Monday, August 23, 2021

2021: Week 34 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 


There are two times in each of my quilt's life that I unconditionally love it. Both of these times feel like the quilt is emerging from a cocoon or coming home after a makeover.

The first time is when the backing and batting is trimmed away, making the quilt straight. As you know, the batting and backing is usually larger than the quilt top to allow for shrinkage, and they just hang out from underneath the quilt top, making the quilt uglier than it really is. When they are trimmed away, the quilt looks better than it ever did, and I love it unconditionally for the transformation.

The second time, since I know you are wondering, is when I finish the binding. When I bind the quilt, the back is facing me, so when it is finished and I turn it over, I am seeing the quilt again after a makeover in its finished stage, looking better than ever, with the edges all wrapped.

After that, I can look at it more objectively to see what I did that was successful and what could use improvement. But at those two moments, it is loved unconditionally.




2021:  Week 34 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

This week, I made the Fish and Bubbles quilt I showed you in my last post. As you can guess, I also trimmed the Quote Quilt.


15 minute days this week --7 out of 7
15 minute days this year -- 212 out of 234 days
Success rate  = 91%
 

Linked with:



15 Minutes to Stitch

Design Wall Monday



Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Quilt Reveal: Fish and Bubbles

 Queenie Patch has a weekly feature where she suggests other blogs to read.  One Monday, she suggested my blog on this post. I am so honored and tickled with her positive comments. Thank you so much!

Here's my mini quilt for this month. I started with bits of fabric from the Amalfi Coast quilt. Little slivers from straightening out the fabric and other bits were put on top of a shirt leftover from the shirts quilt. There were a lot of bits and I tried to use them all.

 
I placed some tulle over those bits and quilted them down. There are so many layers, I don't need batting!
 


I added the fish and bubbles on top and folded the shirt over to finish off the edges.

Linked with:

Free Motion Mavericks

Friday Night Sew In 

Off the Wall Friday 

A Pageant of Finishes


Sunday, August 15, 2021

Productive Quilting Week

 

 

Kate is doing a photography challenge with her family, and I am tagging along by following their prompts. This week's prompt was Black and White. I decided I would take a photo from my August folder and change it to black and white. I couldn't choose one so I have two black and white photos in this post.

 

2021:  Week 33 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

I added more motifs to the Quote quilt. I have finished quilting all of the blocks, and just need to do an inspection to see if there is more quilting needed on the border. I will start preparing the binding today.

I am planning my mini quilt of the month, using some fabric from my fabric trash can. I am also trying to hold off starting anything else until the Quote Quilt is finished.



15 minute days this week --7 out of 7
15 minute days this year -- 205 out of 227 days
Success rate  = 90%
 

Linked with:



15 Minutes to Stitch





 

Friday, August 13, 2021

More Additions to the Quote Quilt

 

I wrote my first post on this blog on August 13, 2008, which makes today the thirteenth anniversary of my blog. This blog is an extension to another blog which is no longer available to the public. Even though I was not new to blogging, I made a low key entrance to this blog by posting as if I had been posting here all along.

I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging and have no plans on stopping. There are so many benefits to the blog.

 

  • It provides a historical record of my quilting.
  • It gives me motivation to keep making so I can show you what I made.
  • It gives me a way to meet people with similar interests, even people who are in other parts of the world I would never have met otherwise.



I am almost done quilting the quote quilt. I couldn't resist adding some more things to the perimeter of the quilt. This fabric is from the Button Season. You may notice that the blocks are actually square in a square, then set on point. It would have been easier to have squares and quarter square blocks but I was originally going to add more triangles to make economy blocks, but that would have made the quilt way too big.



This piece is from Amalfi Coast. I still have brown blocks to work with.

 

I know I originally said your story is your power, but I am feeling generous, and you can have an unlimited number of powers.


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Friday Fun

Design Wall Monday

Monday, August 9, 2021

Time Tracking the Quote Quilt

I am working on quilting the Quote Quilt, but I had more blue spaces than I had ideas of how to quilt them, so I found more fabric motifs to add. The hand applique doubles as quilting stitches. I've done that with machine applique before and not with hand applique, but it works just as well. This bright orange also helps make the bright orange t-shirt motif more at home.


This fabric comes from a blouse my daughter and I were trying to sew a long time ago. We never did figure out how to do it with the interfacing, etc., and we both lost the motivation to figure it out since we were busy with work and school.


I've been wanting to add President Obama since I added Justice Ginsberg, but didn't want to  make the quilt political. But he does fit with the historical theme of the quilt, and I was tickled to find a quote that combines genealogy and quilting. "For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness." I'll be adding (blue) color to his hair before attaching to the quilt.



 I got this idea from another blog post, but I forget where I got it. The idea is to use a job costing app to track the hours of quilting. I thought it would be great to keep track of my 15 minutes to quilt. It will also answer the question people have about "how long does it really take to make a quilt?" Although I am deep into the quote quilt,  it is good to start  now to get in the practice of tracking hours.

You can set up different "jobs" to include different quilts, and also for other habits you are trying to keep, like exercise.

 You just have to tell the app when you start and when you stop the "job". You can also set a price for the job. I thought about putting $1 so it would be a 1 for 1, but then I decided I should get paid for all my years of experience.  I am charging myself $20 -- family discount. I am making so much fake money.

Cicada and ladybug



 The key is to remember to start the clock when you start working, and I have already missed two days of tracking. There is some work that is hard to track - "I am going upstairs, I might as well press this since I will be near the ironing board." There is also some that require a slight change of mindset "I might as well applique while watching this show." Instead of thinking of the show as the main thing, I can just think of it as watching the show while I am working on the quilt.


 
This is my contribution to the photography challenge Kate is having with her family. The theme of the week was "leaf."

Sunday, August 8, 2021

Another Week of Stitching

2021:  Week 32 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 
 

I spent my week quilting the quote quilt. It was mostly stitching near the ditch around the quotes, and some of the big motifs.

 

My report is spaced out again this week so I can include my photos. Some of these may look familiar because they are the same settings, but they are new photos taken this week. 


15 minute days this week --7 out of 7
15 minute days this year -- 198 out of 220 days
Success rate  = 90%
 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch




 

Sunday, August 1, 2021

2021: Week 31 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

2021:  Week 31 of 15 Minutes to Stitch




Kate's photo challenge for the week was Decay. I present the photo above for that challenge.

 

It is time for a confession. This week, genealogy won the competition between genealogy and quilting. I didn't do any quilting at all this week. I plan to do some quilting today, but since I have had some scant quilting days in the past, I will just add today's work with next weeks.




15 minute days this week --0 out of 7
15 minute days this year -- 191 out of 213 days
Success rate  = 90%
 




Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch