Summer Sewing ~ TQC Little Quilty and other Projects.

 

Hi everyone! August is flying by, pumpkins are proliferating on social media. Too fast for me, I like to savor every moment ---as you guys know. 

Today is I think the hottest summer day so far. I don't care what the weatherbug says, it is sooo hot, sooo humid, not a breath of air. Supposedly we had rain [you blinked, you missed it]; just enough to send the humidity soaring. The ''cool front" is just someone's imagination taking flights of fancy. The past few weeks though, as the rest of the NE sweltered, Mo and I enjoyed lovely summer afternoons, as seabreezes from 60* ocean keep things nice in the shade.

July was sadly rather a lost month for me. I had a medical treatment, that went well but left me with the worse after-effects of pain and aimlessness/ depression; then pushed up too fast afterwards was the 4th Covid booster. I also was very pressed to have sleepover beach company, like I am a bed-n-breakfast, and was/ am being shunned by those persons when I said no. Then there was the broken AC. Car probs, you name it. My big project for July was a king-size duvet cover and 6 pillowcases for the friends who generously  drove me to all my post surgical appointments after my first eye surgery.  I really wanted to repay their kindness and worked hard to get the set made for summer use, only for my friend to say she didn't plan to use it til next Fall or winter.

A king duvet has 12 yards of fabric! Hard to wrestle around with painful shoulders. I worked on the items for about 2 hours a day for a week or so.

Isn't the blue batik beautiful! I had to reuse a perfectly good 75" custom zipper though, as I couldn't seem to source XL long zippers post-covid.]

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Then the fun if challenging project: TQC Little Handsewn quilt. Made in summery zinnia colors using a TQC scrap bag mostly.

I always love trying something new!~ I had never handpieced an entire quilt, not even such a tiny one. [finished size: 12 1/2" x 16 1/2"]

I gave up marking the seam allowances bc the Frixion pen's heat erase lines were fading in the hot sun. One's eye gets pretty accurate anyway.

Tension on the stitches was my worst flaw, not sure how that could be corrected? The loose stitches did pull up when the project was washed.

I used an old saved flannel sheet remnant for batting, hoping for nice drape, then stupidly spray basted with an ancient can of poor quality spray, dregs of the can. Turned the little quilt hard and plastic, not easy to needle through. The good news is, again, when washed, it softened back up, all the stiff nasty spray adhesive washed right out.

                                        

Small template of Baptist Fan quilting. Another new to me thing, I had never hand quilted Fans. Lots of stops and starts, no flow, unlike, say, wreaths or cables, or even just cross hatches.

You can see I went with the bubble gum pink and yellow for the borders. 

I liked the brown/  neutral choices but last summer I made a brown/ brown bordered little quilt. This time i wanted something new.

Binding: I chose a second chrome yellow calico. Its touches of blue seemed to pick up the Tiny TQC block colors. I recently have noticed quilters who are very proud of, preen a bit? about their tiny narrow bindings. I thought this was a good place to try that idea. I cut the binding 1 5/8 " length of goods, pressed in half then trimmed away the excess on one side to form single ply narrow binding. It finished about 3/16", less than a scant 1/4".

 I like it ok, no real opinion. What do you think, should bindings be very tiny? [as a sometimes quilt restorer who almost always has to replace worn frayed bindings, I have seen that doubled binding  about 3/8" - 1/2" is sturdiest. Not that it matters on a little show quilt, mini.]

                                          

And just for fun I used an anachronistic 1930-1950s embroidered tea towel. No reason, just cute, and also TQC always posts project updates on Mondays.

And it makes this tiny quilt fit my Lucky series of little quilts, a few below.

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As I sewed I thought about a post of a quilter I follow---she talked about how years ago she was asked to be a quilt show judge, how hard it was. But also she mentioned quilts where the quilter left threads or loose stitches and wondered why they were not more prideful in their work. But since my eye surgery I do see much better, and oh my, a shocker at times, now seeing things i thought were beautiful, just fine, good enough. The corrected eye noe suddenly sees every thread, every chopped point, every crooked seam, every flaw. I felt a sisterhood with the ladies in that long ago show. I bet they had eye issues too...

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On deck, I am hand appliqueing some of the stars for Winter Marsh. I don't think it matters in what I consider a utility quilt, if I mix methods. Grateful Pineapple's central section is sewed, revealing a giant issue where the branches meet. As you may know Jan P gives no layout or hints, so I neglected this issue, am regretting it. I have no idea what to do, more on that later. It was to be my August thru October handquilting deck project! Now I am scrambling for handwork, poor planning on my part.

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Today I just had to stay inside for a change. Baby Mo is not happy but he has a chew and afterwards he heaved a big sigh, went back to bed. I am training him to sleep here near the head of my [ugly] bed, because under the computer is too cold and drafty during winter storms

His ear is still bad, it may be cool enough for a vet visit, or so I thought. But I got an email from them saying their street and area is closed due to water and sewer pipe replacement. They suggest parking quite far away, much further than Mo can walk [in heavy traffic too] on scorching blacktop. So I am treating his ear at home. Not pleased tho, poor little man.

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And the first nature sketch of August. Experimenting with pens again. I'll get back to @roomportraitclub and the tiny watercolors but the past few weeks the challenge photo has been one sofa after another. yawn.

Have a good week! Reminder: Full supermoon tonight and Perseid meteor shower peak. Take an evening walk and enjoy the heavens' show. Sunny day rainbow, below.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

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