It's really for me

 This will start as a quilt picture dump of some of the quilts that I've finished over the past two years.  I finally have a computer with a full keyboard and that makes it more likely that I'll actually type a post.  Internet access via Kindle is just not a productive way of typing.  And I really don't like speech to text. I'm also hoping that after getting caught up in the neverending chaotic news cycles of the past four years, that calmness will now prevail and I won't feel like the nation is changing drastically by the time I get home from work. 

I tried posting things to instagram, but I truly don't enjoy it that much.  I like reading the stories.  I like the process (which is totally why I'm just dumping pictures on here without process posting).  I don't want statistics about how many people liked a photo that I posted.  Yes, I could find out how many people read a post or commented (if commenting was turned on), but truly, I write a post for me.  I can feel like I need to please others, or I can just spend the energy making sure I am happy with what I am doing.  

So, here I go.  

Heather Ross Cut and Sew Baby quilt.  Used the tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew.  

Colt baby quilt.

Chopsticks quilt by Jaybird Quilts for Moore.

2nd graders play with HST in math class.  After the first kid went through the geometry unit in 2nd grade math that had quilt blocks, I proposed the project to the second kid's teacher.  She was thrilled with the idea.  Took the charm squares from multiple charm square rainbow swaps.  Made HST.  Sent them to school and each child could choose 16 squares or HST to make a block of their choice.  Blocks then got sewn together by me and the kids decided how they wanted the quilts to be laid out.  The two quilts ended up in the classroom for use by the kids.

Meadowland quilt with yellows and grays.  Bound and gifted to a co-worker.

Frances Firefly quilt pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.    Gifted.

Snowflake Sew-along.  Quilted and living in my house as of November 2020.

Another cut and sew block quilt loosely from technique by Cluck Cluck Sew.  Quilted, bound and gifted around May of 2020 for a former co-worker.

Urban Chicken Block quilt using scraps.  Bound and probably will be donated as of November 2020.

 

Seeing Stars Quilt A Long from Melissa Corry at Happy Quilting.  I dind't want to make the 4.5" applique stars so I put together what I had.  I also didn't make the improv star blocks.  It is large enough.  It was going to be for a co-worker, but I gifted them a different quilt.  This one is waiting to be quilted.

Homespun Quilt.  Used up part of a Cotton and Steel jelly roll and some various Elizabeth Hartman and Violet Craft prints.  Gifted October 2020.

Scrappy Summer pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew using At Home by Bonnie and Camille.  Gifted October 2020 to a co-worker nearing retirement.

Finally decided in November that I would take my cut Anna Maria Horner 6" squares and make the value quilt that I've been wanting to make.  This one is basted and has four rows (of single squares) quilted so far.  My wrist hurts a little bit today so I am going to stop quilting it for the day and hope that my wrist feels a bit better tomorrow.  I'm not sure why it hurts.  Oh well.  And it is backed the the AMH wideback from Hindsight.  I had flannel AMH, but the bold print of the wideback really needed to go on the back.  And, I didn't have to piece it.  

Took my pre-cut 8.5' squares and recut them into 2.5, 2, 3.5 or 4.5" sections.  Put together two 2.5", two 2", one 3.5" and one 4.5" to make a block.  Each row is 5 blocks.  I put them together randomly in hopes for the best variety and to make it less likely that anything would line up with the same thing.  Yep, that didn't work.  One spot has the same size same print with the same seam lines.  And I just found two fabric pieces large enough for a minimally pieced back.  The last two wideback quilts have spoiled me.

There is a bulletin board in my home office on the wall behind my camera.  With remote school and work, my machine is now in my office.  Now I get to add blocks to the bulletin board as I progress through a project.  I'm using it as a way to build connections.  The AMH quilt top led to many comments.  We'll see if I can make it a dynamic location for artwork.

And now, I'm off to attempt to clean up the dining room table of the random bits that need to be cut into useable scraps.  They've been on the table since August keeping us as a two kid school rather than more kids.

A progression of quilts

A little while back, I stumbled across this post from Daniela of Block M Quilts.  She had taken a class from Katie Pederson of Sew Katie Did.  There were blocks from her Emerald City quilt which is a version of a Psychedelic Baby quilt.  After a brief aha moment and a bit of searching, I decided that I wanted to make one.  Originally, I was going to try to make the center medallion setting, but that requires some wall space I don't currently have set up.  I went for easy.  And blue solids.  I had a fair amount of blue solids and I do like seeing them all together as this is not the first set of blue solid quilts that I have made. 

This was my oops moment of realizing that the white stripe did not line up and I would be bothered.  Using the new optional reading glasses did not seem to help much with picking out seams.  My strips were about 18" long and wide.  The blocks are 12.5" unfinished as that is the size of the ruler.  These create some wonderful quarter log cabin blocks when you trim the blocks.  Correction, one has to sew the off-cuts to create the quarter log cabins.  I chose to do this quickly since the edges are bias and that meant I did not need to worry about the bias edges anymore.

I put these out on the floor like this and liked it so that is the final design I chose.  Rather than piece together blocks of multiple sizes, I either added additional strips or trimmed them to 8.5" unfinished.  

Both of the first two quilts led to some scraps of strip sets.  Since I had a small amount of blue solids left, I chose to cut 7" squares of solids.  These squares were cut into 2.5" and 4.5" pieces to which I added a multi-blue strip set of various sizes.  They were trimmed to 7" squares again to come up with the third quilt top.  

This one might get quilted today if I can finish my work obligations, clean the gutters, clear some ivy and clean up part of the basement.  And why is there a balloon in the toilet?  No, if I did not put a balloon in the toilet, I do not have to take it out of the toilet.  Do not complain to me about how gross it is.  

Both quilts are quilted with a meandering stitch in an attempt to make sure I went over every seam.  I have no idea what all the blue solids are.  They are a combination of various manufacturers.  And none of these have a designated recipient yet.  Most likely, at least one of the three will be donated to Katie's Comforters' Guild.  And, just in case you think this was all this weekend, it has been the work of the last month or so.

Nearly done

     Another co-worker is having a baby.  The sheet on the left is what was registered for.  I stole colors from the quilt on the right which coordinates with it but that she did not register for.    

Using fabrics from my stash only, here is what I came up with based on the quilt on the right.

    The binding will end up being a blue green Tula Pink print from Flutterby I think.  It seems to pull from quite a few of the colors and I have enough.  This had a blue background with no white because I had the blue solid and not white.  So, the fabrics include Green Nature Elements, Yellow hummingbirds from Tula's Acacia, Raindrops from Elizabeth Hartman, Ladybugs from Birds and Bees by Tula and Metro Living Circles.

Cats

Where to start.  Perhaps it was reading and listening to people attempt to delegitimize the marches around the world and especially those within the country.   And I am referencing peaceful ones and not those marked by violence or destruction of property.  As much as others may argue, I would assert that those peaceful marches were patriotic, but the effort to suppress and delegitimize them is not.

     

The weekend that the immigration and refugee ban was signed, I watched a former high school soccer teammate talk in a news conference about the travel ban and its impacts.  And as more and more policies were implemented or reversed, I decided that I really can't keep quiet anymore.   So I chose to make.  I chose to use the basic cat block pattern from Elizabeth Hartman and red and blue fabrics from my scrap bins.  

This ended up being a quilt started and finished in less than 48 hours.  The binding was attached on the second day, but everything else was put together on that Sunday.  I chose to add a bit of pink as a nod to the original color.  The blue is a Carolyn Friedlander print that happened to have lines perfect for using them to guide the words.  I chose to quilt words yet continued to go with my tendency of covert actions by using just gray thread that blends fairly well.   In the blue, the lyrics for "Quiet" by MILCK are quilted.  I almost used red thread to finish the lyrics in the bottom right corner and have the final "I can't keep quiet" stand out.  I chose not to.  

I read a quote that Cheryl Arkison retweeted. I chose to quilt this in the cat section.  

 "I dream of a world where the truth is what shapes people's politics, rather than politics shaping what people think is true." Neil deGrasse Tyson

Oh how much I wish we could get away from the partisanship that shapes our politics.  Just because the legislation was written by a Democrat or a Republican does not make it good or bad.  Go back to deciding policy based upon evidence.  Compromise is a good thing.  Support an argument based on evidence.  

This last picture was actually the first one taken.  It was not my intent to have the shadow, but I love it.  How much I would love to have her grow up in a world in which she can make decisions for herself.    A world where she does not have to wonder if the person approaching her is dangerous.  Where she is not interrupted, silenced, or seen as a nuisance if she has an opinion or an argument based on evidence.  Where her mind, actions and ideas are valued more than her appearance.  Her choices should be her own and not limited or forced upon her by others who are wholly unconnected to her.

I have one other finished quilt to share that also has a bit of a political spin to it.  Or perhaps just that the art reflects the feelings and emotions of the artist.  Those feelings and emotions were heavily influenced by the politics and policies of the time.  It needs a taller quilt holder though so the sharing will have to wait.

I may not agree with what people say, but I am willing to defend their right to say it.  

Quilts of Valor blocks

     My LQS requested 40 quilts for their Quilts of Valor group.  At the guild meeting, members decided they were willing to make blocks but didn't think they could complete a full quilt.  The president and I came up with the idea of alternating monochromatic 16 patches with a single fabric star of any design.

     Here is my version.  I was close on keeping the direction of the print the same but not quite successful.  We decided to go with the luck of the draw on combinations and not have people sign up for colors.  Hopefully that will turn out well.

Purple chicken

     I started going through my scrap bins and cutting them into squares.  I finished the purple bin today.  I think I might need another scrap quilt planned for my 3 inch squares.  It seems like there will be a bunch of them.  As I needed a purpose for the 3.5 inch squares, I decided to start an urban chicken quilt using my scraps.

     Last weekend I finally started quilting my Arts walk challenge quilt.  As I started the quilt right after the election, it felt slightly therapeutic to quilt it on MLK day and then start the hand binding on Friday.  It sparked from reading "And Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou shortly after flipping through A Quilter's Mixology by Angela Pingel.  Hopefully I will finish it shortly.

Let what I have dictate what I choose to do

     Moving had me stuff a lot of fabrics into a lot of places.  It's been frustrating looking for fabric I know I have, and being unable to find it as it's been stuffed somewhere.  I have attempted to reorganize my fabric collection back into the plastic shoe boxes.  It feels a bit better but not perfect.  So I spent a large portion of my holiday break cutting and prepping projects so they move beyond fabrics intended for specific projects to actual works in progress.

     While I have seen many stashes that are way more extensive than my own, I have more than I could possibly work on in a year unless I quit my job and sewed full time.  Even then, I doubt that I could finish using the stash and the scraps.  An extensive fabric stash sort of makes me happy, but it also just stresses me out a bunch with how much I have and the guilt of not using it.

    In 2009, I did not have a fabric stash and shortly after, plenty of bloggers wrote about cultivating a stash and choosing fabrics so I chose and cultivated.  Unfortunately, I did not know that really, that is not how my process works.  I seem to like to buy fabrics for the project when I have a project in mind.  I do enjoy buying fabrics just to buy fabrics as well and to have them, but I often don't use them as quickly as I'd like, which results in a ridiculous amount of fabric in my house.

  In 2015, I read a few books about the disposable fashion industry and decided that I needed to choose quality over quantity and get rid of the urge to purchase a good deal.  Flash sales and the creation of a shortage had already started to bother me.  The MQG challenges where we had to use only the manufacturer's fabric, bothered me.

    There are many people that want to shop their stash first before buying.  That sort of works for me, but I decided that I just need the stash and scraps to dictate the projects.  I'm ok with deviating from this a bit, but I'd like to work on this first.

My list of projects that I'd like to work on this year includes:

Anna Maria Horner value quilt using six inch squares:  I've been collecting AMH fabrics ever since I took the value class my guild offered from Katie Pederson.  I made a wonderful value quilt then, but decided that an AMH value quilt would be one I would like to keep.  A ridiculous amount of fabric hoarding and cutting later, and I have a six inch square of every AMH fabric I own as well as a 1.5-3 inch strip x WOF.  The stack in this picture might be over three inches tall.

AMH Candy Coated quilt:  Using the strips cut above, make a Candy Coated quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts.  The first one I made like that was so mindless and easy.

Flea Market Fancy Arkansas Crossroads:  I bought the reprint FQB and have meant to do something with it using white fabric as that is how I've liked seeing FMF quilts.  I finished cutting the 6.5" white squares this morning and the 3.5" squares last night.  It is now sitting in the box ready to go.

Meadow Mystery Quilt:  This is the quilt along for my guild this year.  I picked out scraps and stash to make it after I remembered that I had 4.5" light blue pearl bracelet squares cut already from a Bizzy Kid project fail.  I think we were only supposed to think about picking fabrics, but mine is cut and I've sewn and trimmed the HST and hourglasses.  Need to do the squares and flying geese, but I am way ahead of the guild schedule.

Starburst Brambleberry Christmas.  I like Violet Craft's fabric collections.  I like the color of her Christmas collection.  When it went to 50% off at my LQS, my mom and I bought some.  From what we bought, there was enough for three Starburst quilts.  She's making one, I'm making one and the other one needs a neutral and for one of us to make it.  So perhaps, by next Christmas, I will have at least one Starburst quilt finished.  This is the fourth Starburst quilt I've made.  Large blocks make it easy.  Thank you Melissa Corry for your quilt-a-long.

Brambleberry Ridge Christmas Candy Coated:  With the extra Christmas fabric, I'd like to make a Candy Coated quilt.

Tula Hexagon Quilt from the ORB quilt along way back when.  I bought a Modern Meadow jelly roll way back when this started.  I never started the quilt.  I still have the jelly roll.  I need to make a minky quilt for my oldest, so I cut up a bunch of blue, red and yellow Tula prints that I have to make a hexagon quilt similar to Jaybird Quilts' Neptune Hexagon quilt.  I might have a Neptune jelly roll waiting to make that quilt as well.

And Still I Rise:    This uses our Artswalk challenge fabric for the guild.  This year's requirement is that we use a template and the red fabric (or gray or blue depending upon which one you chose).  I chose to use the Drunkard's Path template and Angela Pingel's book, A Quilter's Mixology.  I made a variation on the butterfly quilt.  It is basted and waiting for me to decide how to quilt it and dedicate the time to do so.  It probably needs spiffy quilting.

I have spent quite a bit of time ironing my scrap bins and cutting them into squares.  The orange and yellow bins are done.  Two scrap quilts I am planning for are:
Scrap Plume quilt: From Fat Quarter Style
Scrap Star Value: 

I think I started this post more than two weeks ago.  If I do not finish it now, I will continue to be distracted and never post it.  So here goes and hopefully, someone's stomach has settled and does not see his food twice today.  That would make me happy.