Under the air conditioner

 I haven't been inclined to post for months.  I've stayed busy - just too hot to organize myself.  It's only 99 degrees today - sigh

Just want to wish you a Happy Sesquicentinnel (I probably spelled that wrong) this summer.  It was kind of anti-climatic around here because we are in a severe drought and fireworks were completely banned in the state for the month of July.  The good news is 100s of fires were prevented.  Our air quality is pretty poor because of various fires south of us.  

There was even a fire in my hometown of Logan called the Canyon Road fire.  In the picture about you can see the fire down below right on Canyon Road that is climbing up the hill and heading for the Utah State University campus.  My cousin, who still lives in Logan, said the firefighters were able to get it under control and out fairly quickly because they could fight it from above.  It's still scary though.

I'm still plugging along on my denim jacket.  I've attached the cuffs since this picture was taken.

And this is part of the back before it was sewn together.  I have hemmed it and I need to do the buttonholes on the front and cuffs and then embellish a little more.  It is so comfortable, old denim is just so soft.

I got this little quilt all quilted and bound.  I use it on my kitchen table as a table cloth for fall and now it won't have raw edges anymore.

This is the backing for the current quilt in the frames.  I know it's a bit unusual but I wanted to use the panel and I didn't want to have to go buy anything new to surround it.  I have about 20 bolts around my sewing table with 3-6 yds on each for backings.  I buy it when I find it on sale.  This worked out the best and because I had so much I still have 6 yds. leftover for another quilt.  It's an old Kay England fabric line and it was $5 a yard.

I wanted some pretty pink geraniums and couldn't find anything new this spring.  Just the same old. . . same old.  So I ordered these seeds in June and planted them in numerous pots.

These are the ones that are still alive after this scorching summer weather.  They are my babies.  I have an alarm on my phone that goes off at 3:45 every afternoon to remind to go check on the sprouts.  They are a long way from blooming but I'll bring them in for the winter and feed them well.

These are some photos of my lovely hollyhocks who seem to thrive in the heat.  I just love the fluffly center of the white one.

And finally the real reason I haven't been blogging.  I did a lot of cross stitch in the 80's and 90's but when I discovered quilting the cross stitch all went into a box in the closet downstairs.  In May I fould a pattern I couldn't pass up.

So I'm working Hannah Whitaker Thorne Sampler

And this is how much I have done after two months of sitting under the air conditioner.

I am enjoying myself so much.  I think my husband thinks I've turned into a slug because everytime he comes in from outside working in the yard I am sitting in my rocking loveseat under my OTT-LITE.

As I was going through my cross stitch box I found this cookie cannister filled with floss.  

So now I need to wind some more cards.  

I am a little over halfway on the sampler

Hope you're having a wonderful summer doing the things you enjoy most.

Robin

Roadtrip Quilt

I finished the quilt top I call "Roadtrip".  I wanted tp make a quilt that would look like something a grandma would make from scraps in the 70's.  

I hunted for just the right background fabric.  And I finally found a piece I liked by Laundrybasket Quilts that has small orange hearts or tulips and dusty green leaves.  I was looking for something pale red or blue but when I found orange I had to add orange (and green) to the fabric pull.  I think it brightens up what might have been a ho-hum color scheme of red, blue, and brown.

I've never made a six-[pointed star quilt and to be honest I'll never do it again. Trying to match up the star points to each other was hit and miss.  I finally sewed the rows together by hand and it was better but not as good as I had hoped.  But, I really enjoyed ironing this quilt with all it's stars and rosettes, 

 It took 2 months to make which doesn't sound too bad except I worked on it everyday and it took hours. . . especially the hand piecing.

I have no regret making it.  In fact I really like it and will enjoy hand quilting it.

Anything I make next will be a little easier than having over 1100 diamonds to sew together.

 

I purchased the little Lori Holt suitcase recently.  I don't know what I'm going to put in it but it sure looks cute on top of my hutch near my old sewing basket.  I think I need to put some mini-quilts up there too.

I've decided that I need to get back to sewing my Boro-like jacket before I start anything new.  I inherited the quilt above when my uncle passed away in 2014.  The top was made by my Great Aunt Nell and someone, at some time, quilted it in a diagonal grid.

Don't you love that random purple piece - the only one in the whole quilt.

The quilt is quite stained.  But, surprisingly the stain on the border above did not bleed through to the back.  I'm going to give it a good cleaning in my tub and then I'm going to cut it up for the lining of my Boro jacket.  I'm not a fan of cutting up quilts (especially applique ones) but in it's present state I would never use it and it will make a warm lining for the jacket.

We had a heavy snowstorm last week.  It's not unusual to have a surprise storm in April or May but this one was devastating.  It got warm early here and was warm for a long time.  The freeze killed many fruit blossoms but the worst happened to our walnut trees.  

It not only killed the blossoms, it killed the new growth too.  We have two trees and wonder if either one of them will recover.

The freeze didn't bother the beautiful lilac below.

I was searching through my old magazines to come up with some new sewing ideas and I found the picture below.  How I would love to have a wall of rods to hang my quilts upon.  It would be so easy to hang them and rearrange them.  Bonus!

Hope you're having a beautiful spring (or fall) day.

