What I've Been Working On

No, not the bright strippy spiral.

More masks.

My SIL is very talented and artistic in many ways, but she doesn't sew. Her county opened up last week and mine opens up today, but both require everyone age two and up to wear a mask. She has a lot of grandchildren, eight of whom need masks. Her husband's job requires him to go into hospitals, and he needs more masks, too. (He's the one I made this mask for).

She bought fabrics and attempted to make masks for her family. No go. She called me in distress and asked if I could help - of course I could! She brought her fabrics over and stayed for lunch and conversation. It was so good to just visit!

So over the course of three days I made 33 more masks. Most are kid size and a few are adult size. She wanted me to use her cute fabrics - superhero and shark themed -  for masks for my grandson also. I made this batch for my son and grandson, and all the ones in the photo above for SIL and her family.

I didn't have any elastic so I used tee shirt strips. We were out of twist ties for the nose wire, so DH went to the hardware store and found soft wire in the garden center that worked really well.

It's really soft and flexible and it has a thick rubbery coating. After cutting 4" pieces we stretched the coating so the ends of the wire were deep inside the ends of the rubber and wouldn't scratch anyone. I replaced the twist tie wire in my own mask with this and it works really well, flexible enough to shape over my nose easily and soft enough to be comfortable. And it kept my glasses from fogging up because of the snug fit.

Before I got into sweatshop mode making masks, I was working on the beach baby quilt for new grandma Valerie. I was so into it that I forgot to take photos. I'll have finish photos of Valerie's quilt on Friday, but here's a sneak peek.

Link ups:
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Love Laugh Quilt

Flying Geese Baby Quilt Finished

After the issue with quilting through the backing was fixed, this little quilt didn't take long to finish and bind.

The quilting is a simple meander to keep it soft. The backing is soft and cozy purple flannel.

Originally I had planned to give this quilt to Operation Shower, but when I was reading through the charities for Hands 2 Help I saw that Little Lambs is seeking baby quilts this year. I have another kid quilt that I was planning to send to Little Lambs, so I will send this one there too.

To the no-reply commenter who requested size or pattern info: Each flying geese unit finishes 3" by 6".  Two units together make a 6" finished square. To make four flying geese at a time, the geese fabric is cut 7-1/4" square and the sky fabric, cut 4 pieces 3-7/8" square and marked on the diagonal on the back. I'm sure you can find a tutorial. The finished quilt is 36" by 42".


Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Alycia Quilts

Design Wall Monday: Bright Strippy Spiral

My fabric order finally came, with the deep charcoal texture print I ordered for the background. It's perfect!!!

I decided to keep the spiral layout (instead of concentric squares) but I shortened it so it wasn't so elongated at the center. I like this proportion better, and the quilt will finish at 60 x 68" which is fine for a throw.

Now it'll be easy to clip the columns together and kit this up for mindless sewing whenever I feel like it.


Link ups:
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Love Laugh Quilt

Have Faith

Have Faith is finally finished. It's the work of many hands and creative minds.

The focus print came from the free table at STLMQG. 

The block pattern was designed for charity quilts by Jaime of L'Fair Quilts, and you can find it here.
The blocks were made by the members of the Sew Bee It bee in STLMQG. I provided the constant print used in the small plus, and the members chose their own coordinating accent colors and made the blocks.

Pieced sashing added more scrappy low volume variety.  I added the extra small plusses into the sashing, to feature more of the accent colors. The result is even more movement than in Jaime's original design.

Now quilted and bound, Have Faith measures 62 x 76" and will be donated to one of this year's charities for Hands2Help.

The quilting is an allover meander. I debated what color thread to use because of the high contrast, and ended up choosing a pale grey. It blends with almost everything and looks fine where it contrasts with the dark navy. The backing is a wide back low volume print.

Many thanks to all who contributed to this quilt. Although I put it together, it couldn't have happened without the help and creativity of so many people. Thank you!


Link Ups:
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Alycia Quilts
Wendy's Quilts and More
My Quilt Infatuation

Quilting the Flying Geese Quilt, and Wildlife Wednesday

Has this ever happened to you? I'm meandering along, in the groove, quilting the flying geese baby quilt.

Then I discovered that the backing had flipped over on itself and I had quilted through it. ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

The way I meander, each of those loops at the edge traces back into the center of the quilt before wandering out to the edge again. For a few loops at the edge I would have to unstitch about a sixth of the quilt. 

Okay, I can fix this without picking out miles of quilting. 

By carefully cutting next to the stitching and pulling the fabric away, I was able to get rid of the bad layer of backing and keep the quilting. Flannel is loosely woven and with tweezers I was able to pull the fibers out from under the stitches. It was tedious, but not as bad as ripping out all that quilting. 

Here's what the edge of my backing looked like after I was finished - Swiss cheese! 

(Sorry for the greenish photo)

Once the finished quilt is washed and crinkles up nicely, no one will ever know there was a problem. 

Here's what the quilting looks like on the top. And under the machine light, you can see that rich purple, which usually photographs black. 

In other news, mama rabbit built a nest in the big flower pot at the bottom of our deck stairs. There are at least five, maybe six, bunnies in the nest, but not all of them are visible in this picture. 

This photo was taken on Monday, and yesterday the bunnies were all gone from the nest. 

Link up: Quilt Fabrication

Grandma Quilt for Valerie

I just learned that someone we see a couple times a year when we stay at the beach just became a grandma. Every grandma needs a baby quilt, right? Especially someone as nice as Valerie.

DH actually spoke with her, and he didn't ask if the baby is a boy or a girl. But she lives at the beach, so I can do something tropical and gender neutral.  Here's the palette I pulled from my stash, soft midtones in yellow, green, and orange, which I'll combine with a white on white.

Colors are a bit dull in this photo

A few of these:

The colors are truer in this photo

No, this will not be a repeat of the flying geese quilt I recently made in coral, raspberry, and plum.

A few of these are added in:

Maybe I can get the top together this week.

Unfortunately we had to cancel our week at the beach which had been scheduled for next week, so I don't know when I'll see Valerie again. I'll mail the quilt to her. She doesn't read my blog so I don't have to worry about posting about her quilt.


Link ups:
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Love Laugh Quilt

April Stash Report and Goals Update

Well, April has been about 10 weeks long it seems, and I've had plenty of time to sew, but due to feeling scattered and unfocused I didn't get as much done as I would have thought. On a positive note, I didn't add to the stash.

I did actually have a couple of finishes - A Plus flimsy that I'm calling Keep Positive, a flying geese baby quilt flimsy, and Have Faith quilted and bound.

Keep Positive

April Stash Report:
IN this month. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. (Order that won't ship until mid-May doesn't count yet.) 
OUT this month: 9-3/4 yards  (Keep Positive top, 5-1/4 yards.  Flying Geese baby quilt top, 2 yards.  Have Faith wide backing and binding, 2-1/2 yards)

IN YTD: 26-1/5 yards
OUT YTD: 64-3/8 yards
YTD Net Change: 37-7/8 yards out.

This is the first April I can remember not adding to the stash, because usually I indulge in fabric shopping in Paducah in April. Not this year.

Flying Geese Baby Quilt Top

Goals Update:
April recap:
1. Quilt and bind Have Faith for Hands 2 Help. DONE. (Post next week)
2. Talk to Sandy about quilting How Many and Corona Medallion; order batting and backing. Batting ordered, not due until after mid May. No backing yet and did not talk to Sandy yet. 
3. Layer, baste and quilt Color Spoke Puzzle. Got the quilt sandwiched and pin basted. I've ordered invisible thread to quilt it with but won't get the thread until I can see my friend who ordered it for me. 
4. Assemble Plus top for Hands 2 Help. DONE, Keep Positive
5. Make a baby quilt for Operation Shower. Pieced Flying Geese top; not quilted yet.
6. Look through UFOs and find something to move forward. No progress on this.

Other: made bright strip blocks for spiral quilt and ordered background fabric.

Bright Strippy Spiral

May Goals:
1. Make baby quilt for new grandma Valerie.
2. Talk to Sandy about quilting How Many and Corona Medallion; get and/or prep backings.
3. If possible, start quilting Color Spoke Puzzle.
4. Layer, baste, and quilt Keep Positive.
5. Quilt and finish flying geese baby quilt for Operation Shower.
6. When background fabric arrives, finish piecing bright strippy spiral top.
7. Look through UFOs and find something to move forward.

A lot depends on availability of supplies.
 - I need to find wide backing for How Many and I haven't seen a color I'm confident will work in my online shopping so I'm hoping I'll be able to get to the LQS later this month. I can't send it out for quilting until I have the backing and batting.
 - I ordered wool batting for both How Many and Corona Medallion and the order isn't due to ship until after mid-May.
 - Also, although Color Spoke Puzzle is basted and ready for quilting, due to its high contrast nature I need to quilt it with invisible monofilament thread. I asked a friend to order some for me, but when I'll get it is unknown.

I guess if I don't have the resources I need to finish WIPs, that means I can start a new project, right?! No, I really should dig into those long neglected UFOs and move something along.


Link ups: Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Alycia Quilts