Batik Knots is done

Note: If you subscribe to my blog via email and received notification of this post, the new system is working for you. There is nothing else you need to do! If you did not get a notification, please subscribe again. 

Batik Knots is another donation quilt. It is about 60" square and made with some 2 1/2" colored batik squares that I had. The white pieces are Moda Bella cotton. The sashing, borders, and binding are a bright navy that was in my stash.

The corners and the center squares in the blocks are a batik that DS1 chose for a mask a year ago. It's so nice to not be making masks! 

I free-motion quilted this with the following motif. I'm not sure the motif has a name - I call it 3 petals with echo. 

It's easy to fill spaces. I quilted the motif quite large on this quilt.

I used Dove gray #2600 Aurifil thread to quilt this. The backing is from my stash.

Health update: The meds are working - I am quite easily able to handle the pain now except when I overdo. Saturday I was on my feet all morning and then I was down for almost 3 days with some bad pain. I'm better today and will be more cognizant of what I am doing. Most days I am walking 14 minutes on a treadmill while hanging on. It's nice to get some exercise. 

Notice to email followers

I am in the process of trying to change the way you get emails from my blog if you follow by email. A number of blog friends have switched to follow.it and I thought I'd try it. (Do remember my mind has a lot of drugs these days and my thinking could be impaired.) Anyway I hope it works - I'll be switching over in the next day or so. I'll make sure I have a new post by the weekend so if you don't get an email by Sunday night, you may have to search for my blog and re-subscribe. 

All of this is happening because this notice came out a while back:

FollowByEmail widget (Feedburner) is going away 
You are receiving this information because your blog uses the FollowByEmail widget (Feedburner). 
Recently, the Feedburner team released a system update announcement , that the email subscription service will be discontinued in July 2021. 
After July 2021, your feed will still continue to work, but the automated emails to your subscribers will no longer be supported. If you’d like to continue sending emails, you can download your subscriber contacts. 

Finishes and more!

I have both a quilting finish and a knitting finish.

This quilt is called Daises - the center of each block and the cornerstones are all daisies.

The yellow is a Moda Bella Cotton. The other colors (except for the daisies) are hand dyed. I bought two fat quarter packs a number of years ago in the Outer Banks. The pattern is called the Economy Quilt Block. I added sashing between the blocks.

This donation quilt is 58" square. I quilted it with a walking foot in diagonal straight lines using Aurifil #1135 50-weight yellow thread. The stitching is on the same diagonal as the colors.

The backing is a yellow fabric that was printed a few years ago for the Iowa Shop Hop. It has boys and girls riding bicycles.

My knitting finish is an afghan that I made following Michelle Hunter's Building in Color book. I learned  more about knitting in color and was glad I decided to make the quilt. I did change the border - I crocheted it rather than knit it. The only reason was variety. The afghan is about 40" by 54".

At the recent retreat, I worked on this quilt and got the blocks put together.

I also made some logcabin blocks.

And I put together lots of 4-patches for another quilt.

I hope to have another finish soon.

Getting back to normal

We are slowly getting back to normal. A week ago we went to a grandson's baseball game. It was so ice to take our chair and sit on the sideline without face masks. On the way home, we both commented that the evening felt normal. 

Last weekend, we attended a family graduation party. We loved seeing our extended family on my side. It's been a long time. Two of my three brothers were there along with many of nieces, nephews, great niece, great nephews and three of our grandchildren. We were outside but it just felt normal. Here I am with my oldest and youngest brothers.

And then I went on a quilting retreat with 3 friends. We along with a couple of other friends were at a quilting retreat when Illinois began shutting down in March, 2020. There was lots of visiting, eating, and some sewing. It was a wonderful, normal, time. We were at a farmhouse a few miles from my house. Here are some pictures.

The Barn which is a wedding venue.

One afternoon we sat and visited in the corncrib
which is outfitted with a table, chairs, and lights.

The House

A favorite spot to talk with husbands via cellphones.

A comfy swing

One morning I spent about an hour napping
in this hammock.

Update on my health: The doctors finally have my pain somewhat controlled. There are some side effects to some of my meds but I'm dealing with them. I use a cane because periodically one of my legs will give out. Ray is still doing most things here but I am able to do more and yesterday I began exercising again although it is minimal right now. I will see the surgeon to hopefully schedule surgery in mid-September. I was notified by letter that my bone health doctor is retiring at the end of July. I was waiting for a call to see what was happening with my case and was very pleasantly surprised to get a call saying that he was retiring from Endocrinology and would keep some bone health patients. I am one of those patients! He is nationally know in the Bone Health field and I am delighted. As of today, I am halfway thru the first 6 months of bone building. I need 6 months before the surgery can be done.

Baby Bricks

I saw a postage stamp quilt, something on my list to make someday, and I decided the time had come. So I went in search of small squares - I knew there were some here. I started a quilt at some point and decided to give it up; those pieces would be a good start. Well, I found the pieces. Everything was cut for the original quilt and 91 blocks were finished with some being sewn together! There was just too much done to begin cutting it up. So I had a change of plans. I decided to finish Baby Bricks. It would be a table cloth with 96 blocks for our screen porch instead of a donation quilt to the Children's Hospital.

This 51" square quilt went together FAST! I used Free Fuse to baste it and learned that one should check both sides of the quilt before quilting just like when pinning. At least it was just a tiny crease and with a little ripping out, it was fixed in under 10 minutes. I won't forget that lesson though.

I used Aurifil #5006, a light turquoise thread to quilt this. I saw a video and decided to try quilting a curvy braid motif with the walking foot. I think you can see the quilting better on the back.

The  backing is a light turquoise fabric with colored fish that was in my stash.

I seldom have a quilt that I don't like. I'm really glad that I set this one aside because I am going to love it on our porch table.

Here are my notes on the curvy braid:

1. I made a large template with pointed ends using a pizza pan. I measured and marked the middle of the template (end to end) with a small hole. My template, cut from a file folder was 9" by 3 1/2".

2. I marked a straight line across the quilt and positioned the template on it with the ends both on the line. I traced the template and put a dot for the middle of the template on the line. Repeat with template end to end all the way across the quilt. Now repeat this whole process across the entire quilt putting the lines as close together as you like. Note: I used diagonal lines on this quilt about 4 1/2" apart.

3. I quilted each braid as a serpentine (doing left side, right side, repeat) from end to end. Then I quilted the opposite serpentine. The quilting ideally crosses at the straight line but who will ever know?!

4. Marking the second set was easy; I just matched the ends of the template to the center marks on the straight line.

5. ! quilted the second markings using serpentines just like the first.

It is a lot of marking but not hard at all. I always wash my quilts in plain water, no soap, to be sure any and all markings are removed.

Jamestown Landing

Jamestown Landing is finished. I made this using Bonnie Hunter's pattern. The entire quilt is made with fabric scraps and I still have more.

This 63" by 75" quilt with stay with us. It looks nice on our new couch

or behind it.

I used Free Fuse on this quilt to sandwich the layers with no problems. I'm pretty convinced that you can use Free Fuse on any size quilt. I did roll the quilt top, the batting, and the backing on boards just like I do when I pin baste. For me, that really helps with controlling everything. 

I used light blue Aurifil #2715 thread to free motion quilt this. I ran out of thread with about a square foot left to quilt so I had to wait a couple of days for the guy in the brown UPS truck to bring me more. That nice man has almost become family this past year! 

I used a sort of flower motif. Here is a quick rough sketch:

The back is a light blue print.

Health Update: I saw my neurosurgeon Monday. My surgery will not occur until I have taken at least 6 months of the bone-growth meds and have new scans. That means at least September. The surgeon says he will not do the spine surgery sooner or he would be redoing it again in two years. He will be replacing all of the screws in my back, and adding more as he fuses another vertebrate in place. Today I saw my general physician. She and I had a long discussion about pain management. My pain tolerance, which did a good job of getting me through a rough back surgery 10 years ago, has met its match. She gave me some meds and I'll be seeing her often between now and the surgery. She knows how much I hate taking meds and she wants to be sure I have some quality of life in the next months. Fingers crossed!

The I Spy Tree

I finished The I Spy Tree quilt top in early February and it is now a finished quilt. This quilt is based on Bonnie Hunter's Pine Tree Point. Each tree is a color family except the one in the lower left, The I Spy Tree. That tree was made with strings of any color, some with images.

This is the first quilt sandwich that I basted with Free Fuse basting powder. What a game changer that has been for me; I may never go back to pins! 

This 51" by 61" quilt is a donation quilt. I stitched-in-the-ditch around each tree block and on each side of the sashing strips. I free-motion quilted a horizontal stipple in the background of each tree block and in the turquoise border. The lazy eight motif was used in the sashing and the light colored borders. 

Each of the nine trees have a different motif - stippling, vertical lazy-eights, improv, paisley, wavy line, feathers, spirals, double loops, and loop-de-loop. Each of the nine tree trunks also have a different motif - diagonal squiggle, ribbon candy, vertical lazy eights, squiggle, horizontal squiggle, wood grain, horizontal lazy eights, diagonal lines, and vertical lines.

The backing is turquoise and purple. I used #2600 Dove gray Aurifil thread in all of the light areas of the quilt top and on the entire back. Each tree has a 'matching color' thread as do the tree trunks.

There will be more finishes soon!