It's The Little Things

I celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks ago and was the happy recipient of a few quilty goodies that made my day. The first is a beautiful Auntie Green's Coverlet Quilt iPhone cover by Brigitte Giblin Quilts. Isn't is pretty? I've had my eye on these covers for some time now. Actually, it's been so long that I wondered if they even made them any more. I never had a phone cover for my cell phone when I was working and it's taken me a couple of years to decide to finally get a phone now that I'm not. After much hemming and hawing about how much I would actually use it, I scored one of my sister Frances' old phones and it suits perfectly. It was also the perfect excuse for this little treat.

My second goodie is a new quilt pattern called Santa's Village. This is another item that I've pined for and now find in my possession. It's about as close to a sampler quilt as I'd go but it's scrappy and I just love that Santa. Isn't he great? 

As usual, there will be a few changes made. I like Elizabeth Eastman's version with several of the green and white blocks switched up; the block in the upper right corner is particularly dark. And I'm not yet certain about putting the houses in each corner; maybe I'll switch those up as well. Time will tell. 

Finally, I find myself closing in on having my scrappy Pineapple Tidbits ready to assemble. This is another project that I'll need to do some carbon dating on to determine how old it is, but very happy to finally see pulled together. Lots of little reasons to be happy 😊.....M

I Outfoxed the Squirrels!

It turns out I really can focus when I need to. I kept my head down and the squirrels out of my sewing room and now all 80 of my Pineapple Tidbits blocks are together (no squirrels were killed in the making of these blocks!).

When they were all prepped I pulled out the biscuit tin that I'd been storing them in over the years and did a final count - there's actually 83. My sister Frances is making the same quilt (we took the course together) and just recently resurrected it, so I'll see if she can use the extras.

You can see from my sticky notes both just how far back this project dates and how I changed my mind about its size as time went on. Guess at one point I decided that it had a better chance of being finished as a lap quilt rather than a full sized quilt and I think that was a good decision.

It was fun to look through the earlier blocks and recognize fabrics that I no longer had in my baggies; I particularly love this red and white check. The zigzag around the edge of the block just helps keep the block and its flannelette foundation together and I think will be a big help when its time to assemble the top, particularly at the corners.

They all begin with a red square and at one point in the process I decided that maybe I should avoid having red elsewhere in the block, but recently changed my mind on that again. I'm glad that I did - it just adds a little more interest.

So once I finish patting myself on the back I will bask in the glow of knowing that I have finished my blocks, succumb to other stitching temptations for a bit and wait for the motivation to assemble this quilt to strike....M

Keeping My Head Down

I'm trying to keep my head down and the squirrels at bay as I close in on the last of my Pineapple Tidbits blocks. There's about half a dozen left to go but it is that dangerous point in a project where you start thinking, 'Maybe I should play with something else'. Focus. Focus.

A block takes about 45 minutes to assemble so I've been attempting to prep two at a time and then sew both in one sitting. Sometimes I get two finished, sometimes it's only one, but slowly they are building to a big finish, which is so incredibly hard to contemplate given how long they have been in the works.

Several still need to be trimmed to size but at this point I will just wait and trim everything else that needs doing in one shot. There's also a big pile that will need the edges zigzagged but again, I'm concentrating on getting the blocks finished and then working through that.

I love that there is everything and anything in these blocks - it's a terrific use of the 'uglies' and triggers lots of memories - and I keep imagining what they will look like after they are dyed. Onward!....M

You Just Knew It Was Going to Happen...

Despite having a shoe box full of strips cut and sorted for Pineapple Tidbits, I couldn't resist the siren call of the rotary cutter and my scrap bins.

All of the blocks were looking the same - not much interest - I felt as though I was always using the same fabrics. It was compounded by the fact that they were very dark and very similar - you know, the saturated greens and browns from the late 80s/early 90s. It is a quilt designed to use your 'uglies' and will eventually be over-dyed with a tea rinse to help meld the colours together, but it was just looking a little too ugly for my liking. Even Dame Edna agreed.

So, out came the scrap bins. I also cleaned out a few small containers of strips that date back to mom's stash hidden in the shelving unit that the shoe box had been sitting on. She didn't waste a thing.

There's a little bit of everything in it which I love, including a few Christmas prints.

I think that I've more than replaced all of the strips that I recently sewed into blocks, which sort of defeats the purpose of working through that shoe box, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do....M

One Shoe Box at a Time

About six years ago I wrote a post resolving to move Pineapple Tidbits to the finish line but I'm here to tell you that its been about six years since I've actually touched it.

SIX YEARS!!! How does that happen? Especially when it is sitting neatly in a shoe box atop a little shelving unit right next to my machine and I can see it every single time I head to the machine! I mean seriously - it couldn't get any closer.

Like every other project, it helps to be in the mood to work on it and this week the mood seems to have struck me. It's all cut and organized into baggies, I just have to sit down and apply myself a bit.

And so I have. I've added half a dozen blocks to the finished pile in a few days. I'll soon bring out the big box and see how many I have now - I may be closer than I think.

This is proving to be a great project to work on between bouts of shoveling snow - no cutting or planning required, just sit down and sew. There's more snow in the forecast for tonight and again on Saturday so if this pattern keeps up I might just put a good dent in this one. Fingers crossed....M

A Split Personality

I looked up from the sewing machine the other day to see two very different types of quilt blocks looking back at me from the design wall and it struck me how not only does my taste change through the years, but also, that there are lots of different aspects to my 'quilt personality'. The one thing that does seem to be consistent is my love of scrappy and using up every little bit.

Every now and then I dive into the shoe box that is my Pineapple Tidbits with the hopes that one day there will be enough blocks to string together. Part of me thinks that I will always have this shoe box on the go because I'm always topping up the scraps in the zip lock bags that hold the strips. That's okay. It's a classic pattern with a rich, traditional feel and even when mine is finished there will always be someone that can use a quilt.

And then there's another side of me that is drawn to the newer, cleaner, more graphic - dare I say 'modern'? - patterns and fabrics, like these Scrappy Log Cabin blocks. Very little of my stash falls into this category, but there is some, and more every day. It's clean and simple and completely different from the more traditional side of me. I'm more selective in picking these fabrics because I don't have the same comfort level mixing them as I do with my more traditional prints or rich, large florals. There are a range of styles that appeal to me that fall between these two extremes but seeing them together on the wall got me thinking about them. Do you have multiple personalities or is it a pretty consistent taste for you?....M

Pineapple Tidbits How To

Here's a bit more elaborate description of how to make the Pineapple Tidbits that I talked about last time - you know, that project from 1996...The technique is called under pressed foundation piecing.

Cut  8 1/2" blocks of flannelette. Trace the block onto tracing paper with a transfer pencil being careful to keep the pencil point fairly fine.

With the pencil side face down on the flannelette, iron the pattern onto the blocks being careful not to shift the pattern as you go.

For assembling the blocks it helps to have a light table because you are placing the pieces on the unmarked side of the block and sewing on the lines marked on the other side, so you need to ensure proper coverage; I've just been holding my blocks up to the lamp to position them and it works fine.

Each block begins with a red square and then you apply 4 light and then 4 dark strips in alternating rows, pressing and trimming the points and allowances to 1/4" as you go. It's easier if you add 2 strips opposite each other rather than trying to do all 4 at one time. This is the last two pieces of the second (dark) round; those 4 points will be trimmed even with the seam allowance.

I precut my strips ahead of time and file them in zip lock bags in a shoe box so that I can pull a full set of strips at one time. 

Light colours are in 2", 2 1/2", 3 1/4", and 4" lengths; dark colours are 2 1/2", 3 1/4", 4", and 4 1/2" lengths.

When you get to the last round the corner pieces are a little bit chunkier - 2"x 3" blocks rather than 1 1/2" strips.

Once it's all together, trim to a 7 1/2" block and then zig zag the edges to keep everyone in their place until the blocks are joined together.

I think I've got between 35 and 40 blocks together now; this one will be for the sofa so it will soon be ready to start assembling. Because it will be more of a throw than a full quilt I think I'll back it with flannel....M

Of Bags and Boxes

Casting my eye around the sewing room for fabrics and a potential new project or two has found me digging into more 'archives' and returning to yet more projects long forgotten, like this Pineapple Tidbits. This is one that my sister Frances and I learned how to make years ago -1996 to be exact (more carbon dating!). I remember coming across it in the window of a little quilt shop near my brother/sister-in-law's apartment (they lived above a great toy store) in the north end of Toronto and just falling in love with it. I was even happier when I figured out that they were offering a class.

A true scrap quilt, we all had to bring dark and light strips for a fabric trade to create maximum variety and advised that 'you will surrender control of colour and let fate and the fabrics take over, including some fabrics that you might not ordinarily choose - uglies, muddies, plaids, stripes, geometrics, large scale florals and tiny calicos.' The only thing we were to avoid was florescent, white or very light fabrics.

It is made using a technique called under pressed foundation piecing - transferring the pattern to flannelette blocks and then sewing the strips to the pattern.

Two very cool things happen in the process - all of the uglies meld together when you tea dye the finished quilt top giving it a lovely, aged feel and making it look like your fabrics are anything but 'uglies'. Then you dry it in the dryer, giving it the 'quilted' finish as the flannelette shrinks a bit. No quilting required. Sounds a little odd but it works wonderfully. It's then tied to the backing with Perle cotton and it's finished.

It sounds more complicated than it is and I think a few photos would help explain it better, so the next time I'll try and illustrate the process for you. In the meantime, those bags and boxes seem to be destined to be emptied, or at least moved along a little bit....M