What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 Underneath my sewing machine, I keep a basket of triangle cut offs and bits. While I was cleaning the floor of my sewing room, I needed to handle a bit of a mess they created. They play while I am not looking, and walk about the room at night.  Corralling them was easy, but not playing with them was impossible. Mostly they are smaller than a 2 1/2 inch hst. Some are very tiny.

      In the fall retreat, I webbed the Batik HSTs into this Diamond quilt. I was able to quilt it this week and I used lots of leaves inspired by the batik prints and nature feel to the colors. I used Glide Celery top and bottom to quilt. I used my chalks to draw it all out. I am grateful that I found refils on Etsy for the chalk holders.
     I will show detail shots after I get the binding on. The backing is a wonderful green Moda fabric that someone gave me.

I should have titled this post "Throwback Thursday"  because it's about a quilt I made last year and didn't blog about.  I'd found a box of HSTs I wanted to do something with, so I put them up on the design wall and had a play day.  You know I like those!

The first thing I did was rearrange them into a more random looking design.  Next I pulled out a length of fabric I had bought for something and then decided I didn't like it. 

Any fabric you don't like almost always looks better ...

      This is not a fashion statement, rest easy. I am trying to make another Blue Bargello to replace the one given away. I am using the Island batik packs, you need two.

     At the retreat, I was able to get this HST top tubed, webbed, and later at home, corrected:

Rennes is the most recent great-nephew to get a quilt from Aunt Sandy.  (These little ones just keep coming!)   

I bought a few blues and grays when I was in Shipshewana this past summer so I would have enough to make a scrappy version of "Child's Play", a free download from sewcanshe.com.  

More HSTs, but I'm getting used to them, so I've stopped complaining!  

I'll probably use this pattern again.  I really love it.

Don't you hate it when you have a really vague idea in your head of the fabric you want when you go into your LQS (local quilt shop), and they don't have it?  Then, don't you love it when they have the perfect thing, and it isn't what you had in mind at all?  Funny, but that happens to me all the time.  I found this perfect gorgeous batik to use for the background in my "All Stacked Up" blocks.

Even though there are some HSTs in this pattern, it's a nice change from the ...

Island Batik's September Challenge and Blog Hop focuses on the Studio 180 Design tool we received in our second Ambassador box. I received the Tucker Trimmer Tool.

I also received the Honeycomb fabric collection, designed by Kathy Engle for Jackie Kunkle of Canton Village Quiltworks, shipping to shops in September. 

     I have been gifted parts for a top for another wonderful comfort quilt from Quiltdiva Julie complete with backing and binding. This one is called Flaneur, you can read about it here. It is chock full of happy HSTs with Tula Pink's Fairy Dust as the background fabric.
    Julie's original layout was sent to me and when I put it on my wall, it made my eyes ping pong and I could not appreciate the colors, fabrics and designs. Some patterns just do that to me.

     Oh boy, is this is an oldie WIP. I pulled it out of the bag to web and remembered that recently I found leftover HSTs from this layout and it wasn't enough to make another decent sized quilt. I dug those out and added them to the webbed, sewn top. I was able to add a top row, two bottom rows and two side columns. This made it a large sized comfort quilt (72" x 84"). I used to make comfort quilts under 70"  long. Yes, it takes less fabric and time, but really, a comfort quilt to really ...

I've gotten sidetracked by a few things, but my June goal is slowly getting there.  I was nearly finished appliqueing some blue star blocks when I decided to make it my June goal to turn them into a donation quilt.  I started making nine-patches for the alternate blocks, but got tired of that, so I ended up making a second kind, too.   Then somewhere along the way I realized I was using two different shades of gray.  It's a scrappy quilt, though, right? 

..... and I was able to pull the perfect backing fabric ...

      When my daugher and her husband spent last week grading AP Chemistry exams, I helped to babysit the 3 yr. old and 6 month old so my daughter could grade online in PA and my son in law grade in Salt Lake City. I took my machine and a couple of projects with me. I was able to web and sew a Scrappy Trips that was a leader ender for too long (photo to come) and trim 168 HSTs made from a layer cake (4 per 10" square) with the Clearly Perfect Slotted Trimmer. And iron them all with Best ...

I made a quilt for one of my grand-nephews.

Here is his baby quilt.

I try to make a flannel baby quilt, then a regular cotton big-kid quilt for kids in my family. This way, when they move from a crib to a big bed, they have a quilt that will fit.

This time, I went with a string quilt. I made 4.5" HSTs with strings and a neutral background. I arranged them in a layout I saw HERE.

Here is my result.

String Squares (76" x 94")

String Squares (binding and border detail)

He likes a series of ...

      Lots going on in the making department. One of the many quilt tops QuiltDiva Julie has sent me went out the door this week to a family member dealing with breast cancer. I was able to quilt the plaid HST quilt, put the quilt package together (tote bag, quilt, card, music CD, pocket quilts and book- 50 days of Hope), and deliver it out of town.

All fluffed and washed

Quilted

Bag

Ungrouted

Grouted

If you need more projects to work on or you're looking for a quilty podcast to listen to, check out Sherri's blog, A Quilting Life.  Just after the Covid isolation began my quilty friend Denise used that blog to entice me into doing a Mystery Block of the Month as a sew-along with her.  It turns out this Mystery BOM is an annual thing.  Now she's talked me and three other neighbors into making the 2022 mystery quilt.  More about that later.  

The 2020 quilt was designed using all half-square-triangles.  I decided to use bright batiks ..... 

..... with ...

     The blue green zig zags is done, bound, etc. I could not resist photographing outside in the snow. When Alycia, with her wonderful Colorado ranch landscape, shows her quilts outdoors, I always drool. I live in a tight little suburban lot which is not exactly photogenic for quilts, but due to the almost 20" of snow that fell on MLK day, I gave it a try.  I also know how to crop out.

Back detail

Back

      First, I have to ask- are you having trouble replying to blogs you are subscribed to? Blogs that I have followed and commented on for years are not allowing me to click in the comment box. I have done an online search on this topic, but found nothing. Whether it is my phone, laptop or desktop, can't comment.

      Every once in a while, I find a layer cake that snags me because of great price for comfort quilts. This one was from Etsy. My mother can sew some straight seams and I prepped the stack of batiks with a ...

      Another layer cake HST quilt. Layer cakes, on sale, provide a way for me to make a quilt with a big variety of complementary fabric which is great for comfort quilts. The white zig zag area made a great place for quilting and I tried to use a different leaf motif in each one. I used Glide Aquamarine on the top and DecoBob Dove gray in the bobbin.
     I still need to make and put the binding on for a final show plus show the back, but I wanted to do a group of blog posts so I don't ...

Every girl needs a new quilt when she leaves home to go off to college.  Especially when her Aunt Sandy thinks she does! And even more so when her sisters have recently received new quilts.  (You can read about Karlie's here and Kourtnie's here.)  It was Kacie's turn.

Jennie Doan's "Summer Camp" pattern looked like fun, and I was in the mood to work with teals and grays.  I dug into my stash and found something to work with, but I ended up adding a few fat-quarters to round out the mix.  We have to do ...

Every year, I look forward to Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt which begins the day after Thanksgiving here in the US. It is fun to quilt along with so many others from around the world.

I've completed Clues 1 and 2 of this year's mystery--Rhododendron Trail.

Rhododendron Trail (Clues 1 and 2)

I'm looking forward to seeing how this mystery comes together. 

If you would like to participate, it is easy! Simply visit Bonnie's blog and click on the Rhododendron Trail tab at the top. All the instructions will be posted there each Friday. There is ...