BABY QUILTS AND ROOSTER RUNNERS

 This has been another rather hectic week.  I finally managed to get my internet and home telephone situation corrected.  However, things still were rather crazy.  I am the treasurer for my local quilt guild.  We found in a rather rush that our web site had to be moved to another service.  I spent literally hours on the phone or email with Anita that manages our web services, and Cathy our membership person that had to coordinate our membership directory.  At the same time our member's dues are coming in fast and furious with deposits that need to be made.  

I did manage to finish up this simple 44 by 44 inch baby quilt top for our charity division.  I had a goal of 12 quilt tops with prepared bindings for the 2020 year.  Sadly I was short four.  I have over the last two weeks managed to get 2 more done.  So before I decided to set a 2021 goal I figured I had better finish 2020's goal pronto.  

I also purchased some rooster fabric to make placemats and a runner for my daughter.  Yes, the one with all the chickens, ducks, and peacocks.  It should have been for her birthday in January.  I guess I am aiming for Mother's Day now.  I need to get a move on with this project.  

At least these ladies are living the life of carefree luxury.  My daughter let these hens out to roam around in the nice sunny weather along with their rooster Orby.  He was sitting off to the side watching over them as they enjoy themselves.  They found one of her empty raised gardens, which is the perfect place to have a spa day.  Rolling around in the nice warm soil is just the perfect afternoon treat when you are a chicken.  Better enjoy it ladies, as once she starts spring planting in the garden boxes they are off limits.

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NINE AND FOUR PATHCH PLUS ART

 This past week has been very frustrating.  Computer technical issues with our internet and a new modem has caused hours of telephone calls with the provider and finally they have decided after multiple telephone calls with no success to come out and deal with the issue.  Needless to say it has cut into my sewing time drastically.  Sewing is my zen place, when things get tough or stressful I sew.  Needless to say nothing much got done and I am not a very happy camper right now.  

I finally managed to get a 5 rows together on my 9 patch 4 patch quilt.  One more row to go.  I still have tons of blue and neutral squares cut out.  I way over cut for sure.  I guess I will have to stash them away and start another quilt with them at another time.  

Some time ago I saw a picture in  Art Quilting Studio's Winter 2021 issue by Ela Zeman that caught my eye.  I started it several weeks ago with the background.  I did get the background quilted, and added some grasses one afternoon.  I need a much darker green for additional vines, but have not had time to get out to a quilt store or order on line so it is on hold.

At least one major accomplishment happen at my daughter's house.  The naughty peacocks' jail was finished this week.  No more raiding the neighbors walnut orchard, laying around their pool or sitting on top of the cars of visitors.  It is a huge structure and 17 feet high and roofed so no flying out.  My daughter's two Ginny hens have joined them and all seem to be very happy.  They have the large nesting box to keep them out of the wet weather and plenty of roosting poles to sit on.  My daughter is happy that husband is no longer threatening to BBQ them and I suspect the neighbors are relieved too.  

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Mid Week Makers

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MYSTERY UFO'S

 I have a habit of starting things, getting bored, packing the project up into a storage container, and stashing it under my cutting table.  

And there they all are.  Lots of them waiting for me to finally decide to see what might be interesting to work on for a change.  Many of these containers have multiple projects in them.

This little basket looked interesting.  Lots of 3 1/2 cut squares.

Along with this additional stack of 3 1/2 inch assorted blue cut squares.  

I will say one thing in my favor I always include the pattern or picture of my idea and extra fabrics.  Often just a picture likes this keeps me clued into what I had in mind in the first place.  

And I have a project to work on and a plan to save it from the growing stack of UFO's stacked under the cutting table.

Last week's scrap quilt project is finished.  I still don't think it is a raving beauty.  Fortunately my charity group are not overly picky and do not expect heirloom quilt tops.  I had hoped to empty my scrap bin of colorful scraps.  That did not happen.  There is still about 1/4 of that large pin filled back up.  

My daughter's peacocks have been raiding their neighbors walnut orchard this weekend.  A new large and tall fenced and netted roofed pen is in the process of being constructed to contain them.  It is not quite done, and they managed to escape on Saturday and made their way to the neighbors orchard and eventually were found laying around their swimming pool in the afternoon sun.  Fortunately the neighbors are nice people and found the five invaiders lounging around their pool to be quite humorous.  

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Confessions of a Fabric Addict

THE FABRIC STASH PLAN

I periodically do some reorganization of my sewing studio.  Over this last year now of being pretty much home bound due to the Covid virus I have worked on better organization and the realization I have way too much stashed fabric and scraps.  I tend to be frugal so scraps have been used to make many charity quilts and also given to a friend that also does charity wheel chair lap quilts.  While the stash has diminished some there is still lots to deal with.  

These are a sample of my primarily Kaffe Fassett fabric scraps, but the truth is it along with a good deal of other similar prints and odds and ends of other fabric they are out of control.

The goal/plan is to empty this once overfilled wired storage basket.  It would be nice to put some nice new fabric it in.  Time to move out the old and in with the new.

I finished this quilt top for my charity group on Sunday afternoon.  It really didn't make much of a dent in the stash.  However, I am not done I am working on another one some what similar in pattern with the hopes that it will actually leave me with that empty storage bin.  

This quilt top will really be scrappy, probably not quite as pretty as the above finished one, but often what looks not so appealing turns out to really be fun and interesting.  Since I need 25 of these blocks to make a 55 by 55 inch quilt top plus have enough to cut bindings for it too, I may just complete my goal.

This little beauty, one of my daughter's many chicken has been named Houdini.  She is one of 10 little sisters that were a FFA project for one of my grandsons.  She and her sisters were moved into the larger pen with the ducks which has no netting roof on it.  So my daughter clipped all their winds so they could not fly out.  Well, thus the name Houdini given her, as she is up and out and back in again over the fencing all day long.  They do lay lovely little pale green eggs about half the size of a regular chicken egg.  So they are productive little hens.  And no she is not near a road in the background that is path provided for the boys around their property when they were younger to ride their bicycles and scooters.  They live on 3 acres out in the country and it provided the boys with a safe play area right in their own yard.  

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NEW PROJECTS AND A FINISH OR TWO

 New projects are always fun to work on.  With lots of scraps and left overs finding a project can be an interesting hunt.  Often other blogs will post a block or quilt and one gets a great idea to try out a different setting or color way.  

This past week I dug around in my stash and pulled out a pile of Kaffe Fassett leftovers from a couple of different quilts plus some addition really old fabrics that had been hanging around for ages.

I cut some 4.5 inch white squares and used 2 and 1.5 inch strips to finish the 9.5 inch blocks.  Three rows done and 4 more to go.  It should finish at 54 by 63 inches.  It is destined to be given to the charity division of my quilt guild.  With Covid keeping us away from meeting monthly I have tried to keep up at home with making them.  I have 6 done over the last several months and this one and two more mystery quilts that will be donated once the mysteries are revealed and I get them done.

I finished the top of the Cozy Stripes quilt this past week.  Fortunately I do not have provide a back, batting, or quilt it.  Others in the group take care of that.  Just this top and prepare a binding to go with it and it is off for others to finish.  The quilt will finish at 62 by 70 inches.

I did manage to finish my three Valentine Day runners.  Two daughters and a granddaughter received them on Saturday while celebrating one of my daughter's birthday.  A nice surprise to add to her gifts and fun for the other two to get something fun for the day.

These four have been very naughty lately.  They refuse to stay in their pen and have been causing havoc.  You see here they just hop out of their current pen and they are off.  They have been up to absolutely no good.  My daughter's husband and possibly the neighbors have had enough.  His threats of having BBQed peacock seems to have been taken seriously.  Even my daughter admits that she has been running around after them trying to keep them out of trouble.  The contractor was called and this last Friday a new large pen 10 feet high and an area of 25 feet by 20 feet is being constructed with a netting ceiling to keep them contained, along with plenty of perching areas.  While husband is gone, he travels with his business a couple days a week, they may get a temporary release for good behavior as long as she has time to watch them and keep them from causing too much trouble.

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Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

      

  
   

HURRY VALENTINE'S DAY IS COMING

 I am once again hurrying to finish up a couple of gifts for Valentine's Day.  Sort of a last minute whim.  

I dug this runner out of the closet this past weekend for the dining table and it gave me a plan to make one for my daughter and granddaughter.

My color choice was reds and pinks instead, as I have a good stash of scraps in those colors.

A quick trip around the fused hearts with a blanket stitch.  This is my favorite machine appliqué method especially if I am rushed.  I really can go at a pretty good speed.  

The appliqués on the larger runner are complete and the smaller one is ready to get hearts fused on.  So given a day or two to spray baste and quilt and get the bindings on I should have them on their tables before the end of the week. 

Yes, I got the middle tree fixed from last week's post.  It is all quilted and bound.  Once finished I am much happier with it than I thought it would finish up.

This is Madilyn the pea hen.  She is the my daughter's only female peacock.  She has 4 males that are very busy romancing her with no success at all.  She really is a beauty, no wonder the boys are all crazy about her.  

