100

100 log cabin blocks!

No, it's not bad lighting or your color settings being off - those florescent greens are really that bright! What was I thinking? I was hoping they would give an earthy quilt a little zing. When you look at them closely, they are pretty atrocious, but all together, they look ok.

I spent at least an hour laying out the blocks so no two fabrics would be next to each other, then labeling the blocks and pinning them for the next stage of sewing.

I'm still on target to have all 100 blocks sewn into four-block units by the end of August.

Birch Tree Forest

A few years back I spied this quilted wall hanging on the Tallgrass Prairie Studio blog.  This was right around the time I started reading blogs, we moved into our new house and I finally had a dedicated sewing room.  We have cathedral ceilings in our master bedroom and those tall walls needed some decoration.  As soon as I saw Jacquie’s Night Forest quilt, I knew this was the perfect solution.  I emailed Jacquie and asked her permission to make my own version of her quilt and told her I would be sure to give her credit as the inspiration.  She graciously gave me permission.
 

So, with no pattern, just pictures of her finished quilt, I set out to make my version.  Jacquie’s Night Forest quilt is strip-pieced “birch tree” trunks on a black background.  I gathered some neutral fabrics, some black fabrics, a “birch bark” fabric and one blue-grey fabric and pieced strips, then cut the strips to 24” long and between 1 ½ and 3 inches wide.  I laid out the strips on my cutting table in more or less the same way as Jacquie’s design.

When it came time to piece the strips with the black background, I had some trouble because I was trying to piece them at angles to look like multi-trunk trees.  It took some trial and error, but eventually I was happy with the way it fit together. 

I quilted lines ½ inch apart only on the black background to make the trunks really stand out.  When it was all finished and bound, I added a label giving credit to Jacquie for the inspiration and noting that she gave me permission to duplicate her quilt, and then I sent her another email with some pictures of the finished product.

Jacquie's version finished at 19" X 41".  Mine finishes at 21" by 54". 

I was really late to the party when it comes to reading blogs but I’m so glad I finally did.  All that internet inspiration helped me to find exactly the right project for our bedroom wall.

Nearing the finish line

I can just about see the finish line as far as piecing the log cabin blocks goes!  75 are done, 25 have the first of three rounds done:

24 have been sewn into 4-block units:

I’m going to try to quilt each of the 4-block units individually and then piece them together.  I cut out 24” squares of the backing fabric.  I plan to trim the batting even with the edge of the top when each unit is quilted, then fold back the edge of the backing and sew the units together.  Once they are sewn together, I will overlap one edge of the backing over another, folding under the seam allowance, then I will hand sew the seam allowance down.  If it doesn’t work out too well, I’ll hand sew some ribbon over the seams in the back.  I’ll let you know how it turns out. J 

On another note, Maggie and I were both suffering from our various arthritis pains – my knees were hurting because I did too much and was on my feet too long.  I felt better after putting my feet up and sitting on the screen porch and I’ll be going for Euflexxa shots in both knees today.  Miss Maggie usually keeps me company on her bed in my sewing room, but she couldn’t even make it all the way down the stairs.  She made it to the landing, half-way down, and that’s where she stayed. 

She did make it downstairs to sleep last night, but she had a difficult time coming back up this morning.    She’s been taking prednisone to help with her allergies and the arthritis, but I’ll call the vet and see if there’s something else we can do for her.  Poor old girl.

Trece canastas rosadas (or 13 pink baskets)

Canasta is a finished top!  Oh boy, this one gave me trouble.  I don’t think a single one of my blocks finished at the right size and there was a ton of finagling seems around in order to not chop off any triangle points.  The top right corner does not want to lay flat, but that will quilt out, right?  J

I really want to get this all quilted and bound because it’s going to decorate the wall in my pink sewing room.  But…I have to finish those last 25 log cabin blocks this month and work on a mini quilt for September.  I have it all designed, I just need to find time to work on it!

Lucky Me

The random number generator has been good to me a lot lately.  I’ve been a winner in the Schnibbles parade twice already and last week, I won this from the Fat Quarter Shop:

A fat-quarter bundle of Perfect Pairings by Kim Diehl and two free patterns featuring this fabric!  As far as I know, this isn’t a Christmas line, but there are beautiful red/burgundy, green, and cream fabrics and I think they can be put to good use in a Christmas project.

Thank you to the Fat Quarter Shop for this very generous gift!

I also consider myself lucky to have some of my family close by.  Until three years ago, we used to live on a cul-de-sac of 5 houses.  My sister and her family lived in #1 and we lived in #4.  It was awesome to have her just across the street.  Our husbands have been best friends since they were about 10 years old and our boys are more like brothers than cousins.  Since I don’t have any daughters, my sister gladly shared hers so I could have some “girl time”.  We’re only two miles apart now, but we don’t get to spend as much time together as we used to.  A couple days ago my sister, my niece and I went blueberry picking. 

An hour’s worth of picking resulted in 6 pounds of blueberries!! 

I gently washed all the berries and laid them out on paper towels on cookie sheets to dry.  When they were dry, the cookie sheets went into the freezer overnight.  In the morning, I bagged up the frozen berries into individual serving sizes and made a blueberry sour cream pound cake with the rest.  Yum!!

After I was done with the blueberries, I was able to turn this:

into this:

More bitty basket blocks

At 5 inches, these Canasta basket blocks aren’t as small as the little 2-inch cakestand basket blocks from the July challenge, but they’re still pretty small. I really like these fabrics and the way these blocks turned out.

25 down, 25 to go

I sped through piecing the 2 outer rows on the 25 log cabin blocks I had in progress.  Once each complete row of two lights and two darks is added I trim the blocks to size before adding the next set of strips.

Adding these 25 completed blocks to the 50 I completed last year, I am up to 75 completed blocks.  That means I have 25 more to go!  I need to get the piecing all finished in August so I can get this one quilted in September and to be on target to have this all finished in time for Anne’s early October birthday.