Front Door Quilt Redux

 Nearly three years ago with a sense of urgency, I made a quilt for my front door to voice my support for the people of Ukraine in the midst of the cruel attempt by Russia to take over their country. As seasons and years changed, I put other quilts up, and although the quilt was not forgotten, I stopped displaying it, perhaps out of dismay that there was no end to the aggression.

This past week I decided that it was time to make my voice heard again. So I took the quilt out of storage, but before I put it back up, I made a change.

Here is my Front Door Quilt Redux:

And here is how it looked before:

If you'd like to read more about how I made this quilt, you can click here and read the second half of the post. 

I'm sure you can immediately see the alteration I made. Yes, I still think we need to pray for peace. But given the notion of the current administration of my country about what it means to "make peace" (giving in to an aggressor, letting others make decisions as if Ukraine was the aggressor, paying back for support which was intended to be a gift, giving up resources and without guarantees of security), I can't pray for that. I don't want my quilt to reflect that. So, I covered up the words with appliqued strips of fabric with the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Who couldn't love that flag--the blue sky with the fields of wheat? What a beautiful image, rich with symbolism. I just happened to have yellow fabric with a print of children holding hands. Never mind that I'm about the only one who knows the fabric is there--no one will see it from afar. But it needs to be in this quilt. Think of the children. 

I hung the quilt up yesterday with my own prayer that Ukraine will be recognized and supported as the sovereign country it is, that the aggression will stop, and that the country will not be used as a pawn in a dangerous transactional global game. 

This isn't the only thing on my mind right now. I am embarrassed by and ashamed of the cruel and senseless actions of the administration to destroy every aspect of my country and in doing so, to bring instability and devastation to our world. I could say a lot about this, especially about the unelected citizen and his illegal department of government (in)efficiency and co-presidential stance (talk about waste, fraud and abuse!), and rule by executive order, but I'll try to restrain myself. I know I am supposed to continue to live my life and find joy, etc., etc.. To maybe even live as if the breakdown of our democracy isn't happening. Perhaps I don't even notice much of a change in my personal daily life. Yet. But by the time I am personally affected, it will be too late. And there are many, many people-- domestically and internationally--whose lives have already been upended, perhaps forever broken. I am slowly trying to finding ways to protest the dismantling of the government--educating myself on current issues, contacting my congressman about issues I care about (discouraging in itself as there is apparently only voicemail). I'm doing some other things, too, and I know there is much more to do. Yeah, I'm just one person, but there is strength in numbers...(Please join me.) 

There was no quilting here the last few weeks except for this quilt redux. Instead I was saving my blog posts to my own computer. Since I wonder what might happen to social media in the future, I decided I wanted to preserve a copy of my blog content. I looked up how to save it, but kept reading that once saved, it was sometimes hard for people to access the format on their computers. So I painstakingly made screen shots of each post (not the comments) and pasted them in locally saved Word documents  There was lots of cropping going on. I did get more comfortable with my newish computer and learned some shortcuts along the way. It doesn't look like the blog, but all the content is preserved. After all, it's mine. Now if something weird happens to Blogger in the future, I'll still have everything. It was a great distraction from social media and news consumption. I had fun visiting old quilts, old posts, and old photos of my vacations, bike rides and flowers. Time consuming, but not really a waste of time.

In the meantime, I read gentle chick lit (not a usual interest for me) to help myself fall asleep at night because anything more thought-provoking just leads to insomnia. I have fantasies of quilt making. Remember the old Sunbonnet Sue quilts (and Denim Dan, maybe)? Quilters either loved or hated them. There was a trend for awhile of quilts with lots of different blocks showing the demise of Sunbonnet Sue. You can imagine the blocks swirling in my head depending on the news each day. No, I won't make that quilt. It will exist only in my mind. I wouldn't be surprised if someone does though. We have a long history of protest quilts. Seriously, I think my next quilt will be some sort of landscape or lakescape so I can remember what our country looked like after we  lose our national parks and clean air and water. We'll see. Have to pep myself up to get inspired. 

