Sometimes it just doesn't work out

Good Morning!  The sun has moved south along the ridgeline so the sunrise is not blocked by the trees.  The color in this picture is accurate.  It has been enhanced by all the smoke in the valley from the terrible fires that still rage in northern California and Oregon.

This is what the color catchers looked like the first time I washed the quilt below.  I also added blue Dawn dishwashing detergent.

Here is the quilt.  I know it's no beauty but it was fun to make and brings back a lot of memories.

I noticed that the fabric that I used in the center of the quilt was a bleeder after I washed another quilt that I used it in so I was trying to be extra careful.  I used that fabric in numerous blocks in this quilt.  Everything with a solid white background turned out pristine.  But the block below has issues.

This is the single block that absorbed any of the red.  And the red in this block did not bleed.  It absorbed it from the colored water.  This is the only block I used the "Little Red Hen" fabric.  You can see it in the quilt above 3rd row from the bottom, 2nd from the right.

I washed it again using fresh color catchers, more blue Dawn, and OxyClean.  The block is less pink now but there still has a rosy cast.  The one thing that this did do was fade my label - sigh.  

I was making this for a Christmas gift.  But now it will stay at my house.  Maybe it's just as well because this is the 3rd quilt in the "Poultry Trio" (as you can see on the label) and the other two have been given away.

Our cousin Carolyn and my sister Pam.

It all began in 2002 at the Wasatch Front Shophop.  My sister, above in purple, and I went on the two day jaunt from Brigham City to Tooele, to Orem.  We had a wonderful time and went to every shop.  We were exhausted when we got home.  We also bought bags of Chicken fabric.

I made the 1st of the Poultry Trio and called it "The Silly Chick Quilt".  It has hen and chicks blocks and the cornerstones are from Easter 1988 when my cute little 6 year old decorated the house with chicks she had drawn on paper and taped to the walls.  I traced them on to white Kona and embroidered them in red, green, and gold.  It's not a beauty (none of these chicken quilts are striking or clever) but I enjoyed making it.  I learned a great lesson on this quilt.  There are chicken shapes quilted all over the border and you can't tell unless you get really close.  So, now I only do fancy quilting when it shows up from a distance like the cable on the stop border.  I've also learned to make the stop border out of something that doesn't blend in with the sashing or cornerstones.

Here is a close up the the six year old's drawing of a chick.  I also try and use a certain fabric in each of my quilts and you an see the red triangle here.

The 2nd quilt in the Poultry Trio was this appliqued wall hanging.  The pattern is by Meme's Quilts and is called Spring Chickens.  The same daughter that drew the chicks dubbed this one "Jousting Chickens' so that is what is on the label.  Again, my color placement is not dazzling but I really like it and you learn as you go, right?  And I learned a lot about needleturn applique.

So now, we come back to the 3rd quilt in the Poultry Trio.  It was pieced in 2012 after my sister gave me all her chicken fabric because she was a self proclaimed fabric collector and never finished a quilt.

It will be used as a cuddle quilt, a picnic quilt, a camp quilt.  Who knows, maybe it will turn out to be my favorite quilt of all because of all that is invested in it.   It's named after my favorite chicken restaurant.    Hmmmmm, maybe I need to go there to celebrate the finish.

Robin

This is the backing that also didn't turn pink.

Blessings

Ta Da!   I finished the swags and berries which didn't quite match up in the corners due to miscalculations on my part 😜.  So I decided to do a red ribbon (which I think looks really cute).  And now an unintentional Christmas vibe has appeared.  I've named the quilt Blessings after the line of fabric that is the black border fabric by Jan Patek.  The pattern is inspired by a little Mother's Day wall hanging by Cheri Payne.  I enlarged the flowers and then just made it up from there.

It measures 49 1/2" X 61".

I gathered some Christmas decorations that were easy to get to and assembled a quick vignette. 

 It's going to be fun to decorate with this.  I'd prefer to have it quilted but even if it isn't quilted by Christmas I can tuck in the sides and find a fun place to use it.

