More Blues

Since I got my Project Quilting runner, Diamond Girl, done in just two days, I did a little fun, mindless sewing. One of my goals this year is to make a placemat each month in the colour for the RSC. I got a dark blue one done a couple of weeks ago and so this week I decided to make a light blue one in my ongoing efforts to reduce the strips.

Since making these two, I actually have noticed them go down.

Fall Pillow Cases OMG

Yay for an OMG that is finished in plenty of time before month's end. And yay for a WIP  that is also finally done. I should have had this on my Q4FAL List, but didn't think of it until after I'd posted, and well, that would be 'double-dipping' in the enter-to-win linky parties, so I didn't, not that I've ever won an OMG... I did win once in the FAL, and hm! I still have to go visit Mad About Patchwork and spend my moola. But I digress. Here is my finish:

When I spied a bit of snow still left on these junipers, I thought the red would look good against it... and it does! Actually kind of Christmassy, right? Good thing I got that shot when I did, because there's very little snow left only a few hours later, just a bit on the north-facing side of places. I'm good with that because this snow came way too early.

Sunday Stash

While I was in Florida last week, I made sure of a couple of things: more than one visit with my second favourite pibble in the world and her human, John,

Reclining on our dogs' mats, doubled up for comfort! You can see the scar on her thigh from where they purposely broke her leg and threw her in as a bait dog to force other dogs to fight. The guy who did this was caught and did time...but not enough. John rescued Brandy, and she now is literally 'the Princess'. Sleeps on a human bed with her human, spends her days going for walks, meeting others, has hopes of catching a squirrel, and evenings snuggles up on the couch to watch TV or snooze. 

This little Maltese cross was super-friendly, even stood with her front legs on Brandy's chest to say "Hiya!" Brandy was her usual gentle self.

and a stop in on Wacky Wednesday at my favourite LQS, Alma Sue Quilts. If you are ever in the Sarasota area, be sure to stop in to this wonderful little shop where you can buy fabrics modern and traditional, watch Amish ladies hand quilting around a frame and listen to them speaking their language.

Wacky Wednesday is when Ella puts all her $5/yard sale fabric down to $4/yard. There wasn't much left... But she had put her seasonal fabric (Christmas and Fall) on for $5/yard too. I got a few yards...

Adorable Scotty dogs, Merry Christmas text, and a pretty grey scroll 

Such an interesting and happy tree print and a great red

The Scotty dogs weren't in our house more than 24 hours and they'd already been cut and started to be transformed into...

a Christmas pillowcase for Brady!

You can see my older Christmas pillowcase shams on the left, and a new bright 'for sleeping on' pillowcase behind Brady's. I made it two years ago when I had to ensure, "Santa had barfed up Christmas all over my house," words of Dayna, for me being all festive for Brianne and Brady's visit that year. I'm thinking the trees might need to become new shams for our bed, but then they wouldn't quite go with my Buggy Barn Crazy About Hearts and Stars Christmas quilt... maybe a Christmas cushion cover?

Anyhow Brady's pillowcase is all wrapped up and in the parcel to be mailed off tomorrow.

I remembered to sew in my label 😁

Brady loves dogs, pugs especially, so I think he'll be quite tickled with this new pillowcase. The pattern is Roll It Up off All People Quilt.

Linking up with Molli Sparkles... well I was going to but there isn't a new Sunday Stash, nothing since last Sunday. Hope all is well down under with him.

Tidal Lace

Wiithin days of writing out my Q1 FAL 2016 List, I have one checked off!  Sit back and enjoy, or zip down through all the photos (there will be a lot) and leave, doesn't bother me, because I am so happy these are done!  And yet... (yep, there is an "and yet...")

It started with the Tidal Lace fabric which I bought last winter to make pillowcases. I wanted the panel to be the vertical edge of each pillowcase.  The first surprise was that this fabric is an aqua to coral ombré, and coral is not really in my wheelhouse. Still I love loved the fabric, so I bought it.  The second surprise was that 2 yards would not make pillowcases the way I had envisioned.

They say to keep your brain young and vibrant, you must use it much like keeping your body in shape, exercise.  Well I did a marathon.  My brain thanks me.

First I googled pillowcase images.  Millions of hits.  Hit "Custom" (who knew you could do that?) and voilà! I saw really interesting pillowcases, the first few of which had either a monogramme, or an image of some kind, centred on the case, not on the band! Lightbulb. What if I centred the panel area on the main part of the pillowcase?

It took a bit of courage to make these cuts!

Yes!  I would have enough to make two pillowcases with a band AND I had 21" left with which I could make a cushion cover!!  Doesn't take much to keep this girl happy.
I trimmed 2 1/4" off the selvage side of the panel, and left 6" on the opposite side.

From here I just needed to cut 6.5" strip off the remaining fishnet part of the fabric and sew it to the other side of the sea creatures panel.

Success! I now had a 26.5 X 41" panel

The reason I had to trim off a 6.5" strip is that had I not, the other side of my pillowcase would have ended above the lacy pink edging you see above, and I wanted to keep that as part of the case.

Laid down a Kona Snow strip for the band. Yep!  I'm liking it...kinda...

Quilts "talk" to me, as I know they do to many of you.  This pillowcase went, "meh."  My brain was running on a runner's high right about now, and I suddenly thought, "What if I FMQ-ed some of the tidal creatures on the band?!!"  I got SO excited!  That bubble-in-your-gut (not from eating dairy products) that makes one feel a sort of caffeine-jittery excitement got me vibrating with creative energy, and I started stitching this:

Traced one of the starfish from the panel, put a piece of batting under the fabric, loaded Isacord, and went to town.

This was the result!

Eeeep!

Those of you who have read my blog for a bit know how much I love All People Quilt's Roll It Up pillowcase pattern.  No exposed seams.  I used it to make this pillowcase.  I did have to zigzag (left my serger in Kingsville) the seams where I pieced the panel parts.  No biggie.

Sunday afternoon:

Guest room.  The more I see this in there, the more I think we should have painted the master this colour and not the pale green and grey we did...

This is the reverse side of the pillowcases:

See the horizontal lacy edge?  :-)

Monday this happened:

To some oncoming walkers, two pibbles and a rottie can cause a reaction like the parting of the Red Sea...

Not much sewing, in other words.  However, we had a great walk after my yoga class along the Sarasota Harbour, out to the little island, and up to Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, a little over 3 km/2 miles.  The cushion was still simmering in my brain, rest assured.  I wanted to incorporate leftover waves fabric from my Cloud 9 quilt along with leftover Tidal Lace.  It took me longer than I anticipated to come up with a pleasing design.  I decided to make 4-patches alternate with 4.5" squares of the waves fabric.  Here comes the first "and yet..."  Where is the Tidal Lace?  Um yeah...  There are oh, six 2.5" by varying widths patches in the outer border, and a couple 2.5" squares in the centre.

Somehow I got the waves fabric going as the main fabric, not the Tidal Lace.  By the time that dawned on me (what happened to your marathon-running brain? you wonder...me too) I was committed to this cushion cover.  No problem.  This one is going in the guest room and those Tidal Lace pillowcases are going on MY bed in the master bedroom, so I will create TWO cushion covers to cover the boring chocolate brown cushions on our bed, and I should have enough to make two, right?  Went to the panel, thought a bit more, and cut out two 8.5" squares as the starting point for the two new cushion covers for my bed.  Realized, um yeah, guess I now am making three cushion covers...

Thinking maybe offset with log cabin strips surrounding them...or hourglass blocks beside these with strips above and below...hmm

Okay, back to the cushion cover at hand!  However, don't you agree that the 2 yards I had that were not enough for two easy pillowcases, but now have somehow provided enough for 2 pillowcases, patches for a cushion cover and the starting point for two more cushion covers with still lots of fabric left to play with, is just SO COOL?!!  Quilters get this. Quilters live this.  "Make do" becomes "made do and have enough for more!"

So the 4-patches and 4.5" squares were okay, but only measured 12" and I needed 18" for my cover.  I did not take pictures for this building process, and I should have.  I decided to do a white lattice between the units. It brought me to 14".  No problem; I created a 2.5" by varying widths striped final border: 18.5".  Yes.  No.  Houston, we had a problem.  It was like my stomach feels, not bubbles of excitement, but the feeling I get on twirling rides like merry-go-rounds, blechh, when I looked at the 4.5", 4-patches, and 2.5" borders all smooshed together.  The quilt said, nooo.  So I added a narrow 1/2" white border. A bit better.  It now said it needed a frame of sorts, darker.  Enter the teal.  Yessss.  Now the problem is that it measures 20.5".  I like my cushions stuffed, firm, not floppy, kind of like a pair of jeans.  They must fit, not sag, especially on the rear end, right?  I did not know how to solve this dilemma, other than trimming off an inch of the 2.5" border, and that did not look right, nor did I want to lose any.  When faced with a problem, quilt: (notice one L separates the word "quit" from "quilt"?!!) Ditch-stitched and then put on the free-motion foot:

Following the waves; too much fun!

