today's quilting #3

Today's quilting project----what I call Staggered Bricks, top from August 2011.   The fabrics are all donation fabrics.  The lighter gold was from our dear Bama Belle friend Theramae's estate.   Many of the prints came from Ellen at Wrap Them in Love headquarters and from her mother's estate.  The darker brown was something fellow Belle Linda C had put in the donation bin and I think that lighter green might have been hers as well.

Anyway, I combined all this to come up with this quilt.   I have more strips cut with a fall vibe but can't remember what I had decided for them.  One problem with this one though:  either this was just a hair wider than the backing or we didn't get it placed to accomodate the width when we pinned it.  I just trimmed it down by a half inch all around so the border will finish a tad smaller than my original plan of 3 inches but that's okay.  It was easier than adding more fabric to the backing after it was mostly quilted!

OH and to amend my post from yesterday---I totally forgot that I had made a BQ 2 from that same Habitat Challenge quilt.   No wonder I am glad to see that green fabric gone!  4 quilts from the same stuff is enough.   I would say that I met and exceeded THAT challenge.  I made a ton of tops last year but I think this one was the only one that I actually quilted.  It was delivered to the Talladega Presbyterian Home earlier this year.   (Shown here as a top. )

 That's it for today---tomorrow I think it will be Positive-Negative Puss in the Corner from back in late June 2011.   Saturday I have Friendship Quilters guild so that looks to be a binding or stitchery day on my return home.  I would be thrilled if I can get to 6 done and 6 to go.  I had promised myself that I would start cutting  and sewing on Farmer's Wife Sampler but I hate to quit when I am on a roll with this quilting.

And so it goes-------------

another finish to flimsy

Hot off the press---whatever you want to call this. Let's go with "Staggered Bricks"

I sort of wish that I had put a flap of something dark between the body of the quilt and the outside border but I am NOT taking it off to make that happen. It would have provided just a bit of separation between the elements and taken the dark out one more level. IIWII.

The binding will be the reddish looking print and I still need to seam it. Backing is in the washer.

I am not sure which project I want to work on next---too many choices, LOL. Maybe just some simple strings. I was packing up some abandoned blocks to send to a friend in another guild for their donation quilts and found a few blocks that could be trimmed down to match a pile I have started. That gives me 13 blocks that are done and some are from the Belles scrappy challenge strips/strings. With sashing I would need 24 blocks so looks like I am half way there. I love it when a plan comes together.

WIP Thursday

I never did get around to sewing anything yesterday. Paperwork, a few errands and the next thing I knew it was time to fix supper---almost. By then I was out of the notion. I looked at quilt magazines last night instead.



I had intended to take my Brother machine in for servicing but when it came right down to it, I didn't feel much like leaving the house. Maybe tomorrow. I set up the older model Singer that I got from Lois' mom estate. Though it is a mechanical machine it has a nice stitch on it. I did have to pull out the manual to remind myself how to thread it though. Had I needed to wind bobbins, I would need a refresher on that part too.

So, I am sewing 6 1/2 inch strips together. Thus far I have changed my mind about the inclusion of one fabric and then later the color sequencing too. Read: more unsewing perhaps than sewing??

This is a case of using what you have on hand. In this case I had only one strip of a lighter olive-y green and needed more but found something in my stash that will work. Not my first choice but it shoujld work. It is a hodge podge anyway. IIWII. Some is Linda C's that she put in the bin for anyone to use, some is from Theramae's estate and other yardage that Ellen sent from Wrap Them In Love headquarters, possibly from her mother's estate. The point is, it is being put to use in something I hope someone will enjoy.

This is where I am headed with it----I am not sure if I ever knew what this is called but it is one I made some time ago. Staggered Bricks? I think Joy and I named it "Basketweave" for our records but it was just something we saw in one of her quilt stuff---House of White Birches or Quilt magazine maybe???? Really the colors went with the border fabrics better than the picture shows.



I have cut the strips 6 1/2 inches and then will do 3 1/2 inch sub cuts when I have all 10 strips joined. ED NOTE: vertical seams, not horizontal. It helps if you sew the thing in pairs and when you join them to the next pair, start you seam on the OTHER end. The feed dogs will help keep the sets from bowing. To sew the body of the quilt, you fold the top color brick in half to find the midway mark and that's where you start your strips. No intersections to match. Trim off the jagged edge on the top and bottom when you are done. Border it, if you want.



One of my readers commented "How many quilts do you finish in a year and what do you do with them all?" I could not answer her personally since she is set to "no-reply blogger". One part I can answer pretty easily---the "where do they go part". We donate our quilts under the auspices of Wrap Them In Love based in Mt. Vernon, WA though Ellen does allow us to donated them locally if we know of a need. Last year they went to the Salvation Army and to WTIL headquarters for distribution around the globe. I have been at this since the fall of 1999 and the group, since 2000. The last time I totalled it up we had donated about 1300 quilts since that time. We have fewer members now and making donation quilts is not a mandatory activity for membership. Everyone does not make tops but help in other ways, such as finishing binding and helping to pin the tops.



The answer to my yearly quilt counts are more complex. To be truthful I don't really count them unless it is on my lists for the various challenges I am doing. That stuff is in the blog in the left sidebar. I will say, that I used to make more donation quilts than have the last two years but I am finally doing some things for myself for a change. There have also been some years where I have quilted more of them than I have generated myself. More than a few of those if I were to bother to add things up.



