Quilt Reveal: Beach Picnic

 

Ta Da! I finished the Beach Picnic quilt that I made for the June blog hop. Joan from Moose Stash Quilting and Carol from Just Let Me Quilt take turns hosting a year long blog hop. They chose a different theme for each month. 

 

The theme for the June blog hop was For the Birds. The project is simple, and just needs a bird on it.

 

I made the quilt in June, but I had not finished binding it. 

 

 

I posted the unfinished project here in June.

 

Now it is finally finished.

 

I added a pole with directions to other features on the beach for the picnic goers. I didn't add any words so the beach can have everything the family wants: snorkeling, fishing, boating, boardwalk, shopping, parasailing, sandcastle competitions, art galleries, and of course, bird watching. Whatever they want, it is here on this beach.

 

It adds a story element to the quilt and explains why the people have abandoned their picnic.

This was a really fun quilt to make and makes me want to make even more beach picnic and seagull quilts.

I posted a video on YouTube showing how I made this quilt.

Here's my finishes chart so far. As you can see, there are a lot more starts than finishes this year, so no new beach quilts for me today. I am hoping to get more progress on unfinished quilts this month.

Linked with:

Patchwork and Quilts

Quilt Reveal: Be a Peacock in a World of Ducks

 

 

 

I was watching an episode of Quilt Nerd by Mary Fons which featured Liberty of London fabrics and one of the photos included a quilt of a peacock in a tree made with Liberty fabrics. It was one of those quilts I just had to make.

I don't have any Liberty fabric so when I went to the Cave of Wonders I was handed the same stack of fabric that I used to make my last peacock quilt, BeUnique. Copying the style or mood of last peacock quilt wasn't what I had in mind, but it's never  any use to argue with the Cave of Wonders.

But as soon as I started cutting up the pieces, I knew that it would work wonderfully.

I followed my normal pattern. Cut up the pieces and position them the background fabric. Use a glue stick to hold them down. Sandwich the quilt and sew down the applique by sewing around the shapes. Then continue to quilt as desired. In this quilt, I meandered using matching thread. This let me go over the top with quilting while keeping the quilt visually simple.

 

 

This was a fun quilt to make. I didn't try to learn any new techniques and just stuck with what I knew.

I added the hanging corners The quilt is 18" by 22".

 

I'm  participating in The Constant Quilter Wendy's Monthly Mini link-up.  Visit her blog for links to other quilters who have made small quilts. 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 36

 

My project at work is finished and I have about a month off before the next project starts. I have been working on the list of home projects I have saved up for this time, most of it spent creatively procrastinating. I have been quilting every day, making this quilt and trimming the square in a square blocks for Jazzy Blues. I also found rulers to make the last set of blocks for Jazzy Blues. I have only been quilting a few minutes a day instead of using all my "free" time quilting. 

15 minute days this weeks --35 out of 35

15 minute days this year -- 202 out of 247days

Success rate  = 82%

 

Two happy things to share with you today. 

 

My daughter asked me if I had a quilt she could use to decorate the wall above her couch. Do I have a quilt for her wall?! I sent her pictures of the 10 quilts I have made that fit that criteria. She has seen them all, but pictures are easier than names. She chose African Circles. And to make this news even better, I was able to give it to her in person since she came to town for a family birthday party.

 

When my brother-in-law planted the tree in my back yard, we talked about getting rid of the weed bed that is outside the fence and replacing with easy to cut and maintain grass. But one of us had the idea that since the tree is small and not shading the area, we could fill out this bed with flowers. He asked me what kind of flowers, and I said I would like bright profusion of colors. He planted all this for me, and it has been delightful to come out and see all the flowers blooming and changing throughout the summer.

Quilt Reveal: Flight

 

I tried to avoid temptation by not looking to see what the challenge for Project Quilting was for this week. I want to finish a quilt.

But I won a prize from Project Quilting last week, and I accidentally copied and pasted my 15-minutes-to-stitch stats last week without deleting the sentence that said I was working on the Project Quilting challenge. So what else could I do? I had to take a peek to see how hard it would be do do.

The challenge seems easy enough - silhouette. 

“Birds learn how to fly, never knowing where the flight will take them.” -Mark Nepo

 

 I had some black fused fabric left over from the Halloween House quilt when I realized that I didn't need half of the tree that was going to be cut off the edge of the quilt. I could just slap it on some fabric and call it done.

The more I look at the picture above, the more I like it. But I was worried that it would make me look lazy. I wanted to make something where I could be lazy, but not look like I was lazy. I think it would probably require match stick quilting, and I don't want to take the time to do that.

I didn't want to take too much time to look for a background, so I decided to use the scraps from Lansing Leaves. I really like the way the bird looks on this fabric.

Then I realized that the whole piece looked like a kimono. Mary Fons was talking about the time period where quilters made a lot of kimono quilts. Why was there an obsession about kimono quilts? Was there an Olympics in Japan in the 70s, 80s or 90s that started the rage?

I decided to go with the kimono, so I folded it in half and cut so both sides would be somewhat symmetrical. It looks more like a dress than a kimono. Once I decided this was going to be a dress, I liked the bird on the top and not on the skirt part.

I had just thrown the fabric on top of the yellow fabric and I liked how it looked so I sewed it on. My girl is modest so the bottom of her dress needs to be closer to her knees.

To make it quick, I knew I wanted to birth the quilt. So I sandwiched it and sewed all around the shape. If you look carefully, you can see I made a slice where the bird will be since I need it a place to turn it right side out. I love that I could do this because I have a hard time keeping the edges neat when I have to close off an opening.

The batting was exactly the right size, and wasn't big enough to fill the entire quilt, but the missing parts are in the seam allowance so I don't think it will matter.

I had to be careful when turning the quilt right side out to avoid tearing the small cut that I had made, but as you can see, I was able to do it.

 

I poked out the corners, straightened out the opening, and pressed it flat. Here you can see that I had sewn in a piece for the neckline.

 

Finally, I added the bird. I quilted in the ditch, and sewed the bird and sun down.

So far this year, I have started two quilts and have finished two quilts, so although I don't have more finishes than starts yet, I don't have to play any catch up.

Linked with:

Peacock Party

Finished Or Not Friday

Still More Additions to Quote Quilt

 

 

When I took the photo of the bird in front of the red tree last time, I apparently wasn't done. She kept chirping to me to take her photo.  She didn't trust my photo skills so she didn't pose - she just sat very still so I could take a photo that wasn't blurry. Thanks, Robin!

After I did that, the crow let me know he was next, but I couldn't see him and he wasn't willing to come any closer. Maybe next time, Crow.

2020:  Weeks 46 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

Even though this bird also stood very still, my photo of her is still blurry. I was supposed to have started the quilting process at the beginning of the quarter so I could finish by the end of the year, but I keep wanting to add things. Good thing my word of the year is laid-back!  There is already a bird on the quilt, but I couldn't resist adding this one. I am really happy with how it turned out. I traced the bird on typing paper, pinned it on the quilt, and stitched through the paper, and then pulled the paper out. 

 

I shouldn't have read the quote, because it made me think of a candle that I just saw during a quiltalong.  Then I read the quote more carefully, and it is the torch that is the topic of the quote.

So I added an Olympics torch. It is in honor of the delayed Olympics in Japan, as well as all the other Olympics we have watched on TV. The fire fabric has been asking to be in the quilt for a long time. It has metallic in it and I didn't really want to add it until now, but I think it is appropriate for a flame.

 

Now the feather tells you to look down, but the torch makes your eye ricochet up to the right. This quilt will let you get your eye exercises in for sure.

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 266 out of 320 days

Success rate  = 83%

Linked with 

15 Minutes to Stitch

Weekly Stitching Post

 

I've continued working on the quote quilt this week. I stole this idea of "She withstood the storm" from a Facebook post. The umbrella fabric is used in the drunkard's path quilt and the dress fabric is used in the yo-yos. I will embroider the words and work more on her hair and the boat.

This design is from the book I recently reviewed on my High Road Reader blog.

I made this bird a while ago, but don't think I have shown it yet. It is more subtle than most of the motifs so hopefully will provide a nice surprise to someone who discovers it.

This is a helping-hand, hand-on-heart, pledge-of-allegiance-hand, and not a talk-to-the-hand, keep-your-distance hand. I like that it looks like it has mehndi on it.

2020:  Week 14 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I didn't have any employment this week, so I worked on the quote quilt.

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7
15 minute days this year -- 96 out of 96 days
Success rate  = 100%

Linked with:
15 Minutes to Stitch

High Road Quilter's 2018 In Review

In the past, I showed my finishes for the year, but last year, I showed a summary of my quilting year. I liked that better so I am doing that again this year.

January

In January, I resumed work on the Circle 365 quilt. I started with block 201 this year.

I also showed you my progress on the On Ringo Lake quilt which was started late last year as a mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter. Pointless Puzzle was a small quilt top I started with some leftover blocks from On Ringo Lake.

On the January 30, I showed you my finished Adinkra quilt, which was started in 2016. It set a pretty high bar for the rest of the year.

February 

In February, I kept working on the circle blocks.



I made these little quilts for a Valentine's Day swap. The one I sent to the swap recipient took a nap at her post office so it was pretty lucky that I had made two, and I was able to send her the second one. I got the first one back more than a month later.

I kept working on On Ringo Lake and finished making all the blocks.

I did some stitching on my orange crazy quilt block.



Also in February, I made a tiny book to fit in the French mints tin.

March

In March, I kept working on On Ringo Lake blocks.

April

In April, I kept working on On Ringo Lake blocks and the sashing.

May

In May, I kept working on On Ringo Lake, practiced some crochet and stumpwork. I also started taking an online crazy quilting class, which I did not finish.

June

In June, I finished the On Ringo Lake quilt top and promptly set it aside. This one took a great deal of time, and I am so proud that I was able to keep working on it without getting side tracked.



I made another stumpwork lady.  I did some more work for the crazy quilting class.

July

I made this small flag bird.

August

In August I made a Death Star for the Droid quilt and worked on a vintage stitchery.

September

In September, I started Sweet Land of Liberty sewalong, and the Colonial Bricks quilt.

I also finished the small quilt I made with On Ringo Lake fabric. It started out being called Pointless Wonder but had a name change to Unassuming Quilt at the last minute.

October

 

I kept working on the Colonial Bricks quilt. It was supposed to be a simple and quick quilt, but other quilts keep hopping in line in front of it.

I made these two little quilts in October.

In October, I made a belated housewarming present.

I also made more Sweet Land of Liberty and circle blocks.

December

 

Throughout the year, I have been making a few circles now and then. I've made progress on the Circle 365 quilt. I've passed the halfway point.

I finished the This Droid is Not For Sale quilt.

I finished a latch hook my daughter made and turned it into a pillow.

I've been working on quilting my drunkard path quilt. It is my oldest UFO.

I've started an ATC holder.

I started the Sunlight in Winter / Garden Mosaic quilt. This slowed down the progress on finishing UFOs, but my quilts are used to jostling for their place in line.

With all of the small quilts I made this year, my average finish time has gone down significantly. It now takes me an average of 251 days to finish a quilt.  I generally don't mind that the number is big, because fun, not productivity is the goal. Also, I would make simpler quilts if I wanted quicker turnaround times, but the simpler quilts don't hold my interest and sometimes leave me disappointed with myself for not choosing a more challenging quilt when I do finish them.  Once the drunkard path quilt gets finished, that average number will go back up. But I do like that number to be smaller, so I might need to make smaller quilts in 2019 to make that number smaller again!