A little bit of this and that

Although I have been staying at home with the exception of walking the dog and a few porch drop offs, I haven't seem to get a lot done. 

What have I been doing? 

Well, I have done some baking which really isn't in my wheel house. I've made bread, mini donuts and a cake. Today, I'm making scones. 

I've done a little bit of clean up in the gardens. Up until this past weekend, we really haven't had the weather for it. 

I've also been going through old paperwork and shredding, shredding, shredding. And that stack of old magazines that I saved because 'I would definitely do some of the great ideas, make the recipes or go on those fabulous vacations.' I've been going through them one last time and then recycling them. 

One the sewing front, I've made several batches of masks. At first, I tested a couple of patterns but eventually settled on one. I did run out of elastic and switched to ties. I also made a couple with a filter pocket. 

~sent to a local nursing home

~for friends and family

~more friends requests

~my daughter and boyfriend

~more friends and family

On the quilting side, I finished the 2nd quilt that resulted from my improv practice for the #improvtrianglesewalong. This technique by Nicholas Ball is called insert. I'm calling this one Small Wonders.

Depending on the number of inserts, the blocks look like crosses to hashtags. 

I added the inner border from the fabric I used as the inserts and the outer border the background fabric. 

All the fabric for this quilt are from my stash. 

In the center blocks, I straight lined quilted 1/4" apart horizontally. In the inner border, I FMQ large loops, and the outer border I quilted 2 rows of large scallops. 

It finishes at approx. 40" x 40" and will be donated as part of the Hands2Help 2020 challenge. 

I'm linking to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Brag about your Beauties, Peacock Party, Finished or Not Friday, and Friday Foto Fun. 

Lastly, I finally got around to making one more of the Quiet Play Pattern Club 2019 blocks. 

These blocks are all paper pieced. Although I do enjoy paper piecing, I do think they are a bit time consuming. I have a few more blocks to complete before I can start arranging the word and picture blocks in to a quilt top! 

Not One but Two!

One positive side of sheltering at home is the time I get to spend in my sewing room. This week I tackled some baby quilts! They will all be donated to charity!

The first one was the result of the improv play I did to get ready to participate in the improv triangle sew along. In Nicholas Ball's book, he suggests practicing improv techniques such as curves, inserts, stacks, rings, etc. I took each technique and practiced using older fabrics from my stash. 

After completing the stacks technique, I had a pretty good size piece. 

Instead of having this piece hang around as an orphan, I dug through my stash to find more coordinating fabrics and made a baby quilt. I added borders to make the finished size 28" x 37"

I quilted fairly densely in straight lines about every 1/2" and a geometric meander in the borders. 

The backing and binding are also pieces from my stash. 

Even though these are the colors Pantene chose for their colors of the year in 2016, I assure you these fabrics are from the late 80's or early 90's. 

It is nice to use up older fabrics! 

My second finish is from a picture I pinned to my Pinterest board way back in 2012 from Flickr. The pattern is called Easy Going Modern by Felicity Quilts. 

I'm calling this In the Neighborhood because of the cute print. Just look at that orange bear with blue glasses riding his bike through the neighborhood! 

This quilt finishes at 31" x 36". 

I quilted it with straight lines cutting each of the blocks in half. I added a 1" border. The backing is pieced with left over pieces from the front and some bright red/orange I had in my stash. 

These quilts will go to Hands2Help2020. 

I'm linking up to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Brag about Your Beauties, Peacock Party, Finished or Not Friday, and Friday Foto Fun.

Next up will be this baby quilt resulting from more improv play. 

Stay tuned to see how this evolves. 

Another project I actually finished after many years is this lamp shade. I inherited this dresser lamp from my grandma, but the shade was in bad shape. I lived with it for a long while, then with no shade for some more time.

 I finally took the plunge. 

I made the pattern based on the old shade (in picture below) after deconstructing the shade. The fabric is the cutoff from shortening the curtains in our room. I pressed under 1/4" on the curved edges and another 1/4". I glued the larger circular wire along the bottom then glued the top wire. Once the wires were in place, I folded under the raw edges and glued the seam. 

To stiffen the fabric to retain its shape, I used Aleene's Stiffen Quik. 

It worked great! 

What are you doing during Coronacation?

It is definitely a crazy time for everyone, everywhere! I hope you are staying safe and taking the mandated precautions! If everyone does their part, we will overcome this pandemic faster! 

I must admit that it already feels like a very long time to be 'in isolation'. When I am crazy busy at work, I long to have time at home in my sewing room but now that I am forced to be home with schools closed, I long for school, my teacher friends and the kiddos! 

So what am I doing to keep myself busy, safe and sane?

First, I finished the quilt top that I showed a peek of in my last post. 

The pattern is called Braque by Melinda Lin. I purchased this pattern a couple of years ago. It is based on the Cubist artist George Barque.

 One of George Barque works

Because of the nature of Cubism, this pattern is loosely written to give you some creative leeway into how to put your quilt together. At first, I had a bit of difficulty allowing myself this freedom. I wanted the pattern to give me directions but as I went along, I enjoyed the process. 

Secondly, I finished my improv triangle quilt that I made following the #improvtrianglesewalong by Nicholas Ball. 

I'm calling this quilt Breaking the Rules! Isn't that what improv is...breaking the rules of traditional piecing? It was fun and challenging!

This is my first attempt at matchstick quilting. It is very densely quilted and I love how it looks!

The backing and binding fabrics have pieces in the front of the quilt. 

I also put a sleeve on this quilt so it could be hung up. It finishes at 27" x 30". 

Linking up to Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop?, Friday Foto Fun, Finished or Not Friday, Beauties Pageant 73, and Peacock Party.

Outside of quilting, I am following along with a #drawtogether activity on Instagram by @wendymac. She is an illustrator that is posting simple drawing lessons (designed for children) everyday at 10PST. My daughter alerted me about this and I am having fun dabbling with a new skill. 

I missed the first day when they learned how to draw a dog. 

Day 2 taught how to draw a tree.

Day 3 taught how to draw a cat all curled up with a bird on its head. 

There are also Lunch doodles with Mo Willems (author and illustrator of children books). Find them at the link or on Youtube. Again these are geared to children but if you are just dabbling in drawing or want to practice a new skill, these are great lessons. They break up the day and give another creative outlet. 

Of coarse, I am still knitting for my charity knitting group even though we can't be together. 

Just days before the isolation mandate, my hubby and I and a few friends were invited to an event at Ignite Glass Studios. The event included each of us making our own glass. Yesterday, these came in the mail! 

These are not perfect by any means but they were fun to make and fun to receive in the mail!

Hope you find ways to learn something new and be creative. We are all in this together! Let's support one another!

What's happening and monthly blocks

I participated in the #improvtrianglesewalong on Instagram hosted by Nicholas Ball, the author of Inspiring Improv. I got the book out of my local library and prepared for the sew-along to start the first week of February. 

The first week we were to start cutting our fabric pulls into random sized squares, rectangles, and triangles.  In week 2, we started sewing the triangles together using his improv triangle method... without measuring or use of rulers.

In week 3, we learned a bit about joining all these triangles together. It was a puzzle to fit all these random blocks together into what he calls a slab. 

Keep making slabs that will eventually fit all together!

This was a fun and challenging sew-along!  

I enjoyed it so much that I was sad when I had to return the book 

to the library. That meant that I needed my own copy!

A great mail day! My very own Inspiring Improv book! 

This still needs to be quilted but I'm debating on whether to add more to make it bigger or leave it as a wall hanging. 

I'm linking to Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.

If you are interested in seeing more amazing quilts, go to Instagram and search the #improvtrianglesewalong.

March snuck up fast and the monthly charity blocks and colors were announced! 

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Angela announced the color of teal. 

The first three months!

Linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday.

For the Covered in Love charity, Kat of Kat & Cat Quilts chose a variation of the fence rail block in blue and yellow. Here is the tutorial.

And I started a new project...currently on my design wall! Here is a sneak peek!

I have 2 more sections to piece before I can put this together! Stay tuned!

I have another finish!

Yep! My second finish for 2020! It is a WIP from 2019 from the RSC. Technically, it could have been finished in 2019 since the last month is October but I like to add 2 more colors to make 12 blocks. So getting it done in the 1st quarter of the year is pretty good! 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

I really like the way this one turned out! The pattern is called Reverse Rainbow Starburst Block that I found on Pinterest. The tutorial is by KatSoper. 

If you follow me, you have seen these blocks come together. Each block is made from 24 4" squares from scraps in the month's color and one white. 4 of the color blocks are made into the star points. I chose not to add any sashing or borders. The back is a rainbow geometric pattern I found. 

For the quilting, I stitched in the ditch around each star. I decided to do a pretty close meander around the stars with a rainbow variegated thread and some free hand circles in the center of each star in the color thread of the block. 

I decided to name this quilt Reach for the Stars. 

This quilt finishes at 51" x 68". I finished hand stitching the binding on Wednesday and the label yesterday! 

Hooray! for another finish!

I will link up to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop at Confessions of a fabric addict, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, and Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy and Free Motion Mavericks @Quilting & Learning.

First Finish For 2020!

I'm very pleased to share my first finish for 2020! I finally found some time to work on my Mosaic Mystery Quilt...but after just having my machine in for cleaning/service, I had some extreme trouble with the tension while quilting this baby. I probably ripped out 90% of the quilting before I was able to fix the tension. It isn't perfect but livable. I was definitely getting bird's nest on the back of my quilt which isn't acceptable! A very frustrating experience!

This is the first time I participated in Cheryl's mystery QAL (Meadow Mist Designs). I really loved the way it turned out and it was rather simple piecing...not too small pieces. I like that you get one step each month. It gives you plenty of time to finish but not too long to wait for the next step!

All the fabrics I used in this quilt were from my stash.

I straight line quilted across the quilt following the diagonal lines of the star points. I FMQ around the fussy cut circles in the center of the stars. 

The inner border was FMQ in a twisted wave design and the outer border

 in a rope design.

This quilt finishes at 60.5" x 72.5"

I'm linking to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties over at From Bolt to Beauty, Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

February brought a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This month is ORANGE.

Here is my orange/gray column of squares and HST! Linking to Scrappy Happy Saturday over at So Scrappy.