Spring Sewing

The world continues to be a crazy place, and it's getting crazier.  Covid-19, and now, protests against police brutality and racial injustice, riots and just a generally unstable and scary feeling in the world have made it a Spring unlike any other.  I don't know what to make of it all.  Nothing feels right, yet nothing feels different.  We finished the school year, still in a remote learning platform.   We have made some small forays back into the real world (back to work for husband and daughter, some shopping trips, some get together with a friend or a couple) but for us, or me, at least the world still feels askew and slower and just...  off.  But then again, this week has felt like the start of our summer vacation, like nothing is different.  I've experienced my usual "I have all the time in the world to do things now, but I can't bring myself to do them." and, "there are 11 weeks that belong to us...but each day gets us closer to the end and it's going to be over too soon!" feelings.  I don't know why I struggle so much with these inner conflicts at the start of the summer.  In some ways, they've been more pronounced this year because the last three months have felt a bit like a weird not fun vacation.  

I have been countering a lot of heavy emotion and anxiety with  my favorite escape:  sewing.  School demands didn't allow me to finish out the Project Quilting Quarantine season, but I've definitely been in my sewing room at least a bit almost every day since March!  A first for me. I like it!

Like most sewists around the world, I've been sewing masks.  They're not mandatory in Wisconsin except for in some businesses but they are recommended by the CDC for the whole country.  And we're trying to wear them in all environments outside out own home.  Paper masks and other PPE are readily available again and we have plenty of those on hand now.  But I prefer a fabric mask most of the time.  I put out a Facebook post asking if any friends or family needed hand sewn masks.  I was surprised to get nearly 30 requests!  So,  that's how I spent our first week of Summer.  Making masks.  

 Assembly line sewing is supposed to make the process go quickly, but this batch felt like it took a week!

First time making kids' sizes.  

In early May, I also finished a project that had been started pre-Covid.   It had been pushed aside for school work and mask making, but I also wanted to just have it done!  I had been asked to make a t-shrit quilt for the mother of a young man who died of a drug overdose late last summer.  It was an honor, to be sure.  But it was also a very heavily emotional task, and that weight seemed to be multiplied by the general weight of the world around me.  When the mom (she's a friend of a friend, so I don't really know her) came to pick up her quilt, I just wanted to hug her.  She burst into tears seeing it, and the key chain I made from a heart shaped hole I found in one of the shirts.  But, we were on my doorstep, in the rain.  She was wearing a mask, and it's really not cool to hug people now, due to Covid.  I cried for quite a while after that.  I suddenly missed that quilt that I had been so anxious to have gone.  I missed the world were I would have shown her some of the little details I'd included (like the WI badgers shirt that was SO full of holes I had to hand stitch it to a backing fabric to keep it from falling apart and the shirt that had the sleeves removed, which I raw edge appliqued to make it fit).  I cried for her.  I can't imagine having only a quilt to hold and not my child.  I don't have great pictures of that quilt.  It's not mine to photograph and the memories aren't mine to share.  But I write about it, because it had a pretty profoud impact on me.  And that, I don't want to forget.  

I also altered a couple of prom dresses for friends of my oldest daughter.  At the time, we didn't know that there wouldn't be a prom this year.  We assumed that the district would have something for the juniors over the summer.  Now we know that they are just being lumped into next year's junior prom.  It's very likely that  these girls will get new dresses. so...the yards and yards of haltered hem line are for naught.  But, I learned a few new techniques, got to creatively solve some problems that I um, created in the course of the alterations, and, got to make some young ladies smile when their dresses, finally, fit just right.  

This dress was a force to be reckoned with!  More than 4 yards around the bottom and 

layer upon layer of tulle!  And a horsehair hem, and I added a bustle!  Oh my!

So. . masks, a memory quilt and prom dresses.  None of that is on the top of my "fun sewing list".  It ALL becomes meditative and stress reducing for me (well. those prom dresses might be the exception) and I love it all.  But, not so fun.  So, I made sure to make time for that too!  

In April I noticed a Facebook Posting from a quilt shop in a nearby town - Sew Much More in Waukesha.  I've never been there and I don't know why I follow them.  They were doing a Safer At Home quilt sew along.  The woman whom I assume owns the shop did a series of FaceBook Live posts showing how to make a simple house block.  

I watched a lot of home improvement shows while working on these little houses.  Fitting!

The idea was to create 30 houses for the 30 days of the state''s Safer At Home Order.  That order was extended.  Then overturned.  And I went rouge and added some fences and trees so I don't have 30 houses.  But, I DID finish another quilt top, the third since the beginning of the quarantine!  And I LOVE it!  

