My Best of 2015

I'm linking this post with Meadow Mist Design's Best of 2015 Linky Party.  Cheryl asked us to write about our five best blog posts of 2015.  Thank you, Cheryl.

Here we go!  (I chose these posts because they highlight successes.)

I finished hand quilting and bound Sunday Morning, a quilt from the book of the same name.

I finished hand quilting and bound Dark Strings, a scrappy string quilt.

I finished piecing, layered, pin basted, and began hand quilting another quilt, Red Wings and Stars.  (I don't have a photo of it sewn together or with the quilting in progress.)

I began sewing scrappy blocks and appliqueing stars on them. 

Oh, and I finished sewing a cloth doll, dress, and diapers.  I think the doll was a hit with my granddaughter if the attention she gave it is any indication.

Thanks for visiting my blog.  Happy New Year to you.

--Nancy.
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A Binding for Sunday Morning - Binding Blitz

I do a generally good job of keeping up with binding my quilts as I finish them.  It just takes me a while to get around to choosing and layering a quilt top, then hand quilting it.

This is the first quilt I've finished this year and, therefore, the first quilt I've bound this year.  I'm pleased to be able to participate in Julie's July Binding Blitz at JulieKQuilts.

This quilt is "Sunday Morning."  The perimeter is 316½" around.  The binding strips were cut slightly off-grain at 2" wide.  I folded the strips in half, carefully laid them on the edges of the quilt, stitched ¼" seam, turned the binding to the back, pinned it in place, and hand-stitched it.  It took about 6 hours to sew, but then I'm a slow stitcher.

Because the quilt is scrappy and uses light-colored fabrics, I chose a scrappy binding.  It doesn't call attention to itself nor overpower or detract from the quilt itself.

My last post was about "Sunday Morning" and you can see more photos and read details about the quilt there.

I'm linking this post to Julie's Binding Blitz at JulieKQuilts.  Thank you, Julie.

Thanks for visiting.

--Nancy.
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Good Morning, Sunday Morning!

At long last I can welcome "Sunday Morning" into true quilthood (if there is such a thing).  With top, back, and batting layered and stitched together it's a real quilt!

Both the front and back are scrappy.  My husband likes the back better than the front.  It seemed like a bear to put together but I do rather like it.

From the photos above it looks like I quilted on the diagonal in only one direction but look at the close-up below and you can see a double line of diagonals in both directions.  I used masking tape as a guide to stitch from corner to corner then added a square in the middle of those.  I wasn't too concerned that the center squares were exactly square or exactly centered.  It's a scrap quilt, after all.

I wish I could say I love this quilt.... When I saw the pattern in the book, Sunday Morning, a few years ago I took an inventory of my strings and thought it would be a great quilt to make.  Perhaps if I'd been more particular about the colors I used I might like it more.  I'm not a white-white person.  I like naturals, creams, and tans much better and this quilt has a lot of white.  But it will keep someone warm in the winter.

Details
Timeline to Completion

spring 2012 - quilt begun
 5 Jun 2013 - all blocks laid out
15 Jun 2013 - top stitched
19 Jan 2015 - scrappy back finished
21 Jan 2015 - hand quilting begun
 9 Jul 2015 - quilting finished
17 Jul 2015 - binding stitched
23 Jul 2015 - washed and dried

Batting was Cream Rose 100% cotton

Measurements
74½" x 90"  - top before layering
73½" x 88½" - after quilting
73½" x 88¼" - after binding
72"  x 86¼" - after washing & drying


I'm linking this post to
> Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts 
> WIPS Be Gone Week 31 at A Quilting Reader's Garden
> Creative Goodness Linky Party - July 31st at QuiltShopGal
> Can I get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
> Link a Finish Friday #179 at Richard and Tanya Quilts

Thanks for visiting and, if you leave a comment, thank you for that, too.

I hope you've had a great week!
--Nancy.
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Gone So Long

It seems like I've been gone for years, though in reality it's only been a few months since a real post.  I actually wasn't gone I was just away from quilting while I took a full-time job to earn social security credits.  I'm a night owl and those 6 a.m. mornings did me in pretty quickly.  I came home too tired to do much other than hand quilt for a little while each evening.  I finished work a few weeks ago, my daughter came for a week's visit, and then I promptly got sick.  I'm feeling a little more energetic now and am ready to get back to quilting.

After two months of hand quilting on Sunday Morning (you can see more of it here) you'd think I'd have finished it by now but no, it's still in progress.  I finished all of the diagonal lines across the whole quilt and then realized that I definitely needed smaller squares inside the larger ones.  I'm bordering the larger 4" squares with 1" masking tape to make 2" squares inside the 4" squares.  I'm about half finished.