Still contemplating that damn too-wide, but not too-wide because I like it just fine as is, border.  Got two opinions (how I love this QBL), one from Judy who agreed don't trim 1", maybe just 1/2".  The other opinion from MacGyver, who said, yep trim it.  My gut and this quilt said, noooo.

Kept quilting.

Time to make the call.  To trim or not to trim. Laid it down, stepped back, and this happened.  But of course!

Bella said, "It's lovely! Can I have it? Purrr-ease? You forgot to bring my cat cushion you do know."  Well, she is right, I forgot her little pouffe, but no way was I giving this baby to her, although I guess I should make her a little princess-type cushion...  Bottom line, I couldn't trim it.  Lightbulb.  We have some more brown cushions that came with our couch that are brown and red and ivory.  Not a fan anymore, want lighter brighter colours here.  Would this cushion cover fit those??

Oh yes.
Just.

I had too much fun FMQ-ing the starfish on the pillowcases, so I had to freehand one on one of the white squares, and then had to do a shell on another.  Some water-evoking back and forth around these babies, and some dot-to-dot for the 4-patches on the diagonal, waves in the untrimmed(!) borders, and finally straight-lines at 1/4" in the white lattice and she is done!

Perfect.
Like I was making them (hey, what do I mean, 'them'; I was making ONE cushion cover for the taupe ugly cushion in the guest room! ONE!  I signed up for ONE on the Q1 list!  Now I'm making...let's see...freaking FIVE?!! or is it six? SIX!!!! I guess, if you count one for Bella)...sigh, anyhow, it fit like I was making them for the two couch cushions all along.

The back.

The waves are lined up pretty awesome, no?!  And yep the back is pieced too.  Didn't have a wide enough leftover of the waves fabric for a good 5-6" overlap, so I used leftovers from the backing of Parisville Weave.

Sidenote: I said to MacGyver last night, I am SO glad I brought down all my scraps this year.  Well, almost all.  I brought down all the Ziploc bags of small scraps (which are sorted by colour) and stuffed the two plastic Rubbermaid bins of blues and of greens into one large tote along with the Ziploc bags, also brought down all my strips that I have been keeping in a separate Rubbermaid bin, which is where I pulled these lovelies from.  I brought some (sniff, not a lot) of my larger rolled scrap pieces and smallish stash, like fat quarter-size.  It's like I get twitchy knowing I can't bring it all, and more twitchy trying to decide exactly what to bring.  I'm so glad I had this.  The reason I had the wave leftovers is because I knew I wanted to back "Finished is better than perfect" with it.  Love it when things just work out.

Sidenote #2: I do my backs much like Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts does, with the exception of not using a double-layer for each side of the back.  Must try that.  This works just fine, and I have cushion covers that are 15 years old or more that have stood up very well.

Covering the boring brown and red cushion:

Do not point out the earth-tones striped bottom cushion, nor the similar reddish-brown lanai cushions for these chairs.  Don't.

Here is a side by side comparison as to how much of a change can be created by just redoing cushion covers!

I know which chair I like best!

Here is a close-up of the quilting I did:

I haven't washed it yet, and I won't be until I need to.  It is a tight fit and I know this will shrink a little.

This starfish is quite a bit smaller than those on the pillowcases, so I didn't do as much detail.  I love it.  I loved doing all the FMQ on here.  Am I falling in love with mini-sized quilts?

Tish is doing her best to encourage this burgeoning love.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: original design
Size: 20.5" square
Fabric: scraps
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads: pieced with Gütermann, quilted with Isacord 100% polyester #4230 in 40 wt, and Essential from Connecting Threads (really love this thread, new to me, no affiliation) 100% cotton 50 wt in white.


Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and TGIFF, and Quilting is More Fun Than Housework on Sunday for Oh Scrap!

AND with She Can Quilt for the Q1 FAL party!

'What are you going to make for the second brown and red cushion cover?' you are wondering, I know.  I already have one started.  Similar, but not too matchy-matchy.  Serendipity: there just happens to be one in Camille Roskelley's book Simplify, that I got out of the library again yesterday!

Always wanted to do a Plus Quilt.  May as well do a mini!

Life's a Bi-each...

