More Lady Snaps

I finished cutting out the fabrics for the light blocks of the lady snaps quilt.

I needed forty blocks. In the end I didn't have enough florals, so I used blocks with birds, flying pigs, hearts, bras, dinosaurs, children's animal prints, blenders and others.I did not use the fabrics that had yellow or green or blue backgrounds.
 

I made a few blocks and threw them up on the wall. It's important to remember that these are the "secondary blocks." I think the others will be blenderish light rainbow colors. Keeping the blocks I have now, I could fill in with all blue or all green or yellow or any combination and it would still look good. But I haven't decided yet.

Lady Snaps

I had the idea to make another Snaps quilt for my dad's friend, the lady priest. Here are some pictures of previous iterations of the Snaps quilts.

This is Blue Topaz, the baby quilt I made when my son & DIL told me they were expecting.
 

This is Ola Pola, a quilt I made a year earlier and ended up giving to my friend Daniela.

It came from this book, except I rejiggered the size of the pieces so they would be easier for me to cut. So I think, how did I cut the blocks when I made these back in 2015 and 2016. I should have written the details in my notebook, don't you think?

Not really. Kinda sorta, but not really. There look to be two versions here. Which one did I use? Let's look at the next page...

Not much more help, but it does make me think I worked out the blocks to be 6" x 8". Still not sure, I decided to make a couple.

That confirmed it. The one on the left is 6-1/2" x 8-1/2".

My idea is to make a happy, colorful quilt with alternating blocks of lightish big florals with brightly colored centers and blendish blocks of rainbow colors with creamish center blocks. (Haven't got quite that far yet.) I know I've met this woman, but it was a long time ago. I remember her as being very nice with a big heart. I figure somebody like that will love a happy quilt filled with colors and flowers, so that is what I am going to make.

I grabbed these colored florals on lightish backgrounds. We'll see what happens when they get to the design wall. I do not edit myself at this stage. Yes, you can see a couple of dinosaur fabrics. I think they are fun. And there is a cat print, and a print of children from all over the world, and the really observant amongst you will see the fabric with the bras, and I just think that is way to funny to leave out. There are more fabrics, however...

As you can see I cut out a bunch of fabric already. I don't know if I have enough to use each big print only once (don't think so), but no matter. I will worry about that when it's time to lay out the blocks.

So that is the current sewing project.

The Really Big Thing in my life going on right now is I am going to be working at the office starting on Tuesday, so I have been packing. I am eager to see my friends and get back out in the world. I am under no illusions that Covid-19 is going away any time soon, so I intend to continue to protect myself and take precautions. I have a box of disposable masks that will come with me, along with some antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer. I am pretty sure I won't get a whole hell of a lot done on my first day back (I am planning to bring a cake to share), and I know there will be an adjustment, but I am ready.

In Pieces

 

You know me with puzzles (of all kinds). Once I sink my teeth into one I just can't let go. The other night I was working on this after dinner and when I looked up it was time for bed.

This is another 1,000 piece puzzle. I love doing them, but clearly it distracts me from the sewing studio. Actually, if I had a project going it wouldn't, but I am between projects. My dad wants me to make a quilt for the lady priest in his parish. She has been very good to him. I will make a quilt, but I have to figure out what I want to do. Actually I have an idea and part of a plan. When I am done with these oranges I'll get to it. Probably this weekend.

My new cubicle is set up at the office. It's just about where my old one was. I've been in touch with the IT guy about what I need (keyboard, wireless mouse, two monitors, two network connections, etc...) I have started to pack stuff here. And I'm going through all my papers. Clearly I don't need to lug it all back. I'm kinda looking forward to going back to the office to see people, and to have my own home office back to myself.

Aquamarine Out of Doors

 

I stayed up late the other night finishing the binding on the Aquamarine quilt. I had twelve inches left when it was time to go to bed, and I decided to just keep going. The next morning I brought it outside to take some beauty shots. 

I wasn't really feeling it. I knew I'd have to try again, but it was OK, because I have time before I give the quilt away.

Just as I went into the house I decided to throw the quilt over the railing. As I stepped back to take the picture I knew it was the best shot of the morning.

You never know.

