December stitching

Hello! Since I'm on Winter Break, I decided to jump into blog-land and show you a bit of what I've been working on lately. Although I haven't blogged much, I have been able to spend some time in the studio these past few months.

I've started a new Christmas quilt. I know, I know. I've already got several other Christmas quilts in progress. But you know how it goes: I just couldn't resist this one! And all my other ones are supposed to be Christmas gifts for other people (when I eventually finish them!). This newest one is going to be for me.

It all started when our quilt guild board (I'm the guild secretary) was talking about doing some "block lotteries." We give the parameters for a certain block, and any member who wants to can make a block. You bring the block to the meeting, put your name in a hat, and if you win, you get all of the blocks for that month. When we were talking about making Christmas blocks for our October meeting, our president mentioned a virtual bee quilt she had seen, where the blocks are various sizes. Here is a photo of that particular quilt, from Better off Thread. We decided to have our lottery blocks all be 12" finished blocks. This is the block I made for the block lottery:

I got the directions from Ellison Lane.  After I printed out her template, I realized that my Tri-Recs ruler would make the same size triangles, so I used that instead of her template.

Since I didn't win the blocks from the guild, I decided to make my own Christmas sampler. I'm making the blocks different sizes, but in multiples of 3", so it will eventually fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. I'm also using some of the more modern Christmas colors of red, green, pink, lime green, and turquoise.

Here are the blocks I've made so far. First up is a 12 X 12" improv star, with some of the polka dot fabrics that I adore :

Next is this ornament. After I trim it, it should be a 9 X 9" block. I had seen some similar ornaments, so I pretty much figured up my dimensions. The actual ornament, without the hanger, is a 6" snowball.

 Here's another of the trees inspired by Ellison Lane's tree. This time I kept the tree seams horizontal instead of angled. Since I don't need this to be a 12" block, I kept it rectangular at 9 X 12".

I really like the stack of gifts in Better off Thread's quilt, so I figured up my own measurements for each gift. This will finish at 9 X 15".

What is Christmas without hot cocoa? Here's a mug for the quilt. I found the pattern via Pinterest, that wonderful source of inspiration.You can find the free pattern here. It's a cute quilt that makes 9 different mugs, so I chose one to make. I adjusted the white borders to make this a 12 X 15" block, or I may trim some of that top border to make it a 12" square. I'll see when I get to that spot.

The last block I've made so far is this log cabin house block. It's another one which I can adjust the size down the road, depending on what I need. Right now it's 15 X 15", but it could go down to 12 X 15".

And that's all I've done so far on this Christmas quilt. I'm having fun making a large variety of blocks. Like most of my quilts, I have no deadline for it, but I would love to have it finished by Thanksgiving. Wishful thinking, I know!

I'm linking to Freemotion by the River's linky party.

Happy stitching!

Back to the Drawing Board with Fibonacci

A few weeks ago, I posted about this month's border requirements for the Fibonacci's Challenge quilt, which included making some Tri-Recs units with the Tri-Recs rulers. I had made up one sample block with a 4-pointed star. Susan at desertskyquilts commented that she usually makes the stars with the points going the other way. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of that!

So I made a sample block of that version, and I really like this star. I asked my 11-year-old which version he liked better with the rest of the quilt, and he said this 8-pointed star. He is quite proud of himself for helping me make design decisions on two of the borders for Fibonacci! I would say he might be a future quilt-maker, but he is so full of energy, I cannot see him sitting still long enough to do any piecing. For now, he is my design consultant!

Of course, in the actual quilt, I will be using Christmas quilts to match the rest of the quilt! I've started cutting out the pieces, but haven't sewn any together yet.

See what others are doing at Judy's.

Happy stitching!

Design Wall Monday - April 8, 2013

This weekend, I picked up the instructions for the fourth and final border of my Fibonacci's Challenge quilt. This border needs to be 12" wide and include some "Tri-Recs" units. This is a new unit for me! The finished unit is a square with a triangle inside, kind of like a flying goose that's been squished on both sides.