So a few days ago I needed to just sew something. Anything.  Feel the whir of my newly tuned-up Bernina...  Yes, I could have/should have worked on piecing some more of the trellis for "Fleurs" (thought I'd left her, forgotten, forlorn, didn't you?), but I wanted something pretty much as mindless, well, maybe not as mindless, that would yield a more interesting result.  Tula!  Yep, I brought the scraps and fat quarters and newly purchased book (I'd previously borrowed it from our library) down here with me to keep plugging away at the 100 blocks.  Here's what happened:

Let's see....it has been a while.... oh yeah, guess I was on Block #8.  Pick colours. Cut.  Ahh, feels good to have a rotary cutter back in my hand.  Sew. Press. Yes!!

So pretty!

Uh....NOOOOOO...

When I went to add them my pile of blocks, I discovered, that I'd already made this one!  And four more after it...
Waaaah!
Dilemma:
To keep or to rip?  I am making all 100 blocks, so 101 is not going to cut it...I could put the extra on the quilt back.  Or I could rip it and see if I can use the pieces in another block, since she repeats many same size squares and rectangles.

Life is a bit*h...Spent a day ripping.  Very carefully.  These squares finish at 1", so not a lot of room for frayed edges.  NEEDED TO SEW! MINDLESS!  Spent last night sewing UFO project #1 for this winter.

Love this Roll It Up! pillowcase pattern from All People Quilt.  Made it many times. Had the blue fabric for years to make pillowcases. Notice the 2.5" squares in a pile? A tip from Cynthia's Scrap-a-Palooza series is growing my stock of organized 2.5" squares!

Life's a beach...  Today, I got my sewing room window fixed. (I know you're thinking wth? She was writing about Tula Pink blocks.  No, pillowcases... Welcome to my menopausal regular mind...Just wait...) Yay!  I can open my window now, and the screen is fixed so no bugs will come in!  After my window was fixed, we headed out to Manasota Key for our first beach sesh.  Needed to soothe my ripped up soul, lol.  Not really, as I am so happy in this new house, but a beach day is always a good day. And today was stellar.

Look at the colours!  And this was just my iPhone 4.

Came home and sewed the Tula Pink pieces back together.  Had to cut the centre square and the bars of the plus but managed to make the other pieces pretty much all work:

Ta-da!  Block #13...

Don't you just LOOOVE the tray I used for background interest?!  It's a "happy new home" gift from my darling friend and other-side-of-our-wall neighbour in Kingsville, Jude.  Say what?  Are you confused?  Well don't be; they came for a visit!  Our first guests here.  They have a winter home in Winterhaven, Florida, so not too far away.  She has an affinity for all things France, as do I, (especially Paris for her).  I love to have my morning coffee outside, as well as my afternoon tea, with my book, and chocolate, so this will be perfect to load up and carry to my spot! So thoughtful of her; she knows me well.

Speaking of happy new home gifts, on Saturday a Priority Post parcel was placed at my front door.  Remember I won Lara's (Buzzin Bumble) wreath fabric she created on Spoonflower?

Bella likes it too!

Well, that darling girl (I truly am so very blessed with such wonderful, thoughtful, caring friends) sent me a gift for my new sewing room.  And WHAT a gift!!!!

Holy generosity, Batman!  There are three 1-yard cuts of Riley Blake Designs (a fabric line I've admired, but never have bought), a 1/2 yard cut of Kona cotton "Breakers" (Lara is so smart in how she labelled it with its colour name, and I'm going to copy her idea: a skinny Post-It note pinned to the fabric).  And there's a yard of a laminated cotton in aqua (the top fabric in the picture above)!  I have never seen this before.  I immediately thought of make-up bags, lunch bags...think there are a few members of my family who might benefit from experimenting with this.  I was blown away, and so touched.

I love florals, pastels, earth tones.  But this past year I have been drawn to the modern bright colours, especially aqua with red (see my Over and Under quilt, though it's more of a mint than an aqua).  I love the Christmas quilts and décor that I've seen done in aqua and red.  Well, Lara has given me a push to actually create something (and I have a few ideas) with these two colours.

I've been writing this blog just over a year now, and I started it, as most do, mainly to keep track of what I sew, and, a close second, to keep family and friends in the loop as to what I'm up to.  I never dreamed I'd meet some wonderful, talented, warm people, who I now consider good friends.

Funny about life: that at 50+ I find kindred spirits, people like Jude, like Lara, both of whom I've recently met,  and yet to whom I feel such a deep connection.  :-)

Today, I'm linking up for the first time with Freemotion By the River.