Messy Making, and Confetti Pouches

Since finishing two Diagonal Scrap Quilts (pictures coming soon), I've dug into a new, must-do quilt project.

In January, Central Florida MQG announced the Pick-a-Decade Challenge, due in November. We're to choose a decade - any from 1900 to 2000 - to make a quilt inspired by that decade's color palette and design aesthetic. I've procrastinated about getting started.

The decade I selected is the 1950s because: 1) it's the decade I was born; and, 2) I like the designs popular during that era - starbursts, boomerangs, and atomic-looking shapes.

So off I go, trying to use a few of these colors and the above designs to make a big quilt.

 

Attempting to create the upper right design - a large circle surrounded by spokes with 12 smaller circles. I started by making ¼"-wide bias tape to appliqué around a small circle. What a fail! After consulting with a Central Florida MQG friend about alternate methods for achieving the look I want, I got down to work. What a mess.

The method I'm going with uses white interfacing to back, sew, and "pillowcase" a pink circle (turn it right side out), then fade and machine appliqué the pink circle to a black background. The process is repeated using black interfacing to back, sew, and pillowcase a second circle (turn it right side out) that's then machine appliquéd to the oyster-colored (Painter's Palette) background. It worked!

However, when it was time to appliqué the black circle, I was frustrated to discover I was out of black thread! I appliquéd with charcoal-colored thread instead, and itt doesn't look good.

Today I picked up two spools of black cotton thread from two different local shops. One is Wonderfil Konfetti (50-weight), and the other is Wonderfil Efina 60-weight. Good grief thread is expensive! I paid a little more than $21 for these two spools!

Anyway, I'm ready to make progress on this I-don't-know-where-it's-going, Pick a Decade Challenge.

At Big Cypress Quilters this week, those who participated two weeks ago in making confetti fabric, and turning their 11" X 14" piece into a zipper pouch, were asked to bring their finished pieces for a group photo.

It's great to see what everyone sewed using different pouch patterns.

Cindy couldn't join us, so sent a picture. I know for a fact that Cindy did a little "dumpster diving" at retreat to come up with the black and white piano keyboard print snippets.

Betty covered her confetti with tulle, rather than mesh. It look good too!

If you'd like to make confetti fabric, go here to my blog post to learn how to create it. Then follow one of these three patterns to turn it into a zipper pouch:

1) Simple, envelope-style Zipper Pouch tutorial by MellySews

2) Open Wide Zipper Pouch tutorial by Noodlehead

3) Zipper Pouch with Flat Bottom tutorial by Polkadotchair

On my June 13 blog post, Kara Kwilts suggested using BLACK mesh rather than white mesh on top of fabric snippets, I tried it. And I like it!

Did you note that I used twined fabric to make the zipper pull?

Everyone who saw the black mesh version of the pouch liked it. We all agreed that the mesh color choice may also depend on colors of your fabric snippets. Red mesh on Christmas scraps would be great! In any case, thanks Kara for your suggestion. We like black mesh too!

I finished the black mesh confetti fabric into a Wide Open Zipper Pouch by Noodlehead. 

Oh, and this week I made another round loom knitted cap. I can't help myself! 

This one was knitted on a 41-peg loom, following the Seersucker pattern, here on YouTube.

I hope you've had a productive week! Linda

Knitting, Posh, and Quilt of Valor

It's been a slow week. I didn't accomplish as much as I hoped, due to having shoulder and neck pain, first on my left side, then my right. I don't know what prompted this, but it made me take Tylenol and pause to recover. Pain has lessened enough to do housework. Ha! 

This week saw me start and finish two projects to be donated at Boomer Loomers,

On the left is a newborn-sized cocoon, and on the right is a cotton facecloth knitted in the moss stitch. 

As much as I desire I can learn to knit new things because I have all sizes of knitting needles! Back in the 1970s Mother made this vinyl knitting needle roll. It's 15" long.

Inside pockets are made from flannel and contain all the needles she used over the years. It's a creative storage piece, isn't it? If I didn't have it for size 6 needles, I wouldn't have been able to knit the facecloth. 

This week also saw me resurrecting a UFO started in April 2023 - Posh Penelope. The pattern is by Sew Kind of Wonderful, and uses the Quick Curve Ruler.

I made two blocks back then.

Though Posh Penelope has been on my to-do list, until I saw Elizabeth Occasional Piece Quilt blogging about making four blocks a month, I hadn't thought about working on it.

Now I'm on-board.

Last weekend I cut fabric for the remaining 40 blocks - a total of 1,344 pieces. 

Two years ago, I learned that making each block requires undistracted attention! There's piecing, then cutting, then piecing, and cutting. It's certainly not a suitable project for a quilt retreat.

In fact, between Elizabeth, and her friend who's also making blocks each month, it's been highly recommended I make blocks assembly-line style - better to repeat a step than change steps for Every. Single. Block. Following their suggestions, I'm making eight blocks at a time... and don't have yet have a block to show for it.

In other news, on Thursday I reconnected with a long-time quilt-y friend in Kansas City: Carla. If you've been reading blogs or blogging as long as I have (16½ years; 1,378 blog posts) you may remember her blog: Lollyquiltz. She and I met in person because we followed one another's blogs. Though she stopped blogging in 2018, she's still quiltmaking. Find her on Instagram at @lollyquiltz.

