QUILT KIT MISHAPS

This past week I attended my usual charity group and was asked if I would make a quilt from a donated kit that could be used as an auction quilt for one of the agencies we work with.  Over the last two years I have sewn 2 previously for the group.  I enjoy doing it and since I was asked again figure they must be happy with my work.

The kit came with the pattern Wanna Be A Cowboy, and the fabric matched the pattern, but the Lucky Cowgirl pattern was also tucked in with it.  

However there was a problem.  I went over the pattern requirements and discovered that there were a number of fabrics missing in order to complete the Wanna Be A Cowboy quilt.  In fact, many of the pieces that were there had more fabric than required.  I know that kits sometimes modify the fabric, but after a good couple hours it was easy to see that the intended pattern was not going to work.  So no real choice it was going to be the Lucky Cowgirl pattern.  I do love appliqué so did not upset me and frankly was my personal preferred choice.  

I got the nine center blocks completed and the first appliqué on the center block of the quilt.  This is going to be fun. 

Our little Yorkshire Terrier Zoey has found that the early morning sun at this time of year comes in from a window above our fireplace.  It shines for about half an hour every morning on the end of the sofa, just enough for her to get a brief sunbath.  This dog's life is good!  

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APPLIQUE RELIEF

This week I have done a bit of shopping for my sewing room.  Once I was able to finish up with all the painting of a good part of the house and the painters were finished and the house returned to a normal state I figured to do something about the carpet in my sewing room.  It is old, we figure about 20 plus years old.  Time to replace it.  I considered laminate as most of our home is wood floors or laminate in the office.  Not sure how all that thread and pins that seem to end up on the floor would do rolling around on laminate flooring.  So we opted for carpet again.  They install next Friday.  So have to empty the room for a day or two, guess I will move the machine and ironing board into the dining room.   

I did manage to get another scrap quilt top put together for my charity group out of the scrap bins of 2-1/2" strips I cut up.  My idea was to rid myself easily of all my ever growing scrap bins.  It has not helped at all.  I still have tons of the strips left.  I now have a third quilt top  ready to put together.  However, making these is a bit of a relief from dealing with my current appliqué project.

Last week I got the first block, one on left side, completed and thought that I might have bitten off more than I could chew with this kit.  I figured will just forge ahead and see what happens.  These blocks and the pieces are tiny like 3-1/2 by 6-1/2 inches for the little block in the middle and the other two not much bigger.  I have been  surprised that they are not that bad.  So plan to just keep going until either I get them all done or lose my mind, which ever comes first.   

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APPLIQUE AGAIN AND BIRD OF PARADISE

 This past week has been nice and quiet with very little on my to-do list to accomplish.  I vowed to set appliqués projects aside for a while.  That didn't happen.  I have pulled out a kit hiding away in a drawer and started working on it and added another that I really do need to start working on as well.

These pieces are tiny.  I did talk myself into doing 1/4" bias vines.  I have always avoided them and used 3/8" for them, but this block at just under 9" by 11" needed the small vines.  Not sure why I have avoided them all these years, as they were not nearly as difficult to master as I thought they would be.  

This is the kit pattern, I don't expect this to be finished in a very long time.  The entire quilt is only 35" by 45" so some blocks are really small.  

This project is on more of a priority list.  It will be a wedding gift for a family member.  No real hurry as I have time, but do know that in the next year or two it will be needed.  It will be king size, so these 10.5 inch blocks are a start to the 100 needed.  Figure to make a few each month, off and on.  

Now here is a master piece.  Our Bird of Paradise is in full swing.  Never have we seen this many blooms on it.  Seems our recent amount of rain this spring has made it very happy to show off.   

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LOCK DOWN IN THE SEWING ROOM

It was very busy this past week at home.  We have needed some painting done in our home for sometime.  I usually do the painting, but this was a much bigger job than I felt able to handle.  We have a fairly large home and the laundry room, kitchen/eating area, living room/family room, dining room, entry area, and guest bathroom, along with 27 doors through out the home needed painting.  Painters arrived on Monday and finished on Wednesday.

I did manage to finish this small quilt which was originally the sample of a class I have been teaching beginning quilters at our local quilt store.  The painters contributed greatly to me getting it done.

This was my doorway in my sewing room.  On Tuesday the painters were spraying the ceilings and walls throughout the home.  Everything was covered in plastic including and all the doorways into rooms not being painted  I was told it was best to find a room I wanted to stay in for a few hours.  I selected my sewing room.  If one is going to be imprisoned in one room, it was a great choice.

The rest of the house looked like this.  

During my sew room lock down, basically from 10 to 3, I also managed to finish my last two pillowcases started in March for the children's hospital.

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SWEET TWEET QUILT FINISHED AT LAST

I finished my Sweet Tweet quilt top this past week.  I started it in July of 2023, a long journey.  Off to the quilter for sure.  

The last block #9, on the bottom right.  Just to get that border on now.

