Sunday, February 21, 2021

My Quilting Week

 

 

I've made a lot of progress this week, fifteen minutes at a time. The Dust off An Old Book Blog hop is happening again this year, and I have signed up. This year, I decided to dust off my oldest quilt book The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America.  There are plenty of quilts I want to make in this book, but since I have limited time, I want to make a one block quilt, and decided that applique would be easier.

I chose a design, and had to dust off another book to get the pattern. The Folk Art Quilts book has the pattern. Luckily it only took one false attempt to find it. I should get extra credit for dusting off two old books.

The bulk of my time on this quilt has been spent in thinking and rethinking the fabric selection. I am using the oak leaf and reel pattern. I was going to use the yellow/orange for the leaves and use the blue for the background. I then decided to reverse it and make the leaves in blue and use the orange for the background. Then I thought about making it more modern with blue leaves on a white background. Then I saw the blue leaves sitting on the orange background with the sun streaming on it, and right now I am going back to that choice. I can choose my own definition of modern.

I decided not to participate in this week's Project Quilting challenge. I needed to choose between the snails trail challenge and the old book because I don't think I could get both of them done, and chose the old book which isn't due until March.

I don't know if you noticed that the books and fabric were sitting on the shirts quilt. I hand stitched the batting on the quilt and pressed the extra row and the backing piece. Now I am making sure the sandwich is flat. I have been smoothing it, pinning it. Then turning it over to make sure the other side is smooth, fixing anything, and then turning it over again., It is working out fine, but when you work on it 15 minutes at a time, and work on other projects too, it looks like slow progress.

The picture makes it look lumpier than it is, but I do want to do some more smoothing before I start quilting it.



Last but not least, I made some more stitcheries. I just need to trim these, add the backing and stitch around the edges. I find that the outline stitching works best as a group, assembly style, and keeping them together keeps them from getting lost. The hardest part about making these is to remember to transfer the design to the right side of the fabric and not the wrong side.

2021:  Weeks 8 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

I was able to find the spot in the fence where the cats were entering my yard and block it, so now I can feed the birds again without endangering them. With all the snow we've had, they were very hungry.


My quilting time has diminished this week, but I did manage to spread it out with three different projects as I showed you already.


15 minute days this week --7 out of 7
15 minute days this year -- 52 out of 52 days
Success rate  = 100%
 


Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

6 comments:

Kyle said...

What an interesting blog hop. I don't where I would start! Your color choices will give the traditional applique a modern twist.

Kate said...

Picking the fabrics for a new project is always such fun, though it's also a bit nerve wracking as you want to get it just right. Enjoy your new project. Hopefully this week will be smoother on the stitching front and you can manage more than just your 15 minutes each day.

Sandy said...

I love your little stitcheries, Shasta. They remind me of when we used to embroider on our jeans, back in the day. I’m curious about your process with the shirts. Your appliqué block will be stunning, no matter how you arrange your chosen colors.

Kim said...

That is a fun blog hop. I have many an old quilting book which has a little dust on it. Those stitcheries are lovely....and so tiny. You have piqued my interest with your shirts quilt, too. I cannot wait to see what you do with this quilt. Such a lovely photo of the sweet birds at the feeder. Hopefully soon the snow will be but a memory.

Rose said...

I did not notice that the fabric/books was on that quilt, but I was on my phone when I first read your post. I wanted to wait and see photos on computer. I love the fabrics you chose.

I have either 9 or 12 oak leaf and real blocks that I have never done anything with. They were back in the day when I liked tea-dyed musling. And I still like them. Just could never decide what I wanted to do with them. They pieces have a bit of fusing just around the very edge, and then I did the blanket stitch around the edges. I can never decide if I want to hand quilt or machine quilt. I used to like hand quilting. I helped my mom quilt.

And also, don't know if I told you, but I have made two shirt quilts...you can see them if you look at This Post

It also shows a bunch of squares that I was cutting and I still have not done anything with them.

Tanya said...

You are so good about planning things. I love looking at all the happy birds enjoying a meal!