Quilted Placemats

Buona festa della donna! (Happy International Women's Day!) 

 

 

 

 I just finished six quilted placemats for my sister. When she saw the ones I made for myself last summer, she asked for a set. Here are three of my six. We've used them almost every day since July, they've been washed a bunch of times, and still look great. They are improv pieced from scraps, which I find extremely entertaining. The straight parallel quilting lines hold everything together nicely.

 

 Here is Anita's set. She loves neutrals. I was able to use some of the fabrics that were left over from the lap quilt I made for her a few years ago.

When she saw on Instagram that I had started working on them, she was surprised they made it to the top of the queue, but the project perfectly fits #sewthescrapoutofMarch. 

 

Here's my set up. Cutting mat, spray bottle and starch far left, then wool pressing mat and travel iron.

I do all my piecing on my antique Featherweight. The bin of scraps is handy, as is a 16 oz tumbler of water. Stay hydrated, my friends!

I killed my Bernina 153 last week. I have neglected her for so long that she seized up on me! Keep your machines hydrated (oiled) too! She'll be dropped off at the spa later this week. In the meantime, I'm using the used Bernina 200 that I picked up for Julia. I don't love it, but the automatic thread cutter was very helpful! No one can take the place of my 153 except maybe a 770. ; )

  It took me a minute to find them, but I did remember to include my labels. The binding is completely machine-stitched for durability.

 I don't know if you want to see each one, but here they are. I added some cute prints for her grandchildren in the first two.
 

 

Quilted Placemats for Anita

14" X 18"

Started 3/4/2021

Completed 3/7/2021

Improv with Jacquie

 I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to take Jacquie Gering's Scrappy Improvisation class last week. It was fun and informative and a really great day!  Many thanks to the Rhododendron Needlers guild and All About Quilts for hosting the class.

I had planned to meet my friend Maria there, and was pleasantly surprised that Janet Elia had signed up as well as two other members of the RIMQG. I really wasn't expecting to see so many familiar faces 90 minutes from home.

Here's my classroom setup. I can't go anywhere during allergy season without tissues. Sue brought the chocolate! 

 

My first four blocks were promising. Before packing for class, I selected the color palette from a photo on Design Seeds. I consulted my color tool to determine the fuchsia accent.  The gray is Kona Silver. I haven't used it up yet, so you will be seeing it again in celebration of my 25th Anniversary of quilting.

 I finished seven blocks in class and decided to not make more. I pieced them into the background yesterday while our piano was being tuned.

Jacquie has done some fun zig zag quilting across some of her quilts, so I started there with this one. I got bored pretty quickly, so I added a second zig zag. I wasn't sure if filling in with free motion was going to work. I stopped after each section to reassess. More straight lines to the left of the skinny fuchsia strip.

 

Here you can see the lime backing and teal binding.

 

 Hooray for texture!

 Improv with Jacquie

October 22 & 27, 2015

29" square

Cool Side of the Rainbow

 Yes, another finished project! All this snow is making me super productive.

  

This little quilt started with improv blocks made from the cool- (not warm) colored modern scrap bin. I found the perfect pale yellow print for the border on sale at Joann's on Monday. I'm trying to not be such a fabric snob. I become more frugal at tax time!

Would you call these blocks improv, made fabric, or mile-a-minute? I guess it depends on how long you've been quilting. Whatever you call it, it works. I really did make a dent in this bin.

 

 Since I had this half-rainbow idea in my head, I quilted concentric quarter circles across the whole quilt. I "marked" one line with a hera marker and then just echoed that with the edge of my walking foot. I think you can see that I also moved the needle over to the right to make the spacing as wide as possible.

I used four colors of thread: turquoise, green, purple and yellow. I wanted to use a purple binding, but my stash is seriously lacking in purple. I think the stripe is fun and picks up all the colors. I bought the fabric for the back and the sleeve at Lorraine's yesterday. The green backing was only $2.99 a yard. Score! The owl print was just too cute to pass up. I could have used fabrics from my stash for the backing and sleeve, but these were too handy.

 

I do love the texture of parallel quilting lines. 

The Cool Side of the Rainbow

42" X 42"

Started February 8, 2015 (?)

Completed February 18, 2015

Scraptastic Tuesday

 It has certainly been scrappy around here lately! It all started two weeks ago when I had everything out to finish up my Farmer's Wife blocks. I needed a plan for tackling the scraps, and I finally feel like I'm making progress.

The top of my selvage log cabin has been assembled. (I highly recommend this pattern by Karen Griska!) I'm trying to decide if I want to add borders. It is already 45" square, which is a nice size for a wall hanging. If I make it much bigger, it limits where I can hang it. OK. No borders. How should I quilt it? Organic vertical lines or free motion swirls? I'm thinking about using red thread.

I had a couple of blocks leftover, so I made a pillow cover for the couch. (More about it here.)

I had not done much improv piecing in my 24 years of quilting. I fixed that yesterday! This little quilt top was made in about 4 hours! Twenty five 6.5" squares came directly out of my bin of cool (not warm) modern scraps. Why have I not done this before? Liberating is definitely the right word for it!

I wanted to see it on the wall, so I pinned it to the back of the wall hanging that was on display in the kitchen. We really like it with the pale yellow "borders." It pains me that I'll have to buy some fresh yellow to finish this.

It seems like this bin is still full, but I really did use a lot. 

 Wild & Goosey is coming along (pattern info here). I've been mostly using these as leaders/enders, but I do sit and sew a few units when I have a bit of free time.

Thirteen blocks to go...

I pulled some 2.5" strips of red and pink to make two of these mug mats. One will be a gift tonight at our guild meeting. This one is mine! Happy Valentine's Day to me! Looking back, the one I made for my mother last year has more quilting.

Mrs. Sew and Sow is hosting the Scraptastic Tuesday link up this month. Head on over for lots of scrappy inspiration!

WIP Wednesday / Sew Every Day 9

It's WIP Wednesday, and thanks to Pat Sloan's Sew Every Day challenge, I have two finishes to share!

Finished:

Mod Bento is done, but she needs a cute name. What about Summer Picnic? Read more about it in this post.

Improv was a fun one day project! If you have not done any improvisational piecing, I recommend the Jackie Gehring class on Craftsy. It's on sale right now!

In Progress:

Sew Every Day 9: Ninnie Nines (guild 9-patch swap), 16 blocks for the third and final round of the swap. I might start playing with all 48 blocks later today!

Star Crazy BOM: When I was rummaging through my book shelf last weekend, I found my Star Crazy binder from early 2010. A hidden WIP! Three months worth of instructions and completed blocks (more than shown below) were neatly tucked into the binder. I quickly drafted a new design to use what I already have. I just have to make a few blocks to complete the design. This project is back on the list!

Pete's Album quilt: I won't get back to this one until next week, when he heads to Cub Scout camp as a volunteer. The following week, he will be at Boy Scout camp with his troop. This quilt will be my focus for those two weeks.

Also on the WIP list, maybe for Sew Every Day in August?

Magenta Dahlias- backing and batting ready for basting.

Swap Soup- backing and batting ready to go.

4X5 swap- just a pile of awesome blocks.

It's time to head back to the machine for day 10. But first, a link up and visit to:

Sew Every Day- 5- Improv

Day 5 was Improvisation Day! It was finally time to try out the slice and insert technique from Jackie Gehring's Craftsy class, Improvisational Piecing, Modern Design.

 I used a palette that I am continually drawn to. Sorry, there are no process pics. I was too busy sweating my butt off. (Every time I hear them mention a heat wave on the news, I get the song stuck in my head for days! Marilyn Monroe's Tropical Heatwave. Not Martha Reeves and the Vandella's Love is Like a Heatwave. You're welcome.)

 

I was really excited to do some matchstick quilting. The parallel lines are about 1/4" apart, and I used yummy white Aurifil thread. The binding is pieced from leftover bits of orange, pink and white. I didn't have much of that particular white solid left, or I would have added a border around the four blocks before binding.

Improv

21.5" square

7/5/13