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!

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!