Tuesday, December 31, 2019

2019 Year in Review


Happy New Year's eve! Lots of quilt bloggers are looking back at 2019 today to see what we accomplished, so I'm joining in. I had a busy year, and I've collected my photos in collages sorted roughly by date. Early in the year I had a batch of gift quilts, with a few charity ones thrown in. 


This group featured several panel quilts, a finish from 2018's Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC,) and the fruit-themed flimsy. One of the charities I support, Victoria's Quilts, asks for only tops.


This next batch had more panels (yes, that's a second quilt with the same Geisha) and the start of my new journey of finishing other people's orphan blocks for Covered in Love (CiL.)


Toward the middle of the year, I was up to my eyeballs in "Mendota" quilts for the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild. Most of the Mendotas were tops made by others, finished by me. I did make a few of my own "from scratch." A couple more CiL orphan finishes, too.


More orphans and Mendotas! This is when I decided to write a series of blog posts on different ways to put together orphan blocks: Giving Orphans a Home. This series will continue in 2020.


This next batch shows a few finishes for 2019 RSC, more orphans, and a Round Robin from 2018 that finally got quilted and bound.


And finally, my latest finishes. They are a few more for CiL, both orphans and original piecing by me. Whew! One thing I've learned this year is that quilts sure go together quickly when someone else makes all the blocks or when using a panel. Or both!

I had a great quilty 2019 and am looking forward to 2020. Lots more orphan blocks are waiting for their chance to meet their forever homes, and I have plans to do a deep dive into my stash and use up some hoarded fabrics. And I'm so happy to be part of the larger online quilting community, sharing inspiration and encouragement with all of you. Your kind comments keep me connected even when I'm out in the middle of the ocean. Thank you for being a BIG part of my journey!

Thursday, December 26, 2019

Four for Covered in Love


Happy Boxing Day, quilty friends! We're having gorgeous weather along the Florida panhandle. That has allowed me to finally, FINALLY take some photos to share with you. I've had a stack of finished quilts waiting for their glamour shots before I could mail them off to Kat for Covered in Love.

This first one is made entirely of other people's orphan blocks. The colors in the scraps are really bright and saturated! Like wiggly kindergartners, they needed just a little bit of help to calm down and play nicely together, so I sashed them with a tonal brick red and gray cornerstones. I also trimmed them all to a consistent size so they could be sewn in this even grid. The overall effect is interesting and cheerful without being chaotic, I think. 


Kat sent me quite a bit of donated fabric in larger chunks, great for piecing into backings. I used all the jungle animals here, plus a few extra orphan blocks. The binding was premade by a CiL contributor, too, a nice time saver for me.


This next one came to me as finished flying geese, already sewn together into loooooooooooooooong strips. Included was a note from Gail H. who had sent it to Kat: "These pieces were given to me by LaVonne Bevens in 2000. Someone had given them to her, she said." So those geese flew from "someone" to LaVonne to Gail to Kat to me. I'm at least the fifth quilter to handle them, so it was definitely time to let these geese fly home! The note also included some photos of possible layout ideas, and this one struck my fancy. The mustard yellow fabric was also a donation. I quilted wishbones all along that yellow, using yellow thread, so it's completely invisible. Good thing I find wishbones to be rather pleasant and meditative because I doubt anyone else will even notice them.


The backing is pieced from fat quarters that were part of the same fabric line as the mustard. They are reproduction prints with Americana motifs, and super nice quality cotton. This quilt is so soft!


This one is my favorite of the bunch. Look at that sweet birdie panel! SO cute! Kat sent this to me, and I'm not sure if it was donated to her or from her personal stash (edited to add: Kat says it was donated.) I know the jelly roll strips that I used to make the 16 patches and binding were her own fabric. They were lying next to the panel in my studio and I had one of those "Aha!" moments. They look made for each other, don't they?


I love the modern, stylized design of these birds and the pretty autumn colors. The deep, rich, chocolate brown borders were also part of the Americana fabric line donation. Aaaaaaand now I want some dark chocolate.


The backing is pieced from a combination of my own yardage and donated pieces. The birdhouses at the top are a chunk I've had for ages that never went with any of my other fabrics, but it works thematically and chromatically here. Every fabric has a destiny!


All the darker pieces of the argyle came from a donated fat quarter bundle, and I added the black polka dot sashing and cream background. I've loved argyle since I was in high school, so it was really fun to stitch up! I think my Mom will approve of this one, too. I wish I had taken more close up photos of the fabrics; they have really pretty metallic accents. Maybe Kat will do that when the quilt arrives in Texas.


The back is a big chunk of a funky donated mod olive green print, with the leftover squares from the argyles. I left this photo uncropped so we can all enjoy the shadow of my hand on the camera. Apparently I hold my fingers out JUST SO to take pictures, because every single one of these photos have that same shadow!

Three quilts got boxed up today (how appropriate!) and are winging their way to Kat. I would have sent more, but to paraphrase Donald Rumsfield, you to go the post office with the boxes you have. And there are more quilts that finally were photographed today that are ready to feature in my Giving Orphans a Home series, so stay tuned!

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Fat Quarter Challenge


One of the charities that I support, Quilts Beyond Borders, has a fun challenge. It is sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop, who have been generous with prizes. In a nutshell, the challenge is to make a quilt using at least one fat quarter, and send it in to the challenge coordinator. That's it! Easy peasy.


I submitted my quilt at the end of November, while we were still in the Metal Shark boatyard. Taking photos in that filthy environment was a bit of a challenge! The pattern is an old one called Five Yard. It doesn't really use full yards so it was easy to modify to the size needed. 


I made my piece using some fun Australian-inspired fabrics. There are kangaroos and Aboriginal art motifs. These were pre-cut 6.5" squares that I had in the stash. 


I pulled more fabrics in purple, turquoise and royal blue to complement the Aussie themed ones. The actual "challenge" fat quarter is this bold zigzag, which I think is from the Kaffe Fasset collective. 


Of course, the quilt needs to meet QBB's size and labeling requirements, which can be found here. I pieced together the backing with some more aquas and blues, added the sewn-in label, and quilted an easy stipple. 


Isn't this royal blue stained glass fabric neat? I had enough for a bit on the back after I made the binding with it. 


This piece of the backing is metallic stars to represent the Southern Cross constellation and that's the name of this quilt. True story: I visited a friend in Australia for a few weeks in 1985. We stayed at a goat farm in the outback, far from the city lights. One night, I stepped outside my room and was completely overwhelmed by the unfamiliar night sky. So many stars! All in the "wrong" places! It was like being on an alien planet. Suddenly a kookaburra cried out its weird laugh right next to me and scared the bejabbers out of me. I scrambled back into my room and ducked under the covers!

If you have a FQ lying around (Ha ha! Who doesn't?) consider making a quilt and donating it to the Fat Quarter Challenge for Quilts Beyond Borders. Once your quilt is received, it is eligible each month for a $25 gift certificate AND the end of year $100 prize. How many contests put your name back into the hat month after month? It's a win-win!

Friday, December 20, 2019

2020 Planning Party

2019 Planning Party

I'm joining Quilting Jet Girl Yvonne's 2020 planning party. We're sharing plans, goals and resolutions for the new year. She's giving away lots of nice prizes, so it's definitely worth checking out and joining in!

Tubs stuffed with neglected FQs
I'm not normally one for setting things out in advance like this, but had already been thinking about playing a game with myself in 2020. Normally I participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This year I'm changing it up a bit and making it the Rainbow Stash Challenge. And more specifically, the fat quarters in my stash. They have been languishing, unused, lately. So as Angela announces the new color each month, I'm going to try to make a dent in the FQs of that color.

Deep drawer o' orphans











In addition, I have enough orphan block projects for Covered in Love that each one can be kinda-sorta assigned to a color:

Red: Patriotic red, white and blue orphans
Pink: Caribbean houses
Orange: Orange/green mix orphans
Yellow: Donated kit of yellow and blue florals
Lime green: Lime stars
Dark green: Green and purple mix orphans
Aqua: Primarily aqua mix orphans
Light blue: More patriotic blocks and scraps
Dark blue: Lone star top to be finished
Purple: Purple and chocolate brown orphans
Brown: Autumnal blocks
Black: Bright colors with black background orphans

Big stack o' panels











I also want to make a dent in my novelty and themed fabrics and panels. So I've divided them into 12 subjects and will draw one out of a hat each month to work on. Doesn't this sound like a fun game? Time to get these happy fabrics launched!

Cats
Dogs
Birds
Butterflies
Fish
Adult beverages: coffee/wine/beer/cocktails
Horses
Science/space/Earth
Trains
Camping/fishing
Food
Scooters

(Edited to add:) I went through my panels a week after writing this and decided to add 5 more themes. Time to stop hoarding these panels!
Farm/Chickens
Jungle
Tools/Trucks
Dancing/Music
Beach

I know myself well enough to expect a LOT of deviation from the plan! After all squirrels come in all colors, and if trains are chosen for purple month but I have some great purple butterflies, then I MIGHT get derailed. (Heh. See what I did there?) But it doesn't really matter, you know? Whatever gets worked on is fine!

Do you make these kinds of advance plans? Or are you a "fly by the seat of your pants" type?