Vintage Holiday Quilt Top



The pictures aren’t great, but the quilt top is finished!  Simple sashing and borders were a relief after wrestling with octagons.  I’m very happy with this quilt and hope to make one or two more of the same pattern but in different colorways.


On the bottom row, I swapped blocks 10 and 12.  I wasn’t laying the blocks out when I made number ten or I would have used different fabric choices because of block 7.  I didn’t like the two blocks with the darkest red right next to each other so the switch works for me.


Because I’m making this entire quilt from scraps, I was thrilled to have enough yardage for the outer border.   It’s totally strange to be taking pictures of a Christmas quilt on my green lawn, but I’m so happy to be getting this done now.

On to the backing and basting!

Jennifer

Joy, week 37



Another breathless week and I’m having a hard time facing the reality of Monday morning.  My son asked me a few minutes ago how long he’s been in school and it surprised me to tell him that it hasn’t quite been a month.  What a long month it’s been!  On the one hand it’s flown, but I feel like we’ve been doing this for a long time already…

Victories for the week:  I had a deadline to take care of early in the week that worked out, I think.  I was able to spend an afternoon at my brother’s house helping my sister-in-law re-cover her kitchen chairs with new fabric.  It was fun for my little girls to play with their baby cousin and I loved talking to her.  So rarely do people actually ask you to help with a project you offered to assist with, I had to jump on this one!  I did better with planning/executing meals this week, especially on the crazy nights.   I had a meeting to go to Thursday night which turned out to be an opportunity to talk to some old friends.  It also provided an opportunity to say hello to individuals whose actions hurt me very deeply a long time ago, and while I haven’t avoided these individuals, I certainly haven’t sought them out.  I’ve prayed a lot for those feelings of worry and hurt to give way to forgiveness so when the opportunity presented itself, I said a little prayer and extended something of an olive branch.  Gratefully it was well received and I walked away from the night feeling like I had chosen to grow a little, to become a better person in those minutes.  It felt good.

In other positive areas, I had a better grasp on keeping things moving the way I wanted them to when we were at home.  The children spent more time practicing the piano, doing little jobs around the house, and generally helping out.  I hope it will continue.  I exercised more.  I conquered the laundry room.  I think my planning/execution worked more smoothly although I want to get much better at putting first things first.  Even so, by Friday morning I was wound up again!

(Just like last week.)

My elementary students have a half day of school on Fridays so they’re kind of worthless as far as errands, projects, and even much housework.  Once again I used part of Friday morning to relax a little and calm myself down.  At first it annoyed me, but as I thought about it I realized that it’s probably the best time for me to tank up emotionally.  Our weekends are very intense right now and anything but restful, so I decided that if I need to pencil in some down time to pull myself together then Friday morning is probably a great time.  It’s nice to head into the weekend feeling cheerful and not run down.  Saturday morning I went to a local Modern Quilt Group and walked away feeling so happy it surprised me.

On the down side, I feel like I’m struggling with my goals to maintain healthy friendships.  That goal suffered considerably over the summer as well.  I suppose it just came with the territory given what I had on my plate at the time.  I find myself watching as the season gradually changes before my eyes and feeling a bit melancholy.  Summer is when people are outside, when neighbors connect and strengthen friendships, but I feel like I’ve hardly seen some of my closest friends.  I need to reach out more.  I’m making progress on the house but at a pace I’d like to improve.  I haven’t touched the yard and it’s sadly in need of attention.  The list of random things to take care of is so long that I have to be careful how often I let myself review it.

But I’m raising a family.  In all these details that can be so overwhelming I remind myself that being here is what matters most.  So I baked a lot of their favorite zucchini bread this week and had it waiting when they came home from school.  I was flexible enough that we were able to squeeze in a lot of time for friends.  I took three of my girls on a special outing while my husband took the other five to a separate destination and we all had a great time.  I showed my girls the house my dad grew up in and my daughter said, “Someday I’ll be a mom and I’ll show my kids the house you grew up in too!”  That night my four year old looked at me and said, “This is like a mother/daughter date, isn’t it?  Mom, this is the best day in the whole world.  I love you!”  and I thought to myself that I can handle all the weeds, all the stresses, all the dirty laundry if I just don’t miss these moments.  We had late nights talking with the teenagers.  I tried to look into their eyes and listen more.  I watched my son advance two ranks in Boy Scouts.  I watched my daughter disappear into a book, unaware of everything we said to her for hours while she was carried away.  I watched another daughter prepare most of dinner tonight.  Yesterday we wandered through our gardens, picking this and that and today we made two batches of fresh salsa.  The children spent the afternoon around the dining room table with paper, crayons, pastels, paint and pencils having art contests, giggling and laughing and enjoying life together.

