Design Wall Monday and More

It's been a long time since I've posted. 

"Life" happened and I chose to deal with that rather than post here. I know you've all been there and done that, so you understand.

Be sure to scroll down toward the end of this post to see some wonderful pictures I took while I was away. Even with my limited photography skills, they are BEAUTIFUL!

Now, back to quilting...

I have a few projects that are in different stages of completion and although they are not technically "on" the design wall, they are the projects on which I'm working.

I belong to the Cleveland Modern Quilt Guild and we had a "Black and White Plus One" challenge. I loved the idea and had already been thinking about a project like that, so I was thrilled when the challenge was announced. Here are the fabrics I chose.

 

I recently bought a pattern by Elaine Wick Poplin (messygoatsews.com) called Mad as a Hatter and knew that it would be perfect for the challenge and fabrics. (Of course I made some changes. Don't I always?)

 

Here is the first step. I love the little punch of blue! I was only going to make a small wall hanging (hence the nine blocks here), but quickly decided to make it a little bigger. I would have made it much larger if I had more of the blue! 

 

After some slicing, dicing, and rearranging, this is the quilt now. I LOVE it! I was playing around with border options to make this larger, but thought that the borders just messed up the overall look. This is small - approximately 38" x 50", but I'm ok with that. I still have to quilt this and will bind it in the blue.

 

My 16 Patch Kaffe fabric quilt top is done, but I don't have a picture of it with the outside border.  

 



 

I had partial strip sets left over so I decided to make a smaller version of the quilt so it could be used on the day bed that is in the same room where the larger version will be used. I had to make some adjustments here; and instead of a 16 Patch block, I made 12 patch block. This worked out perfectly because the day bed is long and narrow, so the elongated blocks are just what I needed. The picture below shows my two border fabric choices. I chose the one on the right and was thrilled to have enough of it to use for both quilts. Unlike the fabric on  the left, the fabric on the right had been used in the quilt so it all flows nicely. Plus, the fabric on the left has a brown background to it, rather than black like the blocks. I love it when things work out well.  :-) 

 

I'd love to say that I will have these all quilted soon, but I doubt it so I'm not even going to pretend that will happen. I am still playing catch up from when I was gone and I will be starting a long-term sub teaching assignment shortly that will last through the end of the school year.

 

What's on your design wall today?

 

Check out the eye candy at

 

Judy L's Patchwork Times

 

and

 

Monday Makings

 

Remember those pictures I mentioned?

They will follow this brief background.

 

I had the honor and privilege to spend almost two weeks with a loved one as she approached the end of her life. I stayed with her and her family, helping as needed. Most of us don't want to talk about death and dying, but the fact is that it is a part of life. Yes, it is a sad part, but it is still a part.

 

During my time with them, I helped with giving medicine, taking care of any and all of her physical needs, reminiscing about our lives, and just helping to provide as much love and support as possible. We all laughed and cried (a lot), but I knew my role there was important.  I know that many people will think this is strange to say, but it really was a beautiful experience.  

 

One week ago today, on April 18th at approximately 4:00pm, my sister-in-law Becky passed away surrounded by people who loved her. We knew it was coming, and we were as prepared as anyone can be. That morning, we were all awake watching the most beautiful sunrise that I think I have ever seen. It was so peaceful and beautiful that I knew that was the day she would go.

 

This is the view from the house and the room where Becky was. The picture does not do it justice. The colors were stunning!

 

I stepped outside onto the patio and took this picture. Do you see the ducks on the lake and the birds in the sky?

 

 

I sure hope this video works! Take a moment and listen to the sounds of Lake Michigan at sunrise on April 18, 2016. I will never forget this wonderful calmness and beauty.

 

We love you Becky!

 

And to bring things full circle...

After the burial, two of my granddaughters looked with wonder at the dandelions and made us laugh as they picked and played with them. They squealed with joy at this thing we so often take for granted and even curse.

 

Live, Laugh and Love every day of your life!

 



 







Design Wall Monday - Kaffe fabrics

I've been a busy girl the last few months and my time to sew/quilt has been significantly compromised. And, if you are a regular reader of my blog, you are also aware that my blog postings has been affected as well.

I'm not going to make any promises, but things are slowing down just a tad - my very-long term sub assignments are complete, and some major deadlines have been met so I hope to get back into a regular posting habit again, as well as have time to work on projects that are not for a class, for a customer, or have a deadline. That might be a bold statement that I'll regret making, but I sure hope it happens.  :-)

I find that when I work on a project  that requires a lot of thinking, has lots of small parts, has a looming deadline, or is just something on which I can't seem to wrap my brain around, I NEED a simple project to help ground me and give me that satisfaction and somewhat instant gratification I think we all know and feel. 

While working on a few of my latest projects, I decided to dive into my stash and use the following two bundles of 6" Kaffe Fassett strips to make a simple 16 patch quilt. Each bundle has 20 strips but since I cut them down to 3", I have 40 strips of light and 40 strips of dark fabric. WooHoo!

 

 

One of the things I really like about these bundles is that they are slightly larger than 6", which allows me to trim off the rough edges and still end up with two 3" x WOF strips.

 

I recognize that many of you may not like the fact that the strips are larger than 6", especially if the project on which you are working requires 6", but one of my "issues" with pre-cut strips is that there is often a lot of raveling that happens because of handling, etc. and the exactly cut 6" strip may end up being 5-7/8" instead of 6". I find that is often the case with 2-1/2" strips and that can cause a problem with piecing. (A few years back I had an issue with strips being too small so I now make it a habit to check the strip sizes before using them. I can usually make minor adjustments, but not always and I want to be aware of that BEFORE I start the project, not in the last step of piecing a block.)

 

The first thing I did a week or so ago was to pair up a light and dark strip. I pressed them and then trimmed them so I ended up with two 3" x WOF strips. 

 

Just because I think I have more accuracy with sewing this way, I cut the strips in half. When I do this, I cut the folded edges every so slightly, so as to not waste much fabric. Can you see the tiny slivers of fabric to the right of the strips?

 

I leave the selvedge edges alone. I don't trim them because I will need to make a clean up cut after I strip piece the units and I find it wasteful in terms of fabric and time to cut it twice. 

 

Once I have my strips cut, I set them by my sewing machine and use these as leader/ender projects while working on the projects that NEED to be completed. I love the fact that when I am ready to work on this project exclusively, I have strip set and even some blocks already completed. :-)

 



Back to the sewing...I sew my strip sets and press them all in one direction. I chose to press these all down toward the outside dark strip. Notice that I have changed strip sets? I got busy sewing and forgot to take pictures using the same strip set. Oh well....

 

Since I can get 7 - 3" cuts per strip set, I decided to sew two identical strip sets. (Remember I cut my WOF strips in half and am working with strips that measure 3" x approximately 22".) This will allow me to make 2 identical blocks plus have a little over 18" of the strip sets uncut.

 

The second strip set only needs to have one 3" unit cut so I have that long remaining piece of the strip set already pieced, ready for something new and exciting.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the remaining 18"+ of the strip set, but it's ready for me when I decide. My guess is that I will make more blocks to make the quilt larger, but I want to be able to pick and choose which blocks to make.

 

 From the two identical strip sets, I end up with two blocks that will finish 10". 

 

 

Based on the blocks I will have made (40), I'm leaning towards sewing either 2 or 8 more blocks. If I make a total of 42, the quilt will measure 60" x 70;" and if I make 8 more, it will measure 60" x 80". Of course all of this could change. Who knows? I may decide to make more blocks or add borders that use the strip sets cut up to make a piano key type border.

 

I already have 12 blocks constructed and threw them up on the design wall just to see how they look. I really did not stress at all about my strip pairing. I just put a light and dark together and tried to not put two striped or "dottie" fabrics together. I'm looking forward to playing around with this in the next few weeks.

 

 

What's on your design wall today?

 

Check out the eye candy at

 

Judy L's Patchwork Times

 

and

 

Monday Makings