Ironing Mat and Caddy

Monday evening at quilt group, we made this ironing mat and caddy. The idea is that you can use this mat as a pressing surface when you're away from home for a retreat or a workshop. At the end of the day when you're done, you can draw up the cords around the mat with the iron inside to carry it home and not have to worry about transporting a hot iron. I thought it was brilliant.

The pressing surface is a teflon coated, quilted fabric, and you add a cotton fabric on the other side. The tabs around the outside of the mat are sandwiched in between the layers and sewn together. Then a cotton cord is inserted through the tabs. We added cord locks to the ends of the tabs. The mat measures about 20" x 28".

Isn't this fabric cute, with the little quilts all over it? I started making a thread case a while back with the same fabric. That project is now officially a UFO; but I dug it back out after I finished the ironing mat, and now I'd like to get that finished.

Sunday Stash Report

The Scrappy Trips quilt is finally nearing completion. As you can see I have the top and bottom borders to complete. I decided to arrange the blocks in uphill-downhill fashion instead of the Trip Around the World, because I would have needed a sixth row to complete the last set of the pattern, and I didn't wanna make another row. So now it looks more like a Scrappy Bargello, which is just fine.

I didn't expect to like this quilt as much as I do. It is filled with ugly fabrics that I've had for a long, long time. I remember how I acquired some of them; but others I have no idea where they came from. They could have come to me by way of a trade or other quilters' scraps that were given to me, I just don't know. I wasn't very discriminating when I started building a stash, was I? Well, I refuse to throw away perfectly good quilting fabric; and I wouldn't give them away because I'm pretty sure no one else would want them either. Bonnie was right about one thing though--in a scrappy quilt like this, they turn out looking pretty good.

I still didn't use up all the scraps of these fabrics though. Keryn commented on her blog last week that some of her fabrics she'd had "forEver" and was so tired of seeing them in all her quilts. I suppose it is like that with a lot of us, and I now believe that I am destined to live with some of these scraps for the rest of my natural life. Even scrap quilts seem to beget more scraps.

At any rate, I used 7/8 yard for the brown border and the binding, which has been cut and set aside, plus another yard for the piano key border.

I also got the binding for my Blooming Nine Patch machine sewn to the front of the quilt, which used another 3/4 yard. I'll be working on hand stitching that down this week.

The long arm quilters and machine quilters out there will likely be bored silly with the next part; so skip it, if you like. Our quilt chapter is having a machine quilting skill builders workshop next weekend. We will be using a preprinted panel of quilting designs that is currently available in quilt stores. There are different designs on the panel, from simple loops and meandering to more complex feather type designs. I wish you could see the details better in the photo, but it was hard to get a good picture.

Our plan is to quilt all the designs once and then repeat the exercises using different color threads for more practice. I thought it was a great idea, so I bought a couple panels to start practicing. I didn't do very well, did I? It's pretty wobbly; but I had fun, and it will get better from here! Practice, practice, practice! Later this week, I am going to be very brave and machine quilt my Scrappy Bargello with a simple meander and one of these loopy designs in the border. I used a yard from the stash to back the sandwich for the quilt panel.

The fabric that arrived in my mail earlier this week totalled 8 yards. Additionally I receive a scrapbag every month from Keepsake Quilting. That also arrived last week, adding another 3 yards to the stash. I rarely buy fabric anymore except for a specific purpose, and these scrapbags are a small treat that adds something new and fresh to my collection. I've been getting this scrapbag for years, and I finally realized that most of it doesn't get used because it is odd patterns; so I called and switched to the Basics club of the month, which also cut the incoming yardage by half.

So here are the totals for the Sunday stash report:

Fabric used this week: 3-5/8 yards
Fabric used year-to-date: 14-1/8 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 11 yards
Fabric purchased year-to-date: 11 yards
Net fabric used: 3-1/8 yards

It could be better, but it could also be worse!

Another Hobby

The fabric I ordered last week arrived in my mail yesterday, so I picked out the one I wanted to use for the binding on my next quilt and washed it and cut the strips. I haven't sewn the strips together yet, but I'll do that soon so I can get going on it in the mornings.

The other thing I do over morning coffee if I don't have a quilt to bind is counted canvaswork. I had never heard of it before last summer, but I wandered into a tiny crosstitch store one morning when I couldn't find the local quilt shop. I used to crosstitch years ago but lost the desire to do it after I started quilting.

I don't recall exactly why I went into the crosstitch store; but once in there, I noticed a small quilt on a table. Upon closer inspection I saw it was all stitched on canvas, the way a crosstitch piece would be; and it was done with beautiful lustrous threads--perle cottons and some different variegated threads.

I was infatuated, so I bought a kit and brought it home. I thought I might just start it that evening, just to get a feel for it and see what it looked like. At 3 a.m. I was still stitching away and actually had to force myself to put it down and go to bed.

The patterns for counted canvaswork that I have found so far are worked on an 18-count mono canvas, which is fairly stiff. Even so, the recommendation is to put the piece in a stretcher frame; and I have a beautiful oak frame with stretcher bars in several widths that I bought years ago. The stitches, which can include a great variety in counted canvaswork, are worked over multiple threads; so the designs work up pretty quickly. This particular pattern came with a handmade clay button, which will be sewn onto the brown center block after the stitching is complete. The design area for this pattern will be 9 inches square when completed.

This pattern is by From Nancy's Needle, and you can see all the lovely little patterns for stitched quilts on her website. I sought out other companies that offered patterns for counted canvaswork quilts on the internet, and the only other company I found that had what I wanted was Laura J. Perin Designs. Laura has more than four dozen designs for quilts done in counted canvaswork.

Another Finish

This quilt came home from Koleen's at the same time as Crows in the Pumpkin Patch, and I finished sewing the binding on it this afternoon. This one is called Caroling Cardinals, also from The Quilted Cardinal. One of the things I especially liked about this pattern is that you can't tell easily where a block begins and ends. It was a simple pattern to sew, even the star in the center. I just had to pay close attention not to turn any of the blocks the wrong way.

The cardinal fabric gives it that Christmas-y feel, but I think it would work equally well with any medium to large scale fabric that you could fussy cut for the star centers. The red motif in the photo reminds me of a tulip, and I think a floral fabric with a spring theme would be nice too.

Credit where credit is due:

Caroling Cardinals quilt design by Koleen Painchaud, The Quilted Cardinal

Sunday Stash Report

Being sick all week long was certainly not helpful in achieving my goals, but I did get the backing pieced for the QFAH project and got it over to Koleen's for quilting. Originally I thought I would piece larger cuts of different fabrics together, similar to a backing that I saw on Mary's blog; but the panels I had leftover from my Lover's Knot from a long time ago were plenty long enough. So I sewed six of them together to make the backing.

This week I also bought 2 one-yard pieces of a tobacco colored fabric, one of which will be used on the next quilt in line for binding. I had the binding for this quilt stashed away somewhere, and I've torn my sewing room apart looking for it and haven't found it yet. You watch, soon as I get the new piece cut, I'll come across it! Anyway, I didn't know which color would be a better match for my quilt, so I bought both.

I also bought 6 yards of red fabric to be used for the binding of my QFAH and for a second QFAH, same quilt, different fabrics (except for the red). I thought I had already bought enough of that red to include the binding for the first quilt, but if that's anywhere in my sewing room, I can't find that either! I ordered these three fabrics by mail; and I haven't received them yet, so I'm not counting them yet!

Stash busted this week: 5-1/8 yards
Total stash busted since Feb 3: 10-1/2 yards

Home Sweet Home

This is what the bird houses are used for in my yard...

Another Finish

I finished this top last year, but it was at the machine quilter's for a while; and I finally finished hand sewing the binding yesterday morning. This is a pattern called Crows in the Pumpkin Patch by The Quilted Cardinal. Koleen, the owner, has a series of patterns with crazy pieced borders and crazy piecing in some element in the quilt. They are a fabulous way to use up lots of scraps.

Orange is my least favorite color in the color wheel, and I only had a very few of these rusty oranges, orangey yellows, and warm browns used in the quilt. So my good friends Koleen and Sherry helped me out with a couple bags of scraps, the pumpkin fabric in the bottom half of the pumpkins, and I bought some fat eighths to supplement.

I fused the crows in each block and blanket stitched them by machine. I've enjoyed my Elnas and Janome sewing machines over the years, but none of them made a blanket stitch that I really liked. My Bernina makes a beautiful blanket stitch, and I want to put it on everything. I'd like to make an appliqued quilt, all done with this blanket stitch.

Koleen also machine quilts for me, and I love the quilting on this quilt. She introduced me to variegated threads, and I have become quite enamored of them. They add another dimension to the surface design that really appeals to me.

I've done several of Koleen's crazy pieced patterns, most of which are a seasonal theme, so I'll add them when those holidays roll around.

Credit where credit is due:

Crows in the Pumpkin Patch quilt design by Koleen Painchaud, The Quilted Cardinal