I can also give you a count from the tops hanging in my closet.

• I have 16 tops in my closet waiting to be pinned---both personal and donation projects.
  
• 2 more waiting to be spray basted
  
• 2 donation tops that are pinned, one mine and one I volunteered to do for a group member.

LOL, draw your own conclusions. We won't get into a count of how many kits are cut waiting for me or all the embroidery projects I have going either. Suffice it to say, I keep busy with this. Not bragging, just stating fact. I have a husband who helps with the laundry, vacuuming and unloading the dishwasher and I do not work outside the home. It also helps that these are usually in the 40 x 60 range as opposed to those 60 x 90 QOVs I just did that are huge in comparison.



Moving on-----

It is hotter than a pistol outside, still no rain on the horizon. The yard is turning brown and crunchy again. The kudzu is flowering so DJ knows that it a sign that the growth will slow and he won't have to keep trimming it back weekly. The trees between our house and the neighbors are losing their leaves already. Other bushes just look plain stressed with drooping leaves. I hope Irene behaves herself as she passes the eastern seaboard. Weird week from them with Tuesday earthquake and a hurricane coming in at a Cat. 3, all in the same week. Some claim to have felt the quake clear down here but not me, or my quilting buddies.



Other sad news, an Anniston police officer was shot in the head by a fleeing individual. There was a big manhunt from several different law enforcement agencies and they have made an arrest. Unfortunately the officer is essentially brain dead and on life support so his organs can be donated. Senseless, just plain senseless. Remember Justin Sollohub and his family in your prayers if you would.



And sew it goes--till next time.

Finished to Flimsy

I hesitated to call this a "Design Wall Monday"post since I have only gotten as far as setting up the machine to sew. I don't even have it threaded up yet.

Just plain busy day so far! Today was laundry day. I also needed to vacuum up the sewing room as I was tracking thread everywhere in the house. DJ did the hallways but I know I was the source, LOL. I had about 90 minutes of kitchen time this morning with about 30 minutes off before I had to start up the grill to finish up the noon meal preparations. (DJ wanted brats so I was making some Hot German Potato salad and braised red cabbage and apples to go with it. ) Thankfully, last night leftovers will be a fast re-heat.

The picture at left is my weekend sewing project, another WTIL donation top finished to flimsy last evening. This one counts under the "Belles Scrappy Challenge" banner for the year. I do not know the name of it or the designer and call it "Diagonal 4 patch chain". I first saw it in the chatter on stashbuster list and have no clue as to its source other than that. I think the name I gave it is fitting.

I only had 2 rows of it assembled clear back in April of this year and plucked it down from the hanging spot off my bookshelf. The 4 patches WERE completed using Billie Lauder's two at once with nickel squares, way back then but I still needed to make 5 rows of blocks (25). Most of the prints were some charm squares that Linda C had just sewn together randomly but I pulled them all apart to do this and added more cut fabrics from the scrap bags. The blocks finish at 8 inches, 5 x 7 set. I am not going to border it as it is big enough for my purposes.

I will say that I intended to do the last block differently. The last block in row 7 design wise should have just one four patch in the upper left corner and then background color for the remaining part of the block to complete that last chain. Apparently I did not cut the rectangle 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 that I needed. I had to go on a treasure hunt looking for any of the leftovers. No luck, though I have wheat, mushroom, parchment moda marble and another fabric line of a coppery colored neutral that is a similar but not whatever color this is---natural, I think. Rather than order more and/or ask webfabrics to do a color match (again!) I just stuck in an extra 4 patch to "no-where".

Here is what I will work on next. WTIL donation/Belles scrappy challenge Triple Rail last seen in May at the sew-in---shown in THIS POST . Come to think of it, I haven't done any more on it since, LOL. It looks the same as it did but the picture was probably taken from a different angle. I need 6 more rows or the lower half of the top. The rail blocks ARE done---I think. I'll find out soon enough!

I started this on the Jem so will continue on with the same machine retrieving the blocks and the machine from the car trunk. The Brother really should go in for servicing, just on general principles plus the auto needle threader is hanging up, skipping stitches even with a new needle put in, etc.

While searching for the 4 patch background I left one of the kits out. This uses some yardage that Ellen sent from WTIL headquarters and is one of two I have cut with a fall-ish theme. One is probably going to be a Snuggle Up but I cut this one to be like staggered bricks. I told Norma the other day that after all the seam matching I have done lately with D4P and now the diagonal 4 patch chain. I was ready for something a little less fussy. This one might fill the bill and will be next up after the triple rail is done. Short term goals are now set for the week.


Tomorrow is the Belles quilt meeting and I'll probably take my hand quilting. We plan on going out for lunch to Olive Garden for the summer birthdays---should be fun. Marilyn told me she had baked another cake for our dessert. Yum! The fabric I ordered with my bday money they gifted me with arrived today so I know they will want to see that. I will share my FAB bday gifts with them for "show and tell"---some do read my blog, some don't or just aren't on the computer much and haven't seen what my pals made for me. I'll load the car up in a bit as I am always in a rush to get out the door in the morning.

And sew it goes-----off to the machine and see how far I get.