Quilty Pleasures and Ranch Life: A Scrappy Trip With Thistles

It's been a while since I posted anything quilty because, well, I've been busy! But I've been working (somewhat) steadily on Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World blocks whilst binge watching this season's Orphan Black. I restarted my unfinished scrappy trip quilt thanks to Diana.

Diana, a Girl Scout, has been working on her Gold Project and sent out a call for Scrappy Trips blocks. She wants to make 16 quilts (actually, it's going to be more than that) and gift them to kids who have aged out of the foster care system. The Chicken River Modern Quilters and another group of quilters at ThreadBear, my local quilt shop, spent some time making blocks to send to Diana. All this scrappy tripping inspired me to find a box of blocks already completed and finish this baby up!

Only four blocks remaining for a queen sized quilt. Then it's time for assembly.

So what's been making me so busy? Thistles! Scottish Thistles! We've been out and about on the ranch chopping these invasive, noxious, non-native weeds. Actually, Tom chops.

These thistles are biennials, which means they live for two years, first as a rosette baby and the next year as a flowering nuisance that can reseed itself many times over. They will take over a whole area and although cattle might eat the babies, they will not eat the mature ones, crowding out anything nutritious growing there.  So Tom is chopping both, trying to dig up the rosette babies, roots and all and chopping down the ticking time bombs which are the thistles in their flower stage.

Here's what the flowering Scottish thistles look like:

We've been chopping for a couple weeks now and it's touch and go as to whether we will get them all before they start reseeding.

My job is to gather up the chopped down flower thistles and toss them into the Ranger.

Here are my grabbers because those suckers are evil! I bought them years ago to collect leaves and then for pine needles. Tom suggested using them for the thistles which was a wizard idea.

 We both wear snake chaps because there have been too many close encounters with rattlesnakes to take chances.

 Using the grabbers and sometimes the garden fork for big piles, I throw them into the Ranger and dump them where there will be a big bonfire when they dry out. (Why do I have a sneaking hunch that even though they will be burned, we will find a thistle forest next spring?)

So far we've collected seven loads of these nasty fellers (Scotland's national flower). As I drove this load back to the dumping area, I spotted so many more growing in our field.

And so it goes. (thanks, kurt)

Quilty Pleasures-Pattie's Easy Street Quilt

Back before Christmas, sis-in-law Pattie and I decided to make Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt, called Easy Street.

Pattie finished her quilt and last month sent me a photo of the completed top. She went with a different colorway than Bonnie's and was at first concerned because she went very scrappy in choosing the fabrics. Because of this, the center design didn't show up as clearly as she would have liked. Once together, though, I must say that the design shines through just fine and the scrappiness makes me think of a church's stained glass windows.

Check out the flying geese border and how the geese get smaller as they are closer to the corners. Smart move!

My quilt top is still partially together in a bag somewhere in the sewing room, waiting for me to unsew a couple blocks so I can recommence assembly. There's nothing like messing up to create a big old stop sign in your mind.

Pattie, your quilt has shamed me into getting mine done. Soon, very soon.

Quilty Pleasures: Almost Finished?

Four projects are close to being finished, so here they are in their unfinished states. Maybe posting them will be a reminder that they are patiently waiting.

This is my modern quilt, started last September at a workshop presented by modern quilter Jacquie Gering.

It's been pieced and pinned for a while now, waiting to be quilted.

Why isn't it done?

The Paralyzed Perfectionist speaks: "I am afraid that I won't quilt it perfectly!"

Jacquie Gering her ownself saved the day by appearing on The Quilt Show, showing me (only me) how to quilt it using the Bernina serpentine stitch.

OK. I can do that.

The next quilt in the wings is this one:

Sorry about the weird light thingies on the top right of these pics. The sun was coming through the window and there was no way I could go out in the wind to take photos.

So this one is a baby quilt I made alongside my very first beginning quilting student in November-December. Hers is done. Mine is not.
Layering, basting, quilting and then it's done.

But I am not worried because I know how to quilt this one.

I bought the batting last night, so it will be quilted soon.

Since a baby is imminent, there's a deadline and I'm sticking to it!


Below are two blocks from a project I started last year. It was a Block of the Month and last night was show and tell. I showed them my blocks and told my quilt buds it would be done soon.

 I have all but one of the blocks appliqued, but still need to add a skinny border and an appliqued scalloped border to each block.

Here is how it will look someday:

And, here is my other project, almost, very close, so close to being finished I can almost taste victory:

 I need to make six more of these setting triangles for Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery quilt.

The rest of the blocks are done (whew) and next is to put it all together.

I can't wait to see this one completed. Lots of little pieces, many hours watching internet tv shows and listening to BBC podcasts will be my memories for this quilt.

There is more stuff started and lurking in boxes and bags, but these are the closest to being finished, so they are the ones to be completed in the next weeks.

Besides, if I dragged out all the Works in Progress I have, I might get discouraged.

And I don't want that!

Quilty Pleasures-Easy Street Progress

I'm about halfway finished assembling the two different blocks used in Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery quilt and was able to put part of it up on Thread Bear's design wall for a sneak peek.

I think I like it so far.

Quilty Pleasures-Make Two Quilts At The Same Time!

"Leaders and Enders" is a term I first encountered on Bonnie Hunter's blog, Quiltville's Quips and Snips. For years I have used scraps of fabric to start and end my piecing because it eliminates having to hold the thread tails taut as I begin a seam (to eliminate that bird's nest of thread you get if you don't). I never thought about actually making another quilt with those scraps!

Essentially, leaders and enders are scraps of fabric that will eventually go into a quilt, chain pieced in between the beginnings and endings of the main quilting project you are working on.

Let me show you because it's kind of hard to explain without looking at it.

I am working on Bonnie's Mystery Quilt called Easy Street, piecing the blocks, which are purple, turquoise, green, gray, black and white.

 Here are some half square triangles (Honey Honey by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics)
because I want to make a quilt out of them someday in the future. So I "lead" with two half square triangles, right sides together. Some people use two inch squares and here's a guy who uses Dresden plate blades.

 I was thinking about Gwen Marston's and Freddy Moran's "parts department," where you make pieces for a quilt, just to stock up for when you want to make one.

So here we go, starting with the triangles. Don't look at how they are a tad uneven and definitely don't tell the quilt police. And this close up of the lint on the machine? Pictures don't lie! OMG! Get out the lint brush!

After the triangle, I move right ahead to the Easy Street quilt without stopping and chain sew along as far as I can go.

 When I finish chain piecing the Easy Street quilt, there's another pair of triangles ready. I chain right onto the new triangles.

I sew right up to the end of the triangles, the "enders," and leave the fabric under the foot, ready for the next round of sewing.

 I snip off what's behind it,  all the chain piecing I just did with a little triangle stuck to the end.  I clip off that triangle.

 And I toss it into a box.

So far I don't have many half square pieces, but eventually they will add up and I will have enough parts for another quilt. 

Not only do I have some new "parts," but I've saved time and thread, too.

I hope this is a clear explanation. If it isn't, feel free to leave your questions and comments. Also, what have you made with your leaders and enders?