If I'd planned more carefully I could have used wider tape and would not have needed to do the smaller squares inside the larger ones.  I think this is the first time I've used masking tape to mark a quilt.  It's effective enough but it does shift a little and needs to be repositioned.

On a different topic....  The room where I have my fabrics and sewing machine is getting piled high with fabric despite the fact that I haven't done any sewing.  How does that happen?  Sometimes I get used to what I see and don't notice what a mess it may look like to objective eyes.  I do notice that it's hard to focus and feel creative when I have a mess around me with too little space to work.  (I have photographs but I don't want to show them.  It would be too embarrassing.)

I have so many scraps and I'm itching to start another quilt -- or two or three -- but I really need to finish some of the other ones I've started.  One needs a border or two.  One needs a few more blocks.  Another needs many more blocks.  Others....  Too many others (aside from the tops that need quilted).  Not to mention the strings and scraps that are calling my name.  When I have too many works in progress I either lose interest or lose momentum.

How about you?  Does a mess in your your sewing impede your creativity or ability to work?  Do you lose momentum or interest on a quilts? 

I'm linking this post to WOW at Esther's Blog and WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Thanks for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.
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Current Works in Progress

I'm sewing more of these

to make more of these.

I have 41 of these 9½" blocks.  Depending on whether I choose sashing or not, choose alternating blocks or not, straight or diagonal placement, I may need more.  I haven't laid them all out together yet.  Looking at this photo, maybe sashing would be a good choice.

On the hand quilting front, when I finally reach an edge, even for only one section, I feel like I'm making progress.

Those are my works in progress at the moment.

I'm linking this post to
> WOW at Esther's Blog
> WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
> Let's Bee Social #63 at Sew Fresh Quilts.
 Thank you, Esther, LeAnn, and Lorna.

--Nancy.
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Hand Quilting Sunday Morning and Two Bibs

I thought I was making good progress on this quilt.  Then I took the hoop off to look at the back and, well, I have a long, long way to go.  Winter is a great time to quilt -- and it looks like we'll be having another 6 weeks of it.

I'm quilting diagonals across each block using masking tape for a guide.  With so many seams I knew I didn't want an intricate pattern to hand quilt.  The parallel lines are 1 1/2" apart and create a 4" square between two blocks.  I'll probably quilt another square inside that one using 1" masking tape.  I sure hope the masking tape doesn't hurt the fabric.  I've seen other quilters use it and they haven't mentioned any problems because of it.  

Looking through my fabric cupboard I happened upon this delightful fabric with vintage Valentine cards on it.  I've had it for years, probably bought on sale after Valentine's Day, and I've never used it.  Click on the image to see it larger or follow on Feedly and look at it there.  (Feedly makes the photos large enough to see details.)  Oh, and I took a few photos of some of the "cards" which you can see below.

I decided to use it for bibs for my grandbabies.  It's great fabric to camouflage all the food that doesn't quite make it to the mouth.  Can you tell which is his and which is hers?

I made scrappy backs.  I'll put the snaps on the backs tomorrow and then I can send them off.

I'm linking this post to
> WOW at Esther's Blog
> WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and
> Let's Be Social #58 at Sew Fresh Quilts.
Thanks, Esther, Lee, and Lorna.

I hope you're staying warm (in you're in the northern hemisphere) and working on something fun.


--Nancy.
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All Is Well

It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do for one's attitude about and insight into solutions to problems.  There was last night's mess that I didn't want to fix -- that I just wanted to be fixed.  I awoke with more energy and a clearer vision of the problems I would have if I just left the quilt back as it was.  I decided to remove the quilt top (that hadn't yet been pin-basted) and batting and increase the width. 

I added 8" along the left side in the photo above and the back is plenty big now.  It may not be as good as if I'd measured correctly the first time, but it will work.

Thank goodness for sleep!

--Nancy.
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Measure Twice

You know that old adage, right?  The one that says, "Measure twice, cut once?"  I worked in a wood shop for a few years so I know that adage.  But do I think of it when I'm working on a quilt?  Not usually.

Case in point:

The Sunday Morning quilt top laying on top of batting and backing.  Before making the backing I measured the top at 67 1/2" x 90".  I spent nearly a week making a scrappy back that measures 76" x 98", or a little more.  (I didn't think I needed to be too careful about the outside edges of the back being even so some sections extend wider.) 

