Gone To The Beach: Fall Festival

Monday, January 7, 2019

Quilt Finishes, and Almost-Finishes 2018

Happy Sunday! My house is almost put back to its blue self and now it's time to look over what I accomplished during 2018. Oddly I was less productive that usual, despite or because of feeling fairly well after my long bout of inflammatory hip/ joint pain. Because I was able to be active, not just go out, but also do things like walk Mo, go to the beach and flea,and even cook, my sewing time, especially hand sewing time was much less than in the past few years. But that's okay. Mo and family and real life come first for me.
So I don't have 4000 finishes,lol. (Seriously, one woman had 40 quilts done! That's about 9 days spent on each quilt! I can spend---years! on just one).

Another fun landmark was my 1000th blog post here! And in October 2019 I will have my 10
year blogging anniversary, imagine that. Might have to do something special for my friends here?

So finishes:

Westering Women top.

Fall Festival, quilted, complete.

When the Wild Geese Fly, quilted, complete [ my all-time favorite quilt].

The next two never had their own complete reveals, so a bit more detail on each. (My friends allowed me to photograph these quilts in their beautiful home and garden. I wanted to show my quilts in a more modern setting, for a different point of view. Thanks, guys!] My friend has a wonderful driftwood ladder! I am quite envious.

Opie's School Shirts: Vintage plaid and check shirtings in a thrifted top, c. 1920-1960.

I call it Opie's Shirts because the plaids look like a 1950s little boy's school shirts. Opie was a little kid on The Any Griffith Show, rural cops etc.

The backing is an ABCs print I've had about 10 years. I added a tomato soup red section on one end. To complete the school theme.

Closeup and you can also see the beautiful quilting by Lori C.

I love the subtle glow. Half square triangles are abut 5 1/2", biggest I have ever seen!

And the final reveal of Quilty 365, aka Dotty. Don't we love this one!

Works well in a modern room?

Last square is the label, describing the project briefly.

Close-up of Circles and beautiful quilting, and of the large scale text fabric on the back.

Pens and pencils border. This is after all a diary, though made with fabric and thread not paper and words.

Stars, Stripes, Geese: I wanted a small patriotic quilt for June and July. Antique Flying Geese from a friend; tiny flag. I'd love to make a large quilt with Flag and Geese blocks like this.

Small quilts, tops only so far.
Evening Stars in Madder, using antique c. 1875-1890s Star blocks.

This is the inspiration doll quilt, c. 1835-1850? Mine will be a closer color match when tea dyed.

And my Christmas busywork project: Cheri Payne's "Joyful Christmas".

A few more almost-dones. I am hoping for a February 1 finish on both tops, above with a March 1 finish of the two below.

TQC 1880 Sampler

Sajou [Lori/ Humble Quilts]

Last but not least Bitty: The hand quilting will resume at the beach this summer.

Of course there are way too many other projects in work, leftover from 2018 or even earlier. A Santa I can't learn to hook, knitting for me and Mo! The Antebellum Schoolgirls sewalong! You'll never forget Hideous!

Schoolgirls Blues

Then many more Stars for Silent Night maybe April? Feathered Star, postponed for hand applique next summer, piecing Winter 2020.

And though my intention is to resist joining every sewalong that catches my fancy. I do plan to at least make trial block of Blue Baskets, using strips from my thrifted men's shirts, for Lori's String Quilts Sewalong. I don't count it as a add because it has been on my list for a few years now. This will be the pattern, I drafted it for Westering Women and sure hope I saved it! The body of the Basket will be string pieced [more soon].

Maybe small starts on The Blue and The Grey and Yes It's Cheddar? Just for fun? Last, one more sweet project that I'll tell you about another time. Because we quilters always need something new! It looks like a fun and interesting year. I love the winter months, spent with Mo, in the sewing room. It need not snow or be too cold! I'm hoping for lots of winter beach walks.

Thanks to everyone for being supportive about my anti-minimalism. Thrifting and fleaing posts will therefore NOT be cancelled.

What will be your first project of 2019? Is it done yet?

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

"Walkies? That sounds like a horrible idea, mommy!
Hi Dorothy!" --waves paw, ''Lookit me, I am naked!"

Amaryllis, for everyone but especially for Julie who is growing beautiful amaryllis too.

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Fall Festival ~ A Finish!

Hi! I finished Fall Festival [top] today, Tuesday. I'm so happy to have it finished, and exactly as scheduled. [This blog post is late because I had an issue with the photos, must retake tomorrow morning, too bad.]

I'm quite pleased with this project. I dropped out of the internet sewalong because the pace was far too rushed for me. I want to savor the quilt process, to enjoy each block, not rush to a deadline just to start yet another quilt.

My ''mantra'' lately has been good craftsmanship, and I think my efforts show on this top. It's a little thing but my most hated part of quilting is removing the threads on the quilt's back, so tedious---yet machine quilters insist on pristine backs! If I am quilting something myself I just ignore the threads. On FF I was determined to clip every single thread as I worked, to not have ANY threads to trim when done.Oh yes, much, MUCH better, though in the close ups I see my applique work needs improvement, as always.
Here is the schematic for the project's final layout. I outlined each section in a different color; Patek's designs are like jigsaw puzzles.

I used a color design board for this quilt, a new idea for me.

I feel it worked well, keeping my colors and fabrics coordinated and on target.

I changed a few blocks: I added the white crow to the top swag, along with oak leaves and acorns.

I added more Flying Geese to the spacer sashing, partly because I love FG and also because I was afraid I didn't have enough of the vintage-ish print.

This is a situation where the time-honored tradition of subbing a new fabric partway through isn't very successful, because the geese's triangles should float in the perceived sky; this means the FG's sky and sashing must match or one's eye see a break in the concept, in the flow. I had three yards of khaki calico, but there was a big portion of the center cut out, used elsewhere. I had about 18" of 4 1/2" strips left when done.

I also eked out the three reds used in the appliques--

...saving every scrap for a few Flying Geese to match for color movement. Some of the red Geese have two or even three tiny pieces sewed into one 2" x 4" triangle.

And I eliminated the boring Jan Patek House block, I must have made, I don't't even know, 6 so far!? The block I used instead is my fave block, I love it!

I began with a Cheri Payne basket or Vase block, added my own flowers (the big Sunflower inspired by the one on Wild Geese), oak leaves and acorns, the date, and a blue moon.

Of course I love the pineapples even though I had to remake them; they were crooked at first. They are decorated with reverse applique, new to me. Aren't they the cutest!

Blue Moons, how fun.

Westering Women is all set to go to the quilter, so I can't have FF quilted for awhile. Meanwhile we can choose a backing for FF. I intend[ed] to use the brown dots, ordered it specially for the quilt. It is darker and prettier in real life.But I also have this fun plaid patchwork yardage that I could use? The colors are a bit wrong? And it looks like India madras, might it color run? Which do we like?

.........
I'm so happy to now have caught up on old big projects. I can't stand the idea of what is quaintly/ cutely called UFOs, unfinished objects, in the quilt world. Starting new---my reward for finishes. Good times ahead--- March and spring!
...
On a quilty note I thought you might enjoy seeing some friends' projects. Neither blogs or posts on FB, I don't think.

First, blog friend Penny, in South Africa. Here beautiful Westering Women blocks. I love her colors.

I asked her if the quilt world's focus on American history becomes boring for her, and she said the themes of travel and pioneering are universal; that parts of her country were settled in much the same way, exploring the open unmapped veld of inner South Africa.
.....
And from my friend BJ--we had no idea we were both working on Westering Women! Here is her quilt. Finished and hand quilted. I was very impressed. She hand quilts almost all her quilts. Nice dark rich colors too.