DWM 7/14/17: The Ugly Churn Dash Saga Continues

If you remember the saga of the Churn Dash top that didn't turn out well (here and here), I decided to take the top apart, cut the blocks into fourths, make some more with red in them, and reassemble it Disappearing Nine Patch style.

Here's what my design wall looks like today, with stacks of parts pinned to it:

 

I spent some time last week unsewing. I also made the little red units. Because I didn't have any more of the dot fabric for the center of the Churn Dash, I had to use some of the sashing strips and construct those 1/4 Churn Dash units individually. I still have several CD blocks to cut apart and some more that haven't been unsewn yet.

 

Hopefully this week I can get them laid out in a pleasing arrangement on the wall and get them resewn into a new top.

 

In other news, my elderly neighbor is moving into a nursing home tomorrow. I'm giving her this quilt.

Trellis, 62" x 74"

 

I made this top a long time ago, before I ever got EQ5. Remember when hinged mirrors first came into vogue for designing? I designed 1/4 of this quilt on graph paper with colored pencils and then used hinged mirrors to determine the complete design. It's actually just Nine Patch and Kaleidoscope blocks. That was back in the late '90's or very early 2000's I think. I didn't have the skills to machine quilt it at the time, so it remained a UFO until 2006. Since then it's been hanging in the closet. Now it's time to go with Dot to a new home.

 

Linking up today with Judy at Patchwork Times. Check out all the inspiration on everyone else's design walls over there.  

Stash Report 7/13/14

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times for Stash Report Sunday -

3 yards in - backing bought on sale at LQS.
Nothing out. Moving in the wrong direction!

Have you heard about the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop? Check out my post below, then click on the links to meet some new blogger friends.

New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop

I’ve been a quilter forever, it seems, but I’ve only been blogging for about a year. So, I’m participating in the 2014 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop.

Let me introduce myself – my name is Jan. I’m a wife, mom of one grown son and DIL; daughter, sister, friend. I live in the greater St. Louis MO metro area.

I started sewing as a child and always wanted to be a fashion designer, so I majored in fashion design in college. I’m retired from a career in apparel, textiles and footwear product development, where I worked as a pattern maker, designer, material librarian and color specialist. Now I’m focusing on quilting as part of the next chapter in my life. I have a small book in the works with AQS, to be published next year.

I’ve been piecing and quilting since the early 1990’s.  I’ve been a member of Circle in the Square Quilters since 1992, and their hand piecing group since 2000. Like many long-time quilters, I started with traditional quilts. Since then my skills have improved and my tastes have changed, so now I design my own quilts and they’re more original and/or more modern-ish. I love EQ7 for designing!Although I don’t consider myself a Modern quilter, I am a charter member of the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild.

Here are some of my favorite quilts:

Legacy, 2007, made for my dad’s 80^th birthday. The words printed in each block are the titles to memoir stories that he wrote. Machine pieced and machine quilted by me. Twin bed size.

Legacy

Loop in Motion, 2006, hand pieced by members of CSQ Piecing Group and machine quilted by me. 60”. Made for a challenge to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of University City MO, which holds a festival in its Loop neighborhood called Loop in Motion.

Loop in Motion

Celtic Lullaby, started in 2005 and finished in 2011. 96” queen size. Hand pieced and hand embroidered by me and members of CSQ; hand quilted by Modesta Basler. Accepted into AQS Paducah in 2012.

Celtic Lullaby

Charmed Snowballs, 2013, tutorial here. Just a fun little quilt made for no particular reason, but I like the way it turned out. Machine pieced and machine quilted by me.

Charmed Snowballs

Big Print Beauty, 2014, twin bed size. Long arm quilted by Darlene Pratte. Made to illustrate a lecture I gave about working with large scale prints; pattern available.

Big Print Beauty

Everyone participating in the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop has been asked to offer a blogging tip and a quilting tip, ask a question of other bloggers, and tell a random fact about themselves. So, here goes:

Blogging Tip: Sharing the oopses can be more beneficial than showing the latest finish, although those are satisfying to post, too. I always learn from the comments people leave about my mistakes or challenges, and I always appreciate their input.

Quilting tip: Master the scant quarter-inch seam, which should be one thread-width narrower than the 1/4" mark on your ruler. This is to accommodate the thickness of the fabric as it's folded over when pressed. Piecing comes out so much better: correct measurements, nice points, flat and square flimsy (not wavy or bowed) when the piecing is done with a good scant 1/4" seam.

Question: What do you like and not like about the content of the blogs you follow? Instruction? Finishes with glamour shots of projects? WIPs? Project oopses and design challenges? Occasional life and general chitchat? Other?

Random fact about me: I white-water rafted through the Grand Canyon.

Please visit the other New Quilt Bloggers participating in the Blog Hop.  Here are the links to the bloggers posting today, and you can click on the button on my sidebar for links to additional participants.

Sarah @ http://www.berrybarndesigns.com/

Liz @ http://www.greencheesequilting.blogspot.com/

Janet @ http://www.simplypieced.blogspot.com/

Ruth @ http://benandcharlyscorner.blogspot.ie/

Kristyn @ http://melonpatchquilts.com/

Jo @ http://riddleandwhimsy.wordpress.com/

Linh @ http://www.callingallstitchers.blogspot.com/

Alida @ http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/

Rachael @ http://www.quiltineering.com/

 

Since my blog is very much a work in progress, I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

 

 

 

DWM 7/7/14: Not much going on...

