Quarantine Flimsie #3: I Should Have Seen This Coming.....

Oops, I did it again!  Introducing "Hope" - Quilts of Valor edition:

On her last "Tipsy Tuesday" for April, Gudrun Erla of GE Designs announced that she was doing a another quilt along as a follow up to her very popular "Elvira" Quilt Along that happened at the end of March.  Naming the new quilt design for this round "Hope", this time she charged a nominal fee for the pattern with the proceeds of the pattern sales going to three local charities in her area that are serving the needs of people affected by the pandemic.  To date, $35K was raised -- way to go Quarantine Quilters!

As with the previous QAL, the final pattern was issued on a Saturday and Gudrun hosted a series of live video tutorials on Sunday that included interviews with quilters from the quilting industry such as Pat Sloan, Doug Leko and Lissa Alexander.  Details of the Hope QAL2 are here.

I really hadn't planned to participate in another QAL -- having already made "Elvira", at the time I was still in the midst of working on Edyta Sitar's Mystery QAL, had two other projects inspired by quarantine posts waiting to be started and was also involved in mask making.  Not to mention there was all the other projects I had going on before the quarantine!  I figured my plate was already full.  However, all it took was the sight of it in the video:

...and realizing I had a ready source of stash for it on hand:

......and an idea was hatched:  this would make another great Quilt of Valor top!  This is the time of year I think about making RWB quilts and have been compiling a bunch of QOV quilt tops and project ideas.  So of course, the idea that this could be another one immediately appealed to me!  Add that this looked like another quickie top to make and used the Stripology ruler (I have the original ruler, the link is to the updated Stripology XL) meant that this Gadget Fanatic was ready to go!  Made up of two simple blocks,  I started the cutting on the Sunday of the event and finished it up Monday:

Once cut, the piecing was quick to do Monday night and it could play "follow the leader/ender" with the Sitar mystery blocks as they were being put together as a top.

Tuesday morning, I was ready to square up the blocks.

This actually made me kind of happy since I always hope I can get to do some RWB sewing during what I call the "patriotic months" (between Memorial Day and Fourth of July).  With the pandemic,  I'm not sure if or what kind of Veteran's Day ceremonies may be scheduled come November but I can add this one to the "To Be Quilted" pile for whenever I am able to donate these in the future.

Once the blocks were done, I had to go back to finishing up the Sitar Mystery because it took up the whole design wall which I also needed for this project.  Once the Sitar top was finished, I could move on to laying out this one.  Gudrun provided a choice of layouts in the pattern.  It was also inspiring to look at other layouts done by other people participating in the QAL.

In the end, I chose the last one which Gudrun called the "Medallion" setting because I could envision it with embellishments to add to the QOV theme.

Accuquilt Classic Letter Die

As Gudrun promised in her pattern and video tutorials,  sewing the blocks together is a breeze because of the way the blocks are designed:  the cut strips for the two different blocks are not the same size which means that along the sides of the blocks, there are almost no seams that come together.  At the few points where they do, they are already pressed in opposite directions so easily butt together.   I decided to try using Bonnie Hunter's “webbing” technique for the first time to sew the blocks together.  That calls for lapping each consecutive column of blocks on the previous row and sewing those seams continuously which will keep the rows “webbed” together by the connecting threads (no pun intended!) down the columns until you sew the rows of blocks together.

Rows of blocks "webbed" together.

One thing I learned as I went along is that when you reach the end of the sewn columns, you do need to be able to pull them completely out of the machine in order to pin together the next column of blocks.  This is another place where having some “leader/ender” piecing units comes in handy.  With all of the top put together, I fused on the appliques to await them being stitched down.  Once that's done, this top will be ready for quilting!

I now really look forward to following along with Pat Sloan's June quilting prompts.  After some warm ups I'll quilt during this month, I hope (no pun intended!) to have the confidence to finally tackle the (now) pile of QOV tops I have as machine quilting projects for July.  Fingers crossed!

Quarantine Flimsie #2: Laundry Basket Mystery

My first quarantine project was Gudrun Erla's "Elvira".   Now that the pieced borders have been completed for Edyta Sitar's Laundry Basket Quilts Mystery 2020, it too is officially a top!  Edyta now calls the design "California" and it's still available for free on her blog (starting with this link) or can be purchased as a complete paper or PDF pattern.

It's pretty big so it was hard to get a good shot of it.  I've already got ideas for how to quilt this.  For me, this turned out to be a really intense but fun project to work on.  It challenged my "Make It Do" and design muscles to work with a stash that had not been coordinated beyond the colors collected.  There were lots of fabric changes made along the way.  There were also changes to how some blocks were made for my version versus the directions in the pattern.  I was just happy to finally find a design for the "Pinks, Browns and Blues" project stash I had put together so long ago.  It was also a perfect "focus" project to help get me through the quarantine days.

In June, Pat Sloan's challenge focus for the month is "quilting your own quilts".  I've been on a tear since before the pandemic to finish piecing projects to the point that I have neglected the next step:  getting them quilted.  That has happened for a number of reasons including the need to get used to quilting big projects on a new machine and of course deciding how I want to quilt them.  I'm hoping to spend June catching up on that big time.

However, June isn't quite here yet and there is another quarantine project to bring closer to a finish and a few housekeeping projects to do before I can set myself up for the quilting sessions.  That next project is another Gudrun design so maybe I'll fire up one of her playlists so I can "whistle while I work"!  Links to her Spotify playlists can be found at the bottom of this post.

Quarantine Holiday Weekend Sewing

It's a rainy Saturday and we are still under quarantine restrictions although they are starting to slowly loosen up.   While a sunny day prompts taking the opportunity to go outside for a little air, on a drab day like this there is nothing better than to be inside in front of your sewing machine!  

In preparation for today's task: since I've finished sewing together the center for Edyta Sitar's Laundry Basket Quilts Mystery.....

....and had decided on doing this border.....

Edyta Sitar's Finished Quilt

.....I've spent the last two days cutting these:

Edyta gave a number of border options for what is now called her "California" quilt design.  You could go with fabric borders (and she showed them using her "Super Bloom" fabrics), an applique border or this pieced border.  I liked this one because it will allow me to mine the remainder of my project stash.  For it, she used 1-1/2" wide strips cut in lengths from 1-1/2" to 5-1/2" to create the 6" finished border.  So this choice also appealed to me because (as Pam Heller of Accuquilt likes to say) I have a die for that!

The bottom half of the Accuquilt Log Cabin die cuts strips 1-1/2" wide and from 1-1/2" to 8-1/2" long and the top half cuts the strips that are 9-1/2" to 12-1/2" long.   I had originally purchased this die because I really wanted to make a few traditional log cabin quilts.  There are so many layouts for that kind of block and you can make blocks of various sizes depending on how many rounds of logs you piece together.  I felt it would be a versatile die for those reasons alone.  However, so far except for this runner, I've mostly used the die in cases like this where I need a large number of 1-1/2" strips of varying sizes for a project.

I only needed to load my fabrics on the bottom half of the board to cut my strips and cut one or two layers from all the fabrics I have left.  Initially I've put aside the 6-1/2", 7-1/2" and 8-1/2" strips until I sew all the other ones up.  If I need more of the shorter strips, before I die cut more fabric, I can cut down the larger strips.  Whatever strips I don't use for the borders, I'll just add to my Log Cabin Strip Storage Box.

 When a Log Cabin quilt finally gets up to the top of the "To Do" list, I'll be able to grab the accumulated stash in that box to get it started.  If I need additional fabrics in particular values or colors, I will also go through my Scrap Users Box of 1-1/2" strips to add to the Log Cabin strip stash.

Rhubye and I are still working together!

Using my large and small design boards makes it pretty easy to keep everything organized and ready for sewing!  Prior to sewing, the companion sizes of the dark and light strips are stacked opposite each other (so 1-1/2" and 5-1/2",  2-1/2" and 4-1/2" and 3-1/2" and 3-1/2") so I can pick them up and sew them together.  The finished pieced strips are stacked up until I am ready to arrange them on the wall.

In Edyta's border design there is also a 2" finished inner border before the pieced outer border.  I've already cut and pieced together the strips for those too.  I don't have enough space on the sides of my design wall to layout those strips and the border ones so just have it laying on top of the edge of the quilt for now while I play with the color balance of the pieced strips.  Not a bad way to start off the holiday weekend!

