Monthly Archives: March 2023

Books, Libraries, and Minnie Mouse

Believe it or not, that title will make sense after a bit! I have some fun things to share with everyone. Where to start though??

Let’s start with this book. I just finished it today. It is such a great story. I enjoyed the audio version and have high praise for Julia Whelan’s reading of the book. It is a story of the Pack Horse Librarians in Kentucky during the Depression era. Jojo Moyes wrote a riveting story and I found myself listening to it almost non-stop. It was really hard to put it down. These women were brave and so determined to bring literacy to the poorest Kentucky families. For more information on these devoted librarians, check out this article.

Speaking of libraries, a few months ago I mentioned I was looking for some volunteer work within this new community I moved to. I joined the Friends of the Library for the Port Orchard library. So far, I have been working on Wednesday mornings sorting and shelving books in the Friends of the Library bookshop. I am throughly enjoying this and the group of women are very fun to work alongside. The group provides the funds for the children’s and teen programs in the library. I have long been a huge fan of public libraries and this is a good fit for me.

Shall we take a look at how Minnie Mouse might fit into the conversation here?

Several weeks ago, I was in JoAnn’s and came across this Minnie Mouse fusible appliqué. I didn’t know what I would make with it but I bought it anyway. My youngest grand daughter is currently obsessed with Minnie so I knew I would come up with something fun to make with Minnie. We are going to the kids’ house this weekend to celebrate A’s 3rd birthday. Now seemed to be a good time to put Minnie to use. I knew I had several remnants of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse fabric in the bin of novelty fabrics.

After a bit of thought, I decided to make a book bag for her. She goes to the library fairly often and this will be a fun way to carry her books back and forth. Before I constructed the bag, I fused the appliqué to some bright yellow fabric. Then that bit was fused to the outside of the bag and stitched down with a satin stitch on the machine. Before sewing the lining to the outside, I fused some batting scraps to the fabric and quilted a few straight lines to hold things in place. The straps are also filled with fusible batting.

I did get a bit carried away and made this book bag a little too big. If it is really filled, she may need Dad to help carry it. I think she will be excited when she sees her favorite mouse!

Now that my round robin quilt is finished, I have pulled out another project to work on.

RSC 2021 Blocks

These diamond blocks were made in 2021 as Rainbow Scrap challenge blocks. I love the blocks and finally have the time to finish this quilt. They are all going to be sashed with white and there will be six inch blocks of white separating the blocks in each column. I’ll share more on this soon. Makes me happy to be playing with these again!

As you all know, Julia is at her happiest when playing in the barns with the pigs. This photo just makes me laugh. Doesn’t this silly boar look like he wants to come out and play with Julia? Honestly, she takes the best pictures of these funny animals.

That’s it for now – Enjoy your day and I will do the same!

Linking up with a few favorites – check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Round Robin Finish

Today’s finish leaves me slightly astounded. If you have been reading my posts for any length of time, you know I am not one for finishing a QAL in a timely fashion. This is clearly evidenced by the quilt top I made for the Mosaic Mystery QAL back in 2019 which still awaits completion. The quilt top is so pretty too! The poor thing deserves to be finished. Well, this year I have been trying to change all of this. I decided to start finishing up the projects that have languished. Additionally, I have been working really diligently to use up the fabric on hand (of which there is a large supply).

My fabric stack for the Morewood Mystery Quilt

Further illustrating my point is the stack of fabric I had selected for the next QAL I was going to join. This photo was taken in August 2020. I went so far as to cut most of the pieces and stitch up a large number of half square triangles before I realized I just wasn’t into it. Not sure what happened but I didn’t like where it was headed. Then the pieces sat in a project bag until SAHRR 2023 began. Not knowing exactly how this round robin would work out, I promised myself to use as many of these cut up pieces as possible. It worked out well and I was able to utilize every HST I had made! Of the pieces I had cut for the Morewood Mystery, remaining are a large stack of six inch squares cut in the orange and green batik and an even larger stack of 2″ x 6″ rectangles of the polka dot fabric. These three together should work in some design for another quilt so they are bundled together for future use. Overall, I am super pleased with how many bits were used for the round robin.

Here is a shot of the entire quilt. It is quite joyful to me. This quilt is so colorful and a maybe a bit on the crazy side with the variety of pieces and types of blocks included in it.

There are loads of different quilting motifs used on the quilt. My only plan was to treat each border or section uniquely. I haven’t done lots of free motion quilting lately. In an effort to finish some projects, I have relied on quicker straight line quilting.

To ensure a reasonable level of success, I have been practicing a bit. Also, I have been doodling on a large whiteboard I keep in the sewing room for this. (Do you have one? It is a great way to practice the designs before actually sewing. Doodle, erase and doodle some more!) Above you can see some daisies, stippling and my interpretation of ribbon or ribbon candy on the right.

My favorite motif I used is a flower which I quilted on the center of each square in a square block. Those were super fun and once I got going they were not difficult at all. I did a fair amount of stitching in the ditch as well. Not every bit of the quilt has been quilted down which leaves it nice and soft.

For the backing I used a width of this red print leftover from my shop. I have quite a bit of this – maybe another five yards. It is likely you’ll see this on the back of a few more quilts. Because the quilt ended up being 48″ wide, I had to add a narrow stripe of white to each side. I also have about three more yards of the polka dot fabric (leftover from the shop) and used some of it to bind the quilt.

I did not have a quilt holder available because Ray has been down with a virus all week. Instead, I used the front porch here.

This shot is in a wooded area in our front yard. I like taking outdoor shots when it is a bit overcast. The colors are so accurate here.

This round robin was so much fun and way out of my norm. The fact that I didn’t know what was coming next and no sizes were dictated to me was a stretch. Working this way taught me a lot. While I don’t want to pick apart my finished quilt and decide what I don’t like about it, there are a few takeaways that I hope to remember next time. Learning from each project is a good thing though. Isn’t that how we continue to make progress?

Thank you Gail for dreaming up this event back during the days of lockdown and loneliness. I am super happy I joined in this year and am already crossing my fingers you will host it again next year! (Please???)

Linking up with the final link party (tomorrow) over at Quilting Gail’s as well as Oh Scrap!. I hope you will check out the other SAHRR finishes. It is incredible to see the variety of interpretations of this event. Really amazing.

There is still plenty of time to purchase your ticket to the Color Mixer event coming up on March 30th! If you want to read more about this virtual class, the details are here.

SAHRR Round 6

Woohoo – The final round of the Stay at Home Round Robin is finished and I have a quilt top! This was a super fun event for me and I am so happy Gail thought of this during early Covid days and continued it with a growing popularity.

Gail chose the block for the last round and it is pinwheels. Without any sort of plan, I separated any remaining HST’s from that stack of old prepared bits I have been trying to use up. Then I made pinwheels with them.

After this set of pinwheels I also made some with red/polka dot HST’s. Each set of pinwheel blocks finished at different sizes. I decided the green and blue pinwheels were too small, the blue and polka dot were too big but, of course, the red and polka dot were……………… Just Right! Next I set aside the tiny green/blue version – they will be used elsewhere because they are super cute. The blue pinwheels were trimmed down to 4 1/2″ to match the red version. While I do have quite a bit of the batiks remaining from that previous project, I used each and every HST I had already made. That is a big win for me!

To add length, but not width, I made a top and bottom border with the pinwheels.

The finished top! Next up for this project is to give it a solid pressing and baste it. I prepared the backing already. The width is 46″ so I had to add two narrow strips to my backing to have a wide enough piece.

This was a very fun project – one I learned a lot from. I will be back before the March 13th deadline with a finished quilt!!

For now, linking up with Oh Scrap and Quilting Gail.

Just in case you didn’t know, March 1st was National Pig Day (don’t worry, I didn’t know either). But you can bet Julia knew. 🙂

Comfort Quilts – Who Really Benefits?

It is no secret I enjoy making quilts for other people. I have given them as birthday, wedding, baby and “just because” gifts. But my favorite thing is making comfort quilts. Making a quilt for a person who is going through a rough time for whatever reason is the most rewarding sort of quilting. I love the idea of imagining this person who is sad or feeling blue receiving a handmade gift. The person then knows there is a another person, somewhere out in the universe who felt the desire to lessen their pain even the tiniest bit by spending time making something for them.

Who knows whether this person would understand the time it takes to make a quilt? Or if this person knows there is expense put out to make this gift? That isn’t the issue. For me it is all about wanting this person to have a positive experience in the midst of a negative time in their life.

The quilt I am sharing today happened due to some crazy team work. Somewhere a quilter made the 16 patch blocks. I can tell these blocks were made quite some time ago. They were frayed at the edges and a wrinkled mess. Along the way, the first quilter decided they couldn’t finish the quilt for whatever reason. The blocks were then passed along to another quilter who promised to make a comfort quilt with them. Then these poor blocks languished for a long while, making the second quilter feel a bit guilty for not getting it done. She posted on Instagram that she would send them to anyone who would promise to finish up her promised task. I raised my hand quickly (on Instagram of course) and she mailed the blocks to me. (She actually mailed two sets of unfinished blocks and I have the second set out and ready to work on).

Due to my move up to Washington last spring, it took me some time to get to these blocks but I finally did. Looking at the blocks closely I saw they needed some work. I squared them and reinforced many seams that were coming apart. Next, I set them on point with a solid navy blue background. After laying them out, I realized I would have a few blocks left over. I used them as the border. The fabric was already fraying so I didn’t want to unpick the seams. Instead, I just stitched the blocks in a column and then sliced long strips. (Does that make sense)?? That made a nice border for the quilt.

Straight line quilting makes things easy.

I used this super cute print (I think it was a Moda fabric?). I remember buying it last fall when I was at a fabric sale for a local sewing group. I had gone to that sale looking for pieces large enough to use as backings and this was one of the pieces I picked up.

Zooming in on the backing so you can see it better, check out the cute birds, oak leaves and acorns. I really like this piece and used just over half of it for the backing.

As a result of three quilters working together another quilt will be donated soon. First I want my daughter in law to see this one and the quilt I recently made as part of the Villa Rosa Designs blog hop. Unfortunately, a woman my DIL works with just went out on leave because her husband has terminal cancer and is now under hospice care. My DIL asked me for a quilt for them and I am very pleased to give her one of these.

How about you? Do you get a strong positive feeling making quilts for a person unknown to you? It sends much needed kindness out into the universe. There are many organizations who want quilts such as these for their clients or patients. It makes me happy to participate and do what I can to fill that need. Working with two other anonymous quilters, together we made one more quilt.

Linking up with my favorites – check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.