One Thing Leads to Another

I just love how quilty inspiration and friends lead to something fun.

Earlier this month my friend Cherie (Quilted Jonquil) published this post which included an antique top we saw in a shop in Paducah. I drafted the block in EQ7 for her.

Friend Kevin the Quilter liked the block too, and invited Cherie, Dar (Dar's Patchwork Garden) and me to a sew day at his Quilt Cave. The plan is to make this block in patriotic colors for a future Quilt of Valor.

Since this block requires templates and paper piecing, I thought it would be wise to make a test block before we get together. I made templates and printed arcs for paper piecing.

This block turned out to be quite challenging. Barbara Brackman calls quilts made with this block Snake Quilts, and you can see some examples here. Here's an EQ image:

I'll bring the templates and several blocks worth of paper piecing arcs to our sew day. Kevin, Cherie, Dar and I are gathering our patriotic scraps and white background fabrics and we'll get together on Friday. I'm looking forward to a fun day!

This is turning out to be much bigger than one antique top in a shop window inspiring one person. At the end of it all, four of us will have the pleasure of getting together and making something none of us may have tried on our own, stretching our skills.  And the result will be a quilt for a good cause.

Linking up with Patchwork Times, Em's Scrapbag, and Love, Laugh, Quilt

Stash Report 1/29/17

I realized this week that I'm having trouble with my Pat Sloan Solstice Challenge blocks because I need a suitable pale background that can unify several of the blocks. A visit to local quilt shops ensued. I found exactly what's needed, and with no guilt and no regrets, I bought all that was on the bolt, 2-3/4 yards. Here is the pale background, a light celadon crosshatch by Zen Chic for Moda, shown with a couple of the older stash fabrics I'm using for these blocks.

It's hard to find pale backgrounds with a tint of color. There are plenty of neutrals, but sometimes a project needs a color instead of a neutral, and really pale tints are hard to find. I've resorted to using the back side of printed fabrics in the past, if the print showed through evenly enough. I'm glad I found this crosshatch print, which has a light yellow-green lines printed on white, with enough white in it to make it read lighter.

This is perfect, and I'm sure it will be used in several of the blocks. We're in week six of 25, so there are plenty more to go, and I plan to remake blocks one and two using this new background.

So, the stash report for this week:
IN: 2-3/4 yards
OUT: 0
I'll tally up the totals at the end of the month. I've had some finishes and I'm well in the black, so no guilt.


Linking up with Patchwork Times and Molli Sparkles

All Cleaned Up

Whoo-hoo! It's such a good feeling to have the sewing room all cleaned up.

My house is generally cluttered and I'm the first to admit I'm not much of a housekeeper. But I find it hard to work in my sewing room when the space is cluttered and disorganized and stuff from previous projects is piled up everywhere. So not inspiring when it's like that.

I didn't take any "before" photos, but here are a couple of photos after the big clean-up. Now I can regroup and figure out what to work on next.

Above: view from the doorway. The baskets on the closet shelves hold my fabric stash.

Below: view from the corner near the closet doors looking back toward the sewing machine. 

Ah, not stressful now. I can find everything I need, and I can work in there without having to move piles of stuff out of the way.

Since a clean sewing room is whoop-worthy, I'm linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday. Check out what everyone else is celebrating over there.

Putting My Own Spin on It

Block 5 of Pat Sloan's Solstice challenge is called Gramma Anna's Basket and is supposed to look like this:

Um...  This isn't going to work for me. One, I'm not into applique, although I could manage a small amount like this if I really wanted to. Two, the whole basket concept is just too cutesy for my taste. Three, it looks old fashioned, and I prefer a look that is more timeless.

The way I see it, the Challenge here is to keep up with making blocks every week. I've further challenged myself to work with a non-favorite color, purple.  I'm also challenging myself to make small companion blocks each week featuring the fabrics of my main block.

So if I don't duplicate the block design exactly but still manage to make all the blocks on time and have them come out looking good, that will count, right? Thanks, I'm glad you agree.  :-)

So for week 5, I changed up the basic block design by omitting the basket applique and using a feature print for the center square instead. I used strong contrast for the surrounding triangles, and subtle contrast for the corner ones. I eliminated a few seams by using flying geese instead of half square triangles. Here's how my block #5 and its companions ended up.

Here are the first four blocks. I'm not loving weeks one and two so I might remake them later, but we'll see how the rest of the blocks go, first.

Meanwhile, since finishing my DP II flimsy, I need to regroup, clean up the sewing room, and figure out where I'm at with several WIPs and UFOs. That should keep me busy this week! What are you working on?

Linking up with Patchwork Times, Em's Scrapbag, and Love Laugh Quilt

Stash Report and Yardage Calculations for DP II

Since I finished my Dancing Plus II flimsy this week, I get to count the yardage used. A tight estimate is 9-3/4 yards out. No yardage in. I'll post the totals for January at the end of the month.

DP II has at least 57 different dark fabrics and 52 different light fabrics. I tried to remember to count each time I cut into a different fabric, but I may have forgotten a time or two.

It's good to have some yardage out this month because my guild is holding a fabric swap next month and I'm sure I'll bring home some new-to-me fabrics. Better to get ahead now than be in the hole later! Linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times


Here's how I calculated the yardage used for this quilt (too many fabrics were used to get a reliable yardage estimate from EQ). If you're not interested, just skip all this.

• There are 143 blocks in this quilt plus light pieces at the end of each column to accommodate the half-drop layout.
• Blocks were originally made oversized and trimmed down to get the tilted or dancing effect. The oversized blocks required 3" cut pieces of light background.
• For the totals, odd fractions of yardage are rounded up to the next 1/4 yard.

Dark fabrics:

• Each block uses a 5" charm square or equivalent yardage 
• 8 charms can be cut from a 5" WOF fabric strip
• 143 blocks divided by 8 = 18  5" WOF strips 
• 18 strips x 5" = 90" which is 2-1/2 yards
• Add 10% for straightening cut edges of fabric, etc. 
• Total dark yardage: 2-3/4 yards

Light fabrics: 

• Each block uses a 3" x half-WOF strip
• 2 blocks per 3" WOF strip
• 143 blocks divided by 2 = 72  3" strips needed
• 72 strips x 3" = 216" which is 6 yards
• Add 10% for straightening cut edges of fabric, etc.
• Light yardage for blocks: 6-3/4 yards
• End pieces measure 3-1/2" x 6-1/2", which if all were the same fabric could be cut from one   6-1/2" WOF strip which would require 1/4 yard
• Total light yardage: 7 yards

Friday Finish: Dancing Plus II Flimsy

Finally, the Dancing Plus blocks and columns are sewn together into a finished flimsy. (Now I can use my design wall for other projects!) At 11 columns by 13-1/2 rows, DP II measures 66 x 81" for a generous sofa quilt. I will quilt this one myself with vertical organic wavy lines. 

Dancing Plus II Flimsy

We finally had a day without rain, ice, drizzle, fog, or single-digit temperatures, and there was even a brief glimpse of the sun. I dropped everything else and managed to get a few outdoor photos. Murphy helped. A six month old puppy is lots of help with a flapping quilt, especially when his feet are muddy. Fortunately no mud got on the quilts. My pants, however... well, you can imagine. We're still working on not jumping up on people.

Murphy, 6 months, 10 lbs.

Since I had only an indoor photo of my LCT QOV, I took outdoor photos of it as well. I need to add a proper QOV label to it and then it can be donated to QOV for an event in April.

Log Cabin Triangles Quilt of Valor, about 62 x 80"

2017 is starting off well. My stash report will look pretty good this week!

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts

Squirrel: January = Multiple Projects

There's something about the new year that gets the creative juices flowing. Or maybe I just get distracted easily by intriguing ideas. Yeah, that's more like it.

So far this month I've started the Pat Sloan Solstice challenge. I'm using a palette that's not "me." Because I believe repetition can contribute to a better design, especially in a sampler quilt, I'm making 6" Shoo Fly blocks using the fabrics from the main blocks. I don't know how this will end up, but I'll keep going for awhile. Here are my first four blocks and their companion Shoo Fly blocks.

Solstice Challenge blocks and companion Shoo Fly blocks

Last week I was distracted by my friend Karen's project and I just had to make her some little string blocks. Glad I tried them; learned they're not for me.

String blocks for Karen

My friend Cherie, who blogs over at the Quilted Jonquil, posted a couple of inspiring photos last week. Check out this post, scroll down and look for the antique top in the shop window, and the blue four patch top. Go visit, then come back.

The antique top we saw in Paducah last spring was sold, but it's an interesting design. I played in EQ and recreated the block for her, and printed out templates so she can make her own version if she wants. Sure would look good using recycled shirtings, her specialty.

Draft of antique top's block for Cherie

And that four patch top in her post? That was made using leftover blocks I had donated to a guild fabric swap several years ago. I ended up getting more of those blocks back in our guild's recent Orphan Adoption Event. Cherie has challenged me to finish a quilt with them and she'll finish hers so we can show them at show & tell at the same time.

Leftover-leftover patches, from guild's Orphan Adoption Event

So I'm playing with them on the design wall. There's a reason these are leftover-leftovers. There's less variety, therefore they're harder to work with. But I still have some of these fabrics in my stash, and I have a plan.

Cherie only has to get hers quilted, and she has a long arm, but she works full time. I have to make the top as well as quilt it on my domestic machine, but I have more time for sewing than she has. What do you think about our challenge?

And, oh, by the way, Dancing Plus II is now a flimsy. The weather's been bad but I'm hoping to get some outdoor photos by Friday. Meanwhile, here's an indoor shot. It finished at 63-1/2 x 81-1/2".

DP II flimsy

Enough distractions for one month? Oh, well, it's been nice having projects to keep me busy while the weather's been so bad. Between the the extreme cold, the ice storm, and the drizzly rain, I've been cooped up in the house for most of the month so far. Might as well play in the sewing room, right?


So, have you been distracted by anything in the new year?
Linking up with Sew fresh Quilts and My Quilt Infatuation