More early quilts - all donated to charity

This quilt was a very fast project using only two fabrics.  The pattern was from an old Quiltmaker magazine.  I hunted for a good long while before I found the perfect two fabrics.  Pieced in 1992, it wasn't finished until 2005 when I could quilt it on my longarm.  I know this one was sent to New Orleans for a hurricane victim.

A Double Irish Chain pieced for a class sample in 1992 and not finished until 2008.  I hand quilted the white spaces in this one.  I loved having the large white spaces for a fancy pattern I could do in a contrasting color (you can see this if you click on the first picture).  Then I loaded it onto the longarm to quilt through the chains by machine.  I no longer have this quilt.  I'm almost certain I donated it to the last Northwest Medical Teams quilt auction.

I made this quilt to donate to Quilt Pink in 2006.  All the fabrics in it were old - from the 1980's and early 1990's.  Every one in our small guild made blocks to donate to the effort.  I fell in love with piecing this "Disappearing Nine Patch" and pieced enough to make an entire quilt plus more.  While machine quilting I accidently tore a hole through the entire thing.  Thus a scattering of hearts on the front, and one lone heart on the back covering the back side of the hole.

This is another early effort, pieced in 1993.  Called "Road to California", it is from an old That Patchwork Place book -  I think it was called "Stars and Stepping Stones".  Finished in 2005, it was also sent to New Orleans for hurricane relief.

The last is called "Stars and Stepping Stones", and was made from a Pat Sloan pattern in 2004.  Finished in 2008, I donated it to charity, but I didn't record which one.  I'm showing a picture of the back, so you can see how I created many quilt backs by using fabrics that no longer fit my "style".

It is a lot of fun visiting these old quilts.  I can see how much my skills and fabric choices have grown over the years.  I cringe when I look at some of them now, but know each one served as a step in my development as a quilter.  I was happy to donate them to charity.  Each was donated the year it was finished.

Quilts In My Past - and Quilts In Your Past

Vicki posted a thank you for the UFO spreadsheet.  She also asked a lot of really great questions:

Have you taken photos of all those quilts/wallhangings? Did you record sizes, who quilted and how, who received the quilt, samples of fabrics used,notes on anything special going on at the time working on quilt etc?

I told her I had pictures of almost all of them, I know who quilted all of them,  I know who received most of the quilts, though I don't know which particular charities got which quilts.  I know which ones I sold, but not what I sold them for.  And I certainly didn't keep fabric samples or notes of anything going on while working on each quilt.

This got me thinking - why have I never kept a quilting journal?  I know many quilters do.  It would be such a great record of one's quilting progress year by year.  Looking back, I really wish I had.  I think that is the main reason I started blogging - so I would have a journal of quilting activities year by year.  And I think that's why I stopped for two years - I wasn't quilting.

How many of you have kept the kind of information and fabric samples Vicki talks about?  If you have, I'd love to hear about them and see pictures of journals.  

I'd also love to know what a true scrap quilter does - if anything - to keep samples of fabrics used.  This always mystifies me.  If I kept all the fabric samples, the journal entry would be almost as big as the quilt!

So I've decided to write a post each day about one or more of my quilts - including pictures.  It is mainly to expand my own record keeping, and I will enjoy the sharing also.

These two quilts, which I call "Around the Twist 1" and "Around the Twist 2", are from my Daisy Kingdom teaching days ( 1992-1994).  The one on top was the sample that hung in the store to advertise the class.  The second was the one I pieced while demonstrating as I taught the class.   If I remember correctly, I used a pattern handout from the Daisy Kingdom files.  This was the first class I ever taught for them.

Pieced in 1992, finished in December, 2005 - the first quilt I did freehand with my new longarm

Pieced in 1992, finished in January, 2006 - the second quilt I did freehand with my new longarm.

At the time I made these, I was still using a VERY limited number of fabrics in a quilt, because I was afraid to try more.  I picked a "theme" fabric, then chose a "go along with" fabric and a background fabric.  Picking fabrics to go together was still a big challenge.  I can't imagine piecing a quilt like this now - my tastes have changed and my courage to put fabrics together is hundreds of times stronger.

Both of these were given to charity, though I'm not sure which one.  I think they may have been sent to Hurricane Katrina victims.  Or I might have given them to the Northwest Medical Teams quilt auction committee.  I just can't remember - I wish I'd written it down.

Another postage stamp top completed

Tuesday night I ripped out the incorrect stitching, but I didn't have a chance to work on the top until today. I did put all the blocks, sashing, and cornerstones on the design wall to make sure I stitched it correctly this time. It isn't exactly the same as the Evelyn Sloppy quilt, but that's OK - this is how I envisioned it when I first got the idea from the picture of her quilt. I've never made sashing and cornerstones like this before, and I really like how it looks. I wouldn't be at all surprised if I used this setting again sometime. This top took 24 blocks - exactly how many I had. How's that for luck - since I certainly didn't plan for it to happen! The borders are wider than I would usually make, but I had to make them that wide in order for the quilt to be the required size for Hotel Hope quilts.

Now I'm finishing backings for both this top and the top I finished last Monday, as well as for the one top hanging in my closet that has no backing. So I should have a good stash report on Sunday - hooray!

Charity Top Completed

After all this time I should be able to better estimate how quickly I can finish something. My goals for last weekend look really amusing right now - I sewed all weekend and still didn't finish this charity top, much less get any other tops quilted. Turning the postage stamp blocks into giant churn dashes took a LONG time. I just finished adding the borders about 30 minutes ago. I still need to piece a backing.

So - one day late - here is my weekly stash report. I bought nothing! I was tempted several times but didn't cave in. As far as usage - I estimate the fabric needed to complete this top - churn dashes, sashing and borders is approximately 3-4 yards. So this week I have a net loss - hooray!

Much to my surprise, when stitching the rows of 6, 2" squares together, I completed 24 additional blocks above the 20 needed for this quilt. So I have plenty left for a second charity quilt. I'm going to put those together in a slightly different manner - one that should - hopefully, any way - take less time that it took to finish this one.

And I still have hundreds and hundreds of 2" squares. I think this time I'll create some 4-patches while using them as leader-enders.

Hmmm . . . I think this will be OK

I'm still not sure about this sashing. I wanted something to bring some life to the top. I tried a much brighter orange Moda Marble but it was too bright - took all the attention away from the blocks. I like this sashing, but now the whole quilt looks just a bit dull. Now that I see this much finished I wish I'd used a whiter background fabric for the pseudo-churn dashes. Oh well - I'm not ripping. This is a charity quilt, and I'm sure someone will love it. Now to finish 16 more blocks and then get it all together into a top.

We were supposed to head to Newberg tomorrow to celebrate Chelsea's birthday, but Sophie has started running a fever. Sure hope it's not the same stuff that brought Joseph's other grandma down for the last two and a half weeks! So I guess I have the entire weekend to sew after all. Hopefully I can finish this top, make a back for it, and get at least three or four quilts quilted. A tall order - I will actually be happy if I can get half of that done!

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all

Today we will have both sets of kids here all day plus Sophie of course - I can't wait! People should start to arrive during the next hour or so but I wanted to post this quickly before they get here.

I've completely finished the two quilts that I quilted last Thursday - hooray! And I used up lots of short pieces of leftover binding so my drawer of bindings is empty except for a couple that are waiting for a specific project to be quilted. This means all my Hotel Hope contributions are finished and ready to turn in on December 6th. It gave me great satisfaction to cross these two off the list on my sidebar and add them to the completed total for the year.

In analyzing how I'm doing - now that the end of the year is drawing close - I've decided that I've done well and not so well at the same time LOL!

I've finished all but two of the new projects I started this year. That means I'll be adding only one new project to the list of UFO's for next year - the mid-century Album Quilt. I knew that would be a long term project since class goes through next March, so that is OK. The other one is Joseph's quilt, which will be quilted, bound, and labeled by the end of the year. This is what I count as successful - as most other years I've added considerably more to the UFO list.

The part that wasn't so successful was completing projects that were already UFO's at the beginning of the year. I finished only 6 of the projects that have been hanging around for several years, and gave another one away. That makes a total of seven - I was hoping to do at least twice that many! It's OK though - I spent time finishing what I started during the year and that's OK. There is always next year - when I should have LOTS more time - to finish more of these old UFO's.

For those of you who celebrate today - have a wonderful holiday!

Once I was allowed to sew again . . .

I really went to town! I didn't want to waste a single minute of my sewing time. I even got to do some machine quilting - the first time I've touched the longarm since I fell that fateful night in September. Here is what I've been up to . . .

Laurel Wreath block for my mid-century album quilt

Rose Tree block for the mid-century album quilt

Fireworks Quilt completed

Close-up of quilting

Latest string quilt for Hotel Hope - quilted, bound and labeled

Tomorrow I hope to quilt the other two string quilts for Hotel Hope. All of them are due at the guild meeting on December 6th, as a representative from Hotel Hope will be there to receive the 16 quilts.

I also have to get working on making gifts for my board. Traditionally the outgoing president makes a pin cushion or something similar for every officer and committee chair on her board. I've chosen what I'm going to make - now I just need to get started. Installation of new officers also happens on December 6th, so I must have the gifts completed by then. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

Checking in . . .

Sorry for the lack of posts. There isn't a whole lot to tell when I'm not allowed to do much!

I have done a bunch of reading ever since I hurt my arm, as I'm not restricted from turning pages. I finished reading all the way through the Tony Hillerman "Jim Chee" and "Joe Leaphorn" mystery novels. If you like mysteries and have never read Hillerman I suggest you run right out to the store or library and find one or two. The main characters are two Navajo tribal policemen. Many of the stories weave Navajo folklore and religion throughout the plot - a fascinating view into a culture and society that most of us know little or nothing about. Hillerman is not a Navajo, but has received awards from the Navajo nation for his portrayals in his novels.

Once I finished those books I started the J.P Beaumont mystery novels by J.A. Jance. I've read the first three so far - what a huge contrast to the Hillerman books! J.P. Beaumont is a police detective in Seattle, and it's been a lot of fun following the action through many familiar places, as I lived in Seattle the first 22 years of my life.

I've also done a small amount of stitching. The doctor said I could start very gradually after I'd totally rested my shoulder for a week or so. Good thing, since I'm heading out to a quilt retreat in a little over an hour! I'm going to be sewing the binding and label on the Fireworks quilt - I finished the hand quilting just before I was put back on "restriction". After that I'll have the following choices - hand quilting on another quilt that I started quilting on between 5-10 years ago and never went back to it, embroidering some dish towels, hand piecing some UFO blocks, or working on various appliqué blocks for my mid-nineteenth century album quilt. As this retreat has been scheduled for months and months, I whined enough to the doctor so she'd give me permission to stitch this weekend - as long as I stopped and rested if I felt pain. It's going to be so good to stitch again!

I did a bit of machine work yesterday while I was puttering around packing - I put the borders on the third string quilt. I like how this turned out, but I'm going to go back to the square diagonal blocks for the next string quilt because I like it better. This one is a perfect size for a Hotel Hope quilt. As soon as I get the go ahead I must get back to machine quilting. I have four Hotel Hope quilts that need quilting, binding, and labeling before the December guild meeting. That's when we are presenting the quilts to the representative from Hotel Hope.

Our excitement at having a new grandson her for Christmas was short lived. The kids got a message yesterday telling them that the holidays would delay the paperwork so they won't be able to go to Guatemala for Joseph until January. When in January we don't know - and we don't know whether there will be extra problems due to the Guatemalan government adoption of the Hague adoption treaty. We are all praying very hard that there won't be complications, and that we can have our little guy here early in January.

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Gratitudes:
1. Quilt retreats
2. Starbucks Christmas blend has returned.
3. Books to read
4. The gentle mist in the air today
5. Breakfast with a friend

I like it!

I slapped a bunch of Crumb Chaos blocks on my design wall this morning before I went to work. (Do any of the rest of you feel a need to touch fabric just a little in the morning before heading out?) I even took them down in pairs for sewing together and stitch three of them. When I got home today I finished stitching together the rest of them, webbing them the way Bonnie describes here. I've never tried this before, but thought it sounded like a good idea. It didn't go perfectly - somehow I managed to get the top row twisted just a bit - but the rest were OK. Bonnie's right - this IS a great way to sew a quilt together. All the blocks land where you want them to, they are all going the right direction - presuming you laid them out that way - and it's much, much faster than any other method. I'm going to be sewing my tops together this way from now on. Thank you Bonnie!

I need 288 blocks for a quilt for our bed with a long drop. I need 117 blocks for a Hotel Hope quilt or a camper quilt. With 1016 blocks I think I'm going to be busy sewing tops for quite awhile!

Another finished flimsy

Tonight I finished the second string top. This is the first time I've made blocks with a specific color and width for the first diagonal string. I really like how it turned out! I like the first one I made too, but there's just something about the strong diagonal statement the red strings make. I know I'll make more tops similar to this as I have so many remaining strings. For now, however, the strings will be put away in favor of finishing more projects. I have 1016 mile-a-minute blocks that need to be sewn into quilt tops - that's the next thing on the menu.

This weekend we went out to Long Beach, Washington and spent time with Rick, Rebecca, Jeremy, Chelsea and Sophie. We stayed at Chelsea's mom's family place. I didn't take any pictures, but here is a picture of the view from the living room that I took there the first time we were all together. This time our weather was marvelous - high 80's with very little wind. Unusual for the beach! Unlike in the picture, the beach trail was dry so we took several walks to the ocean. Sophie got to play in the sand for the first time - she loved it! It was a wonderful relaxing weekend - so relaxing that I totally forgot to get out my camera! Chelsea and Jeremy were taking lots of pictures, so hopefully they will share. It was great having a weekend to watch Sophie play and cuddle her when she wasn't too busy exploring her world.

I spent a lot of time in a chair handquilting and just enjoying everyone's company. This is the first time in several years that I've done any handquilting - last time I tried the arthritis in my hands gave me a lot of trouble. Not a problem at all right now thanks to my copper rings, so I took full advantage of it. Here is a picture of the quilt I am working on. I finished quilting all the blocks, and started working on the sashing. I'd already quilted the sashing 1/4" from both long seams. I took out the two cables I'd quilted - I didn't like them from the minute I put them in because they looked funny in between the two rows of 1/4" stitching - and quilted a straight line down the middle of the sashing instead. Much better looking and much faster! I'm confident I can finish quilting this one by the end of the month - that will be such a good feeling! I think I started quilting it at least 5-6 years ago.

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Gratitudes:

1. Wonderful weekend with family

2. A beautiful, healthy granddaughter

3. A walk on the beach trail with all my girls

A quiet Sunday

Just what I wanted. Except for the fact that the Mariners look like they are on their way to losing their 9th game in a row.

I'm stitching the sleeve on the last of the antique quilts. This is a log cabin in browns, creams and oranges. Rick said it's from the 1850's. It's a summer coverlet - no batting. Nevertheless it's "quilted" heavily in the ditch throughout. This one is in great shape - even the binding - except for a few logs in one part of the quilt. The repairs in this area are beautifully done but with fabric that was new at the time of the repair. I'm guessing that was the late 70's or early 80's because the fabrics are multicolored calicoes from that time. The repairs were done before the Center obtained the quilt; repair with these fabrics would never have been done by someone skilled restoring antique quilts.

I'm also moving full steam ahead on the string blocks. I've now completed 68, with 20 more to go. I'm hoping I can get the top together today - or at least finish all the blocks. I'm getting a bit tired of ripping off paper so I'm eager to try something else with the strings. Speaking of strings - I'm sure mine have been having reproductive orgies in the dark of the drawer - I know when I started that there weren't nearly this many. They won't even behave and stay in the drawers - they insist on spreading themselves all over my floor!

Gratitudes:
1. The gentle breeze blowing this morning
2. Chunky peanut butter on toast
3. Sleeping in
4. No end to quilty possibilities
5. Antique quilts

This and that

I've been looking forward to this holiday weekend for days now. I have at least three times as much planned as I'll have time to do I'm sure LOL! This is the first weekend I've had to sew since I completed the sewing room and the never ending stack of mile-a-minute blocks. I've sewn sleeves on two more quilts and have only two more to do. There are at least two others that are currently on display and won't come down until the middle of the month so will have to wait for them.

I had a surprise waiting for me when I unwrapped the third and fourth "quilts". They weren't quilts at all! I have no idea how to date either one of them, but since they belong to the Interpretive Center I'm guessing they are both from sometime in the 1800's.

The first "quilt" is a black and red plaid woven coverlet made of wool. The interesting thing about this textile is the fact that at some time it was sliced down the middle and then sewn back together. It also has a wide black binding made of heavy cotton. I'm guessing the binding was added later for some reason - I've never seen pictures of this type of woven coverlet with a binding. The edges along the one seam allowance look like they might have been the edges of the piece before it was sliced in half, so I'm guessing that the binding was put on after the pieces were seamed together because the outside edges were the cut edges and likely to fray. The top and bottom binding feels like the edge of the coverlet is inside, whereas there is no ridge to feel inside the side bindings. I'd love to know the story as to why it was cut in half and then later sewn back together.

The second "quilt" is a fuzzy wool blanket that was woven in the textile mill that was in Oregon City on the banks of the Willamette River. It is reversible in that one side is red with black and cream stripes while the other is cream with black and red stripes. It has obviously seen some hard use. I'm sure it was beautiful when it was new.

This morning I'll stitch the sleeve on the fifth quilt. It's an appliqué quilt that I'm guessing is from the 1840's or 50's. It was a red and green with touches of gold when it was new, which is very typical of that period. The applique is beautifully done, as is the quilting. The red fabric in the love apple appliqués is deteriorating rapidly. The fabric of the rest of the appliqué is in fine shape, but the color has all but gone. When I started to unroll it I thought it was a whole cloth quilt because of the lack of color. The green and gold can still be seen in places - very faded now. The very narrow binding is so thin it's almost worn away. "C.J.S. Green ?" is written on a back corner in black ink. The ink is dark and clear - it looks like it was written much later than the quilt was made - maybe by an owner who was guessing as to who made the quilt.

As far as my own projects go I have several things planned. I've brought out my string blocks again as I want to get this second quilt top finished. Right now I have 42 finished blocks. I'm going to need almost twice that many for another Hotel Hope top. Once I finish this one I want to try some other things with my strings. I want to do the String X quilt on Bonnie's website, as well as a Chinese Coins quilt. There are also several quilts in Gwen Marsden's Liberated Strings book that I want to do. Good thing, as somehow my strings now fill two drawers. And here I thought I had only a partial drawer left!

I also want to get upstairs and quilt a few of my own tops. I'm supposed to have 3 UFO's finished by guild on Thursday for our UFO challenge, and so far all I have is the one table runner. My stash won't miss the fabric if I have to pay two fat quarter penalties - it's just that I hate to admit that I couldn't get more than one UFO done over the entire summer. Maybe I should take my Mile-a-Minute blocks for show and tell LOL!

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Gratitudes:

1. Fall weather is here!

2. Pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks

3. A new haircut

4. Time to quilt my own flimsies

5. A bacon and scrambled egg breakfast

Monday musings

Here are better pictures of the two quilts I quilted this weekend. The sampler is for Hotel Hope and the African quilt belongs to my friend Kim. Kim gave me another one to do also, but I'm going to return it to her. At least for now. It has huge expanses of plain white space in between simple blue and yellow star blocks, and I feel totally inadequate to do something like this yet. She wants fancy designs in the white empty spaces, which means I'll have to sew over prior stitching many, many times. I'm just not very good at that yet. If the print is busy it hides it a bit - also, on my own quilts I figure I'm practicing. I know every stitch will stand out on that white background, so I'm going to be honest and tell her I just can't do something like that. Not until I have put in much more practice time than I have up until now.

Which means after Tangled Threads tomorrow night there will be no flimsies in the house to quilt except mine - hooray! I'm hoping to get both Joseph's quilt and my first string top quilted this next weekend so I can cross two more off my list. Time will tell.

In the meantime tonight I stitched and trimmed and stitched some more, fitting together oddball parts and blocks for my "Orphan Train" quilt. I decided to stitch some of the smaller bits to strips that I pulled sight unseen from my strip drawer so it felt like I was making mile-a-minute blocks at least part of the time. I watched the first Harry Potter movie while I worked. My goal is to watch the first four movies again before the next one comes out in July, as well as listen to the first six books before the last one comes out. They are good things to stitch and quilt by - I've seen and heard them so many times that I don't have to pay really close attention.

This is going to be a busy week at work - a good thing as the time should go quickly. I can hardly wait until the weekend so I can put one of MY quilt tops on the machine!

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Gratitudes:

1. Healthy Chinese take-out for dinner

2. A good medical prognosis for my new supervisor

3. Sophie "passing" her four month check-up with flying colors

4. Perfect June weather - not too hot

5. The successful conclusion of Fred's 38th year of teaching

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Another charity top quilted

I'm very happy to report that I finished quilting another charity top tonight. This one was made by another guild member too. I love 30's fabrics so I volunteered to quilt this one and another one just like it. The pantograph I chose is called Angel Wings but I thought it looked like butterflies. I really like how it turned out. Someone asked about the piano key border so I took a close-up of the top corner. The border is on the top and bottom only, and ties in very nicely with the Chinese Coin piecing.

Completing this means I'm half done quilting the charity quilts for now. Besides the twin to this one I have my own string top to quilt. I'm saving that one for last as I'll have to bind it also. It will count as another UFO finish for both the guild challenge and the Stashbusters challenge. Finishing UFO's is a very good thing!

I'm still way behind on my blog reading due to having so many quilts to quilt this month. I don't want to rush through it and miss important things, and I think it's important to comment at least once on most all of the blogs I read. If you've not seen a comment from me that probably means that I still need to get to yours. First I started at the beginning of the alphabet, then at the end, then in the middle. The next time I get a chance to read I think I'll be starting in the middle again - maybe about the L's. Hopefully by the end of next weekend I can get caught up with everyone.

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Gratitudes:

1. A beautifully weeded, trimmed and edged front yard.

2. All the different spring greens in the flower beds

3. The ease of crock pot cooking

4. Breezes through the moon roof on the CRV

5. Working from home stretched out on the couch using the laptop

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Finally some progress . . .

This morning I actually loaded a charity quilt for Hotel Hope on the longarm and got it quilted. This bargello quilt top was made from a UFO that one of the guild members donated to the cause. She made the top years ago when she lived in Alaska and had little access to fabric. Years later she decided she hated it and would never finish it as the colors weren't her colors at all. Another guild member added the borders around the bargello area and then the blocks across the top and bottom to make it long enough for the bed. I love the way this turned out - the blocks she added compliment the center nicely. I quilted it in a simple meander so it didn't take all that long.

When I finished this one I loaded a second top - this one is a Chinese coin variation done all in 30's reproduction fabrics with a piano key border. The back is also pieced from large squares of 30's fabrics. I really like this one because it is so light and spring-like. I'm doing a butterfly pantograph which also makes me think of spring. I'll post a picture of that one when it is finished - hopefully by tomorrow night!

I got a nice call from my son just before noon with Mother's Day wishes from all three of them. Then Rick and Rebecca came over about 4:00. We went to a speciality pizza place downtown - they have the best pizza around! - and then played Hand and Foot. The ladies won, which was nice for Mother's Day - but only because Fred missed playing a crucial card which would have ended the second round and prevented us from collecting an additional 1500-2000 points. Since the spread at the end of the game was a close 510 points we would have lost if he'd not made this crucial mistake.

I hope all you mothers in blogland had a wonderful day - whether you are mothers of two legged creatures or dogs and cats or have a DH who needs a lot of mothering. It was a very lovely day here. Tomorrow it's supposed to get up to above 80 - a sure sign that we are approaching the middle of May.

