A Little Stash Enhancement

An LQS is having a sale, $5.99 for designer quilting cottons, so I had to check it out. A few pieces came home with me.

I discovered when I was working on Quilts of Valor that my stash is low on blues. So I found these, all from different lines but they coordinate together so well, don't you think? I added in the stripey print with mustard in it to add a light value to the mix, then added the mustard rings just because. Suddenly I have a palette that all works together. The beige stripe on the right is just a good basic to add to my low volume collection.

The shop's minimum cut on their sale fabrics is 1/2 yard and I know I'll be shopping in Paducah later this month, so I limited myself to three yards.

So, April stash numbers so far:
IN: 3 yds
OUT: 3-5/8 yds

Linking up with Patchwork Times & Molli Sparkles

KBFG to the Quilter Today

Whoo-hoo! Finally my long arm quilter, my friend Sandy, is ready for my KBFG quilt. She keeps a waiting list and I put my name on it when she quilted the last quilt for me, about nine months ago. I'll add my name to her list again now, because I'm sure I'll have something that needs to be quilted by the time it comes up.

So what is KBFG? It's a Kaffe & Batik Flying Geese top that I finished a couple summers ago. I still love it. I'm definitely keeping this for me!

Look at this backing - It's all names of colors in 2" high script. I worked for many years as a color specialist in apparel and footwear product development and part of my job was naming colors each season. How cool is that backing!!!

So Sandy and I are getting together for lunch - gyros, yum! - and then she'll take this and perform her magic on it. I can't wait to see it!


Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Solstice Challenge Blocks

I've been keeping up with Pat Sloan's Solstice Challenge, making one block a week since December 21st. I've been putting my own spin on them, modifying them to suit myself: no applique, and all blocks 12" instead of various sizes. Here are the first 15, not in order; the pattern for the 16th will be posted later today.

The two most recent: Block 14 was supposed to have teardrop shapes appliqued in in the corners where I have pieced in Peaky & Spike units.

Block 15: Not sure I'm happy with this due to lack of contrast. It looks better in the photo than it does in real life.

I'm this far into the project and I enjoy making one block a week mixed in with my other projects, so I'll keep going. I'll figure out what to do with the blocks when the series is done.


Linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Race Quilt for Hands2Help

I recently pulled out an older UFO flimsy which I'll quilt for a gift for an Alaskan recipient. It's a race-style quilt, made somewhat like a jelly-roll race quilt up to a point and then modified. I decided to use the same technique and some stash to make a quilt for Hands2Help.

I pulled some fabrics and started cutting strips. I needed to add some more darks and another light to my palette because everything here looked too much the same value.

My race quilt is modified from the jelly-roll version. I cut my strips 3-1/2" wide so they finished at 3". I only partially sewed them race-style, then I chopped it up into three sections, and sewed the sections together. It finished at 60" x 72".  It took only about 3 hours to complete the flimsy from start to finish including cutting.

Here's a brief tutorial & tips for how I made my modified race quilt. All seams 1/4".

• 1. Cut 36 WOF strips at 3-1/2" wide, plus one additional half-WOF by 3-1/2" strip. (12 fabrics, 3 strips per fabric plus the extra half-WOF strip)

• 2. Cut off the selvages and sew the strips together end-to-end, with the half-WOF piece at one end. Make sure this is not the same print as at the other end.

• 3. Press seams open; as you press, fold the long strip into a shoebox being careful to layer it with no twists. 

• 4. Turn the folded stack in the shoebox onto its side with both fabric ends sticking out so you can place them right sides together. Place the shoebox on the floor near the sewing machine.

• 5. Place ends right sides together and sew the strip lengthwise, a very long seam. As you sew, the fabric will feed out of the shoebox without any twists. When you come to the end, cut across the strip. 

• 6. Press seam open and refold the long strip back into the shoebox. 

• 7. Repeat step 5; you now have 4 pieces of fabric sewn together (12-1/2" wide). 

• 8. Repeat step 6. 

• 9. Repeat step 5 again; your project is now 8 strips wide (24-1/2"). Press seam open. 

• 10. Your strip set is now at least 180" long. Fold it in half crosswise so it's a little more than 90" long. Lay this out on a flat surface such as a hallway floor. 

• 11. Square up the cut ends (slide a cutting mat under the project on the floor). Measure from the cut edge to the fold to confirm your length. 

• 12. Multiply your length times 2 and divide the result by 3. For example, if you have 93", you would calculate 93" x 2 = 186". 186" divided by 3 = 61".

• 13. Measure this distance from the cut edge and cut across the width of the strip set through both layers. In this example, measure 61" from the cut edge and cut there. 

• 14. The folded remainder of the strip set should now also measure the same length as the other pieces. Each piece is 1/3 of the quilt top.

• 15. Arrange the three sections so you like the placement of fabrics next to each other as much as possible, and sew them together. Press seams open.

Your completed flimsy should measure 72-1/2" long by your cut width, in this example 61".

Sheesh, it took almost as long to explain how to do this as it did to make this flimsy! 

I hope you're inspired to make a modified race quilt for Hands2Help. Bonus: this flimsy uses 3-5/8 yards of stash! 

Linking up with Patchwork Times, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, Confessions of a Fabric Addict

March Stash Report & Goals Update

When I left off, I said I was going to take a few days off from blogging. My "few days" turned into half of March. Oh, well... life happens. (No worries, it's all good). So let's see how the stash report looks and how I did with my goals.

March Stash Report:

IN this month: 3/4 yard (STLMQG free table)
OUT this month: nothing I can count, although I used fabric for Solstice Challenge blocks and for Snake blocks with the Cave Quilters.

IN YTD: 20 yards
OUT YTD: 35-1/4 yards
Net change YTD: 15-1/4 yards OUT  -  No guilt when I indulge in some stash enhancement in Paducah!

Goals Update:

March recap:
1. Keep up with Solstice Challenge blocks. DONE, with modifications to make the blocks more to my liking.
2. Start a Hands2Help donation quilt. Started; fabrics pulled, plan in place, partially cut. 
3. Start planning a 12 Days of Christmas in July project requested by my son. Not done. 
4. Make progress on Roman Road WIP. Not touched… This WIP is on its way to becoming a UFO.
5. Make progress hand piecing my WIVSP Piecing Group project. Yes, I did a lot - for me - of hand sewing on this project this month. 
6. Keep up with bee blocks. DONE.

Other: My sister-in-law requested a gift quilt for a recipient in a northern Alaska village. We found a suitable UFO, ordered backing & batting, and I have the quilting plan in mind.

April Goals:
1. Finish Hands2Help quilt. See fabrics below.
2. Quilt Alaska gift quilt for Jackie.
3. Keep up with Solstice Challenge blocks.
4. Start planning a Christmas in July project requested by my son.
5. Make progress hand piecing my WIVSP Piecing Group project.
6. Keep up with bee blocks.

Note: I'm not putting Roman Road on the list for April because I have deadline projects that take priority. I'll have to come back to Roman Road later. Sigh... this is how WIPs become UFOs. But I really like this quilt and I want to finish it.

So here's the UFO that I'll quilt for the Alaska gift:

And since race-style quilts are fast, I've decided that my Hands2Help quilt will be a race quilt using some fabrics from stash. I need to pull a couple more lights and a couple more darks; most of these fabrics are too much the same value.

Hopefully I can do better at my April goals than I did in March. I'm sure I'll do quite well at stash enhancement, at least!

Linking up with Patchwork Times

Progress Continues...

All the rows here are finally pressed. What a job that was!

If you look carefully, you can see that there's a black border at the top. The border is two rows of the same size triangles as the black triangles between the hexies. Yes, they are all hand-pieced together, black on black.

I am currently in the process of sewing together a row of black triangles and the last row of colored pieces. Then a second row of all black triangles will be added to complete the border, same as at the top. The rows I'm working on will go at the bottom in the photo above and will complete the half-hexies you can see in the lowest row.

My hands are doing relatively well now, so I'm going to continue working on this project while I can. I do limit the hand-sewing to not more than 30 minutes a day even on good days, so it's very slow going.

This is hand piecing, not EPP. In hand piecing, all the seams are left to float free, so they can be pressed in the best direction afterwards.

Sewing black to black is the hardest. Thank goodness I have a very bright Ott light (no affiliation). It has a bendable neck and I have it placed about 8" above my work, aimed directly on it.

In addition to completing the bottom border, I need to get the half-rows on the wall joined together at the centers. Then I can take this project off the wall and free up the wall for something else. All that hand sewing will take me awhile!

               ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

I'm going to take a little time off from blogging for a few days. Progress on this project is so slow, I don't need to photograph and blog about every stitch. Other projects are in holding patterns or boring stages that aren't blog-worthy, so I'm going to take a few days off and not worry about having something to share. I'll be back when I have something to show or a story to tell. Meanwhile, happy quilting.


Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

An Old UFO with a New Purpose

A couple weeks ago my sister-in-law Jackie came to me with a request for a quilt to give as a gift.

Jackie, her husband, and a group from their church go to a remote village in Alaska for missionary work every summer. They've been doing this for about 20 years, same village. They basically take Vacation Bible School to the village.

After 20 years, Jackie has become very close to some of the people from the village, including a young woman she's watched grow up, go to college in the Lower 48, and visit here in St. Louis. The young woman is now about to be married. Jackie is attending the wedding, in another village above the Arctic Circle, in July, where it will still be daylight at midnight.

Jackie wants to give her friend a quilt as a wedding gift. We talked about what's needed and looked through my available finished quilts and UFOs. We had to nix the ones with a lot of white in them, too difficult to keep white in the village. That left one finished quilt in blues, and this UFO in browns:

Jackie chose this one because she likes the native feel of it. I asked if that would be offensive in any way, and she said no. She also thinks the colors are good choices for the remote village environment.

This is a race-style quilt from before my blogging days, probably a stash-busting project because it uses fabrics left over from tumblers quilts I made as gifts in 2010 and 2011. It's constructed like a Jelly Roll Race quilt up to a point, then chopped into sections and assembled. The strips finish at 3" and the overall dimensions are 60 x 72".

We ordered backing and batting, and I'll quilt this with vertical organic wavy lines. Jackie needs it by the end of June, so I have plenty of time to get it done. I've also committed to making a Hands2Help quilt, so I'll get that done first because the deadline is sooner, then finish this one.

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