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

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

Blue Hatchets Quilted

The constant happiness is curiosity

~Alice Munro

Quilting

Straight lines with the walking foot are one of my go-to quilting designs. They are relaxing, quick, and easy. There is something meditative about repeatedly halving the distance between previous lines. It makes a good time to think.

I moved the darkest set of hatchets to the center and divided the swans and goldenrod into two rows each.

 

Blue Hatchet  quilt 4

When some friends and I made a trip to Berkeley for Freddy Moran's Face the Year exhibit, we stopped by Stonemountain where I  purchased the back for a "future quilt." The day has arrived. It works perfectly with these hatchets and there was just enough leftover for the binding.

Front and back of Blue Hatchet quilt

Don't you love it when things work out so well? It's a good change from being a smidge too small... or yards leftover.

Blue hatchet quilt folded

This was supposed to restart my baby quilt stash but within a couple of days was needed for one of DH's co-workers. Actually, I love sending them to their forever home so quickly. While everything is fresh and new. So a sweet baby boy slumbers on it. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 38" x 38"

Design: Hatchet

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton

Thread: Metler light blue cotton thread

Quilting: Walking foot parallel lines

Approximate yardage: 5.625 yds

Previous post: Laying out the blocks 

Reading

Somehow I haven't read Laurie King for a while but just picked up the next in her Mary Russell series, A Letter of Mary.  Archeologist Dorothy Ruskin visits Mary and her husband, Sherlock Holmes leaving them with an old manuscript concerning Mary Magdalene. When Dorothy is killed soon after, Mary and Sherlock question, murder or accident?

Monthly FUR (Fabric Use Rate) 

March came in like a lion. Two baby quilts and napkins used 15.875 yards this month. YTD = 17.875 yards.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Reprise with Blue

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, 

and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

~Marilyn Monroe

Quilting

It felt good to clear out some of the older yellows and greens. Now another baby quilt will be needed and the blues could use a combing through. Except for the clear blue with swans, these are all soft blues with a grey undertone. The swan fabric is also light blue although much more clear but the swans and their white shape relate to the cranes on the left and the white leaves on the right. Plus, they fill out the 64 blocks needed for this quilt. Ha. 

Now they just need to be blended in a bit better. BTW, it was late when I took this photo so the colors are off.

Blue Hatchet quilt blocks

The next day was spent rearranging blocks until settling on this arrangement. The two fabrics that had the most blocks are separated into two columns and the darkest blue is moved to the center. Everything looks better when the seam allowances disappear.

Hatchet 4 blue baby quilt top

Pulling fabric for the back meant a short search through the stash. It's getting lower which is good for me. My plan is to use up the fabrics that are more than ten years old... or to donate them. Of course, some will be kept because they could make a special part... such an a flower center or an eye or a wing. More pictorial quilts are brewing in my mind but I need to clear some space in the workroom before they can come to the fore.

Reading

At a New York City nightclub Clary witnesses three teenagers murder another. Then the body vanishes and no one else saw anything. Cassandra Clare based her YA Mortal Instruments series on the thought that "all the stories are true." Angels, demons, werewolves, vampires, fairies. Clary's take on everything is unexpected - both by the other characters and by the reader.  I'm looking forward to more of these and I'm way behind.

Enjoy the day, Ann

A Third Hatchet Quilt Gifted

Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.

~Unknown

Quilting

All the blocks were made and trimmed traditionally but there was no plan for the layout. As last week's post showed, I worked through all the variations I could think of... and ended with this well-regulated arrangement. The value changes were just too great between the yellows and greens otherwise.

The quilting is my usual/common organic lines with a walking foot. I start by SID the main seams, then come back and halve that distance. And then the halving is repeated until the distance looks good or I'm tired of quilting. Simple. And it works.

Yellow and green hatchet quilt

This interesting fabric printed with hexagons has been waiting in my stash for several years. While the aqua is not on the front, the background is yellows, tans, and odd greens that blend well with the front. 

Yellow and green Hatchet quilt with view of back

The mother likes yellow. A lot. This is the last in my stash... although there are more cut squares squirreled away. 

As soon as it was washed the quilt went into the mail to be there for her new son. It arrived just before he did. Good enough.

Quilt Specifics

Size: 38" x 43"

Design: Hatchet

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton

Thread: Metler green cotton thread

Quilting: Walking foot parallel lines

Approximate yardage: 6 yds

Previous post: Choosing the layout.

Reading

This is the first of four Wayfarers books by Becky Chambers who started writing in the evening after her paying gig. When she lost that job she raised money to finish this book on Kickstarter. 

A young human joins the Wayfarer as a clerk. The old ship drills wormholes between distant galaxies and has a multi-species crew. They are asked to drill a new path to a new planet inhabited by a violent species which also has a rich energy source nearby.

This unique story doesn't cover bloody insurrections. Instead it tells backstories of the various crew and their evolving relationships. Very enjoyable and I look forward to the next in this series. {I'm late to the party but I'll space them out a bit.}

Enjoy the day, Ann

Hatcheting More Scraps

There is a strong strain of individualism and risk-taking in Texas. We'll do what we want to now and worry about the future later. 

This is a case in which the future blew in and hit the whole state.

H.W. Brands, historian at UT Austin

Personally I made it through the winter storm in Houston with no broken pipes but turned off the water all week. And I have lots of quilts. ;-) There were so many on the bed to stay warm, I couldn't move once I got in. By Sunday many were wearing shorts.  

It shouldn't have been this bad; however, our legislature never required power plants to winterize so many chose not to despite similar problems with storms in 1997 and 2011. Most of Texas' energy comes from natural gas and almost half went offline Sunday and Monday; however, several state legislators blame renewable energy that only provides about 10% of our power. Wind turbines in colder northern states {that were properly winterized} did not freeze. 

Mayor Turner led us through Hurricane Harvey, the Covid pandemic, and now winter storm Uri. He and his staff worked all week to open warming stations and distribute food and water. What a good example they set by continuing to do their jobs in difficult circumstances.

Quilting

Funny how this works. My Hatchet blocks inspired Wanda to make her own version. The quiet beauty of her quilt inspired me to try a new quilt with a limited color palette: yellow and green. It was an easy pull because the fabrics are in a pile on the floor. They either needed to be sewed quickly or packed. 

Part of the reason Wanda's quilt looks so good is the uniform quiet background she used. I don't have enough of any cream right now {and I'm still in "use it up" mode} but I found a small collection of quieter prints that work with these light colors. 

In addition to the backgrounds, there are eight greens and two yellows for the ribbons. Halfway through sewing it's obvious they aren't working as ribbons.  

The next idea was a "wave" through the fabrics but this layout looks worse if that's possible. The abrupt line between yellow and green looks more like a shoreline.

The most common layout of Hatchets is the X. I thought about alternating yellow and green Xs but {of course} they aren't evenly distributed. So they need an arrangement that disguises that fact. Starting with a yellow X, I surrounded it with some green and then offset the next yellow X. Suddenly an idea appeared. 

If you know me, you know I will end up with some mathematical solution. Something's a bit off here.

But a couple of minor changes on the bottom rows settled that.

With the design laid out on the wall it was easy to sew up. 

The plan is to gift this as a toddler quilt. The recipient's mother loves yellow and I think these old-fashioned fabrics will suit her well. 

Reading

When Nora deliberately overdoses she arrives at The Midnight Library, a sort of way station between life and death. Each book is a parallel life based on every different decision she could have made. Infinitely many books. Mrs. Elm, her former school librarian and current librarian here, directs her to look at her regrets and see how the other path turns out. But other people don't stay the same so some books lead to wildly different relationships with people in her life. 

I enjoyed Matt's idea that "the road not taken" isn't always smooth and perfect.

Monthly FUR (Fabric Use Rate) 

Although Hatchet 3 and Shadow Star are finally complete tops, there were no actual finishes in February. YTD = 2 yards.

Enjoy the day, Ann

More Hatcheting

Every test in our life makes us bitter or better, every problem comes to break us or make us. The choice is ours whether we become a victim or victor.

~Lorenzo Dozier

Quilting

Following my usual plan, I made so many of these blocks there's enough for a second quilt. This one  had even more iterations because they blocks had been culled once for the previous Hatchet quilt. First the blocks were laid in the order they were sewn.

Hatchet 2 baby quilt original blocks

At first I regrouped some streamers and removed the light blue ones on the right.

Regrouping the Hatchet blocks

Next I switched short blue and yellow streamers.

Then took out four beige blocks to add yellow and moved the light green to the right. I thought this was it but the digital camera revealed a less than attractive center line dividing left and right, dark and {mostly} light.

Still more adjustments to the Hatchet blocks

Tweaking the coral and green streamers resolved that issue.

Hatchet 2 scrap quilt

Having a few extra blocks made this possible. While not perfect I'm only using the scraps on hand, not going into the stash for more. Babies will like these graphic designs and I like clearing some space in my workroom.

Again the extra/discarded blocks make up part of the back. It always amazes me how well they work with each other and with the main backing choice.

Hatchet 2 scrap quilt back

Parallel quilting lines, of course. The binding is a really bright carnival stripe.

Hatchet 2 scrap quilt detail

Quilt Specifics

Size: 45" x 45"

Design: Hatchet or Signature block

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton

Thread: Superior 50 wt grey cotton thread

Quilting: Parallel lines with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.625 yds

Of course I saved the waste triangles. And sewed them up, too. I'm that crazy. They will wait in the HST box until needed for a border.

Waste triangles sewn into small HSTs

The next troll through the scrap bag pulled strips 2.5" or more to cut into squares for a future Trip Around the World quilt.

Squares for a Trip Around the World

A week's work ended with another baby quilt as well as additions to the Parts Department. Now there are just narrow strings ready for my next project which should start next week.

There was even time to sew a few more pillowcases, too. These are more enjoyable than expected. They are useful, look pretty, and use fabric that had become stuck in my stash.

Reading

Just in time for an online discussion, I found the History book club through MFAH which meets quarterly. Usually they gather at Bayou Bend or Reinzi but with the stay -at-home order they set up online, at least this time. And guess what? The book was Bill Bryson's At Home! So of course, I joined in. There's a list of previous discussion books here.


Monthly FUR (Fabric Use Rate) 
Nineteen pillowcases, six totes, and two quilts used 41.25 yards for May. Tracking my usage is salutary or at least, educational. YTD = 103.75 yards.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Taking a Hatchet to my Scraps

"The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving."

~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Quilting

It's way past time to use up my remnants and scraps. I used the largest to make a simple four-patch called Hatchet that is often seen as a signature block. In fact, I used the block for my first guild name tag. My rule was that each fabric had to make between two and seven center squares cut 5.5" each with pairs of 3" cut squares for the triangle sides. Five inches is fairly wide for the scrap bag but I grabbed bits from previous projects that are less than a fat quarter and remnants from clothing construction. After marking the diagonal I sewed that line and cut off the extra.

Hatchet blocks sewn but not pressed

By the end of the week I had enough blocks for two tops which finished the widest pieces in the scrap bag. One of Fern Royce's scrap quilts reminded me of the ribbon border on my Strippy Nine Patch. A celebratory quilt of streamers seemed like the perfect plan.

Here's the original layout.

Hatchet baby quilt 1

Designs can be tightened by moving the blocks. Extra blocks are so helpful I usually sew enough for a second quilt. {Baby quilts are great for this purpose.} The finished quilt has streamers of red, blue and light green replacing a cream streamer and some darker streamers.

Hatchet 1 scrap quilt

The back of the quilt includes leftover blocks. These were duller blocks that were pulled from the front. They look well with this funny pink fabric.

Hatchet 1 baby quilt back

I used simple parallel quilting lines, one of my favorite ways to quilt. The binding is a yellowish fabric with green polka dots. That creamy yellow matches the plaid in the pink fabric.

Hatchet 1 baby quilt detail of quilting and binding

Quilt Specifics

Size: 45" x 45"

Design: Hatchet or Signature block

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton

Thread: Superior 50 wt grey cotton thread

Quilting: Parallel lines with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.625 yds

Reading

Still at home ourselves, Bill Bryson's book of the same name caught my eye. His premise was that every room in his Victorian Yorkshire parsonage could springboard to the history of domesticity along with the scientific inventions and etymology that define our current way of living. He sets the stage with the year his home was built, using it to discuss the Crystal Palace and the appointment of clergy in the Church of England.

Starting with the hall, which used to be the entire house, Bill discusses how each developed. The addition of fireplaces allowed floors to be built above the ground and promoted the idea of privacy. The kitchen explores gastronomy, nutrition, and the Spice Trade. The scullery leads to the fuse box which leads to a discussion of lighting - one of the points that interested me most. The refrigerator light is stronger than the total amount in most 18th century homes. Those pictures of families working a a table lit by one candle illuminate the utter darkness of night for most of history.

Of course, hygiene is discussed in the bathroom while sex, death and sleep inhabit the bedroom. The study reminds him of the mice, rats, bats, lice, bedbugs, and the many microbes that live on our bodies and in our homes. Why? Because that's the room where they catch most of their mice. Darwin, and the destruction of country homes, and the sale of parsonages by the church conclude the book in the attic where are the ephemera of past glories go to die.

This was an excellent reading choice for self-isolation or any other time.

Enjoy the day, Ann