National Quilting Day

 

It's kind of annoying when that AWFUL TASK you were putting off for so long turns out to be easier than you thought, and took much less time than you expected.

Such it was with my taxes. Instead of the ordeal I expected, it only took an hour and was relatively painless. I had, however, made sure to have all the documents and information I needed nearby.

Oh well.

That meant I could go into the studio and play with purple. My finished HST's will be 3" so I knew I needed 480 of them. Since I could get 8 HST's out of one square of fabric (above) I calculated I'd need 60 squares. I had 20 dark purples, so that part was easy. (3 of each). I didn't have so much light purplish fabrics, so I scoured my stash and did what I could to get the right number of light squares. I got them all cut out pretty easily. 

Then I paired them up, which you can see in the photo above. I didn't want any group of 8 HST's to be duplicated. No problem there.

Then I mated them and drew the cutting lines on them and clipped them together. I grabbed a random stack and sewed and cut triangles.

This is a sampling. I got them all pressed, but only trimmed one of each,

because I was eager to see them on the design wall. 

Oh yeah, I think this is gonna be good.

I have work to do before I can design the quilt in earnest, but that's OK. I can trim these blocks while I "watch" television.

I won't be doing much of that today, though. I'll be celebrating National Quilting Day at my LQS, the Night Owl Quilting Studio. They have a whole slate of events planned so I will be there having some fun.

Purple Plan

 You all know that I don't start any quilt unless I kinda sorta know where I am going to go with it, and I don't work on more than one quilt at a time. With the Carnelian quilt done and its backing ready, it was time to start thinking about the next quilt, the purple one.

Just like I had never made an all Orange quilt, I have also never made an all purple one. So a few weeks ago I ordered a stack of purple fabrics. I ran them through the washer and dryer and pressed and folded them all, but I had no idea what I was going to do with them. I did know I wanted to do something I had never done before.

Turns out the inspiration for the quilt lt was living on the back of my couch. That is the Partly Sunny quilt. It has quite a story. Julie designed the top, had second thoughts, redesigned it, sewed it together and then had third thoughts. It languished in her studio for almost a year. It took me that long to get up the nerve to tell her I liked her original design much better and that I really, Really, REALLY liked it. It got to be quite a joke between us. After many months of good natured ribbing, Julie sent me the flimsy and I added the wide border and had it quilted and finished it.

ANYWAY... I thought, HST's! What an idea!

I know that a lot of quilters use AccuCut to cut HST's, but I do not have one, and I knew there are spiffy ways to make multiple HST's so I searched the internet to find some. Naturally, that was easy as pie.

I found a nifty way to make 8 of them at once. After I tested the technique, I started cutting my fabrics.

Here are the light purples. My HST's will be light and dark. I have about 20 - 24 darks and 15 lights I will use. I have some others that are a bit too dark to be light, and some that are a bit too busy. Some of these might push the envelope, but I don't want a humdrum quilt, so we'll see.

Now I might be a few more days before I get to blogging again because I have to do my taxes and we all know how much fun that is.

by the way, this is the jigsaw puzzle I'm working one. QUITE a challenge, this!

Backing for the Carnelian Quilt

It turns out I had a great piece of orangy-ish backing in my stash. I don't know when I got it, or what I got it for. Problem is, it isn't big enough for the backing, because I need six extra inches on all four sides.

I sewed a long strips of leftover blocks together. I would use that to make the backing wider, but that wouldn't be enough. I decided to cut 12" across the backing strip along the bottom, add some extra orange fabric to it, and sew it to one side of the backing, then I'd insert the strip of blocks into the backing.

I often forget to use my great big dining room table as a work surface, but I put it to good use trimming the backing fabric. Before I could sew something to the side, I had to trim it straight. A great big long table is really useful here.

Then I sewed my extra strips to a big chunk of the backing.

Here's what that looked like. Lastly, I sewed the other piece of backing to the other side of the pieced blocks.

Before I bring any quilt to the long-arm quilter, I always lay the quilt on top of the backing so I can make sure the backing is big enough. 

It's big enough, and I think this is going to be terrific!

Plans

 

I've taught Birds and I've taught Letters, but I've never taught multi-session classes that would use both. The gals at Night Owl Quilting Studio were very interested in students being able to use elements together to make a holiday wall hanging. 

I have been tasked with creating a wall hanging about 30 x 40 inches that used birds and some of the other elements of my holiday and noel banners.

