My Sister's Quilt Top is Fully Pieced!

So after I blogged about my sister's quilt last Thursday, I carried on and finished the additional six flowers and cut out the setting triangles (twice*) and sewed the centre together.  *I had never managed to make this particular mistake before, but if you cut out a square, but somehow it isn't a square, maybe it was 14" x 13" or 14" x 15", and then you cut that square diagonally twice, you do not end up with right angle triangles suitable to square up the sides of an on point block setting.  Half of the triangles will be greater than 90 degrees and the other half will be be less than 90 degrees, and none of them can be re-cut to be what you intended.  Luckily I had more fabric.  Here is the completed centre of the quilt including the first border, which is the same background fabric so doesn't really show up.  The picture was taken at night so unfortunately is rather washed out.

On Sunday I added all the borders.  Here it is with the second and third borders.

And here it is with the final border I chose (not the same as the pattern's next two borders).  This border let me use up almost all of the green and pink fabrics in the bundle.  There were two fabrics that I didn't use at all because neither of them had a pink or green background, one was off white and the other was taupe.

I also decided on the backing fabric, I just have to go get another metre.  I made the binding out of the lovely green fabric that is printed to look like linen.  And I made two corner hangers which I will use as the labels.  I was pleased to be able to trim four of the aforementioned greater than 90 degree setting triangles for these so now I only have four less than 90 degree triangles to find a purpose for.

In other news, although I haven't blogged about it yet (I still intend to), I organised all my quilt tops waiting for quilting including making sure that they all had backing fabric and binding fabric.  I also made a label for one of them and then decided since this particular quilt now had everything ready to go I would put it on the frame and quilt it.  I am still contemplating the quilting (I have the border figured out).  So all this is to say that until this quilt is quilted and off the frame, my sister's quilt will have to wait.....  My own "organisation" is now holding me back!  How did that happen?

Progress on my Sister's Pink Quilt aka "Summertime Blues" and "May Flower"

I sent my sister pictures of three different pink fabric collections and this is the one she chose with help from her daughter.  I was glad because it was my favourite too.

Yesterday I got out and bought some additional fabric for the background, borders, binding and also to make some of the pink and green flowers.

As soon as I got home, I couldn't resist and I made a "test" flower.

Not long after I had four flowers.

And before a late supper I had seven flowers, only six more to go.

I actually made this same quilt before for my mother and am making it again for my sister at her request.  The pattern is called "Summertime Blues" (It was made with blue flowers).  I got the pattern from the June 2009 American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.  The designer is Jill Finley of Jillilly Studio.  You can buy the pattern here.  I made my mother's quilt in pinks and called it "May Flower" since her birthday was in May and she always looked for the first May flowers in the spring.  Here is the quilt I made and gave my mother for Christmas 2011.  It is 60" square.  I didn't do a lot of quilting on it and always planned to do a bit more.  Since I have the quilt right now, I might get that done.

If you go check out the pattern you can see that I didn't follow the pattern exactly.  I left off the applique flowers and didn't piece the 2nd last border.  My sister's will not be the same as the pattern either, or the same as my mother's.  My mother's pinks were peachy and her greens were apple or limey green.  My sister's pinks are rosier and her greens are more olive green.  I'm looking forward to taking a picture of them side by side for comparison.

Progress on B & C's Wedding Quilt

Bryan likes the blocks with darker grey melons.

Catherine prefers the melons and the rest of the background to be the same light grey fabric.

In order for both of them to get what they want, we have decided that the centre of the quilt will just use light grey background fabric, but the melons in the final row of the quilt will be dark grey which will give the quilt a nice border.

All the fans require trimming, 8 of 128 done....

Here are the first eight fans with melons and corner points attached.

Here they are trimmed with the triangle tips added and ready to sew together.

And now, here is the first complete block of four.

Oops!  That's not right, I should have attached the blocks so they made a circle, not a flower.  But that's OK, it can be fixed.  I'll just add the next two blocks on one side and two on the other to create two circles.  Half way there.

The first two circles of blocks completed.

Fourteen more to go!

My Third Year Blog-Iversary and More Quilt Room Organisation

Three years ago I wrote my first blog post on the first Monday after I retired.  I am still smiling about the retirement part and still enjoying blogging, although I don't blog as often as I anticipated I would in the beginning.  Blogging is more time consuming than I expected it would be, maybe I proof read too many times.....

Here are some more organisation pictures of my sewing room.  This shows my full design wall and my ironing, or should I say, pressing station.

All the Dear Jane blocks I've made so far are on the design wall.  The grey wooden bench helps me reach the top of the design wall.  I have a shelf above the ironing board and it holds some tools, glue, starch, water and the iron when it's cooled down.  The picture frame under the shelf has a picture of Marilyn and I and another quilter when we worked together and made yearly raffle quilts for United Way.  I use white board markers on the glass and list my priorities on it.

In front of my sewing table is a four drawer cabinet.



The bottom two drawers hold my neutral stash.

One drawer has off white to beige to light brown solids and tone on tones which I use mainly as background fabrics in my quilts.  I prefer using off white to bright white for backgrounds.

The other drawer has whites to grays to blacks.  Some are solids and tone on tones but there are also quite a few black and white prints.

The top two drawers hold coloured fabrics that are at least a fat quarter or more in size.

The top drawer has cool colours, greens, blues and purples.  It also has some "rainbow" or multi-coloured fabrics with either black or white backgrounds.

The next drawer has warm colours, yellows, oranges and reds as well as a few pinks.

Most of these fabrics were bought with a specific project in mind and are left overs, but a few were bought because they were on sale and I liked them and knew I would use them in a future unspecified project.





The top two drawers were nice and tidy already, but I had to do some folding to get the bottom two drawers photo ready.  A few pieces of fabric that were smaller than a fat quarter got added to my rainbow scrap buckets.

Some Boring Quilt Room & Project Bin Organization

I didn't take any "before" pictures because I didn't want to inflict that on anyone!  I barely wanted to enter the room myself.  After doing the Christmas sewing there were no surfaces that weren't stacked at least 3 layers deep, although I did have enough space to continue to cut and sew.  So here are my completely cleared off sewing table and cutting table.  You can see that I have two sewing areas set up on the table so if you ever want to come over and sew with me, just give me a few days notice so I can clear up the rest of the room not shown in the picture and come on over!

My sewing table comes out at an angle from the corner of the room so that I can use the wall on the left as a design wall and to also be able to use both sides of the table.  The centre block for a medallion quilt is currently on the design wall.  The cupboard holds sewing tools with a few decorative items on top which I see could do with better arrangement...  I have a bulletin board above my row of colourful buckets which hold scraps too large to get rid of in colour order, which makes me happy.  The rolling cart below has just been reorganised to hold my three top priority projects which are currently the quilt label and hanging sleeve for my daughter and s-i-l's wedding quilt, the wedding quilt for my son and d-i-l to be and my current epic quilt which is Dear Jane.  On top of my cutting table, which can be used from both sides, are some galvanised containers which hold all my cutting rulers, rotary cutters and scissors.  Underneath the cutting table are containers of fabric which I may share in another post.  At the end of the cutting table are a blue bin for paper recycling, a white bucket for fabric scrap recycling and a garbage can.  Underneath the white bucket are two bins for projects that are ready to be quilted.  I just have to decide what fabric I am going to use to make the bindings and labels for these quilts.  Then the remaining fabric can be sorted back into my stash.

If you turn around 180 degrees you would see two bookcases freshly reorganised with all my current projects.  There are two bottom shelves in each bookcase that have yet to be tidied up, but their contents will remain the same.  The left bookcase has some binders and magazines as well as my stash of backing fabrics.  The right bookcase holds rolls of fusibles and interfacings etc. as well as my Christmas fabric.  If you recall the first paragraph of this blog post, you will remember that Christmas sewing was what got me into this mess, so needless to say, that shelf is currently NOT neat and tidy.  Why do we say "neat and tidy" anyway, do they both not mean the same thing?  I digress.  Here are my two bookcases which hold all of my projects except the three priority projects in my rolling cart.

In case you're not bored yet, this is to let you know that the really boring stuff is now coming, unless you are like most of us and you want to find out the nitty-gritty on how many UFO's other people actually have.  I've broken my projects down into a couple of categories:

QUILTS I WANT TO MAKE in the "FABRIC COLLECTION" STAGE

1. Special Birthday (65) Quilt for my Sister - Pink is her favourite colour.  I have some fabric but need more. Want to finish this year.
2. Red and Taupe Pineapple Quilt - I have a kit including backing fabric.  This would be a quilt for our queen size bed.  The only quilts I have made and kept are only double bed size.
3. Snowflake Hexagon Quilt  - I have 10 metres of 18 different snowflake fabrics in whites, grays, turquoises and blues as well as 2.5 metres of a snowy woodland creatures fabric which could be used as a border.
4. Millefiori La Passacaglia English Paper Pieced Quilt - Have some bright batiks and have made a few "sample" rings.  Will be my next epic quilt after Dear Jane so no rush on fabric acquisition.
5. Bella Bella Italian Mosaics Quilt - I have 14 metres of 12 different Stonehenge fabrics, mostly from whites to blacks, beiges to browns, but also some orange and turquoise.  Another epic quilt
6. Ombre Cathedral Window Quilt - I have a 6" wide jelly roll of colourful ombre fabric for the windows.  I have some white fabric and several shades of grey fabric to make the window frames change from white in the centre through 4 to 5 shades of grey to a black binding.  Need several more shades of grey fabric.  Another epic quilt.

QUILTS IN PROGRESS

1. Wedding Quilt Label and Hanging Sleeve for A&J - Need to finish embroidering the label.
2. Wedding Quilt for B&C - Chic Kisses - 128 fans have been sewn, trimming them to size has started.  I would like to have all the blocks made by mid May, top sewn together by end of May, quilted, labelled and bound by end of June.  Wedding is July 18.
3. Dear Jane - My current "epic" quilt.  I am over half done and would like to make 2.5 blocks a week this year which would mean all the blocks would be done in 2020.
4. Half Square Triangle Quilt - Fabric has been cut into strips.  Some has been cut into hst's.  Will use it as leader/ender project.  70 of 400 hst's currently made.  For our den.
5. Good Fortune Quilt - Quilt top is completed as per instructions.  Want to add an additional border to make it just a little larger.
6. Medallion Quilt - Central floral block almost complete.  Some English paper pieced hexagons are in progress for a row.  Background will be various grey prints.  Main fabrics will be bright colours.
7. Christmas Arrowhead Quilt - 42 arrowhead blocks sewn, need to be trimmed and sewn together.  Need to find 2 metres of coordinating fabric for a 10" border to bring it up to approximately 60" x 70".
8. Country Schools Quilt - 25 school house blocks have been made.  Need to make 24 log cabin alternate blocks which go from off white to brown.  Need a few more fabrics.

QUILTS IN PROGRESS - NO DEADLINE

1. Around the World Quilt - Have made a few blocks. Started it in order to have a project to take to guild "sew days".  Quilt currently has no destination so in no rush.
2. Drunkard's Path Spice Market Quilt - Have sewn quite a few rows, wanted the curved piecing experience.  Quilt currently has no destination so in no rush.
3. Kaleidoscope Quilt - All half hexagon pairs have been sewn.  Quilt currently has no destination so in no rush.  Feature fabric was bought at rock bottom price so not a lot of $'s invested either.
4. Triple Irish Chain Quilt(s) - 50 checker board blocks have been made.  48 alternate blocks have been partially pieced.  Was originally going to be 2 bunk bed quilts for the cottage but bunk beds are no longer in use so could become one quilt.  Quilt(s) currently has (have) no destination so in no rush.
5. Fish Quilt - Making this quilt on the treadle machine which is currently in two pieces in two different places.  The machine itself is here and has been serviced and a new belt has been bought.  The cabinet is in Cape Breton in Marilyn's Play House Sewing Studio.  Will get the treadle machine parts reunited this summer.

Quilts Lacking Progress for Several Years or More - aka UFO's

1. Sampler Quilt - 10 or 11 of the 12 blocks have been made.  Work has been done on the border.  Sashings have been made.  This quilt is likely close to or into the double digits old.
2. Cat Quilt - All blocks are made, some still need eyes embroidered on the cats.  Have backing fabric.  Was destined for Ainsley when she was little, she's now 27....  My oldest UFO, likely 20 years.  Still like it, still intend to finish it, but perhaps for a grandchild if and when.....

In summary:

I have 6 quilts in the fabric collection phase, the first one I will start making as soon as I have the fabric for completion and gifting to my sister this year.  The second I would like to start working on this year.

I have 13 quilts in progress, 4 of which are being actively worked on.  As soon as I finish my first priority I will start on the 5th priority and so on down the line.  The last 5 of these quilts have no destination and no priority and I will work on them when I feel like it.

I have two UFO's and I would like to work on one and maybe even finish it this year.

I still have two more lists I want to make for another post on Organisation.  A list of quilt tops that are finished and need to be quilted.  A list of smaller quilted/sewing items, e.g. bag, apron, table runner, pincushion, etc. projects in progress.

Fruit & Veg Fabric - Table Runner, Lunch Bag & Napkins

I came across a new to me blog called Spring Leaf Studios by Anne and specifically this blog post  where she sewed with all fruit and veg fabric.  I loved everything she made, you have to go check it out!  I made a table runner several years ago (before my blog) with fruit and veg fabric even though my friend Marilyn teased me for being too literal, you know, a runner for the table where you eat made out of what you eat...but I really like it and use it on my kitchen island most of the year.

I also made a lunch bag out of food fabric as well as a herbal text fabric which I really love but don't use much since I retired... (also made before my blog)

I had been thinking recently of making cloth fruit and veg napkins to reduce the use of paper napkins although at least they do get composted in our area.  I found a tutorial which showed how to make napkins with mitred corners, but could not find it again to include the link here.  I cut 15" squares of fabric because I was working with fat quarters which had pieces of fabric already cut from them so that was the largest square I was able to make.  You could choose a square anywhere from 15" to 20".  I ironed up a 3/8" hem on all four sides.  (You could use a wider hem on a larger napkin.)

I then folded the napkin on the diagonal and sewed at a right angle to the diagonal fold where the diagonal fold and the ironed up hem met.  Trim off the excess fabric.  Do this to both corners and then fold on the opposite diagonal and repeat.

Next, turn your mitred corners inside out, use a pointy tool if necessary, and iron down the now double folded hem.

Sew as close to the inside edge of the hem as you can pivoting with your needle down in the mitre at each corner.  This picture shows two corners, one from the back where I sewed and the other what the stitching looks like from the front.

Here are the seven napkins I was able to make with the fruit and veg fabric I had on hand.

And here are the table runner and napkins together on my kitchen island.

I will be keeping my eye out for some more fruit and veg fabric in yellows and greens so I can make at least five more napkins to give me a nice dozen.  And then I will also have enough left over fabric that I could make a table topper similar to Anne's fresh tossed!  (see 2nd link at the top of the post)