Anyway... 

On Thursday, Carla went to my dad's assisted living community in the Kansas City area. She was present when Dad, a 95 year-young veteran of the Marine Corp, and 50 other residents received a Quilts of Valor quilt - all pieced by Penny Moyer, and all quilted by one longarm quilter (I was unable to get her name.) 

Unfortunately, none of us three children knew this was happening, and therefore didn't attend. My heart overflows with gratefulness to Carla for taking time to meet Dad, and share in his presentation. Thank you friend! Linda

Making Confetti

More free motion quilting is happening, this time on my second version of the Diagonal Scrap Quilt. Because the piecing is so busy, I'm using a favorite all over design, "Swirl Hook," to quilt it. Swirl Hook is a quilting design created and shared by Angela Walters. Esther Frenzel @ipatchandquilt shows how to do it too. 

I'm sure you can't see it at all, but believe me when I say the quilting is coming along fairly quickly; I'm about half way finished. Threads are YLI 40-weight cotton variegated yellow on top, and Aurifil 50-weight yellow on the bottom, since the pieced backing has quite a bit of yellow. 

Round loom knitting this week was spent making these "Comfort Dolls," as shared in a YouTube tutorial by Denise @loomahat.

Since I didn't have any fiberfill stuffing on hand, I chopped up batting scraps to fill them. It's interesting that the first fella, on the left, seems shorter, probably because I chopped the batting and stuffed him more fully. The second, taller one is less stuffed, with diced batting. 

It's a great pattern for using yarn scraps, and "futzing" to add features, if you enjoy that sort of thing.

My other make this week was completing my first diamond painting. It was easy and fun to do especially after my new carrying case (with 60 bottles for drills) and rechargeable vacuum pen arrived. 

Boy though, this is difficult to photograph! I tried, without success, multiple iPhone settings, trying to capture the way the diamonds glisten. Suffice it to say that every place where you see a grain of white... that's light refraction. A finished diamond painting shimmers and is very pretty. I will shop for a 6" X 6" frame at Hobby Lobby, so I can hang it. 

On Tuesday, I shared with some members of Big Cypress Quilters, how to create confetti "fabric" that can be made into a zipper pouch. It's fun to see the different colors and combos of snippets each maker chooses to use. 

This is a close-up of the piece above. See the fish in the middle?

These are Christmas snippets. 

This one is triangle-shaped snippets only!

This maker was being very intentional about where each snippet was positioned. I asked her, "Where's the fun in that?!"

These are scraps from a quilt that was made predominantly with purple and yellow, and a bit of green.

This was my fabric! I put it out last month on the "I don't want it; you can have it" table. She cut it into snippets!

The day was fun for everyone, especially me who had the pleasure of sharing it with one of my 4-H friends. She came to our meeting to talk a little bit about the 4-H Club, show the quilt she'd made for our Quilting Guild of The Villages "Showcase of Quilts," in January, and also show and talk about the crocheting she does.

I brought along my sewing machine and notions, along with purple-colored snippets, so she could make her own confetti fabric to sew into a zipper pouch. She enjoyed using a rotary pinking blade to chop-up purple scraps.

As always, she's proven herself to be a whiz at the sewing machine. I'm happy to tell everyone, "She's my adopted granddaughter!" 

If you're interested in making your own confetti fabric, here's my blog post about it. It's easy peasy! Linda

Allsorts

Project-hopping continues, with progress being made. 

Quilting my black and white Diagonal Scrap Quilt has been at the forefront of quilting-related activities. It's always a small hurdle to figure out what to quilt, but thanks to Esther Frenzel and the many free quilting designs she shares on her blog and demonstrates on YouTube, I am inevitably able to find a design that suits the quilt I'm working on. 

I selected Esther's "Whisps" design for this quilt. I can't say I quilted the design perfectly, nor that it's consistent across the whole quilt, but it's good enough. With so much pattern in the quilt top, even quilting with white thread isn't very visible. 

Only from the back, when you zoom-in on a piece of black fabric, can you see the quilting. 

As of Saturday night, I finished hand-sewing the binding, and will share glamour shots soon. 

In the meantime, I'm still spending lots of time with round loom knitting. This past week I made two caps. The gray one is worsted wool yarn knitted on a fine gauge loom loaned to me by a friend. 

And my second shawl/scarf. This one is knitted with two yarns - a solid seagreen, and a variegated.

I donated all three items when I attended Boomer Loomers on Saturday. Now I'm using my 24-peg loom to make a Comfort Doll, following the YouTube video by Denise at Loomahat.

I also began diamond painting my first small, 6" X 6" canvas. I enjoyed working on it at the Diamond Painting club meeting, while chatting with a quilt-y friend. Diamonds aren't precisely straight, but good enough, I think. 

In any case, I admit I'm hooked. Drill storage bottles and a vacuum pen (for placing drills without using wax) are due to arrive soon.

I'm leaving you with this thought about friendships - something I heard about and then Googled. 

What do you think? Linda