Wedding Shower

 

When my nephew announced last year he was engaged, I told him I would make a wedding quilt. He said that since he already had a quilt, he'd allow his fiancee to choose the colors. When they came to my house for dinner last Christmas, I asked. M suggested perhaps green, or yellow?

I got and went into my studio to fetch the Allegretto quilt. "Like this," I asked?

They both agreed it was "The One." So it went home with them last year. Mission Accomplished.

Here's another photo of the quilt. I worked on it in April of 2021, so you'd have to go back into my Archives to see how it came to be. 

The Allegretto quilt has a fabulous backing of all kinds of gorgeous colorful birds. The quilting is over-the-top too.

Anyway, today is their shower, and since I have already gifted them the quilt, I won't be able to show it off. Now everyone knows this quilt has a home.

Alegretto in the Snow

 

The day after I finished the Allegretto quilt we had a bit of snow. When I saw it I hurried to get dressed so I could bring the quilt outside for some beauty shots. This was taken in my driveway. The day was partly sunny, but windy. Here the quilt is in the shade, which makes it seem much bluer than it really is.

Here the quilt is draped across the large landscape rock in my front yard. I love pictures of quilts in the snow because it is NOT where you expect to see them.

I like this picture because the tropical birds are NOT part of a snowy landscape. If you ever wondered why the shadows of snow on a bright day are blue it is because they are reflecting the blue of the sky. 

In this picture, the sun was behind the clouds, so the quilt has a decidedly blue tinge.

The wind blew the clouds away for a few minutes, and I was able to take this picture. It isn't perfect, but it was FREEZING! (It really was, the temperature was below 32F (0C) and it was really windy so with the wind chill factor it was about 15F)

You can see the colors a lot better, and you can see the quilting too.

When I showed my Mom the finished quilt on Christmas Eve, she said, "Oh, look, my quilt!!" Her partner, M, started laughing. My Mom and I have agreed that she can BORROW the quilt for 30 days at a time. You can read here for the background of that story. But she has to give it back.

Binding & Blown Away

 

I'm sewing the binding on the Allegretto quilt, and watching Blown Away Christmas on Netflix.

Milllie wouldn't eat the prescription cat food no matter how little of it I mixed into her normal food. I did a bit of research and found that the brand she likes (Fancy Feast) makes a version for senior cats, and packages a dozen cans of three different varieties on one box. I  bought a box, and Millie liked all three varieties. WIN!! I am hoping I'll be more able to disguise the prescription food into this food after a day or two.

One reader suggested one tablespoon of the prescription food mixed into a can of the regular (or senior) cat food, and that was a great idea. The first day I mixed 50/50 and Millie took one sniff and walked away.

One of my work colleagues has a 16 year old cat, and he says they feed her one teaspoon of (prescription) food at a time. When she eats that, she'll get another teaspoon. That's a little drastic, but it is an idea I have to keep in my back pocket.

What I did on Sunday...

 

I got the binding added to the Pink Panther quilt. Now I can pin it to the front and hand sew it down. Good thing, because the quilting on the quilt for P is done and I'll be picking it up later this week. I want to finish the Pink Panther before that happens.

My Mom and her beau came over for dinner on Sunday. After dinner I showed her the quilts I was working on. She loves all my quilts, but she was particularly taken with Allegretto (the yellow and green one on the left). "Oooo! Can I have it?" Um, no. "Are you sure?" Yup, no, this one is staying with me. 

My Mom got creative, "But Lynne, how many quilts do you need? You already have so many." She said this with a broad grin. She knew perfectly well I have used that line on her before,  because she loves ALL my quilts, and basically wants each and every one of them.

"Can I BORROW it" she asked again? 

No.

"Can I RENT it? I'll give you money for it," she laughed.

Um, no.

Across the room, her beau, M, was laughing. This isn't the first time my Mom has tried to convince me by hook or by crook, to give her a quilt. He was enjoying the exchange.

Now before you get all judgy and tell me what I should or should not do, that my mother is old enough to get whatever she wants because after all, she's 88 and I'm not going to have her forever... remember that this is a game between my Mom and I. We both know that whenever she sees a new quilt of mine, she's going to ask for it. And we both know I'm going to say no. 

"You know Lynne, it would go so well with my Yellow Ribbons quilt and M's Jealousy quilt."

I rolled my eyes.

My Mom laughed.

 Yeah, we had a great visit.

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!

Two Thirds

 

I've sewn the bottom two thirds of the quilt together. I will sew the top third next, and then join them.

I bought this gray snowflake fabric for the back of the Holiday Boxes quilt. 

It looks like my WFH time is coming to an end. My boss will be returning to the office on Monday, but there has been no decision reached about me yet. (She has her own office, I would return to a new place in the "cube farm.")

Allegretto

 

You can see where this is going.

This is what the wrong sides of my quilts look like. Neatly pressed, threads trimmed. Every quilt I make looks like this on the back. Every. Single. One. And they lie flat as a pancake too.

I thought you might like to see some of the fabrics up close.

When Megan received her quilt, Waltzing Matilda, her husband was surprised that my points didn't always match. Well, I certainly like my corners to all match nicely like the four that meet in the photo above, but the points like the one in the circle, THOSE I do deliberately. I like those angles and what they do in the quilt. 

I have decided to name the quilt Allegretto. What does allegretto mean? A direction in musical notation indicating that the musical piece should be played rather fast and lively. I think that describes the feeling of this quilt.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Ch-Ch-Changes

 

This (above) is what I had last night when I said I had some questions. The answers to each of the questions was yes. I tinkered with it yesterday morning before work. I tinkered with it at lunchtime. I tinkered after dinner.

I changed all the things I mentioned yesterday, and I changed so much more, although it will probably drive you buggy to try to find all the things I moved. Once I thought the colors were more appropriately distributed, I had to look at pattern, value and lack of pattern. I didn't want too many busy prints in one spot, nor too many boring ones. Then I started rotating some blocks, because I discovered a way to make a kind of a rhythm.

Now, I really suck at counting, but I just counted 53 changes from the top picture to the bottom one. I could probably tinker forever if I allowed myself to make more blocks, but I am pretty sure this is 99% it. Of course, just when I thought I was done last night, I emailed that moment's picture to Julie, and then made three more changes.

Ladies, I need help with a title.

And OH, Tammy, you didn't miss anything. Ronda hasn't sent me the finished pictures of her quilt yet.

Working on Green & Yellow

 

I had an idea, and needed to rearrange the blocks on the design wall, but first I had to remove them.

I set out my idea, but did not like it, so I put the blocks back up on the wall, but then I realized I had set them up too high, and had to lower them by one block, so I started on one side and worked my way up.

When I stood up to stretch my legs, I saw this, so I went across the room and took a picture of it, because this looked intriguing. I'll file this idea away for later. In the meantime, I kept making blocks.

Once there are enough blocks, I tinkered a bit.

And then I tinkered some more. Now it's time to look at it and think -- oh there are two sunflower blocks in the fifth row from the top that look like they have holes in them. I'll have to fix those (translation: I have to make more blocks.) I also see some of the dark green dragonfly blocks only appear in the bottom half of the quilt, and I will want to move one to the top half, but where? And is the right side of that very top point too green (probably), and is there too much yellow on the left side? When I ask "are there too many" I don't mean actual the actual quantity. I mean visually.

Now, although I have posed these questions, they are for me to resolve. I am not looking for your suggestions. I listed them here because these are the kinds of things I think about when I get to this stage of making a quilt. 

Details: The blocks are currently 6-1/2" square. There are 12 rows of 10 blocks which means the quilt will be at least 60" x 72" and by my rough count there are (at least) 40 unique fabrics. This block is from Sujata Shah's book Cultural Fusion Quilts, although this layout of blocks is not in her book. This is the third variation I have made of this. The first is the Petals quilt, and the second is Waltzing Matilda.

Added Yellow and a Special Green!

 

I decided I wanted the yellow in the quilt, so I put some of the yellow blocks up semi-randomly. I have to make a lot more blocks, and I have some greens that aren't even shown here, so we shall see.

I think this picture is a lot better than the previous ones...

I had been having some trouble with my iPhone, and I was way overdue for an upgrade, but I didn't think I needed the brandy-spanking new version, so I asked our resident geek to see if he could upgrade mine to a model newer than mine. (Mine was four versions behind.) I only asked that the hard drive space be the same size as my current one, and I told him I didn't care about the color. Imagine my surprise when I opened the box to this green lovely! And the photo above was taken with the new iPhone (the new one is an 11.)

In case you were wondering where I was yesterday, I was setting up the new device. When it came time to activate it, the instructions told me to call a specific number, but I couldn't use the new phone, or the old phone to do it. WHAAAA??? I didn't HAVE another phone. So I went over to my neighbor's to do it.

It uses facial recognition to unlock it. All I have to do is hold it up and look at it, and it unlocks. Pretty weird. The new case arrives tomorrow, which is a good thing, because the thing is so damned slippery it slides out of my hands and pockets much too easily!

One and One and One is Three

 

I did some more cutting and sewing. (Rebecca! NO TEASE!!!)

originally this had a yellow center,  but it didn't really work, so I replaced the center with green, but I didn't like where the green hit the yellow ring.

So I made a block with one yellow corner and one green one and stuck it in there.

This might work. So now I have to cut a lot of green squares, and make more blocks! 

You all know how much I hate measuring when I cut fabrics. I used two of my nifty templates that combined, end up the width I need. Cherie, this picture is for you!!!

Green & Yellow & Flowers

 

I spent a lot of time Saturday cutting the creams into squares. You can see my notes above the squares. I cut 120 of them. In retrospect I think cut too many.

Then I cut some of the yellows.

Earlier in the day I bought myself some flowers. The local florist has a walk in area where customers can choose their own, and I chose these. When one of the owners stepped in to ask if I needed help, he took one look at what I held in my hand and said, "Those are spectacular!"

You know I have been dieting on the Noom diet, and after a long struggle with a plateau, I finally broke through. The flowers are a reward to myself, and a reminder that my journey is important and my success is real. They also help me to stay motivated to continue.

Green & Yellow

 

A few weeks ago I bought these greens, and creams. I really liked the one at the top left, the cream with the green leaves and the yellow flowers. It got me thinking.

I bought some more greens and then pulled some creamish things out of my stash that would coordinate with the greens. My yellows were ok, but nothing to make noise about.

I ordered some yellows. I love these. I think they will go great with the greens I have. I have a plan for these, and I'm rather excited about it.