Focused on Finishing

 This week, I'm focused on finishing some quilts! 

That's a good thing!!

As usual, there are deadlines involved -- what would we do without those?!?

I just wandered back through my posts to figure out when I pieced Jessie's Fierce Feathered Star.  I was part of her test team before she released the pattern late in 2016.

You can read my post about it HERE.

It was a great make -- I love the size of it -- 36" square!!

Recently, when a birding friend announced her retirement, I dove into my stash of quilt tops to see if I had anything that might be a good gift for her -- there it was!!  

The bird house print is so delightful -- especially since the birds in it are "true to life".

For some reason, that is very important to me?!?

And better yet, the backing and the binding were ready to go.

Layer and quilt!! 

I chose to do a Baptist Fan quilting design -- since I figured out how to travel through this design with hardly any threads to tie off,  it has been a regular "go-to" quilting solution for me!!

You can visit my post complete with diagrams about how to travel through the motifs HERE.

Since writing that post, I've discovered the Westalee Ruler Foot Echo Guide Disks which make it even easier -- I wrote about using those HERE.

I lost one of my machine quilting gloves this fall -- sure hope it's not stitched to the back of something?  So in a pinch, I grabbed a pair of my lightweight outdoor gloves.

Well, gloves are gloves . . . . . right???

Looks a bit odd, but my arthritic hands love being snuggly warm in them.

The only drawback is that all the stray threads and trimmings cling to them.

I trimmed the finished quilt up yesterday!!

Do you pitch your trimmings or keep them?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I have this predisposition to hoard bits "just in case" but as the era of "downsizing" looms in my future, I'm working to loosen up and let go.

I did keep some of this wad but only for the purpose of tying up downed tree branches and garden trimming for the trash man.

As I finish writing this, the quilt is drying on the rack in the basement.

We had our first snow of the season last night, so it's photo session on the laundry lines has a very pretty backdrop.

Now I'm focused on finishing up a few charity quilts for holiday give aways and my annual sock knitting frenzy is under way.  I've moved my knitting chair to the back windows of the house so I can enjoy this crew who have been flocking to my feeders for the past two weeks -- pine siskins!!

They are a more northern finch that is not common here every year -- the strippy ones in this picture (upper right and lower left birds) co-feeding with the local plainer goldfinches.

Very exciting even though they are burning through finch mix like power vacuums!!

If you are looking for the Fierce Feathered Star pattern, it's a PDF download which you can buy the designer, HERE.  It includes both the 36" star that I made and a 20" star!

Jessie at Threaded Quilting Studio

This finish brings me halfway to my fourth quarter goals for the 2018 Finish Along!!

Yea!!

Mary

Third Quarter Goals for the 2018 Finish Along

 Just setting myself up with two finishing goals for this quarter!

First up is my Value Proposition QAL top from 2015 (?) -- I'm on the last row of blocks and haven't touched it all summer.

Just these four blocks to go . . . . .  

. . . . . and 300" of this 10" wide border.  Since it's such a busy print, I expect the quilting design choice will be simple -- parallel lines or a grid that echos the 60 degrees angles of the hexagons.

Part of my renewed interest is thanks to Jeana Kimball who has started a #50daysofhandquilting push via her Instragram feed and so I started out the first day this morning with an hour of stitching!

I would love to have this hanging in the living room by Christmas!!

Second project will be a retirement gift for a long time naturalist birding friend.  When she announced her final day last month, my immediate impulse was to make her a quilt.  But first I always check this shelf to see if I already have something perfect on hand -- it's not nearly as full as it once was so I was fearful that there wouldn't be the perfect quilt top (with backing and binding) to suit her. 

But yes -- have no fear!  There it was -- third quilt top I touched!!

Complete with backing and binding -- ready to layer.

It's the Fierce Feathered Star by Jessica at Threaded Quilting.

Bright, cheerful, and featuring birds!!

The quilt isn't askew -- it's my photo -- quilt on floor, me on a chair reaching way out?!?  I have about two months before her official last day -- thinking Baptist Fan but we'll see!

These two project should keep me busy for the next few months.

Enjoy the weekend!

Mary

Linking up with the 2018 Finish Along today!

September is Flying

I guess as we get busier and older, we say that about every month.

I'm trying to get in lots of time outdoors because I am always enchanted by the change of seasons.

This has been happening all along the southern shoreline of Lake Erie -- Monarch butterflies migrating!  Those delicate little things fly across the lake which is 57 miles across at the widest point.  We had a spell of very rainy weather and they do the sensible thing and just shut down the trip and wait out the weather -- the picture below was taken on a drizzly afternoon so the quality of the picture is not great, but look at all those butterflies!! 