I was doing pretty well until the power went out midmorning yesterday. No electricity, no heat, no internet access. I couldn't sew, couldn't cook. So I cleaned the house. Thoroughly. 

Then I lay on the couch and read a book.

The electricity came back after three hours. The internet needed another two.

 

I went back in the studio and continued working. This is what I came up with. (This is just the elements. I haven't sewn them to each other yet.)

If you are interested in making a holiday wall hanging similar to this, contact the folks at Night Owl Quilting Studio and sign up for this class!

Joyful Goes to Find a Home

 

It's always fun to take beauty shots of quilts against snow. I think it's funny because a quilt will never be used IN the snow.

I have decided that since I am going to make quilts anyway, and I don't need them to live with me, that I will give everyone I love a quilt. So my family members are covered, and I've been making quilts for my close friends (Remember the Fourth of July quilt?)

I have known Diana over 30 years. She lives in California, but we have kept in touch over the years and visited fairly regularly. The last time we talked I told her I wanted to make her a quilt. "Lynne, what a lovely idea, thank you so much," she started, "but Art and I are 78 and 79 and we are trying to downsize. the We do not need a quilt."

We talked more and then I had an idea. "How about I make a quilt for you and donate it to the victims of the fires in California?"

She thought that would be a fabulous idea. So the Joyful quilt is now en route to the Camarillo Quilters where it will be donated to a family displaced by the terrible fires. One thing that makes this program really special is that they allow the families to choose their own quilt.

That makes me really happy. Joyful is a bright, happy, fun quilt and I know the family who chooses it will choose it because it makes them feel happy too.

Win, win!

Carnelian is a Flimsy!

 

This is IT, and what I will sew together.

And as you can see, I start where I can reach without getting out the stepladder.

Here I am pinning the two halves of the quilt together.

Ta-Da! Here it is all sewn up. 

I do not think I will add a border to it. Never say never and all that, but I just don't think it needs it.  

I have 36 leftover blocks I did not use, and about 50 more 8" squares of fabric I didn't use either. I thought about using them on the back, but I don't want there to be any competition on this quilt of which is more interesting, so while I might use the leftovers somewhere, chances are pretty good they won't be on the back.

Unless I have miscounted, this quilt has 46 unique fabrics in it. The pictures are pretty good, but this quilt really shines in daylight.

Back to the Classroom!

 I am very happy to announce that I will be teaching at the Night Owl Quilting Studio in Goffstown NH. My first classes will be my Liberated Birds and those are scheduled for Thursday May 15 and Saturday May 31, 2025. 

The next class will be my Liberated Letters on June 28, 2025.

We are also planning some multi-session classes that will give students an opportunity to make quilts like this Happy Holidays banner that includes letters, birds and other elements.

Stay tuned!

Carnelian Blocks First Pass

 

Here the design wall is full of the blocks for the orange quilt, called Carnelian. I haven't rearranged these at all, and I haven't replaced blocks or fabrics I think aren't working. I can tell you that I won't be tinkering overmuch with these. I have about two dozen blocks in progress to replace blocks I don't think are working. 

Yeah, I know, but "overmuch" would mean removing ALL the blocks from the design wall and starting over.

I had a LOT of orange fabric, but the problem was they were all so similar in value that it reduced the number of successful blocks I could get. It also meant I had to use some light coral fabrics which lean a bit toward pink in order to get some contrast between the two fabrics in each block.

These were some of my test blocks. I did NOT like the fact that the points didn't meet, so I had to figure out how to get the points to match. (You know I did that, right?)

I tell anybody who'll listen that if you know how to sew clothes, then making a quilt will be a snap. I matched the seams on both pieces, then worked backwards to pin the edges I would start sewing. (As in attaching a sleeve or adding a collar to a neckline.)  I didn't need to pin the whole thing. (The full instructions are in the book, and I want to respect Sujata's work, so if you want to know how to do these, you'll have to refer her book, Cultural Fusion Quilts.)

This isn't quite "IT" but it's getting close. I've replaced a lot of blocks. This is like the 6th iteration from the photo above. (Notice the blocks in the top and bottom rows are larger than the others.)

Thanks ever so much for your comments. It's nice to know I don't have rocks in my head and that this quilts sings for so many of you.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On the health front, I saw my nutritionist last week. She was overjoyed by my progress. I have lost close to 10 pounds, and my A1C numbers are dropping steadily. Woo Hoo!

