6/18/17

The Last Block

We're heading over to Erik and Mae's house for Father's Day this morning. Erik texted me last week and asked if we were doing Eggs Benedict for Father's Day. I told him we were if he was cooking. Then we made a deal...I'm making the Hollandaise and he's doing everything else. Cooking with my kiddo sounds like great fun to me. Both of my sons are good cooks, which is nice. They didn't learn it from me...really. I didn't learn from my mother either, but that's another story. So anyway...I'm here bright and early with my morning update.

The last block for the Solstice Challenge is finished!!!!! I can't say I'm sorry to see this one finished. It seemed like a good idea when I started it, and I know I'm going to love the finished quilt, so it's all good. Some of the quilt-along folks are way ahead of me. If you want to see some gorgeous finished quilt tops, check it out right here, and be sure to scroll down to the linky party to see all the quilts.

So anyway, the last block is called "Summer Rose," and mine is to celebrate the coming Summer Solstice.


Since I've been thinking about the long trip we're planning this fall, I've been considering how to take along some things to work on without dragging along my entire stash. Space is at a premium in the RV, and so I need to minimize the amount of crap I bring. With that in mind, I'm starting to kit up finished projects that need only to be sewn together. This is the first one I've done, but I think I'll have a few more before summer is over. 


There won't be a lot of sewing time on our trip because we're always so busy sight-seeing, but I am planning to do some sewing along the way. One thing I'll be making are these little hearts for the I Found A Quilted Heart campaign. I made the first two yesterday. Since I was winging it after looking at some of the hearts on the website, I made this one first and learned how to do it better in the process. With this one, I stitched through the hole on the tag, but I wasn't particularly happy with that. 


Here's how it looks from the back.


I'll still leave this one for someone to find, but having made one, I knew how to do the next one better. Wanna see what I did? I hope so because I'm just about to show you. 

So I grabbed some scraps that were sitting on my sewing table and made a little quilt sandwich.


Then I used a cookie cutter template to draw the heart.



Then I cut all three pieces at the same time (two fabrics and some batting) using my pinking shears.


But I didn't want the batting coming all the way to the edge, and so I took the sandwich apart and trimmed it by about a quarter inch all the way around.


Then I put the quilt sandwich back together...


Then I was ready to make the tag. The note tags are available on the website right here, and there are two kinds to choose from. They are printed out on a sheet and then cut to size. It's suggested they be printed on card stock, but I was having trouble getting that to run through my printer the way I wanted. I decided to print it on regular printer paper and then glue it to the card stock using a glue stick.


And then I used a hole punch to punch a hole.


On the other side, I wrote...


Then I threaded through some scrap ribbon and pinned it to the heart for sewing.


I sewed all the way around leaving a quarter inch seam allowance. As in free motion quilting, I pulled the bobbin thread to the top


and then buried the thread tails for the sake of tidiness.


And these are supposed to be "quilted" hearts, so I stitched again inside the first row of stitching.


Here's how it looks on the back side.


These took no more than ten minutes to make. Pretty simple, huh? Now it's ready to be sown into the wild for some random person to find. I'll probably leave one somewhere today, but I'm saving the other for our walk on Monday.

That's all I have for you today. Just one more catch-up project to do with the Monday Mini Sew-along, and then I'll be ready to get started on the blue jay quilt. Happy Father's Day to any fathers who might be reading.

6 comments:

gpc said...

Nice. I like your hearts. Mine are poofy with a little fiberfill but I like the idea of the pinked edges and not having to spend as much time on them. As you suggest, experimentation is in order. I taught myself to cook, too, and my son is also an excellent, largely self-taught cook. He asked for tips along the way, but like all of us, tailored his skills to his tastes. I love that about cooking. 'Can't wait to see your solstice quilt blocks all together -- who knows, it could inspire me to actually finish mine, although I suspect that's an unlikely dream.

quiltzyx said...

Happy Father's Day to Mike!

You are just so organized!! Already planning for the Fall trip. I remember when I used to be organized too.

I like the way you made your finder's heart - quick & easy! And cute too. :)

(Did you know that if I am doing catch-up reading of Cat Patches, that if I read & comment over a certain number of them, the "I'm not a robot" thing makes me do a sort of picture quiz? "click on all the squares that have a road sign in them" Sheesh.)

Alice said...

OK, I am thinking that if you can make Hollandaise sauce you can't be too bad a cook, but it sure is fun when others are cooking. Hope you had a great morning.
I love the little smiley face suns in your block and your hearts are adorable. That is a really fun idea!!

crazy quilter said...

These little hearts are so cute! Where did you find the info? Must be somewhere on Facebook? So glad your Soltace blocks are done, it always feel so good to finish all the blocks. I worked on a quilt I have been making blocks for for quite some time and final got it all Olsen together. I thought I had all the blocks made but found out when I go close to the end I needed to make a few more. Mostly my fault since I changed the color scheme and underestimated the number needed, or as I always say I have a counting problem. Usually I have left over blocks. Glad you are so organixpzed to be thinking ahead for the next trip! What fun!

Brown Family said...

the hearts are so cute! And very simple! I do not travel far each day or week. To the market, Pet food store and to the Bernina store. I will have to expand my shopping and running around areas! Yes, I am a stay at home person.

I had forgotten about the Monday Mini Quilt along! I will have to slide it to another day. Mondays I go to my friends house had help her get organized. This appears to be a lifelong charity commitment! I'm not complaining, she is a great friend and we have accomplished a lot. but there is so much more to do!

piecefulwendy said...

Eggs benedict, yum! That is my favorite breakfast. Hubs used to make it for me, and said making the sauce isn't that difficult, but just needs patience. Hope you had fun cooking with your son. Fun memories you are building! Can't wait to see your Solstice quilt. I'm contemplating cutting up some of my blocks to do something fun with them - Ha! Those little hearts are darling!