Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I finally got some of the Cool Four Patch Fun blocks up on the design wall. I found I needed to finish the 1-2-3 Mosaic table runner before I could put the rest up, so I started working on that.
At the moment all of the block pairs are done and I am just waiting for design wall space to do a little rearranging and then sew the top together.
I am continuing to make potato chip blocks as I am determined to use up all the rectangles I cut. I ran out of pink rectangles, but still have tons of the blues, so I am cutting more pinks as I go along.
I am thinking of making some blocks with just blues. I have to think about how to make the design show up.
I finished the second of the May/June blocks the night before they were due. I try to make them before or as soon as we announce them, but I didn’t this time. As a result, I almost didn’t make the deadline.
In addition, I ended up remaking the X Plus/Lozenge block. Now I have two of them. I’ll use the first one on the back. I don’t want to make it into something else, because the piecing is less than stellar, but it will look fine on the back of the quilt.
I made the Drunkard’s Path/ Quarter Squares right away. I was in the frame of mind with Chaos with a Twist, so took the opportunity to make a few more in my BAM BOM fabrics.
A lot of people are participating, which made me really happy! There were some fantastic blocks shown.
I finished Old Town a few months ago, but never posted about it. I think my quilt holders have been busy or out of town. After winning Second place at the Fair, I realized it and knew I needed to get it done.
Old Town is finished! Yay! LOL!
Old Town is the 2024 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt. I played along and sewed many of the blocks together at the BAM Retreat, then finished it up at home.
Colleen quilted it for me and here we are. I was really pleased to get second place since the category in which I entered it (quilted by another) is packed. This was a much easier quilt to quilt than Patchwork Palooza since once I decided how to quilt a block, I just had Colleen quilt all the blocks the same.
Lupine is finished.
It is a little large, so my quilt holder had a tough time. I hope to remember to get some guild members to help me get a better photo.
The poor quilt has been languishing between travel and other more urgent projects. In the middle of all the chaos I finally was able to sew the binding down.
In record time, Lupine is back and ready to bind. I took the quilt to her in mid-March. Colleen did a great job quilting it. I am pleased.
I’ll be glad to get this off my list. I have enough time to enter it in the Fair, but I am limited to two quilts quilted by another, so I’ll have to wait until next year. 🙁
The only thing I have left to do is bind it. I started the other day, but have to actually sit down to bind and I haven’t had a chance. I also need to get DH to hold it up so I can take a photo.
I made more Potato Chip blocks during the last few weeks. They are leaders and enders and go quickly.
I was thinking about how big I would make the quilt. I think I will use up the rectangles I have made by making blocks, then I’ll see what to do with them. I don’t want to make a king sized quilt. I may have cut fewer than I think or, maybe, sewn into blocks, they make fewer blocks than I think they will.
I have continued to make potato chip blocks in between other projects. I have a few that will be another quilt.
I don’t know who will get the quilt, but I am sure someone will come along who needs a it.
I finished the Pacifica Quilter’s Club Lucky Blocks last week. It took me longer than I thought, but I am pleased to be contributing to another good cause.
Lupine is ready to go to Colleen for quilting. Not a great photo, but the quilt is large and doesn’t fit well on my design wall.
I am really pleased with how it came out. It is a but pink and purple, but doesn’t scream ‘little girl’ to me. I think the black really helps give it a good over all feel.
In addition, black can be depressing. It did make my workroom a little dark, but overall the pink, purple and Carousel blue keep the black from creating a look that is too depressing.
I also finished the back. Mom said it looked a little brown, but I definitely used colored dots on black for the most part. One of the prints, a large-ish piece, middle bottom, does have dots that have more brown in them than I would normally use.
This project used up most of my dots on black fabrics.
I am waiting for a black solid in order to make the binding. I was going to use a pink that matched the border (AGF Cherry Lipgloss), but Lil Sissy pointed out that a black (AGF Caviar) would contain the piece. I think she is right.
This block (for Month 3) took me a long time and I had some detours along the way. Finally, I finished it.
I am not 100% happy with it. I would have liked to use the grey Pearl Bracelets, but I didn’t have enough.
Using the white Pearl Bracelets as the background introduces another color of background into the piece and I had hoped to avoid using white for the blocks. Since I have not used white in any of the other blocks I have to figure out how to make it work.
First step: go see if I can find more grey Pearl Bracelets. Doubtful, but you never know.
I chunked the Lupine quilt top, then sewed the spacer border on. The next step was the Flying Geese border.
Option 1:
The directions were to assemble two Flying Geese so it looks like the above. The look was ok, but didn’t grab my attention.
Option 2:
I saw a zigzag border that someone made and tried that with my fabrics. This option looked more cohesive to me.
Option 3:
Just to see if another configuration would be better, I tried alternating chevrons. This wasn’t terrible and created a lot of movement, but I thought it was a little confusing for the viewer.
I went for option 2 and started sewing long rows of Flying Geese together.
I had to stop chunking when I realized I had to fix a couple of block mistakes in Lupine. I fixed those quickly and got back to chunking, which is easier than putting a quilt together in rows, but still tedious. It seemed to take me forever. Finally, I got all of the blocks together! Yay!
I was worried about the density of the dots in some of the black background, but looking at the quilt in the photo, I think it looks ok. I can see a couple of places where the dots are really dense, but the background pieces don’t make the blocks look wrong.
After the blocks were together I put the spacer border on. Also, tedious, but necessary.
I really like that Melody Miller Carousel blue. I am glad I bought more of it so I have enough for the borders.
Now I am on to the Flying Geese border.
I noticed that Bonnie has taken down the directions on her blog for this quilt. I almost had a heart attack when I clicked on the link to look at the border directions and it was broken. Fortunately, I had saved the PDFs.
The next block in the series, which was announced yesterday is the Sawtooth Star. It is one of my favorite blocks, because it is incredibly versatile.
I am kind of just going with the flow when I make these blocks. I am using fabrics as the mood strikes. I’d love to use that grey Pearl Bracelets as my background, but I don’t have enough of it. I’ll have to do something about that as that is an old fabric and there is little chance I will find more. I’ll look in my fabric closet and see if I can find some. The yardage I have with my project materials came from Rhonda’s stash.
It’s a dreary day here as I write this. We are waiting for rain which seems poised to pour down any minute, but hasn’t gotten around to it yet. This means that my workroom is a little dark and grey. It makes me really happy that the life-sucking beige is gone.
I ripped them out while I watched TV one night and then re-sewed at them at a Sew Day I had with SueS, Lee Ann and SueG. I spent a bit of time over a couple of days doing random quilt tasks and this was one of them.
Now I am ready to continue chunking the center of the quilt.