Design Wall Monday

I didn't get near as much sewing done as I had hoped this weekend, but that's ok.

I did finish the Four Winds quit top, and boy is it big. I say that I finished it, but I'm actually thinking about adding a small border of the background fabric around the entire quilt because I'm afraid that if I don't do that, I'll lose the points of the flying geese around the edges. I have enough fabric to do it, so that's not a problem. The problem is that I really want to be done with this and think about the quilting. 😊

I can't get a better picture right now because it's too big for the design wall and it's snowing outside. I think you get the idea, though.

While working on sewing the Four Winds, I was sewing another set of blocks. I cut a layer cake into four wonky segments and am randomly sewing the pieces back together. This is just 16 of the 42 blocks and I just threw them up on the wall to take a picture.

They have not been trimmed yet or rotated in any specific order. I'm kind of thinking about adding a small black sashing between the blocks to make them look like stained glass windows. I'll make that decision after I have all the blocks done.

I love the colors in this!

Since I always like to be working on multiple projects and use the leader and ender concept (Ok, in reality that just means I have ADHD and need to jump around between lots of projects. There! I've admitted it publicly.), I was working on a pattern called Precious Gem.

For this pattern, you cut a layer cake into 84 - 5" x 10" units. You then add a square to one corner of each of the units (It must always be added to the same corner.) and then trim off the corner. I thought it was wasteful to throw away the trimmed off corner, so I sewed a seam 1/2" away from the original seam line. By doing that, I will end up with 84 - 3 1/2" finished half square triangles. Do I know what I'll do with them? No, but how could I waste that?  😍  

Here are a few pictures of what I did. I'm using a layer cake from The Sweet Life by Pat Sloan and think this is going to be pretty cute.

What are you working on this fine Monday?

Check out Judy's Patchwork Times

and

Beth's Monday Making

Design Wall Monday

I was busy this weekend and didn't get pictures of any of the quilts I recently blogged about. Of course it's raining, so it isn't going to happen right now either. Darn it!

I guess I'll just hang them on the design and get pictures that way....after I take down what's up there now!  :-)

I've just been throwing the giant flying geese blocks up (8" x 16") on the wall as I complete them. This is not the order they will be in the final quilt. That will be decided when I complete the other 24 blocks.

The pattern is called Four Winds and the designer is Amber Corcoran of Fancy Tiger Crafts. 

I love flying geese and Kaffe Fassett fabrics, so I've married the two and am making a quilt for our bed. I'm making the queen/king version and can't wait to see it complete.

These flying geese on steroids are made using the no-waste method and are constructed four at a time. It's quick, easy, and accurate! I've only spent a couple of hours on this (including my cutting) and the last 24 blocks are almost done. I just need to make the final cut, press, and trim off dog ears.

I think this will be a nice summer quilt for us!

What are you working on today?

Check out Judy L's Patchwork Times

and

Beth's Monday Making

Don't Settle!

I finished a quilt top and hung it on the design wall yesterday, but something wasn't quite right with the borders. I decided to leave the quilt up on the wall overnight and look at it with fresh eyes in the morning. (Sorry, I can't show the top yet, but I used an Allison Glass layer cake of Sun Prints and I love it.)

When I woke up and looked at the quilt, I knew I just could not settle for the border the way it was. I had put plain cornerstones in and they just did not work! So, I spent some quality time with my seam ripper and took out all four cornerstones.

I really didn't mind doing this and it didn't take very long.

Here's the block I used to replace the plain cornerstone. So much better!

I'm hoping to quilt this up pretty quickly and I'll soon post completed pictures.

I'm working on a couple of other projects too and I'm close to having completed quilt tops for two more projects. WooHoo! I know that it doesn't seem like I got a lot done because I don't have pictures, but I really have been productive and I'm happy with the results.

I hope to get things quilted this weekend so I'll be able to work on binding early next week. I really enjoy the binding process, so I'm looking forward to that. I still have the two nine patch quilts from earlier this week to quilt too. Man, I sure am getting behind. I better get busy.  😀

I'm hooking up to

Sarah's Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Whoop! Whoop! Friday

Borders Are on the Quilts

I've been trying to get a picture of the two completed Nine Patch Block quilt tops and the weather has just not been cooperating. It stopped raining for a little while this afternoon and I took advantage of that. Here are the two quilts, side by side.

 These quilts are identical except for the block layouts. I know it's hard to see, but I used a strip border that is so fun and completes the quilts perfectly! I was going to miter the corners, but I really did not like how that looked after I did one corner. I opted for cornerstones instead and I'm very happy with the results.

I'll try to get better pictures soon, but may just wait until these are quilted and bound.

Please do not judge me because there are unraked leaved in this picture. Sometimes you just have to set priorities and the leaves NEVER end up the winner when that happens. 😉

I'm working on a couple of other quilts, including the Disappearing Nine Patch that I've been using for a leader and ender project. I'm ready to re-sew the blocks together so that's moving right along.

I've got a couple of projects that I need to complete for orders or class samples, so those are heading to the front of the line and will take priority for a little bit.

I hope your week is productive.

Check out other quilters' design walls.

Judy L's Patchwork Times

and

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday

There was a change in the order that I worked on projects this past weekend. I was going to use the rag quilt as a leader and ender project, but because of the size of blocks I used and the fact that I would have had to change the thread each time I sewed one of these, it was going to a pain. So I just made the rag quilt by itself. Here it is after the first washing.

I always wash these at least two times (usually three times) before giving them away. After the first washing, I trim off long loose threads, clean up the back (which always has lots of stray threads on it when I use flannel instead of homespuns), and check for any seams that may have accidentally been snipped open.

I like the rectangular blocks. Besides being much quicker to make, I just like how it looks. I often quilt something other than just an X through the rectangles, but this time that's all I did.

I always add an extra couple strips of fabric to the outside edge to all my rag quilts. (This time I chose a light-colored piece of homespun to frame the quilt. I think it looks like a binding, which I like.) Without doing that, I feel like the edge is too raggedy looking. All other seams have four pieces of fabric coming together to create a nice thick, chenille-like finish. On the outside (without my additional trim), there would only be two, and I think it would look "thin" and cheap.

After shrinking up, this quilt measures about 62" x 80". 

I'm back to working on the Disappearing Nine Patch and finding suitable borders for the scrappy Nine Patch quilts I showed in previous posts.

What are you working on today?

Check out Judy L's Patchwork Times

and

Monday Making

Two Quilts!

One simple block, made 64 times, and I've got the insides of two quilts completed. Here's the simple, scrappy nine patch block, snowballed which makes it end up on point.

This is simple to make, especially if you are using left over jelly roll strips, or 2 1/2" stash strips. I had a variety of strips left over from a jelly roll (I can't remember the name!), as well as some "kid-friendly" scraps from fat quarters. I cut all of my strips 2 1/2" x 22" and made strip sets. I thought that would be quicker than working with all 2 1/2" squares, but provide a bit more variety than working with 42" strips. Because I wanted to use all the fabric scraps, I made a total of 24 strip sets and then cut them into a total of 192 - 2 1/2" segments, which resulted in 64 - Nine Patch blocks.

I added triangles to each block (snowballed the blocks) and after trimming, the blocks measured 9", unfinished. I showed this step HERE and HERE. 

I used 30 blocks for this straight layout.

I used 33 blocks for this staggered layout.

I've decided to add a small floating border of the black to both quilts and then begin the stash search for outside borders. Right now, both quilts measure about 42" x 51" and I'm thinking about adding a 2" floating border. That's only because all the squares measure 2" finished; and because if I do that, I will use up most of the black fabric. The little bit that is left will be cut and put into the strip bins that I've started. It sure feels good to have made these entirely from stash. Yippee!! 

I've still been working on the Disappearing Nine Patch blocks. Here's the progress of that so far.

Pretty soon, this will be the "main" project and I'll be starting a new leader and ender. It just so happens that I'm ready for that. 😄

I want to make a quick rag quilt for a mid-January birthday gift and I've pulled the fabrics. These are cut and ready to sew. I even have the batting ready, but that isn't pictured here. I'm using rectangles instead of squares, just because I wanted something a little different. I'll post pictures of this as I start working on it.

Enjoy your weekend! It's cold here and I plan to spend a good amount of time hanging out by the sewing machine. I hope you get that opportunity as well.

Press and Trim, Press and Trim...

I didn't get done exactly what I had planned yesterday, but I did do something.

I had planned to sew the remaining two sides to the first 32 nine patch blocks yesterday and perhaps get them pressed and trimmed. I DID get them sewn, but no pressing or trimming was done.

Instead, I sewed the first two sides to the remaining 32 blocks.

I'm going to be at the ironing board and cutting area for a while today. :-)

Progress

I got a bit of sewing in this morning and I'm pleased with my progress. As I said yesterday, I'm not sure if I'm going to make one large quilt or two smaller ones , but I'm leaning towards making two. Because of that, I needed to have enough triangle fabric for all 64 blocks and this black mottled fabric is what I had.  I had enough white also, but thought about the fact that that would be A LOT of white fabric which is often nothing more than a dirt magnet for a toddlers' quilt.   :-)  

All of the 9 Patch blocks are made and half of them are at this stage.

I know enough about myself to know that I need to see progress so I've split the 64 - 9 Patch blocks in two groups of 32 each.

I'll trim them all tonight and should have enough time to sew the side triangles too.

Of course I had to complete one block!

I have the other 32 blocks ready to go.

And I'm still sewing the Disappearing 9 Patch blocks as leaders and enders.

I love progress and can't wait to start laying out the blocks.

New Year!

My blogging hiatus is over and the New Year is starting out beautifully.

I am not a resolution-making kind of gal, but I do like to make goals, especially quilting goals. I may (and frequently do) change those goals, but I still tend to make them. I have ten people for whom I want to make a Quilt of Valor in 2017. I do not have to have these done until November, but I would like to get a head start on them because I know others will be needed as well. With that in mind, I have two of those quilts in the binding stage and one that is ready for quilting.

 

I also have two quilts in the piecing stage - not QOVs. I'm using the leader/ender method of piecing them, and I know that I'm going to love both of these quilts. There might actually be three quilts here. I have enough of the one set of blocks to create one large quilt or two smaller ones. I'm leaning more toward the two smaller ones because all of these quilts are intended for donation.

The scrappy nine patch blocks that I'm piecing are going to be used in a variation of Pat Sloan's Stitched pattern. It's these blocks that I've made extra.  

In the first picture you can see the two 5" charm squares being sewn together. Those are part of a Disappearing Nine Patch quilt that features the Monkey Tales fabric line. It's going to be pretty darn cute!

What are you working on today?

Check out Judy L's Patchwork Times

and

Monday Making