Butterfly Patch

This quilt is called Butterfly Patch. I made the quilt from the same fabric collection that was on the pattern. I loved it that much.

It took me some serious shopping to get all the fabrics found in the quilt. I ordered from 3 different shops in order to have everything I needed. That's how committed I was to making this happen.

The pattern is basically made up of 4 different simple patchwork blocks. They were made in matching pairs so the same blocks could be used on each butterfly wing.

When it came to the backing I just chose a close match at my local quilt shop. It was pretty and looked great in one big piece.

A World of Hearts

The quilt shop where I work wants to participate in the #aworldofhearts thing so my boss made up a pattern called Hearts in Windows. If a quilter is going to put a heart in their window, of course it will be made of fabric!

So she put her pattern and a kit to make it online and it blew up. She called the employees and in order to keep social distancing standards even while we are closed, everyone picked a day to come in to make the kits. So I make them on Tuesdays. It's crazy, she wants to keep a standard of making them from reds, whites, and blues, but we are running out of fabric to make them! So she is ordering more all the time. 

I decided to make my own from my stash so as not to use up a kit that can be sold to someone else. Here is my version:

Here's what it looks like hanging in my living room window. I used 3M Command removable hooks and safety pins to hang it.

The pattern is a pretty easy one-pager. I would share it with you but that would not be right. It is sold for $3.00 each and the money goes to a Racine charity affected by COVID-19. If you'd like to order one, check out this link: https://www.sewnsaveofracine.com/shop-online.

When I made mine, instead of making it a mini-quilt, I made the back so a pillow form could be slipped inside it after I take it out of the window. It will look just as good as a pillow on my wicker rocker as it does hanging in the window. 

Bordered Nine Patch Quilt

I should call this quilt trouble. Only because it gave me trouble from beginning to end. At first I couldn't find a good background fabric to use to make this then I struggled with accurate seam allowances that I had to correct. That followed by me losing one of the blocks that I never found so I had to re-make it from scraps. Once I got the top together the trouble didn't stop.

I used a nice large piece of fabric for the backing but it wasn't large enough. I had fun taking all the leftover pieces that were pretty small and making a long strip to use on the back. I used the same fabric that I used as the background fabric for the front on the back to separate the patchwork strip from the print. I think it looks great. However, I measured wrong when I pieced it all together. The back wasn't wide enough. So I went back to the quilt shop to purchase more fabric to add the fabric on the opposite side of the back. That made it look like I planned on framing the print with the grunge fabric. I did not plan that at all! It's just that it looked better to add more fabric to the back on the left side that more grunge on the right.

So much trouble!

My Mask Story

Back in early February my friend Sue suggested we make masks and sell them at a craft fair. She showed me this photo on her Pinterest page. I thought it was a fun idea at the time. Remember, back then we were just talking about how there was this pandemic thing overseas. So the mask idea seemed cute, like a novelty.

That same evening I went home and made my first mask. I chose the fabric because it was the only one in my stash that I was sure I had prewashed.  I really wanted it prewashed if I was going to try it on. It was so very soft and comfortable.  I took the mask to the quilt shop where I worked and my co-workers poo-pooed the idea saying it was silly and no worthwhile since the virus isn't airborne and the mask isn't going to help anybody. The practically called it ridiculous. Then I showed it to my boss and told her how it didn't go over to well with anyone in the shop but I still thought it was a fun idea. 

Over the next few weeks I purchased some more elastic, washed up some fun fabrics and made some more. I made some for my family and still thought I could sell them at the craft fair. 

Around the first week of March my boss asked me for the pattern I used to make the masks. I directed her to the tutorial found here.  The tutorial is a little confusing so she made up her own instruction sheet using my original mask as the sample. She posted it on the store website. It blew up into a big issue since by then we knew that N95 masks were the only helpful ones and that only medical personnel should be wearing them. It seemed to be a big deal that these were not good enough for anything (so much criticism) so by the end of the week she took the instructions down. I too was very turned off by all the negative commentary so I quit the entire idea and shoved the masks I made aside. 

All of a sudden there was a shortage of masks. Medical and emergency personnel were scrambling for anything that would help. Hospitals were putting out instructions regarding the kind of masks they would like volunteers to make. My friend who works at the VA hospital in Milwaukee asked for the masks I had made. I told her I had a few for her but wasn't interested in making more since I still didn't see them as good enough. I was so turned off. Since she sews too, she took my mask, slit the bottom seam open to add a filter. She called them wonderful.

Then everything stopped. Our governor told us all we had to stay home unless our jobs were essential. 

And so it began. I started making masks. Then a weird thing happened.  People started to request them. I made them for anyone who asked for one. I kept making them until I ran out of elastic. 

My husband took this photo of me at 11 pm: 

Here we are at the beginning of April and now any kind of mask is now acceptable. Medical people desperately need them, police and fire departments will take them, nursing homes and hospitals are using them too. And now elastic is very hard to find. It's like trying to find toilet paper. I have ordered it online 3 times. 

My girlfriend who has a bakery that's only open on weekends asked for some so I made her these with a cute cupcake print.

I've given most of them away and I am still filling requests. Currently, I have these left to finish. And of course, I am waiting for more elastic. Maybe I can find someone who would like to trade some toilet paper. I have plenty of that!

What's on the design board?

The answer to the question "what's on the design board?" is nothing. Yup, there's nothing there right now. I am working on a quilt called Read to Me that requires lots and lots of appliqued letters.
Here are the letters I made (so far)...

They've been ironed onto black Moda solid fabric with heat 'n bond lite. I think cutting them out will be a bit of a challenge, especially the insides of the letters. I am happy that I have the 'book' blocks completed. The sashing between rows will have the words.

This quilt in progress is supposed to be a teacher appreciation gift for my granddaughter's teacher. Teacher Appreciation Week happens in April and although school is now online and there will be no TA week celebrations, I am still making this quilt. Besides, while in quarantine, what else do I have to do? Ha!

I will tell you what else I have to do - I am going to start a quilt called Butterfly Patch. I fell in love with the pattern and the fabrics on the pattern cover so I am going to try an recreate is exactly as it is.

I work part-time in a quilt shop and even though the shop is closed due to the pandemic, I still go in once a week and cut fabric kits. Their online ordering has blown up and the shop owner can't keep up with the orders. Isn't the quilting community wonderful? Anyway, while I was there yesterday, the news media showed up to do a segment on all the good works the quilt shop does. The Racine Police Department was in need of apron-like covers to wear over their uniforms and the quilt shop put out a call to the community to make them from Tyvek. The community responded and made hundreds of the aprons within 48 hours of Jim making the request. Amazing.

March Longarm Projects

These are the quilts I longarmed for other people during the month of March. I don't like to show the entire quilt since I did not make them. But I did quilt them on my longarmer and that is so very fun.

This is Catherine's charity quilt. She used leftover jelly roll strips from another project to make the charity quilt. How smart!

This is Sue's toddler quilt. She used scraps to make string blocks and it was a nice colorful quilt. It feels like a nice I Spy quilt.

This is Sue's quilt she made for her aunt. Her aunt is in a nursing home and Sue embroidered her name on the quilt so it would't get lost. I should have photographed the name but I didn't think of that when I took the photo.

These 3 quilts are sample quilts that will hang at Sew N' Save quilt shop in Racine, Wisconsin. The quilt shop has full lines of the fabrics found in these quilts.

Moroccan Mosaic Quilt

I actually made a lap quilt that complements the colors in my living room. That's unusual for me to do. Usually if I want to make a quilt, it has more to do with colors I like or fabric prints I like. Doesn't matter if there's a plan for use of a quilt.

My living room rug is a pretty mix of browns, blues and burgundy/red. It is the centerpiece of the room. The furniture and the walls are shades of dark brown and everything in the room complements the colors.

I fell in love with a Tim Holtz print that just happened to match my living room colors. Once I found a pattern that highlighted the print, I added fabrics that would work well with it.

In these difficult time of this pandemic, there's not a lot of things to do outside of sew. I love to sew but it sure doesn't feel so comfortable to enjoy so much time in my sewing room. I finished this quilt top over 3 days time.

Craft Fair Cancelled

I was wondering how long it would take the organizers of the March 28th craft fair to cancel the event. Well, yesterday was the day. Since the covid-19 virus reared its ugly head with an announcement of a positive patient here in Oak Creek, it took the fair organizers 24 hours to cancel the craft fair. I think that took too long; they should have canceled it a while ago. But that's ok. I was still working on projects as if it was actually going to happen even though it seemed ill-fated.

Today I completed these stay-put ruffled kitchen towels. I had a 10-pack of tea towels and I used all 10 of them. They are pretty cute. I think I'm going to take the beige one off the display rack and use it in my kitchen now that I won't be trying to sell it this month.

On another note regarding the craft fair, my friend and I were planning on making fabric masks to sell. I thought it would be a fun way to relieve some of the stress of the situation we are in. They might not be terribly effective for medical staff, but if I felt a cold coming on, I would feel better about being around other people at the grocery store by wearing one of these.

With no place to go, I wanted to do some yard work today. Unfortunately it's raining today so I got out my latest fabric purchase to start a new quilt project. The pattern for this quilt calls for fat quarters of 12 different fabrics for the blocks and I chose to use 4 fabrics which means I needed 3 fat quarters - or 3/4 yard of each of the 4 colors. The pattern is a little complicated because by changing how you put the colors together, you can change the look of each block. I wasn't sure exactly how I want the blocks to look so I will cut all the pieces first. It's going to be fun to make a quilt and stop making crafts again.