Weekly update: a fling, a finish, and a flimsy

 The fling.  I still have a lot of fashion fabric left over from the days that I sewed my own clothing.  I learned that there's a rug hooking group in the area (Loopy Ladies).   I emailed asking if they could use wool yardage. Yes! And yesterday I took a box of yardage to their meeting.  It was gratefully received.  I told them I could not stay -- keep me from temptation! I admire rug hooking but I am not going to take it up. There's enough opportunity and variety in quilt making to keep me plenty busy.

The fashion fabric has not been counted in my stash reports so I won't count it as "fabric used," but I am happy to say that I emptied a 66-gallon plastic tub.  One day later: the tub is still empty.

The finish.
 I pieced Nine by Nine patch earlier this year.  It came to the top of the pile of flimsies so I quilted it.  The white-background poppy print that I used for the back complemented the white of the quilt. (It wouldn't have worked for last week's Poppy Stars which doesn't have any white.)

 In retrospect I should have continued the insert band across the back.  Too late now!
Back and binding used 3 yards.



























The flimsy.  A few weeks ago I began piecing batik crumbs with no specific plan.  I used my largest square ruler -- 15" -- to trim those I'd make.  More blocks followed.

Here's the result. I chose the very bright  batik so the sashes and borders would  blend with the extremely busy blocks.
Of course I couldn't count yardage using the size of the pieces. Instead I weighed it -- 1 lb., 1 oz. That's 4-1/8 yards.

And, yes, there are still a lot of batik bits and pieces awaiting a future project.

Monday link ups:
Design Wall Monday
Monday Making
Oh Scrap!
Moving It Forward


P.S.  Rosebuds in late October. Foolhardy or optimistic?  (Actually, they indicate that the gardener is not diligent in keeping the bush pruned.)

Midweek: Poppy Stars, front and back

Here's the front.
I used a gold/orange print for the binding.

Here's the back.

I got to thinking: I know I won 40 sixteen-patch blocks. If I used 30 on the front and six on the back, what happened to the others?  I found them yesterday in the mailing envelope.  Four more orphans for the box!


Linking up at Midweek Makers today.

Weekly update: blossoms, books, bunco, blocks, and WIP

 The week flew by as quickly as cumulus clouds on a bright autumn day. 

Fringed gentian is in bloom at Illinois Beach State Park. Isn't that a beautiful shade of blue?   Along the same trail:  flame-red sumac.







 Natalie Rompella was the speaker at Tuesday's AAUW meeting. I didn't get a picture of her but I did snap a photo of two of her children's books. She's a former teacher turned nonfiction writer (with one upper-grade novel to her credit). As a librarian I've been the penultimate consumer of children's books. Natalie provided insights into the creative and business parts of the continuum.  (BTW, Famous Firsts is really interesting. I hadn't ever thought about who invented the trampoline, or cheerleading, or in-line skates.)

A good time was had by all Friday night at the Zion Woman's Club annual bunco fundraiser.  It included dinner, a silent auction, a bucket raffle, and a 50/50 drawing.  I contributed a quilt, a table runner, and a tote bag to the silent auction.  They did respectably (and the purchasers got good deals).   The treasurer's preliminary report is $1900 profit for the charities the club supports. 

I made three Halloween blocks for the October Block Lotto.  I had to search through the stash to find frightful seasonal prints for the centers.




These California Poppy blocks are some of the  winnings from the August Block Lotto. The final batch arrived from Australia this week.  A side-by-side setting did not thrill me.  Hmmm. What about alternate blocks? 

Here is the result!  It's 60 x 72. 


I used Deb Tucker's Wing Clipper ruler for the sawtooth stars.

It's under the needle now.  I'll post a photo of the pieced back in a day or two.

Here is the Monday link lineup:
Design Wall Monday
Monday Making
Oh Scrap!
Moving It Forward

Weekly update: the sampler is a flimsy

I talked about Toby jugs

The first week of every month is meeting-ful.  I hosted my P.E.O. chapter Monday evening. I was also my own co-hostess (since the person assigned was not able to attend) and the program presenter. The topic was "an item from my collection" and each member showed samples and told the story of something she collects.  (I'm the chapter recording secretary, too.)
   
 Zion Woman's Club meets the first Tuesday. I was the program coordinator.  Our club members contribute canned and boxed goods to the local food pantry using Green Bags.  This month we met at the church where the  pantry operates. The pantry manager gave the presentation.   This way we got to see where and how our donations go. (This pantry serves 250 people every week. They buy from Northern Illinois Food Bank and get "food recovery" baked goods and produce from local supermarkets. ZWC's food provides a variety of extras.) (I'm also the club secretary.) 

     Northern Lake County Quilters Guild met Wednesday evening.  Chris Lynn Kirsch  talked about her "journey to the dark side."  She began as a garment sewer and discovered quilting in the 1980's. Her presentation included family photos with those long-ago fashions and her art quilts.  (I am NOT the secretary. :))

     Coalition for Healthy Communities meets the first Friday morning. It was a routine meeting. I've been on the board for 15 years, 9 or 10 as secretary (it's been so long that I can't remember). My term ends in December and I am stepping down.

WAB is 90 years old this year

The northern fall conference of    AAUW-IL was on Saturday morning at the IIT campus in Wheaton. The speakers addressed AAUW's priority issues of equity in leadership and education.  Cheryl Maletich is the first woman operations v.p. for ComEd.  Cynthia Vasquez Barrios is dean of students and Title IX compliance officer at Joliet Junior College. Cindy explained how changes proposed by the  Dept. of Education will impact (negatively) reporting and dealing with campus violence against women (primarily sexual assault).  The Kavanugh confirmation hearings were on all of our minds.
      Photo:   The fall conference has become the launch day for our branch holiday raffle quilt.  I sold $85 in tickets for Cardinals in the Pines.

      Saturday evening was a date night.  We heard the Chicago Bassoon Quartet in concert.    They were great.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ##
Each of these meetings was interesting, thought-provoking, and valuable, but there wasn't a lot of sewing time.  I concentrated on my One Monthly Goal:  to complete the blocks from the 2017-18 guild BOM.  All featured Missouri Star patterns.  I chose to make them in homespun. I had two challenges:  balance (sampler blocks vary in density (which is why I don't make many sampler quilts)) and different sizes.  I fiddled around with a different homespun sash to border each block but homespun patches in the blocks blurred with the sashes. Yet cream-on-cream sashes with COC outer edges meant blurring the other way. The eureka! came when I used a skinny homespun border on one block and realized that would look good on all the blocks. I recently bought four yards of a subtle COC polka dot print that was just right to frame each block.   The sashes are a woven stripe and homespun cornerstones.  But what to use for the border?  My stash yielded a vintage (36"w) low-volume woven stripe that was just right.

The flimsy is 62 x 80 and used 4-1/2 yards.

Monday link ups:  Monday Making
Moving It Forward
Oh, Scrap!
Design Wall Monday

A blue ribbon!

One of my quilts, Crystal Chain, won a blue ribbon in its category (bed-sized, machine-quilted) at last weekend's quilt show. 



Rose's Alaskan wildflowers applique won two ribbons. It is a beauty.






Rose's embroidered-and-quilted octopus (designed and made for her daughter and son-in-law) got a blue ribbon, too.







Madelyn's autumn quilt got a ribbon.

So did Sharon's Farmer's Wife sampler.














Irene's t-shirt quilt (made for her son-in-law using his archery t-shirts) earned a ribbon as well.  It is a huge quilt.  Irene says he loves it.

OMG, October edition

My One Monthly Goal for October is to catch up on Blocks of the Month.  Yes, that's plural.  (I often have multi-part OMGs.)

A.   The guild BOM for 2017-2018 has featured a different Missouri Star pattern each month.    Those who bring all the blocks set (quilting not required) to the November guild meeting will qualify for a grand prize.  I need to make the June,July and August blocks. (This photo shows two of one month's block.)  I have a setting in mind.

