Three finishes, kind of, sort of...

     Due to all the rain we have been having, it has been hard to photo some quilts outside. Today, there was a break, so I rushed out and did the job.
     The first quilt is one from our guild that was cut out as a kit to make for our local VA hospital. We want to have 50 quilts by Veterans Day. I added an extra row around because it needed that neutral on the outside edge. Except for the center squares, it is all made from brick shapes. My mom helped sew the short edges of all the bricks, and then I assembled all the blocks and top. I made a scrappy binding because I thought it looked better than what I was given.

     The second vet quilt was made by another guild member and I quilted it. She wanted to trim it herself, so it is not all done.

     The last quilt is from the other half of the HSTs made from the Shirbori layer cake. This one is asymmetrical. I made the borders real wide so that  it can be used on a twin bed. It needs backing and quilting.

Color block placemats

     Rarely do I ever sew anything but quilts. I am perfectly happy with it that way. However, I have an art teacher friend who had a birthday and our group of five celebrates our birthdays with food and a craft. My friend, Terri has been very good to me over the years with her estate sale finds. I thought she would like if I made her something. I have already done totes and scarves and potholders, so I thought of placemats. I wanted something with elemental colors as she had been an elementary art teacher. I found a great mug rug tutorial  but had to figure out how to upsize it for placemats. Using the online proportional calculator, I tried a 2" square and a 2 1/2" square size and found a 2" one gave me the correct sizes. I wrote these down on the printed mug rug tutorial so I always have them. 
    What I did not keep in mind was that although one was quick and fun, four took a lot longer to sew. When it came to quilting them, I used a variegated rainbow thread. Each placemat took a bobbin of thread. Pretty crazy. I used a text fabric that showed art terms for the back and picked one of my crazy fabrics I like to use for binding. They are about 15" x 19". It took about 8 hours to make these. I should have made a wall quilt in the time it took.

All pieces cut. Lots of auditioning to get fabrics right.
For example, a dk green would not work with the others.

Front all sewn before trimming

Seams sewn on back, opened up

Pinned for quilting on the 301

Quilted with variegated Isacord

Back

Strip tubes, Summer in the Park

     I am always looking for comfort quilt patterns that my mom can help with and keep her from being bored. She can sew straight seams, strips and squares, but does not piece, cut or trim. I had this jelly roll of black strips and got a batik one on special, so I remembered this quilt from Missouri Star Quilt Company. I pinned a set of black, color, black and a set of color, black, colors together and told my mom to sew them in that order. She pressed all the sets and then sewed the opposite sets to each other, making a tube. I got the tubes back and am cutting them with my Strip Tube Ruler (Cozy Quilts). I have to trim them to an even 8 1/2" block due to my mom's not quite true 1/4". I use the diagonal of the block lined up on my 9" square ruler and trim all sides to 8 1/2". When I get a bunch trimmed up, I will arrange some on the wall and photo them for you to see. 

The pile of strip tubes

The sequence of color sets

Tubes flipped to the opposite side to show how opposites are paired to make the tube

Nine patching the Kaleidoscope

     Because there is so much matching to sew the kaleidoscope blocks together, I am trying to sew in smaller sections than my usual columns with the long seams. There are nine rows, so I am breaking the sections into nine patches of 3 x 3. So far, I have these done. There are 7 columns, so I am not half done. I have to pin every intersection due to the block construction. I can't even think yet if it needs a border.

Lake Inspiration

     Because of the art show, I lost 2 days of staying at the Lake cottage. We had till Wednesday when the kids were coming for a few days and taking our spot. The first night rained, the second had a cloudy finish, and the third had a great sunset. I tried to soak up all the colors for inspiration in putting quilts and paintings together. I had to drive an hour back and forth on Tuesday morning for an emergency root canal that sprung up out of nowhere, so the time was further abbreviated. There was no internet, so no posting, commenting. Since I have been back, numerous things prevented me from sewing. Enjoy Lake Erie, Angola, NY- picture heavy!
     I know there are wonderful exotic locations in the world, but I love Lake Erie and all its faces. I am blessed to have grown up so close, so I visit often. Please look carefully how the colors change and think how you could use that in your artwork.

Cottage path to Lake

Lake early afternoon- Canada in background

Afternoon shore

Same view, early evening

Same view from overlook, sunset colorwashed

The overlook area

Stairs from overlook to beach, same view

Cloudy night sunset

Next night sunset progress

Amazing color shift

Bookends to Crazy

     As much as I promise myself to post regularly, something gets in the way and derails me. Last weekend, I did an art show (watercolor paintings) with my son. On the Saturday before the show, I had to quick make and sew on a binding for a guild member of a quilt bound for the Gold Star and Camp Purple kids that started the next day. Then, I had to pack up for the Art Show which was on the Niagara River at Niawanda Park, Tonawanda, NY. 

Quilt with binding

     Early set up for the show, endure the wind, and take down in an orderly fashion. There is a reason I don't do shows very often, but my son wanted to try it. We had lots of people view as there is a large walking path and bike trail in front of the show at the shoreline. It helps there is an hot dog and ice cream place at the street. Also, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra was playing that evening in the bandshell at the end of the exhibits. But, I did not sell anything. I look at it as cheap pop up gallery to have people see the work. Very windy day, so I was a little tense about it all taking off. 
   The next morning, I was heading to some time at a cottage about 45 minutes away at Angola, NY so had to pack all the stuff for that.

My work on the fence, literally 

The whole set up, son's work in the front, mine inside the tent and behind. Grandkids posing and son and wife in back.

Son's work

More Matt work

Quilting is more fun than Housework...: Oh Scrap! : The Popular Vote

I love the quilt even though I voted for opt 2. How about a scrappy binding with red and blues? I save all my binding leftovers and make scrappy bindings for certain quilts and I like it.

Mystery from Kevin the Quilter

     

     A brand new mystery, his first one, has started by Kevin the Quilter. It is called Sapphire Stars. I love scrappy and I love Kevin's quilts, so here I go. However, I just bought the Simple Folded Corners ruler by Doug Leko from Bonnie Hunter because I hate to draw lines on squares and flip them, then trim them. This ruler lets you trim first so you are sewing next to a cut edge instead of a line on the diagonal of a square. So, I will show you how I cut and sewed these Clue 1 pieces. If you want to cut the small squares oversize and trim, this ruler lets you do that also. I would rather sew slower and more careful than to have to trim again.

Fabric lined up in corner, diagonal line on stitch line 

Corners trimmed off

Both corners added, excuse the poor pressing

The ruler and printed directions, video online by Bonnie Hunter

Ok, 5 done out of 48

S-l-o-w Organizing

     I am making the best attempt I can to organize my sewing space. I moved the Accuquilt cutter to another room, off my cutting counter. I bought some wire shelves at Target and got all my over-a-yard boxes off the floor. I am trying to get all boxes off the floor in my sewing room. The boxes are all the fabric I precut into set sizes. This long headache is wearing and I can't come up with solutions right now, so I am stalled.

Diecutter moved next to printers and papercutter

List of my fabrics I am collecting for projects in my cupboard

Project Fabrics collected along with Accuquilt dies.
Some yarn remains.

Sewing room not organized and clean enough, stalled.

New shelving, boxes off floor

List on wall of all the quilts I would like to make.
Better here than all jumbled in my head.