Whimsical Runner and More Pineapples

June 11, 2022June 10, 2022 Lazy Saturday QuiltsLeave a comment

The past few weeks have been full of fun and not-so-fun things.

First, there was a week of vacation at Mammoth Cave and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Hubby and I climbed our third mountain while in the Smokies. (We’ve now ascended Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina, Guadalupe Peak in Texas, and Mt. LeConte in Tennessee. We have our sights set on several more in the future.)

Since returning home, we’ve been on several hiking adventures. We’ve picked tons of dandelions to make dandelion jelly. We’ve eaten massive soft pretzels drenched in butter and parmesan and garlic from the Petosky Pretzel Company and consumed giant bowls of tasty ice cream from Kilwin’s Fudge Shop. And just yesterday we met up at a park with my parents and our kids to celebrate several birthdays.

The not-so-fun consisted of spring cleaning and more spring cleaning. Basement cleaning consumed almost an entire Sunday afternoon, and I’m pleased to report that our daughter’s paddleboard has FINALLY been stowed away…just in time for paddleboard season. Window washing, my least favorite chore, stole several hours of happiness. And garden weeding with our overly friendly mosquitos has sucked the joy out of at least one day and threatens to do so again tomorrow.

But let’s not dwell on unpleasant things!

My sewing time has been minimal, but I did manage to finish up several more tiny paper-pieced pineapples. Recently I decided to make blocks that were the “opposite” of the ones I’d previously completed. Where I’d used lights before, I switched to darks, and vice versa. I laid them out on the floor today to see how I liked the look, and I’m pleased with how they are turning out. I’m not looking forward to removing all of the paper from the back of each block, though.

After growing a little bored with pineapples and tiny scraps (actually all scraps at this point), I decided to pull out a pattern I’ve had for several years and start a…gasp…new project. As I still have several unfinished objects cluttering up the sewing room, the last thing I needed to do was begin something new, but here we are anyway.

This pattern makes a very long wall quilt, table runner, or bed runner. When I say “very long,” I mean “very long.” Like so long that I’d only be able to put the table runner-sized table runner on the table if I had the table expanded to its limits with multiple leaves being used. As it’s often just Hubby and me here for meals, we only have a need for our table to be stretched to fancy-dinner-at-Downton-Abbey size approximately once a year. I’ve decided that I’m going to make a much smaller table runner, probably consisting of either the top or bottom 2/3 of what’s pictured on the pattern. Thus far I’ve cut out a portion of one of the large flowers. Choosing fabrics for this whimsical runner was a lot of fun.

With rain forecasted for a portion of this weekend, I’m hoping to spend a few hours sewing. But first…I need to iron the curtains that need to be rehung post window washing. Ironing…now there’s a real joy stealer! (There’s also a pile of laundry that needs to be ironed. Sigh!)

crafts · Quilting · Quilts · sewing · Uncategorized

Tiny Pineapples

May 14, 2022May 11, 2022 Lazy Saturday QuiltsLeave a comment

I’ve been working my way through my list of Unfinished Projects this year. I was on quite a roll, then stalled a bit over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been working on some other projects that aren’t craft-related, have been planning some summer adventures, and have been helping move college kids back home.

My piano room presently looks like a hoarder lives here as Middle Daughter has to move back to college next week for her summer classes and we piled all her things in there when we unloaded the car rather than put them away for such a short period of time.

Son came home with mountains of laundry a week later, claiming he’d run out of Tide Pods a few weeks before the end of the semester. I can finally see the floor in the laundry room again…after days of tripping over hoodies and blankets–he sleeps under no less than 10 blankets every night–and underwear.

With my days spent moving laundry from the floor to the washer to the dryer, my sewing time has decreased significantly. However, I did manage to eke out some time to work on a few tiny paper-pieced pineapples.

These pineapples measure just over 3″ square and are great for all those tiny scraps!. I found the pattern at https://www.thelittlemushroomcap.com/paper-pieced-3-pineapple-log-cabin-block-mini-quilt-progress-free-paper-piecing-template-a-video/.

Originally I made a stack of these blocks with lights where the darks are in the above photo. As I laid them out, planning how I was going to arrange them, I decided that I liked the look of alternating blocks with lights and darks in the corners. So now I’m working on creating a stack of what I’ll call dark blocks. (Like the one above. Below you can see the difference between the “lights” and the “darks.”)

I haven’t yet decided how large this quilt will be. Considering all of the time involved I will probably choose to hang this one on the wall rather than have out where it can be used.

Quilting · Quilts · sewing · Uncategorized

Loving This Quilt Pattern!

April 22, 2021 Lazy Saturday Quilts1 Comment

I found a little time to sew yesterday and ended up with a heaping pile of blocks for the Lemon Pepper quilt. Sadly, I don’t have quite as many as I need to begin assembling the top. I hadn’t decided when I first began cutting out the strips needed for this quilt whether I was going to make the lap size or the XL lap size. I had enough fabric for the larger version, but I wasn’t certain if I wanted to go that big, as quilting a large quilt on a regular sewing machine can be quite a challenge. I just love this combo of fabrics so much, though, that I’ve decided the XL lap size is the way to go. If I find the time tomorrow, I’ll start working on the 32 blocks I still need.

Since I don’t have much progress to share on this project, I thought I’d share an older wall hanging.

This one is definitely showing its age. I can’t recall how many years ago my mom and I got together to make these–it was probably around 20 years ago, as we stopped doing much sewing together after my second child was born and definitely didn’t do much at all after the third one came along.

This little wall hanging was made of nine paper-pieced hearts. We had no actual pattern for the hanging. We pulled paper-piecing patterns from the internet and then decided how we would tie them all together.

You can really tell how long this has been hanging on the wall by the difference between the backing fabric and the sashing fabric. The front has faded significantly. I’ve found that different fabrics seem to react to light differently, which probably has something to do with how high quality the fabric was to begin with. That particular black/purple floral was most likely purchased from Joann Fabrics, as that was where I purchased most of my fabric then.

(I recall standing in line at the cutting counter FOR AGES when they’d have a big sale. I think we were able to get a yard for $1.99 or some equally ridiculous low price. Now it’s over $10/yard at the nice quilt shops! I probably sound like an old person…”Back in my day the fabric was so cheap you could get 5 yards for what you pay for 1 now!”)

This little wall hanging hangs in the guinea pig room…the room formerly known as the reading room…the room that will one day be the yoga/plant room when the guinea pigs move in with our middle daughter (their owner) when she graduates from college and moves to wherever she’s going to live. Until that time comes, my husband and I get to cater to the demands of those two tiny tyrants and get to enjoy their little wheeks, chatters, and chirps whenever she’s away at school.

Quilting · Quilts · Uncategorized

2021: Off to a Scrappy Start

January 21, 2021 Lazy Saturday Quilts3 Comments

The temptation to cut into new fabric has been strong. The fabric has been pulled from the stash. The pattern has been chosen.

But…

There are heaping piles and containers full of scraps. The scrap situation has gotten out of control. Some are divided by color. Most are just in a jumbled mess on my sewing table and strewn all over the floor. It’s really quite horrifying.

In an effort to make some sort of progress using up my scraps, I’ve been working on scrap quilts. Last year I completed a lap quilt made up of scrappy triangles. This year I’ve taken more of a crazy patch approach.

I start by sewing the tiniest scraps together, then cutting so there is a nice straight edge. These small chunks then get sewn to other small chunks or slightly larger pieces of fabric. As I sew more and more chunks and strips together, I gradually work toward forming a 16″x20″ rectangle. (Once in a while and also to border each rectangle, I use sew on a long strip. This helps to minimize having a lot of seams coming together.) I used nine of these rectangles for my lap quilt.

My favorite thing about these scrap quilts is that I’ve been able to use up extra blocks from previous projects, such as a nine patch from my very first project 22 years ago, or little things I’ve sewn up that never really found a home, such as a pair of tiny paper-pieced houses. I’d made two houses, one in purple and one in blue. The process was tedious, and I knew after making two that I did not want to take the time to make enough for an entire project. I’m so glad they found a home in this quilt.

For the quilting I used a variegated thread and meandered all over the quilt top. Though my original intention was to sew all my leftover binding bits together to make binding for this quilt, I opted to use a solid instead.

Presently I am at work on my second quilt just like this one. I showed my middle daughter one of the blocks, and her comment was, “Everything is starting to look the same to me.” While it might be true that the fabrics are mostly the same, each quilt is definitely unique. I’d like to think that the scrap situation will be under control once the second quilt is finished, but I’m about six or seven blocks in and the pile doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller.