Catch Up Post

 

Ever have a catch up day?  That day when you tidy up all the loose ends of the week.
Consider this your Catch Up Post.

COVID or no COVID my workload is ramping up and the past week has been crazy busy. 
I will even be TRAVELING in a couple of weeks!  (she says with a bit of fear and trembling...)

 

 

 

 

 

Because the days have been long I have not been in the studio much. 
I did, however, work on the Tea Time quilt for my sister's birthday in April. 
I expect to finish the block assembly today.  

How I keep track of block placement.

 

 

It's unfortunate that, now that it is nearly all assembled, I notice a built-in focus point....
hummmmm.  Oh well....there are no quilt police***, right?

I still want to add at least one border but  because this quilt was created from a jelly roll there is no left-over fabric. A trip to the fabric store appears to be necessary.  I've been avoiding the fabric store....

As quilters we never stop learning....A while back I watched a video from
Just Get It Done Quilts about pressing blocks.  With these blocks I employed both the finger pressing technique Donna Jordan suggests in her video and  Karen's pressing technique from her video. 
I do believe these blocks are straighter and more true-to-size.

  Rounding out the week

 

 The son liked his birthday quilt...

Storm at Sea

 

 

 

 

My dear friend of more than 40 years, Jennifer, gave her log cabin a place of honor.  (and right this moment, in the entire Portland area, there is ice and snow...wonder if she fetched the quilt off the wall???)

 

Isn't this why we quilt?  

Quilts warm the body and the soul.

Happy Valentines Day to all

***Sam Gordon (who I do not know) has been posting these cute, quilt police blocks on the Collage Quilter FB page. 
Very creative.

UPDATE

An update on Sam Gordon and the Quilt Police blocks. He has his own FB page, Personal Patchworks.  HERE I believe I read somewhere on his page that he is putting together a pamphlet or pattern or something for the Quilt Police.
Wouldn't that be fun?!

 

Super Sunday

 Another Super Bowl...I am not as ambivalent to Bowl games as I once was, now that I have ball-playing g-sons.

 

Still, sitting around for FIVE hours to watch a ONE hour game is not high on my list of favorite Sunday activities.

Instead I will be putting the binding on the now-completed Storm at Sea birthday quilt for my son. 
And, not a day too soon as his birthday is tomorrow.

My son served 6 years in the U.S. Coast Guard.  He loved his time at sea.  He says he only got sea sick once.... 
I get sea sick just watching the waves HERE.

The end result is much nicer that I thought it would be.  Can you see the waves?  

 You might remember that I did not pick the fabrics for this quilt. 
The Quilting Auntie gifted me a fat quarter bundle, Summer Breezes.

The end result is a bit scrappy, but I like it.
This quilt was born a year ago.  See Post HERE from January 22, 2020.

 

 

 

 

Faith, my LAQ did such a nice job.  The quilting looks like waves. 

A side note:  This quilt was paper pieced...that means many hours of ripping out paper and days and days of cleaning up the teeny shreds that flew all over the room.  Faith mentioned she had a pattern that uses special rulers and it is faster and easier.  Now that I've completed this Storm at Sea I may give her method a try creating another.   We'll start with one block!

The gifting is tomorrow, complete with cake and ice cream.

 

And This Day in History

Four years ago--Super Bowl Sunday with my quilting Auntie.

While the Unkie watched the game, Auntie, Gail and I hit the quilt Shops of Spokane.

Auntie in her Studio....How I miss her!

This is my memory every Super Bowl Sunday.

All Spit Shined and Polished

 And ready for 2021

I spent some time in the Studio yesterday, vacuuming, dusting, cleaning all the cob webs from the corners.  Generally tidying up and getting ready for a brand, spanking new year.

While 2020 has been a challenging year "The Sun'll come out tomorrow...." right? 
And when it does, the studio will be ready!

Before - just a couple days ago.

 

After - kinda hate to mess it up.

 

 

 

AS part of my end-of-year routine, every year about this time I am filled with fresh hope that all the UFO projects hanging about in cupboards and on shelves will get completed.  So every year about this time I sign up with the American Patchwork & Quilting UFO Challenge. Part of cleaning up the studio is taking inventory of all these projects.

While it looks like I have THREE pages....I don't, really.  Pages one & three are partial sheets. Projects are listed in order of importance and the main sheet are the birthday quilts I need to complete for 2021 (the first one due in early February, Storm at Sea for my son.  Started last January, but it is about three-quarters complete.)  Patterns have been decided and fabric has already been purchased....mostly.  And in most cases quilts already started so UFO projects really are, ever-so-slowly disappearing.  

Come along.  Sign up on American Patchwork and Quilting website and follow everyone's progress on FaceBook.  It is motivating and fun.

And with that, quilting friends, 2020 is a wrap!

From My Studio to Yours

 

Happy New Month

How will May be different from April?  From where I sit right this moment, it doesn't seem like May will be different.

But it seems change is Blowing in the Wind ... there is unrest "out there" where the economy shut down is concerned.  Is that a good thing?  I don't know ... I tend to not follow this stuff very close.  But, it appears the Times They Are a-Changin.



American Patchwork & Quilting UFO Challenge has
put out their May number.  The number is 12.

Number 12 on my list is  BLANK?!

I don't have a number 12? 
Actually that is a relief.

I will continue with the Christmas Lap Quilts for my son's family.
Number 9.

 


Six lap quilts in all; 2 down, 4 to go.

I'm working on Storm at Sea.  This pattern is paper pieced.  I actually rather enjoy paper piecing, but it is slow going. 

The hardest part is getting the colors in the right place.  There are 12 large blocks and I'm on block 7.

So this will be my Number 12 for May.

BTW, it's not too late to join the challenge.  It is fun to watch others finish up long-past-due projects.
Here is their Facebook page.

Wishing you all a Happy New Month of sewing and hopefully some socializing.

 

Magical Healing Powers

When life throws a curve ball, what do you do?  Why, make a quilt, of course!

A couple of years ago there was a big upset in my son's house that ultimately lead to a divorce.  It was pretty traumatic, sad and a painful period for everyone.

Fast forward a couple of years, by God's Grace a lot of healing has happened and now not only do I have a new, beautiful grand-daughter but apparently I'm also inheriting some additional family members.

We moms can only do what we can do.  Raise them the best we know how and then roll with the punches.  Don't forget to pray like crazy.  But we have a lot of power to bring peace, unity and forgiveness to the mix.

Sewing indeed mends the soul.  For both the person sewing and for the person receiving.  The New Little Miss will go a long way for bringing the family unit together because who couldn't love a new baby, right?  The #1 g-son said "Grandma, just holding her makes you happy."  But she cannot do it alone.

They like to have "movie night"  so I decided to make lap quilts for all.  I'm going to start with the mom of this new unit.

Last night when the Needlers* met, I went through one of my scrap bins (yes, that was "binS" with an "s")  It happened to be a bin full of strips saved over years. I know you can all relate.   Charlotte S. suggested a scrappy log cabin lap quilt.  Lord knows I have plenty of strips....with some to spare.  Hummmm....good idea.

I fired up Electric Quilt and played around with some designs.  This is the one I settled on.

Finished size, 46" by 55"

Oh, you may be asking if I finished Storm at Sea (which is for "The Original" in the picture above.)  Ah, you probably know the answer to that....truth be told, I'm still struggling with color placement.  An easy project like a log cabin will be a nice diversion.

*Needlers is our quilt group that get together each Tuesday night in the Mezzanine room in the building where I live.

Storm At Sea

My son is a ship's captain.  He actually pilot's a boat.

Not this type.
Handsome, No?
Love a man in uniform.

More this type. 
He is still handsome, though.

When I wake up to a red sky,
I always take that opportunity to pray for his day.

My next quilt project will be "Storm At Sea" for my son 

using a package of 24 batik fat quarters given to me by my Quilting Auntie.

I attempted to design the block in Electric Quilt (EQ).  It actually is a pretty easy block to draw.

Doesn't this block look like it has curved lines? 
Nope, they are all straight lines. 
It is the color placement that gives this quilt "waves."

I was having a problem with the corner blocks so I posted the issue on the EQ Facebook page. Then someone posted there is an example of this quilt already in EQ!

That certainly made it easier, but did take some of the fun out of it.


 

Next step is to use the coloring page to determine where the colors will go to keep the wave effect.

Storm at Sea, Sweet
Ummm, probably not.

Finally, choose a design.  Different color placement, different effect.














 

Storm at Sea, Scrappy
Hard to see the "waves."

Storm at Sea, Variegated

Storm at Sea, Center Medallion
I  I like this one the best,
but I do not think the fabrics I have
will make this possible....another project?

Storm at Sea, Graduating Colors
which would work well with the
number of fabrics I have.

Honestly, I can't wait to get started.

FINISHED! Finally!!

All the Christmas quilts have been gifted and I'm ready to start 2020 with a clean slate.

The Little Princess loves her quilt.

The penguin made it to the new great, great nephew.

I must admit, I had the most fun with this one.

My brother and S-I-L lap quilts are all finished and

 winging their way to Texas as we speak. 

(Not in time to comfort Linda after knee replacement,

sorry to say.)

Now What?!

Before the Quilting Auntie passed into glory, she gave me a pack of batik fat quarters.
I think it is time to break it open. There are 24 fat quarters.






On my UFO Challenge sheet for 2020
is Storm At Sea. 
I've always wanted to make one.  I think this will be my next project.

Storm At Sea, example.

Let the games begin.