Four and Counting

While I’ve mentioned duet quilts – pairs of quilts, where the second is made from scraps from the first, I’ve now finished the fourth top from a set of fat quarters. It took me some time to remember the first project made from Jan Mullen’s “Dotz & Stripez” fabric, then realized it was a stars quilt that waited a few years after completion to find a home with one of my great-nephews:

Star Dance layout, twin, 2012

The second project is Boxes with a tiny black & white check as background/alternate. The fat quarters had had a set of 2 ½” strips cut off the stack, which guided my pattern choice:

Boxes top

 The third project is the Stacked quilt, with a dull blue woven background:

And now the fourth project is Quarter Logs with a variety of whites as background:

Simple is not always fast, but I wanted white in between the bright colors (harking back to the stars quilt.) This type of piecing with different scrap sizes let me use up a lot of white scraps, and there were enough long strips to border the two sides without white.

At some point in my hunter-gathering of fabric, I thought of a fat quarter set as ONE quilt. Well, if it’s 10 yards of fabric, unless I’m piecing backings, it goes a lot further than that.

The remaining pieces are going to go into the strings sorted by color. Project box empty!

Two Tops

Top 1: A half-improv quilt top: started with a group of almost-triangle shaped cream pieces and print skinny triangles leftover from cutting a one-piece wonder. The print triangles are all from a full width border print – grey on one edge, dark purple on the other with pink in the middle.

Pulled the purple, then pink, and then gray pieces to make pairs. Stitched and pressed, then figured out the largest common size, and trimmed to 3” x 5” rectangles. When sewn in pairs, this gave me a finished block size of 4.5” x 5”. The layout used 62 triangles (31 sets). Centers of stars finished at 5” and background squares 4.5”. Only 1 leftover cream piece.

The half-rectangle pairs sit in the sashing positions in EQ8; the star centers were 5" finished and the background pale lavender 4.5". The straight-of-grain squares helped minimize stretch with the bias edge cream triangles.

With a border cut 2.5”, the top came out to 46" x 37.5". There’s a piece of purple paisley for the backing and possibly the binding.

Half Rectangles Top

Top 2: A knit top. I've been re-learning how to sew garments with a serger, challenged somewhat by 1/4" seam allowances on the pattern. The last top was finished a couple of years ago. The one trick I learned is to baste seams with a straight stitch, and then serging is much more accurate. 

Knit Top

Project organization

Having a smaller work space for sewing is forcing me to stick to task on projects, organize the drawers, tubs and boxes, and re-group project ideas that can be combined with similar colors/sizes/goals. I’ve gone through the sewing room, the large closet, and the two cabinets still sitting in the garage and listed each box/bag or pile by description. There are many more projects than remembered! 

I’ve finished two sets of “duet” quilt tops – making one small quilt, then using the leftovers to make a second quilt. It really helps to use up fabrics already grouped by color. The first duet was this finished peach/cream quilt, Bowtwist pattern:

 

Bowtwist, 64" x 40"

The second top used up the overcuts of half-square triangles:  I saw a similar quilt layout online, and played in EQ with the medium/light values.  I like this top better than the Bowtwist.

The second duet is a small flannel blue and green quilt top and pieced flannel back, the second top is a rail fence with flannel centers, using a grey-blue as background.  Rail fence blocks with flannel in only the center rail is an easy way to reduce bulk, but still add some softness to a quilt. I made an earlier quilt with this design.

Duet #3 is in progress: a “Boxes” twin top has been finished, and a “stacked” scrappy twin quilt is planned with the scraps. This is the "Boxes" EQ coloring layout: