Organizing, Donating, Quilting, Reading

It's the usual. 

Last Friday was when my she-cave closet was too much of a mess to continue to ignore. I'm not one who enjoys organizing, but sometimes it just has to be done. 

The mess got worse before it got better. 

I found a box of quilting books and patterns I thought I'd already donated, an empty tin, a partial skein of yarn, and several other small items like an old plastic tack basting gun. Remember those?! When our weekly Big Cypress Quilters group starts meeting again, I'll donate it all.

When reorganizing fabrics, I even noted which piles are where - multi-brights, stripes, novelty prints, ombrés, and wide backs. The rest of my stash is in another cabinet.

It was good to revisit what I have, and count only six WIPs. Four are long-term projects that I will pick up again - a failed original design; hand-piecing; embroidery; and English paper-piecing. Two are small items that only need to be sewn into their final form - a pillow and a wall hanging. Neither have a home... so why bother finishing? 

These blocks were in a set-aside pile - another failed attempt to create an original design. When I looked at them, I couldn't help but notice that these blocks are mostly the same colors as the blocks I recently made for the Boulder MQG improv challenge! Aquas with yellow, and a strip of tiny pieced rainbow colors inside. 

So I tossed a few of them on the design wall with the improv blocks. Maybe I'll be able to do something with them. These are by no means arranged,  but will do for visual contemplation until I decide how to begin joining them. 

This Canvas Pencil Pouch, a free pattern and tutorial from Anna at Noodlehead is a recent finish. 

That turtle batik-looking fabric was given to me. I paired it with a piece of linen that I hand-embroidered, and will gift the pouch to the person who gave me the fabric.

I chose linen fabric for the inside, but covered it with adhesive-backed, iron-on vinyl before sewing it together. Now, whether it's used for pencils or cosmetics, the inside can be wiped out.

This week our Big Cypress Quilters group hosted a "shower" for Children's Home Society of Florida. We've done this before, and had hoped to do it in person again this year. However, given the pandemic, donations were collected to be delivered.

I unearthed a couple quilts that were made at least 12 years ago. Yes, it is terrible that I still have them and haven't already given them away!

I hung onto them in case I'd need them as teaching examples in a beginner quiltmaking class. This quilt is about "how to sew half-square triangles." It's high time to give it away. Very traditional, isn't it? Those borders! Well, once upon a time, this is the only kind of quilt I made.

47" X 59"

I began honing my free motion quilting skills by quilting lots and lots of donation quilts. I can't emphasize enough how valuable it was for me to keep making, quilting, and giving quilts away. This quilt was stipple-quilted in the center, with loop-de-loos for the border. Thread is rainbow variegated.

This "angel" quilt - and I do use that term loosely - was meant to teach how a combination of 3-1/2" X 3-1/2", 3-1/2" X 6-1/2", and 6-1/2" X 6-1/2" fabric cuts could be combined to create a shape.

42" X 48"

It was intended as an example of using a minimal amount of machine quilting, and ties. Many of my beginner quiltmaking students owned only a basic sewing machine, so it was important for them to learn how to tie a quilt, which I think is especially appropriate for a child's quilt. 

On Monday I began quilting my long-waiting Linda Nova (Tula Nova) quilt. 

I began with walking foot quilting, working from the center outward to stabilize the quilt sandwich. I've learned that the puffiness of wool batting may cause some shifting between safety pins. This walking foot quilting should eliminate that. 

Custom quilting is next, though not as much as on my temperature quilt! I'm not up for that again!

For weeks, I've been no good at choosing good books! Remembering that decades ago I enjoyed Danielle Steel book, I read Beauchamp Hall (pronounced Beecham). It's about Winnie, a middle-aged woman living in small-town Michigan, sharing her house with her 11 year-long boyfriend, and working a dead-end job. After Winnie watches a British TV series called Beauchamp Hall, she begins to question her life, and dream of more. When everything she knows turns upside down determines to pursues her dream, travels to England, and through a series of being-in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time moments, she begins to find happiness. If you're a fan of Downton Abbey, you'll figure out that that Beauchamp Hall is Downton Abbey.  Really, this is a fairy-tale story. Predictable. Happily ever after.

