Show Ribbon

One of my must-do deadline projects this month is to make an award ribbon for my guild's upcoming show. The ribbons are due at our meeting on the 18th. My task is to make the green "Viewers' Choice" ribbon.

Mission accomplished.

We make these kinds of ribbons for each biennial show. The ribbon coordinator provides the CD, the colored streamers, and the printed ribbon. The maker builds the award around the CD, attaches the ribbons and the backing, and signs it.

After a false start, this ended up taking me two whole afternoons to make. I used a 3" printed Pineapple block and paper pieced it. I had a wonderful green ombre gradiant fabric in my stash which I used for the ruffle and the dark parts of the pineapple piecing. If I say so myself, I think it came out pretty good. I hope the recipient likes it.

Linking up with Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Sashing for Solstice Blocks

One of my goals for June was to come up with a plan for my Solstice blocks. Here are all the blocks, and I plan to use 20 of them.

This is my planned layout. I've used this kind of sashing before for blocks that don't all match and I like how it unifies them.

I had nothing in my stash that would work for the dark stripes in the sashing. The light center strip will be the same pale green that's used for the background in most of the blocks.

Since I already have three different dark purples in the blocks, I thought it would be better to use a green for the sashing. I took all the blocks to the fabric store and auditioned several greens. I thought I found a good one.

Greens, especially olive greens, are tricky. The store has natural daylight and fluorescent light, and I thought the color looked okay. Then I got it home and had second thoughts.

In the first photo below, the lighting is natural daylight plus my Ott Light which simulates natural daylight. The color looks okay.

In this photo below, the lighting is from overhead incandescent light. Much warmer. All the colors look a bit warmer, even the purples, but the olive flares so much it looks almost brownish.

Yuck. I really don't like this fabric for the sashing after all.

I should have known; olives are notorious for color inconstancy, i.e. flare. I should have remembered this from my working days and checked it out before buying anything.

Maybe I can find something else that will coordinate with these blocks. I'll have to keep looking. And I'll have to find another use for the 2-1/2 yards of this olive I bought, since I bought enough for the sashing and the binding.



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

First Saturday Blocks

My LQS is in the 11th month of a BOM series called Emerald Isle. Each month there is a main block and an alternate block. I'm making all the main blocks on time each month.

 I have all the kits for the alternate blocks, but I haven't made  them yet. All of the blocks, main and alternate, have a 6" pieced center and three borders that form an Irish chain effect with light corners.

I have a plan for the alternate blocks. Instead of piecing the center 6" blocks, I'm going to use one fabric as a constant. The alternate blocks will still have the three frames around them, and I'll use the kits for those.

I have slightly more than a yard of this print in my stash and I love it. I'm pretty sure a yard will be enough.

Using the BOM kits yields 24 blocks. But I want a 30 block - 5 x 6 - layout to finish at 60" x 72".  I'll need to make six extra blocks, three with pieced centers and three alternates. I have plenty of green and blue options in my stash for the extra pieced blocks and frames for them all.

So what do you think of my plan to make this my own by changing up the alternate blocks? Will the print I've chosen work?


Link Ups: Em's Scrapbag, Small Quilts & Doll Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt

June Stash Report & Goals Update

It's time once again to take a look at how I did this past month. My husband commented that I spent less time than usual on sewing and quilting related activities. Actually I was procrastinating about layering and basting the Christmas tree project. Anyway, let's see what I was able to accomplish in June.

June Stash Report:
IN this month: 2-1/2 yards. (I bought sashing & binding fabric for my Solstice Challenge blocks but I'm not sure I'm totally happy with it. That's a topic for another post.) 
OUT this month: 8-5/8 yards (Batik Spiral Flimsy - 5-1/2 yards;  Little Dresses - 5/8, 5/8, & 7/8 yards;  Demo sample for glue basted binding for CSQ, top, backing & binding - 1 yard)

IN YTD: 64-1/2 yards
OUT YTD: 75-1/4 yards
YTD Net Change: 7-3/4 yards out. Whoo-hoo, still in the black for the year!

Little Dresses, STLMQG Charity Project

Goals:

June Recap:
1. Finish batik leader/ender project to a flimsy. DONE
2. Make blocks for flannel plaid project. DONE
3. Layer, quilt, and bind Christmas tree project and begin stitching hanger loops. Not finished: quilted; binding and sleeves prepped but not attached. 
4. Work on WIVSP hand piecing project. Not done.
5. Plan what to do with Solstice Challenge blocks. Planned, and fabric purchased for sashing and binding. 
6. Keep up with bee blocks and BOMs. DONE
Other: Made three Little Dresses for STLMQG's charitable project.

Batik Spiral Flimsy (Leader/Ender Project)

Flannel Blocks

July Goals: 

1. Christmas Tree project: Bind, add sleeves, add label, and start hand stitching loops for hanging ornaments.

2. 12 Days of Christmas In July: Prep photos and write blog post to go live July 19th. 

3. Make Viewers' Choice award ribbon for CSQ's quilt show, due July 18th.

4. Flannel project: Join blocks to complete the flimsy. If time permits, piece a backing.

5. Cut and piece 32 red HSTs and 38 blue HSTs.

6. Start cutting sashing pieces for Solstice project; kit them for sewing at events in September & October.

7. Work on WIVSP hand piecing project. 

8. Keep up with bee blocks.

Christmas Tree WIP

It looks like I have a lot of little projects for July rather than accomplishing one big goal. Many of them have deadlines. We'll have to see how I do with so many little things on my plate.


Linking up with Sunday Stash Report over at Quilt Paint Create

Tree, Quilted

Whoo-hoo, the quilting is finished! This is not bound yet, and it's just stuck to the door here with visible magnets, but you get the idea.

The original plan was for it to hang on the back of a door, but my son decided it would be safer for the real ornaments if it hangs on a wall. I'll add sleeves top and bottom before I bind it, so the sleeves will be caught in the binding seams. Then after it's bound I'll add the thread loops for hanging the ornaments.

The tree itself is quilted along the seams, and the background is horizontal lines, presser foot-width apart. These triangles and rows finish 3" high. I'll add the thread loops at the triangle intersections so there will be lots of places where they can hang ornaments.

Come back on July 18 for my post on the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop sponsored by Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict, to see the finished tree. No more posts about this Christmas tree until then. 😉


Linking up with Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday - check out what everyone else is celebrating over there.

Pin Basting the Tree

I've been procrastinating. My least favorite part of any quilt is crawling around on the floor pin-basting the layers together.

I've particularly been procrastinating over this one because I thought I would Frankenbatt some batting pieces together. But none of my scraps were good sizes that would work without generating even more, less useful scraps. I ended up cutting one piece from my new bolt of nice batting. Then I spent the morning pressing the backing and the top, layering, and pinning. My knees are not happy.

My goal is to get this quilted and finished this week. I can get that done, don't you think?


Link ups: Small Quilts & Doll Quilts, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, Sew Fresh Quilts

Little Dresses

A couple weeks ago some of the Sew Bee It girls got together for a sew day, and I was reminded that our guild's charity efforts this year are Little Dresses For Africa.  One of the girls was working on hers; she's generously making multiples in cute bright splashy floral prints.

We were encouraged not to use white which would show dirt, so I had to find something in my stash that would be suitable and which I had enough of. I ended up using a coral stripe, a green vine, and a blue marble.

Actually finding something large enough in my stash was a challenge. I didn't want to cut into large lengths of yardage planned for backings, and other than backings I usually collect half-yards or FQs of fabric. The minimum length of the size small (2-4) needs at least 5/8 yard. The medium (6-8) needs at least 3/4 yard. All sizes are supposed to use the full width of fabric.

I had enough of the green to make a Medium, no problem.

But then I got stuck. I had just enough length of the coral and the blue for size small, but I didn't have full width of fabric; I had about 36-38".  But I figured that should be enough girth for a toddler. After all, full width of fabric - 42" - is big enough to go around my bustline, and I'm certainly much larger than any toddler. So 36" in girth should be sufficient for a small child. I labeled the coral and blue dresses size Small Slim in case it matters.

These were fast and easy to make. I found a piece of ecru lace and added some to each dress. A little extra touch of prettiness can't hurt for these children, right?

So today I'm whooping about my Little Dresses and linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.