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

Blue Melon Patch Quilt Gifted

What makes a movement Fascist is not ideology but the willingness to do whatever is necessary - including the use of force and trampling on the rights of others - to achieve victory and command obedience.

~Madeleine Albright

Quilting

Quilted, washed, dried, and gifted. Melon Patch looks very traditional. The corner octagons give the overall quilt a bit of curve. I considered a pieced border but know this quilt will be tucked in on the sides so chose an easier plan. 

Diagonal lines with a walking foot make the quilting in the center. I started with SID along the Melon Patches then infilled with parallel lines.

And eventually finished by quilting midway through the octagons. That was enough. 

A wave is FMQ in the dark border and a half feather in the outer white border but I forgot to get photos of those. 

The back is a blue plaid from Michael Miller. I bound the quilt with more of the same blue as the inner border. 

Quilt Specifics:

Size: 64” x 81”

Quilt design: Snowball or Melon Patch

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: blue and cream Superior Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: Walking foot and free motion

Approximate yardage: 13 yds

Reading

When I couldn't find a readable copy of this book I listened to an audiobook. Denise writes about the development of the our Thanksgiving holiday, the search for community, and the joys of family and friends.  The book may seem out of sync with the time of  year but the topics are always pertinent. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Blue Melon Patch Top Complete

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

Because I knew this quilt would be counter-paned and have a light outside border, I cut all those pieces first. They are the largest; the others can be cut from the remains. I rarely use one fabric for all the background. Although I calculated what was needed several times, I still got it wrong. That entailed a second trip in the rain to my LQS {which is now 30 miles away} to get more before it sold out. Again I calculated how much was needed. Fortunately I added another yard "for good measure". Only 24" left. I guess I needed that good measure. ;)

The Melon Patch block looked good 

 

but the first layout was less than inspiring.

That seems odd since the carpet and the counter pane blocks are very similar shades. Once those were added, the quilt looked much better. Now it’s ready to quilt.

Grandson1's choice of a very simple, quiet quilt means this quilt looks old-fashioned (or is that classical?) to me. I'm still pondering how to handle the borders. Fortunately I won't get to that for a couple of weeks... or more. 

Reading

The Goodbye Cat is a collection of seven short stories by Japanese author Hiro Arikawa. I especially enjoyed the second tale about a manga artist who's adoption of a kitten teaches him to parent his own newborn.  Phillip Gabriel is a masterful translator. Imminently readable. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

A Blue Twin

We all get to be young but only the lucky get to be old.

Quilting

My eldest grandson requested a new twin quilt in blue and cream with more lights than darks. Ok; counterpane blocks. But the blocks can’t be too large because the quilting will be something simple like curves or parallel lines. 

I’ve been mindlessly making four-patches of scraps… so while a four- or nine-patch sounds good, it needs to be changed up. What about a nine-patch of snowballs? They could be fairly small. Six-inch blocks sound good but two-inch snowballs do not. Two-and-a-half inch snowballs make a 7.5” block which will work.

Years ago I made a nine-patch snowball and used snowballs in the border. In the first example, the snowball square is divided into thirds to locate the triangles. The snowball border used scraps for the corners so none are exactly the same. In fact, there was no planned corner size. This time I want the snowball to have a smaller, but uniform, corner. What if the corners each take one fourth of a side length? The corners would finish at five-eighths inch. Small but possible. 

The snowballs are cut 3" and the corner squares are 2.25". Because they are so small I didn't mark the diagonals but just sewed across. There are five dark centers and four light centers in each octagon nine-patch. 

Each seam is pressed to the dark then the extra bits are cut off. This let me butt seams easily which in turn kept the bulk down. I'm so glad this block will be counterpaned.

Next I laid out the nine-patch and grid sewed it. Melon Patch is a similar block found in Jinny Beyer’s Patchwork Patterns from 1979 that alternates dark and light centers. Her block is an eight-pointed star, the same grid as Kaleidoscope, but I just used a four patch for drafting individual octagons. Of course, this is not a new block either. It was first published in the Kansas City Star in 1930 as simply Octagon. I like the name Melon Patch better.

Here’s one block. The corners are a bit larger than than expected. I've seen snowballs with very tiny corners and love the effect. Some time I'll try again. Forty-seven more to go. Fortunately all the pieces are cut out.

Reading

Charles King wrote an intriguing book about the history of Handel's famous oratorio. Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah introduces many of the people involved in the first performance of this work and their search for consolation and redemption. From the hypochondriac librettist Charles Jennens through contralto Susannah Cibber who was trafficked for sex by her husband each person highlighted was searching for restitution, reconciliation, or peace. 

There were so many characters it took attention to keep them all straight, especially since I'm not British. My knowledge of royal succession and the life of Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels and dean of St. Patrick's in Dublin where the Messiah was first performed are stronger now. 

King sees the oratorio as an admonition to "live bravely in the face of disaster and defeat." A good reason to hear it these days. 

Enjoy the day, Ann