Winter Garden Wall Quilt

A moral right to express unpopular opinions is not a moral right to express those opinions in a way that silences the voices of others or puts them in danger of violence.

~Nesrine Malik

Quilting

DD wanted a wall quilt of taupe and cream. She sent a photo or the wall and carpet colors. It required a quick trip to my LQS. Of course browns, grey, taupe, black, cream, and white exist in my stash but many of the browns are on the yellower side while the blacks seemed too loud and/or too dark.  Here's the progression I chose.

Fabric pull from the quilt shop

I added several grey pieces at home as well as a few other values but only two fabrics with much black. I worked hard to keep the prints ambiguous so the leaf fabric is only on the back. There are several plaids and stripes, too. 

Since she wanted it the day before yesterday I decided a quick design from Sujata's Cultural Fusion Quilts would fit the bill. I've made this leaf block several times including as windmills here and later again that year.  Stacking groups and freehand cutting makes an interesting day. 

First came vertical SID to mimic stalks. That lead to leaf stems although some leaves are  overly wide. Those were the easiest decisions. 

The background needed to sit back so I chose a meander with some loops {a design I've seen in Angela Walters work} to complement the less quilted  leaves. A tight stipple would pull the background too much for empty spaces as large as the leaves. Both quilting designs were sewn in side to side zigzags as you can see in the photo. {Bad lighting late at night. 

I finally added additional veins in some of the wider leaves to keep them from sagging on the wall later and maintain an overall balance. 

Winter Garden wall hanging

As with the Variable Star quilt, I made a few changes since these are destined to hang on walls. I used a slightly heavier canvas fabric for the binding, tzigzagged the binding seams to add more support, blocked the quilt, and added sleeves. 

Winter Garden wallhanging back

The center of the back was a remnant from my LQS but it's bordered with fabrics hanging in my stash. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 55" x 55"

Block: Improv leaf 

Batting: Tuscan Rose 100% cotton

Thread: Granite Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: SID and freehand lines with walking foot,

meander FMQ

Approximate yardage: 10 yds

These muted colors work well together. They look like a sepia-tinted photograph. My daughter chose the color scheme but I'll happily keep the quilt if she doesn't like it. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Variable Star Wall Quilt

Only the weakest of people believe that love is the weakest of weapons.

Governor J. B. Pritzker

Quilting

My daughter called last week wanting two wall quilts to reduce the echoing of their stairway. The one from the second to third floor. They have an old house and the stairs are as steep as the pulldown ladder we use to access an attic. How did women get up these in long dresses?

Variable Star wall quilt

She likes very quiet colors like taupe. This one almost fits the bill and the top was ready to go. [plus, my granddaughter loves pink.} It was quick to quilt a spiral. I took more time on the binding including zigzagging the seams to give it more support.  

My quilts usually square up well but I also blocked this one to encourage it to hang flat on the wall. Finally I added a sleeve remembering to leave a space in the center and near the sides for the support brackets.

Quilt Specifics

Size: 46" x 46"

Block: Variable Star

Batting: Tuscan Rose 100% cotton

Thread: White Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: FMQ spiral

Approximate yardage: 4.5-5 yds

Reading

This is a book I might not have chosen but found tremendously interesting. It was a book club read. How grateful I am to expand my horizons by reading things others suggest and taking time to discuss them. 

Tom Standage hypothesizes that the development of civilization can be seen through the introduction of six beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-cola. Each was a catalyst for societal and technological change. Beer developed with agriculture through Coke's popularity from globalization. 

 

A fun and thought-provoking read. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Larger Blue Cross Quilt

War is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the very many.

~General Smedley Butler

Quilting

The next {and largest} of the shirt quilts is finished. It's earmarked for my youngest. 

Most of the fabrics are also in the previous quilts: here, here, and here. 

Larger Blue Cross Quilt

This quilt was a good place to practice different free motion quilting designs. I've sewn all of them, just not recently. And it shows. However, a good wash shrunk and puffed the batting enough to hide many shortcomings. 

Quilting Detail

The back is the last of some fabric purchased for a dress. Lovely fabric but it was nothing I'd ever wear. This is a good place to use it up. The soft hand feels comfortable against my skin. 

Larger Blue Cross quilt back

The binding is more old shirt material since it's the only thing that blends with the old shirts on front. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 59" x 69"

Block: Cross made without blocks

Batting: Tuscan Rose 100% cotton

Thread: Pale blue Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: FMQ or loops, orange peel, Greek key, bouquet

Approximate yardage: 8.5 yds

There are two more quilts - a toddler and a baby quilt. They've been donated to my guild's charity group. Someone else will quilt them but I helped make more tops this past weekend at our charity quilt sewing day. 

Reading

Evan Friss has written a lovely homage to the history of American book stores. He pauses at various stores highlighting the relationships with their customers, their efforts to instill passion for books, and their service as community spaces. 

Each chapter highlights a different shop from Ben Franklin's through Marshall Fields and the internet. A delightful read!

Enjoy the day, Ann

Long Time, No See, but Finally Finished

We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires, 

but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, 

the efficiency of the public schools, and 

the number of people who can and do read worthwhile books.

~W.E.B. Dubois

Quilting

Two years ago I sent this top to a longarm quilter. It's too large for me to handle anymore. She is a talented quilting designer but her machine had tension issues halfway through. Lots of tangled threads on the back, arcs of skipped stitches, etc. It seemed a mess. I cried and put it away. 

This year again sees me on a move to sort, repair, organize, and donate extraneous stuff. A kindness to myself, my children, and others. Someone can get some use from most items. So I've spent a few months unstitching, restitching, topstitching, anything I can do to get it in better shape. It will never be perfect. 

Finally it seemed safe to wash and dry. I soaked it for a couple of hours then spun water out on the gentlest cycle. It's been laying on sheets to dry.

Ocean Waves 5

By some miracle many of the tension issues are hidden. They aren't gone, but the batting expanded while the large stitching holes in the back shrank. Hopefully it will last longer.

The background is Kona Snow while the back is a wide white cotton. The winking colors make me smile. The same pale blue stripe is the inner border and binding. Batting and thread are unknown because they were chosen by the longarmer.

Quilt Specifics

Size: 102" x 102"

Quilt Design: Ocean Waves

Quilting: Free motion with wreaths, orange peel, and parallel lines

Approximate yardage: 15 yds(?)

Someone loves it and has asked for it. I feel better. 

Reading

The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi by Boyce Upholt is a comprehensive overview of the Mississippi River basin from its geologic beginnings through native settlement and especially the changes wrought by European settlers in the past 200 years. 

As a geologist I appreciated the explanations of the wide bends through the basin from Illinois south. Industrialization brought enormous inventions to remove snags, straighten those bends, and deepen the channels. Those events caused loss of fish, soil, and water quality. 

Now there are attempts to restore some lost ecosystems. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Quilting My Stash of Tops

Freedom is not a state; it is an act.

~Representative John Lewis

Quilting

Since I haven't quilted in a while it seemed smarter to start with one of the smaller tops. This used the last of my shirt fabric. It looks good but the fabric stretched a bit so I needed a quilting design that doesn't cross any threads. Baptist Fan fits the bill although I haven't sewed it in a while. Good practice to get back in shape. 

Smaller Blue Cross quilt

The back is a yard of a paisley print extended with some blue from my sister. It was leftover from a back she made. Don't you love using up all the bits and scraps.

Back of Smaller Blue Cross quilt

The color of the crosses in truer in this photo.

Quilt Specifics

Size: 49" x 59"

Quilt Design: Cross made without blocks

Batting: Tuscan Rose

Thread: Pale blue Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: Baptist fans

Approximate yardage: 7 yds

Monarch Update

Those caterpillars were voracious. When the milkeed ran out, they ate butternut squash which is said to work for older cats. Of the original twenty, fifteen pupated. The others died, probably lacking proper nutrients. 

One of the pupae is ready to burst. The markings on the wings are visible through the shell.

Monarch ready to break chrysalis

If their casing was attached to the ceiling, the new butterflies clung to the shell for about a day. The ones whos casings fell simply climbed the wall when they emerged.

Monarchs, pupae, and caterpillar

I put a blooming salvia in their enclosure. Although several flew to the plant, I never saw them eat. A day later they started flying around the cage so I knew it was time to release them. 

Monarchs ready to release

Lavender, begonias, and clover are currently blooming in our yard but the monarchs simply flew skyward as soon as they were out of the enclosure. Hopefully they smell flowers in Hermann Park across the way.

