Weekly update: OMG and work in progress

Monarchs were fluttering around weigela bushes at the marina in Crisfield (see the previous posts for the account of our trip).

There is work in progress in the studio, which you'll see later in this post -- but here's the work in progress upstairs.   I spent two days this week packing up the contents of the kitchen cabinets.  Our housecleaner's regular day was Wednesday. I told her it was useless to clean the kitchen so she helped pack.  I was grateful that she was there.

The cabinets were removed Thursday. The electricians capped and drilled on Friday.

The refrigerator is in the dining room.  The coffee maker is in my bathroom. We're using paper plates but washing cutlery in the bathroom. (The original kitchen sink was moved to the basement in the 1985 remodeling but it's a bit of a hassle to go downstairs to rinse out coffee cups.)

I unearthed the crockpot.  I bought an Instant Pot, which I've considered doing for a long time. So far so good.  The hassle is not having water right at hand.

I compare the project to banging your head against the wall -- it  will feel so good to quit.










Meanwhile:

It's time for the One Monthly Goal link up hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts.  [I keep typing Elm Creek Quilts, thinking of Jennifer Chiaverini's long-running series. (Did you know there's a new ECQ book out this fall? I have the advance copy but haven't read it yet.)]

My OMG was once again two parts.  I accomplished both.

#1   Ten more tote bags for the Nepal school project.  (I promised to make forty -- twenty in September, these ten, and ten to go.)








#2  Set the wonky house blocks that were the guild BOM for 2019-20.

All the houses are made from polka-dot fabric. The setting was inspired by Freddy Moran who uses black/white/bright in all her designs.

All participants in the BOM who bring quilt tops (or finished quilts) to the November meeting will qualify to win prizes.


As for quilting WIPS:  I have made six more Nepal tote bags and have the fabric for the last four cut.  I plan to finish them this week and send them off.

And here's something new!  The HSTs are 3.5" unfinished.  Right now I'm considering making 25 rows of 22 (66" x 75"). That's 550 HSTs. That could be a nice leisurely project -- make a few, put them away, make a few more -- but I predict I'll charge ahead. 







P.S. I contributed Purple Mountain Peaks to raffle at the Zion Woman's Club annual bunco party on Friday.  The winner was delighted.


Linking up with
One Monthly Goal
Oh, Scrap!
Design Wall Monday
Monday Making
....with thanks to Em for hosting Moving It Forward at Em's Scrap Bag . I'm going to check out her new scrap quilt group on Facebook.

Weekly update: a challenging guild speaker, a local quilt show, and tote bags

Diane Murtha presented the program at Wednesday's guild meeting.  "Accept the Challenge and Win the Prize" was about all kinds of quilt challenges.  There are big-name juried competitions that require entries that interpret a specific topic or that require a particular line of fabric (e.g. the Hoffman Challenge). Some require both (e.g. the Cherrywood Challenge -- one year it was Wicked with a specific Cherrywood acid green; this year it was Prince with a particular purple).  There are local challenges (like our guild's Birds of a Feather).  A quilting bee or a quilt retreat can include a challenge.

Diane showed examples of quilts she's made for all of these kinds of challenges.  In the process she's developed new skills and broadened her quilting horizon.

Right:  this New York Beauty sunflower has a beaded center.
Left:  this is Diane's version of Bonnie Hunter's Roll Roll Cotton Boll -- obviously it didn't turn out according to the pattern.

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Irene and I went to the  Village Quilters  biennial show on Friday afternoon.  There were more than 200 quilts on display!   We saw people from our guild and I saw several P.E.O. and AAUw friends.    Libby (Hillside Quilter) says that local shows are very satisfying. I agree -- there are nice quilts and there are extraordinary quilts made by quilters just like us.  Here are some of my favorites.

These are temperature quilts. Each flying goose documents the high temperature for the day (in this case, 2018).   Here is a tutorial to design your own temperature quilt .

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The update from my studio:  I finished ten tote bags for the Nepal school project.  That's one of my OMGs for the month.  (I will make the final batch of ten in November.)

Monday link ups:  Monday Making

Design Wall Monday

Oh Scrap!

Moving It Forward

Weekly update: design epiphany!

I make a holiday-themed quilt each year that is raffled to benefit AAUW.   Some years the designs come to me more easily than other years.  I thought I had beaten the rush way back in June when I made many red/green/white sawtooth stars.


I was going for the look of the churn dash quilt I coordinated for the ALA Biblioquilters, but with 4", 8", and 12" stars.




I tried red sashing -- too red.   I tried green sashing -- too green.   I tried light sashing -- a huge mish-mash.  Nothing worked. (But I sewed all the 4" stars into nine-patch units before I realized that.)   I know better than to try to design and sew when I'm frustrated. I put the blocks away and worked on other projects.


No, I don't HAVE to make a holiday quilt for AAUW. But I've done so for nearly 20 years.  I took out the box and put the 12" stars on the design wall.  What if?

WHAT IF, indeed.   Look what happened. I had just the right light green print for the sashing and just the right red-on-red print for the border.

Next problem:  the October 19 AAUW fall conference is a good time to sell tickets.  We leave for our fall trip October 10. Other people can display the quilt and sell the tickets but I have to get the quilt to them before we leave --which means the quilt has to be finished.  I called Barb who has quilted many of  my quilts.  I explained the urgency.  She is involved in a guild show the first weekend of October but she said she can quilt it the day after the show.  (She said that it was a group of AAUWs who taught her to quilt 20+ years ago.) 

I pieced the backing, keeping it simple (no blocks on the back to slow things down) and delivered top, back, and batting on Saturday.  WHEW.

8" stars

4" stars 

I now have two sets of orphan stars for a future project -- but I don't have to rush!

Linking up with
 Oh Scrap!
  Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Moving It Forward

Weekly update: in the studio -- a flimsy, OMG achieved, and a start-and-finish

I listened to The Help while driving to and from Iowa.  (I don't know why I didn't read it when it was published a decade ago.)   The story and the narration were so good that "I have to finish this!" was my excuse to spend a lot of time in my studio this week.

I made 42 slab blocks and assembled them.
The scrap slabs are 6-1/2 x 9-1/2 and the gray strips are 2-1/2 x 9-1/2.




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I achieved both parts of my September One Monthly Goal and will add this post to the link up.

(a)  Play Your Song, my donation to the Lake County Symphony Orchestra gala in October

(b)  Ten book bags for the Nepal school project. The photo shows the ten I made in August as well as the ten I made this month.  Twenty bags to go!






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This pumpkin wall hanging is for the Zion Woman's Club bunco party at the end of October.  I used a pattern from Quiltmaker (Sept/Oct 2005).

I'm linking up with
 OMG at Elm Street Quilts
Monday Making
Moving It Forward
Design Wall Monday

Weekly update: a finish and playing with scraps

It's apple season!  The produce/flower market just up the road from us gets several dozen varieties of apples from Twin Maples Orchard in southwestern Michigan.

I get three or four of each kind and put a slip of paper with the variety in each bag -- but usually the slips, bags, and apples get separated.






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Play Your Song is finished!   I used a six-piece panel and Bonnie Hunter's Random Ohio Stars  design.   60 x 72, 6-1/4 yards used.  It will be donated to the Lake County Symphony Orchestra for their fall gala.













I thought I had kept count of the small stars but there were two left over.





I've made many scrap slab blocks that turn out 9-1/2" because I use that size ruler to trim them.  I've set them with wide strips (here and here).   I saved a Pinterest photo with another setting idea.  The slabs are 6-1/2" x 9-1/2" and the gray strips are 2" x 9-1/2.  I cut down a half dozen square slab blocks and found I had enough slabs-in-process to make a dozen more. [In the photo: the two blocks at the top show the horizontal/vertical setting. The finished blocks are at the left, the cut strips in the center, the 6-1/2" x 9-1/2" slabs at the right.]

I won't have much sewing time this week.  I leave tomorrow at noon for Iowa.  Destination:  Des Moines and the P.E.O. Sesquicentennial Convention .  Home on Sunday afternoon!

Linking up with
Love Laugh Quilt
Oh Scrap!
  Moving It Forward
Design Wall Monday

Weekly update: teal mini, WIP, stash report, and OMG declaration

"Where did the summer go?" I join the chorus this September 1.  I did remember to say, "Rabbit rabbit," as I woke up today.  (Here is the origin of the custom.  I learned about it in from a Trixie Belden mystery that I read circa 1963 but only in recent years have I remembered to say the magic words.)

Bright Bouquet is my entry in the 2019 Teal Mini Swap . My swap buddy Lisa received it mid-week. She likes it!   The swap fabric is the teal used in the vase. The design is by Linderella, published in McCall's Quick Quilts a long time ago.  (I made it once before: here.)

The border is made from three different gray/
white fabrics cut into 1-1/2" strips, pieced A-B-A   and B-C-B, and cut into 1-1/2" units, then sewn together.

AUGUST SUMMARY AND STASH REPORT
The guild challenge and the mini-swap took  quilting time but didn't use much fabric.

August 
Fabric IN  --  30 yards, $2.50  (18 yards on the guild giveaway table, 12 yards for $2.50 at the church rummage sale)
Fabric OUT -- 85-1/8  (60 yards given away to other quilt makers, along with quilt books)

YTD
Fabric IN -- 405 yards, $1457, avg. $3.60/yd
Fabric OUT -- 384-1/4
Net --  20-3/4 yards IN

It's time to declare the ONE MONTHLY GOAL for September.   It's another two-part goal:

(1)   Ten tote bags for the Nepal school project.  (I made 10 in August and need to make 40 in all.)

(2)   Finish the Music Quilt.  It will be donated to the Lake County Symphony Orchestra fall fundraising gala in October.

I bought this six-picture panel specifically with the LCSO quilt in mind.  I pinned it to the design wall and contemplated a setting.  Elaborate sashing?  Alternate blocks?  Bonnie Hunter's Random Ohio Stars (2005) came to mind. Perfect!  I had some music-themed fabric conveniently in black/white and gold/brown. I pulled out grays, golds, blacks, whites.  Here are all the blocks! I will probably have a thin inner border and a wider outer border.

I've made ROS several times: here and here. (There was a third but I can't find the post.)

Linking up with
 One Monthly Goal
 Oh, Scrap!
 Monday Making
 Moving It Forward
Design Wall Monday

Weekly update: 39 years!, a rummage sale, and catching up

Our 39th wedding anniversary was Friday.
Wow!






Our church has big rummage sales in May and in August. I helped set up on Monday afternoon and staffed the bake sale table on Friday morning.  After those short stints I have tremendous appreciation for Lou and Laura, the sale organizers who work nearly year-round to rough-sort donations and then nearly 24/7 for two weeks to set up each sale. And they both were in church on Sunday! 

I contributed many of my garage-sale leftovers to the sale.  All I can say is that I hope they found new homes.   Most of the fabric on offer was knit or polyester.  I bought all the quilt cotton --   twelve yards -- for $2.50.

The Potawatomi PowWow is held the last weekend of August at Shiloh Park in Zion.  All tribes are invited and it's open to the public.  The Zion Woman's Club serves the dinner -- this year venison stew over noodles.  There was enough left over for me to take home for our supper.  [I got a photo of the ZWC group but not of the people in their beautiful Native American garb! The man on the right was the dinner coordinator.]

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In the studio:

Nine State Fair blocks for the August Block Lotto.












The final wonky house for the guild BOM.

Here are all twelve.

To qualify for the prize drawing we have to set the blocks (quilting optional) by November.  I'm taking inspiration from Freddy Moran though I have yet to start.  (If you're not familiar with her work you can Google to see what I mean.)

I finished the Teal Mini Swap quilt.  I will mail it today.  Here's a corner view.  When my swap partner says she's received it I can post the full photo.


I wrote earlier that my friend Margaret asked if I could make tote bags for students at a school in Nepal that Margaret supports.  I said yes which meant I am committed.  I do NOT like production sewing.  I've decided to make 10 bags a month for four months.  Here are seven completed with 8, 9, and 10 in process.

The red fabric is "sandcastle," a kind of needle-punched denim that I've had for, oh, a decade or so.

I intended to mow the lawn today but it is pouring as I write.  Guess I'll just have to sew for a good part of the day!

Linking up with quilting friends
Monday Making
Moving It Forward
Oh Scrap
Design Wall Monday

P.S. I was just a foot away from these monarch butterflies on Sunday afternoon.

Weekly update: friends, a festival, and a finish!

There was a Magpie meetup on Tuesday.   Phebe (Spokane) went to visit Stacey (Kansas City) on Amtrak.  That required traveling to Chicago and changing trains.  Anna (southwest of Chicago) and I (north of Chicago) met Phebe at Union Station on the return trip.  Phebe had a two-hour layover and conveniently arrived at lunchtime.  We hadn't seen Phebe in person since the  first PieFest in 1999.   What a great visit!

A TV show filming was being set up in the Union Station Great Hall.









My husband and I took our friend Pat out to lunch on Friday. She's recovering well from her broken hip (when she and I were at the ALA Annual Conference in June).  She's living in a west-side suburb 60 miles away from where we live.  It took an hour and a half to get there (mid-day) and two hours to get home (Friday rush hour + summer + Chicago with a dollop of road construction). While we were at lunch her nephew called with the good news that he'd caught the cat who had holed up in Pat's condo, refusing to come out.. Apparently Mavourneen's need for human contact after two months got the best of her.

 

I helped set up the Rotary booth at Beach Park Fest on Saturday and stayed for the morning shift.   MAST therapy dogs Dandy and Buddy  were a big hit with festival-goers!  They belong to Rotarians Bill and Debbie.




(A definite design flaw: the Rotary logo points to the sky.)









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I am delighted and relieved to say that I finished the guild challenge quilt -- quilted, bound, labeled!
I can't show you until the reveal (September 4).  Here is a hint.

I'm now working on the Teal Mini Swap.  Beth Helfter hosts this annual fundraiser for ovarian cancer research in memory of her mother.  It's the fourth year I've participated.  The swap fabric is the teal print.  My partner is Lisa in Pennsylvania.  I'm nearly finished with the applique.  (It took longer to decide what pattern to make than to pull the fabrics and prepare the fusible appliques.)

Linking up with other quiltmakers this mid-August weekend:
 Oh Scrap!
 Design Wall Monday
 Monday Making
 Moving It Forward