Category Archives: Quilts

40 Day Challenge – Day 3

June 6, 2020 11:20 pm ⋅ Pam

Yes, I skipped Day 2. I was playing with the Sherwin-Williams app. My room needs updating – starting with ripping out the old powder blue carpet. The curtains are from when we moved into the house 21 years ago. I’d like something dramatic, but whatever I go with paint wise it has to go with my quilts and the bedframe can’t blend into the wall. Merlot may be the ticket.

In addition to these two quilts (Egg Money an Eleanor Burns pattern & En Provence a Quiltville Mystery quilt) I will also have my black, blue, gray & white Frolic (also a Quiltville Mystery quilt) and a Hancock Fabrics BOM which I’m enlarging.

So what did I get done on Day 3? I bound the Customer quilt (delivering it Sunday afternoon) and made a pillowcase to go with it.

I also bound Sister Swap # 3.

That leaves the following:

~~A customer’s quilt – binding needs to be pressed, then can be attached and stitched down~~ 6/6/2020
Allietaire – plan do do both scallops and a 2 color binding.
Narragansett Blues
~~Sister Swap # 3 – The binding is made just needs to be attached and stitched down~~ 6/6/2020
Then & Now
Baby 4-Patch Stacked Posies
Tablerunner – Finally figured out what I am going to use
The quilt with the striped backing needs a label and delivered
I’m behind on my Star Studded BOM. I have fabric for 11 or 12 large blocks and 23 6-inch blocks.
The log cabin quilt needs to be quilted bound and labeled.
The blue, black and white quilt is my Frolic the goal is to finish the top.
Although not quilting, there are 9 pair of pants which need to be shortened.
Bonus #1 – Pillowcases:
- ~~the customer quilt~~ 6/6/2020
- Allietaire
- Narragansett Blues
- Log cabin quilt (2)
Bonus #2: Pillowcases for quilts already completed
- Christmas Crazy 8s
- On Ringo Lake
- En Provence (2)
- Carolina Chain
- Good Fortune
Bonus #3: Quilt, bind, label and make pillowcase (2) for Frolic.

My plan for tomorrow is to tackle the first pair of pants and bind the tablerunner.

Posted in: 40 Days - 2020, CustomerQuilt, Mending, Pillowcases, Sisters Swap, Tablerunner

40 Day Challenge

June 4, 2020 4:02 pm ⋅ Pam

I’d like to get back to blogging about my quilting. It seems that I generally just post to Facebook anymore. In one of my Facebook groups someone asked “What are you working on?” For me this morphed into this 40 Day challenge. My goal is to get everything on this list done.

This first picture is a stack of quilts that need to be bound.

A customer’s quilt – binding needs to be pressed, then can be attached and stitched down
Allietaire – plan do do both scallops and a 2 color binding.
Narragansett Blues
Sister Swap # 3 – The binding is made just needs to be attached and stitched down
Then & Now
Baby 4-Patch Stacked Posies
Tablerunner – Finally figured out what I am going to use

Believe it or not there’s more work in this pile than the binding pile.

The quilt with the striped backing needs a label and delivered

I’m behind on my Star Studded BOM. I have fabric for 11 or 12 large blocks and 23 6-inch blocks.

The log cabin quilt needs to be quilted bound and labeled.

The blue, black and white quilt is my Frolic the goal is to finish the top.

Although not quilting, there are 9 pair of pants which need to be shortened. This is driving the 40 days.

Bonus #1: Pillowcases for the customer quilt, Allietaire, Narragansett Blues, and the log cabin quilt (2)

Bonus #2: Pillowcases for quilts already completed – Christmas Crazy 8s, On Ringo Lake, En Provence (2), Carolina Chain, Good Fortune

Bonus #3: Quilt, bind, label and make pillowcase (2) for Frolic.

It should be an interesting 40 -45 days.

Posted in: 40 Days - 2020, Allietare, Allietare, Baby 4-Patch Stacked Posies, binding, BOM, Grandma's hourglasses, Janes Hourglasses, log cabin, Mending, Narragansett Blues, Pillowcases, Sisters Swap, Star Studded, Tablerunner, Then and Now

En Provence

October 26, 2018 6:49 pm ⋅ Pam

In all of the hustle and bustle of getting ready for the quilt show, I didn’t get all of my finishes posted. Since the show, I’ve been piecing up a storm as well, resulting in limited blogging as well. Hopefully over the next couple of days I’ll get caught up.

En Provence was the Winter 2016 Quiltville Mystery Quilt. I did fairly well keeping up with the clues finishing the top in February 2017. I did add extra borders so make it larger.

On a roll, I promptly went out and purchased the batting and backing for the quilt, but then I didn’t get in to quilt it until after Thanksgiving.

