Popsicles

Today I finished a small project that had been hanging in my closet for three years. In 2020 I co-chaired a Block of the Month committee for my quilt guild. In July, all the block kits for a popsicle theme had not sold, so I purchased the eight remaining, pieced them myself, and assembled them to be a table topper or wall hanging. A closeup of the quilting shows my experimentation. I got practice with a wavy ruler with a ± 0.75 inch amplitude that nicely filled in the 1.5" wide vertical sashing. I practiced my horizontal undulating FMQ to look like water beneath each popsicle to represent the drips as each melts. Small projects require less bravery to try something new and mean less to quilt.

The backing was a patriotic stripe and, even though it was a small project, I made my customary grosgrain ribbon labels for the back corners.

My co-chair and I had picked a color scheme that reminded us of the rocket pops sold on the roving ice cream trucks of the summer days of our youth. Each popsicle had a sashing added to the top or bottom so when joined together they sat at varying angles as if they were dancing across the quilt.

Reluctant to hand stitch the binding onto the back, I used a flange binding that I could attach on the back, bring to the front, and stitch in the ditch of the ⅛" wide white flange, all on my Pfaff.

The joined blocks had hung on a hanger in my closet paired with a length of fabric to be used as a backing. This project took a little over two days to complete after cluttering up a rod in my closet for close to ~1000 days. Popsicles is nearly square, measuring 19" wide by 18" tall. Completing it was fun and satisfying. Although I have made no progress so far this year on several large bed-size quilts, listed in my goals for 2023, small victories, like this one, do make me happy.

Here are the instruction that went out with the block kits in case any of you readers want to share a bit of the joy and satisfaction that accompanies a small project quickly made.

Blue Star Quilt by Daughter Robin

My daughter visited me from Oklahoma with her son and daughter during their spring break from school, March 13-18, 2023. This quilt for her ten-year-old daughter Autumn is really Robin's to share on her blog Robin Loves Quilting when she completes it and writes her post about it. But we sandwiched it while she was here and she quilting the majority of it on my Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen. Here are a few photos from that visit. It was great mother/daughter bonding between her and me. It was also great bonding when she and her daughter initially selected the fabrics and pattern. Robin bought the extra-wide backing fabric when we were together at the Houston Quilt Festival, November 2022.

Unanticipated Project Completion

In the spring of 2020, twenty-four ladies from the Amador Valley Quilters guild formed a small group called Pieces of Blue. Each quilters contributed six fat quarters each in a different shade of blue. These fat quarters were intermingled and then each quilter randomly drew six blues, different from her own original six, and added a background fabric of her own. A pattern was introduced each month and the quilters gathered in small groups to complete it. The patterns were Jacob's Ladder (Feb), Snail's Trail (Mar), Bear's Paw (Apr), Capital T (May), and Flying Geese (Jun). 

I had made seven of these blocks when COVID-19 made an appearance and a lockdown ensued. The get-togethers were discontinued and I packed away the blocks and fabrics in a 12" x 12" storage bin. I typically store the components – pattern, fabric, specialty rulers, magazines, etc. – for my ongoing-projects or dream projects-to-be in these 12"x12" plastic bins designed mainly for scrapbookers. I own fifteen of these bins, as many that will store five across and three high on one of my shelves. The following photo shows nine bins. I have a self imposed limit of fifteen on this number of bins. If I need another for a new project, I constrain myself to 1) finishing a project in one of the bins or 2) giving up on a dream project and disseminating  the components to free a bin. Hence I decided to finish up the Pieces of Blue exercise. I needed an empty bin.

I joined six of the blocks to form a center area of a quilt and disassembled the Flying Geese block to use on corners. From the remaining fabrics I formed four-patch or nine-patch blocks depending on the remnant sizes of the blues, pairing the colors for contrast. From some cut off corners I formed HSTs that I made into a couple of pinwheel blocks. This is not exactly innovative quilting but I really did not have a plan; so, for me, this activity was innovative and a bit freeing. Here is the result showing the overall assembly.

Next are two closeups of 1) two central blocks Capital T and Bear's Paw and 2) the edging of four and nine patches with the corner-rounding Flying Geese. I had already sandwiched and quilting these before thinking to take the assembly photos. I gained a lot of practice on my go-to four petal quilting motif. It was also a reasonable use of my variegated thread. I sometimes find it hard to find an appropriate use for variegated thread.

I made sure the quilt top was narrower than a WOF so there would no backing seams would be needed. I chose a fabric from my stash with skiffs floating since the shades of blue throughout the water complimented the front while the red of the skiffs added a bit of interest. I used the same fabric for the binding and used red thread to embroider the turquoise labels for the bottom corners with my name and date. For the year I put 2020, 2023.

 

Here is the completed quilt, front and back being held by my helpful and willing husband. Pieces of Blue measures 38" x 49". The bright sunny day was great for lighting, but a bit of wind made capturing the perfect straight-on photo slightly challenging.

Here is what I have left of the scraps. I succeeded in emptying a bin for my next project. Yay. This "distraction" took several days, actually almost two non-continuous weeks, to complete. But I had fun. Drats –  this completion was not even on my list of goals for 2023! And my next project is... Oh, wait. I've forgotten. But I now have an empty bin awaiting it when I remember/decide.