For the past few days I have been working on a commissioned quilt. It is to be a gift from a proud grandma for her grandson who is off to college July 1. I finished the top yesterday, much thanks to: choosing simple pattern (double Irish chain), Accuquilt strip cutting die, strip piecing and chain sewing. 25 blocks done and assembled. The quilt could only be 55″ square as that was as big as the Minky backing supplied. Today, I am going to quilt it, I have a simple panto I like called Bayside, it does not take an hour per row. I will be taking the current quilt, Minuet, off the frame, I am using a strawberry and leaves panto on it that takes an hour to do one pass. In reality it takes even longer, due to thread breaking and bobbin changing. I don’t know what it is about that quilt, but it is trying my patience. Once I get the school quilt done, I’ll put the baby boy quilt (DH’s friends) on and then contemplate finishing the last three rows of the strawberry minuet.

In between speed piecing, I finished the ten pumpkin seed blocks I needed to finish putting the Halloween Figs BOM together. Forty seeds, it took longer than I thought it would. I may put some buttons over the centers of them, as I’m not really happy with the way the points look. I was able to put the top center together last night. I put it up on the design wall to admire it as I sewed all the scalloped blocks together for the pieced section of the borders.

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That’s when I saw it, argh! I can’t leave it that way. Maybe today while I am watching the panto stitch, I’ll hang out with Jack and try to fix the block without tears and swear words. Other than that, I really like this quilt. It is a bit smaller (66×72) than I thought it would be, the Christmas figs version is a lot bigger (78×98). The soft grays and mellow oranges don’t scream Halloween, maybe I’ll add a hanging sleeve. It’ll be a while before this top is quilted though. My “to be quilted” pile is getting too big, to the point where I was thinking I should stop making tops and get it caught up. I can think of ten off the top of my head, five are queen bed sized. No time like the present.

Cross stitching is progressing too, I am branching out to the left side as I would like to stitch the other bird. While looking for something unrelated to sewing, I found this small cross stitch piece. It is the first one I made, a dimensions kit, that used wool and Aida cloth. It looks pretty good, I re-framed it. I have made a lot of little X’s in the past 35 years.

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Be Kind.

I worked on a new quilt pattern yesterday, made 20 blocks in two sessions. I did take a break to do some errands, including going to Costco. I haven’t been in the store for almost 18 months, I had been using InstaCart shopping service though. I was very excited to see they have finally added self checkout! After the excursion, I came home to put it all together, today I’ll add the borders. The pattern is available in three sizes from Elizabeth Eastmond at Occasional Piece Quilt . Its called Sun and Sea, I did the 10 inch block version, called Summer Snowcone, being that hers is red white and blue. Remember the “Bomb Pop”, the RWB ice pop that made your mouth blue? I think I may have some novelty fabric around here with bomb pops printed on it.

Since I had enough Halloween fabric from a recent trip to LQS, I used it. The line is called ‘Ghouls and Goodies” by Stacy Lest Hsu for Moda , I added white, black and acid green Moda solids. The border will have the pumpkin print with white and green triangles.

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The fabric for the commission quilt came in yesterdays mail, pretty quick too. Maybe USPS has gotten their act together in Texas. Things I had ordered from shops there previously had taken two to three weeks, even with priority mailing. Lots of cutting today, the finished quilt will be 60″x 60″ – 25 blocks in Irish chain.

Time to get moving.

Be Kind.

Due to the very hot weather last week I was able to complete a few more things. Staying inside with the air-conditioning and sewing was very appealing.

Not the best picture, but I completed the Chickadee panel quilt. I had to draft a slightly smaller block for the border corners, fortunately I had enough solid fabrics to do so. I think it looks like a tapestry, its large enough for a twin bed. I should iron it too.

Next up is an Irish chain top for a friend of my DH, who is going to be a father in the beginning of July. While I was finishing the Chickadee quilt, my DH passed by and told me that this friend’s wife was going to have another baby. I told him that was nice to hear, he then came up with the idea that I should make them a quilt. Hmm. I had just committed to making a graduation quilt for a friend of a friend, which had to be done on July 1. I had just ordered the fabric for it, so I did have a few days “open” so to speak. I “whipped” up this quilt top in a few hours, strip piecing and chain sewing to the rescue. I also used up some backing scraps, the dark blue small squares. I think the farm animals are really cute.

Last up, I finished the Curling Mists shawl Thursday night. I still had to block it and let it dry, so I didn’t quite make my finish and ship date of Wednesday. I figured that was the latest day that I could ship it and have it be received by the birthday. I did send a card though, that will get there on time 🙂 . The next shawl in the series was revealed, in the Curious Handmade shawl knit a long. It’s a half circle shawl with stripes of star stitch and stripes of garter stitch. I’m not sure I want to make it, I’m a little tired of garter stitch right now.

