Quilting

Hello??? Anybody out there??? It’s SO darn quiet in blogland! It would be nice to say that some of you are on summer vacation, but sadly, I think you’ve abandoned your blogs. It’s that darn Instagram!!! What are you guys thinking? Quick and Easy? Hmmmm??? (And hello — a post of your instagram pictures doesn’t count — we already saw those pictures on your Instagram!!!)  Come Back. I Beseech You!!! Come Back!!! (How’s that for old English??? Begging never works — how ’bout beseeching???)  I miss your posts!

{Sigh} and Whatever.

Back to this Friendship Star subject. I had a fun surprise about two weeks ago — I got the quilter’s call that my Friendship Star quilt was finished. Yay! A quick binding and she’s ALL done. (She looks wonky on the long grass, but rest assured, she’s nice and flat and even.)

The quilter always does a wonderful job.  I usually give her a loose idea of what I have in mind and then she runs with it.

In this case, I told her 1/4″ quilting on the stars in the middle of the quilt, cross-hatching on the applique border and whatever she wanted on the other borders.  I love her choices.

Here’s a blurry close-up of her pretty little stitches.

I’ve mentioned before that some of the stars in the middle were made by the girls that were in my old Friendship Quilting group.  The stars were done probably around 1992 or 1993.  Then it took me the next 20 years to get the rest of the stars and the border done.  There are some ugly fabrics in here LOL!  (I can’t wait to see which of the fabrics that we swoon over today will be the butt-uglies of the future!)

I had forgotten until I was taking pictures that I put our initials in this quilt.  It’s a king-size quilt and I originally planned it for our bed.  Sadly, that plan happened back when mattresses were thinner, so it’s not quite big enough now.  It will work as a coverlet though, with a plain quilt under it.  You know, if wine and forest green are ever back in style LOL.

Too bad the call didn’t come before I made my 10 Things this Summer list. I could have listed the binding as a task and then taken credit for a completed item! Oh well, a finish is a finish and I’ll take it — one less UFO!

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Yipee!  I can tick my first item off of My 10 Things This Summer List.  I started this quilt in May — it’s a high school graduation gift for my favorite nephew.  (He’s my only nephew, but he’d still be my favorite!)  I’ve always loved the slanted star quilt pattern, so that was my choice.  I made a trip to the outdoor quilt hanger for pictures.

I think this pattern is a good choice for my nephew — he’s a fun-loving, great kid.  He’s a star!

I used different blue, red, and gray fabrics that I had in the stash and I chose to back it in the Children at Play bike print.  My sister’s family are a bunch of bike riding maniacs.  I originally thought I’d just use a meandering quilt pattern and I quilted about 1/4 of the quilt and decided that I hated it.  After TheManoftheHouse unpicked the mess, I decided to keep it simple and just quilt in the ditch and I Love it.  It’s nice and puffy and comfy now.

You can probably guess that this quilt is late.  We had a busy spring this year and I failed to plan ahead.  Oops!  At least it’s finished before he goes to college.  While I was taking quilt pictures, I played with the quilt on the bench by MeMum’s pretty flowers.

And along came Sally for a comfy little place to sit. She sat there batting her tail around, thinking this is her quilt.  (‘Cause you know — I know what runs through a quilt-sitting cat’s mind.)

Awww, look.  Kitty Paws.

Of the five grandchildren in our family, CuteNephew is the 4th.  TheFirstChild graduated first (ha!), TheSecondChild was second, and CuteNiece1 was third.   One more graduation for us — CuteNiece2 will graduate in two years.  I’ll bet you can guess what I’ll be giving her for her graduation LOL.

XOXO,
Anna

Yipee! The YoYo quilt is finally finished!

It was a bright sunny day when we took pictures of the quilt and sadly, bright sunny days don’t always make for good picture taking. We hung the quilt on the outdoor quilt holder swingset at MeMum’s and I waited almost two hours for the sun to go down past the roofline of the house. I finally had to give up, snap the picture and get home to make dinner for TheManoftheHouse. Sorry for the shadow — pretend it’s not there.

While we were waiting on the sun, MeMum and I had fun taking pictures in her guest room, on her beautiful antique bed. She wanted to put some of her dolls and teddies on the quilt, so we had fun playing around.

