A Special Quilt

This quilt is a favorite of mine, though it is small and may not look like much it means the world to me. When my youngest son, Bryce, was in fourth grade they were studying the pioneers and had to do a project. Tom was working and going to school so Bryce had to pick something that I could help with and that did not include anything that involved power tools, or cutting implements.  We narrowed it down to making hand dipped candles or quilting. He picked quilting.

We went to the library and researched fabrics for the time period and took the book with us to quilt store to help us find fabrics that would work.  A wonderful lady at the store helped us pick fabrics and once they were purchased we headed home to get started.

Bryce traced a square on cardboard to use as his cutting template and with help from mom very carefully cut it out.  Then he traced a second one and I helped him to trace an inner line and cut out the center of the second square to he had a template for tracing his sewing line.  He traced his squares onto the fabric and cut out his squares. He then traced his sewing lines, with help from me to hold the template still.  I showed him how to pin the squares together and my job was done except for threading needles. He started to sew with some supervision from me until he got the stitch length to a workable size.  Everyday for a couple weeks he sewed on that nine patch, put the borders on and then he was ready to quilt.

I helped him cut out the batting and the background, then pinned them together for him.  My job once again became needle threader and he went to work quilting his miniature quilt.

Once the quilting was done I helped him trim the batting and backing down, then showed him how to do a folded over binding and helped him pin it in place.  I threaded a few more needles and got him started stitching down the binding.  He made his project and I am very proud of the fact that he worked so hard to complete it.

At parent-teacher conferences all the projects were on display and as a parent I was very proud of my son, because his was one of the few that was actually done by a student. There were many parents who earned grades on their projects, but very few students who actually earned their own grades. Bryce was one of those and he also learned a very valuable lesson in the process. He can always be proud of what he did, and that he did the work himself.  I feel sorry for those other students whose parents did not let them learn the value of hard work.

Of all the quilts I own, including those that were passed down in my family, this is the quilt that I hold the most dear and am the proudest of. In my mind it is a blue ribbon winner.

More UFQing....

Today was a full day with a 15 mile ride on the tandem and Father's Day, but I managed to work on my UFQs for a while today.  Here is the other quilt I said I had bought fabric to make binding for in my previous post. The gray color is really lavender and the blue background on the Mardi Gras print is really more purple.  The lighting in the evening is not so great in my sewing room.

Here are the bindings in order from left to right for the Mardi Gras quilt, the Crazy Hearts quilt, and the New Year's Mystery. The second two are pictured in my last post.  The last  binding on the right is purple not blue, again the light in my sewing room is not the best at night for colors.

Here are to two UFQs from my sons that I am finishing.  The outer space attic windows is one Joel started years ago, not even sure what year it was. I still need to cut borders and to decide if I want to put an in inner border or just the outer space fabric border.  If I do an inner border what color should I use?  A dark blue?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

These are Bryce's blocks that he made the summer he between 5th and 6th grade or 6th and 7th grade.  He was being a good Boy Scout and helped a little girl across a pond after her brother abandoned her on the other side and she got freaked out causing them both to fall. He fell and got a huge cut in his leg that required several stitches, antibiotics, and rest to heal.  Bryce is an active boy, still is an active young man, so it was hard to keep him still. He wanted to run and ride his bike, but I had one thing to hold over his head.  If his leg did not heal he could not go on the scout canoe trip. I came up with the idea of him making another quilt. He had already taken a class and made one for himself, so he knew the basics. We went shopping and he picked out his fabrics, I cut and he started sewing, a little each day.  He never finished it, and when cleaning my sewing room I discovered it  hiding in a box.  I took apart the rows that were way to far off to work, yesterday, and fixed some blocks that would have fallen apart as soon as it washed and now need to trim up some blocks and put it back together.  I have the inner and outer border fabric and maybe even enough for the backing of the fabrics he picked out.

I ran out of spray starch tonight so will have to wait until I get more to starch them before trimming the nine patches as they are not exactly square, so I want to stabilize them.

I am off to work on the binding on the strip quilt so I can get it done and start to embroider the label.

UFQ busting Weekend

I worked on several things Saturday and all are at the stage where I need to get out the ironing board and iron so I can press. I am calling it a night, though I could put together two more rows to press in the morning.  I am tired and my back hurts.

I worked on pick up sticks and have 10 rows of strips sewn with the color strips inserted and ready to cut into 6.5" blocks. I had to do a lot of frogging on this one because I got things out of order or two of the same color strips in the same piece and I finally gave up and said what ever will be will be.  It may be a very small quilt as it was causing me frustration.  I may not do any more though I do have at least ten more strip sets sewn.  I can always do something else with all those black and white strips, even if they are several different sizes.  Will see how things go for me tomorrow.

I did a lot of frogging on two UFQs that are not mine, but my boys. One is from when Bryce was in 5th or 6th grade and I had to keep him quiet as he had a massive cut that was stitched up on his leg and the threat of if it is not healed you cannot go on the scout canoe trip was hanging over his head.  I had to take the rows apart as they were so of kilter it was not funny, so decided to take it down to the blocks. I need to press and trim them then put the rows back together and the rows back into a top. I think I will quilt it and give it to him for Christmas if I get it done. This was nine patches with alternating blocks of a lizard print fabric.  It will be 5 x7 and I have borders already cut from way back when.

I also worked on another of the boys UFQs from some point in the past.  It is attic windows and I had to redo a few seams that were really badly sewn and trim up the blocks.  I started putting them into rows.  It is 3 x 3 and I have border fabric for it.

Lastly, I put together one more row of a red, white, and blue quilt I started years ago.  It is done with the blocks on point and both corner pieces are done.  I have two more rows to sew together and then need to sew the last three
rows into the middle of the quilt.

Sorting Scraps

What justifies keeping a scrap?  Is it size, color, print, or just I like it?  I am sorting through three large, 13 gallon, trash bags of scraps and determining whether to keep them or send them out the door. I have set up drawers for strips of various sixes, squares  that are 2" or 3", orphan blocks and left over partially pieced things from other quilts, and pieces that are too big to throw away but need to be cut down.
I have no idea what I will do with most of these scraps and some may go in a drawer for now, but later go in the get rid of bag. Now when I say get rid of I do not mean in the trash. We have a lady at one of the LQS's in town that collects scraps and uses them to stuff dog beds so my get rid of scraps will be deposited there on my next trip to the store.
I have a hard time though determining what makes a piece to small to keep, I mean I could use some very small pieces in applique, but does that mean I should keep them all?  I am trying to keep only pieces that are 2" square or larger at the moment and that may change to be 3" depending on how full I find the drawers getting.  I mean I have a ton of fabric, so do I really need to keep all these little pieces?  Am I really going to use them up?
I do have a plan for the strips. I had fun making the strip quilt top a couple weeks ago and I plan to use up my strips to make another one.

Quilts Arriving Home for the Quilters

I came home to lots of goodies.  When I arrived back in Anchorage, yesterday, my friend Sally picked us up at the airport with two quilts of mine in the back of her car. She had picked them up from the quilter for me while I was gone.  The first is the New Year's Mystery which is beautiful. I love the flowers that were quilted.

The second is my Red, Cream, and Blue  Debbie Caffrey Mystery: Cut to the Chase.  Linda quilted stars with trails into this one and it is very appropriate since it is very patriotic.  It is beautiful.

Today the mailman arrived bearing boxes from the quilter in Tennessee, one large and one small.  The large one held my Crazy Hearts quilted quilted with a red and black variegated thread with hearts.  The thread color and the hearts quilting are a perfect compliment to the quilt.

The second is a strip quilt made with a Moda Twirl Jelly Roll.  The pantograph that Shirley used has a look of butterfly wings, which ties into the border fabric.  I love the yellow thread we decided on and the overall look of the quilt.

close up of quilting  Picture taken by Shirley Jackson, the quilter.

 Now I am busy working on bindings for these four and another that I picked up not too long before I left on our trip to Mexico.  No pictures of it yet, but I promise they will be posted soon. I am off to hand stitch the binding down on the strip quilt as I have it sewn to the front. Tomorrow I will work on attaching more bindings, since this weekend is dedicated to UFQs and now that these are home and awaiting bindings they are in that pile.
Happy Stitching!