Frankenquilt........FINISHED...

...and GONE !

I finished the Frankenquilt on Thursday, washed and dried it, and photographed it a bit.  

 Today, I took it to show to the lady for whom I pick up lunch.  She carried on over it, and wanted to know if I ever sold my quilts, and for how much.  

I gave it to her. 

 

I made the binding finish at 3/4 inches wide.......because I wanted to !

I couldn't help it !   She just loved it, and is always so sweetly complimenting all of my work.  And, I couldn't price it !   After all, it was made from bits and pieces, here and there, all found here in my tubs and bundles !  

So, there........Frankenquilt has found a happy home.

Enjoy, Sister Faye ! 

Details.....Finished measurements before washing--56" x 64".

                Machine-quilted in ditch horizontally, vertically, 
                and diagonally , except for border rows of squares.
                Borders were hand-quilted free-hand without 
                hoop, using big needle.  

                Batting was Fairfield 80% cotton/20% polyester 
                remnants.  Thread for quilting was variegated 
                spool sent from JoAnn Gilley.
 

Basting the Frankenquilt

I have spent the last week putting together a back for a top that I made last year. 

 I took orphan blocks and arranged them on my design wall until I was satisfied with the look.
At that point, I started to add pieces from this green print fabric that I had found in a box of scrap fabric that I purchased from a second-hand store.

The pink will be removed after the quilting is done. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I just had enough to make the back big enough for the front, having to sew on a pink strip all around, just to have enough overage to be able to pin it into my basting frame.

 I'm finding that I like this back better than the front......of course, it doesn't matter, since it promises to be truly reversible.  I think that I will machine-quilt it from the front, since it gives me more of a 'grid' to follow when quilting.

This was the only block that I had to do any applique on........I added the hexagon block to the center of this very plain large block, to spice it up a bit.
Even the batting for this quilt is a Frankenbatt !   I pieced it together with many leftover cuts from making other quilts !

We are all still sheltering in place or "safer at home", as they like to say, because of the Covid 19 virus pandemic.   Our county has only had two diagnosed cases.  I stay home mostly, except to run meals to a friend, and of course, do my shopping.  I DID have a short visit from my brother Jeff today.........a most wonderful chance for a much missed hug !  It was so nice to visit with someone in person !

Finished Quilt--Air Mail 'Round the World

Searching my mind and my 'play room' for my next project, I opened a box that had been sent to me by JodieAnn, probably a year before she passed away.  I would have almost NO NEW FABRIC if it weren't for that sweet gal !  Anyway, there were 2 charm packs and 3 half-yard pieces of coordinates.  So I started playing around to see what I could make work with just that fabric.

This is what I came up with.  The fabrics are nice, but the red and white printed background fabric tends to give the quilt a pinkish tinge that I don't care for.
 I got it pieced within a couple of days' time, and grabbed some leftover polyester batting from quilting the embroidered quilt blocks commission.  I seamed some pieces together and basted this one up.

Marley Jo sized

Good ol' Singer 15-91 came through again for the machine-quilting........just straight-line quilting in all of the ditches (seams).

Definitely doesn't crinkle up like it would with a cotton batting.

 Note to self, I have not found a solution for any machine that I use making tucks when I machine-quilt (except during free-motion quilting).   So, now, I use straight pins on whatever seam I am quilting, and place them about an inch apart for 6 or so inches.  After quilting over them, (yes, I quilt over pins), I move them to the next 6-inch section ahead of the needle.  No more tucks.  I am very satisfied with the outcome, if not the extra work.   It's worth it to get something quilted up more quickly than I could quilt by hand.

UPDATE on Spot in the Middle quilt.
 Washed and dried finally........I loved the flat look of this one, and for once I didn't want crinkly.  Well, crinkly is just what I got, of course, with a cotton batting.

Nothing wrong with the quilt..........this is usually what I'm waiting for the whole time I'm making it..........all that lovely 'real quilt' wrinkliness.  Just NOT this time.

Also, for the blog record.....COVID 19 Pandemic has us still staying at home, "sheltering in place", but I do go out for groceries and meal deliveries.  Schools and Church services still postponed for now.

Tiny quilt finish

All sizes of quilts make me HAPPY !

 I was experimenting with some strip-piecing when I put these blocks together a while back.  It was just the right size for some evening hand-quilting over the past week.  I chose different colored quilting threads to match the colorway of each block.

When it came time to bind, I went back to the 'strings' tub, and I chose colors to match all but the brown center block.

Now, it sits on my coffee table, bringing me a smile each time it catches my eye.

I LOVE QUILTING !

And I LOVE having a stash to draw from on a moment's whim !  Thank you, Father in Heaven, for this gift of being able to create things, big or small, to add beauty to MY life, and, hopefully, the lives of OTHERS as well.

Sign of the times

First case was recognized in our little town now, so taking things a bit more seriously.  Y'all keep praying God's mercy.

Spot in the Middle---finished !

Yesterday, I finished binding this quilt that I have seen referred to as Spot in the Middle.  I have heard others call it Framed Square.  Either way, I REALLY LIKE the finished quilt.

