Lozenges Flimsy

After making blocks at retreat in July, making more at home afterward, finding additional fabrics in my stash or purchasing more and making more blocks, and arranging and re-arranging the layout multiple times, I finally have a finished flimsy. Plus a few leftover blocks that didn't make the final cut. 

With the blocks set on point, the dominant shape in them is the lozenge portion. Because of the variety of prints of various scales and values, some layouts looked very chaotic. To control the chaos, I strung them vertically like beads, creating columns of light, medium, and dark. The black frame holds it all together.

It's still very busy, and not my most favorite quilt ever, but it's good for its purpose. It will be a donation quilt for the local family services agency. We were told that some of the teenage clients prefer quilts with black in them rather than sweet pastels. 

I have a backing already made for it, and time booked on the club's long arm later this month, so it'll be quilted and finished soon. 

Link ups: Alycia Quilts 

Comments

Hi friends, 

Blogger is at it again and has not been sending your comments to my email. This means I haven't been able to reply to them in a timely manner, if at all. I'm annoyed that this is happening. I've checked all the settings and directed that all comments go to my email. I'll try to go into Blogger and look for comments periodically and reply to them if I can. I'm so sorry to not be able to acknowledge your comments promptly, but please know that I do appreciate them. 

Happy quilting,

Jan 

Friendship Stars

Last month I had time on PCQ's long arm so I was able to quilt the ginormous Friendship Stars quilt. Now it's bound, labeled, and finished. 

The blocks are huge, 18", so piecing the top went together very quickly. The backing is a bold black-on-white scroll-like paisley. I quilted it with a loose allover meander so as not to distract from the graphic piecing. It was hard to decide on a thread color because black was very bold on the white fabrics, and white showed up too much on the black fabrics and the red. Medium grey showed up too much on everything. I went with an off-black, not as harsh as jet black, and it worked well. I'll have to remember that for future black and white quilts. 

The quilt finished at about 72 x 90", a generous twin bed size. It will go to a local women's halfway house and the resident who receives it will keep it when she moves on. 

Linking up with Alycia Quilts 10/4 and My Quilt Infatuation 10/10

September Stash Report and Goals Update

I had a busy month including a week at our favorite beach, so I didn't accomplish everything on my goals list. But that's okay. We went to Perdido Key (near Pensacola) at just the right time, between hurricanes Francine and Helene that just hit the Gulf Coast. 

View from 4th floor, The Mariner, Perdido Key FL

While there I did some shopping at my favorite Pensacola fabric store, so a few yards were added to my stash. But I used some yardage this month, too, so my stash report is looking pretty good. It helped that I quilted and bound my giant Friendship Star quilt so I can count out the backing and binding. I also quilted Road Trip so I can count that backing, too. 

Quilting the Friendship Star quilt

Stash Report: 

IN this month: 4-1/2 yards (4-1/2 yards from A&E in Pensacola)
OUT this month: 12-1/2 yards (Friendship Stars back, 2-3/8 yards wide backing; binding 5/8 yard. My fabrics used in Storyboard Stacked Slabs, 2-1/2 yards. Backing for Road Trip, 7 yards.)

IN YTD: 65-1/2 yards
OUT YTD: 67-1/4 yards
YTD Net Change: 1-3/4 yards OUT

I still have three months left in the year so I'm sure I'll use up more. We'll see about adding - I need more khaki Grunge to bind Road Trip so a trip to the LQS is in order. What else might come home with me? 

Storyboard Stacked Slabs top

Goals Update: 

September Recap: 

1. Prep for and teach lessons 2 and 3 of my color class. DONE

2. Quilt the black & white Friendship Stars top on the long arm. DONE, also bound and finished. 

3. Piece backing for Kaffe Gradient. No, not touched. 

4. Continue piecing and assembling the black and white lozenges project. The concept for this has changed a bit from the original inspiration. Yes, revised the layout, made side triangles, and started assembling rows. 

5. Repair blocks and piece backing for Autumn Scrappy Celebration for Linda. DONE

6. Continue piecing the Storyboard stacked slabs top at social sewing. Yes, it's now a finished top.

7. Prep a backing and batting for a personal quilt (Road Trip???) and quilt it on the long arm on Sept 25. DONE

8. Continue making blocks for the Black and Tan project. Yes, made the last two Churn Dash blocks and cut pieces for the border. 