Reading

Chris Sweeney has written an engaging biography of pioneering forensic ornithologist Roxie Laybourne. Working at the Smithsonian and the US Fish & Wildlife, she used her expertise in microscopic analysis of feathers to improve airplane safety, catch poachers, and convict kidnappers. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Starting with the Sashing

Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of the man who can fabricate it.

~Hannah Arendt

Quilting

Determined that those discarded yellow sashing pieces from the previous top are NOT going into the scrap bag. I decided to make a simple baby quilt. The sashing is very pale. In addition to soft yellow, it has pale pink and tan. 

I pulled what I had and it wasn't much. Most of the pale pinks were only 1/8 yard cuts; too narrow for the centers. So they are the triangles while the centers are tan.

Now there are two more quilt tops in the queue. I need to take a break and quilt them up.

Variable Star baby quilt top

The star points are simply flying geese so I tried a new-to-me way. Four-at-a-time flying geese. Here are a few explanations of the technique. 

While it was very easy, accurate seam allowances are essential. Mine were a smidge too wide and the geese ended up 1/8" short. Grr.

My friend, Sue Bianchi, has created a timely and engaging quilt that compares the level of concern each US state takes in the care of their residents. She's written an explanation on her blog. I hope to see this art piece soon.

Reading

Sangu Mandanna has a new book about witches. Sera Swan was one of the most powerful witches in Britain until she raised her beloved great-aunt from the dead after a heart attack. Now she runs an inn with barely enough magic to keep previous housekeeping spells going dreaming of getting her full power back.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Pink Cross Baby Quilt

We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quilting

I have a shoe box of four-patch blocks that I've been making as leader/enders recently and also saw someone is starting a four-patch challenge or QAL. That motivated me to pull it out and organize them. Currently there are over 200. Many are three-inch but some are four-inch blocks. And I need another baby quilt. What to do? 

There are some bright pinks in my stash so I decided to make a Red Cross block. Here it is laid out with a choice of Kona Snow or light yellow print sashing. No brainer for me: Kona. {I made that brilliant decision after cutting the yellow. At least it's ready for a second baby quilt}

Two sashing choices

They are eight-inch blocks making the top close to forty inches. A simple border will keep it baby-sized.  Here are my choices. I planned to use one of the pinkier pinks and post them with blue but the purply-pink on the left popped the blocks better. It's enough darker that a blue post doesn't look right. 

Border choices

The border fabric is about 43" wide and is cut WOF. If I'd sewed the borders the "regular" way like Courthouse Steps, there wouldn't be enough. So again, I sewed partial seams. Each border needs only the inner width and one side. Just enough to work. 

Pink Cross baby quilt 

Perhaps it should be called Pink Cross instead. 

Meanwhile eight monarch caterpillars have started to pupate. Good thing; there's no milkweed left. I'm giving them cucumbers but while the older ones seem to be eating it, the smaller ones aren't. Who knows if any of them will make it? 

Monarchs pupating

Even these will be lucky to survive after molting. I plan to get some flowering plants since very little remains in the garden and another hard freeze is predicted this weekend. {My begonias may bloom because I covered them.}

Reading

Tim Cook passed away last year, one of Canada's most prominent and respected military historians. Although much of his work focused on WWI, he wrote an excellent book on the efforts of Canada and the US fighting fascism - The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism During the Second World War.

Canada entered WWII years before the US and worked tirelessly to protect the North American continent from invasion as well as supporting Britain in their darkest hours. 

The Good Allies by Tim Cook

It was enlightening and educational to read history from the Canadian view. 

This week I also rewatched Argo about the Iranian hostage crisis. Remember the signs we had thanking Canada? How sad that we allow one person to destroy in one day a mutually benefical relationship developed over 100 years.  

The book on which the movie is based more truthfully records Canadian efforts and the escape via plane. The movie has to have an exciting escape scene at the end that did not happen. It also downplays Canadian work despite the risks. That goodness they have strong moral character. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

End of a Quilting Blockage... Maybe

Serve the people at the bottom. The people at the top don't need your help.

~Yuri Kochiyama

Quilting

I lost my quilting mojo this fall somewhere between family and medical. I've been looking through old sketchbooks, rereading books about quilt blocks without interest. Finally, reviewing old photos struck a spark. 

Anna Maria (Horner) Perry designs gorgeous fabrics and had an exhibit at Quilt Festival a few years ago. The quilts highlighted her then new fabric line {remember those coneflower prints?} and several intrigued me. I saw simple blocks, large shapes to utilize large scale prints, and of course, beautiful appliqué. 

Many of her patterns are for sale but I chose to start with one that isn't - a mix of courthouse step log cabins, dresden plates, and appliqué.  After analyzing it I began simplifying because the idea is to look at my stash in a new way. 

Eventually I realized the log cabins are HSTs with a dark and light side arranged into furrows. We all already know that; I just forgot. Ok. I don't need to make lots of logs. Good thing because my strings are depleted after the previous forays. With the blocks on point, there are five "rounds" of color. So I pulled a few sets to see what that might look like. 

Possible color palettes

I thought it was time to start pulling more fabric for each section when another epiphany struck. Those furrows are simply rounds for a medallion. I don't need to make log cabins or even HSTs. I can just cut wide strips. A new fabric pull is needed and here it is.

The outer border of fish was a no brainer. That established the center circle print which has exactly the same colors. The light blue and yellow vary the value and print scale but which print for the darkest round?

I chose the one on the right but when it was ready to cut, there was too much brown {that didn't show in this view.} So the print at the top was used instead. And here is a very, very, very simple baby quilt ready to baste. Bright colors for a gloomy week. How good to be back to sewing!

Practially everyone else in North America is suffering under a winter storm. It is expected to arrive here soon and bring a hard freeze. {I know. Nothing like the terrible temperatures elsewhere.} Covering my plants I found monarch caterpillars. Fifteen or twenty on a few remaining milkweed. Neither will survive a freeze. The milkweed only made it because it's been so warm here this fall {and I forgot to cut it back to encourage the monarchs to keep moving.}

Monarch caterpillars on milkweed

DH found a cage online which we set up. It may need more twigs on the bottom. 

Now daily cage cleaning  adversely impacts sewing time. They are fun to watch and worry about. IF they survive, they'll need nectar just when all my plants will have died. 

In the meanwhile, The Texas Butterfly Ranch suggests cucumbers or pumpkin for fifth instar caterpillars. I'll be trying that when the milkweed runs out. And those guys ate most of the milkweed before I brought them inside.

Stay warm and safe. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

String Hatchet Quilt Finished

Give people what they need: food, medicine, clean air, pure water, trees and grass, pleasant homes to live in, some hours of work, more hours for leisure. Don't ask who deserves it. Every human being deserves it.

~Howard Zinn

Quilting

After a long break, this string Hatchet quilt is finished. I didn't want straight lines on this quilt nor a motif in the central squares. Eventually I chose quarter circle expanding ripples. Straight lines or even free-motion quilting would have been much easier. 

Many thanks to Patty and Gayle who donated green fabrics when I ran low. What a surprise to receive those packages in the mail. The alien-over-crossed-scissors strip came from Patty. The binding came from Gayle. Lovely {and permanent} memories can be included in quilts. 

The back was purchased online for a summer dress. When it arrived, it looked nothing like the online photo so it's been sitting in a box for several years. Not quite the same tones but it does include both pink and green. 

Here's a detail of the quilting. I started by making an arc 30 inches from the corner then quilted on both sides. It seems to make an easier progression.

The background fabric has also been in my stash for years. More than I care to remember. But it's delightfully showcased in this quilt. The original plan was to make the centers from a single square each but.... Each half hatchet was paper pieced and those papers grew over time. It was much, much easier to sew accurate HSTs to the sides and trim the Hatchets than the reverse. Occasionally I'm smarter in my old age. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 64" x 80"

Quilt Design: Hatchet variation with strings

Batting: Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon Cotton

Thread: pink Superior Masterpiece

Quilting: Quarter circle with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 9-10 yds 

Previous posts: 

1. Beginning

2. Sewing Hatchets

3. Finished Top

PS: I recently read about Happy Noon Year celebrations. That's how we're doing it. A lovely lunch in daylight and bed just after sundown.

 

Happy New Year!

Ann

Second Shirt Quilt Finish

Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in our hearts.