 

It's a combination of scrappy, with bits and bobs of mask fabric and other favorite scraps AND some fat quarters that I've been collecting from quilt shows and shop visits.    There's some really OLD stuff in there, mixed with new, and that's my favorite!  I truly love every fabric in this quilt, even the scrappy white on white pieces that make up the background.  It makes me happy and is the first quilt I've made for me!  It will, of course, be used by the entire family, but I made it with ME in mind.  

It was fun to watch this quilt grow!

Since this one is special to me, I decided to go a step further and do something special with the quilting, too.  This will be the first quilt I send to someone else for long arm quilting!  I am SO excited about this!  I have a high school friend who has a long arming business in our hometown, and I'll be sending it to her for quilting . I've already purchased good, quilt shop fabric for the back (also a first...I usually only buy fat quarters or half yard cuts at the quilt shop.  Buying four yards was a bit of a shock to the wallet!!) and it will pieced and pressed this coming week.  Then I'll send it to Angie and wait.  I am already a bit giddy with anticipation!  This one will get a special label, too.  I envision this quilt becoming part of our family history, and my girls using it to help explain to their children what  strange time in history this has been.  

Also in the "fun" category,  I have used this time to check a very long standing WIP off my list.  I have finally finished my "Scrappy Stars" quilt!  According to Google Photos, I pieced this back in April of 2017.  It sat for a long time, and I finally started quilting it last summer.  It's simple straight line quilting, but, I wasn't crazy about the way it puckered and pulled, so I kind of abandoned it mid summer.  It had been literally, sitting in a  heap between my sewing table and the wall since then.  When I picked it up again two weeks ago, I discovered that I actually had only about 30 minutes worth of quilting left to do on it.  Why? Why didn't I just finish it last summer?!?  I remember being disappointed in the quality of the quilting and sad that I would't feel comfortable entering it in the County Fair.  It wouldn't have even placed, and that would have bothered me.  There's no fair this year, so no need to worry about that!!  This summer, I'm quilting just for the joy of it, and WOW do I love this pretty little scrappy quilt! 

 I LOVE the saturated colors, the subtle stars, the blue binding, the fun backing that brings me a happy memory of our first trip to IKEA a few years ago, and you know what? I don't mind the quilting!  In fact, on the back, I really love it!  

I enjoyed the process of finishing the binding by hand, most of it in my new favorite spot - my front porch.  It's not much of a porch, but after 14 years in the house I finally put a chair out there and I've been sitting on it!  We have a deck on the other side of the house, but it's often too windy or too hot to enjoy siting there until evening.  The front porch is perfect nearly all day long!  So, I sat there one morning, and then the next evening to bind this little beauty.  I could look at my flower beds, watch and listen to the birds, and wave to an occasional neighbor.  Exactly what I needed, and what I'll remember when I look at this quilt. 

Looked down and realized that the zinnias in the bucket were a perfect match for the backing!

I sat and stitched until almost 9:00 on the longest night of summer!  Perfect!

 I'm so happy to have it done.  I am not sure what will become of it.  I thought I might see if any friends would like it. But it might just get added to the rotation of living room quilts.  We'll see.  

Happy, Scrappy Stars.

I made a list of all the other sewing projects I'd like to (or need to) get done this summer.  Another t-shirt quilt, at least 10 more masks, a couple of garments...Seems unlikely they will all get done, but, it's going to be fun trying!

Project Quilting Quarantine 3 - Vintage

And here we are. STILL under Safer At Home Orders due to Covid-19.  This has gone from being unbelievable to surreal to strangely normal.  Things are starting to "open up" again around the country, and even here in Wisconsin, where to official order to limit travel and social interactions is in place until May 26th, there are many people and places inching back toward business as usual.  It's so hard to know what to think about this.  All of this. Some say we have been under quarantine too long, and some say we still aren't safe.   But, that's a discussion for a blog post I won't write.

This post is about my entry for Project Quilting Quarantine Edition Challenge 3.  I'm pretty excited about this sweet little finish!  It is unlike anything I've ever entered into PQ, and likely ever will again!  It's a good thing that Trish suggested that rules in this "bonus" season were meant to be broken, because:  A: this isn't a quilt; B: while technically there are three layers I did not layer them and C:  I did no sewing on this unless you want to count some really wonky blanket stitching !