After being undecided on how to finish the piecing, I settled on a fairly modern design featuring ONE side border of a solid light tan, giving me a good place to showcase some "Big Stitch" hand-quilting.

I machine-quilted approximately one half-inch inside of each block's outer seam, in both directions.  Then, after hand-quilting the cable in the solid tan fabric border, using an exaggerated size stitch, I went back and quilted a square one-half inch outside of each block's center square, doing it also with the bigger stitches.  I used a thread from Coats and Clark, called Bold Hand Quilting Thread.

Each block measures 6 inches, finished, and with 10 rows of 8 blocks, plus the 6-inch vertical border on the right, the finished measurements of the quilt are 54 x 60 inches. 

The backing was happily pieced from bigger pieces from my stash of brown fabrics (mostly), and I much prefer it to any ONE fabric that I could have used by itself. 

I just had to get this little fussy-cut square into this quilt.  Quilting certainly DOES bring me joy in the many hours that I spend alone.

Somebody on Facebook dubbed this photo "a cat scan".

For the record.....

I finished the quilting on the "Spot in the Middle" quilt, today !   I will hopefully be able to share more

photos as soon as I get it bound.

No virus in my home, praise be to God.

Finished quilt top --Spot in the Middle

I have been laying this one out for DAYS, arranging and rearranging, trying to balance the lights, mediums and darks.

I even tried to add borders to bring it up to a bed size, but alas, that wasn't my vision.

Unfortunately, the finished product leaves me longing to make one without so much contrast.  I love the very lights, lights and light-mediums together, and would love to see one made BY ME with just THAT.    Maybe I'll try that in grays.

Notes of interest (only to myself, probably). (FACTS FROM MY DAILY LIFE FOR THE JOURNAL)
1.  I just had my first eye exam since the Spring of 2009.  And my distance vision has actually improved just a bit.  Our little town's optometrist retired years ago, and I have just put off getting my eyes checked anywhere else.  We now have a facility to do the exams, so I got off of my rear and went.  Glad I did.........he said that my eye health looked excellent.  I'll probably use my prescription to get myself a pair of prescription "readers" for now, and make do with the glasses I'm currently using for driving.  That's about the only time I use them, and they are sufficient.  On the other hand, the over-the-counter readers that I use for hand-quilting are leaving me frustrated.  Now I know that that is because the two eyes are measuring differently in what they see.

2.  I'm having this year's screening mammogram tomorrow, LORD willing.  Last year was my first one in a long time, due to the fact that I finally had insurance.  As for every time before, they sent me for a second mammogram.  That's just the make-up of my breasts........there's never been an actual problem found.  I'm just hoping to get 3 in a row on record for comparison so that I won't have to keep having double tests every year.

3.  I ate a double cheeseburger today WHOLE....the WHOLE THING together, AS A SANDWICH .  Actually it was a McDouble from you-know-where.  The reason I note this is that since my surgery in 2013, which damaged my swallow and killed a nerve in my tongue, I haven't been able to manage burgers in buns.....there just has not been enough cooperation in my mouth to process.  I'd buy a burger and just eat the meat, or the meat and the top or bottom of the bun .  But today was a banner day, and I praise God for the progress !

Oops,a FINISH.... I missed one !

Somehow, I seem to have missed blogging about this little quilt that I pieced back in August of 2019.

It was inspired by the quilt in this post....
https://kleinmeisjequilts.blogspot.com/2017/01/zip-top-completed.html

Nice and crinkly, post-wash and dry.

It is a baby-quilt size, finishing somewhere between 35 and 40 inches square.  (It sold at Christmas-time.)

Before laundering the quilt.

I was really happy with the border that I ended up adding to the quilt.  I think that it set it off just right.  Lottie had no complaints.

This whole series of quilts by her are a lifetime of inspiration to me....
https://kleinmeisjequilts.blogspot.com/search/label/solids%20on%20prints%20series

FINISHED—Looking Toward Spring !

It is finished !

See previous post....  https://dollyshome.blogspot.com/2020/02/two-new-endeavors.html

Two New Endeavors

Recently I was approached to do a commission for someone......I gave the standard answer, that I rarely accept one, and that it has to be something that I really want to do, AND that I am expensive to hire.

But this turned out to be a little bit different case.   A friend  had gotten halfway finished on a quilt that she was making for a family member, and then she lost the ability to use her hands that way due to neuropathy which developed as a result of chemo treatments.  Okay, I'm in.  Her design called for minimal quilting paired with a puffy polyester batting (so pretty), so with her being so far along on it, I really didn't have much to do.  I finished it within a week, and she and I both felt blessed for the effort. 

Her handwork in cross-stitching the panel blocks is just beautiful.....some of the best that I have personally witnessed.

The project fell into my lap when I was between personal works, and I really didn't know what I wanted to make next.  So I spent the quilting time thinking on it.   I gave her this quilt on Tuesday, and spun my heels for another day and a half.

