Three Blocks

 Three blocks from McKenna Ryan's "Nesting" pattern, fused but not yet stitched.

I waited until the block patterns were on sale, and it took me over a year to actually start on the blocks. Once I got going, it was assembled in about a week. The blocks were enlarged from 8" to 12", and even so some pieces were very small. I'd done one of McKenna's patterns many years ago. I changed up the colors quite a bit - had to have a red boot, re-drew the birds to look like goldfinches, and the wheelbarrow needed to be blue like ours. The center block watering can has a scrolling design, and I'll probably enhance the design and give it more weight with thread as it looks washed out.

On With the Old, Add Something New

I finished this Ocean Waves top over the weekend at a quilting retreat. It started as part of a swap group several years ago, and 16 of the blocks were made by other quilters. Most sent an extra square of fabric so the border fabrics coordinate. Blocks have been worked on at several retreats, and after the last one I had gotten on a roll, cutting out all the remaining strips (needed for Thangles for the small half-square triangles), and even sewn the sub-sets. There were only 6 blocks left to assemble, and the border blocks only needed to be trimmed down. Whew! The backing and binding fabrics are ready to go, it may be a while before it gets quilted. Approximately 71" square.

After I finished this top, I started playing with a layout of some tumbler blocks that had been cut with my Accuquilt Go cutter. Many of the fabrics in the box that had been collecting were leftovers from the Ocean Waves, with some of the rejects that were too bright for the quilt above, including vintage lime green with turquoise and white flowers. Unfortunately my math was off when I counted pieces, so the tumblers were packed up in the partial layout, and had to wait until Sunday for more pieces to be cut. We worked at home Sunday as the Senior Center was rented out to two churches, so our machines and projects were locked in a secure room until Monday morning.

Sunday at home was very productive, as I cut out the remaining tumblers, cut backing and binding for two quilts, binding for a third, organized batting scraps for some upcoming small projects, and organized pieces for charity cosmetic bags. I'm set for a while with quick, fill-in projects to work on while waiting for quilt customers or just needing a quick sewing fix.

Monday had me laying out all 320 tumbler pieces, stacking them in rows, and stitching. I was able to sew 18 of the 20 rows together, and most of them are pressed. I cut half-width blocks for the edges (to give a straight edge, and a good way to use the leftover bits), and I'll do another layout to select and add those before sewing the rows together. I chose the size to fit the backing...a wonderful piece with large flowers in the same colors on white (another gifted piece).

Perspective

Fabric can look so cute when shown in a small swatch on a monitor, especially when on sale, and described with a favorite color (purple) for the print. No mention was made of the yellow uneven blotches in the background. It looks pre-stained.

Sometimes when working on a quilt project, especially a “use only stash” project, my focus gets fuzzy. The end result needs to be more than just using up fabric in the stash, but creating a pleasing result by meeting the challenge of using only stash fabric in a creative way. The purple baskets quilt in progress needed some light to medium fabrics for setting the on-point blocks, and I was trying to convince myself that the blotchy bargain fabric would work well. It was actually too busy for the scrappy pieced baskets, and after considering it for over two weeks, I brought some of the blocks with the fabric in questions, along with a soft solid lavender alternate, to my quilt group for feedback.

The original pattern shows the crib-sized quilt with strong, dark colors for the setting triangles, which looked jarring against the light background of the featured blocks, and I brought the pattern along to explain my dilemma. It was fun to hear the responses - 7 opinions for the soft solid, one vote for the blotchy print. Everyone agreed that the blotchy print would be fine for the backing.

I knew that the soft lavender solid looked better, but didn't listen to or didn't trust my inner artist voice. It was a relief to hear most of the input from other quilters agreed with my instinct. Some projects just go together without any pauses, and this one needed a push. I'll hopefully post the finished top by the end of the weekend.

The Fudgy Quilt

When you use pins and steam to get quilt pieces or blocks to fit more precisely, you "fudge" them. This little quilt is very fudgy. The checkers are actually printed on the fabric, and are about 1" square. It took careful cutting of the strips and blocks, and then piecing along the printed lines to give the appearance of being more or less square.

This little quilt is only 42" square.

I'm trying to decide if my six inch red and white 9-patch swap blocks want to be a larger version of this quilt. That would require making alternate 9-patches for the center of each "X" block, with 5 white and 4 red squares each. Many of the settings I like for 9-patch blocks require making setting or alternate blocks.

9-patches and hourglass blocks or 9-patches and snowball blocks give the appearance of stars. 9-patches and churndash blocks are also fun. My blue 9-patch blocks will be set on point and offset every other row to give a 3-d effect. I've made some partial blocks for the sides so none of the swap blocks have to be cut in half.