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Confessions of a Fabric Addict

  
 

 

CHRISTMAS SEWING EARLY

Last year in April I made two table runners with the Crazy Christmas Trees pattern.  This first one was given just last month as a gift and the second one I kept for myself.   

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication on the January 20th blog showed a scrappy version of this pattern and I thought what fun that would be to make again. I ended up at the last minute making some Christmas gifts this past year.  This pattern is so fun, I decided to get busy early this year. 

60 degree cuts went well with my Creative Grids Spider Web ruler.

Block A looks good, there is a Block B as well.  Basically cut in opposite angles and sizes.  

The pattern calls for 8 blocks, I only made 7 as I only plan on putting 3 trees, not 4 in my runner.  

The three trees are done, but I am very unhappy with the center tree top.  I also took some creative adjustments to the top of the trees on the two outside blocks.  I think I will be making one more tree block and changing out the bottom and the top of the center tree.  Not sure what went wrong, but fixable.  

It seems the peacock teenagers are trying to get flirting advice from Orby the rooster.  My daughter's pea hen Marilyn isn't paying any attention to them, she is not impressed.  Orby has a whole flock of lady hens, that seem to adore him, so maybe he will give them a little advice on how to romance Marilyn.  Doesn't look he is very impressed either.  

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Mid Week Makers 

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

COZY STRIPES

 I took some time out this week to pull out a pattern to work on a charity quilt for my guild.  I find them a great project to work on in between more complicated or challenging projects.  Sort of mindless stress free sewing.

I have a rather large stash of Tilda fabrics, some fairly large pieces and lots of small scraps left overs from previous projects.

I cut 5, 2.5 by 4.5 inch strips from multiple prints.  Like lots of them.!  It didn't even make a dent in my Tilda stash.  I found Cozy Stripes a free Tilda World pattern on line.  However, I didn't really follow the pattern very closely, just a general direction of the instructions.

I had a nice white floral print and just started making ten inch rows and sewing them together.

An afternoon here and there and I now I have 4 rows.  The width is 62.5 inches and with an addition 3 more rows the length will be 70 inches. 

My daughter's peacocks,  but not sure why the pool is so interesting.  Maybe interviewing as life guards.  The three teenagers in the middle and the pea hen on the far right, plus Fred the old man on the far left.

Easy to see they are in full courting dress with their beautiful tail feathers.  The little pea hen  doesn't seem to prefers any of them as her companion.  Those flirty boys are a lot of bother.  

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Mid Week Makers

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BIRDS OF A FEATHER

 I regularly start things, set them aside, then pick them up again.  Often it can be months later and a few times years later.  Not sure how long ago I started these blocks, but they all got set aside.

This past week I stumbled on them and thought it was time to do something with them.  

I quickly realized I needed some sort of a border to go between the birds.  I wanted black with white dots, plus I preferred a Batik fabric, as the birds were done in Batiks.  So a trip to the quilt store found this.  No not dots, but I did think this was a really nice alternative.  

Oh yes, perfect.  The outside border was a Batik I had in my stash and shared many of the colors of the birds.  Off to the quilter now!

It is Morewood Mystery quilt instructions for January.  I selected this very white background and wonder if it is going to be too much having gotten the first true complete block together.  Too late now, and with two addition colored prints that go into this quilt hopefully that will tone down the bright white. 

Isn't she a beauty!  My daughter's only female peacock, the other 4 are males.  She likes having her photo taken.  Actually what she really was interested in was getting her morning treat.  This is what you get first thing in the morning looking at you through the kitchen window.  

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Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

  

THE ROSE QUILT PART TWO

 We are out of 2020 and 2021 is just beginning.  Hopefully this new year will be a nice beginning to a more normal year for all of us.  I have spent some time after a bit of a creative slump in the studio.  I did take a bit of time doing some rearranging of a couple of closet shelves to have fabric at a more visible level and easier to get too.  A bit of clean up was in order as well.  

I managed to get the two lower roses on with their vines and realized I would have to at least pin on the center rose as the vines all tuck into it.  I had the entire center appliqué fused together but not fused down to the background.  

Finally I got the third lower rose added and two of the stems appliquéd down too.  I have a couple of the pedals on the center appliquéd around the vine ends.  I don't like working with so much material and loose appliqués and pins, but slowly it is coming along.  Only 5 more small roses and stems to do.  It is going to be a LONG WEEK!

Nothing like a nice dip in your spa at sunset.  One of my daughter's ducks somehow escaped getting into his coop for the night.  She was back on her way into the house when she saw him enjoying a final dip for the day.  Life is good!

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict