Retreat, Lotsa Sewing, BOM

I worked on this scrap buster at our recent Retreat.  My goal was to use what I had, and also I wanted to do QAYG better. There is not one stitching seam visible on the front.  It's there but almost invisible.   Also, no lumps at the corners.   Below is the back.

Most of the project was completed at the Retreat.  One of the guild liked it and asked me to teach the technique NEXT YEAR (!!!).  Gotta hand it to her planning ability!  

Velma was making these cute shirts at our Retreat.  Her family heritage is from ??? I forgot! and each shirt is made from unique fabric from that country.

Our Retreat tablemate, "C", was using an old, dilapitated Teddy Bear as a pin cushion.  Despite that was none of our business, several of us Retreaters were having difficulty seeing the poor thing with all thos pins in his head.   "C" left the area for several hours and her tablemates took advantage of her absense and gave poor teddy bear oxygen, and a few bandages, and an arm cast made of coffee stirers, hoping he'd come back to a better state of life.  Then, of course, he had to have a quilt, which was gladly produced instantly.  Someone else wrote up Doctor's Order and made a "QUIET" warning.  We were a little concerned if "C" would appreciate the level of care we had risen to, but when she returned, she let out a good laugh.  You'd think we were all 12 years old!   

 

I've shown this previously as a lumpy pile of machine quilting but wanted to have a good photo of what can be done with a simple scrappy Shaded Nine Patch.  I'm satisfied with the finished project and good use of leftover scraps.

This year I volunteered to assist with Guild  Block of the Month presentation.  I did the sewing of samples and a co-worker did the technical computer and EQ work for the handouts.  Members frequently say, "I wish we could see what the BOM blocks look like in a quilt" so we decided to have a finished quilt made from each of the BOM blocks.      

Keepin' On

 I found this little Teddy  at the Dollar Store and he fits nicely into my recent finished kids quilt pocket.  No removable parts or eyes - OK for kids.  With gasoline costs, I'm staying closer to home these days and glad to have a simple Dollar Store nearby.  This little guy is exactly what I wanted, so I purchased several!   

This started as an ordinary Shaded Nine-Patch, meaning I was only planning on making one block.   I made 100 blocks  !!!!! and am close to the last of quilting it.  I did have to purchase several more green FQs.  I was playing with side lit photos in this clip.  I'll post the entire in a few day.  Lots quilty things happening.  Size with borders will be about 64" x 64".

Fall has arrived - had to turn the furnace on this morning.  

It needs a name!

Apparently I've forgotten how to rotate my photos - this is a sideways version, but it's D-O-N-E.  All those triangles went together easily.  It's looking either "watery" or "snakey".  I finished it with a Faux flange binding, hardly visible in this photo.  Opinions for a name?

Below is a kids "I Spy" quilt that started as a Disappearing Nine Patch but it was so overly busy and uncoordinated-looking, that I took every piece apart, trimmed each piece to a more accurate size and finished it up like below.  This was a good lesson to remember "Structure" in a quilt.   This will go to a niece who is a Social Worker Extraordinaire, who always had babies coming and going in her home.  She calls the quilts "mats", because her floors are frequently "crawling" with darling babies of various ages.  Some return home, some are adopted or fostered, etc.  The baby might take a quilt with them if possible.  

I'm showing the back to remind myself to keep on using what I already have using the multitude of cute kids 4-inch squares.  The back still needs a pocket and I'll tuck in a store-bought little teddy bear (child-approved).  

Scraps Be GONE!

No photos - today, I did a BIG procrasting thing.  I emptied, AND TOTALLY DISCARDED one entire storage box of little fabric/quilt parts and pieces - probably over 1000 little saved bits - walked them all the way to the dumpster and dumped them in - non retrievable.  DH always says "one step at a time" and "make every day count."    

Then, in prep for a quilting retreat and trying to come up with a project that wasn't too demanding, I dug out the latest collection of batting and cut up 56 nine inch squares.

OMG - I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my chest.  This feeling of relief was totally unexpected.  Perhaps someone else out there was having the same problem, discarding unused bits and pieces.

This is not saying I'm not sewing - I am still at it, but those various boxes of fabric strips and snips was mentally holding me back from enjoyment. 

A Pink Panther squatter?

A friend crocheted this fellow.  I was hopeless to resist his cuteness so I asked if he could live with me - no name yet but he took over the swing and then actually blended in with that little quilt and then the flowers added to the mix --- he made a home for himself.  Yes, he's going to stay.   

Strings, BOM, and a Finished Disappearing 9 Patch Quilt

Isn't it rewarding to make something like this from bits and pieces destined for trash?  Admittedly,  I was inspired by another gal on Internet - no one that I've ever met, but THANK YOU!   I used strong brights -- not many wishy washy values were used and I included a black on the base of each triangle.  Here are some of the choices and my all-over free-motion quilting.  The white is not a bright white.  

Below is the result of Guild BOM preps, where our Committee decided to do Disappearing Nine Patch blocks.  That was a great idea, and when we asked among members, "has anyone done this?" and everyone said "NOT done recently."  We learned differently so now we needed to have something to ADD to our idea.  Our little group had several weeks planning when I discovered 12 D9Patch blocks, long forgotten, possibly due to Covid issues.  One of our group said, "it's too bad we seldom see the finished quilts from the BOM entries" and ... I just happened to mention... "well, we CAN show this quilt - what do you think?"  The response was "YES"!  which meant I had to do some fast production.  We don't get back to meetings until late September, and we will have a finshed quilt to encourage participants.

Here is the bargain-priced backing which is totally "matching" my colors used for the blocks.  What do you think?  Would you be encouraged to submit a block if you could see it in a finished quilt?   This finished about 60" x 75."  It would make a great college quilt, esp. in school colors.