Friday, March 13, 2020

Project Quilting 11.4 Birds in the Air and 11.5 Give it Away

I think this has been the longest gap in blog posts for a long time, perhaps in my blog's history. I've been very busy head down, sewing. Some of what I've been doing is on Instagram, albeit sneak peeks as two projects were secret sewing. I've also been busy hauling sewing stuff from storage in the basement and garage upstairs to my new space that is not entirely done (trim needed, but we are waiting for a warmer day to paint baseboards, and for a sale to buy window trim). MacGyver suggested I get everything up there except for Avril, the longarm, who still resides in the basement bedroom, to see what I have and what kind of storage I need. Oh man, it's rather a hot mess right now! I've already drawn a to-scale room arrangement that I think I will need, and I still think for the most part it's what I will end up doing.
Freshly pressed Kona cottons!
As you can see, we've, well he has, put together two Kallax for an IKEA hack cutting/pressing table on castors. I am working with it over the next couple of weeks to see how big of a countertop I want on it, and where I want the inserts (drawers and cabinet doors). So far I LOVE it. Being able to get around all four sides is wonderful. I did buy an Alex as well, just the small one, to see how that goes and whether I would need another. The jury's still out on that! Bella loves being back up there, and is busy helping in her own cat way.



Persimon Dreams PQ 11.4 was Birds in the Air, using the classic block in some way that it is recognizable in your finished piece.

I waited until the last minute (a theme for PQ for most of the challenges) and created this micro-mini quilt that finished at just 3 3/4" square. There are 40 pieces in it.
I named it Hummer
I originally was going to paper-piece it, thinking that would give the best precision, but then figured it was faster (haha) to just piece as needed.

So I made my HSTs about 1 1/4" unfinished and then cut them down to 1" so they'd finished at 1/2". Fun! I was surprised at how precise this ended up, and once again, I am mystified as to why when I make a 12" block I still miss some intersections or points!
Narrow single-fold binding, stitched down with Sulky metallic Holoshimmer

Actually it first reminded me of a 150 Canadian Women block...#4 to be exact, which I made three years ago. That first idea was to make a 6" block, maybe make it into a potholder...

Well it ended up being a tad smaller!
It was pretty windy that day, February 23. A bunch of ice had blown to our side of the lake. It made me think of croutons floating in soup! The very next day -- gone, as the wind switched directions. The power of the wind, and of the sun is pretty amazing.

I like the see-through effect here.

I smiled when I spied this piece in my stash for the backing.
It's a fabric by... well once I find it, which could be a while, sigh, I'll add it to this post.

This 'fly away' shot shows the slight trapunto effect from the matchstick quilting.
It also makes me grin. Birds in the Air, aka Hummer, literally flying in the wind.

Perched on a fencepost
Give it Away
This is the most recent PQ challenge. Well, I'd already made a lap size quilt, Smooches, for 11.3, to be given to the Windsor Sexual Assault Centre for Hands2Help later this year.

With the secret sewing deadlines fast approaching, I wasn't sure I'd be able to do anything, but then when I read Roseanne's post at Home Sewn by Us, where they were going to make small quilts for A Doll Like Me, I thought smaller. And came up with placemats to be given to Meals on Wheels.

We did this as a guild project one Christmas when I was a part of the guild here in town. I missed the 12 noon CST deadline by a little over an hour, so even with losing an hour, I'd still have been a few minutes past. It's okay; the interruptions were all okay and I'd rather have those kind of family interruptions than not! Prizes are not needed, and I still put this on #projectquilting, and Kim saw it.

I finished up my secret sewing, and instead of turning to the Island Batik challenge, which has been percolating for over a month now in the back of my brain, and instead of doing my OMG, I made the second placemat, a DrEAMi moment striking again!
Here's the back of the first one:
This same fabric but with a mango background, is on the front, for the star points. It is in one of my upcoming secret sewing project reveals. 😎 I'll be writing up a small tutorial for these placemats, which will also have the tutorial for using the backing as the binding.

Island Batik is calling so I will now focus on what I need to!


Linking up
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
My Quilt Infatuation
TGIFF at Faith and Fabric
Quilty Girl


I want to share two good resources that have helped me in the past two days to understand this new virus, and to understand the gravity of the situation. I hope you will listen to the five-minute YouTube talk from the Toronto doctor, sent to me by my dear friend Linda, and read the entire article from a statistics guy, sent to me by Dayna's SIL. Both contain quantitative, analytical, and educational information, no opinion or emotional bias.

And the lengthy article, that is well worth the time to read and understand:

Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now

15 comments:

  1. Had to laugh at your wonderment regarding precision in the tiny block vs the 12" block. I find that no matter how carefully I cut and pin and measure, there is ALWAYS something not quite right. Love seeing Bella in her element in the new room.

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  2. Your room is coming along nicely, and as long as Bella is comfy, all is well up there. Walk around units, they are so good to use. Hope you stay virus free and friends are safe too.

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  3. I bet that tiny one took as long to make as a whole quilt! it is gorgeous!

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  4. SEW happy to see that you studio renovation is nearly complete!! Looking forward to the BIG reveal once you are all settled in.

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  5. So nice to see Bella is enjoying being back in her space. Both great project 11 items. Those little birds in the air and I thought I used little pieces.

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  6. I love my Kallax units - it's primarily what I have in my sewing room, and we have one of those cutting table IKEA hacks in the quilt room at church. It's a great piece! One word of warning - the Kallax units are mostly stable, except for the 5x5 - it REALLY needs to be anchored to the wall, both to keep it from falling over and to keep it square. It's a bear to assemble, too!

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  7. I wondered where you have been. Glad to hear you've been busy with fixing up your studio and sewing! Both fun and rewarding activities! I love Hummer...perfect name for tiny birds in the air :)

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  8. The article you shared is indeed a deep dive, but so comprehensive and informative. Thank you!

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  9. Such beautiful creations. Had not thought of placemats for Meals on Wheels...a great idea! Congratulations on beginning the occupation of the new sewing space. It must feel like a big milestone for both you and MacGyver. Thank you, too, for the links to the articles. That you-tube video is so well done and in easily understood language. Everyone should see this...school age and up!!

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  10. How exciting getting a big new space. Look forward to seeing how it all comes together. Thought you'd been extra quiet, but then many of my blogpals have, as well as me. Trying times at the moment & hard to stay focused. DH has made me a new chest of drawers which I'm decorating at the moment. I'll being doing a post today (5 on Friday-Gratitude) & I'm putting a progress photo on. Take care.

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  11. Thank you for sharing that article from Medium. I appreciate having something so thorough and fact-based to pass along and refer to. Today my neighbor told me she wasn't worried because the virus had skipped our county, going from Seattle to a neighboring county. (And she's a nurse!) We then discussed the difference between actual cases and those that have been diagnosed with a test. I worry for her, and for those of us in high risk groups interacting with those who are not worried.

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  12. Lovely, that mini-mini quilt is just darling!

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  13. Things are progressing! I love your placemats and think I may be up to a few in the next week. I wonder how many ufos we can knock out during our quarantine???? I was thinking of a dinner out tonight but my nose is itchy so I may defer. I feel bad for the restaurant folks (my son included). They have no salary to speak of so it will be awful for so many. I have been busy taking classes last weekend, so not blogging so much myself either!

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  14. What a great post! So much fun things going on. Love Hummer! Thanks for sharing the information. Stay safe and well.

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