I am finishing up a BIG report at work. I only have a few hours left on my contract, so I sent off the draft to my client and then closed it up and didn’t look at it anymore. I felt like I had reached a stopping point where I had done enough work and could be rewarded.
So, I sewed.
Black & Grey Donation Quilt pre-sashing
I got busy putting the sashing on the Black & Grey Teenaged Boy Donation Quilt. I starting marching across the design wall sewing one seam at a time. I used the Stepping Stones blocks as my leaders and enders, so made double progress.
The first part of the chunking was sewing the cornerstones to the sashing and sewing the sashing to the blocks. There are a lot of cornerstones and a lot of sashing in this quilt. I am still working on both.
I am making progress, however and that is a good thing.
One of the things I made, as I mentioned were tissue covers. I took some of the Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 fabric I had leftover from the first Stepping Stones quilt and made some small things out of it. I just got a bug in my ear to use that fabric again. Not sure why.
I have a few more packs of tissues to fill some covers, so I may make a few more. We’ll see.
As an added bonus I found a piece of batting that I thought would be big enough, but it wasn’t so I spent some time last night, after the meeting and dragging the Young Man a Band performance, using the batting tape to make a piece of batting large enough. Gerre is willing to work with frankenbatting, so now the piece is ready to be sent to her.
Well, 2015 has barely started and I can already say that I had a hand in making a donation top.
Ooops! I have forgotten what the politically correct term is for donation quilt. I guess I didn’t listen to Pam’s podcast episode well enough.
Anyway.
BAMQG Sew Day was yesterday. I planned to go and had all of my cutting projects planned out to take when I thought of emailing Gerre to see if she would be there. Gerre and I made the Green T quilt together in the Great Charity Race last fall. We make a good team and Gerre makes me happy to be around.
Shockingly, she said no! It turns out that she was injured before Christmas had had been stuck at home since then and she didn’t feel like it. I cajoled and encouraged and bribed her with the prospect of working on another charity project with me. My thought was that she wouldn’t have to think about a project. She could just show up with her sewing machine.
It worked! Gerre decided to come and my job was to get fabric for another ‘T’ quilt together. We agreed that something cheerful was in order. I pulled out some pinks. I also pulled some beiges for the background that I wanted to use up anyway.
I arrived a little later than I intended (those PJs were nice and comfy). I started pressing and Gerre started cutting. The T quilts we made during the Great Charity Race were cut out. We found out how daunting the cutting can be. Once we passed that hurdle, I sewed the first seam and then pressed and Gerre sewed the rest as I pressed and handed her pieces.
Pink T Donation Quilt
The result is a cheerful quilt that we hope some lovely girl will enjoy. I don’t even think the beiges are very terrible.
Gerre has the piece, which is about 55″x45″. I will make the back and send it to her, she will quilt it, then I will bind it.
Gerre left much more cheerful and I got in over 5K steps running around, so it was a good day on many different levels.
I am slowly working on this piece. I have had a lot of other things to do so, in this case, slow means snail’s pace.
I have been pulling suitable reds out of the fabric closet, cutting and putting them in place. At the moment I have 3 different fabrics, but two of them are batiks and are very similar. I was trying to alternate the first two, but when I added the third (the one that looked similar), it became a little challenging. The next step is to find another red that is the same color,b ut has a slightly different pattern and add that into the mix.
I realized, as I added the third red, is that I was only putting fabrics on the vertical, so I started to move some of the three fabrics around so some of them were in horizontal positions as well. I, of course, will move them around some more when I add in the last (with any luck) fabric, but I’ll have to see.
Yes, the Field Day Zipper piece is still there. I haven’t made any progress on it, nor have I finished with the pieces from this quilt, so the FDZ piece is still in place. I did find a few more pieces, which is why it looks longer.
The space where Field Day Zipper is sitting is awaiting some blocks I am using for a tutorial on the other design wall.
This will be a big quilt and there are a few more blocks I am not using (aside from the tutorial blocks). Teenaged Boys are big, though.
I pulled out the big stack of blocks and slapped them up on the wall. I have done a bit, a tiny bit, of rearranging of the blocks, but not much. I’ll do more and test the extra blocks to see if I want to replace any. As I mentioned previously, Jackie and Cheryl sent me some blocks and those are interspersed with mine. I am glad they were willing to contribute as their fabrics add some interest to mine.
I am going to use red for sashing and grey, like the PIQF Crosses grey, for the cornerstones. Stay tuned for more on that.
I haven’t made a ton of progress on this, but I am determined to make some progress soon.
I forgot to take these quilt blocks to the meeting on Saturday, but that gives me the opportunity to show them to you.
They are the regular postage stamp block pattern the guild does. Even though I am working on the Teenage Boy Black & Grey Donation Quilt, I took the kits for these two blocks at the November meeting and just sewed them up as leaders and enders.
Peggy the Awesome puts them together and I just love these. I know a couple of the fabrics came from my scraps, but it is fun to see them again. I really like the scrappiness of the blocks.
Cheryl’s Donation Quilt
Similar blocks were turned into a quilt by Cheryl. I really like her border treatment. Isn’t it a cheerful quilt? These blocks are great.
I don’t really know if I should count this as a finished project as:
It is a ‘doing good’ quilt
I pieced some and bound it. Gerre did the quilting and Peggy did the choosing of fabrics and the cutting
I suppose that #2 is kind of irrelevant since I don’t quilt my own quilts anyway.
I don’t know. Somehow I just don’t feel like I did much on this quilt.
I really want to work with Gerre again. I think we made a good team. I am tempted to cut up some fabrics to make another T quilt, but I need to finish the Teenaged Boy Black & Grey Donation Quilt. I do think I would like this quilt better if the greens weren’t so dull. Still someone will love it.
Still, it is done and someone will enjoy it. I hope.
Pam, over at Hip to be a Square, was saying on a recent podcast, that we aren’t supposed to call donation quilts or charity programs ‘charity’ anymore. It is too offensive to those who are financially challenged. I suppose I can understand that, but I hope the quilts the guild makes are still appreciated.
I have the Green T quilt in my possession and I am applying the binding. This is the quilt that Gerre and I worked on together at the last Charity Day. Gerre quilted it and did a fantastic job!!
She quilted in a big circle and it really looks fantastic. I used the Reflections fabric (RJR, I think, from the Dark Ages) in a kind of olive green color. It is a little mottled, but I think it fits well with the variety of greens in the quilt.
Gerre and I make a good team and I told her so. I told her I want to work with her again. She is working on quilting the postage stamp/16 patch, which I will bind as well.
I really liked working with Gerre. I am thrilled that we have made this quilt together and I am proud of how it has come out. Yes, I know it is not finished, but I am thrilled with the way it has come together.
I can probably classify this as a hack. Really, I don’t know about the hack thing, because I made the apron without the Amanda 7 Pocket Cafe Apron pattern.
ARHS Grooming Apron
I couldn’t find the pattern and, after cleaning my workroom, I called my mom and had her measure the apron I made for her. I looked at the previous blog posts and went for it. I had to kind of make up the pockets, but I think it will work well.
A few months ago, I volunteered at the Young Man’s Band Review. I was assigned to the grooming team, which means that I followed the head of the grooming team around and carried stuff she needed to fix buttons, cut hair, adjust hems and jackets. At that time I thought it would be really useful to have an apron.
I finally had a chance to make one and it took me about three to four hours. The hardest part was pressing the seams. I really dislike that part, because I can never get the seams as flat as I want them.
I have to say that I enjoyed making this apron a lot more without the pattern than I did before. I think the problem with the pattern’s printing/font size was too small.
Regardless, I think the apron came out really well and I hope it will be useful.
I haven’t been able to make it to my PO Box recently and when my mom went for me, what a bonanza! Lots of fun goodies, including some blocks for the Black & Grey Teenaged Boy Donation Quilt from Jackie! WOW! What a great surprise and these blocks will really look great with the others I have.
I know I keep saying this, but I really, really need to put all the blocks out and take another picture. I need to see where I am.
This makes me think that I am continuing to make blocks for some reason that I don’t know or I haven’t decided to reveal? Perhaps these blocks are some kind of therapy?
I managed to finish the four blocks I was working on most recently, but couldn’t put together any new ones yet. I really need to lay the whole piece out and see what I have.
I had a few more choices in this group since cutting some additional patches. I like the way these look. they are as cheerful and happy as grey and black blocks can be.
