Lots of Ooohs and Ahhhhs

When I visited with Sandy recently she gave me a lovely bundle of goodies to include in our Quilts for Survivors shipment this fall, the main one being this fantastic Postage Stamp quilt.

It's made from tiny 3" Nine Patches made with 1.5" squares. 

If you do the math, she's got 9 Nine-Patches per block (81 tiny squares) and there are 20 blocks - all hand pieced - so that makes for 1,620 squares!

Apparently she was channeling me and trying to use up as many of her tiny scraps as she could in this one. I'd say mission accomplished! It sounds like there were several times when there was a fair bit of blue smoke as she worked her way through this, but finish it she did, and it's just gorgeous.

And she didn't stop there. It's machine quilted and bound and, after they add a label, ready to be shipped to a survivor.

Yesterday I shared it with our circle of quilters at the church and they were completely gob smacked, not only that she put all of that work into this beauty, but that she was prepared to give it away. That butter yellow border was a huge hit. Several doubted that they could be quite this generous.

Thank you so much Sandy; someone will receive and enjoy a real treasure to help them along on their healing journey....M

This is Waaaaay Overdue

In September when Sandy was up for our girls' weekend I snapped a few pics of the nine-patch that she was working on but they got totally buried. Well, since then she has sent through a few more goodies to share so today's the day!

This was a great quilt to be working on in September because the fabrics are very autumnal. Having two sizes of nine-patch blocks to work with gave her the opportunity to use the smaller size as cornerstone blocks in her sashing.

We had laid it out on the floor to chat about border options as you can see by the telltale 'quilter's stance' in the pic. For the life of me I cannot remember where we landed but it appears that a border made from the larger squares was definitely in contention.












Earlier this month she sent through pics of a new scrappy project that she'd started that falls into the 'what was I thinking???'' category - a Postage Stamp quilt made with 1.5" squares. She's been busy working through all of her fabrics to get lots of variety.

She describes it as an easy peasy hand stitching project while curled up with Netflix and at last count just over 200 blocks were finished. Obviously her love affair with nine-patches is far from over.

If you look closely you will see a very special little square from the Bite Me fabric that I had gifted her Minion-loving husband Ed. You will recall that he was planning to have a cape made of it 😉 and was quite taken aback when he realized that she had cut a strip from it! Not to worry Ed, it's all for a good cause.

And, she has finally cut into that dreamy fat quarter stack of blues and yellows that she scored a deal on late in the fall. Isn't this gorgeous? It's another nine-patch block format called Blueberry Pie and is a lovely combo of HSTs and Flying Geese. This one is being done on the machine but but the ripper has been close at hand. She feels that she makes way more mistakes when she's not hand stitching but has figured out that getting out an assembled block for reference before she fires up the machine is a good idea.

There are another eight blocks in the works right now... six will have the darks and lights reversed. Final sized has yet to be determined but so far she's thrilled with this one, and why not? I

And her last pic came with this message, "I know you’ll get this! I’m excited for the little package of triangle trimmings! Seemed a shame to throw them out when they could be stitched into something else, right???". Girl after my own heart....M

Scrappy Sendoff

The gals at the church were looking for a quilt top to work on. I thought it was going to be a charity quilt but it seems to be one that they want to raffle. Either way, it was a good opportunity to move a flimsy along and get it into use, so I donated my Postage Stamp to the cause. This is from the row of large fun wonky stars that I added to one edge.

All of those 2" squares made up into a good sized quilt - 98" x 88". With the exception of the stars, it is all hand stitched.

To help move things along I also gave them the fabric for a backing (I was happy to be able to dig into my pile of backings as well!).

It shows up a little dull in the photos but it is an interesting green and works well with all of the colours in the top.

I snuck downstairs after a service to peek at their quilting progress and they are well on their way.

Not sure if those diagonal lines continue through to the centre of the quilt, but if they do it will be great. There's so many seams in this one that I'm certain that it was a bit of a challenge to find a stitching pattern the was easy to work with.

Fun as those wonky stars are, the layout appears to have been too asymmetrical for the gals - they have added a band of larger blocks and a few strips to the opposite side. No problem. It's theirs to do with as they wish and they appear to be having fun with it.

