Parsonsfield Update for One Monthly Goal

The colors in this Parsonsfield quiltlet are so subtle that it's hard to photograph.  (I wonder how professional photographers can take such beautiful photographs of homes that are all whites and creams.  Oh, I know!  They're professionals with lots of experience.)

This photo was taken with my phone camera and without a flash.

My One Monthly Goal for May was to choose a backing and get this layered and basted.  I did that and I'm happy to say that the quilting is almost finished.  I'm echo quilting the seams using size 8 perle cotton so it's been easy and quick to quilt.  Of course, when taking big stitches, mine are absolutely not even.  I work at it but haven't succeeded.  On a little quilt like this that will probably one day lay on the kitchen table between meals, I don't think perfectly even stitches matter that much.    

I'm linking this post to May One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up at Stories from the Sewing Room.  Thank you for hosting, Anne-Marie.

--Nancy.

Links to Enjoy #33

Below are some links that caught my attention recently.  I hope you enjoy one or two of them.

My grandfather had a musical instrument he called a sweet potato but which, as far as I know, he never played.  A number of years ago I learned that a sweet potato is also called an ocarina. 
 

I was thrilled to find this video of an ocarina septet.  Enjoy! 


If you enjoy writing, love the English language, this post about semicolons may be for you.  Do you think semicolons are overused?  I thought this was interesting, especially the little semicolon test near the end. 


These photos of Owls in Towels come from all over the world. 

Rescuers and members of medical teams wrap injured owls in towels to assess their injuries and to prevent them from flapping their wings.  Mostly too cute, but a few look grumpy.  At the website, click on an owl to learn more about him or her.


Leaf cuttings!  Such fun.

Instead of paper Lido uses leaves as the background to create tiny scenes and silhouettes of animals.  Patience, precision, creativity, a sense of humor.  Look at some of his Instagram photos here, read a more detailed article here.  And this link is the best because if has a close-up photo of a bear with a basket of sweet gum balls using tongs to hand a porcupine baby back to its mother.  Its title is, "Wait a second!  That's my baby!"  The detail in the image and the humor it makes me chuckle.

I hope you found something to enjoy at one of these links.

--Nancy.

Sewing a Binding for Slow Sunday Stitching

I finally made and sewed the binding to the front of Everyday Patchwork last week and began the slow task of stitching it down on the back last Thursday.  I think I stitched an inch or two then, but today, I hope to stitch more while watching the Memorial Day celebration on PBS. 

I also plan to add a few more quilting stitches to Parsonsfield. I tried to add a photo but Blogger seems not to want to let me share a photo with you. I guess I'll post that another time or when it's finished.

I hope you're having a pleasant and restful Sabbath and have a good Memorial Day tomorrow (for those living in the U.S.)

I'm linking this post to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts. Thanks for hosting, Kathy.

--Nancy.

Green for RSC (Plus Red, Blue, Yellow, and Pink)

Whenever I see a quilt and think, Oh, I want to make one like that, I find that my results don't quite match up to the quilt I saw.  I suspect that's going to be the case in this instance, too.  This 9-patch and snowball is the quilt I saw that I'm trying to replicate.

Here's one more green block for a total of seven.  I posted six last week.

And in an effort to catch up from January through April, I made some blue, red, pink, and one more yellow block.

When I see these blocks all together with their jumble of colors, they sort of turn my stomach.  Thank goodness they won't be in rainbow-color order in the quilt and will be separated by white/off-white/solid color snowball blocks.

I can almost imagine a 9-patch and snowball as a one-color quilt, especially with the variety of fabrics and prints in each color range.  Maybe for another time?

That's it for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) blocks for this week.  Thanks so much to Angela for hosting!

--Nancy.

Decidedly Underwhelmed

Using these little 1" finished blocks as leaders/enders, I thought I was creating a quilt that would glow with autumn color.  With that in mind, you can see why I'm underwhelmed!  What happened to the glow?!

This top measures 46" x 58" (which clearly shows that my quarter-inch seams are not).  At this point I need to decide whether or not to add a border.  I was thinking it would be a good baby-to-toddler quilt, but with a border will it be too large?  Does it need a border?

I was at Hobby Lobby earlier this week to buy perle cotton and saw that all of their fabric yardage is 40% off.  That's a great deal considering that most if their fabric is in the $6.00 to $8.00 range and of reasonably good quality.

I saw some double gauze there and am considering it for the back of this quilt.  I read posts from two other quilters who sang its praises.  Jeni of In Color Order made a quilt using only double gauze and Jolene of Blue Elephant Stitches backed a quilt with double gauze.  It's as soft as flannel and more supple.  And while Minky is great, it's not a natural fiber.  This gauze is 100% cotton.  If I had a baby right now, I would want to wrap her in a quilt backed with double gauze.

What do you think?  Would you put a border on this quilt or leave it?

