Pat – Page 9 – Time to Quilt

Strings and things

We’ve had frequent showers the past few days, but I did manage to get outside and take a photo of the string quilt I finished a couple of days ago.

I added some of my short strings, mostly kid bright print, to the pile of little solids left from the quilt I finished at the end of May.

It’s a contemporary take on an old favorite, the log cabin quilt block. This version was inspired by the pattern Stacked Logs from Quilted Sunshine.

My little drawers of strings are beginning to overflow so I need to spend a bit of time making a few quilts to get them back under control.

I keep my strings sorted by color in a little cart I purchased from Michaels. Well, I’ve actually expanded to two carts now. Not because I wanted to store more fabric, but I did want more separations so I could break out a few by type (patriotic, batik, bright kid, reproduction prints,low volume, etc) and also have a drawer for leftover binding to occasionally be able to make a scrappy binding.

My husband had an old street sign in the garage he’d found in the ditch while walking one morning. He loves up-cycling things and finding new uses for them. He riveted the sheet metal to the backs so they’re a lot more stable and don’t wobble when I wheel them around.

Thinking about some of the things he’s recycled, I can’t wait to share the turkey protest signs he made for his Thanksgiving yard decorations when he takes them out in a few months. They’re from abandoned political campaign yard signs he got tired of seeing at the corner of our street. 🙂

In the beginning

I didn’t take “before” photos of the rescued quilt tops when I started working on them. I planned to quilt and bind them, regardless of their appearance. There are people in need of quilts who don’t have anything to sleep under. Shelters have asked me to bring my least appealing quilts, explaining that those experiencing homelessness will choose a quilt they think is less likely to be stolen. This perspective opened my eyes! I knew I could find homes for the quilts no matter what they looked like when they were finished.

These quilts are turning out much better than I’d even hoped for and they’re being donated back to the guild for their organization partners.

I haven’t forgotten about the shelter and do plan to prioritize donations to them during the cold holiday season later in the year.

This top just needed minor adjustments, The side seams had to be restitched along the edges where they’d opened and stay-stitched before quilting. There’s a bit of pink fabric in the top but not much. I used a dark brown “tree bark” backing for this quilt in hopes it would make it more gender neutral..

This quilt top looked odd when I first saw it on the table. It was square, but the side fabrics were different widths, as if someone had stopped working on it partway through.

Our guild had request for patriotic quilts to honor veterans at an “Ignite the Night” 4th of July celebration. I took the top home hoping I could make it work. I split one block and moved half to the bottom for more interest. It finished at about 48″ x 68″.

After that quilt meeting, I texted Vivian, the Outreach committee chair, to ask if there were any quilt tops left after the meeting. She said she still had eight more, so I met her the next week at a local quilt bee and brought them home.

A makeover

This is quilt #8 in the Second Chance Quilt series. Not only am I borrowing Wedding Dress Blue‘s term for this group of quilts but this time, also her design idea, Film at Five Quilt.

I began with this Jelly Roll Race quilt top from my quilt guild’s de-stash table. I wasn’t crazy about it, and I’m guessing I’m not the only one which is probably why it was there to begin with, but I thought it had potential.

My goal is to never use the words “it’s just for charity” and instead, do the best I can with what I have, no matter where I think the quilt may end up. This quilt was no exception.

I used Deanna’s Wedding Dress Blue Film at Five Quilt free pattern and tutorial to turn the top into the quilt below. This version required half as many blocks and a lot less work since I began with strips already sewn together. 🙂

The finished quilt measures 52″ x 68″ and I quilted it with a traditional clamshell design.

I began by de-constructing the top in sections of 5 strips. Then I cross cut them into 2 1/2′ sections. I chose to cut them by hand rather than struggle to line them up just right for the Go! cutter.

Then came the problem. When I pieced 5 strip sections together to form the block I realized that the seam allowances in the original top had been inconsistent. The resulting blocks measured anywhere from 10″ to 10 1/2″. I had no choice but to trim all the blocks to 10″ squares.

Of course that threw the sashing off. I love that detail in design so I had to make it work!

I used leftover pieces and added a 2 1/2″ square of background to make two pieced units. Normally, I’d have sewn the two pieced units together and then added the last print square. Instead, I opted to sew them in the order you see in the left photo above.

I used a 3/8″ seam allowance on both sides of that print square in the middle losing a total of 4/8″ in the sashing strips (2/8″ on each side). This resulted in the unfinished strips measuring 10″, exactly what I needed. You’ll see a slight difference in the dark blue middle square in the photo on the right. It’s not very noticeable in the 31 sashing units unless you know to look for it. (And, you probably didn’t notice until you scrolled back up to check it out, right?)

I’ve only made one Jelly Roll Race quilt myself. It was this one, for my brother’s birthday in 2020. I used a lot of Thimbleberries fabrics, but I gave it a bit more contemporary style by sewing the fabric strips together on the diagonal. I also cut them into half width-of-fabric pieces to mix up the prints a little more. I still had some fall next to each other in the adjacent row. I hate when that happens so it’s the reason I probably won’t use the race quilt method again.

Pulled Pork – 4th of July cookout alternative

I’ve been busy sewing, but nothing that I can share just yet. My Friday night post will be about what I made for dinner today instead.

Try this if you’re bored with traditional burgers and franks for your 4th of July cookout…. and it makes a really good alternative if it’s predicted to rain.

Smithfield sells pork tenderloin with a variety of pre-seasoned choices. This is our favorite.

Ingredients list:

3 to 4 pound pork loin (center cut)
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup vinegar
1 onion, sliced
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
*optional* Barbeque sauce to be served on the side

Place pork tenderloin in the crockpot and top with sliced onions. Mix the remaining ingredients (except for the barbecue sauce) in a bowl and pour over the pork. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. (I’ve recently switched to cooking it in my Instant Pot on the 35 minute meat setting.)

Remove from pot and either slice or shred it easily with a fork. Top with your favorite barbecue sauce or spoon some of the contents of the pot over the pork.

Designing Quilts

I have EQ 8, but I’ve never taken the time to sit down and learn how to use it. I keep thinking someday I will, but it just hasn’t happened yet.

For now, I’m still old school and draw my plans out on graph paper if I’m not using a pattern.

These are a few recent projects.

And, the next one I’m sketching out tonight to begin soon.

Dollar Tree is a great place to buy graph paper, but not all locations stock it.

Recently, I found a source online to download 1/2″ graph paper, which I used to graph the individual blocks for the idea I’m working on.

You can click the download button below for the pdf.

graph paper .5 inch Download

There are are other sizes of graph paper available to download from their website http://print-graph-paper.com