My Busy Design Wall

I rarely have more than one project at a time on my design wall, but today I have three.

Clockwise from top:

• WIVSP, aka "How Many," my hand piecing project. The top five rows are sewn together. The next two rows are sewn together, ready to be attached to the top part. My Piecing Group friends returned the sections they recently worked on for me (like a bee), and now I'm getting the sections pressed and ready to lay out for joining together. This will be a queen sized quilt and it's been in work since about 2008, all hand sewn, thus the designation as a Work In Very Slow Progress.

• First Saturday blocks. A LQS is running a BOM series with an Emerald Isle theme. These are the first six main blocks, the first time I've put them all up on the wall to see how they look. There is also an optional alternate block each month. The alternate blocks also have the borders around them that create the diagonal chain effect. I haven't made them yet, although I have the kits. At the end of the series I'll decide if I want the alternate blocks as designed, or if I want to do something else instead.

• Boomerang Patches baby quilt top in progress. Those chevron borders required lots of partial seams, unsewing, and Y-seams. I need to trim the top to get rid of the excess points, then staystitch around the edges since it's on the bias and has lots of seams. It measures about 36 x 42. I'll find backing for it in my stash and quilt it myself. 

This week I need to figure out next steps and where I'm at on these projects and look at my goals for the month to see what else I need to work on. Lots of irons in the fire! 

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

Sewing at the Quilt Cave with Kevin and Friends

I was honored to be invited to sew with Kevin the Quilter and friends at his Quilt Cave last week. We had such a good time!

It all started when Cherie posted a photo of an antique quilt top and I drafted the block for her. Kevin invited Cherie (Quilted Jonquil), Dar (Dar's Patchwork Garden), and me to his Quilt Cave to use this block to make a Quilt of Valor.

Test Block

But first we had to visit the chickens and see the newly hatched baby chicks. So soft and so cute!!! At that point I hadn't unpacked my camera yet, so unfortunately no photos.

We gathered in Kevin's wonderful studio, large and very comfortable for four of us with ample room to spread out, multiple cutting stations, excellent lighting, and a giant design wall. Kevin, you rock! We started by cutting with templates, then paper piecing the arcs.

Paper Pieces for Arcs and Templates for Red Wedges and White Background

Cherie gave a refresher lesson on paper piecing. I'm so glad; her advice helped me tremendously. I don't love paper piecing and I had to rip out more than I cared to when I made the original test block. Cherie explained how and where to start, which side up/down, and how to align the next piece. Thanks, Cherie!

Cherie Demonstrated Paper Piecing the Arcs

Then we were off and running. Each of us pieced at least one arc (me). Then I volunteered to sew curves while the others continued to piece arcs. Soon we had three blocks on the wall:

Three Blocks on the Wall

By lunchtime we had 5 blocks done, but it was becoming apparent that I couldn't keep up, sewing all the curved seams, with how quickly the arcs were piling up.

Five Blocks on the Wall

Kevin served a beautifully presented and delicious salmon salad. Check out his blog, I hope he posts a picture of it. It was definitely impressive.

After lunch I showed everyone how to sew the curved seams and get them to align correctly at the start and the end without going wonky. (Since I was demonstrating, I didn't take photos, so I'll have to get someone to help me and I'll post a tutorial later.) Eventually - with some muttering, etc. - each of us completed a block.

Kevin with his Block 

Congrats on those curved seams, Kevin!

Cherie with her block

We weren't having any fun and we didn't laugh at all, all day. Not. 

Camera-Shy Dar with her Block

Me

By the end of the day we had completed 14 blocks. I didn't think we'd get nearly this many blocks done. And we had such a good time!

You can see why this is called a snake quilt. We like the scrappy variety of fabrics, especially the blues. It's pretty amazing what four people can come up with together, just from stash. There's even a few patches in there from recycled shirts. I like that there's a lot of value contrast within the blue arcs, which kind of makes them sparkle. At first I thought all dark blues would be better, but the variety is much more interesting.

14 Blocks on the Wall

We've decided to get together periodically and sew until we get enough blocks done for a QOV. Since the blocks are 10" and we want the quilt to be 60" x 80", we need a 6 x 8 layout or 48 blocks.

Thank you, Kevin, for inviting us, for being such a great host, for the magnificent lunch, and for such a good time together. It's so much fun to get together with others who share my love of quilting, do what we love all day, laugh and chat while we're doing it, and end up with such a worthwhile project. I'm so looking forward to our next get-together. And I've promised myself that in the meantime I will master paper piecing these arcs; my goal is to achieve at least one without having to unsew anything.


