Year End Finishes and Charity Sew-In

New Year's Eve found me finishing up two quilts, both with purple bindings.

Top before quilting

The largest was a queen Trip Around the World variation for my nephew and his wife. The design started with Bonnie Hunter's "Many Trips" block, and morphed into two simple blocks, and then just sewing it row by row instead of blocks.

It consists of 961 4" squares. I laid out all the blocks on my long studio table plus an ironing board, stacked each row up with a row label (31 rows each with 31 squares).  After stitching each row I checked each  against the printout and was pleased not to have any mistakes. 

All batiks for the top, all from my stash. The backing was also from my stash.  Finished size is 108" x 108".  Almost 20 yards of fabric used in this quilt!

Close up after quilting

 

The second finish was a One Block Wonder quilt. I had been gifted the fabric, and wasn't sure how to use it. I started looking at layouts on Pinterest and liked the swirling types of designs. This is a 60" x 60" quilt made from 3 yards of fabric. With more yardage a stronger spiraling design could have been achieved. My alignment of the repeats is off a bit, though the designs are small so there still is a somewhat symmetrical effect. It was fun to make and I have purchased a large floral design in blues and greens for another design.



 


Fabric before cutting



Finished Top
 

 

Close-up of quilting

Quilting was in the ditch and parallel to each side of the triangles, basted on the longarm and quilted on a Janome sewing machine. My walking foot guide wasn't quite wide enough to get to the center. The backing was a piece of fabric given to me by the same person.

Yesterday I attended my local group's Charity Sew-In, and I mostly worked on finishing up some of my charity projects. The binding for this little charity quilt was done by machine (also purple!), several burp cloths were finished, and a backing pieced for the 16-patch colorblock quilt the group had assembled at our last sew-in. I also worked on assembling blocks into rows for a 16-patch and Hourglass quilt.

Little Labels Charity Quilt

Christmas Series

I rarely make the same quilt more than once, especially not one after another. Making my first Bento Box quilt was so much fun that it inspired me to make two more.

Bento I is completely scrappy, using all different scales of prints, and the placement of values was not even a consideration. This quilt is going to get used and loved by the family. It uses 2.5" strips and  measures 48" x 60". Quilting is a snowflake pattern. It was sized to fit the backing fabric, a green flannel snowman print, and binding is a red and white diagonal stripe.

The second quilt is Baby Bento, made with small scale prints for my neighbor's baby A. It uses 2" strips and measures 35" x 35". I chose to limit the white prints to the center or middle rows. Quilting is a spiral done about 1/2" apart. Small quilts are my "learning" quilts, this was the second spiral quilting I've done. Next time I will try basting spray. Backing is a vintage snowman print, and binding is a sparkle red fabric. If I ever buy sparkle fabric again it will get washed several times before use.

 

Bento II is for baby A's parents. It is the same size as Bento I, 48" x 60", again with 2.5" strips and uses creams for the lightest fabrics, and the same placement of lights as in the baby version, although the block rotation is different. Quilting is a snowflake pattern, backing is the same vintage snowman print, and binding is a red and green wreath print (when you find 316" inches pre-cut in the drawer...)

 

 

Vintage snowman backing

 

 

 

Charity Sew-In and List Updates

Last Saturday my local quit group had a Charity Sew-in at our Senior Center. Several projects were worked on - one quilter who is working on downsizing her stash cut out 35 pillowcases. I was very motivated to get through some of my larger charity quilts, and pushed myself to finish sewing the blocks for the Brown/Tan charity quilt, School's Out pattern. One member really likes to iron, and as ironing is very hard on my hands, I brought the blocks ready for her. M. was working on laying out quilts, and I asked her if she would mind laying out these blocks. She was taken with it, and went ahead and sewed all the blocks together. I quilted the quilt today and hope to get the binding on over the weekend. The size is 85.5" x 74", fabrics mainly from a FQ collection purchased many years ago.  42 12" blocks.

The other two projects that I cut out and had ready to sew were the Pink/Tan Charity Quilt, cut as a disappearing 9-patch, and the FQ Prize Quilt - cut as a 9-patch with a large center. The Pink/Tan fabrics had come together as a collection when I was searching the stash for other fabric. A large piece of gifted fabric was enough for a twin backing, so that was my size goal. The pieces were cut as 5" squares with the center square for each block the darkest red, as that make s a nice accent when it is cut. As the 9-patches went together and were pressed, I did all the cutting to keep the size consistent. Four of us completed all the blocks at the retreat, and J. was kind enough to bring them home and sewed the top together. She dropped it off this week, and it's waiting for borders and quilting.

The FQ Prize Quilt was cut from a fabric bundle that I won from QNM. Most of the pieces were fat quarters; some smaller, and some had pieces cut out of them. As I pressed the fabrics I sorted by size, and cut from those groups, cutting 5" squares, 5" x 2.5" strips and 2.5" squares. It's harder for me to work with fabrics that were not chosen by me, and these were not my colors - chocolate brown, orange, green, and a few random things. A couple of small pieces that were too different in style and a light blue that didn't go with anything were set aside. Three of us worked on these blocks and K. offered to bring them home to work on.

And feeling good about using up some of these older fabrics...I won another set of fat quarters from a blog drawing last week! They are Christmas colors but not Christmas prints.

And the other finish - Summer in the Park. This started with 3 yards of Kona that I thought would be grey, but read as a taupe and didn't play well with blue fabrics. Size is 87" x 71". I watched the video on Missouri Star Quilts and then found a blog called England Street Quilts with good information about making a larger version quilt, as I wanted to make it a bed-sized quilt rather than a lap-sized. I do not use starch, and had to be careful assembling these blocks as the edges are all bias. Seams were pressed open.

Second Guessing

Many of my projects are from scratch – based on an idea, but without step by step instructions. This can be both freeing and daunting. What if I make the wrong choices? The article in the June/July 2014 issue of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine about Fidget Quilts for Alzheimer’s patients, stuck a chord, as my MIL is suffering from the disease. The follow up issue of QNM had some feedback from quilters who had followed the guidelines of the original article, and their mats had been rejected by caregivers. Small items such as keys or buttons could be chewed or pulled off . Before starting my mat, I contacted the head of the facility where my MIL is and asked about these concerns, and whether they would be interested in a fidget mat. The feedback was “yes please, red and pink are favorite colors of several of the residents, and a size of 1 ft. by 3 ft. would work well on their dining table.”

Having a color scheme and size helped me choose fabrics and designs. I began to over think the design, and finally took a step back and chose to keep it simple. After looking for squeaker inserts (now only available as dog chew replacements – not baby craft items), I decided to focus on textures. Red velour made nice hearts; white plush fur became kitty faces. A piece of wide satin pink ribbon made triangles to give windmill blocks some dimension. Continuous zippers made circles that open to a small cat print hidden inside. Floppy petals on flowers give movement. A simple pocket can be explored. Each side of the mat has six blocks and they repeat, both horizontally and vertically, so each end or each side have six unique blocks. Feedback has been positive.

Slow Going in Summer

Just a few finishes - the Gretchen Quilt binding is finally done, a rare hand-finish project. This one grew on me, and for now is keeping me company in the studio. The Redware Charity quilt (photo below) is quilted and bound, finished just a week after six quilts were donated to Hickman House. And the Medallion Baby Charity (kind homely, but cuddly) was bound today.

The red/grey Summer in the Park gave me issues with the sewing machine while assembling, especially starting each block. The block edges are all bias, and it took care not to stretch them, so I couldn't pull on the thread from the previous block when string-piecing. Had to press all of the seams open to minimize bulk. The effect of the diagonal lines is nice, but this pattern probably won't be repeated.  Straight-grain borders have been added to give some stability to the outer edge, ready to quilt once backing arrives.

Chisel Braid was a test of the die-cut chisels, using fabric given to me that worked together color-wise. The pattern will be more effective with horizontal bands of color, giving a chevron effect. The top is ready for quilting, and backing fabric is on order. This test top was fun to put together. I drew up a sample block in EQ so I would be able to estimate size and how many pieces to cut for future quilts.

The Orange Hexie blocks have been sewn together, striped borders on hold until the backing arrives. Learned the hard way that when using the 1/4" foot with the edge on my Bernina, the needle has to be moved one click to the right to get a true 1/4" seam. The triangle sets went together OK. It's getting a flannel back that will be pieced diagonally, using John Flynn's method. Will probably be a gift quilt rather than to charity

 

Arkansas traveler – drafted my own pattern to use jelly roll strips; this would be better as a foundation pieced block. My goal was not to have bias on outside edges. What I did right: using Kona for the background, did not have to worry about right side of fabric as both sides the same. Still had problems when putting the second side triangle around the 4-patch diamond, fortunately did just one block’s worth to test  before chain piecing all of them.

July Stash-Challenge Finishes

9-Patch X - 55.5" x 43.5". I saw a quilt with this block online and at first thought it was a disappearing 9-patch sliced diagonally, until realizing that the intersections wouldn't line up. Thought it would be a fun stash challenge with the plaid leftovers from the blue Mystery recently completed. Pulled the lavender flowers, found some purples, a mottled light blue backing and a crazy blue and purple check for the binding. Took some care in layout to get the intersecting pinwheels where 4 blocks meet. The dragonfly quilting pattern was the right scale and using purple thread on the back makes them more visible.

Gretchen - 42.5" square. Found this quilt online with a tutorial. Rounded the squares cut size up to 5" and pulled the colors to match the backing fabric. It sounded easy - took some fussing when sewing. Some shirtings with a bit of red to tie them in, a couple of greens and gold, solid red for the pinwheels and a red with a small black and cream print for the larger triangles and border. Backing  was only 45" square, so sized the top to fit. Had to pin baste this before loading on the longarm since the backing was so tight, quilted with a variation of the Baptist Fan pattern. Had matching check fabric for the binding (probably gifted from the same person), off-white like the check on the backing. Binding is not yet finished.

Training Day

It’s a rare occasion to have time to squeeze in quilting for myself during the week. Treating it as a training day--learning a new technique, testing out a spiral template for my Gammill Workstation was interesting. The quilt that I chose for the spirals is Diamond Box, a free pattern from TimelessTreasures. The finished size is 64" x 52.5"(not including the shoes at the bottom.) The background fabric is a grey and black batik with just a bit of light blue, given to me by a quilting customer. Most of the block fabrics came from stash.
 

It’s a very angular design, and the curves soften it. There is a spiral centered in each block, and overlapping smaller spirals in-between and on the borders. The surprise when I took it off the rollers was that two of the smaller spirals had a definite shape problem—very odd as the template uses a stylus in a groove, and there were no issues with the stylus jumping the track. The squashed shapes were not visible on the top, but on the solid light grey back they stood out. It was worth my time to rip out the stitches, re-load the quilt and re-quilt the two spirals.

Overall I’m pleased with the design. It took a couple of hours to tie off and bury the stop/start threads on each spiral. Spirals are a bit trickier to place than concentric circles. Moving the Workstation  was a bit of a pain, and once I used binder clips to keep the sliders locked in place so it didn’t shift, almost fun. If I ever make the move to a computer-driven quilting machine I would make spirals very often.  

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