This week's theme - Vintage - pushed me to finally DO something a couple of treasures I've been keeping in a closet for far too long.  I bought a vintage quilt top at a flea market a few years ago for a few dollars.    I took the top along with me to the quilt show in Madison the fall after I bought it (I was attending a lecture about dating vintage quilts and the brochure invited attendees to bring along mystery tops to practice on!) and a quilt assessor there confirmed my suspicion that this was pieced sometime between 1920 and 1930.  I just love looking at it.  The top is made up of 4-patches that look to have been made of clothing.  There are seams running through a lot of the blocks and there's a wide variety of patterns and fabric types.  Some parts appear to have been hand pieced, but others are clearly machine pieced.  Some squares have basting stitches in them so I assume they were made around a template similar to English paper piecing.  Others have seam allowances ranging from  barely an eighth of an inch to almost half an inch.  It's pretty good sized (almost a twin size, I'd say), but there's very little repetition of the fabrics through out the whole of the quilt.  I wonder if maybe this was started by one maker and then worked on by another.  Maybe it was a community project.  I love imagining a scenario where every lady brought a stack of 4-patches to the Grange Meeting or the Quilting Bee and then they traded.  Or maybe it shows the development of the skills and circumstances of one quilter as she started out hand piecing and then got her first sewing machine?  I wish I knew.  I wish I knew why it was never quilted and why some if seemed to be have been ripped off.  One edge was particularly bedraggled, like the quilt top got stuck somewhere and was forcibly ripped out.  Is there a story there, or just carelessness?

Oh these prints! I love imagining dresses and aprons that these squares came from!

It's coming apart in many seams across the whole quilt.  There are some squares in the interior that have almost disappeared and some of the edge pieces have been reduced to shreds.   I knew I'd never restore it or use it as a quilt.  Some people would, I'm sure.  But my intention when I bought it was to give it new life by turning the usable parts into other things.  However, until this week, this treasure has been in a cloth shopping bag stuffed in a closet.  I just never took the time to do anything with it.  Until, the word vintage showed up in the Project Quilting post last weekend.  I KNEW that this was the time to do SOMETHING with this vintage quilt top.  I mean, if you can't get around to a long forgotten project during a quarantine, then when can you?

In the same closet where this quilt top has been hiding, there lived a plastic zip-loc bag that was handed to me by my mom several years ago.  I don't remember exactly when, but it was after her eyesight became too poor for her to sew and before dementia started to steal her away from us.  She was in the habit, for several years, of never visiting me (or letting me leave her house) without making sure that I had SOMETHING in my hands as we parted.  Sometimes it was a box of high school memories, or a bowl that had belonged to my grandmother.  Sometimes it was a Christmas decoration she'd picked up at a thrift store.  And, perhaps best of all, sometimes it was a gift from her sewing room to mine.  I remember that she said, when handing me the bag, "Here, maybe you can figure out what this was going to be."  We laughed about that.  About having a project you started that you can't remember, exactly.  Now, it breaks my heart a little.  She left so many projects unfinished.

The bag contained a piece of black wool felt cut into an "emblem" shape.  In its center she had already appliqued three circles of wool - red, black and gold -with a meticulously even blanket stitch.  In the corners of the "emblem" she had stitched red petals.  One red petal was accompanied by two green petals around it, and there were 5 more green petals in the plastic bag, along with a tangled bunch of embroidery floss.  I wonder now if she stopped stitching because she lost a petal?  Or because the floss had become too tangled?  I wish I knew.  And I wish I knew what it was going to be!  I assume it must have been part of a kit she'd picked up at some point.  The back of the black piece was odd.  Half of it had a rubbery coating on it.  Almost like an iron on adhesive.  But why would it have been prepped to iron on to something.  And why only half?  I have only a very few reasons to be sad in my life, but one of my greatest regrets is that I didn't spend time sewing with my mom in my adult life.  We both would have loved that, and I wish I had made time for it.  I wish she had told me all of her plans for all of her projects.  And I wish I had listened more to everything she said, no matter what it was about.  I'd love just one more real conversation with her.  She is still here, on Earth, but she isn't the mom I knew.  For 5 years now she has been slipping away into the shadowy corners of a different place.  Not quite here and not quite there.   We talk, sometimes, but it is without meaning.  And there are so many things I wish I could ask.

From her hands to mine.  

It didn't take long for me to know I wanted to  use these two "vintage" and precious  items together.  They didn't exactly "go" together, either in color or style or material.  But, somehow, it felt right that they be combined.  It hurt a little bit to take my seam ripper to the quilt top and my scissors to the wool piece.  But, I reasoned with myself that neither piece was being enjoyed in the state it was in.  Better to finish and enjoy them than let them stay undone.

Two thirds of the people I'm quarantined with preferred he top orientation of the petals. They lost.

As "luck" would have it I had a lovely triple matted frame in a box in the basement.  It had contained a picture of my little girls, but it hadn't seen the light of day in probably longer than the quilt or the wool pieces.  It took a bit of effort to create and stitch around a few green petals (I LOVE that I had felt almost the same color green!) and assemble all the various pieces using various implements.  But I thoroughly enjoyed the process.  It's kind of fun, sometimes, to dive into something having NO idea what you're doing!

It feels right that many hands contributed to this little gem.  My mom's, mine, and all the quilters who came before us.  We all shared in the joy of taking bits and pieces and putting them together to create beauty.

Thanks, Kim and Trish for hosting another week of Project Quilting.  Thanks for the inspiration to use and enjoy these vintage treasures!

Project Quilting Quarantine Challenge 2 - Floral

When I finished the final Project Quilting Challenge last month, I didn't expect that  my next post would be about Project Quilting again so soon!  I didn't expect that a month later we would be looking at another 30 days of quarantine here in Wisconsin, and I didn't expect that I wouldn't be going back to school to see and hug my kids again.  So much has changed, which is funny because we haven't gone anywhere or done anything!  This quarantine life sure is strange.

Time seems to go by slow and fast all at once.  It seems like there is endless time to get things done, and then before I know it, another day is gone.  Some days feel like nothing is different, but there is a moment in every day when I am reminded that the world is upside down and wrong right now.  This is so unbelievable.  I will do a post very soon about my quarantine sewing, particularly mask making.  We are living in a time when EVERYONE and her sister seems to be dusting off sewing machines and ordering elastic, and it kind of cracks me up!  Imagine it - quilters are saving the world!  Anyway, that's a topic for another post.  Back to Project Quilting.

I am grateful that Kim and Trish are organizing some extra challenges for this quarantine time. It seems that not many people are participating, which makes me sad, but I welcome the distraction and having something positive to look foward to.  I did not participate in the first one because that week was FILLED with trying to figure out how to teach my special ed students on line and how to hold two IEP meetings on line, not to mention writing those IEP's.  But, we were officially on Spring Break this week and I took the week COMPLETELY off from school work.  It was a much needed break, which again, seems strange because I haven't been at school in over a month!

I remembered to check for the posting of the new challenge during out Easter dinner last Sunday.  I was happy to see that the theme was "Floral" because, as luck would have it, there was a huge pile of floral scraps on my sewing table at that very moment!  I'll show the project that created the pile in my next post.  For now trust me when I say it was a very pretty pile!  But, what to make?  I really didn't want to make another mini quilt.  I'm out of room on my small sewing room wall.  I don't need a mug rug - I never remember to switch out the one I'm  using now.  I've got lots of projects going right now and knew that I wanted to bring at least one of them to completion during Break, so my PQ project needed to be small and quick.  So, during dinner, I asked my family.  "What can I make for Project Quilting that's small and that we need or could use?"  "Potholders!"   "Coasters!"  "A table runner!"  Huh.  Who knew they'd have such good ideas?

I decided we really DID need potholders.  I recently tossed a few that were nearing 24 years old.  But, I've always heard that potholders and oven mitts should be made with Insul-brite, not regular batting.  That presented a problem because I don't have any.  And I have a self imposed PQ rule that nothing can  be purchased for a PQ project.  Part of the fun is using up things I have on hand.  But, since this is not the regular season and Kim has already said that rules need not apply, I decided it was OK to let that go, just his once.  I added a small package of Insul-Brite to our Wal Mart grocery order slated to be picked up later in the week.  Its not exactly an "essential" and I wouldn't have made a trip just to get it, but since I get it along with my bread and eggs and toilet paper...why not?

So, on Friday, I pulled out some of those floral scraps, glanced at a tutorial for a pocket potholder and spent about an hour happily sewing, snipping and binding.  It's not perfect.  I need more practice binding a circular object.  But, it's functional.  And it matches my kitchen.  And, it's all kinds of floral!  But, there were still a LOT of scraps in the pile.

SO, on Saturday, I cut  four little squares of batting, dug back into the scrap pile, sewed, snipped, turned inside out and zig zagged.  And, voila!  Coasters!  Also done in about an hour.  I forget how satisfying quick finishes can be.

Somehow, even with a full week off of school and LOTS of hours spent in the sewing room, none of my "big" projects got done.  But, they all got a big closer to being done.  And, as it stands today, I"ve got another month of Sew-ical Distancing Time to finish them! 

For now, I'm happy with my pretty little additions to my kitchen!  

Project Quilting 11.6 - Vibrant and Vivacious

I am sad that this is the final challenge of  Project Quilting for this year.  It has been a great way to stretch myself over these last 12 weeks and a great diversion in what has probably been the worst start to a calendar year, ever,  in my 49 years!  Project Quilting got me through a lot this year. Job struggles, major anxiety, illness with aches and pains, a hospital stay, and now a world Pandemic!

Creating is ALWAYS a balm for my soul.  There simply isn't a better way to quiet my mind and lift my spirits than to sit down at the sewing machine.  I just feel better when I work with fabric.  It's good to be busy, of course, but the COLORS are the other part of the equation.  I think Trish must have realized that when she chose Vibrant and Vivacious as this week's theme.  We are all in need of some color therapy this week, I think.

Sometimes it's the simple things, like a happy little pile of Trimmings...

I'm so excited that my entry for Challenge number 6 is an actual quilt!  I've participated in project quilting for two years, but this is the first out of 12 projects that's an actual quilt!  I've done mini quilts, baskets, 3-D objects and a key chain, but never a quilt big enough to sit under.  Well, this seemed as good a time as any.

This is probably from Thursday.  I love watching a quilt come together on the design wall!

On Sunday, it felt like I'd have a TON of time to work on it.  By Tuesday, when our school district rolled out our plan for "Continuous Learning" for our students, I was starting to realize that wasn't quite true.  Teaching from home is tough!  There is a lot to learn, and I'm gong to be knee deep in it for quite some time!  But, evenings free and three other people who can make meals and kids old enough to be self sufficient and stolen moments here and there all helped me get this Vibrant and Vivacious little baby quilt done on time!

The pattern is Doughnuts the Size of Your Head from Crazy Mom Quilts' (Amanda Jean Nyberg) book No Scrap Left Behind.  I was lucky to be able to hear and take class with Amanda Jean a few years ago at the quilt museum in Cedarburg, shortly before she stopped teaching and blogging.  I pieced a few of the squares in this quilt that day, but they'd been tucked inside the book on a shelf ever since.  I'm so glad this week's challenge pushed me to get them out and make this quilt!

Netflix and tea and pretty scraps...

Scrappy quilting is my absolute favorite!  Did you ever notice how sometimes when you open up a strip set you gasp a little at the combination of colors that you hadn't intentionally created?  Is that just me?!?    I had lots of ooh and ahhh moments as these strippy squares and triangles came together.  Some color combinations just make me so happy. 

I will DEFINITELY  be making a quilt in this aqua/coral color way.  It makes me smile every time I look at that corner of this quilt!

To colors in this quilt truly took care of arranging themselves.  I did a little editing, of course, and tried get some variation of lights and darks, but for the most part, all the scraps played nicely together.  I think the overall effect is pretty stunning!

And now I just want to sew all the remaining strips and make a whole string quilt like this!!  SO pretty!

I would like to have created a larger quilt in this pattern because it would be a great bed quilt for a little girl.  But it was a bit of a Herculean effort to get just this size done this week for PQ.  I spent most of Saturday in the sewing room!  But, it's not like I could have gone anywhere anyway, and it WAS National Quilting day.   Maybe some day I will make a this size version.  There will always be scraps, after all. 

I may or may not have squealed a little when I put all of the aqua pieces in.  It just makes this quilt, doesn't it??

I'm proud to have, once again, had everything I needed on hand, even the PERFECT size "scrap" of batting.  I got goosebumps when I laid the top out on a piece of batting I"d cut off another project and stashed in the closet.  I wish I had taken a picture.  It was spot on the right size.  That's gotta mean something!!  I had nothing large enough for a back.  Well, nothing that felt right for this quilt, anyway.  Lots of icky old calicoes, but that wouldn't do.  So I spent some time piecing a back.  I rather like it! 

I am really looking forward to seeing what everyone else made this week.  The weather here has been cold and dreary.  I'd like to get out for a hike in the woods.  But its much cozier here under this pretty lap, umm, I mean baby quilt.  So, maybe I'll stay here on the couch for a bit, and engage in some more color therapy looking at everyone else's Vibrant and Vivacious projects.  Be sure to visit blogs, and Instagram pages to say hi to the makers.  We ALL need all the virtual connections we can get right now, to off set the isolation. 

No babies in this house, but our three living room pets, Joe, Root Beer and Al will enjoy the quilt.  These guys have their own personalities and get into all kinds of situations.  They keep us connected happy through tough times.

Kim and Trish if  you're reading, THANK YOU for Project Quilting.  Thank you for the community, the outlet for creative energy and the positive distraction that you provide.  You guys are awesome and I'd LOVE to quilt with you in real life some day!

Be well and Stay Safe everyone! 

This quilt measures approximately 42" x 42" and was created by me in Slinger, Wi.

Project Quilting 11.5 - Give It Away

Whew!  This is the lastest minute last minute finish ever!  A crazy week that involved tech week, costume alterations, flower table prep, dinner with a friend, LOTS of end of trimester tasks at school and well, just life, meant that I did not work on the challenge...or SEW for fun...ALL WEEK!  UUUGGGGGHHH!   But, I really want to finish each challenge in Project Quilting this year. 

So, even with one less hour in my weekend thanks to Daylight Savings I got up this morning and make my challenge piece.  This week's challenge is to make something with the intention of giving it away.

I am in the process of making a T-shirt quilt for the friend of a friend who lost her young adult son.  There is no time line to finish the quilt...I'm just doing bits and pieces when I have time.  When I was cutting apart the shirts a few weeks ago, I could not help to pause and wonder at all the indications of LIFE in those shirts.  The paint stains, the stretched out hems, the favorite brands and teams and the holes.  One hole, in particular caught my eye.  It was a perfect heart shape.

I thought about that for days.  A heart shaped hole.  A mother who certainly has an empty spot in her heart, missing her son.  I didn't know what I would do with that hole, but I knew it would be something. 

This morning I took the bit of shirt that contained the hole, a bit of the sleeve from another of the shirts and a scrap of denim that I had in the sewing room, and made this quick, rather rough looking key chain. 

It isn't quilted.  It meets the challenge on the basis that it's three layers.  It measures less than 2 inches "square."  It's wonky and imperfect.  It will find its way to a broken hearted mom well before the quilt is finished.  I want her to have something to hold on to while I work.

It is a small thing, made with great love.

Linking up with Kim just minutes before the deadline...

Project Quilting 11.4

Another successful Project Quilting Challenge finish.  Another hastily written Sunday Morning blog post! 

I actually started this challenge on Sunday, the day it was posted by Kim and Trish.  The challenge was to incorporate traditional Birds in the Air quilt blocks into a project in some way shape or form.  These blocks are made from triangles.  While cleaning my sewing table off on Sunday, I found plethora of itty bitty triangles, some finished half square triangles and a whole bunch of vaguely triangular shaped scraps.  Perfect.  It was a given that those treasures would become my birds in the air blocks.  So, I sat down and made three.  They were SO cute!  SO much fun!  I combined them with the already made HST's and decided they could play nicely enough together to be used int he same project.  Then I made some more HSTs from the scrap pile to pull it together.

I zen-pieced a bunch of low volumes together to use as half of some HST's .  Love the result!  

When I went to bed on Sunday I was't sure what the project was  going to be, but I knew I had a start.  Sometime on Monday it occurred to me that I could use this challenge to make something I've been wanting to make for myself - a tablet stand!  After years of internally rolling my eyes at other people's Netflix addictions I've recently discovered that there are some really GOOD things to watch!  Plus, we ditched cable and got Sling, which I can access on my tablet, so now...HALLMARK CHANNEL IN THE SEWING ROOM!!!  There is a slight possibility my family will file a missing person's report one day soon, because, truly, there is no reason to come out of there now.

With lots to watch, plus my tried and true podcasts to listen to, my tablet is my best sewing accessory these days.  It deserves its own home.  Plus, having it upright makes viewing easier and reduces the likely hood that I will run over the edge with a rotary cutter or loose the tablet under a pile of scraps.

The pink fabric with the birds is the ONE thing here that wasn't scrap.  But it kinda had to be in there.

So, the initial hodgepodge of BITA blocks and HSTs was slowly but surely joined by more through out the week.  I consulted several Youtube video tutorials and a few blog posts including this one by Factotum of Arts to get an idea of how to construct a triangular stand, and then I just kind of went for it.  Getting all my blocks in without cutting them was more important to me than the size of the finished project, so it's a bit ridiculously big.  But, it's done and I love it..  It is filled with walnut shells for the base and a bunch of fiberfill.  I"m so glad to use some of that up.  I had an almost full bag of fiberfill left over from stuffing turbans for Aladdin and I just don't use it that often.  So, the bit that's inside my new tablet stand makes me very happy indeed.  And, I am ridiculously happy to not have just thrown out those itty bitty triangles.  They are so cute in those little bird in the air blocks. 

Virgin River. Are you watching it??  SO Good.  And there's some good quilt spotting to be done, too!

Such a useful little thing...

It's hard to see the bird in the air blocks when you look at my tablet stand in use.  It's actually hard to see the stand when its in use.  But I know they're there, and I'd rather have a cute quilty stand on my table than one ordered from Amazon any day. 

Linking up with  Kim at Persimon Dreams, the Project Quilting Headquarters just under the wire.  Again.  Fingers crossed for a prize this week!!

