Blue jean baby queen

Another one of my favorite quilt blocks is the French braid.  I decided to make a couple throw pillows from ole blue jeans with this design.

I am a big recycler so I've made numerous blue jean rag quilts - 5 or 6 at least.   Friends and family know that I always welcome their old jeans and they are always kind to donate them to me.   I always have a pile of old jeans waiting for a new life.

Certainly takes more time cutting than sewing them together.  Not having a pattern it was time consuming figuring out what I wanted my end product to be.    Pleased with the finished size, the pillows ended up as 21 inches square.   I purchased navy blue velveteen to make piping around the outside which gave it a nice finished look.  Both sides of the pillow have the French braid design  so there isn't a front or back side.  I constructed and stuffed my own pillow forms which made it easier to accommodate any size I ended up with and made them nice and full and fluffy.

What a great way to use up old jeans.  I can see more pillows with different designs getting constructed in the future.

This was a great way to use the French braid design.  Now I'm ready to tackle a French braid quilt, but not from blue jeans.

Being patriotic

Not all of my blog posts are in order of when I worked on projects, but as they were completed.  During the fall and winter our quilting group, The Midnight Stichers, meet most Thursdays and I'm always working on a quilt.

After being gone during the month of June visiting my daughter in Los Angeles and traveling to Mexico  I was feeling very creative.   One of my buckle list quilts was a flag wall hanging.

So who decides to make a patriotic flag wall hanging on July 1st for July 4th - ME!

This wall hanging has been on my to do list for at least ten years.  I saw a photo of this wall hanging in a clothing catalog and ripped out the page for future reference.  I came across this page while moving to my new studio so it was fresh in my mind.  I also had enough scraps from other projects to jump right in.

After several hours of measuring and calculating I drew up a pattern and got busy cutting and sewing.   The finished size is 54" by 44".  Pretty easy using half square triangles.  My confidence has grown to be able to look at a quilt and make it similar with no directions.  Probably ten years earlier I wouldn't have had the confidence to zip right through this project, so it's a good thing it stayed on my to do list until now.

Well believe it or not I finished it on July 3rd!

I bought a cafe curtain rod and made a hanging sleeve for the first time.  It will be proudly displayed outside on my front porch every summer.  At least July lit a firecracker under me and this wall hanging is crossed off my list.
I guess you can say I completed UFO #5.

The wonderful colors of Kaffe Fassett's fabric

Loving the bright colors of Kaffe fabric in March 2018 I decided to make a simple strip quilt and hand quilt straight rows every 1/2".  The quilt has 10 rows of 10" fabric.

This queen size quilt was very quick to piece together, but of course the hand quilting would take months.   Between working on my new studio area and the warmer weather coming upon us I would quilt during some evenings while watching a movie.   When I was productive I would get four or five rows quilted in an evening.

Now if you're a cat owner you'll surely relate to this story.

For a flat spot to quilt I'd pull out my ironing board, lay my quilt across it and start stitching  Within minutes of setting up, our cat Simba would jump up on the ironing board to watch me stitch.  Who knows where he was lurking before.  Never saw him.  He must have heard the clicking of the ironing board and he'd come running.

I considered him my quality control.  Every once in a while he'd get rambunctious and start attaching the thread, but most of the time he sat on the quilt very still and not missing a stitch.  During the day if the quilt was laying over the ironing board he would crawl inside it and take naps.   I guess he felt this quilt was partially his creation too.  Gotta love those cats - always curious and ready to help.  Luckily they have nine lives.

After several months of stitching the Kaffe quilt was finished.  The periwinkle quilting thread helped tone down the bright colors in the fabric.   I love the less than perfect rows of stitching.  It came out better than I hoped for.  When my daughter came to visit she laughed and called it a clown quilt, because of the bright colors.  I must admit it is very bright, but I love it.

The quilt now lays on the bed in the studio bedroom.   With the extra fabric (remember I always buy more fabric than I need since my quilts grow as I sew) I made some pillow cases.  Simba still has claimed some ownership to this quilt.  It's his new favorite spot for an afternoon snooze.

Pineapples again

I can't get enough of a good thing so when a girlfriend of mine took a class for a pineapple wallhanging and showed it to me I knew this would be my next pineapple quilt project.  It was beautiful.

When she showed me her quilt she complained that this was in her UFO pile because it isn't coming out right.  I asked her if I could help her figure out the problem.  I didn't see much of a problem at all - it just needed finishing and she lost her confidence.   We found fabric to border the pineapple block and she was falling in love with it again.

Eileen's Pineapple quilt wallhanging

She sent the wallhanging off to be quilted.  Now it is one of her favorites.  In fact, one of her daughters begged her for the wallhanging and she gave it to her.  Now my friend says she has to make another one for herself.

