The Christmas in July Blog Hop is over, but there's still time to check out all the great projects and enter the giveaway. 

Hop on over HERE for your chance to win some beautiful fabric.

The giveaway is over 

That was so much fun! Thanks again, Sarah.  

For the hop, I made a simple quilt that my husband dubbed "Log Cabin Ground Floor" using Jingle Pops by Hoffman.   

I liked everything about this quilt - from the fact that it was made with pre-cut 2 1/2" strips, to the ease of construction. It really was simple and quick and I decided that I wanted to make a second version using a Roll-Up I had called Sunshine Garden by Darlene Zimmerman for Robert Kaufman. 

Isn't this pretty? I've had this package for quite some time, just like the Christmas fabric, and I decided it was time to use it.

I also decided that I wanted to make this version without the optional border, which means that it will finish approximately 58" x 66". I have to admit that my decision was made mostly because this is an older line of fabric and I don't have anything in my stash that would work for a border.  :-) 

Can you tell that I like taking pictures of quilts from the side.  lol 

Here's another view. See, the side view is so much better! I have not quilted this yet, so it looks a little wonky, but it really isn't. 

I love these fabrics! They are so fresh looking. When my husband saw this quilt, he decided that it needed another name. He thinks it looks like a secret garden, so that's the name - Secret Garden. I like it! 

It's difficult to see in the pictures, but my block centers and sashing are a light green color, not white. I used Hoffman Fabrics' 1895 Hand Dyed #522 Sea Grass, and I think it works perfectly. 

I'll most likely quilt this with a light green thread too. Speaking of quilting, I hope to get this one done soon and plan to quilt it with some sort of flower motif.  

Whew! It sure does feel good to use some of my pre-cut stash!

Happy Results

I am working on updating some information and samples for a strips workshop that I'm presenting next weekend, so I sat down to do some sketching and a little math. 

Yep! I did the math - all by myself! 

A little background is in order here. I am the first to admit that math is not my strongest asset by any means, but I don't completely shy away from it either. I use the basics a lot when quilting, especially when I'm designing a quilt or resizing a pattern. Of course, it helps that I am married to a man who we affectionately call "The Human Calculator." He is always willing to help me when I get stuck. He really enjoys messing around with math and is very good at it. As a matter of fact, for the past five or six years he has tutored a number of junior and senior high school students in a variety of math disciplines including Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry. He loves doing that and the students like him and they learn. It's a win-win situation! 

So back to my project...

For the workshop, one of the first things I am going to show is how to take the basic Jelly Roll Race quilt and adjust it to make a variety of sizes. We won't be adding borders; but rather, we'll be doing the math to figure out how many strips are needed to make a quilt the desired size. Easy Peasy! 

Doing this got me thinking about how I might be able to change the quilt's design and not just the size. While I like the fact that a Jelly Roll Race quilt can be done very quickly, I don't always love the resulting look. Sometimes I think it just looks too choppy and not very pleasing. I really want to come up with a better way to either place the strips, cut them, or something. Anything!

I had some 2.5" strips that I didn't really love and I decided to use them for the test. After doing the math and crossing my fingers for luck, I cut 10 print strips and 10 solid-reading fabrics in half. I then sewed the strips together, alternating a print with a solid-reading strip. I ended up with one very long 2.5" strip. I cut the strip into equal lengths (36.5" because that's how wide I wanted my quilt top to be), and then I did the happy dance because my math worked - for the most part! 

I'll have to make a few tweaks when I sew the rows togethers so the solids match up correctly (see the middle rows), but that can easily be done. Doing this will result in the quilt being a bit smaller than 36", but I'm ok with that. (I realize that this happened because I did not verify that all of my starting strips were the same length before sewing. Lesson learned!)

I'm happy with this and will make a "real" version of it using fabrics that I really like.

I love it when a plan works!

Design Wall Monday and The Sewing Revolution!

I'm later than normal to get this posted, but at least it's still Monday.  😋

I had other things on my design wall and even more planned to go up today, but I got a call last night from a very good friend who asked if I had a masculine-looking quilt that is predominately either blue or brown and very simple in design for sale. We talked a bit more and I found out that her father is quite ill; and, in her words "will soon begin his final journey." She is an only child and her mother passed away two years ago. My heart is breaking for her!  

She will be heading home to Oregon on Wednesday evening and would like to take the quilt with her if at all possible. If you know me or read my blog for any length of time, you know that I will do anything to make that possible! And she will NOT pay for this. No way!

I started to look at my quilts and was just not feeling that anything was right. So, instead of sending along a random quilt that I've made with no specific purpose, I pulled some jelly roll strips and sewed this together. These strips are from a pack that I raided a year or so ago to get specific fabrics. I can't remember what line it though, which makes me sad because I'd like to give credit where credit is due. 

I sent a picture to my friend this morning and she thought it would be perfect. Her dad spent most of his career working as an engineer and loved straight-forward and linear designs. And, he has always loved blues and browns together. I was so happy that I had these fabrics! 

Yes, it's very simple, but I think it's perfect. I'll quilt it this afternoon and hopefully get the binding on tonight. My goal is to deliver it to her tomorrow evening so she can concentrate on other things.

I have always felt that quilts are very powerful objects. I was once told that a quilt is a fabric hug from the maker, and I couldn't agree more. Not only can quilts be therapeutic for the receiver, but for the giver as well. I spent a lot of time "talking" to my friend and her dad while piecing this last night, and I'll continue to do so during the quilting and binding stages.

Here's the backing fabric I chose.

I'll take pictures when it's complete and post them. 

Be sure to stop back tomorrow because I'll be posting pictures of my two Wayward Transparency quilts. 

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Since I've been talking about giving, I want to tell you about something in which I'm involved and hope you get involved as well. 

Scott Fortunoff, president of Jaftex has been giving away free sewing machines. He is working very hard to get, what he calls The Sewing Revolution rolling big time. As of Saturday night, 72 new machines have been given away and there are more available.

Seriously people! There is no catch to this.

Scott recorded this short video back in Sept. when he started the giveaway; and it's worth watching to help understand the purpose of the giveaway and what you need to do if you want to try for a machine. 

Check out his blog post today to learn even more about this. 

Get involved and be a part of this movement!

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Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Go to Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

and

Beth's Monday Making

Two Quilts at the Same Time

I love it when I can be really productive!

I've finished the 80 blocks for the QOV project I started working on Sunday, and I've sewn them into rows. The rows are paired up and sewn, so I just have four more seams and this will be ready for quilting. Yay!!

I really like how this has turned out; and I am really happy to have been able to use a lot of scraps to make this quilt. The blocks finish 8" and the layout is 8 x 10, so they finished quilt will be 64" x 80". Perfect for a QOV!

I will make this quilt again, using strips and scraps as originally planned. Check out Monday's post HERE to see how the blocks will be pieced differently and the layout will change.  

I have to get my husband, the official "quilt namer" thinking about what to call this quilt. I have a few ideas, but he always comes up with some winners. 

While I was finishing up these blocks and sewing the rows, I was piecing some blocks for another Flying Horse Camp quilt. I love to chain piece when I can and it worked out perfectly to be sewing blocks into rows at the same time I was making new blocks.

I have six of the 30 blocks pieced for the next quilt! Yippee!

Check back tomorrow when I share details about the dinner I had Monday night with a couple of really fun people.

Design Wall Monday

Do you remember this pile of strip sets from last week's post?

I used two jelly rolls - Horizon and Dot. Dot. Dash! These fabrics are so bright and fun and they went together beautifully.

 

After the ten strip sets were sewn, I cut each one into 2 - 16 1/2" squares and cut them each once on the diagonal, thus creating four "strip triangles" from each of the original strip set. The remaining 10" of the strip sets were put aside for later.

 

I played around with the triangles until I came up with a design I liked.

 

 

This quilt is so bright and cheery! I have to check out my stash to see what I have for backing, but I think I'm going to look for a variety of fabrics and piece it. I kind of envision this being a reversible quilt.  :-) I haven't even thought about binding yet, but I often don't do that until the quilting is done anyway, so I have plenty of time.

 

I had a few issues when I was sewing the triangles together. In order for the horizontal strips to line up correctly, I had to carefully align and pin the triangles and then be sure to sew an accurate 1/4" seam allowance. I found that my pinning wasn't always correct so I used my seam ripper quite a bit when I first started putting blocks together.

 

I finally figured out a system that worked for me and I'll share the process and pictures tomorrow for Tip Tuesday! (Yes, that's right. I'll actually be posting a Tip Tuesday! this week.)

 

Remember that 10" of each of the strip sets that were put aside earlier? I cut each one into 4 1/2" segments and then sewed them together to make this baby quilt.

 

 

I think it is adorable! It measures approximately 32" x 40" which I think is a decent size.

 

What's on your design wall today?

 

Check out what other quilters are working on by going to

 

Judy L's Patchwork Times

 

or

 

Monday Making

 



Design Wall Monday

My goal is to post at least a couple of times this week and since I have something on the wall, I'll start with design wall Monday. Yeah! 

This is one of the 2.5" strip quilts on which I've been working. It's a variation of my Framed Rectangles quilt. I love how versatile this pattern is!

This quilt went together very quickly because I made it using strip sets. The print fabric is Just My Type and I've used that for a few other quilts as well. Remember my version of Sparkling Gemstones? These two quilts have the same print fabrics, but look very different. I like them both!  :-)

The roll on had 25 strips in it, but since the quilt only needed 18 strips, it was perfect. The remaining 7 strips will be my binding. (I love it when the math works out perfectly the first time!)

To get more of a variety, I cut each 2.5" strip in half and then made 6 strip sets that included three print strips and two black strips, and 6 sets that consisted of three print strips and two grey strips. After sub-cutting each strip set into three rectangles that measured 6.5" x 10.5". I then added the corresponding black or grey strips to complete the blocks. Easy Peasy!

There was one extra grey block, but since I wasn't sure how I was going to lay this out, I decided to make equal amounts of the blocks and make my decision after laying them out. As you can see, I opted for the 18 black blocks and 17 grey. I thought it created a better balance to have the four corners be black. I am very please with this so far.

I have the backing ready. I'm using the same backing I did for the Sparkling Gemstones, but since this quilt is larger and I had to piece it, I simply added a black strip of fabric down one side. I forgot to get a picture of the backing, but here is the picture from Sparkling Gemstones. I'll be sure to take a picture of the back when I get the Framed Rectangle Variation Quilt done.

 

 

Although I love the look of the black and white stripe binding on Sparkling Gemstones, I am using the left over strips from the fabric roll for the new quilt, and I'm excited to see how it will looks. I don't often use a scrappy binding (Jack doesn't really like them), I think this one will be perfect.  My goal is to have this one quilted and bound by the end of the week.

What are you working on today?

 

To see what other quilters have on their design walls, go to

 

Judy L's Patchwork Times

 

or

 

Monday Makings