Just a simple border.  I ended up at 48" wide by 56" long.  The perfect size for over the buffet in the dining room.

I also got the quilt top together from last week's scrap strips post.  I am pleased with it.  Organizing my scraps into 4 1/2 and 2 1/2 inch strips sure made it easy to whip up a charity quilt top in no time at all.

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FABRIC SCRAPS AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEM

 This past week I have been working on dealing with an enormously growing amount of fabric scraps.  Luckily I happened on to a post by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter discussing Sorting, Saving, and Using Fabric Scraps.  I spent the week doing something about my problem with great results.

I cut up all my scraps by color into some 4 1/2" and 2 1/2" strips and loaded them into plastic containers.  What a chore, but finally I am able to do something constructive with them.

My pink container has both pink and purple strips and yellow/gold and orange that share a container due to those colors that I seem to have less scraps of.  They are 12 inch blocks, and I managed to get 3 blocks of pink and orange and 2 of the purple and yellow/gold without repeating any fabrics on each block.

Blue, red, and green scraps each got 5 blocks each from them.  I have ended up with 25 blocks, a charity quilt is now on its way.  And no those scrap containers are far from empty but at least now I have a good plan to get them into some useful purpose and maybe actually gone. 

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APRONS, A RUNNER AND SUN BONNET SUE FINISHED

I accomplished a good deal over this past week.  Both the Raiders aprons are finished and I had enough fabric left over to make a runner to go with one, both are gifts for two friends of one of my daughters.  

 

I am  pleased with how easy the aprons were to make and the runner came out nicely.  I had left overs from one Raiders fabric that I used to make pillowcases and another runner durning the Christmas season for one that same daughter's friends.

I finished the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt this week.  I am so pleased to get it done, as it was started a good 20 years ago.  It goes to my  granddaughter Suren that started it with me when she was 10 or 12 years old.  When I reorganized the storage systems in my sewing room I happened upon it, forgotten for years.  

This is the backing fabric.  Yes it is perfect for it.  I happened to pick this fabric up off the free table a my guild meeting several months before unearthing the quilt.  Who would have thought at that time it would be the perfect backing for that long forgotten quilt.  

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NATIONAL QUILT DAY AND SOUTHERN CHARM FINISH

On Saturday I attended  my guild's National Quilt Day sewing event.  We celebrate by making pillowcases for a local children's hospital each year.  About 20 of us gathered and between what we accomplished on Saturday and what we will take home and finish we will donate 125 pillowcases to the hospital.  

My contribution was the one on the far left with the blue rabbits print and the green cuff, and the tan polkadot with the dark red cuff next to it.  I have two more I still have to finish at home.  

My Southern Charm came back from the quilter last week.  So pretty!

I really love this back on it too.  Also have a good deal left over from it to use making something else. 

Oh, the quilting Hollie used on it is just wonderful.  It is a pale green and the pattern is just perfect for it.  I never select either the thread or pattern when Hollie does my quilting for me.  She is an artist, and I just let her loose to do her magic.  

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BOUTIQUE SEWING AGAIN, SCRAP BINS AND SUE

 This has been another week of sewing for my guild's quilt show boutique.  A request went out that the boutique needs many more home made items.  Our last quilt show made a profit of $15,000 and the boutique contributed $5,000 of that.  Obviously it is important to stock the boutique well.  Placemats, table runners and table topers were the primary items that sold like crazy.

I knocked out these nine this week and have another 7 ready to go.  A good part of all this sewing is cleaning out some of my scraps bins.  

I have 5 wire racks with scraps in various colors in my sewing room closet like this.

Three wire bins like this.  Really time to try to clean some of this out.  So I fear that the next couple weeks will be madly sewing boutique items.

I did take a bit of a break though and worked on the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.  This is the fourth and final row ready to quilt.  I will admit that it has been a real chore, but it is going well and I am very happy with the quilting results.  

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RAIDERS FOOTBALL APRONS AND PATTERNS

 This past week had me spending some of my time working on finally preparing appliqué pieces for my Sweet Tweet final bird block number 9.  I still have vines, leaves and a couple more flowers to cut out and fuse, but I am getting there.

It's a start, as fabric selection is the hardest for me and takes the most time to pick out.

My daughter recently asked me to make Raider football team pillowcases for her friend for Christmas.  So this past week she asked if I could make an apron for this friend for her birthday.  Yes, Raider themed.  I headed to JoAnn's to pick up a pattern.  After a good 30 minutes and selecting multiple patterns, every one was out of stock.  To make matters more interesting, patterns are very expensive.  Yes, a simple apron pattern runs between $15.99 to $19.99.  While they offer 30% off not one of them was available.  Only choice at that point was Amazon, yes $15.99 plus tax.  I am putting this one in a very safe place.

The good news was I found Raiders fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby at 40%, and it is 90" wide and a nice heavy weight fabric for that pattern.

Plus a perfect back for my Southern Charm quilt top too.  Off to the quilters this coming week.

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