Lala's Irish Chain Sew Along With Melva--post 2

Week 5 sewing patchwork pairs using the background

Goal number eight on my September list was to make progress on Lala's Irish Chain Sew Along with Melva. About three weeks after Melva released the clue, I did sew the clue for week five which was to sew patchwork squares using the background as one square of the squares.

Midway through week six clue

Week six clue was to make more patchwork squares. I was glad that I was behind because it gave me a chance to see how the constant fabric was used in the design. I chose to randomly put nine units into a group. 

Week six clue finished

The piles were colorful when I had finished! Week seven clue was putting the clues from week five and six together into the chain blocks. I followed Melva's previous pressing directions. The seams nested together so stitching the blocks together went without a lot of angst as long as Gertie, my inner squirrel didn't distract me! 

Five patch block

While I did try to distribute the patchwork colors throughout the blocks, it didn't always work. I also tried to not have the same fabric next to each other. I also tried to go for a random placement. These plans didn't always work. I knew the teal and the green were close in value so those blocks sometimes get lost. Some of my lime greens were also too close in value to my colorful squares to create a crisp chain.

Adding the five patch blocks to the nine patch blocks

In the end, the colors are bright and happy. I'm reminded of jelly beans when I look at the colorful squares. The background fabric is fun. I do like the ideas I tried. I am happy to have used scraps.The five patch blocks have the look of being out of focus which is unique and might work in the end. For sure, it will be a quilt that will warm someone!

In progress photo

I continued piecing blocks. The more I pieced, the more defined the design became. Still not "crisp" but, fun all the same. Once I had all the blocks pieced, I looked through my stash for a border fabric. I came across a fabric that would be a great main fabric so I may try this pattern again! I auditioned a few fabrics and in the end, I decided I wouldn't add the border.

Completed blocks ready to be sewn into rows

Friday, I managed to stitch the rows together. Because I mostly paid attention to Melva's pressing instructions, my seams nested nicely. It currently measurers about 70 by 80.

Finished top

I plan to find a backing from my stash. . .I have a stripe in mind to be supplemented with leftovers from the front. I auditioned a green fabric from my stash that will be the binding.

Green binding

Piecing the back is a project for another day! It would be great if I could get the back pieced and the project to the longarmer before my knee surgery next week. Linking to: Oh Scrap and Sew & Tell.

August Recap and September Goals

Scraps used in the Magnificent Mystery

My August goals were:

✔1. Select fabric for Magnificent Mystery. Begin piecing the clues.--I pieced the blocks for the first clue. I'll document my progress next month!

✔2. Select fabric for Redwork Baubles Sew Along that Days Filled With Joy is holding. Work on the redwork embroidery, It began in June; but, Gertie was insistent! I did begin the embroidery.

✔3. Document progress for Melva's Sew Along. You can see my fabrics here.

✔4. Piece the string blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This month the color is yellow. I've stitched the yellow blocks so I will stitch one more yellow and one more green block instead!

Blocks pieced together for Garden Flowers

✔5. Sew strings with my youngest granddaughter.

✔6. Make a couple swimsuits with and for the youngest granddaughter.

✔7. Make progress on the book club quilt (AKA Garden Flowers).--I pieced the top together. It felt too plain. I pieced more green strings for a top and bottom border. It still felt too plain so I came up with a plan to add half square triangles. I will make progress on that project next month!

Butterfly collage quilting progress

✔8. Make progress on my rug weaving. It is now 24 1/2 inches in diameter. It grew four and a half inches this month. Last month it grew five inches. As it grows, it takes longer to get around the circle! My goal was to work on it at least three hours each week. I have about a third of the bottom flannel sheet and all of the top sheet left to strip. 

✔9. If the longarmer has quilted it, finish Triple Treat.

✔10. Document a mug rug from Rita's braid scraps.

