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Jingle Quilt - Finished!

Woooooooooo!

Ok, I got that out of the way. I’m so excited to have finished this quilt. I love the colors and the design that harkens back to Pennsylvania Dutch hex designs (my parents have the one for Love & Romance over their front door) and the cardinals that my Grama loved so much.  So, without further ado, here is my finished Jingle quilt:

As with any of the pictures, you can click through to Flickr to embiggen the pictures.  I posted detailed shots of each of the quilted blocks in my Flickr photoset for the quilt, and will highlight a couple of them here.

The center focused mainly on pebbling the background for both the center medallion and the pieced setting triangles.

I left the green triangles in the setting triangle portion unquilted so they would pop, and did a similar feather pattern in the red triangles so they would match with the solid setting triangles of the pieced blocks.

Jingle Finished QuiltThose feathers are more like feather sprays, and I tried to mimic the pattern in a couple of the pieced blocks.  The red center of this block got a swirled feather/flower sort of thing happening. It’s a big hard to see because of the pattern of the fabric.  In each of the yellow areas in the pieced blocks, I did a 1/4″ echo from the piece edge, and then micro stippled the interior.  I mixed it up on the green pieces and did a couple different patterns.  This block has a micro-paisley, but I also did micro stipple, tiny swirls, and some small feathers, too.

For the applique blocks, they got a mix of red print fabric to set those, and they got holly sprigs quilted into them.  Around the applique blocks themselves I did a small stipple pattern to make the applique really pop.

And a tip from me to you, if you are FMQing with a light colored thread and accidentally go into a dark colored applique shape, you can take a Pigma pen and color in that bit of white thread and it’s not even visible anymore and you don’t have to undo it! Magic!

Feel free to embiggen away, or watch the slideshow below (which also includes pictures of the blocks as they were made - about 40 pictures in total).

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Sunday Stash: Jingling All The Way

Well, I finished Jingle late Friday AND in time to show off at guild. But there were only 10 other people there (bummer!) and now it’s raining so I can’t take good pictures at the moment (double bummer!). And it’s supposed to rain for the next three days, too! Mega bummer. I do have another guild meeting to take it to Thursday (different guild!), so I’ll take it off the wall then and will try to photograph it outside.

Also at guild meeting, we had a member destashing so we all got to browse and of course I brought some home!  I did decide since there were some Christmas prints I picked up that I would make pillowcases for my daughter’s class auction this month.

  • Used this Week: 13.75 yards
    • 9 yd for Jingle
    • 4.5 yd for 4 pillowcases
    • 0.25 yd for two pincushions
  • Used year to Date: 390 yards
  • Added this Week: 6.5 yards
    • 6.5 yd of various fabric from guildmate destash (4.5 of which used for pillowcases)
  • Net Used for 2013: 198 yards (so close!)
  • YTD Used for Charity: 144 yards (38% of total used)

See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!

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WIP Wednesday: Quiltingness

My chiropractor is probably going to have a very nice Christmas with all the pebbling in the center of the Jingle quilt.  I finished the pebbling yesterday, and started the setting triangle feathers for the pieced blocks.  Not sure yet what I’m going to do for the setting triangles for the applique blocks, but I think I’ll end up pebbling the applique blocks themselves and doing something custom in the pieced blocks.

I’d love to get this done in time to show off at my guild meeting Saturday but I’m not sure that will happen. I’ll probably take it in whatever state it’s in though!

In other news, the cats are guilty of flossing on the Christmas trees.

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Sunday Stash & Retreat Report!

Earlier in the week I finished up the small items for the Good Mews craft fair, and my new purse. I also touched most of the things I packed for retreat while at retreat (instead of just touching them while packing).  I finished the Snowflake Garden wallhanging on Friday night (individual pictures on that on a separate post), and finished the top for the Jingle quilt (seen to the right before I attached the final green border). I also made about 129 out of 576 of the units for my parents’ quilt and started a paper pieced project that will be a Christmas gift.

  • Used this Week: 7.75 yards
    • 0.75 for tissue holders
    • 1.5 yd for Crayon holders
    • 0.25 yd for Coaches gifts
    • 0.5 yd for Coffee cozies
    • 2.25 yd for Road 15 bag
    • 2.5 yd for Snowflake Garden
  • Used year to Date: 364.25 yards
  • Added this Week: 3 yards
    • 3 yd Kona solids (Snow & Sable)
  • Net Used for 2013: 181.75 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 140 yards (39% of total used)

See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!

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Jingle Blocks - Done!

At last the Berry Siege of ’13 is OVER!

