It's A Finish! Orphan Cora

 

It's a finish!

Orphan Cora

42 x 42

Can you believe someone gave me that gorgeous Carpenter Star block?  I used it as the center of a medallion quilt.  All I had to do was add borders.  I quilted squiggly lines in the colored portions of the Carpenter Star. 

I had some 3 inch Nine Patches in the Parts Department that I used in the borders. I added them around the center in log cabin fashion.  I quilted along both sides of the seam lines in the borders. 

I pieced the back and finally used that puple/blue piece of fabric with kids and grandmas on it that has been around since the grandkids were little. 

This one made it to the top of the quilting pile because it fit the theme in my sewing room this month to move UFOs forward - "Blues and Browns"  and it is quilt #2 toward my donation quilt goal of

 "44 (or more) in '24".

And sew on...

****

CELEBRATE: (word of the year)

Jan. 10- The new area rug for my living room arrived! The Fedex delivery was delayed a day because of the snowstorm (10.8 inches). The delivery truck barely made it in and out of our driveway when they did deliver. Wheels were spinning, spinning, spinning. The farmer that usually plows out our driveway for us is ill so we are kind of snowed in. My car is low to the ground and would probably not make it out of the garage right now.   Well, anyway, celebrating a new area rug. I've been wanting a new one for a number of years and I finally decided to treat myself and go order one online. Can't wait to unroll the new one and lay it down. It's a big one. First I have to get the old one rolled up and put somewhere.  Then I need to wrestle the new one out of the plastic. And when I am able to get out of the driveway I need to go buy a new vacuum cleaner belt because it broke a couple of days ago. 

 

It's A Top! Orphan Cora

It's a top!

Orphan Cora

42 x 42

Another way to use orphan blocks is in a medallion quilt. Someone gave me the Carpenter's Star 18 inch block I used for the center. 

I added four borders (3.5 inches) around in log cabin style. And I also added some 3 inch finished Nine Patches I have had around for a long time. A long time ago I used to swap them several times a year and although I've used them in many quilts I still have a small bin of them. 

And sew on...

 

Throwing Snowballs At The Castle Wall

Throwing Snowballs at the Castle Wall

It's a top!

48 x 63

This is the second Castle Wall medallion quilt.  If you missed it I blogged about the first one yesterday.  It was difficult to take photos of this one  today because it has been very windy. 

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 was the starter for this quilt. 

For this quilt I made six inch Snowball blocks.  They took on an octagon shape like the center of the Castle Wall block. The darker fabrics have white with hearts corners and...

...and the lighter Snowballs have black with hearts corners.  I alternated light and dark corner blocks. 

For the top and bottom borders I made a couple of hearts for the center and used up a black polka dot fabric with hearts, ribbons and roses for the rest of the border. I wanted to just use the polka dot fabric for the border but didn't have enough of it so that is why I made the hearts for the center of the border. 

Now that leaves me with one more Castle Wall block -- the first one I made in 2014. 

I'm still pondering what I want to do with this one. It is not real Valentine-y looking so I'm thinking I ma want to add some birds and flowers to it for something completely different than the other two Castle Wall tops I just completed. In fact I'm thinking I may take off those block corners with the heart fabrics and replace it with something else. I have not ruled out turning it into a cushion cover or small card table sized tablecloth. Time will tell. In the meantime I have other heart and flower projects I can work on for this month's theme here in my sewing room. 

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...

 

Feeling Flowery

 The latest AdHoc Improv challenge is "Feeling Flowery" - make something flowery.   I have something in mind that I've wanted to make for a very long time but while I plan that out I thought I had better move along a few flowery UFOs. 

This is as far as I've gotten with this pansy quilt. I started making those six inch blocks in 2013 and stashed them away for a long time. In March of last year I combined those blocks with some squares of large print fabrics and ended up with a top 42 x 54.  Now I want to add a solid border and some broderie perse. 

 I don't have any large pieces of any one purple so I guess I'll piece together several different small and wrinkly pieces of purple I found in the stash today for a border. I just have to decide how wide. Six inches? 

 I have several scraps with large pansies I'm going to cut out for the borderie perse. I'm kind of scared to do this step and that's why this has been sitting around as a UFO. I love broderie perse but have never done it on a large scale - just a few bits and pieces here and there mostly on crazy quilt blocks.  Today I told myself anything I do will be better than leaving the darned thing laying around unfinished for several more years. 

 I think I have also found a use for these old worn out pillowcases I made long ago. There's still some good parts with flowers I can use for the borderie perse! 

 Flowery UFO #2 , Moon Garden, started out as a medallion quilt along where everyone starts with their own center block and then every month we are given instructions for a new border. I started out with moonflowers for my center. All went well with the first border but the instructions for the bow tie border were incorrect - bow ties were supposed to be made of 2 inch pieces and not 2.5 inch pieces. I modified my border to use the bow ties I made with incorrect instructions and notified quilt along hostess of the error.  After that I lost interest in the quilt along. 

So now this is a design opportunity. I can add what I want for borders. But I can never think of what to add and that is why I thought a quilt along would be nice to try out some new and different border ideas.  (Sigh). 

I had decided to make the entire quilt in black and white and call it Moon Garden and quilt it with some glow in the dark threads I've had glowing in my thread drawer for ages.  So today I dug out some black and white fabrics...

 ...and I decided the next border will be these little 4.5 inch finished flowers. I'm not sure I have enough of that black polka dot for 40 blocks but I'll use it until it runs out and go from there.  And I have an idea for the next border too.  I'm not sure how many borders there will be. I don't want a big quilt...maybe a nice throw sized one. 

Flowery  UFO #3 has been thrown in a box for awhile.  All the pieces and parts are cut and made but I ran into a problem when I went to assemble all those pieces and parts. (Boo hoo)

 Quilt is called Now and Later by Kathy Doughty. I don't think the instructions are right. I went looking for errata but found none.  I also searched for anyone else that had made this quilt so I could see if anyone else had problems with the instructions. But I couldn't find anyone else that has made it. 

The pieces don't fit together correctly.  Today I took out all the pieces and parts and measured them to make sure I cut the right sized pieces that are cut twice on the diagonal and I did.  I've appliqued all 12 tulips to the triangles and center square and I don't have much of that background fabric left but I'm going to try to figure out how to get all these parts into a top.  (I think I can, I think I can, I think I can). 

My reward for getting the three UFOS to flimsy stage will be a new start - that new flowery quilt I've been dreaming about. I've been taking lots of flower garden pics as part of the planning process. 

Chunks of Aqua

Irish Chain

It's a flimsy!

66 x 78. 

 This month the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color was aqua.  I found I had very few aqua scraps except for several chunks - scraps greater than 4.5 inches and less than a fat quarter. 

 I also had a small shoe box of 2.5 inch half width of fabric black and white strips from a swap long ago. 

 I have been working on several UFOs this month that fall into a chain theme so I was in chain brain mode and dreamed up this Irish Chain. 

And now that I have that out of the way the aqua scrap chunks became smaller scraps so I can now proceed to make my normal Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects I make from small scraps. But the month has almost  run out so I'll just combine aqua with a blue month to make those normal RSC blocks. 

 Oh, but wait a minute...I've been working on a Medallion Quilt too.  So far it is 45 inches square but I'm not stopping here. 

 Previously I posted about these Pineapple Blocks that I didn't like. I made them incorrectly I think or picked colors that didn't contrast enough. Whatever. Some of my aqua scrap chunks were in with four of these Pineapple Blocks. I was going to call it quits and throw the four blocks in the orphan box to deal with later rather than sooner. Gayle (Mangofeet blog) suggested I make a nine patch medallion center with them.   So I did. 

 I opted for an easy Nine Patch block for the alternate Nine Patch blocks. 

Then I added a little 1.5 inch border.  Then I made a Snowball/Nine Patch border. 

And now I know what my next border for this will be because I've started on it! 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

A Finish! Gwennie Inspired Medallion

Gwennie Inspired Medallion

60 x 69

Hand Quilted

Basking in the glow of the morning sunrise. 

I don't normally make medallion quilts for the same reason I don't normally border quilts - I can never think of what to add for a border. 

In May 2016 Lori of Humble Quilts came up with the idea of a Gwen Marston inspired medallion quilt along. Each person would do their own thing make a center medallion and add rounds each month based on a prompt.  Ok...I joined in thinking that if I had prompts I might be able to make a medallion. 

The center prompt was BASKET.   Good.  I won a bunch of baskets from Block Lotto so I was ready and off to a good start. 

 And then the second prompt was CHILDHOOD.  Yikes!!  

I finally came up with weaving for my childhood prompted round and used some brown fabric that looked like a basket and wove some red, yellow and blue fabrics through it.   I really never liked dolls when I was little but preferred books and crafts.  One of the crafts I have liked through the years has been weaving starting with those potholder looms with loops that make a worthless potholder. I still have one of those looms.  I also still have a small loom that I used to weave belts and a rug (in strips).  I have looms that "knit" stocking caps.  And I've woven several baskets. 

The next prompt was LOG CABIN.  So I made little 3 inch quarter log cabins and used the traditional red fabric for the center - red fabric with baskets on it. 

Next prompt was STAR.  So I made little 3 inch friendship stars  from my 1.5 inch scraps and "wove" them in with red/white rail fence blocks.   I used any color of scraps for the star backgrounds since there were baskets in many colors in the center. 

And then came FISH for a prompt. Fish? Seriously?   I finally ended up with blue and white HST waves and some of the blue fabrics even had fish in them. How's that for using the old gray cells? 

And then I hand quilted it every which way, this way and that way.  (Have you ever seen a lassie go this way and that way?) 

And then I used a red basket weave looking fabric for the back. 

You may or may not know that I have a wringer washer and not some newfangled washer so wash everything pretty much by hand (by choice).   Since I had used a red backing I put the quilt in the washtub with three new color catchers and two old color catchers that hadn't caught any color.  I really haven't ever had much of a problem with bleeding but there's always a first time so I'm always a little cautious and go heavy on color catchers.  Then what to my wandering eyes should appear but red, red, red, red water. RED. REALLY RED.  And the color catchers were RED. REALLY RED.  I pulled that quilt out as fast as could be and threw it into the other wash tub and grabbed the Dawn and followed Vicki Welsh's directions to save a bleeding quilt. 

Then I hung it out on the line in the freezing cold because it had too much water in it to go in the dryer right away.  Quilts don't easily go through the wringer so I just squeeze out as much water as I can.  I would have put it on the drying rack in the basement but it had some sweaters drying on it.   Anyway...I found out how freeze drying works!  After a day on the clothesline in the freezing temps that quilt was stiff as a board.  I let it thaw a little and then put it in the dryer. 

And there you have it.  I made a medallion quilt! 

Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag

Getting this finished was my OMG (One Monthly Goal) for November. 

This was my goal #7
for
Q4 Finish-Along

Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL - Childhood Border

 Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL #1

 Basket was the theme for the center block and childhood was the theme for the first border. 

Cookies at Christmas is what I chose for my second border.  My husband and I, our kids and our grandkids all have memories centered around Christmas cookie baking so I made up a few Happy Blocks with Christmas cookies in them for my border and then appliqued recipes and "cookies" here and there. 

I traced around the old recipe cards from my husband's mom's recipe card file and wrote those out in ultra fine sharpie on muslin I had soaked in homemade bubble jet set.   I also copied recipes from my mom's old Cooky Book that is falling apart.  I especially remember her snickerdoodles and thumbprint cookies.  The Magic Cookie Bar recipe I cut from a magazine years ago. The reason I included that recipe is because our family has called those cookies Windowsill Hiders (not Magic Cookie bars) for a long time. My oldest son (now 42), when he was around 11, had a bedroom downstairs and everyone else slept upstairs. One morning I woke him up to get ready for school and found a bunch of those Magic Cookie bars hiding behind the curtains on his windowsill. 

I also traced around the cookie cutters to make my applique shapes. The metal ones came from my husband's family and I just had to include Scooby because he's good for all seasons of sugar cookie making.  That was always the favorite cookie cutter of my kids and now of my grandkids.  (Maybe because it makes the biggest cookies?) 

My husband still makes his favorite gumdrop cookies every Christmas but has left the Hard Tack behind. His parents used to make that every year and store it in old cookie tins wrapped in waxed paper.  He and his siblings (all 7 of them) used to call that cookie Heart Attack instead of Hard Tack. 

Gwennie Inspired Medallion #2

Weaving

From the time I was very little I loved crafts. My sisters loved dolls. I loved crafts. If I played with any dolls it was paper dolls - and that is because I would trace around them and make my own paper doll clothes. 

Weaving was one of the crafts I have enjoyed over the years. 

I started out with one of those potholder looms. I made potholders of every design I could think of. Of course those darned things were so small and did not server well as a potholder but I kept on making them for everyone I knew. I was always going to try making them all into a rug but never got to that point.   My loom was made of metal. The looms my daughter (now almost 40) had (and I still have as seen above) were made of hard plastic.  I looked around for my real and very small loom so I could include what I moved on to next but it's probably thrown up in the attic somewhere. I found the instructions for the loom in my old dusty weaving book.  I made belts for everyone with it. I have a pic somewhere of me wearing one but also couldn't find it.  If I remember correctly I used crochet thread to make them.  And finally there's the circular looms that make nice stocking caps that look like they were knitted.  My granddaughters said they wanted to learn to make some so they might be using those next.  (They weren't interested in making any potholders, thank goodness). 

I can tell you that it's not as easy to simulate weaving in quilting as it is to actually weave!

Childhood for the theme was Cynthia's (of Wabi-Sabi Quilts) idea so she's hosting the link up this month.   It will be fun to see how everyone interprets the theme. 

Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL