Explorers

April 2024

These cute little explorers were among the fabric I received from Jocelyn over at Happy Cottage Quilter. I fussy cut them, and then dug into my scraps bins to make the string and four-patch blocks. The backing fabric is a print of boats, telescopes and compasses – everything an explorer needs for a grand adventure.

As a sailor, backpacker and general fan of the great outdoors, this saying speaks to me:

“Not all who wander are lost”
                            — J.R.R. Tolkien

Well in my case, not always. There was one backpacking trip when my husband and I were lost, but only for a little while. While training for the John Muir Trail (JMT) back in 2009, we hiked Canyon’s Cottonwood and Marble Canyon Loop trail in Death Valley, a 28-mile cross country hike. For those that aren’t hikers, cross country hiking means that there are no posted route signs marking the way, and you must rely on the topo map and compass. We did have a SPOT GPS tracker with us in case of an emergency.

We went in January, when the weather is nice – not too hot during the day, and not too cold at night. It’s also a time of year when there are fairly reliable water sources along the trail. The first day was pretty uneventful as the trail follows mostly along a 4 wheel off-road trail. Day 2 is when the cross country navigation begins. We did fine until the afternoon, when instead of going over a ridge and dropping into Deadhorse Canyon, we turned too soon and began descending into a dry slot canyon, mistaking it for Deadhorse Canyon. We were probably a half mile down the hillside when the rocks and boulders became nearly impassable and we determined that we had taken a wrong turn coming off the ridge. While we may have been able to scramble down the dry slot canyon back to the prior day’s 4 wheel off-road trail, the risk of hiking a dry slot canyon was not one we were willing to take. These canyons are extremely dangerous in the event of rain: in the desert, they become dangerous, raging rivers. We decided to turn around and head back to the ridge – the point where we believed we had gotten off course.

It was late afternoon at this point, and we felt it would be safer to set camp and get a fresh start in the morning. As the sun was setting, we saw wild horses on the ridge, not a 1/4 mile distant. It was an amazing sight, and had we not gotten temporarily off course, perhaps a sight we would not have seen otherwise (not saying being lost was a good thing, just seeing the horses was pretty cool).

The next morning we headed back to the top of the ridge and found our way to Deadhorse Canyon, which led down through Marble Canyon (pictured below) and back to our car.

I have no plan yet for where this baby quilt will find its forever home. I’m looking into local charities that serve kids in need.

All Star

February 2024

For the past two years, I’ve been making an effort to use only my stash and scraps for making quilts and quankets, as I have no shortage of either! I do bend this self-imposed restriction when my artistic-self tells me that purchasing that ‘just right’ fabric is necessary.

Last month, my design of Homecoming began with orphan blocks and was then rounded out with scraps. This quilt – All Star – also started with orphan blocks that I had received from Jocelyn over at Happy Cottage Quilter. She had given me two blue and two beige/golden strip blocks that got me started. I then made 28 more from my scraps: strip blocks are a great scrap-buster. The darker red border was also inspired from a few random orphan blocks of mine. I dug into my scraps boxes to make enough to complete the border.
TIP reusing dryer fabric sheets works great for backing/stabilizer for strip blocks.

I decided to bend my self-imposed ‘no new fabric’ edict, and purchased a fun dark blue with white stars for the backing fabric. I quilted an echoed star design – done on my circa 1950’s Singer domestic sewing machine. Figuring the math for quilting a star was taxing, but who doesn’t love pentagon geometry with 72 and 108 degree angles! (me, that’s who). I used 1.5″ blue tape as my quilting ruler. The lines aren’t perfectly straight, but perfect is overrated don’t you think? Here’s a look at the back: I quilted one star with a gold thread in the bobbin and all the echoes are done in a dark blue thread in the bobbin.

I have no plan yet for where this quilt will find its forever home. I’m looking into local charities that serve kids in need.

Homecoming
January 2024

Since receiving a box stuffed full of various fabrics from Jocelyn over at Happy Cottage Quilter back in 2022, I continue to incorporate her scraps where I can. The box she sent was stuffed to overflowing with small scraps, a few orphan blocks and a few larger backing-sized fabrics. I’ve featured two of her orphan pinwheel blocks in the center of this baby quilt and made two more of my own to complement her two. I then used other orphan blocks from past projects of mine, including some from, Onshore Breeze and Palahdee. I think that all these orphan blocks have joined together quite nicely into this “homecoming”.

