Purses and Plans

In January I made a commitment to make 12 Sew Powerful purses a month.  And here are mine for February.   Notice the top row, 2nd one. I’m used the curtain material for the flap and strap,  I think I’ll do more next month.  And just as I was finishing these, a flap of friendship arrived from Shannon Greene in Oklahoma.  A perfect baker’s dozen! 

Meanwhile, my guild has started three new bees.  I loved participating in the last one when I made The Piano Tuner’s Daughter quilt.  I am using this new bee to repeat this project.  Here is the first quilt, and here are the forks for this project.   I can’t wait to see what my guild mates create.  

Former student Bridgette, the retired Marine who keeps me and several others working out daily, says she’s ready for a new bag.  And she wants a Dot Dash Dot bag.  I made several almost 10 years ago, so it will be fun revisiting this pattern.  And she has chosen the drapery material.  I think this will work.  Despite my vow to not start another project until I do grandson Brandon’s quilt, I just gotta make this bag first! 

Quilting. Literally...

 

While I’m working on current projects, I’m always scheming future ones. These fabrics are a Japanese linen - I’m not sure how they will quilt and wash.  Their feel is so much different from the meaty softness of peppered shot cottons.   But the colors...I love them.

During 2019 I participated in a one block a week sew-a-long with the Canadian Quilters Association - #52blocks52weeks.  The weekly instructions were all in greyscale, which suited my scrap stash perfectly.  At the beginning of 2020, with a couple of extra blocks, I put what I had into a layout with generous sashing to make a napping quilt - 60” x 80”.  The quilting is simple, it’s batted with wool, and the backing is a wonderful soft muslin.  I like how it turned out.  And I may have a buyer. 

The other quilt I just finished quilting is from a charm pack of Zen Chic’s new line Quotation.  I love the other fabric lines she has, and playing with a charm pack lets me see all the fabrics without a huge financial investment.  This pattern was a fun one to do: cut each charm in half, mix up the halves, and insert a one-inch strip.  I think I will add some more border quilting based on what I’m seeing.  

While quilting at my Brother 1500 straight-stitch machine (which I lovingly refer to as my fake Juki), I worked at my Husqvarna on a paper-piecing project for Laura, one of my Chicago Modern Quilt Guild bee mates. I’m not crazy about paper-piecing, but you just cannot get more precise than with paper-piecing.  Speaking of bee projects, here’s a tentative layout of my tuning forks quilt - still missing blocks from a couple of mates...

Happily Plugging Away

I love jelly rolls.  They are a reasonable way to place with a fabric collection, like this one - “quotation” by Zen Chic.  These colors are not one I gravitate towards, but I really like how this quilt turned out. It’s 60” x 80” and will be looking for its owner once it’s quilted.  And this will not be hand-quilted because the whites are all sort of heavy,  ot the kind of fabric I want to needle.  So I’ll baste this and put it in the “needs to be quilted”

I’m part of a little bee group in my Chicago Modern Quilt Guild, and December was my turn to be Queen Bee.  I asked my bee mates to make tuning fork blocks for my “Piano Tuner’s Daughter” quilt.  And these are finally starting to come in - these blocks are from 3 of us.  I asked for blocks that are 5.5”or 10.5” wide.  And that clever little Laura Hartrich also sent some that are 2.5” wide.  I love these and think the layout will be more interesting with this third size added.  To be continued as more blocks arrive.

And I’m still making masks.