✔11. Document my marbling experience. We had a second marbling session. I believe the new paints gave us brighter colors and stayed better on the fabric. Unfortunately, our fabric picked up the humidity in the air and we dried the fabric in the dryer. The heat caused the alum in the fabric to breakdown the fabric fibers. We had holes! Alum is used to help the paint adhere to the surface. We had to throw away our pieces. We are learning and next year, we will play more! I liked the effect we had with over printing!

Design ready for printing

✔12. Make progress quilting the butterfly.--I've quilted most of the black areas. I've started quilting the green areas. It is a slow process; but any progress is fantastic!

With all the visiting and family activities that occurred, I had a successful month! (My daughter and granddaughter spent most of three weeks with us!) I am most tickled with finishing Triple Treat! It is my twelfth finish for the year!

Fabric Accounting:

Current Month:

Fabric in: 6 yards

Fabric out: 12.25 yards

Net loss for the month: 6.25 yards 

Year to Date:

Fabric in: 49.25 yards

Fabric out: 124.75yards 

Design printed

Net loss: 75.50 yards 

Best Book of the month: Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Girls by Kate Moore. I had no idea that so many young girls who painted watch dials the factory were unknowingly poisoned with radium. A hard read for all the lives lost; but, the courage and tenacity the women summoned to fight the company ultimately improved workers safety for us all. Radium was known to be dangerous by 1908, the women painted in the 1920s and 30s. Yet, issues still occurred as late as 1978!

My September goals are:

1. Document making a special pillow case for the youngest granddaughter.

2. Document the activities the youngest granddaughter did during her visit.

Rug Weaving progress

3. Piece the string blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This month the color is purple.

4. Share what I did at the summer virtual retreat.

5. Share my progress on the book club quilt Garden Flowers.

6. Make progress quilting the butterfly.

7. Make progress on my rug weaving.

8. Make progress on Lala's Irish Chain.

9. Determine what to do for the next book club quilt. We are reading Radium Girls by Kate Moore.

10. Do what I can to make progress on the Magnificent Mystery and Floral Baubles sew alongs.

Parts to the Lala Sew Along

11. Recover from knee revision surgery--Because 23 months after knee joint replacement surgery, I still have pain and loss of mobility. The surgeon determined the prothesis is loose. To fix it, the part will be chipped away from the bone and a new part inserted. It is a longer surgery (about three hours) and longer recovery because the prothesis is larger. I have to stay overnight in the hospital.

Linking to: I Quilted This, Patchwork and Quilts, To Do Tuesday.

Triple Treat Is A Finish!--post 5

A great way to end the month is with a FINISH! I began this project July 2022. It was the leader/ender project that Bonnie Hunter shared that year. As I pieced blocks for my projects, I would stitch leader/ender Triple Treat blocks along the way. Four years later, I finished the project.  The Gresham Senior Center quilt group longarmed the quilt using Bamboo Swirls as the pattern.

Bamboo swirl quilting pattern

I wanted a pantograph pattern that had a curve and would provide texture.  I like the texture that Bamboo Swirls provides to the quilt. 

View of the quilting on the pieced back

Last Sunday, I made a label and sewed the binding to the quilt. 

Sewing the binding

The hand stitching that remained was to stitch the corners closed on the binding, to sew two edges of the label to the quilt back and to sew the sleeve. The label came from the free table. The open lines are where I will write the recipient's name. I took handwork on Monday to an in person sew day with my "Sew Happy" group and FINISHED!

Label

I sure like the pieced back and I LOVE how so many scraps of all sorts became best buddies in this project. Who knew so many friends could and would be made!

Pieced back

The finished size of the quilt is 60 x 72 inches. I have a recipient in mind; but, the gifting will have to wait until much later in the year. I used 10.75 yards of fabric. I had a net loss of 6 yards of fabric this month from my stash. For the year, I have a net loss of 75.50 yards. 

Finished front

Previous posts are below:

Getting started, Making progress, Becoming a top, It's a top.

