March’s One Monthly Goal is a Finish!

I did it! I completed my March One Monthly Goal which was to finish my Scrap Snap quilt! Binding and label, too! I love it! 😀

I spray-basted the quilt yesterday afternoon before I left for retreat and started quilting it this morning. I used the serpentine stitch on my Pfaff to stitch three horizontal lines across each row of blocks. I changed thread colour to match the colour of the row and used white on the back. I used up most of this black and white dots fabric I just love. Perfect for framing all the colours. 

I finished at 10:40 pm March 31st, so I completed my March One Monthly Goal. Hmmm, what goal shall I set for April? 😊

Linking to: 

Elm Street Quilt One Monthly Goal (Oops, I’m too late for the link party 🙁)

So Scrappy Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023

Saving a Beloved Quilt

 Today I will be busy packing up for a retreat starting tonight after dinner until Sunday after lunch. How fun! And it’s only a few kilometres from home, so if I forget anything, I can zip home and be back in a flash!

On my To-Do Tuesday list #6 I showed my completed Zipper top and listed one of my goals was to write a quick tutorial on the alternate assembly method for the Zip block. Well, today my girlfriend shared a picture of the Zip block from Pinterest and I followed the link to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and lo and behold, she already wrote a tutorial using jellyroll strips and the quick piecing method that I used on my blocks! So, what do you know, procrastination has paid off, and I don’t need to re-invent the wheel! So, if you were waiting for the tutorial, check out the tutorial at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. It’s a great blog for ideas, tutorials and inspiration! 

So, with that out of the way, I thought I would share the 1980’s quilt (dare I say vintage?) I brought home from the Repair Café to see if I could fix it. I wrote about it and shared a snapshot of it here. (Warning, I'm sharing lots of pictures. If the picture is good, my husband took it. If its crappy, I took it. Ha ha! 😊

When the gentleman brought in his much-loved quilt, that obviously meant a lot to him, he was so hopeful we could fix it at the event. The quilt is beautiful and hand-quilted, but with so much damage and wear, I just had to try. My goal was to do my best to breathe life into it so he could go on to enjoy it for another few/five years at least.

When I got the quilt home, I laid it out on the lawn to get a better look at it and take pictures of the damage. I quickly realized that the quilt needed more than a new binding, parts of it were extensively worn and this was going to be a major salvage (selvedge?) operation.

Two of the borders were in very rough shape, completely worn away on the edge.

On closer inspection, I discovered the backing fabric was also disintegrating quite badly. Hmm. Could I save it?

This is what I did…

I laid out and straightened the side of quilt, and laid my 6 ½” x 24” on the border, lining up to the inside of the quilt and measured out to see what the widest part of useable border was so I would remove only what I absolutely had to. I took a deep breath, and cut off the worn off edge (cutting through the hand quilting (eep!!) until I was left with a useable edge. I repeated the same thing on the opposite side. I cut the worn binding off the two side borders but I did not remove any width from them as they did not show damage.

With that out of the way, I went about putting pins in all the holes I found so I could see what I was facing. I decided rather than hand-stitching the holes closed (a daunting task for me), I would go with visible mending and cover the holes with hearts. I needed fabric that would blend. I needed “vintage” fabrics (I can’t believe I am saying the ‘80s is vintage!). I dug through 6-8 boxes of fabrics/scraps from our community quilts stash and found some reds I thought would work.

I printed off a heart shape from the internet in two sizes, and then started tracing hearts on Wonder Under 805. And cut out hearts.

And I found more holes, and I traced more hearts.

And I found more holes…and I traced more hearts.

Did I mention I had a helper?

I had to add some fabric along part of the edge to give it more strength as I was afraid the delicate fabric wouldn’t be strong enough to hold the binding.

Once I had the hearts pressed to the top, I machine blanket-stitched around each heart. 

Yes, I turned that quilt around many, many times!!

And as I was sewing the hearts on, I kept discovering more holes in the patchwork. I added more hearts. 

