Sister's Choice Quilts

Bindings and Buns

I think I will be hand sewing bindings on for the next little while.  I was so provoked that I did not have enough of the dark green border fabric for the binding on the Corn and Beans quilt.  It was a little kit, and you would think they would have included that fabric in it, but they didn't.  Or if they did include it, I misplaced it, which is entirely possible.  At any rate, I had to "make do" with what I had on hand, and I am not really happy with it.  I made it really narrow, so with luck, it won't stand out too much.

Do you remember a few months back I was complaining that I was very disorganized with keeping track of my binding fabrics?  You all gave me lots of great advice, including the suggestion that I cut and press the binding strips the minute I finish a quilt top so it will be all ready to go when the quilt gets back from being quilted.  I am still not that organized, but I do have a system.  I dug out a little storage basket and as I finish a quilt top I put the required fabric for the binding right into that basket.  All my future bindings are right there all together waiting for when I need them.  At least I am not losing my binding fabric or heaven forbid, using it in another project.  Sometimes I have quilt tops sitting around for years before they are quilted, so in the past, there were many opportunities for the quilt and its binding fabric to go their separate ways.

This is the project I am really anxious to get back to.  Those bat blocks are nice and complex and require a bit of thought to put together.  Luckily I am only making a table runner consisting of five blocks, so there is an actual chance that this will get finished before the end of the month.  

How is your week going?  I am getting a much needed hair cut today and expect that I will be feeling like a new woman the next time I chat with you.  Honestly, it has been months since I cut my hair.  The only thing to be done with it is to put it in a bun or a ponytail.  I must make a better effort.  Honestly, I look like my Grandma Agnes, who wore her hair in a bun for 80 of her 98 years on earth.  Who knows, she could have been born with a bun.  I never saw her without it.

Quilts in the Mail

I received some quilts in the mail from my quilters yesterday and had to share with you.  They are a bit rumpled, just out of the boxes, but over the next few days I will get them pressed and trimmed and bound.  I will have another chance to take better photos of them once they are really finished.  The quilt above is Aurora, a Laundry Basket design.  My quilter custom quilted this one, and I love the circular design we chose for those large cream colored areas.  

This rectangular table runner will be so lovely on my coffee table or dining table during November.  I love the harvest gold colors and the all-over circular quilting design. This was just half-square triangles made from leftover trimmings from another quilt.

This little square one is my choice for a late summer table topper.  I can just see it on my kitchen island with a gold candle and a bunch of mini Indian corn.  The block is called "Corn and Beans" as a matter of fact!

I received one additional runner, but couldn't get a good photo of it to save my life.  The lighting in my house has been so dark lately.

I am very happy to report that the jet lag seems to be over for the most part.  I still wake up pretty early, but 5:00 AM is better than 2:00, right?

 

Dazed and Confused

Oh boy.  This quilt has been a process I tell you.  I started it one, maybe two years ago and it has had me scratching my head from the get go.  The instructions are fine.  It is just me being super confused about the diagonal layout and frustrated by my choices of fabrics.  It is supposed to be a scrappy quilt, but man, trying not to have the same prints or colors next to each other has been making me absolutely twitchy.

The pattern is gorgeous, and the instructions are pretty clear.  It is a Miss Rosie pattern called "Into the Wind", and when she was producing them herself there was admittedly more text and explanation, which I kind of miss.  However, the instructions are all there and just needed a smarter person than me to decipher them.  I took it step by step and still had a number of hiccups along the way.  I just could not seem to wrap my head around the layout.  There are also some partial blocks around the border that threw me for a loop for some reason as well.  And all those prints...well, I really tried not to get the same ones right next to each other, but it was hard.

I also ran out of light background prints and had to order more.  I packed the project away for months and months and when I dragged it out again it was like re-inventing the wheel to get back up to speed as to what I needed to do next.  Ugh.  The fabric is Larkspur by 3 Sisters by the way.  It is a kind of random assortment of pink, red, aqua and gold.  The effect from a distance is interesting, up close, I am not so sure.

i am in the final stages of sewing the rows together and will be thrilled to get this off my design wall!

 

 

Two Blue Quilts

Amidst the craziness that is beginning to define this summer, I managed to dig out two quilts that I simply must send out for quilting.  The one above I think I made ten years ago believe it or not.  Yes, time to get that baby quilted.  It is half square triangles set into stars and arranged, well, arranged the way I arranged them.  I know the fabrics are totally from my stash.

