Sochi Quilt Block on the Design Wall

Did anyone else notice the quilty looking triangles at the venues during the Sochi Olympics?  I am not a tv watcher and didn't see much of the Olympics but those triangles sure caught my eye. From the little I saw it seemed as though maybe each event/venue had a different color.  Even Little S thought it looked like fabric pieces.

So on my design wall is my initial take on a quilt block for Sochi.  I will let it sit there and marinate while I finish up some projects that must get done.  I have been needing an idea that could handle 100s of different fabrics, but in an interesting way.  This might be it.

There are lots of other interesting design walls over at Patchwork Times.

Little Bit In, Little Bit Out

Stash Report 022314

When we first moved to the states I made burp clothes for a nephew-to-be here in the US.  I had lot of fun doing that and thought it had Etsy potential so I made a bunch. No luck on Etsy, but now I have a small stash of burp clothes. I want to send some to Guatemala for the new baby, but since we don't know if it will be a boy or girl I'm going with unisex for the burp clothes.  Of course now that I want some to send there were no uni-sex ones ready or unisex flannel to work with. 

On a quick run to get new zippers for the pillows (seen here) I found a 1/4 yd remnant of a yellow patterned baby flannel. Perfect. 50% off even better since my current fabric allowance is $0.  No problem finding backings in the stash.  They are longer and narrower than I would normally make but they will work just fine.

These are going to Guatemala for Baby G.

I also finished up 2 others that had been cut, pinned and folded back up into the flannel stack. I originally thought they might be generic enough but they turned out to be kind of heavy on the pink, which looks even pinker in the photo.  But it counts as  UFO done, so that is good.

These will wait for a baby girl.

So here's how the fabric situation looks this week:

Fabric Used This Week:   1/2 yd for yellow ducky burp clothes + 1/2 yd for pink & orange fish burp clothes

Total Used 2014:  15 yards

Fabric In This Week:  1/4 yd of yellow ducky flannel 

Total Bought/Received in 2014: 7 1/4 yards

Net Used 2014: 7 3/4 yards
 

There are lots of other stash reports over at Patchwork Times.

100 Year Old Finish

I am skeptical - is is really 100 years old?

The Commissioned Pillow Covers are done.

I have made quilts and pillows for this client before.  She has a good eye for colors and combinations.  She gets the ideas and I sew.  This time is was pillow covers made from 100-year-old fabric from France.  Apparently there are just rolls and rolls of this kind of fabric sitting on shelves in Europe.  This particular kind was original used to make grain/flour/feed sacks. 

As historical as it may be it was a bugger to sew.  Maybe if I had sewn by hand it would have worked out better.  But as I worked with it I really felt for the women who HAD to sew by hand out of necessity, not desire for a beautiful home.


When I first started cutting I thought about our modern tools being used on this ancient fabric.  They were not designed for this rough fabric though.  I broke needles and desperately need a new rotary cutter blade now.


These were to be simple 20" x 20" pillows covers with an invisible zipper so they could be removed for washing.  The first attempt at a real invisible zipper was a complete disaster.  I got the zipper in, but it was not strong enough to operate against the heavy fabric and broke on the first try.

It will look amazing combined with her other pillows.

Envelope style closing was out because the fabric just couldn't make a nice edge.  So back to zipper.  A regular zipper.  Worked fine.  Since it will be placed on the down side on the couch it doesn't have to be 100% invisible.  Corners were tough with so much bulk even after trimming and trimming some more.  But the 2 covers are uniform in their "not crisp" corners and I think the client will be okay with that based on previous projects.


I think I am back to my hiatus from commissioned projects for another while.  I have to finish 2 baby quilts by mid March so they can be sent to Guatemala.

So I am ending this by hooking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Then I am heading back to the sewing machine to work on the blue & green quilt.

Design Wall Monday

There are 2 quilts on the design floor.  Sr G is away so we can use the living room floor for a few days without any complaints!

