Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
This is a different kind of Sidewalk design. I thought of this design after cutting some 4.5 x 8.5 rectangles for another another Rectangle donation quilt. Remember the first one I made last year?
I had cut enough rectangles to make another of those rectangle quilts. However, I saw that the size would work with this design as well. While I was on the sidewalk roll, I decided to try it. It will be super easy to sew together.
We had a Sew Day on Saturday dedicated to making a group quilt that will be donated. Peggy has a pattern that uses different sizes of squares to make a quilt. I don’t know the name and I am not sure Peggy made it up. She probably found it somewhere. The directions were a bit confusing to start with, but easy once we got a few explanations and I drew some pictures.
We all brought a few squares that were the right size, so the quilt would be very scrappy. I made one center block and a couple of border blocks.
My center block didn’t look very nice by itself. The fabrics were scraps from various projects that were the right size. I wasn’t hopeful that my block would fit in.
The border block looked a bit better. While the motifs were quite different, I think having similar colors was better for a block.
In general, though, the quilt went together well and the variety of fabrics worked out.
The quilt looks like an HST quilt, but it didn’t go together that way at all. Unlike some methods of making HSTs, the bias was completely enclosed, so not a problem.
Peggy did a great job and the participants really stepped up.
The other day I mentioned finding some piecing. I thought I would let it languish for awhile, but I need the space on my design wall for other projects, so I quickly sewed it together.
I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I had very low expectations and was rewarded with a better than expected outcome.
I was able to use all the pieces I found and only had to add a little bit of some peach Grunge I had laying around. I didn’t have much of it left and it was about the only color that went with these soft muted colors. At Julie’s suggestion I added a small strip of Tilde pink to get a little more length. I didn’t think it went with the April Cornell fabrics, but Julie said it picked up some of the darker pinks in some of the flowers. It is a little big strange looking for a top, but hopefully someone will like it.
The back was much harder. I really don’t have fabrics in those soft colors. I picked some that I thought sort of went with the quilt top. I would have preferred a sage or muted blue.
Soon it will be off to the Community Quilt team.
I was really pleased to see this quilt come back from quilting and binding. Lee Ann did the binding. I was pretty unhappy with this quilt when I finished it, but I think it came out really well in the end.
I used the leftovers from the Angel Family pillowcases and some scraps from Melinda. I was pleased to be able to use up as much of the fabric I bought as possible.
This piece is at the painfully growing stage since the last time I showed it. The rest of my blue scraps are either very small or weirdly shaped, which makes it hard to use them. I am trying to use as many of them as I can, despite the problems. I am not sure the piece will be big enough for a donation top. It might be close and I’ll have to figure what to do with it if it is.
While I worked on the Chain Link top, I used blue improv piecing as leaders and enders. I am really enjoying watching the improv piece grow as my blue scrap pile shrinks.
I still have a big pile of pieces that I am working on enlarging. As the scrap pile shrinks it gets harder to match up pieced units and make them bigger. Still, I seem to be doing it and I am having fun.
Since I had some free sewing time, I spent as much time as I could grab sewing this quilt top together. I concentrated on the half 16 patches first. I had been kind of limping along sewing them in between Triumphant block 2 pieces and was sick of it. I only needed a few more half blocks, so I sat down and sewed them.
I had a few hours while DH was out one evening so I started sewing the blocks together and just continued snatching time wherever I could. Once the half blocks were together this was a relatively easy quilt to sew together.
I decided to use red for the back. Shockingly, the back went together very well. Instead of fighting with pieces like normal, this back went together really easily.
I am glad this is finally done! I have some ideas for other versions, but want to get Chain Link and Triumphant pieced.
This quilt showed up at the guild meeting on Saturday. I didn’t make the top, but I think I made all of the blocks. I would have to look through all of my donation blocks posts. They all look like familiar fabrics.
I really like the turquoise with the blacks and whites.
I am very pleased with how this experimental quilt is coming out.
All the pieces are not in their final location yet, but seeing them start to look like something is very gratifying.
This may turn into two of these as I think I need to have a bit of red in each sashing piece.
Yes, you might recognize some donation blocks that I unsewed so I could use them in this quilt. LOL.
I have finally finished the Grey Improv donation top and back. It has taken awhile, though much of the time was it hanging on the design wall going nowhere.
I did a good job working through my odd sized grey scraps, which is the whole point of the exercise. I am even more convinced that improv works much better in a monochromatic palette. I think that a complementary color scheme would work as well. I haven’t tried that I think the quilt would end up being bed sized.
This quilt is about 45 in. x 45 in., which is on the large size for a baby quilt, but definitely kid sized. Also, in this color scheme I could imagine it working well for a boy.
I used the leftovers from two quilts for the back: the Hugs and a Kiss quilt and the Half Hexie Star. Good use of some good fabrics.
The guild is changing the way they make pet beds. The pet beds filled with schnibbles have been hard to wash and some shelters and animal rescue sites refuse to take them. I can understand the problem with washing. I, however, produce a lot of schnibbles and want to put them to good use. Erin and Michelle found another project where schnibbles are packed into a cube and used as seating for children. I can now fill up a bag with schnibbles and the team will fill the cube, called cubies (pronounced cube-eez). Cyndi offered to get me one when she heads down to the shop that hosts the group who coordinates them.
We will still make pet beds, but will fill them with more batting and leftover polyfil batting and less schnibbles.
While working on the Old Town blocks I have been using my grey scraps to add to the Grey Improv donation quilt. I am really enjoying building up the size of this quilt. It takes forever to get the right sized pieces, but all of a sudden it is bigger. It is really fun.
There was no organized Community Quilt project at the Retreat this year as both Community Quilt chair people were otherwise occupied and didn’t attend. Despite that, the group made (or brought) ~15 quilts to hand in. First, I brought the White Strips donation quilt, but couldn’t hand it in, because nobody was there to collect it. Oh well, I’ll hand it in on Saturday.
Lee Ann put the finishing touches on the Improv quilt above. I made a number of the pieces and it was fun to see them. She said it has been sitting around for awhile. I was really glad to see what a great job she did.
Lee Ann also put together a Flying Geese quilt for the Community quilt project that was really interesting.
Peggy gave her the mauve-y red awhile ago and asked her to do something with it. The color wasn’t exactly Lee Ann’s style, but recently she got a layer cake that included fabrics she used for a background. This isn’t a quilt I would make, but I think the combination works really well! Lee Ann did a great job on the piecing. She ran around the room with the quilt fluttering behind her like a cape when she finished! It was a joyful act.
Anna also finished a donation quilt that has been hanging around. We all helped her arrange the last few blocks, so she could get the quilt off her UFO list. I thought it was a Pulse quilt that Anna wasn’t able to finish, but she finally figured out it was intended for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting in 2017. In looking through the posts where I communicate the call for victims who need quilts, I was reminded how many times recently there has been some tragedy where a call has gone out. This quilt will make someone very happy. As usual, Anna did a great job.
Melinda was on a binge. She made 10 baby quilts (~34 inches square) from a tub of children’s fabric she can’t remember buying. LOL! I didn’t get any photos of her quilt tops and backs because she was so fast at showing them. She was pleased with how much she got done, but disappointed that she didn’t use up more of the fabric.
I made a donation quilt with some of the leftover fabric from the pillowcases.
I got the black and white triangle (pinwheel?) fabric from Melinda. She was happy to offload it. I added it to the pillowcase fabrics to make the quilt slightly larger.
As you can see, I messed up the layout somewhere along the way. Someone will like it.
I wasn’t that happy with the black quilt once I saw what Lynette made with the other pillowcase scraps. She added a cream background fabric from Melinda to really make the pillowcase scraps shine.
Lynette is a on a potato chip quilt binge. I may have heard of Potato Chip quilts, but I have never made one. I might now that I know how great they can look.
Lee Ann found this block somewhere – I didn’t hear the story and made a donation quilt out of children’s fabrics. She added some solids and the quilt top looks really great.
I didn’t bring a scrap bin or my 2.5 inch squares bin and I was sorry. I had to scramble around for leaders and enders and that wasn’t easy. I got quite a bit done using other projects for leaders and enders, but it was difficult. I was shocked at how ingrained sewing with leaders and enders is for me!
After finishing the White Strips #3 donation top, I needed another leaders and enders project.
This grey improv scrap top has hung on my small design wall for almost a year. I am shocked at that! I didn’t realize how much time had flown by.
My grey-black-brown drawer isn’t crammed full, but it isn’t empty either and I decided that I need to work on this project to get it off the design wall and to someone who needs it. Also, it will be a relatively quick win on my fabric used spreadsheet.
At the moment, as leaders and enders, I am sewing together all the scraps that are not strips. I am sewing them into pieces that I can then sew on to the top above. You can see pieces I have placed, but not sewn. They are just temporarily in place until I can add more pieces to them to make a unit large enough to expand the top. It’s a lot of piecing, because the pieces are small.
The main piece I have already sewn together is about 32 inches wide. I need another 10 inches, at least. I’ll probably have to dig into the strips to make the quilt big enough.
No joke!
I finished White Strips #2 and was able to hand it in to the Community Quilts Committee at the Retreat.
I was not surprised, but rather disappointed that my white scrap bin does not seem to be emptier. As I said before, I have a lot of plain white scraps so I have to decide what do with the plain white scraps. I am going to work on some other scrap quilts until I decide.
I did make a back for this one. Nothing fancy.