hands 2 help - january quilt

I am woefully behind on posting about my Hands 2 Help quilts - it doesn't help any that I put off quilting the majority of them until the past month or so, but here we go with another!

Back in January, I decided to try to reduce my blue stash.  It is still contains the most fabric of any color, but if you consider there are ALL the shades of blue in there, it makes sense.

I pulled a LOT of turquoise.  All the shades.  I wasn't worried if it would play nicely together.  I just pulled fabrics.  And then I started cutting.  It seemed to take forever, but I think I needed something like 200 blocks, but it's okay.  The blocks are small...

I paired everything up as I went, but did have to go back into the stash and add more.  More fabrics and more pieces of some fabrics I had already cut.  But I got enough and did reduce the stash a little.  It doesn't look much like it, but I did.

The blocks actually went together quite quickly.  But the effort to lay them all out...that took a lot longer and, if I remember correctly, some proper procrastination.

Eventually I just put on my big girl panties and went for it.  The older I get, the harder this becomes, but I have little wall space that does not contain either a window or a door, so I am left with the design floor.  This just allows more time to interact with the fur babies, right?

Keeping the orientation of the blocks in the rows was tricky, but I don't think I had to get out the seam ripper once!  I paid careful attention as I was sewing and had the pattern layout diagram handy as I went.

And as the rows were completed, I put them on the floor for a quick check before moving on.  Gabby helped.

Sewing the rows together is where things started to get tricky.  I had pressed the blocks so seams nested nicely.  The rows?  Not so nice.  And lots of points.  I was careful and pinned a lot, but there are some less than desirable matches in there in a few places.  But I'm not going to point them out!

Soon the top was completed - crooked edges and all!

When I took it out on a snowy day, I noticed it looked like snowflakes in there!  (Also, I kinda wish I had another row on the right side to make it even, but this is what the pattern had me do and I was oblivious until this photo was viewed - and I wasn't going back to make a few more blocks and hope they would all blend nicely...)

Anyways, at the top stage, it stalled out a little, but by the time this was finished, I knew I needed to get rolling on the backlog.  This was made in January, so I knew the Hands 2 Help deadline would approach faster than I wanted.  And there was Project Quilting in there to deal with as well.

So, I loaded it onto the longarm and swirled the heck out of it!

(Well, I guess you can't see the swirls yet - they came soon after this photo was taken, I promise!)

I even had binding ready, so when this came off the frame, I trimmed it square and sewed it on.  I didn't want to tackle odd angled binding (I've done it before and don't care to do it again!), so I dug out my big girl panties again and went for it.  This is a charity quilt, so perfection is not as highly valued.  And honestly?  I want all my quilts to be used, so perfection is often the least of my concerns.  Functionality and pleasing to the eye are far more important to me.

Finally, I got a good day and went out to take a finished photo!

You can see the snow has melted and the sun was shining that day.  I assure you it snowed again at least a few times between when this photo was taken and now.  We keep getting a tease of spring and then a snowstorm.  Hopefully, being the middle of May now, we are done with that nonsense!

The pattern says this quilt is 58x68, but they did not trim the triangle edges, so I'm not sure how they measured, but mine is about that size.

Pattern: Triple Crown Quilt

Designed by: Sandy Klop/American Jane Patterns

And now on to more current sewing!

The macaroon quilt for my friend stalled out at the simple macaroon cookie portion of sewing.  I have no idea why...  I had a whole stack of matched cookies and fillings and all the white squares to lose corners, but was having trouble motivating myself.

So I just made myself do it.  Stalled out again here, with the corners needing to be lost, but the other day, I finally found a good mix of something to listen to while I sewed and went bananas.

Took no photos until today, after trimming those corners and pressing carefully so I will have nice nesting seams.  And then it was time to lay everything out.  Some cookies are multiples, some are singles.  Many colors.  I wanted to have a reasonable balance...

I think this will work nicely!

There will be sashing between the stacks of cookies so the kitties and mixer will fit nicely.  I'm just hoping it doesn't turn out to be too long and narrow.  I could remove a few cookies at the top, if needed, but for now I'm going to let it roll and see how it goes.  (I also could make another stack of cookies for the left side, though that will be harder, so I'm waiting there, too.)

The blocks are picked up now and awaiting the next step of sewing them together.

Also on my pile of messes in my sewing room were the blocks from the kit I purchased at retreat in January. (Oh, remember those days?  When we could get together in groups and sew together and hug each other and BREATHE?! I so look forward to those days again, but all in good time.)  I had determined a layout a week or two ago, and even cut the sashing pieces and border strips.  But motivation for sewing has been lacking somewhat.  Yesterday, I was done with the mess and started sewing.  Today I finished the sewing!

Finn is helping you understand just how large this quilt is.  Those blocks are 13.5" finished.  He is a big boy!

I'm not sure if I like the quilt any more.  So it's headed to the Rack of Shame for a little time out.  And eventually I will figure out what to do with it.

In the meantime, I'm antsy to get a few of my older quilts quilted.  I'm feeling a desire to quilt a few of the more epic quilts (100 blocks, Patchwork City...) in the near future.  No idea why, but I suppose I'd better get the must-do quilts finished before my drive wanes!

This weekend, weather permitting, I am planning to do a one-woman front porch quilt show.  We have a porch that runs the length (width?) of the house and is about 5 feet deep.  The hubby put hooks in the ceiling of the porch, just a few inches from the front of the house, this past weekend!  I plan to sit outside and read, just to be sure nothing gets stolen, but it will also provide a chance to visit with anyone who might want to stop by.  Having such a large/long porch, we can easily do the social distancing properly, even if the weather is less than perfect.  I don't work Sunday or Monday, so everyone keep all the things crossed that I get good weather!  And I promise photos!!!

Time to go feed the fur beasties and maybe myself, too?!

Happy quilting!

Wash your hands!

Katie