Those aren't dead leaves!

A couple days later when the sun reappeared, things thinned out a bit, but they still mob up to rest in the sunshine after the lake crossing.  One fellow watching at the Ohio/Pennsylvania state line counted over 1000 of them coming off the lake in an hour this past Saturday morning.   

I found this large patch of flowers in the middle of an industrial park and it was literally covered with nectaring monarchs -- to stand in the middle of that patch and have two dozen butterflies fluttering around me was too wonderful!!

I've been sewing, too -- everyday!

Half of my daughter's Mississippi Mud is quilted and the remaining two quarter sections are layered and ready to go!  You can't even tell where I joined the two sections, can you?

It's there on the right side where the batting has a slash.

I am meander quilting it and since I hate to bury threads, I've figured out how to traverse each star when I get to it.  Would you like to see how?

This series of pictures follows the path I take -- I meander to a point. . . .

. . . . then grab my ruler and trace the edge this far . . .  

. . . . down to the opposite point where I meander off the star, do a loop or two . . . 

  . . . . and back into the same point.

I travel across to the right and up to the point where I started -- half finished and no threads to bury!! 

Once I've meandered around the outside of the star, I arrive at the third point . . . .  

. . . . crossing to the fourth point . . .  

. . . . before returning to the third point. 

I literally have only had to bury a few threads when the bobbin runs out and that's a good thing!!

This quilt has been in the works for a long time.  My daughter started it around 2003 and lost interest several times in the piecing, so I have been doing a block here and there.  Now she will be moving into her own place this winter and it will be nice to have a brand new quilt!

Mississippi Mud is a pattern I wrote 25 years ago now and was tremendously popular with my customers and students.  It's still available as a PDF in my Etsy shop HERE.

I'll leave you with one last butterfly picture -- isn't this one a beauty??

It's the fall form of the Question Mark (I didn't know there was a fall form until I read my field guide to confirm the ID).

The silvery outline of the wings looked lavender in the sunlight.  These hibernate through the winter and emerge again in the spring to breed -- amazed again!

Enjoy the changing seasons!!

Mary

Linking up with Let's Be Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts this week?

Winding down the Summer

Summers pass along so quickly.

I've released most of the Monarch butterfly horde that have been eating my milkweed patch!

There are still a few left and I'll take on a few more during August and September to hopefully boost the migratory generation of these amazing creatures.  Seems like it should be a good year for the Monarchs -- I've released close to 70 and a friend has released over twice that many.

Hopefully, we are having a good impact! 

There was a big family gathering for 3 days at the beginning of August of my crew and my three siblings with their families.

We are spread out all over the US so it's rare for us to be all together at the same time and it was a happy weekend -- nice to gather for something other than a funeral! 

Upon returning home, I got back to work on my version of the Bernina ZenChic Triangle Sew Along quilt.  Earlier this week, it was ready to trim and bind.

Do you save these trimmings?

Typically, I do . . . . but not this time -- too often they just sit in that basket in the corner of the studio taunting me.

I spread the trimmed quilt out on the grass -- not sure I should admit that my only empty flat surface is the back lawn?!?  My quilting has left the edges a bit wobbly, so I decided to block it before adding the binding. 

That meant the patio needed to be swept -- hard empty flat surface. 

Then I spread out a clean sheet and put the quilt face down on it. 

I covered it with wet beach towels. 

And then stomped the moisture from the towels into the quilt.

At the end of the afternoon, I lifted off the towels and let the quilt lay for a few more hours to be sure it was completely dry. 

Yesterday morning, I bound it!! 

And here it is!!

I participated in this sew along to gain a better understanding of "modern" quilt design. 

Now it will be interesting to see how the experience impacts my quiltmaking going forward. 

Will my fabric selections get simpler?

It was also good to move completely through a finished quilt in less than a year!!

So that makes one goal for the third quarter of the 2018 Finish Along crossed off the list!

On to the next one!!

It's an ancient UFO!!

Enjoy!!

Mary

Linking up with the Third Quarter of the Finish A-Long 2018!!

2018 Finish Along -- Third Quarter Goals

Are you saying where did the first half of the year go?

I am!!

Time to share a few new goals for the third quarter of 2018 and see if I can get some more quilts finished!!

I'm rolling over my Bernina ZenChic Triangle quiltalong piece -- it's a leftover from last quarter and just past the halfway mark of quilting.  I don't want it to slip through the cracks!!

I'm never at a loss for UFO's -- this is the "finished top with backing" shelf.  May look overwhelming to some of you, but there are only 18 on it now.  

It was full, to the top, falling off the edge . . . . 

So generally making good progress!!

I decided to pull a rather old one -- dates to 2000.  The pattern was laid out and shared with me by a fellow "It's Okay" teacher from Milwaukee, WI -- Jan Kreuger.

I've hung it on the design wall across from my machine so that my subconscious can start working on the quilting plan!

I'll likely use it as a gift or sell it when it's finished.

My third project will be to quilt my daughter's version of my pattern, Mississippi Mud. It's a full size quilt and I'll be quilting it in four sections.  I've finished several of these over the years and so I already know how to quilt it!!

I also want to share that I've donated my Minimal mini wall quilt (it's 13 1/2" square) that was included in the Curated Quilt's third issue Gallery to a fund raising auction on Instagram that begins Monday, July 9.  Bids will be accepted through Friday, July 14 and all proceeds will go to aid immigrant and refugee families in crisis.  80 items are being auctioned!  

 Click HERE and visit  @stitchersforunitedfamilies on Instragram for all the details!

Quilting!!

Back at the end of May, I showed you my version of ZenChic's Bernina Triangle quilt along.

Even though I don't have a definite purpose/recipient for this quilt, I put it on my second quarter goal list for the 2018 Finish Along challenge.

Keeping it up on the design wall forced me to keep the momentum going -- it needed to come down in one complete quilt top or not at all since it took quite a bit of concentration to get it up there in the first place following the diagram that Brigette Heiland shared with us! 

So I was pleased to have everything together!!  This is one of those quilts that is more interesting at close range -- my soft palette of colors plus the low contrast of value between the assorted prints and the green background (it's one of the Moda grunges) make it difficult to photograph.

It was a bit short in length for me so I added a border to the top and bottom but I used the height of the inner rows and inserted a couple of the feature prints to camouflage them. 

Time to make a backing!

My determination to use lots of what I already own sent me on a stash diving adventure.

Happily I was able to pull a half dozen pieces that echoed the palette of the quilt top!

If you've never made a pieced backing, it's a bit like an improv puzzle.

I pressed all the fabric and then put the largest  pieces on the design wall -- I pinned a note with the measurements to each piece of fabric.

Like many of you, I find it easier to proceed if there is a "visual" in front of me. 

Next step is to sort the pieces into "similar" width groups. 

In this case, I discovered that I had enough fabric to make two fairly wide columns. 

The space between represents a third column that will bring the backing up to the needed width. 

I keep the vertical grain of the fabric going up and down so the backing behaves more like one piece of fabric -- that makes the quilting easier!

And if I can keep selvages along the outer edges of the left and right columns, that's even better!!

Once the two outer columns were long enough, I started working on the center column.

(There was more stash diving at this point!) 

Here's my backing -- 5 yards of some "on the edge" of very old fabric in it's new forever home!! 

At this point, the quilting is underway -- all straight(ish) lines -- 1/4" on each side of the seams.  That was the basic plan in my head as I finished piecing the top, but when I saw Brigette's blog post (HERE) about the quilting of her version, I was sure my idea was good!!

My goal is to finish by Saturday, June 30?

And I could do it -- not much on my calendar for the week!

I had a great outing yesterday so hopefully I'll be content to stay close to home and quilt!

Want to see some of what I saw?

I joined a group of damselfly and dragonfly lovers along a local river -- one thing that could help me add pursuing this lovely little creatures more often is that they don't fly until the sun is shining -- no early mornings for them unlike birds!!

But the morning stayed cloudy and the river was high, so insect sightings were challenging. 

Happily, the forest edge along the river is lush -- no signs of heavy deer browsing which unfortunately is becoming an all too common a sight in my area!!

Native Ostrich ferns underneath a canopy of large sycamore trees.

And these Canada lilies were abundant!!

They tower above the rest of vegetation and I've never seen so many!

Look at this color!!

Once the sun came out, we did begin to see quite a few insects.  I can remember seven different species including this one which was new to me -- a Violet Dancer. 

It's about 2" long and the shade of violet along it's body varies a bit but is always tipped with a blue/violet.

I just noticed that interesting beetle in the lower right of this picture?!?

Wonder what that is?

I will also say that dragonflies and damselflies can be more challenging to spot than birds!

But it's interesting to become more educated about them.

They are a good indicator of good quality environments so it's important to understand and appreciate them!

Okay, back to that quilting!!

Have a lovely week!

Mary