Thanks for the tips from people about my no-reply problem with comments. I haven't tried to figure out a fix yet. If you don't see your comment published or hear back from me, know that I do appreciate your feedback. 

Okay, time to wrap this up. Here's my quilt from the steps.

With Selfie!

And from farther back.

Look at that open window! It was in the 70's here today.

 Simple pleasure. :) 

So, if you are still here, I know that you might agree with me, or at least have an open mind to read my take on the state of things. Thank you. 

There are some fun things going on here. On Tuesday, we celebrated the 47th anniversary of the day we decided to get married. (Much better than the current reference to 47, don't you think?) We baked a Rusk pie together, and ate the last pieces tonight on Pi(e) Day. Yum. 

                                               More simple pleasures. 

I'm linking up with Cynthia this weekend at Quilting is more Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap, because there are a few scraps added in my project, and the original was also made from scraps. I hope you have scraps to put to use. Ha, who doesn't? Also, please make your voice heard to fight injustice where ever you see it. We can do this.

Advent Candles

It started out as a normal day. I had been hanging holiday decorations and had just taken down the autumn leaf quilt in my living room. I was planning to hang my winter quilt, but suddenly got distracted by a December-sized squirrel (yeah, they are big and chunky). I just had to have a holiday quilt.  Something that blended with my living room and didn't call too much attention to itself. And it had to be simple and fast. Hmmm. What about candles? And I was off and running to my fabric drawers and bins. Everything else stopped. My mind raced through possibilities. Prints? Grunge? And then I had it. Advent candles. Simple design, colors that are in my living room year round, solids. And in just a few days, I had a new wall hanging. 

Well, you know me. I can't stop there. So if you want to see how I made it and some close ups and how it looks in the room, keep reading. 

I started by drawing a plan on graph paper. My plan was to make it the same width as the autumn quilt I had just taken down so I wouldn't have to rehang the Command hooks to hold it on the wall. 

I labeled the order of piecing and listed the sizes of pieces. (Check marks were added as I sewed each part. I planned to paper foundation piece the flames and drew the patterns on separate pages, varying the way I did them to keep the flames from looking too much alike. 

I had fabric scraps in all the colors I needed, but the background green was only 23 1/2 by 37 1/2 inches with a few ragged inches more at one end. I made a graph paper drawing of that fabric and carefully planned out how to cut all of the green pieces I needed except the parts for the foundation backgrounds of the flames. They all fit with some irregular leftovers for the flame blocks. After cutting out the main green parts, I realized that I was literally cutting it very close to get the rest of the pieces I needed. And you know how foundation piecing can eat up fabric. So I ended up making templates for each piece rough cutting a bit extra to each for seam allowance. Then I laid them all out on the green leftovers to see how they'd fit. So much for simple, huh?  This game of fabric chicken really had me sweating it. 

But I won!! It's a good thing that solid fabric doesn't have a right side, because I really had to play with each template to get them all to fit. What you see here is every last bit of the green fabric. After spending all that time cutting out templates, I decided I might as well do no-tear paper foundation piecing. I traced my patterns on newsprint, not freezer paper, but since the blocks were simple that was no big deal. (I did trace them in reverse of my original drawings because I wanted the flames to point the same way as my drawings.) I'm no good with a glue stick so to attach the yellow flames to the pattern I did a few quick large stitches, and then sewed everything the usual way for no-tear foundation piecing. Piecing the flame blocks took the longest and then the rest of the quilt top came together in less than an hour. 

I pieced together three long strips of waste batting and found a garish piece of yellow-green (I think it's Kona Cactus) in my bins. I had bought it for a quilt a few years ago and then it didn't work. It is also the backing of a coleus quilt I hang in the summer, so it is getting good use anyway. 

This fabric is about as close to sunlight we've seen in days! When I pieced the quilt I pressed every seam under the candles and flames to try to bring them out. Then I stipple quilted only in the background. The candles look a bit wrinkled here, but that's just the harsh lighting. I had thought of quilting with tan or off white but didn't care for either. It turned out that I had a good amount of variegated thread from my last quilt, and--I kid you not--the colors are pink, blue yellow and green. Perfect. The quilt still looks simple until you are right up close to the front.

(I forgot to sign while I was quilting, so I embroidered my initials and the date afterwards. I wish I had used two instead of three strands of thread.)

The back is a little more wild and festive. 

I used a scrap of grayish green for the binding. I didn't want anything that stood out too much, and of course, didn't have any of the other green to work with. 

Here's a close-up of a flame. 

Here's how the quilt looks with the too-bright LED lamp nearby. At least you can see the texture here, but I rarely use that lamp. The light's much too strong to suit me. 

I've waited more than a week for bright daylight in the living room to get a last photo, but I'm giving up. We have had 30 seconds of sunlight. No, I'm not kidding! So this is the best I could get, and I know there are weird shadows, but this is the quilt above my sewing table. Look how the candles echo the vases. You'd think I had planned this all out ahead of time instead of chasing a squirrel.

The Stats:

Pattern: My own

Size: 28 1/2 by 31 1/2 inches (I added 1/2 extra inch to the narrow side of the bottom strip) before quilting. 28 by 31 1/2 after quilting. Not washed.

Fabrics: Scraps, mostly Kona

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Superior Masterpiece in Granite for piecing; Coats and Clark quilting cotton in Gumballs for quilting and machine part of binding; Superior Treasure in Antique for hand binding.

Machines: Singer Featherweight for piecing; Singer 115 Treadle for quilting and binding.

I'm linking this up with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap because this is leftovers all the way. And at the end of the month, with Sandra at mmmquilts for DrEAMi (Drop Everything and Make it) because squirrel!

I hope you are enjoying the holidays and that maybe you have a little sun now and then. 

(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.) 

RSC Yellows and an Urge

I knew March would be monumental for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. My bin of yellow scraps overflowed. Notice the past tense. I worked hard at it, and was pretty successful in using up the scraps. So let's get started:

First up, were the multi-colored scraps with yellow in them for Leila Gardunia's 52 Weeks of Scrappy Triangles. Not as easy as I thought they'd be as the scraps with yellow in are getting down to the odd sized/shaped pieces. In fact, I de-sewed parts of old pieced scraps just to get some of the yellow bits. And you'll notice that some of the fabrics are really mostly yellow. But here are the triangle blocks for this month, and I'm pretty pleased with what I was able to cobble together.

From now on, I hope to work more consistently on the blocks to finish this project quickly. I need to count them up. I think I need 26 more blocks.

Next, I made a quilt-as-you-go placemat--and then another one! It turns out that my yellow bin had way too many strings leftover from another project. The yellows in these placemats are a bit more vibrant than seen here, but the camera just couldn't capture them. I was trying to photograph outside between thin sun and snowflakes. Yes, snowflakes! Nature's April Fools joke.

For the back of this mat, I chose a sunflower print that had languished in my fabric drawer for many years. I had bought it for this quilt, but it didn't fit in. I did make a Bear Paw block with it during Rachel Hauser's 2020 Quilter's Color Quest (more on that block in a minute), but it was just the right size to back this mat with one seam down the middle. I guess you can tell what was on my mind when I chose this. Perhaps somewhere there is a potential recipient (I hope to donate these mats to Meals on Wheels) who has a Ukrainian background or connection. 

There were so many strings left, I kept going.

The back is not as exciting, but it may suit someone who doesn't care for flowers. I see the light is showing some old creases from the fabric being folded for so long. They aren't as big as they seem here, but I guess it's time to get the iron out. 

I quilted both of these with some leftover yellow Aurifil thread. They are 17 1/2 by 13 1/2 inches.

After that bit of fun, it was time to tackle all the little pieces for my adding machine tape project. I managed to fill more than 26 feet of tape. 

That indoor photo is a bit washed out. Here's a sunnier view of all that adding machine tape fun.

If you've been following this blog this year, you will know that I've also been working on some Bear Paw blocks in solid RSC colors. The centers of the paws are yellow, so I decided to skip making them this month. Stay tuned for pink ones in a few weeks. 

After these projects, I still had some biggish scraps left, so I put them in a zip-close bag and set them aside. They bothered me though. There were still too many scraps left from the bin to suit me. And there was also a scrap of sunflower fabric left. I could probably say that what happened next was a DrEAMi (Drop Everything And Make it) or a squirrel, but it didn't feel dreamy in the whimsical sense, and it certainly wasn't a squirrel in the humorous sense. It was more of an urge that I couldn't deny. I just had to make a quilt for my front door with a message to the world. Remember that Bear Paw block I mentioned a few paragraphs ago? 

It became a seed for the quilt. I made another similar block

and then worked in a haze of obsession, until I had this:

The quilt went from more abstract/improv to more planned as I worked, partly due to some missteps. (I don't know: can you have missteps in an improv quilt?)  I was thinking of placing the two sunflower blocks next to each other with a flag below them based on this pattern. But the position of the sunflowers reminded me of an abstract nude--not the look I was going for. Then I drafted some foundation paper pieced letters to put along the sides and top of the quilt. I wasn't sure exactly how big the strips of letters would be, but I figured there would need to be some filler squares in the corners, so I cut the small squares of sunflowers (never mind that I forgot seam allowance) and then hoped I would have enough of the rest of the print to make the letters. I had almost enough print, but ended up having to borrow sunflowers from another completely different fabric to make up the shortfall. I'm pretty sure you'd be hard pressed to identify the alternate fabric. I had to add a bit of blue fabric to the corner sunflowers to make up for my cutting error. I made another Bear Paw block with the mottled gold fabric. I still thought I could put a flag in there for the fourth quadrant, but it just didn't work out, so I made one more gold Bear Paw. I had run out of the background fabric with little green dots, but found one with some blue print that worked fine.  I added in bits of white and blue fabric to fill out the main part of the quilt to match the size of the word strips. I forgot to add extra seam allowance to the right side and bottom blue strips, so there are some irregularities, and why everything is a bit wonky along the right edge I have no idea. The final result is more traditional than I had in mind, but I think it works for a front door where big contrasts are important for visibility from the street.  

Remember the bag of biggish scraps? The lightest ones became the back of the quilt.

If you look close, you will see lots of half square triangles sewn into rows. For the quilting, I did in-the-ditch work, scribble-quilting on the sunflowers, and meandering in the background using off-white, gold and blue threads. The binding is more scraps (lots of little ones) in medium yellow. 

Here are the stats: 

Pattern: My own foundation paper pieced letters, drafted on graph paper to finish at 3 inches square per letter. I had to squeeze them to keep the quilt size small, so they ended up as rhombus shapes with the short sides a little over two inches. Traditional Bear Paw blocks finishing at 6 inches. 

Fabrics: Years of scraps

Batting: Frankenbatting made from a narrow strip of Warm and White.

Thread: Superior Masterpiece in Granite for piecing; Superior King Tut in White Linen, Aurifil 40 wt. in Tarnished Gold and Mettler 50 wt in Smoky Blue for quilting; non-decript yellow hand quilting thread (Coats and Clark?) for hand sewing binding.

Size: 17 1/2 by 20 inches

Machines: Singer Featherweight for piecing; Singer Treadle 115 for walking foot and free motion quilting and for machine work on the binding.

I signed my initials, but forgot the date. I suppose I could still add it in, but I really don't care for embroidering 2s, so maybe that's why I forgot. 

Overall, I'm pleased with the project. It's not perfect, but then neither is our world. In fact, it's a downright mess right now. As an individual, I feel helpless and sometimes hopeless. I give to my favorite charitable organization to support refugees, but beyond that, what? So I sew my feelings out and share a bit of them with whoever passes by. And pray. 

Most of the yellow scraps are gone now, but I might be able to eke out one more placemat. Maybe with that other sunflower fabric I mentioned. In fact, I have a Quilter's Color Quest sunflower Bear Paw block made with it, too, that could go into a placemat. This month's RSC color is pink. I don't think I have a lot of pink scraps, so maybe I can fit a little more yellow sewing this month. We'll see.

I'm linking up with Angela at So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap. I hope to remember to link up with Sandra at mmmquilts for DrEAMi (Drop Everything And Make it) on the last Saturday of April.

I hope you are having fun with scraps this month, and if an urge has prompted you to abandon your usual sewing, just go with it. 

(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.) 

Outstanding Blogger Award

Well, I'm flattered. A few weeks ago, Sandra at Musings of a Menopausal Melon--mmm quilts nominated me for an OBA. I laughed at first because I feel like my blog has been running on fumes the last few years. I certainly have not been as prolific as in the early years. Nevertheless, I am trying very hard to continue blogging because I do like having documentation of my quilting journey all in one place. So thank you, Sandra (and anyone else who checks in) for still reading my words and encouraging me. And if you hadn't already been nominated, I would nominate you, too. Your posts about your quilts, designs, tutorials, home reno, your Great Lake, and your sensitivity to social issues are a highlight of my blog reading.

As a recipient of an OBA, I have some questions Sandra would like me to answer. So here goes...

1. Have you made any quilts of your own design? If so, please share. Yes, I make a lot of different kinds of quilts (mostly lap sized ones), but the ones of my own design tend to be landscape art/wall quilts. I'll stick with those for this blog post because I'm too lazy to find anyone I need to credit for ideas for my other quilts. The one I'm most proud of (is that okay?) is Reminiscence--a quilt based on a photo I took at a local park on a mild winter day. I used freezer paper templates to piece it, and I hand quilted it.

2. Have you entered any quilt shows, and if so, which ones? If not, do you have plans to? As far as I can recall, I've only entered quilts in the online Blogger's Quilt Festival of October 2014 hosted by Amy of Amy's Creative Side. I'm still thrilled that my Reminiscence quilt (above) won the viewers choice in the Art category.

A couple of years ago, I entered another landscape quilt, Mi Barca, in a general art show at my church. It's a reflection on a Spanish song, "You Have Come Down to the Lakeshore," particularly the line, "En la arena he dejado mi barca" (translation: "On the sand, I've abandoned my small boat"), a call to leave our daily occupations (pre-occupations?) to serve others with love and commitment. 

And that's it. I find in-person quilt shows overwhelming. 

3.Do you have a mentor, or someone to whom you look up to or have learned a great deal from in your craft? Explain how this person or these people have influenced you. These days I'm inspired by numerous bloggers and instagrammers. I have eclectic tastes, so my social media perusal covers a pretty broad range. I would say that most of my donation quilts are influenced by the posts I read, whether it's a pattern or color or a call for blocks or quilts to distribute. So thank you, quilters!!

In terms of my own designs, I have been most influenced by the work and books of Ruth B. McDowell. Although I've never met her, she has taught me how to design and construct a quilt using freezer paper patterns/templates. I am still trying to capture the abstract nature of her work--the unexpected fabrics and colors--but I'm content to use her techniques to make my own work. Reminiscence was made using her techniques.

Another influence is Karen Eckmeier and her Accidental Landscapes (you can see that influence in the quilt above and below), which I find fascinating as a way to interpret the shores of my beloved state. And that leads me to...

4. Do you find that where you live influences your choices of colour (well, color for me) and design? Can you give examples? Oh, yes. I'm very much inspired by my beautiful Mitten state surrounded by 4 of the 5 Great Lakes. Here's my Accidental Landscape of Lake Michigan.

I've also made some miniature quilts of Michigan lighthouses, which are mostly foundation paper pieced, with some accidental landscaping thrown in.

And I'm inspired by nature, even in my own backyard. One quilt I recently designed includes traditional blocks and my own paper piecing. It's my interpretation of Bear Paw blocks as Coleus plants.

5. What do you do with your makes? (keep, decorate, use, give away, etc.) All of those. My quilts are part of my home environment on the walls and wherever we need a cozy layer, but most of my quilts are given away for celebrations (weddings, births, birthdays) or donation to some favorite organizations to give cozy hugs to people in need. I've also made the difficult quilts to help comfort and heal people after a traumatic or tragic event. Making/giving away quilts is the most satisfying and heartwarming way I know to spend free time in my retirement. It's a celebration, a meditation and a mission. 

