2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 17

 

 Work has been really busy and I have only managed to eek out small amounts of time to make my mini quilt of the month. It is truly taking a month to make it.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 17

I know you have seen this photo before while you wait for a big reveal.  I have been enjoying making this peacock mini quilt, so like last week, I didn't have any trouble finding tiny bits of time to sew every day to work on it. Last week, I added some applique in the background. During week 17, I chose to add some bling to add to it, and quilted the piece.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 108 out of 114 days

Success rate  = 95%

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2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 16

 

 

Happy Easter!

 

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 16

I have been enjoying making this peacock mini quilt, so I didn't have any trouble finding time to sew every day to work on it. This photo is of its early stage, so that the reveal will have a bigger impact.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 101 out of 107 days

Success rate  = 94%

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2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 14 and 15

 

I have been making an effort to make sure that I spend time quilting and doing things that are calming to me the last two weeks. This means I have been putting more stitches to make the double flying geese and trimming them down to size. I will count them after I have them trimmed to see if I need to make any more.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Weeks 14 and 15

I also sewed and trimmed more of the quarter square triangles. I do not like trimming and usually cut pieces exactly so trimming is not necessary, but since this quilt has a lot of sharp points and I make a lot of improv quilts, I decided to follow the instructions to cut big and trim. The blocks do look much neater this way.

15 minute days this week --14 out of 14

15 minute days this year -- 94 out of 100 days

Success rate  = 94%

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 I added this list to show the status for the end of the first quarter. Even though there weren't any changes from the last time I showed it, it was good for me to keep in mind. I started a mini today so it is no longer current.

 

Rest in Peace, Zeus

 Zeus passed away on Monday.

 

He joined us in January of 2011 and completely changed our lives. Taking care of him was a big learning curve for me because I did my best to stay away from dogs before I got him.

His main job was to make sure I got exercise every day, but he took on a lot of other responsibilities as well. He kept me company after my daughter went to school and out in the world on her own. He ate the crusts from my toast. He took a control of my schedule, making sure I woke up on time, ate on time, slept on time. He also made sure that I took breaks from work. 

He was very eager to please but he had his ideas about what he wanted. He liked waking up early, especially when I stayed up late. He regularly changed his communication with me. Sometimes he would just sit beside me when he wanted something, other times he would whine, other times he would pant impatiently, so I did not learn what each communication meant. It took me a while to figure out what he wanted. He also had a certain order he wanted things. Feed him before letting him out. He wanted to go out but only if the neighbor dogs went inside. He wanted to go out but only if I walked with him.

 

About two years ago, he was diagnosed with Degenerative Myelopathy. DM is a spinal condition that impacts a dog’s ability to walk and stand independently, He lost feeling in his back legs and struggled to walk. He was very independent and found solutions for each new issue he had. He had arthritis so he was in a lot of pain even from walking a few steps.

Rest in peace, my dear Zeus. Thank you for the last 10 years. I love you. I miss you. I will never forget you.

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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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.

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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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