I wasn’t ready for color when I started this quilt, but I am glad I am ready now. I started this quilt a long time ago and I can see the evolution of the blocks as time passes.
As I mentioned yesterday, Gerre and I teamed up for the Charity Race Sew Day. we were 4th in line to pick fabric and ended up with a variety of green colors. Gerre and I looked at each other in disappointment, but knew that the recipient would like it and got to work.
We pushed two tables together and used that as our workspace. We laid out most (the table wasn’t THAT big) of the pieces, cut the background and Gerre started sewing.
Gerre & Jaye Blocks
After cutting the background, I paired up pieces and parts and handed them to Gerre. She put them through the machine. I cut them off, pressed them, then paired them off again with other pieces and handed them back to Gerre to sew.
I thought we did very well and sewed pretty quickly. Still, we weren’t first with a finished top. I don’t sew very quickly in general, and, though I wasn’t sewing, I was pleased that we were able to finish as quickly as we did with little or no drama. I was organized and got Gerre the pieces she needed efficiently. She was a sewing rock star. Our system worked.
After we finished the piecing, we found a vintage sheet that was large enough for the back and layered and basted the top. I thought we were being nice for some other guild member, but Gerre said that she will quilt it. I offered to bind it so the piece will be done when we hand it in.
Gerre & Jaye Blocks: Chunking in Process
I showed Gerre how to “chunk a top.” It is harder if you don’t have a design wall and lots of leaders and enders. That plug lump in the middle of the table didn’t help, though it was useful for making the machine work. We started making postage stamp blocks in between to try and keep the T blocks in order.
I really think this is a great pattern for charity quilts. It is interesting. There are lots of ways to put it together and it comes out well. I want to work with Gerre again.
Peggy and Michelle did a great job organizing the Charity Day Race Game and 8 of the quilts we made were from the kits Michelle and Peggy put together before the event. They are awesome, dedicated and well organized.
Worker Bees
We all got kits and set to work. Peggy had done a lot of the cutting already, so we all only had to cut backgrounds and sew.
Michelle and Jennifer worked on a red version of the T quilt with a lot of Joel Dewberry Notting Hill fabric.
I was on a team with Gerre and she took the first sewing shift. I wasn’t really paying attention to how other teams organized their sewing and cutting and pressing and pinning, but our organization worked very well.
Rhonda and Ruth worked on a turquoise version with some Pearl Bracelets and a lot of fish fabric.
Diana worked on a pastel version with some Aneela Hoey fabrics and Jennifer finished a second green top that really looked like light in a forest.
Karen and Joelle finished another red top with a lot of card game fabric that they joked they would give to Kenny Rogers. Peggy made a brown version that looked like candy and Michelle finished a second top with a blue solid background. Gerre and I finished a top with green Ts and a light background. the quilts all used the same pattern, but were so different and fun.
Jennifer & Michelle
Ruth & Rhonda
Joelle & Karen
Jaye and Gerre
Peggy
Michelle 2
Diana
Gerre & Jaye’s Bonus Quilt
After the T quilts were done many people worked on making postage stamp blocks, including Gerre and I. We made as many pink and white postage stamp blocks as we could, then we added in some yellow and white blocks in to bring the quilt up to size. We didn’t finish it. Gerre put me in the sewing driver’s seat and I kept screwing up when sewing the blocks together, so we pinned the blocks together and Gerre will finish the top at home.
You have seen a number of donation blocks and quilts I have made for BAMQG using the postage stamp pattern. I wouldn’t have called it a postage stamp pattern; I would have called it a 16 patch, but postage stamp was what the Charity Girls called it, so we’ll move on and fight about names later.
The most recent quilt (still in process!) is the Black and Grey Teenaged Boy Donation Quilt. You know it; you have seen it 100 times. I make those blocks as meditation and to do something good for others. There is something about making those blocks that feels infinite. Infinite possibilities. I think simple blocks have that quality.
Cheryl’s Postage Stamp Quilt
Cheryl’s quilt is a perfect example. She took a number of different blocks, put them together and added an awesome border to make this donation quilt.
One thing is that I could use a lot of different scraps. I could use a similar border idea to finish the Black & Grey Teenaged Boy Donation Quilt. Perhaps I will use this idea when I make the next donation quilt.
