February Photographs

Here are my favorite photos from the month of February.

I liked the color of the leaves next to the color of the bricks, and the snow next to the shutters.

A pretty sky day.

A cloudy sun.

It was a rainy day and I liked the color and texture of Zeus' fur against the Zoysia grass.

 I found Zeus watching the door. He doesn't normally do that.

Colorful flowers to brighten the winter.

Linked to:
Wandering Camera

Uncommon and Unexpected

When I had looked at the book Uncommon and Unexpected several years ago, I said to myself  "Self, you can make that" after looking at several of them.  I say that to myself a lot.  It is genetically programmed.  Then I said "self, how about you finish something first?"

Fast forward to this year, Sujata Shah offered a quilt challenge to make something from this book.  I said to myself "Self, you can make that, and look, there are even directions so you don't have to figure out which quilt to make or how to make it." Then I said "goodness, how many quilts do you want to start this year?"

Fast forward to this weekend, I made some space on my table so I could help my mother with her taxes.  When she left, I looked at that empty space on the table and realized it was the perfect opportunity to start this quilt. Otherwise, it would be a waste of perfectly good space.

I knew I wanted to use the red, white and blue colorway of the original quilt and that the fabric is already in one spot. It is in the Sweet Land of Liberty quilt box, but I'm sure it is willing to share. I decided to make a mini quilt for March.

Then I started cutting and making the blocks before I changed my mind.  The big squares are the "blocks" and the quarter square triangles are the cornerstones. I will have to trim the cornerstones, but am trying to decide whether to cut it to proper size or to add them in a more improv fashion.  I just have to do the scrappy sashing and I will be able to put it together.

Winner for Old Quilt Book Blog Hop

On Tuesday, when I posted my blog hop post, I offered a drawing for some old books I had.  Today, I announce that the winner is Anita from Domestic Felicity. I have contacted her and will be sending her package off this week.

Fourth Rail Fence Progress

I have been working on a rail fence quilt as a leader / ender project, and yesterday, I pressed the blocks I had made so far. The Fourth Rail is a dark one, hence its name, and the rest are scrappy. I haven't decided on the layout for this quilt, but the dark rail will help show off the layout.

I am really happy with this is how this is turning out, and I really like being able to feed these blocks through while I am making something else. It somehow motivates me to keep quilting because I don't get to that "good stopping place" as often when I am working on these as well.

This Week's Quilting Progress

Circle Block 264

I sat down to watch a show (Frontline) and thought I should be stitching something, and since I had talked about the Stitch Meditations, I thought some handwork would fit the bill.  I made a circle block instead of a separate Stitch Meditations to make more progress on that quilt. It reminds me of a shirt I had a long time ago.

Jeans Quilt

I was going through my bedroom, using the Konmari method, ala Marie Kondo, and found this quilt in the bench/chest. This quilt is one of my oldest, if not THE oldest UFO I have. It looks like I stuffed a couple of big unfinished quilts in the chest to get them out of the way.  Way back in the early 90's, I had sewed some jeans together, improv style, and planned to applique and embroider designs on it. It has an eye, a fish, a house, and a tree already appliqued on it. All of these were made out of jeans as well.  I remember asking my family members for stuff to add to this quilt, and my mother had given me some patches, but I hadn't added them to the quilt.

Anyway, I also found, in a separate place, some fireman embroidery patches my mother had given me and  I thought I should add them before they got lost and make more progress on this quilt. They have numbers embroidered on the stabilizer EQ0173, EQ0174, and EQ0179. I looked them up just for fun, and you can still buy them for $10 each. Now, my quilt's value just went up by $30.

If I ever make a quilt like this again, I would applique first, before joining the pieces. It is difficult to comfortably add applique in the middle of the quilt. I will try a hoop next time I add anything to the quilt.

I'm not planning on picking up this quilt to finish just yet. I am already feeling overwhelmed with the current Works in Process and the new quilts I want to start!

 15 Minutes to Stitch: Week 8

This week I made six circle blocks, and appliqued some patches on an old jeans quilt.  I also worked on joining the Butterfly Wreath blocks. It looks like I missed reporting a week, but I sewed almost every day so far this year, and for those days I missed, I more than made up for it during the week.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  55 out of 55 sessions
Success Rate: 100%

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

More Circle Blocks

It is a quilty lottery for you to come visit my blog. You never know what you are going to get. Is it going to be an improv quilt or a traditional quilt. Bright funky colors or calm subdued colors?  Neatness or casual?  Let's spin the wheel, shall we?

Here are a few more circles I made for my circle 365 project.

Circle Block 259

As you may know, I've been working on cutting up my shoe-box of scraps. One of the scraps I found was this little circle, and knew immediately that I had cut it into a circular shape for the Quilty 365 project.  It is a long term project where I am making 365 or thereabouts blocks that look like circles if you squint at them long enough. I would say something about a block a day or something like that, but you and I both know that would be a lie. I don't know if the original intention was to add something else to this block or not, but the new intention is to leave it small and simple.

Circle Block 260

While I was at it, I figured I might as well make a few more, and before long, I had to make five to make them blog worthy. I saw a quilt that had these kinds of open circles yesterday on my blog travels. A normal person would call them rings. I'm sure they were better arranged than these, but I don't use fusible for these so the sewing machine tends to overrule my decisions about where the circles are placed.

Circle Block 261

The red and green scraps are from the Islamic Tile quilt.  This background and the gold is in the Butterfly Wreath and probably also in Life of Plenty.

 

Circle Block 262

These oranges are in Ringo Lake (now known as Sorrento) and the scraps are cut up for Fourth Rail (formerly known as Four Rails). This  idea is from a free quilt pattern I found yesterday in my blog travels. I've done suns before on this quilt, but I needed to do the sun dance yesterday because it was so cloudy and dreary, and it worked! It is sunny today.

 

Circle Block 263

This one is clearly from Butterfly Wreath. I had some extra HSTs and thought they would be perfect for this quilt. I was going to piece the sashing, but since the circle is applique, I figure the whole block could be applique.


My elementary school teacher friends celebrate 100 days, but I am pretty sure it is 100 days into the school year and not 100 days left.  I am so close to having only 100 "days" left!

Linked to: WIP Linky Party
  Can I get a Whoop Whoop! It's a big deal to get started on these blocks again.

Dust Off an Old Book: Cultural Fusion

Welcome! It is my time to dust off an old book for the blog hop.  Today, I am featuring Cultural Fusion Quilts by Sujata Shah. The subtitle is A Melting Pot of Piecing Traditions.  It shows you how to make 15 free-form block projects and has a lot of inspirational photos and ideas.

When I cleaned off all the dust, I discovered that it came with a project that I had already started.

I started this quilt way back in 2015.  In November 2015, I showed I was making the blocks.  I had already made one improv quilt based on Sherri Lynn Wood pattern and I was intrigued by Sujata's book because the blocks are improv, but once you trim them up, they are easy to sew together in a traditional fashion. It is an easier way to step into the world of improv without becoming overwhelmed.

By December 31, 2015, it was a complete quilt top.  I had a lot of fun making the blocks and the hardest part was choosing the fabric and the layout. I had another quilt that was ahead of it in line to be quilted so it was folded and put on the hanger.  And there it sat until it was time to dust off the book this year. I figured I could just quilt it in time for blog hop day.

When I laid it out again, though, I decided that the quilt was too small, which may have been another reason why it wasn't quilted yet.  I decided might as well play with some more free form design. The leftover fabric had already been put away or used, and I think I had tried to use up as much as I could for this quilt, so I had to get creative in the borders. I decided I could carry on with different fabrics that would go with the original fabrics.

I decided I wanted to add two borders, a rail fence border and triangles. After lots of thinking and auditioning, I decided the rail fence would go first.  Instead of making the rows into same size blocks, I cut them random sizes. I like how some of the skinnier rails look like they are folded. All this decision making took time, but I decided it was better to take my time so I would be happy with the outcome, even if it meant the quilt might not get finished by blog hop day.

After debating yet again about whether it still needed the triangle borders, I went ahead and added them. I only trimmed the part where they would be added to the quilt because I will need to trim after quilting anyway. I figure I can save myself the trouble of doing that twice.

The pictures so far make it look rectangular, but it really is more of a square quilt. 

For my efforts as a part of this blog hop, I offer you two additional borders. It gives you more insight to the ideas in this book than if I had just quilted it. I think this is now plenty big enough and is ready for quilting. I need to piece the backing and the batting as well as finish another quilt that is ahead of this one in line, so unfortunately, am not able to show you a finished quilt today.

This post is a part of the Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop hosted by Beaquilter.  To celebrate, I am going to draw a name from all of the people who comment on this post and send them these two books of quilt patterns. I got them both from a library book sale. They offer a variety of patterns for the beginner and intermediate quilter. Let me know if you want them in the comments, and I will  I will draw a winner on Monday the 25th to give people time to find this post.

Thank you for visiting me, Shasta Matova, here at High Road Quilter. I've enjoyed our visit and you are welcome back anytime.

Here's a list of the other participants so you can continue your hop.

Monday Feb 18^th

Turid at densyendehimmel

Pamela at Pamelaquilts

Joan at Moosestashquilting

Anne at seems like a plan

Susan at Desertsky Quilting

Selina at Selinaquilts

Kathleen at Kathleenmcmusing

Tuesday Feb 19^th

Cindy Stitchin at home

Jennifer at curlicuecreations

Stephanie at stephjacobsondesigns

Kathy at Kathysquilts

Shasta at High Road Quilter (that's me!)

Theresa at bumbleberrystitches

Wednesday Feb 20^th

Sharon at Vrooman’s quilts

Suzy at Websterquilt

Nancy at patchworkbreeze

Brenda at songbirddesigns

Karrin at karrinscrazyworld

Denise at craftraditions

Thursday Feb 21^st

Anita at Domestic Felicity

Leanne at Devoted Quilter

Jennifer at Dizzyquilter

Carla at Creatin' in the Sticks

Lee Anne at Podunk Pretties

Andree at quiltinglearningcombo

Lyndsey at Sew Many Yarns

Friday Feb 22^nd

Bea at Beaquilter

Barbara at Bejweledquilts

Laura at slice of pi quilts

Sherry Powered By Quilting

Pat at Life in the Scrapatch

Carol at Just let me quilt

Kathy at Kathy's Kwilts and More

Marian at seams to be sew

Also linked with:
My Quilt Infatuation

Crazy Seasons Mystery Quilt

When I was making this Life of Plenty quilt, or thereabouts, I learned about a quilt called Wool Crazy which is a primitive quilt made with wool applique. It is so beautiful and so tempting.  I didn't get the pattern because I had so many other quilts I needed to make first, like finishing Life of Plenty.

Now, a bunch of quilt shops are offering a crazy quilt with wool applique, and they are offering the pattern for free!  Go to Farmhouse Threads for the link to these shops and the schedule. It started on January 15 but the patterns are still available, so get them while you can! There is also a lovely blog post that shows Stitch Meditations that is very tempting as well.