DJ2 Finished Top

One of the things I wanted to get done in August was to attach the borders to my second Diabolical Jane quilt and finish the top. This happened, at the very end of the month. 

This version, DJ2, gave me more trouble than my first version. I miscounted the number of pieces needed, had to make adjustments, and this version ended up a little larger at 65" square. Although it doesn't look flat and square in this photo, it actually is. 

I like this version; these are my favorite colors, teal and coral.

I have fabric to piece a back for this so I can quilt it. I have a reservation on the long arm at the end of the month, but I have something else ready to quilt, so I don't know how soon I'll get DJ2 finished. 

Might I make another Diabolical Jane quilt someday? Maybe. Now that I've made two of them, I keep seeing fabric combos that could work. For now, though, I think I'll give Jane a rest and focus on other projects. 

Link Up: Alycia Quilts

PS: I looked for a post about my original Diabolical Jane and couldn't find one about the finished top except as part of my April retreat recap, so here's a photo of the top. It's actually quilted and finished now, so I'll have to photograph it and post it. 

August Stash Report and Goals Update

I spent a lot of time in my sewing room this month. It's been over 100 degrees, often over 110 degrees, all month, too hot to do anything except stay inside in the air conditioning. We're actually having a bit of a cool-down this week, but next week it'll be back up in the 110s again. And no, it's not a dry heat; the humidity is up during our monsoon season. 

PC's Creative Arts building has been closed most of the month for maintenance, so no social sewing. The fitness center has been closed for refurbishing all month and won't reopen until October. I went out to lunch with friends a couple of times, but other than that, it's the season for cabin fever here.

DH and I did take a little weekend trip up to a cooler area and I visited a very nice quilt shop, Pine Top Star. So of course, some fabric had to come home with me. 

Since I spent so much time on quilting-related things, what did I accomplish? 

I pieced the back and the batting for the floral X and Plus quilt which goes on the long arm tomorrow morning. I quilted and donated the second Mary's Triangles quilt. I finished the Christmas Tree for my son, which involved a lot of quilting on my domestic machine. I started a new scrappy project involving triangles and stacked coins. I pulled a palette for another project that I'm thinking about called Checkered Garden.

The 2nd Mary's Triangles quilt

With all the fabric ins and outs, let's see how my stash report looks. 

August Stash Report

IN this month: 10 yards (5-1/2 yards from Bob's Variety. 4-1/2 yards from Pinetop Star QS. )
OUT this month: 9-1/2 yards (Backing for second Mary's Triangles quilt, 1-1/2 yards; Binding, 1/2 yard. Christmas Tree back and sleeves, 2 yards; Binding, 1/2 yard; Case with pockets, 1 yard. Backing for Floral X and Plus, 4 yards.)

IN YTD: 83-1/4 yards
OUT YTD: 86-3/4 yards
YTD Net Change: 3-1/2 yards OUT. 

Moving in the right direction! 

Since I knew I'd have a lot of sewing time, I had a lot on my goals list. I made a lot of progress, and as usual I started something new....

New triangles and stacked coins project

August Goals Update

July Recap: 

1. Bind and donate the two purple wheelchair quilts. DONE

2. Make backing for the second Mary's Triangles project and find or piece batting.  DONE, also quilted, finished and donated.

3. Make progress on the walking foot quilting on the Kaffe Gradient project.  No. I did a lot of other walking foot and FMQ on my domestic machine this month, but didn't touch this. 

4. Get Christmas print fabric for backing, sleeves and storage bag for the tree project. Talk to Gary about dowels. Yes, tree quilt is quilted and finished except for the final few hanging loops. Gary made the dowels and hooks for hanging it. I made the presentation case/storage bag. Gary is making a pottery star for the top which needs to be glazed and fired when the CAC reopens. 

5. Add borders to DJ2. DONE.

6. Pull "Found" UFO and determine next steps. DONE. It just needed borders, which were cut and included in the project box. It's now a finished flimsy. Also found/pieced backing for it. 

7. Piece batting together for X and Plus quilt. DONE.

Other: 

 - Started new scrappy Broken Dishes and Coins quilt. 

 - Added coping strips to Edna's veterans quilt that needs to have bad quilting removed and go back on the long arm. 

Eric's Christmas Tree

September Goals: 

1. Work with Edna to remove bad quilting and re-quilt the veteran's quilt. 

2. Quilt and finish the floral X and Plus quilt. 

3. Quilt and finish the found UFO quilt. 

4. Make backing for the teal Diabolical Jane quilt. 

5. Work on the Triangles and Coins project. 

6. Work on the other new scrappy piecing project, Checkered Garden inspired by Linda of Kokaquilts.

7. Plan a long term and complicated project for future sewing. 

8. Make progress on the walking foot quilting on the Kaffe Gradient quilt. 

I should probably add Write Blog Posts as another goal. I have a couple projects that need to be photographed so I can post about them. It's hard to get good photos with the intense sun and the wind here now. 

2nd Diabolical Jane top

Hopefully all that will keep me busy during another hot month! 

Checkered Garden

Linda from Kokaquilts is making a Checkered Garden quilt in a palette of blush pinks and caramels. Squirrel!!! I have to make one. I've had an inspiring fabric for a while, a floral print with purple and peach in it, and now I know what I want to do with it. 

I pulled fabrics from my stash that might go with it to make a Checkered Garden block. The inspiration fabric is in the corners here. 

So far, so good. I think this will be a one-block-at-a-time project, so I can enjoy the process of designing each one. 

I have a lot of fabrics in these colorways. I want to emphasize the purple and peach shades more than the caramel in some of the blocks. With a limited palette of peach and cinnamon shades, ecru and cream, mauve and purple and some caramel, the overall quilt should have a warm vibe. I might add a touch of green for contrast. 

I'm thinking of including the inspiration fabric in all the blocks, in the various positions. Thoughts? 

My blocks are 14" so I'm shooting for a 4 x 5 layout for a 56 x 70" quilt. This one will be fun to create! 

Link up: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

A Scrappy Triangle Project

I saw something recently in my Pinterest feed that intrigued me. It was a very scrappy quilt made of HSTs, Broken Dishes blocks, and stacked coin columns, in a palette of mostly yellow-greens, teals, dark reds, neutrals and light peach prints. Very busy. Dozens of different fabrics, many bold patterns. It was attributed to Mel Hale but now I can't find it again.  

Updated 8/29: The inspiration photo popped up in my Pinterest feed again; see it here. 

I pulled scraps in those colors, then raided my stash, and cut pieces for HSTs. I figured I could work on them at social sewing when PC's creative arts building reopens in September. But as often happens, I got sucked into this project and started sewing right away. Over the last couple of weeks, I've made 170 HSTs. 

They don't look like much here, but that's 17 batches of 10. As I was cutting for them, I also cut for the stacked coins, and some of the coin pieces were used as leaders and enders as I was sewing the triangles. The ones in the center are sewn pairs; the rest are cut pieces. I have no idea how many there are here, but I need 360 individual pieces so I'm sure I'll be cutting more. 

Making all those HSTs required a lot of trimming. This guy kept me company and kept growing while I was at it. 

This will turn out to be either a busy-but-curated scrappy quilt, or a hot mess that'll be hard to look at. We'll see.  

I have other priorities and deadlines so this project will be packed away until later. It's definitely in Alycia's "Or Not" category at Finished (or not) Friday. 

O Tannenbaum Two

Back in 2017 I made my son a Christmas Tree quilt to hang on a door and hold real ornaments. You can see it here with ornaments, and here is the tutorial.

He started a new job last summer, and learned at Christmastime that everyone in this office decorates their cubicles for the holidays. He requested another Christmas tree, sized to fit his cubicle. So of course I'm making him one. 

This one is 52" tall (for a 60" wall height) and 28" wide. I still need to add the loops for hanging the ornaments. 74 of them, one at each triangle intersection. 

To hang it on his cubicle wall, DH and I came up with a hanging system. I sketched the idea on a sticky note, sent it to my son, and he's supposed to get back to me with the width of his cubicle wall top. DH can make the hangers from heavy gauge wire. 

The tree quilt has sleeves at the top and bottom of the back. We'll get 1/2" dowels at the hardware store. The one for the bottom, just to weight it and keep it hanging flat, won't show at all. The other, for the top, will have finials at the ends. The top rod will rest on the hanger brackets. 

DH, a very handy guy, is also a potter, and he sculpted a 4" high star for the top of the tree. When our Creative Arts building reopens in September, he'll glaze and fire it. 

Next up, a storage and presentation bag for the tree. I'll make it like a pillowcase, large enough to accommodate the rolled up tree, and tie the opening with ribbon. This will be both the gift wrap and a dust cover for storage. 

Our plan is to have everything done by the end of September, ship it out in early October, and he'll have it in plenty of time to decorate in November. Maybe he can find a new pickle ornament to hang on it. 

I don't know if his office has a contest for best decorated cubicle, but if they do, his tree is surely in the running. 

He still uses his original Christmas Tree hanging, since his condo doesn't have room for a three-dimensional tree. 

Link ups: Alycia Quilts 8/21, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 8/24. 

Two Small Mary's Triangles Quilts

You may remember, I was making Mary's Triangles at social sewing. I planned them for a small quilt, baby or wheelchair* size. I set them on point with alternate plain squares and made this top.

I bundled the top together with batting and backing for someone else to quilt and finish. My friend Linda adopted it and finished it. Here's the photo she sent me.

Evidently I miscalculated the number of blocks I needed, because I had almost as many left over. Rather than let them sit in a scrap drawer forever, or become dog bed filler, I made some more blocks using black and white prints and made this top. 

The second top is only 40" wide, so it's small enough to fit on one width-of-fabric backing if quilted on my domestic machine. Since I don't have access to PCQ's long arm until September and I have larger tops in the queue to be quilted, I decided to quilt this one at home. 

I had enough of one of the B+W prints used in the blocks for the back. Walking foot quilting in the ditch - horizontally, vertically, and along the diagonal seams - resulted in a stable but soft and drapey quilt. I bound it with a B+W stripe at a social sewing event earlier this week. 

The first quilt will go to Hospice and the second quilt will go to Luke AFB for a young family.

My little Mary's Triangles blocks finished at 4", but they can be made any size and they're very versatile. The confetti-and-streamers quilt in my blog header is all Mary's Triangles. Here's a link to the tutorial for making them the easy two-at-a-time method. 

*Per Hospice, wheelchair quilts should be about 42-46" square or so. Too wide and they get hung up in the wheels. This also is a good size for baby quilts. 

Link up: Alycia Quilts

Picnic in the Garden, an X and Plus Quilt

At retreat I was able to get the blocks for my latest X and Plus quilt made, and the center of the top assembled. Other retreaters were making X and Plus quilts and it was fun to see the variety. We had Christmas prints and Kaffe prints with dark backgrounds, and I used ditsy florals with white. Mine will be a donation quilt for Hospice. 

My original plan was to add a green inner border and a floral print outer border. I looked through my reads-as-solid green stash at home and did not find anything that would work. I also did not have enough of any of the florals for a border, and when I auditioned multiple florals, it was pretty sad. 

However, one of the girls at retreat made a picnic quilt using a gingham print for the border. Inspired by hers, I found a green check in my stash, one yard, but with careful cutting I could make it work. 

The result is a quilt top that's less "old lady formal" and a little more playful. 

Next, I cobbled together a backing from the leftover floral prints. Those prints range from vintage 1980s to current quilt shop quality. Most of them are used in the blocks in the front of the quilt. Most of them came from PCQ's stash, and the keepers of the stash will be happy if I use them for backing. 

The easiest way to cobble together a back that's big enough is to put the top on the wall, place the fabric chunks on it until it's big enough, and seam it together. Leftover blocks are good, too. An afternoon's work resulted in this backing. If you look carefully, you can see the top through some of the prints.

My next opportunity to use the long arm won't be until early September so this will have to wait a while to be quilted. 

Link up: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts