Summer Break Projects - Part 2 - A Limerick Quilt

In early March, my daughter put together a Quilt-and-Read Along on Instagram. I had plenty of greens and lots of low volumes, and when Spring Break began, I was anxious for a project that did not include Google Meet, or screens of any kind. I started cutting. By the end of Spring Break, I had all the blocks made - or thought I did. And best of all, since I had the fabrics stashed already, this quilt (in my mind, at least) was "free".

Right before the end of the school year, I managed to get most of the blocks put together. This pattern looks so complicated, but when you follow Amanda's Limerick Pattern it's super easy. She gives great tips and directions for making this process go fast.

Once I finished the scrappy quilt, I decided the next job was to finish the Limerick quilt. The top was together after all, and it only needed borders. Unfortunately, whereas I thought I had all the blocks made, I had been wondering why I has so many low volume rows left over. The answer was that I hadn't made ANY of the low volume border blocks, and hadn't put the outside row of low volumes on the green blocks. Oops. And even worse, I had allowed the grands to create with the LV strip sets, and had even taken some apart for my scrap quilt, totally ignoring that voice in my head that said, "Are you sure???" It turned out OK, of course. I have bins and bins of scraps, and an entire 1 cubic foot bin of low volume scraps. Scraps were thereby obtained, cut up, sewn together, and placed in the correct positions on the quilt, and a (very large) quilt was born. It is currently sandwiched and awaiting its turn to be quilted. I love these greens. They are so fresh and clean. And the low volumes add so much dimension. If you want a tutorial on how to choose low volumes for your next project, check out @a.crafty.fox on Instagram. It's in her stories.

Metamorphosis Quilt

Another quilt I made recently was this Metamorphosis quilt by Lo and Behold Stitchery.  When I first saw the quilt on Instagram (in April maybe?), I was so excited about it, I had to go buy it immediately.  Naturally, it took me awhile to get started.  But finally, in July, I found this fun bundle of fabric I bought from Westwood Acres a few years ago and decided it was perfect for this quilt.  I used Kona Iced Peach for the background.

And then I heard that this was a tricky block to make, so I made a test block, which I seldom do.  This will likely become a pillow cover someday.  Voila! A butterfly.  (My husband says he thinks it looks like an hourglass, but what does he know?)

The curves play together nicely - I pin just the corners and the middle, since this is such a long curve.  i like to use my 1/4" foot with the guide on curves - it helps me make sure my seam allowance is exactly 1/4", which is important when you're sewing circles.

 The secret to this block is trimming the block exactly before you put it together.  Otherwise, the pieces don't fit and the block is wonky - and not in a good way.  If you're one that doesn't read instructions before you sew (raising hand,) this is one time you probably should.

There's not much room right at the center of the circle, and part of what is there gets trimmed off, but it does help make the block go together much better to have this little bit of excess.

I played with the layout a bit, both to make the quilt a bit more relaxed and because i wanted a larger quilt without giant borders.  I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out.  Now, to finish my HP blocks so I can get this baby quilted.

Sunny Side Up Quilt

In the middle of this Covid mess, my daughter made this quilt - mostly to cheer herself up, I think.   The response on Instagram was so positive that she created a kit so others could make it too.  (BTW:  This is the Sunny Side Up quilt by A Crafty Fox for Westwood Acres Fabrics, and you can see her version on her blog.)

Thankfully, I was lucky enough to be able to get a kit.  This was the perfect quilt to make in an incredibly hot, rainy July with all that is going on in our world.

Amanda had a cute photo on her IG feed and I tried to imitate it, but wasn't terribly successful.  So this is my attempt to be artsy.  BTW, Amanda has some great cutting suggestions on the pattern that make cutting super easy, and soooo fast!

First, lots of sewing and trimming Half Square Triangles.  The task is kind of tedious, but tedium is not always a bad thing.  If your hands are busy, your mind can seldom focus for long on disagreeable things.

One of the things my girly does very well is choose low volume fabrics.  I would never have been bold enough to use all of these fabrics together without them being in the kit, but don't they play nice together in the finished product.  I will be more daring in my fabric choices the next time I make a quilt with LV background, for sure.

Also the way she puts her 9-patch blocks together is so easy.  She cuts her fabrics into strips, sews the strips together, and each strip becomes a row.  SO much easier (and faster!) than cutting bits of fabric and sewing them together individually.

I was really excited about my first Bear Paw block.  Too excited apparently, since I put it together wrong.  It wasn't until I posted it on Instagram and had several people tell me it wasn't right (thank you friends!) that I realized it. 

So a bit of ripping and resewing and I was on my way.  I was actually very glad I posted the picture - that way I didn't have to remake all the blocks!  You can bet I was extremely careful to check the fabric placement before I sewed the rest.

As you can see, I couldn't wait to get my first row finished.  I'm always kind of flabbergasted that quilts created "on point" go together so strangely.  Amanda has a clever method for making the trimming easy as you create the rows that is just fabulous.  see those bigger blocks hanging off the rows?  Those make trimming the quilt evenly a snap.

Progress being made.  Blocks going together.  Obviously my board isn't wide enough.

Getting there.  At this point, the quilt is half finished.

And now, all it needs is trimming, which I did just a few days ago.  If it ever stops raining, I'll get my "quilt husband" to venture outside with me to photograph some quilts.

Treasure Map

I had every intention of blogging a bit after the ECMQG meeting on Saturday.  In my last post I mentioned how I hoped to get a whole bunch of quilts sandwiched.  I spent Friday making backs for 5 quilts, and managed to get four of them sandwiched.  But then on Sunday afternoon, my daughter sent me a pattern to test, and it was so gorgeous, I just couldn't wait! 

I made the first block right away.  Since this was a Treasure Map, and since when you look for treasure you look for gems and jewels, and since Anna Maria Horner's fabrics are all in such luscious jewel tones, I decided to dig into my jealously guarded stash of AMH loveliness to create these blocks.  I really think the blocks are stunning.  In fact, we had just finished our AMH fat eighth swap at the ECMQG meeting on Saturday, so it was just serendipity that this pattern uses entirely fat eighths, except for the background. 

I really only intended to make one block, but once I got started, I couldn't stop. 

The next thing I knew, I had four blocks finished.

And I have to say, the trimmings were sure pretty.

And the more blocks I made the more excited I got.

And I just kept making blocks.  And pretty soon, I was turning them out pretty fast...

And by yesterday afternoon, I had a finished quilt top.

I am really jazzed by this quilt.  The only problem is, it adds another unfinished quilt top to the growing stack of unfinished quilt tops!  Ahhh, well...

Oh, by the way, you can purchase the pattern here.

Swappy Stuff - Pouches and Baskets and Blocks, Oh My!

After my swapping hiatus earlier in the  year, I have finally decided that a bit of judicious swapping would be fun. One of the first swaps I signed up for this year was the 4S Swap.  Originally titled the Sweet and Simple Scrappy Swap, 4S just seems easier, you know?  This round was baskets following the Birch Fabrics tutorial.  Anyway, I was gifted with this lovely package from Amber_Crawley.  So, so fun!  The paper pieced balloon is just awesome.  And being that I have just reorganized my sewing space, fabric baskets are especially welcome.

And while the front of the basket is just spectacular, the back is just as cute.  Love that eyeglasses fabric.  And all the dots.  I'm always in love with dots.

My little basket turned out well, I think.  While cleaning my room, I found a half yard of Hello Petal Jump Rope that I had no idea I had.  It made a great focal square in the middle of my QAYG panel, and a fun lining too.  The rest of the QAYG is just out of the scrap bin.  I love creating projects from scraps - it makes me feel so thrifty.

I used a different fussy cut square on the back.  

Last month, our ECMQG swap was Friendship Baskets using the psiquilt tutorial.  I received this fun little bag from Elaine.

Apparently I neglected to take a picture of the one I made, but it was similar to this one I made last summer from some AMH Loulouthi selvages my daughter sent me.  I love using selvages - especially pretty ones.

I've been playing along in the Sewing With Friends swap for a couple of years now, and this time I am swapping with my good friend Leona.  We met for dinner the other night, so I had a chance to take her her pouch for this round.  I used a fussy cut from the Heather Ross Crafty Chloe line she did for Hancock Fabrics a couple of years ago, and quilted it with the Bernina zigzag stitch #4.

On the back, I just used a scrap of Denyse Schmidt fabric from JoAnn's.  In fact, this whole project - with the exception of the fussy cut square on the front, was directly out of the scrap bin.

I used a piece of pink I found in my recent housecleaning for the lining.

One of the fun swaps I'm in this year is the Handmade Birthday Swap.  I've been making these little pouches for the birthday girls, filling them with a few fun sewing goodies.  This is my latest one, made from Hothouse Flowers, by Mo Bedell.  I just love these colors.  They make my heart sing!  This is from a FQ bundle I bought from Westwood Acres when I visited a couple of months ago.

The ECMQG does a block lottery each month.  Everyone who contributes a block also contributes a dollar, and one (or sometimes two or three) lucky winners take home enough blocks to make a quilt.  This month we are doing a 12-1/2 inch carpenters square (swoon) block.  These blocks are 1/4 the size of Camille Roskelly's Swoon pattern, but they still have a big impact.

We're also doing a wonky star charity quilt made from Moda's Sphere fabric by Zen Chic.  This is the block I made. Can't wait to see the quilt when it's finished.

Last of all, I'm working on a quilt for my friend Leona.  Once I got the blocks for the Block of the Month nearly done, she decided she really didn't want the quilt after all, as it held difficult memories for her.  I've been feeling guilty for almost a year, so when she said she wanted this Lazy Sunday (pattern by Lee Chappel) quilt out of AMH fabric (Dowry and True Colors), I jumped at the chance to make it for her.  I've got the blocks done (all 112 of them!), and now just have to put the top together.  I think this quilt is going to be fabulous - all those rich colors will just take your breath away, I think.

So, that's what's been going on in the sewing room this week.  What fun things have you been working on?

Five Easy Pieces - Part II

Well, I never did get around to posting on the blog this weekend, did I?  I didn't get around to putting away those last few little things in my room so I could take pictures, either.  Guess this weekend wasn't very productive.  With that in mind, I'll share the second quilt top in my Five Easy Pieces series.  This is another of the quilts in my 14 in 2014 goal, and it is also one that I took to Stash Bash.  It came home with four of the five rows completed, but not finished.  I had bought some Free Spirit Aqua solid for the sashing, but I only bought 1/2 yard....   If it had been 5/8 yard, I would have had this finished.  It took less than an hour to complete the sashing once I got home.

Photo courtesy of WestWood Acres

While I was in Utah last Thanksgiving, my daughter asked me if I would be the pattern tester for her new quilt design.  Never one to turn down the opportunity to cut fabric into tiny pieces and sew it back together in lovely designs, naturally I obliged. But we had a little miscommunication, and the fabric I used for the background wasn't what she intended and I ended up re-making the blocks and bringing the original blocks home with me to make my own quilt.   This one actually hasn't been sitting in the WIP basket very long.

The pattern is Shiny Brite, designed by my very talented daughter.  I love how the stars in the sashing echo the stars in the block centers.  It makes a lovely Christmas quilt, sort of reminiscent of Christmas baubles hanging on the tree, isn't it?  The fabric is Just for Fun by Creative Thursday for Andover Fabrics.  As mentioned above, I used Free Spirit Aqua for the sashing (since I didn't have any more of the background fabric) and some red dots I had laying around for the star cornerstones.  Even though Amanda used matching sashing in the original and I loved it, I really like the contrast.  The aqua is subtle, but adds a bit of pizzaz I think. 

I'm really happy with this quilt top.  Can't wait to get it quilted!

A Crazy Weekend Tale... And a Winner Too

I know I'm late posting the winner of the April Showers polka dot bundle, and I'm terribly sorry.  It has been a wild and crazy weekend around the prsd4tim2 household.

I think I mentioned that it was WH's birthday this weekend.  So, we celebrated.  I had a big plan - Friday we would go out for an early dinner, then a movie, then home for cake and presents.  Except that somehow the plans always get altered.  WH didn't feel like a 5pm dinner on Friday, so we put that off until Saturday.  (Clever boy, getting to celebrate his b-day for 2 days, rather than just one!)

So Friday night we headed off to the movie.  We saw God's Not Dead,  a Christian film which, despite the decidedly un-grammatical title, was actually very good.  I always like a good movie that leaves the sex, violence, and innuendo out, and this one was perfect.  Not to mention that the message was something I'd like to see more of.  I honestly hadn't heard of the movie before Friday, but it was very enjoyable.  Afterwards, we decided we were hungry after all (or maybe it was just that it was 9:30 pm), so we had a quick (and cheap) dinner at Steak 'n' Shake.  Then we came home for cake and presents and a FaceTime call with our youngest, who hadn't been able to reach her daddy earlier in the day.

Saturday morning was full of errands (WH didn't tell me until Friday he needs a new suit - and quick!), LDS Conference, and a headache the size of Texas.  We finally did get our fancy dinner (and the best steak in Pensacola) on Saturday evening.  If you ever visit Pensacola, McGuire's is the place to go.  (Yup, those are $1 bills on the ceiling - the tradition is to sign them and hang them anywhere and everywhere; then about once a year they count them - for tax purposes - and move them all higher.)  A bit of local color.

