Another Summer Finish

This one came together relatively quickly and jumped right to the head of the queue.

70" x 90"

Stage 3, Stage 2, Stage 1

Stage 3: a finish!

Finishing and Pondering

First, the finish:

70" x 91"

Angry Birds, Angry Birds, Find a New Home!

Finished!

"Picket Fence" or "Home Awaits" pattern. 70"x90"

One Nibble at a Time

Sometimes the "elephant" seems too massive for a full bite, and one must nibble her way through to the other side.

I've spent this weekend nibbling on several large mounds piled hither and thither. During the week I've been working on quilting the Angry Birds (Ugh!) sandwich I created almost immediately after pinning the batik top from last post. I've had the backing for it for yonks (can you tell I enjoy British and Ozzie sitcoms?), and recently franken'ed a batting as well, so there was no reason for it to still be hanging about. Plus, I knew exactly how I wanted to quilt all aspects of it, so it was easy to put it ahead of the batik sandwich (the quilting of which I'm still pondering).

The "easy" parts were stippled, their borders filled with a simple wave pattern, then it came time to quilt the strips of 5-patches. I bitched and moaned about doing these with the last one, but this time I decided I'd go with option 2 of the three I set out for myself at the conclusion of that quilting session.

Lap Lady of the Lake Finished

53" x 66"

 This doesn't look much different from the last time I posted about it (gosh, nearly a year ago?!?), but let me show you what's changed.

A Finish and a Sandwich

This got bound, photo'ed, and tumbled in the drier today, ready for donation to Community First! Village. Diamonds and Pinwheels, finally ready for its new home.

71" x 90"

Another Floral Finish

Yippee, skippy!

72" x 91" (I've since cleaned off the smudge that makes that vertical strip look faded and blurry.)

Another finish!

Wow! I'm impressed, even if nobody else is. This is Elaine Adair's Rebuilt Log Cabin, a pattern I had an itch to try, and this satisfied it.

71" x 91"

Críochnaithe

The Irish Chain flimsy made back in 2019 is finally finished (the Irish word in this post's title). Another finish in the space of 8 days? Inconceivable!

"I do not think it means what you think it means."

Floral Finish

Another finish!

"Clarissa" pattern from ge*designs

Broken Cross Check

That sounds like a reference app that's on the fritz, doesn't it? What I've really been doing is checking potential 36-patches for an inadvertent swastika image. I put up pairings for 20 blocks on the design wall, then took a photo and gray-scaled it for simplicity.

As long as there was a definite light frame around the center four dark squares, there was no danger of offensive misunderstandings in the blocks. Here's how they look in color:

Much more fun, yes? These are all "half pinwheels", in that there are only two pinwheel blocks used, paired with two plain 9-patch blocks. I have scores of plain 9-patch blocks already made; not so much with the pinwheel blocks, so in the interest of time I've opted to use what I've already got.

Mind Games

When we were growing up, my mother would send me in to help my youngest sister clean her messy room because, as she explained it to me, I could always make a game out of it.

She was right, of course, and it's something I continue to this day--making a game of Tedious Tasks.

The latest "TT" has been a result of my decision to quilt each wonky star by itself--all 80 of them. I made up the game of "4 Esses" to get through them without losing interest or momentum, and to keep myself active as well.

For every Star I quilted, I'd get up and move to the cutting table where . . .

Burying the beginning threads before stitching over them.

Crumby Finish

Yay! 

91" x 70" Construction story at this link

Nothing finished, but plenty done

So we've managed to slide head-first into the first week of June!

After finishing the last log cabin, started by someone else and supplemented by me, I wanted to make another one right away using Elaine Adair's "Scrappy Rebuilt Log Cabin" pattern. It's intrigued me for years. I also had a drawer still crammed with scraps and strips gleaned from the CF!Q bins during The Great Reorganization, and felt they'd be perfect for this kind of project.

Many days were spent cutting 1.5" strips into the proper lengths for a traditional log cabin block. Having just worked with 40 blocks that seemed to have been constructed using the 'sew it down then trim it off' method of building, and not being terribly impressed with the results, I wanted to make blocks using known lengths.

Another finish . . . ish

Last month the CF!Quilters were asked that we not wash our quilts before donating them, as it created some question as to whether they were new or used.

I like to wash everything before it leaves my house, because not only does it get rid of markings, chalk dust, cat dander, and general griminess (that looks like it should really be spelled "grimyness", but the red squiggles under the second spelling suggest otherwise), but it also sends the message that 'Yes! This can be washed just like your sheets and towels.'

Apparently, that message wasn't being received.

So, when I put the last stitch into this . . .

. . . I threw it into my new dryer and put it on Air Dry. Remembering my research into dealing with a down comforter (2021, helping out my parents), I threw in 4 tennis balls to keep things agitated (and, I hoped, knock some of the chalk markings out of the top). It also gave me an opportunity to learn what the dryer thought was long enough for Air Dry (30 minutes--now written on the control panel with a black marker). After an hour there was a satisfactory amount of lint in the trap, and no discernible chalk lines.

A recent finish

This was completed several days ago, but it's been so rainy here lately that photographing it was problematic.

70" x 86". Link to how it appeared before Size Reduction Treatment.

A finish, and more

I haven't blogged in over a week, but I've been plenty busy! Thing 2 got home today after 9 days away, so the first thing I had him do, once we were both awake, was hold my most recent finish, Sunburst:

70" x 85"

This is the last of the N1C tops. I started it in June 2018, but getting involved with Community First! Quilters really pushed it across the finish line.

Gemischt

Yesterday (Friday, my day "off") and this morning were quite productive. I expect Fridays will be my 'mainly me' days going forward, as I've gone back to the Dreadful Tuesday mindset from my working days. I was at a point in my job that I could take a paid day off each week and I chose Tuesdays because it usually took me hours to wind down from Monday night's chorus rehearsals. To give focus to those days, I started designating them for those tasks I'd been dreading (for days, weeks, months), steeling myself mentally for the hard slog ahead and dedicating the day to plowing through whatever onerous black cloud had been hanging over my psyche.

These days the dreadful trifecta is: clean the litter boxes, take my blood pressure, catch up on chorus and/or Mom's finances. Other tasks pop up occasionally; I'm certainly not looking forward to dealing with Mom's 1099s again, but that's what Tuesdays are for!

Back to the present. This happened yesterday.

I've received many compliments on the 'acid wash' of my denim coat. That's not acid wash--that's 30 years of legitimate wear and tear!

A finish

Yay!

 

This is roughly 70"x88". I added the stripe border to build it out to closer meet the Twin guideline of 70"x90".