I'm so happy to see this one moved along, soon to be on someone's bed. There are more flimsies that need some attention so I think it might be time to go and visit Roberta to have her work her longarm magic. No point making them if they aren't going to be used...M

Lets Make a Deal

I spent a little time making a deal with myself - if I'm starting Danuta's Garden (and I have) I wanted to finish off the row of Wonky Stars, get it attached to my Postage Stamp quilt and move this one to the finished column.

The stars have been laid out on the floor waiting for another one or two to be added to the end, and they have been there for a few weeks now, so it was time to get everything put together.

It came together nicely in the end and I'm lovin' the result. There are 3,024 2-inch square hand-pieced blocks, but the stars (13-inch blocks) were made on the machine. And if you look closely around the top and right edges you can see the purple diamond border pattern that I worked in.

Those stars are really fun to make - I'd like to make a baby quilt out of them.

The size of the blocks didn't fit perfectly with the length of the quilt so I added two pieces of sashing in the bottom left corner - just one more bit of scrappiness....M

Night Mail

I headed to Jane's cottage for the weekend based on a weather forecast that was hot and sunny, but much of it ended up wet and rainy. Not to worry - that meant lots of time to sit and work on my Postage Stamp (remember the ripping needed?). It also gave me a chance to get caught up with some of Jane's projects. She has sewn the first strip of the Plaid HST quilt (needs a new name, Jane) that she's working on for her nephew and it continues to be gorgeous.

The necessary ripping out happened on my quilt and then I worked at adding the correct string of blocks.

That went well so it was on to the next row.

Jane noted that it was going to be a huge quilt and I couldn't help but agree. Once the last 4 or 5 rows of blocks were added it would be two thirds complete and it was already a good size. When I got home I thought I'd measure it; already it is about 70 x 100" - certainly no need to make it longer, but adding another 35 inches of width didn't seem to make any sense either.

Time to shift gears. What about making it asymmetrical and adding a column of large, Wonky Stars to one side?

I've been wanting to try this since I saw a similar idea at Blue Elephant Stitches. I figured out how to make a Wonky Star and then was off to the races. Fun!

The blocks will finish at 12" and there will be about 7 of them. Now just to figure out if I take any blocks off the end to make it a little shorter. All in all, this one is headed for the finish line and much, much earlier than I had ever anticipated.....M

A Minnie Break

When I was digging for prints to finish off the appliqué blossom on mom's Dresden Plate I dug through the bag with hundreds of 2" squares that I am using to make my Postage Stamp. I pulled it out thinking that I would switch up some of my hand stitching from Minnie and move this one along a little bit.

I need to finish off one row with 5 blocks to get a straight edge along the bottom of the panel that is sewn so far, so I started there (just below the left side of the area that I've highlighted in yellow). It would have helped if I had looked at the sketch a little closer. I made, and attached, 5 blocks (25 squares in each block) but, after I got it sewn on, I realized that every second block should have had a V of pink/orange squares in it. That's why there are patterns, right? So that we read them, right? Right. Arrrrrgh!

So it's back to the drawing board. All the blocks that I need are now stitched but I haven't yet been able to bring myself to rip out the first set that I did. Soon.

Every time I lay this one out I think I should have done a better job of placing the colours so that the plum and pink squares weaving through the border stand out a little more, but then I catch it from another angle and I think it will be fine. It's a traditional Postage Stamp and made from a zillion scraps so I will content myself with knowing that the pattern is there, even if it is subtle....M

A Closet Full of Memories

As I was waking up in Beijing one morning I realized that I was staring into a closet full of quilts. In all of the excitement of getting there and travelling around it had taken a bit of time for it to register just what I was looking at, and the longer I looked at them, the more I realized what a time capsule they represented. I knew I needed some pics to share with you so I tried to get a few without totally disturbing the entire pile.

On the very bottom was a Dresden Plate that mom had made using old men's ties. It is rich in colour and each plate is beautifully embroidered with a feather stitch - onto wool blocks, if memory serves me correctly.

Sitting just above it (you can see just a corner of it in teal/green/purples) is the Log Cabin that I made for their wedding gift. This thing is huge. Michael is a very tall man and we don't like our quilts skimpy in our family, so I wanted it to be large enough. Even though it was made on the machine I remember sewing on it and wondering if I would ever finish it. Had it been pieced by hand they likely still wouldn't have it, and they have been married 20 years...