It was a breathless week, but as I review all these precious moments in my mind I’m amazed that we fit so much in!  (Much easier to do because we don’t watch television.)  I’m grateful to the Lord for giving us so many opportunities to connect, to tickle, to hold, to help.  Oh, we’ve got a lot of work to do in essentials, but we are so richly blessed I can hardly believe it.  Having a large family is a lot of things, and one of them is enjoying the company of marvelous people all of the time.  It’s never, ever lonely here.  What a gift!

So the new week dawns and my heart is ready to sing with joy and gratitude to God for this journey that is mine, hard as it sometimes feels and as beautiful as I have eyes to see.  The darkness outside is now thick.  Indoors there are only two voices left for the others have gone to sleep.  My dishwasher slowly works for me as I type and all the creatures chirping outside don’t miss a beat.  Before I know it another week will be gone, but if I still have all these people I love so much, everything will be just fine.

Have a lovely Monday!

Jennifer

Field Study Experiment

My sister and I split a fat quarter bundle of Anna Maria Horner’s Field Study fabric.  I really like the fabric, but it is a step outside my comfort zone.  Most of the prints individually I think are pretty, some much more than others, but usually collections like this are just too busy for me.  Still, I want to stretch so we got some.

The goal was to use it right away, while it’s new and exciting, instead of letting it sit because the fabric seems so perfect that you don’t dare cut into it.  (This happens to me more often than I care to admit.)  We gave ourselves a deadline of Sunday evening and it’s been there, at the back of my mind, nagging me all week.   Sometimes our Saturday games start later and on those mornings I love to get up really early and sew while my family sleeps.  I got lucky this week and had an early morning at my sewing machine.

This is what I did:


I bought the pattern, Russian Rubix by Prairie Grass patterns, at a local quilt shop a couple of months ago.  They had made a quilt with it and I loved it, so I grabbed the pattern.  At the time I was thinking I might use Flea Market Fancy for it, but I decided to try it with Field Study instead.  Of course, no shops were open to look for solid fabric, so I used the Kona bone I have on hand.


Here’s what I learned.  If I’m going to make this quilt I want a real template I can rotary cut with.  I was so careful with this one, even tracing it on graph paper to be certain it was correct.  I measured everything, pinned everything, did everything so carefully, and yet I still felt like I couldn’t quite get things to line up the way I liked.

Here are the first two blocks.  (Grrr! those seams don’t line up!)


Second try, a little better.  This time I was pressing all seams open, something I usually avoid at all costs:


Third try, even better as far as that inner seam lining up, but I’m wondering if the green print is going to make me crazy like that:


Finally, on the last piece of the first block, I got them perfectly aligned!


And then I put them all together to make the first block, and was disappointed all over again.  In spite of triple checking the template each time I cut, the sizes of those octagonal edges weren’t all the same no matter how carefully I trimmed, and so more seams are off when I join them together.


I’ve been stressed ever since.  I honestly don’t know if I like this block, although I did LOVE the quilt I saw.  Here are my doubts:

1.  I don’t have time to be this careful and still have things be wonky.  If I can’t find someone to make  me a template (I’ve already emailed someone) then I don’t see how I can finish the quilt.  I know that I know how to line up seams, etc, but I had very little luck with this block.  The block also took a very long time to put together, and I mostly felt frustrated.  I do know that I’m not going to waste my creative time being frustrated, so if I can’t find a way to make it enjoyable I shouldn’t do it.

2.  Would I like it better with a darker background fabric?  I used the lighter color because I didn’t want the whole quilt to be super dark.  Should I have used white for some contrast?

3.  Would I like it better without the green and cream print in it?  That octagon gets lost in the circle.  Is that what’s bothering me?

4.  So I’ve already cut into the fabric.  What was supposed to be an accomplishment (jumping in) is now a stress.  What should I do instead?  Now that I’ve cut into it, I need to do something with it or it will just sit and stare at me as a reminder that I quit.  And while we’re at it, this is just fabric!
Why on earth am I stressed?  This is all just for fun!

So I’m asking for some help.  What would you do?  Does the block look better than I think it does?  Should I change the background fabric?  Press on?  Quit?  Any ideas?  One thing is certain, I’m shelving this for now, at least until I have an answer on the template question.  At least I kept my promise and cut into it on time!

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