2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 7

There are a couple of interesting dates coming up. 2-20-22 and 2-22-22. I am not interested in numerology but I do think it would be nice to finish a quilt on one of those dates. I was hoping to finish Lansing Leaves by one of those dates, but since I am working, I am not sure I will be able to finish piecing the back, sandwich, quilt and bind by either of those dates.

Those new quilts do tend to push in and disrupt plans. I spent more time this week with Jazzy Blues and did not work on Lansing Leaves.

 

I have a quilt that is closer to completion - not only is the backing done, it is already sandwiched and the quilting has already started. It is a big quilt though so it won't be a quick finish. It is really old so getting it done would be a great relief. So old that there is no mention of it on this blog. My spreadsheet lists it as started in 2007, but there are a few other quilts with the same date and I know that it was before the spreadsheet was started so it is an educated guess.  It gave me trouble in quilting because it has a lot of bulky seams but that might have been before I got a flat bed extension. I have it out and will examine it to plan the next steps. I will simplify the quilting plan.

I call it Olympics Twist so finishing it on the last day of the Olympics, 2-20-22 would add meaning to that date.

It was not a good week for walking. First, Zeus sprained his leg so he couldn't walk much. Then the snow melted and refroze and was very icy and slippery. Even on the grass, he isn't heavy enough to crush through the layer of ice so he just slides on top of it. He is doing better now but we are still skipping a lot of walks. 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 7

If you recall, I am sewing along the Aunt Daisy quiltalong but I am calling my quilt Jazzy Blues. I worked this week so I didn't have much time for quilting. Still though, I finished a Postage Stamp block while I sewed the flying geese of the Jazzy Blues quilt.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 44 out of 44 days

Success rate  = 100%

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

2022: More Finishes Than Starts

Looks the same as last week.

 

 

 

 

The Jelly Roll Club has a really cute applique sew along called Gnome of the Month. Besides free patterns, there are free videos that show every step of different methods of applique. It is a versatile pattern and you can customize it as you go.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 6

 

 

I told you the Aunt Daisy quilt along in a previous post. It is such a pretty quilt that I decided to join it. I chose these jazzy blue fabrics with off white backgrounds. I have to give the quilt a name so I can add a label to the blog post and have decided to call it Jazzy Blues.

I've cut the first fabric for the flying geese. I decided to use the same fabric for each component since they will be distributed throughout the quilt. I am hoping it will add another layer of design on the quilt.

And like Amalfi, I will have rogue blocks so I don't have to worry about having the right amount of fabric for each component.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 6

I didn't have work this week, so I had a lot of time for quilting. 

 

I've developed a habit of recycling cardboard boxes when I get them to avoid filling them up with junk. This means that when I need one, I either have to wait for the next incoming box or I have to empty one that is already full. I  dumped a cardboard box full of scraps so I would have the box available for charity. I spent a good bit of my 15 minutes a day cutting up these scraps into one and a half inch strips and trying to get my table back.

 

I pieced more of the backing for Lansing Leaves. I started the Aunt Daisy quiltalong.  So far I have chosen the fabric, cut and marked the pieces for the flying geese.

 

Not a lot to show even though there has been a lot of progress.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 37 out of 37 days

Success rate  = 100%

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

2022: More Finishes Than Starts

Since I started a new quilt before finishing a long-term quilt, this changes my stats to have more starts than finishes. I was hoping to have a finish and just maintain it throughout the year, but that would have been boring for you to watch. I just started a new quilt to keep this story exciting for you. Will she manage to end the year with more finishes than starts? Ah, the sacrifices I make for my blog readers.

Winter Weather

 

 

We had a lot of freezing rain, followed by 5 inches of snow. I had a choice between going out to take a photo of Lansing Leaves quilt top or shovel the snow.

I noticed that my blog post has been getting a lot of unexpected views. So funny, I thought Wordle sounded familiar. Sorry, it is the wrong Wordle for people who were looking for the other one.

Quilt Reveal: Orange 2-2-22

 

The Project Quilting Challenge this week is Kitchen. There were two things pushing me to do the challenge. 

1. Today is February 2, 2022 and I wanted to put that date as a finish date on a quilt and it is taking me too long to finish the back of Lansing Leaves. 

2. I got the idea to make an orange quilt and there are orange scraps on my table.

It is raw edge applique. The orange is a scrap from Lansing Leaves. The blue is from Amalfi. I hope I wasn't saving it for the binding. If I was, I am going to have to make a scrappy binding for it.

The batting was a fusible, which I hadn't realized before I pressed it, so I didn't get a second pass at those corners.

I got the bright idea to make a cut underneath a label to turn the quilt right side out, but it turns out that I put the front layer on top which did not give me access to the cut. Luckily, I figured that out and left an opening along the edge. I was able to make the edge pretty neat, but I ran out of bobbin thread so that kept it from being as neat as it could be.

 

It was still a fun little quilt and now I have a quilt with 2-2-22 as a finish date. I embroidered it on the front so everyone can see it.

There is a new quiltalong that began yesterday. It is a traditional quilt called Aunt Daisy. It is not a mystery, but the pattern will be released monthly. The pattern is free on the blog and there is a Facebook group if you want to see everyone's progress and fabric choices.

The Ohio Arts Council's Riffe Gallery is showing a tour of the Quilt National 2021 exhibit on their Facebook page. If you can't go in person, this is a great presentation to watch.

2022: Week 5: 15 Minutes to Stitch

I started to cut the scraps from Lansing Leaves to use in the Postage Stamp quilt, but I decided that I didn't want that much orange in that quilt. I spent the week piecing the Lansing Leaves scrap for the backing. There isn't any room to store any more scraps so I need to use them up.  Normally I try to make a generation quilt, but this time, the next generation will be the back. At least this will keep the baby grandchild quilt from being born before the parent quilt as so frequently happens here. The baby was born first with Project Quilting last week, Flight.

 

I have been enjoying piecing the back. Just joining the scraps based on their size. I had tried this before with a utility quilt that gave me trouble, but I think I must have been trying to make sure everything was balanced and cohesive.

I have found that I have trouble when I am trying to make one piece, and adding to it, like the first Project Quilting piece I did this year. Even though I used Postage Stamp as a leader and ender, I found it to be a constant interruption in working on the one piece, since the stamp had to be every other thing I pushed through the machine. For this back, I am piecing two parts of the backing at a time that will eventually be joined together. It feels like less interruption to keep one train of thought.

 

 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 5

I had a solid week of quilting again this week. Besides piecing the back, I went through a bunch of craft magazines to donate. Those blocks in the photo are from the orphan box - they were rejects from Life of Plenty and I think they will fit in perfectly here.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 30 out of 30 days

Success rate  = 100%

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

Oh Scrap

2022: More Finishes Than Starts

 There haven't been any changes in this chart, so I didn't update the date. But since I have made so much progress on Lansing Leaves, I am closer to having more finishes than starts for 2022.

If you are interested in bright, colorful crochet, Lucy at Attic24 always shows lots of beautiful photos and free patterns. I don't crochet, and I still really enjoy looking at her blog posts.

If you are used in learning how to use repurposed textiles in quilts, Rhonda Cox Dort offers lots of information on her blog, including beautiful free patterns and free classes.

StoryGraph turns your book reading into beautiful graphs. It analyzes your reading to find patterns and reading preferences and offers suggestion. It looks like an alternative to Goodreads.

Week 4: 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

It has been below freezing a lot of this week, and although I generally walk unless it is below zero, I took a break this week. We had snow and I didn't want my dog Zeus to slip and slide on the street with his hip trouble. He did not insist on walking, and was happy to spend time out in the back yard. He enjoys the cold.

This means I didn't take a lot of pictures, so I found an old one from 2009.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 4

I had a solid week of quilting this week. I made the Project Quilting challenge quilt which I showed you in my last post, Flight. 

The borders I added to Lansing Leaves last week didn't pass quality inspection, so I ripped out a couple of small sections and sewed the entire borders again. I pressed them and sized up the last two borders. I added one, and it didn't pass quality inspection either. It had a tension issue after I refilled the bobbin so it got a second seam too. The last border passed quality inspection, but I was tempted to reinforce it too since all the other ones did.

I am declaring it done, even though I still need to press the last two borders. Since I have the backing and binding fabric chosen (they were in the drawer), I think I will continue on with this quilt so I can get a finish.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 23 out of 23 days

Success rate  = 100%

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

2022: More Finishes Than Starts

Quilt Reveal: Flight

 

I tried to avoid temptation by not looking to see what the challenge for Project Quilting was for this week. I want to finish a quilt.

But I won a prize from Project Quilting last week, and I accidentally copied and pasted my 15-minutes-to-stitch stats last week without deleting the sentence that said I was working on the Project Quilting challenge. So what else could I do? I had to take a peek to see how hard it would be do do.

The challenge seems easy enough - silhouette. 

“Birds learn how to fly, never knowing where the flight will take them.” -Mark Nepo

 

 I had some black fused fabric left over from the Halloween House quilt when I realized that I didn't need half of the tree that was going to be cut off the edge of the quilt. I could just slap it on some fabric and call it done.

The more I look at the picture above, the more I like it. But I was worried that it would make me look lazy. I wanted to make something where I could be lazy, but not look like I was lazy. I think it would probably require match stick quilting, and I don't want to take the time to do that.

I didn't want to take too much time to look for a background, so I decided to use the scraps from Lansing Leaves. I really like the way the bird looks on this fabric.

Then I realized that the whole piece looked like a kimono. Mary Fons was talking about the time period where quilters made a lot of kimono quilts. Why was there an obsession about kimono quilts? Was there an Olympics in Japan in the 70s, 80s or 90s that started the rage?

I decided to go with the kimono, so I folded it in half and cut so both sides would be somewhat symmetrical. It looks more like a dress than a kimono. Once I decided this was going to be a dress, I liked the bird on the top and not on the skirt part.

I had just thrown the fabric on top of the yellow fabric and I liked how it looked so I sewed it on. My girl is modest so the bottom of her dress needs to be closer to her knees.

To make it quick, I knew I wanted to birth the quilt. So I sandwiched it and sewed all around the shape. If you look carefully, you can see I made a slice where the bird will be since I need it a place to turn it right side out. I love that I could do this because I have a hard time keeping the edges neat when I have to close off an opening.

The batting was exactly the right size, and wasn't big enough to fill the entire quilt, but the missing parts are in the seam allowance so I don't think it will matter.

I had to be careful when turning the quilt right side out to avoid tearing the small cut that I had made, but as you can see, I was able to do it.

 

I poked out the corners, straightened out the opening, and pressed it flat. Here you can see that I had sewn in a piece for the neckline.

 

Finally, I added the bird. I quilted in the ditch, and sewed the bird and sun down.

So far this year, I have started two quilts and have finished two quilts, so although I don't have more finishes than starts yet, I don't have to play any catch up.

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Peacock Party

Finished Or Not Friday