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

Blue and White Shirts

A pessimist, they say, sees a glass as being half empty; an optimist sees the same glass as half full. But a giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty.

~G. Donald Gale

Quilting

I started my blue and white shirt quilt saga years ago before DH himself retired. Whenever he retired a shirt, I checked it over and kept it if it was in good shape. I soon realized they are almost all blue or white. All solids or very calm prints. Recently more came from my sons and a few from a resale store nearby. Despite admiring Kaja's work incorporating shirts and other found textiles into her work, I never actually made anything with them.  

Eventually I planned a simple checkerboard. Unfortunately I chose the lightest blue shirt to pair with white. It's just too pale for my taste. And too difficult to sew the fabric.  

Instead of making a large throw it will be a baby quilt and that's only because I hate to discard all that work. Plus someone will like these pale colors for a newborn. 

Did I mention how hard it was for me to work with these no-iron shirts? Since I had already deboned a huge pile of shirts I decided to cut them into 4.5" strips. That seemed narrow enough for the fabric. And there they've sat for the past year until Nann showed her Gator Party. 

This was a way to use them. I cut my own rectangles from the strips. 

They are still too quiet so I dug through my stash for a few large scale blue and white prints that might be a man's shirt. Polka dot, autos, and a darling Japanese rabbit print. 

Next I pulled a bunch of leftover solids from my bins to add teeth, and whipped this out. It's adorable. The solids add some punch. My daughter requested the throw. Hooray. But I won't start quilting until the weather changes. It's still in the upper 90s F (mid-30s C) here. 

Now to plan backs for both, baste them, and wait for cooler weather. 

There are more strips, of course, but now I have another idea. 

 Reading

Another enjoyable Japanese coffee shop book. This shop is run by cats and only appears sporadically. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

String Hatchet Top Finished... Perhaps

I wanted a perfect ending. 

Now I've learned, the hard way, 

that some poems don't rhyme, 

and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking a moment 

and making the most of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.

~Gilda Radner

Quilting

This top has taken a long time... partly {or mostly} because I've been gone so frequently this summer. However, it's finally done... perhaps. I think I'd like a border of random green scraps and a second border of lights but there's no more of this light. There was just enough background fabric to eke out the narrow border. 

String Hatchet quilt top

While I was inspired by my boring, dull leftover strings and my previous Hatchet quilts to make this, last week I found a photo of Sue Fox's quilt. My goodness, they look similar. Like Kaja at Sew Slowly, Sue makes many quilts with found and recycled fabrics - something I want to try. That's how I found her. 

It's always fun to see other people doing similar work. I don't feel so odd.

Speaking of recycled fabrics, I’ve been saving family shirts for years. Husband, sons, and occasionally purchased at the resale store. Almost all are blue and white. Recently Nann made a quilt using similar shirts and I decided it’s time to put mine to work, too. Several quilt blocks are running through my mind but one will look like hers. So cute and… I have loads of solid scraps, too. Perhaps this will use both up. 

Deconstruction occurs nightly during the news. It’s taking much longer than expected. 

Reading

Sara flies from Sweden to visit her pen pal Amy but arrives in Iowa the day of her funeral. The residents of Broken Wheel insist she stay at Amy’s house for the remainder of her vacation. Then she opens a bookstore to connect people with some of their favorite books. 

I wasn’t sure I’d like this but found it charming.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Work on Hatchet Blocks Continues... Slowly

Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people  - people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.

~E.B. White

Quilting

No more green scraps in my bag so I switched to tans. At first they looked good but as more have been added, the excitement of the quilt is dimming. 

My dear friend, Gayle, gave me some of hers and I found several new greens on a shopping trip. But there's still too many tans. 

Out of the blue, Patty sent a box of her scraps which I immediately trawled for greens. I'm switching out some of the tans {so the sets are part tan and part green} but after a while I've just removed the duller blocks and replaced them completely with green.  Eventually I decided the beige carpet might be the problem so I cut background triangles. The background is an abstract print of pink, grey, and white. Its value is similar to the carpet but the difference in color livens the quilt. 

Here are some of the discarded blocks. Funny how these brighter darks work well with the tans. Perhaps the contrast of bright and dull. I'm making plans for a second quilt to expand this idea. 

Meanwhile, I've been creating seed starters from toilet paper rolls for our VBS. The children will fill them with potting soil and seeds, then water and watch for the week. I make these for seeds in my own garden as the edges help distinguish planted seeds from weeks. They aren't difficult but about 250 will be needed. My hands are hurting. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Melon Patch Baby Quilt Finished

You cannot follow both Christ and the cruelty of kings. A leader who mocks the weak, exalts himself, and preys on the innocent is not sent by God. 

He is set to test you. And many are failing.

~Pope Leo XIV

Quilting

That was quick. It's done - quilted, washed, dried, and ready to gift. All while we took a couple of {short} vacations. Of course I quilted a spiral. By now it's easy and it matches the rounded feel of the Melon Patch blocks. 

In keeping with the "use it up" mentality I used the last of the plaid on the back. As usual it was needed to widen the WOF fabric used for the back. There might have been enough plaid to make both stripes but it might have needed some of the outer border trimmed from the front. So, an extension was wanted. I like it. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 45" x 45"

Quilt design: Snowball or Melon Patch

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton

Thread: blue Superior Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: Spiral with a walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5 yards

One of our vacations was a trip to San Francisco to visit friends, watch the Giants, eat great seafood, and walk the city. The California Academy of Arts has a sphere enclosing a rainforest that you view by walking up a spiral ramp. Fish, parrots, and butterflies. Small terrariums had even more animals. 

Walking to dinner we finally saw the parrots of San Francisco. These bright green conores have red heads and loud squawks. There must have been thirty having a raucous meeting. We watched them for half an hour and they never let up. 

When we returned to Houston we went to an exhibit on the craftsmen heading the restoration of Notre-Dame at the Julia Idelson building. Although a small exhibit, it was quite interesting. Among other things, they highlighted finding examples of the original carpentry tools and the blacksmiths who recreated them. There were many artifacts but also lots of video interviews which are also on YouTube in French with English subtitles.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Orphan Melon Patches

We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

~James Baldwin

Quilting

I just pulled those string blocks from my orphan stash when I found nine Melon Patches under some fabric on the table. They are not going to a box; they will make a quick baby quilt. There was loads of cream background which I managed to cut incorrectly. Eventually there was just enough to make this...with a bunch of triangles going to another box. Sheesh.

There wasn't more light fabric that worked which meant I pulled out the blue fabric box. I looked for a navy. They either were wrong or didn't have enough yardage. But this mottled batik seems good. 

The inner border was an after thought. It was only going to have one border but...

the plaid was on a stack for the guild giveaway table when it fell on the top. Who'd have thought it would work? Not me. 

Without much consideration I sewed a quick border... and introduced a new problem. The quilt is just a bit too wide for the outer border to be one width of fabric. There's only a half yard. If you look carefully you'll see my usual solution. 

I sewed the outer border with a partial seam. That meant each side length could be lessened by one outer border width. Just enough to fit. Hooray. 

If I'd really been thinking, I'd have done the same with the inner border so they would pair better visually. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

A New String Quilt Idea

The first casualty of war is the truth.

~Aeschylus

Quilting

Since I've made so many Four-letter-word quilts, I'm down to pretty dull and dark colors in my scrap bag: black, brown, greens, with a few purples and reds. I've been wondering what to make with these when I was reminded of the Hatchet blocks. What if the blocks were made of strings and split between light and dark sides?

These first pieces were made last summer but I found them in the orphan box. 

They look well on the pink and grey print background. Time to make some more. Now it’s hard to find dull strings in my scrap bag. 

Eventually I pushed into dark/bright purples. Those two in the top left are too bright. For one I added some duller strips but simply deleted the other. 

When I completely ran out of greens, I added light browns and tan. They look okay but the green is better. A small shopping trip is in order so this is turning into a longer term project.

At some point the background pieces must be cut so I'll know how large I can make this quilt... Hopefully, lap size. 

While my family’s visiting, we saw the new Pixar movie, Elio. What a treat! Hopefully you can find time to see it, too.

Reading

Max documents several groups efforts to stop the Holocaust including Orthodox Jews in Switzerland. 

Enjoy the day, Ann