You all may remember Aurora.  Sweet little blue stars from a pattern by Laundry Basket.  This one is more recent.

I have an idea to decorate the upstairs guest room in blue and white.  I love to make blue and white quilts, but they just don't fit into the decor of the rest of my house.  How nice to have a nice blue and white oasis for guests to enjoy.  There is an antique rocker in that room that is upholstered in blue, tan and white fabric, so it will all go nicely together.

That is the plan anyway.  Between swim practice, swim meets, and various other Eva activities I need to get the backings sorted out and the quilts in the mail.  Wish me luck!

Short Line

This is just a quick post on a quilt I have been enjoying lately.  It is called Short Line, and is a pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  It was made with fabrics from various American Jane (Sandy Klop) collections, designed for Moda.  

It is a gorgeous quilt and although I have had it for nearly ten years I have never gotten tired of it.  This one is a real winner.  It was made from 1 1/2" strips of fabric-making it a great choice for honey buns.

You can also make it with larger strips (jelly rolls).  This version was made from 2 1/2" strips of French General fabrics, and made quite a large quilt.  If you can get your hands on the pattern, it is a great quilt to make in either version.

A Quilt For Her Sister

Several years ago I mentored a young friend for a year.  She was working on her senior project for high school and wanted to learn how to quilt.  She was an apt and eager student, and during the course of year, she completed several baby quilts which were donated to women in need who had infants.  

Once the senior project was finished, my young friend wanted to make a quilt for her older sister.  I gave her a bundle of fabric by Zen Chic called "Juggling Summer" and she chose a pattern she liked.  My friend finished the quilt top and it was greatly admired by everyone, and then tucked away.  Her family moved house, she started college and a job, but the quilt wasn't forgotten.  Five years passed.  The older sister has since married and moved to Georgia and had a baby of her own.  The girls talk often and more often than not, the older sister reminds my friend of the quilt she was supposed to complete and give to her.  It has become a source of sisterly teasing and frequent conversation.  "So, where's my quilt?"

At long last, with some assistance, my young friend was connected with a long arm quilter who was able to machine quilt the quilt top both speedily and brilliantly.  You see, the older sister is coming to California to visit and show off the baby in just a couple of weeks.  Just under the wire, the quilt has been quilted, but still needs to have the binding hand sewn down.   I gave my friend a lesson in hand sewing bindings and all the supplies she needs to complete the task.  She says she is up to it, but if for any reason it looks like she needs help, I am at the ready.  Big sister is going to get her quilt at last!

I Am a Slacker

I think one of the reasons I have been avoiding my sewing room is due to all the nearly finished projects that have been piling up over the past year.  I don't know what finally got me up there, but I bit the bullet this weekend and attached the binding to 9 quilts.  Yes 9.  How did that happen?

Above you see my Flag quilt and my Square in a Square quilt.  I love both of them and it is high time they went into rotation around  here.

Next up is my Pinwheel Quilt in Betsy Chutchian fabrics and my Courthouse Steps Quilt in so many of my treasured Jo Morton scraps.

Then we come to the table runners and table toppers.  The Fig Tree "Clover" runner, the  "Fat Quarter Flourish" quilt with Sherri and Chelsi fabrics, and the tiny little candle mat that looks kind of like a game board.

Lastly my green pineapple runner and my scrappy Christmas tree runner.

I can't believe I have been sitting on these for so long, but it's a great feeling to get those bindings attached at last.  Now to do the hand sewing and stitch them down.

I have some other UFOs that are making me feel guilty and those are going to be what I tackle next.  Those are a couple of large projects that I have got to complete.  It is hard to justify buying anything new when I have such a long list of things to finish.

Hope you all had a great weekend.  It was Memorial Day weekend here in the US, and we celebrated by having my sister and her husband overnight, and by visiting my daughter and son in law's restaurant.  My other son in law cooked ribs Monday night, and I was so happy to join in for those.  I never cook them for just us, so it was a real treat.  Now if it would just stop raining and the sun would come out...

Quilts Out For Quilting & Podcasts

I finally got myself in gear and sent these two little table toppers out for quilting.  I shouldn't procrastinate-the sooner they are quilted, the sooner I can use them in my spring/summer decorating.  I love the soft muted colors of the runner at the top of the picture.  It is a Fig Tree pattern called Sweet Clover, and the fabrics were older Fig Tree scraps I had in my stash.  A free quilt, right?

