{Post 1,774} So Much Joy!

 

I hope everyone enjoyed a great Thanksgiving holiday. We were resigned to just having 3 guests. We were trying to be fine with it. But our youngest daughter, her husband, and their two children were supposed to be with us all week. Their van was in the shop, and the part to repair it was late coming in. They tried to find a car to rent, but the price was sky-high and they couldn’t find a car! They planned to call me Wednesday to reschedule their trip. When my son-in-law called, he asked, “Are you looking at your calendar?” I said I was. He said, “How does tomorrow look?” A man in their church knew their trip was cancelled and paid for them to rent a car. He even found them a car! Last one available in their little town. I burst into tears! You can imagine! I just realized we had such a fun and busy visit that I did not take one single picture. Also had the best Thanksgiving dinner ever. We had one of our sons and our best friends over for the meal and visiting afterwards. 

Last time I was at their house in PA (I live in NC) a dear friend of my daughter’s asked me to finish a quilt she and her daughter had started more than 20 years ago. I didn’t realize the amount of work involved, but I agreed. 

The center was finished when I started working on it. One of the challenges was that it was so old that the fabrics were no longer available. They had chunks and bits, so I cobbled borders together. When I first got it, it was finished out to the edge of the blocks. So I added the pink, cream, and blue borders. I did lots of math to squeeze every inch I could out of the fabrics available. 

Here is a close-up. She had never pieced a quilt before. The seams are huge, the blocks should have been trimmed before sashing and cornerstones were added, but all in all a lovely job.

Here is the whole thing quilted. It ended up measuring 82” x 94”.

My daughter was able to take it back for her. She sent me a video today of our friend seeing it for the first time. She loves it, which makes it all worthwhile. She has advanced Parkinson’s and her extremities shake so badly. I was happy to finish this for her.

Tell me something in the comments that you are thankful for!

{Post 1,773} Pine Tree Points Runner

This is a pattern I bought from quiltville.com to make the runner. I left off the bottom “branch” of the tree so it wouldn’t be as wide as the pattern. I also like the quilt, but it’s smaller than I like. I would like to make it larger, but I have too many irons in the fire to start another big quilt right now. I was sewing with some ladies every Monday for a while, but I have a commitment on Mondays now that interferes with it. They reserved the sewing room from 10:30-4:30 yesterday, and I started working on this. I ended up staying until about 2:30. We all brought parts of a lunch, so that took up some time. 

Here is the process…I picked out several greens from my shirt stash. I cut them all up into 3-1/4” wide strips, then cut them into strings. I sewed them onto 3” wide strips of phone book. I love sewing strings. No measuring, just straight seams.

This ended up being 14-1/2” x 59” I will bind it with the same red as the frames and cornerstones.

This was all I had left over from what I cut originally. Worked out great.

So glad this post went through trouble-free.

{Post 1,772} New Quilt, Part 2

 I wish Blogger had people to answer questions. I miss talking to a person and not doing things via tech. I cannot get pictures to upload. If you know the problem, please reach out to me via email. Thanks!

***Update on 11/16/22*** I can add pictures now. I don’t know why I could not before this.

{Post 1,771} New Finish, and I’m in Love!

 If you have been reading my blog for long, you know I save every little scrap. I also love quilts made from upcycled 100% cotton shirts (limited to plaids and stripes). I had a little plastic basket that I was keeping all my shirt strings in (just the colors, not neutrals). It was exploding, and I decided to make a quilt from them. As I shared progress on IG and FB, one of my friends who is a missionary in Madagascar commented on how much she loved the colors and pattern. Here’s how it was made.

I cut many 3” x 6” strips of old phone book pages. I had run out and didn’t want to buy paper for using as foundations. So I sent an email out on my church’s list and a friend gave me 10 phone books (that’ll keep me making string blocks for a l-o-n-g time!). Old books are used because the ink won’t transfer when they are ironed. I merely covered the foundations with strings of all the scraps. Some “strings” were even pieced from several fabrics!

I cut the same-sized pieces from a bolt of muslin I have here. I set it with a straight setting, not on point as it appears in the above picture. Here are some progress pictures, in reverse order chronologically.

When I got to the original size planned, I asked her how big she wanted it. She wanted it bigger than I had already pieced, so I pressed on literally and figuratively. It is 84” x 94”. I let her pick the quilting pattern, and she chose topographical meandering. I did it in cream thread. Here are a few pics from the quilting.

I cannot get any more pictures to upload. I will try this another day. I even tried restarting my iPad.

{Post 1,770} Recent Events

Why not start with a great food picture? We have been having people over fairly regularly. The majority are college students. I love sharing good recipes with them. Here are some apple dumplings I have made thrice in the past couple of weeks. Full disclosure—one batch was for a friend’s family. Very simple with everyday ingredients (except for Mountain Dew).

I try to sew a little every day. I have had customer quilt tops to machine quilt (several pictures below) as well as my own perpetual scrappy tops to sew. Here are a few pics w/o explanations. 

I love string quilts, but I don’t have many strings (I realize I could cut up my voluminous fabric stash, but that wasn’t my goal). I have made and accumulated various strings of colors that are not my usual lately. This little turquoise basket was where they lived. It was more than full when I started. So I started making a string quilt. I used 6-1/2” square cuts of phone book for my base. I had some black with green polka dots in my stash, and I have NO IDEA where they came from. I decided to use those for a center strip pans then added all non-green (with a few exceptions) to fill the foundation. Here are my first few, then as of last night.

My husband and I took a trip to the Lancaster area. Our first goal was to go to Sight and Sound theatre for a performance of David. We stayed in a B and B. The pic of the horse and buggy was taken as we got into our car in the B & B driveway. It was that close. Saw and experienced many interesting things. My husband insisted that we go to several quilt shops, and who was I to argue? There are many Mennonite and Amish people in that area. They both make most/all of their clothes. Here is one fabric stores black section. If you sew, you know that all fabrics are different in hue, hand, and weave. Whatever color black you wanted, they had it!

We stayed with these cuties for a few days at their house, then I picked them up to spend a couple days with us. Exciting times. Haircut for the big guy (he is 3, and a champion hair-grower!), many snuggle sessions and just daily life. I didn’t take many pictures. Just savored the time together and coordinated meals, naps, snacks, naps, more food—and that was just for me! Just kidding. Having toddlers in the house sure changes up my usual routine!

Finally started on this project a few days ago. First coat of our new trim paint. We have removed the carpet from our steps going downstairs, and the trim needed filling, sanding, and painting. One coat away (I hope) from being finished.

Then, last but not least, this past weekend I had this guy for a few days. He had his karate belt testing on Saturday. He was promoted from gold to orange belt. He has worked hard for this honor.

I have a busy day ahead. Finishing the quilt with the leaf motif at the top (all flannel—front and back…about half finished now), minimal cooking and cleaning, working in Good News Club at a local public school this afternooon, second coat of paint on the steps, and, sewing, of course!

Until later, Joan

{Post 1,769} Another Quilt Show?

 Yes, I was fortunate to attend another quilt show yesterday. This one was 10 minutes from my house. It was put on by the local quilt guild. I went by myself and enjoyed meandering about the show as well as visiting the boutique and the one vendor that was there. Lovely time! Here are some quilt pictures I took, some for inspiration, and some because they were eye candy!

The first few days of the week had me working on this quilt. It is just one fabric on the top and one fabric for backing. My friend said it reminded her of a shirt her father used to wear. She asked for it to be quilted in white thread with Wonky Feathers. She also asked me to bind it.

This quilt is one I worked on today. I had a number of my own quilt tops hanging in my laundry room upstairs. I finished piecing the center of this a couple months ago. I absolutely loved piecing these blocks. Each fabric is the background in one block and the tree in another. I got a Christmas layer cake somewhere that provided most of the fabrics. I added some from my vast stash to get it to this size. 

Today I added the 1-1/2” inner cream border and a 5-1/2” outer green border. I will start the quilting next week. It is hard to get a good picture because my sewing room is so narrow. I have to take the pictures from an angle from the side. The pattern for the blocks can be found on www.diaryofaquilter.com. Search for modern Christmas blocks. So fun and easy!

I have been cooking for the last 4 hours, and I still need to clean up the kitchen. We are having 4 college young men over for lunch tomorrow. I make so much from scratch that it takes a long, long time. I haven’t even started cleaning up the house yet. I made all of these things homemade: ham/potato soup, chicken/rice soup, iced tea, and pumpkin pie squares. Looking at the list, I’m wondering what took so long!

Have a healthy and wonderful week. What quilty thing are YOU working on?