Random Letter Quilt: First 10 letters

I'm making progress on my "Random Letter Quilt" using Windham Fabrics' Uppercase fabric collection, designed by Janine Vangool, publisher/editor/designer of Uppercase magazine, for the body of the letters. 

I designed the blocks. I call it my Half Square Triangle font! Each block is a bit like assembling a jig saw puzzle:  challenging but great fun!

More to follow, eventually!

Inspiration from the book, "By the Bundle" by Emma Jean Jansen

As soon as I saw Uppercase, a fabric collection by Windham Fabrics, I knew I wanted to make a quilt using it.  I didn't really want the Fat Quarter bundle of the entire Uppercase collection, so was thrilled when I found a 'short stack' of 18 FQs put together by the shop Modern Textiles in Fargo, North Dakota.*

Now the question was, what to make with this selection of tiny print fabrics?

Emma Jean Jansen's new 2016 book By the Bundle has been getting great reviews on social media so I decided to get a copy for myself.  Lucky Spool LLC has published yet another winning quilt book!  I really enjoyed reading the book and looking at Emma Jean's quilts.  Her photos were taken outdoors and have amazing Australian landscapes as backgrounds.

There are several quilts I really like.  "Star Burst", "Half Moons" and "Nellie Gray" are all quilts I would enjoy making myself. But it was "The Hi Quilt" which provided the inspiration a quilt using the Uppercase fabric. 

Emma Jean says "The Hi Quilt" was designed as a simple geometric pattern. It was her daughter who saw the letters H and I in the design! 

I thought about making "The Hi Quilt" pattern.  It would look fabulous with the Uppercase fabrics. But then I decided it would be fun to design my own letters. 

Using squares and half square triangles, I drew out blocks for the entire alphabet.  That was a challenge!  Most are of the letter blocks look great, but a few are a bit odd!  I think I am going to pick my favorites and not use the entire alphabet. This will be a random letter sampler quilt.  Each letter block is unique so this quilt isn't going to be done any time soon.  

I can't wait to really get going on this project!  Here is my first block. Letter R!

*Historical aside:  I went to college in Fargo-Moorhead--that's where I learned to quilt!  Too bad Modern Textiles wasn't there when I was in college!  This store has a lovely assortment of fabrics and shopping in their on-line store made me feel like I'd gone back to the Upper Midwest for a visit!  There was even a hand-written note in the box when it arrived!  Really nice!

Busy Beach Town Quilt Completed

All done!  The "Busy Beach Town" quilt is finished!  I used a blue/green/lavender variegated thread for a free motion loops-and-stars quilting pattern.  And I incorporated a couple scraps from the quilt into the solid grey binding.

It's a two sided quilt.  Here's the back--a licensed fabric panel (C) 2015 Hasbro (TM) for Quilting Treasures ® 

Back of the quilt

The front of this quilt will be good for floor time when the baby is an infant, and play time when he's old enough to have a garage full of toy cars and trucks!  Fun times!

Busy Beach Town Quilt Top

This is my "Busy Beach Town" baby quilt top, ready to be quilted.  It's small, a good size for using for floor time for a baby or for a toddler to drag around.

The Four Square patches create red chains in one direction, a safety green in the other. There are also 2 blue chains that blend in with the bigger blocks and aren't really evident.

It is a busy beach town!  Child's delight--rail crossings, construction trucks, fire engines, ambulances, Dalmations!  Maybe NOT an adult's idea of quiet vacation, but if you look carefully, you'll see some river rafting and a coupe sailboats in the large blue blocks, and of course the lighthouses!  So a little something to make everyone happy on an August afternoon in a beach town!

Busy Beach Town Quilt: Planning

I saw one of my neighbors while walking the dogs this past week. They are expecting a baby this fall and I asked when the new little one is due--soon!  I thought I had til October!  Time to make to baby quilt!

I know the baby is a boy so I was planning a Fireman Quilt. But when I looked through my stash of novelty fabrics I realized the blue background of the lighthouse fabric was a great match for the blue in the emergency vehicle fabric.  And I liked the tossed trucks in blue and green.  It is August--I must be thinking about vacations! At any rate, the quilt morphed into a Busy Beach Town quilt! 

With four patch blocks making a simple chain and larger blocks with the feature fabrics, this is going to be a fun, and fast, quilt to make!

Indigo Quilt: Part Two

The Indigo Quilt top, featuring 3 Cats shweshwe indigo fabrics, came together beautifully.  I didn't have enough shweshwe for the entire quilt so used a bit of dark indigo blue colored cotton fabric from Connecting Threads from my stash. The light center fabric the Kona® cotton solid "Snow' and the light "Bluebell" and medium blue "Denim"* are also Kona® cotton solids. (Note how those 2 colors of solid blue appear to be different depending on the fabric around them. It looks like there are more than 2 blues but it really is just 2 shades)!

When I drew this pattern, I had the center row of each block all facing east-west.  But when I put it up on the design wall, I found that turning the square blocks so that the center section runs north-south was much more interesting. Added bonus:  When assembling the quilt, I didn't have to match those center sections!

Just as I did with the pincushion in my previous post, I turned one small square block over to show the 3 Cats from the printed label!  It's fun and it identifies the fabrics as authentic Da Gama Textiles for anyone looking at this quilt in the future.

*Note:  I attempted to match the 2 blue Kona® fabrics I used with the Kona® color chart with actual swatches of fabric.  I think picked the correct names but am not a 100% sure.  I do wish Robert Kaufman Fabrics would print the name and/or number of the color on the selvage of their Kona® solid fabrics! It would so helpful!

Indigo Quilt: Part One

The indigo quilt that I discussed in my post on July 11 is cut out and ready to sew! 

The featured indigo fabrics are Shweshwe from South Africa.  Every bit of this fabric is precious--I only had 4 fat quarters and one half yard.  I needed to cut it carefully!

I ended up with a couple strips too narrow for this project and a few scraps.  It was too late in the day to start a big sewing project but not too late to use some of those scraps for a 4 inch square pincushion!

The fabric's logo is 3 cats, printed on the back of the fabric.  I found one cat's face on a scrap. I sewed it into the pincushion's top, wrong side out!  Can you see the kitten peaking through the pieces?

MQ 9 Tranquility Mystery Quilt "Apple Maze" Completed

It's a great day!! My largest, and last, UFO is done!!  Pieced Fall 2013, it was one of the Quilters Club of America's numbered Mystery Quilts, MQ9.  It's official name is "Tranquility" but with all this red, mine isn't tranquil!  I'm calling mine Apple Maze. 

It's big--the first quilt I've made that has a great hang over on each side of a queen size bed. It's long too. The photo above just shows a portion of the quilt.

Here's a detail of a couple of the pieced and appliqued apples in the borders on each side of the quilt. I think these apples are my favorite part of this quilt, though I really like apple quilting too!

I'm SO happy it's finally done!!

Pincushions

I've been enjoying watching the Crazy Mom Quilts pincushion challenge-- #thepincushionproject on Instagram.  Every day in July, Emma Jean Nyberg set herself a goal to make one pincushion. (If you aren't on Instagram, click the link to see a recent post on her blog with photos of some of her pincushions). 

So, when I needed a birthday present for a Red Sox baseball fan, I decided that a pincushion was the perfect little gift!  I made her pincushion using the quilt block named The Economy Block.  It's a square in a square in a square.  The center block is an old licensed Red Sox (TM) fabric from my stash and the other fabrics have baseball themes too.

I had so much fun making that pincushion that I made 2 more!  One to keep for myself and one for an up-coming pin cushion swap!

UFO: Tranquility (MQ9 Quilters Club of America Mystery Quilt)

My oldest UFO (unfinished quilt) is finally out of its bag and well on the way to being completed!  The quilt, a mystery quilt hosted by The Quilters Club of America, is MQ9 "Tranquility". I pieced it in the fall of 2013 so that really a UFO!

I had a lovely day yesterday at Bits 'n Pieces Quilt Shop in Pelham, NH, renting one of their HandiQuilter long arm quilting machines. Above you can see a detail of the beautiful computerized apple quilting designed I chose for this apple themed quilt.

I still need to quilt the borders which have some applique and then add a binding. But now, after 3 years, it's well on it's way to being a completed quilt! 

Book Review: "The Quilt Block Cookbook"

Here is another beautiful book from Lucky Spool Media, LLC.   The Quilt Block Cookbook by Amy Gibson, was published at the beginning of July this year. (It apparently has sold out at the publisher, but can still be found on Amazon)!

This is a book of 12 inch quilt block designs.  There are 40 complex blocks and an additional 10 simpler "staple blocks" which can be used for alternate blocks between the more detailed blocks.  An assortment of the 40 blocks can be used to make a traditional Sampler Quilt, but Amy has also made several Modern quilts which just use a a few of the blocks.  There was an "Ah-Ha!" moment when I turned the page and saw her "Bouce" quilt. It has just 6 of the quilt blocks and it is really striking!

While she uses the computer quilt program Electric Quilt 7 to design her quilts, Amy suggests some great ways to test out a quilt's lay out if you don't own a quilt design program but do have a camera or a scanner. Brilliant, and fun too!

Each of the blocks in the book has its own photo.  All the block photos are the same size which is great if you want to use Amy's options to lay out a quilt.  Under the photo of each block are fabric requirements and basic construction information.  In the back of a book there is "Unit Piecing Guide" with diagrams and detailed information about how to make the separate units in the blocks.

This is one of those books I know I will keep coming back to for ideas!

The Instagram hashtag for sharing blocks or projects is #TheQuiltBlockCookbook if you want to post your blocks or see what other folks have been making.

Monchromatic Quilt in the Planning Process

I've long thought it would be fun to make a monochromatic quilt--all the blocks in the same hue.  Blue would be the obvious choice...they make such pretty quilts.

But when I saw all these purple hue fabrics at JP Knit & Stitch, I picked up a small collection of fabrics! Purple (and some cream)! I don't even really like purple!! So this is a good stretch for me. The added cream probably means this is not a true monochromatic quilt, so I may choose not to use the floral on the far right above. 

I decided to do play on on the design in Rashida Coleman-Hale's Fall 2015 Cotton and Steel "Macrame", by RJR Fabrics.  I love the scattered bright magenta, teal and gold colored "beads" scattered through her design.

I have a preliminary diagram of a quilt which I think I like.  This should be interesting!

Showcase: 1970s Calico Cathedral Windows Quilt

In this post I want to share the Cathedral Windows quilt that Kathy K., one of my college roommates, made for me.  It's an amazing quilt!  It is now a treasury of late 1960s and early 1970s calico fabrics (and a few other non-calico printed cottons from the same era).  Most of the fabrics were Kathy's, probably from her family too since they sewed and quilted, but some are my quilting fabrics or from clothes I made for myself.

The background fabric, if I remember correctly, is kettle cloth.  It is a fabric that has a linen-like texture, neutral and a bit nubby. It was a contemporary fabric, often used for home dec or clothing, and no longer manufactured.  It has a lovely hand but it made a very heavy quilt. (Note the sag on the clothes line in the photo below!)

Cathedral Windows Quilt early 1970s (approx 1972-1975) Made by Kathy Kuklish, New Effington, SD. 46.5 x 58.5 inches, 332 windows!

The quilt has 332 blocks, all sewn by hand.  Truly a masterpiece and a labor of love!

Here's another close up.  The detail photo below has scraps of fabric from a comforter I made for my brother and his wife as a wedding present, fabric from the dress I made and wore to the christening of my first Godchild, and a scrap of fabric for a fall quilt I planned to make but never did!

Too heavy to use as a lap quilt, I occasionally hang this quilt up on a wall mounted quilt rack so I can enjoy it. This quilt deserves to be in a museum.

But not yet!

Indigo Quilt Planning

I've been thinking about making a quilt with indigo fabrics for months. I just drew a possible pattern on graph paper and I'm really liking the design.

This is a project that will need lots of cutting space and a design wall. So for now, it will stay on paper. But it's ready to go when things settle down with my house work!

Orphan Blocks and a Few Fabric Strings Make a Quilt Top

I've been putting orphan blocks in a plastic bin for the past several years.  Some of the blocks are one time trial blocks or color studies, some are a few extra blocks from a project, some are from downsizing a quilt and there is a least one section of strip piecing I never cut into blocks!

All together they are bright, vibrant and create interesting activity in the quilt top.

It's still very much a work in progress. There are hundreds of loose threads that need to be clipped. These blocks that have been sitting around are messy!  And I'm trying to decide if I want to put a border on it to make it a better twin size quilt. I'm still not sure what I want the final quilt to look like!

Sewing Heart Blocks for Orlando--a JP Knit & Stitch Event

I hope American readers all had a great Fourth of July celebration yesterday!!

There is an FREE event coming up at JP Knit & Stitch in Jamaica Plain, MA that I want my local Massachusetts readers to know about.

This coming Saturday morning, July 9 from 10:15 AM to 1:15 PM, JP Knit & Stitch is hosting an event to sew blocks for a quilt to send to Orlando.   Like the Boston Modern Quilt Guild after the Boston Marathon Bombings, the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild is collecting finished quilts to distribute to those affected by the recent shootings there.

The heart pattern for this quilt is Cluck Cluck Sew's Easy Heart Block.  The block for this JPKS quilt has patterned fabric for the heart and any solid color background that coordinates with the heart.  The hearts can be any of the sizes in the pattern.  Strips of the solid border fabric are used to enlarge the unfinished block so it measures 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches square.  A Fat Quarter with a Pattern and a Solid Fat Quarter will make a block. We need a total of 20 blocks for this lap sized quilt.

If you can't come that day but want to make a block, please drop one off at the shop and send me a message to let me know you made one. (If you click the first link above, you'll see a photo of two other blocks made for this quilt).  

Hope to see you at JP Knit & Stitch on Saturday!!

Shop address and more information about JP Knit & Stitch.

Knitting: Sky Scarf Completed--a year of weather documented with yarn!

I finished my Sky Scarf this week!  Leafcutterdesigns.com created this great knitting project. Each day you check the sky, pick 2 colors of yarn that match the sky and knit 2 rows. Repeat daily for a year!

Recent skies in Boston, Massachusetts:  Blue blue, blue and white, light blue and white, grey and white.

I started at the end of June last year. Here's a link to my first post about my Sky Scarf project.  In addition to sky color and clouds I knit in some beautiful sunsets, the Fourth of July fireworks and one lunar eclipse.  Each snow storm in the Boston Winter 2015-2016 is recorded as a pure white bar in the scarf.  In the photo below the eclipse is shown in the rows of dark pink and purple right at the bottom fold.

My completed scarf is 76 inches long. Below ere are photos of the entire scarf and the label I made.  (I didn't buy the Sky Scarf kit which comes with a beautiful official patch which is different than my handwritten label).

This project was great fun!  I highly recommend it if you are considering knitting your own Sky Scarf.  I enjoyed really looking at the sky and knitting a couple rows in the evening, at the end of the day! 

Using Fabric Strings

Seems like lots of quilters are working on scrap quilts at the moment.  That got me thinking.  I've got a big bag of fabric strings.  I can't start a big quilt project with lots of cutting at the moment but the strings are ready to go. They just need to be trimmed to fit the project.

What is a fabric string?  I expect the definition varies from among quilters but my definition is a strip of left over fabric which is at least 3/4 inches wide but no wider than 2 1/4 inches. 

I also keep a bag of 2 1/2 inch strips.  That's the width of a standard jelly roll strip and there are lots of quilt patterns that use this size.  I sometimes cut wider fabric scraps into squares or rectangles but lately I've just been saving it in one of my bins, separated by color.

I've got 2 projects in the works where I am using this bag of strings. Somehow I expect I'll still have some left when both quilts are done!

Godey's Lady's Book, June 1958--Quilt and Embroidery designs plus other content

More treasures from the June 1858 Godey's Lady's Book I found on my bookshelf this past week. 

Above are 2 quilt patterns.  They are clearly applique patterns. While titled Patchwork Patterns, there is no way to piece these fascinating designs!  I wonder if anyone every made a quilt with one of them!

Here are a couple embroidery designs.  The alphabet stops with R.  I guess they assumed you could extrapolate the S-Z! 

And lest you think that designers of modern quilting fabric have some sort of monopoly on the use of arrows, check out this hair ornament!  She wouldn't make it through a 21st century security check!!

And finally, an ad for books by Charles Dickens!  It's a full page ad but I focused in on the offering of the "Cheap Edition". $5 for 14 books or 50c each, shipped postage free!

Part of a full page ad for books by Charles Dickens in various editions.

Doll's Cap Pattern from June 1858 Godey's Lady's Book

My faithful readers will no doubt have noticed that I haven't been posting any quilts recently.  There's been some much needed home maintenance going on at my house. Think plaster, dust, paint.  Everything is in bins and since I didn't move out, the bins have been moving from room to room as the work progresses. I can sew small projects but not quilts since my quilting room is all packed up. I have plans for quilts...but they are only being constructed in my imagination at the moment.

This week I packed up a bookcase.  There were a couple tattered magazines next to some old Bibles that I have moved on numerous occasions. I've never looked at them. Turns out I was missing a DYI gold mine!

Cover of June 1858 of Godey's Lady's Book

The 1858 June edition of Godey's Lady's Book is packed with patterns for sewing, handwork, recipes, menus and a drawing lesson. And there are tips for the nursery/sick room and illustrations of the latest fashions. I do wonder how the publisher could afford to pack so many features into one issue!

When I pulled this magazine off my bookshelf it opened to a page with a pattern for a doll's cap.  That stopped me in my tracks. (And stopped the packing of books into boxes for a while too)!

Yesterday I copied the doll's cap pattern at 120% and cut it out allowing for 1/4 inch seams.  This will fit a doll with a head circumference of 12 1/2 inches.  The pattern is great. The center section eases onto the curves of the sides of the caps beautifully.  The pattern designer clearly knew what she was doing. (Click the link to get a PDF of the pattern in its original size).  I made a reversible cap--the green daisy on the outside and white on the inside.

My Blue Ridge Mountain 1960 doll is modeling the cap in the photo at the top of this post. She didn't want the ties done!  I think she's very cute in her new cap!

Here's a photo of what the doll's owner might have been wearing. Note the text...the design is for the coming winter. With everything made by hand, that's is very realistic.

1858 child's dress and hood

Clearly little girls in the 1850s weren't climbing jungle gyms or riding bikes!

Here is a look at a home scene.

"The First Step" 1858.

A bit more from this magazine in my next post--some embroidery designs, fashions plates, and ad for Charles Dickens' books!  Anyone interested in recipes for rhubarb wine? It's got those too!!

I promise to get back to quilting...but may be a while before the dust finally settles!