Quilt Reveal: African Garden

 

I finished the quilt formerly known as Tuxedo Vest. Since the name is based on the fabrics on what is now the background, I am changing the name to African Garden to refer to the applique which is now the focal point.

This was the quilt as I left it in 2021. It was supposed to be a simple baby quilt, but I don't know anyone who would want it as a baby quilt. I thought about keeping it, but I would need a lap quilt so my original plan was to add more columns and make it larger. But it didn't motivate me to continue.

When I finished the Portraits quilt and listed the chart that I include every time I start or finish a quilt, I realized that I needed to get some more finishes in order to meet my very easy goal of finishing more quilts than I start.

 

I pulled out the Tuxedo Vest quilt but kept it in my bedroom until I was ready to work on it in an effort to keep the sewing studio clean for the YouTube videos.

 

I bought a bunch of African fabrics and put them in the same staging area in my bedroom until I was ready to film them. Placing them together like that with the Tuxedo Vest quilt gave me the idea that I could use them to applique on the quilt.

 

I was originally thinking of adding just one or two motifs  to help the floral fabric and the stripe fabric work better together. I cut out a bunch of motifs to try them out on the quilt,  and I couldn't reject any of them, so I used all of the ones I cut.

I used my general technique to combine the applique and the quilting. I secured the edges of the appliue and then stippled the background.

 I tried to add a piece from an older quilt, but they are shiny, and I decided to use this piece from the stash of fabrics.  I think I have used some of the background fabric in another quilt so the continuity is there, and I can use scraps of this quilt in another quilt.

 

I made a YouTube video about the process if you are interested in seeing that.

I've made a lot of quilts this year but I need to finish at least one more to meet my goal of finishing more quilts than I start. One thing about keeping records, I know it is not a record year in terms of started or finished quilts.

Celebrating Zoey's Gotcha Day

 

Zoey joined my family on September 15 last year, and on October 3, I added a post here on this blog about her as a way to document her growth and progress.

Interestingly, not much has changed with her. Most of the changes are mine. When I first got her, I kept wondering if her energy and her past traumas were too much for me to handle. She doesn't jump on me or put my hands in her mouth as often as she used to, mostly because she is more comfortable with me and doesn't get as frightened or nervous as she used to. She has separation anxiety so she will jump on me or pull at my clothes when I come back from taking the trash out for pickup.

 Mostly though, I am no longer afraid that she is going to bite me or hurt me when she jumps on me.

 

She finds the ripe passion-fruit and plays ball with it until it breaks and then she eats it. She is much better than I am at determining which passion-fruit is ripe enough to eat so she gets more than I do. In the picture above, you can see a yellowish green walnut and beside that is the darker green passion-fruit. 

I tried to put a daisy on her head like I had put the dandelion in a previous post, but she decided she would rather know whether I still love her. 

Yes I definitely do. I am so happy she is here. She still loves her squeaky ball and carries it around with her, even to bed. The one that fits her mouth is small enough to roll under the couch and furniture, so I have to keep getting them for her. 

Now that firework season is gone, I have reduced her anxiety medicine. She no longer chews on furniture or baseboards when I am gone, but I still try to stay home as much as possible or get a sitter for her when I have to go anywhere for more than an hour. She walks around the house crying and looking for me.

I haven't added any more talking buttons to the board, but she loves to use them to tell me she loves me, to ask for food, and to ask to go outside. When I tell her to wait, she will wait a few minutes and will remind me when the few minutes are over. I am glad she does that.

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 41

 

I spent these weeks quilting and binding African Garden quilt. That's it in the picture at the top of the post. I am really happy with how it turned out. One of my determining factors about whether  quilt is successful is how it looks when it is all rumpled up, and this one definitely makes me happy. Even when you can't see the pattern, the colors make it so pretty.

15 minute days these weeks --14 out of 14

15 minute days this year -- 213 out of 288 days

Success rate  = 74%

 

 

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Progress on Tuxedo Vest

 

I bought a bunch of African fabrics. I know them as Kitenge, which is what they are called in East Africa. They are known as Ankara in West Africa. I showed them all in a Youtube video.

I fussy cut some of them and am appliquéing them to the Tuxedo Vest quilt. It looks very different now from where it started. It will be finished shortly.

Looking at it now, I am reminded of a Jane Sassaman quilt that was a garden. I had put it on my mental list of quilts to make a long time ago. I can't find the picture now, but it makes me happy that I am retroactively able to cross that quilt off my to-do list.

Yesterday, I found an art quilter who uses Ankara fabrics to make art quilts, Marcellina Oseghale Akpojotor. She was featured on the Colossal, which features different artists every day. They remind me of the dimensional pinecone quilts that were in a book I recently saw, even though these quilts aren't made with triangles.

I also want to bring your attention to American Quilt Society Worldwide Quilt Parade that is going on right now. I submitted three quilts to that parade. I am from Ohio, if you want to find them faster. You can vote for quilts you like there if you want.

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 39 and 40

 

I spent these weeks admiring the African fabrics and cutting and appliquing them to the Tuxedo Vest quilt. Eventually I will rename this quilt. Right now I am thinking of Kintenge Garden or Ankara Garden.

15 minute days these weeks --14 out of 14

15 minute days this year -- 199 out of 274 days

Success rate  = 73%

 

 

Tuxedo Vest Progress

 When I entered the finish of my portraits quilt on my spreadsheet, I noticed how far behind I am in my very easy goal of finishing more quilts than I start this year. As the weather is turning cooler, I know that I need to make some fast progress towards my goal.

I have pulled out my Tuxedo Vest quilt since it looked like it would be a quick finish. It took me a while to search out what I had named this quilt.  The name will change, but I haven't come up with a new name. 

It turns out that this quilt is about two years old and when I left it, I was planning on adding another column to make it a little bigger. It is a simple and easy quilt that I should have been able to finish in a day or a weekend, and here it is, still unfinished two years later.

I had hung up this top on a hanger, but I didn't put the leftover fabric with the quilt.

I put the quilt top with the African fabric I recently purchased in my bedroom because I want to keep my studio clean for Youtube videos when I decided that some of the African fabrics would really enhance this quilt top.

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 37 and 38

 

I am showing this chart again to show that I need to have two finishes to meet my goal. I spent most of my time thinking about what to do with the Tuxedo Vest quilt, so there isn't really anything to show for it. Until this morning, I wasn't really thrilled with any of the ideas, but I could see that I was making forward progress. It finally clicked this morning, and now I am ready to take more action on this quilt.

15 minute days these weeks --9 out of 14

15 minute days this year -- 192 out of 267 days

Success rate  = 72%

 

 

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2021: Week 41 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

Fall is in full swing here in Ohio.

 The temperatures are cooler, and the rain pools on the colorful leaves.

 

I've shown you silver dollars before. This one made me think of a ghost with the two eyes.

2021:  Week 41 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

This week, I sewed up the columns of Tuxedo Vest and completed the quilt top. I also completed a block for the Postage Stamp quilt. I pressed both of them and photographed them and showed both of them to you in my last post. Then I started the next Postage Stamp block.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 249 out of 283 days

Success rate  = 88%

 

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Quilty Content

 For the last few weeks, I have been telling you that I stitched a seam here, I stitched a seam there, but didn't have anything noteworthy to show you. I have finally reached a point where I have "finishes" to share and want to show them to you now. 

First up is a finished postage stamp block. This is the third block. I am now thinking about what color / fabric to use as a constant for the next block.

I also have a finished quilt top. Tuxedo Vest.I had to take the photo from this angle to avoid it looking skewed vertically. This is a baby quilt / wall hanging quilt size.

October Pictures and Weekly Stitching Recap

 

 We are just a couple of days into October, but Zeus and I walked a different route, so there are plenty of photos to share, even if some of them are weeds.

I was able to fit even more burgers into the pan after I took this photo. So nice to be able to make the whole batch at once. 

My go-to recipe is to smash one or more (usually precooked) grain (oatmeal, quinoa, bulgur, bread, etc) and one or more type of beans (chick peas, black beans, kidney beans), and some spices or sauces.  The spice combination determines whether it is a good batch. Can add some flax seeds or other egg substitute to make it more sticky. Shape them like burgers and cook.

This batch had ketchup, smoke flavor and hot sauce. I should have added some spices, but I made up for it by using barbecue sauce on the sandwich.  I should write down the recipe when I come up with a good batch. The last batch was really good and had ketchup, garlic, ginger, Italian seasoning, fennel and a microwaved potato.

I eat them like burgers or crumble them to make spaghetti sauce.

2021:  Week 40 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

As the days get shorter, I need more sleep, which cuts into sewing time.  

I cleaned up more of the sewing room.

I also worked on the Tuxedo Vest, making the trip around the world trade to have the squares be in the right space. I found another set of strips I had already prepared so sub-cut them and sewed them into columns.

 I pressed the rows for the Postage Stamp block so they are ready to join.

15 minute days this week --5 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 242 out of 276 days

Success rate  = 88%

 

I was at 81% at this time last year, so I guess I can't complain. I will have to be careful to not take too many days off though.

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2021: Week 39 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

Last week's photo challenge was A Wild Animal.  This is a difficult subject for me, mostly because I take my photos when I am walking my dog, so I can't sneak close to any living creature without it getting alerted by my dog. He doesn't run or bark, but he does breathe heavily at his age.  I cropped this photo since we were so far away, but it reminds me of the Beatles cover even though the geese are on a sidewalk and not a street crossing.

 

 

Next week's choice is item of clothing.  This isn't my submission, but I accidentally took this picture of my blouse. I like how artsy it looks.

 I didn't spend much time sewing this week. If you remember, I told you a while ago that my oven stopped working. It came with the house and I enjoyed using it for decades.  I tried fixing it, and it worked for about a while and then stopped again. I did without an oven for several (mostly summer) months, but it was frustrating to choose what to make for dinner because "doesn't need oven" had to be an extra criteria. Sometimes you want something just because you can't have it.

I bought a new range, which turned out to be a full time job.I didn't ask for any special service and accepted whatever appointment they gave me. There were three teams of people who were sent on three different days, and finally one last person who knew how to install it, and the last team had to come back to help move everything to position. It also took four phone calls with customer service representatives and each of the teams called the manager. Each of these people told me something different, but I persevered and finally have it set up. Hopefully the range works well and I won't have to deal with it again.

The new range has different strengths of burners (simmer, boil, etc.) so I will have to relearn how to cook. The booklet doesn't explain how to use them so it will be trial and error.

 

2021:  Week 39 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I cleaned up more of the sewing room this week. I also worked on the Tuxedo Vest, making the columns. I still have to do the trip around the world trade to have the squares be in the right space. I finished making the rows for a Postage Stamp block, and need to sew them together.

15 minute days this week --3 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 237 out of 269 days

Success rate  = 88%

 

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2021: Week 36 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I really like using my blog to document my thought process of a quilt, to see why I start the quilts I start and how they wind up the way they are finished as compared to what I was envisioning when I started.

I got the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine (Issue 172) in the mail a couple / few weeks ago and have been admiring the Golden Glow quilt. I loved the beautiful cheddar, and the simplicity of the quilt. It looks like something that would be fast and easy to make.

When I looked at the pattern, it looks like they make blocks to put together the quilt. I got the bright idea that it would be easier to strip piece it more like a Trip Around the World, although not exactly since I still wanted to use rectangles in the quilt. Looking at the pattern again now, it is a clever piecing method and they did strip piece, so probably either way would be just as fast. Since I am making the postage stamp blocks, I just don't want to make blocks this time.

Although I bought a bunch of white and cream fabric the last time I purchased fabric, I am hoarding  them since I had been out for a while and they were precious. I decided that I could use the black. With these big blocks, I thought a lap quilt would be better than a smaller quilt, and I needed to find fabric that had enough yardage for a lap quilt. Most of my stash is fat quarter or quarter yards since that is what I buy when I don't have a plan for the fabric and I like variety, but my recent purchases which were bought online or for pick up have more yardages.

 

So this quilt morphed into a nice simple two color quilt to a more complicated color scheme.  As I sewed the strips together, I started to doubt whether they would work together, but after I sub-cut them and laid them out, I can see that I will like the quilt.

I can see that I cut the floral fabric too small, but that will work just fine for a smaller lap quilt - it will provide more room for more diagonal rows going across it.

This color scheme makes me think of a tuxedo with a bright floral vest, even though there is more orange than black in the quilt. I will call it Tuxedo Vest for now since I have to name the quilt for the blog label.

And because starting just one quilt is not enough, I have started yet another one. This is using the pieces that are leftover from the postage stamp quilt. I have to cut two strips of the constant fabric and don't need the entire length of the second strip so I can use it here. Also some scraps are wide enough for the postage stamp quilt but don't have the one and a half inch length I need for the stamp so I am adding them here. I am sewing them together as I go so I don't try to use them in the postage stamp quilt.

I haven't decided exactly how to use these, but I am thinking I will just sew them together to make (maybe different widths of ) blocks and sew the blocks together with all the fabric going in the same direction. 

I will call this Dots and Dashes since the pieces are either very big or very small. This will be a long term project. I've made other quilts this way. Well, they are unfinished so I should say I have made other quilt blocks this way.

2021:  Week 36 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I spent a lot of time sewing this week, I have been cutting postage stamps and sewing them together.I started two new quilts.

I also sewed down the binding to the Quote quilt. I will hand stitch it to the back after I add a label and hanging sleeve.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 226 out of 248 days

Success rate  = 91%

 

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