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Gratitudes:

1. Wireless connection for the laptop

2. A special Starbucks breakfast

3. A nice Mariners victory over the hated Yankees

4. The yummy smell of a roast in the crockpot

5. A new hanging flower basket from my kids

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Hotel Hope Quilts

Just a couple more pictures then I'll call it a day. I need to get to bed early as I've been unable to nap today in spite of being so very tired.

I took a picture of the finished sashed string top. I moved the coffee table, rocker and wing chair out of the way so I could lay it out flat, then I carefully stood on a dining chair to get the best shot I could. As it was I had to hold the camera above my head and guess at the centering. I took 8 shots and this was the best. (The dog wandered into a couple of them so that disqualified them right away.) I was afraid I'd fall getting down as my wool socks were slippery on the bare wood of the chair but I managed OK.

With the addition of a row of large blocks on both the side and the bottom it is now big enough. I decided not to put an outer solid black border on it because I didn't want it to be too big. Hopefully I can get this quilted and bound in the next couple weeks. I also have three tops done by others in the guild that I need to quilt. Hotel Hope is going to be a colorful place very soon!

The second picture shows the label I stitched onto the back of the Postage Stamp quilt. Our guild member with the embroidery machine is still trying out design ideas. We want to include the star block as it is the symbol for our North Star guild.

Strips and Strings

No new pictures in today's post because I was so busy sewing yesterday that I forgot to take any! Everyone made great progress on quilts for Hotel Hope. I finished the string blocks for my string quilt and sewed it all together - and discovered I need to put very wide borders on it or sew more blocks. (I put up an old picture of the project so you'll know what I'm talking about.) Our Hotel Hope quilts need to measure at least 63" x 87" and mine is about 15" short in each direction. I don't think it can handle borders that big so I'm going to be doing some more blocks. I also brought home two tops with batting and backing that others finished - I'll do a large meander on the longarm and then return them to the makers for binding.

I'm sewing my string blocks on old phonebook pages as recommended by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville. The other 6 quilters who were at the Hotel Hope sew-in were fascinated by what I was doing, as none of them had ever made any string blocks. By mid-afternoon they all decided they wanted to try but most of them claimed the didn't have many strings at home. One new member in particular has no scraps as she's just gotten back into quilting. I told her to grab a handful or two from my box as it still seemed clear full and I had another tote full also. She did just that, and then a couple others asked if they could take some. I said sure, why not. In the meantime one of them had been cutting lots of strings from donation fabric we were given - making them wonky uneven widths because they liked the looks of mine. She tossed all the strips into my box so everyone grabbed more. After another 30 minutes or so a couple others came over and asked for strings. The box was getting noticeably emptier but I said sure - as I figured there were still lots. Well, by the time they were all done they'd emptied the smaller tote and almost emptied my box! I said "Whoa! I need some to finish my quilt! So they each brought back a handful or two, but still I went home with probably 25% of the strings I came with. It was so much fun watching them all get so excited about the strings! I can hardly wait to see what they come up with. I have a feeling there will be several string quilts in our initial Hotel Hope donation. And now my box is once again full because I dumped in a tote full of 7/8" strips and one of 1 1/4" strips.

Wednesday afternoon I'm leaving for quilt retreat with my PINS friends - I can hardly wait. This is a group of us that met on the Internet, and we get together for a retreat twice a year. If you'd like to read about our other retreats go to this post and this post and this post. We are once again in the basement of my favorite quilt shop Momma Made It for our spring retreat. This will be a huge test of my will power. I'm going to allow myself a small amount for shopping - after all, we'll be there four days and I'm certainly not a saint! I'm going to try to do way better than I've done in past years, however. I'm taking mainly scraps to work on - my strings, my 2" squares, my crumbs and two sizes of strips for sewing mile-a-minute blocks. I'm also taking all my orphan blocks plus a lot of other oddball leftovers as I thought it would be fun to design a "kitchen sink" quilt as all the classroom walls are covered design walls. Of course I'm taking hand quilting and hand appliqué also - just in case I get tired of sitting at my machine. I'll take lots of pictures and give a full report when I get home.

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Gratitudes:

1. Breakfast with all our kids and our new granddaughter

2. A brilliant daughter who fixed my computer problem that stopped me from downloading pictures.

3. At least a half dozen small totes and boxes now empty that used to be full of cut scraps.

4. Beautiful spring sunshine

5. Laundry that is almost caught up!

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The last stitch is taken

Tonight I put the last stitches in the binding of the Postage Stamp quilt. Hooray! Another UFO bites the dust! I really like how it turned out, except for the fact that I don't particularly care for the 8 oz. batting. I think it's a great charity quilt just as is - nice and large and comfy. Someone else in the guild is doing labels on her embroidery machine so I didn't have to worry about a label. I'll take it to the work party tomorrow to show the others.

For those of you who've not read the story of why I have baskets of 2" squares to use up, there are three links at the bottom of this post that tell the story.

Tomorrow we have an all day work session, so I'm taking my strings to sew. I hope to finish piecing the string top tomorrow, plus start the blocks for a second string top. I have so many strings in that box to use up!

Time well spent

I'm happy to report that I had a nice productive weekend. I quilted the postage stamp quilt, made the binding and machine stitched it on, and got one of the long edges all hand stitched. I had to clear off my cutting table in order to trim the batting and backing even with the edge of the quilt, so I put all the scraps I'd cut into the proper containers. I'd cut a lot of half square triangles of lots of different sides in addition to strips, squares, crumbs and strings - I matched them all up into pairs, stitched them together, pressed the seams and trimmed them to size. The little half square triangle squares went into the crumb box and the bigger ones went into the drawer of orphan blocks. Lots of rectangles cut from leftover strip sets also went into that drawer. I'm getting a nice collection there so will start putting them into a charity top before too long. I pieced a backing for the bunny rabbit flimsy that I showed you a few days ago, and started pinning it onto the quilting machine. I'll finish doing that tomorrow night, and may even start the quilting.

I found the pattern and templates for Grandmother's Choice in my filing cabinet, and the rest of the backing fabric in my fat quarter stack of backgrounds. Plenty to make two more blocks so I can make them into a 3x3 quilt. I'm eager to working on that one - the bright colors are so pretty against the white. I'll hand piece these two blocks like the rest of them were done - some relaxing work for Tuesday night quilt group. I tucked the spring blocks back into the drawer they came from - I'll think about them another day. I also tucked away the 30's blocks, along with Around the Block with Judy Hopkins. I've marked a bunch of 6" blocks with post-it's that I'll make to add to what I have. I'll have a quilt big enough for a baby quilt or a decorator throw for my little bench in the entry way.

I have a friend on the east coast who is wanting to make some Amish inspired quilts who was talking about shopping for solid colors. Since my solid color fabrics have been sitting on the shelves upstairs for years and years - I very rarely use solids in quilts any more - I told her I'd pull all the Amish-looking colors and send them to her. I'm happy to report that was about half my stash of solids - hooray! I completely filled two $8.10 priority mail boxes - stuffed to the max - plus a $4.05 priority envelope. Took them back to the PO Saturday afternoon. Talk about busting stash - what a great feeling!

I even finished switching out my dishes! I can't believe we were still using our "Winter Dishes" - I refuse to call them Christmas dishes since this year we used them until March. I normally put them away early in February - since the design is holly I figure it's not strictly Christmas - but I've been too busy sewing and visiting with Jeremy, Chelsea, and Sophie. Never mind that we were still drinking coffee, tea and cocoa out of Santa Claus mugs - minor details, right? Now the regular dishes are back out - just in time for our balmy spring-weather day. M-60's outside and mid-70's in the house even without any heat turned on. No wonder I was way too warm in bed last night!

I hate to write a post without pictures. Since I didn't take any pictures of anything I did this weekend. I'll leave you with a couple new pictures of Miss Sophie.

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Gratitudes:
1. Puffy batting quilted up fine on the machine
2. Short sleeve weather
3. More light in the evening - I'm one who likes daylight savings time
4. Fresh baked sourdough bread
5. More stash busted

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