I finished the back today, pleased to have batting on hand, pleased that I could get on with the layering, basting, and finally the quilting, which is what I really want to be doing. 

I pinned the back to the floor.  I layered the batting on top.  I carefully laid the quilt on top.  What?  How could the back not have 4" all the way around?  I measured the top again only to find that the real measurement is 74 1/2" x 90".  Disappointment set it.  I am so sad.

As I see it, I have three choices:

1. Take off the top two layers.  Take out the pins in the back.  And add a strip of fabric along the width of the back.  (I have no interest in doing this.  I'm tired of working on the back of this quilt.)  Or,
2. Remove one block along the width of the quilt top, thereby making it 67" wide.  Are the proportions out of whack for a quilt to measure 67" x 90"?  Or,
3. Quilt it as it is and try not to let the top shift (and add fabric to the back if/when I find it needs it.)

Have you ever had this problem?  What did you do?

One more quilting lesson -- learned the hard way.

--Nancy.
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Three Things

ONE.  I'm hoping not to buy more fabric until I've used more (much, much more) of the fabric I have.

TWO.  I need to layer a quilt and begin hand quilting.  I'm at a loss without handwork and I finished the most recent quilt nearly a month ago.  The one above is the next to be quilted.

THREE.   I don't have a piece of fabric large enough for the back of this top (or any of my finished tops).  This means I'll be piecing a back from fabrics I have on hand, including cotton and linen, yardage and pieces.  I think it will be almost like making a second quilt top.  It's the first time I've tried piecing a back from only "scraps."

These are the fabric possibilities.  The photo's a little dark but I hope you get the idea.

It's always hard to choose backing fabric when the fabric in the quilt top is so varied, especially if I don't want a plain fabric.  Even though the top has all pale fabrics, there's a variety of colors - cream, pink, blue, tan, white, and colors between.

It should be fun.  It will feel like a huge success if I can sew small, medium, and large pieces of irregular-shaped fabric into one large back that lies flat (that may be the hardest part) and looks appealing.

Wish me luck!

I'm linking to Design Wall -- January 5, 2015 at Patchwork Times.  Thanks, Judy.

--Nancy.
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Friday Night with Sunday Morning

I spent part of Friday evening stitching the blocks of this Sunday Morning quilt into rows.  What should have taken an hour or two took too long. 

This afternoon I stitched the rows together.

I've decided that just because I love someone else's quilt doesn't mean I have to own or make one for myself.  I also decided that this quilt makes me think of sun sparkling on snowflakes creating a prism-like effect.  Maybe I should call it Snowy Sunday Morning or Sunny Snowy Morning or Sunday Morning with Snow or ....

I think this will be a bear to hand quilt because of all the seams.  I pressed most of them open thinking that stitching through two layers would be a lot easier than stitching through four.  In another post I mentioned pressing seams open.  A reader made a comment that she thought open seams would not be strong enough for a quilt.  I come from a sewing background, before there were sergers.  We always pressed seams open in garments (unless we made French seams).  I think open seams will be fine (and if they aren't I'll have learned something).

I neglected to measure this quilt top but it should be about 75" x 90".  I deliberated about making it larger to use on our queen size bed but decided against it.  It's now laying in my stack of finished tops awaiting quilting.  There are several before it unless it "calls" me.

Happy quilting.
--Nancy.
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These Were the Problem

This fabric was too bold, too bright.  I thought it would be okay because of all the white in the background but no, it kept shouting, "Look at me!  Look at me!"  Well, there will be a few (2 or 3) strips of it in the quilt but that's it.  No shouting on Sunday Morning.

The ones I'm going to replace are all end strips so it will be easy enough.

--Nancy.
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I Thought I Would Love It - W.i.P. Wednesday

The Children's Garden quilt is nearly finished but sometimes my fingers need a break from hand quilting so I decided to work on another project.  The blocks for this Sunday Morning quilt were in progress with almost enough blocks sewn so it was the first obvious choice. 

I finished stitching the last few blocks, cut them to size, then laid them out in random order on the floor.  The blocks will finish at 7 1/2".  There are 120 blocks, so 10 blocks by 12 blocks.  If I stop here with this many the quilt will be about 72" x 90".

I've seen other "Sunday Morning" quilts and loved them.  I thought I would love this quilt.  But it's lacking something.  My husband thinks it's peaceful.  I think he's tired of the bright colors I usually choose.  I'll let it rest for a day or so before deciding whether to do something about, with, or to it or whether to just stitch it up as is.  What do you think?

Outside, my flax has bloomed.  The plants are light, feathery, wispy, but when the lavender blue flowers bloom they practically glow, especially against the plant's green/blue foliage.  This is the plant from which linen is made.  It's a beautiful beginning for a beautiful fabric.

This is a post for W.i.P. Wednesday, hosted by Lee at Freshly Pieced.  Thanks for hosting, Lee.

Blessings to you. my readers.
--Nancy.
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This Week I've Been . . .

 . . . sewing more blocks for Sunday Morning.  I have 70 finished; 30 ready to be cut; and 14 more in progress.  My blocks are 8" before sewing, slightly smaller than the ones in Sunday Morning.  It's been a while since I've worked on this quilt.  I'll have to recalculate the size I want the quilt and how many blocks I'll need.

. . . playing with the leftover blocks from Easy Street.  There's a little (maybe a lot!) too much red in this photo.  The blocks are laying on my ironing board which has a reddish cover.  I don't know how I'll put these blocks together but it sure is fun to play with them. 

. . . and stitching together this top and layering it.  Now that it's all laid out it looks like I'll have to cut some batting off one side and add it to one end.  I suppose I should do that before I pin pin-baste the layers together.  I hope to have it ready to begin hand quilting tomorrow.

That's been my week.  It sure is nice to have more than one project in the works again.  I was getting tired of posting photos of High Five for Brenna every week!

It you want to see what some things other bloggers have been working on this week, click over to W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Join in if you'd like.  Thanks for hosting, Lee.

--Nancy.

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Should I Be Concerned . . .

. . . that this bat isn't even?  It dips downward on the right corner.  (This is the Mountain Mist Cream Rose bat I wrote about yesterday.)

Is it common for cotton bats to be irregularly shaped? The cutting line looks "straight" but not perpendicular to the side of the bat.


I'd love to hear from you if you know more about cotton bats than me.  Thanks!

--Nancy.

Thoughtful Quilts, Mindless Quilts - W.i.P. Wednesday

Have you ever noticed how sometimes you have to think about the quilt you're sewing and other times you can mindlessly stitch the pieces of a quilt together?


For example, the two blocks above are mindless blocks. I collect and/or cut the strips and put them in a basket or box, then all I have to do is stitch them together one after the other. When the sewn strips are 8" wide I quit adding strips. I wait till I have a pile then iron the pieces when I'm talking on the phone or watching a program. After the stack is ironed I take them to my cutting mat and cut one edge of each block even. Next I add the perpendicular strips. I iron everything flat again, then cut each block into a square. Very little thinking involved especially if I do the same step over and over for many blocks.

On the other hand, the little blocks below take more effort. It is not a thoughtless, mindless quilt. The blocks are all the same size but each block uses 5 different fabrics: 4 of the same/similar color and one contrasting color in the center. I have a mess of fabric sitting on my table sorted into piles of different colors. I lay out each block individually to try out the fabrics. Some fabrics are used in more than one block (because my stash is not large enough to use a fabric only once). I adore making these little blocks but this quilt is not a mindless quilt.


Much more thought and time goes into a quilt like the one with the little blocks than into a scrappy string quilt. I work on a mindless quilt when I'm tired but still have a little energy or when I want to think about other things or solve a problem. I work on thoughtful quilts like the one with color blocks when I have more mental energy.

How about you? Do you have several quilts in progress at the same time? Do you have periods of high and low energy with different quilts for each? How do you work on your quilts?

Progress report:
Pastel strings, cut at 8":
108 (or more) needed
16 sewn and cut to size
24 ready to be cut
68 in progress

Color blocks, cut at 5":
280 (or more) needed
95 finished
30 in progress
155 yet to cut and sew

W.i.P. Wednesday: Sunday Morning and String-X

This is the first time participating in W.i.P Wednesday, hosted from Freshly Pieced. I hope I'm doing it right.

I have two works in progress. Well, I have more than that, but I'll just show two today.


These first photos show strips and blocks for my version of Cheryl Arkison's "Sunday Morning" in the book Sunday Morning.


I've been a sewer for a long time so some of my fabrics are old. I try to use them in bits and pieces in the scrap quilts I make. But you know, those mushrooms might just have to come out of that block and stay out of this quilt!

The second quilt has been a work in progress for way too long, probably two years or more. I love piecing tops so much that I don't move on to quilting the tops. I'm devoting time every day so I can finish quilts instead of just finish tops. This is an adaptation of Bonnie Hunter's String-X quilt. I didn't paper piece mine and I changed the size.

Thanks for stopping by.