Over the Top

In late January I spent a fun day taking an Improv Piecing class from Katie Pedersen. My quilting space has a large number of fabric collections - leftovers from projects, fabrics that want to be together, project idea stacks. Learning a new technique sounded like fun, and it was.

Here are the nine blocks completed in class. It was a fabric sampler that had some pretty wild prints, plus the blue solid, chartreuse dot and black and white dots thrown in for contrast.

 

My goal was to make a small quilt, and just use stash. I though the solid blue would make a good sashing. They looked a bit lonesome floating on their own, so I used a specialty ruler to add star points, after having played with layouts in EQ. Not enough solid blue for the cornerstones, so they were sashed too.

 

It looks rather crazy now, but in a good way. I'm calling it "Over the Top", and keeping fingers crossed that I can get all the small pieces stitched together before the cat decides to pull pins out (the design boards sit on the floor.) Being in Katie's studio inspired me to make a new wall-mounted design wall for my sewing room, coming soon.

Finish-A-Long #3

My 2016 Finish-A-Long project #3 is completed - the Churndash Table Runner. This came to me as a partially sewn project in a bag; the seam allowances had issues and all were taken out. Turned out the pieces were not cut accurately and had to be trimmed as well. There were enough pieces for three Churndash blocks, and I chose to make a scrappy pieced backing from some of the other pieces. Fabric for the binding was short as well, so had to piece some muslin to the binding to make it stretch. I liked the fabrics, but perhaps the next recycled project will be passed along.

Quilting was stitch in the ditch, crosses in the center and echo along the triangle edges.

Last Sunday I made nine improv blocks in a class with Katie Pedersen last Sunday, and I've been playing with layout ideas in EQ. My goal is to make a small quilt or wall-hanging out of them.

Also started is the Bird Nest quilt, using a bird batik and some hand-dye batiks in sherbet colors. I'm using the Hex 'n More ruler and strips around the outside, still in the test piecing stage.

Weekend Finishes

After finishing my work quilting for the week, I was able to load the Colorblock 16-Patch Charity quilt on the longarm Wednesday evening. I used the last large piece of floofy Hobbs poly batting, so chose a quilting design that would work well with it - Butterflies. The backing is pale yellow floral. By mid-day Friday, it was off the machine, trimmed, and edges zig-zagged for Jennifer to bind. She had chosen the layout and headed up the group of four of us that put it together.  It finished at 80" x 70".



The Scrappy Flannel Charity quilt was on my design wall, and since I'd found a coordinating backing it was next to be quilted. It also has the floofy batting, which really shrunk into the flannel top, making it rather cozy. I played with freehand designs in the different fabrics. It was finished by Friday afternoon, and Saturday I found time after chores to assemble a scrappy binding from the leftovers box and finish it with a hem stitch, turning the binding to the top. Next time I'll use a different sewing machine as I like the buttonhole stitch better. Finished size 36" x 30".
 
Two of my eight 2016 Finish-A-Long projects done!






Today I made a lot of progress on the Churndash tablerunner, a "rescued" project that a quilter gave me. These must have been leftovers from a larger project. There were enough pieces for 3 churndash blocks, but it took some sorting as many of the rectangle pieces were too small. After putting the blocks together, I decided to use the leftover squares and strips to make a scrappy backing. I'll need to make a split binding to make use of a strip of the dark red for the binding.

I'm finding the Finish-A-Long helpful with keeping me focused on one project at a time, rather than getting side-tracked. I'm still looking at other fabrics and drawing blocks and quilts, as that is so much fun! Next week I'll be taking a 5-hour class on Improv Piecing which I'm very much looking forward to.

2016 Finish-A-Long List, First Quarter Goals

Oh my, how to choose. After pulling out about fifteen projects I had to scale back.

Clockwise from upper left:

Color block 16 Patch Charity quilt - quilt it, backing is ready, someone else will bind it.

Jelly Roll Race - top made last fall, needs quilting and binding. Backing ready.

Pinwheels quilt, top finished in 2015, needs quilting and binding. Aqua backing is on its way. 

Churn Dash Runner - rescue project, took apart problem blocks.

Scrappy Flannel - top finished January 9th, needs quilting and binding. Backing ready.

Stitch together a Bento Box quilt from a rescued jelly roll "gift" that was partially cut, sewn, wadded up and stuffed in in small bag. I un-stitched, pressed and cut sets already.
Christmas Chevron Table runner - cut, piece and quilt it.

Finish the remaining 4" pastel and bright basket blocks. I believe 100 sets were cut out several years ago. 40 are already finished, and the rest are in sets, with the basket handles already stitched down.

Friday Finishes

Small finishes this week - the second of two crochet charity scarves, several sets of quilt row pins, and four linen dish towels. After looking for reasonably-priced nice dish towels, some pretty linen/cotton blend at Fabric Depot caught my eye and I waited for a sale. The first towel convinced me that marking the mitre at the corners was worth the effort, and the next three were much quicker.

Thinking my new hem guide would keep me from burning my fingers, I found it was too small to be useful. My trusty Dritz metallic hem guide was more practical, and with the steam off made the first press, then pressed again with steam and without the guide for a crisp edge.

The quilt row pins were inspired by a photo on Pinterest. I tracked down reasonably priced floral pins at JoAnn's, and found number beads online. I did not pay attention to the fact that the "numbers" page did not include any zeros (they were on the "alphabet" page), and had to make a second order to be able to make a "ten" pin. It helped that both the pins and beads were discounted too. To fill out the order I have more snowflake frames.

The first few sets were fun, the next few not quite as much. I've learned to use a heavy hand with the glue, and check each pin before putting the sets into packages. Haven't used mine yet and gave a few sets away, so will see how successful they are. The beads came in varying quantities and I will make as many sets as I can. My other row markers are small squares of felt with machine embroidered numbers on them.

My goal this weekend is to make a list for the 2016 Finish-A-Long hosted by Debbie at A Quilter's Table and other bloggers. After looking at several other quilter's lists, I really like the idea of just focusing on goals for the first quarter of 2016, rather than listing all of my UFO's and PIM's.

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