Wonky Orange Hourglass Blocks

I'm making slightly wonky hourglass blocks the way Sujata Shah makes them with gentle curves as seen in her book Cultural Fusion Quilts.

Because they use curves, the original blocks look very much like potato chips, which is to say, warped.

Trimmed, they are better, although this particular block has to go. That big teardrop shape on the left tends to blend into the adjacent block, and we can't have that.

This is about half the blocks I need, and the blocks are not arranged in any particular way.

NOW LOOK, I know this is not everybody's cup of tea. Orange is generally the least favorite color, and these blocks have a very narrow range of intensity (Brightness. Not Value.)  This is actually by design. I wanted something like a Turkish carpet or a mosaic. 

This is also a result of the color choice. Orange is a fairly middle value color, and when you make it ligher it gets washed out. You can make it yellower and again it's not particularly intense. If you make it darker, you get brown. That makes for a narrow range, and because this is an ORANGE quilt, and not ORANGE AND something else, the quilt has a compressed range of tones.

Remember, this is by choice. You are entitled to your opinion, which is, of course, subjective.

This is different from anything I have ever done, but to me it has a kind of appeal. and I really like it.

This is most of the blocks I need. Notice the large rectangular blocks at the upper left and right corners. I like those, and the top and bottom row of this quilt will be rectangular blocks instead of square ones.

There are some fabrics that I don't like, and I will have to remake some blocks. That will take time. The blocks aren't difficult to make, but the way they are sewn together makes me hunch over the sewing machine intensely, and that just makes me sore, so they are taking a bit longer than usual.

 

Oh Oh Orange!

 

Woo hoo! The orange fabric has arrived, and been through the washer and dryer, and has been pressed.

I have cut much of the orange fabrics I already have.

Now I have cut the new fabrics.

It's time to start playing. Originally I expected the fabrics in the quilt would be close in value. I wanted the quilt to read as "Orange."

But these preliminary blocks tell me the blocks should have more contrast to make a more interesting design. So I have more work to do.

I will name this quilt Carnelian, which is a semi-precious stone.

Red First

 

While waiting for the orange fabric to arrive, I had time to make more slabs, so I decided to go through the bins and bring out Red fabric pieces.

Before I could make slabs, I had to sort and press the pieces.

Then I sewed the pieces into pairs.

Then I was able to cut the slabs into triangles.

I was able to cut over 90 red triangles. I didn't get through ALL the red fabric, but that's OK. I can do this kind of work any time.

I have a LOT of fabric to sort through, and it will take a while, so I will work on it in "little bites."

What's really nice is that I have a big collection of scrap slab triangles from which I can pull when I want to make the next scrap slab triangle quilt. And there will be at least one other. The average scrap slab triangle quilt needs 120 triangles. As you can see in the photo above, I have enough for at least three quilts already.

This That and the Other

 According to the Washington Post, you area a super reader if you read over 50 books in a single year. have beat that number by a significant margin for the last four or five years.

Last year, my Kindle helpfully told me I had read 99 books. What was annoying about that was that it told me that very late in the day on New Year's Eve so I did not have enough time to make the number an even 100.

So that's my goal for 2025.

Well, since I always have a book going it looks like I am going to crush that number. As of yesterday I had read 27, At that rate I will get to 100 before the end of June. (No, I do not speed read.)

 

So I dug out a jigsaw puzzle. 

I have been retired just short of six months, and in that time I have made eleven quilt tops. That used to be my average output for a year. So yeah, I have to find something else to do!

Now, I've told you that I am going to make an orange quilt. I am waiting for fabric, so until then, I have dug through the big scrap bins and pulled out the green bits and started to make slabs.

I've decided that the only way to work my way through those bins is to make slabs, and then cut triangles from them, so I have decided to work my way through all the bins in this way. 

I've cut 80 green triangles.

Now, in order to keep myself from going crazy, I'm just going to go through the bins and grab some of whatever color I choose, and then make scrap slab triangles. I can make lots of quilts with the triangles. So I'm going to make the triangles, and then store them for whenever. I still have lots of green fabrics, but I also have lots of other colors.

Here is where I am on the jigsaw puzzle.

The orange fabrics arrive on Tuesday, and will have to go through the washer and dryer before I can work with them, so I have a few days to make more slabs. (And read and work on the puzzle.)