More on the Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt

Back when I started Gudrun Erla's "Elivra" Quilt Along, I mentioned I had also picked out Quarantine Project # 2.  It was another fun opportunity to participate in a sew along that would use a stash of fabrics I had already gathered and had been looking for project to apply them to.  So these....

...have become this....

This is Edyta Sitar's Quarantine Mystery Quilt 2020 that she has now officially named "California".  It has taken me a lot longer than expected to pull this one together!  Since I wasn't working from Edyta's fabric line (she used "Super Bloom") and I wanted to emphasize the theme of my stash (Pinks, Browns and Blues),  I cheated a little on this "mystery":  since the block placements were revealed as each "clue" dropped, I could make decisions as I went along as to what colors to place where.

Bonnie Hunter is also doing her "Unity" quilt along the same way.  I am watching that one from afar since I currently have two Quiltville mysteries in progress, three more that need to be quilted and one of her free patterns basted!

When I started in on Edyta's mystery, I had to be mindful that I was working from an existing stash and with the pandemic, I was hampered a bit by not being able to shop as freely I would normally be able to if I decided I needed "stash enhancements".  On the plus side, this meant I could also try to be creative with placement.  There have also been times when I've had to really do some design contortions to try to make the fabric I have stretch or to be able to use prints I really wanted to see included in the design.  Some examples of this:

This block was pieced in her pattern as four HSTs.  I opted to try to speed things a bit by die cutting it as parallelograms.

Well, except for these three --- I didn't have enough of this fabric to die cut all the parallelograms needed but did have enough to cut the last six pairs of HST triangles needed to make it the way she patterned it.

Edited To Add: Another change that happened between the initial block piecing and the final layout was that the bottom triangles of these chevron blocks changed from having all the same color background triangles to having a different background print on the "pointed" end (as you will see in the pictures that follow of the center of the top ).

I had a fan fabric in the stash that I had won in a de-stash giveaway a few years back.  I had always hoped to showcase it in whatever design I chose to make from this collection of fabrics.

The time for that came in Part 12.  Rather than the pieced blocks patterned for the corners of the large center star, I decided to do some fussy cutting instead.

Edited To Add:  Don't know what fussy cutting is or have never tried it?  Check out tips and application ideas here and here!

Although I liked the center "glow" of the pink floral background fabric for the star points, I wasn't convinced it worked within the top as a whole.  I eventually changed  it to a tan print with little pink and blue flowers in it that I felt didn't compete as much with the fussy cut fans.

Edited To Add:  It should also be noted that those blue HST star points were originally pieced into the big blue and brown blocks in the first outer border.  However, as I started doing up the other blocks in the first and second round, I realized I didn't like them used there after all, held on to them and fortunately, they found a better place in the large center star block.

There was also some "Poverty Piecing":  the center of this square....

....was actually pieced together to feature this motif.

This is what's left of the original pieces of fabric I had which now that I think of it, were probably fabric samples I had gotten with some I ordered way back when I first started quilting.

The small fat eighths of this print that I had didn't allow for cutting out the particular motif I wanted in the size I needed.  There were other motifs in the print that would have allowed that but of course those were not the ones I wanted!   Once I decided I could use this one, I had to "poverty piece" together small cuts from different sections of the fabric to create a piece big enough to cut the square needed for this unit.

Interestingly, Edyta's design actually called for the center "square" of the small center star to be made from the HST triangle corners of the four blocks that make it up (for more clarity, see Part 15 of the mystery).

Four of these.....

....make this!

Needless to say my star block is made up of the pieced together Square In A Square block, four Flying Geese and corner Triangle Squares instead.  I think it's my favorite block in this project!

And of course, what's a big, busy project without a few piecing snafus!!!

Really?!?  What was I thinking???

There, that's better!

In between working on all of this I was also sewing up masks for my husband's job so I really had to juggle between the decision making and stitching for this project and that production work.  Both the juggling and this project turned out to be a way bigger challenge than expected when I started this but it was also a fun diversion during this very crazy time.  I don't know when this particular stash would have been ignited and a project with it embarked on if it hadn't been for the pandemic and quarantine orders.  Can't say that I'm unhappy about it at all!  Well, at least I won't be once it's all sewn together.

Oh! And I already have two ideas for the quilt label:

I either want to make something using these extra fans I cut out or make this block from Edyta's "Little Handfuls of Scraps" book or maybe I'll wind up combining the two!  Can't wait to see what eventually happens!   I'm hoping it won't take until we are no longer required to "shelter in place" for me to get this pieced into a top!  Although I also still have the outer borders to decide on.  Edyta gave suggestions for six different borders!   I really like the pieced piano key one and am hoping I can tease that out of the fabrics and scraps I have left over.

This definitely provided a much needed break between following the news reports.  And there's still more Quarantine Quilting projects coming!

Last Minute Check-In For April!

Whew, April has been a busy month!  I figured I'd better post about it before I miss it!  As usual, a LONG POST WARNING is in effect!

I had so looked forward to staying in for the quarantine because I thought it would be a great time to catch up on existing projects.  Instead there's been a flood of new projects -- well, old project "desires" that were fueled to move to the forefront.  This was courtesy of some inspiring projects that have been posted for the many "Quarantine Sew Alongs" that are out right now.

Prior to quarantine, I had been trying to finish up an old Bonnie Hunter mystery  until along came "Elvira" in late March:

Gudrun Erla's (GE Designs) quilt along was the perfect prompt for me to finally make that follow-up Spring quilt I've long wanted (and the details of that fun romp is here).

FYI:  Gudrun is doing another Quilt Along this weekend called "Hope".  This time, there is a nominal charge for the pattern but all the proceeds of the sales are going to three local charities in her area that are helping people during the pandemic.  Check out the link above or her recent "Tipsy Tuesday" video for more details.

 Just as Gudrun was announcing hers, I also learned about this:

Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts was also doing a Sew Along Mystery design that is now officially named "California" (she also has kits for it now too).  For me it was yet another prompt to finally use another stash of fabrics I've been holding:  I had put away fabrics a long while back with plans to make a "Pinks, Browns and Blues" quilt.  I've always envisioned it to have a "Shabby Chic" vibe and Edyta's quilt designs always invoke that for me.  It was a quarantine match made in heaven!  Details about how that went is in my next post.  Right now it is only finished blocks on the design wall, not yet a top.  I will also need to work on an outer border.

Another good thing is that while working on this, I also got a little leader/ender work done for Bonnie Hunter's "Roll, Roll Cotton Boll" which I hadn't worked on since February of last year!

I needed a few more pink fabrics for the Sitar mystery and knew I had some stash still to process for Part 2 of the Quiltville mystery.  So I made up the triangle sets I needed to piece together and then added what was left to the Sitar stash.  Then there was also this:

My husband works for UPS which happens to be one of the "essential businesses" that has stayed open during the pandemic.  He was on vacation when the orders from NY's Governor Cuomo came down for everyone to stay home so we had at least that first week to be able to go together to stock up on things and start planning for the adjustments to "the new normal".

When he went back to work the next week, the company fortunately had masks and gloves for everyone and he was also able to buy an additional set of masks from a co-worker who had picked some up from a medical supply company and my husband brought those home for our family to use.  My husband works in the tractor trailer division and although he has to occasionally drive loads to other centers, he primarily works in the yard.  He and his co-workers shift and organize the trailers that come through, putting them into the loading bays to be unloaded or loaded and pulling them back out to be set up to go back out on the road.

If you wonder what that's like, check out this video: 

and this one: 

As you can imagine, a freight yard is not a very clean place and it didn't take long for the mask given to him to get pretty dirty and the dirt that gets on them isn't easy to remove.  We didn't want to have to replace the masks so frequently or destroy the filtering capacity of them with intense cleaning methods.  

Having already seen many of the mask tutorials on the web, I took one of his old work shirts and made him a mask to wear over the company issued ones to help them stay cleaner and last longer.  I used the tutorial and templates from Craft Passion and made the version that would allow us to add replaceable filters to the mask if at some point he can't get replacement ones from his job (and a supply of that fabric is on its way).

Well of course no sooner did he wear it to work, I got a request to make more.  So I joined the cottage industry ranks:

Of course getting into the mask making game that late meant I had a terrible time sourcing supplies.  His job provided plenty of shirts for cutting up and I had a good stock of thread but elastic?  Forgeddaboutit!!   I only had a little bit of it in the house when I made my husband's mask.  Also when I made his mask and some regular ones for me for going to the community garden and general shopping,  I found I needed to be able to adjust the length of the elastic for personal fit.  Not something I wanted to have to do for a bulk order!

Fortunately I had also seen Julie Sefton's post on her Quilt Diva Julie blog about how she did "around the head ties" for her husband's mask that were secured by a spring toggle.  Craft Passion had also showed that way of securing the mask in her pattern although hers was tied.  I sent one into work with my husband using the only comparable supplies I had on hand:  a long black sneaker-lace and the one toggle I found in my sewing supplies.  That mask was quickly snapped up by a co-worker so I decided to see if I could source toggles and paracord in bulk to make them all that way going forward.  That too took a while --- again, by that time, black paracord and black toggles were also hard to find!  Fortunately, I found a vendor on Etsy (thanks Debbie!) with the only color she had left which luckily for me happened to be Coffee Bean (brown)!  Perfect for UPS!!  Then I was also able to source a large spool of  brown paracord.

Another match made in heaven!  So this is what I've been sending in.

Since each shirt only provides one logo, I also make plain shield style masks and folded masks to use up the rest of the "fabric".  The folded design I've been using is from this YouTube video which I liked because of the side casings and that I could also make it so that replaceable filters could be inserted.  To help with some of the prep,  I had to show my husband how to "de-bone" the shirts, Bonnie Hunter style.  Another great quarantine activity while watching TV!

The downside for me is that once I had finished "Elvira", I had been geared up to quickly work on the Edyta Sitar mystery, get it done and return to my other projects.  However, the accumulated stash I used for the mystery didn't as easily integrate into the design as I had expected.  So that meant I went back and forth on most days trying to establish a balance between mask production and quilt design and layout work.  All of that had to happen between grocery runs and a few garden days.  And thank goodness for the latter:

Reminds you that even in the midst of this chaos, Mother Nature commences Spring right on schedule!  Fortunately for me, the winter gardening I did meant my little garden bed was already established and I've been able to harvest lettuce greens and a little celery and chives already.  The tall things around the perimeter are garlic which won't be ready for harvest until June.

The only casualty in all of this is that the only BOM work I was able to do this month was for the Joann Countryside Cottage BOM (as more leader/enders) because the pieces are all pre-cut.  I've even already done the May block!

Still, I'm going to have A LOT of catching up to do in May on the other BOMs I'm working on!  So I am hoping to finish the mask order in the next two weeks and in between will try to put the top together for Edyta's mystery.

I wish I could say that right after that I will get back to my other regular project work -- and I will, eventually -- but I admit I also have two other "quarantine quilting" projects that I'd like to get started.  Who knew that a pandemic would generate so much FOMO and Squirrel moments?!?  Let's all move safely on to May!

We will get through this....

Thanks to the good friend who forwarded this to me!

Edited to Add:  When I also posted this to Instagram, I got a ping that the poem was actually written this year.  So while I removed it from there, I'm leaving it here.  As far as I'm concerned, the sentiment  attached to that picture is still pertinent and resonates for me!

BOMs Away 2020 Week 13: Christmas Figs and AQS Twilight Flurries

It's a layover week this week with the end of March at the beginning of it and the start of April at the end.  I'm hoping to clean up some loose ends this week before April starts in earnest.  With that, here's the BOM report for the blocks completed for the last two outstanding BOMs for March:

Christmas (technically "Scrappy") Figs:

The first block I made was the easier of the two:  the Flying Geese Criss Cross.  As always, with these blocks and the limited "coordinated by sales" stash I have, I'm always a little nervous picking the fabrics for each block.  In the end, I was pleased with how this one came out.

Now the second block was the tough one that I had avoided making last month when I was time crunched:  it's the Feathered Star block:

For this one, I decided to make my first dive into the FQ bundle of designer coordinated MODA Fig Tree Solids I have.   Believe it or not while it is a challenging block, it isn't hard per se.  As is usually true of Feathered Star blocks, this one is definitely about accurate cutting, carefully following the directions and taking it step by step.

The block is made up of twelve pieced square sections and four single fabric corner squares.  Joanna's directions are great in that each section of the block is cut slightly over size and is trimmed down after you complete the piecing of it.  For a job like this when it is important to get it squared along both diagonals,  I love using the Tucker Trimmer by Deb Tucker of Studio 180 Designs:

Unlike with my regular square up ruler, this one allows you to line up along both diagonals of the block which helps you to trim it up more accurately along all four sides.  Quilt In A Day's Square Up Ruler or any of the larger Creative Grids Square Up Rulers would also work well here (Note:  the link is to the 6-1/2" Square Up but Creative Grids has larger square up rulers as well).

When Pat Sloan made this quilt as a Quilt Along two years ago, she demoed every block on her blog, giving tips that she found helpful to make them accurately.  I didn't think to go back and read up on this one until after I was finished.  Fortunately, it turns out I had actually followed most of her advice (including working on it over the course of two days!).  I guess all of that good info had been retained deep in my memory from when I read about it back then!

One tip I would add is that it was also very helpful to trim the the tips of the corner triangles when adding them to the pieced HST strips.  Of course another gadget helped with that!

I've had these Fons and Porter Triangle Trimmers for ages and every so often they come in real handy for a project.  There are other types of these around too --- Gudrun Erla has a set she used during the recent Elvira quilt along  and her set also includes a trimmer for 60 degree triangles.  When I made that project, I used the trimming tip on my 60 degree ruler.

One BOM down and one last one to go:  AQS Twilight Flurries.  This month's blocks are their #4 and #6.

Edited to Add:  I forgot to note that the block on the right was another one in this series that called for some of the units in the block to be paper-pieced.  Last month I had skipped making another of these blocks because I didn't think I'd have time to tackle that process.  Well, I didn't do it this month either!  Turns out Block # 6 offered another opportunity to use a gadget to work a little more quickly.  I used the Lazy Angle ruler and methods to cut and piece the corner units instead of making templates to paper piece them.  Fortunately the ruler makes units as small as 1" finished which is what I needed for this block.

Once again, I'm realizing that these blocks are kind of complex and I'm still getting a handle on fabric choice since I'm not working with the tone-on-tone/solids AQS used.   For now, I'll settle for having all the BOMs done until next week!

I'm joining the other BOM-badeers over at Lynette's BOMs Away linkup at What A Hoot Quilts and co-host Katie Mae over at Katie Mae Quilts!

P.S.  Looking for more Quarantine Quilt Alongs?!?  

Bonnie Hunter is doing a "Sew In Place Unity Quilt Along" that started Monday.  She says there's no paint chips for this mystery and the design will employ all of her usual "Scrap Users" sizes.  So here's a chance to pull out your scrap bins for this one!  Unlike Bonnie's usual mysteries, this one will be made medallion style so you will see the quilt develop as you finish each step.  This could allow you more flexibility to "design as you go" as far as your fabric choices, block substitutions and possibly any layout changes you might want to make.

As always, if you're busy right now with all those UFOs or that hand work project and can't sew this up right now, at the very least go download the steps.  They will be released on her blog and the "Unity" tab on her website every Monday for the next seven to eight weeks. Once this one is over, she will offer it as a complete pattern in her Quiltville Store.


Kim Lapasek of Persimmon Dreams and Trisha Frankland of Quilt Chicken are hosting a special edition of Project Quilting 2020 -- Quarantine Limited Edition which Kim says will run until we are all able to freely go back outside!  If you've always wanted to do Project Quilting but felt you didn't have the time to participate, here's your opportunity.

The first challenge went up on Sunday and you have until the following Sunday (Noon, Central time) to submit an entry.  This will be an "all shares" challenge with no prizes this round -- that is, none in addition to the admiration of or inspiration from your fellow quilters!   However, this could be the perfect chance to test your skills for participating in the regular Project Quilting Challenge event when it returns in January.

If anyone can survive a quarantine with sanity intact, quilters can!