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.

The Wedding Quilt

Wedding Kaleidoscope, 99" x 99"

The small kaleidoscope "tester" quilt came about when I decided to use the same pattern for a queen-sized wedding quilt for my niece. A box of fabrics had been waiting to become a kadeidoscope, so it made sense to test the pattern on a smaller scale before tackling the large quilt.

 

The small quilt in the previous post has 8" blocks, and the queen-sized quilt has 11" blocks.

Close up of quilting, 11" blocks

The colors were my Niece's request, and about half came from my stash, including the mauve shot cotton, the white swirling background, and the navy. The only real problem with pieceing was my choice of a homespun fabric for the corners in the alternate blocks--it shredded like crazy. If I use a homespun again, it will be fused to an interfacing if loose threads show through other fabrics.


Electric Quilt coloring

Post 100 - Ten Things

Kaleidoscope Tester Wallhanging, 41" x 41"

Ten things I’m liking right now:

1.  The folded fabric drawers in my sewing room, thanks to my son who gifted me hours of “slave labor”, and chose folding fabric over yard work. Still a few drawers full to fold!

2.  Using up accumulated strings in quilts. I’m working on my third quilt with strings grouped by color.

3.  Quilt Ship online community (www.quiltship.com) – just getting started, will use it differently than Ravelry (there is no way I’m going to inventory my fabric!)

4.  Finding new ways to use tools already on hand, especially rulers.

5.  Modern Quilt Guild, I joined the national group for the resources, including Fresh Quilting and webinars online. The webinar Who Gives a Flying FQ About Accuracy? By Krista Hennebury is very good.

6.  Using different techniques to get a better result - i.e. pinning differently to get more accurate seam intersections.

7.  Time off from work. A longer break (month of September) was very nice.

8.  Sharing techniques one on one with quilters. Had a fun day with Jennifer discussing string block options and cutting up her strings and adding some of mine.

9.  Being a resource – when a friend mentioned a “little line of fuzz” after changing her rotary cutter blade, I remembered a tip to check for 2 blades loaded instead of 1, and though she was skeptical, that was the fix.

10.  Color – the brighter the better. I'm enjoying the projects and the results.

 

Finishes

The Strippy Stars quilt is quilted and bound. Lesson learned: if a piece of fabric seems too flimsy, just throw it away rather than using it because it's a good color.

Strippy Stars Twin

One hourglass charity quilt is finished. A friend brought me several backings for charity quilts, and one piece was enough for binding too.  The second top is quilted and just needs binding.


Charity Hourglass Twin

 Two doll-sized quilts are finished, including a hand-finished binding. It was the first quilting attempt on the Juki, and I was very pleased at how they came out, no puckers and just pin-basted.

Doll Quilts

A queen-sized kaleidoscope quilt is in the planning stages, some fabric purchased for it, some coming from stash. This is to be a wedding quilt for my Niece, and she had some specific color choices that were not on hand.

A tester-sized kaleidoscope is in progress, using the fabrics already sitting in a box for this pattern.  Half the blocks were finished at retreat two weeks ago. I'm adjusting the cutting of the pieces to have a bit extra for security in the center seam. I'm glad that I pushed to start this before the wedding quilt. The Eleanor Burns book has good tips for cutting, piecing and pressing, but I was annoyed that it only has one size for all the quilts, while the ruler can be used for multiple sizes.


Kaleidoscope 8" Blocks

WIP Thursday

The Yellow Strippy Stars twin-sized charity quilt is loaded on the machine for quilting. It was interesting to work with a striped fabric in the background, a soft yellow and cream. The star centers are 6" string blocks, and alternating blocks have points made with my sashing stars ruler. The background fabric was so short that the outer borders are narrower and 4" pieced corner blocks were needed.

Yello Strippy Stars flimsy, 60.5" x 85"

Four flannel burp cloths for charity have been strip-pieced, now need to find backing fabric and quilt them.

Two hourglass charity twin-sized quilts are being pieced. The starting point was a kit for a wallhanging (10 FQ/s?) and a few more FQs. As the triangles were being cut out, it became clear that for better contrast some lights were needed. Stash diving yielded quite a mix of fabrics. Adding alternate plain blocks pushed the project to be two quilts, also making block intersections less lumpy.

Finished Sunday - 4 baby bibs, and the new Dritz snap tool worked great. Interfacing on both layers make them secure. The bibs are backed with a lightweight terrycloth, and my usual velcro tabs would have stuck to it in the wrong places. Velco tabs are fussy to stitch, and the next batch of charity bibs should use them up.

Little Baskets - Embrace the Rainbow

If I had to guess, Little Baskets was started 4-5 years ago. 100 block sets were cut with a die cutter from pastels and some white. It was worked on at home and at a retreat, and then the reality of what to do with 100 4.5" blocks left me stymied.

It has been sitting in a box with only a note that 40 blocks were finished. When trying to decide on a pattern for a friend's upcoming grandchild, I took another look at the pieces. All of the basket handles of the 100 blocks were finished. A piece of white polka-dot fabric with multiple colored dots was in the box. After conferring with several friends with grandchildren and/or baby quilt making experience, I decided to set the blocks with an alternate square of the polka-dot fabric, making a larger quilt. A backing fabric from stash was pulled--checkers with almost matching colored squares to the polka-dot fabric (a completely different fabric line.)

Little Baskets, 67.5" x 58" Quilted with Snapdragons

I did end up making several more baskets of red fabrics, as there weren't any but the background dots and backing fabric both had some soft red. Overall I'm happy with the colors, though if I were to make the quilt today it would look much different.

Backing and corner close-up

A rainbow color layout made sense, rather than scrambling all the colors. It's my first rainbow layout, and I can see doing it again, perhaps with more planning next time.

This project also taught me to keep better notes when sewing a fussy design. The little handles are sewn down by machine on one side, and the template was still with the pattern, but to get a nice smooth curve, the bottom end of the bias strip just barely goes over the seam line. It's now on a note with the die cutter.