But first the final pieced block, complete with the sort of weird lighting you’ve come to expect from this blog.

And finally, here are final three applique blocks:


 

I swear I will raise one of my kids to be a botanist and genetically engineer food so they develop a berry with legitimate corners we quilters can applique without shame! In the mean time, I’ll settle for drinking a lot of eggnog around Christmas while this quilt is displayed so I either won’t notice the semi-pointy berries due to blurry vision or just won’t care due to being drunk.

I’m looking forward to the finishing directions, although might take liberties with the setting triangles for the center piece so they offer a little more interest.

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WIP Wednesday: Blockhead

I have made progress on 4 of the 6 blocks from the three different monthly block programs I’m participating in. The last two are applique, of course, because I am not in an applique-y mood I’m just dragging my feet on getting it done.

First up is the Royal Gardens block 10.

Then Saturday Soiree block 5.

Then the two latest Miss Jingle pieced blocks, 6 and 7.  It’s the applique blocks for Miss Jingle that I still need to finish up.

Jingle pieced block 7

I’ve managed to get 20 more background 4-patches sewn together for the Dresden Plate quilt while piecing all of these blocks together, and also finished three covers for pet beds. I also have to hem some pants (I KNOW - ugh).

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

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WIP Wednesday: Of Geese and Cardinals

I am (finally) caught up on my applique blocks for the Jingle BOM.  Just in time to get a new block on Friday that I’ll put off for a while, apparently.

I’ve also been making my flying geese units for the Star Surround quilt along, and should get the red geese finished tonight, leaving the blue & green geese for Thursday and Friday. I’d like to get them done by then so I can focus on another project (a Bonnie Hunter pattern) at my retreat on Saturday. Of course, I also need to get all the pieces cut for that before Saturday in order for that to happen, so… yeah. And I need to get my sashing cut and cornerstones sewn for Royal Gardens, too. Fingers crossed I can get it all done since I have a couple big things for work to get done today and tomorrow!

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

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Weekend Wrap-Up and Star Surround Progress

I finally got my Star Surround HSTs sewn and trimmed yesterday (slight impediment due to quilting Beachwalk, but I powered through with the help of Project Runway and a card table).

I’m still stymied by the counts of these units - how can six of one unit work out to cover two blocks? I suppose that’s why I don’t run a mystery quilt along.

Anywho, I also powered through my Saturday Sampler blocks.  My little organized heart was delighted with the alignment of all the prints in the same direction in the blue & white block.

 
And also finished the 5th Jingle Pieced Block. The 5th applique block is in progress right now. I accidentally embroidered the stems for a straight set instead on point set and had to start over. I’m about halfway done with the applique leaves and bird parts, and can hopefully finish up this block tonight when I want a break from the next Star Surround step.

While piecing all these various blocks, I’ve been piecing together some more leader & ender four patch blocks and sixteen patch blocks.  Although the Parade of Charity Quilts happened last month at the East Cobb Quilters’ Guild, they are still taking donations through the year.  As I understand it, there’s always a need for quilts suitable for teen boys, so I’m going with blues, greens, browns, greys, and blacks set with neutrals.  You can tell there are some orphan flying geese blocks thrown in, which is a fun way to use up some of those orphan elements from various quilts.  I’m trying to get at least 42 blocks, and then will add in a couple borders to bring it to a lap size.

And finally, a gratuitous Helper Cat picture. Nina is very smart and has sorted herself appropriately with the oranges.

Nina has sorted herself appropriately next to the oranges.

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July Block Round-up

I spent today catching up on BOMs and Saturday Sampler blocks after my guild meeting (and guild breakfast and guild lunch - we like to hang out together!).

First up is the 7th Royal Gardens block. As best I can tell, there are six block designs, and each is repeated but with different fabrics.  I’m not opposed to this, but I do like getting unique block designs out of the program.

I still need to tackle the Royal Gardens sashing kit I got a couple weeks ago, but perhaps I’ll save that for when I’m trying to stall on another project!

Next up is the Saturday Soiree block for the other Saturday Sampler program that Tiny Stitches is running. I will say I was surprised how this is put together - the corner sections look like it would be the white print square sewn to a blue paisley square of same size, and then attached to a rectangle of blue paisley. Instead, it’s actually a Shaded Four Patch block (familiar to those of you who did Easy Street! My link is to Kati’s block for her tutorial on it).

And finally, I caught up on the Jingle blocks, one applique and one pieced block.

 
Whew. Now I’m ready to sandwich and quilt Scrappy Swoon Redux!