Monday, November 30, 2015

What I Am Working On......

Karen showed me this blog post and I have to admit that I was intrigued with the concept. Of course I misunderstood the idea, I thought that each day you pick a fabric that reflects how you feel about the day, or what you did.  Though I knew I didn't want to make mine with circles as it would take too long, I don't enjoy handwork, and I would soon quit making them. 

I decided to make mine using the Road to Tennessee block. Ever since we moved to TN twenty years ago I have been wanting to make a TN quilt.  I am using a five inch square for the main block and scrappy 2.5 inch squares for the corners. The block goes together in under one minute, cutting included. I am going to try to make my blocks all from the scraps I have been saving. If I need to I will cut into larger pieces of fabric. Wish I had a fun novelty fabric for each day.  The blocks will be sewn in calendar order. I started this on November 10th.
 The day I started was foggy - the gray fabric, the next was Veteran's Day, next day I worked on my hexie flowers, got new glasses, started my Bargello quilt, etc...
 dreaded ladybugs arrived, finished Christmas Stack n Whack, love the color red, beautiful sunset, ...
canned some leg of lamb, family history, - you get the idea.

I have also decided to keep a small journal with just a word or two about why I chose the fabric for that day. 

I might try to incorporate this list on the back of the quilt. I am surprised at how much I am enjoying making these blocks.

As you probably know I like to make quilts to fit my bed - 100 inches square. I am going to have to do this for 400 days to make it big enough. Just might have to put borders on this one!

 My hexie flowers are getting done, been averaging about 5 a week, just have about 100 left to go. If I knew just how much time it takes for me to make one flower I would never have started this quilt. It takes about one hour for me to make one flower. I thought I would have gotten faster over time. Guess I need to watch more TV!

Stacks of 10.

I am making Lori Holt's barn blocks - one a week - All my barns will be red. She also has a 12 inch barn block that I have enlarged to make it as big as the others and this will give me three different barns in my quilt.



 Amish Twist is also being made.  I am making one set of blocks each week. I have 25 finished. 



I am struggling with paper piecing these tree blocks. My mind has a hard time grasping that you have to sew the pieces upside down. I am going to have to find someone in my guild that knows about paper piecing. I won't work on these again until next year.



A Bargello quilt has also been started. Being taught this by a quilter in my guild.
There are only four rows so far. All the strips and strip sets have been cut out.


I just might have too many projects going all at once - though none of them actually take a lot of time. Once the Christmas quilts are finished - have two more to make - then I will be able to concentrate more on the Bargello and barn quilts. 

Been thinking about my quilting goals for 2016...

Linking up with Quilty 365.... Linking up with JudyL's Design Wall.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Something New

I finally have another finish.

One of the new friends I've made since moving is the "queen" of Stack and Whacks! She has made more than 200 of them. It is the only type of quilt she is interested in. Bill was fascinated with them.

Of course I agreed to make one. I decided on a Christmas one. Also decided that since it will "probably" be the only one I will ever make I wanted to make it for our bed.

Don't get me wrong, they are beautiful quilts, it is just that there are so many other types of quilts I want to make. This is the fabric I chose. I like the background colors - red, maroon, and two shades of green.

You buy by the repeat in the fabric not yardage so I wasn't sure how much to buy to make a big quilt.  My friend will buy what I don't use. Not crazy abt it and was told the uglier the fabric the prettier the stack and whack quilt will be.    Which is certainly true after looking at my friend's quilts. Glittery fabric, girly fabric just isn't me and I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it.

Since starting this quilt I have come to realize that I am not a fan of making Stack n Whack quilts. I didn't mind the piecing or the cutting. The tacking of all 8 layers together wore me out! It took me  - TWELVE - long hours to tack my components. I did it while watching a Murder She Wrote Marathon. Never - Ever will I make one again. Eight layers made 14 blocks and I needed 64 blocks, so I had to tack 5 - 8 layers stacks.....which made 70 blocks. 

I decided to set my quilt on point which didn't use as many blocks. A friend will be getting a Christmas quilt with the left over blocks!

This is my first quilt that I set on point. So not use to dealing with bias edges around the outside of the top. There are a few wavy areas and I am hoping that once it is washed that some of the glitter (there is a lot of glitter) and the waves will disappear. 
 This quilt is 98x98. Some of the blocks.....I like that the blocks are surrounded with cream as it makes it look like they are floating.



 And these cute snowman are on the back.
Because I struggled with the bias edges and also where the 8 points meet in the center of each block there were some peaks, meandering was the simple way for me to keep the top kinda flat while quilting it.

Linking up to the stash report at Patchwork Times.


Fabric usage  2015 ~
fabric in YTD ~ 31.66
fabric out YTD ~ 198.80
used YTD ~ 167.14

Quilts Finished ~ 17each quilt will only be counted in one category
QOV ~ 6
RMH ~ 8
UFO ~ 1
New ~ 2




Sunday, November 1, 2015

The Last QOV of the Year - #6

This will be my last Quilt of Valor this year.



Forgot to take a picture of the presentation case before delivering the quilts.

A new quilting friend wanted to take a quilting class. She asked me to go with her. I told her to find a class she wanted to take and I would go with her. She is a new quilter and has never taken a class. She chose a "Square in a Square" class. It is a different way to make sq in a sq, flying geese, dove in the window, etc, blocks, using a speciality ruler.



I still have two more borders to put on it. It will be about 26 inches square.

Here are some the the steps using the ruler. I used white as the centers of my blocks and they don't show up very good on the white paper.

You start with a center square and add strips on all sides.


 You then trim, using the ruler to create this block - the square in a square - this is the basic unit that all the other blocks are made from
 by cutting the blocks you can create flying geese or 1/2 square triangles
 Cutting in a different direction you create the dove in the window block - I do really like the border it  makes
I didn't buy the ruler or any of the books. I have bought speciality rulers in the past and used them once, sometimes never - wasn't sure about this one because...

#1 - I felt there was a lot of waste - I know I will never use all the fabric I have and I shouldn't be concerned about a little waste. I could be wrong about this percentage but I think I heard the teacher say there was about 1/3 waste, seems like a lot to me.  

#2 - The other thing was that after you trim the blocks they are on the bias, I haven't had a lot of experience working with bias blocks. Guess I should have used starch on them. The center of the small wall hanging I made was a bit wavy. 

The main thing was I got to spend time with a new quilting friend, learn a new technique and was able to drop off my QsOV. 

All the new beautiful fabrics and patterns were so tempting but I didn't purchase any.

Linking up with JudyL's Stash Report

Fabric usage  2015 ~
fabric in YTD ~ 19.66
fabric out YTD ~ 176.02
used YTD ~ 156.36

Quilts Finished ~ 16 ~ each quilt will only be counted in one category
QOV ~ 6
RMH ~ 8
UFO ~ 1
New ~ 1