Finished Or Not Friday: Spring Quilts and Gifts

This week I am once again joining in with those reporting their finishes along with our esteemed hostess Alycia for Finished or Not Friday!  

It's always interesting to me how projects get started or evolve.  This quilty finishing tale started back in 2014 when I made "Fabric Gal" to use to decorate my bed for Spring.  

In 2016, we gifted that quilt to my husband's convalescing aunt to brighten her hospital room.  Everyone that visited enjoyed the quilt and when she passed away we gave the quilt to her daughter.  Of course that meant I now needed another Spring quilt.  

In 2017, I purchased a "juicy" bright fabric bundle from the Turning Twenty online store.  Since this was not the usual kind of colorway I worked with, I did not immediately come up with a design to make with it.  In fact, that didn't happen until 2020 while we were stuck in our homes due to the COVID quarantine.  

We quilters were fortunate that so many quilt designers came up with new designs and quilt alongs to keep us busy while under lock down.  That year Gudrun Erla of GE Designs held a free quilt along for her new pattern "Elvira".  I was excited to participate as it also meant using my favorite Stripology ruler.  I added fabric to the bundle I had purchased to fill out the amount of fabric I needed for the project....

....then followed along and made up the top.

However with loads of other quarantine projects afoot, it sat while I debated on how to quilt it up.  

In 2023 and still without a Spring quilt for my bed,  I found in my stash what I thought was a yard of the Peach floral fabric I had used for the borders of the "Fabric Gal" quilt.  By now I was a big fan of the Fabric Cafe "3 Yard Quilts" and saw this as an opportunity to make one.  I purchased some coordinating fabrics to go with what I had and took it with me down to my MIL's in North Carolina for our annual Fall visit and mini Quilt Retreat (she is also a quilter).  

When I started cutting the fabric for the pattern I picked for it -- "Heartland" -- I realized I actually had a little more than two yards of that border fabric.  I decided that rather than make the lap size quilt that the 3 Yard patterns typically make, I could "upsize" it to a twin if I could get more of the coordinates.  I was able to find one while in NC but had to wait until I returned home to NY to get more of the second.  Before long I had doubled the basic design into a twin top!

Finished top and backing purchased on a Shop Hop while in NC.

When I didn't get around to quilting it by the end of that year,  I planned to bring it back down to my MIL's and try to quilt it on her new long arm.  We returned in May of this year for the funeral of another of her sisters.  While there I did load the quilt onto the longarm but for reasons I didn't understand at the time, I couldn't get the pattern I wanted to stitch out.  

While there, I was showing a friend of my MIL a picture of the "Elvira" top that "Heartland" was now replacing.  She really liked the bright colors of it and since she was in the process of finalizing a move to retire to my MIL's town, I decided that I would bring it back down when we returned to visit in the Fall and quilt it up as a surprise housewarming gift for her.  

In the meantime, after returning back home with the unquilted "Heartland" top, I lucked up on receiving information about a "Free Motion Quilting Summit" being held in August.  Adria Goode who was one of the presenters showed her "Big Flower" stitch pattern and I just knew it would work for "Heartland".  With many other projects on my plate, I didn't start quilting it until late September, getting it about half way done.  

I had to break from working on it because we were now scheduled to return to my MIL's in early October.  While there I finally got the "Elvira" quilting going.  I pieced together a backing that included a strip of scraps leftover from piecing the top and included a label.  I then picked out a large continuous line flower stitch pattern to use to quilt it.

I went with the simpler Blossom E2E pattern.

Luckily with a lot of new lessons learned on this trip about working with the longarm,  I was able to get it all stitched out!

And before you know it the quilt was finished!

Two days before we left I trimmed and bound it and it was ready for gifting along with another little gift that can be seen in this post!

On our return home it was now time to also get the "Heartland" quilt finished.  I worked on that this week and now it too is finished!  

As a throw back to the "Fabric Gal" quilt, I still had some of the panel fabric I used for the label of that quilt so made a similar label for the new "Heartland" one! 

Previous and New Labels!

I look forward to when I can use this one in the Spring!

I also look forward to checking out what everyone else has made up this week over at Alycia's for Finished or Not Friday!  There's always good stuff to see so be sure to check it out yourself!

Quilting Travelogue - Part 2: Long Arm Quilting and a Gift

I my last post I talked about the piecing, cross stitching and shop hopping I did on our recent visit to my MIL in North Carolina.  In this post, I'll cover the quilt stitching I did and who benefitted from it!

(Long Arm) Quilting

One of the big plans for this trip to was to try to get a lot of quilts quilted.  On the one hand, it was a mixed bag on that.  I had brought one that had already been partially quilted on my Juki and I wanted to finish it to show my MIL how that machine stitches as a mid-arm DSM.

That folded bit of Kente is the layered quilt as I stacked up what I was going to bring.

This is one of the potential gifts for my community garden's Steering Committee members.  I'm not sure why I didn't finish quilting this when I worked on it last year --- I think I got "into my head" on the stitching and then put it aside.  

I was encouraged to get back to it after seeing the same stitch pattern I used demonstrated in one of the sessions I watched during the Free Motion Quilting Summit in August.  I realized that whatever had bugged me was now moot.  Unfortunately, this is another thing that we were too busy with other things for me to get to.  My plans are to try to finish this one up before the year ends.

I will say that I DID make a lot of progress on longarming!  I really learned a lot on this trip and most of that education came as we went about solving problems!  As a result, I think I now fully understand (and remember!) the steps to load a quilt on to the frame.  

The store that my MIL purchased her longarm from was on the Shop Hop and we stopped there so she could buy some "leader grips". 

You can see a demo of how they work in this video.

They really do help make loading faster as opposed to pinning your backing and top to the frame leaders.  The woman in the store advised getting a two-leader set but after trying them out we realized that a three leader set would have been better. 

I also confirmed what I needed to do to set up a stitch pattern.  It's important to keep whatever pattern I choose (and re-size) within the longarm's "frame space"  which is approximately equivalent to the depth of the throat space.  I also took pictures of all the pattern screens so I can plan before I arrive how I want to set up a quilt to be quilted.

This is just some of the installed designs.

The best news is that a long over due UFO got not only quilted but gifted!  My MIL has a good friend and former co-worker who has retired from New York to North Carolina and now lives in my MIL's town.  I had taught them both to quilt when both were still in NY.  The friend and her sister who was visiting her also came with us on the Shop Hop, a first for both!  

I had shown her a picture of this quilt top when we were both in NC back in May for my MIL's sister's funeral:

When she mentioned that she really, really liked it, I decided right then to gift it to her as a surprise housewarming gift.  This is the "Elvira" top I had made during Gudrun Erla's first Quarantine Quilt Along back in 2020.  Thanks to all the good lessons I learned this trip, I was able to successfully quilt this one on the longarm without too many problems. 

I'll do a full finish report on it tomorrow since there were a few more lessons learned both during and after it was quilted.  Like the fact that I didn't learn until after it was finished that I actually loaded it onto the frame wrong!  Although this is the shot of it fresh off the longarm, before we left it was also trimmed, bound and gifted.  

In my previous post, I noted that I had done some additional piecing and that was for another gift -- this time to christen the friend's new craft room in her new home.

This is a "Sewing Fairy" made from the pattern by Deborah Fisher of Fish Museum and Circus.  I learned about Deborah's designs when she was one of the presenters at July's Quilt Summer Camp.  Her session at Camp was on decorative "fussy cut" binding.  She has designed fabric lines for Windham Fabrics that are printed to facilitate the technique.  I purchased some of it from her after the Camp which is when I also saw her "Fairy" pattern.  Knowing that I planned to make a quilt housewarming gift, I figured a "Fairy" stuffed with little quilty notions would be a cool "new craft studio" gift as well!

 After "Elvira", we loaded my MIL's "Monochromatic Quilt" that was a guild challenge project and also finished that one.  

I did bring a second quilt for longarming.  Now that I know a little more about how to set up the patterns for stitching out, I also understand better how to position them on the quilt top.  I picked out the designs I wanted to use for that quilt and figured out where I wanted to position them on the top.  However, understanding that I needed to do that within the limits of the longarm's throat space, it meant I would need to stitch out the patterns in sections.  That was too big a task to try to tackle in the last day we were there.  So, yet another project is now packed away for the next trip down.  Whew!  Those two weeks went so quick when you have so much to do!

Snowed in Quarantine!!

 I came back Sunday night after spending two weeks in North Carolina with my MIL.  Per New York state's current return quarantine regulations, I had been tested last Thursday while there and received the results Monday that the test was negative.  A blessing considering that during the second week I was there, the governor of that state only now had instituted a "semi-mandated" mask requirement and early closing of restaurants and liquor sales in response to skyrocketing transmission and hospitalization rates in their state.  

For NY, the new reduced return-from-travel restrictions instituted about a week before my trip by our Governor,  required me to quarantine for three days once I returned and then get tested again here.  If the second test is also negative, then I would be immediately freed from quarantine and free to move about --- still with a mask while out in public of course!

Well, today would have been the day to go get tested but Mother Nature decided otherwise......

Fortunately I had a project on my design wall when I left that needs assembly and worked on enough projects while away that can also be moved forward should this "snow in" last more than a day or two.  For instance, this ornament started on the train ride back....

A little mobile Slow Sunday Stitching!

....can now get finished up with more to go!

More on the trip in the next few posts!

Back In the Saddle....

....and holding onto the reins for dear life!  Actually I am grateful that COVID has meant that family, friends and neighbors (those that were informed about my surgery) were even more available and supportive than might have been possible if a pandemic hadn't upended all of our lives.  Much better and sooner than I expected, I was able to sit up (and so commenced the hand work project pictured above), then walk around, then take short and then longer walks all within the week after the procedure.  

As part of the recovery, I've also made a few visits to our community garden and used those trips so my DH and I could harvest our garlic.

Here's some of the garlic curing.

Unfortunately all of this on top of the quarantine has cut into starting seeds for transplants for summer planting.  I've direct sown some pepper plant seeds and we had a few "volunteer" tomato starts that had popped up so we'll see if we wind up getting anything out of our garden bed as the summer progresses.

At the start of the second post-surgery week, I was able to sit up at our house desk top computer and now in week three I'm preparing for a return to working at the sewing machine.  Woo hoo!!  First tasks will be to stitch down the applique on the "Hope QOV" and for a little mini quilt kit that provided some fabric for yet another larger Quarantine project I started that I hope I'll get to work on and share later.

Another downside in the past few weeks was that my laptop (my day-to-day working computer) decided it had "had enough" and stopped booting up the week before the surgery so recovery time was also spent figuring out what I wanted in a new machine.  Fortunately that's been resolved as I type this on the new one I picked up this week.  I have a commission project for a friend that will push me to finally, really learn to use the EQ8 software I purchased last year in order to begin the design work on it.  So that need should put some fire in my belly to get a move on to get comfortable using this new computer equipment and moving the files over from my old one.

Thank you again to all that sent well wishes!  This all is a reminder for all of us to take each day as it comes and cherish it!  I am eternally grateful for being a quilter when it came time to be "down for the count".  A stack of "Haven't Started Yet" hand work projects, the ability to read Bloglovin' posts on my phone and a (maybe too generous) collection of quilt books and magazines (both the latest issue of American Patchwork and Quilting and the release of  the new Fons & Porter Quick & Easy Quilts digital edition arrived just in time!) meant illness wouldn't keep a dedicated quilter down!

So with that, I now continue the forward momentum of both healing and (Semi-)Quarantine Quilting!  Happy to be back quilting with all of you!

Quarantine Quilting Update on Flimsie #3

Last design update on my GE Designs "Hope" Quilt Along project:

The main reason I decided to add borders to the top was to bring it to the minimum size needed for a Quilt of Valor.  My finished block layout had been a few inches short of the minimum width for a QOV.  However, to keep it balanced, I added the same borders to both the sides and the top and bottom.

I think in the end it also helps to corral the busy center and bring more focus to the words in the center medallion as compared to the layout without borders.  Additionally, it offered another opportunity to add more of the star appliques which I think brings out the ones in the center even more too.

Some recent developments have upended my quilting plans for June.  Will have to see going forward how everything pans out.  I will say that my Quarantine Quilting frenzy has been nice while it lasted!

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!