Then yesterday afternoon, I got out some charm packs that I have had for a good while, and I started playing with one in particular.  At first, I just threw a bunch of them up onto a background of dark solid brown, with no specific order to them.  Many of the squares were very floral.

Then, the more I studied them, the more I wanted to portray the idea of a tree, and grass, and bushes covered in pink blooms.   Late yesterday evening, after a dozen or so photo trials, I came up with a design that I was happy with, and I started piecing.  I finally had to make myself go to bed at 11:30 p.m.

As soon as I got the chance, I was back piecing again today, and I am happy with this finished work. 

It sortof has the look of peering through a window, or a lattice, or garden gate.  I could have pieced it to look more like attic windows, etc., to be more realistic; but I really didn't want that.  I wanted to keep it more abstract.   I can envision this hanging on the wall of my sewing room on dreary, gray Winter days, promising Springtime's burst of color.  Yep.....I like it.

I hope you like it too.  The charm pack's name is "Sultry", by Moda, and is well over 10 years old. Top finished around 39 inches square.

Tulips top finished

This quilt top has been put away unfinished for MANY years........it was appliqued and pieced to this point in Oklahoma.

Lately I am feeling the urge to get things to a saveable point.....I mean, if I were to pass away, say, I would like for my unfinished quilts to be at a point where someone could hire a person to finish them if they didn't want to finish them themselves.   With an unfinished top, it's hard to know what the original quiltmaker had in mind.  This way, there's no scrounging around trying to find the pieces that go with it.

Anyway, with that end in mind, I pulled out this project.  As it turns out, the reason that it had gone 'on hold' seems to be that the design needed another  row of blocks pieced and appliqued in order to look right.
 Thankfully there was enough fabric remaining to piece 3 more blocks, and there were already-turned-under tulips and leaves waiting to be appliqued.  I had to come up with some white for background, and I sincerely hope that it is as good a match as it appeared to my eye in this light.

Two borders down, two to go.  Marley-Jo says that's enough for the night !

I also had enough of the solid green (which I pretty much hate) to come up with this plain border, and MAYBE enough for binding, although that is questionable .

The finished size of the top is 79 1/2  x 108 inches .  I don't know if I'll ever manage to get such a big top basted these days, but I feel good about it's present state.  As you can see, it's bigger than the space I current use for basting quilts lately....even if I move the furniture !

Finished Quilt/Floating Nine Patches/Sewing Studio Trial

Well.......I gave the new sewing room setup a good trial run, and I'm pretty happy with it.  I make small changes as I need them, but I'm a happy camper !

Here's the story, (long).

Somehow, without making a really conscious decision, I have embarked on a quest to make each of my brothers a generous-sized couch/recliner quilt.......I think of them as nappers.

I have given the first two brothers a quilt (links to blog post following).

John's quilt blog post--- https://dollyshome.blogspot.com/2014/05/diamonds-in-dirt.html

Jim's quilt blog post --- https://dollyshome.blogspot.com/2016/12/star-trails-finished-quilt.html

Now, the top for this third brother's quilt was pieced sometime last year, and I just got the tug to get it quilted last week, when I realized that his birthday was coming up quickly !

  To back the quilt, I tried a backing fabric that was extra wide, but was too 'pretty'.  Then I remembered that I had a few blocks from this top that were left over and waiting on my design board.
 

 

   I started auditioning them on pieces of fabric, but either wasn't happy with the look, or didn't have enough yardage to make it work.  I searched our meager Walmart inventory, and had no success, but stumbled across just the right yardage at a small local fabric/flower shop.
 Having pieced the back together, I moved furniture around and set up the basting frame on Friday of last week.  I spent 7 HOURS altogether, making sure that I hand-thread-basted this quilt closely enough that I didn't think it could 'run' from the foot and make tucks.  I was wrong.

But, still, I quilted on it a little bit on Saturday evening, and then again on Monday and Tuesday.  Binding followed.  Now that's another story.  I had a few leftover strips of the fabric that made the two vertical sashes in the quilt top.  There wasn't enough of it to make the binding all the way around, but there was enough for me to make the two SIDE bindings wide enough to really carry out the vertical sashing look.  Then I bound the top and bottom edges with the same fabric as the bigger backing fabric.

 I was IN LOVE with the flat look of the quilt when I finished.  With those vertical quilting lines one inch apart, it looked SO GOOD and CRISP.

BUT

I didn't want Jeff to be upset if he washed it and it crinkled up, thinking that he had messed up somehow.  So...........I washed it.    AND MAN DID IT CRINKLE UP !

 Now, this is usually my favorite part, but this time I had my heart set on flatter look.  I even turned the dryer heat down on LOW , but.....it is what it is.

  I found this piece of labeling fabric that I have saved for who knows how many years ! It reminded me that he currently drives a BLUE car........so it was perfect for his label.  PLUS, this backing fabric looks very much like grape leaves, and he works in the woods gathering grapevines from which wreathes are made !   SCORE !

So, tomorrow is his 64th birthday, and I hope that the weather is decent enough for me to get out and surprise him with it.

Three down, two more to go !