Hello - well it was another week where I don't know how it got away from me... but it did... the weather was nice for several days... lots of sun and high 50 temperatures... but then the clouds rolled back in...sigh... and I knew it was too early to be Spring... but I wanted to believe it could be... however Mother Nature is fickle and looking out to the end of the week it will definitely return to February temperatures ... I was hoping for a monthly utility bill less than last month... fingers crossed.
I was able to get the borders on the Quiltmaker's Gift hexagons and they laid pretty flat. I drew a chalk line a quarter of an inch from the hexagon edges and sewed the straight of grain borders on before I trimmed the triangle edges. I needed to take a bit in here and there but overall it wasn't too difficult... and finishing that top got me charged up to sew some more.
Warning - this post got away from me... kinda like last week did... and there are lots of tangents ... my mind wanders... A LOT...
Anyway, it all started when I spent some time strolling through my collection of plastic sterlite bins... I have this closet in my basement, right off my sewing room... a space we in the Midwest call a fruit cellar... my parents house had a smaller version of this and we stored canned goods in it... mine already had these great shelves built in and they are perfect for the 24 qt size of sterlite bins... so happy someone 70 years ago created this space for me!!
I'm not sure how big this space is... probably around 10 ft in length... here are 3 pics of the space from left to right... Halloween and Christmas on the top, Debbie Mumm fabrics are below...
So much fabric and so many quilts in different stages of assembly in here... and I know that looking at all of this may lead you to believe I'm rich... that's not the case, the reality is, I'm just incredibly irresponsible... and I've been that way since 1985...I can resist anything but temptation and boy there's been a lot of temptation in my life...LOL
Some of the bins I opened were just fabrics ... occasionally I left a pattern inside as clue as to what I planned on doing with the fabric... but not very often...I definitely need to leave more notes cause the biggest lie I tell myself is "I'll remember that"... some bins had a couple to quite a few blocks completed, which was great... then I knew what my previous plan was... and some were total surprises and not always good ones. I did find a few projects that I know I'm never going to get back to... and that's okay.
I opened one of the bins and saw lots of Kaffe's in purples and teals, very pretty... and some Grunge in the Pear colorway, oooh I like this one a lot... and a book, The Cake Mix Quilt Book by Sew Emma...
well I paged through it and thought "oh I'd love to do this quilt with the spool block that was titled the Banana Split quilt" (all the quilts in the book have dessert names)... and then I dug down a little farther and found 18 finished spool blocks... face palm... I have no recollection of making these blocks... and I checked the blog and I didn't find any mention of these blocks anywhere... I looked up the publication date of the book, October 2017... so I figure this shiny object caught my eye in 2018... which would make these blocks about 6 years old... just babies in the scheme of how long some projects hang around here...LOL... and I sure do like them!!
These pictures don't do that Pear Grunge any favors ... you can see a better pictures here.
I think my original plan was to make 30 blocks but I'm settling for these 25... should be about 67" square. I already ordered a Kaffe wide back for it!
These blocks are made with the Cake Mix Recipe #5 papers...
I really like making the blocks with these papers. They are quick to sew up... just put 2 10" squares right sides together, put the paper on top and sew on the dotted lines following the arrows and cut on the solid lines. You get all the units for the block and they are the exact size you need. I have several different pads of these Cake Mix Recipes ... need to play with then as I have lots and lots of layer cakes.
In going through the bins I found my stash of Kaffe Fasset/Phillip Jacobs fabrics and came across 2 pieces that I had yardage of, which indicates to me that I planned to use them for a Stack N Whack...and I'm still itching to start another SNW... this first one is from Phillip Jacobs.
oh my goodness this a a gorgeous piece of fabric!!! It is called Shaggy and those flowers are 8-9" across... the repeat is 25" and I have 7 repeats... I can make some big hexagons from this one and I LOVE this colorway!!!
And there was this piece from Philip Jacobs called Cactus Dahlias... and you know I adore dahlias... the flowers on this are about 7-8" across and the repeat is 25"... I only have 4 repeats so this will definitely be cut as squares.
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And there was this piece from Kaffe... Lotus Flower... it is so soft and pretty... there is enough here to do a Stack N Whack but then I had another idea...
I found yardage of this Grunge in a bin with some Crystal Manning fabric and haven't a clue what I planned on doing with it... but it is gorgeous... a soft blue with a edge of aqua and a splash of green... I think it is called Clear Water...and it goes perfectly with the Lotus Flower fabric!! insert squeal...
I want to make a tulip quilt with the Lotus Flower fabric and use the Grunge as the background... big fat tulips that will show off the Lotus Flower fabric and I even found a great green Grunge... its called Vert (you can just see it bit of it in this picture) ... so this would be a totally FREE quilt since I already own all of these fabrics! Free is great!!
So many many many ideas... now to find the time.... and boy I had fun strolling through these bins. I concluded that I have bought some awfully pretty fabrics and I still like almost all of them... there were a few I came across that I can't remember why I would have purchased them... I must have like them in the past... but I'm not that fond of them now...oh well...
On the cross stitch front I stitched and FFO'd this guy... Little Cupid from Emily Call...
now I only stitched Cupid and added some hearts... Emily's design has a lot more going on and it is so cute but I knew I could only fit a tiny piece into my display and he finished 2" square...
Here are my 2 Valentine's Day displays... one on either side of my TV...
Other side of TV...
Be Mine is also from Love Notes by WTN&T and the Baby Alphabet was a freebie from Sheepish Designs. I do love making smalls for holidays like Valentine's Day... just sweet little pieces... and I marvel at how many small freebies are out there... the designers are very generous. In looking for the links for these pieces I found a couple more I'll add to my stash for another year.
As for cross stitching I've put some time in on my Prairie Schooler Garden Sampler...sorry the lighting is awful...
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The garden gate was suppose to be dark grey... if I was able to have a fence around my yard (but local ordinances don't allow it) I would have a white picket fence with a white gate.... I might end up back stitching around the gate with a light gray... still mulling it over... after I get this and wall section done the alphabet should go pretty quick... don't know what I'll move onto next... I have a small I'd like to do for St. Patrick's Day... and some past Blackbird Designs stuff also caught my eye (more on that in a bit).
I've seen snippets and previews of charts coming out at the Needlework Market the beginning of March... so far I'm smitten with the chart from Teresa Kogut called Serenity... here's a link where you could pre-order it...and I like her Hello Spring book too... here's another link site. I just randomly picked the links from a Google search...not sure where I'll order from yet. I keep reminding myself that I don't have to pre-order anything... they aren't limited editions ... they'll be available for quite a while... but it sure is nice to get them when they are all shiny and new...LOL
The nice weather had me contemplating putting my snowmen away and breaking out my Spring decor... but I'm not that energetic at the moment... I did do a little shopping at Michaels the other day and was able to snag another rabbit driving a carrot car for what is becoming my private fleet of carrot cars... this one isn't too big... which is good, cause they require a lot of parking space. I also got to thinking about an old Blackbird Design series called the Garden Club Series... there are 12 small charts each about 65 stitches done on various pieces of 32 ct linen... I have stitched the first two...
and I have ALL the charts and ALL the linen and called for threads for the other 10.
The idea was to sew them all together into one piece when you completed stitching all of them.
However the linens are from different sources and some are stiff (which I prefer) and others are super limp... and in thinking about this I believe it would be a nightmare sewing these to each other and when it was laced to be framed I'd be afraid that some of the pieces might rip at the seams....soooooo I'm thinking about stitching them as small pillows... they are about 4" square... and I think they would be nice additions to my Spring displays or if I get a couple more stitched a nice dough bowl arrangement. I may even over paint or over dye some of the linens... they are all shades of beige which aren't my favs any more... and I will definitely be starching the limp linens. And I'm realistic enough to know that I will probably never get all 12 stitched so I'll start with the ones I like best (which aren't either of the two I have finished...oh well).
Oh Carol this was such a fun post. I enjoyed it so much I read it twice. So much beautiful inspiration!!!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post! I also spent some time this week revisiting some fabrics then going through boxes of pulled fabrics with a pattern. Some I kept, some were put back into fabric tubs. Happy stitching!
ReplyDeleteSo much to comment on. . . I love that you have so much Debbie Mumm fabric. I mostly just bought her Christmas lines but I hoard those small pieces of yardage I have left. I'll be so sad someday when they are all gone. I love the purple, teal, and pear fabric together. Wish I could see that one in real life. That first picture of the Chrysanthemum fabric is FABULOUS! What a beautiful piece!
ReplyDeleteI like the lotus flowers and the grey/blue fabric together. There's so many of my fabric purchases I'd like to enthusiastically work on but I'm trying really hard to be practical and finish some old things up first. Valentine's Day looks great at your house. Those Blackbird Designs Garden Club pieces are so cute. I don't blame you for wanting to makes some. I have the "Summer-Autumn-Winter" set that needs to be sewn together when it is completed. I haven't started it yet but I have my doubts about actually sewing them to each other. Fun post today. Oh, and I always tell myself "I'll remember" and I never do.
Such a wonderful post full of memories and projects. You are so lucky to have all that storage and having it oh, so close to your sewing area. What a great surprise to find blocks ready to finish into a cool quilt. I love the design of the blocks and the color combination of colors together. I can just imagine your brain creating something clever for those bright happy fabrics. AND I do enjoy seeing all your little cross stitch treasures of each season. You inspire me to do more.
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