Snapped Together

 

Once I had trimmed all the Snaps blocks to size, I took them off the design wall and clipped them together. After I worked out in the garden for a while, I came back in the house, and started webbing the top together.

This is sewing the first pass.

I pressed the first pass.

I made clam chowder for dinner, then started sewing the rows together. I sewed it most of the way, and thought I'd stop because I was getting tired, but I had only three rows left, so I pushed through and finished sewing the top together.

I think I said the other day that this is a quilt that will look better in use than it does on the design wall, and this picture, taken after I finished pressing the quilt, proves it.

At any rate, here it is, sewn up on the design wall. I'll bring it to show my dad later. Next I will have to prepare the backing, as I am sure he will want to give it to his friend sooner rather than later. I think I am going to call this one Flower Garden.

Snapping

 

I made a few minor adjustments. I've also been trimming these and squaring them up. I will likely sew this together this weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANET-LEE!!!

Almost "It"

 

I'm pretty sure. I'm almost sure. I'm 98.999% sure this is IT. Of course I may yet change my mind, but if I do change something it will likely be something small.

I tried to divide the lights into "busy" and "not busy" and surrounded the colored blocks with rings of busy or not busys. After I thought I had that all set, I tried to make sure there weren't too many busybodys next to each other, and that "not so busy" ones weren't congregated in clumps either. After I did THAT I looked through it and tried to make sure the same print in a block wasn't right next to itself in the next block. The more prints you have in a quilt the harder this is. There are 81 blocks with two fabrics in each block, and I have about 100 different fabrics. I also try to ensure that animal prints and flowers don't consistently look right side up (because there really is no top and bottom to this quilt.)

For a generic quilt for a person I don't know a lot about, I think this is really pretty. It will look better when it is quilted and crumpled, but then, all quilts that are designed to be used, do.

Lady Snaps Grows Up

 

Even as I laid out the yellow blocks surrounding the center last week, I knew that arrangement would be boring and that I'd change it. But I had to make more blocks first!

I decided to make some pale orange blocks, and I alternated those with the yellow blocks around the center pink one. Then I alternated the blue and green blocks in the next outer ring. I moved the lavender blocks from the corners to the centers of the edges and pushed out the extra yellows to that next ring.

But then that other diagonal didn't make any sense. So I put the lavenders back in the corners and completed that ring with more pinks. But I had to... you guessed it.. make more blocks!

I like this a lot! I will rearrange the blocks so they look better, but the placement of the colors will stay the same. I like the way this looks. This is happy and floral, which is what I wanted and what I envisioned.

 Stay tuned!

Lady Snaps Grows

 

I got a little restless choosing bland blenders, so I cut some livelier greens to see what they would look like on the design wall. I put a few up, and realized it was just too much.

I moved some greens around, and they look better. I put some blues in there too, and a lavender. 

(Now look, I know it isn't QUITE there yet. I still have work to do.)

Now the orange block in the center bugged me.

Not too fond of that either.

Pink? Maybe.

I have to play a bit more. Not a problem, I can do that. I have decided that the center blocks of the blenderish colors will be the lights that are already in the quilt. I am also not quite sure if I will keep the colored blocks surrounding the center like an echo. Maybe not.

We'll see how it goes.

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.

Blue Ice Close Up

I got up on Saturday morning, and went into the studio where I worked for three hours. Gail is right, the big light green block went. It was a warm green, closer to yellow-green than blue, and this is a predominantly blue quilt, that if anything, leans closer to a cool blue, and the light warm green was also a temperature contrast that just didn't fit in with the rest of the quilt. 

The cream and whites work because they have a lot of blue in them. There IS a lot of green in the quilt, but a greenish blue is a cool color, so all those blue greens fit right in. There is also a bit of blue-purple in the quilt, which is shown in the purplish fabrics - even the blueberries. So this quilt features blues that are in the green-blue, blue, blue-violet range. There are also some fabrics that fall closer to violet. 

The photographs in this post are full-sized, so the resolution when you click, and then click them again allows you to see all the details of the fabrics. There are 44 unique fabrics in this "blue" quilt.

This is the upper left corner of the quilt. Gail wondered why I put the warm light green in this quilt that is supposed to be "blue." The answer is because I always like to have something unexpected, something unusual, something to make my viewers pay attention, and reward the ones who do. In short, I like to break the rules, and yet make it so the rule breaking fits right in. 

You don't know this, but when I was cruising through my books looking for an easy pattern to play with, I wondered if I would make another version of Ola Pola, a quilt I made five years ago. Ola Pola has some unexpected fabrics in it, so that idea was in my head before I picked this pattern.

Ola Pola (named for a Ukrainian candy, the quilt lives with my friend Daniela, who is Polish and loves sweets) is a quilt that is predominantly orange, pink and cream. Some of the pinkish fabrics had bits of blue in them, so that is why I have some blue center blocks. But they also have some green, so I decided to include a green block. But the OTHER surprise in this quilt is that I added a light green center fabric to the center of an Orange block. The RULE for this quilt was the colored blocks had cream centers, the creamish blocks had colored centers. The light green in the middle of the orange block was chosen because I wanted it to look like a light color. 

 I knew I wanted to play with this same idea in the Blue Ice quilt even before I started cutting fabrics. In the end the warm green block didn't stay (it probably would have worked if it was a cooler green), but the warm green looks just fine as the center of some of the blocks. Remember I also cut some pink and red violet fabrics for blocks in this quilt, and I just felt they didn't work either. The plan for this quilt was "dark blue" and the pink and purples and warm light green didn't fit. Neither did the red rocket.

One final note about the purplish brownish fabric on the right - I KNOW it doesn't LOOK blue. I don't care that it doesn't. I don't want you to think it is. I want you to SEE it is different. My point in this quilt is that it is close enough in VALUE that it can WORK even though it is DIFFERENT. It does fall into the color range I decided to use in this quilt, but it is just enough outside the range to catch your attention and make you say, "Wha..?" 

My Number One Goal when I make my quilts is to draw the attention of my viewer and to Make. You. Look.

Gotcha!

Baby Snaps

I've decided I liked Ola Pola so much that I would make a baby quilt using the same pattern. I'll be using lights with brighter, bigger prints. Here are the lights I've selected, all cut out. 

This is the inspiration for Ola Pola. I rejiggered the size of the blocks, and in Ola Pola I didn't like the solid blocks, so I broke them up too. 

Like this.  Since we don't know if the baby will be a boy or a girl, I will be using blue and yellow instead of the orange and the pink. And I'll definitely have accent colors too, probably purple and oranges (compliments of yellow and blue) and whatever else looks good.

The baby quilt will be a bit livelier (duh!) but I want that. Now I am really excited about this quilt. It won't be big - about five blocks across by seven high, which works out to about 30" x 42" or so, so it will go together quick once I get the pieces cut.

Can't wait!

Ola Pola Goes Home

This is my friend and colleague, Daniela. She was born in Poland and became a lawyer and a judge before coming to America twenty or so years ago. She got a job at my company doing secondary work in the factory. She did not understand a word of English. She hurt herself and they put her on "light duty" in the front office, assisting the Costing clerk in Accounting. It didn't take them long to figure out she had a crackerjack brain.

I befriended her when I discovered her love of Art. My mom and I put together a paintbox for her when I found out she had had to leave all those things behind in Poland. It turns out we have some amazing things in common. Although Daniela is about nine days older than I am, she celebrates her Name Day - which is my birthday.  And she started working at our company on my birthday. We have sons who studied the same thing (computers) and attended the same college.

We came to be friends and we work very well together. I don't think at all the way she does, and she thinks that's great. Together we solve big problems. When she was learning English I used to berate our colleagues for talking down to her. "She may not have the language skills," I told them, "but she's freaking smart. Don't treat her like a baby. Just give her a minute to do the translation in her head and she'll catch up."

Daniela is now the Vice President of Finance, and actually, I work for her, but that doesn't get in the way of our friendship. We share shopping stories, cat stories, and sweets. Daniela loves chocolate.

I've been wanting to make her a quilt for a couple of years now, but each time I thought I had one she'd like, one of my family members would step forward to claim it. Last fall when I was beginning to work on this quilt (at the time it was called Snaps), Daniela told me that she wanted to buy a red couch, but her husband had talked her out of it. Daniela has her own terrific sense of style.

As the Snaps quilt grew, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it would go to Daniela. I sent it off to be quilted, but that was delayed by events beyond my control. In the meantime, I needed a name for the quilt. I talked to my son, and said I wanted a name of some type of candy, because the colors were sweet, and Daniela liked them. None of the names we came up with really sang for me, so we turned to the internet. "What about names of candy from Poland?" I asked my son. Every time Daniela returns from a trip to Poland she always brings back some chocolates. Maybe we could find a Polish candy.

My son found Ola Pola, a chocolate wafer candy from the Ukraine. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was perfect. When Chris emailed me to say the quilt would be delivered to me at work on Friday, I knew my weekend would be spent finishing the quilt. I've never finished a quilt so quickly, or spent two solid days on the couch handsewing the binding down. Arthritis be damned, I wanted to give Daniela her quilt as soon as I could.

So I made a "ribbon" out of leftover orange fabric, tied it in a bow around the quilt, stuffed it in a plastic bag, and brought it to work with me on Monday. Needless to say, Daniela loves everything about the quilt, including the big floral print on the back.

Now, she says, she's definitely going to buy that red couch, and she won't let her husband talk her out of it.

Presenting Ola Pola

I worked all Saturday preparing the binding for Ola Pola, and sewed all evening and Sunday sewing the binding down. I finished just about 5 PM on Sunday, and ran outside to take a few beauty shots.


It was cold (35F) and windy for April, and the edges of the quilt kept flopping over. I'll have to take proper beauty shot photos later, but in the meantime, I'm happy with this quilt.

Binding Ola Pola

Here you can see the quilting on Ola Pola. It's lovely.

Here are the two cream fabrics I am using for the binding.

Regular readers know I sew my binding the the back of my quilts.

All ready to hand stitch the binding on the front!

Ola Pola is Back!

My quilt, Ola Polla, is back from being quilted, and I want to get it done quickly. The binding is going to be cream, and in the nature of the scrappy, stash busting nature of this quilt, it will be TWO fabrics.

Millie approves.

Ola Pola

 The Snaps quilt has a new name. Ola Pola. It's not really a long story. You can Google it. It's the name of a candy from Europe. I chose that name because I wanted the name to be something sweet. As for the rest... it has to do with the person who will be receiving this quilt. I can't say more. When time comes, I'll fill you in.

 Here's the backing for Ola Pola.  Yes, this was in my stash too. I bought four yards of it on sale when I visited Washington DC a few years back.

This is going to be one very pretty quilt.