Valentine Quilts

Kayla's Valentine Quilt

A quilt for my granddaughter - twin bed size. You can't really tell from the photo but I used a flannel sheet with pink hearts from the thrift store as the backing. At $1.65 the price was right and it made for a cozy quilt.

Isabelle's Valentine Quilt

And this is for my other granddaughter. I used a red cotton sheet for the backing. Again, the sheet was from the thrift store, in excellent condition and at $1.25 I thought the price was right. Some people say you shouldn't used sheets as backing - they don't sew right, don't wear as long, etc. I have had no problems. My grandmother used flannel sheets as batting, old clothes as the basis for all her quilts and I am still using one of hers.

My Valentine Quilt.

Last year I made a quilt for myself from old valentine hankies. I have it on the bed in the guest bedroom now.

To Be Or Not To Be

I made this 20.5 inch (finished) Castle Wall quilt block back in December 2014.  I thought it was a good block for a little collection of Valentine fabrics.  There's a lot of Y seams in it and I found it difficult to make but thought I'd challenge myself to make 12 blocks. Well, I didn't make any more blocks until 

...February 2018. Then I made two more blocks and...

...I have not made any more since.  This month the theme in my sewing space is Hearts and Flowers so I thought I would get these blocks out and decide once and for all what to do with them and move this UFO forward. 

The link to the free tutorial I used in 2014 is now broken but I did print off the directions and templates way back when it was working. I reviewed the directions again and decided that I still would love to have a Valentine Castle Wall quilt BUT I don't want to make any more of these blocks with all those Y seams BUT I do want to use my little cache of Valentine fabrics. 

So, I searched for a similar and easier to make block and found a Dutch Rose (aka Swoon) block. And I found several different ways to make it without Y seams. 

Yesterday I tried the tutorial at Double Nickel Quilts for a 16 inch finished Dutch Rose block.   I like it well enough but not with my Valentine fabrics because a lot of them are directional and larger prints so they don't look quite right in this block. I am going to try the Dutch Rose with my garden rose prints instead.  

So now I guess the plan is:

1. Make a simple quilt of 9 inch squares alternating with 9 inch Nine Patches in order to use some of the directional and big prints.

2. Use the Castle Wall and that Dutch Rose block as the centers for some lap or wheelchair quilts. I did consider making a table runner but I do already have a Valentine table runner and placemats. I also considered using one as a cushion cover and that still might happen.

And sew on...

Hugs and Kisses Around The Castle Wall

Hugs and Kisses 

around the

Castle Wall

It's a top!

48 x 63

I made this (one of three) Castle Wall block back in February 2018.   The block is a whopping 21 inches. I made my first block back in 2014 then made two more blocks in February 2018. I was always thinking I would make 12 blocks for a Castle Wall quilt someday. Well, this month I decided that's not going to happen because I'm not going to make any more Castle Wall blocks. 

Since this month the theme here is Hearts and Flowers I decided that once and for all I needed to do something with the aging blocks.  This Castle Wall block with XO fabric and lipstick stains was the starter for a medallion quilt.  I made hugs (Os) with some light valentine fabrics and I made kisses (Xs) with red and pink valentine fabrics. 

I had enough of that lipstick print to make a snowball border for the top and bottom. I thought the snowballs kind of looked like the center octagon of lipstick prints in the Castle Wall. 

Years ago when I used to buy fabric I liked to collect valentine fabrics after Valentine's Day when they went on sale so I do have a small stash of them I hope to put to use this month. 

XOXOXO

And sew on...

 

Valentine Castle

 I was digging through my Valentine fabrics and found a ziploc bag with one Castle Wall block made with Valentine fabrics.  Evidently I haven't made any more since December 2014 according to an old blog post. 

These are big 20 inch blocks. I think I'll make 12. 

Now I have 3 blocks in my Valentine Castle.

Sew, Stitch, Snap, Share!

Going a Bit Crazy

Between trying to get out into the garden to get my flowers and veggies in and working my real job that pays the bills (6 years to retirement) I've managed to stitch on a few crazy quilt blocks as follows:

Above is Janet's "For the Birds" block.

We were also supposed to contribute some stitching toward a joint block so I added some fluffy thistle, a crocheted sunflower with prairie point leaf, some "kiko flower stitch" and added a few flowers to the stem stitch that was already on the block. Below is the total block after my addtions.

Above is my addition to Nina's "Pink Color Study" block. The button cluster was already there but I added a few beads and drizzle stitches to the largest button. Also added a tatted butterfly, some bullion and silk ribbon roses, some ribbon, a couple seam treatments and a crocheted heart. I really didn't think I liked pink before I started on this block. Now that I've picked up some pink supples I will probably make a few things for a granddaughter who has loved pink since she was old enough to say the word.

This is Nina's pink block after me and ready to pass on to the next stitcher.

This is my stitching on Carol's "Anything Goes" block. She has a wonderful valentine theme going with her blocks that I just love. She is going to make a wallhanging with all the blocks separated with black sashing hence the black additions. I've been working on valentine blocks for my own valentine bedrunner so had a bunch of supplies on hand to add to Carol's block. Even tho' I never get much for Valentine's Day and even though I am not much of a decorating or holiday celebrating person I must say for some reason I love Valentines.

WITB?

It's no secret that I love roses. 

I've made a series of quilts (and tops) with rose themed prints. 

And now I have a lot of scraps of rose themed prints.

WITB?

What's in the bin? (14 quart size)

I'm going to find out as I process the rose themed scraps and empty the bin.

One quilt? Two?

WITB?

What's in the bag? (plastic grocery bag)

I like hearts and valentines too. I've also made a series of heart quilts.

And I have a lot of valentine/heart scraps.

I'm thinking I'll combine rose and valentine scraps and empty both bin and bag.

I've started processing those scraps and so far I have a lot of 3.5 inch fan blades. Or are they tumblers?

Time will tell. Not quite sure where this is headed yet. I might also dig into the pink, red and aqua scraps too before all is said and done. 

And I have a pile of rose and valentine strings. 

And sew on...

 

Thoughts on Improv

I don't have what I would consider any particular quilting style.  But if I'm going to go hook up with a bunch of improv quilters I feel compelled to explain why my post covers improv. 

I have not been doing much of what I think is improv.  And that's because I think improv quilting requires more thinking than I'm willing to give it right now.  I am dealing with a great deal of job-related stress right now and sew primarily to relieve that stress. I'm a zombie chain piecer. 

I think improv requires somewhere to lay out blocks; somewhere where you can keep them laid out; somewhere where you can arrange, rearrange and rearrange again.  I don't have a design wall. I don't have a big space to leave blocks laid out for any period of time.  That makes it difficult to see how the parts fit into the big picture. Of course I could sketch something out. But, I'm not a sketcher...even my stick figures stink. 

I think my improv requires a seam ripper a lot of the time. 

And I think that's why I have a lot of improv UFOs. 

Case in point above. I started a tea towel challenge a few years ago and I have gone nowhere with it. I made up some letters for some words last year and this month put them together. I don't like how I assembled them. There's too much space between letters. I used the same fabric between letters and rows and wish I hadn't.  Time to rip...I hate ripping. 

I think free-piecing (like the letters) is improv. 

   

I have a lot of different elements made for my tea towel quilt.  I just don't have much room to lay everything out that I want to add to...

...the middle tea towel, etc section. 

I think Crazy Quilting is improv quilting. 

This is my Valentine bed runner UFO.  I haven't worked on it in ages. I wanted to make it to go over the bottom of a ...

...Valentine Hanky quilt I made ages ago. 

I used to participate in a lot of crazy quilt round robins and several times chose valentines as my theme. I have a lot of blocks embellished and lots waiting to be embellished. I couldn't figure out what size to make a bed runner or how I wanted to assemble all of the blocks so everything has been collecting dust since about 2010. 

I've gotten the blocks out several times to work on them again but each time put them back away because how to embellish each seam of each block will require too much thinking from me right now. 

Meanwhile Valentines are always on my mind. When I find embellishments I think will be perfect for a Valentine bed runner on sale or at the thrift store...into the box they go for whenever I'm able to spend a lot of time thinking while I'm stitching.  (No, that's not where I hide my drugs...I've found prescription containers make a good place to store tiny beads). 

Another crazy quilt/improv UFO I pulled out of the box...my fairy garden at midnight glow in the dark wall hanging.  First of all...I have a LOT of fairies from coloring books saved for use in this wall hanging but found it difficult to transfer to the black background so decided difficult was not something I wanted to deal with anymore.  I have a bunch of glow in the dark threads and black background fabrics in the box with 7 12 inch blocks. I don't even know how many blocks I want to make.   But, you know, I sure love whimsy so this looks pretty inviting to me right now. Maybe this summer when I'm not hand quilting (because I don't have A/C and hate sweating under a big quilt while hand quilting) I will pick this up and start working on it again. Otherwise I think it will stay in its box a little longer...until I retire next year. 

And here's even more craziness...Crazy Farm blocks.  I started making a third Crazy quilt (first was Crazy Basket Case and second was Crazy Cravings) called Crazy Farm but, again, I haven't worked on it in a long time.  I just don't feel like thinking when I get home from work.  Like I said...improv/crazy quilting takes a lot of brain energy I don't have right now. 

BUT...I came up with a brilliant idea (brilliant for me anyway)...I will combine improv/crazy quilting with some improv/free-piecing and Build-A-Barn as the center for my Crazy Farm.  I know I can do that since I already made one following tips from Julie.  (And I didn't rip a single seam or have to think too darned much to make it...I used the barn in my own backyard for inspiration). 

(To order your own copy of Build-A-Barn see Build-A-Barn, the blog). 

Ok. So now that you know that I think crazy quilting and free-piecing can also be considered improv I'll tell you what I don't consider an improv project although others might think so. 

I've seen these types of units that are actually, to me, a form of "stack and whack" blocks laid out in various ways to make a quilt. 

It doesn't take much thought to make these...they are pretty mindless and one of my projects these days to use up fabrics left over from Pickle Dish and Petunias that I've been too lazy to put back on the shelf. 

So, since they involve no thinking...doesn't follow my definitions of improv. 

But then again...one of the blocks did involve a little improv (as in improvise) when I found out I didn't have enough fabric for all nine units. 

Other than that...if I make a blocks A,B,C,D (no matter how cut or sewn together)...

...and I follow the author's layout (Fractured, by Kathy Doughty) to make the quilt then I don't think I actually did any improv. 

Just my 2 cents about my improv style. 

Like I said...who needs labels? (except the kind you put on the back of the quilt).  

Crazy Quilting, Free-Piecing, Wonky, Stack and Whack, Traditional, Modern, Improv (your definition, my definition)...it's all good. 

AdHoc  Improv Quilting with Kaja and Ann and others. 

Throwing Snowballs At The Castle Wall - A Hand Quilted Finish

 

Throwing Snowballs At The Castle Wall

It's a hand quilted finish!

48 x 63

The center block is called Castle Wall and finishes at 21 inches. Back in 2014 I had this grand idea that I would use my little collectiton of Valentine themed fabrics bought over the years on clearance after many Valentine's Days to make a Castle Wall quilt consisting of 12 Castle Wall blocks.  So in 2014 I made one block.    Then in 2018 I made two more blocks including this one.   Then in 2023 as I was evaluating UFOs and ran across the three blocks I finally decided my 2014 grand idea of a Castle Wall quilt was not meant to be so I made three different medallion quilts. 

More back story on my 2023 blog post about this quilt.

In 2023 I framed the Castle Wall with a little solid pink border and made it the starting block to a medallion quilt.  Since the Caste Wall block had purple, red, pink and black in it I pulled out mostly Valentine fabrics with those colors. 

Then I decided to throw some Snowballs at that Castle Wall.

I alternated Snowballs with black and white corners. 

Then I needed to add a little length because I usually prefer to make rectangluar quilts. What better to add for a border than a couple of hearts and some roses! 

Then as you can see I big stitch hand quilted it all with black perle cotton #8. 

It has a pieced backing. 

And it is bound with LOVE! 

FYI - the other two Castle Wall quilts:

Smitten was finished in 2023

Hugs and Kisses at the Castle Wall is still an unfinished top

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

***

REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

I received a box of treasures from Nann yesterday. And, woohoo, it included a big bag of postage stamps (PS) - 1.5 inch fabric squares - so I can continue on with a couple of PS UFOs! 

