Sister's Choice Quilts

Ahren's Quilt

It's coming along, for sure.  I have to say, I do love the color palette Ahren has chosen for his quilt.  The charcoal and amber is quite striking.  I've finished 14 rows and think I need to make another six or so for a good bed sized quilt.  His birthday is May 22, so my goal is to have the top pieced by then so I can tell him it is his birthday quilt.  Hmmm.  I just looked at the calendar and see that if I am to achieve that goal I need to work pretty hard this Saturday and Sunday.  

This 1000 Pyramids quilt is really so cool.  I think we should all take a look at some of the classic quilt patterns that have been around for years and see what modern interpretations we can make of them.  This one unit block design is just ageless in its beauty and simplicity.  

Ack.  When I enlarge the photo I see something he won't like.  He told me "No butterflies" and I see two of them fluttering predominantly smack in the center of the quilt.  How the heck did they slip by me?  I have been so careful to only use chopped up butterflies, not whole ones.  And of course I'd get two of them in close proximity so they are even more apparent.  I can use my seam ripper and take them out, but it is really fiddly work once those rows are sewn together.  Bother.

The new housecleaners came and my house has never looked so good.  My daughter says you can "smell the clean" from out on the street.  They even washed my windows and kitchen cupboards.  They brought in big tall ladders and dusted things like ceiling fans and the tops of cabinets I could never reach.  It cost a fortune to have then spend the day here, but does my house ever sparkle.  I don't want to mess it up now!

Have a great weekend everyone.

 

Mother's Day

Hope you all had a fabulous Mother's Day.  Funny, I never expect much from Mother's Day, and am always surprised, humbled and grateful for the attention I receive from my wonderful children.

My son Ahren, who lives in Ireland, sent me a fabulous paperweight made by an artist named John Deacons from Scotland.  I think it is one of the most beautiful paperweights I have ever seen.  Years ago, another important man in my life, my father, gave me a Murano glass paperweight that I also cherish.  Now I have two precious mementos from two men who were crucial in my evolution as woman.  I cherish them equally. The paperweights and the men!

My sweet daughter Sara and her fiancé took me out to brunch at a local hotel.  Eva was there, as well as my husband, and we enjoyed a wonderful Sunday morning together sipping mimosas and eating way too much tasty food.  I am so full of gratitude that circumstances permit us to be together so  much of the time.

I am so lucky,

Bounce, Now the Fun Begins...

Now the fun really begins with my Halloween Bounce project.  In my last post I mentioned that I made the star blocks two different sizes.  How is that going to all go together you may be wondering.  Well, it turns out that you trim all the blocks down to the same size!  The blocks are made so that the star kind of floats in the center of the block.  When you trim the blocks down smaller, you can position your ruler so the star is off to the side, floating toward the top or bottom of the block, or even turned totally wonky.  I didn't have it in me to have any wonky blocks--this pattern is crazy enough for me.

You get the idea of where we are gong with this.  So cute and fun.  

Best of all, the blocks don't have seams that have to line up, so sewing the rows together is a total breeze.

I am loving this pattern and the seasonal fabrics I am working with.  Now on to the borders!  Have a terrific weekend everyone.

Sunday's Sewing

Raise the Roof is coming right along!  Here you see the main body of the quilt arranged on the design wall.  The Sawtooth Star blocks and the Log Cabin blocks are not yet sewn together, but you can see what the layout will be.  My design wall is 72 inches square, so you can also get an idea of the finished size of the quilt.  A narrow containment border and an outer piano key border will be added once the blocks are sewn together.  This quilt is going to look beautiful on my bed.

I have wanted to complete this pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company for years.  I made a previous unsuccessful attempt at it, which I abandoned due to my poor fabric choices.  These Jefferson County fabrics by Jeanne Horton are just perfect for the pattern, and give a great level of contrast with the scrappy light backgrounds.  I love the muted subtlety of the colors.

The blocks were fun to make.  32 Log Cabins, 32 Sawtooth Stars.  I haven't had a lot of time to sew but managed to get them done in about 4 major days of sewing (6 or more hours each day).  If you like Log Cabin quilts, but want to pizzaz up the look, try this pattern!  

Log Cabin Blocks--Just a Few More to Go

The end is in sight for the Log Cabin Blocks.  Only ten more to go, and this baby is done, except for borders.  I am enjoying working with the ruler, but have to say I am looking forward to making this project a finish and moving on.

The rest of the week I will be experimenting with various setting arrangements and hope you all will weigh in as to which ones you like best.  I think I have four or five layouts to try out.

I had a very enjoyable time staying with my father for three days.  He was so appreciative of the attention, special meals and company.  He is doing so much better and was able to shower and dress on his own over the weekend.  His nurses say they probably won't have to come for much longer, as it is clear he has lots of support and has made good progress both in healing and with what he is able to do for himself.  That is such good news.  I am longing for things to get back to normal.

Hope you had a fun Super Bowl weekend.  I was able to sit with my husband and watch the game, which was so nice.  The house was so quiet, with just the two of us, and we managed to polish off a dish of Super Nachos all by ourselves.  Not sure that was such a great idea, but Super Bowl only comes once a year, right?

Log Cabin Progress

Whoops, one of these blocks is turned the wrong way.  Can you spot it?  I never notice these things until I take a picture and can see things from a different perspective.  Just goes to show you how valuable snapping a photo of your project can be before you get it all sewn together.

I've been working on these Log Cabin blocks when I have a minute, and Sara seems pleased with the results.  I don't think we will stick with this arrangement though.  She prefers more of an all over pattern formed by the blocks, such as Barnraising or Chevrons.  I have been constructing the blocks four at a time, and sticking them up on the design wall in quadrants helps me visualize how many I have made. 

  When we Googled Log Cabin Layouts, Sara thought this layout might be a good one:

photo from http://www.quiltmag.com/tag/layout-designs/

This block takes up way more fabric than I thought it would!  Goodness, I thought I would have tons left over for another project, but is seems that I need to buy more.  I just ordered additional half yard cuts of all the blacks in the Modern Backgrounds Ink collection by Zen Chic.  Just watch, I will be ordering more of the lights any minute.

My plan is to have a setting of 8 blocks across and 8 blocks down, with a containment border and outer border.  I was thinking I would just make a little lap quilt she could place at the foot of her bed, but she really needs to have a full sized bed quilt.  Right now she uses a down comforter set while it is chilly winter weather, but come spring and summer that thing will get relegated to a shelf in the closet.

So, as you see, I am not even half way finished making these blocks. 

Hope you all had a great weekend.

 

Viola, Some Progress

It may not look like much, but I have made substantial progress on Viola.  I have finished all the appliquéd stem units and finished nine complete blocks.  I quite like the look of the blocks all together!  

At this point I am still undecided as to what size to make this quilt.  The pattern calls for 16 blocks.  I was thinking of doing just 12, in a three by four block setting.  Somehow, to me, the symmetry of the quilt looks better square, with the four by four setting.  I just need to buckle down and set aside a couple of hours every day and get these blocks done!

Making this quilt has been sort of like watching paint dry for me.  It is taking forever and I keep getting side tracked by other activities.  I know I will love it when I finish it, but the process has not been as enjoyable for me as some other quilts I have made.  I don't know why really.  Maybe the fact that each large block takes some time to put together.  The complete block is more like four blocks, with the three flower units and the vase unit.   I do love the fabric I am using (Mimosa by Robert Kaufman).

One tip regarding the appliquéd stems--You may recall I was having problems with the straight stems not laying flat and wanting to curve rather than be straight.  A couple of readers suggested not cutting the straight stem pieces on the bias, but rather on the straight of grain.  I tried that, and those straight stem pieces lay just where I wanted them, straight as little arrows.  No curving at all.  The curved stem units for the smaller flower units were cut on the bias and of course curved nicely as they were supposed to.

Hope you are all having a great week!  It sure is dark in the mornings when I get up.  I think daylight savings time next week will help me get up on time and not want to sleep in until 7:30!

 

Reconnecting with Viola

Despite a rather busy weekend, I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of sewing, and reconnected with my Viola project.  I do like how this is coming together, except for the fact that my red flower vases look almost identical to the pink ones.  I may have to see what lighter pinks are in my stash and add some in and see how it looks.

My plan for the couple of days off I have this week is to get back to making the appliquéd stem/vase units.

Right now I am uncertain if I will make this quilt full size, which is 82 1/2" x 82 1/2".  I may scale it down a bit and use it in Eva's room at some point.  The more I think about it, that appeals to me. I love the quilt but it is a bit festive for me to use in the master bedroom.

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

 

 

OK, I'm Done

Well, almost done.  One more nine unit Bow Tie block and that is it for me.  324 three inch finished Bow Tie blocks.  1944 pieces total.  I can't take it anymore.  I don't know how these gals who are making a king size quilt with two inch finished Bow Tie Blocks have it in them.  Seriously?  I see Bow Tie blocks when I close my eyes.  Enough already.

In an ideal world, I think I would like this to be one more round of blocks bigger.  252 more  Bow Tie blocks.  That would be a really nice sized quilt.  But nope, I don't have the stamina.  I will add a narrow containment border and a brown and red Civil War print fabric I have in my stash for an outer border.  It will be a good lap size quilt that I can toss over the arm of the sofa or the back of a chair.  

Time to move on to a new project.  I can't decide if I want to take a break from Civil War fabrics for awhile, or start putting together the Barbara Brackman Stars in a Time Warp blocks.   That one coordinates perfectly with this Bow Tie quilt, so they do kind of want to be finished around the same time.  You know I will keep you posted.

Oh!  I bought my new German made Rowenta steam iron.  And I left it at my sister's house three hours away.  We were having a graduation party for my two nieces and now I suppose one of them is going to think I left it there as one of their graduation gifts.  Keep your fingers crossed that I will be able to straighten this all out.

72 Bow Ties

So this is what 72 3 inch Bow Tie blocks look like. I feel like I have been making them forever already, but they are pretty cute.  I am going to keep at it and see how far I can get with this quilt before I cry "Uncle".

You may recall that in previous posts I have mentioned my husband and his habit of putting a gigantic fan in the window of my upstairs sewing room?  Well, he is still at it.  You can imagine with 72 teeny tiny Bow Tie blocks all arranged perfectly on the design wall, that the addition of a gigantic fan in the room may not be a great mix.  I don't see any possibility of dissuading my husband from this penchant, so I had to get creative.

 I know I am going to stick with this particular layout, and figured if I combined nine Bow Tie units into a larger block they would be more manageable.  So that is what I did.  So much easier to deal with than a gazillion little 3 inch blocks.  All the blocks will be the same, just oriented as needed for the design.  And an additional bonus is, if I want to take this project down from the design wall, it is no big deal, whereas repositioning hundreds of the individual units would be.

Bring on the fan dear, I am ready for you.

PS:  Thanks for all your suggestions about the border fabric for the Simple Granny quilt top.  I agree, blue was the best choice since all the colors were represented in the blue print.  But I don't really do blue.  So, I  ordered the orange.  It is bright and will compliment the blocks and not be too light or too dark.  It is a winner all around.