Blue Pineapples

 

Hi! March 1st is here. The Lion Wind is howling. Do we welcome March 2021, or do we cringe. It is never a good month, is it, but let's hope for the best.

Today is Part Two of February sewing. while I didn't work much on my Silent Night Stars, Blue Pineapples was on my schedule for this winter and I am pleased with how it has gone so far.

Keep in mind this is a throw sized utility quilt, for chilly cocktail time evenings on the deck or beachy picnics. It could be a play mat for small visitors if I ever again have friends come to visit and play. It can be a sofa throw. Whatever.

Here are my first 13 blocks. 

I plan to space the blue pineapples quite far apart, give the indigo batiks room to show off.

But I may need to make more, as I did with Baby Pineapples last year. [I'm superstitious, no matter what I decide, I will have to squeeze in one more for 14 not 13.]

Going backwards, the idea was inspired by  Baby Pineapples, but with changes.

Here is the pattern drafted and used. 

I wanted the corners more casual--a little crooked, so I cut extra large triangles and trimmed.

This is a trimming template.

I did use some rotary  cutting to have that crisp edge, but marked everything with heat removable 

Frixion pen before cutting one at a time.

The template also is used to trim the stem portion, to be sure it all fits and is square. Left column is untrimmed.

Normally I might cut the templates from matte finish gridded Mylar sheets, but I haven't found the kind I like online and haven't been to JoAnn's to choose in person in more than a year. (JoAnn's is all we have here, so I value the shop despite rude naysayers. My Flags of the American Revolution quilt was entirely sourced at Joann's; came out beautiful, in my opinion.)

The stem and leaves are straight stitch machine applique instead of intricately pieced as BP's were. The edges of the appliqued green should soften and fray over time, adding dimension and a certain Who Cares/ Use It/Wash It! vibe.

Over the next few days I hope to finish trimming the first blocks and doing a partial piecing at least, before clinic day next Monday and the following ten days are wasted. Wish me luck and focus.

This is for Bovey Belle, a blog friend from Wales who is a quilter. She was mentioning a project where she has more or less given up finding a brown solid to complete it. Here were my first try outs ordering online, for brown. Not easy, is it. Blue Pool/ Chocolate Milk quilt rescue [ongoing].

....

I've been collecting worn out cashmere sweaters to make a little blanky for Mo. He likes me to tuck him in at night in the winter. I had planned to cut off the upper body and sleeves, but Mo loves the sleeves!? Pugs have a thing for resting their chin on anything that they find--chair rails, your hand, sofa arms---and he really loves it if I tuck the sleeves under his chin at bedtime. Yes he is pampered, he is my little loyal friend, after all.

Have a good week everyone. 

Talk to you soon!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

Pineapples and Cartwheels ~ February in the Little Quilt Room

Hi guys! It's Friday and February is almost over. It was a distracting month for us all. Short too of course. Besides Covid we have had blizzards, polar vortexes, mounds of heavy snow that linger on here still. The February Thaw [oft touted by a native NYer friend], is overworked and unsuccessful. Then there was the buy a car issue. 

I did get some things done. Currently I'm calling this quilt Cartwheels which I find cuter than Wagon Wheels, though truly its name should be Big Fat Distraction, hahaha. I fell in love with these wonky circles on eBay. They were inexpensive and only I might appreciate their unfortunate construction.

The original maker was apparently a skilled sewer. Nice fine lines of hand stitching. Note the very coarse thread used, like string almost:

And the spokes are more ordered  than one sees at first glance, see the pattern? blue/red/ brown/ stripe/ brown, etc.

red with white on each side.

Some more random than others, but the eye catching ivory spokes are spaced around the circle with some care if not evenly.

One odd thing is the red ground is sewed in four pieces, but they are sewed together before the cheddar circles were added. Why not just a whole square? Short on red perhaps? 

And at the ends of the red piecing, the thread isn't knotted. This has created an issue as they fell apart as I worked with them. The blocks unusually are all exactly 9 1/2" square. Maybe the knots were cut off when trimming?

The sewing is good, the design is, to me, pleasing---but OMG the cheddar circles and centers! Our sewer 100 years ago lacked skills and experience with that challenge. The cheddar pieces are just dreadful---or charming. Unlike some quilters who, when working with old blocks, take apart---redo, recut, resew, FIX 'em!---I work as best I can to retain all the faults and foibles. I could fix those awful centers. But I will not.

I'm dating this to about 1880-1900. The spokes' fabrics are quite antique, maybe earlier scraps, post Civil War. There are calicos, and plaids, usual ikat wovens, some coarse linen homespun. 

This black print with red sprig looks so familiar. I am sure I have it in a repro version, must look.

I pieced the blocks up with antique/vintage turkey red solid. Close enough match.

I wanted the quilt wider.

Now I'm out of red. My plan was/ is to add red to the sides for width; then a cheddar 1" ''stop border'' [frame], then 4''-6" red borders. I plan to use a very pretty blue plaid for the back and binding.

I have no possible red to use unless I use a print. I have four cheddar solids, none quite right. I don't have enough blue plaid even just for the binding. I ordered all from FQS / Fat Quarter Shop, just as things went all to hell in Texas.

Odds are the solids won't match anyway. And FQS ships really slowly at the best of times.

So there Cartwheels hangs. I'm thinking it maybe should be just as is, with a narrow cheddar binding. I kind of like it there and that size. 

Obviously no matter what it will be sadly too big for me to hand quilt

This post is very long. I'll do part 2/ Blue Pineapples separately over the weekend. That was a planned February project and is looking as I hoped. So far...so--back soon!

Have a great weekend.

                                      " Look, mommy! No coat! And...do I spy mud?"

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

Earlier this week we had a now-typical snow-sleet-rain day that cleared late afternoon. The first rainbow of 2021 appeared, a rainbow in the falling snow. A snowbow! Magical. 

The snowy beach was pink too. [not a filter or color edit!]

                                                                ****************

Bright and Pretty...

 On this dark and dripping Monday morning. 

Hi everyone. It's drizzling here with bands of heavy rain, an altogether unappealing day to begin the last week of February. But at least it isn't snow! But windy and cold.

Indoors is bright and cheerful, the cottage filled with the scents of crockpot experiment braised beef, oatmeal cookies, and lemon sage candles.

 

And flowers to brighten our dreary days.

I've been working on quilts and etsy hearts, more on newest projects in a few days!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach......