SLEEP ON IT

Ever hear that saying, "I'll sleep on it"?  That's because sometimes the mind figures things out during the sleeping process.  Mid-sleep I began thinking about my never-ending quilt and thought of exchanging the ecru and putting in red .  Went upstairs, pulled out the ecru fabric and with red.  Ah ha!  That's it.

Interestingly enough when I came downstairs after taking that photo I re-checked my email and had a message from Denise suggesting I repeat the sashing from the center, which was blue and red.  Seems my brain was a little slow on the uptake. 

Below are the pattern pieces I used to cut the star quilt.  To make the star blocks I drew out the star on paper the size I wanted, cut out each of the sections then traced them onto sheets of paper adding 1/4" seam allowance.  Did the same for the central large star on a larger piece of paper, which you see to the left of the scissors.

 

Here are a couple other quilt spreads I've made.  This quilt was a pattern except I added two dogs representing my now departed Rottweiler's Shumba and Panzer.  There used to be embroidered words, "Home is where the Heart Is" but that got worn/washed off.

Also made this Cabin quilt (spread) from a pattern which could be on my book shelf in the sewing room still.

And made this easy winter quilt and as you can see I took the easy way with huge blocks.  It was a primitive quilt and think this pattern is still around somewhere too.  

So guess in my mind I was a self-proclaimed expert at making quilts so though I'd conjure up one, namely the star quilt a/k/a never-ending quilt.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimities.weebly.com

The Dinosaur ...

 ...a/k/a The Never-Ending Quilt and want this dinosaur done.  There was no pattern to follow as I made up my own design.  No, I'm not a qualified quilt designer and should have never taken on this task for that very reason.  But have found myself at the point of no return.

Have decided not to make any more star blocks but rather add size needed for a king bed by adding trim around the edge.  Why no sashing between blocks you ask?  Because when it came time to figure out how that would affect the overall dimensions with that added equation I folded up everything and put the tote in the attic.  When the tote and contents was found a few years later decided just to sew those suckers together without sashing.

Looking on the far left of this photo and the very back row of star blocks those still need to be stitched together.

After that I've got to decide which colors to use for the border all the way around ~ light against star blocks to blend the light in the blocks then use a small plaid blue edge?

Or below, light sashing next to star blocks and larger plaid border?

Could also sew a blue sashing nearest the star blocks with a light edge?

Will walk by it and see which speaks to me, thankfully it is upstairs on my sewing room floor not where I hook so won't trip over it. 

A word of advice for novice quilters...don't try this at home without a pattern to follow. 😒

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

REJUVENATION

The last couple days I've felt rejuvenated and wonder if it is the warm weather (60s yesterday and 72 today), feeling safer after my first Covid shot, seeing people walking in the neighborhood, days are getting longer?  Whatever it is has done wonders to my spunk-atude.

Yesterday I didn't post about it but sewed some star blocks together for that never-ending quilt.  As I ran out of pieces, today I cut more fabric to stitch more squares soon.   But those two white pattern pieces require more fabric cut before than can happen.  Would love to put that quilt behind me.

Remember my telling you about a departed rug hooker Joyce Closter?  Her daughter Lea lives in Delaware and her husband has an auto repair shop where I have work done.  She mentioned seeing some loops pulled out loose and some missing wool in a rug and asked if I could fix it.  With the comment that "she would pay me for my work".  WHAT??  Pay me when you've given me all that wool from your beloved mother?  

Picked up the car today along with the rug with just a few spots needing a lift.  Since I had all her mother's wool just knew I'd have the right color for any repairs.  And so I did.  Returned the fixed rug back to Lea before closing today at 5.  Thank you Joyce, I'll take care of your rugs for your daughter.  This is the before photo so you can see it wasn't all that bad.

Am feeling spunky still and even thinking of starting yet another something to hook.  I mean, straight hit and miss hooking is boring, right?  

Check in again because there might be a little sumpin sumpin new on my frame.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

OH MY STARS and HEART

This morning as I was waking up stars were on my mind.  Before the new year the subject of new years resolutions was written about on some blogs.  And in the past I'd make a resolution but end up breaking it.  Yet I did say to myself....'hope I'll finally work on the star quilt again sometime this year'.  The last time I worked on and blogged about it was 2017.  Good grief!  that was four years ago.  If you'd like to read those posts you can see them HERE.

I even  surprised myself today by assembling a few more blocks.  Honestly don't know how many blocks are needed to finish the never-ending at least decade long quilt project because I didn't assess that today.  But did sew 5 more blocks.

Perhaps after I've had a couple days to catch up on pulling loops on my dear horse rug I'll check thru the box with the quilt and determine what is needed.  Surely that fabric is aging as fast or faster a rate than I am 😕 so need to finish it. 

Have assembled my mitten with heart and not ready to hang it since it's not February yet.  I'll get some greenery and have a couple fabric hearts to put in the mix or perhaps I'll have to hook a couple small ones to insert.

After blogging the start of my hooked mitten project and Kindred Spirits booklet friend and follower Nancy Kilrain remembered she had that booklet and had plans to make two for her twin grandchildren.  She posted her first mitten on FB with a delightful braided hanger... UH, an idea I stole from her ~ thanks Nancy.  By the way Nancy, in all honesty I like your hooked version better than mine.  Yours has more character and mine is rather stagnant.  Hey!  Give credit where credit is due.  Good job gal!

Happy Monday, plans are to pull a LOT of loops tomorrow which will make me happier.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

www.facebook.com/WoodlandJunctionHookedRugs

de'ja' vu

If you think you've already seen this before, you'd be right.  Except the neutral sashing has been removed and the blocks sewn in the same direction.  Took two photos with different settings, here's one which keeps the photo small, thus not providing lots of detail.  Sometimes my rugs show up better with this setting as it doesn't distort the color.

The other photo below provides many more pixels so that when you tap on the photo shows more detail.

Go back and look the the second photo again....  See that orb to the right side of the quilt piece?  Wonder if that is my boy Ben visiting me.  Yeah, am sure some of you think I'm bonkers for believing that orbs are spirits or angels but when seeing them in a photo it feels comforting.

You won't be seeing stars for quite a while as more blocks need to be made and 11 pieces of fabric for each block needs to be cut and sewn together before any more progress can be made on this never ending project.

Must admit that I do like it better with all the stars facing in the same direction and without the sashing separating the blocks.

Stay warm folks, it is going to get colder here and more snow predicted.

Saundra

A Quilter I am NOT

Remember that infamous star quilt recovered from the depths of my attic started so many years ago?  Here is what it looks like now and I've managed to built another hurdle for me to jump.

Below is what it looked like before ripping out the left and right sides to re-position the stars and having them all facing the same direction.

Then once sewing the stars back all facing the same direction thought it a good idea to sew a neutral strip between the rows of stars. Figured it would provide two positive results: #1 put a smooth transition between rows of stars and #2 would require less star blocks for me to cut and sew together.

Why on earth would I decide to make my own pattern and work it 'as I go'?  If I had an engineers mind I'd have done all the calculations and worked it out way ahead of time so as to not need a seam ripper.

After sewing on the neutral border all the way around now realize it will not be the dimensions of the next row of star blocks ~ it will be almost half a block short in both directions.  You can see that below as I've laid the top row down and the blocks don't match up horizontally or vertically.

Now at a standstill once again, need to decide if another row of neutral should be sewn to make it large enough to accommodate a block OR rip out the neutral and sew star blocks together without that separation.  

Hmm, or.... I could extend that vertical and horizontal neutral strip between the top two stars on each end.   

Would love feedback from you *REAL* quilters.  Meanwhile the sewing room is a mess and I need to start making more of a mess cutting out all the pieces for more star blocks.

Saundra

Oh My Stars

Have made a little more progress on my star quilt/spread and am going to ask my readers' advice on a couple things.  One would be the direction of the stars and the other would be if a solid strip should be sewn between the rows of stars.

On the origin quilt ALL of the stars were facing the same direction as shown below.  This was a 1998 catalog and now wish I'd ordered that king size quilt for $139 instead of my making one.  But I wanted a large star in the center and decided to make my own pattern.  So, Saundra, how's that workin' for ya?

This is what I've accomplished so far; there are other quilt blocks sewn together but not attached to the larger piece.  However, I've dozens more blocks to make yet.

Okay, my first question is on the direction of the stars.  If you look carefully at the corner closest to you the stars on the left are all facing the same direction while the bottom the quilt is facing another direction.  I'm wondering if that is the way I should continue (above).

Or if the stars should face as they are below.  Hmm, not that I'm looking at it on my computer perhaps the photo above is the way it should be. But would still love your input.

The other question on  my  mind is whether or not I should put a dividing strip between the rows as with the photo above as well as the one below.  

OR.... if the blocks should just be sewn together and depicted below?

Here is another view of the quilt on my bed.  I started out sewing the stars with the top point toward the center.  Then noticed when getting to the corners it required for the quilt block to be facing one direction or the other.  look at the photo below which shows the far right blocks are a different direction than the stars on the sides.  So which way should those two face?

Or, perhaps I should use my seam ripper and make all the stars facing downward from the top to match the center block.  So quilt aficionados, would love your input.  

BOOHOO, over night I lost 5 followers.  Is it because I've only been posting every other day lately?  Is it because I've started writing about quilts instead of all rug hooking?  Whatever is the reason I'm losing my followers it makes me sad.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Saundra

Incompetent Quilter

That would be me and have proof.  Since the last loop on the Gossip rug was pulled (yay), it has been steamed and resting.  Needing something to do decided to sew a few quilt strips together and a few previously sewn blocks. 

Remember last month when I posted about finding my container of fabric and previously cut quilt pieces and some sewn blocks?  If not, you can read the post HERE.

First of all, let me say that I did NOT have a pattern for this quilt. I saw a photo of a star quilt in a magazine somewhere a few years ago, fell in love and decided ..."I can do that".  Yeah, right.  Made my own star drawing, cut the sections, added seam allowance and hope it worked.  

Okay, first problem was getting the dimensions of the main center to line up with the smaller star blocks.  OY!  That was a task in itself.  Then decided to sew the top and bottom smaller blocks to the large center.

Uh, do you see anything wrong with that picture above, lol?  Yeah, the top row of stars are upside down.  No way I could leave it that way before nightfall or I'd probably have packed everything back up and put it in the attic again out of frustration.

Now it is time for me to start a new hooking project.  I'm not ready to divulge the project yet but it is something from my pattern stash.  All too often I get a hankering to draw an antique adaptation when there are patterns in the stash waiting for attention.

Storm came thru this afternoon leaving some much needed rain and hopefully the temperatures will drop a little.

Happy Saturday to you all.

Saundra

A Former Hobby Resurfaces

Have previously blogged about my humble attempt at making a quilt. Actually I've made a few and use them as a bedspread.  Recently after changing sheets noticed how worn and repaired the one in use was, but am not ready to get rid of it yet. 

Below is the one in need of repair and presently on my bed.  So when looking at the following pictures remember this is peeking out from under the fabric squares.

Then one of those wake ups in the middle of the night wondered what I'd done with a quilt in the making MANY years ago.  This morning I went into the attic to find out.....hopefully I hadn't given it away as I've started to get rid of fabric and quilt pieces.

Ah Ha!  Found it and was quite surprised as to how many squares were sewn together.  Hmm, maybe this is a doable project after all.

Below will be the theme of the one I HOPE to work on intermittently between hooking, grass cutting, etc.  Hell, let the dust collect, there's more important things in life than cleaning.... right ladies???  😉

These are all the blocks which have been pieced, some stitched together but not many.  Still, the piecing is the PAIN...right?  Well at least it is for me because I don't qualify as a 'real quilter'.

My original grandiose idea was to have the big star in the middle and the entire remainder of the quilt to be the smaller star squares.  HA!  Me thinks me will do large blocks of something to fill in once I've circled the big star in the middle.

I have used those large dark pieces of fabric just to cover the spread underneath and show some semblance of a border.  I'd like it to be nicer than this of course, but those pieces happen to be in the container so used them for fill for the photo.

Above are the cut but un-stitched pieces remaining.  Once they are stitched together will decide if any more are needed.  Otherwise I will do trim and blocks of neutral, blue, red and other colors you see in the stars.  

So basically, look at the top quilt on the bed and think of the BIG star in the center.  Then think of the smaller star blocks in the section where the houses and trees are.  The rest will be homespun blocks.  As luck would have it, I've about 12 Walmart shopping bags full of cotton which was to leave my house about a week or so ago.  But now I'll be looking thru those bags to see if there is anything which can be used to complete my new 'former hobby'.

It's a scorcher here today and glad that Ben's backyard got cut yesterday in the morning.  Of course he doesn't spend too much time out there ~ he wants to go out and will lay in the grass only long enough until that black body gets hot.  Then my boy wants in.

Have a great evening and stay cool.

Saundra