Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I am still making a few of the regular guild donation blocks. I have started work on the next Color Strip Donation top to go with the others. The HST 9 Patch is made from leftovers from the HST Star quilt top. It is larger than the other blocks – 12.5×12.5 rather than 8×8. Peggy said she would do something with it.
Remember a few months ago when I tried out a Missouri Star block that I had seen on their weekly show?
I like this block, but I did not enjoy making it. I has been hanging on my design wall for months and I wanted to do something with it. For a few weeks I have been thinking of adding another round of star points and making it into a donation top. Over the weekend I did that.
I used my Triangle Technique to make HSTs. While this is a great chart, and covers the most used sizes, it doesn’t go up to making 8″ (and larger) units. I guessed about the starting sizes and was a little bit off.
I had to add a little strip to each HST to make them fit. It is not super noticeable and will be fine for a community quilt. Lesson learned.
We stayed with MaryM to and from Portland. I love her house and would love to spend time working in her sewing room.
On our way home, I picked up some items MaryM made for the door prize bags.
She said the bag is made from a pattern I sent out. I need to find it again. When I do, I will link it.
I am always really excited to see what people are inspired to make for the door prize bags.
I decided to use the leftover improv strip blocks for one donation quilt. I just slapped them up on the design wall so I could see what I had. I will definitely do some kind of colorwash effect in the final layout.
There area lot of colors missing, so I will make some more blocks in the missing colors. I think I need about 28 total blocks to make a reasonable/useful sized quilt.
The long lost and latest addition to my Ends quilt series, Ends n.12: Pop Parade, is finished. I mentioned it the other day in my design wall post. I decided just to make a back and call it done.
Ends n.12 is another in the series of quilts I am making using the cut off edges of quilt backs. This quilt, as mentioned, uses Pop Parade, the never-ending fat quarter pack.
This was mostly done. I had to sew a piece or two on, but mostly I had to make the back.
The back uses the rest of that Italian Restaurant fabric I talked about recently.
This will go to Peggy at the next Sew Day.
See all of the Ends quilt on their own series page.
Lee Ann brought Tim’s quilt back to the guild for donation. It was part of, what Peggy called, the Bind-a-thon. I think the last time I talked about it was in July.
I had totally forgotten about it (out of sight, out of mind). I am glad it is finished and it on its way to some needy person.
Ends n.13 is another in the series of quilts that I talked about a couple of days ago. Yes, I made two this week.
I used the leftover pieces from Ends n.12 to get started and then added some additional pieces from my stash of ‘ends.’
I am leading the door prize team again this year for the guild. I finally got around to organizing all of the things I have. What I do is lay them all out, sort them by month and then put them in ziploc bags with with the month written on the outside. I try to create themes, like red or hearts for February, but I don’t mandate what my team members make, so sometimes I have to make due. Nobody has ever complained.
When the month comes along, I can grab a ziploc, stuff it in a bag and go to the meeting. Usually, I have to do this in advance so I can take a picture and send it to Maria. She needs info in advance for the hybrid part of the meeting. Theoretically, I can put the bag together at the last minute and just go, but I almost never do that.
I used the fabulous Poolside Tote that Angela made for me as a thank you for organizing the officer gifts for a few years. I love that bag. It is great for this purpose. Sometime I’ll use it for something else, but for now, it works really well for this purpose
Carrie is a fantastic team member. She recently put together zipper pouches for the monthly prizes that are super useful.
These items arrived in a zipper pouch, so all I had to do was toss the zipper pouch in my plastic bag. I did take one out so I could take a photo. I think having an extra pair of scissors is always useful.
Sue G sent along some small drawstring bags she made. You can see some of Sue’s in the picture at the top, but I mentioned them when I received them. She did a great job fussy cutting.
Drawstring bags are popular this year as I received a large one from Cyndi for March, then I received another one from Sue G. It is really pretty. I love the piecing. The ties are also perfect. I believe both Sue G and Cyndi used the In Color Order Drawstring bag pattern.
Cheri never comes to meetings, but she always contributes to the door prize bags as well. This year she made some gift bags like I make for holidays.
Sue S donated some canvas bags I can use to carry all the gifts and the recent French canvas bags I made are for door prizes.
We need a few more bags, but are coming along.
I decided I needed to get this one finished. All the projects left on my design walls when I put them away were a lot less interesting when I saw them again. I didn’t want to toss them, but I did want them finished.
I started it last year sometime. The first time I talked about it was July, which was right before we dismantled my workroom. I was concerned at that time that I wouldn’t have enough scraps to make a decent sized baby quilt. It’s still a concern as I am piecing tiny scraps together and expect to have no yellow scraps left.
I spent time over the weekend making good progress.
I have other projects to use as leaders and enders, but I have been making a little progress on donation blocks. Some you have seen, but this is the total number for February. I am channeling my friend, Marty, somewhat. She loves brown and for some reason I am trying to use up the brown squares I have.
I gave a slew to Peggy at the guild meeting the other day. The ones I have made in February are small in number but mighty in potential good.
I finished the HST Star quilt in time to give it to the community quilts team.
I am pretty pleased with the way it came. A sort of dull charm pack (why did I buy it??) turned into a cheerful quilt top.
The quilt isn’t very girly and I wanted it to be suitable for boys as well, so I chose an Italian restaurant print I have had for years. It is time to use it and this is a good use of it.
I made good progress over the weekend on the current donation quilt. I talked about it the other day. Talking about it really made me want to get it done so I could hand it in at the meeting next weekend. It has been a long time since I have made a quilt.
I didn’t know how this was going to shape up as the picture I saw was small and not very attractively styled. I knew that it wouldn’t look hideous regardless, so I stayed the course.
I had sewn a bunch of HSTs from the charm pack I had. To make the legs, I needed to rip off some of the white triangles in order to make the legs. I decided I didn’t want to make giant Flying Geese and would make the legs into giant HSTs.
I was able to get the foreground part of the quilt done on Saturday, which was great.
The white brightens up the slightly subdued colors of the charm pack.
I am working on a donation top. I saw a picture in Today’s Quilter and thought it would give some relief to poor Peggy who has been the recipient of a 100 or so HSTs recently.
I started going through my charm packs after Peggy asked for HSTs for donation quilts. I used up 4 charm packs (2 of background) and sent the HSTs to her without making a quilt.
Finally, I decided that was a little mean and I was inspired by a Sawtooth Star quilt made from HSTs. One day last week on my lunch hour I started sewing the center blocks together. I made three HST 9 patches in about half an hour, which made me very happy on a lot of levels.
Stay tuned for the finish (or another in progress shot.
Everything has slowed down in my workroom, but I am still eeeking out some works. I have, again, made a few donation blocks in the last week or so.
I haven’t gotten my act together for the BAM door prizes yet. I have a tote bag full of stuff ready to be sorted and nothing sorted. Part of the problem is that I only have canvas bags from a shop. I don’t have any handmade bags. I have several of the canvas bags and they are nice – thick and sturdy and great for something like the Farmer’s Market. I prefer not to give the same bag every month.
At the guild meeting the other week, Maria tempted me to take some canvas. The motif is a kind of Paris theme. I got out my Jane Market Tote pattern and this fabric and made some totes.
I didn’t use the exact pattern; mostly I just used the dimensions from the pattern. I didn’t want to line the tote, because the canvas was thick enough without a lining. That meant that I needed to sew French seams to make sure all of the raw edges were enclosed.
With the first one, I enclosed all the seams on the inside of the bag. Enclosing the seams on the inside when very smoothly and the bag went together really fast.The bag came out a little smaller than the already small Jane Market Tote, but I think it is a cute size and different from many bags.
After making the first one, I thought I would enclose the seams on the outside for the second one. I thought it would be an interesting design feature. This version also went together pretty well, but I had more trouble with the seams on the outside. I am not sure why. In this version, there is also a big lumpy seam on the outside of the bottom, which is not ideal.
So far I have made two and I think I have enough fabric to make at least one more. My sister might like one. The motif is up her alley. I think the size will work well for the door prizes.