Have you ever sewn with double gauze or used it on the back of a quilt?  If so, were you happy with the experience and the gauze?  Did you hand quilt it or machine quilt it?

I'm linking this post to Finished (or not) Friday at Alycia Quilts.  Thanks for hosting, Alycia.

Thanks!
--Nancy.

Jumping into the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I've loved the idea of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) since I first learned about it at least 10 years ago.  I considered, then reconsidered, then decided against participating.  But every Saturday, the idea of participating kept nudging at me.  I knew I didn't want to make a rainbow quilt so, I reasoned, the only way I could participate would be to group the colors and make different blocks for each color or each color group.  For example, reds and oranges could be one block, greens and blues, another, or some variation.  Except I haven't chosen blocks yet.

But last week, Nancy at Grace and Peace Quilting posted her green blocks and linked to Jolene Klassen's Nine Patch and Snowball Quilt at Blue Elephant Stitches.  I remember loving Jolene's quilt when I first saw it but didn't think about making one myself.  Nancy gave me the nudge to pull out my greens and begin because, I realized, Jolene's quilt is almost the perfect RSC quilt (without seeming like a rainbow):  all the colors, six-inch blocks, no background fabric in each block, quick and easy sewing, etc.  I anticipate a larger quilt and will have to decide how many blocks of each color I'll need to make.

These are the green blocks I made this week for May.

There may be two things that are different about how I manage my scraps than most people.  The pieces I call scraps are usually really small and odd-shaped.  The other thing that is different from how I see most other quilters store scraps is that if a piece of fabric is large enough to cut at least a 2" square, I put it back with the larger piece of fabric it was cut from.  (I do have boxes of scrap colors but they're mostly lesser quality fabrics that came in scrap bags at a quilt show or thrift store.  I realized this week that I should go through those boxes and just pass on what I wouldn't want to use for a quilt.)  All this means I don't have a collection of 2½ squares already cut.  So it was fun to look through my stacks of fabric for greens.

And then I realized I should probably start making blocks for the rest of the colors for 2025:  pink, blue, yellow, and red.  These are the yellow blocks I made this week.  I'll get to pink, blue, and red.

Do you ever look at your fabric and think, How boring!?  Maybe it's because I've had so much of it around for so long and it's all so familiar to me that it's boring.  (Or maybe it really is boring fabric.  Haha.)  I look at others' fabric in their blocks and think, Wow!  I'd love to have some of those fabrics.  No envy here, just maybe a hint or reminder to myself to reconsider more carefully what fabric I buy from now on.

I'm linking this post to ScrapHappy Saturday-Green Day.  Thanks for hosting, Angela.

I hope you have a joyful weekend.
--Nancy.

Links to Enjoy #32

I have just three links this week, and two are quilt-related!  Enjoy.

I loved this brief video about how one man is saving and rehoming Snowy Owls to prevent them from causing problems for airplanes and the airport.  It's amazing work for such handsome birds.



Did you see the adorable boat quilt that Claire posted recently?  She also posted a photo of a vintage log cabin quilt made from 1" squares and a few of her own beautiful, more modern quilts.

Here's encouragement for quilters starting new quilts when they have unfinished quilts!  Taryn has a great point of view on this topic. 

I hope you have a good week!
--Nancy.

It's Parsonsfield's Turn to Be Quilted

This is Parsonsfield, a small quilt sewn with Lori of Humble Quilts when she hosted a sew-along about a year and a half ago.  It seems I'm usually behind the times when it comes to layering and quilting sew-along tops (or any tops, for that matter!).

I decided a small quilt would be perfect to hand quilt after finishing Everyday Patchwork, so my One Monthly Goal for May is to choose backing and batting, then layer and baste this quilt.  Maybe I'll be able to begin hand quilting it, but that's not part of my goal this month.  Just choosing backing and layering and basting.  (Because verrtigo has returned again, I'm not sure how much I can get done.  Better to meet the goal and get more done than not meet the goal.)

Thoughts on backing fabric.  I used mostly reproduction-style fabrics for this quilt but this does not look like an old-style quilt to me.  It looks more modern, maybe only because of the light colors.  At first I thought of the backing fabric you see beside the quilt, the tannish and off-white print.  The tannish fabric is linen, somewhat loosely woven.  I doubt this quilt will get much wear or need to be washed often but so it should be fine on that point, but it seems just a little boring to me.  So I'm on the hunt for other backing fabric I can use.  There must be pieces I have on hand that I could stitch together to make a 30" square, or maybe one piece that large.  (The quilt is 23½" square but backing needs to be larger for hand quilting.)  Maybe fabric with red, since there are several pieces with red on the front.  I'll look again tomorrow.

I'll probably use flannel for batting.  I like small quilts to be flexible.

I'm linking this post to May One Monthly Goal at Stories from the Sewing Room.  Thanks for hosting, Anne-Marie.

--Nancy.