March Round Up

 I spent more time sewing this month and more time planning. Both positives!

One Monthly Goal & Projects Half Done

I have a finish for the month! I completed the Sunflower Table Runner at long last! This was my OMG for March and one of my PhD in 2022 nominations. This is one of the projects in Quilter's Academy Vol 1 - Freshman Year by Harriet Hargrave and Carrie Hargrave. Class 170: Lesson 4: Combined Grids. The lesson in this project was YUMS - Your Unique Measurements. One key to a YUM is consistency in your seam allowance so that your pieces fit together correctly.

As I prepared to finish this quilt, I thought about a variety of quilt plans and motifs - one of which included huge feathers coursing across the runner.

In the end, I decided on  more modest plan with continuous curve flowers centered on each yellow patch, and a loopy meander through the rest of the background. The borders are quilted with an echoed chain of swirls. The echoes came in to play when I felt like the initial swirls were smaller than they should be and rather than pull them out to start over, I started echoing.

A couple other decisions were made on the fly. I picked out a cute floral fabric from my stash for the back. When the time came to sandwich the quilt, that length of fabric was nowhere to be found. So, I looked at my bag of scraps for this quilt and found that there was still a good sized piece of the border fabric left. Not wide enough for the full back, but close enough that I could attach some of the scatter fabric used on the front to each side to make it wide enough.

I also created a Frankenbatting from the offcuts of the Starbright quilts to use up scraps. 

I used a red blender to bind the quilt that was in my scrap bag, but turned out not to be the same red that was used in the body of the quilt, Happily, at a distance from the center, it is not clashing. I practiced binding by machine and decided I really don't like the process. I find it frustrating as I still haven't managed to attach the binding to the first side and leave the appropriate amount to fold over. Some of my hiccups will be less obvious once the runner is washed. I do need to create a label for this (as well as some of my other recent finishes).

This finish brings my total UFO finishes for the year to 5!

Linking to:

One Monthly Goal - March Finish - Hosted by Elm Street Quilts

PhD in 2022 - March - Hosted by Quilting Gail

Corgi News

 We have a new resident!

Savvy is a Brindle Cardigan Welsh Corgi. He is currently 16 weeks of pure puppy. He is sporting a crown (or mouse ears depending on my mood) to help his ears stand tall. He was bred by my friend Sara Austin of Salty Creek Cardigans.

Sera is really not sure what to do with him. Most of the time she thinks he is pretty okay. But there are days where he harasses her until she plays with him.  Cardigans are a bit larger than Pembrokes, have even bigger ears, and they keep their tails.

First walk using his 'big boy' leash. He wasn't quite sure about it and is demonstrating use of the side eye - something Corgis are exceptionally good at.

Based on his last vet visit, we expect he will be about 36 pounds when mature, so half again as large as Sera. He has massive feet! He will live the performance life, starting in Rally and likely moving on to Agility when he matures.

Yellow! Wrapping up the month

 

I got a late start on the Penguin Parade Quilt Along hosted by designer Annette Ornelas of Southwind Quilts. As I'm going a bit off book and doing rainbow penguins on a midnight blue background, instead of traditionally colored penguins, I decided to spread these out to coincide with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Also, as I was so laser focused on the Starbright quilts in February, I didn't do much other piecing.  I spent a delightful evening prepping the quilt (cutting endlessly) and piecing the Yellow and Red Penguins.

Once I have more done, I'll go in and stitch the curves down on the folded pieces. This will be a fun lap quilt. I've decided to add a piano key border using the rainbow fabrics to enlarge the quilt a bit from the published size.

As I created Yellow blocks last year for my 100 Modern Blocks quilt, I used this month to catch up on the aqua/teal blocks.

As I was doing last year, I used a random number generator to come up with 6 blocks (one for each chapter/style) rather than get stuck trying to pick the perfect six blocks.

So instead of getting stuck choosing blocks, I get stuck choosing fabrics.  We've been alerted that April is Pink, which I did last year, so I'll focus on Penguins and other pink projects next month.

I also worked on the Sunflower Table Runner this past week, and finished quilting - this one incorporates both Yellow and the floral theme for this month's Table Scraps.

Link to:

Table Scraps Challenge - March 2022 - hosted by the Joyful Quilter

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - hosted by So Scrappy

March Goals

One Monthly Goal & PhD in Quilting 2022

 My One Monthly Goal for March is to finish the Sunflower Table Runner which I started back in the fall of 2011.

I finally put mitered borders on this in January!

Sunday, when I went to work on it, I couldn't find the fabric I set aside for the backing, so I started auditioning other fabrics. Then I pulled my bag of scraps from the quilt and found a two yard strip of the border print. Not quite wide enough, but slap on some strips of fabric left over from the front on either side and we are well on our way to a reversible runner.

I then created Frankenbatting from the offcuts from my nephews' quilts and am ready to roll. Just need to finalize a quilting plan, this one is basted and ready to go under the needle. Also need to decide on fabric for the binding.

I'm also planning to work on Coastal Pearls as that one has been basted and ready to go for several years. This was started in Summer 2013 when I participated in the String of Pearls Quilt-along. My sister's birthday is in April - would be nice to get this done and on the way to her before the end of next month.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Table Scraps

The color of the month is Yellow/Gold. I made Yellow blocks for my 100 block sampler last month, so I caught up on February's Aqua/Teal over the weekend. I am going to start my penguin parade, so look for a yellow/gold penguin later this month.

The Sunflower Runner works very nicely for this month's Table Scraps!

Linking to: 

One Monthly Goal - Elm Street Quilts

February Rally Report!

 Wow - This girl is on Fire! Serendipity that is, her handler could use a bit of work.

Serendipity is now: CH Triple H A Perfect Jewell RI

We spent a bit over a week in Florida playing. In Lakeland, at the Strawberry Cluster sponsored by Lakeland Winter Park Kennel Club, she earned the first two legs of her Rally Novice (RN) title. Personally, I thought the first leg was a bit of a gift given her level of distraction in the ring and my nerves. We did not score well - but to earn the green ribbon you need 70 of 100 total points, so we got our first green ribbon. Somehow we placed highly enough to earn 4th place as well. Not sure how we did that.

I travelled alone to this show. We arrived early and by the time we went in the ring (second to last dog of the day) she was bored. Handler error. I learned a lot this week. We met a delightful couple from Canada and their Sheltie Skye. Finding someone who was also new to this really helped. Saturday I arrived at the show site later and spent more time just wandering around with her, rather than asking her to work. Our score reflected this!

We moved on to Tallahassee Saturday evening to start a series of two trials per day. Also a learning experience.  My family is in Tallahassee so photo credits of me with Sera go to my sister Suzanne. These pictures are from our second intermediate leg.  Sunday morning Mom and my sister and her family came out to support us. The quickly decided that Utility Dog is much more fun to watch than Rally, but they did watch our runs.

Sera and I finished her RN on Sunday morning and moved up to Intermediate.  When I first did Rally with Dash in the mid 2000s Intermediate did not exist. This level allows you to work most of the Advanced signs but still on leash. We started practicing a few signs in the two class sessions before we departed for Florida.

I did err on the side of overworking her between trials on Sunday trying to perfect one of the signs on the upcoming course. She answered by shutting me out and grudgingly playing along. Handler error. Really low score, but somehow we pulled off a green ribbon.

Monday Suzanne and Sean came out to watch us and the Utility Dog competition again. I changed techniques and as soon as she finished her first run of the day, she and I headed out to my car where she snoozed in her crate while I knitted next to her for about an hour and a half. Then we wandered around the fairgrounds for a bit sniffing and practiced one of the upcoming signs for the next course.

Strategy paid off! We qualified for our third Rally Intermediate (RI) leg in spite of me.  Rookie mistake, we started off strong and made a 270 left instead of a 270 right. A more experienced handler would have figured out why they couldn't find the second sign and redone the turn. This girl wove around a cone and got a 10 point deduction for incorrectly performed instead of a 3 point for redoing the sign. Lesson learned.  Looks like both of us were a bit brain fried.  Fortunately there was only one pivot sign on the course, which we also blew - but again that was a handler issue more than a Sera issue. We learned a lot.  

Decision time. Do I continue on leash on Tuesday in Intermediate or do we see how she works off leash in Advanced. In classes I can count on one hand how many times we worked off leash because of my own hesitation. She also only jumped three times in class over a rail not a panel. Before leaving the fairgrounds on Monday, I moved her up. My reasoning was that I've paid for the entries, it is ring experience, and it will let me know our strengths and where we need to work.

You may have noticed the masks in the above pictures.  This weekend was our first time working indoors, and the first time working with masks. She did really well with the new setting. We dropped into a morning class on our way out of town on Thursday so that she could see the signs in daylight as we train at night outdoors...

Our first Advanced entry was marked by 'window shopping' as a new friend put it. She showed up on my right side a few times - something that rarely ever happens at home. But new setting and she came back to me pretty quickly. We did get a retry in the corner on a move we both like because of the window shopping. And we qualified!  

We spent the break between trials with a nap and exploring the setup for the upcoming conformation shows. We met a delightful woman from Michigan who was overseeing the dog sports setup and Sera got a ride on a golf cart. She is such a laid back girl and a delight!

Our second trial of the day her score improved markedly! She took the jump again with glee. I decided to take the 10 points off the pivot as she decided it was stupid to sit - shift position -sit and given the look she was giving me, restarting that sign would have the same results. 

Overall she had an incredible weekend. Eight trials! Eight green ribbons! Two Titles (RN & RI) and two legs towards her Rally Advanced title. We made lots of new friends and learned a lot.

Last night she took a break at class and toured most of the field we train in! She and I have to practice our STAYS this week and we get to start working on Excellent signs next week. Our next trials are planned for the end of March.

Star Bright Quilts

Last spring, Holly Anne Knight at String and Story hosted a Quilt Along of one of her patterns, the Star Bright Quilt. This pattern is part of her Winter Hexagon Minis bundle.  It is a simple layout - basically 4 9-patch blocks. Each part of the 9 patch is 12x12 - so the finished quilt is 72 x 72 - until one decides they want it bigger. The Quilt Along was accompanied by a quilt plan challenge - so I knew going in that my goal was to make the same pattern twice with the result of completely different quilts. And I succeeded. Both quilts finished just under 90 x 96 by the time I added border blocks.

My One Monthly Goal for February was to finish and gift both quilts. This meant I had a deadline of getting everything quilted and the binding attached by February 16 as I was travelling for the rest of the month. I am happy to report that I met my goal and presented the quilts to two very happy nephews on February 25th.  This is a photo intensive post!  This also adds two finishes from my Projects Half Done!

My first thought was, I can do this from my stash. Ummm NOPE! Too much fun to shop for fabric. My older nephew is an Orlando Magic Fan! So much so that his walls are painted in the magic colors and a giant logo is above his bed. It was a no brainer once I found the Orlando Magic fabric and ordered almost enough to make a quilt back (see above comment about making things bigger).

My younger nephew is a renaissance man in the making - he is into computers, video games, tennis, soccer and plays the steel pan (drum) and the trumpet! When I found the mosaic fabric at a short bolt sale, I confirmed with my sister that he likes blue and green as it kind of reminded me of Minecraft. For some reason I thought his school colors were blue and green, but I was wrong.  I started piecing the quilts in April and into May and completely finished the blue/green quilt. The Orlando Magic quilt languished in the quarters for several months until I got myself back in gear in January.

I had to be creative with the backings as I extended the quilt with a pseudo border that completed the blue squares along the edge.

I used the bonus triangles from the star points to create center strips for each back.

Pressed and ready to pin. I started with the Orlando Magic quilt as I had a better idea of how I wanted to quilt it.

The Magic back. I have a tough enough time sewing a long straight seam, so imagine my frustration when I realized I sewed this strip to the wrong side of the fabric and had to rip and resew a 96 inch seam!

I decided to echo quilt the star points to look like a repeating M.

The background is McTavished and there are basketballs in the blue and black squares. The tricky part was the star centers. 

I knew I wanted to try to replicate the Orlando Magic logo in the centers. So I went back to using the Golden Threads paper so that I could make identical logos. I should have just sketched each one as they all came out a little different.  

After I removed the paper, I echo quilted to add more texture.

The Magic quilt has been washed, the Renaissance Man quilt had not been washed yet - thus appears bigger.

My original plan to bind was to wrap the Orlando Magic fabric from back to front. Unfortunately, while trying to trim away the batting, I sliced the back on my second cut, so I practiced my machine binding as I knew I wasn't going to have time to hand stitch binding on two bed quilts this month. I am happy to report that I did not at any time have to unpick backing fabric from my quilting as I managed to keep the excess fabric out from under the needle.

Moving on to the Renaissance Man quilt.

I chose a variegated thread for the background quilting on this one and as I wound bobbins realized that based on the number of bobbins, I did not have enough thread. So a quick trip to Greensboro later, I still didn't have enough thread as they were sold out of the color I needed. Thankfully Wonderfil shipped promptly and the thread arrived in time for me to finish the quilt. These are heavy and I did not want to ship them.

While I avoided quilting the backing into the quilt along the edges again, I did not avoid hitting pins and sewed through not one by THREE pins.  Something about this fabric had my pins blending in a bit too well. Thankfully I didn't break a needle or screw up timing. I did become adept at changing needles.

I tried to create a circuit board effect in the background of the quilt using a squared off meander. It was more fun that a curved meander for me. A little hard to photograph as the variegated thread blends quite well.

For the star points, I used a combination of swirls and smoky swirls.

You can get a better sense of the circuit board looking from the back.

After creating the four center motifs - I stippled around to create texture in the star centers. Each of the centers represents an interest of my younger nephew.

Binary code for the programmer, and a tennis racket and balls were fun to create.

I'm especially pleased with my steel pan and you can also see the continuous curve/swirl motif I used in the small squares.

Next step was binding. For some reason, the decision escapes me now, I decided to alternate the to dark colors on the binding. I created about 36 feet of binding. I am please to report that of my 21 joins to create the binding, I didn't sew any to the wrong side!

All pressed and ready to attach. I did this while waiting for the spool of thread to arrive. As mentioned above, they shipped promptly, so I was able to start finishing the background on Saturday instead of Monday. A good thing too as I likely would have needed to pull an all-nighter if it had arrived when tracking said it would. I had a lot of thread breaks using variegated thread. I did not have a comparable amount using a solid color of the same brand.

I decided I would go ahead and machine bind this one, so sewed the binding to the back of the quilt. Then decided I needed to hand stitch this one due to the color changes in the binding. Fortunately that is a portable task and was accomplished in a variety of locations during my vacation.

I had fun creating labels for each quilt - and these got created and stitched on on Thursday afternoon, just in time for the Friday presentation.

The boys are happy and the smiles say everything.

To me, this is upside down - but if this is the side he prefers this is how he should use it. I was questioning all that gray on the front of the quilt by the time I finished quilting and lint rolling it.

This is why we do what we do! I think Sean may use his quilt as an excuse to get a bigger bed now.

Linking to:

One Monthly Goal - Elm Street Quilts - Goal met!

PhD in 2022 - Quilting Gail - 2 Quilts completed this month (4 complete for the year)

Fabrics purchased at Calla Lily Quilts and JoAnne Fabrics

Pieced using Prescencia 60/3 on my Bernina 840 Record.

Quilted using a combination of Wonderfil, Aurifil, and Connecting Threads 50 weight thread on my Sweet Sixteen.