Autumn Scrappy Celebration layout, blocks made with friends

I had forgotten how much time it takes to prep for teaching a class. Even though I had taught my color class before, there are six lessons with materials and hand-outs for each one. Even though I have a binder with the lesson plans, I had to refresh my memory, as well as make sure I had all the visual aids needed. So quite a few hours were spent doing that this month. More of the same will take place in October because I have three more lessons scheduled. 

October Goals:

1. Prep for and teach lessons 4, 5, and 6 of my color class. 

2. Make a label for Road Trip. Shop for khaki Grunge for binding for it and bind the quilt. 

3. If Linda gets it quilted, bind the Autumn Scrappy Celebration quilt.

4. Continue assembling the rows for the black and white lozenges project. 

5. Piece a backing for the Storyboard Stacked Slabs quilt and quilt it on the club's long arm on Oct. 24. 

6. Make the last four blocks for the Black and Tan quilt; start assembling border units. 

7. Piece the backing for the Kaffe Gradient top.

Revised layout for the Lozenge blocks. 

Sides will be squared up after rows are sewn together. 

Again, a busy month planned. It's still unbelievably hot here, smashing temperature records day after day. I guess I'll be staying inside and sewing. When it's still over 105 degrees out and the sun is still brutally strong, it's hard to believe it's fall!

Autumn Scrappy Celebration

Linda, Edna, and I have been at it again, with the help of another friend, and we made blocks for another Scrappy Celebration. This time we used Autumn colors and prints. 

I think this is the final layout we ended up with. Linda is assembling the top. I sewed the backing together and put in a request to the club's charity committee for batting. Linda will quilt it, and I'll bind it when it's ready. 

Since it's seasonal (although it sure doesn't feel like fall here yet!) I'm hoping we can finish it and deliver it while it's still timely. It will go to a local women's shelter. 

Linking up with Desigh Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Storyboard Stacked Slabs Top

In July, Quilt Diva Julie sent me two boxes of fabric, donations for PCQ's charity quilts. Wow, I was blown away! Thank you, Julie. 

The chair of our charity committee asked me to make up "Blank Kits" with the donated fabrics plus others from the club's stash as needed. I was able to make up about 8 kits from the fabrics Julie sent. We don't include patterns in our Blank Kits, but let the maker choose their own pattern. 

Included in Julie's donation were some FQs from the Storyboard collection by Seth Apter. Very cool, kind of urban and masculine. The local family services agency we donate to occasionally has needs for quilts for teen boys, and I thought these fabrics would be perfect for an older boy. I held them aside to use for my next donation quilt.

In order to feature the prints I didn't want to cut them up too much, so I chose my Stacked Slabs* pattern. The FQs had been prewashed and shrunk, so they were a little undersized. I modified the cutting sizes of the slabs in the pattern to fit the fabrics and added additional fabrics from my own stash. 

After two sessions of Social Sewing, a pieced top is now finished. It measures about 58 x 68", a good teen size throw. 

Fast, easy, and the prints do all the work. I was not familiar with fabric designer Seth Apter, but he produced a line last year for Free Spirit with the same vibe, and has a new one just out, Live Out Loud. I think his fabrics would also pair well with some of Tim Holtz's Abandoned and Eclectic Elements prints. 

I found backing for this top in the club's backing stash. This will get in line for a future quilting session on the club's long arm. 

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and My Quilt Infatuation

* You can find the Stacked Slabs pattern and other free charity quilt patterns the tab above. If you would like a PDF, I'm happy to send it but you must include your email address within the text of your comment. 

Blocks on My Design Wall

Some time ago I had seen something on Pinterest that intrigued me. It's attributed only to Kathie C, no other info. I think some of the prints are Tula Pink. I found the image inspiring. 

Image from Pinterest attributed to Kathie C

I simplified the triangles at the sides of the lozenge shapes, making them one color instead of two, then started making the blocks for the on-point setting at retreat in July. 

They looked very busy when laid out on the wall. I soon realized I didn't have a good enough assortment of lights, mediums and darks, so I put the blocks aside. After making more at home, removing some of the original ones, and laying them out on the wall I had this:

Still looks like a busy mish-mash, so I need to bring some order to this chaos. I can do that by placing the lights, mediums, and darks in columns. 

Better. Still busy, but less chaotic. The side blocks will be trimmed and squared up at the corners. Then I'll add a 2" black border all around to further contain this.

This will end up as a large throw and will be a donation quilt for the local family services agency. Some teenager will love it. 

Link up: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts