Love My New Toy

I bought a new toy and I am so excited about it. After the Silhouette Cameo disappointment in 2013, I shelved the idea of using a cutting machine for my crafting projects. But when my brother recommended a laser cutter to me, I revisited the idea. I spent most of a day watching videos for various laser cutters, but they are so expensive, and I wasn't sure I would use it enough to justify the cost and space needed. 

So when I ran across a video for the Cricut Maker 3 and I discovered it had a special fabric cutting blade, I was persuaded to try that instead. I've had it less than a week and I'm already in love.

I decided I wanted to try English Paper Piecing and I used the Cricut to cut out the cardstock paper shapes.

I didn't really know what I was doing so it didn't have a 100% success rate on my cutting, but the failures were my own fault because I laid out pieces so they shared edges. Apparently, that's a no no. 

When I tried the next day to cut out a second project and left a gap between all the pieces, I had virtually no problems. I could not believe how quickly I was able to cut out these perfect octagons!

I cut out all of the paper and fabric pieces for the paper-pieced flower blocks in this little lap quilt in about 6 hours total (including the design time).

I'm loving having a handwork project I can carry around with me. I don't think it will take me too long to get these blocks finished now that I've gotten started.

(Re)Started Quilt Blog

This blog started as a way for us to share with our family what we were up to after we moved out of state. But over time, as we remodeled our craftsman home in Laurelhurst, it morphed into a historic house remodel blog. It was a way for me to save info I had researched and as a way to record progress on our projects. But I have shifted a lot of my leisure activities to fabric crafts now and they don't really fit into the Laurelhurst Craftsman house theme. I will still use this blog for our gardening and woodworking projects since they still benefit this house.

Once the weather warms up we do hope to do another round of woodworking. I would very much like to finish my master bedroom closet. We decided to try and make the cabinets ourselves but the pandemic brought our progress to a halt. I'm hoping we'll get back to work on the project later this year.

Anyway, since I am seriously considering starting a long arm quilting business, I decided I should shift my sewing-related posts over to my long-abandoned quilt blog. Once I figure out a new name, I'll change the name of the blog, but I will leave it as it is for now.

If you're here primarily for the quilt posts, I would encourage you to follow that blog. I will start using that blog to post about project progress and challenges I am participating in.

I have posted a new post over there.

Queen's Jewel Quilt Finished

I actually finished this quilt binding before the other two quilts, but it took me a few days to take photos, which are not great. The master bedroom is a bit of a mess.

I ended up making four sets of matching pillowcases for this quilt because Jeff likes LOTS of pillows on the bed and if I wait until the first set of cases wear out to make more, the fabric will likely be gone. So I decided to make more pillowcases right away and store them in the linen closet until we need them.

This pattern was inspired by the Queen's Jewel pattern from Quick Quilts from Your Scrap Bag by Patricia Wilens. I removed the outer border from each block and replaced it with a sashing. 

This quilt was finished with the Dragon Tails pantograph.

And recently I realized this is nearly the same quilt block design I declared was "next" in the queue in April 2018 (but it obviously wasn't). Perhaps that is why the queen's jewel pattern attracted me when I found it. Also, I ended up with nearly the same color scheme (green, blue, and purple); a happy accident. 

Fire Dance Quilt Finished

For this month's Friday Night with Friends, I decided I wanted to try to finish the binding on my Fire Dance quilt. I started at about 5:30PM and I was done by 9:30PM. I don't think I'll ever go back to sewing bindings by hand; I used to take weeks to finish them. (The trick is to sew the binding to the backside of the quilt and then flip it to the front so the "messy" side is on the back. I found several good videos showing how to do it, but this is the best one.)

I made two sets of matching pillowcases for this one.

I had it quilted with the Lorien's Dragons pantograph, which I love.

This quilt pattern was inspired by the quilt of the same name from the Batik Beauties book by Laurie J. Shifrin. I designed some half-blocks to make it larger for my bed.

This was the quilt flimsy laid out on my bed before it was quilted.

Lenton Rose Quilt Finished

I finally finished the batik flower quilt I started in October 2019. I had hoped to take Long Arm Quilting classes so I could finish it myself, but I finally got tired of waiting for the pandemic to end so I paid someone else to finish it for me. 

This is one I designed myself using Electric Quilt 7. I made it using the Providence Block and added a bit of sashing because I thought it looked better. I'm not sure how I came up with the name Lenton Rose but I suspect I named it last spring when all our hellebores were in bloom.

I sorted through the fabrics I used for this quilt and found enough fabric to make three sets of matching pillowcases. I used the burrito method to make the pillowcases and it worked quite well, though I am not exact in my measurements. I tended to make the cuff a little bit wider and the trim a little smaller (or I would just use a scrap I had leftover from the project).

I had it quilted with the Flutterwings quilting design.

February One Monthly Goal

My February One Monthly Goal is actually five tasks. Over the past few weeks, I have gotten back FIVE quilts from the long arm machine quilter. I would like to finish binding ALL of them. This is a lot for such a short month, but I am anxious to work on a new project so I want to be sure and finish these first.

It was an expensive month, really with no end in sight. I like making quilts. So, I'm thinking pretty seriously about getting a long arm quilting machine and frame. 

Snake River Log Cabin Flimsy

And it is done. I've finished it faster than I expected, but I am glad to get this project off my to-do list. And I more than finished my One Monthly Goal.

This is the cover project from Judy Martin's Log Cabin book. I had a lot of fun making it, but it was a lot of work. Each block has 48 pieces! I tried to pre-piece strips and then cut them up, but that didn't work as well as I hoped. I would have been better off just making rust and cream strips and then adding the other fabrics. If I make the other quilt I'm tempted by in this book, that's what I will do.

(For folks who are interested in the finish, it is here at my quilting blog.)

Basic Crazy Quilt Class

This is the model for the class block.

For this month's Friday Night Sew In, I decided to work on a small project for a free online Basic Crazy Quilt class. It isn't the greatest timing given how much work I have into the Snake River log cabin quilt, but I'll have to get back to it soon. This is just a bit of a crazy detour.

I am winging this block a bit as I don't have the embroidery templates, but I'm treating this as a learning project and if I decide this is a style I'm interested in pursuing, I'll invest in more tools. 

Or I may just decide to start finishing the seams with my fancy sewing machine stitches. I found this really beautiful design that I may decide to try, though since I don't have that exact machine I would have to improvise with stitches my machine does have.

Anyway, thanks for dropping in. If you'd like to see what everyone else was up to for the Friday Night Sew In, drop by Wendy's blog.

WOOFA 2021 List

Sea Swept Quilt

Unbeweavable Lap Quilt

Since I got started on the WOOFA UFO challenge late in 2020 and didn't have twelve months to finish my projects, I think I'll try and get started sooner this year. I'm going to also add some new, not-started projects to my list that I feel like working on. This list is somewhat in order by priority, but I am likely to take projects out of order as I'm in the mood to do them.

• Snake River Log Cabin Quilt
• 4 More Masks
• Sea Swept Quilt
• Unbeweavable Lap Quilt 
• Crazy Quilt
• Bind Batik Flower Quilt
• Bind Harvest Gathering Quilt
• Bind Xmas Quilt
• Bind Queen's Jewel Quilt
• Bind Fire Dance Quilt
• Pillowcases that match all the new quilts
• Finish 3 Denim Tote Bags
• Finish Jeff's Overnight Bag
• Jeff's Georgian Coat
• Louisa dresses that match quilts
• Stack & Whack Quilt
• QAYG Quilt
  
• Halloween Monster Wreath

I'm hoping someday this year
I'll be in the mood to make this coat for Jeff.

Quilt As You Go Lap Quilt

Jan Friday Night With Friends

I joined Cheryll, et al. again for the first Friday Night With Friends of 2021.  I got started early and worked through Friday night and then continued Saturday morning until I finished assembling the 64 blocks for the center portion of the Snake River Log Cabin quilt. 

Now that I've finished assembling them all, it's ready for the border. That is another 32 blocks I'll need to make.

Quilt Progressing

I have finished 48 blocks of the center portion of the Snake River quilt. 

I decided to start assembling the quilt top so when I make the last 16 blocks I can press the seams in the right direction to make the final assembly easier. 

It takes a long time to put these blocks together. There is SO MUCH pinning, but it is worth it. I'm really happy with how this is turning out.

January One Monthly Goal

I think I am going to add another virtual sew-in to my calendar, at least until this pandemic has passed and we can escape our houses. This time, One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts. 

I would very much like to make 64 blocks for the Snake River Quilt. 

I think I can do it. I've already finished 15 of them, so I believe I can finish another 49 before the end of the month.

Snake River Quilt Progress

I spent another couple of days working on the Snake River Log Cabin Quilt. I ended up changing the process again so I would have less repetition from block to block.  I went through and cut strips from all of the Morris fabrics and sliced them up into pieces of the appropriate length for the strips. That took most of the day yesterday.

Instead, now I'm building strip sets of the cream-rust-cream portions and slicing them up then adding the Morris prints for each set of blocks as I make them. From here, the pace of construction should pick up.

I finished seven more blocks today.

Goodbye 2020

2020 was not the best year for us, but I think we did fairly well adapting to the hermit life. We both continued to work on our health. Jeff maintained his 60-pound weight loss and got in much better physical shape with strength training. I lost another 55 pounds and am only about 30 pounds from my weight goal. I also do a lot more exercise than I have done for many years, though probably not as much as I should. It turns out quilting is more fun than exercise. Well, really, just about anything is more fun than exercise.

Jeff spent this year working for Oregon Indivisible by hosting regular zoom meetings organizing campaign volunteers. He spent so many hours on the election.

I, on the other hand, turned to my hobby to amuse myself during the pandemic. I cleaned and organized my sewing room, made a list of unfinished sewing projects then I started taking part in a number of virtual sew-ins: WOOFA, FNWF and FNSI. I actually made good progress on my To-Do list; the big house-related accomplishment was I finally recovered the living room furniture.

I finished the Queen's Jewel quilt flimsy,

the Harvest Gathering flimsy,

the holiday quilt flimsy,

the Fire Dance quilt flimsy,

quite a few rag quilts, and a number of other minor quilts, placemats and mug rugs that were in my UFO list. And while I did all this sewing, I listened to over 100 audiobooks. I love our library system.

I hope to continue my sewing binge for as long as it takes to survive the pandemic. Here's to hoping that 2021 brings better things.

Next Quilt Started

I had planned to work on the Sea Swept quilt next, but I was in the mood to get started and the rulers I ordered two weeks ago still had not arrived. I tried to talk myself into working on something else, like pillowcases, but my brain is in full quilt obsessing mode so I started on the Snake River log cabin quilt instead.

I decided to start with a round of making strip sets and then cutting them into slices. I don't mind there being some amount of repetition within the blocks but I won't do the entire quilt in this manner.

It took me two full days to make the first block, then the next seven took about three hours.

As a reminder, this is the approximate plan. I got the design from Judy Martin's Log Cabin Quilt Book, page 50, although the border is missing pieces from the original pattern because Electric Quilt cannot handle multi-piece borders.

I am making it from William Morris fabrics in my stash.