Sister's Choice Quilts

French General Explosion

I was very lucky to be the recipient of a lot of French General fabric at Christmas. My son in Ireland, who completely understands my love of fabric sent me a vast amount of it as a Christmas gift. He purchased it from a shop in England and had it mailed to him in Dublin, then sent it to me in California.  It got waylaid back in England, staying at Heathrow airport for over two weeks, but finally arrived.  Covid-19 is wreaking havoc with mail delivery in the UK as well as the US.

He had ordered half meter cuts of a variety of pinks and reds. What you see in the photo above is just what I have starched so far.  I cut it all into fat quarters and am only using half of what he sent for now.

So I have around 30 fat quarters of this delicious fabric to use in a project, and about the same amount to stash away for the future.

And I am quite excited about it. It's kind of crazy, since I just finished an enormous project using all French General fabrics. That would be my red pineapple quilt. But you know what? I am not really tired of this designer's fabric!

My new project is going to be a very large bed sized quilt in a basket design. I have always loved basket blocks and this should satisfy that itch.

I'll tell you more about the pattern later, but there are a lot of baskets blocks in this quilt, and a lot of half square triangles in each basket block. I made a test block and like it. But it took a while. I can see I will have to pace myself with this project. It could take another eight years. Just kidding I think.

My week got crazy busy unexpectedly, with a big work assignment from the company I write for. Plus, my dad isn't doing well, so my sisters and I are taking turns staying with him. My shift is Thursday through Sunday. Not sure how much I will be able to blog, but I'll try!

Thrifty Me

I had a lot of leftovers from my recent Red Pineapple finish. Normally, I am not one to fret about using up leftover fabric, but I had an idea for what to do with them.

I have had foundation paper piecing on my mind lately and purchased a couple of the 6" Log Cabin paper pads from Fatquartershop.com. I LOVE these papers. Years ago, you could not have persuaded me to do paper piecing for love or money, and now I am obsessed with it. The accuracy is amazing and each block turns out just like its sisters. I sure wish they came in a 4" size.  I am also working on some 4" log cabin blocks and using a Creative Grids ruler.  It's going ok, but I sure do prefer the papers.

So I used my leftover French General strips and made a super cute Log Cabin table runner.  I am sending it off to be quilted this week. I doubt I'll get it back in time for Valentine's Day, but I may put it out anyway! It will look so good on my dining room table.

The colossal mess pictured above is my sewing table. I was using my little Fiskars cutting mat to trim the seams after each addition. I realized while I was using it that it is really beat up. I have never had to replace a cutting mat in my entire life of sewing, but I did order myself a new one. I have probably had this one for twelve years or so and have used it constantly for trimming small block units. Replacing it is sure cheaper than replacing the bigger mats on my cutting table, so I don't mind. The small size is so handy, so keep it in mind as a way to save your larger mats.

I had a very productive weekend, but we are commencing back to homeschooling today. My plan is to try to carve out a couple of hours of stitching each afternoon when school's out. Fingers crossed!

Apricot and Ash, Corey Yoder

Isn't this stack of fabrics luscious? It is Apricot and Ash by Corey Yoder, a Moda designer. There is a sew-along coming up called Serendipity that I want to do.  Click here for fabric requirements. It is a row quilt, you know, the kind where you make multiples of some blocks and arrange them in rows.  

Here is a better picture of the range of fabrics.  Aren't they lovely? My bedroom has green walls, and I was thinking a quilt with these colors would be so pretty in spring and summer.

This is the quilt I plan to make.  I love Corey Yoder's website Coriander Quilts.  Her fabrics are scrumptious and her patterns are pretty good too. She lives in Amish county somewhere in Ohio and often posts Instagram photos of neighbors driving their horse-drawn buggies down the roads in her area. Her photography is excellent. She is very faithful about telling you which Moda Solids match her colorways. When you are looking for a perfect background match that is so helpful. She seems like a lovely young woman.

So, that's all I have for today. I hope to sew this weekend and be a good companion to my husband. Happy January everyone.

This and That

I know I've shown this a million times, but the latest update is that I have completed all 42 blocks and have begun to sew them together! The intersections where the cream sections have to fit together isn't absolutely consistent, which is driving me a bit bonkers. If it is really off, I have had to re-do the places where the seams need to meet, so it is slow going. I sure would love to finish this dinosaur up before New Year's.

What I've been spending my time on is wrapping Christmas presents. I worked on that for most of yesterday and finished, except for a few gifts that have not yet been delivered. And oh my gosh, is USPS ever overwhelmed. I'll be surprised if everything I am waiting for even gets here by Christmas Eve. I have one package that has been sitting on the bottom of a pile at the post office of a town only an hour away from me since Dec. 11.

Oh and here is a funny story. One of my neighbors sent out an email to everyone on the street saying he had gotten a notice saying that a package had been delivered to his front door that day.  No package. He asked us all if it could have been delivered to one of our front doors by mistake.  Nope. A week went by and we all got another email from him. It was trash day, so he went to the area under his house where he keeps his garbage cans, and there was the package. USPS had delivered it to the door to the crawl space under his house.  I am not kidding.

Here is a little fabric bundle I treated myself to recently. It is Bess' Flower Garden by Pam Buda. I thought it would be fun to sew something up for the summer/4th of July. I am toying with the idea of decorating my front porch in all red, white, and blue quilts for summer.

Well, that's all I've got for today. I am going to go reward myself with a cup of hot cocoa. With marshmallows. Hope you are all having a great week!

It's All About Contrast

See what I mean?  I made the block on the left as part of the Moda BlockHeads 3 Sew-Along.  Block #37 "Broken Dishes" by Laurie Simpson. My first effort did not have much contrast.  It's ok but look at the difference in the block on the right. Greater contrast in the color tones makes the block on the right much more interesting, I think.

This block pattern is worth printing out, even if you are not doing the Moda BlockHeads 3 Sew-Along.  The construction of it is totally unique. You might think it is four hourglass blocks with larger background corners attached, but you would be wrong.  The construction of this block is so different.  Go ahead, make one. It will blow your mind!

Much starching of fabric has been going on. Out on my side porch, rack after rack of fat quarters has been saturated with spray starch and hung out to dry. I got it all ironed yesterday, and I am ready to start a new project.

Aaahhh. Just look at those beautiful fabrics.  Evelyn's Homestead by Betsy Chutchian for Moda. Plum, green, black, pink, and navy. I will use these in a new sew along sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop, called Sewcialites. If you haven't heard about it, you must click on the link and read up on it. I think it is going to be so much fun.  Whether you like modern fabrics or more traditional ones, this may be a project that appeals to you. Kimberly Jolly of FQS will do videos every Friday on how to make the blocks, setting suggestions, and more.

I need another sew-along, or any new project whatsoever like I need a hole in the head, but what the heck.  Life is short; you might as well be sewing. And that's what I'll be doing this weekend.

Cupcake Mix Papers

Hello friends.  I hope you all are having a good week. I've been busy with homeschooling, so not much sewing action is going on.  I did get into the sewing room for a couple of hours, though. Pre-cuts have been on my mind from our discussion earlier this week.  I am itching to get into a honey bun or jelly roll project and am waiting for my Squirrelly Girl honey bun to arrive. I also may have ordered two jelly rolls of the new Primitive Gathering's Redwork Gathering Collection.  Ahem.

When I was puttering around, I remembered that I had a Cupcake Mix pad sitting around in a little bin of charm packs.

These little foundation papers are so nice!  I had not tried them before but will be getting more of them. The paper is super thin and soft and removes like a dream. They fit perfectly on a charm square for stitching. There are 44 papers in the pad. There are four different recipe pads to choose from.  I am using the Cupcake Mix Recipe pad #1, which makes the Birds in the Air block (or variations of it). 

If you are not familiar with this type of sewing technique, the idea is that you position the papers over two charm squares (right sides together), stitch on the dotted line and cut on the solid line. You pull the papers off and are left with four small half-square triangles and one large one. To make one Birds in the Air quilt block, you will need a total of four charm squares: two prints and two background. So my charm pack will make 21 quilt blocks, more than I will need for a table runner. The finished block is 6 1/2" unfinished.

My only criticism is that the printing on the papers is a bit light, but that may have just been the particular batch I had. 

If you are interested in learning more about these foundation papers, there are two good YouTube videos I will link to:

Fatquarter Shop Cake Mix video.

Fabric Garden Cake Mix/Cupcake Mix video.

I pulled out an ancient Sandy Gervais charm pack called Late Bloomer.  I have always loved Sandy's whimsical collections.  She used to design for Moda, but I believe she has moved to Riley Blake. She does fall colors so well, and I adore how she often adds in a beautiful teal to the autumnal palette.

I only had time to make three blocks, but you see the colors I will be using.  Sure wish I had a bigger piece of that tannish/gold to use as a border on the table runner I am making! That is the downside of hanging on to fabric for years-if you finally use it and need more, it's too bad.

Wishing you all a grand weekend!

 

Jelly Rolls

Do you sew with Jelly Rolls very often?  Ever?  I have a collection of eight or ten jelly rolls and I just do not know what to do with them.  I thought we could chat in the comments about what sort of quilts some of us have made using this particular pre-cut.  Others of you out there may be as stymied as I am when it comes to using them!

I have three books that have patterns for quilts using jelly rolls, but I have never used any of them.  If you have made quilts from any of these books, or have other books you can recommend, please do share in the comments.