I think I'm supposed to nominate some other quilters. Because I've been away from blogland a lot this past month, I honestly don't know who has already received this honor. So I'm going to nominate anyone reading this post. I don't have a question, but I am going to encourage you to keep it up. Keep blogging. It does still have a wonderful place in social media. You are an Outstanding Blogger.

Hollyhocks Finish

It's been a year since our last proper vacation. Sigh. I realized this yesterday because I have a long-awaited finish to share--my Hollyhocks quilt! 

I tried straight-on photos on the garage, but the breeze kept blowing the quilt, so the driveway will have to do.

I started this quilt back at the end of July in 2017. It took me a month to piece, and then I set it aside as my vacation hand quilting project. And my daycare trip quilting project. By March this year, we realized that it would probably be a long time before we would be traveling again, so I decided to try to finish this quilt in the evenings over the summer. Last night I went through my old blog posts about my progress and had a sweet armchair vacation as most of the posts show scenes of our vacations as well as some fun bike rides. If you feel the need of an armchair vacation (or want to see how this quilt came to be), just click on the Hollyhocks label on the right side bar or at the bottom of this post. For today, let's just enjoy the finish.

Work over the summer went slowly. For some reason, I had trouble getting my needle eye to pull through the batting. I don't remember that problem before. I tried all the types of needles I had on hand and ended up using a rubber band to pull it. In recent years, I had been using polyester batting for hand quilting, but I think this batting is cotton. Maybe that was my problem. It was annoying, but I kept at it. I also started to get tired of quilting on the busy fabrics on the front and discovered that quilting from the back side was much more satisfying. In fact, I love the modern back of this quilt in contrast to the cottage-y vintage look of the front.

I had some bright blue Grunge fabric that I wanted to use for the binding to represent a summer sky, but I didn't have enough. I found two cottage-y print blues in the drawer that fit nicely with the Grunge for a subtle scrappy binding. You can see them in some of my close ups.

Sorry about that loose thread. 

Okay, back to the front, and some stats:

Pattern: Hollyhocks blocks from Ruth B. McDowell's Pieced Flowers. Freezer Paper Piecing technique (like puzzle piecing).
Fabrics:  Scraps from my supply for the leaves, flower centers, scrappy border strip, and binding; 3 purchased Grunge fabrics for the flower petals; purchased background fabrics, and 6 fat quarters purchased from a sidewalk sale for the backing (one, a Kaffe Fassett, yes?). 

Batting: I'm pretty sure it's Quilter's Dream Cotton Select.

Thread: Superior Masterpiece in Granite for piecing. Several different threads to match the flowers, leaves and border. I used a hot pink Aurifil for the stipple quilting in the interior of the background, and a variegated blue Superior Treasure hand quilting thread for the border and hand stitching the binding. You really can't tell the difference in those colors unless your nose is a foot away from the quilt, but it was fun to use both. The overall quilting was meant to add texture without detracting from the flowers. 

Binding: 2 1/2 inches cut, double layer, machine sewn to front and hand stitched on back. 
Finished Size: 22 5/8 by 55 5/8 inches. Not washed.

Machines: Singer Featherweight for piecing; Singer Treadle 115 for the machine work on the binding.

The wind did that.

I don't grow hollyhocks. The impatiens will have to do.

This project went on way longer than I meant it to, but I am so happy it's finished. I plan to hang it in my living room in the summer, but I think it just might hang in my quilting room the rest of the year along with the floral theme in there and the antiques. Its cottage vibe will fit right in. When I complete a hand quilting project, I'm always a bit lost because I need more hand work for something to just pick up, but to get to that I need to think up and prepare another project. I'm toying with the idea of some hand piecing. We'll see...

This week I'm linking up with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday, Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty for Beauties Pageant, Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Wendy at Wendy's Quilts and More for Peacock Party. 

Have a good quilting week, and I hope you get a chance to do some handwork, too!

(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.)