The orange quilt on top of that one is from Denyse Schmidt. She and Lili became friends when Michael and Lili lived in Connecticut and when it was time for them to move to Helsinki, Denyse made her a quilt as a goodbye gift that Lili had admired from one of her shows. Hard not to like friends like that, isn't it?

It's beautiful slabs of various orange fabrics with narrow winter white strips running through it and lined in a blue/grey. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good shot of the front but love the quilting pattern that she used on it.

On top of the pile was another one from mom, a Postage Stamp chock full of all kinds of wonderful scraps. I remember her stitching it in the car on a road trip down to Connecticut to visit with them, so it's fitting that they now have it. Sorry it's a little fuzzy but you can make out the X and O pattern that she quilted it in.

And last but not least was the quilt that we slept under. This is another one that mom made; she was very prolific. The bed was covered in luggage when I took the shots so I only got one corner to show you, but all in all there are approximately 12 strips of geese.

Actually, they are HST Flying Geese and hand pieced as well. Lots of love and scrappy goodness in one little closet....M

The Flight of the Bumblebee

I think that's probably the best description for my stitching efforts at the cottage (this is the last entry about the August long weekend - I promise!). There were so many beautiful creations happening around me that my head was on a swivel and I had a hard time getting down to business on my own hand work. At one point we counted the makings of 8 different quilts on the kitchen table.

But I did get some work done. I finished off two more candied hexagons, bringing my total to 74.

And, I inadvertently forgot the makings of one more block when I was packing up so Jane kindly finished it up for me, taking the grand total to 75. Thanks so much, Jane. And Anne brought me a pile of blocks that she has been working on for my Postage Stamp. At this rate I think I'll just farm out my projects and see how much I get done :).

I also found the perfect spot to work on Spot. Who doesn't love hand stitching in a hammock?! I could have stayed there all week.

Spot is coming along nicely. The blocks are 4.5" finished so this panel is now about 21" x 27" and I have 8 more blocks ready to add on. The more it grows, the more I like it....M

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope it is a day of renewal, joy, and time spent with the ones you love. We are enjoying a spectacular sunny day here, and (over)indulging in chocolate, of course! Our bulbs are just starting to pop up so there isn't any colour outside yet but Stephanie dropped this lovely basket off yesterday which brought Spring inside so beautifully. And yes, that is a half-eaten chocolate bunny lurking in the background.

This weekend also marks the beginning of Mike & Lili's new life in Beijing so hopefully they are enjoying fresh Spring blossoms there as well.

I got a lovely treat this morning when Anne surprised me with a dozen more random blocks all stitched up for my Postage Stamp. I've been working on completing the bottom right corner and this will give me a great leg up so I'll need to pin that section together now and get stitching.

Yesterday we took a drive to see if I could find a few more cream tone-on-tone cream fabrics to finish off Martha's Star, which we did, and found a great sale too so I came home with a few lovely treats - my Easter prezzie to myself. Not sure what they will ultimately go into but they do look great together, don't they?





Enjoy your day, and for those of you who have tomorrow off as well, enjoy the extra long weekend...M

Postscript to the Postage Stamp Quilt

I meant to include a note about stamps at the end of my last post about the Postage Stamp quilt but forgot, so here we go.

At St. Patrick’s Basillica in Ottawa, where Jane often goes to mass, they collect used postage stamps to sell to stamp dealers and then send the proceeds to the missions. Apparently one stamp gives a child lunch, so we've been saving our stamps for her to help out the cause. I know that with email we tend not to send or receive as much personal mail by post as we used to but if you are able/interested feel free to send yours to me periodically and I will pass them along to Jane - it seems a waste to trash them when they are valuable to someone else. I just keep a zip lock bag in a drawer and keep tossing them in until it's full. If you need my mailing address just send me an email and I'll get it to you.

Postage Stamp

Here's another pic of the quilt.

There's lots more blocks cut and waiting to be added... In honour of International Quilt Day, which was celebrated yesterday, I think I'll put a few more blocks together.

I followed mom's lead and fill a plastic berry container with a selection of squares and then periodically refill it as needed. It's easy to toss in your bag and go, it doesn't take up a lot of space, and the lid is hinged so it always stays in place.

Well, it is a spectacular spring day here so I'll sign off and get out for a walk. Hope you are enjoying sunshine as well....M