It's really for me

 This will start as a quilt picture dump of some of the quilts that I've finished over the past two years.  I finally have a computer with a full keyboard and that makes it more likely that I'll actually type a post.  Internet access via Kindle is just not a productive way of typing.  And I really don't like speech to text. I'm also hoping that after getting caught up in the neverending chaotic news cycles of the past four years, that calmness will now prevail and I won't feel like the nation is changing drastically by the time I get home from work. 

I tried posting things to instagram, but I truly don't enjoy it that much.  I like reading the stories.  I like the process (which is totally why I'm just dumping pictures on here without process posting).  I don't want statistics about how many people liked a photo that I posted.  Yes, I could find out how many people read a post or commented (if commenting was turned on), but truly, I write a post for me.  I can feel like I need to please others, or I can just spend the energy making sure I am happy with what I am doing.  

So, here I go.  

Heather Ross Cut and Sew Baby quilt.  Used the tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew.  

Colt baby quilt.

Chopsticks quilt by Jaybird Quilts for Moore.

2nd graders play with HST in math class.  After the first kid went through the geometry unit in 2nd grade math that had quilt blocks, I proposed the project to the second kid's teacher.  She was thrilled with the idea.  Took the charm squares from multiple charm square rainbow swaps.  Made HST.  Sent them to school and each child could choose 16 squares or HST to make a block of their choice.  Blocks then got sewn together by me and the kids decided how they wanted the quilts to be laid out.  The two quilts ended up in the classroom for use by the kids.

Meadowland quilt with yellows and grays.  Bound and gifted to a co-worker.

Frances Firefly quilt pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.    Gifted.

Snowflake Sew-along.  Quilted and living in my house as of November 2020.

Another cut and sew block quilt loosely from technique by Cluck Cluck Sew.  Quilted, bound and gifted around May of 2020 for a former co-worker.

Urban Chicken Block quilt using scraps.  Bound and probably will be donated as of November 2020.

 

Seeing Stars Quilt A Long from Melissa Corry at Happy Quilting.  I dind't want to make the 4.5" applique stars so I put together what I had.  I also didn't make the improv star blocks.  It is large enough.  It was going to be for a co-worker, but I gifted them a different quilt.  This one is waiting to be quilted.

Homespun Quilt.  Used up part of a Cotton and Steel jelly roll and some various Elizabeth Hartman and Violet Craft prints.  Gifted October 2020.

Scrappy Summer pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew using At Home by Bonnie and Camille.  Gifted October 2020 to a co-worker nearing retirement.

Finally decided in November that I would take my cut Anna Maria Horner 6" squares and make the value quilt that I've been wanting to make.  This one is basted and has four rows (of single squares) quilted so far.  My wrist hurts a little bit today so I am going to stop quilting it for the day and hope that my wrist feels a bit better tomorrow.  I'm not sure why it hurts.  Oh well.  And it is backed the the AMH wideback from Hindsight.  I had flannel AMH, but the bold print of the wideback really needed to go on the back.  And, I didn't have to piece it.  

Took my pre-cut 8.5' squares and recut them into 2.5, 2, 3.5 or 4.5" sections.  Put together two 2.5", two 2", one 3.5" and one 4.5" to make a block.  Each row is 5 blocks.  I put them together randomly in hopes for the best variety and to make it less likely that anything would line up with the same thing.  Yep, that didn't work.  One spot has the same size same print with the same seam lines.  And I just found two fabric pieces large enough for a minimally pieced back.  The last two wideback quilts have spoiled me.

There is a bulletin board in my home office on the wall behind my camera.  With remote school and work, my machine is now in my office.  Now I get to add blocks to the bulletin board as I progress through a project.  I'm using it as a way to build connections.  The AMH quilt top led to many comments.  We'll see if I can make it a dynamic location for artwork.

And now, I'm off to attempt to clean up the dining room table of the random bits that need to be cut into useable scraps.  They've been on the table since August keeping us as a two kid school rather than more kids.

A progression of quilts

A little while back, I stumbled across this post from Daniela of Block M Quilts.  She had taken a class from Katie Pederson of Sew Katie Did.  There were blocks from her Emerald City quilt which is a version of a Psychedelic Baby quilt.  After a brief aha moment and a bit of searching, I decided that I wanted to make one.  Originally, I was going to try to make the center medallion setting, but that requires some wall space I don't currently have set up.  I went for easy.  And blue solids.  I had a fair amount of blue solids and I do like seeing them all together as this is not the first set of blue solid quilts that I have made. 

This was my oops moment of realizing that the white stripe did not line up and I would be bothered.  Using the new optional reading glasses did not seem to help much with picking out seams.  My strips were about 18" long and wide.  The blocks are 12.5" unfinished as that is the size of the ruler.  These create some wonderful quarter log cabin blocks when you trim the blocks.  Correction, one has to sew the off-cuts to create the quarter log cabins.  I chose to do this quickly since the edges are bias and that meant I did not need to worry about the bias edges anymore.

I put these out on the floor like this and liked it so that is the final design I chose.  Rather than piece together blocks of multiple sizes, I either added additional strips or trimmed them to 8.5" unfinished.  

Both of the first two quilts led to some scraps of strip sets.  Since I had a small amount of blue solids left, I chose to cut 7" squares of solids.  These squares were cut into 2.5" and 4.5" pieces to which I added a multi-blue strip set of various sizes.  They were trimmed to 7" squares again to come up with the third quilt top.  

This one might get quilted today if I can finish my work obligations, clean the gutters, clear some ivy and clean up part of the basement.  And why is there a balloon in the toilet?  No, if I did not put a balloon in the toilet, I do not have to take it out of the toilet.  Do not complain to me about how gross it is.  

Both quilts are quilted with a meandering stitch in an attempt to make sure I went over every seam.  I have no idea what all the blue solids are.  They are a combination of various manufacturers.  And none of these have a designated recipient yet.  Most likely, at least one of the three will be donated to Katie's Comforters' Guild.  And, just in case you think this was all this weekend, it has been the work of the last month or so.

Cats

Where to start.  Perhaps it was reading and listening to people attempt to delegitimize the marches around the world and especially those within the country.   And I am referencing peaceful ones and not those marked by violence or destruction of property.  As much as others may argue, I would assert that those peaceful marches were patriotic, but the effort to suppress and delegitimize them is not.

     

The weekend that the immigration and refugee ban was signed, I watched a former high school soccer teammate talk in a news conference about the travel ban and its impacts.  And as more and more policies were implemented or reversed, I decided that I really can't keep quiet anymore.   So I chose to make.  I chose to use the basic cat block pattern from Elizabeth Hartman and red and blue fabrics from my scrap bins.  

This ended up being a quilt started and finished in less than 48 hours.  The binding was attached on the second day, but everything else was put together on that Sunday.  I chose to add a bit of pink as a nod to the original color.  The blue is a Carolyn Friedlander print that happened to have lines perfect for using them to guide the words.  I chose to quilt words yet continued to go with my tendency of covert actions by using just gray thread that blends fairly well.   In the blue, the lyrics for "Quiet" by MILCK are quilted.  I almost used red thread to finish the lyrics in the bottom right corner and have the final "I can't keep quiet" stand out.  I chose not to.  

I read a quote that Cheryl Arkison retweeted. I chose to quilt this in the cat section.  

 "I dream of a world where the truth is what shapes people's politics, rather than politics shaping what people think is true." Neil deGrasse Tyson

Oh how much I wish we could get away from the partisanship that shapes our politics.  Just because the legislation was written by a Democrat or a Republican does not make it good or bad.  Go back to deciding policy based upon evidence.  Compromise is a good thing.  Support an argument based on evidence.  

This last picture was actually the first one taken.  It was not my intent to have the shadow, but I love it.  How much I would love to have her grow up in a world in which she can make decisions for herself.    A world where she does not have to wonder if the person approaching her is dangerous.  Where she is not interrupted, silenced, or seen as a nuisance if she has an opinion or an argument based on evidence.  Where her mind, actions and ideas are valued more than her appearance.  Her choices should be her own and not limited or forced upon her by others who are wholly unconnected to her.

I have one other finished quilt to share that also has a bit of a political spin to it.  Or perhaps just that the art reflects the feelings and emotions of the artist.  Those feelings and emotions were heavily influenced by the politics and policies of the time.  It needs a taller quilt holder though so the sharing will have to wait.

I may not agree with what people say, but I am willing to defend their right to say it.  

2016

     Writing here was not a priority for 2016.  We bought a new house for ourselves and set about fixing it, fixed the other house, moved ourselves and my parents as we just exchanged houses.  By golly both households own a ridiculous number of books.  It is a good thing but books are heavy.

    The sewer line from our house to the city connection ruptured and there were multiple opportunities for all of us to live together in one or the other of the two houses while various things got fixed.  We eventually need to get some other floors fixed, but we're waiting a few years and dealing with it until we feel like upending things again.  Love the additional space and the large yard to send  kids out into for outdoor recess when they bicker or are rambunctious.  

     The first five quilts shown were donated to Seattle Children's Hospital through Katie's Comforters Guild.  The first two started as potential quilts for a co-worker, but we decided they were not the style of the parents and went another direction.  The other three are using fabrics that I had on hand.  

This quilt went to a co-worker and used the blue and green solids I already acquired.  I don't seem to have a finished quilt picture so I am not sure what I put on the back.

 The co-worker I gave the other Parson Gray plus quilt to for her retirement asked for the second quilt and paid me for it.  I am happy that she likes them both and hopefully is enjoying her retirement snuggled up in them.

The blue Starburst quilt went to my sister in law when she got her AA degree.  Another example of using what I had.  The navy burst points and the blue solid came from stash.  The batiks were from the PNW Meetup in Seattle courtesy of Clothworks.

Cascadia started as part of a guild challenge for our local Artswalk.  On a sunny day, one can see two mountain ranges from various parts of town, the Cascades and the Olympics.  We had to use improv (I think) and the flowered fabric from V and Co.  I used leftover strings from the black, white and gray HST quilt that went to my nephew.

This quilt got finished as well.  Somewhere I have a finished picture but it is not easy to find at this moment.  So now, with 11.5 months in between posts, here's to some of the quilts I finished in 2016.  

Using the leftovers

Sometimes, I make more units that I should because I either didn't bother to count, miscounted, chose to cut out enough for an intended project that has yet to be started or decided that I wanted to have some layout choices.  I've attempted this month to finish a few of those up.

Two of those were in my Giving Tuesday post.  I cut out additional squares to make a second plus quilt and then used up all the extra "layout choice" units from my in-laws quilts.  This time around, I used the second set of charm squares from the Animal Party Charm Square Baby quilt that I made.

This is actually the original one that I gifted to a co-worker.  Apparently, I did not take a finished picture of the second version before I sent it up to get donated at the hospital.  Instead of white sashing, I used the remaining solid from the in-laws quilts and bound it in all the extra blue bindings I could find.

Next up in the leftover pile were blocks from the two Birthday Cake quilts that I made using Acacia.  Had I known how much I could have sold the raccoon prints from this line....I probably still would have made these quilts and donated them anyway.  Kind of like how I saw that one Tula print I had over a yard of sold for $14/ fat quarter and I chose to cut into it.

 So, I had maybe 24 leftover units from these two quilts.  I combined them with units from my first attempt at the Bizzy Kid pattern.  The first attempt had just involved way too many dark fabrics and not enough value contrast.  But, the colors did manage to coordinate really well with Acacia.  The solids of the leftovers and the sashing are not a perfect match, but it is close enough and I was happy to turn the leftovers into another baby quilt to send up.

When these two baby quilts (like the one above) were made for co-workers, I stitched the second line before cutting off the extra triangles.  This left me with 118 HST to press and trim.  I combined those with leftover hourglass blocks (probably from this hourglass quilt below ) and backed the quilt with a little more than  a yard of the blue superhero fabric from Ann Kelle.

Here is the new quilt.

It is backed in the blue superhero fabric and bound with Kona Pacific.  I decided to randomly sew the HST together into four patches.  I was a little more deliberate when I put the hourglass blocks in, but I did not over-analyze and just went with where they ended up with little rearranging.  Much better to get it done than paralysis by analysis.

Giving Tuesday

Today is Giving Tuesday.  I wasn't really aware of that until reading somebody else's post.  Figured I should perhaps showcase the quilts that were dropped off at Seattle Children's Hospital that I haven't talked about yet.

 First up is a stacked coins quilt using a variety of fabrics donated to me by Katie's Comforters Guild or my sister.

The second quilt was made from the leftovers of the two Pacific Crest quilts.  I overbought fabrics because of the wide variety of colors in the pictures my mother in law sent for her two quilts.  I made approximately 80 extra units so I could get the layouts and colors balanced the way I wanted to.  Rather than let the extras sit unused, waiting to be assembled, I threw together this quilt.  My normal layout assistant was a little distracted and chose to have identical units by each other.  I went with it rather than argue.  

The backing was made of other extra pieces from the quilt.  The fabric is from Laura Gunn's Edges collection.  

There was a single block Swoon quilt that I did not snap an additional picture of.

I got to choose a block for my guild's charity quilt bee.  I chose the Birch Tree quilt pattern by Amanda Jean Nyberg.  I made a couple blocks, pieced the guild blocks, made the backing and quilted it.  Binding was hand attached by another guild member.  This quilt got dropped off for Children's as well.

And finally, since the spirit of today would be giving, here are two that I finished up this weekend but did not make it in time to travel to my sister's house so she could drop them off before their appointment yesterday.  Hopefully I will get these to the hospital before the end of the year.