WISH Baby Quilt

If you're going to rise, you might as well shine.

Quilting

We're feeling better and now trying to reschedule all the appointments we missed this fall. We voted by mail and verified our ballots have been accepted. As Nann said, “May the best woman win.” There's a lot of yard- and house work to catch up on. We aren't at full strength yet but improving daily. I restarted exercise classes and am worn out after each. Again, it will get better. 

I've washed as much red out of the nine-patch quilt as I possibly can. The white background of that lovely floral is still pink but I'm out of ideas of how to remove it. It's folded up again. Waiting. The other two quilts cleaned up very well though.

Fortunately, there's still a lot of partially processed quilt blocks/sets that make quilting easier. Blues and greens are the next combination of coins for a baby quilt. I sewed the sets a few years ago, rolled them into tight cylinders. and set them in my scrap bag.  Now is the time to use them up.

W was the hardest letter to create. Truncating the corners of the letter made it easier. I used that effect for previous letters like V, too. When the letters are angled I find making a template works best. Afterwards I pin the templates together in case they are needed for future words. 

When I first started this series, each quilt was four different colors - one for each letter. However, the Arkansas quilts showed well two color choices work. 

WISH baby quilt

The back is fabric I purchased online for a dress then didn't like when it arrived. The colors are much less saturated in person. After a few months of pouting, I'm putting it to use as quilt backs. Since the quilt is just a bit wider than one WOF, I inserted leftovers blue and green coin sets. The value sequence looks interesting to me.

Quilt Specifics

Size: 45” x 45”

Design: Coin or String quilt

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose Cotton 

Thread: green Superior Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Reading

The subtitle of Cat Bohannon's book explains her premise: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Evolution. She notes that the past century of research has focused almost exclusively on males, leaving us with less than half the information we should have on everything from medical care and drug interactions to anthropological studies. 

Cat chooses points on the evolutionary timeline that illuminate changes that led to the development mammals and humans. The book is densely packed with information but provides a very different explanation that all the previous male-centric theories. Definitely worth reading. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

2022 Quilt Review

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. 

~Abraham Lincoln

Quilting Review 2022

Why did I think life would be easier once the children were grown? Between helping family and aging, DH and I have had a busy year.  My sister sent me a birthday card once that said something like, "We love to mind business, mostly each others'." And I am fortunate to have such a close, loving family... even when they are in my business. {It's entirely different if I get into their business.}

Since we moved to the tropical south full-time, we have little need for more large quilts. Actually little need for quilts but my soul needs them. So most of my efforts this year were baby quilts. 

Looking back at 2022, I mades groups of quilts {in that never-ending effort to use up the scraps.}

Four-letter quilts

and string quilts. This one was the completion of the #AHIQPalette challenge. Only a month late. 

Blanca Peak Sunrise baby quilt

I used several sets of leftovers to make a lap quilt {that's still not quilted}. Although it used many blocks in my leftover stack, there are a least two more sets of blocks that have never been sewn into a quilt. Projects for the coming year. 

An Optical Illusion quilt has been on my list for decades and finally was completed this year. 

Optical Illusion baby quilt

Hopefully some wall quilts will get finished next year. I pulled out my sketchbook recently and have been delighted to find so many ideas. Now to get busy with them. 

Although I haven't commented as frequently as usual, I've read most of your posts and enjoyed my visits into your sewing spaces. Thanks for opening your personal space to us. 

FUR (Fabric Use Rate)

Again, no finished quilts in December. 59 yards for 2022.

Happy New Year! 

Enjoy the holidays, Ann

2021 Quilt Review

If the only prayer you ever say is, "Thank you," that will be enough.

~Eckhart Toile

Quilting Review 2021

Personal matters still occupy most of my attention but there was time this weekend to pull this post together. I'm not doing anything new but I occasionally read some of your posts. They are welcome reminders! Hopefully I will be back by summer. We'll see.

Staying home again this year gave me the time to finish several long term projects. DH is delighted his Giants baseball quilt was finished in time for the playoffs. What fun to watch the games under it.

SF Giants baseball quilt

And the back... because you might forget what Giants fans we are. ;-) Two-sided quilts more than double the fun. I've made a few but need to figure out how to make more.

SF Giants baseball quilt back

What a delight to see the Shadow Star quilt  on our bed {where the applique shows up nicely}

Shadow Star quilt

and the Wheel quilt in the guest room. 

Wheel quilt

I quilted the baseball quilt on my domestic machine {hey, it's smaller} but sent the two behemoths to my friend, Peg Collins. What beautiful work she does.

The rest of the year focused on clearing my excessive stash by making  kawandi placemats and baby quilts. 

Kawandi placemat

As usual there were several styles of baby quilts. When I get a new idea I like to reprise it. Small changes help me explore the usually easy designs. It's a way of slowing down even when I make several during the year.

This time, there were Hatchets

Hatchet 4 quilt in blue

and Hourglasses

Red and yellow Hourglass quilt

and Crosses

Cross quilt 3

and more Scrappy Trips/ Postage Stamp quilts

Scrappy Trip in green

and Strings

String Tulip 3 quilt

along with a new style. Is it Coins or Strings or simply a scrap quilt?

LOVE baby quilt

Reading

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer is a joyfully meditative series of reflections on the natural world blending her Potawatomi heritage with her botany degree. In addition to looking at plants with scientific tools and questions, she also acknowledges them as our oldest teachers. There is much to consider in this book, not the least is viewing the abundance of nature as a gift to be treasured and reciprocated rather than a resource to be collected and hoarded. It's an excellent example of the importance of listening to multiple viewpoints.

Wishing us all a safer and more constructive world in 2022.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Another Grandmother Quilt

It's time to make the back for the Ohio Star/Log Cabin quilt. At least it should be since that's the next step and the leftover fabrics are in a pile on the dining room table. They'd make a good start but when I spoke with SIL last week she mentioned she will be a grandmother soon. So I changed course.

Possible fabric choices

And cut a bunch of diamonds for a Lone Star. The fussy-cut centers used all of that scrap and only made four. That's lucky because it forces me to get creative. Soon there will be two tops to back and quilt.

EDIT: Check out Mel Beach's Fruity Mandala for a stellar example of fussy cutting.

Possible Lone Star quilt center

Because these are the leftovers, they make an interesting combination. The "better blending" fabrics are all gone. That's probably a good thing for this Lone Star design. There was a quarter yard of the light blue and I used it all. Interesting how it brightens the design.

Possible star point fabric arrangement

Everything went swimmingly until the star points. I arranged the final diamonds several different ways. Fortunately digital photos are easy to shoot. Now I just need to decide. 1) Light to dark with two medium choices.

2) Dark/light/medium or adding a cream to the center of the point.

Possible star point fabric arrangement

3) Or moving the cream around some more.

Possible star point fabric arrangement

Small variations. The probably don't make much difference but I'll think it over before I sew them up.



Off the bookshelf

Almost fifteen years ago I read Adam Gopnik's, The King in the Window, about a young boy celebrating Epiphany in Paris who sees another young man in 17th century dress in the window. The window wraith {one of a cadre of dead French artists} mistakes Oliver for their new king imploring him to find his sword and reclaim the kingdom. Although a children's novel, it weaves French history of plate glass with quantum physics and Alice in Wonderland in such a complex manner that it became one of my favorite novels. As the reviewer put it, "Harry Potter for the Mensa set."

So I purchased two of his previous non-fictions and set them on the shelf where they remained until this cleaning. Currently I'm reading Paris to the Moon.

Paris to the Moon
by Adam Gopnik

Before the millenium, Adam and his young family moved to Paris where he continued to write for the New Yorker. His journal, intertwining raising a small child while navigating a foreign city, became the chapters of this book. Each chapter combines seemingly dissimilar actions that he ties together in a wry fashion by the end. Perfect for reading at the beginning or end of the day.

Enjoy the day, Ann

A Gifted Deal

Quilted, bound, washed, and dried. These darling blocks made a {fairly} quick quilt for a new baby. It went in the mail and arrived before the new dad's paternity leave ended. Whew!

The Square Deal baby quilt

As frequently happens, I nearly drove myself crazy with the quilting. It needed to keep the quilt together and hold up to rigorous use. Additionally, it needed to be simple with a minimum of starts and stops. Burying threads is such a time consumer.

The inner border is SID with matching thread. This is my usual way to keep the line straight through all the subsequent quilting.

After asking my small group, I determined to try a squared-off spiral. It was a disaster. Not only were my "straight" lines wobbly, they were also too far apart. In desperation I switched to a regular spiral. It didn't seem like it would work well but I was wrong about that, too. It looks great. Yes, those curved lines are wobbly but I bet you can't tell!

Detail of the Square Deal baby quilt

The main back fabric was too short and too narrow. A bit of another blue lengthened the base and the last of the border fabric widened it. The spiral shows up so much better on the back.

Back of the Square Deal baby quilt

I've used this design twice before, but it's been a while. The first time on the Neutral String baby quilt and later on Spiderweb 3.  I like it and plan to use it again. Echo quilting is one of the few designs that shows on patterned fabric. Spirals are a version of echos.

Quilt Details

Size: 40" x 40"

Design: Original

Batting: Mountain Mist 100% cotton

Thread: Blue and peach Gutterman 50 wt cotton

Quilting: Stitch in the Ditch and spiral, both with walking foot

Previous posts: 
1. The Chinese Coin columns that didn't work
2. Making HSTs
3. Playing with HSTs
4. Square Deal block
5. Using the extra blocks

I borrowed The Golden Thread by Kassia St. Clair, a collection of stories about fabric through history rather than a history of fabric. Thirteen chapters cover pre-historic cave dwellers through the Space Age astronauts and include several stories, each beginning with a literary quote involving thread or textiles. That alone is worthwhile. Kassia writes fluently and persuasively; she based this book on some of her magazine articles. 

The Golden Thread
by Kassia St. Clair

All in all, The Golden Thread is much more interesting than the news programs so I will be check her other book on color next.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Scientific Pinwheel Quilt Gifted

I'm constantly amazed how quickly small quilts get finished. It took part of one day to sew the borders on and pin baste the quilt, another day to quilt it, and it was bound the next morning. Then it just needed a quick wash and dry to be ready to gift.

I like to wrap these quilts into little sausages and tie them with a pretty bow. The colors are pretty enough for wrapping paper and I get to see their excitement when it's unrolled. How do you wrap quilt gifts?

Scientific Pinwheels baby quilt

Scanning my stash brought this yellow and green stripe to the surface.

Green and yellow binding
on Scientific Pinwheel baby quilt

Red was my original plan for the binding with grey quilting thread but I like this even better, especially since the backing is red with "sun-printed" ferns.

Back and binding of 
Scientific Pinwheel baby quilt

I sewed the binding to the back then pressed it away from the back and again to turn it over the raw edge. That means only the corners need to be pinned although I use a stiletto to keep things straight.

Pressed binding only needs
a few pins in the corners

This baby quilt going to its Forever Home tomorrow. Hooray!

Quilt Details

Size: 41" x 41"

Design: Medallion with hourglass, Chinese coins, and pinwheel blocks

Batting: Hobbs Premium 100% bleached cotton

Thread: red Gutermann cotton thread, 
Quilting: Free motion Baptist fans 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Only a Few Pinwheels - AHIQ 32

Over the past two weeks I've made ten of these small pinwheels. Even that tiny amount was difficult both to carve the time out for and to find the creativity to select combinations.

Pinwheel baby quilt it progress

LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color, who recently moved halfway across the country, has written several posts about the experience: the excitement of discoveries along the drive, the struggles of house-hunting, the challenges of finding her feet, her supplies and her mojo. She's creating again and contacting nearby quilters. Hooray.

There are parallels with my life. Fortunately we are a large clan so most items have found a home where they will be a memento of happy childhoods without becoming a mausoleum. But we've now reached the paperwork. Oh, my stars and garters. Everything was well arranged but still must be read before deciding to keep or shred. The shredder is very small and overheats regularly. I'd get a new one but... it's helpful to be forced to slow down this process. Surely we will reach the end soon. Then we can donate the shredder.

I haven't read anyone's posts, haven't responded to comments, haven't sew any borders or made any quilting plans. I did take a lunch break and wander through a quilt store but even that didn't inspire me.

QS is coming to help again so I cleared these blocks off the spare bed. Instead of putting them away immediately, I laid them on the floor and snapped this photo.

Pinwheel baby quilt with space for an inner border

I think a quiet inner border might be the solution. The colorful pinwheels might actually work although I'm going to try to make a few more with black and white... and purple and green.

What have you been up to? Reading about your creative decisions will be a blessed hour of tranquility.

Enjoy the day, Ann

InLinkz removed because it was hacked.

Housetops Quilted

This is a lovely, soft quilt that I hope will be used daily by the baby. So I wanted a quilting design that enhances the softness as well as the durability. Baptist Fans work well with the spacing and direction changes. {And somehow, these colors are a bit off. Overexposed? The quilt really looks like the photos from the last post.}

Housetops quilt with Baptist fan quilting

I bought these darling bunnies on blue for the back and bound it with a tiny blue and white stripe. Stripes are our favorite binding, aren't they.

Bunnies on the back
of the Housetop baby quilt

Including conversation prints is always a fun game for me. Here are some sophisticated sparrows in orange rain (?), bicycles, and fish.

Bird, bicycle, and fish print
fabrics on the Housetop baby quilt

And I had to include these charming owls, my college mascot.

Owl print fabric
on the Housetop baby quilt

Each block is ten inches with four or five strips sashing two sides of a center square. I cut the strips 1.25-3” wide and combined them to reach the ten inch mark.

Previous post here.

Quilt Details

Size: 38" x 38"

Design: Housetop or Handkerchief Corners

Batting: Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon100% cotton

Thread: green Aurifil cotton 50/2 thread

Quilting: Free-motion Baptist fans

I believe the intended use of the quilt informs the type of care it requires. One of my goals is that people love, use, and even wear out the quilts I make. Of course, I'd like them to use them gently and take care of them - rather like polishing our shoes and putting shoe trees in at night. But most of my gifts are utility quilts, meant for daily use. I always include this information sheet... then I keep my mouth shut whatever they choose to do.

Caring for a Quilt is permanently linked on my Tutorial page. Other people have their own instructions. Quilt Care by Michigan State University is a good guide for utility quilts. On the other hand, The National Quilt Museum prohibits machine washing. They have excellent information for heritage quilts - or quilts we hope will become heritage.

What's your opinion?

Enjoy the day, Ann

Ready to Quilt

Propeller Baby Quilt
Final decision for the posts is slightly larger circles. Previously they were the same size as the propeller centers which was too small. As Robin wrote, eye movement stops there. I also tried circles large enough to touch the geese but that was too far. {And I forgot to snap a photo.}

Also the bright red colors on white were too strong. The new reddish print is darker, subtler, and {perhaps}mimics the angles of the flying geese. The off-white background matches the propeller backgrounds better and tones things down.

Until now I hadn't considered a pale blue grey. That might have looked good. {Back to my old "rushing" habits although I have paused several times constructing this quilt. What is the right balance between forward movement and thoughtful pauses? I haven't found it yet.}

The red and orange fabrics of the geese repeat in several places. I also paired them to emphasize flight.

Start Your Engines quilt is pin basted

There's a two-inch border around the outside in a soft grey/white stripe. Somehow this quilt wanted to float a bit. If if doesn't work after it's quilted it can be cut off.

Check out Mel's post at Piece, Love & Happiness to see some flying geese with more movement.

Perot Museum of Nature and Science
My niece took me to the Perot Museum recently. Although it opened more than a decade ago I've never been. What a treat I've missed until now.

Quite a collection of minerals including this 1.25 ton amethyst geode. There were rooms of weather, astronomy, and of course, energy. After all, this is Texas.

1.25 ton amethyst geode and a tornado machine

Did you know central North America from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay was under the Western Interior Seaway during the Cretaceous?  The Perot staged a striking display of several including this Fiat-sized Protostega swimming above a bus-sized Tylosaurus.

Protostega and Tylosaurus, late Cretaceous (80-79 mya) from Rockwall Co.

This Dallasaurus is the link connecting the evolution of aquatic mosasaurs like the Tylosaurus to terrestrial monitor lizards. It's always interesting to see fins turn into feet and vice versa. Did you know residual hand bones still exist in whale fins?

Dallasaurus fossil swims above a monitor lizard skeleton

This guy is an Alamosaurus. With a name like that, how could I not include a photo?  The cast is made of bones from several of this species. You can see the real fossilized neck behind him near the bottom. It's the only set of articulated vertebrae from this dinosaur. Fossil pieces that large are too heavy to mount; that's why museums must make casts. These bones were found is such a remote location of Big Bend they had to be helicoptered out. I took one of my field work courses there so it always has a special place in my heart.

Alamosaurus sanjuanensis cast mounted at Perot Museum

On the way out we saw this message carved on a bench.

Bench at the Perot Museum in Dallas

Dinner anyone?

Enjoy the day, Ann

It's a Bird, It's a Plane

Propeller Baby Quilt
Flying geese complement the airplanes. Their dark background contrasts nicely with the light background of the propellers.

Propeller baby quilt with flying geese sashing

But what to do for the posts? What about circular designs already printed on a dark blue fabric? Too dark.

Another post possibility for Start Your Engines quilt

These small red circles are blocks I still haven't put together from Audrey's Quilty 365. They look like the Japanese flag but seem a bit small against the blues.

One post possibility for Start Your Engines quilt

That blue fabric that didn't work for posts also doesn't work on the border. It's enclosing the quilt too much for me. A lighter border might work better.

A bit more thinking and I'll have the right choices.

Dia de Muertos and Coco
We took my family to see Pixar's new movie, Coco, after Thanksgiving. Craft in America's episode, Neighbors, played recently and was amazingly pertinent to my recent trips and the movie. By comparing Dia de Muertos celebrations and art in LA and Oaxaca, Mexico, it increased my understanding of the festival and enjoyment of the movie. Then the show segued to weaving and dyeing. Turns out those cochineal dyes in 19th c. British uniforms come from a scale insect that lives on prickly pear cactus. After silver, the dye was the most important export in the 15th and 16th centuries. Mexico lost its monopoly on cochineal dyes after their Independence. Development of synthetic dyes almost caused the demise of the industry but it resurges today as people realize many of the synthetics are carcinogenic. Shades from pink to scarlet to dark red are created by varying the original yards and the time and temperature of the dye baths.

When Alamo Drafthouse plays a movie they include a special menu reflecting the show's theme. For Coco that included quesadillas and a butternut squash milkshake.

Alamo Drafthouse guitar-shaped menu for Coco screening.

Although my first reaction was that I'd never thought of squash as a dessert, I do have a recipe for zucchini pie. When chopped zucchini rests with sugar it releases lots of liquid just like apples. Although I liked this in the '70s, it's way too sweet now. Perhaps I'll combine it with apples and reduce the sugar. Ha. Just in time for the holidays.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Start Your Engines

There are plenty of quilts at my house, all the Great Debaters have been gifted, but I have a never-ending need for baby and toddler quilts. Usually these are made from project leftovers and scraps because it keeps the fabric moving. I rarely tell the mothers because non-quilters don't understand the modern usage of 'scrap.' Frequently they think it's used fabric... or that you found it on the roadside rather than paying good money for it.

Here are the leftovers from Propellers and Planes. "Oh, look, Sally. Look, look." {Who remembers Dick and Jane?} Enough for a baby quilt.

I tried an asymmetrical layout but it just doesn't speak to me.

UIKEYINPUTDOWNARROWPossible layout for Propeller quilt

Here's the way I like it best.

Final layout for Propeller blocks

Now to find some sashing fabric.

Enjoy the day, Ann