I should have called this FINALLY Starting Chain Link. I didn’t like the way the pattern was written and that was a “launch blocker”, as we say at work. I finally sat down on the last day of the Retreat and figured out how to make this pattern work for me.
This project seems to be fraught with problems. Besides the challenges of the pattern, I cannot find the white fabric I chose to use.As you can see, I have already cut some up and sewed it into sections of blocks.
It MUST be around somewhere, but it wasn’t where I thought it was. I hope I didn’t use it for a donation quilt. We’ll have to see if this becomes a ‘design challenge.’
Work has been very busy. It is stressful and I have been sewing a bit at lunch and after work. I haven’t had much time, but my effort at the Retreat at block making has gotten the process down to a science. I can make each block in about half an hour. Still, it has taken me several days to make this batch.
With this group, I only have four more left to make.
I made really good progress on Old Town at the Retreat.
I was able to piece 15 (of 25 total) blocks. Each block has 69 pieces so that was a LOT of piecing. I was SUPER happy to be doing that piecing, I have to tell you.
Julie helped me put them up on the design wall so we could look at them.
Even with out much sashing, there is a distinct secondary design going on.
Old Town Retreat progress – detail
I sewed a little bit of the sashing and put that up as well, so we could kind of see what was coming.
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.
I was thinking about the quilt I talked about a few days ago. I am not liking the gold. The fabric is nice as yardage, but in a white quilt it is pretty overwhelming. I really want this to read as a white quilt and the gold might interfere with that.
Checking out the back
I checked out the back of the fabric and the gold comes through, but is much more subtle.
The vertical sashing on the right is the back of the fabric while the sashing on the far left is the right side of the fabric. I think the back of the fabric might work.
I am letting it sit for a day or two to see what I think.
I have started another donation top, this one part of the Ends series. Can you believe this is the 21st?
This is made from a random piece of background fabric and the edges of the Hugs & a Kiss quilt. The sparkles in the dots are fun.
I accidentally started this series in 2017 with the first one, made from what I called ‘dreg ends’. I have a box with the cut off edges of finished quilts. I still have it, though there are many fewer edges. I am trying to keep up with using the edges as they come back from being quilted, but that box still has old edges in it.
Despite taking care of my mom after her surgery, I have been able to get a little sewing in.
Old Town: QSTs
I finished all of the QSTs, which turned out to be mostly the correct size. I used pink instead of red, as mentioned, and am pretty happy with that choice so far. Some of the pinks in this batch are leaning a little more towards the lavender/purple range. I hope they won’t get mixed up in the final layout.
Since I finished all of these QSTs and the Baby Flying Geese, I decided to sew them together as indicated in one of the clues.
FG & QST units
I think this is the first assembly I have done beyond individual units. I got interrupted a bunch of times, but I finished them!
I had a moment of stress when I realized I didn’t have enough of the Baby Flying Geese to sew to the second side of the QSTs. They were neatly bundled in the box in which I am storing all of the units and I hadn’t pulled them out. YAY!
This is a great quilt for learning. I highly recommend Bonnie’s projects, especially the mystery quilts, if you want to practice basic piecing. She takes the time to help makers focus on getting the right sized units. Her clues usually have more than one way to make a unit so it works for you.
I spent some time over the last couple of weekends getting over whatever hump was preventing me from moving forward.
Old Town: 4 patches
First, I finished all the 4 patches, which was a lot! I thought I would never finish and I think that part of what was preventing me from moving forward. Now they are done and I think they look great.
I haven’t incorporated them into any blocks yet, so stay tuned for that.
Old Town: baby Flying Geese
I also finished some Flying Geese. They are the baby Flying Geese that I made using the replacement Wing Clipper** I got for Christmas.
This is the first group of lavender I have added to the quilt. In the photo they look nice. We’ll see how they look combined with the other colors. Fingers crossed it will be ok.
I got going on the QSTs. One of the clues said to combine them with another couple of pieces, so it was time to stop avoiding them.
I was really happy using Bonnie Hunter’s Essential Triangle Tool** to make them. It is a ruler I have had for awhile, but haven’t used much. I found it easy to use and helpful. I just followed Bonnie’s instructions on the clue and it worked perfectly. Well, so far, it is has worked perfectly. I liked the way she said where to put the ruler lines. I haven’t finished sewing the QSTs yet, so I’ll have to wait and see how it works out.
Bonnie put the Reveal up and it is a complicated looking quilt, but also cool. I am eager to see how my replacement of coral with lavender will look. If you are working on it, make sure to download your clues.
**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
I received Hugs & a Kiss back from Colleen the other day. I am now working hard on binding it.
I want to get it in the mail soon so as to relieve my house of two quilts. This one and the one for the recipient’s brother, the Green & Grey Diagonal 9 Patch.
The quilting looks really nice. The quilt is covered in different sized circles.
Old Town is the latest Bonnie Hunter Winter Mystery Quilt. In case you don’t know, you need to grab the directions while you can, because she takes them down sometime in February. You aren’t out of luck as Bonnie, later, makes the patterns available for sale.
I have done Frolic! and En Provence. I have the directions for many more, but haven’t quite gotten around to them. Bonnie’s directions are amazing and both of my quilts have come out very well.
Old Town clue #1 – cut
Right now, the group is in week three or four. I did not get started until after the second clue had been posted. Instead of my usual practice of saving all the clues and deciding whether to start sewing later, I just started on Old Town. I didn’t have a quilt going, though I needed and wanted to start on the Sad Quilt. Also, I had posted the information about the mystery quilt on the guild site and thought I might need to sew a long as well. The colors Bonnie posted appealed even though I know I can choose whatever colors I want. It is easier when I like the colors she chooses.
I did make a small change in the colors. I am using pink instead of red. Why not? I like pink and I am acknowledging that I do.
Friend Julie had a good idea to try out all the different techniques Bonnie Hunter provides in the directions. She shows at least two methods of construction of the units in each clue. These Mystery Quilts are a great way to practice different techniques, try out different tools and get practice on accuracy in the process.
Anyway, I thought I would try out the different techniques as well. Then I panicked when the second clue was posted and I was lounging around in the sun on vacation. I cut up a bunch of squares to make Flying Geese using the Wing Clipper** and just went with it.
**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
I finished Ends n.20 the other day, but I am not sure the top is really finished.
I don’t like the distribution of the strips. It looks unbalanced to me.
I know it is a donation quilt and I shouldn’t care that much, but I don’t like sending ugly quilts out into the world. It isn’t ugly, but it isn’t right either. It also isn’t good for me to not do my best. I use these quilts as a design exercise and need to do my best.
Ends n.20 where to cut
I am thinking of cutting the quilt as shown and sewing the right edge to the center. That is flipping the cut off piece 180 degrees. The dark and the grey ‘L’ will be in the middle if I do this.
Cyndi gave me a few yards of white from an estate sale trove of fabric she got, thus I decided to use white on this quilt.
I know white for a donation top is a bad idea as it will get dirty, but a design wants what a design wants.
I have one more section to sew before I decide if it needs to be larger. Without the left hand section sewn, the top is about 40 in. x 40 in. at the moment. I might not want a white strip on the end. We will see.
After my recent post, I thought more about this quilt and decided that the Jacob’s Ladder pattern wasn’t going to work at all. I tried different ideas, different colors, but it just isn’t the right idea for my friend.
First, I really shouldn’t call it the Sad Quilt. Not a great start. I can’t help how sad I am, though.
Frolic!
Second, as an interim solution, I sent off Frolic! to her. I am glad I have some quilts around I can just send off to people in need.
I love this quilt and had a good time making it, so there is a lot of good karma/energy associated with it. My friend lives in Hawaii, so it wasn’t cheap to send. It was totally worth it since I can’t be there to hug her in person.
In the meantime I am still working on a design made specifically in memory of my friend’s daughter. I am thinking that I will repurpose the Tilde fabrics I bought on vacation into this quilt.
Country Revival QCR pattern
A pattern occurred to me that I bought awhile ago, but haven’t yet tried, Country Revival. I don’t know why it is called Country Revival, because it doesn’t look ‘country’ at all to me.
The QCR (etc) patterns I have made, Metro Twist and Metroscape, have come out well, so I think the end result would be successful. At least is has a chance of being successful.
Tilde Fabrics
Obviously the Tilde fabrics would give it a different look than the quilt on the cover. I think I need to find a common fabric I could use in the center to bring the whole quilt together. I think pink would work, even different pinks. I also have that weird blue, which might work.
Also, the example quilt is small. I would want to make it larger, maybe 9 blocks. Still work to do to bring it together, but I feel I am on the right track now.
As I work through some sewjo challenges, I decided to make another Ends donation top. I have already handed in two donation tops this month, but an empty design wall doesn’t work for me.
I had various ends laying around the workroom and slapped a few up on the wall to see if I could make anything.
Ends n.18 was finished in September, so it is time for another one. I want to use a background fabric with the pieces shown, but I haven’t decided what color yet.
After allowing this top to languish on my design wall, I finally got down to business and finished the top.
I like the look of it with the sashing in between the blocks.
I am renaming it Hugs & a Kiss. I mostly made Os with the blocks (hugs). I turned four blocks into an X to symbolize a kiss for my niece.
Ombre Weave Back almost Finished
I am almost done with the back and the binding, so this will be off to Colleen soon.
I decided not to make the Heart Strings quilt**, so I had quite a bit of the V&Co ombre to use for the backing and the binding.
**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