Since this was a social sewing event, I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Boomerang Patches

Awhile back I mentioned that I had "adopted" some little 4-patches and swatches at my guild's orphan adoption event. Then I discovered that they were leftover bits from a project of my own from about ten years ago, that I had donated to a previous guild event. I still liked the colors, and I even still have some of these fabrics in my stash.

During my recent studio clean-up, I debated putting the box of patches away somewhere, or just using them right away. I ended up sewing them into nine-patches.

An on-point setting seems to be working. I added a green/blue stripe and some white-on-white to supplement the existing patches, so that I could use more of the white in the border and the stripe for the binding.

For setting triangles, I'm piecing together a few patches and framing them with a strip of that speckled dark blue, which is making a chevron border. I'll fill in the corners with the white-on-white. The cut strips of dark blue look a little heavy here, but they will finish the same width as the tiny four-patch squares, 1-1/4 inches.

My friend Cherie donated the box of patches to the orphan adoption event. Our late friend Darlene had adopted the patches years ago when I donated them and had started a baby quilt out of them. Cherie helped Darlene's husband to deal with Darlene's stash, and ended up taking the baby quilt WIP and the extra patches. She'll finish Darlene's baby quilt, and she challenged me to see who finishes first, or maybe we can both finish them and show them at guild show & tell at the same time.

So one of my goals this month is to get these Boomerang Patches sewn into a flimsy and off the design wall.

Linking up with Patchwork Times, Em's Scrapbag, and Cooking Up Quilts

January Stash Report & Goals Recap

I may have gotten a little sidetracked in January. Or maybe derailed is a better description. Anyway, with the new year I found myself starting some unplanned new projects. Let's check out the state of the stash and then regroup with the goals.

January Stash Report:
IN: 6-3/4 yards (FQ Sale - 4 yds; Janie Lou - 2-3/4 yards lt green bkgd)
OUT: 14-1/4 yards (LCT QOV Back - 3-3/4 yds; Binding - 5/8 yd;  DP II Flimsy, 9-3/4 yards)
Month and YTD net change: 7-1/5 yards out

It's nice to be in the black so far. In February my guild has our annual fabric swap and I'm sure I'll pick up some new-to-me fabrics there. I'll take some no-longer-loved pieces to destash, too, so hopefully I'll break even from the event.

My biggest purchase in January (other than the FQ sale) was pale green background for my Pat Sloan Solstice Challenge blocks, shown here with some older stash fabrics I'm using in the blocks.

Did I mention I got sidetracked? While I didn't work on a WIP or UFO, I did get a lot done, but I also started projects so now I have a few more WIPS. I think I'll have to stay more focused in February.

January Goals recap:
1. Complete LCT QOV.  DONE
2. Assemble blocks for Dancing Plus II into a flimsy.  DONE
3. Make progress on at least one WIP or UFO. Not touched
4. Keep up with bee blocks. DONE. I even managed quite a bit (for me) of hand sewing on my Piecing Group project. I'll show more after the group meets here on the 7th.

Other January accomplishments, not planned:

1. Started Pat Sloan Solstice Challenge; made first 6 blocks, remade some of them with better background
2. Made string blocks for Karen
3. Planned & started baby quilt using Boomerang Patches. I'll show it on my design wall tomorrow. 
4. Drafted and made templates for snake block; made test block; cut pieces for sew day at Kevin's Quilt Cave

DP II Flimsy

LCT QOV

Snake Block 

February Goals: 

1. Keep up with Pat Sloan Solstice Challenge blocks

2. Finish Boomerang Patches baby quilt into a flimsy

3. Cut pieces & paper-piece arcs for more snake blocks for the next sew day at Kevin's Quilt Cave

4. Make progress on Roman Road WIP

5. Make progress hand piecing my Piecing Group project

6. Keep up with bee blocks

OK, that's a lot of smaller projects, or small portions of larger ones, that I can bounce around among in February. Let's see if I can stay focused on just these and not start anything new. Wish me luck!

Linking up with Patchwork Times

The Perfect Background

Last week I invested in a pale yellow-green crosshatch print for background for my Pat Sloan Solstice Challenge project. It turned out to be perfect. 

I used it for last week's Crosswalk block: 

And I remade the blocks from weeks 1 and 2 using it for the background.

I think I'll be much happier with this than I was with the beige I had been using. 

So far I've been able to keep up with the challenge, but since I've spent time on this project, I neglected to work on a UFO in January. And now I have this new WIP. I think I'll have to be a lot more disciplined in February about sticking to my goals. 

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

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