playing blog catch-up

 Whoa! It’s been a while!!

Recently, during a phone call, my mom mentioned she’s re-reading past posts in this blog. lol, I think that’s her sweet way of giving a little nudge and reminding me that she would love for me to write more. This is just for you, Mom 😉.

I’ve been making samples for the quilt store. It has kept me very busy. However, I just met a deadline this morning and tonight I’m taking it easy and having some Whimsy-stitching time. 

Two projects going on here. One is a leader, the other is an ender. 😝 I have no idea which is which 🤪.

These are the little cut-off (trash) corners from a couple recent quilt tops. I’m not quite sure what they will become, but I can’t toss them out 🤭.

Stash Busting Parrots was inspired by an Instagram post by mckillopmichelle Magic Carpet

The half square triangles with black background were the cut offs from the colorful Stash Busting Parrots. While making the quilt top, I stitched a second line on the cut off corner so the hst would also be stitched and ready to go. I don’t dare calculate how many hst’s I’ve ended up with, that green box holds most of them. I will give you a clue - each block in Stash Busting Parrots would have 4 cut off corners and it’s an 18 x 18 grid. Yep, nope I’m not doing the math on that! It’s a big number that I don’t need to know.

 I decided to make them into 3” finished Shoo Fly blocks. It’ll be fun making a block here and there. Either, stitching them like a pallet cleanser between projects, like tonight. Or at a slower pace, one seam at a time, as I use them as spacers when working on other projects. (Leaders and Enders - as coined by Bonnie Hunter.)

The lighter colored triangles in top right corner of the first photo are cut offs from the sashing stars in the Spring Sprouts quilt.

These cut off triangles are too small for hst (in my opinion.) I was very close to throwing them out… but I couldn’t resist the challenge to use them.

This cool Mini Simple Folded Corners acrylic ruler is coming in handy with these triangles. Trimming the dog-ear corners before stitching. It’s a game changer for lining up the pieces for a perfect seam!! I like it!

So, I’m definitely finding it easier these days to post pics of what I’m working on in Instagram and Facebook. A small blurb about it and I can move onto the next thing.

I kinda feel like I should do a little catch-up in this blog. So here are some of the my projects since I last updated this blog.

Molly's Green Thumb quilt pattern
by Christa Smith - Cotton Berry Quilts
36" x 36"

I only made it into the month of March with my 2022 temperature quilt.
I determined to continue with it sometime in the future.

I forget the name of this pattern.
I didn't like the dark flower centers, so I replaced them with lighter squares.
this quilt was gifted to our friends in France when we went to visit in April.

I taught a Cathedral Window class.

I taught freezer paper foundation piecing.

Three Little Friends
designed by Nadra Ridgeway of ellisandhiggs.com
I still need to make the 3rd friend, Lambkin.

I'm designing my own medallion quilt.
Frankie fabric collection by BasicGrey for Moda.
It's about 54" square now. I think I want 2 more rounds.

Enchanted Hollow Block of the Month at work.
by Crabapple Hill Studio.
I am learning a lot about running Block of the Months. Like, I don't have to continue stitching after the BoM has started. Taking it off my commitment list was a great relief.

I made a puff quilt for a customer.

Dusted George off to quilt the puff quilt.

After the puff quilt, I needed some free-motion practice.

I designed an applique block for the 
Texas Christmas 2022 Shop Hop.
It's so cool to think it will be in a few quilts made by shoppers.

I also did the block in embroidery to show customers how it can be made up differently.

This is The Old Craft Store's 2022 3rd Saturday BoM.
The BoM runs through December, but I had to get this one off my commitment list.

Eclispe Quilt Pattern by Frannie B. Quilt Co.
made with the Elegance fabric collection.
I just had to make this one. Thankfully my boss wanted it as a sample in the store.

This one is a Whimsy project.
made with the Chickadee fabric collection.
The pattern is a free download - The Honey Quilt by Jessica Dayon.
I'm contemplating the quilting technique and design. So many options! 

Merry Little Christmas by Kathy Schmitz
a hand embroidered little quilt, finishes approx. 13" x 16.5"
Made as a store sample for the summer Christmas event. It was so fun to stitch up.

Ok! I guess that covers a lot of what I've been up to quilt-wise since February.  Next in line is another BoM for the store, a patriotic quilt!

Thank you for stopping by! (hope this fits the bill, Mom. Thanks for the encouragement.)

short circuited

 Wow! January flew by, didn't it?! As they say, "time flies when your having fun!"

I started working at The Old Craft Store in June 2020. The Covid pandemic had started. Stores were closed due to quarentine. The Old Craft Store had shut it's doors for two weeks. However, The Old Craft Store is a contract United States Post Office. Plus, there was a sudden need for masks. And fabric stores became essential because sewists needed fabric to make masks. That's when I started working there. When almost everyone I knew was saying, "2020 is the worst year." My sentiments were, "I'm back in a quilt shop, 2020 is an awesome year!"

I am a needle and thread artist. Give me hand sewing needle, thread, and fabric and I will create something! I love hand stitching.  It's my first stitching love... But I also love machine piecing...

This is the first machine pieced sample I did for The Old Craft Store.

The pattern is called "Motherboard" by Orange dot Quilts.  I mentioned it in my blog update Dream Job.

Motherboard is a great pattern. Very well written and a very quick quilt top to make. The pattern is written for using jelly rolls, so even the cutting could be a quick job. I used the Conservatory fabric collection designed by Jill Finley of Jillily Studio for Riley Blake Designs for the color fabrics and a white tone-on-tone for the background.

However, this sample is still displayed at The Old Craft Store because we still have a few patterns to sell and I'm ready to have it come home with me. So I decided to make another quilt top that maybe will draw interest to the pattern again. This time stepping up the visual interest and try to create some movement with dramatic prints.

I am so in love with this black and white floral print in the Illustrations fabric collection by Alli K designs for Moda. My first thought was to use it for the background in the whole quilt. This is where my inner quilt muse took over and determined "scrappy." So I purchased more black and white prints from The Old Craft Store to be mixed with black and white prints from my stash. All the color prints were pulled from my stash. Some of those fabrics were purchased from The Old Craft Store over the past 2 years. But some of them may have been in my stash for many years. It's great to be using them!

I started with red prints. The block with bandana print and the flower print is the only block that has two different prints in the block. The Quilt Muse let me know that was much too scrappy. I left it in though, I guess because it's part of the story. Don't you love that black and white floral? 

Then the green blocks were made next. And I was still planning to make this top just like the pattern. I remember entertaining the idea to continue with red and green to make it a Christmas quilt. It would make a good Christmas quilt don't you think?

Miss Quilt Muse - "That's a good idea, but look at this orange." I paired it with a polka dot and took this picture because I practically giggled with joy because it's so pretty.

Still on track for Motherboard. The orange floral print is actually too busy, but again I left it in because it's part of the story!

I keep mentioning Miss Quilt Muse because it's been inspiration that has been building this quilt top from the beginning. I had a plan, but inspiration, Miss Quilt Muse, was guiding all my choices and changing my plan.

Miss Quilt Muse - "what if the blocks are split?"

Yes!! I really like this. The joyful giggle feeling grew with each block added.

I love this next picture. Doesn't it look like Motherboard short circuited? I think this would be a cool quilt top just like this with background filling in to square it up.

I had the brilliant idea to put it all on point. And it looks fun, but takes away from the Short Circuit idea. 

And back to setting the blocks straight.

Even to the end, I was still auditioning fabrics. I love the sun print on the purple background on the top right corner in this photo, but it just doesn't belong in this quilt.

When the Motherboard blocks were pieced together in my new layout, I felt it needed a border. This is another Miss Quilt Muse moment. I had started piecing blocks that I started calling Bytes. I put them on the design board and Miss Quilt Muse - "Keep it simple!"

The measurement of the center is about 60" x 60". Keeping it simple, I cut 4.5" squares from all the color fabrics I used in the center. 

That was a mistake. I forgot to calculate in the inner border measurements too. I was a bit disappointed and not sure how to fix it. Another square would make the strip too long and also throw the center off.

I ended up re-cutting all the squares a 1/4" bigger, 4.75". (Some of the squares I had to piece together because it was the last bit of the fabric. I always feel this makes it a true scrappy quilt.) I tried to use a generous seam allowance because I knew the strip with the 4.75" squares would be too long. After centering the middle square, I still ended up trimming 3/4" off each end. It was more than I had wanted, but I made the choice to be ok with this solution.

-- I want to mention here. If you make this quilt like I am sharing here. There are a ways to help get a border to perfect measurements without having to trim the outside pieces. (edit: best way is to measure the top and divide that measurement by the number of squares you want then add seam allowance. When I did this the number was between 4.5" and 4.75". I decided to go larger so not to be messing with a measurement like 4.625". In hindsight, I should have!)

The first is to increase the width of the first border. (I had originally cut the inner border to be 1" finished, and then decided I wanted it thinner. So I trimmed 1/4" off.) This is a personal choice. If you like a thicker inner border, this is the easiest fix.

The other way, would be to make the squares a tiny bit shorter. Sew every other seam by perhaps an 1/8"  (making a bigger seam allowance) would evenly shorten all the squares and you wouldn't have to trim so much off the ends.

The side borders I did the same as the top and bottom. The corner squares weren't added until the strip was trimmed to fit the inner border. It makes the shortened squares less noticeable because they are all the same.

  

Here they are together! Motherboard (on the left) by Orange dot Quilts, finishes at 54" x 64" and my Short Circuited quilt inspired by Motherboard finishes at about 71.5" x 71.5". The block is the same, I won't give any specifics about block or piece measurements because that is in the pattern. Short Circuit has the same number of color blocks plus one more for the corners (turquois blocks)

If you purchase the pattern from The Old Craft Store and you would like to make Short Circuit, I've made a color placement diagram you can have with your purchased pattern. Also, I am willing to help with any questions you have about piecing the borders if you need.

Thanks for visiting my blog and reading about my latest stitching! I'm working on at least 4 or 5 more projects. Hopefully I'll be back soon to tell you about one or two of them 😉. Until then, I wish you happy creating of your own!!

A Whimsy Hita day

 

I am reorganizing my sewing room. I was able to get wall shelving from IKEA. It's appox. 72" tall by 72" wide. And the cubbies are tall enough for the 11.5" mini bolts that I have been wrapping yardage. 

I couldn't put the mini bolts upright in the other cubby shelves.

However! I just found out that comic boards work great in these cubbies perfectly!  

I'm super excited that I can still use these shelves for my fabrics too. I really do need all of them!

Because, see? I still have fabric in boxes. Yes, next week is the two year anniversary of moving into this house.  Storing fabric in cardboard boxes is not ideal. It could contribute to discoloration. Or if there's any moisture, it causes deterioration or rotting of the fibers. Just something I need to keep in mind and get those boxes unpacked!

Look what turned up!!

It's a Block of the Month that Diane Keller was teaching us at Luanne Locks' 

Quilt Loft in WA. I noticed one of the block instruction papers had the year 2012! (This project never saw the Mississippi sunshine. We moved there in 2014!)

All twelve blocks are there. The last two are cut out and need to be assembled.

I contemplated why I might have stopped working on this quilt.

I placed the fabric that had been intended for the border alongside the blocks. I suspect that's why I didn't continue. Although the colors are all there, the border and the blocks don't quite blend together.

I'm determined to finish this one, all the way to quilted, bound, and labelled! It's just a matter of finding the perfect sashing/border fabric. Wish me luck!!

After the BoM, I found a plastic store bag of fabric strings. True fabric strings. The slivers that are cut  when squaring up yardage. Slivers that are even less than a 1/4" sometimes.  Other quilters throw slivers into the garbage...

Yep. Distracted from my task again!

I'm guessing the slivers are as old as the BoM.  And since I've kept them this long, I might as well put them to use, right?! I spent what must have been a couple hours twining the slivers that were long enough into fabric rope. Isn't it pretty? I have no idea what I'll do with it, but for now just seeing it on the shelf makes me happy.

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Twining the fabric rope led me to picking up this little rug again. I had to take a few inches out because it had started bowing in the middle. Then I set it aside. 

Well, I picked it up again but I couldn't remember how to make the knot I was using to secure the coils. 

I untied a knot, inspecting it carefully as I deconstructed it.

Then wrapped my needle the way I thought it went.. nope

deconstructed another knot. wrapped my needle again... nope

finally I came up with a knot that felt as secure as what I had before, but it still isn't that knot.

Now that I am composing this update, I had the idea to look at a past update about starting this rug - Over and over and over.  There is not any description or directions for the knot, BUT! there is one single picture that shows the needle wrapped! I think it's the clue I might need to reproduce that knot. I was tempted to run to my room to try it out, but I know I wouldn't make it back to composing an update tonight. I'll try the knot tomorrow.

Today yesterday was dedicated to hand sewing.  I found a really cute pattern called "It's in the bag" by broderie.

 

Hand stitching is very much my thing!!

I stitched ALL day...

the pattern has 3 sizes.  I made the medium size.

I was so excited over this finished project that I forgot to get a picture of it before taking it to the store!

I got fabric from the Primrose collection for the next bag. It's soft pinks and blues, with little flowers. So very much my Whimsy! This one is going to be a store sample too. But I'll get a picture of the two together.

Ok! Time to get some work done. (I need to go over some calculations for a project at work tomorrow.) Then hopefully I might have a few minutes to mark and cut the pieces out. I can hardly stand making myself wait!

Thanks for stopping by to see what I'm up to! Wishing you much happy creating. See you soon!