I’ve mentioned before that Ms. Barefoot Daydreams was my total inspiration for this quilt.  It’s been almost 6 years since I saw her red yoyo quilt and then, a year later, she made her black yoyo quilt.   They’re just gorgeous and I knew I wanted to make one.

These quilts are a lot of work and I’m amazed that Ms. Barefoot made more than one. I could see making another one — but it will be awhile LOL.  There are 868 yoyos in my version.  I figured I could make 12 – 15 yoyos in an hour, so that’s about 60 hours making yoyos.  And then it took about an hour to sew down 10 yoyos, so that’s about 86 hours to sew down yoyos.  Add to that the time it took to sew borders, draw the big yoyo grid, pin baste, machine quilt and then bind the foundation quilt.

It was fun work though.  I really enjoyed watching movies and doing all the handwork.  I’m feeling a little lost now without a handwork project, I need to plan something soon.  It took about seven weeks to sew all the yoyos to the quilt.  After all that time and apparent kitty naps when I wasn’t home, the quilt required a bath.

I held my breath when I put the quilt in the wash on gentle cycle.  I was afraid those yoyos would fall apart but, happily, there were no thread incidents.  Unfortunately though, there was a bit of color running (in spite of fabric pre-washing and two color catchers in the wash).  The color running is faint though, so it’s nothing I can’t live with.  The yoyo fabric on the left, in the picture below, was the culprit.  And the fabric on the right is my favorite fabric.  It’s hard to tell all scrunched up in a yoyo, but it has pretty little calligraphic letters on it.

And just to prove that spring has finally arrived here, we took a picture of the quilt with MeMum’s pretty daffodils. Luckily, spring has been late in arriving this year because now, there is a LOT of yardwork to be done.

So, I’m a happy camper — I finished the yoyos just in time.
Have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Oh man!  Mother Goose had a big scare today — they decided to mow the lawns at work.  I could hear the mowers but it was about 15 minutes before I could go check on her.  She was off the nest and didn’t look too happy about going back.  The good news is that Father Goose was right there with her — it was nice to see him for a change.  A friend of mine said she was watching when the mower went by and the poor parents both went flying off.  A few of us watched her for about 5 minutes and she was just staring at the nest.  And the wind was blowing the feathers around a little which made us all think maybe the eggs were hatching (we’re a little far away to see clearly).  False alarm!  When I left work tonight she was happily (well maybe) sitting back on the nest again.  Whew!

In the meantime, Guess What Guess What???? The Yoyos have been conquered!  Hopefully I can rustle up a few pictures and get back here later this week.  While I was sewing the yoyos with reckless abandon, I was thinking about my next project. Which made me start thinking about charm packs. When charm packs first came out, I just didn’t get the attraction. Why would anyone buy little packs of squares when you can buy bigger pieces? Fortunately, the internet is full of people who “got it” and now I’m seeing the light. I decided to make a mosaic of some of my favorite types of quilts that can be made with charm packs. Even though some of the quilts in my picture were made with scraps, they could easily be adapted to charm packs.

1.  Cute Pinwheel Quilt by A Quilting Life
2.  Baby Coin Quilt by Tall Grass Prarie Studio
3.  Sheets and Shirts HST by Creative Chicks at Play
4.  Scrappy Hour Glass by Pink Penguin
5.  Patchwork Triangles by Freda’s Hive
6.  Baby Spring Triangle by Film in the Fridge
7.  Pink Hourglass by Red Pepper Quilts
8.  Christmas Quilt by Diary of a Quilter
9.  Strawberry Hearts by Helen Philipps
10.  Tumblers by Making More with Less
11.  Scrappy Squares Baby Quilt by Teaginny Designs
12.  Stacked Coins by Hamburger Liebe
13. Hexagons by  Nana Company
14.  Kansas Dugout by Red Pepper Quilts
15.  Slanted Star by Camille Rosekelley (the only picture I could find was with her cute baby!)
16.  Triangle Quilt by Blue Elephant Stitches
17.  Reverse Hopscotch by V & Co.
18.  Simple Nine Patch by Penelope Waits
19.  Baby Lattice by Amy Smart
20.  Isabelle’s Quilt by Me

I know there are LOTS more quilts out there that could be made with charm pack squares.   As I noted in my EPP stars post, I’m going to be making some stars out of charm squares. They’re definitely not as limited at they seem at first glance.

XOXO,
Anna