Flannel day.................

For a few years I have been cutting the brighter flannel scraps into 6.5" squares.  A lot of these were leftovers after making flannel pillowcases at Christmastime a few years ago.  I needed a few more squares so I found 3 yardage pieces and cut squares from them too.  There is one more row for the bottom but I was out of space on the design wall.

This is the group for the bottom row which I will lay on the floor today.  I may have to move a few pieces because the bottom row on the wall is pretty dark.  Three of the fabrics are Laurel Burch prints and I think I have a piece of her flannel large enough for the back.

I did some more sorting of books to pass on.  I love this book which has a lot of history of crazy quilts.  I have the original hard cover copy.  I checked to see if it is still available and found that it had been printed as a paperback too.

This quilt was one of my favorites with the crazy piecing cut into diamonds and sashing between the diamonds.

One of the reasons I liked it was the name, Contained crazy.  Here is a post 3 weeks after I started my blog with the 3 quilts I made, inspired by the one in the book. 

Now I need to pass this book on so others can enjoy it.

#2 finish for January 2024..............

I started this quilt in September 2015 and made the last blocks at the end of October 2015. I sewed the top together in June 2017.  Click here for the inspiration quilt and the first blocks.  There are many variations in the blocks made with 49 squares each.  I loved making this quilt and could easily make enough blocks for another quilt because it was so much fun.  Sewing the top together wasn't as much fun.  I really like making blocks.  Size is 76.5" x 97.5".  It's all Kaffe collective fabrics.

I'm repeating this photo from a couple days ago to show the backing. It is a Brandon Mably design -Onion Rings- wide backing.  The batting is Hobbs 80/20.

More blooms are opening on the red Amaryllis.  There should be a couple more today.

Update on the Crooked Cobblestone 13, I decided I like the warm colors at the top and the green at the bottom.  I should probably pin a note to it so I don't have to decide all over when it is time to quilt it.

Last night I brought a stack of flannels upstairs and sorted them by size, smaller than 1/3 yard, 1/2 yard pieces and full yards.  I want to make 4 or 5 flannel quilts, one of them for myself.  I need to search through the rest of my flannels later this week.  I will cut 6.5" squares from the smaller pieces.  I made 2 quilts with all squares at least 20 years ago and they were favorites for my family.  I might add some denim squares into one of the quilts.

Binding finished..........................

I finished the binding on this quilt at 10:30 last night.  I'll take its portrait and post details about it tomorrow.

One more view.  I love this quilt.

I was looking at the Crooked Cobblestone 13 from my computer chair and decided to flip it 180 degrees.  I think I like it better this way.  If I remember right I flipped a couple of the earlier ones too after they were sewn.

I really like it both ways so it is a tough decision.

I made a collage of both views.   The photos were taken under 2 different kind of lights so they look slightly different.   I won't be quilting it for a few weeks so I have time to make a decision which way is up.

Pressed and trimmed.............

I went back through my archive photos and think this is #13.  One was sold as a top.

This ended up 37" x 58", almost 5 feet tall.  I didn't have to make any more blocks; they were all in those 11 plastic bags sorted by size.  This one is a little different than my previous crooked cobblestone quilts because of a smaller variety of colors in the blocks.

Here I am in 2012 at a gallery in NC with the first 10 crooked cobblestone wall hangings.  All have been sold or gifted except the top right and the cross quilt.

I chose the binding fabric for the next quilt in line.  It had to be red and it had to be Kaffe fabric.  Since I have all of his fabrics starting with #1 I had a good group to look through.  I almost didn't buy this one because it was a tone on tone type but now I realize they make great bindings.

I got the strips cut and sewn on the quilt.  One short side and half of one long side have been hand stitched so far.

Sewn but not pressed...................

I sewed in 3 sessions yesterday and got extra pieces added to either the top or bottom of 6 of the 11 columns to get them closer to the same length.  I ended up putting the extra 3" column between columns 4 and 5 instead of between 5 and 6.  I sewed the columns together last night but haven't pressed it yet.  That comes next and then I will trim the bottom edge for a nice straight finish.  It is about 37" x 58" now.  There were 24 blocks of various sizes leftover after assembling this.

