Monday, March 28, 2022

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 13




 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 13

 
I had another successful week of sewing, making sure I take the time away from work and chores to get some quilting done. I spent two fifteen minute breaks from working at home to rip out small portions of seams from the pieced border of the Olympics quilt to close up the chain. This is black thread on black fabric so I am glad it is a small portion. I thought I would just have to chop it straight and add a black rectangle, but I will have to add triangles. This is still a small manageable fix and not a big deal at all.  
 
 
For the rest of the time, since it is close to the end of the month, I wanted to make sure I made more progress on the Jazzy Blues quilt so I added the last row of stitching on the flying geese and now I have to cut off the dog ears and make double flying geese. I also sewed the first set of stitching for the quarter square triangles. Right now, they are half square triangles.


15 minute days this week --7 out of 7
15 minute days this year -- 80 out of 86 days
Success rate  = 93%

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15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

 

There is a great auction happening this weekend. Full of Americana including furniture, pottery, paintings and many gorgeous quilts. I had to keep reminding myself that I am a quilt maker and not a collector. That I have been working the last five years to reduce the amount of things I have in my house. That I am still trying to find a good space to hold the quilts that I do have. The online minimum bids told me that these things would likely be sold outside of my price range. I avoided going to the auction because I would not be able to resist temptation if I went.


So instead I headed to the thrift store. I shouldn't have bought this either, but it seems like something that would have sold at the auction for much more, and at $2.99 it seemed like a crime not to take it home. They priced it as a frame and not as art. Besides the historical significance,the amount of time it took to make this and the cost of framing it is worth way more than that. 

It is disappointing that a professionally framer work used masking tape.

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Happy Spring

 

 
I was looking for a flower quilt to celebrate the first day of Spring, and came across this Thirties Boro tree quilt which will work with all the floral fabric in it.  I made it in August 2020 completely by hand.

 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 12

After a couple of weeks where I did not quilt every day, I decided to make a more concerted effort to get to the sewing machine. I continued quilting the Olympics Twist quilt. I quilted the outside edge of the twist blocks and, sewed down the other side of the inner black border. It looks pretty much the same as it did before, but now it is more secure for washing. I still need to quilt the two outer borders before I can trim and bind, but it feels like significant progress.


15 minute days this week --7 out of 7
15 minute days this year -- 73 out of 79 days
Success rate  = 92%

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15 Minutes to Stitch

Sunday, March 13, 2022

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 11

 

I took the coloring chart for the Aunt Daisy quilt and added colored in the blocks, using a different color for each kind of block. As you know, my version, Jazzy Blues, is made with blues. The program I was using does not have a lot of choices for colors, so instead of different shades of blue, I just added different colors that might be the same value. Then I tiled it so I could see what it would look in the quilt. The different colors just exaggerate the effects the fabric will make on the quilt.

In my last post, I was worried that using dark colors for the flying geese and the hourglass blocks, I would create dark vertical and horizontal lines. As you can see in this picture, yes it does do that, but it doesn't take away the circular design, so I will just continue to use a different fabric for each block and hope for the best. The other thing I learned about this I can add yellow if I run out of blue fabric, and maybe even if I don't.


So many possibilities. I colored these pretty quickly as you can tell and didn't check the original pattern so I think some of lights / darks are reversed.



 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 11

I didn't get a lot of sewing time this week, but I did manage to add some colors to the color chart as you can see above. I also sewed the inner border for the Olympics quilt on. There is still a lot of quilting left to do.



15 minute days this week --4 out of 7
15 minute days this year -- 66 out of 72 days
Success rate  = 92%

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15 Minutes to Stitch

 

Monday, March 7, 2022

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 10

 


2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 10

The second block of the Aunt Daisy sewalong has been released, so I spent my week trying to finish the blocks for the first block. My quilt is called Jazzy Blues. There are a lot of flying geese blocks to make. Since the machine is set up for quilting, I sewed and cut these blocks as I was supposed to, but still have more sewing and pressing to finish them up. I also cut the fabrics for the second block. There are much fewer hourglass blocks. I  am now rethinking my fabric choice. My original plan was to let serendipity decide how the quilt will look, but now I wonder if I need to bring out the coloring sheet and test out the colors first .

15 minute days this week --3 out of 7
15 minute days this year -- 61 out of 65 days
Success rate  = 94%

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15 Minutes to Stitch

 


 I have skipped the last two Project Quilting challenges since I have been trying to work on my current big projects, the Olympics Quilt and Jazzy Blues. I won this pincushion kit from Go-Go Kim.The buttons are upside down in this picture so you can't see how cute they are.  I look forward to making it, since cathedral windows is on my mental list of quilts to make and this will give me a chance to learn the technique. Thank you Go-Go Kim!