Quilt Reveal: Red and White Presents

Since I had such a good time quilting my last quilt, I decided to go on and quilt another one. Here's my finished red and white presents quilt. The lighting isn't good in the fall/winter, but at least you can tell that it is finished.

 

Unfortunately this one was not fun to quilt.  I used free motion quilting, and my biggest mistake was not planning a continuous line.  I knew I wanted to do loops in the inside squares, and a bigger loop in the long rectangles, but my plan for the remaining sashing involved traveling back along existing lines, and there really wasn't a good flow from one space to the next. 

(I obviously wasn't trying to match points on this quilt. The center square is half an inch finished.) 

There were other issues too. I kept running out of bobbin.  There is some kind of problem with the machine, and the bobbin fills only about half way.  I have a separate bobbin winder and my two broken machines upstairs have bobbin winders that work just fine, so I don't have any excuse for not using one of those, but I didn't think a small quilt like this would need that kind of effort.  Then I ran out of spool thread too.

I also had other interruptions - some perfectly normal family type stuff, and some bots who are worried about the interest rates on my credit cards.  When I was working on the tile quilt, after an interruption, I would come back and say "now where was I?" and resume quilting. With this quilt, the interruption would lead me to say "let me turn this machine off and do . . . " something else. 

These interruption meant I wasn't able to establish a good rhythm flow to the quilting, and the path changed from one session to the next. I don't think any of that is obvious in the finished quilt though.

Here it is, a second generation quilt next to its parent.

Generations of Red and White Quilts

While I was sewing the binding of the Red Snowflake quilt I showed you last week, I watched some You Tube videos of Mill House Creeks.  She was talking about Generation Scrap Quilts.  The concept is to take the leftover fabric of a quilt you made (first generation), and use it to make another quilt (second generation). She even made a third generation quilt.



Being interested in genealogy, I liked the idea of a generation quilt, although I'm not sure I agree with the rule of not adding additional fabric. After all, the next generation gets married, so there is fresh fabric in the mix.  This was my idea all along with this fabric, and I had already planned other quilts with the leftover fabric.

The first generation was the Red Snowflake I showed you last week.  I didn't realize there was the red row that had all the same fabrics (more red than white), but I am going to leave it that way.  Picture a dark ribbon over a present filled with little presents.

This is a second generation quilt which uses the same background and the same bandana fabric as the Red Snowflake.  There are two other reds that join the mix.

I decided I had made enough presents and decided to use these leftover blocks for a different quilt.  That probably makes these blocks a third generation.

I took the leftover scraps and glued them down in this fashion.  I'm not sure it looks like a tree. Maybe if I take the branch on the right off, it will look less like a flower.  Will see if I can add it to the trunk to make it look more like a trunk. Is this the fourth generation, since the third generation blocks aren't done? I did finally throw away the rest of the scraps, so there is not likely to be a fifth generation.

Edited to add:  Oh wait, I forgot about some other scraps, so yes there will be a fifth generation. Most definitely.

Finish Fest

It's October already, and the goal for this week is to finish things.  Look at the to-do list on the calendar and put a check mark besides as many things as possible.  I must resist the temptation to add new things to the list as I check off old ones.

Wash dishes, check.
Replace burnt out light bulbs, check.

I have to admit I added those two things just so I could check them off!

I am not going to bore you with the household items on the list, but the list does include sandwiching some quilts, quilting some quilts, and binding some quilts.  Yes, each of these steps is listed for each of the quilts, so I can get lots of checkmarks! Just sandwiching quilts will be a big accomplishment in getting them ready for the next phase, and will result in less work for me to do in the future.

The sandwiching of the seven day mystery quilt is done, and quilting has commenced.  I have finished the walking foot portion - outlining all of the points, and will do some free motion work in the background areas. This is similar to what Anne Ida did. It would  have been easier to do everything by free motion, but I still get nervous with starting free motion quilting, so having a small area to do that way makes me feel better. The pink backing fabric was a leftover when I used it as a backing fabric for another quilt, and was just the right size for this quilt.

Waiting in the wings are the present boxes (front) and the Adinkra (back) quilts.  I have made enough blocks for the present boxes to make a quilt, and am deciding whether to make more blocks for a bigger quilt. I'm not sure that more will make it any better. I have leftover starters which might wind up being a separate, possibly simpler, red and white quilt.

Linked to:
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts. I don't have a design wall, but my current quilt doesn't need one, being under the needle.

What I Did This Summer

This is actually what I did since the last time we talked, but this sounds much better, doesn't it? Lots of happenings on the High Road.  Genealogy has ruled most of the summer. Saturday, I attended a genealogy workshop at our library with Joshua Taylor, of Genealogy Roadshow.

I am borrowing photographs from other members of the family so I can make copies of them for my files. This is a big collection of photos and I got the smart idea to photograph the photos instead of scanning them. Upon viewing them today, though, I realize that my blurry photographs of blurry photographs yields even blurrier photographs, and I should really be scanning them. I am not sure I have fully recovered from Scanfest to start over again. If you recall, many years ago, I scanned all my old photographs that had people in them. I later lost them all due to a hard drive crash. I still haven't found the backup CDs (Hopefully I have them), so that might be a part of my reluctance to start over again on such a project.

I've made a couple trips to a cemetery to find some burial markers for some of my daughter's ancestors. For some reason, I didn't have photos of them on my genealogy software.  While I was there, I took pictures of the rest of the markers in the section and posted them to FindaGrave. Both times I went, I just took pictures until I ran out of battery power on the camera. They now have a feature that other people will transcribe the markers for you so you don't have to, but I went ahead and transcribed them too. I still have more family markers in other sections to find.

My UFOS aren't limited to quilts!  I finally got around to staining my porch floor. I wanted to make sure that I got it done before the leaves start falling. My neighbors leaves are already falling, so I am cutting it close! The resulting stain color is a big change from the original which you see here, and is much darker, but it is growing on me.  I really like that this project is now done. I still need to figure out how to keep sparrows from nesting on my porch. While I don't mind the idea of sharing my porch with birds, these birds are not respectful neighbors and make a big mess on my porch.

Other housework has also cropped up.  My refrigerator conked out, so I had to quickly choose a new one, which was really hard because I wanted one with the same features as my current one. I didn't find one, but I found an adequate substitute. And then finding a salesclerk who can sell it to me, empty old fridge, fill new fridge, deal with the old one in the tiny kitchen(!) until the recycling people could pick it up, etc.

There is also news on the quilting front. I really enjoyed making my red and white mystery quilt, so I thought it would be fun to make another red and white quilt. (The backing for the mystery quilt is chosen and pressed so hopefully it will reach finished stage soon).  I am basing this quilt on a picture of a finished quilt instead of a pattern, so I am sure I am making it the wrong way, but it is working out all right.  I liked the idea of tiny blocks just because tiny blocks are so cute, so I made these blocks tiny.

I know that each of these blocks should be using the same fabric in each one, but I didn't plan ahead.  I made a long rail fence before subcutting and making the big block and turned that into that first block. Then I subcut, turned the inside pieces, and pieced into the final block.  It is now an experiment to see how that affects the finished project.

I realize that this quilt requires very precise cutting and piecing. That center block is supposed to finish at half an inch. You might as well get your reservation on a galloping horse now. I hear there is a huge demand for them.

Linked to:
Share Your Improv  I hope this counts as improv. I improvised a way to make the blocks, and the fabric isn't the same in each of the blocks, etc.