Next week, the fabric for the commissioned quilt should be here, and I can get that done, I have a quilt (can’t remember the name) on the frame right now, that I made in august 2019, as a mystery quilt. I chose a cute strawberry and leaves panto for it, unfortunately it takes about an hour to quilt out a row. I have seven more to go.

Be Kind.

I got the borders attached Friday morning, the Reflected Harmony BOM/kit is a top. There were a lot of pieces in this quilt, I think it adds to the subtle contrasts in the pink and white fabrics. Some of the blocks have 49 pieces, some 23, it was sure nice to make the 3×6 flying geese for the outer borders though.

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Finishing a top means I get to start a new one. I bought a few coordinating solids to go with the Chickadee fabric panel and borders I had in my stash. I wanted to do something similar to this quilt on the left, I saw on Pinterest. The Chickadee panel is an awkward size, 23 x 42, and what I ended up planning to do is centering it in 9 inch blocks and surrounding it with the border print.

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It is a more common size that way, and it only took me about an hour (insert eye-roll) on EQ8 to figure out the measurements for an inner border to make the 9 inch blocks fit evenly around it. Last night I cut most of the pieces for the blocks. This is the same block I used for the two other Julie Paschkis designed fabric tops. Those tops used the Catkin line and the Folkloria line, I still have a few yards of other JP lines, but I think will set them free in the regular stash.

Also on Friday, I finished the appliqué on the Halloween figs block. Now I only have 6 more pumpkin seed blocks to do and I can get this top finished and in the TBQ pile.

My Curling Mist shawl is growing too, I am nearing the 80% point now. These rows go a bit more slowly, as they are over 200 stitches long. I really want to finish it this week, as I have to get it in the mail for delivery on or before the recipients birthday in 10 days. I think I need to do about ten rows a day, if I want to be really productive, I’ll knit and quilt at the same time. That way I’ll finally get the Hampton Square quilt done too.

Be Kind.

I have been a quilt piecer for a longish time, but those two words, finished size, still trip me up. I have been working on the Reflected Harmony quilt top this week. All of the block instructions give sizes in unfinished size, simple and consistent. I started to cut out the pieces for the 5th installment and noticed that it was a cats cradle block. I thought “I have a (Creative Grids) ruler for those!” I dug it out and the smallest size on it was 4 ½ inches. I really like this ruler/template because the blocks come out perfectly, and all the measurements for the pieces are on the ruler. I needed 64 CC blocks of one color way and 8 each of two other color ways. I spent a few hours making them and when it came time to combine them into the larger blocks, I saw I had a problem, the Cats Cradle blocks were too large by an inch, they were all 5 ½ inches square. Thankfully, I had had enough fabric to make them too large, but it took me a minute or two to figure out why. Ugh, right there on the ruler were the words ‘finished size’. In this case the finished size was 5 inches, which was my needed unfinished size. I calmly turned off the machine and left the room to work on a different project. The next morning I set to work cutting the blocks down to the right size. The CC blocks made with this CG ruler are quite forgiving, no points were lost and they are all very square and the correct size now. The next installment is Square in a Square blocks and flying geese for one of the borders. I have a CG ruler for the SinS too, and I have triple checked that it is the finished size I need. I even made one before cutting all the pieces, its all good.

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I worked a bit on the Newcastle cross stitch last night, I challenged myself to finish the basket. I did, and it looks pretty good. Now to branch out and start another flower, there is one needed to the left of the basket.

Yesterday I got two more rows quilted on the Hampton quilt. I knitted on the Curling mist shawl while the stitch out was churning along. Each row of the quilting takes about 30 minutes, even though it is a relatively simple design. I am not very pleased with it, as there is a bit of drift, and the rows don’t exactly line up sometimes, mostly on the ends. It is not that noticeable, because of the busy-ness of the fabrics and design, certainly won’t win any awards for LA quilting. Speaking of, a friend was asking me about PIQF, and wanted to know if I was entering a quilt. I hadn’t really thought about it. Usually the entrees are due at the end of August, I went to the web site and saw this:

We will be Celebrating Thirty Years at the Pinnacle of the Art of Quilting at the Pacific International Quilt Festival in 2021!

IMPORTANT NOTE: At this time, the 2021 Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF)will be held October 14-17. Under the proposed future restrictions in the state of California, this show should be green-lighted to take place onsite at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

Recognized as official Quilt Week in the city of Santa Clara, PIQF is proud to announce its thirtieth year! Join us as we celebrate the art of quilting. Whether you shop the aisles of the Merchants Mall for the best fabric, learn a new technique in *workshops taught by an outstanding faculty or admire the beauty of the artwork hanging in the quilt competitions and special exhibits, take part in the excitement that is the Pacific International Quilt Festival.

*Some workshops will be held virtually online.

So that’s promising. Further searching on the site didn’t yield any info on the competition though. There was an entry form button, but it wasn’t active. Mr Google gave no help, and the Mancuso site was super slow loading. I gave up for today.

Be Kind.