Tag: Project-Quilt

Posts about the piecing, applique’ of quilts. Don’t use for completed quilts or non-quilt projects.

Frosted Stars Color Choices

Frosted Stars Border Strips
Frosted Stars Border Strips
Frosted Stars Border Strips 2
Frosted Stars Border Strips 2

I made good progress on the Frosted Star quilt over the weekend. Not as much as I would have liked, but I never make as much progress as I would like!

I finished the border piecing for the Frosted Stars. It required that I piece a whole Jelly Roll of strips together in sets of 10 strips each. It was fun to arrange the strips in different and, hopefully, pleasing ways.

I have an amazing amount of leftovers from the above piecing exercise. The pattern refers to a second pattern to use for the leftovers. I am a little annoyed that I would need to buy a Jelly Roll and spend a bunch of time pressing the strips and piecing them together only to find that I needed less than half of the pieces. Isn’t there a better way? It may be that I did need strips that long in order to make the bias sashing/broder strips work. But it may also be that they wanted me to buy a whole Jelly Roll. I suppose I will have to make a second Christmas quilt. Or I could just waste the fabric pieces.

Frosted Stars with Turquoise
Frosted Stars with Turquoise

My great feat was that I am now ready to put the whole thing together. Since I need to make visual decisions visually, I laid out all of the pieces on two different backgrounds to see which I liked better. I also got opinions from around the house. One opinion was that the turquoise looks like ice. The stars really stand out in this piece, which I like.

At some show I bought a bunch of a turquoise batik to use as needed. I wouldn’t use it all for the background to this quilt, but I wouldn’t have to piece strips together, because I have a long enough length to just cut one piece. In looking at this layout, I think I would have to add a border strip around the outside if for no other reason than to stabilize all of those bias edges.

Frosted Stars with Snowflake Blue
Frosted Stars with Snowflake Blue

The other background color we considered is the snowflake blue that is part of the 12 Days of Christmas line of fabrics. In this rendition, we noticed that the blue bias strips that make up the borders and sashing drop out, because the snowflake blue is so close in color. The look of this piece is much more subtle.

Spending Quality Time with Tarts

I got a bug in my ear a week or so ago to quilt the Tarts. They weren’t hanging in the closet quilting themselves and the label does say 2010. I hauled them out, set up the table and quilted away. I did mostly straight line quilting the background of the 3 cups blocks. I also quilted (mostly) the to go cup. I need a differented colored thread to finish that one.

FMQ Fail
FMQ Fail

Then I got cocky, practiced my free motion skills and did one small strip in free motion circles. Big time fail. I couldn’t get the tension quite right. Yes, I was using the same thread in both the bobbin and the top (different colors, but same thread. Yes, I matched my speed of moving the quilt with the speed of the machine. Fail. The bobbin thread ceased to show through the front, because all of the top thread went through to the back. The yellow you can sort of see in the photo is the top thread. Unsewing is required.

The good part is that I am back in the saddle on this project and there is hope that I will get it done in 2010.

Frosted Star Blocks Complete

15 Frosted Stars
15 Frosted Stars

Here are the Frosted Star blocks. After all the drama of this project, I have finally completed a major hurdle.

The next task is to sew the border together. The border is made up of Jelly Roll strips. We’ll see how that goes. I probably need to get a Mary Ellen Best Press refill to get through all of those strips.

The thought of all of those strips makes me think that I am done with Jelly Rolls. Time will tell though. As I love to yell at the baseball players on the radio “it’s not over until it is over!”

More Diamonds Progressing

Diamonds, Early October 2010
Diamonds, Early October 2010

I find it really interesting how the colors fall as I press and cut. I do rearrange the diamonds on my design wall, but I generally just grab the next fabric, press and cut. Sometimes, I decide I don’t want to press one color or pattern just yet. They all have to be pressed, so I don’t do very much selective pressing.

I was amazed at this group, because of all the brown and orange that fell together AND it is the month of Hallowe’en.

Diamonds Progressing

Diamonds Late September
Diamonds Late September

I am pressing and cutting patching like a mad thing. I am progressing, but not fast enough. I have to keep at it. The edges are on my mind at the moment. I think I will buy Fast2Cut ruler from C&T and the diamond edge ruler from Creative Grids. I haven’t received any answers to my inquiries about whether they will work with the diamond ruler I already have, but have to get prepared to sew this quilt together in one weekend.

Frosted Stars Progress

4 Frosted Star Blocks
4 Frosted Star Blocks

Here are four of the blocks I have made for my Frosted Stars project. There are a couple of things I found and a couple of things I decided.

I found that the red is not working. It is too intense for this project, so I am not going to include any other red in the blocks I have made six blocks so far, which is slightly less than half of what I need.

I also decided that I would use the turquoise primarily for the background triangles. I decided that I am going to include a couple of blocks with the silver for the background triangles. I am also going to include a couple of blocks with other blues. Perhaps I will include only one, perhaps more. I haven’t decided.

My next step is to cut a bunch of background squares so I can put more blocks together. I haven’t worked on these blocks since last weekend as I have either not been sewing, pressing and cutting diamonds or have been working on the Zig Zaggy back.

Zig Zaggy Progress

I had some fun over the weekend piecing the Zig Zaggy quilt. I felt a great deal of joy in my sewing this weekend. I know that sounds weird. It is a weird word to use for sewing, but I can’t think of another word that expresses how I was feeling. I am in love with piecing and color right now and simply, as I said earlier this week, cannot. get. enough.

Zig Zaggy - 4 Rows
Zig Zaggy - 4 Rows

I decided early in the weekend to try to piece the entire quilt over the weekend. When TFQ and I are together we can get an entire quilt top done. We do large wall quilts or up to single bed sized in a weekend. I got over the idea of finishing the entire quilt top over the weekend, but I made significant progress. Best of all I had fun.

Zig Zaggy Row 1
Zig Zaggy Row 1

The first order of business was to spend some time piecing the first row together. I had to figure out how to do it.This way of putting together the quilt goes completely against what I told Frances not more than a month ago. However, this quilt is not really block based, so it has to go together in rows, I think. I tried a couple of different things, but finally settled on a process for the fourth row.

Piecing the first row together meant that I, first, needed to organize the colors and the fabric designs in such a way that there was variety in the layout. Once I got that task finished, the rest was just  rote sewing. Not completely rote sewing, but enough to force me to keep my mind from wandering too much.

Some mind wandering is always in order and I spent some time thinking about the border. I’d like to do a spiky border a la Gwen Marston. The more I think about it and the more I look at the four finished rows, the more I think I won’t do it. We’ll see.

Weekend Diamonds

Diamonds, late August 2010
Diamonds, late August 2010
Diamonds, early September 2010
Diamonds, early September 2010

My design wall is a mess. It is an even bigger mess than when I showed it before.  I have at least four projects on it, which makes it difficult to photograph anything cleanly. As a result, I used the eraser function in Photoshop Elements to erase some of the things surrounding the diamonds in the photo on the left. I wasn’t completely enamoured with the effect, so I left the bits and pieces in the photo on the right. I don’t know how to outline a shape and clear the background completely. I would like to learn that.

I have been intermittently pressing recently washed fabrics and cutting pieces from them, so the diamond accumulation continues. I know I will be needing to cut a lot of the border pieces late in the year, so I want to make sure all the diamonds are cut. I am sure I have said that a thousand times. It is on my mind.

I still haven’t figured out if the Fast2Cut 45 degree half and quarter diamond ruler will work for the side, edge and corner diamonds. I still need to figure that out. I haven’t actually seen it in a store, so it is hard to compare to the Creative Grids ruler that I have. It would be nice if Creative Grids made a ruler to go with their diamond ruler. I did see that they have a Triangles 120 degree ruler. I think it would work for the side pieces, which would be great. It would definitely make an easier time than when I cut the side pieces for the Eye Spy.

I simply do not have enough time to sew. I spent a day and a half over the weekend just sewing. I made a lot of progress on the Zig Zaggy quilt and it was still not enough time. I don’t know how much time would be enough time. I haven’t reached that threshold yet. I simply know that I need more.

Chocolate Box Finished

Chocolate Box Finished
Chocolate Box Finished

The last bit of the Chocolate Box I had to do was the sleeve. I made it in a short amount of time and then it seemed to take me forever to sew it on. I really had a hard time keeping the tucks out of the back of the quilt. Not sure why. Anyway, another project off my plate. Hooray!

More Diamonds

FOTY Diamonds 8/2010-2
FOTY Diamonds 8/2010-2

Here is another batch of FOTY Diamonds. I diligently pressed and cut for a good portion of the weekend. This isn’t a very lively batch. I am working my way through the stack that TFQ pressed and for some reason this is not a cheerful batch.

I have to admit that cutting the patches makes me think about sewing the project together and that prospect makes me a little bit anxiety ridden. I am thinking about using the P&B Fizz as the anchor colors. I still want to do a colorwash with the diamonds, but thought that if I lined them up in color order across the quilt, I could use them to start laying out the piece.

My other idea was to arrange them like a Lone Star and radiate the other fabric diamonds off of them from the center.

For the moment, however, I need to cut diamonds out of my fabric.

Corner Store Project

Corner Store Test
Corner Store Test

I have written a lot about the Corner Store pattern from Pretty Little Mini Quilts. This block is very appealing especially since I have been thinking about my scrap pile lately. I bought a large piece of Kona Snow and finally cut into it for the Zig Zaggy quilt and for this Corner Store project. I didn’t cut a multitude of pieces in advance (always a recipe for disaster for me), but I did cut some.

You are probably wondering why in the world I am starting  this quilt at the same time I started the Zig Zaggy quilt and am still working on the Blue Janus quilt. Insanity? Perhaps.

The true reason is that the box in which I store the triangles for this project is getting full. Also, I thought I would make a few blocks and see how they looked.

My first step was to ask TFQ for the dimensions. She has the Pretty Little Mini Quilts book at the moment. She emailed me back right away with a 3.5″ size. When I cut a few of  the squares I thought that looked terribly small. When I put one triangle on, the block did not look at all like the version I saw in Pretty Little Mini Quilts or on Flickr. I must have misunderstood the size. Again, something that should have been a quick chain piecing and trimming start to a project has turned difficult.

Difficult is a strong word. I have to test different squares sizes to see which one will suit the look I am trying to achieve. I wanted to focus on the Blue Janus quilt, so this was put to the side.

Stay tuned!

Zig Zaggy Start

Jelly Roll for Zig Zaggy Quilt
Jelly Roll for Zig Zaggy Quilt

This past weekend I mostly worked on the Blue Janus Quilt, which I called the Blue Quilt in a previous post. Those squares required a lot of chain piecing and I needed something to piece in between so that I wouldn’t have to cut threads each time I wanted to press as I moved farther along in the process.

I decided to start the Zig Zaggy quilt and use the pieces to help with my chain piecing.

Measuring
Measuring

First, I looked at the Happy Zombie site again and confirmed the sizes. then I cut some samples. Happy Zombie used a special ruler and cut 5″ long wedges. Elizabeth Hartman from Oh Fransson! blog originally used templates and cut the wedges longer. I decided to use Happy Zombie’s method and trim later.

Zig Zaggy Sewn
Zig Zaggy Sewn

I cut and sewed a few together, think I would do another colorwash look.

Blech!

I am not doing the colorwash. With just the purples it is too boring. the purples are all the same value and just don’t look like the colors are gradating. I am going to mix up the colors. I just didn’t get very far.

Frosted Stars Possibility?

I didn’t buy the Frosted Stars kit that I talked about recently. I already have a lot of projects going, I have several projects to start, there were some things I didn’t like about it, it was lots of money, etc. You know all the reasoning.

Still I couldn’t get the thing out of my mind, so I went to look at it again today. In addition to p.s. i quilt shop‘s offerings, the Fat Quarter Shop has the pattern as well. I decided to do my due diligence.

Basic Grey Fruitcake
Basic Grey Fruitcake

Above is an image of all the Fruitcake prints from the Fat quarter shop.  I looked there. I also went to the Moda site to look at the all of the fabrics from the Basic Grey Fruitcake collection. Fruitcake is the fabric collection Charlie Scott uses for the Frosted Stars quilt. It turns out, sadly, that I don’t really like most of the fabrics included in the Fruitcake collection. I still liked the pattern, however, and thought perhaps that I would make it anyway.

I looked around to see if the pattern was available. Charlie Scott, the designer, has a website and has a link to the pattern on the Moda Bake Shop site. YAY! This revelation expanded my options. I could make the quilt with other fabrics. I was thinking aqua/turquoise and red with a little green thrown in.

In the midst of all this I emailed my mom with the various links and she said not to buy the kit, but just to get the pattern and use my own fabrics or other fabrics. Sometimes it is nice to have someone agree with me.

Kate Spain 12 Days... Collection
Kate Spain 12 Days... Collection

Somehow, I ran across the Kate Spain Christmas fabrics. They are bright and cheerful and a definite possibility. I printed out the PDF so I could look at the individual fabrics. I am not fond of the motifs on a couple of them and I couldn’t use the panels, which are part of the collection. I don’t know if they come with the Jelly Rolls and Layer cakes.

Lumiere De Noel Collection
Lumiere De Noel Collection

I saw this Lumiere de Noel group as I was perusing the Fat Quarter Shop site. I thought that perhaps it might be a nice choice for the Frosted Stars pattern. It has a little bit of a grey tinge in this picture, but looks much brighter in the example quilt on the site. Take a look at the individual fabrics and let me know what you think.

More thinking required, I think.