Placemats and fabric memories

Few more placemats--of course! These were fun--of course! They always are. I'm going to show you the last one first, because it's my favorite.

I have a fairly large (for me) collection of solid fabrics and decided it's time to use up some of them. Or try to anyway. I also have a fascination with the quilts that Laura of New Song Quilting makes. She has a book (and another coming out soon) showing her techniques for improv piecing with solids. I think what draws me to her quilts, aside from the modern look, is the kind of structured improv she uses to make them. So on impulse, I ordered her book.

Look at the small print in that title: Be the boss of your design. Okay then. For my placemat, I used some of the designs in her first set of techniques in the book, but since I am the boss, I scaled them way back. I also skipped a half circle design because I didn't feel like messing with tiny half circles. Here's my placemat in progress. (Ignore the competing design of the quilt on my ottoman under the blocks. Oh, and my feet, too.)

To make these kinds of quilts, you make a few of several "blocks" and then arrange them, sew them together in chunks and then fill in with more blocks and extra strips. The idea is to get a balanced distribution of color and design. I was playing with these colors as I had been attracted to similar colors in a quilt I saw this summer by Pat Budge and wondered if I'd like to make a whole quilt with them. This type of improv went slowly for me, partly because of scaling back the design and figuring out what sizes worked together, but also because I found it somewhat challenging to balance the colors and design. Challenging in a good way though. I got more comfortable with it as I went. So anyway, this placemat violates one of my rules about making placemats quick and easy. But I loved the process. Worth it to buy the book, something I rarely do.

For the back of the quilt, I used some strips of the same colors, all from my solids bin. 

I quilted with my walking foot, breaking another recent placemat rule (meanders are quicker than walking foot), but hey, I'm the boss. My pressure was a little off, so there's a bit of pulling, but that's okay. It's just a placemat. I used the dark coral in one corner of the binding because I didn't want to have the blue binding touch blue on the front of the quilt. Then on a whim, I also used the coral in the opposite corner to balance things out. I know this doesn't make sense looking at the back. Just scroll back up to the photo of the front and you'll see what I mean. 

All in all I'm thrilled with the result. I really like the book. The techniques are clearly described and the photos are beautiful. The only thing I had some trouble with was the challenge of reading the very small gray font with my aging eyesight. A larger font, darker print or both would have been helpful. I have a ruler with a magnifying section that I kept handy whenever I read it. That concern aside, I know this is going to be a well-used reference in my quilting library. 

The other two placemats were more like my usual ones. Quick and easy. One is quite vintagey looking, and I wondered if it's a little too old fashioned. But everyone has different tastes, so I'm sure someone will like it. 

I started with the rose print, and then found coordinating scraps for the stripe. I have to be careful of what I say about the vintage-ness or how old the fabrics are because I'm sure I'll offend my daughter--who isn't vintage. Ha Ha. Anyway that rose print is from a dress I made for her for her 6th grade "graduation," a ceremony her school held when students moved from 6th grade in one building to 7th in another. I can prove it.

There she is with her friends--and privacy protection. Pink and flowers were big that year apparently. I think it was 1993. Oh, and I still have the dress!! It even matches the chair in the bunk room.

I probably had some idea that my granddaughter would wear it someday, but we all know how that goes. Times change, styles change. And now she's taller than her mother and about to start high school so that ship has sailed.

Now, look at the lightest pink print in the stripe. Yup, another vintage scrap from a dress I also made for my daughter sometime in the late 80's/beginning 90's for an 1800's day. And yes, I have a photo of her wearing it.

Little House on the Prairie, anyone? And surprise, surprise. I still have the dress.

By the time my granddaughter was that age, 1800's field trips weren't a thing I think, but it's still in the closet.

(The grayish blue dot print below the pink print on the placemat is from the January block of a cloth calendar I made in the early 1980's. And no, I no longer have that. A memory, anyway, though.)

I had enough to make the back of the placemat from the rose print. And there are still a few scraps left. Sigh. I meandered the quilting in this quilt. Quick and easy.

The other placemat is made from a baggie of multicolored scraps I put together in the last year or so. 

Yup, this one has some memories, too. The thin striped fabrics and the leaf print on the right are leftovers from my granddaughter's baby quilt. You can see it here if you'd like. The back has some extreme piecing to make enough fabric for stripes. 

See that turquoise strip? Lots of small pieces to get enough. That was my favorite Amy Butler (I think) print (Lark?) for many years. Now I think I have a tiny scrap left. Waah. I did walking foot quilting on this one, too. So much for my placemat rules. But I am the boss. Or maybe my quilts are.

So that's it for my placemats this month. As usual, they are 18 by 14 inches, pieced on my Featherweight and quilted on my 115 treadle. All scraps, with frankenbatting. I was going to do the hand binding on them while listening to carillon concerts at our local university, but it was just too hot. (High 90s, high humidity,) Instead I sat and mopped my brow with a cold cloth. The music was good, though. These will go into the collection for Meals on Wheels at my local quilt shop.

So what's next? Well, I was at my local gift/quilt shop the other day and saw a bolt end on sale. It came home with me. My next quilt was going to be the same color scheme as the first placemat, but there's been a change. The bolt end will be the back. I bought the snow, teal and darker oranges at local stores and have some scraps to make a solids improv front, but I had to order a bit more of the greens. Should be here any day. I guess I'm not using up my solids after all.

I hope you've enjoyed my little trip down memory lane and my placemats. Keep sewing, keep scrapping, and if you have a primary election coming up in my country, take time out to VOTE. It's vital. One of the issues in my county is renewal of library millage. I'm glad it's a non-controversial issue in my area, but I am doing my part by proudly displaying my yard sign.

This week, I'm linking up with Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty for Beauties Pageant and with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.

(Just a reminder: I'm not affiliated with any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores, I'm just documenting what I used or liked, not officially promoting anything.)

Placemats, MHMH blocks, and Nature Pretties

 So, it's been a minute. May was a busy month for our family. We went to the Chicago area on the train for our granddaughter's choir concert (so good!), then we went back by car for her 8th grade graduation (and more singing), her weekend volleyball tournament and our grandson's baseball tournament. In between I did a tiny bit of sewing. That's what Meals on Wheels placemats are for: tiny sewing when you don't have a lot of time. I sewed the binding of one during one of our trips, but didn't really have time to finish the other two until we got home.  And here they are.

You might recognize the fabrics from this first one. They are the leftovers of the double churn dash quilt I made in April. Each set of churn dashes had one unused set of HSTs so I stitched them together with the leftovers of the backing fabric.

I had just enough fabric for the back along with a very old scrap for the binding. I used an old spool of rainbow colored thread for meandering quilting. As usual, the size is 18 by 14 inches.

For my next placemat I used my new favorite way of construction, using a leftover piece of fabric (this one is from a pillowcase I made for my granddaughter a few years ago) and finding bits of scraps to make a colorful strip and some binding.

I was able to use more of the black print for the back, but had to make another colorful strip to make it fit. Quilting was with the same rainbow colored thread I used on the first placemat.

I found another larger scrap for my third placemat. Leftovers of a top I made a few years ago in a sew along with Bernie of Needle and Foot. (Thanks for the memory, Bernie and the fabric which I bought from you, too.) It was fun picking out browns for the strip.

There was plenty of fabric left for a simple backing. I quilted wavy walking foot lines with off white thread, and used a leftover bit of a tiny brown check for the binding.

I thought these photos were a bit boring, so I tried a bit of staging. Meh. I'm not a still life photographer. Backgrounds and good lighting are a mystery to me. Oh well. 

Okay, one more look at all of them together and then we'll move on to June's progress so far.

