Not Really Wonky After All

I put these Log Cabin blocks together several years ago as a way of using up the Sea Glass scraps, not really concerned about whether or not the yellow blocks would be centered, and actually hoping that they wouldn't be. I was aiming for wonky, a bit of a boho feel.

Turns out I don't do wonky all that well as three of the four centre blocks were almost dead centre, with one outlier (see upper left).

For a while I thought that I might be able to get away with it but the longer I looked at it (as I snacked on butterscotch pie...) the more that fourth block just looked like a mistake. Nothing to do but fix it. So, I ripped that block out, narrowed the outside grey strip and added a wide blue strip. Now they all look like they might have something in common.





Seemingly on a roll, I prepped it for quilting. I like to use up batting trimmings for my toppers and joined two pieces with a zigzag stitch.

The first half went beautifully, just doing randomly spaced lines of quilting, but when I moved to the second half I was several rows into it before I realized that I had stitched a lovely pleat into the backing. ARRRGH! More ripping.







Patience ruled the day and it is now finally quilted and bound, and actually quite pretty.

I like the way that the binding print moves in and out of the two shades of blue - sort of helps with that wonky thing...

The backing is from the same print as the binding. It's an Art Gallery fabric and was soooo lovely to work with.

So, four years later these blocks are now a very slightly wonky table topper (that didn't take very long, did it???); I think this one will be for the Holly Bazaar....M

There's Gonna Be Pie Tonight!

I made a mile high butterscotch pie today and the Official Cookie Tester is circling 😄. A group got together at our church this morning to make pies and shells for our upcoming roast beef dinner so I came home with enough dough for a crust and decided that he needed a sweet treat.

This is a recipe from my childhood; it's SO good that we would hide the last piece in different kitchen cupboards just to ensure it was ours! It came from a wonderful cookbook put together by the Baptist ladies in our community, its not overly sweet and is quite easy to make. I used one of my Pyrex pie plates, which I find is a bit deeper than some, so I just doubled the recipe and it came out perfectly. Want to give it a try? Here's the recipe:

Butterscotch Pie
3/4 c brown sugar
2 tbsp + 1 tsp flour
shake of salt
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 1/2 c milk (best to use 2% or Homo)
Combine sugar, flour and salt; mix well. Add egg yolks plus a little milk; don't let mixture become lumpy. Whisk in remaining milk. Cook on low until thick. Remove from heat and stir in:
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
Pour into 9" baked pie shell. When room temperature, cover with meringue.

Meringue
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
6 tbsp white sugar
Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually add sugar; beat until stiff. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes, until golden.

After pie, I toyed around with these scrappy Log Cabin blocks for a while (they have been on the design wall since I finished Sea Glass - that was in 2015!) but didn't do more than trim them to size and sew them all together.

They were going to become a cushion cover but I can't seem to get into it somehow - now I'm thinking table topper.

Yellow border? This is the yellow that I used in the centre of the blocks but there's a green/aqua dot in the pattern that is just barely showing in the bottom corner of this photo that doesn't work. I'd have to cut around it and I don't have enough fabric to do it without piecing the border, so I think not.

How about blue? Still deciding. If it's now a table topper I'm thinking that the blue that I was going to use for a pillow backing (bottom left) might be the best option. Or maybe both. I'll mull it over more as I enjoy my pie....M

Going Modern For The Blogger's Quilt Festival

As Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival rolls around each Spring and Fall I find myself wondering if I will have anything to submit (it has something to do with making all kinds of quilt tops but not quilting them...). Well, this time around I seemed spoiled for choice because I had three that I considered entering. How did that happen?

I've decided on Sea Glass. It is probably the one that challenged me the most because the colour selection is not in my traditional wheelhouse. That said, by the time it reached the finish line, I was smitten. Which category to enter it into was a bit of a toss up - it could easily be Scrappy (but it wasn't from scraps) so the colours and prints tipped it into the Modern category for me.

This was a commission for my friend Jean - a wedding gift for a very special niece - the only request was that it be in soft blues and greys with a little cream or white. After that, I could do as I liked.

Seemed easy enough. That was until I tried to find fabrics. Oh, and then decide on the pattern. "I trust you totally", was all the direction that I got. Gulp. It's hard enough picking a pattern and fabrics for someone you know, but for someone that you've never met??? A little pressure started settling in.
 

Needless to say, as I bought fabrics I was all over the map and I ended up not using many of the greys - it just need to be brighter. I tend towards a more colourful palette so there was lots of second guessing as this one came together. I also played with lots of alternative layouts but ended up with the square on the point that I had started out with and it was a good decision.

It was beautifully machine quilted with a delicate blue thread in a great feathered swirling pattern by the talented Roberta at Cocoa and Quilts; the swirls soften the geometric design perfectly.

And the light grey and cream print that it is backed and bound with was a contribution from my friend Linda's stash. It seemed made for it - something borrowed, something blue....

At 56" x 70" it was a good size as it was intended to be draped over the back of a sofa. Start to finish it took about four months which, for me, is pretty amazing (gotta love a deadline). It totally helped that it was machine quilted, otherwise the newlyweds would be celebrating their silver anniversary and still wouldn't have it if they were waiting for me to hand quilt it.

But enough about me. Make sure to check out all of this Spring's entries for your fill of eye candy and to vote for your faves...M

Ready to Wrap

Wonderful Roberta from Cocoa and Quilts had promised that she would have Sea Glass quilted by the end of the month so when she called late last Sunday to say that it was ready I was thrilled - she was more than a week ahead of schedule.

She has done another beautiful job of the quilting - her work is meticulous.

We picked a swirling pattern that has the slightest bit of feathering to it and it looks lovely against all of the strips. She chose a pale turquoise thread to stitch it and it is perfect. I know I called it Sea Glass, but the quilting is reminiscent of wintery snow drifts too.

She said she wanted to get it back to me quickly, not only so that I could get it to Jean on time but so that I could spend as much time as possible binding it, taking it at a leisurely pace and just enjoying all of the fabrics, because this would be the last time I would have with it, which I thought was a beautiful sentiment.

It's backed and bound with the same fabric, a light grey & cream print that has just a hint of blue. It is perfect - thanks again, Linda!

Last night I sat down to watch the Ryder Cup and cheer on the Europeans and got a little more than half of it bound.

Today, we enjoyed another spectacular day of weather - more summer than autumn, really - so I finished it off out on the deck, enjoying the warm sunshine, the fall colours and the last of the summer blossoms.

The Official Cookie Tester kindly agreed to hold it up so that I could get a full shot to show you.

So now it's off to Jean who will wrap it up and deliver it to the newlyweds. I hope that they enjoy it for many years to come....M

True Blue

Miracle of miracles! I sat down to sew a few Sea Glass blocks together on Sunday and before I knew it I had the entire top together, so I have a few photos that show it in a better light than the dull, greyish tones you've been seeing from the basement.

I'm really happy with it. I was a little leery of trying to join all of the white strips accurately because I noticed that a few of them had shifted slightly off centre when I was sewing them, but it worked out. Because the edges of the blocks are all trimmed on the bias there was lots of give if I needed to adjust.

There is only one join that I am not totally happy with but, short of making an entirely new block and inserting it, this one will do. In my mind that's what makes it a quilt (how's that for rationalization?!).

The final size is 56" x 70" and I draped it over the love seat just to see if it will be larger enough to catch a nap under; it's perfect. Whew!

It has since been pressed, the backing washed and sewn together, and on Friday I'll take it to the Roberta to work her magic on the long arm. It sounds like she is going to be able to have it ready for early October so I might just meet Jean's deadline after all....M

Measuring Up

There are 80 blocks made for Sea Glass now so I've laid them all out to get a sense of colour placement, and also to see how large it is.

Right now it measures 56 x 70" and I wasn't sure if it needed to be larger or not. If I make it larger it would need to have 2 rows added to both the end and the side (40 blocks), so I checked with Jean before doing anything further. She confirmed that the newlyweds want to use it on their sofa and that this size works, so I'm good to go.

I thought I might work on it today but spent most of the day at the church getting ready for our parish roast beef dinner, which is tomorrow. Between my friend Lynn and I we made a total 30 pumpkin, lemon butterscotch pies so I'm a little pooped; maybe I'll give it a shot tomorrow before we head to work at the dinner.

The colours in the photos don't do it justice (the joys of basement lighting), but I am really happy with how the blocks have come together. Its a soft, pretty palette with lots of variety and I hope that they like it too.....M

Farewell to Summer

Hard as it is to believe, we are now into September. I hate saying goodbye to summer - this one just seemed to fly by - but here we are. Peaches are still in season so it seemed like the perfect excuse to make one last Crostada before cooler temperatures really set in.

I usually use peaches, plums and blueberries but this time it was just peaches (and one lonely little plum tossed in for good measure). Instead of orange rind I added a smidge of almond flavouring and then sprinkled sliced almonds in with the crumble topping. It was fabulous!

And two more Wonky Log Cabin blocks came together as well.

The blocks are just over 6" so I will trim them all to that.

Now I'll need to assemble them into a pillow top, probably adding a blue border. This pic is a little on the dark side, but you get the idea.

It occurred to me that I really need to lay out the Sea Glass blocks and make sure that I have enough before I use up any more scraps or I could be in a bind....M

Piles of Progress

Evidence of progress on Sea Glass could be seen in various piles around the sewing room. First the trimmings from squaring up the blocks...

Then the paper strips removed from the backs...

And what to do with the pile of leftover strips that have been cut?

Why add chartreuse, of course, and make a few wonky Log Cabin blocks. I think I'll make a few more and work these into a pillow top. Early on there were two blocks where I made the centre white strip too wide; maybe I'll make another 2 to match them and work them into a pillow as well....M

16....15....14.....

Sea Glass has been sitting on the sewing table for much of the summer waiting to be picked up again. Jean called yesterday to say that she'd like to be able to deliver the quilt to the newlyweds in October, so that proved to be enough incentive to sit down to it again.

I'd been dragging my feet with it, but it really didn't take that long to finish putting together all of the blocks. I had 16 foundation papers prepped with the centre white strip, and lots of blue and grey strips ready to go, so in two evenings I've managed to get them all together.

I got to work ripping the papers from the back of the blocks only to realize that I had not trimmed the blocks first. Duh. Time for bed.





 

A while back my machine was freed from the painter's tape mummification that I had used to prevent the ink transfer from the phone book foundation papers to the table surface, but I noticed a little bit of build-up of ink as I was finishing, so I used some hand sanitizer to wipe it off and it's as good as new (I'd just used it a few days ago to take pine gum off the car so thought it might work here too - who knew?). The second thing I did was change my needle; it's dull as can be from working through all of that paper.....M

The Green Monster

My sewing machine has gone green lately, and I don't mean from an environmental perspective. I hadn't counted on the ink transfer from the new phone book pages that I am using for the foundation piece,s but they were really making a mess of my sewing surface, so I cleaned it up and did a quick fix job with my trusty painter tape to protect it. If nothing else, this will keep me focused on finishing the blocks quickly to avoid any residue from the tape. I keep checking, and so far, so good. Poor thing - looks a little beat up, doesn't it?

This quilt is to be used as a sofa throw so it won't be as large as some. I've cut 32 more foundations and I'm thinking that might do it. If I do 5-6 a day I could be done in a week. Did 7 the other day so that's a good start.

I'm still playing with layout options too. I'm wondering about a herringbone pattern....guess I should lay all of the options side by side and see who wins.....M