Welcome to July

Right end of our mantel 

(the half-gallon canning jars were my maternal grandmother's)

Center of the mantel

This sign encapsulates so much of my Michigan childhood

from herds of holsteins grazing in the fields,

frequent family outings to regional ice creameries, 

my maternal grandfather's stories of life on the farm,

and so much more . . .

. . . including the sign on September's barn

in my book's cover quilt See Rock City. 

Left end of the mantel

Left end of the hearth

Right end of the hearth

Fourth of July (2021) on one living room rocker

Hello July (2021) on the second living room rocker

The cedar chest's orphan block runner

The Kitchen Door Quilt (2016) on one side chair

with a pillow made from Finnish linen purchased 

the summer between my junior-senior year of college 

while I was part of an all-Michigan orchestra tour 

that criss-crossed Finland.

Inspi(RED) (2020) on the second side chair

with a second pillow made from another piece

of that well-aged Finnish linen.

Gotta Love It (2011) on the back of the couch

And Moments in Time (2016) on the back of my recliner

* * *

Wishing each of you a safe (!!) 

and satisfying Fourth of July weekend. 

Quiltdivajulie

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“Purer colors…have in themselves, independently of the objects they serve to express, a significant action on the feelings of those who look at them.”

Henri Matisse

Fourth of July - the Quilt

Fourth of July started back in June of 2019 when

I was inspired by Linda's sharing of the "Bertha" quilt.

 

I raided the stash and cut a lot of 9" squares 

to make a Bertha quilt of my own.

(you can see Linda's quilt top here

and her finished quilt here)

In May 2020 I decided to repurpose my still-unused squares 

into hourglass blocks for the then-current AHIQ challenge.

My quilt top was completed in June 2020.

Now, a year later, Fourth of July is finished.

I'm really pleased with the scrappy pieced back.

Quilted with rows of my liberated fans

using Glide thread in Graphite.

48" x 60"

* * *

Next up for FMQ will be Hello July . . . 

Quiltdivajulie

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“Put on your red shoes and dance the blues.”

David Bowie

Wrap Up and New Goals

Now that all eleven quilts in the

Dumpster Diving series are finished,

I put together a video so I had photos all in one place.

CLICK HERE and enjoy.

(just fyi - this is on DH's YouTube account)

* * *

Now about those goals . . . 

Fourth of July is ready to pin baste for some FMQ action.

So is Hello July.

Fruit Smoothie is also waiting for FMQ 

so it will be ready for use on July 1.

* * *

I'm not sure why but I've been more in the mood

to quilt/finish some of these waiting tops/backs 

than I have been to sit and sew at my Bernina.

I'm still working on my RSC red projects

(lined drawstring gift bags and Hoppipolla)

and here it is almost June when Angela

will announce the next color of the month.

Oh well, it's all good because

every stitch moves something forward.

Quiltdivajulie

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“I never met a color I didn’t like.”

Dale Chihuly

Fourth of July - the Flimsy

The hourglass blocks have become a flimsy 

measuring 48" wide x 60" long.

So many different fabrics . . . 

This kind of scrappy makes my heart happy.

I pieced the eight red-neutral hourglass blocks 

into a panel to widen the backing.

It felt so good to use those aged blue-ish fabrics.

Adding the 21" panel allowed me to slice

my 2 yards of diagonal stripe into 

two slightly different width strips and

end up with a much more interesting backing.

* * *

The top and back are already rolled 

onto two pool noodles,

ready for sandwiching with batting as soon as

I get Frabjous and Fruit Smoothie quilted.

Quiltdivajulie

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“There’s a lot of difference between listening and hearing.”
G.K. Chesterton

Making Progress

A few blocks at a time

Fourth of July is moving from the trimming stage

to hanging out on the design wall.

My only rule for placement is 

not letting any two lights touch each other.

I love that when I look at all 80 blocks

on the design wall I see so much movement

as well as stars and/or pinwheels

depending on where I focus my eyes.

Next step will be to clip these for webbing into a top.

Frabjous made another big leap over the weekend --

it is pin basted and ready for quilting.

I pulled out the remaining plates of strips

to see just how many more slabs need to be pieced

for Dumpster Diving 8 - Bella.

There are only twelve more to go!

And Feisty has undergone a significant design change.

I love the saturated scrappy strips

 and the varying star colors but

for some reason forward motion had stalled.

When I was tidying the studio, my eye fell

on the cover of Bonnie Hunter's latest book -

the one with the cheddar serpentine spiderweb on the cover.

And stalled became motivated to move forward again.

By offsetting the blocks 

Feisty will have some marvelous winding rivers of color

running from top to bottom of the quilt.

And I swear the stars look more sparkly this way.

Onward!

Quiltdivajulie

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An Old Project Becomes New Again

Sometime last year after being inspired by

this post of Linda's at KokaQuilts,

I cut a big batch of reds, blues, and neutrals 

into 9" squares.

I managed to track down the pattern for Bertha

all the way from a quilt group in England.

But then the pattern and the squares

along with the whole idea sat in a box - until this week

when I discovered the box under something else 

I pulled out of the closet.

I decided to forego the Bertha pattern (HSTs)

and make hourglass blocks instead.

(Hourglass blocks are the current challenge

 over at the Ad-Hoc Improv Quilters blog)

The first photo shows 48 sewn-together pairs of squares 

after they were cut apart into 96 HSTs.

(pairs of reds/neutrals and blues/neutrals)

After the big pile of HSTs were pressed open,

I created 48 new pairs and drew lines on the back sides

to prepare for stitching into hourglass blocks.

(the yardage at the top of the photo will be used

to piece together a backing)

This was the stack after the second round

 of stitching and cutting apart.

Instead of standing at my ironing table in the studio,

I took the unpressed blocks outdoors and

set up a sit-down ironing spot on the back porch.

SO much nicer than staying indoors 

on a beautiful spring evening.

* * *

Next step will be to trim the oversize blocks

into uniformly-sized 6.5" squares.

THEN it will be time to arrange them on the design wall.

I've named this project Fourth of July.

(even though this is Memorial Day weekend)

My goal is to have the quilt finished

by the first of July so it is ready

for this year's Independence Day.

Quiltdivajulie

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“When we were young, we were told that poetry is about voice, about finding a voice and speaking with this voice.  But the older I get I think it’s not about voice, it’s about listening and the art of listening, listening with attention.  I don’t just mean with the ear; bringing the quality of attention to the world.  The writers I like best are those who attend.”

Kathleen Jamie