My friend shared what she could for this project and again all the quilt shop gave her was the sign up sheet hand out with a lined drawing of the wallhanging and the amount of fabric required.

Now a little familiar with the construction of this block and having her quilt for some quick measurements I was ready to start.  I purchased a pineapple ruler which helped with accuracy.  It went together rather quickly.

Here is my pineapple wallhanging.  This quilt is one of my favorites and hangs in my entryway.  I'm not done with the pineapple block yet.  I want to make a pineapple quilt next.

My 2018 New Year's Resolution is going good.  A few months into the year and I've put a small dent in that UFO pile.   I've been also working on current quilts, but I'll get to them as they are finished.

UFO #3 Pineapple

One of my favorite quilt blocks is the pineapple.  My first attempt at a pineapple quilt was a table runner in the early 2000s.

When a local quilt shop offered a Saturday class for this table runner I was excited to finally learn the secret to this complicated looking block.  Unfortunately, the class was canceled due to lack of participants.   I was so sad.   I already bought my fabric and was ready to go.  I asked if I could purchase the pattern and try it on my own, but the instructor did not have a printed pattern to share. All I had was the class sign up sheet of papers lined drawing of the table runner that came with the fabric amount needed.

Determined to figure this table runner out - I counted up the rows on this drawing and guessed at the width of the fabric strips and here is what I came up with.

It came out great.  This wasn't as hard as it looked.  With it quilted in less than an hour why did this end up in my UFO pile?  It now lays on my dining room table often.

This is so rewarding.  Back to my UFO pile.  Quilt number four is calling for the Midnight Stitcher.

Don't you want somebody to love

This UFO heart quilt was pieced in the mid 90s.   I had intended it to be for my daughter to fit on her double bed.  It would have been perfect for her when she was younger and I'm sure a keepsake.   As I was finishing piecing this quilt she outgrew hearts and was into "Roxy", surfing, Hawaiian motifs, sun and shells.  The desire to finish it was gone and it was folded up and put in a tote.

So this quilt was resurrected as my second UFO.  Reflecting back to when it was made I learned a new technique and a lot about accuracy in piecing.  Although the piecing isn't at all the best in accuracy, it was one of my learning steps to become a better quilter.  Actually the piecing isn't as bad as I might make it sound - a few puckered seams I ripped apart and resewed before I quilted it.

The photo above doesn't seem to be the most accurate in its "country" colors of wedgewood blue, pink/rose and yellow.

For me following a pattern is just a springboard.   The quilt always changes or grows larger, therefore I always purchase extra fabric for each project.  With the extra fabric I purchased I made matching pillow shams and a looped rug.

I still love this quilt as much as I did when it was first pieced - in fact I love it more finished and regret it wasn't finished for my daughter to enjoy as intended.  Who knows it might find someone to love.

With another quilt completed this Midnight Stitcher is having fun, but there is no light at the end of this tunnel.  Let's get busy with UFO number three.

Welcoming 2019

While welcoming 2019 I’ve reflected back on 2018.  My new years resolution was to work on my pile of quilt tops from years past and get stuff done.   Well I did manage to finish a few of those quilts, but I also made new quilts and finished them completely.  Felt great.  

In the early spring my youngest son moved into his own house freeing up the space that he lived in above the attached garage in our home.  This space includes a huge living area with a large bedroom and a full bath.  Sad to see him go, but truly excited about claiming my own space.  I’ve spent the next few months cleaning painting and rearranging the space to make a studio.  Finally a home for my long arm quilter, sewing machine and projects.  

What a difference your own space makes on productivity.   No more pulling my projects out and spreading them all over the dining room table and then packing them up to put away. Sometimes the effort just to bring everything out kept me from sewing.  Now with my studio space I can walk away and come back at any time to work on my projects.  Not to mention how I feel so much more organized.  I even found more UFOs - oh no!

So the creation of my studio  took time away from my 2018 new year’s resolution, but in a good way.   

Little sewing is accomplished in the summer.  For me summer is a time for outdoor adventures - gardening, kayaking, traveling and outside projects.   But when fall comes around I'm excited to start sewing again.

2018 was a great year and I’m looking forward to 2019.  So here is my new year’s resolution for 2019:

I will continue on my quest to finish all those quilt tops (UFOs) - “2019” the year that I will get this accomplished.  But even more important I’ve neglected posting on my blog so I will spend the next few weeks posting my 2018 accomplishments and than as part of my resolution I will be more faithful at posting my projects as they are finished.  Posting monthly sounds simple enough.

Now this sounds like a feel good resolution I can stick to.   Fingers crossed.   So let’s get started and catch up.