Linda's score: 2.8/5.0 

I did a whole lot better choosing this book! The Look-Alike by Erica Spindler that kept me enthralled. I listen to it in two days!

College student Sienna Scott literally stumbles across the body of a dead young woman. When the killer isn't found, Sienna is sent to London to live with her grandmother. After 11 years away, she returns home to live with and care for her psychotic mother... just as the murder investigation is reopened. Sienna questions her mother's certainty that their house is being watched; relives the murder scene and conversations; and pursues her own hunches. Jonathan, a handsome home-flipper working at the house across the street, attracts her attention. Does she now have another suspect?

This story kept me guessing, though I was certain I knew who did it. I sure like this kind of engaging story. Linda's score: 4.2/5.0

I'm wondering how everyone is holding up through these days of slowly being released (phase 1 to phase 2) to activities. I got a haircut! Who knew that would feel so good?! I also visited my cardio-vascular doc for a put-off blood test (more extensive than routine blood work). Even these small steps away from home have felt good. Hopeful. Are you feeling a small amount of hope too?

Pastor Mike shared this during last Sunday's sermon.  The man knows how to preach! Go here to watch. 

Linda

Scrap-Handling and Such

Since finishing my temperature quilt, I've only been sewing scraps.

SnapScrap Quilt

I've completed 80 6-1/2" square blocks in eight colors. I'm not sure how many blocks I'll make, but definitely want a large quilt. I'll make some neutral-colored blocks, and will repeat colors for which I have lots more scraps - orange and yellow for sure.

Improv Challenge Blocks 

On my design wall are blocks made from weekly prompts given by the Boulder MQG.

This is week 8: Triangle. It's the last prompt. 

All the blocks on the design wall make quite a mish-mash! Given that every single block came from a bin containing solid scraps from other projects, I'm pretty pleased that I could use-up like this. You'll probably notice that pieces within the blocks are pretty small. By the time I got to those triangles (above), I was really scrounging to come up with scraps that were of a useable size!  

Certainly, in order to make this mash look like something, I'm gonna have to cut into yardage to give some visual distance between blocks. I need to add "resting places." Hopefully this approach will also make for a larger quilt. It''s about 50" X 50" now.

In the evenings I've been adding to my strip-braided rug. The larger it gets, the more slowly it comes along. It's 18" X 22" so far, and this is as far as I can go for now. I've used up all my saved strips from which I could extract 2"-widths! No! Please don't offer me any of yours! 😂

Last Friday I made my first venture into a retail store since mid-March. Sew Together is nearby. While the shop was closed for quarantine, they added online shopping to their website. I'd been admiring these modern fabrics: Moongate by Christina Cameli for Maywood Studio. I first saw these fabric designs last September when Christina A Few Scraps came for a Central Florida MQG program and workshop, and stayed with me. She showed me Moongate designs on her computer, and then swore me to secrecy until their release!

Ombré fabrics in the Moongate collection are prints!

Anticipating the arrival of our federal incentive check (it hasn't yet), last Friday I "gave back to my community" by supporting Sew Together. I might have indulge myself a little bit too, adding to my stash 15 pieces, for a total of 15 yards. Ooo.

During lots of scrappy-piecing time, I listened to three books.

At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen is about a young married couple, Ellis and Maddy from Philadelphia who are indulgent and self-centered. They travel to the UK with a friend where they encounter wartime anxiety and drama. The story evolves after their arrival in Scotland where Ellis and his friend set to prove the existence of the Loch Ness monster. Maddy faces discovery and sadness - pretty-much a hodgepodge of emotions. The author seemed to try too hard to touch on every type of intriguing storyline. 

Linda's score: 2.8/5.0

Somehow I was on the "edge" with this title too: The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris. A young orphan boy in Ireland, Shan Keagan, is struggling to survive with his drunken uncle. Upon learning about his real father, he's determined to go to the US find him. The ocean crossing proves tragic, and Shan is forced to find a new life for himself in New York City. His talent and natural ability to sing and mimic others gets him on the stage. When he inadvertently engages with a crime mob, he ends up in San Francisco, and again creates another life for himself. This is an admirable story about resiliency in the face of loss.