Did I mention this is a big quilt? 108 inches square. I did not get it finished in the time I had available to me. I pulled it off the frame tossed it in the back of my car where it road around for a few weeks before I brought it in side, tossing it on my ironing board. It became Butterscotch’s favorite spot.

Somewhere along the way she threw a hairball up on the quilt. Yuk. Eventually I moved the quilt. It resided in the 2nd bedroom, the living room and our bedroom before it made it back to the sewing room.

Then when my sister got her long arm quilting machine, I spent about 2 weeks ripping out the quilting I had done. Butterscotch “helped” me.

Eventually I got over to my sister’s and got it quilted. I had lots of help from Butterscotch again putting the binding on.

But eventually I got it done and was able to hang it to take pictures.

I needed an extra wide backing, so picked this because of the color. I don’t think I really saw it until it was hanging.

On my list to do is make some pillow cases. I have a bit of the border fabric, some of the backing, the blue I used for binding and some of the red. I don’t think all of the cases will be exactly alike, but that will be OK.

Here is a bit of the quilting detail. I used a holly E2E design that was pre-loaded on the computer, so I don’t know the name of the design. Buttercup Glide thread was used in the needle and bobbin. The batting is Hobb’s Bleached Tuscany 100% Cotton.

The final size after quilting and washing is about 104 inches.

Started piecing: 11/2/16

Top completed: 2/10/17

Finished: 9/25/18

Posted in: En Provence

Grandma’s Hourglasses

October 14, 2018 9:48 pm ⋅ Pam

A number of years ago I assisted a friend in clearing out her mother’s estate. I was given a bag of hand-pieced vintage hourglass blocks. They’ve sat in my stash, waiting for inspiration to strike.

This past spring, I pulled them out and counted. Not enough to make a quilt on their own, but I came up with a plan. I purchased the mint green fabric on a strip to Springfield with my husband in April or May and started hand piecing the blocks. Each block needed the stitching line drawn on it as they were not all exactly 3″ unfinished. Fortunately, all of the edges were on the bias, so I don’t have to worry about the pieces raveling. I only made part way through the second round of mint green before I realized that there was no way my wrist was going to be up to finishing it by hand – at least not more than one or two blocks a night. (I fixed this).

I took the bag of hourglasses and what I had pieced to the Mississippi Quilt Gathering in June where I took a class from Bonnie Hunter. She reminded me that Finished is better than Perfect and there is no law that says I can’t finish the top my machine. I still needed to draw the stitching line on the blocks, but I ended up finishing the quilt top by machine.

There was no question about how I was going to quilt it – it had to be done on the machine. The only question was what I was going to quilt. In my mind I saw continuous curves in the hourglass blocks and feathers in the solid. But it’s been a while since I have done any free motion quilting and I had no idea how to tell my sisters computerize machine how to do what I wanted. In the end I did the curves in the pieced blocks, half feathers in the outer border then echoed them a couple of times. In the center of the quilt I did a loopy thing.

For the backing I used a piece of vintage fabric I found in my stash.

Here is a better picture of the backing. Due the small symmetrical pattern, I was able to match the center seam.

I used 80/20 batting from Hunter’s Heirloom Quilting and when I washed it, it scrunched up and feels like a vintage quilt. But as cool as all that is, there is one more bit of news.

I entered the quilt in my guild quilt show. When I arrived the guild president called out “Congratulations!” The quilt placed 3rd in Best of Theme — A Stitch in Time.

Since I got it home, I’ve made a couple of matching pillow cases.

I still need to make the permanent label and wash the cases, then I’ll be able to deliver the quilt.

The quilt measures 60 1/2″ x 69 1/2″ after washing. I started it 5/6/2018 and finished it 9/18/2018.

Posted in: Grandma's hourglasses

A Quilting Goal

June 13, 2018 8:04 am ⋅ Pam

Way back in 2012 I started the Just Takes 2 Quilt by Sentimental Stitches. The pattern was sent out every 2 weeks and there are 100 blocks – excluding the border. I’m doing mine in turquoise and grey. I eventually finished the first section and a few more blocks, but the quilt was set aside to work on something else and I’ve not gone back to it.

I’ve decided that I want it finished, preferably quilted by November 2019. I had the patterns printed out through Unit 18, block 71, and tonight I printed the rest of the blocks and assembly instructions. Then I counted up the applique blocks (14), paper pieced blocks (9) and simple patchwork blocks (25) I still need to make. If I make 3 blocks a month, and assemble as I go, I should have the center completed by September 2019. That will give me October to do the border, quilting and binding.

The plan is to tackle one applique block and one paper pieced block a month then as my reward, do a pieced block which should be considerably easier. I guess I’ll just take them in order which means the first applique block is #34 and the first paper pieced block is # 40. The first pieced block will be # 53.