I have a definitive date for re-entry at the office. My new workspace will be set up essentially where my old one was. It will be built specifically for my needs and consideration has been given so I won't be in a high traffic area and will have some privacy. All but one person (who has her own office) in the "front office" where I will work is fully vaccinated. This one person refuses. (Don't ask, I could go on for days...) I will be able to work mask-free for most of the day, I can mask up if I need to move around or go out into the factory. 70% of my coworkers have had at least one shot or are fully vaccinated and another 20% have appointments scheduled. That makes me feel very good. (Except for that one person, of course, but that person has been giving me grief since I started WFH so I just open my ears wide and let the invective in one ear and go straight out the other. I don't report to this person, so it makes things much easier.)

Lots of Parrots

 

The only downside to using a great big print on the back of a quilt is that you just can't slap two pieces together and call it a day. A print this perfect deserves to be matched. For that to happen you need extra fabric. The parrots had a 22" repeat.

Normally I do work like this on the floor, but it occurred to me that using the design wall would be much easier and more efficient. I pinned the fabric to one side of the design wall, using a plumb line to make sure I had it nice and straight. I let 6" fall over the top, since that's my my longarm quilter requires on all four sides. Next I allowed for 6" at the bottom and cut the yardage into two pieces. Then I lined up the second piece as best I could. I didn't need to line them up perfectly. You can see the excess that overhangs on the right side. I trimmed the bottom right side, and took everything down, matched the birds, pinned the edges and held my breath.

I carefully stitched along the printed edge. Where the white bird met the edge, I drew a line in pencil so I had a line to follow.

I sewed about 24" to check my alignment. It wasn't quite right, so I ripped the seam out, realigned the fabric and did it again. This time it was better, so I pinned the length of the fabric and sewed the entire length. When I unfolded it, it looked perfect to me. Due to the variations in the printing and the fact that it is fabric, you can't always get it 100% perfect all the time, but this is an example of if you've got it really close, nobody can really tell unless they are really really looking.

I spread it out on the floor to check, then trimmed the excess fabric. It looked great to me. I used black thread to sew the two halves together. I knew it would be perfect for everything until it got to a white bird, but I figured no matter what thread I used it would be wrong at least part of the seam. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and take your chances. This isn't a show quilt, and this isn't rocket science. Occasionally an attitude adjustment is needed. Perfection is nice but isn't really all that important in quiltmaking.

Now the quilt and the backing are neatly pressed and folded and ready for Janet-Lee to do her magic.

Allegretto is Finished

 Silly me, I forgot I had named this quilt already. It's Allegretto. On Sunday morning, still in my nightgown, I went into the studio and finished sewing the blocks together.

Heh. Yes, this is the back of the flimsy. I don't photograph the wrong sides of my quilts often enough.

This is, as they say, an actual, unretouched photo of the wrong side of the quilt. You do not see any stray threads. You do not see any sloppy pressing. I won't say I work hard to get my quilts to look this way, but I do pay attention. I trim all threads. I press all seams. And I use steam. I am of the belief that your longarm quilter will thank you if the wrong side of you quilts look like this. If that makes me a snob, so be it.

Here's the finished flimsy. You can click the photo and then click again to check out the fabrics. At last count there are 42 unique fabrics in this quilt. There are 120 blocks. You can do the math.

Or not!

Parrots

 

While I was at the Portsmouth Fabric Company, I saw this fabric, and KNEW I had to have some. I carried it to the counter and unfolded the bolt so I could get a better look.

It was pretty clear it was coming home with me, but how much? What was I going to do with it? The answer came to me immediately.

It would be great as the backing of this (as yet unnamed) quilt. So I got that too. It wasn't until I got home that I discovered something...

Holy cow! 2007???

I figured, in for a penny, in for a pound, so I looked around for a binding fabric. I liked this one.

Yup, that looks good. So how do the parrots look?

Yeah!

I'm keeping this quilt, so now I am highly motivated to finish this quilt top.

Pizzazz!

 

Julie decided to send me this flimsy last week. The package got delayed an took an extra five days to arrive. I spread it out on the bed and I knew what I wanted to do with it. I knew the quilt needed a border, and I knew just which fabric I wanted.

This is a Kaffe Fassett fabric, Guinea Fowl. I did a quick online search, and knew it was in stock at the Portsmouth Fabric Company, a little over an hour's drive from my house. The PFC is located in the middle of the busiest part of Portsmouth, just down the street from Market Square, which is guaranteed to be busy on a lovely Saturday. I knew I wanted to get to PFC as early as I could so I could get a good parking spot, so I left the house about 9 AM. I was able to park right across the street, and found the fabric I wanted right away.

I chose this print as the backing. I like big prints for backings, and I didn't want anything too dark.

