Clouds on my Sunshine

I was trimming the Half Square Triangles yet again for the Sunshine in Winter quilt. Yes, again. No, there aren't that many HSTs. It is amazing how long something takes when you really don't want to do it. I wondered why I would ever sign up for a quilt that took so many half square triangles.  I knew that I planned to cut the right size to avoid having to trim, but that wasn't enough to ignite my enthusiasm for this project. I thought about making something with these HSTs and giving up on the quilt.

Then I wondered if I was following the pattern correctly.

 

I studied the pictures I had for the quilt, and it looks like maybe I am making them wrong.  The block on the top left corner in the picture look like they have a light and a dark square with the HSTs in the four patch.  Mine have the same color square in each four patch.  I studied the pattern, and yes it says to make eight at a time HSTs, and yes the same color square. I have been following the directions correctly.

I studied the blogs that led me down this rabbit hole and Sally makes her blocks completely differently. That explains why I signed on to make this project.  Her method doesn't require me to make any HSTs.  Hers have a dark and a light square in each block.  The quilt is very similar. If you don't look at the first column of squares, the end result looks exactly the same. Sally mentioned a sashing strip, so maybe she made up for that missing column.

I will study that when the time comes. I have loose HSTs I can use for sashing if I need them.

I've finished the rest of the HSTs that were still under the needle, and started making the blocks her way.  This  method lends itself much better to assembly line, the fifteen minutes at a time, sewing and pressing, subcutting, marking a line and sewing again. It doesn't have the aggravating HST to make or trim.  I haven't made the final block yet, so I will reserve judgement on whether I will continue on with this quilt, or just make something with the blocks I do have. [Edited, I made the two blocks I showed above since I first posted it. I will have to sew carefully to get the sharp points, but I'm not going to worry too much if all the points aren't sharp.]

I have a lot of yellow fabric and would like to make the pattern as intended (with fewer blocks to make a wall hanging instead of a bed quilt). So far, it does look like I will be able to persevere.

2020:  Weeks 43 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I spent my week trimming HSTs, making the rest of the HSTs that were under the needle and making a good start of my sample blocks using the new method.

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 245 out of 299 days

Success rate  = 82%

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Design Wall Monday 

Oh Scrap!

 

Sunshine in Winter

I promised you a photo of my "new" coffee table on my porch and here it is. I love it. It is just the right size and the drop leaves work perfectly. The porch is a perfect place to sit and chat outdoors in a social distanced manner.

Last week, I told you I've been making more Half Square Triangles for the Sunshine in Winter blocks. The picture is blocks I made in previous batches. I don't have the pattern in front of me, but I think what you see here is the whole quilt, except that each block is bigger because it is made with a bunch of blocks.

I got the bright idea that if I cut the squares the right size, I wouldn't have to trim the HSTs  when they were made. I was close, but I still wound up having to trim them. Either I cut a fraction of an inch too big or I sewed them with too small a scant quarter inch. For now, I am still working on trimming this batch of blocks. I have plenty more batches to perfect my sewing. 

Because it is white, I will probably be making a wall hanging instead of the humongous (bed) size of the original pattern. I will have to figure out how to reduce the size while maintaining the look of the quilt.

2020:  Weeks 42 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I spent my week trimming HSTs. I also bought some more white fabric to make sure I had enough for this and other quilts I have that use a white background, like the 1857 quilt and the Elephant Parade.

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 238 out of 292 days

Success rate  = 82%

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15 Minutes to Stitch

Letters

 

My next addition to the Quote Quilt is this Letters. Getting letters in the mail has always been fun for me, and I have had many pen pals over the years, starting at a young age when I exchanged letters with an aunt.

I tore out the motif out of the paper, and really like that torn paper look. It makes me think about the scrapbook and junk journal videos I have been watching, so I tried to replicate that shape.

It is hard to do with needle turn applique. My original placement was too close to the stones and made this look more like stone than paper, so I decided to put it here instead.  There are only a few duplicate quotes and it is a big applique so the choices were limited.

The original placement covered up a duplicate quote but you could see some of it, which I thought would be good to give people a chance to try to find the original. This one is harder since there is only one word that is complete, and it isn't even the first word, but the handwriting is distinctive so people can still find the other quote if they want.

Now it might look like a cloud or a hill or a stone, but at least people can figure it out on their own. I thought about adding paper lines but that is probably too much work.

My statue, as usual doesn't look like the drawing, because I redraw instead of figuring out how to transfer a design, but his curls do look like there is something up there that shouldn't be.

 

 

I finished the inside pages of the booklet.  I did sew around the edges since I took this photo. I knew to make the cover bigger to incorporate the spine, but I did not make it big enough.  But that is okay since the back cover will be attached to the quilt anyway, and I have a decorative edge of a sheet that I can use to cover up that space, once I figure out where on the quilt I want to put this.

 

2020:  Weeks 41 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

This week, I added more motifs for the quote quilt. I also made a bunch of half square triangles for the Sunshine in Winter quilt. Since using the sewing machine to stitch up the Remember booklet, I wanted to sew something, and I wanted to make something yellow to honor yellow month. Instead of starting a new quilt, I reminded myself that I have a yellow quilt in the works and I haven't made any blocks for it this year.

This pattern name for this quilt, in case you don't remember, is the Garden Mosaic. It looks like they took the free pattern away, but here is a pin and another pin that shows what it looks like. It was expected to be a long term, make a bunch of blocks every month, over and over again until there are enough parts and pieces to make the quilt. I think the one with the darker color looks better but mine is going to be different shades of yellow.

I have been ordering my groceries online for pickup, and sometimes it is hard to see how quickly "a little bit of this, a little bit of that" add up.  This week, I have been doing a lot of cooking and freezing of meals. My frozen meal supply had been depleted anyway, so it is good to be able to stock up on that.

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 231 out of 285 days

Success rate  = 81%

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15 Minutes to Stitch

So Scrappy RSC 2020

WIP Inventory

Having finished a couple of small quilts, I decided to take inventory of my current works in progress and their current status.  I am hoping that this will help me see that progress is being made during the spring and summer slowdown. These are just the quilts I have been working on in the last few months, and not the other unfinished projects that are stored away.

Some people might be overwhelmed by the number of projects listed here, but I really enjoy getting to choose which project I want to work on. Since they are not standing in a straight line, being worked on one at a time, in order, when progress is made on one quilt, the whole group is making progress.

Here they are in no particular order.

 

Drunkard's Path

Ethnic Drunkard's Path was started in August 2003 and it is the closest to completion. It is already basted and a lot of the dark purple and blue spaces have been quilted.  I need to finish quilting it and bind it.  It is a fairly big quilt -  a big lap quilt. 

 

Colonial Bricks

 

Colonial Bricks was started September 2018. It has been pieced and the backing and binding fabric has been chosen and cut. The backing needs to be wider, so I am piecing the leftovers to insert to make the backing wider.

 

Sunlight in Winter

 

Sunlight in Winter was started December 2018. I am making the blocks one half yard of yellow fabric at a time. I used up half a yard of the butterfly fabric, and half a yard of the grunge fabric. I had a whole yard of the grunge fabric and since it is the darkest yellow, I decided to use that half yard to make the squares because I think the squares will show the pattern and it is my darkest yellow.  All of the yellow fabrics are very similar. I like that look but will consider adding more patterned yellows when I am closer to completion. I will not make the whole blocks until all of these subblocks are done.

 

Uncommon and Unexpected

 

Uncommon and Unexpected was started February 2019 as a part of a quilt along.  One of the things I really liked about the original quilt is how the cornerstones made the sashing look like circle dancing around the squares, and my eye moved from one overlapping circle to another.  My quilt does that, but the diagonally placed squares, and the striped fabric, and the small number of blocks stop the eye from bouncing too easily at the circles.  I want to add more blocks to help show more of that movement. Some of the border has been pieced but I am still thinking about how I want to accomplish that.

 

ATC Holder

 

ATC Holder was started November 2018. It doesn't look like a lot of progress has been made on this, but there has been.  All of those photo corners have been cut and pressed. I think that was the hardest part.  I need to strip piece the cornerstones and once I do that, I think I will be able to piece this pretty quickly. There isn't any decision making left on this quilt until the center has been pieced. It is deliberately plain to let the ATCs stand out.

 

Circles 365

 

Circle 365 was started November 2015, and I have been sporadically working on this quilt since then. I am putting the circles together into the quilt top when I have enough, and it is 2/3rd done. The quilt is getting pretty big now so I have decided not to take it out since my blog readers have seen this quilt grow from time to time.

 

Fourth Rail

 

Fourth Rail was started January 2019 as a leader / ender to use up scraps.  The layout has not been decided but this one looks pretty interesting to me. I have a lot of pieces already cut so it is just a matter of sewing them together.

 

Stitchery 

You probably forgot about this stitchery, but it is pretty close to completion. It's been a while since I worked on it. The first time I mentioned it on my blog was August 2018, so it was started about then, but I  bought the kit from the thrift store a long time before that. It is made with yarn.

 

Seiring Genealogy Book

 

I don't think I have shown you this genealogy book, but I started it shortly after I finished the Priest Genealogy Book in December 2017. I have the pages all ready and all the genealogy information has been printed. I need to make the cover, add the genealogy printouts to the pages and embellish the pages a bit more. The cookie box is going to be used in the quilted cover to give it more stability.

 

Cultural Fusion Rail Fence

I showed the Cultural Fusion Rail Fence as part of the Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop. It was started November 2015.  The quilt top is done and the backing and binding fabric has been chosen.

 

Be a Diamond

I will be taking a part of this blog hop. My day is April 25. I want to keep it simple so this will be my April mini of the month.

 Bunny Parade

I am giving you a sneak preview of this quilt which I finished yesterday. This is a free pattern from Moda Bakeshop called Bunny Quartet. The designer of the pattern also provided a tutorial for a carrot on her blog, which I used as you can tell from the photo.  So my bunnies are a trio and not a quartet. She changed the name to Easter Parade, but since I have Elephant Parade quilt in the works, I am going to call it Bunny Parade.

Since it is a bunny quilt, I will show the whole thing to you on Easter. Since the diamond quilt will be my April mini of the month, Bunny Parade is my May mini of the month, so I will also show it to you again in May as a reminder. I don't want you to get tired of it so I am only giving you a preview now.  I know from personal experience that if you buy a Christmas present in July, it still counts as a Christmas present, even if you can't wait and give it to the recipient in July.

 

Quilt Statistics

 Since I pulled up my spreadsheet to record the finish of the bunny quilt and give you the start date for all these quilts, let's talk about the stats, shall we?  I have started 127 quilts and have finished 99 quilts, which is a 78% completion rate.

It takes me an average of 242 days to complete a quilt. This number has gone down, mostly because of all the mini quilts I have been making lately.  A lot of my quilts get done much quicker than 242 days, but I also tend to pick up projects that needed an incubation period. When I get an old UFO completed, that average number of days to completion goes up, but that won't stop me from working on my UFOs. The stats are there to record my progress, not to tell me what to do.

 

15 Minutes to Stitch: Week 11

I spent this week making the Bunny Parade quilt. I also took inventory of all of my works in process.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week: 7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year: 76 out of 76 sessions
Success Rate: 100%

I checked my results from last year, and I was at 100% on March 18th, so I am on track for this year.  The following week, the 25th, I sewed 2 out of 7 days. I'll see if I can beat that this year. It doesn't sound like a high bar to reach.

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch
What I Made on Monday Yes I did make all of these today, why do you ask?
Peacock Party

Butterfly Wreath Progress

I have been making some slow progress on Butterfly Wreaths.  Since I am making them with scraps, I have to wait until I come across a scrap that is the right size and color for this quilt.

Since it is made from scraps, I am curious to see how the color combinations look, so the scraps tend to work up into blocks pretty quickly.  The plan is to use as much blue / green as possible with a light and a dark, but maintain a scrappy look.  Since my first block wasn't blue or green, I want to be able to use other fabrics in a way that makes the odd block fit right in as an accent without looking like an oddball that doesn't belong.

Also in the picture is the Sunlight in Winter blocks, which are also being moved forward.  As you can see, the blocks are similar, but not the same.

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Silly Mama Quilts Friday Finishes. I finished blocks!

15 Minutes to Stitch 2019

My original plan was to change my blog posts to Monday so I can show you 7 days of stitching this week, but Sundays are really a better day to do this, both for me, and for the other people on this challenge, so here goes this week's numbers.

 

15 Minute to Stitch Challenge: 

This week, I spent a lot of time cutting up pieces - for Sunlight in Winter and for the ATC holder. Earlier in the week, I also did some quilting on the drunkard path quilt. Today, I worked on a pieced border for the rail fence quilt so I can be finished in February. Once again, I am jumping back and forth from the precise piecing of the first two quilts into the improv rail fence.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  6 out of 6
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  6 out of 6 sessions
Success Rate: 100%

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15 Minutes to Stitch

Another Sunny Winter Day

It was another pretty day today and the sun was out.  Today, I appreciate the sun and the birds.

I spent time cutting out more fabric - yellow and black.  I'm not used to doing this much cutting at a time, but the sun is out so I don't mind. It will make the sewing part quicker.

I also appreciate the library for the friendly staff, and all the inspiration, knowledge, and pretty pictures I can find in their books.

Sunlight in Winter

Today, I am appreciating that the sun is shining.  It puts an extra bounce in my step, and the fact that it is Friday today, I have the weekend off, and the party music is already playing, has me practically dancing!

In case you missed it, I am making the Garden Mosaic quilt. I will be making mine all in yellow and white. It only has 16 blocks and is made up of these cute little blocks. I've already more than 16 of these cute blocks, but the people who have made this quilt before me have told me I needed more than 16 of these babies, so I guess I will make a few more. I have the pattern and still have fabric left over. I used up this yellow fabric - it was a remnant that was more than half yard, less than a yard. I have moved on to the next yellow fabric.

I really like piecing multitudes of blocks when I am excited to see how it will turn out!

Final 15 Minutes to Stitch of 2018

I waited an extra day to post the 15 Minutes to Stitch Recap so that I could incorporate today and finish out the year.

The settings of my blog somehow changed and the font looks smaller and the margins look bigger. When I tried to change the settings, the settings that show up in the editing process don't look like what the blog actually looks like. I have made the settings super big in the editing process, and hope it doesn't look as huge on your screen. Please let me know how it looks to you.

 

15 Minutes to Stitch

This week,  I have been quilting the Drunkard Path quilt. I sketched out a meandering plan and showed the picture of the plan to my sewing machine, since I learned that I had to do that last time.  But it is a complicated meander - the finish of one S curve is supposed to be the start of the next one, and mostly it isn't working, but hopefully it isn't working consistently enough to look okay.

Since I don't want to change the thread for piecing, because my last sewing machine told me not to mess with anything when things are working, and because I don't want to use up my purple thread and don't want to use anything but white for the new quilts, I have just been cutting and pressing more pieces to get them ready. The black and white is for the ATC Holder and the yellow is for the Sunshine in Winter quilt. I like how the colors go so well with the kantha quilt I bought this month.  I don't know which came first, but apparently this is my mood right now.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  8 out of 8 (to incorporate the final day of the year)
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  312 out of 365 sessions
Success Rate: 85%

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15 Minutes to Stitch Week 52. Thank you so much Kate for encouraging me every week.

I will continue stitching every day and start a new count for the new year.

Day 23: Sewing for the Holidays

My daughter's pillow is finished. She can choose to not use the pillow form if she would rather have a wall hanging. She made this when she was much younger without any prompting for me. The kit was a gift from my mother, I think.

So it is fitting that I used some upholstery fabric my mother gave me for the backing. I used the pair of jeans I saved last week for the upper flap.  I didn't want to use more upholstery fabric because the patterns would clash with each other.

Random picture of the day: dog. Since the floor matches the pillow, I have to show it to you first.

I made some HSTs for the Garden Mosaic quilt. It is just a test to see if I can handle it.  So far, so good.

15 Minutes to Stitch

This week,  I finished hand sewing the binding on the Droid quilt. Also cut and pressed a few triangles for the Sunlight in Winter quilt, and made the pillow for my daughter.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  304 out of 357 sessions
Success Rate: 85%

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch 
Monday Making 
Slow Sunday Stitching  My daughter did most of the slow stitching, putting in all the latch hook knots.  But I did stitch slowly by machine to get all the layers just right. It is my first time sewing a latch hook that I can remember.

Day 22: Quilts Floating in my Head

Random picture of the day: Piano flowerpot

I have so many ideas floating in my head about quilts I want to make. I usually do not write them down, because every day a bunch of new ideas come in and crowd some of the other ones out.  But it is the end of the year, and you are supposed to come up with lists, especially if you are doing a blog challenge to write every day. 

So here are some random ideas floating in my head of things to do for the rest of 2018 and 2019:

1.  Finish the drunkard path quilt. Top is already pieced, and I basted it this week, so progress is being made.

2.  Move other UFOs along to a finished state.  Here are the ones I am thinking of at this point.

• a. trip around the world needs quilting. I had high hopes of adding some kind of applique border, but it might be okay to quilt without fancy borders. I haven't seen the quilt in a long time so I don't know for sure. I know it does have wide borders.  Would a TATW look good with scalloped borders?
• a rail fence from the book Cultural Fusion. It is an awkward size - too big to be a small quilt that fits on the bulletin board and too small to be a wall hanging that fits on my hangers above my couches. The center is made with warm colors. I think I can make the border with cool colors and that will make it look like I did it on purpose and not like I ran out of fabric. Yes I know this quilt was on the list for 2016 and 2017 and 2018.
  
   

3.  Work on the ATC holder.  I've figured out I need many more triangle pieces and was thinking of starting the sewing to see how bad it is before I cut any more. My original plan (dare I say it?), is a 12 x 12 grid, which means 144 spaces, which means 576 triangles.   I am hoping I can find a way to sew on the corners and the sashing at the same time without basting.  I will get some white thread so I can get started and see how bad it is. I reserve the right to limit quantities.

4.  Make a scrap quilt, or two or three. Or a hundred.  I have to reduce the boxes of scraps.  They are contained, but there are too many containers. Instead of getting rid of the scraps, my goal is to sew them up and justify their existence. I have lots of ideas for scrap quilts but I want to keep it simple. Right now I am thinking of another rail fence. I made one with three rails, so maybe one with four rails would be different but still easy.

5. Here's another dare I say it?  I want to make the Mosaic quilt.  The reason I don't want to put that in the scrap quilt list is that this quilt has small triangles, and while the simple block is really perfect for scrap quilts, I think I will have trouble finishing it if I have to cut out so many little pieces, trim triangles, sew them back together over and over again.  I like quilts with repetition, but I tend to get whiney when I make them. So to spare you, I am thinking of making it with yardage.  I am thinking about the impulse buy of yellow fabrics I just bought.  Maybe if I use them in the Mosaic quilt, I can justify their existence too.  . Right now, I am thinking of a two color quilt - a yellow and white one. I was really taken with the blog name Sunshine in Winter, and I think a yellow and white quilt with that name is something I need to have.  I don't know if using the same colors will get monotonous for me.  I am going to make a couple of sample blocks to see.  I have to get some white thread first. I might make the blocks smaller, or use bigger pieces to make the quilt more manageable. I haven't decided yet.

6. Lorna Mahon is going to start a Harry Potter quiltalong which is very tempting. And Bonnie Hunter's mystery is tempting. And retroactively Temucula Quilt's mystery quilt is worth making.

7. Red and white quilts. I want to have a collection of red and white quilts I've made. I keep seeing them in my bloglovin' feed and I can only resist so long.