Final Finishes of 2023

Brumous is finished.

64" x 64"

Created using the Happy Stripes pattern from Quilty Love.

Quilted with all over liberated spirals using Glide thread in German Granit.

Here is the pieced backing which used up the rest of the wintery gnome fabrics.

I also used up quite a few of the leftover 2.5" strips in the scrappy binding.

And here it is on the kitchen table.

Khaki season is here, hence the brown yard (the grass will green again, but not until spring).

Here's a closer look so you can enjoy the quilted texture.

Gnomeville, our new January dining room wall quilt, is also finished.

24" wide x 36" long.

(no outdoor photos for either one since it has been wet and cold)

And, unsurprisingly, there were leftover pieces and parts from the two projects.

At this point, they're sewed together into a long slab that will become a runner.

The top, back, batting, and binding strips are ready to go, but FMQ and finishing will not happen until next year.

* * *

I'll be back on Sunday with my end-of-the year recap.

Quiltdivajulie

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"We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection.  With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock."

Queen Elizabeth II

FMQ Progress

The FMQ stitching is finished on Gnomeville . . . 

and the FMQ stitching on Brumous is underway (shown here after first session).

This is where things stood just before lunchtime.

* * *

Break's over - time to get back to it!

Quiltdivajulie

Catching Up

Brumous has reached flimsy (quilt top) status.  

Shown here draped over the foyer stairway divider just after being pressed.

Here's a detail photo of the top laid out on my drafting/cutting table just prior to being rolled onto a pool noodle, in preparation for pin basting.

I also stitched together the WOF yardage for the two sides of the backing (shown here folded in half to save space).  

I'll get those columns pressed, seam the two together, press their seam, and then roll the back onto a pool noodle (hopefully today, if all goes well).

I've also done a bit more work on my December journal.  

This Santa photo was taken on December 1, so that was the perfect spot to include it.  

I have ordered prints of each year's 'Little Man with Santa' photo to tuck into the other pockets on this page (they're layered behind the one you can see).

I mailed our Christmas cards on December 5, so I included one of the cards on that day's page along with the "labels" from the booklets of stamps I used along with one of our return address labels (edited for sharing here).

And I tucked the info tags from my two new Christmas cacti into a pocket on one of last Friday's pages along with a bit of their foil pot wrapper.

To those of you who have grown Christmas cactus longer than I have - please reassure me that it's normal for some of the unopened buds to fall off after the plants have finished traveling from the grower to grocery store to my house - or tell me what I'm doing wrong to cause them to drop off.

My mom used to fuss at us girls not to bump her cactus so we wouldn't make the buds fall off - but no one has bumped these since they've been at our house.  

Finally, we celebrated an early Christmas with elder son and family yesterday.  Little Man L-O-V-E-S his new freestyle scooter (and after just once around the block he asked to go to the skate park - his favorite place to scooter).

Quiltdivajulie

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"Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection."

Winston Churchill

Monday Update

Little Man spent Friday with us since there was an in-service day at his school while Mommy and Daddy had to go to work.

After baking peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars with Dee Dah, he asked about making a quilt for his penguin stuffy (gifted by Mommy to Daddy years ago when they first started dating).

So . . . a bit of leftover Dr. Seuss coinage became the base.  And since the penguin likes red, this stripe was an obvious choice for the border, sashing strip, and binding.

Here's the four patch back (he couldn't decide which red/white he liked best so I offered this compromise which he happily accepted).

16.5" x 19"

I decided to use this thread for Inglenook.

And I'll use this one for Gnomeville and Brumous.

* * *

Despite all my positive/wishful thinking, the knee/leg is not getting better enough so I have an appointment with my ortho doc tomorrow.  

In the meantime, I've spent quite a bit of time working on my slow stitch journal.  

Only two final sections to stitch before I can re-assemble the book.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them."

Eeyore (A.A. Milne)

I Sewed

I did a bit of block rearranging, then clipped the blocks so I could web the top of Brumous, our January kitchen table quilt.

(the binding strips belong to Gnomeville - the dining room wall quilt)

And rather than put the remaining gnome fabric back into the stash, I decided to use it in a scrappy pieced backing.  The other grays came straight from the stash - so this back will be a win-win.

I'll sew each of the two sides together top to bottom and trim the width before attaching the two halves.

AND the blocks are webbed in one direction.

I'll wait a day or so to finish the webbing process so I don't over-tax my knee/leg.  It's doing better (more or less) and I don't want to jinx anything.

While I waited for the leg to improve, I did some work on my December journal.

I bought this A5 binder to simplify the whole process and customized the cover using a magazine cut out centered on self-stick red felt.

This is the cover page for December 1.  

The daily tabs are 2" watercolor paper circles hand-numbered 1 through 31.

I used a variety of scrapbook papers for the 31 cover pages, just to keep things interesting.

This is the back of that first cover page - I love how the quote encapsulates my December philosophy and quietly lays the foundation for this journal.

And, if you can handle another Santa photo, Little Man had the most marvelous experience with Mr. Claus last night.  

I was so happy I was there to share in his joy.

* * *

Back again when I have more progress to share.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Do what makes you feel sparkly inside."

Jane Lee Logan

More Pieces of Progress

The blocks for Brumous, the new January kitchen table quilt, are made and up on the design wall.

I want to do some re-arranging to eliminate the too dark blobs before clipping the blocks together so I can web the quilt top.

Gnomeville, the January dining room wall quilt, is pin basted (at long last).

And Inglenook is finally pin basted as well.

By chance, I happened upon the website of Ali Manning - Vintage Page Designs and the Handmade Book Club.

I watched her washi tape journal mini class and had a brainstorm.

What if I took five of my old daily stitching progress journals (that I've never once referred back to) and used them to make ROYGBIV journals/glue books as a long term project (and as a way to use up the Rolodex color wheel snippets once that project is done).

I used her method and some of my washi tape to transform the covers.

I have set aside a small basket for each of these so I can add bits and pieces as I find them - but I have promised myself I won't start in earnest until the 207 remaining pairs of Rolodex cards are collaged. 

On a related note, does anyone else feel guilty when they pull colorful Color Catchers from the washer and go to toss them in the trash?  

I have kept some of mine but wasn't sure how to use them for anything.

Until now.

Another washi tape journal cover with a repurposed file folder as the base is drying as I type.

Here's the inside cover.  

I think I might stitch some fabric snippets to the sheets before the two signatures (total of 8 color catchers) are sewn into the cover. 

Time will tell.

For now, it is back to the sewing studio . . .  

Quiltdivajulie

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"An artist is an explorer."

Henri Matisse

Thirteen Divided by Three Equals

There are thirteen seams in each Dumpster Diving 12 - Confetti slab.

There are three seams in each Brumous strip set.  

So by stitching one Brumous seam as a leader-ender between each DD12 seam, there are four full Brumous strip sets sewn (plus one extra seam) for each DD12 slab.

I need to sew up nine more slabs for DD12 blocks - layout four wide by five long plus sashing.

At this point there are less than 20 Brumous strip sets remaining.

Nine blocks x thirteen seams equals 117 seams and 117 seams divided by 3 seams equals 39 strip sets.

Since I don't have that many strip sets yet to piece for Brumous, I've marked the corner squares to start snowballing one corner per 8.5" block.  

Brumous will be needed come January first, so I am delighted to see the top finally moving forward.  

DD12 can be finished any time after the first of the year - so once the last nine slabs are sewn, pressed, and squared I will take all twenty blocks off the design wall and focus on the layout for Brumous.  

(and I quite like alternating seams full of dramatic contrast between the bright saturated colors of DD12 and the restful neutrals of Brumous . . . )

Quiltdivajulie

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"We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment is a miracle and a mystery."

H.G. Wells

This, That, and More

The first thing I needed to do was to sew the rows together for Smaragdine since they were sitting on top of my sewing table and it was easier to just finish the top than put the parts away.

24" wide x 45" long

After the first of the year I'll quilt and finish this one to use on our dining room wall in March.

Here's a close up of the sewn-together 3" squares.

The pieced squares came from my abandoned Lancaster Diamonds project (click here to read more).

I also had the last batch of prepared strips for Dumpster Diving 12 - Confetti's next group of blocks laying on the sewing table.

Now they are sorted and clipped into groups of 14 strips to make the next nine blocks (and it is far easier to move those clipped groups out of the way than 126 already pressed strips).

There are 7 blocks on the design wall plus these next 9, meaning I still need to prepare enough additional 14" lengths to make the final 4 blocks for my needed total of 20.

Once both of those projects were cleared off the sewing table, I started pieced short strip sets (previously sorted) for our new January kitchen table quilt.

I think it took me longer to press these 20 slabs than it did to sew them together (not really, but sewing is much more fun than pressing).  

I need to prepare 64 slabs before I can start on the next step . . .

And outside the studio, I have finished the first two of twelve pages for my slow stitching aka waiting room project.

Each individual page will feature threads from the same group of neutral Perle cottons (no. 5) but the design will be different for each one.

This page features vertical rows of kantha-stytle stitching.

The second page involved more thread changes and multiple stitch orientations.  

I'm not sure how I'll approach the next page, but I'm thinking about some sort of circle or spiral design (maybe with a large vintage button in the center).

If you'd like to see other projects where I've done similar kinds of slow stitching, please click on that label at the end of this post.

* * *

Little Man is spending Saturday and Sunday with us - I'm hoping for some rock painting or watercolor fun this visit instead of starting another Camp Sefton quilt since there's already one design from a previous visit that is filed away for "someday". . . 

Quiltdivajulie

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"Organizing is what you do before you start something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up."

A.A. Milne

Progress Comes in Many Forms

I did manage to get two more blocks sewn for Dumpster Diving 12 - Confetti, but not until Wednesday afternoon.

While the iron was on, I pressed the various sections for January's dining room wall quilt - Gnomeville.  

As it turned out, the panel I thought I would add to widen the backing is not going to be needed so it will become a runner on its own.

I spent a morning sorting already-cut strips for January's new kitchen table quilt named Brumous (adjective meaning "of gray skies and winter days").

There will be sixty-four 8" (finished) blocks in the 64" x 64" quilt, hence the stack of plated strips.

Click HERE to read about my series of Kitchen Table Quilts if you aren't familiar with them.

In other news, DH hung up the artisan-made lavender Icelandic glass star that the kids give me for my birthday last month.   (They brought it home with them earlier in the year after their adventure in Iceland)

* * *

October and November are the months for a number of annual doctor appointments - so far all of my test results have been good.  

Two more to go - fingers crossed that the run of "good results" continues.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Being okay if it happens and okay if it doesn't is a very powerful place to be."

Kate Eckman