Vacation finishes

 So we went on another little vacation, which, if you’ve been following, means three more finished placemats for Meals on Wheels. Slowly, slowly, all those Bear Paws I made in 2020 are getting used. There is a part of me that really wants to make a bigger quilt, but this feels like a worthwhile project, so I may finish before starting on something else. Also the holidays are coming up, which means I have other things to keep me busy, and small projects may be best. 

Anyway, let’s get to the placemats and then some autumn photos from our little trip. I made all of the placemats before we left on vacation and did the hand sewing on the bindings in the evenings in our cabin. As usual, the placemats are all 14 by 18 inches, pieced on my Featherweight and quilted on my Singer 115 treadle. The blocks I chose as starting points for this round were nature related: water and wildflowers and other plants—the sorts of things we like on our vacations. I found some 2 1/2 inch squares to go with the watery Bear Paws for the first placemat, and supplemented them with strips. I sewed columns of random scraps for the back. A quick stipple for quilting and some leftover Grunge for binding made a fun finish.

I found more squares and strips to supplement the blocks for the front of the second placemat and used cut-offs from old backings to make the back. I had a fat quarter of fabric with various blue stripes that with some fussy cutting and piecing made my favorite binding of the three. 

 Now, you might not think that the third placemat looks like anything inspired by nature. I certainly didn’t. Until we came across a plant during a hike on our previous vacation. All of the leaves were a rich black on one side and gray on the other. I have no idea why. Maybe it was some sort of mold or disease, but the colors were so even. The leaves were curled somewhat, but mostly intact without holes or visible decay. So strange. But now I can say that black and gray are colors of nature, so here’s my third natured-inspired placemat, again made with squares and strips of scraps, and columns made of scraps for the back. Leftover black and white binding fabric made the perfect frame. 

So that’s it for October makes. We vacationed on the shore of Lake Michigan. The weather was fabulous. We hiked and biked and basked in the glow of spectacular October sunsets. I took way too many photos, so I’ll just share a few. 

So much inspiration. I did pick up a few pieces of fabric at a quilt store to add to a selection for a possible landscape quilt. (We stopped at another, but it had closed three minutes before we got there. Sigh.) I’ll share those another time. 

I’m linking up today with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday and on Sunday with Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap. Now it’s time to make my yearly ornaments for my grands based on their Halloween costumes. Then I’ll get back to quilting. I hope you are enjoying and drawing inspiration from autumn (or spring) where you are. And if you live in my country, I wish you peace and sanity during this election season. (This post may seem like I’m just floating along as if everything is normal. I can assure you that’s just me trying to distract myself. I am hopeful but not calm.)

 

And Even More Placemats

Three more placemats; another road trip. Definitely a theme for this summer, but it’s all good. I’ve been slowly using up all those Bear Paws I made back in 2020. I figure I have enough blocks to make 10 (more or less) additional placemats, so there will be more of this kind of post. 

I feel good making these blocks useful and gifting them with a purpose (Meals on Wheels). Sometimes I worry about whether the seniors receiving them will like them. I picture them as people like my grandparents or parents— from a different era than me. But with a major birthday milestone last week, I suddenly realized that I’m the same age as some, if not many, of the recipients. I may need to try to focus my designs to appeal more to my generation. I’ll keep working with what I have for now— and then it may be time to change things up a bit.

Anyway, here are this month’s placemats-fronts and backs-made with scraps (multi-colored when possible). They are all about 14 by 18 inches, sewn on my Featherweight and quilted on my Singer 115 treadle. 

I did the hand sewing on the bindings while on a week’s vacation Up North in Michigan (at the tip of the pointer finger of the Mitten State).

So how about a few vacation photos? We stayed in a cottage on Lake Huron and did our usual bike rides and hikes along the lake, and visits to a waterfall, an orchard and lighthouses—all spectacular, but the real specialty of this vacation was the sky.

Northern Lights (for only a few minutes, but thrilling)

Gorgeous sunsets (yes, you can see sunsets on the water on the sunrise coast if you look for them)

Full moon (Harvest Moon) rising, and a partial lunar eclipse (which I couldn’t capture on my phone)

Thick fog followed by a fogbow when the sun broke through. I had never seen (or heard of) one, so I had to Google it.

We also had blue sky and a bit of a stormy one.

No fabric this trip, but lots of inspiration. I did take some photos of quilts in the lighthouses. There were some sewing machines, too.

I’m linking up with Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty for Beauties Pageant today and with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap on Sunday. 

Now I have to hurry and make more placemats because we have another little getaway coming up, and I’ll need another take-along binding project. 

I hope you’ve had a good quilting month, with projects big or small.

Even More Placemats

 So I guess the theme of the summer is Placemats. Not much blogging going on here. There's just been so many other things to keep me occupied. Even sewing has taken a back seat to other things. And that's okay. It's been a beautiful summer. I have found, though, that sewing placemats is the perfect activity--quick makes, not too much mess, using up scraps, and nice little take-along hand-binding. So here's what I've made during the last two months.

 Quite a variety. Let's take a closer look. 

I am still trying to use up Bear Paw blocks that I made during 2020, as well as multi-colored scraps and other scraps. I had seen a quilt on someone's post awhile back that was made with all browns and creams. I really liked it, and knew that I had a binful (not to mention a drawerful) of just those fabrics that has been lanquishing for years. I went through my Bear Paws and found three blocks that would work for some placemats. Well, here's the good thing about making placemats rather than tackling a whole quilt. I had to make myself finish these because I was quickly bored working with the color scheme. How strange, because I had really liked the quilt I had seen online. I think I would have been more interested if I had mixed some other colors in. Anyway, I used two Bear Paws for the first placemat and found mostly strips in my scrap bin. I tried to balance out values as much as I could, but didn't stress over it (too much).

For the back, I pieced strips and chunks into vertical stripes--such an easy way to "make" fabric. This is wrinkled, I see, but I will press everything before I donate them. I quilted the placemat with organic horizontal lines following block sections and seams for some of them, but not really planning anything. The binding was leftovers of fabric that I've used in landscape quilts in the past. It was kind of hard to part with, but it was time.  

I used one more Bear Paw in another placemat, and placed larger strips around it. It kind of looks planned, but I really just sewed whatever fit best according to the length of the strips I had. Some of these fabrics are from the 1980's!! I had enough of the little brown print on cream that's in the Bear Paw for the binding. 

I focused on using some of my darker brown strips on the back, alternated with some light grunge that was a cutoff of a quilt backing. This time I quilted in vertical stripes. They look better on the front. A bit wonky on the back, probably because of sort of uneven scraps. But that's the way it goes with improv piecing. 

After an overload of browns, it was time to make something a bit more colorful. I think of this one as sort of picnicky. It was fun finding strips of fabric that coordinated with the Bear Paw. Some of them look a bit mottled here, but if you zoom in, you'll see some tiny stripes. 

I made fabric for the back with leftover chunks and strips, sewing together pieces of similar widths into columns. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of the blue/green diamond print fabric which first appeared in a quilt for one of my grandsons. I had just enough of the floral with the green background for the binding, Zoom in if you'd like to see how some of those prints coordinate. Meander quilting seemed the best fit for this busy design. 

In August I made another batch of three quilts, using six more Bear Paws for two of them. The first one has a fall vibe, with mostly batiks. It went together really quickly. I just put borders around the blocks and then added some strips.  

I pieced a strip with the leftovers of the front and a few other scraps and then inserted it in a cutoff from a quilt backing--not a batik, but the colors were just right. Meander quilting and an orange print binding pulled it all together. 

I focused on a red/peach/blue print fabric that I have way too many scraps of to make the next placemat. I had used it along with the peach/blue floral for a project several years ago. I mixed some solids and Grunge prints from my scrap bins to make pieced strips. 

The back is kind of wonky because of the odd pieces I had to fit together. Hopefully, whoever gets it will appreciate off-beat piecing. Quilting was meandering for this one, and a mottled blue binding finished it off. 

The final placemat was a combination of 4 Bear Paws with the same color scheme. The most challenging part was trying to balance the colors and patterns. I subcut scraps into squares and strips

and then pieced a bunch of odds and ends from my solids scraps for the back. More meandering and a dark turquoise binding finished this one up. 

All of these placemats are 18 by 14 inches. I start with a top of 19 by 15 inches and a backing of 20 by 16 inches. After quilting I trim to the final size that is recommended by my local quilt shop for a collection for Meals on Wheels. I used leftover cotton threads in neutral colors for the quilting. 

I brought the last three placemats with me on vacation last week and did the hand sewing on the binding outside our tiny log cabin while listening to the birds calling and hearing acorns drop on the roof of the cabin. 

So peaceful and relaxing, although a little squirrel scared me at one point. I don't know if it jumped out of a tree or fell off the roof. I jumped up and screamed as it came down right behind me, and so did the squirrel. I'm not sure who scared who more. Life in the woods. Before I actually did the sewing, I had to make a quick trip to the local quilt store (yes, there was one in the nearby town) because I had forgotten my thread.

The vacation was lovely. Do you want to see some other photos? Sure you do. (Indulge me; it's been so long since I've blogged.) We had dramatic skies, gorgeous water, and pearlescent sunsets. 

M

We stopped at a historical museum, and I saw lots of old sewing machines. And this quilt. 

Before we left for home, I had to return to the quilt store for some souvenir fabric. I picked up some for a possible landscape quilt (wonder where that inspiration came from) and some chocolate browns because that last placemat got me thinking about a brown, turquoise, and maybe yellow-green quilt, and I need to collect some chocolate browns, which seem hard to find these days. 

We saw several barn quilts along the way, but I was usually too slow to get photos of them. If you look closely, you can see one on this barn.

Okay, that's it for now. I'm linking up with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday (today), Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty for Beauties Pageant (Thursday Oops, August 30), and Cynthia at Quilting is more Fun Than Housework for Oh Scrap (Sunday).

I hope you are enjoying your quilt projects and maybe a vacation. I wonder: What kinds of quilt projects do you take along on trips?