Included with the instructions was a coupon for the Tri-Recs ruler set, so I bought it to work on this border. It works in a similar way to the Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers for making flying geese.

I experimented a bit with the Tri-Recs unit with some scraps (obviously not fabric that will go in my Christmas Fibonacci quilt!). The four points of this star are each Tri-Recs units. I'm not yet sure if this is the arrangement I'll use, but it's one possibility. Since I have 8-pointed sawtooth stars in the center and 2nd border, and 5-pointed stars in the 3rd border, I kind of like the idea of 4-pointed stars in this border.

I need to think about this a bit more before I decide what I'll do. Even if I make these stars, I'm not sure how I'll arrange the colors.

Judy has more design walls at Patchwork Times.

Happy stitching!

Design Wall on April Fools' Day

Here's what's on my design wall design ping-pong table today, Fibonacci's Challenge:

 

I have the stars on three sides of the third border appliqued. You can see the slight shadows under the stars on the left border; that's the side I still need to applique. I am doing the applique by machine. None of the sides of this border are sewn onto the center yet.

 

I hope to get this border finished up this week, so I can take it to the shop and show them my progress. Then I'll get my April border guidelines.

 

Go check out more design walls (or design floors or design ping-pong tables or whatever) at Judy's.

 

Happy stitching!

 





Work on Fibonacci's 3rd Border

I've taken a bit of a break from my laptop this week...it's been a nice change of pace. But I have been working on my 3rd border for my Fibonacci's Challenge quilt. The four border sides are each sewn, but not attached to the center part yet. The quilt is on the ping pong table, so there's actually some green that's not part of the quilt.

I really like the way this border looks as it is, but one of the requirements is that I use the challenge fabric in each border, so I am currently working on appliqueing 5-pointed stars onto each side. Once I'm done with the applique, I will sew the borders to the center.

Have a wonderful Easter!

Happy stitching!

Getting Closer

Oh happy day! I finished the four Block B's that I need for my smaller version of Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street quilt.

Yes, I purposely used the same green plaid in the center of each of these blocks. I like how the lighter green fabric looks inside the star.

In the quilt, they won't be side by side like the above photo. They will be set on point, in between all those Block A's I finished last month, like this:

Now I need to start making the setting triangles. I kind of did things backwards from Bonnie's directions. I wanted to see how the blocks look, so I made those before the setting triangles.

Happy stitching!

Starting Fibonacci March Border

I think I've decided what I'm going to do for my March border of my Fibonacci Challenge.  The rules for this month include:
1. Use some of the challenge fabric.
2. Incorporate strip-pieced 4-patches or 9-patches. They can be even or uneven 4/9-patches, and they can be set straight or on point.
3. Use a new fabric.
4. Border should finish at 8".

After thinking about different possibilities over the past week, I've decided to make 4" red 4-patches, alternating with 4" green squares. Over this background, I will machine-applique stars using my different creams and golds, including the challenge fabric. The stars will be assorted sizes.

I wasn't planning on doing applique on this quilt, but this just feels "right" for this border. I will be continuing the star motif that's in the center block and in the second border. Since I'm appliquing these stars, I can scatter them randomly to create some movement.

Since some of my reds are getting depleted, I pulled a few more red fabrics from my stash. This one is actually a marbled red, but it shows up solid in this closeup. It feels so good to be using up fabric that's 17 years old. LOL

Here are some of the red 4-patches that I've made so far. The fabric on the lower left of the left 4-patch is the marble fabric from the first photo.

See more quilt projects at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Happy stitching!

Fibonacci Border #2 finished

Last night, my son's basketball game was cancelled due to a snow storm, so I got some extra time for sewing! I finished making the corner stars for Fibonacci's Challenge, then I sewed the three strips together for the rest of the border. At this point, the quilt is 28 1/2 inches square, including seam allowances. Starting March 1st, I can take this to the quilt shop to show my progress and I'll get the directions for border #3. I can't wait to see what they have us do next :)

 

Happy stitching!

Starting Fibonacci's Border #2

Things have been busy around here. Last weekend my in-laws came to visit. This week, my older son had an indoor track meet an hour away and my younger son had 6 basketball games (four of them were at a tournament over the weekend). Plus I've been fighting some sort of head cold, which means I haven't spent much time sewing.

Yesterday I did get started on my second border for my Fibonnaci's Challenge quilt. The requirements for this border are that you have to use at least one half-square triangle (HST) in the border. You can use more than one, and they can be different sizes. This border needs to finish at 4" wide (like border #1), and you have to use the challenge fabric somewhere in the border.

After sketching out some different possibilities, I decided I wanted to make 4" sawtooth stars for the four corners. The sides of the borders will have three stripes: the gold scrollwork that was the smaller star in the center of the quilt, the green that was the larger star in the quilt center, and the marble challenge fabric.

Here's one of my corner stars. Each star will have a different red fabric. As you can see, I used HSTs to make the red star points that have the challenge fabric background. Since these HSTs finish at 1 inch, I decided to use Thangles triangle paper to help with precision piecing. For the green background star points, I made flying geese instead of bothering with HSTs.

I have to mention that my 11-year-old helped me with a design decision for this border! I showed him two mock-ups, and he said if I wanted it to be boring, I should go with the choice on the right. So I decided to go with the choice on the left.

You can see what's on other people's design walls over at Judy's.

Happy stitching!

Fibonacci border #1

I got my first border all assembled and sewn onto the center block for my Fibonacci's Challenge quilt. I will go back to the shop either Saturday or next week after school one day to get the instructions for the February border.

Here's a closeup of two of the blocks in the border. The green is the same fabric as the center block (that's one of the requirements for this 1st border). The lower cream/beige fabric inside the red frame is the "challenge fabric" that I had to buy from the quilt shop for this challenge. All pieces of this first border have to be rectangles (another of the requirements for the challenge).

I haven't really done anything on Easy Street this week, but I did get the black fabrics pieced for my CQJP 2013 project. You can read about that here.

Go see what others have on their design walls over at Judy's.

Happy Stitching!

Design Wall Monday ~ MLK Day

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! I've got a few things on my "design wall" this week.

First, I finished my top for Quilts of Valor. It's so long that you can just barely see my husband's toe peeking under the border! I used the free pattern that Judy gave out on her blog, but I eliminated the middle 1" border. Although I had plenty of scraps for the main part of the quilt, I did go buy some yardage for the two borders. And I had some leftover to add to my patriotic fabric bin :) I've had such a fun time making this quilt. Red, white, and blue is one of my favorite color combinations, and it was a joy to use many different patriotic fabrics. I know this isn't much, but I hope this quilt will help a soldier to know that we do care; we appreciate what they are doing for us; their sacrifices do not go unnoticed.

While I added the borders to the QOV, I made some more units for block A of Easy Street as leaders/enders. The 4-patches sewn to the double bricks are rotated from the ones I made last week, since you need some of both for this block.

After finishing my QOV, I got to work on the 1st border for my Fibonacci's Challenge quilt. Here's some information about that quilt. After laying out some fabrics for my border, I decided I didn't like it, so I revamped my plan.

Since this border can only have rectangles, I sewed two 1 1/2" strips of creams and golds together, then cut into 2 1/2" pieces. Then I framed them with green 1 1/2" strips. So the finished width of each piece will be 1" and the finished blocks will be 4" squares. I will be alternating green and red blocks; here are the 8 green blocks I have made.

I'm hoping to finish this border later on today, since I'm off school for Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday.

You can see what's on other quilters' design walls at Judy's blog.

Happy stitching!

Hello, Fibonacci!

So, I've started a new quilt project. Yes, I know, I'm in the middle of my QOV quilt and Easy Street. Not to mention a few other things that are sitting on the back burner. But I have a good reason for this new one!