The smaller topper is a pattern called Fat Quarter Flourish by Carried Away Quilting.  The fabrics are from various Sherri and Chelsi collections for Moda.  Love the cheerful colors and also how the center star is in proportion to the floral motifs in the four corners.

My flying geese units are all finished and trimmed for the Corn and Beans table topper I am working on this week.  Hope to finish that up by the weekend.

While I have been stitching, I have been listening to some bookish podcasts.  Do any of you listen to podcasts?  For those of you who may be unfamiliar, a podcast is kind of a radio show you can down load to your iTunes account or to a podcast app on your phone or other device.  There are a gazillion of them out there, something for everyone's taste:  true crime, book reviews, celebrity gossip, current events, financial planning, weight loss, even quilting.  The bookish podcasts I really enjoy and follow most are "What Should I Read Next", "Currently Reading", "Book Cougars", and "One Great Book".  If you enjoy reading, you will get tons of ideas from these podcasts.

On other subjects, I have enjoyed "Pat Sloan's Quilting Podcast" for American Patchwork and Quilting, "Serial" which is an investigative journalism podcast, "Criminal" which is a totally addicting true crime podcast, and "Sorta Awesome" which deals with lifestyle and women's issues.

Do you have any favorite podcasts?  On what topics?  We'd love it if you would share in the comments!

This and That

I had my tiny little table topper quilted, and it came out so cute!  It is the perfect size for a candle or vase of flowers.  Still need to do the binding, but at least I have the fabric and know where to find it.

I needed more fabric for my Sweet Escape blocks, and good old Fabric Shack came through, as I knew they would, so I am ready to finish up those blocks.  I am seriously considering a scrappy companion piece in a log cabin design, featuring a layer cake of an older Minick and Simpson collection that has red, light blue, navy and cream.  I can see those two quilts out on my front porch on those nights during the summer when we want to sit outside and stargaze.  Red white and blue seems like such a summer color scheme, doesn't it?

In Instant Pot news, I am still completely smitten.  So smitten that I ordered the larger 6 quart size in addition to the mini 3 quart size I started out with.  This appliance is a complete game changer, I tell you.  Over the weekend, I made a Tomato Beef Curry that was perfect for entertaining.  Monday night I made Chicken Paprikash, which was so good I was talking to myself while I was eating it.  "Mmm, so good.  Wow, this is fabulous.  Mmmm.  Yum."   Seriously, this was the best $70 I have spent in, well I don't know, ever?  I love how you can saute the onions in the pot, then brown your chicken (in the same pot), then toss the noodles in the same pot, switch to Pressure Cook and in 4 minutes you have the most delicious dinner imaginable. And only one pan to wash.

I made home made mac and cheese for Eva in about 10 minutes, and she gave it her thumbs up sign of approval.  I took a bite, and even though mac and cheese is not something I typically crave, I decided then and there maybe I needed to have a small bowl of it. And it was good.   I have a cookbook called The Instant Pot Bible, which is great, but I also have gotten a ton of recipes and tips from two YouTube sites:  Pressure Luck and Six Sisters Stuff.

Hope your week got off to a good start!  Mine sure did.  I now have a fridge full of mac and cheese and chicken paprikash to eat all week long!

Stringalong Quilt Finished!

I am so happy with this finish!  Putting the blocks together was a project and a half, and I admit to getting bogged down when it came to sewing them together.  The blocks have been on my design wall for weeks and weeks.  The pattern is Signs of String by Clark Street Quilts and the fabric is from two lines by Moda Designer Linzee McCray, Red Rover and True Blue. The blocks took a ton of fabric, and seemed like an eternity to complete, but the result is pretty spectacular.  I wonder what this project would have looked like in Jo Morton or Kansas Troubles fabrics?  Just a thought.

In other news, I have been having a great time working on my Sweet Escapes Variation project, and look forward to showing you my progress on that front.  I can tell you this:  my project will look nothing like the pattern!  That is to say, when you look at the pattern, you will think, "Oh right, that's cool", but in actual fact, the way I am plotting out the placement of the colors is going to give it a completely different look.  I am excited about that.

Hope you all had a great weekend.  Ours involved a corned beef dinner courtesy of my son in law.  I have plans for a major shopping excursion today with a friend who has lost a ton of weight, who needs new jeans and new bras.  I have planned the trip with myself as sort of a shopping guide, so we will see how that goes!  I'll keep you posted.  Chicos and Soma are on our hit list.