Interruption

In case any of you reading this blog do not read my other blog or follow me on Facebook, my nice calm life was interrupted a week ago by the Butte Fire! It was fairly close to my home, but then the wind took it in a different direction. Me and the doggies evacuated for a few days. But now the fire is under control, and all is returning to normal, at least in my little life.

I don’t think I ever showed you the finished quilt P.I.N.K. I do love it, and will use it as my favorite lap quilt this winter.

I quilted each block a bit differently. That probably kept me going on it.

I love how a quilt crinkles after you wash it!

Last week, B.F. (before fire) I was determined to get back to my rug. I finished the hummingbird and these trumpet flowers. And that’s as far as I got. Hopefully, more rug hooking will be on slate for Monday.

To get back into the studio, I did a little fun, no-meaning playing around. These star blocks are all done with my box of little two inch squares. Very fun to first piece some four patches, and then to choose two more colors to make these stars. I actually like this method of making the star points (or flying goose blocks.) There is a seam in the middle, but it seems to be a very accurate way of making those   blocks. I just take the two inch squares, and draw a line right down the middle diagonal and then stitch on the line.

 

B.F. I had started hand stitching on this piece. There are 150 two inch squares, so lots of places to do a little doodling. This was the hand project that I grabbed to take with me when we evacuated.

 

 

Speaking of evacuating, I did not take much with me when I left. How do you decide what to take and what to leave? I did not take any of my finished quilts. I took my Singer Featherweight, and I took my rug hooking wool stripper tool, as it was near the back door, and I am quite fond of this tool 🙂 I just took one handwork project, and one knitting project. Three changes of clothes (just right!) and the best thing I took was the doggie bed. It kept the girls calm in a new environment 🙂

In church last Sunday (in the midst of the Butte Fire) we had such a special service. There were several couples there that had lost their homes to the fire. I did have a little inspiration for a quilt about the fire, and I am working on that this week. I will share that with you next time.

In the meantime, be safe and be thankful!

Be Filled With Joy!

I finished this little green and pink piece, even though I had misgivings about my color choice after starting it. It is a lot of stitching for something that doesn’t really have that “pop.” But I enjoyed the stitching, and I think it represents the simple message “Be Filled with Joy!”

Some close-ups of the stitching. I still choose to stay with the simplest of stitches–straight stitches in different combinations (running, outline, satin, etc,) lazy daisy, and french knots. There are probably about 30 colors of “pinkish” threads in this piece, in perle cotton, sizes 3, 5, 8, and 12.

I decided to add leaves in the empty spaces.

My wish for you this Sunday morning, is that you would be Filled with Joy!

Is A Puzzlement

Anyone else out there a fan of old musicals? This is one of my favorite songs from “The King and I.” IS A PUZZLEMENT, the king says emphatically! Anyway, that’s what happens when you madly piece together blocks without measuring or using a straight edge. At some point, you’ve got to “pay the piper,” and figure out how to fit them together.

Remember? Here’s the start–just three simple blocks. Three different sizes, in my mind.

And here’s the finished collection of them. I pretty much liked the way I had put them up on the wall as I went along. I do think about where I’m placing them at the time. At this point, I had pretty much run out of the fabric, and I was thinking about what I wanted to use as a spacer/background fabric.

I agreed with Jenny. I didn’t actually want a background fabric. So I found a few more pieces of the Cherrywood, and just used those as “spacers,” when the blocks just wouldn’t fit together. I also made a few smaller squares to fit into the small spaces.

Here I think you can see I am starting to put together chunks of blocks. This actually requires a LOT of thought, and my brain gets tired.

As I take pieces from the design wall to the sewing machine, here is my simple method to remember what I was doing. I put this big pearl head pin up in the corner where the block came from. And I put the smaller pin in the upper right hand corner of the block I am working on, no matter how big or small it is. That way I remember which way it goes when I get back to the design wall.

And here is the finished top, “His Kingdom Will Never End.” I am very pleased with it. One of the things I was trying to avoid was long straight seam lines. But at some point, there is no way to avoid that, unless you are willing to do a lot of “Y” seams. I was not willing to do that.

But I stubbornly wanted this red (and brown square) in the center of the quilt. This is the only place I did (machine stitched) Y seams. I am pretty proud of how well that came out!

And thus ends another quilt puzzlement. Now it will wait while I think about how I want to quilt it. By machine, no double, because I tend not to want to work by hand on a piece with so many seams. Now its time to clean up the studio, and think about my next project!