? These are three fabric scrap baskets, which is one of my projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at Angela's this year. I am still trying to catch up from the last few months, and so I made this month's color, which is the pink, and one of the colors I missed, which is the green, and an extra black basket just because.

You'll notice that the green basket is a bunch of different green hues. I don't have enough of any one green to merit separate baskets for dark green, sage green, light green, etc., so this one is for "mixed greens." Of course, bright green is the exception, because I have plenty of that in its own fabric home.

The black basket was a surprise, because who knew I had that many black scraps? But I did, and it turned out to be much, much prettier than I thought it would be. Of course, I don't have much black fabric, but this one is big enough to hold the few gray bits I have left, too. 

 Those were my big finishes for the week! I am super happy with them and have already put them to their intended use. Not surprisingly, the pink basket is pretty full, so we may need to do something about that later this year.  Is it me, or would those three colors look great together in a quilt? Perhaps that's how these baskets will get emptied!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. It's raining here, but there is plenty to do in the house. You thought I was behind in the sewing room! Do you know what happens when you barely clean anything for a couple of months? It isn't pretty, but it has to be dealt with. Pass the Mr. Clean and cross your fingers for me!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, and soscrappy for RSC20.

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!

Partially pieced

Hi everyone! How is your week going? I don't mind telling you that it's been fairly good here for the past little while. It has been unseasonably warm and mostly just lovely outside. I spent last weekend at an academic conference in Washington DC without a coat. In January. It was so nice that a couple of us skipped out on the afternoon session and went sightseeing-- and we walked. It was awesome. The conference might have been okay, too. At least my paper was!

So now I'm home and I have a ton of work to do, and the temperatures are about to plunge, just in time for the first day of class. I might even get to wear the new coat that I bought just because it reminded me of the coats I wore in Wisconsin. While I'm waiting for that, though, I've been working on a couple of things.  First up are these:

These are half the 4-patches I need for the January blocks for the Color Challenge at Patterns by Jen. A friend and I decided to make these together, but I read the directions wrong so I only have half as many parts as I needed. Yeah, I know they wouldn't have taken long to finish, but in my defense, it was very, very nice outside.

The other thing I'm working on is this little stuffie:

This is a very cute little kit that I got from Bernie's shop that I've been wanting to make for my tiniest granddaughter.  She turns one year old really soon and I thought this would be a cute little gift. The kit really does come with everything, including stuffing, a sewing needle, and straight pins.  Because she's just a tiny girl, I'll have to embroider the eyes and nose instead of using the buttons that came in the kit, but I think I don't mind that.

The only other thing I'm doing is continuing to put all the new fabric I bought over the last couple of weeks on boards and put them away. I really should not have shopped quite as much, but it's just so easy, you know? I got these pretties from Shabby Fabrics:

I have a plan for the one on the right edge, but the others are just because I had no blues at all and these were a good price.  And these lovely batik pieces came from Jinny Beyer's shop:

I'm planning to use these lovely batiks (plus plenty of others) to finally make a (gigantic) quilt for my own bed. Somehow I've forgotten to do that for all these years.

That's what's up around here for now, along with waaayyy too much computer time.  When I became a professor it was all about the books.  Now it's all about the course website. The world has changed and we must change with it, but I never thought it would involve this much typing!

Happy stitching, friends!

Black and white

Hi everyone!  We are back from our visit to our grandson and I already miss him so much!  I'm also missing the cooler weather and the clean air, but not as much as those baby fingers!

Since we travelled this week, I didn't get a lot of sewing time, but I did manage to make up these:

As they used to say--do not adjust your set! A black block and a white block for the postage stamp quilt!  I tried laying out the 16 blocks that I had and decided that I want the quilt to be rectangular and not square, so I need 4 more blocks.

I wasn't planning to make a black block or a white one, because I was afraid that either one would be too dull and would act as a "hole" in the quilt.  I was so wrong!  These two turned out to be a couple of my favorite ones!  There is so much to look at in each of them.  I'm really glad that I went for it.

I swear to you that this block is straight!  The photo lies!

So I still have 2 more blocks to make, which means more sorting, which is frankly the worst part of the whole endeavor.  Don't know what color they'll be, but I want to wrap this up by the end of next week, because we move in 3 weeks!  No tiny pieces left behind!

I have these two little pieces left over.  I couldn't decide if they were black or white, so I left them out of both.  Where would you have put them?

In other news, I have finally joined Instagram!  I wasn't planning to, but there are some fun things happening over there that I want to participate in, so I took the plunge.  Come on over and join me @academicquilter!

Everybody have a wonderful weekend.  I have brought out the boxes and am beginning the task of packing up the condo.  This is a happy thing, right?

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Oh Scrap!