~A. A. Milne

Quilting

The second shirt quit is also finished and gifted.  Quilting is fairly minimal - stitch in the ditch with a few parallel lines extending from the solid patches. I hope the quilt will be a soft, puffy comforter for its new family.  

Somehow I had a remnant juvenile winter fabric with rows forest animals in hats. Just enough for the back, the blues blend with the front and hopefully please the children receiving this quilt. Hooray. 

The binding is more shirt fabrics. Easy and done. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 48” x 60”

Quilt Design: Unnamed

Batting: Hobbs 80/20 

Thread: Blue cotton Superior Masterpiece 

Quilting: Straight line walking foot

Approximate yardage: 7 yds

I’ve been visiting family in Colorado where we’ve seen deer, elk, and sheep as well as birds including Stellar jays, hawks, swans, and ducks. Sparrows, finches, and magpies appear outside my window daily feasting on the remaining flower head seeds. It’s a joy to watch the final stage of autumn, one of my favorite seasons. A few bright gold trees shine in acres of spruce and bare-limbed deciduous trees.

Reading:

Nana, a stray adopted by Saturo, lives with him until the young man suddenly decides he can no longer take care of him. They take a road trip to visit three old friends as Saturo hopes to find him the perfect new home. Told mainly from the cat’s perspective, the true reason behind the trip is slowly revealed with flashbacks from the friends. Themes of love and home make this book bittersweet. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

A Shirt Quilt Finish

 Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.

~E.B. White

Quilting

This one-block shirt quilt is finished and in the mail. First it was SID length- and width-wise, then additional lines subdivided the lengths into 1-inch columns. That should keep seams from fraying while also allowing the batting to fluff up. It's going to New England and they wanted a warmer throw.

Oddly, there aren't many grey-blues in my stash so other than these old shirts, I didn't have anything for a back. Eventually I pulled this blue with canoes. It's not enough so I chose to frame it with a green value she likes. {That green is in one of the canoe colors, too.} Not perfect but it will work. 

Same problem for the binding until I realized I could use more shirt fabric. That's what I did. It should last as long as the top itself. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 52"x72"

Quilt design: One block

Batting: Hobbs 80/20 

Thread: Blue Superior Masterpiece

Quilting: Straight lines with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 7.5 yds

Ann

Yet Another Shirt Quilt Top

Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it. 

~Aubrey de Graf

Quilting

I subcut the next set of 4.5" strips into 8.5" rectangles. There are also lots of 2.5" squares leftover from the first top. I didn't want to make triangles again so decided to make small four-patches. 

The shirt rectangles are sewn around it with a partial seam for the first side. Very easy to do. I've used that method on several quilts including Flying Squares and the outer border of a Melon Patch. It's a used technique to remember. 

Originally I cut all my darkest purple shot cotton for centers thinking the mediums and lights needed some dark values. Wrong-o. It's too much. 

So I replaced half of them. Now there are still more leftovers for another top... and a bunch of white shirts, too. 

By the way, here's my first idea for these pieces. It looks a bit like a rail fence but it didn't make me happy so I moved things around. {See the quote at the top of this post.} Perhaps it's finally internalizing.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Using More Blue and White Shirts

Kind words cost little but they accomplish much.

~Blaise Pascal

Quilting

If you know me, you know there are still lots of strips cut. Way too many. After deboning the shirts and cutting some into smaller pieces than were easy to use, I sliced the rest into 4.5" strips. When the previous top worked out, I went looking for another idea with easy {larger} pieces. There's a pattern from 1942 called A Red and White Crisscross that looks like an X that I simplified. First, this X is made of two squares and a rectangle. Second, it's not a single block anymore. All the whites are squares, too. This meant I had to lay everything out to line up the fabric correctly but that's much easier than sewing eight triangles around each X. 

The blue shirt strips were subcut into 12.5" and and 4.5" units while the white strips were cut into 4.5" squares and 7.25" squares. The larger ones were subcut into QSTs for the border.  

With the Xs as a guide, I added white squares as needed to sew the diagonal rows. 

I simply eyeballed the final rows by lining up the sewn line with the squares below. Of course, you could measure everything if you preferred. Haha. 

There were enough of these pieces to make a second, slightly smaller top, too. At least one of these will become a donation when the weather cools enough to think about quilting. 

They were fast and easy. Fewer seams means less fraying of these vintage fabrics. 

Enjoy the day, Ann