Holiday Greetings

... from our Arizona home

To all who celebrate Christmas, have a merry one! To everyone, best wishes for a joyous holiday season and a happy and healthy New Year.

Counting Parts

I usually only work on my Four Patch Shuffle blocks at social sewing. Social sewing is what I call the informal gathering that meets in PCQ's Fiber Arts Room on Wednesdays. Officially, PCQ's Sewing Club has the use of the room on Wednesdays, quilters welcome. We hang out, work on our projects, and go out to lunch. Lately, either we haven't had our Wednesday get together or there's been something else going on in the room, so I haven't made much progress on my Four Patch Shuffle blocks in awhile. 

I put the parts on my design wall to see where I'm at and count how many more I need to make. 

I have enough starter blocks for 8 more of the Orange and Green combo. I also have black and white pieces cut to finish out the blue and yellow blocks whose parts are on the wall. 

Looks like I have some more cutting to do, and definitely more assembly. I'm a little concerned about running out of the solid colors, but they were purchased locally so I can get more if I need to. Hopefully the fabric I have on hand will be sufficient. 

I'm hoping to get back to this project after the new year. However, the Sewing Club has announced classes for beginning sewing on certain Wednesdays, so the room will be closed to all but the class attendees on those days. The Quilt Club officially has the room on Tuesdays, and it's often crowded. So we'll see how things go in the new year; I may occasionally go on Tuesdays, and/or go on fewer Wednesdays when there isn't a class scheduled. Or just meet up for lunch with some of the girls. Anyway, it looks like my Four Patch Shuffle project will be a work in progress for awhile longer. 

I hope to post a tutorial for it in January. Stay tuned...

Linking up with Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Pink Race Leftovers, a Finished Quilt

 Remember the Hot Race quilt I dropped everything and made earlier in the fall? 

I cut too many strips and pieced together too much of the race fabric, so I had to trim it down to the size I needed. What to do with the leftovers? This:

I cut them into squares, framed them in black and white, and created a throw size quilt. Nothing like a black and white checkerboard to unify a bunch of random blocks. There are a handful of plain blocks in it, because I didn't have quite enough of the leftovers for the number of blocks needed. 

Once the top was pieced, I found the perfect backing for it. 

This fabric had languished in the club's backing stash for a long time, but it was too perfect for this top to pass up. 

I quilted it on PCQ's long arm with a large meander, using hot pink thread for both the top and the bobbin. 

The Hot Race quilt leftovers are all used up, and for a good purpose, too. At 54 x 72", this throw size quilt will be a donation for the local family services agency. I hope it brightens the spirit of a young girl who's been through a tough time.

Link Ups: Alycia Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Wendy's Quilts and More

The "Old Lady" Top

In last week's post I mentioned an experiment using floral prints from PCQ's stash, story here. The results are... meh. It's a finished top, but it's a busy mess of pastel florals. 

I'm sure it'll be a nice comfort quilt for someone in Hospice, perhaps an older lady in her 90s. At least the colors are soothing. 

                             

As far as the experiment goes, I've decided not to pursue the idea for PCQ charity committee projects for next year because the club's stash is just too random and the result is just too disappointing. 

I'll prep backing, batting and binding for this top and put it in the To Be Quilted cabinet in the quilting room. Someone else can quilt it, and there are people who like to do bindings, so it'll get finished and donated. 

Link Up: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Cube Challenge a la Escher

 My Cube Challenge project is finally a finished flimsy. PCQ's challenge this year is to represent the Cube in a finished piece that will be displayed in PebbleCreek's Creative Arts Center in March. 

It's much too big to photograph on my wall outside so here's an indoor shot on my design wall. It finished at 96" wide by 98" high before quilting. 

My husband decided he wants this quilt for our bed so I ordered wool batting for it. I found the perfect backing for it - a digitally printed wide ombre Stonehenge in Oxidized Copper. It's so cool; dark green at the sides similar to the background of the front, shading through coppery hues to pale golden tan at the center.  See it here.

Alycia is going to quilt it for me. We've been talking about ruler work in and around the Y shapes and filler with paisleys and swirls in the background. 

A couple of people who've seen photos of it in progress have called it my Escher quilt, so I'm naming it Cube Challenge a la Escher. I'll make a label for it and prep the binding before Alycia sends it back to me in February, so it can be completely finished in time. 

PCQ is the featured club for the display windows and hallway in the Creative Arts Center in March each year. All the challenge quilts will be on display for the month. I've seen a couple of them in work, and there's some serious talent going into the ones I've seen. For those intimidated by the three dimensional aspect of the cube, a Tumbling Blocks class is being held this month, to learn Y seams and value placement. Any completed Cube project is eligible for display, so smaller projects like placemats, runners, pillows and bags will be featured in the windows. 

Link ups: Alycia Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF and Wendy's Quilts and More

Experimenting

 I'm trying to find or develop ideas for projects PCQ's Community Service committee can easily kit up for our charity sew days, using the stash we have available. The stash skews older with a lot of darkish colors, not much in the way of popular brights. We also have a lot of Christmas, novelty, and two bins of florals. 

So I'm experimenting with ideas. I tried to pull a palette from the floral bins for a project using 20 fat quarters. I tried for a consistent soft palette and pulled prints that had a lot of rose or dusty pink in them, and anything that might remotely harmonize. 

I also pulled a few blenders in rose, seafoam, and cream, plus I ended up supplementing with a few of my own floral FQs. 

My husband took one look at this project (he very rarely comments on my projects) and said it looks very "old lady." He hopes I'm not keeping it. He said his great grandmother would have loved it. Okay, I get it, it's not a contemporary look, but it'll go to hospice and someone will be able to use it. Maybe someone in their 90s...

The piecing involves cutting the FQs into large squares, then strips of varied widths, randomly sewing the strips together, crosscutting the resulting blocks, and randomly sewing the parts into final blocks. The idea is that the more mixed up the prints are in each block, the better. 

So, will this concept work for our stash? I don't know. Maybe the idea works better when a single designer collection is used so the result is more cohesive.  

I'll have a better idea of whether this will work for us when this top is done and I look again at what we have in the bins in the sewing room. I'm meeting with the committee chair next week to talk about ideas for next year. 

In other quilty news, look at my design wall. It's clean!!! And not just empty, it's de-linted. It took several lint roller sheets to get it completely free of threads, dust and lint. 

There's a reason for cleaning it off. Come back Friday for more on that. 

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Shards Print Double Four Patch Flimsy

I found this "Shards" print several years ago at one of the pop up shops during Quilt Week in Paducah. I thought it would be good for a masculine donation quilt. 

The top needed borders, which got added in November, and now it's a finished flimsy. My husband saw it on my design wall when I was measuring for the borders, and he really likes it. We're not keeping it; we have plenty of quilts. This one will go to the local hospice that PCQ supports; they need quilts suitable for men. With the borders, this measures 60 x 76, a good sized throw. 

I had forgotten how effective a simple Double Four Patch pattern could be, especially for a charity quilt. The blocks are 16" with squares of 8" and 4". With the borders, this top measures 60 x 76, a good size for an adult throw. This one will go to the local hospice PCQ supports. 

I have backing fabric from PCQ, a charcoal grey tonal print that I can also use for binding. I'll get the back pieced asap. I may quilt this one on my domestic machine since it'll be a while until I can get time on the club's long arm. 

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict