(A New) Tuesday Archives: Mitered Corners

Each week Val over at Val's Quilting Studio posts a topic for her "Tuesday Archives" link up and invites quilt bloggers to link up an old or new post that covers that week's theme. 

This week's theme is Mitered Corners, an interesting topic for which I had a past project perfect for the topic but viewing the post I wrote for it,  you might not realize just how it fits this topic.  So a new post on an old project is in order!

Back in 2009, I made a quilt for my DH's aunt, one of my MIL's four sisters.  That year she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent treatment for it.  It just so happens that when we received word of it, I had just the day before looked at the book "Quilter's Think Pink" online (does anyone remember Clotilde's, the precursor to the Annie's Catalog?) and saw a pink ribbon quilt in it called "Ribbons of Hope".

At the time, I also needed backings for two other quilts so I headed to my favorite site for bulk fabric purchases, AAA Quilters Supply.  I not only found my backings but found a bunch of pink fabrics perfect for the blocks and a fabric that presented a unique opportunity for the "borders".

In the picture of the quilt above, you can see that it is designed with a light pink inner border and a dark pink outer border.  At AAA, I found this fabric:

It's from Freespirit's "Girlfriends" fabric line in the print called "Patricia" in the pink colorway (and if you like it, AAA still has some in the green colorway here).  As soon as I saw it I realized that if I used it and mitered the border, I would have the illusion of two borders for my quilt but only have to fussy cut and sew one!

This is what the finished quilt looked like:

 

All the light and dark neutrals and the lightest pink solid came from my stash.  The rest, including the backing and binding:

....came from AAA (and they still have some of that backing fabric in the yellow colorway).  When my husband's Aunt was here in the Spring with my MIL, she told me she still has the quilt and uses it every day when she sits in her favorite chair.  It's always gratifying to a quilter to know that a gift is appreciated.

Head over to Val's if you'd like to find some other fun ways to use mitered corners in your projects.  Also check out the sidebar of her blog to find out what are the upcoming topics for the Tuesday Archives link up.  Maybe you have an old post or can create a new one to share with other quilters!

Year-End Finishes/Last Post of 2009

Well I finally had to throw in the towel. Back in September, Finn of the "Pieces From My Scrapbag" blog had issued a challenge to finish up and clear out UFOs for the coming New Year. At that point, I was swimming in projects and felt there was more than enough time to focus myself and get a lot of stuff that was sitting around, close to finished, completed. I pledged to complete seven projects which I felt was conservative since I knew I had way more than that either going on or dying to be started and figured that getting that much done would certainly take a load off going into the New Year.

So it is now with a bit of regret that I can only report two year-end finishes out of the seven hoped for. I'm not sure if the challenge spooked me or if I just underestimated my focus and resolve . So what did I get done?

The primary goal on my Year-end list was to add some detail quilting to the Christmas BOM wall hanging I made last year. I believed this was an easy one to complete and really had expected to get it done before the fall finished. I had found a holly leaves and berry border motif in Alex Anderson's "Beautifully Quilted with Alex Anderson" book and thought that with a design in hand it would be a cinch to do. Also one of my goals for this year had been to get to the quilting of my quilts instead of procrastinating like I usually do. Yet, it sat and sat in favor of starting new stuff, always with the belief that the minute I got a chance, I'd quickly and easily wipe this off my list. In fact it shouldn't have even been hard since I had done a free-motion holly leaf motif in the border of one of my first quilts back in 2002.

Sorry about the picture. It was taken with an early and not very good digital camera.

And yet I did not do this until the week before Christmas because I was under the threat of the deadline for holiday decorating!

Everything else I wanted to get done were for complete finishes - down to quilting and binding. I had one WISP that was long overdue and at that time had three projects that had been started this year that were already basted and waiting for quilting and which I thought would be the next logical finishes. However, in the end, the only other finish that got done was a quilt that started out as a comfort gift for one of my DH's aunts. She called in October to say that she was going home from the hospital after a biopsy for breast cancer. Just the day before I had purchased the book "Quilter's Think Pink" from Clotilde.com as a downloadable book and had saw a cute pink ribbon quilt that I thought would be great to make for someone. When she called, I was on-line at that moment ordering backing fabrics for two kit quilts I had recently purchased and figured I'd see if the supplier, AAA Quilters Supply, had any nice pink fabrics for it. Boy did they! All the pink fabrics (with the exception of the lightest pink solid), the border stripe and the backing for this quilt came from them. I had the light pink and all the creams and tans in my stash so I thought this would be a quickly made gift for her. Unfortunately, it took way longer than expected. Fortunately she turned out to be my Kringle giftee so it got to be changed from comfort to Christmas gift and as such HAD to get done and was presented to her at my DH's family's Christmas gathering.

And although I am a little disappointed in myself for not getting more done, I'm not completely discouraged. I am looking forward to getting to work once all the holiday festivities are finished.