The quilt has a lot of Kaffe fabrics, and I thought I should choose one for the binding. I chose this one. It's pretty unusual that I get the backing and binding at the same time, but the selection of fabrics was so great, I decided to go with it.

Now that I had bought what I went for, I was able to look around. I don't usually buy fabrics when I don't need any, but I sometimes fabrics can be inspiring. I picked these two.

My Mother's Day

 Mother's Day was a good one for me. First I received this convo from an Etsy customer who bought one of my tutorials.

It's easy to forget that I have an audience of readers and what I write matters to them. It always makes my day when I get messages like this (and your comments do too!)

My son and his family sent flowers, and we had a nice talk later in the day.

My Mom and her friend Mike came over for dinner. It was so nice to have company! It was so nice to cook for the three of us. We had salmon and asparagus and raspberry sorbet for dessert. While my Mom and I have talked regularly during the pandemic, we weren't able to have long visits, so she hadn't seen the quilts I had made in the last year. We spent a long while looking at them, and talking about them. 

We talked a lot about Partly Sunny, the long distance quilt Julie made and I finished. I also told my Mom about how I had written the stories of the Waltzing Matilda, Goose Rocks Beach and All Together Now quilts and had given them to the recipients when I gifted the quilts. It made me realize that the story of Partly Sunny should have that treatment as well, so Julie and I will be working on that in the next few weeks. To that end I spent Sunday evening bookmarking all the posts both of us had written about the quilt so I could work out the quilt's timeline. Turns out Julie started collecting yellow and gray fabrics in 2015 with an eye to making a yellow and gray quilt sometime in the future, so the quilt's story is bigger than I thought.

My Mom asked a favor. "Can I have a quilt for my table? I'd like one for spring."

My Mom loves (and asks for) every quilt I make, so I told her I would be happy to LEND her one! She took Tutti Frutti home with her, and here it is, on her table in her apartment.

It was a good day.

Working Along

 

I wasn't quite sure about this fabric for the binding of Aquamarine, but as I pinned it to the front of the quilt my qualms disappeared.

Now it is simply a matter of sewing it down.

In this picture you can see that it really does fit right in!

Binding Aquamarine

 

This is Aquamarine, a Zebra quilt I made a year ago. It has been quilted, and is ready for the binding. I wanted to use what I had, and I didn't seem to have enough of the blue green like the border.

But I did have enough of this multicolored swirl. All the colors are in the quilt itself, including small pops of that red violet.

Setting it beside the quilt confirmed it.

 

So I made the binding and am attaching it to the quilt. I'll hand sew it over the next few days. This is another quilt that is going to live somewhere else. It will be a surprise and I hope to deliver it soon.

 

 

This is a "Zebra" Quilt. If you'd like to make one you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

All Together Now @ Home

 

This is my long arm quilter, Janet-Lee Santeusanio. While I was making All Together Now she wrote to me and said how much she loved it. She likes all my quilts, but was really taken with this one. I decided I would give the quilt to her. 

When I brought it to her to be quilted, I made the mistake of telling her the quilt would be hers. "Now I don't know what to do. You shouldn't have told me." Eventually we figured it out.

The morning I was to pick up the quilt I got an email from Janet-Lee. "I'm not charging you for quilting this quilt. Bring me the binding and I'll sew it on myself."

FAT CHANCE! I thought. I wrote back "I'm giving you a Lynne Tyler quilt, and you are going to get a Lynne Tyler quilt. And I sew the binding on my quilts. Besides, I don't even know what I am going to do for the binding."

I couldn't even remember what the edges of the quilt looked like. I had to go back to my pictures to find out the quilt had a white border around it. A white binding would have been OK, but I thought since the quilt had a variety of fabrics in the border, a binding of mixed black fabric would be better, so ran into the studio to search my stash for black binding fabrics. 

This was three hours before I was to be at Janet-Lee's! It's an hour's drive to her house! I was still in my nightgown, and I hadn't even showered! 

I picked fabrics, cut strips, marked and joined them at an angle (above) cut them apart, trimmed and pressed the seams, then pressed the binding lengthwise. I folded it up, then ran to take a shower and get going. JL liked the binding I had made, but I took the quilt and the binding home to finish.

As you can see, JL LOVES the quilt. She says she loves every inch of it and that it represents everything she loves about quilts. (Gosh I hope I got that right.) 

She has since told me the quilt has already taken its place of honor on her recliner. "Don't you worry," she'd said as I was getting ready to leave, "this quilt will be USED!"