Let's Clean and Organize!

I have been sick with COVID.  I am not free to get up and roam around the cabin yet, but I am feeling much better.  I just feel like I have a bit of a cold.  Today, for the first time, since last Wednesday, I got on my computer.  I just felt like doing something more than sleeping or staring at a wall.  I have been very sensitive to light; serious headache.  I just thought I would click on a past post, on my blog, and maybe find some block I made that I could plan on using in an upcoming quilt.  I did not find a block, but I found an interesting post, that I did exactly nine years ago today.  The post is titled, Let's Clean and Organize! 

That post has a photo of my red and white stash on my ice cream chair, and it was posted on January 30, 2014.  I went into my quilt room, and drug out my red and white stash bin, and placed my current stash on the same chair.

My red and white stash on January 30, 2023.  As I compare the two photos, I see I know how to fold my stash more neatly and it is wider, so it fits in my acrylic bin nicely.  The 2014 photo may be a bit sloppy and tall, but it is narrower, as my stash was kept in my cupboard.  Overall, I believe I have the same amount today as I did then, and many of the same fabrics are still there!  Since I plan on working on a kitchen sink Christmas quilt, I can use a lot of these wonderful reds in it.  You know, I don't have a green stash at all!  . . . and that's a good thing!

A Salute to Deb Rowden and Her Thrift Shop Quilt Blog

I followed Deb Rowden's "Thrift Shop Quilts" blog for a couple years, then there were no more posts.  I imagine some health issue suddenly befell her.  I have continued to visit her blog for inspiration.  About a week and a half ago, I looked at her blog and discovered these interesting heart blocks, that were certainly easy to duplicate.  I made two of them to go in the Black and White Mostly quilt I am working on now.  I made one in December, but this is yet another one, as I am going to use up every bit of that b&w scrap fabric.  Yes, I said it would be the back for the December one, but no.  It is so lovely; it is another quilt top.  My next post will be about it, and you will see these lovely heart blocks are a crucial part of the design. 

Meanwhile, I have been cleaning out some old craft stuff that I no longer use.  I took two boxes of tole painting magazines, counted cross-stitch materials, kits, and frames to the Re-use Market on Chinden Blvd.  I had never been in there, so I had to have a look.  Oh my!  They have quilt magazines, record albums, buckets of chop sticks, paint brushes, crayons, and markers.  They have (uh oh) fabric, PVC pipe, yarn, sewing machines, pinecones, books, etc.  You get the idea.  I was lucky to get out of there alive.  I was quite restrained. 

I bought Quilter's Newsletter Magazine from 2003, which is chock full of amazing photos and ideas, for twenty-five cents.  I bought two rolls of yarn, some metalic ancient looking woven material (I am refraining from saying the F word), a retro pillow case with hand-made buttons (see those tiny things on the right?) and a "kit".  This "kit" was $1.00.  I could not resist the little pleated doll dress that I discovered there.

This is Astrid, one of my 18-inch dolls that is a quilter on my doll quilt blog.  She is modeling the adorable. pleated dress.  I will launder and press it, and it will go into her wardrobe, as she always likes to look stylish, especially when she is posing with one of her quilts.

Here is the kit, I purchased.  I liked the pale blue fishy fabric that you can see on the back of the package.  I already have a buzzilion buttons, from my great-grandma Hutch, my grandma Willis, and my mother.  Naturally, I have my own as well.  That is four generations of buttons.  Here I come with some more! Just what I need is more buttons.  Let's see what is in this baby!

I am amazed at how much 'material' is in this little packet.  

These two fabrics will work great with my wonky houses stash.  I will be starting a wonky house quilt next week.  I have a friend coming over, who wishes to learn how to make wonky house blocks.  The farmers and children are the perfect size.  I love these dogs in train cars!  I can use them, too.

This is all of the 'material' that was in that packet.  I love the big swirls.  The royal blue square is polyester.  This could be the beginning of a polyester quilt!  I can certainly make a child's quilt out of these other fabrics:  cars, Thomas the Tank Engine, fire trucks, law enforcement, and the little fish.  I have decided to look in my stash and refill this little kit and donate it back to the Re-use Market.

This is the little pillowcase that has the crocheted buttons as closures on the other side.  It would make a great mattress cover for a doll, or a pillow for an old-fashioned doll like Patsy Ann.  My friend, Julie, has just such a sized doll, but I don't know it's name.  I could make a pillow to fit inside, then give it as a gift.   [If you click on the photos, they become full screen, so you can see the details]

I laid this 'material' across both my cutting mats, so you can see that it is transparent.  It will pick up the colors from whatever fabric is placed behind it.  This could be fun to play with!

Thank you to Deb Rowden, who has inspired me and now, I hope I can inspire others.

Near the top of my blog page, in the left margin, is a link to Deb Rowden's Thrift Shop Quilts blog.  Check it out!  If that is too inconvenient, here is the link:  Deb Rowden's Thrift Shop Quilts

Taking Stock

Despite traveling and time spent working at the Western Idaho Fair, I was rather productive this year.  I completed 13 regular quilts, 1 small wall-hanging, 1 big bag, 1 pillow, 1 placemat, 1 kitty quilt, and 10 doll quilts.  Oh, and I completed 4 quilt tops (they are not completed quilts).  

What I find interesting is that out of 13 regular quilts, 7 of them were made from scraps.  I have so much lovely fabric, but I keep using the scraps to make the majority of my quilts.  I have done a couple things, in 2022, that are not typical of me: 1) I actually bought and used a pattern to make a quilt; 2) I watched a couple of YouTube videos about quilting, specifically about using scraps.  Karen Brown has a YouTube Channel, and she did a tutorial about using the "after-quilt."  Every quilt you make has an after-quilt.  When you make a lot of quilts, you have a lot of after-quilt fabric scraps.

I find myself, once again, in a fabric purchasing moratorium.  I have tons of lovely fabric.  I do not need more.  In 2023, I am resolved to use my lovely new fabrics, that I have purchased, but not used.  I am going to let the scraps stack up!

Of the four quilt tops, that I made, but do not have backs and have not been quilted, three of them are made from scraps.  Let me tell you about the latest one.

Teresa and I made "Black and White Mostly" quilts in 2018.  We had collected black and white fabrics for three years before we ever got started on our quilt tops.  We each made one.  To use up some of the yardage we bought, I pieced the backs from black and white fabrics.  Still there is yardage in my cabinet from this project, which is perfectly usable in future projects.  However, there is also a pile of scraps from two quilts:  the after-quilts of two quilts.

I pulled out this black and white pile of scraps and decided to use it all up and get it out of my quilt room.  I have found this activity to be enjoyable, but futile, in the past and now.  I made a 55" X 68 1/2" quilt, and still had a pile left over.  I guess that is to be expected, if the original pile was scraps from two quilts.  So, I am going to use the after pile, to make the backing for the quilt top I constructed.

Following is a video, I made, showing how to use your pile of scraps (aka the after-quilt) to make a whole new quilt.

I love how the quilt top came out.  I really hope you like my video.  I am a novice in the video department.

I started by sorting the scraps into piles by size and shape.  Then just started sewing them together.  Then, I decided I could experiment with new block ideas as I go.  One of Karen Brown's videos, was about "How to Make an Ugly Quilt".  None of my big chunks were as big as hers: 14" X 14", so I found three darks and three lights that were the biggest of my pieces.  The smallest of the six determined the size I would make my squares.  It was 11 1/2 inches wide, so I cut my six squares to 11 1/2" X 11 1/2".  When I finished, they were 9 inches square.  You have to layer them dark, light, dark, light, then cut through all the layers on a diagonal.  Then shuffle, cut again, shuffle and turn sideways, and repeat.  You must watch Karen Browns's video, at Just Get It Done Quilts to believe how amazing this process of making quilt blocks is.

Quilt top:  Black and White Mostly (top row are blocks based on Karen Brown's video)

I will talk more about this quilt when it is actually all quilted and complete.  See you next year!

Happy Christmas Eve!

Happy Christmas Eve!  What an exciting and fun-filled year we have had.  I did plenty of quilting and sewing, read a couple of books, and did some traveling.  This second "Radiance" quilt is the last quilt I have completed this year.   

Since I needed to get it in the mail, I photographed it pinned to my design wall.  The shadows are from my cabinet (on the left) and my glass windchimes (above).  I am pleased with how it turned out.  I used a fat-quarter bundle for most of the central fabrics in the star.  It is composed of squares, half-square triangles, and flying geese.

I made a quilt for the kitties and included it when I mailed the big one to my cousin.  This is Mochi, who is a quilt hog, I am told.  She claimed the kitty quilt immediately, and Betsy doesn't get to share it.  I will be making a kitty quilt for Betsy in the coming months, so she can have her own.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

A Snowy Day In Idaho

Greetings and happy birthday to me!  No cake this year; I decided to have chocolate pie instead.  Meanwhile, I have been carrying my shark quilt around in my car for weeks, trying to figure out where to take a photo of it.  So, this morning, after chocolate pie, we went out in the backyard and took a photo in the snowiness. 

Remember that D or F movie about snow sharks?  These are not snow sharks, but there are a lot of them in this quilt.  Shannan named the quilt, "Smooth Sailing in Shark Infested Waters".  It is a little long, but I love it.  If you click on the photo it will enlarge so you can see the details of the quilt, including the S.S. Crabby submarine in the lower right corner.

The pie was made last night, mostly by my husband.  It has a wonderful gluten free crust.  What a great day!

Radiance Star Quilt Completed

You may remember that I posted about this quilt on September 3 and 5.  It was finished in October, but I was unable to photograph it until this week.  I found the perfect barn, in Canyon County, to use as a back-drop (actually hold it up while I take the photo).

I have made another Radiance Star quilt, which is at my long-arm quilter's for quilting.  It will have the same swirling pattern on it as the one pictured here.  I took a photo of the quilt top while it hung on my design wall.  Radiance II is for my cousin, who likes jewel-tone fabrics.  I used a fat-quarter bundle and three pieces of yardage to make her quilt top, below:

Radiance I is completed and laying on my table, as I took a photo of Radiance II on my design wall.  It makes for a nice reflection.  Don't mind the crap stacked on the hat tree to the right.

Typically, I don't buy patterns to make quilts, and typically, I don't make two of the same.  The bonus of using this pattern is it has instructions on how to make four identical flying geese blocks without wasting any fabric.  It rather blew my mind, when I first did that process.  Now I have a new skill in my set.  The one on the wall does not have the outer border on it yet.  I added tulip corner treatments to it in the aqua color that is in the center star.  The background fabric has dragon flies on it.  I am excited that it will be completed pretty soon.

Quilting Retreat in Cascade

On October 27, A and I drove up to Cascade with our sewing machines, rotary cutters, and our projects.  We had not been to this location before.  It was at Trinity Pines camp.  They sure had plenty of room!  They had a lovely view and it was snowing when we arrived.  I got to sit next to A and across from a couple other quilters that I knew.  We met some folks we had sewed with last year, when the retreat was at the Ashley Inn.

This photo shows the view of the mountains out our window.  This huge room had windows on three sides!  I shot this over the top of my machine (which is not in the photo).  That is Shannan's embroidery machine in the photo.  I counted 14 embroidery machines at our retreat.  I prefer doing my own thing.

Speaking of "my own thing," above is the beginnings of my shark quilt.  I love those shark fabrics!

This is a view of the great outdoors, from the safety of the covered balcony that wraps around that huge room we were all sewing in.

This is the view from our cabin, as the sun came up on Thursday.  Our cabin has three bedrooms down-stairs and two up-stairs.  Each bedroom has it's own "on-suite."  On-suite means bathroom.  A and I shared a bedroom. 

This view is from up in the balcony, inside that huge room.  We had a gal giving chair massages up there.  She was very good.  Each of has had a six-foot table to spread out on.  My table is the one in the lower left with the empty blue and white swivel chair.  You can see A to my right, working away, and Shannan and Marie across from us. 

After I finished my shark quilt top, I started on my Halloween wall-hanging.  I did not get it finished before our fun time was over.

We drove back to our valley on Sunday, Oct 30.  I did finish my Halloween wall-hanging on November 2nd.  

Tada!  It is done in time for next year!