Donation quilt No. 3

 The third donation quilt is finished.  This one has proven the most challenging of the bunch, so far.

It is about 36 " square.  I say "about" as, although each square was planned and trimmed to 12" square, in the piecing I had to do a little more trimming on a couple of them.  I used a modified version the the Sharon Pedersen method of making a reversible quilt. In putting together this latest charity quilt, I made a couple of "rookie" mistakes, both of which required 1/2 hour or more of ripping before I could go about correcting them. I was annoyed with myself, and frustrated, even though the darn thing was finally finished. And the glass of wine my husband served me, when it was done, was most welcome.

This most recent quilt used quite a few of scraps, but left quite a few as well.

Most of these are longer strips of Kona Cotton, left over after I worked my way through Maria Shell's book on Patchwork.  I've added a few strips deliberately cut from good quilting cotton, so as to add some variety to the sold colour strips.  Many of the strips are less than the width of the fabric, some quite short, and they are a variety of widths, so coming up with ideas for using them is difficult.  And I paid too much for the fabric to use it for making dog beds to donate to the local Human Society shelter, even if I knew how to go about that.

So while I let that percolate in my brain, I'll start the prep work for a fourth quilt. This one will involve 4" squares, toped with a 2" square, which is appliqued on with a zig Zag stitch, through fabric, a batting square, and backing square. Then all of the small squares are stitched together with sides butted right up together, using a wider Zig Zag stitch in close to a satin stitch arrangement.  I like this as it uses up all of those small pieces of batting that are always left after putting together larger pieces.  It uses a bunch of small pieces of fabric, and a lot of leftover thread, as well.  And that will be my job to for today--after cleaning the kitchen, of course.

Busy staying at home

 I haven't been out of the house since last Wednesday, and won't be going out today.  This. of course, means studio time.  But I'm finding my tolerance and endurance is not what it was pre-Covid.  I can manage about 1 1/2 hours at a stretch, and then need about an hour of down time before starting again.  That second stretch is even shorter.  But I'm in my studio and that's what counts.  Here is what I'm up to.

This first picture is of three painted fabrics that are planned for my next art piece.  It will be very similar to the last art piece, and I'll exhibit them as a pair.

Here are the two solid fabrics I plan to add, as I need more variety as well as more yardage for the piece planned.

Here is the charity quilt that I completed this morning.  It is about 36" square, and the individual squares were cut 8" square, before piecing.  All of the individual squares are improvisationally pieced from scraps.

There is another charity quilt in the works.  I pieced the center section with scraps, this morning, and only need to add borders, before sandwiching it, for machine quilting.

And here is the one I both started and got to the stage of being sandwiched, ready for machine quilting--today. It is slightly smaller, about 31" by 36".  I guess I have to confess that some, but not all, of the strip piecing was done and in my scrap box before I started.

No new pictures, but progress none-the-less

 The past year and a bit has been a very emotional time for most people. Creatively, I was preparing for my scheduled show this month.  The pieces, that had been prepared for the show scheduled for May 2020, were sent to other shows during the too brief summer of 2020, when things were somewhat open in this area. After the May 2021 show was taken down so prematurely, I was physically and emotionally exhausted and took a few days to pull myself together.  That may sound like an exaggeration of what was going on, but statistics on current levels of mental health issues are staggering.  I am not alone in my feelings.

This last week I took action.  The charity quilts that have accumulated over the past year were taken to the appropriate donation site.  There, I was given supplies to make even more quilts, and have started to do so. I'm purposefully making them somewhat challenging and not just mindless "donkey work".  I'm having fun.  The batting I was given is one I have wanted to try and I find that I love it.  I have a hunch it is quite expensive, and may only come in pre-packaged lengths, rather than by the meter.  It may well be out of my price range.  But if anyone wants to experiment with Quilters Dream batting, it has my vote.

I apologize for not posting a picture of the quilt I recently had returned from the long-armer ( Geesje Barron at Conundrum Quilts, if you're interested)  I had thought I had a picture of it in my files, but it appears that it was lost when my computer crashed and had to be replaced, just over a year ago.  I promise to be more careful, and post pictures of each charity quilt as it's finished.

Constant changes

 Well, the gallery was forced to close a week ago, and my show did come down, last Saturday.  I agree with the need for Public health orders, but have trouble keeping up emotionally.  Again, I try to keep creative by looking into the past and re-visiting techniques that have worked well for me "way back when".  The most recent technique is mono-printing fabric, and then using my own designed fabric to create a piece. Here is the most recent effort.

I used Seta-Color Fabric paint straight from the bottle onto a large piece of Plexi-glass, using more than one colour, at a time.  I spread it with a brayer (roller), and than laid PFD fabric pieces very gently into the paint, before using a clean brayer to push them firmly into it. Then I pulled the fabric carefully off, and hung it to dry.  This took about 24 hours.  It was then heat set with the iron.  Two of the pieces didn't quite work, colour-wise and were eliminated.  ( I have another project in mind for those)  Then the rest were cut randomly and improvisationally, before being stitched down, using a "sew-and-flip" technique.  The design layout is also improvisational, but is very loosely based on a "log Cabin" or "crazy patch" pattern. Instead of batting, I used a piece of black industrial felt.  I quite like working with this, as it behaves much better than batting for this technique.

Here are the pieces that were painted. 

And here is a close-up of the ones that were actually used in the piece.

Finally here is the finished top, prior to backing and binding.  All of this has been done since Saturday, which I think is an accomplishment, as I had to take the first version partially apart and re-make it, after a problem developed within the focal area.  the finished piece will be 21" by 27".