Softball Player Quilt #2

I made a second quilt for Autumn with all the t-shirts she had collected.

2019 Mother's Day Cards

I collected some cast off fabric from Beth who had been to a quilt guild auction and bought some lots.  One of the fabrics is pretty, polyester blouse fabric.  It would also make a great scarf.  I used some of it to make 3D flowers.  These were used on Mother's Day/May Day Cards.

Softball Player Quilt #1

This year a friend’s daughter, Autumn, is graduating from high school.  I have been asked to make a t-shirt quilt.  Autumn is a serious softball player and has been playing in traveling leagues for years.  I collected two boxes of t-shirts in January.  When I started prepping t-shirts I quickly realized I have enough t-shirts for two quilts.  I used two complete packages of stabilizer in prepping the t-shirts in the first box.  Actually, I had a handful of t-shirt’s leftover.  One package of stabilizer is 60” x 72”.  Normally a t-shirt quilt takes about a package and a half. 

I did have shirts that fit a 12 year old girl and t-shirts that were meant to be baggy on a high school senior.  I was able to use a simple row design with some blue fabric to augment any shirts that weren’t quite big enough for the row.  There are a couple of problems with softball t-shirts.  (1)  nylon jerseys – they don’t like to stick to the stabilizer; and (2) rubberized designs – I learned that the foot of the machine does not glide on the rubberized designs, it sticks and stretches the fabric.  And don’t forget the normal problem of t-shirts that stabilize well.  A lot of the time the problem is the shirts are not 100% cotton, they have some polyester in the thread used to make the fabric.

The backing is an RJR fabric from Bolines in Bloomington, Illinois.  Bolines has a great selection of fabric and sells fabric for significantly less than the average quilt shop. 

Another Christmas Table Runner

A number of years ago, I bought some Christmas fabric that I was in love with.  I don’t remember how much I bought.  I made myself and Patty each a table runner that year when I was in Florida for Christmas.  Scraps were used to make another table runner last summer when I was in the mode of using up scraps. 

I still love this fabric.

2019 Easter Cards

What do you do when you foundation pieced blocks on tear-away that doesn’t tear?  You cut them up and use them for card backgrounds.  At some point I made a stack of blocks from left over strips.  I used some tear-away I picked up at the Madison Expo show.  I had a stack of blocks before I attempted to tear the foundation away.  When I did that, I found that it was impossible to tear away the foundation without tearing out the stitches.  My solution was to throw the stack of blocks in the orphan block box and walk away.  I recently found those blocks and decided they would make good backgrounds for Easter Cards.

I didn’t really have good Easter colored cardstock in the house, so I first made a sample using a black cardstock.  I quickly realized that a white bunny against black cardstock just looked way too much like the Playboy bunny.  So I actually went out and bought some cardstock.  I went to Michaels and bought a package with several colors in it.  OMG is this cheap, thin cardstock.  For what I am doing with it, it doesn’t matter.  I can only think other people have struggled to make this cardstock do what they want it to do as it is the weight of construction paper.

The bunny is simply matte finished vinyl cut with the Silhouette Cameo.

2018-2019 Row by Row Exchange – Round 2

At the January guild meeting, I showed the blocks I made for Grace’s row and collected Alice’s project.  Alice has blue and white fabrics.  The row Alice made includes snowball blocks and blocks with hand embroidered snowmen.  I received Alice’s project from Grace.  Grace made a row of pieced blocks all of one design.  Alice’s directions ask not to sew the rows together.

Alice made the embroidered snowmen row.

Grace made the blue and white triangles.

I made snowflakes and trees.

Together they look good.

2018- 2019 Row by Row Exchange - Round 3

 At the March meeting I presented the row I made for Alice’s project and picked up Debbie’s project.  The theme is Halloween colors.  Debbie made a row on black fabric that is an embroidered saying.

Alice (who is a friend of Debbie) made a wonky, crazy pieced block using some ruler.  She used very busy & bright fabrics.

Grace did the third row.  She made 60 degree triangles and used the same black that Debbie used for her embroidery to anchor her row.

When I laid the three rows out to decide what I was going to do, I was at a loss.  Mostly the problem was that the project is not my style.  Cutesy Halloween fabrics or any other theme is not my thing.  I came to the conclusion that based on my time constraints I was doing something simple.  I used low contrast solids to make a row of 4 patch blocks.

Good thing I went simple.  I was working on the t-shirt quilt project and went on vacation.  Add in some weeks where I didn’t feel good since I got a significant amount of wheat in me in April and I finished my row the night before it was due.  Not my style.  I don’t like being up against a deadline.

Using Up Orphan Blocks

When I started making table runners last summer, the place I started was looking at orphan blocks.  I had 3 star blocks with gray background fabric.  I think it was a trial for something I was doing in the past.  I simply dug up more of the gray fabric and made some corresponding blocks. 

The border fabric is left over from another project where I wanted that color binding.  The 2.5 inch colored squares were all cut and some of them are quite aged.  Things go together really quickly if the pieces are already cut and one of the blocks is already made.

The background fabric is one of those pretty fabrics that are difficult to use.  One side was metallic and reminded me of a mermaid.  The other side is a batik.  I put the metallic side to the inside.  Pretty, but I still don't know what to do with it.

Mint and Rust

Sometimes the most unlikely combinations just show up.   I once upon a time made 3 Variable Star blocks.  They were so putzy, I never made any more.  The three blocks went into 2 table runners.  This is the first one.  I simply added cornerstone blocks made from random 2 1/2 inch blocks I pulled out of a bin of scraps.

Once I had the top done, I hunted for something for the back.  I found this incredible piece of fabric.  I have no idea if I bought it or it was gifted to me.  All I know is that it is beautiful fabric that looks like it was designed by someone who paints.  I found that a solid rust fabric worked for the binding.  It is a two sided table runner.

I didn’t’ know rust and mint go together so well.

It really is a scrappy table runner.  Couldn’t find enough of the light mint green solid that I used for the cornerstone blocks so there are some patches of white that blend right in.

2019 Valentines

Valentine cards this year were inspired by some software I inherited from Mom.  Who knows how old it is.  It is a collection of clipart and copyright free images.  There were Victorian Valentine post cards in the set that I printed and used to make cards.

Spring Birthday Cards

I did go to the Polka Dots shop rummage sale.  There wasn’t much at the rummage, but I succumbed and bought 2 water color markers to try.  So to make birthday cards, I stamped a pretty tulip stamp and colored them with my new markers. 

The brand I bought were the Tim Holtz Distress Markers in Fire Brick Red and Walnut Stain.  They make fine tulip colors.  I wasn’t overly thrilled with the markers.  They dry very fast, making it difficult to wash the color into a water color affect.  I may have to try some other brand, as I did like the end result.

I tried stamping and coloring on cardstock and on manilla file cards.  The file cards are from a resale shop and had a price tag of 50 cents on them.  They are wonderful.

First Finish of 2019

This is another table runner that was started last summer.  The interesting part is that it doesn’t show up in my list of projects.  Wonder how that can be?  Oh well.  Never said recordkeeping was my strong suit. 

The printed Victorian Christmas scenes were squares that were given away by the Woolen Mill Quilt Shop when they were in business in Cedarburg.  I suspect that the squares were collected over a few years.  They would show up in a free give away box during Quilt Shop Hops.

No interesting quilting was done.  Simply stitched next to the seam and across all printed squares.

More Christmas fabric was used up.  Hurray.  There will always be new Christmas fabric that catches my eye.  I wanted to work down the inventory of fabric and use up some scraps.

New Wallhanging

This is one of those things that came out of mindless sewing.  Mindless sewing in the Nancy world is hunting up a bunch of strips that are hanging out in the scrap bins and sewing them together.  You then can slice them up and in this case put them into a wall hanging.  The blue fabric is more of the backing from my college quilt.  So nicely aged, 1970s fabric. 

I opted to try a rope quilting design.  I had a stencil I picked up somewhere.  So I marked the quilt with the stencil.  I went bold and used thread you can see.  I started out quilting the rope with the feed dogs up and later switched put the feed dogs down.  I realized this was a nice repetitive pattern to practice free motion quilting.  No matter which method I used, they are not perfect.  This is a slow process and takes patience.

Dec 31 - One More Finish

I got one more piece finished that I started this summer when I was off.  I picked up this preprinted panel for 50 cents at a resale shop.  Beth got the pillow I made from one part of the panel.   This is the Joy wallhanging.  The gold patterned fabric is something I picked up in Houston.  Basically this woman was tasked with selling her mother’s stash.  She accomplished that and turned it into a business of reselling fabric.  She is located in California.  The gold was the perfect complement to the cardinal print.

2018 Christmas Cards

Once again I made a batch of Christmas cards from old Christmas cards, gift tags and various other bits and pieces.

Here is a sampling.  

Another T-Shirt Quilt

This is a queen sized T-shirt quilt for a guy who has three daughters.  There is a unique mix of Canada fishing T-shirts, sports fan T-shirts and grade school girl T-shirts.

I learned that queen size T-shirt quilts are really, really hard to baste.  I think I will stick with twin size quilts.  The extra weight and size meant I fought with it more than I would like to.  I expect to fight with T-shirt quilts.  They have a habit of acting like they are made of stretchy material that doesn't want to lay flat.

I also had someone gift me with 3 pillow forms.  So.... of course the daughters got pillows.  We'll see if I managed to represent all three girls in the pillows.

Then like a goofus, I wait to the last minute to take pictures and my phone won't work.  I give up.  So Claude sent me a couple of pictures and I do not pictures of the pillows.  I did learn that I was a success with the pillows.

And my phone problems?  When I put it on charge, I got an automatic download of the operating system and then everything was good.  What?  Android comes out with an update to the operating system and the phone no longer works?  I don't get it.


Nancy

2018 Thanksgiving Cards

I keep seeing wool applique and think that looks really nice.  I of course have old wool clothes stashed from when I wore work clothes made of wool in the winter.  I found a jacket and cut out some leaf shapes.  I tried hand embroidary on one leaf.  I never even finished.  I did go to the sewing machine and stitched veins in the leaves and blanket stitch around the leaves.  So these became Thanksgiving Cards.

The background is black fabric and the words are simply printed on cardstock.  Nothing fancy.

I got a new phone and the camera just isn't very good.  I will have to deal with that problem.  Yes I bought a cheap phone, but I have no contract.

Thanks for stopping.
Nancy

2018-2019 Row by Row Exchange – Round 1

At the December guild meeting I picked up the row by row project for Grace Marko.  Grace’s project is a set of 1930’s reproduction fabrics and asking for simple blocks that were in use in the 1930s.  Seeing someone else’s take on kitting for a row-by-row exchange was interesting:

1.  I have this rather large bag.  Grace has a 12 x 12 inch plastic box with a handle that is maybe 4 inches thick.  Obviously, Grace had more of a clue.
2. Grace has a large selection of fabrics.  Most are fat quarters.  All of them are pressed and starched.  She did a lot more work preparing fabrics than I did.  Also her fabric size is more in keeping with making a few blocks.
3. Grace has a one page typed sheet for her directions.  I wrote a lot more, but Grace was effective in communicating what she wanted.
4. This is a row-by-row exchange project.  Grace’s directions say “do not sew your blocks together”.  What?
5. Grace did not provide a row as requested, so I have no idea what she is really thinking.
    
   I got done with my blocks and wondered how I was going to show them at quilt guild, so I tacked them to strips of fabric. 
    
   
   
   
   

2018-2019 Row by Row Exchange – Round 0

I am participating in my quilt guild, Mukwonago Crazy Quilters, Row by Row project beginning fall of 2018 and will finish in summer 2019.  The guiding rules of this exchange are:

Small Groups

Two months to work on each row

Easy, simple pieced blocks

 

So I need to determine a theme, make a row, write up instructions and kit fabrics.  Everything is due at the October guild meeting.

Chosen Theme:  Blocks with Strings

I am on such a kick of using up scraps, that I went that direction.  I don’t care what kind of block is made, just as long as it includes some strings.

What’s a string?  Somehow sewing small bits of fabric together got labeled as strings.  The classic string block is simply a square made with strips on the diangle.  To assist the construction, a foundation is used.  The foundation can be fabric or paper.  I bought a ream of newsprint cut 8.5 x 11 inches that run through my printer.  It is wonderful paper for paper piecing.

My Row:  Churn Dash String Blocks

I made the first of these blocks at the September sewing retreat hosted by my guild.

My Directions:  A booklet printed at work.

Oh what an adventure that was.  I had grand fun trying to get Microsoft and the printer to talk nice.  At one point I had all the pages in the correct order, but absolutely backwards.  The first page was the last page, the second page was the next to last page and so on.  I eventually gave up and asked one of the admins at work for some help.  She found that if you went under printer properties, you could choose something called “Magazine Format”.  That worked.

Pull Fabrics:  Several fabrics

Actually I missed the fact that you needed to supply fabric.  So at the nth hour I grab some half yard cuts and grab a bag I had set aside for Goodwill. 

So I go to the October meeting and find that so many people have not met the deadline, it gets moved to November.  I leave my bag with the lady running the adventure as I think I will be in Houston in November. 


I'm sure the ladies in my group will hate me, but I thought I needed to participate.


Nancy

Another Table Runner

This one came from examining the bag of scraps I bought at a quilters rummage sale.  I had teal blue and orange pieces that I really liked.  I found some other scraps to put with it.  The dark green is still left from buying Ralph Lauren sheets when the Wamsutta outlet store closed in Kenosha.

 

The backing fabric and a couple of the patches is leftover fabric from the first T-shirt quilt.  A fun handrawn looking graphic that isn't babyish.