Posted in: JT2

More Hourglasses

May 11, 2018 11:52 am ⋅ Pam

We replaced the light bulbs in my sewing room with 100 watt equivalent LED bulbs. I can see! I only mention it because I finally was able to get a decent picture of the work so far on the hourglass quilt. It goes fast when I’m working on it — but I can’t work on it too long or my hand/wrist starts hurting. I may have to resort to machine piecing the top. The stitching lines will still need to be marked. These blocks are wonky.

Posted in: Janes Hourglasses

What’s On My Design Wall

May 7, 2018 12:14 am ⋅ Pam

Several years ago when I was helping a friend clean out her mother’s home, I was given a bag of vintage hour glass blocks. They are hand pieced. They’ve been knows as “Jane’s Hourglasses” on my UFO spreadsheet. After counting the blocks and extra pieces in the bag I have 285 hourglass blocks that finish at 2 – 1/2″.

It took me a while to figure out what these units were going to be. Last year’s Leader/Ender challenge, which I did not do, apparently took hold in my brain. After drawing for a bit in my spreadsheet (my computer was just limping along and I couldn’t run EQ) I came up with a trip around the world design which will finish approximately 62″ x 72″.

There will be 5 rings of hourglasses separated by a 2-1/2″ ring of the solid, finishing with 5″ borders. I’m hand piecing this partly to keep with the original blocks and mostly because these blocks are not precise and have bias edges.

This much went pretty quickly, but I’m not holding my breath on finishing the top anytime soon. Hopefully the next time you see this quilt top I’ll have a decent photo. The photo color is not true, but I’m tired of messing with it.

Posted in: Janes Hourglasses

Socks and Quilts

May 4, 2018 2:56 pm ⋅ Pam

I’m not one for patterned socks, but found these at the grocery store. I think I’ll wear them when I go the quilt retreat later this month.

Speaking of the quilt retreat — I’m taking Bonnie Hunter’s Carolina Chain class. I’ve been busy cutting 2″ strips. I’m doing mine in “brights” and “neutrals”. Lots of pinks, blues, greens, yellows, purples, oranges, bright on black, etc. In fact similar to the colors in the last pair of socks. When I started gathering/cutting fabric my goal was to create 1 dark chain and one light chain from each fabric — that’s over 300 different fabrics – half “bright” and half “neutral”.

The “brights” were easy to come by. In fact I didn’t use everything I pulled. The “neutrals” on the other hand surprised me. I never would have guessed that I could come up with 150+ neutrals from my stash. I was digging into my shirts, vintage, and music fabric to get there, but I did. I even opened the holiday box looking for “neutrals”. No Christmas, but there is one Halloween fabric in the mix. I’m ready for class now.

This particular bag is big enough I was able to slip my book and 6 1/2″ ruler in a well.

Now back to cleaning the sewing room.

Posted in: Carolina Chain

The Wind Stopped Blowing…

April 16, 2018 5:41 pm ⋅ Pam

…at least long enough for me to get a halfway decent picture of the Cat Quilt.

Stats:

Started 3/18/17 (I’m using the date that I made the star blocks as the start date)
Top Done 3/31/18 (3 AM!)
100% cotton batting, lavender thread
Quilted by David Hurd of Quilting by David using the edge-to-edge design “Splat”
Bound using Susie’s Magic Binding
Measures 72 x 91 after washing
Finished 4/9/18

There is no pattern — I used two cat panels – Caterwauling and Cool Cats, orphan blocks and some of my stashed cat fabric.

Posted in: KCQ

Quilted!

April 5, 2018 11:20 am ⋅ Pam

Saturday afternoon I drove up to Saint Joseph, Missouri and dropped the cat quilt off with David Hurd of Quilting by David. Earlier in the week I emailed him to see if there was enough time to get the quilt turned around by April 17th and he assured me there was. When I dropped it off, he offered to meet me at a local quilt guild meeting on the 12th. Wow — that would give me the weekend to finish the quilt and get it on the bed before our guests arrive on the 18th. Then Tuesday morning I saw this (the date stamp is wrong):

An email and phone call confirmed that my quilt was ready and I could pick it up that evening.

It was in a bag with my name on it, and of course his logo and phone #.

I picked the edge to edge design Splat and a lavender thread for the quilting. 100% cotton batting was used.

I thought I had 2 weeks so the plan was to make a couple of pillowcases and the binding. I found 2 yards of Tossed Cats while looking for a missing pattern in the disaster that is my sewing room. It was perfect for the cases.

Last night I finished making the binding. I’m using Susie’s Magic Binding so I hope to have the quilt finished in the next day or two. There’s no need to rush – the weather is going to be nasty over the weekend so I won’t be able to take pictures until sometime next week – if I’m lucky. The calendar may say “Spring” and “April” but we had a record low yesterday (17 degrees) and are expecting snow and sleet over the weekend.