Linda's score: 4.0/5.0

I've always liked books by Kate Wilhelm. Fullness of Time was a surprise because it's a novella. I listened to it one day while power-walking and piecing scraps.

It's about two women, Cat and Mercy, who have been friends since college. Cat produces video documentaries and enlists Mercy to help her research and collect information about a recently-deceased recluse, Hiram Granville, credited with thousands of patents. With the help of a technology geek, the women slowly begin to uncover Granville secrets: suicides, madness, and genetic narcolepsy. Or is it? The Granvilles are hiding something.

Linda's score: 3.8/4.0

As much as I continue to enjoy sewing, quilting, book-listening, and occasional chats with friends, I'm just about ready to break out. Aren't you? We haven't been engaging with the grandsons as much as we had been. The novelty of that has worn off. They're as tired of routine - Groundhog Day - as we are.

After reading rules for playing Gin Rummy, Dan and I have been playing many evenings. We learned the terminology: gin, knock, dead wood. I'm not much of a card-player, but I like it... probably because it's one of the few card games where I have half a chance of beating Dan!

On Monday I'm getting my haircut. So excited!

I usually get it cut every five weeks.

My last haircut was February 14 (before QuiltCon!), so it will have been 13-1/2 weeks!

My hair is still curly.

It looks like a bush! Linda

Temperature Quilt Finish

Is it possible to be thrilled to have finished a quilt, but be so tired of working on it that you almost don't like it anymore? That's how I feel about my 2019 temperature quilt.

2019 Temperature Quilt, 72" X 84"

Starting in January, 2019, I made each block according to daily high and low temperatures recorded at a Wunderground.com weather station belonging to a homeowner who lives on a street behind my house. This is the color key I used, though this version didn't happen until summer, when the temperatures got higher than I anticipated! I began with 20 colors, but by mid-summer, I added the three colors at the top of the range for a total of 23 colors. Every color is in the quilt.

These four-inch Drunkard's Path blocks, cut using a Classic Curves Ruler, are arranged in a vertical "snake" layout, and hand-embroidered with the month number on the first day of each month.

The direction of each convex curve is based on the previous day's high temperature. If the day's high temperature increased (from the previous day), the convex aimed up; if the day's high temperature went down, the convex aimed down; if it stayed the same, so did the convex, though the direction of the convex alternated. Confused? It made sense to me as I did it, and made these wonderful half-circles; quarter-circles; three-quarter circles; and waves.

Quilter's Dream Wool batting and more than 20 colors of Aurifil 50-weight thread were used for quilting. 

Thread colors in the top and bobbin were changed to coordinate with the rainbow ombré wideback by Hoffman. 

For quilting, I used my Bernina 770QE with the #72 ruler foot to ruler quilt all the straight lines and curves with Fine Line rulers, and Sew Steady echo guides. I filled in with free motion quilting.

After quilting for hours and hours, I stopped to figure out how much time I was spending on it. 

I determined that each 4" X 4" block took approximately 15 minutes to quilt.

Between changing thread colors; un-quilting and re-quilting the occasional curve or circle; and burying threads, 15 minutes is probably an accurate number. Multiply the time by 378 blocks on the quilt, and I spent 94 hours quilting. That feels about right. It was a lot! It gives me a perspective on the Peter Byrne's 2020 QuiltCon Best of Show with 150 hours of domestic machine quilting! See it here. 

Since the number of days in 2019 didn't work out to a complete quilt top, I added "temperature key blocks" along the right side of the quilt. Each color is machine-embroidered with the degree range it represents.

 

The unquilted white convex curve is the label. 

Binding on the sides is the Hoffman rainbow ombré, but I cut out the green section and replaced it with an aqua ombré. The top and bottom binding colors are solid orange.

A happy finish!

Linda

Scrappiness, and Temp Quilt

Sewing-wise, all I've been doing is handling scraps. Every bin and container of scraps has been touched and sorted through, with some pieces (not all!) pressed, re-chopped, added to piles, and sewn into usable pieces that will eventually become quilts. This is my happy workstation.

I went through two bins of solid fabrics to find every piece of aqua, and light and medium blue I could find so as to sew three more blocks for the Boulder MQG improv challenge. Last week's prompt was "curves."