The problem I have with so many of the patterns for jelly rolls is that the quilts are so simple they seem to be for beginners.  Which is great, if that is what you are.  I need to give the "Start with Strips" book by Susan Ache a thorough look.  I follow her on Instagram (#yardgrl60) and her designs are always visually interesting and seem complex.

I love the idea of sewing with jelly rolls and other smaller pre-cuts because they allow me to purchase an entire collection of fabric for less than $40.  I am making smaller quilts these days and it just doesn't make sense to buy an entire fat quarter bundle and have more than half of it leftover.

So, please share in the comments!  What the heck do you do with jelly rolls?

Sweet Holly

Isn't this pretty?  It is fabric from Kansas Trouble's holiday collection "Sweet Holly."  I love the Christmassy colors and the not "in your face" holiday prints.  Subtle.  That is what appeals to me.

These low volume backgrounds are just right too.

I have three projects I would like to make with the fabric.  I wasn't sure if I had enough, so I kept ordering more from Fabric Shack, who is offering free shipping, by the way.  

I also ordered some of the fabric from Shabby Fabrics, but it has been sitting in the Sacramento USPS distribution center since July 25.  Not fun.  What is up with USPS lately anyway?  They sure are having some issues.  Some things arrive in a timely manner, and others...well, they are on the bottom of a pile somewhere, and no one is paying attention. The system is so overwhelmed right now.

Thanks for all the homeschooling related suggestions and encouragement.  We meet with the teacher on Monday!  She will suggest the curriculum, and I understand we can pick up what we select on Wednesday next week. I have lots of questions and hope she will be available to answer them via email.  I've been watching YouTube videos like crazy, to see how homeschoolers set up their space.  It will be a whole new experience for us.  We did ok the last couple of months of the previous school year, so hopefully, we will get with the new program easily.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

What Was I Thinking?

Well, this is a UFO in all sense of the word.  I discovered this little project box in my sewing room closet and just stared at it open-mouthed.  What had I been planning?  There were the makings for flying geese units, some strips in various sizes, a whole lot of black and orange fabrics.  No pattern, no notes.  What in the world had I been thinking I was going to make with all this?

I started searching through my books and found a super cute pattern that I think will work great for this mystery assortment.

Are you familiar with the Moda All Stars book "Mini Marvels"?  It has patterns for 15 little quilts that are full of wonderful design elements.  Right there on the cover is a great little quilt that involves flying geese and log cabin blocks.  Here is a better picture of the quilt:

The pattern is called Cabin Skein and is by Carrie Nelson.  I will have to cut my flying geese and strips down to a smaller size for this project, but that is easily done.  This will be such a cute October table topper in those black and orange fabrics!  It will finish at about 20" as I recall, just right for a candle or little vignette of some kind.  

I have to confess, I got the sixty four 1 1/2 x 2 1/2" flying geese all made and thought "I'll just get cracking on those 4 1/2" log cabin blocks".  Wrong.  I made two of them and they were so wonky and misshapen I was ashamed.  I am so used to using trim tools and special rulers to ensure the accurate size of my blocks that I guess I can't live without them.  I have the Creative Grids Log Cabin Trim Tool in both the 8" and the 6" sizes and my blocks always come out perfectly.  So, I got on the computer and ordered the 4" size.  It should come by Wednesday and I will be back in business. 

Sometimes you just need the right tool for the job!

Wallowing in Fabric

Is that not the most beautiful pull of fabric?  It is what I am planning to use for the Comfort and Joy quilt-along hosted by Piecing the Past.  I had it all in my stash, and only ordered a few more backgrounds. I love Civil War reproduction fabrics as you know, but I am especially excited to use brighter tones. This project checks all my boxes.  Here is a link to all the documents that describe the project, yardage, etc.  They are super nice at Piecing the Past, willing to answer any questions you might have, and so generous to provide all the information to make the quilt.  The preliminary documents/information pages are so thorough, I imagine the block instructions will be too.  And it is all free if you download the pattern instructions each week.  If you delay and wait until later, there will be a small charge for the block instructions.

I am so excited to make this quilt.  

Here is my version of Moda BlockHeads 3, block 12.  I followed Fig Tree & Co. suggestions for changing up the block units from half square triangles to square in a square blocks and flying geese.  It was still a beast to put together and to get all those points to line up.  Nice block though.  I made the 12" size.  Can you imagine making the 4"?  

For the first time, I skipped making my Laundry Basket Mystery blocks.  Tomorrow is the reveal of the last four blocks to complete the center, so I am excited about that.  My plan is to complete the top over the weekend.

Our homeschooling experience was rather blah yesterday.  Both Eva and I were kind of bored with all the lessons.  The Arctic Tundra, beginning geometry, telling time, spelling, reading comprehension:  Big ho hum.  We wanted to do the jigsaw puzzle and play Roblox.  And fondle fabric. 

Our schools will be closed for the remainder of the year, so I had better get my mojo back.  This girl needs me.