Hawaii!

 Are you familiar with Reyn Spooner Hawaiian shirts? It is a premier (in that it costs more than the usual ones) brand of shirt. A friend's husband has quite a collection of them going back years and he wistfully said that he wished they knew someone who could make a quilt from them. My friend knew that I made quilts, so when she visited her son here in St. Louis last October, she brought the shirts with her. I cut them up into usable pieces and put them in a largish plastic bin. I decided on 6" finished square-in-a-square blocks for two reasons. The center square (finishing at 3") would nicely feature the shirt fabrics without being too large and clunky. Secondly the blocks work up quickly. I made 10 last night in an hour or so. To make a queen-sized quilt (100" by 100" or thereabouts) I will need 256, but I am going to figure out how to reduce that number. Maybe with borders? I will see when I get farther down the line making the blocks. 

Reyn Spooner The shirts are more subdued than other Hawaiian shirts and have a linen-like texture which is nice. In some cases I used the "wrong" side of the fabric for more vibrancy. The shirts are so numerous and the yield from each shirt large, that I have already begun using the offcuts to make a second, and possibly third, smaller quilt. One is a coin quilt and the other may just be squares with some type of simple sashing. Throw sized, not another queen-sized one.

I want to find a print reflecting the Hawaiian esthetic for borders and/or backing. There are a number of (kitschy) prints with surfers and hula girls that I found online. I was not entirely charmed by any of them. I decided to google quilt shops in Hawaii and found better choices at those stores. I will probably order from them when the time comes. I would much rather give my business to a local, smaller store anyway. I saw several two color prints featuring hibiscus and some others with Hawaiian birds, flowers, and foliage.

Maui Quilt Store. Here is one example.

This & That

It has been extremely cold here the past several days. Close to one degree at night. My dog likes to stay outside, often sleeping in a sunny corner on a pile of mulch. We have also had snow, so this has not been possible for him at present.. Nonetheless he wants to say outside and is not particularly compliant about coming in when called. He will obey after his first time out in the morning because he knows breakfast is waiting for him when he comes in. The rest of the day he is not as compliant. He is a miniature labradoodle and Labradors are a hearty bunch but it is too cold for him to stay outside indefinitely. I attached a tether to him so I can get him back in without having to chase him around the yard. Problem solved

I have taken advantage of the weather to stay inside and quilt. I am almost finished piecing a top for a friend's granddaughter and I must say I am really liking it. It is an uneven log cabin which gives the illusion of curved lines. I apparently cannot count as I needed 48 blocks and ended up making 52. The extra four blocks I used as "seeds" to make another baby-sized quilt to donate to one of the children's charities our guild supports. But four blocks were not enough so I proceeded to make more blocks and again, ended up with four blocks too many. I need to go back to school to learn counting and arithmetic, I guess. I will set the extras aside for now.

I had a fair number of blocks made from a pattern in one of my instruction booklets I have that uses charm packs. I had to make about 10 more to have enough for the quilt top. I counted correctly this time. They are sewn together and all that is left now is to make the borders. I will work on those later today.

I will make another baby quilt from Jan Ochterbeck's "Dancing Plus" tutorial. 

https://thecolorfulfabriholic.blogspot.com/2015/08/dancing-plus-blocks-tutorial.html

Here is my latest version, gifted to a neighbor:

This pattern is an exception to my rule of not making the same pattern twice. I have made it a number of times and really like it. It is somewhat charm pack friendly but there are four corner squares required that finish at 3". These are the background fabrics however, and I choose that before I get started. The next one will be in an analogous color palette of blue, green, and purple. It will be for a boy.

Winter Stamp Collection

 One of the blogs I follow, Pinker n' Punkin Quilting, is hosting a winter SAL, "Winter Stamp Collection". The designs are super cute, easy, and finish up small. It is suggested that they can be worked up as individual little pin cushions, which I plan to do throughout the coming year. With any luck and perseverance, there should be a collection to give out as Christmas gifts to quilty (and other) friends. Take a look! https://pinkernpunkinquilting.blogspot.com/2025/01/winter-stamp-sal-introduction.html

I have been doing a fair amount of cross stitch recently, resurrecting projects that have been too long in the time out basket. Somehow my quilting mojo has temporarily disappeared. This has happened before and I know it will return at some point. For now I am content to sit, cross stitch, and look at the snow we received last week. It is disappearing as the temperatures have risen a bit and the sun is out. We first had freezing rain and sleet before the snow. My driveway has been shoveled and the top layer of snow removed. Then it was salted with 40 lbs. of snow melt. The ice is now fairly soft and I expect it to disappear entirely in another day or so.

I hope you have found something interesting to work on as winter settles in. I think that I had best get going on the president's challenge for Thimble and Thread. We are to make a baby-sized quilt using any disappearing block pattern. I make take the easiest route and use the original disappearing four patch block. It is the easiest one and pretty straight forward. See it here: