Planting a forest

Ever had an idea that seemed logical in your head and once you executed it - you weren't so sure?  That's what's going on here.

This started out as a version of crazy mom quilts "birch trees".  I love this pattern and bought it with the intent of making it for our new grandson who is to put in an appearance in early March.  I started piecing the brightly colored birches - I studied her version - I pondered lights and darks.  And then it took a right turn.

And I began to wonder if I could do more realistic birch trees.  And would that make sense for a baby quilt?  So I began to do a search on Pinterest and Google and came up with a beautiful and sophisticated wall hanging from tallgrass prairie studio's "night forest".   Isn't this lovely?  And I loved the contrast of lights and darks and all the different fabrics she used.

I still wasn't sure but I was intrigued and decided to try it.  It's for family, after all, and if it's a little too "out there" or non-traditional, they won't have trouble telling me.  So I started and had no idea what I was doing.  I went through my strings; I pulled some pre cut strips from my bins; and I dug into my strips from men's shirts.

I had forgotten how much I Iike improvisational piecing.  I just put away the ruler and started cutting.  It went together quickly and when I did something I didn't intend to -- I just made it work.  This is what the first version looked like when I added strips.  The first image is the finished top and there was some evolution in design -- but not a lot. No pinning!  Just cut, sew, and repeat.

This required me to stop working on the Quiltville mystery for a few days but I'm hoping to get caught back up while I ponder how to quilt this.  I love the negative space but I've learned that dense quilting on a baby quilt takes away any "drape" until it's been washed a number of times.  So, rather than create a "stiff" quilt for "Rex Webb Steve" (the name our grandson has chosen -- we're not monogramming anything just yet!), I'll restrain myself and not over quilt it.

I hope you are finding time to "create" and improvise occasionally and enjoy the process! Looking forward to a wonderful 2015 and more creativity!

Jan

Perhaps an Intervention?

Seriously -- what is happening here?

1.  All the Christmas gifts are finished -- no wait!  I have one more pillowcase to do out of dino fabric but have until New Years Eve to get that done.  Oh  -- and I forgot -- I haven't finished binding the dino quilt and that has to be done by New Years Eve, too.

2.  I am knee deep in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt and determined to stay on top of every clue -- otherwise it will end up in a tote and become a chore to finish at some point. You can see how others are progressing at by clicking here.

3.  I have joined a HST swap using Edyta Sitar's piecing papers and that's due the end of January.

4.  And -- here's the kicker and the need for possible outside help -- I have decided to make a baby quilt (or slightly bigger) out of my African fabrics.  That's not too hard, right.  You only have to cut a bazillion logs and then start assembling them.

Like many of you, I don't really have yardage of African fabrics -- I have scraps that have been given to me or a scrap bag that I picked up from a vendor at a quilt show (usually from the garment district in NYC which means it pieces of clothing or leftovers from clothing).  These pieces are highly irregular - they may be a pocket, a shirt sleeve that was miscut, something that was disassembled and the button cut off.  They really are perfect for logs but each piece has to be individually cut.

For the first time ever, I know that I haven't over cut my logs.  I usually get really focused on cutting and I end up with too many of one size or one fabric.  The design wall is a life saver.  While this is a terrible picture -- you get the idea.  They are sorted by size and right beside my machine.  I can grab and go and make sure that no blocks have duplicate logs. I am hopeful the time spent doing this will save time (and order) on the backend when I start assembling.

This quilt will be 49"x 49" (7 x 7 of 7" blocks).  I say "this quilt" because there could be more.  Not because I have more scraps of African fabrics.  Those have been depleted.  But because I just found out that the young couple that I'm making this for may be adopting more than one child.

I knew they were well on their way to adopting a baby up to 18 months old from Ethiopia.  What I found out this weekend is that if the baby has siblings, they will take up to 3-4 children.  I am ashamed to say that "Oh how wonderful" was my second thought.  My selfish first thought was "holy cow, that could be four quilts -- I don't have enough fabric".  I am guessing my Australian fabrics will have to suffice along with a number of other African reproductions (you can see some of those in the logs I have already cut -- I think I have stayed away from the Australian ones thus far).

Obviously, the quilts could be out of anything but my initial thought was to have a bright baby quilt out of fabrics from the same continent (I doubt any of these scraps are purely Ethiopian).  My second thought is to try to make the appropriate number of quilts out of ethnic fabrics and that may change, depending on how this goes! So, I will make the first one and have it ready and see what blessings they are able to adopt.  They will be in Ethiopia for a few weeks and then come back without their baby(children).  That will give me some time to figure this out.

But -- if I agree to any more swaps, mysteries, gift quilts -- I may need an intervention.  I am on sabbatical from my two hospital quilts a month until March.  I need to use that free time wisely I think.

I hope there are people in your life that are full of the generosity and love that exist in this young couple!

Jan

Scrap Happy!!

Seriously -- I am so scrap happy!

I do love finishing things. And I really love finishing things when I have fallen out of love with them. That's the case with this little top. These blocks were a "leader/ender" project and have a lot of my quilting history in the fabrics. And I got tired of it….and needed to get it out of a tin and functional. I haven't touched it in over a year.  That's a clue that I'm ready to move on!

It's small -- 40" x 52"-- and needs an inner and outer border to be functional - so, technically, it's not finished. Nevertheless, I can put the "remains" back in my scraps and consider the piecing done. I'm thinking this needs a bright border and then I will probably donate it to Quilts Beyond Borders.  I've posted about this great organization before and love them!  I think if I get the borders on, it will be large enough and can keep some sweet child warm and even entertained with the different fabrics.  That makes me scrap happy!

I'm also happy to be using up scraps with the Quiltville Mystery Quilt.  I mentioned last week that I was able to use a green fabric that was 33 years old.  This week I used some yellow fabric that was left over from a dress my mother made for me when I was in my teens or early 20's.  Yep -- I'm guessing that lovely "hip" floral was 40+ years old!  That makes me scrap happy!

If you are interested in getting scrap happy with Bonnie Hunter's mystery, you can link here.  And if you want to see what others are doing, she will have a link-up party on Monday.  I'm hoping we get back to blues soon -- I've about depleted my orange stash and my creams/blues need to be whittled down as well.

I hope you are finding time to create amidst the holiday commitments of gifts, parties, and baking; and if you are a lover of scraps -- I really hope you are scrap happy!

Jan

Improv!

Hallelujah!

The top is done, quilted, and the binding is underway.  These great fabrics are from Wilmington Prints and just fit the bill for the type of whimsical dinosaurs I was looking for. Somehow, a 3 year old sleeping under lifelike dinos just didn't "float my boat".

But -- all is not as easy as it might seem.  I was backordered twice on these. There were panels that were awkward if put in a quilt without cutting them apart. I have no pattern. I needed to make the fabric that I had work.  The backgrounds are light and needed spacers to break them up. I went with 10.5" blocks cut which means you only get one from a fat quarter and then have to "make" the rest of the fabric work.

So -- thank goodness for a design wall and the ability work in sections and then try to get them to all work in the end. The quilt is not quite full size but will work for a "big boy bed" and should be done in time to take to Toronto after Christmas. I was lucky to have some help from Mr Iquiltforfun in the quilting. How fun to be able to tell our grandson that his grammie and granddaddy made this for him!  I would have cherished that.

AND -- here is my yearly reminder. I am using my last "faux minkee blanket" for the back. There are going to be after Christmas sales and we need to be looking for blankets on sale.  Not the fleece ones -- altho I'm sure they would work. But there are often minkee-type blankets deeply discounted (often doubled with minkee on both sides and then bound). SNATCH THEM UP. They are seamless and wider than normal width of fabric.

If you score a double sided one, you will want to be deliberate in where you cut them apart. They make a mess! There is no selvage and little pieces of fluff go everywhere. Since weather was not cooperating this week, I put the blankets in one of our bathtubs, perched myself on a  stool, and cut the binding off. Most of the little fluffies were contained and I could wipe them up with a damp paper towel.  The tag said this was 90 x 102 before I cut off the binding. NO seams. And it quilted up beautifully.

To provide a bit of order in my quilting world, I finished Step 2 of Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery. The details for the mystery are here. While I am not a fan of chevrons because of the waste of fabric, I much prefer her method to making them than trying to piece them with triangles. I have to say, this step  seemed pretty easy compared to some so I wonder what lies in store for a future step! These little jewels went together perfectly (so long as I did my sewing perfectly!). I am so happy to see some of these fabrics go! One of the greens was used in a quilt that a friend made for my son when he was born. He is 33!

Step 3 is live and another chance to use up some of those pesky fabrics that won't go away. And, it's a great step to use 2" strips from the strip bin. I love that for many reasons.  You can see everyone's progress and color choices here.

I hope you have some improvisation in your life - along with some order if that's helpful to you!

Jan

A Little of This -- A Little of That

This has been a few weeks of nothing "BIG" -- but enough "littles" to make me feel like I've gotten something done.

I managed to force myself to finally put the mitered borders on my circle quilt.  I have posted about this quilt and these fabrics here and I really like it.  Borders, of course, make it more "real" and I have to start thinking about how to quilt it.  But I don't have to think about that today.

I quilted a very very small lap quilt from a Mary Engelbreit jelly roll that my sister gave me for my birthday 3.5 years ago.  I have had the top done for three years but the fabrics are Christmas and there was always something more pressing that needed attention.

I got the strip quilt put together and quilted.  There is something about an all over pattern that helps a "blah" quilt become something really cute.  I haven't had a chance to take pictures so here's a reminder of what the blocks looked like prior to assembling.

I managed to get the binding on this Kaffe Fassett jelly roll quilt that I put together last year.  I really like it -- and I'm happy it's quilted and ready for binding to be sewn down.  Get in line.  I have not been motivated to bind lately!

Thanksgiving napkins got done -- well in advance.  Isn't this fabric beautiful?  For the second year in a row, I've made napkins for our dinner, washed them, and then every family gets some for their use.

And -- in a matter of a week, this Spiderman quilt got made in time for our grandson to have when he got here and then take home for his big-boy bed.  The back is a lime green flannel.  It's a great fabric and I figured I could get by with it when he was 3 -- but not so sure that will be the case in a few years.

I also got the binding on three hospital quilts -- makes me so happy that both the December and January allotments are done and ready for delivery.  I had some yummy Marcus flannel that allowed me to line them all up on the same piece of fabric and quilt them one after the other.  Hurray -- quilted and bound!

I have started Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery after sitting out last year.  Thus far -- Step 1 is done and Step 2 (released today) is cut. I have not made a dent in the scraps I have pulled for this.  For the first time, I have a friend who is also participating - although she's a high achiever and is doing the king sized version.  I am doing the 75" x 75" version.  Monkeymama rocks!  She also finished the first clue and is working on #2.  It's not too late if you would like to use some scraps and join in the race to get Christmas done while having each step complete by every Friday morning!  Here's a link if you want to take a peek.  Pictures next week!

Finally, I lined up all the completed tops and cut the batting for them.  I don't like doing that and so I'm pretty happy to have them folded with their appropriate batting in the right direction.  Backs for most are another story -- but at least the batting is done and another roll of Warm and Natural has bitten the dust (almost).

With Thanksgiving and I'm happy-happy-happy to say that our Toronto family was here -- fabric was the least of my concern.  It was all about family!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving -- I am thankful for many things -- and the generosity of quilters would certainly be on my list!

Jan

Quilts Beyond Borders

Have you heard of this organization?  It is remarkable and was founded in 2007 by delivering 230 quilts to orphans in Ethiopia.  Since that time, they have sent over 2,600 quilts to Ethiopia, Haiti, Japan, Thailand, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Uganda, Burundi, Cameroon, and Russia.  Currently they are working to send quilts to the Forgotten People organization that services Arizona Navajo people living, in many cases, without electricity and running water. They are cold.  This is shameful!

Whether you prefer to donate your charity quilts locally or globally, you have to admire their Mission Statement:

To provide quilts to children in need, especially orphans living in under-served areas of the world where the warmth of a quilt is needed at night.

I don't have permission to share "before and after" pictures from their brochure that shows spartan bunk beds lined up side by side (the children appear to have to crawl into (or up to) their bed from the foot.  There is no room between the beds.  The "after" picture shows wonderful colorful quilts draped at the foot of each bed.

If you've ever been to a major quilt show, you know the charity organizations' booths are normally at the very last aisle of the quilt exhibits.  They are not in high traffic areas -- by a long shot.  While in Houston last fall, we walked by the QBB booth and were drawn to the packets of fabric, finished quilts, and a few items for sale.  In reading their brochure, this was the paragraph that drew me in and led me to sign up to make a quilt (or quilt top) within the next year:

More than 140 million children in the world today have lost one or more parents.  Sub-Saharan Africa is the home to an estimated 50 million orphaned children. More than one in three orphans will have lost  a parent to AIDS.  In Ethiopia alone, there are currently about 5 million orphans.

I was all in!  It was reaffirmed when I read that besides their school uniforms, this will be the only personal possession of many orphans.  Heartbreaking!

This is an organization that makes it as easy as possible on us quilters when it comes to donating.  You can donate unwanted fabric.  You can donate a quilt top (42"x48" to 42"x60").  You can donate your long arm quilting.  You can donate $15 which pays to send 6-8 tops to a volunteer longarmer.    They will also take frequent flier donations, publicity, researching grant opportunities, and sales of quilts for fundraising.

Seriously -- you don't have to send a finished quilt.  These three tops will be going to a longarmer next week along with some leftover scrappy binding.  

I know many quilters are called to serve and donate locally and I understand and admire that.  I make two small baby quilts for the local hospital every month.  A small church quilting group I belong to is making pillowcases (with members furnishing pillows) for local children who are removed from their homes and put in foster care.  I know many of you make quilts, layettes, and pillowcases for local organizations.  What I don't always understand is the position that it's "either - or".  Why can't it be "both" with the generosity of quilters being spread locally and globally?

I am not looking for an answer because this is a personal matter.  We quilt for so many reasons - creativity, gifts, inspiration, peace, energy, fulfillment, art, healing.....I suspect we rarely need to quilt to keep our families warm these days.  But there are opportunities throughout the world help keep others warm.

I would encourage you to see if you have a quilt top (or quilt) you've fallen out of love with or fabric you are tired of or scraps or a pattern you want to try -- to look at QBB's website and see if you feel moved to help them out.  Postage to ship it is the only expense.

This very simple brick quilt is their recommended pattern (3" strips cut across fat quarters) and these are the fabrics that I picked up from their booth.  The two Scrappy Trip Around the World tops (pattern by Quiltville) are from my 2.5" strip bin that exploded when I opened it.  It's certainly more under control but I have enough 16" strips to make at least one more.  The smaller strips are being subcut for another Cross Quilt.  I need to get something in my quilt room under control!

Even if you don't donate to this wonderful organization -- I would suggest you look at their website for a reminder of why quilters are special and we should all be proud to use that title in describing our art.

Keep piecing!  Jan

Wandering

Have you ever had a week where you wanted to sew/create but you couldn't find your groove and just the right project?  I've been all over the place this week.

I managed to find my place and finish piecing this little charity top.  Will fold it, put it up, and quilt/bind it when I have another one or two ready. I prefer assembly line when I'm working on these.

And what is this ugliness, you ask.   Good question.  All week I've been feeling the pull of my little bin of florals.  I finally segregated them (sans Kaffe, of course) because I found I wasn't using them.  They are 1/2 yard cuts, FQ, charm squares, and all in between.  Some I bought on vacations and others have been gifted or swapped.  Either way, I never seemed to pull them for a scrap quilt.

In my head, I want to make a disappearing nine patch out of them.  I'm hoping for a cacophony of color and a happy quilt.  For the most part, florals are happy fabrics and they should translate into a quilt of the same tone - if the design is right.  I think this is -- but needed to make a prototype block.

So, that's what this is.  I took some 3" squares and strips and made a nine patch and then sliced it down the middle to see what the proportions, dimensions, and color placement would be like.

This fuzzy shot is the finished project.  Here's what I learned.  I like the "dark" squares in the center and they way they break up.  I like the dimensions (block will finish at 7" with the squares at 2.5").  I liked the process -- sometimes a prototype is enough to tell me that it's not the right thing for me or the fabrics I was using.  I don't like the "light" blocks as the squares and will switch out the medium (blue) value with the light (white).  I don't know about you but playing with a sample block can save a lot of heartache and redo later.  It also lets me know how I should press for ease of assembly.  That wasn't abundantly clear on this block so I may just press seams open.  I pin anyway so I just have to be a bit more cautious.

But -- you know that small voice in your head that asks why on earth you would start another project when you have so many totes of in process quilts already?  My little voice was chattering away - particularly when I had to move a number of other totes to get to my florals.  But cutting new fabric and thinking about a new quilt is so much more fun than trying to figure out where you are in a "work in progress", right?

That's the case here.  This is Roll Roll Cotton Boll which is on my list to finish this year.  It was a mystery quilt at the end of 2010 and I have all the pieced blocks made and all the string blocks sewn into halves.  I just need to finish assembling the larger string blocks.

I started this quilt when we were working on getting the house in Chicago ready to sell and knew that I could do most of it from precut strips and my strings.  I was close to right -- there was plenty of cutting but it made a dent in a lot of my smaller pieces and used many of them up.  That's the spirit of cleaning up to get a house (or sewing room) more in order, right?

The suggested color palette was pink where you see blue -- and I didn't have pinks.  Unfortunately when you are cutting for a mystery quilt, you don't know how the blocks will go together and whether your color choices will work.  I don't think these did.  You also get in pretty deep sometimes and can't get out.  That was the case when one clue was to make 600 of the red/white HSTs and sew them into 120 strips of five.  Some of you know the feeling that comes when you read that and think "REALLY -- 600?".  I didn't get that clue finished until we got moved to Kentucky and I needed mindless sewing.  I had them pieced but not sewn into strips of five.

When making the string blocks, I committed heresy by foundation piecing mine.  The risk is that you don't know how they are going together and you could have a lot of bulk.  That is the case here.  Because the original blocks were cut in half and reassembled into a larger block of four halves, you have some bulky seams - even with lightweight foundation.  The good news is that you have stability.  When you look at this quilt, there are LOTS of pieces and lots of ways for things to get wonky.  These blocks actually provide framework and since I'll just be doing a large meander when I quilt it, I'll avoid any little mountains that might exist.  We'll see if I can keep motivated to do one row everyday.  If so, all the blocks will be pieced within a week and then we'll see if I can figure out where I am on the border.  I have all the pieces cut -- just have to sort and finish them.  Thank goodness I have that set of instructions.  The rest is being done by "feel" since I must have thrown them out!  Good grief!

I hope you are inspired and creative this week -- and a bit more focused than I am!

Jan

Yippee - Skippee!

I am thrilled to say that Orca Bay (Quiltville Mystery Quilt from November/December) is a complete top and put up -- waiting for a trip to Chicago to quilt it.

There are lots of pieces and I'm glad to have the top done.  I don't love it -- but I do like it.  I've mentioned before that I'm tickled to have been able to use only precut scraps or strings for all but the black (not enough scraps) and the white borders.  In the end, there were too many strings for my personal preference. I love the way they look -- but I am not a big fan of "bumps" and where the strings come together -- there are definitely bumps.  I prefer to press seams open these days and that's just not possible in some places with this quilt.

I am pleased that the instructions included pieces for the border so that was done (altho I did put the hourglass block in differently than the instructions -- seems less intrusive to me).  The border went on effortlessly.  When it's not included in the initial cutting/sewing, I'm usually so tired of the quilt that I just don't do it.  So, thank you, Bonnie for slipping the border in!

The pictures are not great -- it's a tad windy here but I wanted to get it in the closet so I could start to focus on something else.  It's so freeing to finish a top and then wonder what to do next.  So -- the "next" for me (at least for the moment) is to sort through my 2" strips, cut the ones I'm not overly fond of down to 13" and make some Scrappy Trip Around the World from the Quiltville site.  This will make a fine charity quilt if I decide to keep working on it...and if I don't, I don't have a lot invested in it as far as favorite fabrics or cutting time.  I just needed to sew and listen to the football game (tennis was pre-empted, alas).  If I keep up the Scrappy TATW, I'll get some on the design wall for a later post.

I hope you are enjoying the satisfaction of a finish or the joy of just sewing to sew!  Jan