I finally just had to draw a line in the sand, and say, enough. The holes in the patchwork were minor and weren’t impacting the integrity of the quilt. Now I turned my attention to the damage on the back of the quilt borders.

I pinned a wide strip of white-on-white fabric, using the edge of the patchwork as a guide, and then stitched it from the front, following the edge seam of the pieced top. I hand stitched the edges that extended into the side borders so it doesn't show the seamline on the front.

I found this cute fabric that was perfect for the binding.

All told, I sewed 33 hearts on the quilt, added backing fabric, and new binding. I estimate I spent 15-20 hours working on it. I did not do this for money. I volunteered to do it. I make quilts and donate them to the community, so why not try something new, give back to the community and make someone’s day?

When I presented him with his quilt, he was so happy and pleased. It made my day that he will be able to keep using this special quilt made by his grandma. When he asked me if he could pay something, I declined. My one ask to him was that he “Pay it Forward”.

Have a lovely day!

Linking up to: 

My Quilt Infatuation Needle and Thread Thursday 

TGIFF 

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop Whoop!) 

Alycia Quilts Finished or Not Friday 

To-Do Tuesday #8 (March 28 - April 3) Busy, Busy, Busy!

 Another busy week last week, and this week is about the same. Sheesh! How did I ever manage to do things when I was working? 

I did lots of sewing, it just wasn't on the projects on my to-do list. For my own reference: 

• Attended Zoom quilting workshop
• Sewed community quilt top at guild's sewcial sew day
• Finished repairing the vintage quilt
• Edited and updated 4 prize books for our local fair
• Shopped with hubby for a new washing machine 😌
• Went to a local music concert
• Attended AGM for volunteer training and orientation
• Visited my niece and great-niece to plant some seeds to germinate indoors and pulled weeds and dead foliage from a couple garden beds
• Sewed blocks at guild's community quilts sew day
• Watched 1 and 2 grandkids a few times for a few hours 💗💗

A look at last week's To-Do list: 

• Gather fabrics for an online workshop I have today. Eep! As soon as I finish writing this!  Done! 👍

Thanks to this post from Little Penguin Quilts, I discovered Brenda Gael Smith of Serendipity Patchwork & Quilting. I decided to sign up for her newsletter and participate in her free Dreamlines Project.  It didn't take too long exploring her website to decide that I wanted to take a class with her.

Brenda resides in Copacabana on the Central Coast of New South Wales in Australia. She got up in the wee hours of the morning (the workshop started 5 am her time) to teach her workshop "Logs and Ladders"  There were participants from Canada, USA and England. For me, the workshop started at 11 am the day before (confusing, I know. LOL) She joked that she may go back to bed after the class.  

I have been sewing so many blocks using squares and rectangles lately. This workshop taught improv cutting and piecing and was fun, freeing and left me full of possibilities and ideas. We made samples of ladder and log cabin blocks using freeform cutting without rulers. Her demonstration of joining the curved pieces was a lightbulb moment for me. I finally understand the method and it took the fear out of it. I am definitely going to sign up for more workshops. I highly recommend taking a workshop with her. It felt like you were taking an in-person class.  

• Pack up machine, supplies for guild sew day on Wednesday at local shop - Done! 👍

I finished sewing one of the Jelly Roll Race quilt tops that was started at our guild meeting last week. Sorry, no picture yet. 

• Finish repairs on the 1980’s quilt. Document the process.  - Done! 👍

I hope to share the details in a post later this week. Here's a sneak peek.

• Keep sewing Sew the rest of the pink/grey blocks (I am up to 60, I need a total of 80 blocks). - Not done. 

• Sandwich Scrap Snap Quilt and start quilting. - Not done.

• Set a timer for 30 minutes 3x this week to sort, put away, put for donation or throw out "stuff" in my sewing room. Track my progress! Not done.

To-Do Tuesday #8

• Keep sewing the pink/grey blocks (I am up to 60, I need a total of 80 blocks).
• Sandwich Scrap Snap Quilt and start quilting. My OMG, I need to do this!!!
• Pack up machine, supplies and quilting projects for retreat this weekend! 
• Set a timer for 30 minutes 3x this week to sort, put away, put for donation or throw out "stuff" in my sewing room. Track my progress! Who am I kidding??

Hope you have a productive week!

Linking up to: Quilt Schmilt To-Do Tuesday

To-Do Tuesday #7 (March 21 - 27)

 March has been a busy month, particularly last week, just not necessarily at the sewing machine.

Tuesday evening last week, our guild program committee organized a Jelly Roll Race and those participating broke up into teams of 3 or 4. There was a flurry of activity, selecting fabrics that were brought in by members, and then starting the race, with one person sewing, another pressing and cutting, and another matching fabrics to put through the machine. Talk about putting the pedal to the medal. Some of those ladies just fly! It was a lot of fun! We ran out of time to finish the tops, so they were taken home to be finished. It will be neat to see the resulting quilts. These are the fabrics I brought to share. The blues are much brighter than the picture. 

On Friday, my two friends, Tracy and Tracy (yes!), and I took a bus trip down to the Quilters Anonymous Quilt Show in Monroe, Washington. 

The bus trip was organized by another quilt guild about an hour from us, so we had to be up very early and left by 6 am to drive to where the bus was leaving from. 

We met some lovely ladies from the neighbouring quilt guild and had a great time viewing the amazing quilts at the show.

There were 14 vendors at the show, but I had the most fun shopping at the guild’s “pound sale”. I bought about 8 yards total of fabric (most FQ or larger, and one piece was over a metre (40”)!) for $21 USD. In Canadian dollars, that works out to $29.40 or $3.68/yd (the exchange rate is $1.40 CDN for $1.00 USD ☹). Even with the terrible exchange rate, the price was really good.

I also picked up four new-to-me used books and paid $2 for one and $3/each for the rest. Fun!

We stopped at Joann’s Fabrics on the way back and I picked up this fun striped fabric that will be perfect for bindings on donation quilts for kids. The cute foxes and interesting black print came home with me, too. 😀

On Saturday, our guild participated in our first “Repair Café”, hosted by our local recycling society. It was a great experience, as a number of people approached us about joining our guild, one lady is joining us at our community quilts sew day, and a number of people brought in quilts to get advice of how to repair them. One gentleman brought in a quilt that his grandmother had made him in the early 1980s. I volunteered to try and see what I could do to help save the quilt as it was badly damaged/well used. I started working on it right away, but realized there was a lot more work than I could accomplish in just a few short hours, so I spoke to him and he agreed to leave it with me. I’ll share more about this in another post.

On Sunday, we celebrated a family birthday with dinner (we ordered Chinese food, yum), cupcakes and running around playing in the backyard!

Yesterday, I continued working on repairing the quilt (and forgetting all about my to-do list). So… here’s my progress on last week’s To-Do List:

• Sew the rest of the pink/grey blocks (I have 54, I need a total of 80 blocks).

I managed to sew six more blocks. I’ll just keep this on my list. LOL!

• Write a quick tutorial on the alternate assembly method for the Zip block.

This week…I promise!

• Set a timer for 30 minutes 3x this week to sort, put away, put for donation or throw out "stuff" in my sewing room. Track my progress!

I did spend about an hour cleaning up the mess I made looking for suitable fabrics to patch up the quilt. I’m going to say that counts. 😉

To-Do Tuesday #7 (March 21-27)

• Gather fabrics for an online workshop I have today. Eep! As soon as I finish writing this!
• Pack up machine, supplies for guild sew day on Wednesday at local shop
• Finish repairs on the 1980’s quilt. Document the process.
• Keep sewing Sew the rest of the pink/grey blocks (I am up to 60, I need a total of 80 blocks).
• Sandwich Scrap Snap Quilt and start quilting.
• Set a timer for 30 minutes 3x this week to sort, put away, put for donation or throw out "stuff" in my sewing room. Track my progress!

Linking up to Quilt Schmilt To-Do Tuesday

Happy International Quilting Day!