Sewing Room Friday, 9/22/23

 Let's see. Where did I leave off? Oh yes. I made four totes from the pattern by my friend Krista @poppyprint. I already showed the one I made for Charlotte's friend, Grace, so here are the other three. One is spoken for, but I'm not sure where the other two will go.

While going through my fabric for these totes, I found something hidden deep on a shelf--some original Cotton+Steel canvas called Ruby Star Shining by Melody Miller, circa 2011. It's such a great print, and has my favorite thing--the typewriter. I used a pattern by @crazymomquilts, the Show and Tell bag. It's a nice large tote bag and will be great for hauling things to quilting retreats. And lately I'm in a mode where my favorite color combo is purple/rust/pink with that touch of lime, so this checked all the boxes.

A friend saw the coasters I made Aaron for his birthday and requested a set of six.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, I made a vinyl zipper pouch for Janice. These are fun to make. And I have quite a bit of printed vinyl and fun stripey zippers so I need to make more of them.

I'm nearly done with Gabe's afghan. I wish I had listened to myself when I told Charlotte to weave in the ends of the rows of her temperature afghan as she goes along, rather than waiting until the entire thing is completed. 

When I get tired of weaving in those ends, I procrastinate by knitting a scarf with the beautiful yarn I bought in Skagway, Alaska. 

My biggest accomplishment of the week is that I finished this quilt top, which I have named Lumos. 

I feel like the last couple of weeks have been quite productive. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum.

Really Random Thursday, 9/21/23

 It's been quiet around here. Two weeks ago was "donuts with grandparents" at school. Gabe was sick that day :(

My favorite time of year...

Starbucks has opened a new location close to our house so a couple of times a week I walk there. One of the employees drew this as part of a contest. It's really beautiful!

Janice and I went to dinner last week. Shortly before I left the house I decided to sew her a vinyl zipper pouch. I ran out of time to complete it, so I took it along and turned it right side out while waiting for our dinner. I need to do a better job with time management.

We had a little mini celebration of a great medical report.

Saturday morning a little before 7 a.m., there was a huge BANG. Mark was already in the kitchen and he saw a bright blue flash. The next thing we heard was the sound of crows screeching loudly. We went outside and across the street, we noticed a crow who was apparently electrocuted on the transformer, shutting down electricity to the neighborhood. Those crows circled and circled, about 30 of them, for the longest time. PGE (our service provider) came shortly after the call, knocked the crow down, and drove off. The whole thing was so weird. 

It is water polo season, and water polo has turned out to be one of my favorite spectator sports. Levi plays goalie on his high school varsity team (photo by Ron Bryan).

See what I mean? Quiet week...

Quilt 246. Italia

 

Most years, we meet our friends, Ingrid and Russel, at the coast in fall. One year, Ingrid showed me this photo she had taken of some tile in Italy. She thought I could maybe use it as quilt inspiration. She was right about that! Robert Kaufman had just come out with a lot of new solid colors and I had a fat quarter bundle. I chose the brightest and began making blocks.

This was a project I took to many, many quilting retreats. When I was bored with whatever other project I had brought along, I would make one or two of these blocks. There were times that I did not think I would ever complete this quilt.

I love the way the blocks form a secondary design--a fun surprise. I decided it needed a black border to tone down the bright colors, and I extended one of the circles into the corner. 

I had been waiting to use this Tula Pink dripping roses print, and the bright colors are just perfect for this quilt.

I found the most perfect stripe in my stash for the binding.

We drove around downtown trying to find a suitable mural. I had seen pictures of this hummingbird, but the fence got in the way. And besides, it was too small. 

We drove around some more, and serendipitously found this one. Absolutely perfect!

Quilt Name: Italia

Quilt Design: Original (based on old Italian tile)

Made by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Mural Artist: Jorge Guillen

Completed: 2023

Size: 60" x 72"

Quilt 245. Pineapple Perfection

 Pineapple Perfection is the first quilt I have ever made using scraps. To clarify, I have made a lot of scrappy quilts. But this is the first quilt made from a bag of scraps. There is a difference. :) It was a complete joy to make! Knowing that I was going to use whatever scrap I grabbed from the bag, I chose to have a consistent center (red with white polka dots) and background (another favorite, Hello Bear by Bonnie Christine). I ordered the foundation papers from Amber Johnson of Gigi's Thimble. 

These blocks were slow going, as there were so many rounds (57 pieces in each block). I took my bag of scraps to at least four, maybe five, different quilting retreats.

See that little scrap to the right of the center? It is something I received years ago from Amanda Jean Nyberg. I have kept it pinned to my design wall this whole time, just waiting for the perfect project. 

It didn't matter what fabrics I used--each block "worked."  I tried not to repeat any fabrics, although I think there are maybe two or three repeats. But I dare you to find them. :)

For something fun, I made one block using solid scraps.

I had this great fabric in my stash and it was just enough for the backing. I did order the black and white check for the binding.

Amber sent enough foundation papers for 36 blocks, but I knew I didn't want a square quilt, so I only made 30 blocks. But I sure had enough scraps to make all 36!

I really wanted to photograph this quilt with the iconic Fresno postage stamp mural in the background, but to get the whole mural in, the quilt is dwarfed.

We drove around downtown Fresno and found this perfect mural at the African American Museum.

Quilt Name: Pineapple Perfection

Design by: Traditional design, foundation paper pieces from Gigi's Thimble

Made by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Size: 60" x 72"

Completed: 2023

Quilt 244. Friendly Faces 2

 I saw the cutest quilt on Instagram using the Friendly Faces fabric line and I couldn't resist making another quilt using this line!

The quilt on Instagram (by @jenniferjohnston80) had a white background but I decided to use neon neppy, a fabric with a funny name--a great charcoal with little flecks of neon colors. These little blocks went together so quickly! 

I used another favorite fabric for the backing, daisies with cute little faces, and chose a neon yellow for the binding.

Playland, across the street from our local zoo, proved to be the perfect spot for taking some fun photos.

Quilt Name: Friendly Faces 2

Pattern Design: Inspired by Jennifer Johnston

Made by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Completed: 2023

Size: 54" x 60"