jelly roll waves finish (h2h 2020 quilt 3)

You may remember a while back, I decided to participate in the Jelly Roll Waves quilt along?

Well.  I got off to a slow start.  I knew what fabric I wanted to use...

...but I stalled out even before starting to cut.  I think part of my problem was the number of colors and patterns and trying to wrap my head around how it would all fit together.  This is my usual trouble when using precuts, but since this one was purchased for me, I can't be blamed for the problem.  (Remember, I swore off precuts without a purpose a while ago...and I've been very good!)

But finally, I worked out a plan and got busy cutting!

This still didn't motivate me a lot to sew them, but I was getting closer.  And finally, because there were weekly (or every other week, depending on the step) link-ups, and I wanted to participate, I decided it was time to get with the program.

I think this will work!  And the colors are so sweet.  Very springy, but also a refreshing change from my usual in-your-face brights!

Since the weekly link-ups were set up for half and all of the blocks, I have a few in-progress shots!

That is not to say there wasn't help laying them all out to make sure there weren't too many of the same colors in the same areas...

The columns went together fairly fast, despite all the seams I had to match and pin.  Thankfully, they were just straight seams, no points or anything to fuss with.

And then it was a top!

Despite the final quilt reveal not being until this week, this was the second quilt on the longarm during Longarm Week.

I decided to do my echoing heart motif that goes quite fast.  And it did!

Before I knew it, I was unloading it and realized I hadn't taken an in-progress shot!  So I guess this mid-removal shot will have to do!

I had prepped the binding ahead, so it was just a matter of sewing it down by machine and then another Gilmore Girls marathon to do the hand-sewn side.  It went fast, but when your mind is occupied with things other than binding, it does go faster.

And there you have it!  It looks all crinkly already, but it has not been washed.  It is slated to be donated, so I will let whoever receives it make that decision later.

The back?

I was trying to stay away from anything too girly, but decided that this hot pink kitty flannel was too cute to pass up.  And the colors on the front really don't lend themselves to making this a boyish quilt anyways.

But this quilt is not what I have been doing this week.

I have kept up with the 100 blocks, and since my last post have completed #52-58!

Well...that didn't load in order, but whatever.  That one with the chevrons up two?  I fussy cut them so the points would be centered.  Bonus?  They matched up at the edges!  I didn't even try when I was sewing and they came out that well.  Go figure.  When I actually try, things never go that well.

I also worked on sewing blocks for Adrian's quilt after the show with my sister-in-law.  I got through all the turquoise blocks and then, this week, I worked through the purples!

I have done my Tuesday chores already, which means the design floor has been vacuumed, so tomorrow I hope to get the blocks all arranged and start sewing the top.  Of course, little (who is not little at all any more) Freddie is currently chasing the sunlight streaming through the trees in that space...and the trees move, so the sunlight does, too, and he thinks it's grand fun.  I know I keep saying it, but this cat is such a goofball.

Speaking of cats.

Remember how there was an adoption event at work in December and that's how we ended up with Freddie?  And how I told my boss not to schedule me any more adoption event days?

Well.  She did.  This past Saturday.

And I resisted, though there were tons of adorable kittens.  So many black ones.  And tabby ones.  And this guy...

Chocolate Kisses.  He is 5 and weighs about 18 pounds.  His former owner (a man) passed away and he ended up in foster care.  My parents had adopted two senior kitties who looked a lot like this guy a few years back, from a lady who had also passed away.  Those kitties have crossed the rainbow bridge after spending their final years in a good home, so my parents have just two kitties right now.  So I sent my mom this picture.

My dad said no.

My mom said to send the pic to my dad.

In a little over an hour, they were there to adopt this guy.  The group doing the adoptions even lowered the adoption fee because it was going to "an employee"...not entirely true, but they knew my parents were coming for him and were happy to find an older cat a home.  (Everyone loves a kitten (until they climb your bare legs and pull down the curtains and wake you up by pouncing your face when you breathe in your sleep...))

My dad, growing up, was a "NO CATS!" person.  We had cats, but he was just as aloof about them as they were about him.  But in his old age, he has mellowed.  And this kitty was a man's cat, so guess what?  This guy follows my dad around and jumps in his lap every chance he gets!  He settled right in, the other two cats not even giving him a proper hissing to welcome him.  And my mom sends pics about every day of the new spot he's found to lounge happily in.  He fit in so quickly and I am so glad he found a new forever home.

(And my husband is happy we don't have any more cats living here than we had before I went to work that day.  That's not to say I didn't donate a bunch of food and litter to the entirely volunteer and donation funded rescue group.  But seriously?  Anyone who can give me such a wonderful cat as Freddie deserves all the donations I can afford.)

And with that, it is time to go make myself some dinner and relax.  I worked today and it was a busy day, so I'm looking forward to some kitty snuggles and a good book!

Happy quilting!

Katie

just keep sewing...just keep sewing...

Some days I feel like I've gotten myself in over my head with these quilt-alongs.

And then I catch up and I feel better.

No extra sewing this week for any new projects (though one is in the works...more on that in a minute), but lots of blocks to show!

First, the next installment of the 100 blocks in 100 days, blocks 23-30!

(I really AM trying to keep this from becoming a cat-centric quilt, but...)

(...this one went better in my head...)

This gets me caught up through today.  Tomorrow I'll make another batch, as that seems to be working for me - to make three or four at a time and then focus on other projects.

Other projects like the books!

I sewed up the remaining covers for the last eight yesterday, but still have to put sashing/borders on those.  A few others were completed earlier and make up the remaining 11 that are needed for my plan.

(this one looks so much like records!)

I hope to get the remaining borders/sashings sewn on tomorrow, as my needle REALLY needs to be changed, but until I'm done sewing through paper, I hesitate to put in a new one.

This afternoon, instead of cleaning the house up some, I opted to sew more on the jelly roll quilt along quilt.  For some reason, I'm having trouble getting into this one.  I was all in when I first saw it and excited to sew.  But now, it's like a chore.

Earlier in the week, I forced myself to sit down and sew two columns.  Not blocks.  Because it seemed columns would be easier to keep track of.  And they probably are, but there are a LOT of pieces to sew.  So...I'm doing two columns at a time, leader-ender style.

The first two:

(The color is faded out, but I layed these out down my upstairs hallway and the window provided a nice, bright effort to wash everything out...of course, the other end is dismally dull by comparison, but who ever said taking photos in an old house was easy?!)

And after the second round of effort tonight:

Taken from the opposite end of the hallway, we have exactly the same problem.  (Also, please note that that is NOT a real bug.  It's a cat toy.  It functions like a hex bug...I think...before the battery ran out.  Now it serves as a noisy thing to whap around while I am trying to sleep.  It is NOT a good toy to play with during daylight hours.  Or when mom is awake.  Nope.)

But you can start to see the "waves" forming.  Two more columns and I will be joining the long, dreaded seams.  Hopefully the last set will have me more motivated, but at this point I want it finished and will push myself to at least get it into a top.

Because there is another quilt to be made!

Remember my friend Sarah?  The one who, because of her pregnancy, got me to start quilting?

Well.

Her daughter, the daughter that got THE first quilt, is pregnant.  In her mid-20's and married, so a very different situation than her mother faced, but pregnant no less.  I don't know the daughter.  I'm not sure if I've even met her.  (Sarah and I live only an hour apart, but I'm sure you all know exactly how it goes when your friends have kids and you don't, or vice-versa!  Me being in college during the birth of at least two of hers didn't help the situation of meeting them either.)  But I do believe this "bun in the oven" needs a quilt.

I've already chosen a pattern, but am trying very hard to finish up a couple of quilt (tops) - the books and the jelly roll quilt - before I purchase fabric.  Because I know once the fabric is here, it will be an awful temptation to start working on that instead of what SHOULD be done.  (Also, baby is not due till early 2020...2020?  Sheesh, where is time going?!)  But when that all starts to happen, you know I'll be sharing progress!

And with that, I need to get going.  Busy couple of days coming and I'd better make the most of the time I have!

Happy quilting!

Katie

chelsie's baby quilt

I know I've been teasing some about the baby quilt, but I wanted to give the quilt before the final reveal.  That happened yesterday afternoon, so it's safe!

I worked with Chelsie at my last job, in the lab.  Her job and mine were different, but we saw each other every day and, as happens in a small space with a small group, chatted often.  She was a hard worker, never complained no matter how long the hours or how hot the room became, and she's a good person.  But when I left the job, we didn't exactly stay in touch.  Social media, yes, but that isn't the same.  One day, she posted she was pregnant. I debated for a while about making her a quilt.  Since we aren't really friends outside of the apps on our phones, I felt it might be a little strange, so I talked myself out of it.

But then, about three weeks ago, I got a text from another former coworker.  They were planning a baby shower for Chelsie and did I want to come.

YES!

And instead of freaking out about the short timeline, I just went looking for a pattern.  I knew once that part was solved, I would be fine.  I first went to Pinterest - I have a lot of quilts saved there for inspiration - but found nothing that truly grabbed me for her.  So I turned to my stash of books.  And I found a pattern that looked both relatively simple, but also looked like her.

Off I went to buy fabrics!

And the back too!

I washed and ironed everything and then got started cutting.  My hubby grumbled, theorizing that I would abandon him for weeks to get this done.  But I knew better.  After my Project Quilting experience, I knew that three weeks was plenty of time and I would still be able to pay him some attention.  And eat and stuff.

Cutting the pieces went quite fast.

But I need to mention here that I redrew the pattern some.  The original did not have a full photo of the quilt and only a drawing of a "block" that, when I added things up, did not seem to be a block at all, but a center of the quilt with multiple borders or something.  I wanted this quilt somewhat smaller (original is 60x80" and I thought a 60x60" would be plenty large, but also allow the design to remain present), so I drew and made notes and cutting instructions.

Anyways, then I went on to match the strips sets, as the original is based on a jelly roll and charm pack...

This was getting exciting!  These colors are so much fun and that blue with the wavy lines (they're actually dots) reminds me of swimming pools in the summertime.

The sewing part went very quickly as well and before I knew it, I was ready to lay out the quilt.  That waited a few days, as I wanted to vacuum my design floor first.

But it seems that even if there was no cat hair on the carpet to attach itself to the back of the quilt, Freddie was there to help make sure the fronts of the blocks had their share.

This layout stayed on the floor a bit longer than average, as I had to sew some white strips to the square blocks and such.  Freddie eventually got bored and moved on to chasing something else, but for a while there, it was rough.  And he's a little stinker with the claws...he and Gabby both...my legs and arms are proof!

These rows seemed to take forever, but there are quite a few of them, despite the central block with borders design.  And I had to make sure to keep orientations correct on blocks to keep the colors distributed evenly.  (But honestly, once it was done, it probably wouldn't have been that noticeable!)

Finally, I waited for a cooler day to run the longarm.  We had a night that it got down into the low 60s, so I jumped at the chance to quilt that morning.  The lights heat up the room quickly and I wanted to be out of there before the day got too warm!

I got this far and the second bobbin ran out.  Boy was I annoyed, but I did have another wound.

I quilted with swirls of varying size all over.  I feel like it was kind of a cop-out because it's an easy pattern, but this quilt would have taken forever if I did ruler work.  And, as you can see in the above photo, there was a little poofiness that needed to be quilted out.  It didn't seem to be there until I got it on the longarm, but it quilted out just fine.  It might have been harder to disguise if I had chosen the ruler work option.

I trimmed it and sewed the binding down yet that day.  The house stayed cool and I decided to just keep going.  You never know what kind of weather you'll get here in the summer (the last three days, we've neared 100 and today it topped out at only 74!), so I took advantage of the cooler temperature to get it sewn down by hand.

Of course, I procrastinated the label until the night before, but what's a good quilt if there isn't at least something going on last-minute, right?!

I had my hubby hold the quilt up Sunday morning to get a photo, and since it was raining, the front porch shot is the best I could do.  (Sorry for the bird feeder in there.  He was feeling particularly put-upon for this photo shoot, so "nagging" him to hold it "properly" would have gone poorly...)

And there it is!  The finished quilt in all its glory.  A little washed out here, but you can see the pattern nicely.  Even the quilting in some spots!

The pattern: "Stars and Stripes"

By: Brioni Greenberg

From: "25 Ways to Sew Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes & Charm Packs" book

Size: 60"x60"

But I can tell you, this pattern was difficult.  Not because of the construction, but because of errors.  When I started to notice things were off (like telling me to cut those white strips at 1/2"), I went looking for errata online.  I found nothing.  I was even hard pressed to find the publisher.  Published in 2013, and knowing how quickly new books and patterns are released, I can understand why I found little.  And I hesitate to strongly criticize the author because I know she put a lot of work into this, but there were some glaring errors that, had I not redrafted the pattern smaller and caught them as I went, I would have been really angry at having wasted my fabric.  Thankfully all was well and I had a wonderful quilt to give.

The baby shower was small and I was surprised that, other than her mom and grandma, all attendees were former coworkers.  And just a small handful of us at that.  I'm not sure who all else may have been invited, but Chelsie made a comment about who her real friends are and it broke my heart.  Here is this young girl, trying her best to do the right thing (I'm not sure she gets a lot of good, positive help from family and her situation is not picture-perfect ideal either), having to play it cool at 8 1/2 months pregnant, about her "friends."  It made me want to go buy her more stuff.

But she loved it.  She's not a very expressive person about things like this, but I know she liked it.  She didn't want to open it up - I think she was afraid she'd start crying (she's tough like that, but at this stage of pregnancy, we all know anything is possible!) - but the others told her she had to.  And I think her grandma knew what she had...grandmas are like that!

So that's the third in the trio of baby quilts this spring/summer.  The other two little ones have arrived (the second one just last week) and Chelsie is due very soon.  They seem to come in threes for me and this spring did not disappoint.  I'm just thankful I have the means and machinery to be able to do this.  And though shopping for baby clothes is fun (everything is cuter when it's tiny!), I feel a quilt is so much more meaningful and long-term useful.

And while I'm here, why not share my latest of the 100 blocks and the books?!

Block #17-22

(Pardon the number on block 21.  I'm also sharing them via Instagram for the quilt-along, and I have been uploading them with block numbers there, just to keep track...and I guess I deleted the one without the number already...)

I have two more done, but will wait to share those until they have been posted officially (also read: I forgot to upload them and am lazy)...

And the books!  I am up to 45, so here are #38-45

At one per day, these get me through Wednesday this week.  I'm working ahead some because I have to work tomorrow and Wednesday I am heading north to quilt with a few friends!  (I'm not sure how much quilting I'll get done, as we chat a lot, but I'm excited even if I don't sew a stitch!)

Only 11 more to go!

Wait, only 11?

Holy cow!

What will I be taking north?  The jelly roll quilt!  But that has progressed as well!

I started by sorting the piles of strips into sub-piles.  To make sure every color was represented with each part of the block, I made even piles and then sewed with abandon!

I neglected to take a photo after sewing, but you get the idea I think.

Then, again to keep colors evenly spaced, I layed them out all over my living room floor.  This quilt will finish 60x60, but without all those seam allowances taken up, it takes up significantly more space.

Of course I had help.

Always helping.

I have one more photo (not uploaded) of him on the full top.  He never left, but he did settle down some.  Until the safety pins came out to attach row markers.  Apparently safety pins have secret catnip-like powers.  I never knew.

I quickly picked it up because those catnip-safety pins were really becoming too much to manage...but apparently that photo has gone missing.  Oh well, it wasn't very exciting.  But they are all labelled to be sewn into columns on Wednesday.  So other than paying some attention to orientation of that white piece (it makes the wave!), it should be an easy project if I do end up sewing.

And one last cat photo...

I was sewing merrily along today and turned around to find this.  Crashed out crazy beast.  Sleeping between "toys"...he's such a goofball.

And with that long post, I need to go eat something for dinner and get myself into bed fairly early.  Work tomorrow and sewing Wednesday means I need to sleep well the next few nights.  But I'll be dreaming of more books and other quilts!

Happy quilting,

Katie