Sister's Choice Quilts

This Is Going to Take a While.

Hope this photo doesn't make anybody dizzy.  I have all the blocks made for the Jo Morton S'mores quilt--I believe there are 113 square in a square blocks and 28 pieced setting triangles, and 4 pieced corner triangles.

I think I am going to love this quilt when I get it put together, but the next step is attaching all the lattice pieces, which as I said, is going to take a while.  It is hard to see against the light background of the design wall, but I have begun the process of sewing on the 128 short lattice pieces.  I hate to say it, but lattices are so fussy.  Especially the long ones, where you have to pin like crazy to make everything line up.

That is what I will be doing today, so wish me luck.  And tomorrow I hope I can show you a photo that isn't all wavy like the one above!

Catching Up With UFOs

All the blocks for the Double Nine Patch quilt are finished.  In fact there are enough blocks leftover to make another half a quilt because I took out all the dark brown fabrics.  This involved a lot of ripping, but I decided I just didn't like the look of the dark brown nine patches.  Now I am left with just dark blue nine patches in the quilt top.

This is my discard pile of dozens and dozens of dark brown nine patches.  The reason for this OCD compulsion to remove them was due to an idea that without the dark brown, the quilt would be "lightened up" some what.  I am not at all sure I achieved that, especially when viewed from a distance.  However, I did find some border fabric that plays much better with the dark blue fabrics.

Isn't that pretty?  It is even from the same collection as many of the dark blue fabrics I used.  I found it in the tub that held the kit I originally purchased a few years ago and never got around to making.  Evidently the border fabric was included in the kit, lucky me.

I plan to sew the blocks together today and with any luck, get the borders on.

Hope you all had a great weekend.  I spent mine sewing and unsewing in nearly equal amounts.  Sigh.

Time to Fish or Cut Bait

Before I fish or cut bait, I just want to let you know everyone is doing better.  Ozzie is almost himself again, Eva's wrist is pretty good, and my dad continues to think his eye is getting back to normal.  Thanks for all your kind wishes!

So, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed.  I have at least six, no seven, projects that have all the blocks made, but need to be sewn together.  This is not a time to stop and start a new project, right?  

You all know how much I love this latest fabric collection I have been working with, Rachel Remembered by Betsy Chutchian.  I made the Windmills blocks you see on the right and they are ready to be sewn into rows.  Then I wanted to do something with all my leftovers, and assembled the units for the table runner on the left.  Then this happened:

See the little quilt at the lower right?  I decided it would be a really good idea to make that with the rest of the leftovers.  I have seven of the nine stars made, and will put this cute little thing together soon.

My plan for the rest of the week and the weekend is to 1) sew the blocks together for Windmills, 2) sew the leftover Windmills hour glass blocks together for the table topper, 3) put together the little patriotic table topper.  Then, it is definitely time to assemble the blocks for my blue and brown Nine Patch quilt, finish up my red and brown S'Mores top, and heaven help me, sew my Moda BlockHeads blocks together.

No more new projects.  Time to finish up what I have in progress.  So that's my plan and I am sticking to it.

 

 

 

Windmills Blocks Finished

I have finished the 169 pinwheel and hourglass blocks for the Windmills quilt. 85 pinwheels and 84 hourglass blocks.  And a mess of flying geese for the border, but I didn't count them.  The original pattern that inspired me is called Windmills and is designed by Bonnie Blue/Red Crinoline Quilts.  I kept the block size at 4 1/2 inches, but added rows.  I also had a very intentional plan for the color layout, rather than the scrappy random layout suggested by the pattern.

There was considerable fretting and switching up of blocks for this project, and I am happy with my finished result.  There will be one more solid brown outer border, so the quilt should end up being somewhere around 72" square.  I will be working on sewing those blocks and rows together this week.

Since I remade so many blocks, I had a ton of hourglass blocks left over for a table runner!

I also have a little extra project to use up the red and blue leftovers for a Memorial Day/Fourth of July table topper.  I will share that with you this week once I get my pieces cut out and a block or two made.

In other news, Ozzie got sick.  He is going to be 11 years old this June, and in his entire life, he has only been sick one other time.  Oh, he has been to the vet with injuries, but this time he was laid low with some bug or other since Wednesday.  The only thing that comforts him is Eva's Elsa blanket.  Luckily it is washable.

This is a dog who is so active.  It was very disturbing to have him not eat, not drink, not bark at the mailman, not get excited when the front door opened, and just lay on the floor still as could be.  The vet did $500 worth of tests and it looks like he may have a urinary tract infection.  We won't know until today (Monday) if he can have antibiotics.  Isn't that strange?  At any rate, he is somewhat better as I write this.  He ate some white rice and boiled chicken, has been drinking water and has been out to pee etc.  Poor Ozzie.  It is so sad when your pet is unhappy and looks at you wondering why you don't fix it.

Windmills Evolving

Well, this has been a process, I tell you.  I cannot recall when I have struggled and had to dig so deep to come up with an alternate setting arrangement for a quilt!

To refresh your memory, this is what the pattern looks like:

Super scrappy.  Great for a collection of random scraps, but I had a collection of fabric I wanted to feature a bit more.  My first idea was to replace the alternate rows of pinwheels with plain unpieced blocks.

It was ok, but just a bit stark.

Then I got an idea to do the alternate rows of pinwheel blocks with scrappy pinwheels.

Ack.  No.  My eye doesn't have a clue where to rest.  I feel like I will give myself an ocular migraine if I look at that too long.

So take a look at the photo at the top of the post again.  See how I am arranging the pinwheels in diagonal rows featuring the same color?  I think I have kept the idea of the original pattern, but made it less random.  There are a few blocks in there that don't have enough contrast that I plan to replace, but you get the idea of where I am going with this.  

And the best thing is, it is using a ton of fabric because I keep re-making blocks and eliminating the ones the bug me.  It's a stash buster, just not in the way the pattern intended!

Hope you are all having a great week and are getting ready for the weekend.

My news this week has to do with family members being a bit under the weather.  Eva fell off the monkey bars at school and sprained her wrist.  We had her home with us yesterday.  And distressingly, my 92 year old father had a small stroke in his right eyeball of all places.  It isn't unheard of, but his vision is slightly impaired now (but he can still watch tv and read).  He has all sorts of appointments scheduled with eye specialists and his cardiologist to get to the bottom of it.  I talked to him tonight and he is home, chipper as usual, and hopeful that it may improve.  Getting old isn't for sissies, as Bette Davis said.

Windmills: Change of Plan?

I am back from my little Spring Break with family, and got back into the sewing room for a couple of hours over the weekend.  I had started a new project, "Windmills", before I left, but was not happy with the jumble of prints and patterns.  

This is what the quilt is supposed to look like.  It is a true scrap quilt and the joy of it is the mixture of color and the riot of different prints.

My problem with it is that I really loved the colored prints I was using from Betsy Chutchian's Rachel Remembered.  Upon reflection, I wanted to feature the prints more and eliminate some of the busy-ness that all those pinwheels next to each other creates.

I'd love to hear some of your thoughts.  Should I let the quilt be "free" and have mixed color/print pinwheels all over the place, or be more controlled in the placement of color and eliminate some of the busy-ness of having pinwheels every which way?

Windmills: Getting Organized

I worked on Windmills quite a bit this weekend, mostly prepping fabric and cutting and getting organized.

The blocks required are pretty simple-hourglass blocks, pinwheels made from half square triangle units, and flying geese.  It seemed like it took ages to get to the cutting stage.  With the wet weather we have had, starching, drying, and pressing the 70 fatquarters I had pulled took forever.  Well, two and half days actually. Once I had cut out the fabric to make my three block components, I laid them out on my table with labels to keep it all straight in my head what was for what.

Then I started in on making the hour glass units.

This little ruler by Open Gate Quilts is such a handy tool.  Fit to be Quarter, designed by Monique Dillard, it is just what you need to square up hourglass blocks.  The pattern called for cutting 5 1/4" squares for the hourglass blocks, but I knew that I needed to cut the fabric squares larger and trim them down for the best results.  So, I cut my fabrics 5 1/2" square and did just that.  There wasn't much to trim, but it made the difference between slightly wonky blocks and nice square perfect ones.  Did I mention that the blocks for this quilt are 4 1/2" square? 

So, here is the thing I have come to terms with:  This scrappy layout is way too random for me.  There is too much going on.  Too much color, too many patterns, no place for my eye to rest.  Give me a day or so to work on it, but I plan to come up with a plan to get this pattern to conform to my comfort zones.

Here is another random note- Over the weekend I did an upgrade to my MacBook Air laptop and now my photos are coming out mirror images of themselves.  Look at the print on the top of the pattern.  What the heck is that about?   Ah, technology.

Barn Stars Finished

Here is sweet little Barn Stars, a Kim Diehl Simple Whatnots offering from a couple of years ago.  I had subscribed to the bi monthly kits, but quit the club when I realized the kits were piling up and I wasn't making them.  I have recently dipped back into that bin of kits and have been trying to make one or two every now and then.  I am a big fan of Kim's and love how she can't resist throwing in a bit of teal or aqua to most of her projects for some "zing".

I love this pattern, with the stars made up of 'negative space" and the backgrounds being colorful.  It is different, and so pretty.  I don't have the measurements right in front of me, but I am guessing it is 16 or 18" square.  A nice size for a candle mat, or something on which to place a vase of flowers.  

If you missed out on the Simple Whatnots band wagon, or like the patterns, but didn't want to commit to making them in Kim's more primitive style fabrics, this might interest you:  She is coming out with a book this spring that features patterns from her first three or so years of the Simple Whatnots Club.  So if you get the book, you can make up the little table topper sized patterns with what ever fabric you enjoy most.  I am hoping to get the book and will let you know when I hear that it has been published.

Hope your week got off to a good start!

Loose Change

This scrappy nine patch quilt was inspired by a plastic bag full of 2 inch squares left over from another project, and the pattern "Loose Change" by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  The pattern is in a book called Miss Rosie's Quilt Collection.  The Miss Rosie quilt is made from 2 1/4" strip sets.  Since I had nothing but 2 inch squares, I made my nine patches the slow way and ended up with 5 inch unfinished blocks, which of course produced a much smaller quilt.  I compensated for that by making lots more blocks.  I made 154 blocks and the pattern calls for 128.  When you are using such a simple block such as the nine patch, there is all kinds of wiggle room as to size of the finished block and number of blocks you can use to make your quilt top.  I didn't follow the pattern at all, except to think "that's cool, I should use my scraps and make something like that". I am keeping the name "Loose Change" though, as it seems to fit.

I am planning to add an outer border, probably more of the tan colored fabric used in the setting squares.  My quilt will be a good sized lap quilt, probably 66x72 or thereabouts.  I like the cozy look of the quilt top and think it will be great over the back of my reading chair.  And just the right size to cuddle up in while I read and enjoy a glass of wine.

So here's the thing.  This was supposed to be a scrap busting quilt, and ended up anything but.  I started out with what I thought was a ton of two inch scrap squares.

As I worked, I kept thinking things like "I need a bit more blue" or "I have too much of that one red, I need more variety" or "I can't just use that little bit of pink, I need more to have it make sense".  So, I would go to the stash and cut a strip of this and a strip of that.  And of course I needed tons of background strips for a good mix of different tones and fabric prints.  I ended up with a box of scraps leftover that was three or four times the amount of scraps that I started out with.  That was a false economy if I ever saw one.  This was a fabric user project all right, but definitely not what I would call a "scrap buster".  I generated way more scraps than I used! I think I am hopeless.  

The quilt ended up really nice though, so I won't complain!  I'll show you all the finished version once I get the borders on.

Hope you all had a great long weekend.  I think I am over the worst of the flu and am itching to get back into a routine.  Ear is doing ok, but due to the perforated eardrum, my hearing is shot.  I can't hear anything, most notably my husband, who has kind of a hoarse whispery voice and can't seem to project.  So every time he speaks to me I say, "Sorry, what was that?"  TV is out of the question, unless I watch on my laptop with earbuds and volume turned up all the way.  This will pass, I've been through it before, it just takes a month or so.

 

New Year's Resolutions?

New Year's Resolutions?  At first I was going to say "No, I don't believe in it", but I do have one.  That is to get these two projects off my design walls!!!!!!!  They have both been up there for the better part of 2017, and they must go.  The one on the right is Triangle Gatherings, a project hosted by Lisa Bongean, which is finished except for sewing the rows together.  I have made a start on that, and will keep at it.   I love how this quilt turned out, and if I stick to my goal to sew at least one or two rows together a day, this could be down from the wall and off to be quilted in no time.

The project on the left is the 2017 Moda BlockHeads project, featuring six Moda designers who came out with a new block each week of the year.  We have a few more weeks and this will be a finish, except for figuring out a setting arrangement and sewing it together.  This project was a real skill builder and I really enjoyed making the blocks.  Even if I never make them all into a quilt, the project was so worth it.

I have some works in progress that are going to be next up on my Get It Done List:

Barn Stars.  Just need to sew blocks together.

Red and Brown Square in a Square quilt.  Lots of blocks to make.

Loose Change. A scrap buster nine patch project.  This is going to take a lot more fabric than I first figured!  No problem, I've got it covered.

Civil War Courthouse Steps.  Another scrap buster.  Now, this is an example of a quilt that needs to be on a design wall.  If I hadn't had my design walls occupied with on going year long projects, this could have been up there and finished.  Lesson learned.  Do not monopolize Design Walls with year long projects.

In addition to my leftover WIPs for 2017, I have a couple of new projects that need to be started:

A recent purchase.  Have you ever?  This will be for Eva, for her 7th birthday in July.  Just look at what is inside this adorable box-

I mean, really.

This oldie, but goodie pattern came to my attention again, and I really think I need to make it for Valentine's Day, don't you?  Mine would be a table topper, not a pillow.

2017 seemed to be the Year of Ongoing Sew Along Projects.  Maybe 2018 will be the Year of House Projects?

I am also considering doing Camille Roskelley's Summerville and Winterville.  Ultimately, I would like four house quilts to reflect each  season.  That is an ambitious goal, so I will see where I end up with that one!