Appliqué Pillow with Family Fabrics

Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.

~Francois de la Rochefoucauld

The previous appliqué pillow was such a success I had to make another one just for me. As usual there are enough leftovers for two or three more collages but this time I also cut into some fabric inherited from my mother. The largest part is the rose near the top middle. What a wonderful reminder of my family. 

Here are several shots as I moved pieces around. Funny how deliberately deleting the neon flowers softens the bouquet. There are several, including the sunflower, in the previous collage. OTOH, the white hydrangea was too stark but placing some pink lupine {?} over it impoves the arrangement.

This was the final layout. Now to topstitch.

The stitching is cadet blue thread instead of black. It seems to work better with all these other blues {although the pillow is going on the living room sofa.} 

Floral appliqué pillow

Enjoy the day, Ann

Green Bow Tie Baby Quilt Finished and Gifted

Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful, and optimistic. And we'll change the world.

~Jack Layton

Quilting

Bow Tie was one of my earliest scrap quilts. The 3D version interested me enough to want to reprise the block and finally I did. Fortunately this is a baby quilt because I didn't enjoy the process as much as I hoped. The blocks started easily enough but the last seams were tricky - straight but almost sewed as if they were curved.

3D Bow Tie baby quilt

The quilting was another quandary. Keeping the center (3D) part unquilted so it maintains its dimensionality means no spiral quilting. I could simply meander but somehow got the idea to zigzag on the ties. It took time and planning. The planning is especially difficult because my brain seems slower.

Dimentional center of bow tie

I considered green and white thread, together and individually. My sister recommended green only; glad I listened to her. Because the background fabrics are loud black and whites, the green is actually subdued. A bit anyway. 

It also meant fewer thread changes and thread burials. Some people stitch in place at the start and stops but I've always buried the threads, too. I don't want them to come undone after all the work of a quilt.

Back of 3D Bow Tie baby quitl

The back is a yard of cream Grunge fabric. It was the right length and width. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 39" x 39"

Block: 3D Bow Tie

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Grassias (green) Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: Meander and zigzag FMQ

Approximate yardage: 5 yds

Enjoy the day, Ann

Pink Cross Baby Quilt Finished

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but we often look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

~Helen Keller

Quilting

Another quilt top finished. Pink Cross started with lots of leftover squares in the scrap box. Then I pulled out all my pinks. There weren't as many as expected. It's lively and fun. 

Pink Cross baby quilt

The back is coral and white yardage. It was hard to use it because there's actually three yards and this quilt just used half of it. More for another project. 

Pink Cross baby quilt back

Spiral quilting, of course. By this time it's the easiest thing for me to do.

Quilt Specifics

Size: 43" x 43"

Block: Red Cross

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Peony (pink) Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: Spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5 yds

Enjoy the day, Ann

Medallion Quilt Finished and Gifted

Seventy is when your body gives your brain a list of things it's not going to do anymore.

~Unknown

I'm there. Ah, well. Still recovering; the doctor says it will take several months. 

This top was made in January. I'm glad to have several tops to finish. Since they are small they don't take much effort to work on and I can break the time into very small pieces. 

The usual spiral quilting that coordinates with the center. 

When a LQS closed a few years ago I purchased many 1.5 yard cuts to fit the backs of baby quilts. Often they need an addition/insert to fill out the width like here. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 41" x 41"

Block: None; Medallion

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Tiger Lily (orange) Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: Spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 4 yds

Friends of my youngest son are having babies now so these quilts are gifted as quickly as they are finished. Can you tell the dad is a fisherman?

Enjoy the day, Ann

Quick Appliqué Pillow

Do not complain about growing old. It is a privilege denied to many.

~Mark Twain

Not complaining but I caught something this summer and am still not well. However, I did finally finish an appliqué pillow. 

I began in June cutting out bits of almost every floral in my stash - whether it went together or not. Then overlapped on a piece of background fabric and loosely sewn in place and finally topstitched. {There was quite a lag between the start and finish though.} The photo on the left is when it was pinned while the right shows the difference using black thread for heavy topstitching. Many of the colors are quite different, aren't they?

No fusible. Everything is raw-edged. And here's the pillow on the daybed. It will be a Christmas present.

At least something is done. I'm way behind on everything from quilting to presents to letters. And exhausted but determined to keep improving.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Red Cross Quilt in Progress

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

~Mark Twain

Quilting

The box of four-patch blocks is still stuffed so I'm making Red Cross as a lap quilt for myself. The crosses are a mix of exuberant Kaffe prints and quiet monochromatic traditional prints. Setting a few four-patches and leftover squares so check values. Good to go.

Red Cross layout

Several four-patches were larger than the others, four- or five-inch finished. A speaker at our guild last year cut the “pluses” more narrowly instead of reducing the four-patch sizes so I reprised her idea. Do you see them? I think they add interest. 

Red Cross top without border

Now to plan a border.

Reading

Ms. Evans has written an engaging novel about a woman who writes letters daily to everyone - family, friends, authors, and one person whose letters she never mails. It reminded me of Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road. One of my book clubs will be reading this in the fall. Hooray.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Green Bow Ties

What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.

~Colette

We traveled across the eastern US this spring for a delightful family wedding. So good to see the next generations growing up, becoming responsible and still fun! Then a second trip to the west coast. Wow. Now we are home resting up… in the heat. But lovely memories of people and places. 

Quilting

There were extra fabric squares from the Fireworks quilt. Loads of them, of course. I’d cut extra black-and-white squares and many green squares that hadn’t been used at all. Here they are resting in the scrap bag. So what else can I make?

I’ve always wanted to try the three-dimensional bow tie pattern. These squares cut into four pieces are a good size. Here’s my first layout…

And here’s what I finally chose. Moving the blocks into circular shapes changed the way they should be blended.

Bow tie seems to take two light and two dark squares. The center of the tie “sticks up” a bit because it is made from a third dark square. Sewing was a bit tricky as the block progressed. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

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 of 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 led 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, zigzagged 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