AFS Blocks

A group of friends and I used to participate in a shop's First Saturday BOM program. We'd always go out for coffee afterward, which was the best part. After several years we got tired of making their projects, but we still wanted to get together for coffee, so we created our own Alternative First Saturday get-together. To keep it interesting, we challenged ourselves to declare a project and make progress on it each month, and bring the progress to show when we get together.

My project is the red Dresden plate and checkerboard project. I'm happy to say, I've finished the last Dresden block. Here they all are on my design wall.

The Dresdens will all get snowballed corners (you can see one test corner already) and the centers still need to be added. But the Dresdens have all been trimmed down to 14-1/2" so they're ready for the corners. 

The girls at AFS have seen these blocks several times so I'll just take a phone photo for accountability. I have another project I'm taking to show them, so I'll have something real to share.

Hmm, maybe AFS should stand for Accountability First Saturday. It has certainly helped keep me on track with this project. For the August meeting I want to have all the snowball corners added.


Link up: Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Plan B Part 2

When Heart Builders sent me fabrics to make a top for them, they sent a western print and some light blue coordinates.

Plan A was to use the light blue for background and feature the print. Unfortunately there wasn't enough of the light blue to feature the western print the way I wanted to. So, Plan B: I substituted a different light blue so I'd have enough, and made top #1. Also part of Plan B, I would use the light blues from Heart Builders with some other prints and make a second top for them.  Here's top #1.

These are the fabrics I pulled to go with the light blues for top #2: 

My plan was to cut very large triangles - easy cutting and piecing - lay them out on the design wall, and whip up the second top. 

Unfortunately that didn't work. The darks were just too dark, the contrast was much too stark, and nothing looked good. Sigh. I didn't have enough light blue to simply alternate blue triangles with the low volumes, which would have been boring but passable. So I searched in my stash for a light-ish medium that would do, then I struggled to find a layout. Here's the result. Not the most beautiful creation ever, but for the purpose it will do. 

It measures about 48 x 60".  For an older boy it will be fine, especially after quilting gives it some texture and dimension. Here's a close-up of the fabrics. The grey print has been in my stash awhile, hard to use because it's not a low volume but it reads light-ish against bolder darks. 

Sorry for the too-sunny photos; it was cloudy until the moment I was all set up and ready to take them. Sheesh, this top, which I'm calling Plan B Part 2, has been fraught with issues. 

Now I'm left with extra low volume triangles and triangles cut from the indigo crosshatch and the dark ombre stripe. There will be a Plan C, a third top for Heart Builders. Stay tuned. 

While not my worst ever design fail, this Plan B Part 2 top is certainly not my best ever design. My worst design fails have all had to do with value contrast, usually too much contrast. You'd think I'd learn...

Have you ever had a design you've been disappointed in, but you had to make it work anyway? Did you learn from it?

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Drafting Borders

Design Wall Worktable Monday

My Pickle Dish top is currently about 60" square. I want a rectangular quilt, so my plan is to add top and bottom borders to lengthen it, then finish with a border all around. Here's the top so far:

First I'll add 3" of the background print, top and bottom. Then I'll add pieced borders reminiscent of the arcs. Here's sort of the concept, an EQ7 rendering, for the general layout. This would make the quilt 66" by 78". I might go an inch wider on the final outer borders on the top and bottom.

Actually, I want the pieced border to be made of wedges like in the rings. The wedges are 1-1/4" wide at the wide end and 3/4" at the narrow end. Set wide ends together they make arcs. Alternating wide and narrow ends they'll make a straight strip.

To be consistent and control the size and length, I'll paper piece the borders, so I'm drafting segments, making copies, and taping them together to make a strip of the length I'll need.

When I piece these, I'll alternate light and colored pieces. Each strip needs 31 light pieces and 30 colored pieces.

I can use the same template for cutting the wedge pieces that I used for cutting the wedges in the arcs. Then I can paper piece these borders starting in the center and working my way to the ends, chain piecing as much as possible, so when I'm done I'll have two matching borders.

I'm so glad I got the Pickle Dish blocks repaired last month and sewn together. I have a lot of myself invested in this project and I'm glad to be able to move it forward.


Link ups:
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Em's Scrapbag
Love Laugh Quilt

June Stash Report and Goals Update

Wow, June was a crazy month! Plans changed, prep for a fun social event took over, and my accomplishments in the sewing room took a back seat. It's all good, though. Quilting is just a hobby, not something I stress over. I only keep track of my goals and my stash because I like to look back on what I've done and remember.

Second Annual Great Water Balloon and Splash Party

Hosted by my Husband and Me

June Stash Report
So how did the stash do this month? Well, Janie Lou announced they're closing and held some pretty good sales, so I stocked up. Sad to see them close.

Month IN - 14-5/8 yards (Janie Lou shop closing final sale - 12 yards backings.  2-5/8 yards background for Heart Builders top #1 (from Joanne's with coupon) )
Month OUT - 3-1/2 yards (Heart Builders top #1, my fabrics, top & binding - 2-1/4  yards.  June N4Nb quilt backing & binding - 1-1/4 yards.  Did not count scrap bag In or Out of stash.)

YTD IN -  78-7/8 yards
YTD OUT -  70-1/8 yards
YTD Net Change -  8-3/4 yards IN

Moving in the wrong direction but backings at bargain prices were worth it. I can use up 8 or 9 yards yet this year to break even.

