Stay-at-Home Round Robin

 Finally finished, a UFO I can cross off my list. This was started as a stay-at-home round robin in 2020. It was built around an orphan block that didn't come out as I had hoped, but it certainly works as the center here. 

When we found out we were moving to AZ, work on the top was put on hold. It was pieced to the second striped border and the red triangle strips were assembled but not attached. I pulled the UFO out and finished the top at retreat last spring. 

Also last spring, I pieced a back for it, inspired by Kelly Young's book Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs, which was featured in her book launch blog hop.

It wasn't quilted in time for the blog hop; other things came up. Recently I got it layered and basted, and found time to quilt it. It's been ages since I quilted something on my Bernina. It finally cooled off enough here that I felt like wrangling a quilt as one does with domestic machine quilting. This is all stitch-in-the-ditch, nothing fancy.

I'm still struggling to get good photos. Too much wind, always. And either full sun or deep shade. The dappled shade under my palo verde trees is about the best I can manage today. Other than the difficulty with photos, I have no complaints about the sun and the beautiful weather here now that the heat has finally broken. 

This quilt finished about 53" square and it will go to the local family services agency. It was fun to make but I don't need it, so it can go to a teen or tween who needs a quilty hug.

Link ups this week: 
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 10/30
My Quilt Infatuation 11/2
Alycia Quilts  11/3
Confessions of a Fabric Addict  11/3
Wendy's Quilts and More  11/3

A Baby Quilt in Teal

 I just found out that my niece's baby boy is due in less than three weeks. Yikes, I thought I had more time! The baby's room is decorated in teal and white, so I pulled everything in my stash that might work with teal. Lots of aqua and turquoise, a couple of teal prints, a pretty print with turquoise, yellow, and soft green in it, and a few accent colors. 

In order to make this quickly, I'm doing a layout of half-hexies. It will be simple to sew together; the fabrics will do all the work.

Above is the first layout, just slapping the blocks up on the wall. Obviously it needs some tweaking to assort the colors and values better. 

Swap fabrics, take photo, study photo, decide something else needs to be changed, repeat. Every time I move something, something else looks wrong. It took nine attempts to get to the layout below, the layout I ended up with. Enough tweaking, it's as good as it's going to get. 

Here's a close up of the fabrics:

The final size will be about 39 x 45", small enough to fit on one WOF for the back. I have enough of the swirl print (thanks, Cherie!) for the back, and plenty of turquoise options for binding. 

I'll kit it up, take it to retreat next week, and get the top pieced. Hopefully I can get it finished around the time the baby is born.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Santa's Elves

The push is on to get PCQ's Christmas Quilts for Hospice quilted. A lot of progress has been made in the last couple of weeks, but there's still work to do. Just a reminder, these lap quilts are for Hospice patients who never have visitors and don't get holiday gifts.

Three Wednesdays ago Edna had time booked on the long arm, and I was her helper. We quilted two hospice quilts that were loaded side-by-side. Then the following week I had time booked and she was my helper, and we cranked out another two hospice quilts. 

I forgot to take photos of the first two. These are the second two. I've since bound and labeled them.

Then the Community Service committee held an evening work session this week. Some people were piecing tops; some were quilting on their domestic machines; I bound one; and then I helped Jackie quilt four more. 

These are small lap quilts, measuring 42 to 44" square. Jackie is our backing guru, and she found info on diagonal seamed backing, which saved us an enormous amount of yardage and stretched what we have to cover the approximately 50 quilts we're making. 

Here Amy is prepping her backing to layer, baste, and quilt on her domestic machine.

This top has a nice masculine vibe, and the green plaid is perfect for its backing. There's enough yardage of the plaid to make a back using the diagonal seam method. 

Ruth quilted this one on her domestic machine. We all liked how the red thread and diagonal quilting made red Xs in the sashing. You can't see it, but this one has a cute blue snowman backing.

While we worked hard during the event, we also socialized and enjoyed pizza for dinner. 

Jackie's plan was to quilt four of these small quilts. She seamed the four backings together and loaded the giant back on the long arm as one big piece. It was almost as big as a king size quilt. 

I had finished binding one quilt and there were no more ready to be bound yet so I helped Jackie with the quilting. With two quilts loaded side by side, each of us could do one and take a break while the other person was quilting the other. 

Jackie does beautiful loops, smooth, round, and even. I can only meander, but I can do it well. Hers is on the left, mine is on the right. It took three passes. 

Here the first two tops are done and we're ready to roll; you can see where the four backings are joined. 

The second two quilts were loaded and we quilted them in the same way. 

We all made good progress at our work night. We have 40 quilts completely finished so far, and tonight's will bring us up to 50. We think a few club members may still have tops or quilts that they're working on at home. 

The plan is to present them to Hospice of the Valley at our November meeting. A guest from Hospice will be there to tell our club about what they do, and at that time our community service chair plans to have all the quilts made so far and all the people who helped make them stand up and show them off. Then she'll finish collecting them and take them to the hospice's location at the end of November. Her dining room is absolutely inundated with quilts - I wish I had a photo! 

So, 40 or more Hospice quilts are now completely finished, and several more are still in work. Santa's elves have been very, very busy! 

Link Ups: Alycia Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Road Trip Blocks

I've been making blocks for Road Trip off and on all summer as I've had time. There are quite a few now so I put them up on the wall to start arranging them and see what else I need. 

As is, there's areas that need a little breathing room, and of course some gaps to fill. 

I finally found more of the khaki grid fabric I've been searching for, and I bought the last yard of it from an Etsy seller. I hope it's the right thing when I get it. 

                                          

I'll use it for filler in the gaps between blocks, or if that doesn't look right, for HSTs to fill in those gaps. I like that it reads a little darker than the cream net print used in many of the blocks after I realized I was running out of the khaki grid. 

If I keep the current layout, I need four more 9" blocks, two more 12" blocks, and a few 6" Broken Dishes blocks for filler. The Broken Dishes blocks will probably include the khaki grid fabric. 

There are a few blocks I don't like so after I get the new ones made, I'll re-evaluate them and maybe replace them. And continue to move stuff around. 

As is, this layout would finish at 84" square. I have a 78" quilt hanging in my foyer and I'd like to replace it with this one, which has to be at least the same size because of the nail holes in the wall for the hanging rod. 

I welcome any comments you might have about the layout. What do I need to change so it doesn't look like just a bunch of blocks? 

Linking up with Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  and Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts

August/September Stash Reports and Goals Updates

Apparently I didn't post a recap for August, so this one will have to combine both August and September. 

In August PCQ learned that one of our charities has a need for small quilts for resident hospice patients for Christmas. This immediately changed our priorities, so I spent a lot of time developing a pattern and working with the Community Service Committee. 

Also in August I began teaching my color class, every other Sunday, which requires prep for each lesson. So far I've taught four lessons. They've closely tracked the book we're following up to this point. Now I'm going off book for the 5th lesson, which has required me to spend a lot - a lot!!! - of time prepping, figuring out how to say what I'm trying to communicate, demonstrate with the materials and swatches I have available, and plan exercises for the students to do in class and for homework. One particular challenge with teaching this class is that I have two very advanced, accomplished students, three intermediate, and three beginners. One of my beginners has never made a quilt block. Next time I teach the class I will specify that it's for intermediate/experienced quilters. 

August Stash Report: 

IN this month: 7 yards. (Jean's destashing sale)
OUT this month: 7-1/4 yards (Test samples for Xmas charity blocks, 1-3/8 yards.  Red wide backing used for sashing strips, multiple kits - 2 yards. Green metallic for sashing, one kit - 7/8 yard. Pattern test top, non-Xmas fabrics, 3 yards.)

September Stash Report:

IN this month: 8-7/8 yards (Darker Purple, 1/2 yard. Kaffe fan print for backing, 5-3/8 yards. Jerome shop, 2 yards.)
OUT this month: 1/2 yard (Purple bits removed from Kaffe gradient project, too small to be used for anything else)

YTD Net Change: 58-3/4 yards OUT

September is actually the only month this year that I've brought in more than has gone out. 

August Goals Update: (updates noted at end of August and don't include further September progress)

1. Prep for and teach first two lessons in my color class. Done; now prepping for third class Sept 3.

2. Continue making SC3 blocks. Yes, made a few; project is on pause while other priorities take precedence. 

3. Work on my Kaffe gradient project. Yes, added sashing and discovered a color/value problem which will require taking rows apart and replacing sashing. 

4. Make backing for SC2 and quilt it. Yes, SC2 is finished (and was shown at guild in September and donated).

5. Continue making Road Trip blocks; work on layout. No, did not get to this. 

6. Make backing for Kaffe Shuffle. No, did not get to this. 

Other: developed a Christmas quilt for Hospice for PCQ Community Service; wrote pattern, made test blocks and test sample; helped make kits; assembled two tops.  

September Goals Update: 

1. Prep for and teach lessons 3 and 4 in my color class. Done; class is going well so far. Working on prepping for Class 5 which is taking a lot of my time and attention.  

2. Work on my Kaffe gradient project. Progress - Still working on ripping out and replacing the too-light purple solid.

3. Work on Xmas quilts for Hospice at prep day and sew day. Yes, helped make kits. Quilted one of my own kits at home. Bound, labeled and finished one of my kits; bound two other charity quilts. 

4. Quilt something on the club's long arm. Yes, quilted three Xmas quilts for Hospice. Also assisted a friend with quilting two deadline quilts. 

Other: Pin-basted the red round robin medallion, now ready for quilting at home. 

It seems I don't have much in the way of photos for September. Much more of my time has been spent prepping for classes and helping out the Community Service committee with Christmas quilts than doing anything photo-worthy. That's totally fine, I'm very satisfied with all I've accomplished. 

Teaching this color class is really challenging me to up my communication skills. What I understand and what comes easily to me from lots of experience is definitely not self-evident to other quilters. Everyone in my class stated their goal is to learn how to combine fabrics to go together in a quilt. If you're working with a designer collection, that work has already been done for you. If you're creating your own palette, how do you choose what goes with what? That's my challenge to communicate. I appreciate the challenge, it's pushing me to grow. There has been a lot of positive feedback, a lot of requests from other PCQ members to offer the class again, and I've agreed to teach it again in January/February/March. 

Moving the Red Round Robin Medallion Forward

 Any progress is good progress, right? 

This top has been finished since April. It was started in the fall of 2020 so it's already been in UFO status for awhile. It started as an orphan block, and I built it out round robin style by adding the borders. 

The backing for it has been ready since May; I made a pieced backing from Kelly Young's book Perfectly Pieced Backings (My Quilt Infatuation) for her book launch in June.

Other projects took priority and I haven't been able to quilt this yet. I'm going to quilt it on my domestic machine rather than PCQ's long arm because I want to do some SID and try my hand at some custom quilting, maybe some ruler work. 

Quilting on my domestic machine means I have to layer and baste it, my least favorite task. But since this quilt is not too large, about 52" square, I can baste it on my work table.

With the backing taped and clamped down, it's smooth enough, and I can add lots of pins. I just use straight pins because my hands can't handle maneuvering that many safety pins anymore. If I find I'm getting too scratched up from the straight pins when I quilt, I have little foam caps I can add to the points, but usually it's not annoying enough to bother with the caps. And since I'll start with all the SID, I can remove the pins as I go along. 

Now that it's basted, I can get to the quilting as I have time. At least I feel like I'm moving it forward a little bit! 

Linking up with Alycia Quilts for Finished - or Not! - Friday

September Community Service Sew Day

Remember the kits we've been making for Christmas Quilts for Hospice? Saturday was a Community Service Sew day to work on them. We don't have a total count of how many kits there are because some of the people making kits took them home to sew, but we think there are about 50. Wow, Quilters sure do step up when there's a need. 

We had a full house in the sewing room Saturday. I didn't take pics, so the pics here are courtesy of Hiromi, our Community Service Committee chair. 

We had teams of people on the long arm all day, under the direction of several of our Long Arm Committee members, and their plan was to get eight quilts quilted. Not all were Christmas quilts, but the To-Be-Quilted cabinet is so full that they just went ahead and worked on some of those. Moving them along creates more room for more Christmas quilts to be quilted as the tops get finished.  

A lot of people grabbed kits and started piecing their tops. In some cases, this was the second or third kit they had pieced. Judy's first one has a beautiful medallion center; it's now ready for backing and batting to be cut, and she's already on to the next top.  

We have teams of people who prep backings and cut batting. They had done a lot of that at the prep day a couple weeks ago so that finished tops could be quilted as soon as possible. 

Amidst all this, we had an iron go kaput on us. We do go through irons in this club. We have stations for up to four to be in use at a time, and they get used for many hours every day. This one only got slightly warm; I could do a better job finger pressing than with this iron, but I needed to press binding. Fortunately we had another working one available.

Ruth was able to get her quilt bound, labeled, and finished. Oops, we should have pinned the baggie with the quilt's info to the back for the photo. 

I had quilted one of mine at home and got it bound during the sew day. It's labeled, and in the finished pile. 

People who are working on kits will finish their tops at home, and our teams that handle backs and batting will move them along as they're ready. I'm scheduled for the long arm on Friday, so I'll quilt the other one of mine that I have ready to go, and also one from the To-Be-Quilted cabinet if I have time. I'll bind them myself, but for those who don't want to do binding, we also have people who do that. The cabinet system with locations for charity quilts in each stage of progress is working pretty well, although we do get bottlenecks sometimes. 

We have at least a dozen finished quilts now. They're due by Nov. 30 so they can be taken to Hospice in early December. 

Have I mentioned lately how happy I am that I've found my people in this club? 

Link up: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts