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!

Joyful

 

I picked up the Joyful quilt from the long-arm quilter on Wednesday. I really like this quilting design.

It's such a bright and happy quilt, so I chose this colorful fabric for the binding.

Here you can see the equally colorful fabric on the back.

Another picture of the beautiful quilting.

The binding pinned to the front.

Ta-Da!

I'll take beauty shots outside in the next day or two.

The Back of Joyful

 

While listening to the US Open Tennis last week, I added the leftover blocks from the Joyful quilt to this fabric I found for the backing.

The backing fabric wasn't a standard backing fabric - it was about 42" wide, so I sewed the leftover blocks to each length, then sewed the two long lengths together. Yes, I planned for the diagonal stripe to be where they joined.

Here is the quilt lying on top of the backing. I always do this to make sure there is enough fabric all around.

I think it looks great and will make a terrific couch quilt.

I know all retirees say it, but I have been really busy. I cleaned OUT the shed, and the next step was to sort through the stuff I wanted to keep. There were a lot of old rusty tools and extra Christmas ornaments, paint rollers and handles. That's now been sorted, and the good stuff will go back into the shed. The rest is consigned to the trash. (And yes, I already donated several items.)

I spent most of the day yesterday at the mobile carrier I planned to move my cell phone to. I was allowed to port the cell number I have had for over 22 years from my work and keep it. (Lucky me.) 

While the process to DO that was simple, in theory (you can see where this is going), in practice it was a lot more complicated. After about three hours we got it done, and there was MUCH aggravation and going back and forth involved. I'll spare you the details, but that is a nice thing to have done.

I've just finished the most aggravating jigsaw puzzle ever. I don't mind that it was hard, what I minded was that the photo was so small and I couldn't figure out where anything went. I have discovered I have an addiction to these things and I will devote WAY MORE time than I should, even forgoing meals to get these finished, so after I take this one apart and donate it, the puzzle board is going under the couch where it will stay.

Joyful!

 

I added this sparkly fun fabric as a border to the colorful cobblestones quilt, which I have named "Joyful."

The fabric has glittery silver stars, which makes it a bit too cutesy for me, but I didn't read the description carefully enough, but it's perfectly fine.

This is the fabric I'll use for the backing for the JOYFUL quilt.

In non-quilty news, I cleaned out the shed. It had been sadly neglected over the years. I went in there wearing a mask, googles and gloves, and cleaned, tossed, organized, and swept the place clean. There were some openings and it was clear it had been a winter home for mice. I filled in the holes and literally swept every inch. There were tools in there I had never seen. Yes, there are two weed whackers and two hedge trimmers. There were four leaf rakes, three digging shovels and four garden hoses. I have sorted the good stuff and the stuff that has to go away (four bottles of weed killer, three containers of plant food, etc.)

I feel pretty damn good about it.

Colorful Cobblestones

 

I finally found a layout I liked for the colorful cobblestones. 

Once I worked that out, I decided to web the quilt top together. I have mixed feelings about this method. It's one of those things that work better IN THEORY than IN PRACTICE, at least for me.

I figured out why it bugs me so much. 

Normally when I sew a quilt together, I do it the old fashioned way. I take two pieces off the design wall, sew them together, press the seam, and then move to the next pair. Then I'll sew pairs together, and then quartets until I get a row complete. When I have two rows complete I'll sew them together. When the entire quilt is in paired rows, I'll sew two together, and continue along in this way until the top is complete. 

This profoundly old-fashioned method allows me to get the blocks lined up perfectly, and keeps the threads on the back from fraying all over hell.

In other words, I handle the blocks as little as possible.

When you web a quilt together, all the blocks are moving around, rubbing against each other, and what I find annoying is that when you sew the rows together, you very often get threads stuck in the seams, and when you (read: I) iron the seam, you (meaning I) have to pull those out. I find this tremendously annoying and slow going. 

Although, to be honest, I think if you are using 2-1/2" squares, these threads are much less of an issue.

YMMV. (Your mileage may vary.)

So... how do I like being retired?

Silly question.

I am quite enjoying it!

Those Colorful Cobblestones

The blocks for the colorful cobblestones really annoyed me. There were some blocks that didn't seem to be colorful - they read as grayish, so I removed them.

I thought perhaps the colored blocks should be separated by other blocks, so I tried to imagine them as perhaps single colored blocks, like the blue ones and the red ones in the photo below. In between those diagonal rows I arranged the colored blocks.

But that didn't really do it for me, as you can see from all the blocks scattered about on the floor. When I get stuck like this, I set it aside and think.

After a day or two, I realized I was overthinking this, and I simply needed to arrange the colored blocks so they looked like they belonged next to each other. 

 I knew that if I took some blocks away I would need to replace them with other, lighter blocks. Once I had those I began to arrange the blocks one at a time, placing blocks that connected to each other via color, because I believe the PATTERN or the PRINT of the fabric CARRIES the COLOR and the COLOR connects the blocks and helps move the viewer's eye around the quilt.

So this is getting there. 

NOW! This design is easier to make successful if done in one color or a monotone. Making this quit in many colors is really a balancing act.

Which, of course, is my jam.

Bright Cobblestones

 

There's a quote that an art school in Florida uses in its advertising: "A great idea is only an idea until you make it real."

And just because you make the idea real doesn't make it great. The IDEA for a brightly colored cobblestones quilt sounded great, but once I got all the blocks on the design wall I was decidedly unimpressed. There's too much of this that just looks like mush to me.

Now, that "to me" is the operative term here. Just because most folks think it's OK doesn't mean that I do.

I shall continue wrestling.

This is the view when I eat my lunch on the front porch. Quite nice, listening to the birds and the leaves rustle in the breeze.

A Variation on a Theme

One of the tasks I need to do is to straighten up the fabrics in my stash. Since I am between quilts, I figured it would be a good task to start. I worked on the White on Whites, and then sorted out the white with colors and the creams with colors. I took the fabrics off the shelf, ironed them, refolded them, and put them back on the shelf.

I decided to work on the fabrics I call "colors on a white background." As I was pressing one piece I thought. "Gee, it would be interesting to make a cobblestones quilt with these bright fabrics, and have bright bold colors slashed through them." ***

Then I thought, well, fart. What am I waiting for? So I went through the stack and chose 24 fabrics, then pressed them cut 6-1/2" WOF strips.

Then I cut the first set of blocks, and inserted the strips and trimmed them. Whenever possible, I try to insert the contrasting strip and reassemble the block so the pattern continues from one piece to the other as in the photo above. It helps keep the quilt cohesive.

.

Here are the 24 fabrics with a strip inserted. I thought you'd get a kick out of seeing them together. Now, I just threw these up on the design wall. I haven't arranged them to their best advantage, but you can see some of the challenges I will face. 

No, I am not in the least worried. I can make this work too.

And yeah, I did continue to work on organizing the fabrics.

*** Remember how I keep telling you that inspiration can be found anywhere? Well, this ought to show you.