The second quilt finished this past weekend is Ship Shape. Right around a year ago I started this quilt from my stash of thrifted men's shirts. I had been inspired by a photo in Country Living magazine years earlier, which I had ripped out and saved in a binder.
I found the free block pattern, Sail Boat Block 2, at Quilter's Cache website. I modified the cutting instructions so each block would turn out 9-1/2 inches square. That meant cutting the small HST blocks at 3-7/8 inches and the larger at 6-7/8 inches.
The blocks were then set 7 across x 8 down. I liked the no-border look of the inspiration piece, so I just bound my quilt in a red and black print from JoAnn. There is one pale red pinstripe shirt used in the quilt, and the binding brings that out while providing a nice accent for the rest of the shirt fabrics.
Ship Shape was shipped off to Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting for an all over panto called Van Gogh, which I thought looked like swirling ocean waves as much as Starry Night. Love the effect!
Melissa did a fantastic job, and fast! I'm sure my backing was a challenge (and I'm sure that is an understatement). I was using up a piece of blue and white older fabric in the backing, as well as a strip of large shirt fabric blocks. The backing was just barely big enough, were I to have quilted it on my domestic machine. When I decided to send the flimsy out for quilting, I added muslin strips on all sides of the backing so it would be able to be loaded on a longarm.
I knew it was going to be close, but until I trimmed the quilt after it came home and saw that on a couple sides I was shaving off only about an eighth inch of the actual backing, I didn't realize just how close. I'm sorry, Melissa, for any gray hairs I caused! I won't do that again, I promise.
Ship Shape was sleep tested last night, and I'm happy to say it passed with flying colors. If you've got a shirt stash you're wondering what to make of, I highly recommend giving this simple but stunning quilt a try. I think it'd make a great Quilt of Valor too!
One thing this frigid and snowy winter is good for: Making me not want to leave my house.* I have been hunkering down, holing up, and hermiting away, trying not to think about the elements while working my way down the list of UFOs.
And so there were two more finishes this weekend. First is the bright baby quilt made from leftover drunkard's path and monkey wrench/churn dash blocks.
I quilted this in a loop-de-loop with Aurifil thread. I intended to just do a regular meander but my hands had a mind of their own and started doing barrel rolls right out the gate, so I just went along for the ride. Whee!
Edited to Add: I've been asked what the turquoise and pink floral border fabric is above. It is Gypsy Girl by Lily Ashbury for Moda.
Okay, so here's the back. I love polka dots. And polka, for that matter. Which I am not seeing represented on the Grammy awards** this evening.
It's getting late, so I'll be back tomorrow with the second finish.
*Monday's high—I repeat: high—is to be -5 F., low of -19, with a wind chill
advisory of -35 to -50 F. by Tuesday with (of course) blowing and
drifting snow. Winter blows.
**Forget rolling out the barrel. If I were playing a drinking game for every time LL Cool J licked his lips while hosting the Grammys, I would be unconscious right now. I think he'd be forgiven, though, because everything else about him is pretty fine.
Happy to get another one finished this week, the Key to My Heart quilt.
Such soft, snuggly goodness! Jelly roll and backing fabric is Oasis by Three Sisters. The Key to My Heart pattern is by Sweet Jane. Quilted in an overall meander with Aurifil in the top and bobbin.
It's a nice size for a crib quilt, or a lap quilt for people smaller than we here in the land of the giants. (Although not as gigantic as the perspective of this photo might imply. I'm standing on a cedar chest for this shot with the camera held above my head...in case anyone was wondering.)
I'll probably hang onto this quilt until the next baby girl comes along via friends or relatives.
Meanwhile, the next one is on deck.
I basted this top together last night during American Idol.
I'm enjoying the dynamic between new judge Harry Connick, Jr., Jennifer Lopez, and Keith Urban. They seem to have a lot of fun together and make me laugh. It doesn't hurt that they're all nice on the eyes either.
I'm glad there aren't as many time-wasting awful auditions to suffer through too. Seems they've whittled it down to decent stuff worth watching. The past few years, I've skipped this part of the show and just tuned in for the actual competition.
I haven't talked much about thrifting adventures lately because there has been a lack of them. Last Sunday, however, I stopped at the local Goodwill and found something useful for the sewing room, one of those suction-cup grab handles. It was brand new, so nothing gross about buying it second-hand. At $1.99, I could hardly go wrong.
I attached it to a wide ruler and tested it out on trimming this quilt. Works great!
Linking to:
How ironic that I seem to have procrastinated long enough to miss the linky for the first quarter 2014 Finish Along at The Littlest Thistle. I had scrawled out a list of 2014 goals (and I use that word as loosely as can be imagined, having a tendency to resist things I "have to do," even if it is my idea to do it). The list sat beside my keyboard long enough to get a little wrinkled and stained by coffee cups and snacks set upon it, which shows how irreverent I can be about goals, I guess.
In the "Old" category of the list is my intention to quilt all my 2013 and earlier UFOs, or get them quilted. These include, in no particular order:
Another thing I've thought about is the choice of one word to summarize one's creative intention in the new year. You can see a lot of these on the 15 Minutes Play site and elsewhere. I'm not sure I'll get around to making my word into a mini quilt, but I did give it a good pondering and decided that, if I were to select a word for the year, it might be flow. I even drew up a scribble of an idea, the F like a faucet and the rest of the letters, well, flowing out from there.
You never know, though; I might feel motivated to turn that idea into fabric after all, given my propensity to procrastinate and distract myself when I should be doing other things.
The point of flow actually ties into what I said earlier about resistance. Keeping things moving, whether a drip at a time or with more natural fluidity, is the idea. For me, that sometimes means baby steps (which manage to sneak past my resistance). Anything to keep the momentum and forward motion going.
* * * * *
Yesterday I employed some forward motion in the form of vacuuming and mopping my kitchen (and bath and hallway) floors. I've had a couple bad shoulder days lately, but with adhesive capsulitis, you have to keep the joint moving as much as possible.
Afterwards, I basted a quilt on the clean kitchen floor, which entailed more reaching and stretching. You can bet I absolutely counted all of that movement as shoulder exercise yesterday. So far today, the shoulder feels a little better—and I have a quilt basted!
* * * * *
This little mug rug (from the leftovers of the above quilt) has now been quilted and is ready for action. I guess that means I can retire the scribbled goals list from its duty of supporting my coffee and snacks.
These gluten-free chocolate cookies, by the way, are divine. I used the recipe on the back of the Honeyville Farms blanched almond flour as a rough guide, but modified it as follows:
2-1/2 c. blanched almond flour
1-2 T. tapioca starch flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 t. sea salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla
1/4 c. melted ghee (or use melted butter)
1/4 c. melted coconut oil
1 egg
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon. Drop spoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Press tops down to flatten slightly (I used waxed paper over the cookie so my hand wouldn't stick to the batter). Bake for 10-12 minutes until set. Let cool for 20 minutes on sheet before removing.
