The Garden Party Beauty Shots

 

I did all my errands on Saturday morning. The laundry was done, the sheets were changed, the bills paid. I considered working out in the garden, but decided to sit on the couch and finish sewing the binding on the Garden Party quilt.

I finished about dinnertime, and there was enough light left to take beauty shots, so I drove down to the community garden and hung the quilt over the door. I really like this quilt, and I think it came out great.

I ran the quilt through the washer and dryer so it is soft and crinkly. Now I will write the story of the quilt to give to the Lady Priest and then bring it to my dad. He will deliver the quilt at a later date.

Lady Snaps, Quilted

 I picked up the Lady Snaps quilt this morning.

It is quilted in daisies. So pretty!

I'll add the binding to this and get it delivered as soon as I can. 

I have received a couple more of the coolest birds! I'll show you those tomorrow!

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.

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.

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.

Topaz Beach

I was finishing up sewing the blocks for the Baby Snaps quilt and my son & DIL sent me this photo, taken at Topaz Beach. 

They live two miles from the ocean and continue to taunt me with photos like this on a regular basis.

You know what Serendipity is, don't you?  So check this out:

This is the baby snaps quilt (for said DS and DIL). The quilt just named itself. "Topaz Beach."

Baby Snaps

The Snaps blocks go so quick it's easy to get halfway through without stopping to take pictures.

The longest thing was cutting out the pieces.

I wanted the lights to be colorful and fun. There are houses and cats, and animal prints, and confetti and scribbles.

I wanted the blues to be soft and the yellows to be warm, and I wanted some of the contrasting blocks to be bright and fun.

Here are a few of the blocks all sewn together.

Yes, that's a dragon's head in the center blue block on the left, and yes, that's a fussy cut bug on the right.

It's funny, when I sent my son photos of the blocks up on the wall, he texted back, "It doesn't really sing for me. Sorry."

I texted back, telling him the photos were taken at night when the studio's light isn't very good. He replied that it wasn't as bright as he expected, and that probably that was it.

 But I'm not worried. I know that photos never capture my quilts as well as they look in real life, and to get the whole quilt, I have to get so far away that you miss all the little details. I also know that my dear son is the one who told me he didn't like half the fabrics I selected for his Sunshine quilt, yet when it was finished, he adored it, and sleeps under it every night with his dear wife.

Sunshine indeed. I think this quilt may need to be called something that connects sun and the beach. Oh Julie... and others, any suggestions?

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.

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.

Snaps is a Flimsy!

 The Snaps quilt is a flimsy, and needs a better name. Here it is on my front steps.

 This came out so pretty!

Here are some of the fabric pairings.

 

Here's the green block I added to the quilt to give it that little "kick in the pants" element of surprise. This green was used in some of the block centers, so this isn't the only place this fabric exists in the quilt. (That would be bad!)

Here's the other, smaller, element of surprise. The centers of the cream blocks were the ones that had contrasting centers, all the pink and orange blocks had all cream centers. I wanted to change that up too. I was important to do it in a block where the green would "read" as a light value.

It's these unexpected elements that make such a difference.

Now that it's sewn together, I like it a whole lot more than I thought I would. In fact, I really, really like it!

I don't think this quilt needs a border. And I am inclined to think this quilt needs appropriately "modern" quilting.