Project Quilting 11.3 - Put A Heart On It

Time for another Project Quilting Challenge!  I knew going in to this one that it would have to be a quick project.  Well, I guess they always are for me.  I am amazed and astounded at the people who complete a full sized quilt for a challenge.  And, then, do it again two weeks later!  How does that happen?  In a week filled with parent teacher conferences, high school open house/orientation for my youngest, two IEP's to write, rehearsals for a sketch comedy show that I was in on Saturday night and life in general, I knew I would't sew until Friday.  But, OH how I looked forward to Friday!  

 I kicked around a few ideas all week.  At one point I really wanted to make something useful - not another wall quilt.  I kind of wanted to make a tote bag to gift to someone.  I had two someones in mind.  

On Friday afternoon, as the work week wrapped up,  I started to get an "itch" do make some improv letters.  Since it had been "Kindness Week" at school the words "Be Kind" came to mind.  I started working at about 6:00 on Friday night (with a beverage and a Hallmark movie on my tablet!).  

These letters were SO FUN! And so freeing.  Exactly what my brain needed after a long week.  I pulled up a picture of pieced letters as a guide, but then I just went for it.  No measuring and no rulers.  Just free from cutting with my small rotary cutter and sewing without too much thought,  I did unpick a few seams to get a different angle or a skinnier shape.  But for the most part, these letters were "One and Done."  I wish I'd taken a picture of the pile of scraps generated in the process.  It was crazy big and cheerily colorful.  What a mess, though!

 When I started I still had a tote bag in mind.  But once I got the letters done, it was pretty clear a bag wasn't going to happen.  Too big to be practical.  Plus, more work to get it done, and I knew I would only have a few hours to finish on Saturday. And, I still had to incorporate a heart.  I decided to make 4 hearts using the Cluck Cluck Sew method that I've used before.  She has a great free pattern with measurements for these easy peasy hearts in seven different sizes!!! I really love how quickly they go together.  Looking at the hearts and letters together I knew that this would have to be another mini wall quilt.  Oh well.  Maybe next week I'll branch out into new territory.  

Aaaack.  Terrible picture.  That's what you get at 11:30 pm in a poorly lit sewing room!

I found a beautiful piece of Art Gallery fabric in my stash that I just had to use for the space around the hearts.  It says "I can and I will" over and over again.  I think we can all use a reminder now and then that we CAN be kind.  Even when it's easier to find fault, or we need to vent our frustrations over someones' actions or even their personality, we CAN be kind, first. I like this reminder that I CAN and I WILL be KIND.  Plus, I just really liked the way the print looked with the little hearts.  

On Saturday morning I headed straight back into the sewing room to put the pieces together and to quilt.  Because the denim I'd used as the background had a stretch to it, the piece was all kinds of wonky when I started quilting,  I decided on match stick quilting to hopefully keep things pretty straight and give it some body.  It was more or less successful, although there's definitely still some "wonk" to it.  I didn't take the time to hang it well for a picture, and it looks pretty wavy in this one but it actually does hang pretty straight.  It's not a fair project, no one is going to be judging it. Its not about perfection its about happy!  It made me happy to work on this little quilt, so perfect is a perfect does.  Or something like that.

There are few things that are as calming and meditative for me as straight line quilting. This was like a little therapy session! 

I haven't decided on a location for it yet.  Maybe in my classroom?  Maybe it's a gift for the guidance counselor for her office?  Or maybe I'll send it to the wonderful family behind the Summer Shirt Project for the work space in their home.  I recently won a grab bag of awesome T-Shirts and fun Be Kind To Everyone swag.  So maybe this will be a thank you gift to them.  This project came to life on its own with very little planning, so it's fitting that its forever home is still undetermined. 

 

I'm writing this post just an hour and a half before Kim's deadline of noon, Wisconsin time.  I'm cozy under a blanket drinking coffee from a heart mug and watching the snow.  I've decided to BE KIND to myself today and not go to work in my classroom.  I've got plenty to do at home. 

 I hope that kindness finds you where ever you are this week!  This world needs more of it!

Linking up with Kim at Persimmon Dreams for Project Quilting Season 11 .

Project Quilting 11.2 - Team Colors

It's like deja vu...all over again.  On Saturday, January 26th, 2019 I wrote a blog post about how I had completed my entry for  the second Project Quilting Season 10 challenge.  I made a quilt and blogged about it all while inside the walls of Children's Hospital in Milwaukee while my daughter was inpatient, receiving treatments for cystic fibrosis.  Here we are, Saturday, January 25th, 2020, and guess what?  I'm blogging about completing PQ Season 11 challenge #2...from inside Children's Hospital.   It's been a doozy of a year for my 14 year old.  We left the hospital last year on February 2.  Since then, she has had 4 inpatient stays, this one included, totaling 52 days, so far, plus 9 days of IV treatments at home and an ER visit.  That's a lot for a teenager who just wants to be at home in her own bed, hanging out with her sister and friends and going to rehearsals for the musicals she loves to be in.  We are all getting tired of this, and hoping that her health will turn a corner SOON and we will go back to staying out of the hospital for YEARS at a time instead of months. 