We are above freezing now at night as well as mid 30s in the daytime so the 12" of snow is disappearing pretty quickly.  We have had a little fog each day with it.  I went out to get some supplies on Thursday and saw one man in shorts and sandals.  I think he was jumping ahead a little too soon.

First finish for January 2024.............

Batik is so much prettier in person than it is in a photo.  The top was finished in March of 2019 so not quite 5 years waiting in line.  When I started making the blocks I hadn't really analyzed any pineapple log cabin quilts that I saw so I made both light and dark blocks, not realizing that most quilts were all light blocks or all dark blocks.  I'm glad I came up with a layout that worked and used most of the blocks.  It is 69.5" x 89" after quilting and binding.  It has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it.  I used my accuquilt die cutter to cut all of the pieces from many containers of batik scraps.

Yesterday I decided to sew the columns of crooked cobblestones.  I added some more blocks to either the top or bottom of the columns to make it taller.  I have the tops lined up here and will need to fill in with some batik strips to make the rows all the same length.

Last night I was checking the leftover blocks and found enough 3" wide blocks (the 5 center rows) to make another column.  Since the columns in the above photo aren't sewn to each other yet I can experiment with its position in the quilt.  I think it might be inserted between the 5th and 6th columns.

Today I need to start stitching the binding of the next quilted quilt.  It will be easier that the batik one because it will be Kaffe fabric.

 

Binding finished..............

Like most batik bindings, this one seemed like it took forever but it was only 5 days.  The top was 70" x 91" before quilting so it was a lot of little stitches in the binding.

I folded part of it back so both ends of the quilt show, both the light end and the dark end.  I hopefully will get it up on the design wall for its portrait today.

I added more columns of crooked cobblestone blocks on my design wall yesterday morning.  If you look at the 2 side edges you can see I need to trim some of the blocks.  I ran out of blocks the right width.  This will shrink a lot when I sew it and I think it will be 36" wide.  I'm not sure about the height.

Here is the last bloom on the first stalk and the first bloom on the second stalk.  It's hard to see but this is the one with the thin red line around the edges of the petals.

 

On the design wall.....................

At the left are all of the rows of the Marcia Derse fabric quilt I was working on.  No decisions made on how to finish it.  I decided to put some columns of Crooked Cobblestone blocks on the design wall to see what I have available.  I used 5 different widths of blocks for this.

I spent the earlier part of the evening hand stitching the binding.  I have 3 corners done and 1/2 of a long side and 1/2 of a short side left to stitch.  Batik binding and batting make it a slower process of hand stitching.  I hope I can finish it today.  Then I need to start the binding on the next one but it will be easy to stitch with Kaffe fabric.

Old blocks................

While I was in the basement doing laundry I started looking for a bag of crooked cobblestones.  Since I have emptied 4 project boxes so far this month I thought I should continue looking for blocks already made in past years.

In the bag were all of these separate bags of crooked cobblestones that are measured and packaged by width.  On the sidebar of this blog is a photo of a Crooked Cobblestone wall hanging, the first one that I made.  Here is a post when I was sorting them by size, 2016.  They have been waiting a long time to be used.  I have a label Cobblestone Series in the label list on the right side bar with 79 posts in it if you are interested in any more info.

I hand stitched half of a short side on the pineapple log cabin quilt binding so now I am officially half done.

Still hand stitching.......................

Not a lot of time was spent on the hand stitching yesterday but I do have one long side and half of a short side stitched.  I may take a break from it this morning and trim the second quilt and choose a binding for it.

The red double Amaryllis has one open flower now.  There are only going to be three blooms on this one.

There is hope for more blooms though because there are more bud stalks on this bulb.  The third one is still pretty short but they grow pretty fast.

My internet provider sent me a new modem and said I hook it up myself.  At 83 I think someone should be helping me......

Well, anyway I got it hooked up in a half hour and spent another half hour trying to get my computer and phone to hook up with it.  I finally called for help.  The automated lady wouldn't give me to an agent for help for over 15 minutes.  The agent spent almost a half hour helping me and finally we got it connected.  Now I have to go through the process of sending back the old modem.  Luckily there is a choice of having it picked up at my house.  I just have to be sure I click on the right thing on the website to get my label and pick up time.

Possible freezing rain today and early tomorrow.  My son and daughter-in-law picked up some groceries for me yesterday so I won't need to leave home.  I filled the birdfeeders yesterday too so I won't have to go out in the rain.

Binding started.................

This is the binding fabric I chose for the batik pineapple log cabin quilt.

I got it sewn onto the quilt and started the hand stitching.  I started at the middle of a short side and made it past the first corner.

I do my hand stitching in my studio because I have excellent bright light in there.  I pile the quilt on my cabinet and on the 3 drawer chest that I can pull out from under the left side of the cabinet.  Then I just scoot forward in my chair on wheels and start stitching.  I can easily get up and leave the area without moving the quilt.

These are the only cactus blooms and no buds on any of the other plants.

The tall Amaryllis with the white flowers edged with red has another bud opening and will bloom soon.  The third Amaryllis that was gifted to me is starting to open too.  It is suppose to be a double flower.  There are 2 more bud stalks on that bulb, one that is about half as tall as the one that is blooming and another about 3" tall.

Trimming.............

I got 2 quilts back from my longarm quilter and they are 2 favorite quilts.  I got this one trimmed so it is ready for me to choose binding.  It is all batik fabric so it will be a batik binding and will be hand finished.

There are lots of colors in this quilt so almost any binding color will work.

The back is a batik too.  I think I will look for a medium value for the binding since there is a light end and a dark end to the layout of the blocks.

I finished pressing another huge backing and trimmed a piece of batting to size so I could send 2 more with my longarmer.

I tried a new die yesterday.  I haven't pressed these 6" blocks yet.

I just cut a lot of batik scraps for the trial sewing.  Batik is not the easiest to sew curved seams in so my real project will not be batik.

The die cuts little notches that match up at the center point on all of the pieces.

Last night I finished the denim blue dishcloth and the black and white one was finished last week.

I have 2 more in progress.  They will be smaller because there wasn't as much yarn remaining for either one.

Since I had an empty needle I started another one, a new color that I found.  It is pink and 2 shades of grayish green.  I like to knit while I watch the 10 p.m. news because it is so relaxing.

Weather news: we were back below zero last night and it won't get much above 10 today.  The warmup starts Monday. 

All rows sewn...............

I tried to straighten the rows many times but they still ended up on a slant.  The good news though is that all of the rows are sewn.  I put a few gold triangles in the spots at the right side but still am not sure how I will finish this.  It may linger on the design wall for a few days...  I think maybe it needs dark triangles and maybe a border.

For the last 2 days I have been working on batting and backings for 2 more quilts to send out for quilting.  The pattern for this quilt is on this post.  Here is the top when I finished it.  I bought the zebra batik backing fabric on sale in NC in August 2018.

I did some grocery shopping yesterday while it was around 17 degrees. Today we will struggle to get to 8 degrees in the afternoon.  It started snowing last night before 10 p.m. and it is predicted to be light and fluffy snow and they say about 1.5" -2" for my area.

Still sewing diagonal rows.................

3 more rows sewn, 5 to go and the best part is each row from here on is shorter as I work toward the bottom left corner.  I haven't made any decision for the color of the outside triangles.

It got up to 18 degrees yesterday so I put on my boots and went out and filled the birdfeeders.  Crunch, crunch through the deep snow that had freezing rain on it twice and froze and then fluffy snow on top.  It's going to take a lot of warm days to melt all of that snow.

Figuring it out as I work...............

I cut more gold/yellow/orange triangles and placed some on the design wall.  Then I decided to sew the corner row together.

Three more rows were sewn together as I tried to decide what color the edge triangles will be.  And, what size the triangles should be.  I could put 2 half square triangles which would be easy to figure out but I would rather add one quarter square triangle.  

We finally got up to 0 yesterday afternoon and it stayed at 0 all the way to 11 p.m.  I didn't check again after that.  It was -9 when I got up and -5 when I left for a pacemaker check at our local clinic.  I was worried the parking lot might be slippery but it was all cleaned off and dry.  I have an estimated 15 months left on the battery life in my pacemaker.

I had to get one photo of Jack Frost's work before it melts.  We are going to be all the way up to 40 degrees next week, from -15 to 40, quite a swing in temperatures.  First though we have a chance of more snow twice this week.