Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
It has been awhile since I made a pet bed, but the schnibble bag was getting too full.
The fabric is one of the last I got from Amanda, *I think*. I had to trim the gusset a little as I thought it was too long and made a long tunnel in the opening, which makes getting the schnibbles into the pet bed, without much on the floor, difficult.
I thought I had a lot of schnibbles, but the bed isn’t even half full. Refer to my post on having less time to sew. 😉
I made the last Spiky 16 patch block and I am pleased with the way it looks.
I am liking the look of the the colors together. There are some purples and light, icky greens, but I think they add interest rather than disrupting the sea/calm look. What do you think?
Next step: on point triangles. I think I mentioned I found a new technique for creating these. I know I printed it out and now need to remember when I put it.
As mentioned, I finished the fourth Spiky 16 Patch Block I worked on over Memorial Day weekend. I found some interesting directions for cutting side triangles for an on point setting and wanted to try them. Yes, I have rulers galore that are supposed to deal with this problem, but I can’t seem to get them to work.
First, however, I needed to look at the piece laid out. I laid it out on my design wall and decided that that giant plain square in the middle would be a nuisance. If I were a master quilter, that would be a great square for a feathered wreath. Since this is a donation, I thought it would be a pain for whomever decided to quilt it and I should make another block to fit in that spot.
Even if I ultimately decide not to put the block in the center, it won’t be wasted. I can’t use it for another quilt. Pam suggested another block in the center, which is a good idea and would make a great variation. Not sure what it would be though. I’ll keep it in mind if the center block ends up not working out.
My goal is to have this done to turn in at the meeting. We’ll see.
As I mentioned the other day, I have been in a sewing drought and that affects all aspects of sewing, including my donation sewing. I took some time over the long weekend to sew as much as I could. Part of that included sewing some 16 patches.
I am trying to use similar fabrics so there are sets of blocks that people can use. My colors, especially the backgrounds can differ from what others use. I felt like making some blocks that would work for boys. It was fortunate I had some greys left over from the Triple Star. Not many, but some to add to my pile to donate when I go to the meeting in June. And this group does not include my work on the Spiky 16 patches.
I am back to working on the second Spiky 16 Patch donation quilt.
Over the long weekend, I got a chance to sew together some of the bias rectangles I had prepared. It turns out I made a lot of the ones I already had and very few of the ones I needed. Sigh.
I sewed the ones I had prepped together anyway and cut the 5 inch strips required for the rectangles. I was cutting for the Stepping Stones, as mentioned, and just used some of the same blues and greens I was using for the Stepping Stones to prep more.
There is something comforting and satisfying about making these Bias Rectangles. I really like the Split Recs ruler. I think it works really well. Yes, I trim, but I get really nice HRTs out of the process and they are a joy to sew. I am trying to think of different blocks to make from HRTs. I have units to make several more of these Spiky 16 patch blocks, except for the HRTs of which I am chronically short. 😉
I did finish this block and I am pleased with it. These are really nice blocks. I will lay out the piece on point when I get a chance.
I have been looking at my three Spiky 16 patch blocks and trying to decide if I can get away with a quilt made from 3 blocks. As I mentioned, I need to make some HRTs and I haven’t had a chance to finish them up.
I had an idea to make sort of a square with the on point blocks offset. the effect wasn’t quite what I was expecting.
I tried to offset the blocks again leaving space for a fourth block. It still didn’t work the way I expected. It isn’t what I want.
Finally, I thought about the Donation quilt that Kathleen and I put together from color blocks. This gave me my last idea of the day for laying out three blocks.
I don’t think three blocks will work, but I wish they would. I’ll get busy making more blocks
A lot of what I am doing at the moment is prep. Cutting fabric that I can’t sew together now, but will do so later. Pressing fabric that will be cut whose small pieces will eventually be sewn back into a large piece of something. This is the sad nature of Hunting & Gathering.
As I mentioned the other day, I have been cutting clues for more Spiky 16 patch blocks. I have quite a number of 16 patches waiting to be spiked, so there is a never ending need. For some reason that I can’t remember right now, I couldn’t actually get fabric under the machine, but I could cut and I cut a lot.
I have to say and I am really liking the Split Recs ruler by Studio 180 Designs. I can cut gazillions of these pieces without thinking twice. Watch the video!
My small design wall is fairly empty this Monday, but stuff is happening there. Mostly donation stuff.
On the bottom left are my new group of FOTY 2018 pieces. I posted about the most recent group on Saturday.
The middle of the design wall shows my most recent Spiky 16 Patches.
Below the Spiky 16 Patches is one last 9 patch. I forgot to include it in the Octagon Nine Patch.
On the right, a donation block in process.
I am linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, the relatively new hosting site of Design Wall Monday.
Here are a few more donation blocks. From the Spiky 16 patch you can see why I have so few. I am getting down to my lesser favorite colors. I’ll have to make some black and grey blocks pretty soon.
In between all that sewing for the Octagon 9 Patch, I made a few 16 patches and another Spiky 16 Patch. The center 16 patch is actually one of the 16 patches I made. Instead of putting in the pile and taking one of the centers I intended for the Spiky blocks, I just started adding bias rectangles to it.
I won’t be able to make anymore of these until I make some more of the left facing HRTs. I am almost all out and I always forget to make them.
Now I have three blocks for this donation quilt. I am thinking 4 or 5 blocks will make something nice. I want to set it a big asymmetrically like the giant Sawtooth Star quilts I made. I’ll have to play around as these 16″ blocks are larger than the Sawtooth Stars.
I have been working on the Spiky 16 Patch prep so I haven’t made as many regular 16 patches. These are particularly nice.
I have been cutting up new fabric, which means I have some fresh fabrics to use and that is always fun.
I have been quite remiss in writing about this scarf. I am already halfway through the second skein. My mom is heading up an effort to provide holiday gifts for women at a domestic violence shelter in her area. They can’t give a gift to a woman unless they have enough of the same types of gifts to give to all of the women. Since everyone I know has already received a scarf, I thought I would contribute to this effort.
I found the yarn at Tuesday Morning, which had just opened. I had never been in a Tuesday Morning and wanted to take a look. It doesn’t feel icky even though it is partially acrylic. Mom said that a bit of acrylic is better so that the women can wash the scarf in the machine. It is kind of a cheerful color, too.
This covers my second post of blocks for Quilts for a Cure. I forgot to post these before I sent them off about a month ago.
I like these better than the first group.
I have to admit my error. I don’t know if they will be able to use these blocks. I found the information about size, etc after I mailed them and I made the wrong sized blocks. Perhaps they will get someone to sash them? I don’t know. All I know is I did my best when I had a lot going on.
Back in November, I made a donation quilt from the trimmings from the back of the Carpenter’s Wheel quilt. At the meeting on Saturday, Tim brought the finished quilt. He quilted it and it looks GREAT!
I really like it that he is bold enough to use dark thread. His motifs are large-ish and very loose, which makes the quilts nice and drapey.
He also is doing a nice job with the pebbling.
The back looks a lot better quilted!
I am so pleased to be able to collaborate with Tim. He seems pleased about it as well. I do hope he will tell me if he doesn’t want to quilt some of my donation quilts.
Since I put this in last year’s list of donation quilts, I will not include it in this year’s list.
I finally got into a rhythm with the Bias rectangles (HRTs- half rectangle triangles) and was really able to make a lot of them, get them trimmed and put blocks together. The sticking point is always hauling fabric out of the fabric closet. If I didn’t want to make these pieces scrappy, it wouldn’t be a problem, but I do like the scrappy look.
My original idea was to make a large quilt with 16 blocks. When I realized that each block was 52 pieces, I decided that I would start with a 4 block quilt and go from there. It isn’t difficult to make the HRTs once I got the hang of it and the blocks really don’t feel like they have 52 pieces. Still, I wanted to finish and the top I made finishes at 39″ x 39″. That is big enough for the NICU. I still have the other 16 patches and will continue to make bias rectangles until I have made 4 quilts like this one. I should be an expert by then!
The back was also scrappy, of course. I used up some fabric that has been hanging around.