Sunday morning, I had WH at the airport at 5 am and had just come home to take a nap when he said he wouldn't be able to get out of Pensacola, but there were seats on the Gulfport flight.  So we drove to Gulfport.   It's about 120 miles to Gulfport and takes about 2 hours from our house.  Usually when I drive him to Gulfport, I turn around and head right home, but this time something said to hang around, so I had breakfast, and sure enough, before I was finished, he called with the bad news that the Gulfport flights had filled up too (there were more than 30 seats at 8 am!) and he was going to rent a car and drive.  But the only place that had cars was Pensacola.  So we drove home and he finally got on his way about 4 pm, roughly 12 hours after the alarm went off.

Exhausting!

And then there was the plowing through 275 emails so I could read all the bloggy comments before I wrapped up this giveaway...  So here I am on Monday afternoon picking the winner of the FQ Bundle of April Showers Dots (kindly supplied by Westwood Acres Fabrics) that I should have done on Saturday.  So sorry.

Cue the drum roll...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

81 

Timestamp: 2014-04-07 21:43:52 UTC


Who is my good friend Jess from Australia, who said:

81  Jess @ Scrappy n HappyApril 2, 2014 at 4:31 AM

Surely I like you on FB! I will go and double check now :)

 So congrats to you, Jess!  I'm off to email you now!  

Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate my Blogiversary!!   I really enjoyed reading everyone's comments about their Easter traditions! 

It's my Blogiversary!

It's my 4th Blogiversary!!!  This little blog has come a long way since that very first post.  In fact, the very first post didn't even include a photo.  The photo above is actually from my second post about the Most Dangerous Cake in the World.  And if you were to go back and look at that first post, you would see that I really never - ever - had any intention of becoming a blogger.

But here we are some 4 years and more than 485 posts later.  I find that blogging is a great way to chronicle my crafty achievements, as well as document some family events.  And I've made some great friends through my blog, which is perhaps the highlight of it all.  You have all been so wonderful and supportive.  It warms my heart to know that I am not alone in this crazy quilty life.

To celebrate, let's have a little giveaway, shall we?    The prize will be a fat quarter bundle of Bonnie and Camille's April Showers dots from my favorite little fabric shop.  I've just opened up my first charm pack of April Showers, and I have to say, these dots are so fun!  I hope you'll love them too.

To enter:

1.  Leave a comment below and tell me your family's favorite Easter tradition.  If you don't celebrate Easter, how about a fun spring tradition your family enjoys. 

2.  If you're a follower of my blog (or become a follower) you get a second entry.  Just leave a second comment.

3.  For a third chance to win, head over to my Facebook page and "Like" it and leave a comment there, then come back and leave another comment (sorry - I'm not tech savvy enough to manage comments in two places).

WH's birthday is Friday, so we'll close the giveaway Friday, April 4, 2014 at midnight, and I'll choose a winner sometime Saturday.

Please be sure you are not a no-reply blogger.  You can leave your email in the comments if you're not sure (wendi dot mihalik at gmail, for example.)

Thanks again for visiting my blog and celebrating 4 bloggy years with me!
 

Stymied

After almost 2 full weeks of playing, I came home from church today determined to get caught up on some stuff, most notably the February and March bee blocks from the Modern InstaBee that I joined back in January.  There has just been so much going on, I hadn't taken the time to sit down and make these blocks.  But, as so often seems to happen, I was frustrated at every turn.  Both the February and March queen bees want Kona white as their background.

Do I have Kona white?  Nope.

I haven't bought any since I bought the bolt of Moda Bella White several months ago.

And they are not the same - I know, because I mixed them in a quilt and you can tell.  You can really tell.

So, tomorrow I will haul myself off to Joann's or my LQS and buy some Kona White, and get these boogers made.

I hope.

Yesterday at our ECMQG meeting, Diane did a demo and workshop on improv curves.  I've done some improv curves before, but our sew days at ECMQG are really fun, and I haven't been able to stay for awhile, so I dragged my baby sewing machine off to the meeting, and decided to play with the group.  I used 5 of my FQs from the warm FQ Scrap Pack I bought from Westwood Acres Fabric (those scrap packs are so fun!) and played with the curved piecing Diane showed us.  I managed to get my 5 blocks put back together before I left, but they were a little boring so I sliced them up going the other direction and put them back together again and this is what I ended up with.

No idea what to do with them now.

They kind of remind me of the Oh Fransson Crazy 9-Patch and Lattice Quilt  blocks

That I used to make this quilt (which was one of the first "modern" quilts I made and still one of my favorites...)

And this one, which was a charity quilt made from donated fabric (definitely not a favorite, but I didn't choose the fabrics....)

I'm thinking of squaring them up and maybe cutting them up again.  After that I'm kinda stumped.

But I'm open to suggestions...

So I spent the afternoon writing blog posts and surfing Pinterest.

Don't judge me.  {please!}