Smitten Quilt Progress

This is the Smitten Quilt, which I started on June 4. The pattern is from the Jen Kingwell Collective, designed by Lucy Carson Kingwell. I am using acrylic templates from paperpieces.com and a color palette that is kind of strange. I'm still not sure it works but I am pretty committed at this point. I am handpiecing the blocks which is an enjoyable process for me. I like finishing a block and then starting a new one - it feels like a good way to measure progress and feel like I am getting somewhere. 

Stretched Hexagon Baby Quilt Top

When I was finished with the Rainbow Fade quilt, I had a bunch of leftover 3" x 4" rectangles. I drew up a stretched hexagon shape like I had seen used on a project by Red Pepper Quilts and cut out some papers for English paper piecing. I have done this sort of stitching before, but for some reason, I really had to fight the paper this time. I used light and heavy paper, tried glue basting and thread basting and used all kinds of threads and needles. I never really found my groove. 

My intention was to make a full size quilt, maybe 66" x 82". Oddly specific, you say. I first sewed the pieces into 12 patch blocks, measured one, then calculated how many blocks I would need to make for the size I wanted. It didn't take long before I moved the goalpost to 58" x 75" then to 58" x 68". After three weeks of making lozenges, forming blocks and sewing them all together, I turned it into a baby quilt. I was done. I added a scrappy border to frame it and to make it bigger and called it a completed top. Once I find the right backing and binding, I think I will enjoy quilting this. For now, I'm glad the top is finished. 

43" x 49"

Head Start Preschool

I wonder if my days at the preschool are over. I wrote about it earlier here. I have continued to volunteer there 2 mornings a week during the school year. In early March, as the threat of COVID-19 began to be felt, I didn't go in and within a week, the school was shut down. As far as I know, it has yet to be reopened. I likely won't go back until there is an effective vaccine or if I happen to get infected, recover and become immune. I do miss the kids a lot. 

Zambia Nine Patch

This quilt is bright! I bought a lot of fabric when I lived in Zambia in 1994 and this is pretty much the last of it. I used solid fabrics in the blocks with the traditional African prints in hopes of balancing the colors and breaking up some of the large patterns. 

I machine pieced the top and then got completely carried away with the quilting. It is sewn by hand with #8 Perle cotton in a very dense design. I started by stitching circles and squares of lines 1/4 to 3/8" apart then added diamonds, rectangles and triangles. I used many different colors of thread. When I tired of all of the shapes, I filled in the rest of the top with Xs. When it was done, it just seemed like too, too much and I quickly gave the quilt to my friend, Maureen, who loves color. I recently borrowed it back because I had failed to take any pictures and now I have more photos than I need!

The quilt is 51" x 61" - it was completed in March 2018. 

scrappy binding

Rainbow Fade Quilt

I was inspired to make a rectangle quilt after seeing this lovely one made by Jolene from Blue Elephant Stitches. Mine is different in a lot of ways but that quilt was definitely my jumping off point.

I made scrappy 12 patch blocks and stuck in two framed fussy cut rectangles just to break things up a little. I hand quilted it with #8 Perle cotton along two sides of each rectangle and used a striped binding. The rectangles were cut at 4" x 3" so finished at 3.5" x 2.5" and the quilt measures 62" x 79". 

 

Baby Hats

We have a new grandson due any day. I made him a few hats! I had a bag of leftover sock yarn which was perfect for these small projects. At first, I couldn't decide whether to use the knitted ball for a topper but then I couldn't stop. Alaska babies need hats year round so they will get some use. 

Second Vintage eBay Quilt

This second eBay quilt that I got from Dianne was in worse shape than the first. It was also stained and dusty and looked like it had been on a shelf for a long time. The blocks were in decent shape but there were holes in parts of the sashing. I found some fabric in my stash that looked similar and used that to make repairs. It was pretty wavy and wobbly but straightened out a bit after it was washed. I don't have any information as to who made this but I salute an unknown quilt sister from the past for doing the work. 

This quilt measures 70" x 84". The blocks were hand pieced and I did all of the quilting by hand with #8 Perle cotton thread. It has a scrappy binding and a wide text fabric for a backing.