Project Quilting 17.4 - Art Deco

When I saw this week's Project Quilting 17.4 Of Another Era challenge, the first thing that popped in my mind was art deco.  Maybe it was from the quilting I was working on for my mystery quilt.  Or maybe from some paper patterns I had tucked away.  Rob pitched a few other ideas at me and we brainstormed for a bit.  But as Thursday rolled around and nothing grabbed me, I pulled out the paper piece pattern and settled on a mug rug.

I have some teal fabric I've been wanting to use, so I settled on teal, black and gold.  The paper pieced fans aren't quite art deco, but close enough to fit the bill.  Each square is four inches.  I knew I wanted to set it on point and nestle them next to each other... so the rest of the layout kind of grew from that. 

I still have some lovely shiny rayon thread from my sister's quilt, which seemed the perfect thing to quilt it.  Added a flange binding with some more teal and it's done!

Some Winter Highlights

Winter finally arrived in force in January between the snow and the cold.  I'm happy to see the snow (but I'm also happy to see a little daylight at 5pm).   I've gotten out a few times for local skiing and snowshoeing.  It's been lovely.  I don't like dismal grey winters.

This year the snowblower (and Rob) has gotten a workout.  Check out that plume!  

Project Quilting 17.3 - Seahorse Postcard

 

I struggled for a few days with this week's Project Quilting challenge:  the year of the horse.  I was to find inspiration from the turn of the year, in the animal, in our hopes and desires for the near future.  I like horses, but not for quilting.  I looked at different things to applique and did a leap sideways - how about a seahorse?  That grabbed me.

I was amused to see two others post seahorse project before I finished mine.  So instead of a Fire Horse, I have a Fire Seahorse.  I quilted it with shiny gold and added quilted seaweed around it.  I like it! 

Neutral Mug Rugs

I'm currently quilting my mystery quilt that I started last spring.  I followed the clues for the rectangular baby quilt although I intended to create a square wall hanging.  So there were extra pieces when I finished the final clue. 

 

Mini Wonky NYB

I wrapped up my mini wonky NYB which I am submitting for Small Works at Hope & Feathers.  The finished work measures six inches across.

It was a challenge!  Making the paper-pieced pattern wasn't difficult.  However, I painted myself into the proverbial corner in a few places that did not piece together well.  The small curves also proved to be challenging.

I have a rule on restitching a seam: I can rip it out twice and the third time stitching is final, even if it doesn't look right.  I figure if I can't fix it in that many tries, it's not going to work (and I'll only end up ruining the fabric in that spot).  As you can see, my outer circle isn't quite round and I hit my 2-to-3 rule in several places.  

Project Quilting 17.2 - Plaid Postcard

This week's Project Quilting challenge is plaid - plaid needs to be featured in the project. I don't have any plaid fabric, so I made some... or at least I tried. A few years ago I made a mug rug from trimmings by weaving them together and quilting over it. I decided to make a plaid postcard with the same idea. I cut a bunch of eighth-inch strips of black, red and white, then wove them together.

Getting There

I've made progress on my Small Works entry.  I'm honestly amazed it's gone together as well as it has.  So many tiny pieces and those little curves.  I ended up not liking the blue centers, so I swapped them to gold after I took this photo.  I chose a medium dark blue for the edges.  Final assembly ended up being more challenging than I anticipated.  It will just squeeze onto the 6-inch board.

Picking colors for NYB is a challenge - I'm never sure how it will look until it's all put together.  I bet this design would look great in seasonal colors.  But after getting this one totally together I am not prepared to do another one in its place.  Ideas for next year, though!  

Now I need to figure out how to quilt this one so I can submit it! 

Evolution

 

I'm working on my Small Works submission.  What could I do in a six inch square?  I started with a NYB block, but then moved to a wonky NYB circles.  I'm nuts.  I've picked fabrics and cut out my paper pieces.  We'll see how it goes!

 

 

The full-on creative process gets messy.  Stuff everywhere!  Two sewing machines out and in use.  I am free motion quilting some small stuff I had sandwiched a couple of months ago as well as piecing the Small Works project.

Project Quilting 17.1 - Window Runner

This year's Project Quilting has begun.  The first challenge is called "A Clean Slate" - in which we pick a project that aligns to whatever a clean slate means to us.  As I was thinking chalkboards, Rob reminded me that I was going to make a runner for our kitchen window and suggested a whole-cloth quilt.  Oddly enough, a whole-cloth quilt was one of the suggestions in the challenge post.  Then, as I was considering how quickly off-white fabric might stain, Rob said to use a solid color with white thread... and I immediately snapped back to my thoughts on chalkboards.  Black and white it is!

Our kitchen window is a great place to put plants in the winter but I found some of the planters left marks on the paint.  I've added a variety of coasters under them, then we thought a single runner might be a good solution.   

Finishes for 2025

My finished quilts for 2025 are few and far between.  That will change for 2026 for I am currently working on seven quilts, including mug rugs and a few wall hangings.  Next year is shaping up to be a banner year.  

But what I didn't accomplish in volume, I did in SIZE. 

My first set of finishes were all part of this year's Project Quilting:  three post cards, a pair of bowl cozies, an apron (that I love), and a wall hanging.  I worked on these a week at a time between my big, king-sized project...

First Round of Cleanup

 

Now that Winter Stars is out of my sewing room, I'm making progress on the piles of projects that are scattered about.  

I started this mystery quilt back in March for a QAL from the Canuck Quilter.  I worked as far as the reveal, then set it aside until now.  I've recently added borders, made a flange binding (coiled in the lower left) and sandwiched it ready for quilting.  

Project Quilting 16.5 - Arrow Postcard

This week's Project Quilting challenge needed to include an arrow shape.  I considered making a wall hanging, but I needed this to be a quick project.  After a bit of research I ended up playing with two variations of the Arkansas Traveler block.  I made my own tiny paper-pieced template, picked out some scrap and made some arrows.  

Tried out a couple of new things with this postcard.  I cut a wider binding (1¼ inch) and also sewed the binding closer to the edge (a fat ⅛ inch).  I had to update my notes - don't need the wider binding if I stitch it so close to the edge.  But for once I had too much fabric rather than too little to work with.  I also used fusible web to tack down the back side of the binding - that worked so much better than glue.  Will certainly use that in the future. 

Sharing with:
Persimon Dreams - Project Quilting 16.5
Melva Loves Scraps - Sew & Tell
My Quilt Infatuation - Needle & Thread Thursday
A Quiltery - Put Your Foot Down Thursday
Alycia Quilts - Finished or Not Friday
Nina-Marie - Off the Wall Friday

Project Quilting 16.3 - Common Block Postcard

This week's Project Quilting challenge was common blocks - block designs that have been around for so long no one knows who "invented" them.  We had to have a finished project with at least three common blocks.

The challenge didn't fit with any of my backlogged projects, so I settled on another postcard.  To keep from getting bogged down with too many blocks I looked at only 4-patch block patterns.  Then I pilfered the pile of black-and-white scrap from my current Midnight Garden project and got to work. 

My original plan was six two-inch blocks in the black and grey.  I fiddled with it and got most of them stitched together... and that's when things went off the rails. 

Project Quilting 16.1 - Djinn Postcard

Woot!  Time for a new season of Project Quilting!  Looking over my posts I realized this is my fifth year of participating.  Wow.  

This year's challenges starts out with Mythical Creatures.  So many possibilities!  I spent some time researching various myths and stories: Celtic, Indian, Norse, Greek, Native American.  I wanted to avoid reaching for a dragon or a unicorn.  Then I started thinking of some books I've read in the last year or so that featured djinn.  Of course then there's the problem of rendering and making it small enough to fit on a post card.  So I settled for wisps of smoke coming from a magic lamp.  

Cute.  Quick.  Fun to make. 

Finishes for 2024

This year's finishes was a real mishmash of stuff - a handful of postcards, various quilted objects, a few wall hangings, a baby quilt and a throw quilt - along with some not quilted objects. 

Irish Chain postcard, water bottle holder, flowers for my hair
More postcards: Milky Way, Birdhouse and Time Flies

I have been really enjoying Project Quilting - this year's challenges resulted in most of my mini pieces.  I created four new postcards, which were a blast to dream up and assemble.  I finally made a water bottle holder for myself (that's been on my project list for years).  I also completed two wall hangings - the citrus one was one of the challenges, whereas Marmalade used up all the leftover citrus wedges.  My last mini piece(s) were flowers for my hair to go with my dancing outfits.

A Quick Trip to the Fair

I entered two quilts in the Franklin County fair.  I'll be coming home with two blue ribbons.  How exciting!  I think they made notes on the back, so I'm looking forward to that.

My mother and I looked at several beautiful quilts and interesting arts and crafts.  There was a huge cathedral windows quilt (that I didn't think to photograph).  As we were admiring it, the woman who made it stopped by and asked if we had questions.  Oh, yes!  We found out it took 12 years to make.  I can believe that - there were so many little squares.  They were hand pieced, then machine sewn together.

Project Quilting 15.6 - Irish Chain Postcard

The last Project Quilting challenge of the season looked so easy on the surface:  create a quilt using or inspired by an Irish Chain pattern.  The buck-basic chain pattern is nothing more than 9-patch squares.  So I dug through my square scraps, looked at my project list, and decided to tackle a sweatshirt jacket I've been wanting to do.  All the jacket examples on Pinterest were overwhelming, so this seemed as good a choice as any other.  

I calculated yardage, cut apart a sweatshirt and figured my basic layout. It was a somewhat ambitious project to finish in a week.  I focused on making the blocks first so if I was running out of time I could switch to making a baby quilt.  Excellent.  No problem.

Right.  I'd like to point out that the title of this blog post contains neither the word "jacket" nor "baby".

Two Kinds of Marmalade

I'm calling this quilt Marmalade, since it was created with my Citrus Quilt leftovers.  It's a smallish quilt, roughly 16x24" - perfect for hanging on the wall or the front door.  I found a nice piece of blue just the right size for the background.  The layout left a lot of empty blue in the upper right corner that begged to be filled.  Perhaps some appliqued circles?  Naw - needed more squiggles.  

I have often admired quilts that continue the pattern of the piecing or applique into the quilting.  I've always wanted to try that - and this was my opportunity.  I found some yellow, green and orange thread, drew a rough outline of what I wanted and started quilting. 

What do you think?  Really fun.  It looks better in person.

In Progress and Reworked

I finished the weekly clue for the two color mystery quilt.  One of a few finishes this week.  I'll be curious what comes next!

Project Quilting 15.4 - Time Flying Postcard

I made another postcard for Project Quilting's 15.4 challenge - Hourglass.  The challenge required an hourglass shape.  The first thing that popped into mind was an hourglass with wings.  Sure - I'll roll with that.

My first idea was to make it symmetrical with the wings on either side, but I had a hard time fitting everything on a 4x6" card.  This is what I came up with.  Time flies when you're having fun!

Sharing with:
Persimon Dreams - Project Quilting 15.4