I finished Orangeade and turned it in at Sew Day. I was glad I had something to to turn in since I didn’t plan on working on the Community quilt project.
This was not a difficult quilt to make. I did play around a lot with the placement of the squares so that the eye roved around a little bit at least.
I am happy with the way it turned out and, as usual, am thinking of making more.
Orangeade back finished
I always want to make the backs as it means more fabric used. The pieces I have available to use are not as big as I have used most of the large pieces that didn’t have a purpose. I ended up piecing this one. I think that will become more the norm. I do have some backing fabrics, but they are a lot of large flower prints and I mostly don’t want to use them for donation quilts. We’ll see. More fabric out means I can buy new fabric.
I have started another donation top, this one part of the Ends series. Can you believe this is the 21st?
This is made from a random piece of background fabric and the edges of the Hugs & a Kiss quilt. The sparkles in the dots are fun.
I accidentally started this series in 2017 with the first one, made from what I called ‘dreg ends’. I have a box with the cut off edges of finished quilts. I still have it, though there are many fewer edges. I am trying to keep up with using the edges as they come back from being quilted, but that box still has old edges in it.
Another month, another Sew Day. I spent another Sew Day cutting up scraps, just like last time. I cut a big pile and made a dent, but I didn’t finish cutting up all of my scraps. I spent about 5 hours. My scraps are still not limited to the Desktop Cube I made for the purpose, which is disappointing. They need to be contained since my cutting table is small enough without it being overrun by scraps.
Mom and Jaye
My mom came with me. Yay! She was well enough to spend the whole day out! I kept her supplied with pain medications and food. She said it went well. I kept her quiet and at home the next two days and she is doing ok. I was so relieved that she didn’t have a complete relapse. It sound ridiculous, but I can’t help but worry about her.
Tim’s Jittery Wings quilt
Tim just got back from a retreat with Mitzi of Jittery Wings. He came over the other day to use my design wall and continued that work at Sew Day. His quilt is a whole bunch of HSTs and Flying Geese. Sounds like Old Town, right? LOL!
One thing I love about HSTs is how many different designs quiltmakers can sew using only HSTs. Of course, as I said, Tim’s quilt has whole bunch of HSTs and Flying Geese.
Mary’s Crisp Blue quilt
Mary was working on a quilt for a friend going into the hospital and it looks so crisp.
This is a simple Rail Fence design. She used a couple of jelly rolls she had and it looks so great! I also like how complex it looks. I just love block quilts. 😉
The guild was having a Community Sew Day. People worked on a variety of different designs. I cut up my scraps, as noted above, and didn’t participate there. I couldn’t bring Mom and my machine. I just wasn’t up for it. I did, however, bring Orangeade and several donation blocks. I definitely want to contribute but I don’t need to do it at Sew Day.
One of the quilt tops they worked on was similar to the Infinity Quilt I made for one of my nephews.
Community 9 Patch quilt
Claire is a great one for rescuing usable fabric. She had a group of men’s shirts and people were working on 9 patches out of that beautiful fabric. The fabric was very soft and had a nice weave. I don’t know what the ultimate design will be, but it will work very well for a boy or man once it is finished.
Mom was sitting across from Lynette who was working on these blocks. I wanted her to sit at the other table so she had some new people with whom to talk. I am sure it is boring just talking to me all day.
Community quilt design
The other design was similar to Mary’s Rail Fence. I couldn’t figure out why this was a such a weird shape. I think the rectangles were actually made in two parts, but I really don’t know.
Anyway the Community quilt team did a great job prepping for the event. There were a lot of people at Sew Day, which was nice. Mostly, I was pleased that Mom had a good time and was able to get out and see the world.
I almost didn’t make any donation blocks this month. As mentioned my mom is sick and it is taking up time (time I am glad to have the opportunity to use). I worked on a donation quilt for most of my leaders and enders time. I finished that and did get to a few blocks. Not the 31 I had hoped for, but some is better than none.
I have finished sewing the pairs together and am starting to make four patches.
As usual, I am rearranging squares as I go along. I think the top will be about 40 in x 40 in.
Yes, I added in a few pinks that snuck into the batch of wrongly cut squares.
The last orange top I made was either Orange You Glad or the Orange Improv. I like both of them very much. They are very cheerful. It must be the oranges that I buy – not as much orangey-brown as orangey-sunshine.
This is quite a few donation blocks! I am pretty pleased with how many blocks I made this year. I know you saw many of these yesterday. Scroll down to revisit the ones I made earlier this year. I made 149 donation blocks. That is less than half of my goal, but it is still a significant number. I hope to do better in 2025.
Tim got his longarm up and running again. To test it and practice, he quilted some donation quilts, including the one I talked about the other day. He showed them to me when I stopped by a few days ago.
The good thing about these quilts is that they are actual quilts not just tops. The bad part is that I can take no credit for any of them. Still, like the designs he used for quilting and the patterns are fun, too.
Donation quilt quilted by Tim
This one uses a similar block to my Corner Store quilt. The arrangement is different than the one I used and makes me want to revisit the block. Maybe it would be a good idea for a donation quilt?
On both quilts Tim used different quilting patterns in the foreground and background. I think that adds to the quilts.
The testing was good as he is ready to quilt his Courthouse Steps quilt. It also means more quilts for BAM to give to those in need.
I went out the other day and encountered some random quilt stuff. I wanted to share some things with you.
On-the-go-snack-case
First, at the Granary, I saw some interesting patterns. I have Organizational items on the mind as that might be the theme of the guild’s next swap. (N.B. Click the ‘join here‘ button so you can participate, too!). I saw a couple of interesting ideas. I thought they would be a little different than the Desktop Cube type project I made recently. One was a pouch for reusable silverware. I saw the larger one made up and it is a little on the large size, but the small size might be really useful.
Pockets to Go
Next, was the Atkinson Designs Pockets to Go** pattern. As you can see in the pattern, there are two sizes. The larger size looks like it would be great for a car trip or to corral personal items in a hotel room. Obviously, this would work very well for Sew Day. It is a little like a purse organizer for things other than purses.
The smaller size would fit very well on desks and next to sewing machines.
This is more like the Desktop Cube type project I made recently, but the handles and pockets make them a little more useful .
The larger size reminds me of the Oslo Tote I made for a swap several years ago.
Madelyn Bag panel
Second, also at the Granary, Julie pointed out a tote bag kit where the fabric is a printed panel. The various pieces of the bag are printed on the panel and labeled. For example the long strips at the top are labeled ‘straps’. Sadly, there was no picture of the finished bag on this package. Still, this is a great idea for new bag makers or if you want to make a quick bag as a gift.
I had to go out and do some research to see if I could find out more about this product. I found the Quilt Trends site. On it was the following description “a 36” panel featuring Lazy Girl’s popular Runaround Bag pattern, you’ll be able to make two bags with this versatile panel. The pieces are printed, just cut them out. Basic directions are printed on this panel. If you would like a more complete pattern, the LGD Runaround Bag Pattern is available on this site.”
I also found out that the panel is part of the ‘Madelyn’ line of fabric from Joan Hawley. The site describes this fabric as “Madelyn is Joan’s latest collection for QT Fabrics. The Madelyn Collection is anchored by a Jacobean print in Joan’s 11 piece collection done in her signature colors of aqua and purple. Supporting fabrics contain florals, scallops, tossed leaves, geometrics and a stripe.”
Well, I am impressed that Joan or QT Fabrics thought a great panel to include would be a bag. Good work!
Axe Yamazaki sewing machine
Third, from the MOMA is a fun little sewing machine called the Axe Yamazaki. I don’t think it is really that useful, but it is cute and I would love to take it for a test drive.
Again, I wandered around the Web and found the Axe Yamazaki website, which has better pictures of the machine. “This lightweight, only 4.6 Pounds,
cordless machine can be used anywhere.” The machine’s size is given as 4.5″D x 11.5″W x 10.4″H. Cost is $168 and the machine comes with a cell phone stand.
**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
Tim is getting his longarm back in order. In order to test it, he quilted this quilt, then handed it over to me to bind. I didn’t know he would do that, but I don’t mind.
He has had this quilt in his pile for a long time and doesn’t remember who made it. I think it is an interesting design.
I plan to cut off the excess back and use that for the binding. It’s small and shouldn’t take me that long. No fabric usage for me from this quilt.
I did finish the Ends n.20 top and back in time to take it to the guild sew day to hand in.
I cut the piece in half and rearranged the strips as I described the other day. I think it looks a little better, but it isn’t perfect. I know someone will like it and it is certainly improv!
I used a large piece of a sea green solid with some added white strips to make the back.
I have only one more set of strips to use up, though I should be getting some quilts back soon.
I finished Ends n.20 the other day, but I am not sure the top is really finished.
I don’t like the distribution of the strips. It looks unbalanced to me.
I know it is a donation quilt and I shouldn’t care that much, but I don’t like sending ugly quilts out into the world. It isn’t ugly, but it isn’t right either. It also isn’t good for me to not do my best. I use these quilts as a design exercise and need to do my best.
Ends n.20 where to cut
I am thinking of cutting the quilt as shown and sewing the right edge to the center. That is flipping the cut off piece 180 degrees. The dark and the grey ‘L’ will be in the middle if I do this.
The green drawer is still relatively empty, though I have a huge pile of unprocessed scraps on my cutting table, so I am sure that won’t last. I need to find some time to deal with them. Maybe Sew Day?
I am trying to use up all the ends from various quilts. This is another group of fabrics from the BAMaQG IRR quilt with a few from Pointillist Palette n.4 thrown in. The pieces seem to be a random assortment of sizes, so I am doing a bit more fiddly piecing than I normally would.
The PP fabrics on the right are a little heavy, so I may move one of the pieces to the left. It will kind of ruin what I have going with the grey strips, but maybe I can create something better.
I hope to get this done before Saturday’s meeting, so I can hand it in. We’ll see.
