Third Saturday of April 2021

For "Hang Your Quilt Day" this month, the theme was April Showers and Flowers. Shown from left to right the quilts are a 32" square wall hanging I call Baskets, a 48" square quilt named Cheery Daisy Stars, and a 25" x 31" wall hanging I call Tulips.

Baskets is one of the earliest wall hangings I made. I had moved to California in 1976, bicentennial year, and had started quilting before the birth of my daughter in 1980. My best guess on time frame is the 1980's based on the blue and pink color scheme, validated by a palette chart from retroplanet.com.  This wallhanging is not pieced but rather one panel of fabric from a cheater cloth. Because of the Easter reminiscent baskets, I thought it qualified for the April theme.

A closeup of one basket block reveals that I unimaginatively merely sewed on each of the printed lines. I used my Pfaff with the feed dogs engaged and just stopped and turned to get the straight lines. I do not think I even know what "FMQ" was back then or even "Stitch in the Ditch". A closeup of the hearts and wreath block on the lower left reveals that – oh, no – I did not even finish doing those hearts. The upper right wreath and hearts block was completed. Maybe the baby came and I was distracted or sleep-deprived. Guess what I will be doing once I take down this quilt.

Cheery Daisy Stars, 2007, measures 48" square. Since it predates when I was blogging it does not have a post of its own. Although it is a repeat from last month's Hang Your Quilt Day, I displayed it again because of the April showers and flowers theme. Details about Cheery Daisy Stars are in that Hang Your Quilt Day post dated 3/20/21. 

Tulips was made from a 1990 kit from Keepsake Quilting with a Four Corners pattern titled Field of Flowers. I think dyes were not as stable 30 years ago. That blue/lilac in the outer border is not nearly as vibrant as it started out, which can be seen from comparing the pattern photo with the quilt.

Here are details of the tulip ceramic buttons I added and the tulip motifs I quilted in some of the blank squares. One button is coming loose and one is missing. I'd better fix that, too. I also noticed I had mitered the pink/blue/pink/white borders. Hmmm. I do not usually do that. It is actually fun to go back and review your creations from "a long time ago [in a galaxy] far, far away"

Hang Your Quilt Day Beginnings
Beginning April 2020, my quilt guild members began a tradition of hanging quilts in the front of their homes on the third Saturday of the month as a source of enjoyment for the community and as a thank you for the essential workers during the pandemic. My initial post about this practice is dated 4/22/20. I find it hard to believe it has already been a year.

Hello Little One

Hello Little One has a special meaning for this grandchild. She was born January 11, but I had yet to meet her due to COVID-19 social distancing precautions. She is three months old now and I have just met her. 

This cloth book is made from a Bambi panel I bought at my very last quilt and craft show before COVID-19 put those gatherings on hold. The art work was so soft and gentle I thought I might cut apart the pages and make each into a quilt block. I changed my mind when I realized the quilt would be monotone and not as appealing to a child as I might hope. I decided to stay with its intended use as a cloth book. But I chose to add a bit of pizzazz by inserting some crinkle material within the pages. My youngest granddaughter's oldest sister loved that as a baby. I put crinkle within the inner pages only, not in the cover. Why you ask? A very logical reason. I made the cover first and forgot that was what I intended to do. Duh.

As I paged through the finished book I admired once again the delicate artwork. Although not very visible in the photos, the pages do alternate between pale and medium toned aqua.

I have made many cloth books but in my post for 3/24/13, I included instruction. Tips included

• Rough cutting pages first
• Stretching on bias to square up book
• Leaving final precise cutting to do through all three layers with batting
• Size of turning opening
• Preferred edge crisping tool
• Spine sewing process

As with most panels there is some surrounding fabric that contains printed instructions in black and white; but many panels also contain miniature color pictures as means of illustrating the finished product. I cannot bring myself to throw those out. For a while I considered how I could make the surrounding scraps from this panel into a rattle or a crinkly stuffed toy of some sort, but then stopped myself from going overboard. I folded them up and stored them away with my other scraps in their various disorganized locations. Besides these miniature instructional diagrams there is also often a border that runs around a panel. I save those, too.

Then I had an idea that I would like to revisit some day. People make T-shirt quilts to gather life time experiences. Perhaps I can gather these bits of miniature images from doll, animal, book panels and borders and make a Grandma baby memory quilt. I might have to appliqué each to a block, but I think I can rise to the occasion. Now I am about to make a mess, finding and gathering all those leftovers I was too chicken to throw out but too lazy to store logically. Sound familiar? The next collage is an indication of just how many of those scraps I have.

Project Bags

OK, move over burp cloths and pillowcases. This is my next obsession – Piecekeeper Project Bags designed and promoted by ByAnnie. I got hooked on these when I bought two kits put together by Wooden Gate Quilts in Danville CA and demonstrated on their Thursday noon Live Instagram show. I have never watched the shopping network – possibly a source of false pride...? – but this comes pretty darn close. With COVID minimizing my getting out and about, it is fun once a week to see the new fabrics and products coming into the quilt shop. This is the first of two kits I bought and made. It measures 11" x 17", has a mesh front, zippered front top opening, and quilted back. Also supplied in the kit are three fat quarters: one for the back, one for the lining and one for the bias binding. They are intended for my seven-year-old and five-year-old granddaughters who I will be visiting for the first time in well over a year. I plan to populate them with a few small gifts like books or stickers or puzzles.

I chose a rainbow fat quarter for the back and it seemed to call for a diagonal quilting grid. The lilac fat quarter by Tula Pink had little bugs on it and I thought they would look cute as the lining peeking out through the mesh like from within an insect net. The five year old will get this bag.

 

Here is the bag front with the zipper and mesh attached and a peek at the inside of the finished bag showing the pink "Grunge" polka dot binding. Grunge fabric by Moda Fabrics has become one of the most popular basic fabrics around. 200+ amazing colors, textures, and shadings will make you go gaga for Grunge.

Here are the front and back views of the bag made for my seven-year-old granddaughter. She too gets rainbows but as the lining. Her main fabric is flowery pebbles by Kaffe Fassett. Once again the binding is the pink polka dot "Grunge".

With each kit came an excellent, well-detailed instruction sheet that called out the supplies needed.

When I make more of these I have plenty of my own fat quarters to supply so I calculated the cost of the other components. It came to about slightly over $12 if I provided my own fabric.

• Fabric 3 Fat quarters @ $3-$4 each: ~$10
  
• Soft and Stable 18"x58" @ $12 will yield 4 bags: $3 per bag
• Fusible interfacing 1 yd @ $5 will yield 4 bags: $1.25 per bag
• Mesh 18" x 54" @ $6 will yield 6 bags: $1 per bag
• Zipper $7 per bag
• Subtotal cost per bag: $3 + $1.25 + $1 + $7 = $12.25 before adding ~$10 in fat quarters

I could not just make ones for two granddaughters and leave out my grandson, or while I was at it his dad, mom, and other new infant sister. Here are the fabrics I used for my three-year old grandson and his dad, my son, who works in construction. The CAT heavy construction equipment and their tire tracks will appeal I am sure. The deep blue and bright yellow back was quilted horizontally like a road. The quilting also aligns with the tire tread tracks of the lining

His dad's was also quilted horizontally but using a subtler grey colorway and the bright yellow only as accents. My son will appreciate that I toned down the color choices somewhat for him.

My grandkids' mom is a runner so I had this fabric I bought on a shopping trip in 2015 in a fabric store in North Carolina, saving it for my daughter-in-law. I quilted this vertically to represent the lanes on a running track. I used a fabric that matched the mini-polka dot binding rather than using webbing for the handle.

How long do these take to make? Certainly longer than a pillowcase or a burp cloth. It has been rumored that one clerk at Wooden Gate Quilts can spit one project bag out in 45 minutes! For me, a novice at this bag construction, I would guess my first bag took about six hours; this time includes lunch, snack, think, and leisurely admiration breaks. That sounds like a lot but I checked and double checked the two-sided instruction sheet at each step. Plus, beforehand I take my sweet old time making my fabric selection. You would think buying a kit would cut out this step but oh, no. I have to decide which fat quarter to use for which component. I provide only the outline here for the construction instructions. You can download the free pdf from the By Annie website. There is an instructional video also.

I. CUT AND QUILT
     A. Cut
     B. Quilt to Prepare Bag Back

II. PREPARE COMPONENTS
     A. Prepare Bias Binding
     B. Prepare Handle
     C. Prepare Bag Front

III ASSEMBLE BAG
     A. Attach Bag Front to Bag Back
     B. Attach Handle
     C. Round Corners and Bind

I spent time Googling a source of more supplies. I bought more mesh and zippers in several colors for future bags. Two of my local quilt stories have limited supplies, mostly due to demand and commercial COVID shipping delays. I am a guilty culprit, too, having bought out my local Livermore quilt shop In Between Stitches' supply of zippers in seven different colors. I can get the Soft and Stable and limited mesh and zippers at the quilt shop that initially got me hooked on these kits. The ByAnnie zippers have a wider zipper tape and so are best suited for bag construction. Although I give my brick and mortar stores first shot, I have been successful online at the The Fat Quarter Shop and ByAnnie for a more exotic and fun color selection of both mesh and zippers. As you can see, this is my fun new diversion.

I made two more project bags after getting some more supplies. One for my three-month old granddaughter, made from leftover fabrics from her quilt (my post dated 2/19/21), tea party on the back and birds on a wire for the lining. I populated the bag with a mouse rattle that also squeaks (my post dated 3/10/21), a cloth book with crinkly pages (my post dated 4/11/21) and some purchased vinyl bath tub books.

Then I made a project bag for my sister populated only with the instructions to make this bag and a Happy Birthday card. I did not write on the card. She knows the bag and card are from me by the return address on the mailing envelope. That way she can repurpose the card to send to someone else. After all, it is the thought that counts. She likes blue and turquoise and seashells. I finally – yes, finally – broke up a coordinated stack of fat quarters I have been "saving".

I made these last two bags on the same day and I estimated they took me about 2½ hours each. That is still quite aways away from that local quilt store staff record of 45 minutes. I doubt I will ever be that fast. For one thing, it takes me at least that long to select my three fat quarters! I enjoy making these so why rush the process?