Bargain Backings Planned for Specific Projects

Goals Update:
June Recap:
1. If possible, bind Snake quilt for potential presentation on June 24. Depends on whether my friend can get it quilted with all the travelling she has going on. NO, no surprise, the snake quilt isn't quilted yet.  
2. Assemble backing for grandson's big boy bed quilt and get quilt layered and basted. Partially done, backing is assembled but quilt is not layered and basted. 
3. Piece and/or quilt another Rocking Chair or N4Nb quilt. DONE, Moda scrap bag quilt.
4. Make project for 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop, take photos, draft blog post. DONE
5. Snowball the corners of the Dresden blocks for the red project. Make the one last Dresden block needed. DONE
6. Finish fixing the Pickle Dish blocks and assemble them into quilt center. DONE! Huge relief to have this behind me.
7. Start working on baby quilt for new great-nephew due end of September. NO, but fabrics have been pre-washed and I have the design planned and ready to cut. 
8. Hand sew on WIVSP Piecing Group Project. NO, not touched.
9. Keep up with bee blocks. DONE

Other accomplishments: received fabrics from Heart Builders to piece a top, requested by end of July. Used one of the fabrics plus some of my own and completed one top. Planned and cut parts using the other fabrics they provided plus more of my own for a second top.

Heart Builders Top #1

June N4Nb quilt made from Moda Scrap Bag

Pickle Dish blocks repaired and assembled into top center

July Goals:
1. Clean, make desserts, and host Piecing Group.
2. Assemble 2nd Heart Builders top and possible third top. Send all tops out to Heart Builders.
3. Add first borders to Pickle Dish top. Draft, cut, and start piecing second borders (to be paper pieced).
4. Get grandson's big boy bed quilt layered and basted; start quilting.
5. Piece and/or quilt another N4Nb quilt.
6. Finalize post for 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop, to be featured on July 15.
7. Snowball the corners of the Dresden blocks for the red project.
8. Start working on baby quilt for new great-nephew due end of September.
9. Hand sew on WIVSP Piecing Group Project.
10. Keep up with bee blocks.

Okay, this is probably too much to try to get done in one month. But if I don't list everything, I won't even try, so it's better to list it.

Fabrics for Second Heart Builders Top

Do you set quilting goals? How's it working for you? I'm hoping for a productive month!

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Bee Blocks and More

Not much sewing has taken place since I finished the Heart Builders top. But I've been able to keep up with bee blocks, and due to scheduling reasons, they all seemed to come together now.

Because of scheduling issues, several Sew Bee It blocks are due in July.
- Plus blocks for Krista; she requested blue and provided the low volume backgrounds.
- I-Spy Economy blocks for Kerry in girly colors.
 - Giant HSTs for EM; she requested white or low volume with bright tone-on-tone or blenders, and I know purple is one of her favorite colors. It's actually a much brighter shade than the camera shows here.

The other blocks are mine:
- Winding Ways, which my hand Piecing Group friends are making for me. We'll meet here Tuesday next week and they'll bring back their blocks.
- My turn to hand out at Sew Bee It is July 14 so I'm prepping kits. We'll be making the Have Faith block designed by Jaime of L'Fair Quilts and featured for Hands2Help, tutorial here.

All these blocks have been made over the course of a couple months. They just seemed to all come together at the same time.

So why haven't I been sewing lately? Because of prep for, and clean up from, this:
The Second Annual Great Water Balloon and Splash Party

A very good time was had by all. The kids are already asking to do it again.


Linking up with Let's Bee Social at So Fresh Quilts - fitting, since this post is about bee blocks and a social event.

A Finished Flimsy: Heart Builders Top #1

For my Heart Builders top, Plan B worked out quilt well, I think. The focus fabric was too inspiring to just cut it up, so I made blocks to coordinate with it and set them in a strippy setting reminiscent of a western blanket.

This top turned out at 48" x 64", just right for an older boy. Heart Builders suggested a size of about 45 " x 60", give or take a little. I figured for an older boy, a few extra inches wouldn't hurt. 

I had enough of the blue background left that I was able to cut and prep binding for this quilt. Not required by Heart Builders, but it can only help, right?

Heart Builders sent fabric in June and requested the top at the end of July. They particularly need tops for older boys, masculine but not babyish. I have a plan for the other fabrics they sent so I'll make another masculine top in July and get them both sent out on time. Two for a good cause. I get to enjoy designing and piecing them, and I don't have to worry about quilting them.  Win!!


Link ups: Confessions of a Fabric Addict, My Quilt Infatuation, Jo's Country Junction

June N4Nb Quilt

STLMQG is collecting small quilts for Nurses for Newborns, due in November. The organization takes them when they first visit a new family to teach baby care. Then they leave the quilt with the family to keep. I'm trying to make one of these small quilts per month. June's quilt is the result of a gift of a Moda scrap bag, story here.

It's now quilted, bound, and finished.  This one came out just slightly larger than some of the others, at 28" wide by 38" long. 

I quilted it with wavy lines across each of the seams, so it remains soft. It still needs a spin through the washer and dryer to bring out the crinkle, but I'll wait until I can batch several together.

I found the perfect backing for it in my stash, a piece that's been aging gracefully for over ten years. Turns out, it's also by 3 Sisters Designs, the same design team as the fabric collection used for the front. Taupe binding, also from stash, coordinates nicely with both sides.

I'm currently working on so many projects, some with deadlines, that I feel like I'm pulled in a lot of different directions. It's nice to have a small finish and get this project off the list.

Actually, I don't have much time for sewing this week because I'm getting ready for my family's Second Annual Great Water Balloon and Splash Party on Sunday. Picture 8 kids, ages 12 down to 18 months, hundreds of water balloons, squirt toys, a kiddie pool, assorted other backyard toys, bubbles, 15 adults (the dads and grandpas are like big kids), and barbecue. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the weather remains nice as forecast....  Here's DH and grandson CJ at last year's party.

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts