Road to Oklahoma quilt

Hello!

I had made a personal commitment to make a blog post once a week. I had to replace my laptop and couldn't find my way back to my blog. I feel so silly. Thankfully I found a really old email that had a link and managed to work my way back. Wahoo!!

I have started on a new quilt. My husband drove me around the state this past summer on a quilt shop hop. We had the best time hanging out together. I picked up several block patterns and plenty of fabric.

I planned ahead for this shop hop and saved money. That way when I requested the free block pattern, I could also buy a yard or two of fabric. I wanted to support the wonderful local shops that participated. And wow talk about fun! I had given myself permission to pet the fabrics and take some home!

This years theme was Road to Oklahoma. There were special batik fabrics with Oklahoma symbols. I love them! Each block finishes at 12 inches. And since each shop designs their own block, this is basically a sampler quilt.

Have you ever made a sampler quilt? I had not. I am frustrated that I don't have a long range plan for cutting or sewing. It stresses me to look at the fabric I have available and wonder if I will have enough. On the flip side, I am really enjoying the variety of blocks. If this was just a scrappy quilt it would probably be easier. However I chose the added stress by limiting myself to the Oklahoma fabrics. I'm a goofball :)

My goal is a generous lap quilt. I do not have enough patterns as there were only 23 shops in the hop and I did not make it to them all. So I have gone offroad with a few blocks. We'll see how it goes :)

Recovering Dining Chair Seat Cushions

Hello!
Today I am working on recovering my dining room chair seat cushions. Work in progress :)
It's a simple project. EVERYBODY seems to have done it. Except me.

See how the pleather is peeling. Ugh!

We have an awesome big dining table. It easily seats 8 people on big comfy chairs. It was bought in 2011, so it is only 7 years old. However the chairs are upholstered in .... pleather? They looked like leather. Fake! The top layer of the 'fabric' is peeling. Our oldest granddaughter loves to sit and peel during dinner. So the chairs look pretty bad.

Staples to remove dust cover

Upholstery fabrics are insanely priced! They were starting about $45 a yard! That does not fit in my budget. I considered denim but it didn't fit with the style of the table. I finally found some acceptable sale fabric online.

I checked a couple of tutorials and dug in.
First step removed the cushion from the chair. Hubby had one off of a chair that broke a leg. I will learn on this 1 cushion.
Second step, remove the staples. All 4 gazillion. Each layer removed showed more staples on the layer underneath. Oh my ....

The cambric dust fabric is free.

The piping is removed.

I started on the staples to remove the atrocious pleather and my hubby said to leave it on to put 1 more layer of something between us and the foam. It felt smooth enough so I agreed. Plus it is less work. There are so very many staples holding the fabric down.

I measured and cut a piece of fabric. Centered the cushion on it. Pulled up the edge, put the staple gun against the surface, squeeze.
Nothing.
Check that the electric stapler is turned on.
Squeeze. Nothing.
Check that the power strip is on.
Squeeze. Nothing.
Now I'm flipping switches like a crazy person.
Check the pressure do hickey on the stapler. Check the cord, power strip and on/off button again.
Squeeze. Bing! Success!
One staple down!
What can I say, I'm gifted, LOL.

I stapled in the center of each side as instructed.
Stapled more moving out to the corner.
Tried to follow the directions to make a smooth corner.

The corners are not smooth

Totally mucked that up, LOL.
It's staying as is for now. If I get the technique learned I will come back, pull the staples and redo it. Otherwise it will be fine. We're sitting on these cushions not showing them off to strangers.

TaDa!

Here is the mostly finished cushion. I did not trim the excess fabric from the back yet. I am sure I will learn to do this better as I do more cushions. Just in case I want to 'fix' this one, I want all the excess fabric available to me.

Edited ...
I pulled out some black broadcloth I had from another project and used it to make the 'dust' layer on the bottom of the chairs. I considered buying cambric but the shipping was going to take over a week. I wanted this project wrapped up.

One day I will have to learn how to redo the backs

The cushions are done!! I'm doing a happy dance. I love how they look and tonight my hubby reattached 2 cushions to the chairs, so we ate dinner in comfort. Wahoo!

On Ringo Lake progress

On Ringo Lake designed by Bonnie Hunter is almost finished. Almost!

Ponies keeping watch

As usual I wanted it to be bigger even though it didn't have a recipient yet. I made extra units to make extra blocks.

I pondered the layout. I pondered borders. I pondered finished size.

I pondered my endless mistakes. I did great until the calendar changed years then it was one mishap after another. I laugh about it now. At the time I usually sighed and shrugged. I am imperfect so my creations will be as well.

And .... I didn't like the look of my 'blocks'. I laid them out in several different ways trying to find a pleasing configuration. It all hurt my eyes.

Not Bonnie's pattern. My color choices!
I love the reds and blues with the grays and blacks. It was all SO LOUD though.
Bonnie's colors were soothing and went with nothing in my house.

Maybe no sashing?

I finally exhausted myself and decided since nothing seemed more pleasing to simply do Bonnie's layout and move on to sashing.
Then I sewed every block with the corners flipped wrong. Ugh! I sighed and decided God obviously had a plan because I knew I didn't.

This is the block. It's not correct - it's completed though!

I was too tired from the flu and a sinus infection from heck to make the pieced sashing. I decided to go with plain sashing. Which I then cut to the wrong width. Another sigh. More acceptance of my shortcomings.

Finished center lacking borders

The center of the top is done, stitched, pressed. It just needs the borders added.

Tiny squares everywhere

Oh the borders .... I got the crazy idea to do a confetti border. I didn't think how many tiny pieces that would be. Turns out just the confetti is pushing 2600 pieces.

Just keep stitching ... 

I stitched and stitched all those tiny squares.
I wore vibrant thread crumbs everywhere.
And I found my way past my melancholy and antipathy to love this quilt.
I'll share that story soon.

It's a burp cloth kind of year

These burp cloths were sent to Washington for a baby girl

My favorite project for new babies is burp cloths. They are such a basic item and the new mothers rave about them. It seems the store bought ones don't really absorb well. They didn't sell burp cloths back when I had babies! You used a cloth diaper or a towel. My grandmother made me 2 from scrap flannel and batting. I loved them, yet never made more. Where was my head? LOL

The new mother is a recent immigrant to the US. Her husbands ex wife wanted her to have a set. That is real love!

I have made several sets this year. Once someone has a set and uses them, they want to give a set to their friends. I don't charge. I want my stitching to be done with love. I have also taught others how to make them. They are small, simple quilts meant to be used for everything.

Lumber and fishing theme flannel for a boy

Last week I made a set with 'extra' flannel after making a lap quilt for the expectant momma. She asked for a simple patchwork quilt to snuggle under this winter with her first baby.

I love the new modern flannel patterns

She had a picture of a quilt. We went shopping at multiple places and could not find any of the same fabrics. None! The momma found some acceptable flannels at Joann's so I got busy.

Choosing the patchwork pattern

She really loved some deer head fabric and we found not even a fat quarter, so on the sly I picked up some plain black and white flannel to see if I could get creative. I printed out a few deer head and antler silhouettes and tried creating appliques. Two worked beautifully. One was too thin and a complete mess.

This foot kept everything smooth so I didn't snag the tip of an antler

I used double sided adhesive to attach the antlers and head to the block, then raw edged appliqued them down securely. For extra strength I free motion quilted them. AKA I'm insecure about one tiny line of stitching being enough. I will grow into applique techniques in time :)

Antlers for a baby boy

I'm quite pleased with the quilt overall. The momma chose minky for the backing. I love how it feels and hate the mess it makes when cutting it. I'll be using the shop vac to suck up the runaway fluff.

Time to quilt

I took a picture right before sunset as the next day we were expecting rain.

Finished 56 x 70 inches. Flannel top, batting with a minky back.

And wouldn't you know it, after the fabrics were bought, I found the fabric source of the dream quilt. It was a cheater cloth from Spoonflower! I never thought to look there. I decided to buy a yard to make a small quilt just for baby. A little something warm to toss over him in his car seat.

cotton cheater panel - so adorable!

I backed it in minky as well but skipped the batting to keep it lightweight. Oklahoma has very few bitter days and babies need layers, not one thick, heavy quilt.

I'm excited for baby Bentley's arrival next month

And that was the past few weeks fabric adventures.
What are you working on?

Catching up in life

Peach blossoms

I just realized I have not popped in here all this year! I have written dozens of posts and apparently never brought them here. I would say I failed, however 2018 has been one bit of chaos after another. I have forgiven myself for all the balls I dropped. I am sad that this is one more dropped ball.

Pear blossoms

I started the year off with an awful bout of the flu and struggled with sinus issues clear thru to May when I finally got antibiotics to clear up an ugly sinus infection. Before that was cleared my mother died. She and I had talked daily that week. I found her the day before Mother's Day. I admit I am still struggling with sadness. Too many days I stitched with tears rolling down my face. Not an inspiration.

June storm

On Ringo Lake designed by Bonnie Hunter made slow progress and it seems I have very few pictures, my blue mood putting me off my usual routine. This summer one son moved from our small town to the city and I spent almost 2 weeks painting his house. Then my other son moved to Colorado which meant a trip to find an apartment then I held down the fort while my husband and a son in law actually moved their furniture and belongings. I paused to complete a dozen other sewing projects. Does everyone get so sidetracked?

On Ringo Lake

Just last week I made a baby quilt, burp cloths and a lap quilt for the mother to be. I'll share all the pics in the next post.

It's a boy!

Now you're caught up on my little world. I'll be posting more shortly. See you soon!

On Ringo Lake - I started!

Hello! I'm finally hard at work on 2017's Mystery Quilt "On Ringo Lake" designed by Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville. If you want to stitch along it is free for now and lots of fun. We link up on Mondays to share our progress. Go visit HERE to see the fun!

My sweet pile of unpressed 9 patches

Bonnie has already released Part 3, however I am just finishing up Part 1. Same reasons as always - I had other stitching items to finish first. This year I had a few formals that needed repair and altering. The last was delivered a few days ago and now I can stitch what I want! Yeah! Party for me!

Bright blue. Vivid red. Black. Silver to gray neutrals.

I went out on my own for colors this year. Bonnie's are lovely but I want something for my room. So blue is happening here as well as vivid red, black and silver to gray neutrals. Pretty simple. Then the really tragic aspect is that this quilt will finish smaller than I need for my king size bed so I will have to add borders, or make more rows and columns to get the size I seek. I'm not sure why I can't simply follow a pattern without going rogue. My bad :)

Part 1 was stitching 9 patches. Thankfully I got them stitched and half are pressed. I plan on starting part 2 tomorrow. Unless life happens. We are eagerly waiting on grandbaby #3 to arrive. He should be here before Christmas. It will be a fabulous delay to welcome a new sweet soul into the family. 

Pressed 9 patches

I noticed something today as I pressed 9 patches. Look at the stack. It's fairly neat. 

9 patches

See how uniform the 9 patch units appear. Bonnie helped me learn this. I was simply pressing and stacking them. They are already properly sized. As I work on Bonnie's mystery quilts she instructs us on cutting, stitching and pressing. I spent the fall working on a partial quilt top from years ago. It is full of tucks and bobbles. I'm going to finish it rather than discard the lovely fabrics. It will be a testament to how far I have come in my quilting education. Especially now that I can see I have improved and will hopefully continue to get even better. 

Thank you Bonnie!! You have taught me so much. I can now cut, stitch and press with amazing (to me) results. I can take scraps of fabric and create a useful item that is also beautiful. I appreciate your devotion to teaching us all aspects of quilting! 

En Provence is complete!

En Provence is done! Wahooooo!

It was sent to the local quilt shop to be long arm quilted. It measures 108 inches square. It is a big ol' quilt and heavy. Years ago I tended to think of quilters as the tiny, gray haired grandmothers, basically my grandmother, now I recognize how strong those little ladies were to be making big heavy quilts. I admire their strength. And better understand why they hand quilted on frames. Wrestling this monster under my needle just to bind it was a struggle.

We've had gray skies so pictures are subdued. And the wind was blowing. It is Oklahoma after all :)

Thank you Bonnie Hunter for this mystery quilt! Go visit her Quiltville for free patterns, fun tutorials and great ideas!