  

I finished to Chicken quilt that was on the frames, more about that in another post, and have started hand quilting the Sweet Land of Liberty quilt.  I pin basted it abundantly and I am just quilting it in my lap.  It's very soothing and I am in no hurry.

My youngest daughter has collected all her tropical fabric and came over yesterday to lay out a small quilt.    The beige alternate pieces look like sand if you enlarge the photo.  She has been saving these for a long time.  School started yesterday and after last year of online school and monitoring four children, ages 14 down to 8,  she is home with precious uninterrupted time for a while during the day.

 I look forward to her coming over every week and we can sew together.

We are in the middle of a delightful rainstorm.  It is supposed to last all day and into tomorrow.  

Ahhhh!  It just feels so good.  We got almost 1/2" in 20 minutes yesterday as an introductory downpour for the now present storm.

I tried to take a video but alas, I guess I'm not savvy enough.

I think it might be a good day to put a puzzle together,  What do you think?

Robin

The things we do. . .

Yes, I've been thinking about the design team Alma Allen and Barb Adams of Blackbird Designs a lot lately (probably too much).  It just saddens me as people I've come to know, if only on the internet, have passed away.  People like Sue Garmen and Cherie Payne, and Linda Brannock and now Barb Adams.

I was reading Barb Vedder's blog  where she shared the different quilts she has made to commemorate past Olympics and the idea came to mind that perhaps I could do something to pay tribute to Barb Adams' passing.

I got out various Blackbird Designs fabrics that I still have and thumbed through pages and pages of patterns.

And then it came to me.  I had already started a BD project.  It is one of the UFOs that needs to be finished.  It is in the book 'When the Cold Wind Blows' 

Alma's version is called "Love Letters" (right) and Barb's version is called "Winter Garden" (left)

I started it in May of 2015 and for whatever reason it got put away and abandoned.

I got five of the blocks prepped for needle turn applique and then I changed my mind.  I decided I need to machine applique it or it would never get done.  

So I have hand appliqued one oak leaf and stems on various blocks and then I prepped two of them with heat n' bond light but I never ironed them on to their backs.

And, look who designed this pattern.  It was meant to be.

I'm anxious to get going on it but I have another UFO I've been working on and I want to get it done first.  

I made this little quilt for the floral challenge with the improv quilters in 2019.  I thought I was done with the toile/9-patch border but decided it needed a repeat of the inner floral.  And then it told me it was finished.

Well. . . it's been calling to me for a bout a year now, saying it's changed it's mind.

 

So, I've been working on a swag border.  I've only got eight more to applique and then I'll put red dots between.  It will be really cute when it's done.  And then I think I better hurry and quilt it before it changes it's mind again

Hope you have a chance to sew today,

Robin

A happy discovery

 I was so sorry to hear that Barb Adams of Blackbird Designs had passed away.  She died just before her 70th birthday.  

I have always looked forward to Blackbird Designs new fabric lines and books.  But,  they have mostly concentrated on their cross stitch patterns the last few years so I figured maybe they weren't making any more lines.

BUT WAIT!

I discovered this new line by Blackbird Designs but it doesn't come out till next February.  

I am still delighted!

I hope there is a book of patterns to go along with it.

It makes me feel a little less sad about Barb's passing. 

 I needed something to look forward to.

Robin

Gotta whale of a tale

Well (Whale?) it's finished.  It's one of those quilt tops that I like well enough that it doesn't matter whether anyone else likes it on not.  It was a delight to make.  It's such a different color scheme from what I usually choose but it makes me happy.  It measure 80" X 91" and is much bigger than I thought it would become.

I didn't have any one to hold it up for me so all my photos are taken from my lawn.  This is the top half.

And this is the bottom half of the quilt top from one angle showing off the spiral.  It would have been a lot easier if I had decided what to applique before I attached the borders but I still couldn't sew the whales on until the very end.  

And this is the bottom half of the quilt top showing how long the whale is.  I've considered sewing an eye on the whale but it's not supposed to be exact - it's just a representation.

This is the best picture I could get of the whole quilt top.  I find it a little amusing that I made a quilt top about the ocean when we are so deep into a drought.

 I put the leftover fabric into a big tote and I definitely have enough to make another large quilt top. 

 So. . . .

               no more purchasing Janet Clare fabric for a while.

I was sitting in my bedroom when I heard this commotion outside my window.  I knew it was birds but was surprised to find two mail quail fighting it out right beneath my bedroom window.    

These pictures are taken through the screen on the window.  

They figured out their problem and the winner is pictured above.

  

Here are some of the chicks with the male.  They just sat there for quite a while once the spat was resolved.

Hope you're having a great day,

Robin

Just a little update

  Blogger is acting weird and I can't get my pictures and words like normal.  So, it will be few words.  I finished the blocks and put them all together with dark corner stones.  It is such lovely fabric but it didn't do anything for me.  So, long story short, I found some coral colored fabric and replaced half of the dark cornerstones.  I think it makes the quilt sparkle.  Now I'm working on the applique for the borders.

Robin

Mini quilt UFO done

I'm still trying to get caught up with some UFOs.  I decided to work on this little piece that I made from the leftovers of my huge Lady of the Lake quilt made from Valentine fabric below.

about 85" X 93"

I hand quilted the mini  so it took me a while to finish.  I called the above quilt Mayfair after my favorite See's Chocolate.

Here is the completed little quilt.  It's not a very good picture but you get the idea.  It measures less than 25" square.  It has a pieced backing - I didn't get a picture.  The fabrics are from a  couple of Deb Strain lines.

I used the one on the left but I just had strips and pieces.  One thing about Deb Strain's reds,  they are over the top saturated with color and there is absolutely no bleeding.  Bonus!

I call this piece Bordeaux after another favorite chocolate.

So I can chalk up another finish in my list of UFOs.  And, hopefully I'll remember that I made it so I can use it to decorate next February.

Do you remember this quilt?

  It is my Welsh Quilt Study II from a few years ago.  I had it out on display and noticed something amiss.  Can you see it?  There is a big honking mistake that I had never noticed before.  Once you see it - you can't not see it.  I'm sure some of you noticed it before but were kind enough not to mention it to me.

I knew it was going to take a lot of tedious unpicking, rearranging, resewing, and requilting.  Is that a word?  I threw up my hands, folded it, and stuffed it in a cupboard downstairs.  MAYBE someday I would fix it but I was in no mood at the time. It's been down there for over a year.  It is like mending, my least favorite sewing task!!!

While I have been stewing about what to use for the sashing and cornerstones on the Janet Clare quilt (in my previous post) I decided it was a perfect time to use my unpicking skills on this little Welsh quilt while my mind was relentlessly trying to come up with a solution for the other quilt.

I could win a medal in unpicking!

I unpicked all the quilting, reversed the two offending strips, and appliqued it back in place.

The reason I missed seeing this mistake in the first place (and 2nd or 3rd) is because much of the hand quilting on a Welsh quilt is done from the back.  Here I am pinning the shadows of the quilting on the back

And then tracing my quilt lines on the front with water soluble marker so I can hand quilt it once again.

I couldn't just use the shadows on these pieces on the front because they were now reversed and the quilting would not have matched.

It took me a few days of concentrated effort but it's done now.  So another monkey off my back - whew!

I went to my quilt group last Thursday night.  It was the first time I have met with them since February 2020.  It was so good to see everybody and hear about their lives.  One of the ladies is moving to Hurricane so she will no longer be meeting with us.  We started out 18 strong when we began about 10 years ago but we're down to 7 or 8 now.  We need some new recruits.

It was our annual potluck and exchange.  I found two pieces of fabric and a quilt book that I wanted.  One piece is an old Terry Clothier Thompson floral and column piece from 1999.  It was a great find.  The other piece might be just exactly what I was looking for to add some "oomph" to the Janet Clare quilt. 

I hope I hope I hope.

 It's raspberry season so I had some on my waffle this morning - yum!

Have a great day without problems, conundrums, or fires to put out.  Bliss~

Robin