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:

Quilts Flying Out the Door

Packing our house for a move prompted me to document ALL of the finished quilts stored in various places. I tagged the ones that wanted new homes and talked to friends, relatives and neighbors.

Six quilts given away on one day felt great! My friend Patty loves and uses my quilts, and took some as gifts: Aqua Tumblers, Flower Baskets (a group quilt, red flowers), Love All Around, Purple/Blue Hourglass (pattern test), Diabolical Jane and Purple 1-Patch Wonder.

A young neighbor was offered Cake Stand, a quilt made from 1930's reproductions in 2000, or at least it was quilted then. It had never been used. She spied a smaller lap quilt - the Jelly Roll Race and took that too.

Another neighbor chose Scrap Vortex, a recent finish: twelve 12" blocks from a great tutorial at Crazymomquilts.blogspot.com. She also took Diamond Box - all blues and greys with spiral quilting - she is from Alaska and it does make you think of glaciers.

Scrap Vortex, 48" x 36"

A cousin took Ocean Waves, another group quilt with various blue and blue-green blocks and pale blue kona as the background, and Hourglass , with blue, green and light yellow blocks with curved quilting in each hourglass. One of the fabrics had little recycle symbols on it.

Red Charity Strings,quilted with wavy lines, binding finished by a friend this summer. Layout wasn't the original plan, lesson learned. It's still cozy and includes a piece backing of 6 1/2" strips - full WOF + half WOF . And yet, the red fabric bin is still STUFFED.

Red Charity Strings, 80" x 60"

E's Purple Quilt, quilted with Square Spirals, made this summer for a family member..

Purple Log Cabin, 85" x 72"

2018 Finishes to Date

Projects have been chugging along the last many months, and I'm trying to find a way to 

track them that is most useful to me. I've made a board on Pinterest, photo and project 

notes together is great.

I keep a Word document going with projects in progress, waiting to start, UFO's sitting 

and the finishes too.

Here are the projects finished since the cute Petit Four Baskets (which get a lot of use):

   

Improv batiks baby (quarter log cabin)

Flannel center rails  40” x 40”

Double-square star charity twin red/tan/gold reproductions

Modern Puzzle, “pie making day” fabrics + grey chevron charity twin

Recycled quilt dog blanket - fabric purchased for a jacket covering a quilt made with recycled fabrics - too ugly to even donate. The puppy loves it.

Jagger Unicorn wall hanging

Strip Scrap baby quilt – pie making day leftovers

Great Granny baby quilt

Bricks charity twin - using up a quilt kit in a very simple design

Leather chair seat cover

E’s purple twin quilt, log cabin on point

Red strings squared charity twin

Scrap Vortex wall/baby

Diabolical Jane - a fun construction

Hourglass + garden print - charity twin

Jagger

Modern Puzzle

Flannel Center Rails Baby

Bricks Rainbow

Diabolical Jane

My sewing room and quilt studio are being organized and combined, as I'm closing my quilting business and moving to a new house soon. 

Petit Four Baskets

A small project that had been on my list for several months was to make more Petit Four Baskets from a Fat Quarter Shop tutorial: it's a video only tutorial, but short and easy to write down the instructions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MMs2Tv4Eag

I liked the first basket that I made last summer, but found that a fabric lined thread catcher is difficult to empty, as the thread sticks to the fabric lining.

Petit Four Baskets, 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" x 2 1/2"

These are two different versions: one using marine vinyl as the lining, and the others with oilcloth as the lining. They were very difficult to turn – could have used a much larger opening, and one of the oilcloth versions tore right through the stitching near the opening. Then the next problem – how to stitch them closed? Solution – double stick tape. So far they are holding up well, and easy to empty.

Catch Up

I'm using Word to keep an ongoing list of my projects in progress, and it is working very well. Each project has the individual steps listed after it - i.e. piece, cut, sew blocks, etc., and I cross them off with strike-through. When a project is finished, it goes to the bottom of the list under the "Finished" heading. There is a separate section for "Not Yet Started" so things don't disappear into the back of the cupboard. Ideas for new projects are in a separate document.

The Wedding Kaleidoscope quilt has been gifted; it was well-received, and I was thanked again multiple times on Christmas Eve.

Turquoise Strippy, twin

Turquoise Strippy has been finished and gifted. I so enjoyed using up scraps, and especially that it was given to neighbors who love quilts and love the scrappiness.

Birds Column, lap

Birds Column quilt – a quick “stash challenge” quilt is finished (photo). Several quilters who saw it in the studio were surprised and delighted by it, saying they never would have thought of it. The subtle color sparks pulled it together (citron yellow and deep red.) I gifted it to a quilting friend and she was delighted (she had given me the grey birds fabric.)

Batik Improv Logs, 44.5" x 38.5"

Batik Quarter Log Cabin came together quickly. It was surprising how close in size the improv blocks ended up before trimming, as nothing was measured – some fabric was randomly cut into strips while the main part was from scraps used as is.
 
Flannel Rail Fence just needs binding, as does the twin charity Double Square Star from reproductions.

My Quilt Inventory Project has been enlightening. I’ve inventoried all quilts in the house, including small wall hangings, and have listed where they are, what the intended use is, etc.  There are a couple of quilts that I don’t remember making, but do recognize my fabric. It’s helping me repurpose some of them as gifts or donations to charity. Within a week of completing the list, 8 quilts wen to new homes (4 as gifts, 4 to charity.) Several more have found new homes with quilt lovers. I don't have any un-quilted tops.

Charity knitting – mitts and cowls were my November/December projects. Currently I’m knitting a fingering scarf for my SIL in my new favorite, designed by me garter and slip stitch reversible pattern.

Charity burp cloths are ongoing. Several were donated and since then over a dozen new ones finished. I’m treating them as mini quilts, using leftovers and some larger pieces of fabric that work together. Cotton batting scraps were pieced – double stash buster. I’m quilting them on a domestic machine and serging the edges.