Robin

What a lovely Easter morn

He is risen by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple square

Hope you have a memorable Easter Day.

 

Robin

My picnic quilt finish

I decided I wanted to make my Thimbleberries quilt into a picnic quilt.  I got the idea from an old Quiltmania magazine years ago.

I first experiemented with different ways to fold the quilt that would get me the size I wanted for the finished quilt.   My quilt measures about 80" X 88".

I then needed to decide where I wanted to sew on the webbing.  I have a brown section (above), a gold section, and the middle in a rust and gold.  

I really wanted an off white but I knew it would show the dirt.  The webbing would be on the backside that would go on the ground or grass and the handles would receive a lot of wear too.

I decided on the brown section.  I bought 3 yds. of brown webbing.

I measured it on my quilt and trimmed off about 20".

(The color is terrible in some of these pictures.  It is a nice warm brown, not the dingy brown that it looks like here)  

I pinned it in place with my long pins and then basted it with size 8 pearl cotton.

I triple sewed the cut ends (because it frays terribly) and then overlapped where the two ends meet and sewed them together before sewing them down on the quilt.

I used this niftly little Quilty Hemastat tool I got from Fatquartershop.com to pull out the tight basting stitches.  It really helped. (no compensation, I just really liked it)

This one side of the webbing all stitched on and. . . 

this is the other side.  I had to go slowly and I broke a needle.  But, I think that is my own fault because I was using a size 80 and should have used a stronger needle.  I replaced it with a 90 and it sewed like a dream.

I didn't do this on purpose but because I chose to sew the webbing on the side rather than the middle of the back, it was much easier to sew by machine.  I only had the narrow outside of the quilt inside my machine instead of the whole bulk of the quilt.  I sewed from handle to handle four times if that make any sence. 

I used an off white in my bobbin because I thought it might look better with the ecru pearl cotton I used to quilt this quilt.  It looks fine but if I had it to do over I would probably use a tan or light gray.  

This is the right side of the sewn strip. . . 

and this is the left side.

This is what the quilt looks like spread out on the floor with the webbing sewn on.

This is what the right side of the quilt looks like with the webbing sewn on.  You can see the stitching on the right side and there is a lttle  raised area where the handles are but not much.  My daughter said she would have made the handles longer so she could carry the quilt on her shoulder as she unpacks the car of ice chests and horseshoe equipment.

Good idea~

To fold the quilt up getting it ready to carry, I first folded it in half on the long side.

Then I folded it in half again.

From both sides, I folded it toward the center . . . 

and toward the center again leaving a small space in the center so it can be rolled together.

It measures about 18" wide and 14" from where the handle starts to the bottom..

All ready to grab as I walk out the door.

Robin

Quilt top finish and a new start

I finished my goal of making the star quilt top mentioned in my two previous posts.  It turned out to be so beautiful.  The different stars just seem to twinkle.  I call the quilt "Choices."

I didn't have enough yardage for the setting triangles.  I just had pieces of a early Judie Rothermel fabric.     

The selvage isn't cut in half in the picture, it was poorly stamped.

I had used this piece previously for backing and so I just had large pieces.  The pattern said to cut a large square of fabric and then cut it diagonally for the side triangles.  I was afraid I wouldn't have enough large pieces to do that.  You probably all do this but I thought I'd explain what I did.

I cut a square the correct size out of paper.

Then I folded it in half.

And folded it in half again so it was the same size as it would have been if I'd cut it out of fabric.

I used this triangle as a template to cut out my side triangles making sure that the long side was on the straight of the grain of the fabric, (not bias).

I love the way this quilt turned out.

Look what was delivered today.  It is a Betsy Ross Panel by J Wicker Frisch from Riley Blake

Not sure what I'm going to make it into but she sure is a cutie.  She is quite large, the actual sewing part of the panel is 42" high.

.

 I already have a quilt on the frames so I started another quilt.  It is the one called Star Attraction.  

October 2006 American Patchwork & Quilting

I wanted to cut our a number of reds so I decided to use Sue's method  FROM SMALL THINGS on  youtube.com .  She rinses her fabric in hot water and keeps changing the water till it rinses out clear.

I only showed two of the reds but all three released dye into the water.

I've cut out all the colored pieces for the 72 stars and now I'm working on the 534 diamonds I need from the backing fabric.  (Who's idea was this anyway?)

I'm calling this quilt "Road Trip" because I want it to look like the quilt you sit on to watch fireworks, or wrap around you at football games, or throw in the car.  I want it to be used.

Have you noticed lately that not only are we paying more for fabric but it isn't as wide as it was 6 months ago.  

This is measured from the outside edge of the selvage to the fold.   41 1/2"  I mention this because if you are buying background fabric for an older pattern, you may want to buy extra.

I'm notably jealous of all the snow that is falling in the east.  I know it hasn't been easy for everyone but it's still a blessing.  

I'll close with my grandson's recent artwork on my kitchen wall.

I think that's a reindeer upper left, can you see the antlers?  The reindeer appears to be pushing the sleigh rather that pulling it.  Don't you love it?  

Jingle Bells,

Robin

(I'm not sure what the green thing is - it might be Romeo his turtle.