My September Bee Block - Scrappy Rainbow Twisted Pole Quilt

 Wow, it's been over a year!  It's been a busy time with a move to a new state, starting a new job, etc, but I haven't stopped creating.  One of the things I've really enjoyed is making blocks each month for a bee that I belong to.  Today's post will be the directions for my bee block for September (some people work really far ahead).

I believe the quilt block is called Twisted Pole.  My goal is to make a scrappy rainbow quilt with a background of scrappy white fabrics with black print pattern and with "pole" fabric that is scrappy black fabrics with white print pattern.

In the Bee, we make two 12" blocks to share, but for this quilt, the blocks are actually 9x15", and I'm asking that Bee members only assemble one block and send the 15 HSTs that make up the second block to me unassembled so that I can mix and match their HSTs with everyone else's so that no two blocks look the same.

Bee friends, first, choose a color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple) and cut 15 4" squares from 15 different fabrics of that color family.  Cut 10 4" squares from 10 different fabrics that are white with a black print and 5 4" squares from 5 different fabrics that are black with white print.  If there is a little bit of other colors in the white/black fabrics, that is OK, but the primary colors should be white and black and they should read as either white or black.  Please make all fabrics prints or tone-on-tones - no solids, please.

Pair a colored square with either a white or black square a draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the white/black squares and sew 1/4" from each side of the diagonal lines.  Cut on the diagonal lines, press towards the colored side of the HST, and trim to 3.5".  

Set aside one set of the HSTs, and assemble the other HSTs as shown in the photo of the finished block, pressing the seams IN on the bottom row, OUT on the next row up, IN on the center row, OUT on the next row up, and IN on the top row.

That's it! I'm excited to see this come together with everyone's scrappy goodness!

Hot Garbage?

 There's a shop near me called Swansons that is a salvage fiber arts shop.  Fiber artists donate their unwanted stash (fabric AND yarn) and they resell it to the public super cheap.  It is a dream come true for me!  I take yardage there that I haven't cut into for years (and am therefore unlikely to ever cut into) and swap it for bags of quilting cotton scraps.  The owner tells me I'm doing the world a service by taking other people's scraps, but I'll take a bag of scraps over a yard of one fabric any day!  The bags of scrap fabric are called "Hot Garbage" but the contents are the furthest thing from garbage - those bags contain TREASURE!

I used some of those scraps finishing up this Scrappy Trips quilt that I'm now binding for a friend who recently had surgery:

I used some of those scraps to make my April Bee Blocks:

I'm using the green and red scraps to make a non-traditional holiday/Christmas quilt using the Stashbuster 2022 pattern from Border Creek Station:

And I am using those scraps to start a new Quarter Log Cabin quilt:

I wish this weekend weren't at an end - all I want to do is sew!  I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

Facing and Fangirling

 I didn't really want to bind my Cross Patch quilt because I love the pattern going all the way to the edge of the quilt.  Time to give "facing" a try!  I used this tutorial, and it was quite simple.  Now to see how it holds up with use, since this is a 57" lap quilt, not an art quilt that will hang on the wall...

Done!!

Look ma!  No binding!

I love how there is no frame with facing.

Neat and crisp on the back

In other news, yesterday was the opening reception for Chawne Kimber's Freedom in Cotton solo quilt exhibit here at Deerfield Academy.  I've been crushing on Chawne's work for years now, and seeing her quilts in person did not disappoint.  I'm so glad they are here until late February so I can visit them often!  Here are some of my favorites that are in the exhibit:

Me, too, Chawne.  Me, too.

The Selfie Quilt - see next photo

So clever!  And all those tiny pieces...amazing!

The One for Eric G <3

Oh, how I can relate to this quilt.  And those pops of color - wow!

I need variety!

 I've got a friend with a big surgery coming up in a couple of months, so I want to give them a quilt.  When considering my (considerable) UFOs, my plaid string quilt seemed like a good option for them, based on Julie's beautiful creation.

It's up on the design wall and I've completed a few more 9-patches and sashings, but man! Now I remember why I fizzled out with this quilt.  I'm excited about how it is going to look, but it is so boring for me to create.  Part of why I love scrap quilts is that there are so many different fabrics playing together.  With this one, it's just plaid.  I'm gonna do it, but I need something to spice up my sewing stints as well.

Today I finished my January Bee Blocks:

Finished sewing together all of the 2022 Stashbuster blocks that I had precut:

I'm going for a non-traditional holiday quilt look

And worked on this scrappy bear paw variation that I started over winter break:

I also did some purging, identifying some orphan blocks, some fabric and some thread that I plan to take to Swansons to swap out for some quilting scraps, and along the way I unearthed some of the quilts I started hand quilting but never finished.  I need to commit to getting back to them.  There's the one I made for my bed around 15 years ago but never finished:

And this scrap quilt where I was playing with big stitch quilting in a rainbow of colors - I completely forgot this quilt even existed:

There's this mini twister quilt made from salvaged pillowcases:

Completely forgot about this sailboat baby quilt:

And this self-portrait:

There were others, too.  I amaze myself sometimes with how much I DON'T finish!  Time to change that!

Another spin on the longarm machine

 Twas a weekend full of crafty goodness for me.  On Saturday morning, I made my third trip to try my hand at longarm quilting a quilt.  I chose a simple wavy design for this busy scrap quilt, and got some knitting done while I supervised the machine.

I am knitting a Wave of Change Pullover

Today's weather was nasty - freezing rain and cold winds, perfect for staying inside.  I pawed through the scrap bin to find some reds and greens to start this year's Scrap Buster Challenge from Border Creek Station.  One block is sewn together,

I'm thinking scrappy red and green for a non-traditional holiday quilt

a couple more are cut out and ready to sew.

I'm not ready for the weekend to end, but I AM looking forward to next weekend.  A couple years ago I suggested that our on campus art gallery invite quilter Chawne Kimber to exhibit, and it is finally happening!  The exhibit opens next Sunday evening.  Unfortunately, she won't be accompanying her quilts, but I'm still pumped.  I've been a fan for years, and I am most excited to see "The One for Eric G" in person. (for some reason, most of the photos on her blog are not showing up for me today; is it just me?)

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap.

I've been busy (but not blogging)

I keep thinking I'm going to write a blog post, and never seem to get around to it. Instead, I read or knit or quilt. Which is good because those things all bring me joy, but it means that my record of my quilting progress is not up to date. Usually I go to my blog to figure out, "now when did I make THAT quilt?" but since I haven't posted in MONTHS, I'm at a bit of a loss. Let's see if I can piece together the last seven months or so - I've been productive! In June, I tried my hand at longarm quilting for the first time. The recipient was so surprised - I love it when the quilt is unexpected like that!

I finished a baby quilt for a baby born in late December, and went back to the longarm to quilt it while also quilting another scrap quilt that I made over a decade ago:

I chose to quilt this baby quilt for a baby due in February on my own domestic machine (I guess I never took a full completed quilt photo):

I finally finished hand quilting my niece's baby quilt - regular quilting in the white, big stitch quilting with embroidery floss in the colors (she's going to be 4 in April):

Throughout it all, I made a couple of bee blocks each month:

I've been working on my Scrappy Trips Around the World quilt, thinking it will go to a friend who will be having surgery in March,

but I've also been thinking I might want to make them a plaid and denim quilt instead like this one: This weekend, I'm headed back to the longarmer to quilt this one for my twin sister who has made noises about the fact that she'd like a snuggle quilt for the couch. I love this one so I'm happy to keep it in the family.

And that's about it for my quilting the last couple of months. Lots of knitting and reading, too, plus I moved to Indiana in June. Never a dull moment, I tell ya!