Here's what my design wall looks like today. I haven' t had much sewing mojo lately so not much has changed. The only change from last week is my attempt to mock up borders around the center of the bad churn dash top.

I had several comments last week about how I could salvage this top. Some suggested adding some red, to improve the balance of light & dark, perhaps adding the red to the sashing. Another suggested I import photos of the existing blocks into EQ and play with options. Good suggestion! I tried it, and although the photos didn't work, drawing the blocks and adding my fabrics did. I played with some options but didn't really like any of them.

Then I played with cutting up the Churn Dash blocks DNP style. I added some red ones and some all-stripe ones. Here's one possible layout. I like the streak-of-lightning effect but the color placement needs to be mixed up, which I can do with actual blocks on the design wall. This could make a cute table topper for someone who has red, yellow, and teal Fiesta ware.

The only sewing I actually accomplished last week was a black nylon pouch to attach to the handlebars of DH's bike. He's riding in the RAGBRAI later this month and he wanted somewhere to keep his reading glasses. So I made a little pouch that attaches with Velcro, just big enough for his glasses, map, phone, and a couple tubes of energy gel.

I didn't post a stash report yesterday because I had nothing in and nothing out last week. I'm not counting the fabric used in the churn dash top until I either remake it into something good, or give up on it and call it a loss.

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times; check out everyone else's design wall over there.

DWM 6/30/14: Embarassing

Updated Wed. 7/2 to link up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. If you're visiting from Freshly Pieced, I'd love your input about how I can fix this.

Here's what's on my design wall today: probably the ugliest quilt top I've ever made!

I started with this collection of fabrics, but it all went downhill from there.

 

The problems have to do with value and proportion. The value contrast between the teal and everything else is much too strong. Plus, the value contrast between the stripe and the background is not strong enough.

 

Compounding the problem, I chose to make multi-fabric Churn Dashes instead of all the same fabric, and the result is choppy. Only after I had made 12 of them did I realize this.

 

So I added a few solid Churn Dashes, thinking it would help. (By the way, this is a much more accurate photo of the teal color; it really isn't as dark and blue as it looks above.)

 



The sashing print doesn't contrast enough with the background. The overall effect is that the background and the sashing are all the same value. The proportion of light and dark is off balance, with pops of too-dark against too much too-pale light.

I'm disgusted with myself because I should have known better. I should have played in EQ before wasting all this fabric (2-1/3 yards).

The only thing I can think to do to salvage it is to cut most of the outer blocks off and add borders. This changes the relative proportions of the lights and darks so it's not quite so bad, but still not great. I have enough of the stripe and the teal for borders, and I'm leaning toward the stripe. With 4" borders added to this center, it would finish at 46 x 46" for a kid's donation quilt.

What do you think? Any other suggestions for salvaging it?

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times; check out everyone else's much prettier projects over there.

June Stash Report & Goals Update

Stash Report: June was actually a good month for the stash!
June IN: 2.375 yards
(1 yard bought at friend's sale; 1-3/8 received from STLMQG for Charity Pay It Forward)
June OUT: 6.125 yards
(STLMQG free table donation, scraps, 1-1/4 yards; Michael Miller Challenge, 1-7/8 yards; Dresden Rows binding, 5/8 yard; bad Churn Dash top, 2-1/3 yards, story tomorrow)
June Net Change: 3.75 yards OUT

YTD IN: 129.875 yards
YTD OUT: 87.53 yards
YTD Net Change: 42.345 yards IN
Since my goal is to break even for the year, I need to get busy and finish a few things so I can count more out. And of course refrain from acquiring more fabric. Yeah, right. :-)

June Finishes:

Michael Miller Fabrics Challenge, Table Runner

 

Dresden Rows

 

June Goals, update:
1. Complete Michael Miller Challenge.  DONE
2. Finish quilting Dresden Rows. Quilted, bound, labeled, FINISHED.
3. Design & start on special baby quilt. Designed & started.
4. Keep up with bee blocks. DONE
5. Optional: Design CSQ 30-Something challenge. Not done; not feeling inspired...

July Goals:
1. Complete special baby quilt top.
2. Quilt & finish girl charity quilt.
3. Work on Broken Chevron UFO.
4. Keep up with bee blocks.
5. Press Mega Medallion top & backing and give to Sandy for quilting.
6. Optional: CSQ 30-Something challenge, due Oct.21.

My July goals are pretty simple. I'm not feeling much quilting mojo these days; I guess maybe I pushed so hard for several months to get all the book stuff done that I feel less pressure now. I actually miss writing patterns, but I don't have anything suitable ready to write up right now.

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times; check out everyone else's stash management efforts over there.

WIP Wednesday: Making HSTs

I was inspired to play with Churn Dash blocks so I pilled fabrics from stash and I've been making Half-Square Triangles. They'll finish at 3" for 9" blocks.

I'm using Triangles on a Roll paper, my favorite method for HSTs. Here's the paper pinned to the fabrics. I pin it to the lighter fabric so when I press, I can press the seam allowances toward the darker fabric.

 

Here's a close-up of the instructions:

 

For 12 blocks I made 48 triangles. Here they are cut apart:

 

Nest step: tearing off the paper and trimming the ears:

 

Striped fabrics end up vertical and horizontal, but when you move the HSTs around they work:

 

 

I'll be playing with these some more this week. Meanwhile, I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced; check out the other WIPs over there.