Linking to: Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell, To Do Tuesday, My Favorite Finish and Finished or Not Friday.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Month Eight AKA A Little Yellow--post 9

Green strings

Angela chose yellow as the color of the month for August. In June, I sewed yellow blocks as my pastel color. Last month, I determined that I needed another green and another yellow block to balance the blocks that I had already stitched. 

First of four rectangles stitched into a diamond

To that end, I started piecing the green blocks with the assistance of my four year old "helper." If the string she chose fit, I stitched it. Over four days and with a little time at the machine for me while she "rested" her eyes, we stitched enough green strings to complete one additional green block.

One more green block

Between the RSC blocks and the green strings for my book club quilt, I had few strings remaining when we finished! There are a few; but, not enough variety to piece together for another project!

Remaining strings

Last week, my helper flew home to London with her mama. I was  on my own to pull my yellow strings to stitch one more additional yellow block. 

Four yellow rectangles sewn together

Since my helper and I had pieced some of the outer sections of the rectangles, this process went rather quickly. I missed my helper when it came to the paper removal step, although I will admit to having less bits to pick up from the floor and adjacent surfaces!

One more yellow block

Again by the end, I had a limited variety of yellow strings remaining which is GREAT! The string bag looks like there is a lot; but, it is mainly one fabric.

Remaining strings

I did lay out all the blocks to see what they look like together. Next month, I plan to piece purple blocks to fill in those two blank areas. My original plan was to orient the blocks vertically to resemble diamonds. One day, I put the blocks on the design wall horizontally and saw the 3D effect. I liked this orientation much better because the blocks look faceted. 

Once I piece all the blocks, I'll play with the layout. The layout below is a 60 x 96 configuration. Originally, I was planning  a 60 x 72 "ish" configuration. Borders will be added. These will likely be pieced rectangles using the gray and black strings. Gertie, my inner squirrel, and I will work on the border challenge another day!

Blocks 

Piecing the strings was goal number four on my August list. Linking to Finished or Not Friday, Scrap Happy and Patchwork and Quilts.

Sewing with a Granddaughter

Contents of the bag of "lettuce"

Goal number five on my August list was to sew strings with my four year old granddaughter. I brought out the string bag which she immediately found interesting. Her words were, "Gran, why is that bag of lettuce in here?" 

I had to laugh because I could see the image of prepared salad represented in that bag. Before I could snap a photo of her holding the bag, she had dumped the contents on the table to inspect the scraps. She is one busy four year old. Some part of her body is in motion at all times. She liked sorting the "lettuce" (AKA green scraps) into piles of like fabrics. 

Ready to reverse stitch

She found threading the machine and changing the foot on the machine interesting. She thought it a hoot that the foot of the machine was called a foot. At first, she thought I was joking. She pointed to her foot and said, "Silly, Gran, this is a foot!"

She liked choosing the fabric to sew to the strip; but, she quickly lost interest in sewing the strips to the paper. Even a short seam took too long to stitch! No way did she participate in pressing as she said the iron was too dangerous for a kid like her! She did find the stitch lever fun to use. There are a few strings with reverse sewing in the middle of the string because she liked seeing how the lever worked while I stitched! She lost interest after stitching about six strings.

Ripping the paper from the string rectangles

I left the strings out and got out the papers to stitch an additional green block for my Rainbow Scraps Challenge. She liked using Elmer's glue stick to adhere the constant strip to the paper. Again, she chose the fabric and we stitched enough rectangles to make the center of one block. Another day, we added the gray and black strings to the block.

Ripping the paper fro the string strips

She watched while I trimmed the blocks. I told her it was time for the paper removal step. She LOVED ripping the paper from the back of the blocks. She used a special wand to loosen the paper from the stitching. The wand is a cuticle stitch with a bead attached that I use as a stiletto. She could rip the paper as quickly and as cleanly as I did! She did let me know it took way too long to get to this step!

During periods while she"rested her eyes." I stitched more strings for the RSC and my book club quilt. Over about four days we actually sewed quite a few strings. At the end, I had a small bag of green strings remaining! 

Leftover strings

In another post, I'll share the progress I have made on my book club quilt as well as the progress on the Rainbow String Scrap Challenge. Linking to: Oh Scrap,  Sew & Tell and To Do Tuesday.

Marbeling

 

Fabric ready for dying

Goal number 11 on my August list was to document my marbling experience. Rosanne had prewashed the fabrics weeks before our dye date. The day before, she soaked the prewashed fabric in an alum solution and hung the fabric on the line. The fabric is 14 inches by 22 inches. The fabrics are cut that size because that is a little smaller than the size of the tray.

Dying station

Rosanne also set up her garage with three marbling stations. The thought that she put into organizing the station shows how much she has learned from her experience with marbling.

The bucket on the right had a solution in it to dip and rinse the marbled fabric after it was printed and before it was hung on the line. The bucket on the left contained the solution that you float the paint. The best part of the photo, is that garbage bag. I used that often as it was so convenient!

Clearing the tray of bubbles

Once the solution is poured into the tray, there are a lot of bubbles. Using a piece of folded newspaper, Rosanne demonstrated how to scrape the bubbles to the end of the tray and into the garbage bag.

Adding color to the train

Adding color to the tray is fun. It is fun to watch how the color changes in the tray. Sometimes, it bullies or takes over the color. Other times, the color doesn't move at all!

Adding more red

After adding the color, it is time to make a design. There are pieces of wood that have metal spaced evenly across the wood called a rake. Sometimes raking in one direction is all the design one wants.

Design after raking in one direction

Sometimes, raking in both directions is a better design.

The rake at the end of the pass

Sometimes, jiggling the rake is the design.

Using the rake once again

The challenge is stopping as you can't go back if you liked the previous design better!

Design made after "jiggling" the rake

Once the design is made, In one gentle motion, lay the fabric on the surface of the medium. Let the fabric soak up the color.

Fabric absorbing the color

It doesn't take long for the fabric to absorb the color. To remove the fabric, slide it over the lower edge of the tray. 

Removing the fabric from the try

Place the fabric in the bucket and gently rinse. Hang on the line to dry. Let cure for a week. Wash in a machine that doesn't agitate. Dry.

One of my prints before removing it from the tray

Unfortunately, during the last wash, a lot of our paint came off of the prints. The fabrics lost so much of their vibrancy that we decided that we would over dye the prints. In other words. we would try again! We determined that the reason for the paint coming off the fabric was because the acrylic paint was old and had been stored in an environment of hot and cold temperatures which made the paint unstable.

One of my prints after curing and washing

It was a fun activity and I look forward to giving it a go again. I did order some new paints which will be shared between us! Linking to Finished Or Not Friday and Quilts and Patchwork.

A Mug Rug

Braid for a table runner

In my friend Rita's temperature quilt was a started braid for her temperature quilt and a length of braid in Christmas fabrics. I thought the started braid would make a good mug rug. I thought the length of braid would make a great table runner. I didn't know how to handle the started end of the braid so that it looked like the finished end.

When I'm stuck, I take the project to one of my small groups and ask for input. This project went to my Mavens group. Susan took a look at it and said that she would add more squares to fill it in. Not impossible, but fiddly. Pat said that she had just completed a similar table runner and showed me how she trimmed that end of the braid. It was a brilliant solution. I asked her to hold her hands in the "trimming" position so I could take a photo to remember the solution!

Mug rug back

I decided to try out my knowledge on the partial braid and make a mug rug. Cutting the end of the started braid worked great. I looked through my scraps to find a suitable backing and binding. I had a scrap of warm and natural batting that used when I layered the little mug rug. I quilted straight lines using a ruler and continuous curves in the squares using a neutral thread. 

Finished mug rug

I bound it and had a finish. It is headed to be in a basket that our small group is putting together for people to purchases tickets to win it at our guild quilt show. Rita would be pleased! Documenting this finish was goal number eight on my August list.

Linking to Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell, To Do Tuesday.and I Quilted This.