I'm Back!

It is not the best picture....too much sun at my back...you'd think it would be the ideal condition but no...cast too many shadows.   If you are wondering ....it is a handkerchief quilt. Handkerchiefs are folded to look like a butterfly. I was supposed to embroider feelers at the top of each one but that seemed like just too much effort.  It will go into the pile of comfort quilts that are on a table in my'studio'.

I enjoyed quilting this one....mainly because it had been a long while since I was in my happy place at the long arm.  I had been back at work since late February and ended the tax  season after the first week of May. It is hard to get back into the rhythm of machine quilting when you haven't done it for a while. There is a certain amount of learned behavior to playing with a quilting machine...sort of an automatic movement involved. I often will put pencil to paper and mimic the strokes on paper that I wish to create on fabric....seems to almost teach the hands to follow through without any real thought. I found my movements this time a little jerky instead of moving along easily.  More practise is required....not that I will mind that.

About this quilt.....it was about 20 years ago...my heavens where does the time go...that a friend at Charlotte County Quilters gave me a box of traditional pieces...you may remember the Dresden plates of a few posts ago....it was the same lady that gave me the box of handkerchiefs....so this is another PHD (Projects Half Done). I have more that need doing....I will get to them......
 

it has been a while!

It has been a while since I even thought about my blog.  I had a spot of bother on December 5, 2022 and it put me back for a little bit.  It's only the last couple of weeks that I was even interested in doing some quilting.  But once I got started it just seemed to snowball a little.  Well make that a lot.  I finished a quilt that DD # 1 had brought to quilt over the Christmas holidays but unfortunately that fell by the wayside too.  So I got that one done...you'll see that at the end of this blog. The above quilt is a 'cuddle quilt' that I will be donating to our cuddle quilt program at Guild.  It was a panel of the old readers that I learned to read with.....that would be boomer's nostalgia for sure.  A lovely lady at the Quoddy Quilters (no longer active group) in St. Andrews found it in the 'states' and brought it for me to do something with.  Now that was at least 15-16 years ago and when I started cleaning out my projects I found it.  It was meant to be a cloth book but I chopped it up and made this instead. It made a sweet little quilt for a toddler...pre-school age for sure.

I also found a bunch of antique hankies...new, no less that another lady gave me to "do something with them".  I will set my little brain to that project next....I am having the greatest time finishing up all these projects. Once I get them all done I will have to work on the 'new' projects that need doing as well.....

This is the quilt DD #1 brought. I loved the colours and the interesting design....easy peasy to do and if you look closely you will see some appliqued leaves to add a little more character. It was to be added to the pile but a name was presented at Guild of a lady just starting her chemotherapy so it is now being used.....it makes me so happy to know that these quilts bring a little comfort. I love the craft so much and I have  such a practical streak that I cannot just quilt for the sake of quilting.....I need to have a purpose for the finished product or it just seems too wasteful.....ah well, life is good.
 

Drunkard's Path revisited.

In the process of purging my studio(also known as my craft room) I found the centre of this quilt in the treasures strewn about. It was from many years ago when I learned about the coffee filter method. Since it was square and I wanted a rectangular quilt I had to do some ciphering. Needless to say, I did it in my head and came up short so I had to make some more squares to fit.  Guess what, the coffee filters have changed size so this accounts for the pieces on the sides of the top and bottom to accommodate the smaller squares....cheesh! Not only that, the colour is not true....that tomato red is actually a fuschia(sp?)....so much prettier. Ah well....it is what it is.

I posted the back as well to show off the quilting ...I really had fun considering I wasn't sure what to do with it.  Turned out okay.
 

Dresdens galore!

It started because of this little beauty. It is six inches is size and was one of the "shoebox" squares that I was trying to incorporate into quilts.  It didn't quite fit so I put it aside.  Our Quilt Guild quilt has Dresden Plates in it, which ignited the motivation to do 'something' so I hauled this out of the box and started doing some plates of various sizes.  I sewed them by hand...can't sit in front of a tv and NOT do something  so this worked out very well.

Here is the quilt all together and quilted...that was fun.....I had choices as how to quilt each size plate...had a few filler spots that were fun to free motion in. I used some rulers and lots of free motion ...so needless to say it was a fun quilt to do.

This quilt was given to me by MW to keep me occupied at a time when I had nothing in the frame .....she knows how much I hate that . It is crib quilt size and I, again , used rulers to play.  I love how it turned out.....it has movement.  Not sure if you can see the quilting pattern if you  click on it  and enlarge you can see the quilting.

I was searching for a wall hanging I felt like putting up this morning and found a 'flimsie' that needs a couple of borders and it will be the right size.  Not sure when I did it.....it was using the coffee filter technique so you can be sure it was quite a while ago.  I will just have to finish it and see how that ends up being quilted.
 

This is another "Shoebox" or Orphan quilt. I made the mistake of choosing brown to outline some of the squares. I found them too dark when I put them on the design wall so I chose some lighter fabrics to try and tone it down. Not really sure if I succeeded. Then I played around with the quilting....again practising more ruler work.

As to the maple leaf.  It is a pattern that I lucked into on the internet. It interested me in that it was a play with shadows in red. I think I chose the wrong background. It was also a good lesson in how to layer the pieces so that they came together properly.  I usually number the pieces so that I can join them correctly and this time I didn't...should have known better.  Which is why I think I will do the maple leaf again using a different background and paying attention to the proper order in appliquing them.

 I also did something different this time. I went to Walmart... and bought a cotton flat sheet 180 count to use as a backing.  I never would have done that if I was hand quilting since the weave is too tight  but for machine quilting I thought I would give it a try.  It seemed to work very well...actually a little heavier than regular backing. Since I am giving these Chemo quilts away using flat sheets may save some on my pocketbook.

Orphan block quilt quilted!

 Well, it is quilted....not sure if it is an improvement.  If you don't like a quilt you just don't like it.  I really like scrappy quilts but this is a step beyond just scrappy..this has a disorganized feel to it despite my trying to balance out the squares evenly.  Ah well, it will still keep someone warm when they need it.