April's Been a Busy Month

I've managed to get quite a bit done this month, thankfully.  First up was taxes, of course.  It's never a fun process, but it's done for another year.  I taught another bag class, and I've been busy sewing.  Yay!  Always my favorite thing to be busy with.  I'm having trouble deciding where to start this post.

My purple azalea

We've mostly had lovely weather this month, and we've had some beautiful flowers too.  A week ago today our high was 86 degrees!  Today we had a high of 54 degrees with alternating rain and sunshine.  Pretty chilly after that warm spell.  But really we can't complain.  Except for the allergies - they are brutal this spring, because we've had so much rain.  Everything is yellow and sticky, and everyone is sniffling and sneezing.

I made another  bag sample for the quilt shop.  I finished it and got it over to the shop so quickly that I completely forgot to get a photo while I had it at home.  Here it is at the shop:

front of bag

back of bag

I had 5 students for this latest class, and all but one got their bag completely done.  C. just had to finish the top edge when she left.

C's bag

J's bag

S's bag

Same fabric as mine, just in the red colorway

I forgot to get a photo of N's bag.  I'll be teaching this class again at least one more time this month, possibly twice.

Forget-Me-Nots in my backyard

I finally decided on what fabrics I want to use to make one of Sujata's Rail Fence blocks from her book Cultural Fusion Quilts.   I decided to use my DaGama 3 Cats indigo fabrics that are made in South Africa.  (I collected these fabrics for many years at Pacific International Quilt Festival).  I only had 15 fabrics large enough, so decided to make 4 half-size blocks with the smaller cuts to fill in for the last block to make all 16 blocks that the pattern calls for.  So I figured out the math for the half size block, made one to test my math skills and it worked!

the first 8 inch block - isn't it cute?

While making the first block, I discovered that my indigo fabrics are not 40 inches wide but 35!!  So, I wouldn't be able to get enough fabric from my 1/4 yards (not fat quarters) for the 16 inch blocks that the pattern calls for.   So, more math skillz.  I figured out that with the 35 inch fabric, I could make 14 inch blocks.  I have yet to test that theory.

Then I finished making the other 3 half-size blocks, since I had already cut the fabric.

all 4 of the 8 inch blocks

So, now what to do with these?  They wouldn't work with the 14 inch blocks.  So I decided make a table-runner.  

quilting the table-runner

And here it is, all finished!

It just fits my coffee table in the living room. I love the way this looks!  Rather traditional fabrics, but a very modern vibe to it.  And I can see and enjoy those wonderful DaGama indigos!  I can see that I have a little wiggle in my border that I'll have to deal with.  Oh well, finished is better than perfect, right?  *grin*  

Here is a pouch I made for my Secret Sister in the Tacoma Modern Quilt Guild.  I used Noodlehead's tutorial for the Open Wide Zippered Pouch.  I love this pattern and have made a number of these useful bags. 

fun fabric for the inside

I had to do take-down of my DH's pottery display at the Spring Fair for him as he was traveling for work.  I saw this photo and had to snap it to share with you.

Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers was one of my heroes when I was growing up, and I love this photo of him!  Look how young he is!  I'd love to know the story behind this photo.

Google to the rescue!  I found this from a search:  "In 1938, a youngster named Roy Rogers opened the show (he returned with his wife, Dale Evans, in 1973)".

From an article in The Seattle Times, dated 1997, about the history of the Puyallup Fair.

I hope you get to do something creative this week!  Happy quilting!

Rhododendron in bloom

My First Quilt

Bonnie Hunter, over on Quiltville, had photos and the story of her first quilt, and is asking for us to post photos of our first quilt and its story too.  If you visit her here, you can see lots of first quilts.

It took a bit of digging in the blanket chest, but I finally found this beauty!  (If you double click the picture, it will biggify so you can really enjoy it!)

This is the first quilt I ever worked on.  This was back in 1969 or 1970, I believe.  My sister and I had a lot of scraps leftover from all the clothes we had sewn, and one summer we decided it was time to make a quilt from those scraps.  I really don't remember how we did it, but we must have used some kind of a template, because those squares are all the same size.  We put in everything we had.  A lot of cotton fabrics (including kettlecloth, anybody else remember that stuff?), corduroy, wool and even some velvet from a prom dress that my sister made.  Somewhere in the midst of the making of this quilt, I got married and left home, so my sister actually finished this quilt.  There's a couple of rows that are offset from the next one.  I think she decided that the quilt needed to be bigger and added those rows later.  There are ties on only two rows that don't go through to the back and that left side just kind of disappears at the edge.  The backing fabric is bright red (still!) and seems to be a decorator weight.  The quilt is funky, but fun! 

You know, I remember most of these fabrics, but many of them I can't remember what the original outfit was! 

Here's a closeup shot.  You can see wool, corduroy, kettlecloth and plain cotton fabrics.  Look at that chocolate brown with the turquoise flowers!  It looks just like the fabrics that are coming out now.  LOL  I remember my youngest commenting that those were cool fabrics, but then he was horrified to learn that we actually WORE them!  In PUBLIC!

So, fast forward about 10 years.  Here is the first quilt that I actually made.  This was made in 1981.  I decided that I was going to make a 9-patch pillow, like I had seen in some country magazine.  Well, when I got out my sewing scraps, there were so many that I wanted to use because of the memories associated with them, that the pillow grew into this quilt!  I had to go buy more fabric to have enough to finish the quilt to a good size.

I remember the kids helping me pick out which fabrics to include and my DH helping me to lay out the squares on the floor.  I backed it with plain white fabric (a sheet?) and I tied it with white acrylic yarn.  Then, Christmas Eve around midnight, my Mom helped me to put on the binding.  Oh that binding!  It is atrocious!  It was that packaged bias binding, in white, there is no batting in the binding, and my corners are all rounded.  The quilt was given to my youngest for a Christmas present that year, and this picture is from today.  It's held up pretty well!  It's faded, except for the poly-cotton squares, and thin in spots, but he still loves it.

Here's a closeup of some of the fabrics.  These are fabrics that I used for clothing, curtains, robes, a cowboy shirt that I slaved over for my DH and even a shower curtain that I made from a sheet.  And that bright red solid poly-cotton?  My oldest picked that out for me to make into pyjamas for him!  I still remember the lady at the store who was cutting the fabric commenting that the kid would never sleep in those because they were so bright they'd keep him awake.  hee hee!

After I made this quilt, I realized how much fun I had had making it, but knew that I didn't know enough to do a better job.  So, right after that Christmas, I took my first quilting class in Adult Education.  And I haven't stopped since then!  It's good to see how far I've come.

Your turn!  Let's see your first quilt!  I dare ya to show it!

Scraps of Time

My hydrangea is getting hydrated. . . .yes, it's raining in Washington! Cool and rainy. As in, wearing a jacket during the afternoon kind of cool. It's very nice! Most of us feel much better, thank you. Except for DH. He misses the heat. (He's not getting much sympathy, poor guy.)

We've been watching the Olympics. Well, DH has been watching a lot more than I have. I can't take too much. But, this Olympics thing reminds me of this quilt. I made this quilt the last time the Olympics were on. Those were the Winter Olympics 2+ years ago. I had just found Quiltville and Bonnie's free patterns. I had a large pile of 2 1/2 inch strips already. Some were from playing Strip Poker at the quilt guild meeting (you bet with strips of fabric and then the play is like War). And some were cast-offs from the Community Quilts "department", of which I was a member. I really wanted to try this pattern "Scrappy Trips Around the World". So, when the "Stupor Bowl" was on, I sat down in front of the TV and started sorting scrap strips into "long enough" and "not long enough". Then when the Olympics came on, I started piecing this. I could hear the TV from the dining room where I was sewing, and when something interesting came on, I jumped up and ran to the family room (where the TV was) to watch. When the good stuff was over, back to the sewing machine and resume sewing.

I call this quilt "Scraps of Time". I used scraps of time to make this quilt and the title also covers the fact that many of these fabrics were from clothes I'd made for the kids, other quilts I'd made, pillowcases that I'd made as gifts for friends and family and so on. In other words, lots of memories are in this quilt. There's even memories of some of the recurring fabrics that we dealt with in Community Quilts.

So, by the time the Olympics were over, I had a quilt top! I think that was the fastest I'd ever made a quilt top! I was very impressed with the ease of this pattern, and also with how well it looks made up. I've since made another one that I showed here.

Here's a closeup of one block to show you that I put absolutely everything in this quilt, even some downright ugly fabric that I don't care that much for- and it all works together! That's the beauty of this pattern, to me. They all play well together. I want to try one that I work a little harder at a theme or something, just to see what that looks like too.

Another closeup to see the fabrics. You can also see the quilting that my friend SB, the long-armer, did on this quilt. I think it's great. I love curvy, swirly quilting on straight-line quilts.

And here's a closeup of the border. More great quilting. And the little squares were the leftovers of the strip sets used to make the blocks. If they were big enough, I cut another 2 1/2" strip. Some of them that weren't big enough, I unsewed the squares so that I could use them. And when I didn't have quite enough to finish this border, I cut some more squares to finish it. I didn't waste very much fabric! The back used up some unloved fabrics, and the only fabric I bought for this was the border fabric. And I think that was on sale. So, a frugal quilt that I think looks pretty good and it makes me happy to look at it!

Bonnie's post of the other day, about why she makes scrap quilts, really rung a chord with me. I agree with her. I'd much rather have a quilt full of memories that are precious to me than to have a quilt with all matching/new fabrics that are pretty but not personal. Based on the number of comments she got, I'd say there are lots of quilters that feel the same way!