Last of the Mystery Series Finished

The pull of the garden is very strong right now. My flowers peak in May, which means they want to be staked, weeded, watered. My tomato plants are in, spinach has already bolted, lettuces harvested and re-seeded, squash and beans just seeded and need to be kept moist.

Quilting and sewing is getting the 10-20-30 minutes approach that Nancy Zieman talks about – do a little at a time, even if it is just setting up for the next project. My attic sewing room is adjusting to my foster cat, and although she is an older kitty, she is exploring every shelf, basket and counter, and I’ve already misplaced a few projects that I stuffed somewhere so it wouldn’t become a nest or pile on the floor. Quick projects have included adding the last two borders to the Diamond Box quilt, sewing the binding strips and prepping the backing for same. And finally binding Mystery #3, size is 73.5" x 53.5", the largest of the three Mystery quilts.

Busman's Holiday

What do quilters do when they have a few days off? Quilt of course! Last week I quilted three charity quilts for Oso. One of them was my twin Orca quilt, made from the leftovers of a fussy-cut orca print. It's a simple design from 5" squares and 5 x 10" strips, staggered to give it some motion.

Quilting is a simple wavy design:

Diamond box blocks are coming along, and I've found a shortcut for the bias seams - creasing the strip where it crosses, rather than marking each line with chalk. It took almost 2 hours of pinning the pieces together while watching TV, and that allowed a bit more production line sewing. Six blocks are completely finished, and the centers on the remaining 14 sewn and ready for the final round.

 

The background fabric is a grey/taupe/light blue fabric that a friend gave me. It had been made into a dress, but as it is a batik it didn't have very nice drape, and was never finished.

Pinwheel 9-patch center is finished, and a nice rich purple border finally appeared from my stash, not yet cut and attached.

A large bag of plaid fabrics was gifted to me by my sister, including two large pieces of a bright Madras plaid patchwork destined for a shirt, and at least two lap backings from other pieces.

The Tennessee Lightening quilt new to my queue is a simple 9-patch block consisting of half-square triangles with good contrast. My goal is to make a twin-sized charity quilt from some of my reproduction fabrics, with a brown background and blues, reds and purples as the dark colors.

Plugging Along

Three small quilts have been finished in the past few weeks:
Mystery Quilt #2 72" x 52" - the blue/purple version

Many Trips #1 (blue scraps), 62.5" x 44.5"

and Charity Charms 45.5" x 40.5", made from two sets of Fossil Fern mini charm packs and a jewel-toned print, that contained almost all of the colors of the charms.

For the bindings, I experimented on two of the quilts with binding that is sewn to the back, then wrapped to the front and stitched down by machine. I've found this works best on quilts that have a solid border, as it finishes a bit wider and points could be chopped off.

The backing for Mystery #2 used two purple fabrics that I really liked, and I've already used one of the leftovers in another quilt I'm calling Pinwheel 9-Patch.

At least five new quilts and block designs have been drawn up in EQ, including a block using only 5" squares that has been tested with homely fabric. It's an easy on-point block that is dedicated to my small collection of charm packs.

Retreat Recap

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend two days of a four-day quilting retreat at our local Senior Center. It was a day-only retreat, and Saturday night all equipment is packed up & stored in a locked room as a local church uses the large meeting room for services until late afternoon.

The projects worked on included Mystery Quilt #3 (the blocks are completed, the center assembled), Arkansas Traveler (the 4-patch diamonds are sewn) and a new jewel-tone 4-patch charity quilt. My goal was to work on things already in progress, and the new charity quilt snuck itself in the mix.

I prefer to cut borders at home, so fabric was auditioned for two borders and binding for the MQ#3. My half-dowel pressing stick wasn't packed, so the 4-patch diamonds still need to be pressed, and the 4-patch charity quilt segments were my to-the-last-minute project, so the irons and boards were packed up by the time they were stitched.

Bonus items: Quilt Lovers Favorites - vol. 5 and two pieces of flannel and a starburst fat quarter from the give-away items.

And, today I won a blog hop drawing from Pat Sloan's website for Nancy Zieman's book Seams Unlikely. I really like Nancy Zieman, have enjoyed her shows and products for years, and will give a review when it arrives.

Something Sweet

 

This little quilt usually hangs in my studio this time of year. The center panel is in one piece, and they are echo quilted around the designs. I learned how to make scallops in Electric Quilt, and like the corner accents and two-color scallops. They are also embroidered to mimic a lace trim.

I came across patterns with clear instructions for what I called "Woven Bias" or the Riley block at the United Notions website, under Free Patterns. They have one version called Surrounded by Love and another called Honky Tonk, both with the same block, using the same 2.5" strips that I used, where the other versions found had much larger strips.

A couple of 2013 finishes

Woven Bias, inspired by a quilt seen on a blog, then I found that the block "Riley" is in Blockbase/EQ, and played with the dimensions. There are a couple of version online--one free version with good assembly instructions at windhamfabrics.net called “Fresh Connections”. Their version has the links interlocking, while I chose to make my blocks more random, trying to distribute the colors. Size is 71" x 60"

 

 Crazy giant fish on the back--the largest are 24" long!

This pattern came from the Missouri Star tutorials, called “Amazing Jelly Roll Quilt Pattern by 3 Dudes”. Their versions look much different, using all the fabrics from a jelly roll, while this used only 4 fabrics. It was fun to see the secondary pattern of hearts appear. There are several layouts of the blocks that look very different. Size 50" x 39"

 

This month I've finished two preemie quilts and knitted a chemo cap for a friend (Odessa by Grumperina.)

Projects in progress update – the old

Baby Owls – quilted with a new leafy pantograph pattern. It sat for a while as I stressed over how to quilt the top, and the finished quilt pleases me. It’s currently hanging in my studio. 42.5" x 32.5".

Chevron Strippie - quilted & donated. This was a quilt-as-you-go scrap project, where I pieced the strips onto scrap batting strips of different widths, then assembled the top by zig-zagging the strips together, then layered the backing and quilted  along some of the chevrons, then added vertical sashing strips. An interesting experiment. Approximately 55" x 60".

Dancing Stars - still waiting to be quilted.

Diamond 4-patch - quilted & gifted to the neighbor who had given me the batik fabrics. She had to be talked into keeping it by her cousin, as it didn’t match her décor. It’s in her guest room now. This is the last surprise quilt I will make for anyone. Full-sized quilt.

 

Postage Stamp Blocks?  I don’t even remember what this was.