Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Posts about the piecing, applique’ of quilts. Don’t use for completed quilts or non-quilt projects.
I finished this quilt at the beginning of last month, but forgot to post the finished quilt. August was busy!
One of my SILs brought it to the new baby when SIL traveled to the area where my niece and her husband live. I was glad not to have to mail it.
I am pleased with how it turned out and the juxtaposition of the same design in different colors. The first D9P was for this baby’s brother and is almost the opposite in color of this one.
I finished all the blocks for the Ombre Weave and think I will change the layout to highlight more of the Os that show up in the design. The red I added looks good. The piece overall isn’t as depressing as it was before.
I had time last week to trim blocks and cut more pieces for more blocks. I was nervous this quilt would be too small for a teenager, but it is getting larger. It won’t be a huge quilt, but it will be nice for cuddling.
I am thinking I may use some of the ombre fabric I bought to make the Ombre Hearts quilt as the back. We’ll see, but I don’t think I will be making that quilt.
I have made some progress on the Green Improv #2 donation top. This is the second green improv, though the first one was called The Green Thing. Perhaps I should call #2 The Swamp Creature. LOL!
I started using the green scraps I had already pinned together in the green scrap drawer. It was easy to make progress by using them as leaders and enders while I worked on other projects, such as the Ombre Weave quilt. It is amazing how pieces grow larger if I actually work on them!
it is about 36 inches wide now. I’d like the piece to be minimum 40×40 inches. I don’t really want to put a border on it. I’d like it to matches the other quilts in this series, but I may, if I can’t get it large enough. I was thinking of scattering bits of improv in between sashing. I would want to do that with green solids and I don’t know that I have enough green solids to make the idea work. It is a thought I’ll keep in the back of my mind if I need it.
I was able to finish Ends n.18 over the Labor Day Weekend. DH was out and about participating in various activities, so I had time to concentrate on clearing up projects that were hanging around.
I know Labor Day was a long time ago, but things are busy and I am sewing quite a bit.
Didn’t have quite enough of the grey dots for the background, so I added in a solid grey that has been hanging around for a long time. I have quite a bit of various background fabrics, so I just decided to add it in. The quilt top is about 48×48 inches, which is a nice size.
The back is very much off balance. I thought of putting the scrappy bit in the center, but couldn’t be bothered taking more time on it. It looks kind of cool as is.
A few days ago, you saw a few of the Ombre Weave blocks on the design wall.
After gathering the supplies, I made a start on the Ombre Weave quilt at Sew Day the other day. The pattern was written for a jelly roll, which I didn’t have, and there were no alternate instructions. That meant that, first, I had to rewrite the instructions to accommodate the yardage and dessert roll I had. I also had to make sure I could understand them.
Once I did that, with the help of Mary C, I got busy sewing blocks. These are super easy blocks to make and I was able to make 22 during Sew Day. On Sunday I was able to make another 20. I am going to make blocks until the fabric is gone.Then I’ll see where I am.
I have been fiddling with this quilt for awhile, ever since I finished #2. My design walls are full of the grey improv, the black improv and the Pantone Project. I basically had no space in which to put it up and look at it.
Design floor to the rescue.
I finally decided to lay it out and see what needed to be done. I finally laid it out and inventoried the different blocks that I had available.
I am farther along than I thought.
The image above shows my first layout with what blocks I had. As you can see, I have been adding sashing to certain blocks even though I have not seen them up on the design wall.
I had enough blocks to add another row, so I did that to see how it looks. I know it is going to be a weird shape again, but I decided that using up the blocks was more important than my worries about shape. If I were really worried about shape, I would make square blocks.
I have sashing cut, so I prepared sashing and cornerstone strips for the last blocks and see how far I can get in the next little while. I really feel like I need to get this quilt off to the Community Quilt ladies.
Why am I making patterns?
I don’t know, but I am.
I decided that the quilt I planned to give to my great niece wasn’t right. Then I saw this pattern on my Portland/Oregon Coast trip. Then, I remembered the Dessert Roll-ish bundle of fabric I bought at Sharon’s Attic in the beforetimes (2018-ha!). It has been sitting around marinating long enough and now is a good time to use it.
Now I have finished a few things that were in the works and I was looking for my next thing. Bag or Quilt? Quilt, I thought, then I thought about this one. My niece’s brother’s quilt will be done soon, so I should have this one ready soon as well. They are not grownups, so I expect them to wonder where their quilt is if I don’t send both at the same time.
I am not sure I have enough of that speckle fabric so I might need to rethink the background.
Yes, I am making progress! The top is finished and I am pretty happy with it. I am running out of larger pieces for borders and backings. This does NOT mean I am running out of fabric. It just means the pieces I have left are, mostly, not large enough for the border of a 40 x 40ish quilt. I am not sure what I am going to do about that.
Much of my green, as I may have mentioned, is of the chartreuse and yellow-green variety. I remember buying a lot of chartreuse and icky green as TFQ called it, but I am still surprised I have as much as I do.
The borders I added are some Riley Blake fabrics (I think) that are neither chartreuse or yellow-green or dark green. These are more of a light blue-green…maybe? I don’t know what to call that color. The borders give the quilt a different look overall. Still green, but not as yellow, I think.
I finally had an hour to sew the blocks for the Green & Grey Diagonal 9 Patch together!
I am pleased with how it looks!
Next up: backing, label and binding.
I finally finished all the blocks for the Green & Grey Diagonal 9 Patch.
I haven’t started piecing the blocks together, but at least I have all of the blocks. I have spent the past week fiddling with the placement of the blocks.
There is quite a lot of yellow-green, more than I expected. I think I kind of clumped it together. Where the yellow-greens are not in a block together, I am trying to spread them out.
I’ll start sewing the blocks together soon.
DH is taking a class on Friday Nights now, so I have some time to do what I want. The other night I had plans with my niece, but had about 1.5 hours to do what I wanted. What I wanted to do was finish the Diagonal 9 Patch I had been working on. I had worked on it at lunch and it was very close, so I spent some time finishing it.
It looks very watercolor-y and parts of the foreground blend with the background. I think it is ok, but I don’t think I would make this pattern with that kind of background in the future.
The family is having a boy and this has a lot of pink in it, but it doesn’t scream GIRL to me.
It is very different from the Baby 2 Jacobs Diagonal Patch.
I am slowly chunking the Diagonal 9 Patch #3 together. I’d like to get on to the green Diagonal 9 Patch soon, or start one of the newest donation quilts from the green strip blocks. Unfortunately, the large piece I made for the Retreat Organizer is taking up most of the design wall. I really need to get back to that project, if for no other reason than to get it off the design wall. Life is in full swing, however, and May is busy, so I snatch time where I can.
I am sneakily, not maliciously, teaching people to chunk quilts together. I showed Anna how to chunk the other day at Sew Day.
The top is done! Remember? I started it at the Retreat. I had to reorient two squares as I sewed them in the wrong way somehow. Fortunately it was no big deal, mostly because they were both on the edge.
I think the top came out really well. The background has some light dots on it. The contrast is good. Onto to back binding and getting it quilted.
I don’t know whether my niece is having a boy or a girl. I hope the amount of pink in this quilt is ok for a boy as well.
I finally found the Handbag Sampler blocks!!! They were in a bin at the top of my fabric closet
I need at least a few more blocks, which means I have to find the fabrics I used. I have the focus fabric, the handbag fabric, but the others weren’t with it. I haven’t looked for them, but I am confident that they are together and I didn’t use them for something else.
This sampler start has a really different look than the Aqua-Red Sampler and the Original Sampler, though many of the blocks are the same or similar.