Anyway.  When the challenge for the week was issued by Trish (Quiltchicken) and Kim (Persimon Dreams) I didn't know that we'd end up back up here on the 11th floor.  I also didn't know which team I would pick to represent the theme for the week - "Team Colors."  At that time, our beloved Packers hadn't played their final game of the season, yet.  Before the game on Sunday night, I decided that if they won, and were therefore headed to the Super Bowl, I'd make a celebratory green and gold mini quilt to display for the big game.  Well, my quilt is red, white and blue, representing the colors of our high school and the Slinger School District.   So, no Super Bowl for Aaron Rogers and his team.  (Incidentally, the challenge theme for the second week last year was Red, White and Blue...weird).

Go Owls!

                                      
                                                
Before I knew that we'd be coming in to the hospital, I had already decided that this challenge would be completed at "the last minute."  Friday was a scheduled day off of school and knew I'd be using any available sewing time prior to that to work on costumes for Aladdin Jr., the middle school production that both my girls are involved in. (My oldest choreographed the show and taught the choreography to 70+ middle schoolers!  Now THAT'S a challenge!)  I had been looking forward to spending the whole day drinking coffee and working on the challenge piece in my sewing room, while watching a Hallmark Winterfest movie or two on my tablet.   I should probably stop making plans like that.  Read this post from last year to find out why...  But, the hospital stay and lack of time to plan a project and lack of access to supplies meant that I kept things super simple.  I literally threw a bunch of red, white and blue scraps, a bit of batting, a largish chunk of  backing fabric, a small ruler, rotary cutter and mat, my mini iron and wool mat into a suitcase on the way out the door before coming to the hospital on Thursday.  My sewing machine and a box of basic supplies were already in the car because I've been doing costume alterations at rehearsals.  (Seventy plus kids who each have two or more costumes.  Also a challenge!)

Here's my snowy day hospital sewing set up.  I love that my scissors and mini iron fit the theme!

With no real plan in mind, I decided to just start cutting.  Then I just started piecing.  I still didn't know exactly what I was making.  Once I had a red background pieced I decided to add our "Owl Eyes" logo that represents our district.  I texted my 17 year old daughter who was planning to come and visit and asked her to print it out for me.  There's no way I was going to free hand that! When that was done, I decided to add some borders.  Then, I decided I wanted to be done.  Quickly. 

Don't look too close!  Wonkiness abounds!

The result is...eh.  Kind of a hot mess.  Not great stitching around the logo.  Pretty bad self binding, because the "chunk of backing was almost but not quite big enough... and I decided to try to make it work instead of cutting and piecing more scraps for binding.   It's not my best work.  But its done.  It makes me think about what Trish said about quilts getting whomped by the "ugly stick."  This quilt isn't great, but it served it purpose.  I kept my hands busy for several hours, it kept me from getting in my daughter's business in a very small hospital room and bugging her to eat more.  It used up some scraps. And, done is done.  It fulfilled the challenge. I can now move on and hope that life is a little more predictable for the next.

I taped the quilt to the window in the 11th floor parent lounge at the hospital.  If you look close (at the background, not the quilt, please) you can see Miller Park.  Had I known I'd be able to get this shot, I'd have done a different Team for the challenge!  LOL

This wonky little, kinda ugly piece will be a "table topper" for the "community table" in my classroom where kids can sit and work together or work with a teacher.  It's going to end up with pencil shaving and eraser schribbles and marker smudges all over it.  And that's OK.  It will bring a touch of home to my room at school, and be a good example for my kids that mistakes and imperfection are OK. 

I thought it might be fun to try to re-do some of the shots I took of the mini quilt from this week, last year.  So, here are some comparison shots:

Yes, people look at me oddly while I'm taping things to the windows and walls and taking pictures.

The next few days will be busy.  I'm working Monday but then back to the hospital for Tuesday and Wednesday.  I plan to fill those days with looking at everyone else's entries for this challenge  Umm. Maybe I shouldn't plan....

We are hoping that my daughter will make enough progress that she will be able to come home on Wednesday.  The show opens Friday night, but even though she will have missed many rehearsals, the director will allow her to join the group numbers if she can be at two rehearsals before opening  night.  So, if you're reading this, cross your fingers and send a prayer.  We'll need all the help we can get!