Presidents' blocks and August Piano Runner

At Uncommon Threads' Board retreat we discovered that Wendy J. had never chosen a block when she was president a few years ago. So... she asked if members would make 4 little house blocks.

Below are the ones I made from the Frank Lloyd Wright quilt kit I was prepping.

Then, as in-coming president I asked Sharon T. what block she would like for her president's block.

She chose a sawtooth block using scrappy fabric with a white or cream background.

Below is the one I made from some favorite scraps.

Since July is going to be very busy with our 50th anniversary trip to Vermont,

I started working on my July challenge piano runner.

I made 3 blocks from the Farm Girl Vintage pattern book.

Mixing bowls and a spoon, pears, and canning jars.

When I think of August (this will be the August piano runner) I think about all the fruits and vegetables

that are picked and processed in August that we enjoy eating in the winter.

The pears remind me of the 'pear honey' preserves mom would make from our rock hard pears.

It was yummy on hot biscuits.

I chose a small leaf print for the backing. 

The only batting I had was queen size and I didn't want to cut into it for a 15" X 40" runner.

Crib size batting will make 4 runners, so that's what I bought.

I used facings instead of binding. 

I like the unframed look of facings and it is very easy to finish.

The mini clips hold the binding in place while I hand sew it down.

The diagonal quilting was done with a variegated green thread.

I marked the quilting lines with a Hera marker and an extra long ruler.

The only thing left to do is document the finish on the yellow corner.

These lovelies are blooming in the front beds.

Ornamental Onion above

Stokes' Aster below

Obedient Plant below.

I love these lavender pretties.

Sword Lily - Montbretia below

An eye catching spray of blooms

Garden Dahlia below

Mr. Martin's hard work is paying off.

We love our mix of flowers. 

Happy Sewing!

 

 

Red, White, & Blue Piano Runner

The July guild challenge blocks are due at the meeting on the 4th Tuesday in June.

I finished my blocks over the weekend.

I made two pinwheel 9 patch blocks and an Old Glory block.

I found a piece of Kaffe fabric that looks like fireworks for the backing and a micro check for binding.

The batting was made from leftover strips, sewn together.

Everything came from my stash.

Below is the back.

Documented with a triangle in one corner.

Below are the piano runners/challenges for January - June, 

plus two on the left that I made before the challenge started.

This week I'm leading the preschool music at Vacation Bible School.

No sewing but lots of fun with the little singers.

Happy Sewing!

 

Sewing Room Finishes in May

It seems like there wasn't much sewing done in May.

Some interruptions and other activities taking most of my time.

I made these two drawstring bags for the grandsons in NYC.

The bags are reversible and are made from two fat quarters each.

The cat lover got the swimming cats/musical cats fabric.

The fantasy medieval costume lover got the castles/antique maps fabric.

Above is my donation/charity quilt.

I took a kit and quickly made the flimsy.

I wanted to use up the scraps and I was able to get about half of the backing made from scraps.

I had picked up some batting that had been donated to UTQG but it was wool and just didn't work for me.

I quilted with a meander stitch and bound with two fabrics used in the top.

Tuesday is guild meeting and the deadline for donations this quilt year.

I am learning to play Mahjong at the gym.

This month I finally won a game. Above is my winning hand.

Usually I post books on my other blog but this book took me down memory lane and consumed 

hours that I would have been sewing. I led the discussion in book club. It was more like a sharing of my early teaching days in north Georgia. The book is set in the ridges and hills of eastern Alabama and western Georgia. Many of the places in the book were familiar to me.

Nowadays my green thumb is limited to this pot of succulents.

Above is right after I potted everything earlier in May.

Two plants had survived over the winter.

About a month later.

See the growth on the center plant.

Succulents like dry weather and I am good at forgetting to water my plants.

Next up-

Piano runner for July.

Something red, white, & blue.

Happy Sewing!

 

Modern mini quilt

My Iris Squared is finished!

Here is how it was quilted and re-quilted.

First I sewed a variegated green matchstick stem.

I free handed the iris leaves.

I used a paper template to quilt around using several colors of thread.

I couldn't decide how to quilt multiple iris shapes of the same color.

Some were echo quilted and some were shifted sideways.

Instead of binding I made facings. Above the mini clips are holding the facing down.

The back shows the facings, corners, and hanging sleeve. 

The bobbin thread for the quilting was white so it barely shows.

I took some photos of the iris quilt in the iris bed in our backyard.

The more I looked at the quilting, the more messy it looked to me.

So I ripped out all the iris shaped quilting.

After all the ripping I spritzed the quilt with water and ironed it on a wool mat.

Here is the back with the new quilting finished.

The label is done.

Here is the finished front. 

Plain but I like it better.

I have uploaded a photo to the Wisconsin Mini Quilt Challenge.

Now back to the donation quilt that waits on my cutting table.

Happy Sewing!

 

Early May Projects

This is the finished flimsy for a donation quilt for UTQG.

I love the pattern. It is very quick and easy.

I had a plan but some of the rows weren't put together according to the plan.

I worked on the June piano runner.

This is the Farm House block.

The other block is the Farm Fresh Flowers block.

Both blocks are from the Farm Girl Vintage book.

I have wanted to make the blocks from this book since I bought the book. 

I'm happy to have this year long project to try out the blocks.

Here is the finished runner.

It is about 15 inches by 40 inches.

I quilted it with a zigzag stitch that has 3 stitches on each zig and zag.

The backing was a half yard from my stash.

I love the pink castles but never found the right project for it.

The binding was cut length-of-fabric from strips trimmed from an earlier quilt finish.

We had our last Color Theory zoom meeting Saturday morning.

Each of us has learned a lot from reading the book and playing with fabric in the challenges.

The block below represents the sea.

The sand, water, seaweed, and fish.

I see two blocks that are turned the wrong way.

I will fix it before making a quilt with the blocks to remember what I learned.

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In the challenge below I took fabric I love and use it as inspiration for a block.

Now on to finish the donation quilt and modern mini.

What are you working on?

Happy Sewing!

 

Listening to an audio book while sewing

This last week I have been listening to The Women on Hoopla. The book is almost 15 hours long!

At the same time I was working on a mini quilt for an online modern quilt show.

I made this with some 2.5 inch squares and some 5 inch white squares.

I had limited colors and only one square of each color.

 

At first I tried placing the colors on my white table to make a pattern.

Then I used graph paper and things were much better.

There were only three squares of shades of green.

I thought alternating with white squares would convey a stem.

After looking at this photo I could see that didn't work.

I ripped out some seams and turned the sections around to get the greens together.

The flimsy is done. 

Now I'm thinking about how to quilt it.

Many ideas but we will see how it finishes.

I know I'm going to use facings instead of binding.

I love irises.

These are in our tiny backyard.

We have two types of yellow irises, two purples, and a white.

They came from my mom's yard.

She had so many more colors.

Maybe one day I will have more colors, too.

Last Tuesday at quilt guild I picked up a charity quilt kit.

This was a quick finish. 

Should have it quilted and bound by next meeting.

This week I will be working on blocks for our Color Theory group zoom on Saturday.

Happy Sewing!