Little S wanted to start another quilt since the D9P is done and turned in.  I did not want to think too hard about it, so I got out a bag of precut 5" blocks that I had gotten at a yard sale and had her play with them for a while.  There were oodles and oodles (a new word for the girls and they are trying to find places to use it!) of peachy ones.  So I cut a bunch of 5" squares to supplement from a slightly darker peach that was in the stack of guild fabric to use up and she laid them all out.  Somehow I don't think she is going to finish and get it up off the floor before her father gets back, but it gives her a project for the next little while - and stuff moving out of the piles and stacks.  That's my plan - get it moving out.

I got the 16 blocks done for the baby boy quilt I need.  You can read more about that here.  Now I am contemplating what color sashings.  I thought white since this will be the pair for the pink & white quilt that can be seen here, but then I thought maybe light blue.  It will get a piano key border.

Playing with scraps these are my choices.  I don't like the medium blue.  The light light blue is good and if the white was muslin instead of this very white I would like that better.  Since I am walking past it constantly I have a chance to think about it.  What do you think? Medium, light or white?

Even though I need to get this done ASAP in order for it to be ready to go to Guatemala in early March there are other things I really have to do today - homework for a class I am taking since I am a week behind and I have a commissioned project that I need to just bite the bullet and do.  It doesn't have a deadline, but for me I need to get it done.  And this is why I stopped taking commissioned projects after the green quilts last year.  I just don't like them hovering overhead.  I'd rather play in my scraps!!

So I am getting off the computer and hitting the sewing machine to get the commissioned project started - and hopefully finished.

Check out some other design wall at Patchwork Times

Stash Report 021614

In a surprise burst of sewing I got the rest of the blue & green blocks done.  It started with Judy's January & February scrappy challenge blocks which you can see here and here.  February worked better with my scraps.   I like the January block, but not my color choices.

January - upper left & lower right.  February - center two blocks on all four sides.

I worked with my precut scraps and a few pieces of larger scraps that hadn't been cut down yet. I was also able to use up some of the blue strips and tri-rec center triangles leftover from the Smith Mountain Morning quilt. All in all I used up quite a few odd chunks of fabric and discovered a new unit a really like.  I love the effect of a secondary star spinning in the background when the block is all together.

My new favorite unit. 

Only up close can you tell how pieced this yellow triangle is.  I only needed to squeeze one more out of the last bit of scrap and I got it!

As I ran out of particular colors I made do with other fabric and/or changed the block design. In using the SMM scraps I went ahead and made the tri-rec star points. At first I didn't like them in there but as I worked with the block arrangement and got them placed them in the center I liked it better. 

A whopping 1.9 yards out of the scrap bins.  It wasn't even enough to have been folded and placed on a shelf and yet I got an entire baby quilt out of it.  Well almost - I still have to make sashings and a piano key border.  Who would have thought?

Fabric Used This Week:   1.9 yards for blue & green baby quilt blocks

Total Used 2014:  14 yards

Fabric In This Week:   0 yards

Total Bought/Received in 2014: 7 yards

Net Used 2014: 7 yards
 

There are lots of other stash reports over at Patchwork Times.

It's Friday and I have a Finish!

Getting Back on the Horse

The pink & purple quilt has been quilted!!

After a rough first attempt 2 weeks ago in which I spent more time unsewing than sewing due to bad tension and the start of a bad cold, I have not wanted to touch this quilt again.  But with nothing for show & tell for the guild meeting this morning and knowing that in another month this quilt will be on its way to Guatemala and I won't have it for show & tell, I got back on the proverbial horse and did it.  And got it done in record time.

Go see some other finishes at Crazy Mom Quilts and  Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Note: The pattern is a small version of Tumalo Trails found in Bonnie Hunter's book Scraps & Shirttails II.

Design Wall Monday

Scrappy Challenge Blocks

They aren't that scrappy looking but they are from my precut scrap drawers.  I think as I run out of these initial scraps then there will be more variety.

I have got to finish the quinceanos quilt so I can have my design wall back!

I wanted to try the scrappy challenge blocks that Judy is designing each month, but I didn't really need a new project.  You know how that goes.  I really like the February block and I need a baby boy quilt in case the new baby (not mine!) is a boy.

My favorite unit - the triangle with the half triangle on one side.

I have lots of blue strips and scraps left from Smith Mountain Morning that are the perfect size for these blocks.  I've been wanting to use the green left from the Green Quilts so this seems like just the right project.

Chain piecing and ironing.

My plan is 16 blocks with sashings like the Pink & Purple Baby Quilt.  I got lots of pieces cut for the various units needed and even have some other variations in mind.  So I will just work at it as I can.  They do go together very quickly which is good, because life is no longer allowing me to sew as I was able to in January.

Go see some other design walls at Patchwork Times.

Stash Report 020914

Don't know why all my pics of this quilt are blurry.  Oh well.

Finished the Disappearing 9 Patch.  It will be a donation quilt top for the guild.  Little S started it to practice sewing a straight line with 1/4" seam allowances. I finished it in order to be able to turn it in this week.

This quilt has a lot of emotions in it so I am ready for it to be gone. When we thought my mother's hospital and rehab was going to have a happier ending, I went through her fabric to match some up and precut squares to make it easier for her when she got home and started sewing again.   Didn't happen.  I am glad that Little S was able to use it for practice, but I am also glad that it is headed out.

Since the precut squares were part of my stash now I get to count it as fabric out.  That's never a bad thing!!

Fabric Used This Week:   1.1 yards for D9P

Total Used 2014:  12.1 yards

Fabric In This Week:   0 yards

Total Bought/Received in 2014: 7 yards

Net Used 2014: 5.1 yards

Check out some how others are doing with their stash at Patchwork Times.

A Finish, But It's Not Friday

It's been a rough week. I'll take any finish I can get.

Last weekend I started trying Judy's Scrappy Challenge January and February blocks.  In my pre-cut scraps I had almost everything I needed already cut. But my brain just couldn't make it happen. I attributed it to the project being too new and set it aside to marinate for a while.

January

Moved on to quilting the pink & purple baby quilt which is what really needs to be getting finished now anyways. Thought that a mindless stipple would not be too taxing for my brain. Wrong again. The tension wasn't right and it didn't catch it until way late.  Unsewing was definitely brainless.

From there I gave up and realized I was not incompetent- I was sick.  So I put all sewing projects on the back burner.

Today I am feeling well enough to try again.  This time it all came into place with no problem.  I even spun the centers of my 4-patches.  I have seen it and seen it, but never tried it.  Sure enough - simple and effective.

 I got the January and the February block done in no time at all.  I need another baby quilt in case the baby in Guatemala is a boy and I think this might be it.  I added yellow to the centers thinking it softens the blue and green a bit.  They are not as scrappy as I envisioned, but except for the green in the large triangles and the yellow it really all came from the precut scraps and today I was going for easy with not too much thinking involved.

February

 Head on over to Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict to see some other finishes.

Stash Report 020214

Finished the red stars.  World record progress for me!

They can be seen here.  So now I can count that as fabric used - yeah!  My self-imposed stash report rules are here.










Someone donated fabric at work and of course I picked out what might be usable for quilting.  I almost didn't since I was so proud of my 0 yards of fabric in so far this year, but then I thought "Free fabric, I'm in!" I was surprised at how hard I thought about it first.
 
This blog really is making me work harder to have finished projects and think twice about what I am using.  I was never one to buy a lot anyways, maybe sometimes for a backing.  But now I am really making do with what I have in my stash and getting more things done.

Fabric Used This Week:   3.6 yards from stash for red stars

Total Used 2014:  11 yards

Fabric In This Week:   7 yards from donation

Total Bought/Received in 2014: 7 yards

Net Used 2014: 4 yards

Thank goodness for the finished stars so I am still on the positive side!

Check out some other stash reports at Patchwork Times.