September Monthly Recap

September was a month filled with pondering, planning, stash shopping, and stitching.

Studio Squirrels Exhibit A  - the quilt top and scrappy pieced backing for Ludiosis were started and finished, neither of which were seriously on the radar until after the first of the year.

The long-planned set of twelve new pillows achieved a major milestone with the top slabs stitched and the batting and backing for those slabs cut.  Next month I'll get them sandwiched, quilted, and trimmed to size before cutting any of the pillow envelope backing pieces.   The goal is to have them in use by early November.

The vacuum sealed pillow forms were released from their packages and are expanding while the rest of the process proceeds.

Exhibit B for the studio squirrels is Candy Corn - a gift project that saw a quilt top and a finished quilt started/completed during the second half of September.

Exhibit B-Part 2 is the long runner made using the three extra columns from Candy Corn.  

On the intentional side of things, Rastro (the second bonus quilt from the Macnas series) became a finished quilt.

Githerments, the third bonus quilt from the Macnas series, was pin basted and is ready for quilting/binding in October with thread chosen and bobbins wound.

Motley, the fourth bonus quilt top from the Macnas series, was donated to Many Hands and Many Hearts along with yardage I had planned to use for binding.

September saw plans come together and significant prep work for several sets of seasonal utility mats and placemats.  

The squares cut for December's set of reversible utility mats (posted here) have now been sorted into groups for 5 top slabs and 5 back slabs ready for piecing.  Batting and binding strips were also cut.

(Above) Six 

tops (gray print), six backs (spotted black), and six pieces of batting were cut this month with lots of binding made for a second 

set of January placemats.  

I pulled this gathering of pieces from the resource boxes to make a companion set of five utility mats for January.

The scrappy tops will be pieced using these fabrics and the backs will be cut from companionable yardage (pulled but not shown).

I finished this pair of gift pillowcases on the 29th making them the last project of September.

Finally - squirrel Exhibit C - introducing Dug.

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Stay tuned for lots more stitching/quilting/binding during October. 

Quiltdivajulie

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"Little by little, one travels far."

J.R.R. Tolkien

Welcome to the Studio

Welcome to the studio, Dug.

Given that he's the one who uttered "Squirrel!" in the movie UP, it seemed only fitting that he join up with my studio squirrels.

(birthday present from younger son who gets my squirrel-y sense of humor)

I used the three extra columns from Candy Corn and turned them into a 15" x 70" runner for our dining room buffet as part of our October seasonal decor.  

Quilted with Glide thread in Raven (deep purple) using closely spaced uneven wavy lines.

Candy Corn is now pin basted and the bobbins for Max are wound.

The goal is to get this one quilted and finished so it can be gifted during Sunday's family dinner. 

* * *

This was my "big" birthday present from DH . . . I haven't even begun to figure out all the things it can do but I have managed to customize the screen photos using several of my own pictures.  

One step at a time.

Quiltdivajulie

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"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things."

Henry Ward Beecher

July Recap

Last month I spent time sorting and restacking the yardage in my stash.

There was also considerable editing done, along with culling scraps in the resource boxes.

This photo shows just how much space was cleared as a result.  The right half of the third shelf down is no longer filled with fabric.  

That same right half on the bottom four shelves no longer houses fabrics but a few magazines waiting to be harvested for my journal making adventures.

(the stacked drawer unit and Raskog cart were also cleaned up/out since the paper stuff accumulates even faster than fabric does)

I pulled out these fabrics to make a set of six reversible placemats for September.  

These fabrics were set aside to make a set of five utility mats for our December living room.

And these greens from the stash/resource boxes will become a set of six placemats for use next March.  The reverse side will be made using blocks Lynne sent after finishing her Field of Dreams quilt.

Ruska, a gift quilt, was quilted and finished.

Paint Party, no. 12 of 13 in the Macnas series, was quilted and finished.

And Yutori, no. 13 of 13 quilts in the Macnas series was quilted and finished.

There was also a squirrel invasion in July that led to this quilt top named Nimiety.

I also created Nimiety's scrappy pieced backing.  Both the top and backing are currently rolled onto pool noodles to be pin basted and quilted sometime this month.

No photos for this but I also emptied and sorting the overflowing box of leftover quilt backings and assorted other bits and pieces into six different project boxes for future quilts inspired by designs/patterns I've stashed but never used.   I don't plan to dig into any of these until next year aside from some cutting of pieces and parts as time permits.  But after staying so focused on finishing, it felt good to make plans for new scrappy adventures.

I also moved the two studio plants outdoors for the summer and changed the lower curtain fabric (the other yardage had faded over its 3 year life in that window).

The nearly 5-week month and lots of hot steamy weather that kept us indoors clearly made for more studio time than usual.

* * *

And because today is August 1, here's the monthly photo of our back yard.  The grass is the greenest it will get this summer, the neighbor's crape myrtle adds a big pop of color, our black eyed Susans are at their peak, the azalea bush has grown and filled in so much in the last month, the coleus in the large pot are thriving, but the in-ground hostas as struggling with the intense heat and hot sun but they'll recover later in the year when the weather moderates.   

(The temporary fence is there because we've had the grand-dog for the last two weeks.  Keeping her out of the dirt makes life much easier, especially when the dirt turns to mud.) 

Quiltdivajulie

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"Clutter is the enemy of clarity."

Julie Cameron

Random Progress Teasers

Since taking this WIP photo, Nimiety has become a full fledged flimsy.  

Once the finished top has been pressed, I'll get a photo of it on the design wall.

I've also constructed a seriously scrappy pieced backing for Nimiety. 

It, too, needs to be pressed before I take flat-ish photos of it.

It has felt SO good to actually USE some of the leftover backing pieces and fabrics from the resource boxes; and in doing so,  I've found my next liberated scrappy mission once the remaining Macnas series/bonus quilts are finished -- LOTS more scrappiness and hopefully a lot less overthinking.

While digging in the stash, I pulled these fabrics to make a set of reversible placemats for September when our seasonal theme is sunflowers and apples.   

I also pulled yardage to make a new set of five reversible utility mats for our December living room (fireplace mats, end table toppers, and a runner for the cedar chest).  

The current set is six years old and I'm very tired of the print I chose back then.  Clearly I have the fabric to make another set, so that's what I shall do.

* * *

Elsewhere in the studio, I've made the bindings for Nimiety, Ruska, and  Yutori.  

Ruska will get pin basted this weekend -  right after I finish the rest of yet another edit/sort of the stash.  

Quiltdivajulie

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"It is a happy talent to know how to play."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Studio Improvement

This is the top of the drawer unit that sits beside Max's table.  

For the longest time, I've used two utility mats made using leftovers from previous quilts on that top.  

Not ideal but it was what I had on hand.

When I finished Xanadu (reveal post with photos coming soon), I had eight four-patch HST sets leftover.

AHA - they would make a single mat just the right size . . .

And so I used those leftover blocks, leftover binding, leftover backing, and the same thread to make this 12" x 24" utility mat.

And this is how the top looks after the upgrade.  

Fluffy approves and so do I.

The smaller of the two removed utility mats now sits happily under the bobbin drawer unit at the back corner of Max's table.  

I've used this mug mat under Max's bobbin winder ever since Max arrived.  

Seeing these in the background as I quilt makes me happy.

I'm happy to share that Morning Fog is indeed pin basted and the thread color has been decided.  

The binding fabric (foreground) has been pressed and is ready to be cut into strips.

I might just get this one finished before June ends - stay tuned.  

Quiltdivajulie

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"If happiness happens, say thanks."

Marlene Dietrich

Odds and Ends

Thanks to Winter Storm Fern, I have spent quite a bit of time in the studio since Friday.  The photo above shows the very long runner after the binding was applied.  

(We were fortunate in that we were spared the very worst of the freezing rain, so our power thankfully stayed on.  That said, we are not going out anytime soon.  DH has managed to chip away enough of the drift in front of our frozen down garage door to get one car out in an emergency but the rest of the driveway and the neighborhood streets are solidly covered in layers of ice-coated snow and frozen sleet.   The city is valiantly trying to clear the main roads but it is very slow going with the snow/ice/very low temperature combination.)

The finished runner is now living on the back of the rocking chair in my studio.  

I also had enough uninterrupted sit-and-sew time to sew the top together for Hanabi, Macnas series 10.    Having the second flimsy of this year so quickly behind the first was an unexpected bonus.  

(My focus was helped a lot because I had the sunshade pulled down on my studio window to keep me from looking outside very few minutes to repeatedly check on the weather)

Again, no beauty shots of the finished flimsy (photo taken before pressing). 

Hanabi - a Japanese word for fireworks

As I stitched the rows for Hanabi's top, I used the segments for Rastro, one of the four Macnas series bonus quilts, as my leader-enders.  By the time Hanabi's top was finished, so were all of the segments for Rastro.

Rastro is short for RASTROPHILIOPUSTROCITY is a noun meaning a spontaneous combustion of creative spark that is followed by action in order to manifest and bring into existence.  

Instead of putting the segments (not yet pressed in the photo) back in the project box, I decided to play with a layout on the design wall.  If life cooperates, I'll get this top sewn together before the end of the month.

(Six 6-rectangle segments per column x 13 columns, made with 2" x 4" finished rectangles leftover from previous Macnas quilts, yielding a top measuring roughly 52" x 72")

I'll close with a photo of the drift that formed across the back of our house.  I wonder if any of it will still be visible when I take the next monthly backyard photo on February first?

Quiltdivajulie

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"When the creative pulse sweeps over you, grab it.  You grab it and honor it and use it, because momentum is a rare gift."

Justina Chen 

Another L-O-N-G Runner

In the spirit of moving things along that are nearly finished, I decided to quilt the second long runner made with scraps from Esperance and Haru (first one is HERE).

(I was tired of moving the not-yet-pinbasted-quilt-sandwich bundle)

It seems that Fluffy, the newest member of the studio squirrel clan, is a curious fellow.  He had to get up close when he heard Max working.

And then he insisted on quality testing the freshly quilted runner.

The runner on my studio floor.

12.5" wide by 75" long.

Quilted using Glide thread in Amethyst (top) and an assortment of partially-used bobbins (which emptied three of them).  

I will bind the runner using the backing fabric.

Meanwhile, Fluffy decided to rest in/on the newly pin-basted Trouvaille quilt sandwich.  That's Mischief looking on from the bookshelf and the plate-sorted blocks for Hanabi (Macnas series No. 10) in the green basket.

* * *

Ah yes, the studio squirrels apparently took me seriously about getting things done.

Quiltdivajulie

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"open your day like a squirrel opens the misplaced acorn with purpose curiously ready to devour."

Joey Doherty