It Happened Again

You will remember that I recently rehabbed a vintage quilt by sewing the blocks into an entirely new setting. Well.

Not long after, I received a message on Ravelry from someone who happened to see my post (she was visiting the quilting group) and linked me to a post where someone was offering two old tops. Sure enough, someone was offering two tops that were found in an attic they were cleaning out. (First time in 85 years, apparently!) The first they thought was from the 30s and the second from the 70s.

We ended up connecting and he agreed to send me the tops. I had half a thought that I might get into trouble if old quilts keep finding me! (But I quickly quashed it.)

Then the owners wrote me and said that someone in the family wanted the checkerboard top for a baby quilt; he was very sorry. But I didn't mind because I was only taking the second one because I liked the first one! So, perfect all around.

A couple weeks after that, my package arrived!

What did I have?

Twenty-five blocks sewn in a 5x5 grid; 4 blocks sewn in a row; and 4 single blocks. I can't imagine what layout they were thinking of with that number of blocks, or maybe they were planning to make a few more.

Some of the blue pieces have evidence of stitching and I'm wondering if it's from the same reinforcing stitching that I saw in the last set of blocks. But in this case, they took the time to remove the reinforcing strip. The blocks looked to be in good shape. It was all hand sewn.

First order of business was to separate the blocks. I knew I couldn't use them in the existing arrangement.

And here they are!

I gave them a good soak and light swishing and then an extra long soak because I forgot about them overnight. A quick spin in the washer and they were ready to hang to dry.

The water came out very brown which was icky. But I wonder if it was some of the brown dye bleeding. A few of the blue stars have brown spots and I don't know if they were already there or if it was transfer from the dye.

Once washed, they all needed a good pressing. Each block went from this:

to this:

Back

Front

So satisfying!!

Although the blocks are not a uniform size and some of the seam allowances are a lot smaller than a 1/4 inch, the only one that could pose a big problem is this one:

Can you see how "not flat" that is?!! I don't think I'm going to re-sew it. I can just push it down and flatten it which makes the blue fabric pleat over itself but doesn't affect the outside shape. Or I can choose a layout that doesn't need that block.

This morning I laid out the blocks for the first time. I'm thinking of setting them on-point with alternating blocks.

There are a lot of ways you can fill in the blank squares. Solid fabric squares is one option, or quarter square triangles (hour glass blocks) can be a striking arrangement too.

I trimmed the last set of blocks so that they were all the same size. I think I may add sashing to these blocks so I can cut them the same size without cutting off parts of the stars.

I was thinking these small blocks (only about 7") wouldn't be enough for a big quilt, but setting on point and alternating with other blocks makes them almost fill this double bed. Add a few borders that hang over the side and I'd have a bed quilt!

That would also mean making a couple more blocks because there aren't quite enough for this 5x7 arrangement. I used to have a blue that I think would have match pretty well, but I'm not sure I have it any more. Matching the brown would be a lot harder.

But on the other hand, they don't have to blend in completely. Having different blocks would just highlight the fact that this is a "mother/daughter" quilt--that's what they call it when one person makes the blocks or starts a quilt and another (from a younger generation) finishes it. An endearing name, isn't it?

Linking up with Quilting Patchwork and Applique

I Love it When You Can Make a Set

I would have to admit that I am a sucker for a set. If something I see matches something I already have, I have a very hard time leaving it at the store (garage sale, flea market, wherever). I have more fun putting together sets than just buying everything all at once. (Feels too much like a kit--all the fun is already done!)

It looks like I didn't detail it here on the blog, but I had a red star block that I took out of my Bright Stars on Black quilt (based on the Pecking Order quilt). (I replaced it with a lighter pink block to flow better with the rest of the quilt.)

Feeling bad that this red block wasn't going to make it onto the quilt, I decided I would make a pillow out of it. I don't generally decorate with pillows, but how could I resist making one from this one (favourite) block!

In November I finished quilting the front of the pillow cover:

I layered the block with some scrap batting (literally scrap as I sewed two pieces together) and backed it with more of this black fabric (which will never end!)

I sewed the center with embroidery floss (two strands) the same as the blocks on the quilt:

And then with the machine, I went around the outside, "bouncing" from point to point.

You can see I marked it with chalk and still have to wash that off!

I avoided doing the back of the pillow for a while because I knew it was going to get involved. I was definitely going to use the same black (again, I have a supply for two lifetimes), but the pieces were all smaller than I really needed--too narrow to cover half of the pillow and too short too.

So I thought of a plan to cover the back with three partially overlapping panels. This also would avoid using a zipper, which I didn't have and didn't want to buy.

After patching in an extra piece of fabric to make four strips the right length, I hemmed one long edge on two of the pieces. The other two pieces, I put back to back and sewed them together along both long edges.

 I then pressed the seams to lock the stitches, and then pressed the seam allowances open:

Then I could turn this tube inside out.

Pressing the seams open before turning, makes it really easy to make a nice crisp edge:

Then I top stitched along both long edges for reinforcement.

After all that, I had three strips of fabric,

The outside ones (top and bottom) are one layer and hemmed on the long inside edge, and the center one is double sided and top stitched along both long edges.

Now I could layer them onto my pillow front. First the centre one goes on (more or less in the center):

Then the two other pieces go on, matching the edges of the pillow front and overlapping with the center piece. The good side facing down, of course.

Then I sewed all around the pillow. Yes, all around. I did not have to leave a 6 inch opening for turning. :)

Apparently Husqvarna is stridently metric because there are no inches marked on my machine. Since I had planned for a 1/2 inch seam allowance, I lined up the edge of the fabric with the edge of my walking foot and then moved the needle to the left until it was 1/2 inch from the edge.

You can see I'm now pinning from the "wrong" way too. A new habit I'm trying. Putting them in from right to left makes it easy to remove them both because I'm right handed and can do it with my right hand and because the pin head hangs over the edge of the fabric and is easy to grab. But since you're not supposed to run over your pins, this means you have to remove the pin before you get there. And usually the fabric is only too happy to move once the pin is gone. Not good.

I just watched a tutorial where the host pins as above and keeps the pins far enough to the left that just the tip goes under the pressure foot (not the needle). You can keep your pins in and nothing has a chance to move before you stitch it down.

I know many of you sew over your pins and have done so for years without any trouble. I used to too. But I have had my needle break because it came down on a pin. More than once actually. And that is when you run into risk of the needle shard flying around and landing somewhere--hopefully not your eye. So although the risk of it happening is small, the risk of it being bad if it does happen is high enough that I avoid it. (Hitting a pin can also throw off your machine's timing and that's no fun to fix either.)

I tried something new at the corners. I like to reinforce them and haven't found a good way to do it. This time I sewed one stitched past the corner, back stitched two stitches, then went forward one stitch and rotated the fabric for the next seam.

Then I did the same thing: stitched once forward, went back two stitches, and then continued the rest of the seam. I don't know if it will make any difference, but I wanted to try it.

I did trim my corners...not too close to the stitching.

And then like the good garment sewer I was taught to be, I graded the seam allowances to reduce bulk.

In this case, I trimmed the seam allowance from the pillow back. I'm not sure how much difference it made in this case since the front consists of two layers of fabric and the batting, but oh well, it didn't make it worse!

Then the easy time of turning it inside out through the slits in the pillow back.

 SO much easier than trying to do it through a six inch gap!!

Next it was time to stuff it with the pillow. I pushed it under the centre and one side,

and then squished it under the other side.

 Easy peasy!

Here's an overexposed shot so you can see what the back looks like:

And here's the completed pillow.

It is pretty well camouflaged sitting on the quilt itself, so I think I'm going to have to accent a chair in the room.

Family Crafting Retreat

I had the great pleasure of meeting a couple of my sisters, my mom, two cousins and an aunt for a crafting retreat this past weekend. This all came from my cousin posting her quilts on Facebook, our comments, and a chance remark about getting together to quilt (and craft). The snowball rolled from there.

And speaking of which, it snowed non-stop all weekend. I went out for a couple walks, but otherwise didn't have to be out, so I didn't mind at all. But it was surprising to look out the window for three days and have it snowing every single time. Thankfully someone else was taking care of snow removal.

The building where we were staying.

What did I work on over the weekend? Glad you asked because otherwise I wouldn't have much to talk about here.

First was the quilt I am currently calling Bright Stars on Black. I got it organized before I left and had already cut the parts I would need and pieced a lot of half square triangles (HST). I started by sorting them into sets of 8 for stars and sewing them into pairs.

Then I added the center black square:

Or I put two sets on the black square, anyway. My preparations neglected to include cutting the smaller black squares needed for the outside corners. So that was as far as I got with that. But that took quite a bit of time, so that's alright. Part of the time was spent pressing all those little seams.

Troy and I finished a new travel ironing board just in time for this trip. It has legs so it can be set up on a table, but I quickly realized it worked great sitting across my lap. I really can find a way to do anything while sitting on a couch.

Obviously I'm not pressing the HSTs in the picture, but the parts for the large stars all still needed to be pressed as well. It was a good chance to sit and talk.


I discovered a few of them hadn't had the outer corners trimmed, so I did that and immediately made some scrap blocks from the cut off triangle pairs. I didn't trim them to size or anything. I just ran them through the machine and matched up what I could.

These squares will finish less than 2" - piecing this small isn't crazy if you do it right away while the scraps are still fresh and the two triangle pieces are already matched up (as these were). Of course, I would be crazy to put these aside for using later. They are too tiny.

Although my aunt would say it's all crazy. (In fact she did say that on the weekend about someone else's quilt with small pieces. She was voted off the island.)

What will I do with these little squares? Who knows. For now they're in with the scraps (bigger scraps) and will get put into some slab block or scrappy project. Meanwhile, they're cute!

I did finish sewing and pressing all the large star pieces for this quilt and had been hoping to lay it out while I was there. But the building really didn't have any spaces large enough. I left it alone for a while, but it was nagging at me so I finally tried it on the kitchen table.

First I laid out all the star sets, organized by colour:

I figured out how many I had of each colour group and worked with some options on paper for what I could do with them. After I chose an arrangement, I picked out the best blocks for the layout.

Somehow I made twice as many star sets as I needed for one quilt, so there were plenty enough to choose from!

Then I laid out the pieces one row at a time and sewed them:

None of the rows are joined to each other yet, but I think you can get an idea of how it will look. I have to cut some black filler blocks for the edges too, and I didn't have the fabric with me. I was very happy to make this much progress.

In the time when I didn't think I had room to lay out the quilt, I did some playful sewing with scraps:

I got as far as I could with red scraps in making a slab block. It's not up to 10" yet but I can add more later. The squares on the right were cut offs from the quilt my sister was doing. She doesn't keep scraps that small. Again, these are not intended for anything yet, but things like this have a way of being perfect for something (one day).

Holding gifts that a few of us made for each other--
mug rugs, pin cushions, and matchbook needle cases.

A close up of the mug rug I chose.

We also worked on a puzzle - of a quilt of course.
Mom made it her first priority to get it done!

You can't really see it in the picture (right) but my sister is holding a blanket she is knitting. It's covered in cables and I showed her how she can do them without using the cable needle. (Essentially by permitting yourself to take the stitches off of the needles for a moment.) She sent me a note later that said it was one of the best things I ever taught her. :)

When I wanted something simpler I could do while sitting and talking, I pulled out this sweater.

I bought it at Goodwill to harvest the wonderful yarn. It will be perfect for a Wool-Aid project. The sweater was slightly felted so it was going to be a two person job to ravel it -- a perfect job for me and my mother.

One of us would pull the yarn from the sweater and the other would wind it into a ball.

By the end, I had four satisfying balls. (And we both had tired arms because we were trying to "keep up with" the other.)

A project I started over the weekend was a new shawl:

I got a little further than this but I have realized that I'm going to have to add the beads the pattern suggested. I thought yarn-overs would be enough, but they're not. So I have ordered beads and will have to start this over. I'll give more details about it in a later post, but if you're curious you can see the Ravelry project page by clicking here.

And finally, when I wanted to work on some hand sewing, I pulled out my Lucy Boston's Patchwork of the Crosses blocks. On the last night, I laid them all out - some sewn, some partially laid out, some partially sewn - and pulled out the new fabric I purchased on the drive there.

I had this block laid out except for the four feature pieces:

I found the brown fabric with orange flowers at the shop and added them. I sewed it together over the weekend.

I purchased some of this fabric:

and cut out and shaped this border from it:

Nothing is pieced, so I could still separate the sets of 8 matching pieces. We'll see.

Here's another border I cut out from a new fabric.

I'm not sure I'm going to keep it with the green center.

And finally, I tried out a different layout of pieces I had already prepared:

I like the spiral and sewed it together on Monday when I was home. I'll be playing with this some more.

What a fun weekend it was. There's talk of doing it again next year, so that would be great.