This quarter of the Many Hands and Many Hearts block collection hosted by Cynthia is a version of the Potato Chip block made in complementary colors. What fun for another project that can be done a little at a time. (I won't promise that it will keep things neat. Those little scraps pile up everywhere.) I had so much fun choosing scraps. I started with my bins and used up whatever could be cut to the right size. Then I dug in my drawers for other pieces. These are still mostly scraps, but they are bigger than the ones in my bins because I can wrap them on a piece of cut-up comic book board to fit my drawers. I tried not to repeat too many fabrics. 

First, orange and blue.

Red and green.

And, yellow and purple.

The lighting is not great in these photos. Our house tends to be darker in summer than in winter because of trees. Imagine them as brighter. I found that I tended to place fabrics sort of symmetrically with similar hues or values placed across from each other, often diagonally. This seemed to bring a bit of order to the scraps and helped me place more modern and more vintage fabrics in the same block. 

Here they all are together.

Kind of saturated. It will be fun to see how they get placed with the blocks of other contributors. 

So enough of the dark interior photos. Let's finish with what's going on outside this month. 

Peony

Spike Speedwell

Liatris coming up

More spikes with penstemon

Baby Spikes

First daylily of the year

Cute deer on our bike ride this week

And a gorgeous rainbow at golden hour out our front door

And one more just for fun. The sunrise bothers me three hours before I'm ready to get up, so I finally did something about it. I grabbed some old soft knit scraps from long-ago baby or doll clothes sewing,  rough-cut three layers, sandwiched some tee shirt mask tie loops from Covid sewing days and messily sewed them all together. As soon as the sun comes in, I grab the mask, and it's back to sleep I go. It actually works. Perfect. But probably a bit scary looking to my husband. Maybe someday, I'll make a pretty quilted one. But probably not. Ha Ha.

That's it for this month. I have some ideas swirling for another quilt, so we'll see what happens over the next few months. I'm linking this up with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap on Sunday. In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying projects whether big or small as well as the beauty of nature. 

Hope. Such a wonderful word. Something we all need now more than ever.

(Just a reminder: I'm not affiliated with ( any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores, I'm just documenting what I used or liked, not officially promoting anything.) 

Blocks, Pet Mats, and a Quilty Field Trip

April was a busy quilting month. Yay! I have already posted about the quilt I made (just go back one post after you read this one), but before that I finished two small projects and went on a field trip. It was good. Too much for one post, so here is post number two.

This year I have enjoyed making quilt blocks for Many Hands and Many Hearts, a block drive hosted by Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework to make quilts for various programs in Oregon. There are several ways to support the program, which you can read about here. I like this because sending whole quilts across the country is getting really spendy now, but sending a collection of blocks is reasonable. In addition, there are parameters for what blocks to make every few months, and that gives me a chance to see what I can use from my stash and to try out a pattern I might not have made before. The sewing is simple, and the projects can be made a bit at a time. Perfect for when you want to do just a little something. And best of all, these blocks get combined with all sorts from people all over to make a quilt of comfort. What a great community project to show compassion for others. 

So, during this quarter of the year, the blocks were to be Mini Square in Squares made with contrasting batiks. I have quite a few batiks which I have used in landscape quilts over the years, so it was fun to go through them to see which ones were big enough. I think I teased you with this photo at the end of March.

Here's how they ended up:

I tried to make pairs when I could, but I didn't always have enough fabric to do that. I enjoyed this so much. Of course, the real work will be done by Cynthia and others, to make the tops and quilt them. I encourage you to join this project if you can. It's so satisfying and for a wonderful cause. Thanks to Cynthia and all the others who put so much work into this.

My other project was like nothing I have done before. My local fabric/candy/gift/toy/boutique/best store ever collected mats for dogs and cats at the local animal shelter. These mats are used by each rescue animal while they are at the shelter awaiting adoption, and then they go to the pet's new home for a bit of comforting familiarity while they adjust to a new, better life. Patterns were provided. I had a dog named Peggy when I was a kid. I haven't had a pet since then, but this was just an appealing project. 

First, the dog mat, approximately 36 inches square.

I had enough baseball fabric (Dogs like balls, right?) and matched it up with some red fabric for the bone and two navy fabrics for the background (because I didn't have enough of the printed navy). 

Here's a close up of my meandering quilting:

For the back I used my everlasting navy and red paisley leftovers from a quilt I made for our bed years ago.

You can see there's no binding. That's because the directions recommended an "easy" no binding method, of sewing around the edge and turning the whole thing right side out before quilting. I had never done that before and it was not easy for me. Impossible to get everything smooth. So the resulting mat is a bit wavy on the edges. I figure a dog won't mind, but I won't be using that method again. 

Since I don't have a pet, how about my old stuffie puppy that I got for my eighth birthday 60-some years ago to model on the quilt?

His name is Surprise (because I was so original in naming things--he was a surprise). I had to really prop him up because the stuffing has shrunk to flatness. He's still super soft, though. 

Another pose, because he's such a good boy:

The cat mat was smaller, about 23 by 24 inches. I chose to make a Ginger cat. 

Here's a close up.

The binding is leftovers of a quilt I made for my brother-in-law in the early 1980's I think. Time to use it up! 

Because the mat will get washed a lot, I machine sewed the whole binding instead of doing the folded over part by hand. I don't do that much. I got 50% of the miters right, but the cat won't mind. 

Here's the back:

My favorite stuffed animal when I was a kid was a leopard named Leppy that I got for Christmas when I was 3. (Well of course. I told you I was original in my naming). She was the softest stuffie ever. Now her fur is almost gone. Except for on her tail which is as soft as ever--fascinating because I remember rubbing it on my face as I fell asleep every night. You'd think it would be worn out. Anyway, she's a perfect, if somewhat flat, cat model. Looks pretty good for someone in her late 60s.

They did so well, they wanted to pose together.

I hope the mats will find their way to some very good pets. What fun!

So the other thing this month: the field trip. We have a new art quilt gallery in the nearby tiny town of Williamston. It opened about a year ago, and has different shows every few months.

So far there have been three other shows, the first by the owner of the gallery, Pamela  Loewen, as well as another solo show and a juried group show with artists from all over the country. Quite something for this tiny town. We've attended all of them, and they are beautiful. Right now there is another solo show by Pat Budge, a quilt artist from Idaho. 

These quilts are stunning. They are densely quilted with luscious texture. Here's my favorite:

And a close-up.

See that texture! Must be seen in person.

This is my kind of quilt show. I am easily overwhelmed by major (and even smaller) quilt shows. Kind of like Stendhal syndrome light, maybe? This is a small, intimate venue, with just a few (maybe 30 or 40?) works that I can look at at my own pace. I'm so glad it's available in my community. It's been a great place for a date with my husband. He says he knows nothing about quilts, but his observations are always interesting and enlightening. 

 

The gallery has no admission fee, so I'm glad that there is a way to support it. There are calendars, puzzles, notecards and calendars of some of the quilts that have been shown. I bought one of two choices of sets of note cards of Pat Budge's quilts. (And also got a freebie bookmark and keepsake mini poster.)

There are four different quilts pictured on the cards.

If you are ever in mid-Michigan, try to visit the gallery. (There are limited hours and gaps between shows to allow for set-up, so be sure to check before you visit.)

So that was April. It was a hard month for me in several ways, but I am so glad that I have been able to be productive. It certainly helps to make for others and to treat my soul to beauty.

I'm linking up to Michelle's Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty today and to Cynthia's Oh Scrap post at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. Of course!

Keep quilting and finding beauty anywhere around you.

(Just a reminder: I'm not affiliated with ( any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores, I'm just documenting what I used or liked, not officially promoting anything.)