Tea Time

 

Several years ago, I bought my daughter this quilt kit as a gift. But it sat unused for the intervening years (like mother, like daughter). Earlier this year, when we were having a sew time together at my place, she did the strip cutting of the fabrics, but then got sidetracked by a garment sewing project (also not yet finished) and didn't get back to this quilt. I bought minky for the backing during our local quilt shop's close-out sale, and more recently offered to finish it for her for Christmas. After all, it was still at my place, and I have enough UFOs of my own, without having hers here as well. And so, that's what I've done. 
If you look back over my blog for the High Tea quilt, you will find that I made a nearly identical quilt previously.

The only differences are that High Tea had a teapot fabric for the focus fabric, whereas this one has teacups, and High Tea has a regular quilting cotton backing, and Tea Time has minky.

I also used a different pantograph for the quilting, Coffee Break for High Tea and High Tea for Tea Time. I didn't own the High Tea pantograph when I made the High Tea quilt, otherwise, I likely would have used it. 

I'm not going to bother repeating myself, so if you want to know my thoughts on this quilt kit, just read my post on High Tea. There you will also find that I used the same trellis setting pattern for Where the Charming Roses Bloom, only I used the square design instead of rectangular. 

The nice thing about this quilt design is that it's actually a setting design - in other words, it provides a setting for either focus fabrics or blocks. And since I like the aesthetics of blocks set on point, I decided to use this setting for a queen sized quilt, starting with the blocks I made in a sew-along back in 2021. 

Hopefully, some day, I will get it finished for my own bed. The original sew-along only made 8 - 12" blocks, and for this quilt top, I need 17, plus 14 - 6" blocks. My choice was to make the most challenging 12" blocks I could find in Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. So, it's been slow going, especially when other projects keep interrupting. And then I'll have to tackle the 6" blocks...

High Tea

 

You may recognize this quilt setting. It's the Trellis Setting by Sharyn Craig  that I also used for Where the Charming Roses Bloom, only in that case it was a square version and this is a rectangle version.  I bought this one as a quilt kit from my local quilt shop. While the fabric is beautiful, I likely would have switched a couple of things up a bit. First of all, I'm not entirely sure that I like that cream coloured fabric for the setting triangles. I think it's too great a contrast with the mostly black background fabrics in the rest of the quilt. Even if it had the little rosebuds on it like the black sashing and the blue framing fabrics, it likely would have been more satisfactory. But this is just a tonal, with a print so indistinct that I had to be very careful to make sure I wasn't sewing it with the wrong side out. The next thing is the same focus fabric is used for both the large and small squares and this is a really large print, with the result that the smaller squares have bits and pieces of teapots. It really doesn't suit the smaller squares. I did use the same focus fabric for both large and small squares in the Charming Roses quilt, but it was a smaller scale print, so it worked much better. Finally, there's the matter of the framing and sashing fabrics. 

In the charming roses quilt, both the sashing and framing fabrics have a totally different background colour from the focus fabric. This worked well when putting the framing around the small squares, where it was only put on two sides of the square. 

And it's supposed to go on the outsides of the small squares. But in High Tea, because the background colour of both the focus fabric and the sashing is black, there wouldn't be a strong enough demarcation between the two fabrics. 

And so I put the framing fabric on the inside. It doesn't give it the same finished look, and, if I had enough of the blue framing fabric, I might have considered framing the small squares all the way around. 

I googled this fabric line. It's several years old, so not much can be found online. However, I did find this fabric, which is the same print as the fabric used in the wider border, only with an ivory background. 

Perhaps I could have used this for the sashing, changed the focus fabric for the smaller squares to the black rosebud fabric that is used in my quilt for the sashing, and changed the setting triangles to the same fabric as that used in the wider border. I think that would have been more aesthetically pleasing, though I still think it's a beautiful quilt. 
I used the Coffee Break pantograph from Urban Elementz. It's coffee (or tea) cups with swirls of steam rising from the cups. And this is the backing fabric I used. 

It's a totally different fabric line, but I felt it suited this quilt. I did have a hard time parting with it, however, as it's so beautiful 

Originally, I purchased this quilt kit for my oldest sister, who collects vintage tea pots. However, when my youngest sister wanted a bed-sized quilt, I knew that I would have to make all of my sisters bed-sized quilts. And this one is defintely not bed-sized. However, I was hoping to make a quilt for a friend who is a ceramicist (potter) and I felt that teapots and cups would be appropriate for her. 

Catching Up with Some Smaller Projects

Things have been pretty intense here with cooking, cleaning and crafting, so I decided to take it a little easier and sit down to write a post for my blog. It's been a while, and it's not that I haven't been doing anything...

I don't even remember when I finished this shawl. It's been a few months, I think. 

It measures 62" across and 30" long, and was made with just under 10 oz. (2 cakes) of Bernat Pop. Just don't ask me to remember what colourway this was... Once again the pattern came from this page. It's the design with the number 40 in the description. Here is a close up of the stitching. 

Back in September, I took a non-quilting friend on a quilt shop hop with me (only two shops). At the first shop, she asked about animal print fabric, and fell in love with a couple of panels and commissioned me to make her a lap quilt

and a wallhanging. 

I quilted them both with African Storm. 

In the yarn arts, I started playing around with some Red Heart Super Saver Stripes yarn in the Bright Stripe colourway. I had started a Tunisian crochet afghan with this yarn several years ago, but I didn't like the way it was going, so I "frogged" it, and the yarn sat in my stash since then. But I decided I needed a new knitting project and pulled this yarn out. I have been wanting to try cables for some time, so decided to try an Irish Fisherman afghan from this book. 

First I tried Athlone, but I was going to do it all in one piece instead of several panels. However, each colour barely lasted a row, so I realized that the frequent colour changes would not allow the stitches to show. And when I was going to all that trouble to create fancy stitches, I wanted them to show! So, I frogged that project.

Next I tried a non-cable, but still textured pattern called Allegro. The picture was very pretty in the book, but after struggling to make it work, I realized it was the pattern and not me. Multiple mistakes and very poorly written. Another project frogged...

Finally, I decided on Shannon, which is individual blocks, small enough that the colour changes are more gradual and the fancy stitching will still be allowed to "shine". 

The interesting thing is that the blocks are small enough that they don't go through the entire colourway, so there will be two quite distinctly different blocks, at least where the colours are concerned. 

I didn't like the way the instructions in the book said to do the bobble stitches, and I was actually tempted to use a crochet hook to complete them. But I googled and found what I considered a more reasonable method to knit them. 

Still a work in progress, this will be a traditional Irish fisherman afghan in very non-traditional colours. I won't be surprised if it takes me a year or more to complete it because these blocks, about 9" square are taking me about 4 hours each. And I will have to see if I can find more of this yarn because I won't have sufficient to complete the project at the rate I calculate - around 40 g (1.35 oz) of yarn per square. 
Back to quilting, I decided to work on My True Love Gave to Me Reprise and wanted to finish it by Christmas. Several years ago, I had it completed up to part of the large triangle border just before the narrow black border. But first, I had to decide how to finish it. Most of what I had left was the plaid fabric, but not really significant amounts of the other fabrics. But I did have my bolt of solid black that I could incorporate. Since it is a medallion style quilt, I decided to pull out this book and do patchwork borders. 

Pieced borders can be complicated. Not only does the design have to fit the width of the quilt, but it needs to end in a spot where you can add a corner that works within the design. Then, I had to make sure that the following borders would work with the new measurements. After finishing the large triangle border and adding the narrow solid black border, I added a 2" version of Border 7 from the book. 

Next came a 4"  version of Border 3, Variation 1. 

Next, I started a 6" version of Border 39. 

While the previous borders were complex enough, I made this one more complicated because I wanted to keep the large squares one piece. Otherwise they would have been done as HSTs and squares. 

But the plaid wouldn't have looked as good if it were chopped up this way. But that's as far as I got because I decided to take a little break from this complex project.

Meanwhile, I actually managed to get some Christmas lights up outside. (Looks much better in person).

Some time in October, I did a thrift shop hop with my buddy Phil and picked up this book (among others). 

As a friend had asked me about buying High Tea for her niece who was hoping to open a tea shop, I decided to make the Tea Party wallhanging from this book. If this friend wants to buy that one, she can, but High Tea already had a recipient and was too big for her purposes anyway. 

The time-saving technique for this quilt was using bias tubing for the appliqué - the handles and the spout. Well, I wasn't born yesterday, nor did I start quilting yesterday, so I knew that not only would making bias tubes waste a lot of fabric, but it was highly unlikely to save any time over raw-edge appliqué using fusible web. So, I skipped the bias tubing and designed my own templates. And this is anything but a time crunch quilt. For something this small, it took quite a few hours becuase it had some very fiddley little piecing. And then the pattern gave instructions for cutting and piecing each individual section - even the creamer separate from the sugar bowl. I think it would have been more efficient to cut all of the pieces from each individual fabric first. But that's just me. 

When it came to the quilting, I knew that this project was too small for most pantographs. So, after outlining everything with stitch in the ditch,  I decided to try microquilting on the background to make the tea set "pop". 

I used my micro quilting foot, Microquilter thread and a size 14 needle. One thing I learned: when the thread is so fine (100 wt) and the background is printed, it really doesn't show up at all. So, after a little while of trying to meander/stipple, I just started scribbling with the machine because it really didn't matter. 

I used a ruler to quilt a heart in each piece of the tea set. And now it's waiting for binding and a hanging sleeve. By this time I had other priorities.
My niece had shared a picture of her Christmas tree and I couldn't help but notice that she was using a blanket as her Christmas tree skirt. I had been debating on what to get or make her for Christmas, and now I knew. And she would need to get it early. But I had to find a fairly quick and easy pattern. Jordan Fabrics has this pattern, but it uses the envelope method of assembly and I wanted to quilt it on the longarm. That would be fine, except that with the inner corners, I would need to use bias binding. I'm not opposed to bias binding, but not if I can avoid it. So, I made some modifications and came up with this, also eliminating any Y-seams. 

It measures about 54" across and 60" point to point. I used Candy Canes to quilt it.

Next, I wanted to clean the living room carpet. It was way overdue and I wanted it done before putting up the Christmas trees. 

I do this by moving the furniture to one side of the room, cleaning the first side, then moving it all to the other side of the room and cleaning the second side, before finally moving all the furniture back where it belongs. 

I forgot to mention that when I retrieved the Christmas decorations from the garage, I noticed that the box that the green tree was stored in had been invaded by a mouse. After disposing of the box, mouse nest and droppings, I rolled the parts of the tree around in the snow and left them outside in the cold for a few days to freeze any germs. It still smelled when I brought it inside however, so since I had already put it in the tub for the snow to melt off of it, I gave it a hot shower. When the smell was still there the next day, I gave it a vinegar treatment, followed by baking soda and more vinegar, and finally a second hot shower. No detectable odour and I now own a plastic Christmas tree storage box for when I take the tree down. 

During all this hubbub, my iron died. It was a cheap one anyway and was given to me by an ex-boyfriend (who gives their girlfriend a cheap iron for Christmas?) quite a few years ago, so I bid it goodbye without any regret. I still have my ancient GE iron that I use as a dry iron, especially for applying fusible web, but decided it was time to get a better quality iron. 

Bonus: Canadian Tire had some on sale. I honestly do not feel I need to spend $200 or $300 on an iron, especially since some of the owners of those expensive irons have complained about their performance in quilting groups on Facebook. So, I got a not quite so expensive Black and Decker with good reviews. Unfortunately, it's fairly heavy and, whether from snow shovelling or ironing or both, my wrist was aching more than normal. So I put my splint on. (I have carpal tunnel syndrome). 

I had been using Go Wild as my couch quilt when I put away the non-Christmas quilts and brought out the Christmas ones. I tried Country Christmas on the sofa, but it just wasn't as snuggly because Go Wild has a minky backing and Country Christmas does not. So, I determined to make myself a minky-backed Christmas quilt. It didn't need to be as large as Go Wild or Country Christmas, so I looked for a 3-yard quilt pattern. And, just in time, Fabric Cafe posted a new free pattern, Boxes and Bows. 

In between washing bathroom walls (I had the bathroom painted), I managed to squeeze in enough time to complete this quilt. Quilted with Christmas Forest, and Affinity thread in the Christmas blend,

it has been cat-tested and approved. 

Then I needed a quilt in a hurry and none of my UFOs/WIPs would do, so I pulled this pattern,

which is really cool because it offers different layouts to produce different quilts with the same amount of fabric. Unfortunately, my choice of fabrics is so busy that you can barely discern the quilt design. 

I decided that I'm going to have to quilt with rulers to emphasize the design of the blocks. 

But now it has to wait until after Christmas because I had to get cooking. Christmas dinner was delicious, but unfortunately I've been eating it all week. The weather intervened and my daughter, grandson and ex-husband weren't able to make it. Now we're aiming for New Year's and I'm cooking a totally different meal. Meanwhile, I've had a little time to make some Christmas hand towels 

and some Christmas tree napkins. 

Honestly, if I make these napkins again, I will not include the tree trunks. Even though I followed the instructions, they ended up crooked and off-centre. They are cute, nevertheless. Here's what the napkin looks like unfolded. 

And did I mention that in the middle of the frigid weather the week before Christmas, my truck wouldn't start? New battery put in yesterday.
Now it's time to eat some more of my Christmas dinner and maybe do some more cooking for New Year's Day. 

 

 

2022 Crafting Year in Review

Instead of posting individual pictures of each craft project this year, I used Google Photos to make collages. Each collage can contain up to 6 photos, and I ended up with 6 collages, for a total of 37 projects, one of which didn't make it into the collages. While they don't necessarily show the entire project, I will link to the post about that project so that you can see a full photo if you like, as well as further deatails on each project. First, the quilts. 

Pictured in this collage are Forever in My Heart, Buckwheat and Birds, Finish the Race, Red Hot Chili Peppers, High Tea and Double Star. 

In this collage are Bake Someone Happy, Waves of Blue, Sew Fast, Colour My Classroom, Grandpa's Tools and Butterflies and Blooms. 

While all of the projects in this collage are quilting projects, all are not quilts. They are Crazy Cats (wallhanging), Star of Bethlehem, Wild Kingdom, Wild Kingdom wallhanging, Children of |Israel and Merry Christmas Star Tree Skirt.

Somehow, I missed this one in the collages, and it was the last quilt of the year, Boxes and Bows. I made 16 quilts in 2022, which total does not include wallhangings, tree skirt and placemats. 

This collage includes all crocheted projects: Lost in Time, Goddess Shawl, Summer Morning, water bottle carrier, soap bag and Wrapped in Sunshine. 

This collage contains Mug Rugs, Royal Fan, Take Four Placements, The Study of Geometry, Hourglass placemat (no post) and a quilted cushion cover. 

Finally, we have the Welsh Quilting pillow covers, Sophie's Universe, Christmas hand towels, Christmas Tree napkins and a shawl that I just called 40 because that's the number in the Russian/Greek/Ukrainian? description.
While I might have made some progress on some of my UFOs/WIPs this year, I also added to the pile.

I only completed one more block in the Bernina Old Block Sampler, started a quilt which I will call From Vegreville with Love, made some Kaleidoscope table runners that still need to be bound, did sample blocks from a couple of quilts so one of my sisters could decide which one she wants and started the Flower Power quilt only to decide it wasn't going to work for my purpose.

I never got a chance to make further progress on the quilt for the "Help, How Do I Quilt It?" course, but made some progress on the Asian-inspired quilt, started a new knitted afghan, Shannon, and a rather complex applique quilt, Skylark, decided to add placemats to coordinate with the kaleidoscope table runners (also needing to be bound) and started a lemon themed table runner, now waiting for quilting and binding. 

I played at microquilting on the Tea Party wallhanging, which still needs to be bound, made some serious progress on My True Love Gave to Me Reprise and started Chelsea Rose Pop, but didn't get very far before I had to get some cooking and decorating done for Christmas.
In addition to crafts, I decided to start baking my way through this book, 

veganizing the recipes and using whole grains as much as possible. 

So far, I have tried Olive Bread, Pugliese, Panini All'Olio and Barley Bannock. 
And that's it. Now I'd better sign off as quilting, baking, laundry and a yelling cat await me.