My plan is to set this aside for now to include in this year’s Hands2Help Challenge, which is usually hosted by Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Seashore Treasures
June 2023

I made this Simply Serene quilt using scraps from my scraps bins and scraps that I had received from Jocelyn over at Happy Cottage Quilter. While I missed the cutoff to include this quilt in this year’s Hands2Help Challenge, hosted by Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, I plan to include this with the other three quilts I’ll be sending to Little Lambs Foundation in Utah. Little Lambs Foundation provides backpacks full of comfort items for children from newborn to 17 who are transitioning into foster care, emergency shelters, or hospitalization. This year’s Hands2Help Challenge generated over 625 donation quilts!

The backing fabric is one I’ve had in my stash for a long time. It’s a beautiful turquoise color with seashells printed in white. The manufacturer name on the salvage is Leon B Rosenblatt Textiles LTD. The company dates back to the 1950’s and appears to still be in business, based out of NYC. I inherited this fabric from my Granny and would guess that it is from the late 1960’s – early 1970’s, but that’s just a guess.

Shark!
September 2022

Back in July, when Jocelyn over at Happy Cottage Quilter sent the baby quilt tops that I finished into Polka Party 1-4, she also sent a box stuffed full of scrap fabrics and remnant pieces. One of the remnant pieces was the shark fabric, which I thought was too cute to fussy cut, so I used it as bands at the top and bottom. I also used some blue scrap fabrics she had sent, and pulled a bunch of scappy blues from my scraps box to create the center section. The pieces to create the rows were 1.5″, 2″, 2.5″ and 3″ (unfinished).

I had read an article recently about quilting “rules”. I apologize for not noting down the author’s name, as it was one of those articles that you see go by, you do a quick read, and then move on to the next article in your feed. I then spent a bit of time reflecting on her take on quilting “rules”, which was basically that the creative process thrives with no hard fast rules. However, the creative process usually does well when there is a plan – that may include some tentative rules – at the outset of a project. For this quilt, in addition to using blues as one rule, I decided to use a pattern for the rows, as opposed to just placing them randomly. So, for all those out there that love to figure out patterns, what pattern did I use?

I will be sending this quilt to Little Lambs Foundation based in Utah, as part of the 2023 Hands2Help challenge comfort quilts being hosted by Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Little Lambs Foundation provides backpacks full of comfort items for children from newborn to 17 who are transitioning into foster care, emergency shelters, or hospitalization.

Where Pink Happens
September 2022

Did you know that scientists question the existence of the color pink? I hadn’t really been looking for information on the topic of the color pink’s existence, but the internet seems to have many rabbit holes for one to fall into! It is actually quite a fascinating topic – one to tuck away for a potential conversation starter. My take away from the Scientific American article is that I’m quite happy that our brains provide us with the sensation of color, as pink has always been a favorite of mine. When my sisters and I were kids, my mother always dressed us in an “assigned” color. From my eldest sister down to me, we were purple, blue, yellow and pink. Family pictures were always so colorful!

Back in July, when Jocelyn over at Happy Cottage Quilter sent the baby quilt tops that I finished into Polka Party 1-4, she also sent a box stuffed full of scrap fabrics and remnant pieces. There were a lot of 2.5″ wide pink and purple scraps, that I combined with some of my pink and purple scraps to make the 5×5 scrap blocks. The white/stars and the lilac fabrics were also part of what Jocelyn sent, which I used to make the larger chevron blocks. I finished this as a quanket, backing it with pink fleece.

While I had intended this quanket to be donated to a foster child, sometimes life just has different plans. In mid-2022, my connection to CPS sort of just dried up. The facility I had been dropping my quilts off to, closed. I left many messages for my contacts with CPS, to no avail. So, the quilts were just sitting, waiting to find a home.

In early 2023, my Dad was admitted to the ER. It’s a long story. Anyways, Toni, a family friend, was a huge support to myself and my siblings, giving us the peace of mind that someone was hanging out with him, and advocating for him, while he was in the hospital, as we scrambled to make arrangements to relocate him closer to myself and my sister in Southern California. I gifted this to Toni as a huge THANK YOU, and as a remembrance of her time with my Dad.

Bloom
March 2022

This quilt will be donated as part of this year’s Hands2Help Challenge. This year, the challenge is being hosted by Mari over at The Academic Quilter. She will begin the sign-up process soon, so if you’re interested in joining this year’s challenge, check out her blog.

The backing fabric, shown here, is a Mary Engelbreit design from 2001, and has been living in my stash for about ten years now. I think the fabric is super cute, but every time I considered using it in a quilt, I was not sure how to cut the fabric. The individual elements are so close to one another, that I was concerned that even fussy cutting it would lose too many aspects of the overall design. I finally figured that using it as a backing on a baby quilt was going to do it the most justice. The piecing on the front mainly uses scraps and small pieces from my stash, and the flower pot is done using a raw-edge appliqué technique.