Goodbye to Spring; Summer is Here

We are having wonderful weather so far this year.  Sun, some rain, more sun, a little wind to temper the heat.  Life is busy with anniversary parties and weddings, visits from my sister and brother and other friends coming soon and just the general mayhem of summer.  The garden is growing well and we are already eating lettuce, celery, cilantro and other herbs.  There are flowers in abundance, both wild…

And tame….

I’ve done some sewing.  Easy Street is moving very slowly and I won’t have it done before the wedding, but I’m okay with that.  My latest projects have been these Katherine Wheel ones for swaps.  Pattern from Charlotte at Lawson and Lotti.

And yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a silk scarf dyeing course.  I tried some Shibori methods…

But didn’t make my knots tight enough on this one and the design is quite faint.  See the blue one below.  The others turned out great though. 

Shibori method 1, Scrunch method, Shibori method 2, tied and died…

 

It was very fun but this kind of intense activity is still tiring for me.  I am at least more than 50% better though and getting more so every day. 

We are off boating now. I hope you’re having a fun and happy day

Janet

The Year of the Finished Project for May

I’ve had a good month

1. 6 inch quilt block swap Done!

2. Bee Balm block swap Done!

3. Block swap adventure Done!

4. Inchy hexagon swap Done!

5. MMM Round Robin – Done!  Here is a sneak peek  

6. Simply Solids block swap Done!

7. Mystery Muse - DONE!! 

8. Get your Hex On bee Done!

9. Charm Pack Table Runner for Terry. Not Done

10.  It’s for the Birds Blog Hop project and post…. DONE!!  And I made myself a great clothespin apron.

* Finish the baby quilt!  DONE!!!

** Put together FIVE blocks for Easy Street!  Twelve more blocks done! I am pleased!

*** Finish the table mat I started for the Stitch Me Up blog hop.  Not Done. 

**** Work on the X and + quilt .  My goal for this month is ten more blocks. Only two blocks done. 

***** Work on the new project that I started….A postage stamp quilt made with 2.5 inch squares.  It is my new leader and ender project.  Almost finished two blocks.  This is going together quickly as a leader and ender.

****** Make a dress for DGD’s doll.  Not Done.   

Some things aren’t done.  But I did some other things so I don’t mind… Like flags for the To Boston with Love project.

And here is my list for June:

1. Six inch quilt block swap – 2 per month – to be mailed by the 15th.  Dawnelle wants any block in southwest shades.

2. Bee Balm block swap – The instructions are apparently on their way in the mail.

3. Block swap adventure – 1 - 12.5 in block – mail by the 25th.  Cyndi wants a star block in brights, funky or modern on white.

4. Inchy hexagon swap – 2 hexies per month – mail by April 30th.  Karyli wants yellow petals and black centres.

5. MMM Round Robin – mail by April 30th.  This is the last month for this round robin.  I haven’t received the block to work on yet.

6. Simply Solids block swap – Mail by April 26th – Anne Marie wants a complex Katherine Wheel.  I’m going to have to concentrate to make this one. 

7. Get your Hex On bee – mail by April 30th.  Elita wants a simple 1.5 inch hexie flower and has sent gorgeous fabric for it.  I’m half done already.

8. Charm Pack Table Runner for Terry. I am embarrassed that this isn’t done and it is TOP of the priority list.

9. A birthday star block for Quilt Diva Julie.

10. A mug rug for my secret partner in the Flickr Mug Rug Revival swap.

As well I am going to:  

***** Finish Easy Street!  Or try to any way.  I have 16 square blocks to make and 10 triangle blocks.  And borders and quilting.  Yikes!  Oh well, I will try.. 

**** Finish the table mat I started for the Stitch Me Up blog hop.  It is a gift.  I need to get it mailed.  This one also has high priority!

*** Work on the X and + quilt .  I’m going to try for ten more blocks again this month.  

** Continue making leader/ender postage stamp blocks.

* Make the prototype dress for DGD’s doll.  I need to decide if this dress is the right one for my GDs for the wedding in September…. DD#2’s wedding…

Spring is here and summer is crowding spring out the door.  Life is hectic busy, but a girls gotta sew….

Janet

A finished Quilt

One of my goals for May was to finish the baby quilt that I started oh so long ago.  And finished it is!  It deserves its own show-off post as it is so pretty.

I mentioned previously that I acquired a pile of 5 inch pink, yellow/orange, flowered and dotted squares (2 of the dotted squares) in a bag of scraps from my local quilt store.  At the time I was obsessed with the square in a square block.  I added the light blue from my craft club’s stash and the top for this quilt was born. 

There are equal numbers of 2 1/2 inch square in a square blocks and just plain square blocks.  The blocks alternate through the rows.  For the block placement I just made sure that no colour was immediately beside itself horizontally or vertically and put them up so that they looked pleasing to me.

 

I did straight line quilting diagonally through the solid blocks, in-the-ditch quilting around the borders and a row of flowers in the outer border.

This quilt is so pretty that I wish I had someone special to give it to.  It will go to the local nursing station to be given out to someone with a new baby.  So I guess that will be someone special. 

Stats: 

Top fabrics: Yellow, pink, flowered and dotted fabrics acquired in a scrap bag from my LQS; blue, used in blocks and for outer border is Fusions by Robert Kaufman; white inner border is Kona Snow     

Binding fabric: Ombre by Kaffe Fassett for Rowan

Backing fabric:  Essential Flannel by Wilmington Prints

Finished size: 43 x 36 inches. 

I just realized that I don’t have a label on this quilt…  I will have to add one before I give it away, but I am still going to call it done.

Janet

Faux Trapunto

After reading this post about faux Trapunto on Geta's blog recently I decided that I really wanted to try this technique.   And so I did.  Twice. 

The first piece I made was my secret April piece.  Now that it has been received by my DGD in Newfoundland, I can show it off. 

This pattern was released as part of the Flickr Spring Fling Blog Hop and was designed by Teri from Handiwerx.  As soon as I saw it I knew I had to make it for my DGD as it just reminded me so much of her.  And at the time we were still in the throes of winter but they were having spring showers on the east coast. 

I did some adaptations on the design – different hair, added the cat, some raindrops and a little birdie.  And I put a second layer of batting under the girl and her umbrella so that they would puff right up. 

I didn’t take the best pictures but you can see that I got the bottom line of writing on crooked.  

Some details… I wrote “April Showers bring May flowers” on the top and right borders and the “to and from” greeting on the left and bottom.   A little robin button is riding on the umbrella.

Can you see that the girl’s hand is cupped?  I had to put in some raindrops for her to catch.  Other than the writing in the binding I only quilted in the white space and along the outline of the rainbow, cat, girl and umbrella and along the umbrella ribs.  DGD’s hair is more curly than this but this was the best wool I could find to depict it. 

The cat is supposed to be black.  I cut out a cat printed on fabric in brown and tried to colour it with a black Sharpie marker, but the black turned into dark brown.  Isn’t the grass fabric fantastic! 

The second Trapunto piece is my second Mystery Muse project that I have been making since January.  I knew I wanted to try this method on this “mug rug”, but I actually didn’t complete this piece until after I finished the piece above.  Once I saw how great it looked I barrelled ahead with this one.  This pattern is called Carnival and is from the Quilter's Cache site.  Lots of wonderful free patterns there.

The picture really doesn’t show off the puffiness of the red dotted pieces where I used the extra layer of batting.  But it did work quite well and looks great in person.  Here’s the back where you can see the circle quilting and a bit of the puffiness.

And there you have my foray into faux Trapunto.  Maybe next time I’ll try the real thing.

Janet