Family day, no sewing.

Today was about hanging out with the family, so no sewing happened.  But I did sew yesterday.

You have heard me say I am a bit of a magpie when it comes to quilting projects.   Not that I don’t finish, but I tend to be easily and often distracted by something new and exciting.  And sometimes in pulling out stuff I come across a started project and it grabs me.  Yay!  Those blue and white HSTs grabbed me and I have been thinking about them and what to do.  Originally I was thinking about a medallion quilt.  A center block with lots of borders, something like this…

But then I have seen some cool Navajo style quilts…

and that intrigued me even more.  There are so many cool borders and row pattern possibilities.  Doing a row at a time seems a pretty good way to have a natural break, where that part is complete, and I can put it away with some satisfaction.

I just wanted a start to finish project for yesterday while I had a friend over sewing together.  She is just a beginning quilter and I am happily her enabler. When I pulled out all my blue fabric (yup there’s lots),

and my friend saw what appeared to be the beginning of a quilt she said ” Hey, you are starting a new one, so that means you have all your incompletes done?” I laughed and laughed.  As I said, she’s a new quilter and doesn’t know much about having many UFOs in your repertoire.  But this one has been in my started pile, in it’s own little case, for probably 2 years, so it is probably time.

I started in my favorite way… sketching borders on graph paper.  Then I made a bunch of HSTs.  (doesn’t make sense to calculate exact amounts does it? you can always use them in something else.)  the layout looked good…

so I started pinning and sewing…

and I think it came out pretty nice.

I made it 40″ so that I can finish it with white at the ends.  That length set the standard for all the future rows.

That’s my make story for yesterday.  Hopefully doing a row at a time will inspire me to try a few new techniques and create something fun.

 

 

busy busy

Yup, busy.  I think most everybody feels the busyness of this time of year, particularly makers.  I aspire to make as many of my Christmas gifts as possible.

So there is crocheting on the go, blanket and dishcloths.  Christmas cards in progress.  A few different table runners for assorted folk.  Secret Santa projects for the office and for the quilt guild.  And I always like to sew something very girly for my dear niece P in Calgary(that item is a secret for now).  And some baking is always a good way to get into the Christmas spirit, plus a warm oven helps to keep the house warm!

My older son has had the same teacher 2 years in a row, so year 2 requires a bit more thinking in terms of gifting.  NOT going to settle with soap or candles etc.  Hmm, maybe a table runner.   At the start of the year parent teacher interview I always ask their favorite colour and what colour is in their kitchen.  Mrs. R got blue/grey/white potholders last year.  I was thinking of Christmas, and then decided to use her colour scheme too.

Test palette

The Candy Canes didn’t make the cut, and I added a blue with sparkle, a snowflake, and a white on white snowflake.  Pieced, basted, quilted, it just needs to be trimmed and bound before Friday.

That was a good evenings work.

I bought this snowman material years ago, but just never found the right place for it.  I think it works well here.

Wishing you satisfying work, and not too much busyness that it removes the joy of the season.

Table runner gift

A few posts ago, I mentioned working on  a  time sensitive project.  My aunt had a big birthday a few weeks ago.  I wanted to make something special, but size conscious as it had to travel to Denmark.

I started with the blue and white fabric I found at the quilt show and couldn’t resist.

  And then the difficult task of determining if the background was cream or white. Neither one matched, but I decided on the white for a cleaner look.

My aunt has blue and white dishes with gulls on them, so my brain was working on curves.

But also wanted some different interest. Varying widths of stripes will do.

I planned a LOT of  very dense quilting so I pinned a LOT!

 I forgot to get a photo of the quilting before I sent it, but I did very close straight line quilting on the white, and a very tiny stipple free-motion quilting on the blue.  Pretty happy with how it looks.

After finishing the big batik quilt, I needed something small that I could tackle in a short amount of time this weekend, just to get my brain into another gear.  Enter block lotto for my quilt guild.  This month is a tiny tent in simple colours.

It was so much fun, I made 4! The instructions said navy/night sky, with a yellow triangle edged in turquoise.