Many years ago, I made lap-quilts for my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law, using Christmas fabrics. There were 6 other relatives I wanted to make Christmas quilts for. One is finished, but not given to the person because I wanted to give them all at the same time. I cut out the fabrics for one before I got pregnant with my 3rd child. (He's in middle school now, so you know this was awhile ago.) I am in various stages with 4 of the 5 that still need to be made. My Easy Street is one of these 4. My goal is to finish all these quilts for this Christmas. I think I will need all year to get them done LOL.

So when I heard that one of the local quilt shops is having a challenge called "Fibonacci's Revenge," I decided to try it with Christmas fabrics in my stash. It is based on the Fibonacci number sequence of 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13... You add the previous two numbers to get the next number. Apparently this number sequence shows up in nature a lot.

For this challenge, you first have to start with a 12" (finished size) block of your choosing. I love using a star motif in Christmas quilts, so I thought the Rising Star would be an appropriate center block. For the inner star, I used a gold scroll fabric and the outer star is a beautiful green Bali. The background is a light cream tone-on-tone that doesn't show up real well in the photo.

One of the requirements for the challenge is to buy at least one yard of their "challenge fabric." There were three neutrals you could choose from. The other two choices were a bit too Civil War-ish for me, so I went with this cream and tan Moda Marbles fabric. It's a bit darker than I would have chosen, but I guess that's part of the fun of a challenge, right?

So, each month you go to the store and get your directions for the month. We will be adding a border each month to make a medallion-style quilt. If you bring in your progress from the previous month, your directions are free. If you do not have any progress, you have to pay $3.00 for that month's directions. Hopefully this money incentive will keep me on track. 

For January's border, you need to make a 4" border using only rectangles (squares are allowed in the corners if necessary). You have to use some of the challenge fabric, plus at least one fabric from the center block, plus add at least one fabric color. I will be adding red.

I stayed up later than I should have last night, sketching out different border possibilities. I think I'm going to go with the one on the left side of this photo. I was inspired by one of the quilts that Judy from Patchwork Times made and sent to Alycia for Quilts of Valor. Alycia showed a photo of the quilt at this post. 

I'm planning on making this a "controlled scrappy" with Christmas fabrics. I will probably make the borders my leaders/enders while I finish up my QOV. 

Happy stitching!

Christmas has come Early!

Look at the beautiful Christmas ornament I just got in the mail from Lisa's Crazy Quilt Ornament Swap! Peg S. made it, and she calls it "Victorian Christmas." The actual crazy quilted part is 5" long and 4" wide at the widest. Then that gorgeous fringe is another 4". You can't see real well, but the fringe has silver sequins all over it.

Here's the silver beading that goes on the upper right side of the orny, along with the stitched and beaded seam treatment.

The silver lame piece has more beading. Although it looks black in the photo, the fabric in the lower left of this picture is actually a navy velvet with more meandering stitching and beading. In the upper right, you can see where Peg stitched her initials and the year.

Here's the center patch. The fabric on the upper left is another shiny silver color, filled with beads and sequins.

This fabric is on the left side of the ornament. The fabric itself is sparkly, and Peg added stitching and beads.

 

As much as I love looking at all the eye candy online, I love even more getting to see someone else's crazy quilting in person. It's so inspiring! So thank you, Peg, for making this beautiful ornament and thank you, Lisa, for hosting the orny swap!

 

If you want to see the ornament I made for the swap, click here.

 

Now all I want to do is go work on my crazy quilt block, but unfortunately, there's housework calling my name. Maybe tonight?

 

Happy stitching!





CQ Christmas Ornament 2012

I have been a member of the Quiltropolis Crazy Quilt email list for several years now. Each year, Lisa D. hosts a Christmas Ornament Swap. I participated in 2008; here's a photo of that ornament. Then in 2010, I started working on an ornament for the swap, but I didn't finish it. This summer, I decided to finish it up and send it off to Lisa.

I decided to make a diamond shape for this year's orny. I went with the traditional colors of red, green, and gold because I love them! The photo, above, shows how far I had gotten in 2010. All the embellishing was done, I only needed to assemble the orny.

I don't usually use printed cotton in my crazy quilt blocks, but I just love this red poinsettia fabric witht the gold highlights, so I used it in the center patch. I added several gold seed beads to the middle of the poinsettia.

I used a bit of green ribbon to make this bow, which I then couched down with clear beads. Underneath it, there are red bead "flowers" as part of the seam treatment.

These little red sequins were in an embellishing packet I bought somewhere. I used beads to attach them.

The center button in this cluster is from a huge jar of buttons I bought at an antique shop. It's very sparkly in real life.

A bead cluster with several different shapes, sizes, and colors of beads.

When I went to assemble the ornament this week, I pulled out this beaded fringe that I had left over from a different project. I added two strands of the beads to the bottom of the ornament.

I added a metallic-floss hanger to the top of the ornament. The back is solid red fabric, with my initials and the year embroidered on it. Not including the beaded fringe, the ornament is 4 1/2 inches tall by 4 inches wide.

I start back to work on Monday (the students don't come until the Tuesday a week later). I'm planning on packaging this up over the weekend and taking it to the post office after work Monday.

I can't wait to see what ornament I get in return! Since the swap is open until November 1st, you still have time to make an ornament or two and join in the fun :)

Happy stitching!

Quilt Shop-Hop finds

There's a large quilt shop-hop going around my area of the state...32 shops are participating. If you go to every shop, you can be entered to win a new Bernina! Not that I expect to go to all of them ~ there are other things I need to do this summer!

Thursday my husband and kids were all gone, so I decided to go check out two shops I've never been to (although they're both within 40 minutes of my house). What a mistake that was! I ended up buying more fabric for projects!

I need more projects as much as I need a hole in the back of my head. I'm just hoping to get these done before they are added to the UFO pile cabinet.

When I was with my DH, 3 kids, and another family in Montana and Wyoming last month, I fell in LOVE with the Rocky Mountains. I came home wanting to redecorate my entire house in a mountain-cabin theme. Hubby wasn't gonna go for that expense, though. So when I saw these two different projects, I couldn't resist.

This first is a Santa with woodland creatures panel. I just wish it had a moose. I fell in love with moose after we saw one of these majestic animals up close and personal while hiking in Grand Teton National Park.

Besides the fabric panel, I bought two of its coordinating fabrics, the blue/gray mottled piece and the plaid. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it at the store, besides make a wall hanging. The saleslady was very helpful and gave me some suggestions, so I bought what I thought was a good amount of each fabric.

The funny thing is, last night I sat down to work on this blog post, when our power went out. It turns out the transformer box in front of my neighbor's house caught on fire!!! Not from a storm, but just from so much use these past few days (we've had temps in the low 100's and no rain). Since the power was out for three hours, I had the chance to draft what I think I'll do with this fabric. My goal: to be done by THIS Christmas. If it's not done before I go back to school August 17, it's probably not gonna get done in time, though.





Then at the second store, they were having a sale of 30% off all McKenna Ryan kits. 30%! I love the look of her quilts but have never tried one. This store had two kits from her "Out and About" series that I liked. With this series, you can make a few of the 12 X 12 inch blocks, or you can make the whole series of nine blocks and make them into a larger quilt.

The quilt shop I was at only had a few of the blocks in this series, so I bought two. The one on the left, with the bears, is called "Dinner for Two" and the moose on the right is called "Knee Deep." I already know where I want to hang these when I'm done, and if I can find one or two more from the series, I might buy those as well. (We'll see if any of the other stores in the shop-hop have them.)

I'll keep you posted on how it's going.

And no, I haven't given up on crazy quilting. I'll post more of my progress on that another day.

Since it's so hot outside, stay in and do some quilting. Happy stitching!