Tiny Log Cabins quilt is finished!

I began working on some tiny log cabin blocks about a year ago. I think I had 64 blocks done when the pandemic began and finished the other 80 in the last few months. I found sewing them to be very therapeutic.

The 1" square center of each block is a white fabric with tiny red squares. The block finished at 4" square. For the light side of the blocks, my criteria was white, beige, or soft colors. For the dark side, I wanted bright colors. Once in a while, a piece of fabric was used on both a light side and a dark side - that's character, right? Tiny Log Cabins did make a dent in my tiny scraps. Yay!

I decided the quilt needed borders and auditioned different colors. Everything I tried looked good but I liked this red the best.

This donation quilt is 58" square. 

The finished top sat for quite a while because I couldn't decide how to quilt it. I've always wanted to do a giant spiral on a quilt so when I saw a photo online showing an off-kilter quilted spiral, it hit me that this would be a good time to try one. 

My spiral is centered - I thought it needed to be with the design of the quilt. I used my new echo quilting foot and free-motion quilting for the entire spiral. Using the foot was a bit of a learning curve and I had lots of problem on the center of the spiral. When I finally got the foot adjusted correctly, things went much better. I think I mentioned that I'd probably never do another one but then I looked at the finished quilt and decided I might! I used Aurifil #2600 Dove Gray 40-wt thread to quilt this and Aurifil #2600 Dove Gray 50-wt thread in the bobbin. 

The back is a blue with small, blended white spots. The binding is a striped fabric from my stash.

Not much else is new around here. I'm still dehydrating and freezing produce although it's winding down. I still plan to find and preserve potatoes, apples, and pears. These pictures show the last of the tomatoes, corn, and beans.

I'm still making masks but not in huge numbers.

We did order a new fireplace for our patio. Last Monday, Ray and I put it together. 

I think S'mores are on the agenda for later this evening.

A Quilting Finish

Things got busy around here this week but I have a finish! The teal, green, orange and yellow quilt is done. 

I saw a picture of a quilt that I liked a couple of years or more ago and printed it. I couldn't find any information about who designed the quilt or if there was a pattern and I still haven't. Here's the picture.

I used a little math, redesigned a little bit and made my quilt using scraps. The center of the original quilt looks like it was pieced. I found a piece of fabric in my stash that had the four colors I wanted in the quilt so I used that. The quilt is flat but I didn't smooth it out on the 'bumpy' grass. 

I machine quilted this with a large meandering stitch and Aurifil #2600 Dove 40-weight thread. It's seems like a long time since I did any machine quilting and I really enjoyed it. 

The back is similar to an orange grunge I was going to use the same backing fabric for the binding but I liked the black and white in the original picture so I used a black and white stripe. 

This quilt has been added to the donation pile.

I'm still keeping busy taking care of produce - dehydrating, freezing, and eating! 

Our Illinois grandsons visited for three enjoyable days this last week. The older one was here for two days and used the Cricut to cut a piece for the guitar he is making/building. He also made waffles for us! We played Farkel and he helped me perfect and sew his mask pattern. 

The other two boys made S-mores cookies with the 6-year-old doing all of the measuring and breaking the egg while the 10-year-old did all of the mixing. They both worked on making and rolling the dough balls in graham cracker crumbs and preparing maybe eating the marshmallows and Hershey kisses. They also sewed scraps together while I was perfecting their mask patterns. One had a chain of scraps 53 1/3 feet long. He measured it and wrote down the length - important stuff! Later he pulled out the slip of paper to accurately tell his parents about his accomplishment. The 6-year old with a little guidance from Grandpa sewed most of his strips side by side and ended up with a nice, large rectangle of strips. We played Double Ditto a new game that we all enjoyed and Frisbee. That evening we had a picnic and were able to play miniature golf on our way back to their home. In a perfect world our other grandchildren  would live close enough to come visit for a day or more every so often. 

The mask making is picking up again because all of the grandchildren will need them for school. I am making custom fitted masks for each of the kids and they are choosing fabrics. Here are some of the latest.

Each of the masks will end up with elastic or lycra for the ears or with elastic or lycra around the back of the head. No one wants ties which I understand because I don't like ties either. The kids will each decide which mask has what.

And... today I emptied the sewing machine room. New shelves are being installed tomorrow and that room will be in order and clean by tomorrow night.