I was encouraged even more when recently (when I really should have been quilting), I was blog surfing and Mary Johnson of MaryQuilts blog (http://blog.maryquilts.com/) posed the question on 12/18: how do you keep track of your projects and how did you do for the year? I hadn't actually tallied everything up and when I did, I was really shocked. While I may not have many complete finishes for this year, I did do ALOT of work! I did complete one WISP before the challenge and from the start of this year initiated 13 (!) new projects.

The tally for all the new projects this year:

• 3 Completed (two prior to the challenge and one after)


• 1 is (recently) partially quilted


• 3 are basted and waiting on quilting


• 2 need to be basted (back and batting are ready)


• 1 needs borders and the back prepared


• And the final 3 are still in the piecing stage (and one of those is actually a two-fer, I had started new bed quilts for my sons which I count as one project but will produce two quilts).

In that final group is the quilt I designed for the Colorblocks I swapped for in the Four Season Summer Block Swap (blogged about here) which is currently on my design wall. I made and received forty blocks (in two sets of twenty) but my design calls for a 7 by 6 set so I need to make two more. I am also using solid fabrics for the square-in-square sashing squares and just ordered a set of solid fabrics from Keepsake Quilting to add to the ones I was able to pull from my stash.

On the Design Wall

Whew! Any way, next year's goals are to work only on existing projects, hopefully finishing all of these and starting new new projects only if I already have the fabric and pattern in house. So 2010 looks like a fabric diet year for me since I really don't need to purchase anything unless it's to finish something I've got.

I am still glad I participated in the challenge. It was motivating to try to keep what I wanted to do in the front of my mind even if I still seemed to avoid what I needed to do like the plague! I believe the lessons learned about my quilting self will benefit me greatly in the coming year and lead to a very productive one.

I hope everyone has a Happy and Quilty New Year!

I'm Back! - Part 1

First I apologize in advance for the long post. Well, I've been away from the blog too long. I wish I could say I was summering on the Riviera but the truth was that the summer went too fast and was too full of things OTHER THAN the things I had planned to do - namely quilt and rest.

Last summer at the end of the school year I got the opportunity to put my two sons in summer programs for the month of July.  This resulted in an unexpected amount of free time for me which in turn resulted in a very productive quilting summer in which I got four projects completed.  So this year I had planned to enroll them again (although not in the same programs) in the hopes of Mom having another in-home summer quilt retreat.  However, all the plans I had in place before June fell apart (due to outside forces) and it was a scramble right up to the last day of school to get them enrolled in another program.

I also I had a lot on my plate at the end of the school year since both my sons graduated from their respective schools (elmentary and middle school).  I had been Treasurer of my younger son's elementary school Parents Association for the last two years and with his graduation and the end of my tenure in that school as a volunteer (my second tour of duty since my older son had also attended the school),  I not only had to close the books at year-end even more thoroughly than usual but also do transition training with the new (actually continuing) board members.  The Parents Association also sponsors or provides decorations for some of the graduation and moving-up events so I had to be at the school literally every day of the last week of school including the day both sons graduated (fortunately their graduations were scheduled on the same day and in the same building) and the Friday before when we hosted the Senior Dance.

So by the time June ended I was frazzled and jumpy!  The first week of their program (and July) I could not relax and scrambled to tackle household tasks that I had put on hold while busy in June.  The second week my husband was on vacation and with free access to the car (he usually drives to work), we ran errands almost every day.  I finally began to rest the third week but went too far, for the first three days all I wanted to do was sleep and catch up on TV shows.  So when I finally got in gear later that week, I realized that my sons' program (and my chances for quilt solitude) would be ending the following week!  I got started on a few things but before you knew it they were back under my full-time charge.  

Of course the next week was getting them back in gear to tackle their summer reading packets and I began to plan the next week, my husband's next vacation - a "honey-do" week redecorating my sons room -- painting, new furniture and blinds the whole nine yards.  That week was filled with purchasing, installing or assembling all of the above between trips to Blinds To Go, Ikea and Home Depot.  By the end of the week they had a "new" room but we were all exhausted.  This left only two more weeks of August left to finish up the packets and try to rest in between.  But for me the summer of my dreams was as good as over!

However, there was some quilty fun accomplished this summer. One of the errands I ran during my husband's first vacation week was a stop at a favorite quilt shop Hartsdale Fabrics for some fat quarters for a project to be talked about in the next post. I got into a conversation with the employee that rang up my purchases.

As with most quilters our conversation ranged far and wide from favorite quilt designers, getting new quilters involved in quilting ( and the perils thereof for husbands of new quilters) and my reluctance to join a guild.  She gave me a brochure and told me about the guild and quilt groups she belonged to.  Then she told me she had a blog and asked me if I had one. It turns out that she had visited (and commented) on my blog!  Her name is Teri of the Terificreations blog.  An accomplished quilter (as you will see when you check out her work) she also teaches and is soon to do (actually may have already filmed) an upcoming segment of the "Quilting Arts" TV show!!  It was a great meet and I hope that I did not get her in trouble for monopolizing her time while she was working but it was a great conversation and who knows, maybe I will get up the gumption to check out the guild too.

As an aside,  I also want to note that given the long time it took me to post this combined with difficulties I've had in the past attempting to respond to comments, I've added the "Blogging Without Obligation" tag to my sidebar. While I do read my comments I am often not able to respond unless you have blog that allows comments to be left or have your email address posted on your blog, not just an email link (I know, even I don't do this).  One of the problems I've found is that if I click an email "link" in Blogger, my computer will try to open Microsoft Outlook (an email interface) which is not installed on the laptop I use. In the old days, Outlook came as part of the basic Window operating system bundle but no longer. And I looked into the price of it thinking that maybe I should purchase it to make it easier to respond to posts.  However, the stand alone program costs $129!!!!  Considering what I already pay for internet cable service with a built in email interface this is not an expense I want to incur. 

I also know that in the past it was possible to tell Internet Explorer who your email provider was and it would use this information to process email requests.  But this feature is no longer in the newer versions of IE (I looked) and while I found instructions on the web on how to tweak Windows to tell IE what provider/server to to use for email, when I tried it Windows told me that I "don't have enough memory to perform this task".  Sigh, this laptop was cutting edge when I purchased it maybe three years ago and now I need to upgrade just to perform simple maintenance!  Well, in the fall when the computer trade shows come to town I'll go get some more memory.  If I haven't or don't respond to you, I am not being rude, I'm just a little behind the computer times.

Now on to the quilts!!!! Before the end of June I had to complete the Dino Sports quilt (that I blogged about here) for my cousin's son.




I pushed to get it ready before he and his sister left to visit their grandmother for the summer but in the end my cousin decided it would be best to wait until they got back to give it to them.  Here it sits along with his sister's (that I blogged about here) still awaiting gifting in the fall since we have all been too busy to get together.  There is actually an additional gift wrapped up in the quilts so I know they will be excited when they open the packages!




I also finished, layered, basted and marked the "Vintage Treasures" BOM top (that I last blogged about here).  Since I had not planned for the end of June to be as busy as it was,  I had expected to get this quilted by then.  So it sits in my quilt space having joined the other "To Be Quilted" projects in its midst. And the label I had preprinted for it with a June, 2009 finish date will also need to be updated.



More to come in the next post.....

To Quilt Is Human, To Finish Divine!

I finally have some finishes for 2009 and for the "Spring To Finish Challenge" being hosted by Jacqui at the Tallgrass Prairie Studio blog .

The basket quilt is done. The pattern is the "Postage Stamp Quilt" from Alex Anderson's very first book "Quilts For Fabric Lovers" (C&T Publishing, 1994, out of print). My quilt was made a little smaller than the one in the book. The picture of the back was taken before I wrote in the quilt label information.

This was one of my "scrap quilt challenge" projects. I have a self-imposed challenge to make (or at least start) a quilt from scraps each year. All the basket blocks were cut from leftover pieces cut from other projects with a few backgrounds cut from stash if no coordinating scraps were available. The border and backing fabrics were purchased new as were the blue, yellow, pink and two of the olive prints used in the nine-patch blocks (the rest of the olive prints came from stash).

In a previous post about this quilt Sue posted a comment that she didn't think she'd ever get to do one. I've got to say that in the book Alex said making these blocks is addictive and I agree with her! They are quite simple and small (4-1/2" finished) and pieced except for the handle which is stitched onto the background and then finished by applique (I did the applique by machine). Alex also demonstrated this block on the "Simply Quilts" show episode #216 "Designing Fabric with Nancy Martin" for those of you who (like me) may still have the shows on tape (and which reminds me I've got to check on DVD recorder prices again so I can finally get all those tapes transferred to disk!).

While I love the way the quilt turned out, it's definitely not square since the bottom edge is rippling something awful. However, I think it's striking enough to display for a while. I also love the binding technique I used. It is a "piped binding" -- no actual piping cord is used just two fabrics layered and best of all applied completely by machine. The technique is from the book "Triangulations Bed Quilts" by Brenda Henning and is one I will definitely use again.

The second finish is a quilt made for my cousin's soon to be three year old daughter. It is made from the "Five and Dime" quilt pattern by All Washed Up.



I call it the "Girly Pink Spring Quilt". The quilt got its name because it started with some bright fabrics purchased in a Fons & Porter scrap bag that I thought were real "girly", something my cousin said her daughter was quickly becoming. I added some coordinating fabrics from my stash and then found the pink fabric used for the vertical sashing on the front and the green backing fabric at Aunt Bee's Sewing Basket at a clearance sale at the beginning of the year. When I started working on the quilt, my husband asked me if I was making a "spring quilt" and I added that to the name. I hope to give it to her this month for her birthday although now this means I must also layer and finish the quilt I've got for her brother too!

In other quilty news: I was accepted to participate in my first block swap. Margaret of the Quick Queen of Quincy blog is hosting a summer "Color Block" block swap. She opened the block swap up to fifty participants and I was able to snag the last spot. So I'll be working on those blocks over the next two months since we are to submit sets of blocks by the beginning of July and mid August.

Unfortunately having just finished these two pieces I don't have anything up on the design wall right now. I'm taking a break for a day and then as of June 1 will be plunging back into my Joann BOM project and the aforementioned brother gift quilt. So I should be back in June with some good quilty stuff to post!