Quilt-Along Progress - Blocks 4 and 5

I know it's been awhile since I last posted but I took some time off to spend time with my grandchildren who came to visit grandma and grandpa for a few weeks.

 

 

We learned how to ride our bike without training wheels... We're still working on watching where we're going instead of watching our feet.

 

 

We climbed our favorite tree with grandpa.

 

We swung and twirled on the tree swings grandpa put up.

 



 Grandpa taught Chuck how to operate the lawn tractor for the first time.

 

 

We helped grandpa make a couple of bird feeders.

 

 

We loved our time with them, but sadly, they had to go back home to get ready for school.

 

So, after a week for getting the house back in order and rest, I am back in my sewing room working on my Quilt-Along, hosted by Michele Foster with Quilting Gallery.

 

 

 

This is block number 4. I actually started on this block before the grandchildren arrived, but because I was struggling in my fabric selection, I didn't start cutting or sewing on it until after the kids left. I'm glad I took the time to choose the right fabric because I didn't want to lose the design.

 

This is block 5 of the Quilt-Along.  I love the floral on white background print. It has a whimsy to it.

Here is my mock-up thus far with the blocks I've completed. I like it and hope I can continue to select the right prints to connect all the blocks, since they're all different.

 

 

I still have a couple of blocks to complete before I'm caught up with the rest of the group who are on block 8 this week.

 

 

What's been happening with you?









Quilt-Along Progress - Block 3

I started working on block 3 of the quilt-along Sunday and had a portion of it assembled before I put it aside because of the heat. It is so hard for me to work when my hands are sticking to the ruler, causing it to shift every time I make a cut. I began working on my block again on Monday, early enough that the heat wouldn't create a problem.

 

 

The block consists of four pinwheel blocks separated by a narrow sashing. I've worked with half-square triangles many times before with minimal problems. But for some reason, I had issues with these pinwheels. I frog stitched. I restitched the seams. And I still had problems with the points on a couple of the pinwheel blocks. I began to feel like one of Kaye Wood's pointless people!

 

Generally, I don't pin my seams as I've found greater success in matching seams using just my hands. However, at this point I was willing to try anything. Failure. 

 

So, I frog stitched and restitched the seams and here is block 3 of the quilt-along:

 

 

 

My mother-in-law once told me I was the only one who saw my imperfections. Words of wisdom... She was right. We can be so hard on ourselves, unnecessarily at times.

 

 

This is my progress so far.  I think it will be a beautiful quilt once I'm finished. Next I will work on block 4 and if I finish it today, I'll be caught up with the group.

 

What's on your mind today?

 

 



Quilt-Along Progress

After finally making my way into town I was able to select a print to use as my background/contrast fabric in the quilt-along I'm participating in and I have been busy working on my blocks.



 

Here are the fabrics I selected from my resources for the blocks, but I didn't have a print with enough yardage that I could use for the background/contrast.

 

I knew I wanted to use black as the background/contrast fabric since I was using brights, but I didn't want a solid black, I wanted one with a subtle tone on tone design. As soon as I found this print, I knew it was the perfect one to highlight the all those bright colors.

 

 

 

I always prewash my fabrics to remove any sizing or chemicals from the factory before I begin working with them. After prewashing, I liberally applied spray starch to each print and allowed the fabric to dry before cutting. I use Best Press, unscented, because it doesn't flake or cause scorching like other starches do. By allowing the fabric to dry after applying the starch I have more body which gives me more control when I'm cutting my pieces and my iron doesn't gum up from the starch.

 

Because I had to go into town to purchase the background/contrast fabric, I wasn't able to begin working on the quilt-along when it began a couple of weeks ago. The group is on block four, so I have some catching up to do!

 

 

I cut the all of the pieces I needed from the background/contrast print, placed the pieces in baggies and labeled the baggies so I know at a glance what the contents are.

 

 

This is the first block in the quilt-along. I love how the star print adds movement to the block and I think the contrast between the three prints makes the pinwheel pop.

 

 

Here is my version of the second block. I LOVE the way the four prints work in this block. The whimsical floral print really adds a playfulness, I think.

 

I'm working on block three and hope to have it completed today. If I can complete block four, I'll have caught up with everyone else.

 

What have you been working on?

 

Birthday Swap Block - Joseph's Delight

Here is another block I've completed for the Birthday Swap I'm participating in.

This one is for my friend Deana and the block is called Joseph's Delight. It's a 12-inch block and she had requested it be made in burgundy or teal shades with a WOW background. I like the block and think it would be perfect in a scrappy quilt or perhaps batiks.

Well, the year is almost over and I'm finishing my final catch-up block. Afterwards I'll assemble the final block for this swap. Hard to believe the year has passed us by already. I'll be posting information on my next block in the next day or two. In the meantime, what are you working on? Anything special planned for the new year?

Another Birthday Swap Block

In my last post I mentioned I had been working on a couple of my blocks for the Birthday Swap I'm a participant on and I thought I'd share one of them with you today.

I'm a little behind on my blocks but I'm still creeping along in an effort to catch-up. I think everyone joins swaps with the best of intentions and don't anticipate the hiccups life throws in our directions...

My friend Billie wanted a block of trees in any size divisible by 3. I chose a paper-pieced pattern by Carol Doak from her book titled Three Hundred Paper-Pieced Quilt Blocks. I love Carol Doak's pattern because most of her books come with a CD of the patterns that you can dictate the size and print out on the appropriate medium. She also includes the cutting dimensions of each piece which you can use if you're using the original sized pattern.  Even though I'm a little late with these blocks, I'm hoping Billie with enjoy receiving them and using them in one of her projects.

If you're a little timid in using a paper-piece pattern, you can use my tutorial to guide you through the process. I know how frustrating it can be to learn a new technique and I was beyond frustration when I tried to teach myself how to paper-piece until my friend Diane sat down with me and taught me the basics. I'm forever thankful for her patience and teaching abilities because I now have the ability to enjoy incorporating this method into my quilting projects.

I'll be highlighting more of my Birthday Swap blocks soon. In the meantime, why don't you tell me what you're working on.

Peeking Out From Under Scraps

Gosh, I hadn't realized it had been this long since my last post. I've been so busy... Time sure does fly!

I was a little busy preparing for the Thanksgiving Holiday as the kids and grand kids were going to invade our quiet home. It is quite a job child-proofing a home. Then we had a miniature snowstorm the week of Thanksgiving putting everyone in high-gear before the day even arrived. I tried doing my shopping for our Thanksgiving meal and it was so crowded in the store I couldn't fit my grocery cart down the isles. Instead I had my husband stay with the cart at the end of each isle while I squeezed my way to find the items I needed. As we were shopping there was a small child expressing their unhappiness. Very loudly, I might add. I felt for the parents because I know how miserable children are when it's nap time. We survived the battle of the grocery stores. All the children and grandchildren arrived safely and we spent a few days playing games, making tons of food, and sharing laughter. I hope your holiday was as enjoyable as mine was.

Well, Thanksgiving isn't the only thing keeping me busy... I've spent countless hours in my sewing studio. I have some pictures to share and I'll start with this one today.

My grandson Elijah celebrated his 4th birthday on Thanksgiving. That is Elijah with his mom and friends at his party. We had his party a week before his birthday because he was celebrating his birthday in Disneyland this year. I made him a quilt for his birthday:

Here is the quilt prior to adding the borders.

Here is the finished quilt. He hasn't received it yet because I wasn't able to finish it before he left for Disneyland (All those darn power outages cut into my quilting time.), but he knows I have something special waiting for him.

The quilt design is called Warm Wishes and is available as a free pattern from Quiltmaker Magazine. It is such a simple pattern that goes together quickly. Perfect for someone wanting to make their first quilt or needing a quick gift. I finished it with freemotion quilting using a meandering design. I'm just not confident in my machine quilting skills to try anything more complex yet. In fact, the entire time I was quilting I kept hearing Obi-Wan Kanobi's voice in my head saying, "Don't cross the stream Luke! Let the Force be with you."

Have I lost it, or what? LOL

What is everyone else up to?

Another Finished Quilt Top...

I can't believe I've completed two quilt tops in two weeks. See what happens when I'm given a challenge? I guess all I needed was a good swift kick! LOL

I started with three prints. One yard of the molted orange/red, one yard of the floral, and one-half yard of the yellow. I then cut them into 5" squares, 48 squares for the orange/red and floral prints, and twelve of the yellow print.

I then stitched them into twelve nine patches. Following the same technique as in my earlier Disappearing Nine-Patch, I cut my nine-patches into four equal pieces, squared them into 7" squares and put them onto my design wall...

Using the same design layout I laid my blocks into the design; six blocks across and eight blocks down. Above is what it looked like after assembling.

I added two borders. The yellow border was cut 2" for a 1.5" finished border and the orange/red border was cut 6" for a 5.5" finished border.

Here is my finished quilt top. It is hard to believe this is the same pattern as my scrappy D9P quilt from last week. I'm calling this Citrus Splash because it makes me think of oranges, tangerines, and lemons.

Now, how should I quilt these two tops?

Challenge Blocks - December and January

I've gotten behind on my Challenge blocks and have been trying to catch-up. During our sew-in a couple of weeks ago, I managed to complete two of them.

My friend Judy selected Country Farm for December's challenge block. What should have been a relatively simple block to assemble turned out to be very frustrating and I had to redo it. The above picture is my second attempt. As you can tell, all of the intersecting seams match and I have an accurate 1/4" seam for assembling the blocks together.

This is my first attempt. What a mess! The center four-patch didn't lay flat and was very puffy, some of the intersecting seams didn't quite match, and I was missing the 1/4" seam allowance for assembling to other blocks.

Initially, I had planned to assemble this block during January's sew-in and cut the pieces out a day or two prior to our scheduled sew-in. However, my MIL was hospitalized and I wasn't able to attend our sew-in causing the block to sit for a couple of months. My guess is in my rush to prepare everything for our sew-in, I accidentally cut some of the block pieces inaccurately because it went together quite quickly the second time around. Once I completed the redo of this block, I really like it and will probably use it again.

My friend Billie selected Quatrefoils for January's challenge block. This block went together very quilter since I had made it a couple of months ago for one of my friends in our Birthday Block Swap. While assembling this block, I really struggled on my fabric choices. I swapped the colors from the initial pattern, using light for dark and vice versa. When I was playing around with my layout choices I happened to change my color choices and almost switched the dark blue corner squares with the lighter lavender print. It would change the appearance of the block completely, but I really liked it. I'm probably going to do another one of this block with that layout to see how it would look assembled.

Two down and three more to go! What are you working on?

Signature Block Swap

I received my Signature Block Swap swap-out on Saturday:

I think all of the participants did a fabulous job on their blocks. Initially, we had ten people sign up for the swap but one person didn't complete her obligation so I only have nine blocks. I'll have to play around with the layout to see what I'm going to do with them.

What are you working on?

Join Me For Some Eye Candy?

I spent all day Saturday visiting with a group of friends while sewing, laughing, eating, and laughing some more. There is nothing better than spending the day with friends.

Each month we have a potluck based on a theme of which I'm the coordinator of. This month I chose a theme based on the movie Steel Magnolias and the character's band of friendship. We had Po'k and Beans, Potato Salad, Biscuits and Gravy, Deviled Eggs, Iced Tea, Cookies, Ham and/or Roast Beef Sandwiches, and BBQ Smokies and Meatballs. Yummo!

Aside from the laughs and food that we all share, one of my favorite events at our sew-ins is show 'n tell. Who can walk away from eye candy?

This quilt was made by my friend Diane while participating in a mystery challenge and quilted by my friend Jo Ann's husband Larry. It is made from gorgeous Batiks and the feathers Larry quilted really showcase the quilt's design. Spectacular quilt!

This was created by my friend Joy. She does some of the best appliqued quilts I've seen. I know many quilters who have cats and I'm sure each of them can relate to the four cats depicted in this quilt. LOL

Here is another quilt created by Joy. If I remember correctly, she made it for a local library and the one above is a duplicate of what she gave to the library. I just love the alligator dancing on top of the books while playing the saxophone. If you look closely, you can see the ladybugs crawling along the vine around the alligator. Precious!

While we were at the sew-in, Joy was working on this clock. It is part of a Baltimore Album quilt she's working on. Isn't her work beautiful?

My friend Vicki makes a lot of humanitarian quilts and does beautiful work. She is also an expert at applique. This quilt pattern is called Yellow Brick Road and is very popular among quilters who donate their quilts. I love the bright fabrics Vicki used.

Here is another humanitarian quilt assembled by Vicki using the Yellow Brick Road pattern but with different fabrics. This would make a cute baby quilt, don't you think?

Vicki made this quilt in celebration of our annual Tulip Festival. She did a great job creating a scene of our tulips fields during the festival.

Here is another quilt created by Vicki. I love this wall hanging. A couple of us tried to convince her to donate this to us, but she wasn't falling for it.

One of our group challenges this year is a Round Robin challenge based on a Christmas Carol. The challenge was set for 6 months where each month we are given a set of instructions and we all carry out those instructions by working on our own quilts. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I am behind on my challenge quilt and am only on challenge one...

This one is Daisy's Round Robin challenge. The first part of our challenge was to create a 22 1/2" block based on a Christmas Carol. Daisy chose Let It Snow, Let It Snow. The second challenge was to add a 2 1/2" border, followed by the third challenge of setting the block on point by adding corners. Our fourth challenge was to add a 4 1/2" pieced border (if I remember correctly), and the fifth challenge is to set the block on point again by adding corners. Our sixth challenge is to add a 6 1/2" border.

Here is a close-up of Daisy's initial block and pieced border. I think she has done a fantastic job.

This one is my friend's Jo's Round Robin Challenge. Hers is based on the Christmas Carol 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.

Jo did a lot of beautiful embellishments on her challenge quilt. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't really showcase it. Jo is another one who's applique skills are what I term as expert.

I had to take a close-up of her border to showcase her beautiful work. She chose a real creative way to continue her Christmas Carol theme into the outer borders by adding additional applique.

Not bad for a Saturday afternoon... What did you do?