Sewing With My Mom

My mom got Covid at the same time I did in September 2021.  We nearly lost her.  She was in the hospital for a couple weeks and rehab for another couple weeks.  The doctors said it was good that she was vaccinated or we really would have lost her.  She has had a long recovery from the Covid.  She didn't sew for over a year.  This fall I asked her if she would like to come to my house once a week and we could sew together.  She thought it was a great idea and we brought one of her machines over to my house.  

The first week we got together we cut out a new quilt for her of five inch squares.  

She pieced it at my house for a few weeks. 

But then my dad sadly had a fall.  Luckily there were no breaks.  His recovery took a few weeks, so we started sewing at her place.  (He is doing better and we are back to sewing at my place.)

She was able to finish her first quilt top in over two years.  

While she was sewing I helped organize her studio in her basement.  

Miss Kitty had so much fun playing at Grandma's house.  

Here's a peek at her second quilt top almost finished.

I will share the finished quilts in another post.  I must say, these quilts feel like a miracle to me.  

XX,

Jasmine

My New WISP

I haven't done any hand quilting since I got the longarm in 2017.  The last thing I hand quilted was my mother's lone star which I finished for her.  When I saw this darling hexie flower fabric by Corey Yoder I knew I found my next hand quilting project.  I like to call it my WISP or Work In Slow Progress.  

I bought 2 1/8 yards of the 60 inch wide hexie fabric and 4 1/4 yards of the yellow print for the backing and binding.  This would give me a quilt that is about 60 inches by 72 inches.  I got a little more than 72 inches of the hexie fabric to give me some wiggle room when squaring up the quilt.  

I basted it on the long arm with an extremely large meander and two stitches per inch.  

It did not take long at all.

I was happy to find some white hand quilting thread with my specialty threads.

I quilted my first flower that day.  

And then I kept going.

I was once taught that you should start quilting in the middle and work your way out to the edges of the quilt.  However, I believe that if your quilt is well basted that you can start anywhere.  So, I quilted all of the edge flowers first.

I learned that your quilt doesn't have to be on the frames for a small child to play under it.  

I also learned that I am getting older.  I now need some reading glasses to see to thread the needles!

Once I got the edge flowers all quilted I trimmed the quilt and added the binding.  

I estimate that I have already quilted 1/3 of the quilt.  

I love how it is looking!

I also love that when I am finished with the hand quilting I won't have to finish the edges.  

XX,

Jasmine

From 2021 to 2022

 

I ended the year 2021 with a higher number of UFO's and WIP's than normal for me.  It was a crazy and busy year.  I guess that sometimes it was more fun for me to cut out a quilt and start a new one than to sit and piece what was already started. I'm okay with that.  (Especially because I have since finished all of them.)  I am just grateful I had quilting to keep me going even if I wasn't blogging.  

I cut out and pieced the blocks for this yellow ombre nine-patch in March 2021.

I cut out and laid out the blocks for my April bed quilt in April 2021.  

I cut out the pieces for these two rectangle quilts in August 2021.

I started piecing these improv log cabin blocks in December 2021.

And I started this jewel box quilt on commission before Christmas 2021.  (My first finish of 2022.)

I ended the year 2021 with one work in progress and five UFO's. It really isn't bad, but it is more scattered than I usually like to feel.  

I also ended the year 2021 with 13 personal quilts, 5 pillows, 4 friend and family quilts, 2 baby blankets, 2 drawstring bags, and 1 mini quilt all finished.  

I can already tell you that 2022 has been an even bigger year of finishes with more than double the number of personal quilts completed.  I still have a lot to blog about.  Thank you for taking the time to read my posts.  

XX,

Jasmine

Pinwheel Quilt Top

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was testing out my Mom's Accuquilt.  

I wanted to turn this fabric into pinwheels.  

I cut it into strips parallel to the selvage.  

Then I paired it with Kona White and ran it through the AccuQuilt with the 4.5 inch HST die.  

I was able to cut out enough HST for forty pinwheels with very little waste out of the yard and a half of fabric.  

But I really wanted 42 pinwheels.  I just needed four more squares.  So I sewed the scraps together.  

I ran those through the AccuQuilt with white and got enough HST to complete two more blocks.  

After finishing the four wedding quilts I was in the mood to piece all the pinwheels.  I loved how easy it was to piece them accurately without squaring them up afterwards.  I put all the HST up on the design wall from the darkest blue down to the darkest green.  (The scrappy HST were all mixed in.)

I moved things around for a couple days.  The changes were pretty subtle.  

The HST with yellow made some things a bit difficult.  I changed them around even more when I sewed the HST into pinwheels.  

Then I added white sashing.  I cut 8.5 inch wide WOF strips.  Then I used the 2.5 inch strip die to cross cut the sashing.  I figured if I had it, I might as well try it.  I thought it worked great!  

The pinwheels look different with the sashing.  But I'm so pleased with how it looks with just two fabrics.  

Then all I had to do was add the border, which I cut out a little wider than the sashing.  

I will definitely be making more HST quilts cut out with the AccuQuilt!  

I'm excited to quilt it up, but have had to wait for white batting.  COVID has slowed down many things.  

XX,

Jasmine

Four Patch Quilt Top

I cut this quilt out shortly after cutting out the four wedding quilts. 

It was cut with the 2.5 inch multiple square AccuQuilt die.  It is made from 100% scraps.  

I started sewing the yellow and orange squares to a white square as a leader and ender project while piecing some of the wedding quilts.  But I couldn't wait that long to finish it up, so it took over as the main project after making all the pillows.  

The colored squares were originally five inch squares, so there are two of every single four patch.  I tried something new and swirled my seams on the back.  I quickly learned that you had to be careful how you sewed your pairs together or they could swirl in opposite directions.  I think I only had five which swirled the wrong way.  

After making all the yellow, orange, and red four patches I put them up on the design wall.  

It was so much fun watching the rainbow grow with each color on the design wall.  Pink came next.  

Next came purple.  By the time I got to purple I started putting the lighter four patches towards the center of the rows.  

Then came blue.  

It was followed by teal.  

Last came green and some shuffling to make everything line up correctly.  

I loved how it was looking.  It has fourteen columns across and seventeen rows down.  That is 952 squares sewn into 238 four patches.  

The quilt seemed to shrink a lot when the four patches were sewn into columns.  

Here is the quilt top finished and waiting for white batting. 

 It will have a teal minky on the back.  I can't wait to finish it up.  

XX,

Jasmine