Fat Quarter Storage and a Wee Bit o' Crochet

I have done no quilting since the last WIP but I have progressed on sewing room organization.  I have this Varde kitchen island that I bought at a garage sale and it is perfect to house my fat quarters. I standardize my folding sequence for my fat quarters- in half parallel to the selvage and in half again, same direction- then in half and then thirds in the other direction.  The 18 inch length winds up divided by 6 for a 3 inch height that fits just perfectly in two rows in each of the twelve drawers.  Yes, I have filled it to capacity with my stash of fat quarters and fabric pieces that are less than one yard.  Upon research, I found I can purchase another, new one, here.  Friday night my husband and I went to IKEA and we bought a second one since the first one has worked out so well. He spend a good deal of his day off Monday waiting for the delivery and then assembling each of the twelve drawers.  What a guy!

 

My husband also saw this link for a sample IKEA sewing room while searching for the Varde kitchen island like the one we bought and I wanted to share it with those of you who read this blog.  It is truly an inspiration.  Here is just one sample picture from the link.  The fronts of this quilter's drawers are padded foam core fabric inserts but in my arrangement I actually see two fat quarters peeking through each drawer front so I can see the color coding of the drawers. Do browse through the rest of the sewing room pictures.  I am considering some upright cabinets with glass doors like you see on either side of the blackboard.  Since we are now empty nesters we are considering some home sprucing up.  I plan to remove carpet from sewing room and perhaps in the future I wil post some cool pix of my refreshed sewing room.



Although no quilting this week I did crochet on the flight home from Oklahoma and made this hat.  I think it will be perfect for an October baby.  The link for the pattern for it is at this URL.  I chose a more realistic burnt orange color instead of a bright orange and think it came out very cute.

Completed projects:

1. Pumpkin baby hat
2. Purchase and delivery of second fat quarter cabinet.

Ongoing projects:

1. Frank is still working on assembly of rest of 12 drawer cabinet
2. Pink/lilac/green baby quilt - being returned from free-motion quilter, will bind it when I get it.
3. Doll quilt - with free-motion quilter
4. Chicken quilt -  bought spray baste 505 online from Amazon to try myself to do free-motion quilting on this quilt- awaiting delivery of 505

No progress (but re-listed here so I do not forget and leave buried in closet):

• Hexagon Mask Quilt - layout begun but overwhelming
• Fire and Ice Quilt- sitting in closet awaiting decision on backing
• Grinch Quilt - ripening on the design wall
• Pumpkin/Iris/Blossom square wall hanging- needs backing and binding

I want to start:

• Bug baby quilt- more on this later
• Presents with Bows quilt kit
• The Ghastlies- strip quilt
• Rubber Duckies strip quilt

This week's stats:
     Completed  projects - 1 
     New projects - 0 
     Currently in progress - 3

Tornados, Quilt Stores, and Baby Caps

OK.  What do all these three have in common?  During my recent visit to my daughter in Oklahoma City we heard tornado sirens go off nearby, we visited quilt stores between storm threats, and I knitted baby caps during the threats... that's what! The closest a tornado came to us was about 15 miles, in Norman, but seeing the path and progress detailed on the news and hearing those sirens made it so real.  It was nothing like the earthquake events I am accustomed to in California.  Here you do not have to live the stress- boom it just hits and there you are, you deal. In OK it is like pulling off a bandaid s-l-o-w-l-y.

I took a picture of this blue-toned quilt offered as a class at Quilters' Corner in Oklahoma City.  Since it is a variation design by the owner (and since we viewed it between tornados) maybe it should be called Storm at (OK)C.  While there I dropped off my Baby Heart Strings quilt and Doll quilt with  Mary Ann to be free motion quilted.  I picked up a few rainbow fat quarters, also, but have no pix to show of these.

About those baby caps... My daughter-in-law innocently asked me if I could make a hat just by looking at a picture.  I took it as a challenge and googled a free pattern from the internet and adjusted it. ( Hmmm, is that cheating on the self-challenge to have used a pattern?) Since I have no mini-human models for the caps, here they are worn by inanimate objects. This is a football cap for a friend of my daughter-in law, modeled by a ball of yarn. To the left of it is the picture I used for inspiration.  I started it on the plane flight out from California to Oklahoma and finished it at my daughter's house during the severe thunder storms and- oh, yes- hail. Isn't there some football song associated with "Hail to the Chief"? Bad joke. Sorry. This link was very helpful in determining sizes of clothing and I used it to establish the gage I needed for the size I wanted to end up with, using the yarn I bought purely for the right color brown. 

I found this luscious fall-evoking colored yarn in Michael's Craft Store and so wanted to see how it worked up on a small scale project. I knitted another hat on the plane ride home. Again, since I have no mini-human I used one of the bunnies I had not yet put away from Easter to model the cap.  The  bottom brim of his hat is just rolled up stockinette stitch but for interest I added a ribbed inset to look like a hatband.  The pom pom was made using my 30+ year old Susan Bates plastic pom-pom maker.  I amazed myself that I could still find it!   

A close-up of the yarn shows a rich teal mixed in with the customary fall colors of gold, orange, and olive.   

I googled the pom pom maker to see if they still existed and was surprised to see they are virtually unchanged in over 30 years.  Mine has the same colors in a different order- pink, white, blue from innermost ring to outermost ring.  It is also extremely scuffed up from all the times I inserted the points of scissor between the discs to cut the yarn.  But, ya know, it still feels like an old friend.

 Completed projects:

1. Football knit cap
2. Fall knit baby cap

Ongoing projects:

1. Doll quilt -off to free-motion quilter
2. Pink/lilac/green baby quilt -off to free-motion quilter

No progress :

1. Chicken quilt - made binding, picked backing- think I want to free motion this myself
2. Pumpkin/Iris/Blossom square wall hanging- needs backing, but made binding

I want to start:

• Presents with Bows quilt kit
• The Ghastlies- strip quilt
• Rubber Duckies strip quilt

UFOs I want to ignore for a while:

• Hexagon Mask Quilt - layout begun but overwhelming
• Fire and Ice Quilt- sitting in closet awaiting decision on backing
• Grinch Quilt - ripening on the design wall

This week's stats:
      Completed  projects - 2 
     New projects - 1 (also counts under completed) 
     Currently in progress - to be decided what to focus on next

Dolls and Hearts Off to be Quilted

Last time I posted on the doll quilt I was deciding on a second striped border or not. See photo below repeated from this post.  I decided to not add a second striped border.

When I made the coral binding I discovered the fabric was not printed on grain...

so I fussy cut the binding so it would align with the printed image...

and folded it in half, then thirds, to wrap around the quilt edge.

 

I waffled for a while on how to cut the backing fabric and yesterday made great progress in striping the back with five rows of the children-holding-hands fabric.  See the backing below...

and a closeup of the children. 

With binding made and backing pieced, I am now going to hand this quilt off to the free motion quilter my daughter uses in Oklahoma. Normally I would lean toward sending a quilt of this size  to a long arm quilter- the quilt measures 55" wide x 63" long- but Mary Ann is very inventive in the patterns she creates, and also, in this case, I think it would be difficult to program a computer controlled machine to navigate around the three dimensional aprons of the dolls shown  up close in the picture below.  The picture also shows how when I banded the five rows of children on the backing I added enough extra at the top, about 6", to adjust the relative position of the top and backing prior to quilting.  The backing is folded over at the top to the front of the quilt; you can just barely see the coral band of the upper border showing through.

I also finished adding the three borders and made the backing and binding yesterday for the pink and lilac hearts baby quilt.  It, too, is off to the quilter but here is a sneak peek at the lilac/pink/lilac border and the rebellious, not delicate, fabric I picked for the backing.  Sorry about the wrinkles, folks.  Pix of finished product will be better.

 Completed projects:

1. Dolls- almost there but not quite
2. Pink/lilac/green baby quilt - almost there but not quite

Ongoing projects:

1. Doll quilt - borders added, backing pieced, binding made, off to free-motion quilter
2. Pink/lilac/green baby quilt - borders added, backing pieced, binding made, off to free-motion quilter

No progress (but re-listed here so I do not forget and leave buried in closet):

• Chicken quilt - made binding and picked backing
• Hexagon Mask Quilt - layout begun but overwhelming
• Fire and Ice Quilt- sitting in closet awaiting decision on backing
• Grinch Quilt - ripening on the design wall
• Pumpkin/Iris/Blossom square wall hanging- needs backing and binding

I want to start:

• Presents with Bows quilt kit
• The Ghastlies- strip quilt
• Rubber Duckies strip quilt

This week's stats:
     Completed  projects - 0 
     New projects - 0 
     Currently in progress - 2

Voices in Cloth Quilt Show

This post was to ooh and aah over the awsome venue and beautiful quilts at this show and enumerate my rather modest purchases there- and I will get to that.  But first off-

I WON ONE OF THE RAFFLE QUILTS  !!

It is called ironically, "Thank Your Lucky Stars" and the women who designed and fabricated it were members of the East Bay Heritage Quilters. I love the way the stars seem to sparkle and many of them are made from polka dot fabrics, which I have a special fondness for, as can be observed by my other entries to this blog. It was such a thrill to get that phone call the day after the show that I was a winner. The quilt is laid out in a spare bedroom upstairs and I get a little burst of giddiness every time I look in on it. Many thanks not only to the talented and artistic women who made this quilt but also to their fellow guild members who put on a fantastic show entitled Voices in Cloth. Read on to see some of the other quilts that were my particular favorites from the show.

There were these two Christmas quilts, hung next to each other, each evoking a very different, though still "Noelic" feel. The blue bordered one makes me think of festive packages all wrapped up.  The artist for the green bordered one said her goal was to deplete her stash of Christmas fabric but that she hardly made a dent in it.

I was fascinated by this the block pattern on this next quilt. The color blend was very rich and almost melodic. The mirror image blocks, angled and made from striped fabrics, were very effective. The shadows falling on the quilt did not permit a unobstructed overall photo of it; but I thought the dark angular images overlaid on the quilt helped to carry out the subtle theme of the quilt. I also took some close-up pictures of a couple blocks.  

 

I liked the crisp feeling conveyed by the strong color choices within this pinwheel quilt.

I actually have downloaded the pattern for this next, very ornate, quilt from The Quilt Show block of the month. It was awesome to see it made up in person. Of course I have not started it as a block of the month so it can easily be overwhelming to do such detail if you do not pace yourself and approach it one month at a time. Some day I will make this quilt. 

I liked this rubber ducky one.  Just because.  Who cannot like such cheerful colors and sudsy bath tub sentiments?

I liked the bold colors of this one.

Isn't the kaleidoscope block formation of these three hearts fascinating? I talked to its creator for quite a while.  There is a lovely poem on the back dedicated to her son and his wife for their wedding.

And here are some of my purchases from the show.  This show for me was more about the quilts than the vendors and I was very OK with that.  Of late I have been buying faster than I have been sewing!

This was a kit for an Easter table runner.  1/2 yd of dots. 1/3 yard of eggs. Free pattern. I bought it for my beloved dots collection.

I could not pass up this cheerful collection of birdie fat quarters...

... nor these luscious mottled dots and swirls.

These are just some basics to replenish my stash of yellow-orange hues... and ya never know when you will need to add an old fashioned typewriter keyboard to a quilt! (Note ... more dots...)

 Completed projects:

1. WINNING "THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS" QUILT AT A RAFFLE!

Ongoing projects:

1. Doll quilt - have post on binding pending in drafts
2. Pink/lilac/green baby quilt for grand niece - main body pieced, pieced border cut out and begun to be pieced- subject of next blog

No progress:

• Chicken quilt - made binding and picked backing
• Hexagon Mask Quilt - layout begun but overwhelming
• Fire and Ice Quilt- sitting in closet awaiting decision on backing
• Grinch Quilt - ripening on the design wall
• Pumpkin/Iris/Blossom square wall hanging- needs backing and binding

I want to start:

• Presents with Bows quilt kit
• The Ghastlies- strip quilt
• Rubber Duckies strip quilt

This week's stats:
     Completed  projects - 1 
     New projects - 0 
     Currently in progress - 2