Vintage Valentine

This is my work on Alice's block in the Be My Vintage Valentine RR. I did some encrusting inside a heart around the silky she had on the block. And it was a lot of fun. 

Zen and the Art of Crazy Quilt Embellishment

This is my work on one of the blocks for Lisa with a Vintage Valentine theme. Lisa requested "clean and serene Zen feeling" for her blocks. My life is anything but in Zen mode right now so hope my disconnect between body and mind finds this block kind of Zenish looking.   I used the muted tones in the block which I hope adds to the serenity. The left side has some variegated feather stitch with some variegated leaves. Right side has some variegated brown chain stitching and some gray silk ribbon flowers with variegated pink centers.  To denote balance I added one of those silk ribbon flowers to the left side. And since it's a valentine theme I added a mother of pearl gray heart. But Lisa requested nothing too heavy.  I haven't stitched with a heavy heart. Clean and serene? Zen feeling? The jury is out on that.

XOXOXO, VALENTINE !

I've made more X, O and Heart blocks - 18 total and no design wall to display them. I can't decide if I want to keep them separate in rows by block type or mix it up. Since I've got many more blocks to make and more valentine fabrics to cut I guess I've got a while to decide.

Sugar Town

 Penny Candy Stores and a Soda Shop

When I was younger there was a neighborhood Penny Candy Store up a couple blocks and on the corner called Steve's Store.  My brothers spent most of their paper route earnings there and at the comic book store downtown.  I didn't find wax lips, pixie sticks or candy cigarettes much to my liking.  I saved my babysitting money for college instead but once in awhile I'd splurge and buy one of those candy necklaces and get one for my younger sisters as well.  We actually wore those around our necks and ate off of them, played games outside like Statue or Spud or 7UP, jump rope or jacks and get all hot and sweaty but still ate off of them for several days.   Strangely we were never sick. 

I don't think we ever had soda pop growing up.  Maybe we'd get an Orange Crush once in awhile. We usually drank water that came out of the faucet in plastic glasses or old jelly glasses.  Sometimes we drank Kool-Aid with only 3/4 cup of sugar; not the whole cup it called for. 

 Chocolate Shops

You can almost see the chocolate in the air! 

 The best place to buy hand made chocolates around here is Lagomarcino's. My husband usually buys me a box of chocolates from there for Valentine's Day and Christmas gifts.  We never had much money for gifts when the kids were younger so my husband and I never bought each other anything for holidays, anniversaries or birthdays.  When we finally got ahead financially I started getting a box of chocolates from Lagomarcino's for a Christmas gift.  All these years later that's still the only Christmas gift I get from my husband and I'm not complaining.  The boxes come wrapped (by Lagomarcino's) with a big organza or tulle bow. I've saved all those bows in a little box thinking I'll find a use for them someday - maybe a wreath?  He usually buys two boxes for Valentine's Day but only gives me one and hides the other.  As I eat chocolates out of my gift box he sneaks more into it out of the hidden box.  So it seems like the box fills back up like magic - kind of like scraps.   I didn't catch on the first year he did that but now know what's going on but never let on to him I know. But I'm pretty sure he knows I know. 

Bakeries and some Nut Houses for the more Salty Characters. 

My husband's maternal grandfather, William Petersen (1895-1935),  basically raised himself. His parents were alcoholics.  At a young age (13) he was an apprentice in a bakery (according to census records), enlisted in the Army in 1917 (discharged 1919) where he was evidently a baker  and later he ended up as the owner of the same bakery where he served as an apprentice.  He shipped bread to all the surrounding areas via rail until Wonder Bread came to town and took over most of that business. I actually have one of the old wooden shipping containers from those days that I use for a side table. I also have some bread pans from the bakery that I sometimes use when I make bread.  They are well seasoned.  William turned the bakery into a tavern and died at a young age of cirrhosis of the liver. 

I got some troubles, but they won't last
I'm gonna lay right down here in the grass
And pretty soon all my troubles will pass
'Cause I'm in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo
Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town. 

Like so many songs, especially blues, I'm pretty sure the sugar that Nancy Sinatra sang about was a double- entendre.  I have to say that the darned lyrics played over and over in my head while I was making these.  Thankfully it's time to leave Sugar Town. 

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag