I really need Deadlines...

The only way I get anything done is with a deadline. My posts were much more frequent at the beginning of this year. That is thanks to the challenges were I applied myself to make a quilt or wall hanging and had to post about it in a limited time frame. Thanks to Kim and all involved in 2017 Project Quilting Season 8.

Well my wife told be about a donation request, but didn't commit me to anything. As usual it started things turning in my mind. I had seen some scraps of fabric with fire hydrants and hoses along with some baseball fabric. After a while, I couldn't get it out of my head. So I had to make a quilt. They wanted lap size and I usually stay with wall hangings, so another challenge. I started making blocks then had to improvise to make it bigger and here is the result.

As for quilting, I love my Brother Dream Machine. I have the walking foot on almost all the time and get straight lines with the aide of the built in laser. For those reasons I do mostly linear quilting. Out the door this morning, I hope this brings support for JACK Foundation. It was a labor of love. Find out more about Just Acts of Caring and Kindness at the JACK Foundation website.

Eight Become Great

Hanging with my Brother

The year 2017 has begun and today as I entered the sewing room I noticed 8 pieces of fabric that seemed rather sad. “Why so blue?” I said, well besides the fact that you are blue in color. They explained that their life began as happy members of the Northcott family and went to live in a wonderful warehouse in Missouri that even had a star on it. They were shipped here to Webster, NY and felt like they were being born as they burst happily from the shipping bag. They enjoyed life on a shelf watching the comings and goings of projects throughout 2016. They got very hopeful when their stack of 40 went to the sewing room. They were to join the pictures that Prince Parker had made and become a lap quilt for his Oma. They watched as others were lifted off the pile and were sewn together with the beautiful crayon drawings. But all of the sudden the quilt was finished and they were left behind. They were not needed in this project. They got pushed to the back of the table as Christmas projects came and went. They heard that they may be taken to “the stash” and they did not know what or where this was. They had not seen it but were afraid that it may be a cult. They heard of many fabrics going there years ago that had never returned to see daylight.

Eight squares face to face

Cut corner to corner

As I saw these eight pieces of fabric, I had an idea. I had just read about a fabric challenge based on the number eight. I told the fabric squares that if they trusted me they may still have a chance to become something great. I told them they must go two by two to see the Brother, but must face each other and not look upon the Brother. Wait they said,  “are you the Brother’s keeper?” “Yes, I am my Brother’s keeper,” I said. This was an honor entrusted to me when I visited the great Jackie Lynn at the meeting of elders in Syracuse, NY this past year (the AQS show).

HST Half Square Triangles

Time to spin

The squares of fabric went to the Brother, two by two, right sides together and were sewn on all four sides. “Wait, how will we see the light of day this way?” said the squares. After a quick encounter with Ironman, the squares received two cuts from the Brother’s keeper, running corner to corner. They flopped open and suddenly realized they had become half square triangles. Again they were sad, because they were just half square triangles and looked much the same as each other. But the keeper told them to spin into different patterns and the Brother would make them into beautiful blocks. The blocks were afraid again since they were told they could not look upon the Brother. The keeper reassured them it was OK to look at the Brother, he was just joking before.

Auditioning Fabric

As the keeper auditioned beautiful fabrics to join the blocks, they were concerned that they should not be joined to other fabrics that did not come from the Northcott family. The keeper told them that many fabrics could live together in harmony if they were just given a chance. As the project came together, there was just one more request the blocks wanted to come together in the shape of an eight to remember where they came from. 

Throughout this journey with these pieces of fabric, the keeper was reminded of a lovely, local quilter named Zelpha. They had crossed paths many years earlier and she told the keeper of her story quilts. She had told stories, like Little Red Riding Hood, in quilts with textures for children to touch as she told the story. This is not to the extent of Zelpha’s quilts but it has become a fun story based on the making of a little quilt. The finished wall hanging is 15 1/2 inches wide by 20 inches tall. Eight blue squares turned into four blocks with eight triangles in each block surrounded by a big 8. This project started a 8 am this morning and I started writing the blog at 8 pm tonight.

Gifts given 2015

I made a few gifts that were given in 2015. I made a firetruck quilt for my grandson. I made the quilt top and my wife quilted it. I made two table runners that also went out as gifts. One went to my secret santa gift at work and one went to a family pass around gift. To an end of using more scraps than I create, which I don't think is possible,  I make the smaller inset blocks from the scraps that came off the ends of the stars. Making half square triangle as I go and them finding a way to use them in the end product.

The fire truck was going to be smaller with three fire trucks.  But, I started with the ladder and it grew from there. So it ended up as one large truck for a twin size bed. After this photo I added the light bar above the cab and my wife added extra quilt lines to embellish it. Fun to make personal projects.

My wife loves me, and knows how crazy I really am...

A gift from my wife

 My wife left me a present. She gave me 200 half square triangle blocks! When she quilts she uses a pattern to start with and then makes changes. I look at life, I see patterns and translate it to fabric.

See the single triangles at the bottom.

My wife is currently working on a quilt which will have 25 blocks. Each block has two points of a star in each of the four corners. So she knew that she would be throwing away 200 triangles that I would probably pull out of the trash and try to make something out of. Yes, that is the crazy part.

Strips with the triangles at each end

The block she is making, on left, is a log cabin style with four strips getting a point on each end. She went to the trouble of double seaming the triangle before she cut them off so that I get a block from each end.  

Block ideas

I am not sure how I will put these together but will update later with finished projects. You can see below a few block ideas that I have had already. I think she is trying to keep me busy and away from the scraps that aren't really scraps. So, I used something I should not have. That will be addressed in another post, but it was not really my fault...




This posting was started in October and I am just finishing is now. Life happens, and with Christmas even more happens. I didn't want to publish this post until the quilt above was finished. Though it is not quilted - here is the finished top form the scraps that my wife gave me.