(I used homespuns and cream-on-cream. The green background is not part of the setting; rather, it's so that you can see the block better.)








B. The guild BOM for 2018-19 is paper-pieced wonky houses.  Here is my September block. For OMG I will make the October block.  (My theme:  Dot's House, using polka dots.)


C.  October is the last month for the 2018 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  The color is dark and sage green.   You've seen my Chinese Puzzle blocks often.  This will be #10.



I'm joining  other OMGers at Elm Street Quilts

Weekly update, part 2: an accessory, two finishes, and the stash report

Antoinette's Quilt Shop of Plover, Wisconsin, was one of the quilt show vendors (see previous post). They make ironing board extenders in three sizes (and a 36" square mini-board).  I bought the small size -- just $50 and "free shipping to your car," as they joked.

It's made out of particle board covered with reflective stuff, batting, and heavy cotton duck.






I had a productive week in the studio with two finishes!

Here is my version of Rowan Baby, made from a pattern in  a 2005 Kaffe Fassett book.  There are no Kaffe prints in it so perhaps it should be called Decaf.

The pieced back uses 3.5" nine-patches from the Block Swappers.




I wrote a week ago that Boxed Four-Patch had come together easily.  The quilting was painless, too.  I put loopy flowers in each four-patch, serpentine in the green sashes, spiral in the red sashes, and almost-feathers in the border.    The pieced back used up nearly all of four different tan prints and more Block Swappers' four-patches.

I haven't quite decided on my OMG list for October, but meanwhile here's the Stash Report for September:
Fabric IN:  23-1/2, $125
Fabric OUT: 37-1/8

Year-to-date:
Fabric IN:  244-1/8, $875 ($3.58/yd)
Fabric OUT: 438-3/8
Net decrease:  194-1/4   Hooray!

Monday link ups:  Monday Making
Oh, Scrap!
Design Wall Monday
Moving It Forward 

Weekly update, part 1: Quilt Show

Lake County Impressiona XIV, the Northern Lake County Quilters Guild biennial show, was this weekend.  We had a new venue this year -- a former elementary school, now township offices -- which provided sufficient space for quilt exhibits and vendors.  I worked at the boutique on Saturday and the silent auction on Sunday.

At our guild meeting this coming Wednesday we'll
find out who won Viewer's Choice and Member's Choice.









Collage #1:  the Roman Stripe (bottom right) is made out of fine-wale corduroy, front and back.  The maker said the bits of corduroy pile made a terrible mess.

Collage #2
The blue/lime/purple sampler, top right, shows all the blocks made from Deb Tucker's Studio 180 rulers.  The same person made the exuberant paisley (100 x 100) in the center.  Middle right is a Judy Niemeyer pattern. Lower left is the Farmer's Wife. 

Collage #3:  the upper left and middle right are vintage quilts (middle-right is unquilted). The embroidered octopus is about 3' x 4'. 

Here are my entries.  I have blogged about all of them as I've made them. I sold Scraps for Edna (middle right)!

Weekly update: OMG report and a new flimsy

 Here are my September OMG finishes.  I'm linking up with other OMG participants here.

A.  Catch up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Here are the Nine Chinese Puzzle blocks. Each is made out of 32 different prints.





B. Make and send a small quilt to my assigned partner in the Teal Mini Swap hosted by
Beth Helfter (d/b/a Eva Paige Quilt Designs).  My partner is Pat in Pennsylvania. She and I have mutual quilting friends.  She said she likes Kaffe and bright.  I used both. The swap fabric is the ogee print used in the vase. The pattern is by Lori Smith. It's 16 x 20.

I couldn't post pictures before now because I wanted Pat to see it first!









WITB is a Stashbusters initialism meaning "What's In the Box?"  After opening the orphan blocks box and finding parts for last week's projects (the tote bag the Maple Rails runner) I pulled out a bag of 4.5" four-patches.  They are from a long-ago Block Swappers exchange. (We had two variations: four-patch with two fabrics and four-patch with four fabrics.  I chose the two-fabric blocks.)  Here's what they turned into!  The block frames used up all of two different tan prints (one dated 1996) and all but a six-inch square of the dark green (skinny sashes).   The floral sashing was used in this 2011 project . The cornerstones are the only new fabric. I purchased it (on sale, of course) in June. .  5-5/8 yards, all from my stash!

I will call it Boxed Four-Patch.  It's 69 x 81. 

It came together amazingly easily. I designed as I went.  I think I should have put four blocks with the same frames to make one larger block. By the time I figured that out I'd sewn too many to rip out.

And I have a stack of four-patches to return to the box to await future inspiration.

Monday link parties:
Oh, Scrap!
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Moving it Forward

On a roll

Another start-and-finish this week.  Believe me, this is highly unusual.  It's a combination of having free time and all the ingredients at hand -- along with great jolts of inspiration.

The reverse-applique batik block was part of a Magpies block exchange back in 2008.  (Thanks, Debs!) Ten years in the orphan blocks box is long enough.  Also, I acquired a yard of black-and-white batik earlier this year which was more than sufficient to make the tote bag.

The tote will be donated (like Wednesday's Maple Rails runner) to the silent auction at the Zion Woman's Club bunco night in October.

The silent auction items were going to be my October One Monthly Goal. Guess I'll need to come up with something else!

Linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop  --  Happy Friday, everyone!

An unexpected project

Some years ago I sewed strips of two different batiks into 3.5" rail fence blocks. I assembled the blocks into a small panel. Other activities came up and the panel was consigned to the orphan blocks box.  I took it out last month and put it on the countertop.  A couple of batik maple leaf blocks came out of the orphan box, too.

Hmmm.   I made three more maple leaves and added two of them to the orphans.  (The third leaf is going back in that box.)

I still had some of the light batik in the rail fences, enough to make a narrow border.

While we watched two episodes of "A Place to Call Home" (Australian series on Acorn TV) last evening I assembled, quilted, and bound the table runner.  It's 14 x 41.

This will be donated to the silent auction at the Zion Woman's Club Bunco Night in October.

Linking up with Susan and friends at Midweek Makers 

A quick finish!

It was 88 degrees yesterday. That  was the warmest September 17 in 63 years, according to the Tribune's weather archivist. (He's Frank Wachkowski and he's been keeping the records for years. Here is a story about him.)  I ran a couple of errands and then gave myself permission to stay inside and sew.

I listen to audiobooks when I sew (unless my husband is with me, in which case we watch TV). I finished listening to Mercy Falls, #5 in the Cork Corcoran series by William Kent Krueger. This summer I've been listening to the series in order -- a slow but steady binge. I've read a few and listened to a few but by starting from the beginning I get the character development and story arc.

Here's the finish!





 I pieced the back because I didn't want to fuss with getting the blue checks to line up.

The selvedge was dated 1992. I haven't had the fabric that long. It was likely an estate-sale purchase. It was a thrift-shop purchase, I found when I went back to some old posts. 








Quilting detail.  Blue thread on blue-on-blue was a little hard to see, but I managed.

Total:  6 yards, all from my stash.

[This post shows the genesis of these blocks.]


See what other quiltmakers are doing
at Connie's Linky Tuesday

Blogger's Quilt Festival, part 2: Homespun Sampler

Here is my second entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival .




I joined many other quiltmakers in the Moda Blockheads weekly quilt-along.  I collected patterns for a couple of months. Once I took the plunge I tuned in eagerly every Wednesday for the new block. I decided to use homespun plaids, a fabric genre well-represented in my stash.  That way I wouldn't have to buy any more. (Of course Moda's intent was to showcase its designers and their fabric lines.)

The Stashbusters Yahoo group had an  Irish Chain Challenge. That inspired the chain setting.

I had it professionally quilted.

Moda is currently running Blockheads II but I haven't joined.  Yet. :)

Blogger has stopped sending comments by email.  Without that feature it's hard to respond personally.   I think I've fixed it. (Leave a comment and we can test the fix.)