Initially, I was concerned that my scraps were too small, but I managed to come up with these 9" to 10" improv curve blocks using fabrics only from the pile shown above. I used only scissors for cutting. I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out.

Alongside all those solid scraps is a TV tray's-worth of print scraps. Most of the bits are a result of chopping strips into useable pieces. They're sorted into piles by value: light, medium, and dark, and then joined into columns.

The trimmed strip pile on the left is bits put together in no particular order; the pile on the right is untrimmed strips pieced in value order - light to dark. I don't yet know what I'm doing with them, but sometimes I need mindless piecing like this.

From my scrap bins I also cut four sizes needed for a Snap Scrap quilt, as explained on the blog quiltsforthemaking. The basket on the right was almost full already of 2-1/2" X 2-1/2" squares that had no purpose, so I added more to it. On the left are the three other Snap Scrap block sizes needed: 4-1/2" X 4-1/2", 2-1/2" X 4-1/2", and 2-1/2" X 6-1/2" - the last size being the most difficult to come up with from my scraps. 

Then, I pieced Snap Scrap blocks. Each color is sewn into ten different 6-1/2" X 6-1/2" blocks using a combination of the four different patches I showed above. I found it expedient to sew two blocks at a time - no need to break thread in-between. I'm all about efficiency! Ha, ha. 

At my big Bernina 770QE I've continued to quilt my 2019 Temperature Quilt. I stuck to my goal of quilting a minimum of six blocks a day, and did enough that when the end was in sight, I slogged through to finish quilting on May 4. Hooray! What a relief to be done! By my rough calculation, these 378 four-inch blocks each took 15 minutes to quilt (that counts any unstitching and re-quilting, and tying and burying threads), so I spent at least 94-1/2 hours quilting this! No wonder I'm sick of it. 

This morning I hand-washed it in the utility sink, then set it to spin in the washing machine. Have to admit that bits of the fluffy Quilter's Dream wool batting was everywhere. But I adore the texture wool batting creates.

After cleaning the tile floor, I laid the damp quilt on it, measuring multiple times to square it up/block it. I tugged and patted it so when I measured diagonally, from corner to corner, both directions, the numbers were equal (90-1/2").

I also used my laser square to make sure block edges were straight. I pulled and patted those into place too.

I'll give it another day to dry and then add ombré binding. I showed Instagram followers different binding options, and by a "score" of 46 to 21, they helped me decide that the best choice is a rainbow ombré binding, rather than a black and white striped binding. 

I've had a problem lately finding good books, especially after so many fantastic reads in 2019! Last week I began listening to two different books that I didn't finish. It's unusual for me to not finish a book, however, the first book had so much profanity and innuendo, I couldn't handle it; and the second book sounded so familiar that after a couple chapters, I realized I'd listened to it several years ago! Argh. So, I began a third book, and this is it.

Waking Up in Dixie by Haywood Smith is about the Whittington family, and their high profile lives in Whittington, Georgia. Elizabeth is the long-suffering wife of Howell, an unfaithful husband; their two children, one of whom is extremely selfish and ungrateful; and Elizabeth's mother-in-law, the witchiest woman I've ever encountered. Howell's offensive behavior changes  dramatically as the result of a stroke. He comes out of a coma a different man with a personality and behavior so drastically different that the entire family has a difficult time accepting him. Howell's mother isn't happy with the man he has become - a man whose renewed faith in God compels him make amends for past wrongs. A couple sections in the story seemed unnecessary - I couldn't find the point in including them - but overall it was a pleasant listen.

Linda's score: 3.5/5.0

Our governor's orders that begin to lessen quarantine restrictions, haven't changed anything for us. Locally, the swimming pools have reopened with enforced restrictions limiting pool time to one hour; lounge chairs six feet apart (couples cannot sit together); and mask-wearing. I don't need to go to a swimming pool that desperately! My exercise time continues to be happily spent doing Leslie Sansone "Walk Away the Pounds" videos with hand weights, and power-walking. Through quarantine, I'm discovering that I've become a home-body. With a wonderful hobby like quiltmaking and sewing, how could anyone not be content? Linda

Ukulele Music

May 2 is National Play Your Ukulele Day! Here you are. Linda