Abby's Jars of Fun Quilt
A QuiltSwappers Project, 1999
50 x 69"
This is where I recorded the canning jar blocks received from
QuiltSwappers
to make Abby's quilt and reported on day-to-day progress.
Monday, Apr. 19, 1999
The canning jars for this quilt measure 5 x 9.5" finished. As of this
evening I've heard from 15 quilters who have mailed 27 blocks.
Sounds like we are well on the way. I'm aiming for a quilt with 48 jars in
six rows of eight jars. I'm putting 1" vertical sashing between the jars
and 2" horizontal sashing between rows and 2" outside borders.
Here are six blocks I received in the "big swap" that can be used for
fill-ins. They include bears & honey, crazy cats, Monopoly money, Monopoly
symbols, bees, and crazy bugs.
Tuesday, Apr. 20, 1999
I thought I might work on a label for the quilt while I'm waiting for the
blocks to arrive. I'll print the label inside another canning jar.
Wednesday, Apr. 21, 1999
Still no squishies in today's mailbox so I made five blocks for "just in
case": a parachuting black and white cat, colorful numbers, Easter eggs,
candy corn and wrapped candy on a turquoise background, and lots of
cats. Another three quilters have sent 5 more blocks on their
way.
Thursday, Apr. 22, 1999
This morning I made the jar label block. It reads:
Abby's Jars of Fun
From her Mother's
Quilting Friends at
QuiltSwappers
Assembled and quilted by
Betty Reynolds
April 1999
Noon-thirty mailcall brought squishies! Hoooooray!!!
Patsy Brown, AR: Good ol' Iowa happy hogs and "be hoppy" bunnies
Linda Bryant, FL: Ballerina kitty and dancing mice (twice, nice),
colorful medical supplies, scardy cats
Kathy (K2) Kirkland, MT: pretty angel in a pink dress, fish in pink
water, tropical fish in blue water
Pixie Malone, TX: bunnies with long ears, lady bugs on hot pink, jellybeans
Di Walters, OH: gold and grey kitties
Friday, Apr. 23, 1999
I cut the 2 1/2" strips for horizontal sashing and outside borders this
morning. Now looking forward to mailcall at noon-thirty.
Oooooo-weeeee!! My little PO box overfloweth today!! 10 envelopes
full of canning jars--including two which I didn't know were on
the way. Thanks everyone!
Lisa Bouchard, NH: "Be hoppy" bunnies and cats with blue eyes
Dorothy Cochran, TX: patchwork guardian angel
Els Eerkens, MO: tumbling babies
Sharon (Sharon2) Torregrosa, MI: smiley-face doctors and nurses,
blue/purple rocks, colorful fish and seahorses, dragonflies & butterflies
Kathy Camburn, MI: crazy cats, "be hoppy" bunnies, pastel butterflies (I'm
going to have to practice triage on the bunnies--they're multiplying
like, well, like rabbits!)
Joyce Lippert, WI: pink ballet slippers, candies
Shirlee Gotterbarn, TN: tomatoes (oops, those tomatoes are for my quilt),
frog tooth fairy
Claire Breswick, KY: technicolor cats
Jennifer Hutchings, CA: a big squishy that included 11 jars from
various people from which I've chosen the following for Abby's
quilt--green dragons wearing hats, chicks and eggs, sunbonnet Sues, witches (all from Jen), and cookies &
milk from Maureen Raymond.
Saturday, Apr. 24, 1999
Today's mail brought these new blocks:
Kelly Dzurisin, OH: ladybugs on white and on yellow gingham
Flo Edmonds, PA: tan and black cats
Candy Jung, WI: blue skies, cat with flowers
Carrie Kiefer, NJ: cute kids
I've also added the following blocks from the big canning jar swap:
Margie Sartor, CO: crazy cats on yellow
Leilani Pua, WA: crazy bugs
Kari Huber, ND: Monopoly money, bumblebees
Barbara Kramer-Green, CO: bears with bees and honey
Maureen Raymond, ON Canada: cookies and milk
Eveline Gross, Austria: watermelon and other fruit
And my own that I made on Wednesday
Betty Reynolds, NM: parachuting cat, bright hearts, Easter eggs,
numbers, lots of cats
Basting begins
Here are the two fabrics I used for the back and binding.
Someone on QuiltSwappers told about basting on a wall instead of the
floor, so I'm going to give this a shot since I don't have a handy clean
floor. I'm using the same wall that my flannel sheet design wall hangs
on, so the first thing I did was to fold and pin the sheet up high. Then I
pinned the quilt back to the top of the folded sheet. I knew when it was
straight when the sides lined up with the vertical wood panels of the
wall. I put a few pieces of masking tape around the sides and bottom just
to make sure it stays smooth and tight. It seems to need less tape than
when I baste on the floor or tables.
Next I pinned the batting up a little higher than the backing and put tape
down the sides to hold it flat.
That's it for tonight. Back tomorrow with more progress...
Sunday, Apr. 25, 1999
From this point on I needed a ladder to reach up high enough. Next I
pinned the quilt at the top and let it hang over the batting. It
stuck up there pretty well, but I put a couple of pins in the bottom
corners just to make sure it would stay straight. Then I basted with
safety pins. For the top two rows I used the ladder, the next two
rows I could stand on the floor, for row five I knelt but
remembered too late I could have sat on a chair, and for the
botton row I sat on my fracas.
So how did I like pin basting on the wall? I really thought it would
bother my shoulders and back, but as long as you don't have to reach above
heart level your arms don't get tired at all. The main problem for me was
knowing where to keep the pins. I didn't like having to reach around to
get them one at a time from the ladder and I was afraid I would knock the
container over and spill pins everywhere. So I held a supply in one hand
while I pinned with the other. No third hand for manipulating the
grapefruit spoon. Otherwise I liked this method, but I really
prefer to baste on a couple of big tables pushed together.
Now the quilting has begun. At 2PM I've just finished the first row
of 8 jars--1/6th finished! Whew!!! Taking a little break here to add
these pictures and now I'm back to the sewing machine. See ya
later...
8PM progress report... The jars are all quilted and I was getting ready to
bind but my back and shoulders feel like someone's been trouncing on me
all day and I can't see to sew on black anymore. I have a feeling I'll
need to add some quilting in the black sashing too, so I'm calling it
quits for the night and will reevaluate in the morning.
Monday, April 26, 1999
Sure enough, the sashing has to be quilted too. I thought I could finish
that in an hour and bind in two hours, but breaking threads and then
running out of black quilting thread made me miss the outgoing mail. So
I'll mail the quilt tomorrow.
Tuesday, Apr. 27, 1999
My own personal "best of quilt" canning jar award goes to Shirlee
Gotterbarn for this frog tooth fairy. Isn't she a kick!! And the award for
prettiest block goes to Kathy Kirkland for the Christmas angel in a pink
dress.
So does Abby like her new quilt? You be the judge!
For more canning jar ideas, visit my Canning Jars and
Bottles Quilt Page
Return to Betty
Reynolds' Quilting Page