Inspiration (QW)

I've held on to this picture for a very long time.  I don't know where the original source of this picture came from, but when I first saw it, I loved it.  I really like a scrappy block, that when you change the colours and the position of the values, it looks like a completely different block every time.  

I googled the image and came up with many different people posting about it.  In the end, I was able to fine a free pattern of the block used in this quilt by quilterscache.com.  The block apparently is called Christmas Star.  I have a printout of the block pattern, as I do see this quilt, or at least my version of it, in my future.  Reminder the (QW) in the title allows me to search it.  It stands for "Quilt Want-a-be".

Obviously I am not the only one who really likes it, as there are so many online copies and it seems no one knows the original source of the quilt itself.  At least I now have the name of the block and the directions on how to make it.

If anyone does come across the source of the quilt in the picture, please let me know, so I can give credit where credit is due.  Thank you.

Take care everyone.

Busy day yesturday

Yesturday, I brought my tea down to the studio to get a start on the units for the Christmas quilt that I am trying to get done in time for Christmas (11 more sleeps...lol).  You can read about it in the initial post called, Christmas is coming.  I started to iron all the green four patches that I had already sewn.  That took me some time.  Then I sorted out all the rest of the green two patches into sets of four patches and got them ready to sew.

By this time it was almost 11:00 am, time was ticking fast, amazing how that happens when you want to get things done.  I when upstairs to make breakfast for my son and I, and clean up all the pots and pans that seemed to be like a weeks worth.....lol.....when the kids don't do the dishes, they tend not to care how many they use while making a meal....lol.  After breakfast and clean up, it was already 1:00 pm and I had an appointment, which put me behind another hour.

When I got back at it, I started on the ironing and trimming of the stitch and flip corners on the red squares.  There were 200 left to process.  Now they are all done!!  Don't they look pretty?

After doing all of them, it was time for a tea break.  I deserved it!  It was way past my usual time for having tea, but delayed it, as I needed to get a move on this quilt.  Especially if I had any chance of finishing it in time.

My break was replenishing.  Once I started back, I jumped right into the sewing of the remaining 2/3 of the four patches.  I had 188 to do.  Time continued to sail by, I was so into sewing up the pieces, that when my son called me up, I was surprised that it was 6:30 pm and time for dinner.  I was pleasantly surprised that he made me dinner!  His famous Chicken Burrito Bowl, with a few alterations for me.  That was nice.  I enjoyed every bit!!

After enjoying dinner and then clean up again (though this time I am not complaining as I did get dinner out of it right?).....lol....I headed back down again, intending to finish up a few things and call it a day.

Well, I did finish sewing all the four patches and I also spun the seams and ironed them all.  They are all in piles of 30, except the bottom row that have 20 each.  They are sitting pretty just waiting for me to match them up to a couple of red blocks, to make the complete block.   

But.....I couldn't go any further, I was exhausted.  I looked up at the clock and was shock when I saw that it was 9:00 pm.  OMG!!!  I was just going to finish up a few things!  Wow, how time flies!

Today is another day.  I am all rested up.  Going to have my tea to slowly get going.  I'm not sure I will do a repeat of yesturday, because that was crazy!  But I am hoping to get the blocks sorted at least and maybe some of them started.

Take care everyone and enjoy your day.

Started a temperature quilt for the days of 2024

Back in January of 2024, I had grand plans of making a temperature quilt.  I made myself an excel sheet to track the weather (highs and lows) for each day.  I did this daily for four and a half months.  But then life intervened and this got put on hold.  

Some time in January/2025, I was reminded of this quilt and what I wanted to do.  As far as I knew, by this time I was planning on going back to work shortly.  I decided to go back in the historical records to obtain the rest of the temperatures to complete my excel sheet and made plans to start working on this quilt.  Then this got put on hold as I had to deal with more development.

It wasn't until Mar/2025, just before my second surgery, that I pulled this out to start.  I needed a distraction and starting a new quilt does just that!  I worked on it during a Saturday sew day.  It was exactly what I needed.

This is the block I made for January.  It's paper piece, so that I could get an accurate circle and line references for the position of the premade wedges.  Then when the circle was complete, I appliquéd it to the background, followed by the centre circle. 

Each colour represents a range of temperatures and each wedge represents the high and low of a particular day.  The centre circle is for the 31st of the month, so some months will have it and others will not.  The wedges are also staggered, representing the difference in the high and low of that day.  The highs are the outer edge, the lows are the inner edge.  If it was warmer that day, the outer edge wedge was larger in increments by the difference between the two, and if it was cooler the inner edge was larger.  I'll have to make a ledger for a label on the back to explain what each circle represents.

This is my data on an excel sheet for the first four months.  I am hoping this will make things a bit more clear.  Disregard it though if you're not into the geeky data stuff...lol...and just admire the colour.

                    

As we are getting close to the New Year, things around here are settling down and getting back to a semblance of normal, or should I say the new normal.  I've been contemplating starting this quilt back up again.  I am thinking maybe as a block-of-the-month type thing.  Such as doing January's block in January, February's block in February and so on.  I still have time to think about it, as I already have January's block done.  We'll see.....

Take care everyone.  Don't forget to take some time for yourself, you deserve it!!

A joint effort

I like when things come together.  Now before you start yelling at the screen telling me that I shouldn't be starting another quilt, I'll let you know that this is something that was already on my list of works in progress, or at least the blocks in the first picture were.  And yes, I do know that I am getting distracted from what I should be doing to finish a certain quilt before Christmas, but the ideas just started flowing.....  They started flowing for two other quilt possibilities, which then turned to this one instead....  You know, that's just how it goes and I don't fight it.....lol.  I hardly even resist....lol.

This quilt was a joint effort that started off with one friend giving me these five blocks.  They are all the same.  They sat in my UFO bin for a while, as I didn't know what to do with them.  Recently, when I was going through my bin, I decided to organize things and come up with ideas.

I figured five blocks was a good number, as I could make a nine patch with these as the outer corners and one in the centre, divided by plain squares in the alternating blocks.  So my head just stored that information until I came up with a full plan.

Instead of the above blocks, I had part of a plan for two other blocks, that were also from this UFO bin.  I pulled them out and proceeded to work on them (distraction number one).  I'll share those with you later.  While working on them I thought I could use this leftover piece of a bargello quilt.  This was given to me from another friend, just this weekend past.  

It would have worked with one of the first two blocks I had, but I felt that the block was not big enough to hold any interest and this piece above would not have made the block big enough on it's own.  

Then it hit me!!  I wasted no time and rummaged through the UFO bin to fine the five blocks above (distraction number two).  I ironed them and trimmed them the same size.  Then I found some suitable fabric for the alternating blocks.  Zip, zip, zip, cut everything up and stitch, stitch, stitch, sew it all together into a nine patch top.

Once I was done that, I started to disassemble a section of three rows from the bargello piece at the bottom and also one section of three rows from the top.  These two sections were the perfect size for the side of the nine patch top I made.  I sewed those on and proceeded to figure out how I was going to get enough to do the now longer top and bottom border of the quilt top.

I took off three more sections that were the closest in size, as I was going to have to piece half of one section to a full section, twice.  It worked!  They are slightly different, but I don't think enough to make it stand out too much. 

What do you all think?  I made some simple, solid square-in-a-square blocks into something pretty with a bit of flashy border parts, leftover from someone else's bargello parts.  I love it!!  It turned out fabulous.  Now I just have to quilt and then bind it.

This was a joint effort that would not have happened if we all didn't contribute to the whole.  Two different people with orphan blocks, that I then combined together with a bit of my own fabric, to make this lovely NICU quilt.  This will be going to Project Linus.

I'll be off to my mom's for dinner tonight, after work, so there won't be any sewing.  But I'll make up for it this weekend!!!  LOL  This weekend, I'll try to put those other two blocks aside, to get back to what I should be doing, as time is ticking!!

Take care everyone.

Christmas is coming!

Wow!  I can't believe how fast Christmas is coming.  We're already the 11th of December.....how did that happen?  As I used to tell the kids while they were growing up, there are only 14 sleeps!!  lol

As we are getting so close to Christmas, I thought I should start working on my Christmas quilt.  Especially if I want to have it done for Christmas......lol......am I delusional.....lol....I don't know, but I won't give up until the time is up....lol.

I've made some good progress.  Here are some of my green four patches sewn in pairs for each block.  I am doing them this way so that there are no duplicates.  You may not see it, but the top left corner block still has the chain threads attaching it to the top right corner block.  I do a lot of chain piecing like this when I have a lot of the same blocks to make.  

Then we have the alternate block.  The red squares with the stitch and flip corners.  These here are just over half the blocks I need for the quilt.  These ones have been ironed and the extra behind the stitch and flip corners has been trimmed off.  They are also sorted in piles of the same fabric, for when I start pairing them up for each block.

When I get really involved in sewing, I generally have an assembly line happening, with various steps and pieces going at once, to break up the tasks and it keeps me from getting bored.  The completed red squares are at the top of the picture below.  Then I had to take a break from ironing and trimming, so I finished sewing the green two patches, which is what you see in the middle of the picture, all ironed.  

The remaining red squares on the left of the picture still need to be processed.  They're all sewn, just need to be ironed and corners trimmed.  The pile of green squares, on the plaid fabric are the four patches matched and sewn, now just waiting to have the seams spun and ironed.  So far I have 50 sets sewn which is just over 1/3 done.

There's still a lot to do on this quilt, but getting all the units done before I start assembling the blocks, tends to make things go faster for me.  Like I chain piece the units, I will later chain piece the blocks, then likewise the rows.  I'm really going to have to keep track of the time, if I have any chance of finishing this quilt for Christmas....lol.  I am going to have to start counting down the number of sleeps....lol.  The push is on and the excitement is building!!!

Take care everyone.

Laying out some Smith Mountain Morning blocks

I caught up on the last of the four required chimney blocks for the last couple of weeks, and I finished the four blocks for this week too.  Every time I finish a block, I take a moment and admire the play of colour throughout the block.  It amazes me how all the different shades of blue and brown come together in the end to make a cohesive whole.  And it will look even better once the blocks are assembled into a quilt, especially with the star blocks.

I am currently working on the chimney blocks, as I mentioned yesturday.  I've already made ten so far.  I couldn't wait any longer.  I just had to lay them out on the floor to see what it will look like.  I can only do the alternate rows, as I only have the brown star blocks completed.  I think I might just pull out a few of the blue start kits to make some up.  This way I can get the secondary design going.

Even with what I have, it doesn't look bad at all!  The blue squares are starting to take shape.  I am liking it!!  I hope the recipient will like it too.  This quilt will finish at king size and according to my calculations, I still have ninety-six more blocks to make for the top.......yikes!!  When you say it that way, it sounds daunting...... I keep telling myself to stop counting and just do one block at a time.  Easier said then done, as I am the sort that like to see the number coming down.  It often motivates me. 

Take care everyone.

Bird Brain

The last person from our Saturday sew day group, that I want to talk to you all about, has been busy.  As I mentioned in my post a couple of days ago, some of us are working on making a Smith Mountain Morning quilt and one person was actually working on hers on Saturday.  She is the one that is the furthest along on it too!  Let me tell you about it.... 

She is the person that is the furthest, because she has come up with a brilliant plan, to alter this pattern and make it her own.  I love seeing someone take something and run with it!  This person looks after the HHQG BOM.  Last year and this year, she made each of the blocks that were part of the BOM.  When a few of us decided to make the Smith Mountain Morning quilt by Bonnie Hunter, this person decided that she would use the BOM blocks she made and incorporate them into her quilt.

So......to the point, before any of us started making the quilt, she already had a stack of blocks made!  One whole guild years worth of BOMs!!  This owl here is one of them.  Isn't it the cutest!!  As it so happens, while organizing the BOM, she added in a bunch of different appliqué bird blocks, plus some pieced blocks for those who don't care for appliqué.  There were at least two blocks to choose from each month.

On Saturday, she came with all the pieces to make this next bird block.  This one is a pieced bird block.  Another block finished and another cute one.  This one just needs the blue corner triangles.  Both of these blocks are in her colourway, blue and purple/magenta. 

While she was here, she also got two of the alternating blocks done.  I keep calling them courthouse step variation blocks, but I think Bonnie calls them chimney blocks.  This quilt is going to look so pretty, with a lot of the star blocks replaced with pieced blocks and a hand full of birds.

Oh!  I almost forgot......do you remember the title of this post.....  Well, let me tell you the story of how this quilt got it's name....  The maker had a creative idea, which I call a brain storm.  They're ideas that come out of the blue like an unexpected storm.  I hope she doesn't mind me telling you all this....  Her thoughts were along the lines of changing the border of the original quilt and replacing it with a border lined with birds, like the pieced bird above.  That's a lot of bird blocks!!  That is I guess, when she thought it was crazy....all those birds and all that work....which is I think when she came up with the term, bird brain for the name of her quilt....lol.  

I had to laugh at that.  It's a play on words....  I'm sure everyone knows what the phrase means....lol.  I would not say that about anyone, especially not this person....but I didn't come up with the name....lol.  I'm going to go with that name for her quilt, but other than it being a lot of work, I think her new border will make her quilt unique and special.  I look forward to seeing it. 

As for me, I did make it downstairs yesturday after dinner, to work on catching up on the chimney blocks for my Smith Mountain Morning quilt.  My colourway is dark blue and chocolate brown.  I completed four blocks, have two halfway done and I'm left with four more to make, to be caught up.  

I didn't realize how far behind I got on these blocks.  I think I mentioned in a previous posts that I finished all the brown stars.  Now I am starting in on these chimney blocks.  There are 60 chimney blocks to be made, followed by 25 blue star blocks, so I still have quite a ways to go on this quilt.

One block at a time.....just one block at a time....

Take care everyone.