Webbed finishes

      At the quilt retreat, I was able to sew two entire quilts by webbing and then, at home, I sewed on borders. I don't like to have a lot of seams in the binding, so I will put even thin borders on to help the quilt be more secure and less bulgey.

All sewn Disappearing Hourglass

With thin white border to bind against

All sewn at retreat

Dragonfly border sewn on at home. This completes the swap block quilt from years ago!!

Another Disappearing Hourglass on the wall

      When I find a reasonably priced layer cake, I enjoy making the Disappearing Hourglass pattern from Missouri Star quilt company. Usually, I have to cut my own white 10" squares, but that is easy as I buy white by the bolt. The HSTs make the hourglass block and then 4 cuts make all the rest after rearranging the cut pieces. Hopefully, I did not screw up sewing the blocks this time. If you see an error, let me know. I have not web sewed them yet. The layer cake is one I bought on Etsy for a reasonable price. I am going to use all the blocks in one quilt instead of splitting them into two with sashing. I am making my comfort quilts bigger these days so people can really wrap up in it with nothing hanging out.
     I guess I get a kick out of the magic of cutting up an hourglass and getting such a tricky looking block.

Disappearing Hourglass ready to go home

      The requests for Comfort Quilts has not slowed. Cancer and illness (non-COVID) are too much with us. This Disappearing Hourglass (MSQC pattern) needed a border to make it a smidge bigger. I had a piece of yardage that never went with anything, but is perfect for the backing. I quilted it, just changing the center motif in each block row. It actually went flawlessly on the longarm. Sometime, I have to write a post on all my trevails and adaptations to make things work on the longarm.

All quilted, just need to decide binding

Back

Detail of quilting

Final with binding before washing

          Because this is a comfort quilt, the rest of the package (quilt, tote bag-custom pocket, book, card, pocket quilts and NEW- an instrumental CD donated by a friend), is shown below before it was mailed off to Minnesota where tracking told me it arrived Saturday.

An Extra Three Years

      On February 7, 2018, I suddenly out of the blue suffered a heart attack. Serious enough to warrant an emergency ambulance ride, three rounds of zapping and 2 stents. It was a hard road to get better. I have participated in cardiac rehab 3X a week since then.

     God was gracious to my family to spare me then. I was able to witness a grandson's birth and grandkids' growth and make a lot more comfort and other quilts. I am grateful to God for the extra time. Let me remind you, especially women, that women's heart attacks don't have the normal symptoms. I have zealously told my story to other women warning them to act quickly and decisively if they had something similar happen. I thought maybe I talked about it too much, by to my deep sadness, one of my best friends, Jan, died of a heart attack in June as she waited through initial distress too long and did not insist on the ambulance taking her to the premier cardiac center (saved my life) in our area. She died after arrival at the nearest hospital.

    Everyone is all wigged out about COVID, but heart attacks kill more women every year than COVID has this year. Heart disease is all too prevalent. February is heart month. 

    Many blog readers reached out to me then, some sent gifts, and I am grateful for all of you. Today, I got a request for a comfort quilt for a 54 year old woman with pancreatic cancer. I don't know her, but she has to be hurting. Below is a top that I hadn't got to quilting yet and need to make a back for. From now on, backing gets made when quilt is pieced. Yes, I know there are errors in the stars. It is MSQC Disappearing Hourglass. I have to get the backing done and quilted real quick and get it in the mail. And I was given the extra days to do it. Thank you, God.

Sometimes it comes together, but not right

      Another of the quilt tops finished at retreat, it used 10" Kaffe squares (Missouri Star Daily Deal- always gets me when it is Kaffe) and white. I have no idea how I muffed the layout of the blocks. I did not see the errors when I laid out the quilt, but when I sewed it together, POW, there it is. These blocks are impossible to rip apart as all the edges are bias and that would be a bigger disaster. I don't think the comfort quilt participant will care about the big boo boo. To comfort myself, I bought another Kaffe layer cake when it was offered this week to try again and get it right. It is not the first time I made this pattern- Disappearing Hourglass from MSQC. My brain must have been too distracted and cluttered. Focus again is critical.

Work, work, work retreat

     Our guild has two retreats per year from Thursday to Sunday. Last weekend was one and I spent a lot of time packing quilts that just needed assembly. I also cut 8 pillowcases and sewed all. I had a little project I called Phony Dresdens for the participants, another woman did hanger covers out of fleece and another did zipper pouches. So, lots to do. Someone cooks the food and cleans it up. It is of cafeteria quality, but I am not there to eat. There is always our snack table...
     I have been having issues getting photos off my camera card in the laptop. I have to keep taking it in and out many times before it registers- doesn't matter the camera card. I also miss Picmonkey since it went the pay monthly route and have been using Pixlr which does not have a white balance. I need to find a good editor with just the basics. So, doing the blog has become frustration. I was not able to get the pillowcases or projects off, so another time.
    First, the exploding squares. One quilt started with 6" center squares, the other with 4". When I got the 6" one home on the wall, I thought it needed a border and put one on. I think the 4" one may need another row although I have no more right now.

4" center square start

6" center square start

With 3" cut border

     I had some leftover squares from a MSQC pattern, Disappearing Hour glass, so I added some sashing and a border for another comfort quilt. I brought border fabric which did not work, but a visiting quilt store brought some yardage with a demo and I found the right one.

     The diagonal variations also was sewn and I decided to stay stitch 1/8" around the perimeter to help it stay truer when I put it on the long arm. Hope it helps.

     Alas, I could not assemble Sapphire Stars because I was short two blocks with yellow triangles. I know I made enough as I recounted them, but nowhere to be found. I made the two blocks last night and sewed the large large block so I can start sewing on the sashing.

Why I need quilt retreats

     I am aware that there are some quilters who think it is silly to pay to go somewhere to sew. However, I know that I need to. Last weekend, 10 of us rented an used convent in the country, and sewed for 3 solid days. Meals were split up between us and we were able to use the kitchen and dining room, yet leave the sewing machines up. Eating meals together was also a good time of sharing, trying different tools, seeing other techniques. Twice a year, my guild goes to a retreat center for 3 nights where they make and serve and clean up the meals- even more time to sew.
    Since this old convent is small, I try to take projects that just need assembly or block sewing as cutting and laying out is tight. I was able to sew together three tops and start working on three more. I will show the quilts here now, and new projects in another post. I used my new display stand that my daughter and son-in-law bought me for Christmas. It is fantastic, folds up and goes into a zip duffle. What an absolutely terrific present! I will use it all the time for photo shoots.

Exploding Squares laid out at home, numbered columns

Sewn and bordered. I started with 4" squares

Disappearing Hourglass (MSQC) quilt sewn

Exploding Squares starting with 6" squares, added thin sashing
as blocks were a bit busy

My new display stand, Woo-hoo!

It all goes in this zip bag!

Ready to sew up

     The Disappearing Hourglass quilt, MSQC pattern, is on the wall laid out, ready to label columns, and then sew. I used a layer cake and had twelve made blocks left over. I am going to try to set those on point with plain fabric blocks between. That is a stretch for me (math).

     Also, I have all the blocks sewn and trimmed for a double hourglass, ready to go on the wall after another quilt. It is such an easy block- sew 2 WOF strips (contrasting), cut into triangles with the Companion Angle, assemble into same fabric pairs, then 2 pairs together make a square. Then square it up.