Scrapitude Scrap-in-a-Box - Finished!
I ventured forth at my own risk last month and finished the Scrap-In-A-Box top on my own before Charlotte released the last clue. I’m pleased that mine didn’t come off too far from her own design. I did 2″ sashing that finished at 1.5″ instead, and seem to be missing the 1 1/2″ squares for the cornerstones (and had the 1 1/2″ HST units in surplus). It worked out because I just sewed two of the HST units together to make a square for the cornerstones.
I hate being the sort of quilter that makes a good looking quilt and then spends the next 30 minutes telling you where all the mistakes are. So I’ll only spend 30 seconds: when I sewed one of the units wrong, it worked out okay for the main blocks (making them more “blocky” and square-ish), but I didn’t replicate the mistake on the setting blocks. It’s not that obvious to the quilt muggles, though, so I still like it.
Since it’s going to a teacher, I was entirely on board with using the Sweetwater math fabric for the inner border.
Of course it’s a modern quilt with this pieced back:
Now I just need to label it and wrap it up!
HtbaS - Episode 211
Q4 Finish Along Goals
Well, it’s that time again… time to set some goals for the quarter!
First up is the Dresden Plate quilt. Or maybe I should call it the “Dread-sden” Plate quilt. (I’ll be here all week! Tip your waitresses!) I’ve got most of my plates done (might need 3 more half plates, but won’t know for sure until I get to that border), and I’m piecing the background currently.
I’ve also got my list written up for the various steps to pull it together, and I have a plan for quilting, so in theory is just the time needed to actually do the work that’s holding me back.
Second up is the Jingle quilt. I had waffled on turning this into a king-sized quilt, but think I’m going to stick with the original size as designed for a wall-quilt. I know I would fear putting this on my bed given the cat traffic and would hate for something to happen to it given the amount of work I’ve put into all this stinking applique! I will just alternate this with my other Christmas quilt for hanging in my living room, and heck, might even come up with a second place to hang quilts in my house so I can hang both up during the season!
And finally, the Royal Gardens quilt. The “official” size is a queen, but I’m adding a smidge more to the sides to make it king size so we can use it on our bed. We’ll get the final block at the very beginning of December so it’ll be a bit of a squeeze to get it done but might also be a good way to spend Christmas break.
I’ve got more projects to work on, of course, but haven’t cut any parts of them yet so they won’t count for the FAL official tally.
Easy Street Redux - Finished!
I put the final binding stitches on this king monster sized quilt (exact measurements are eleventy frajillion by a bajillion sixteenths or something) the other night, and it took two days to wash and get it dried. And I don’t think I’ve found all the quilting threads and tied them off and hidden them yet. I find more threads every time I look at it! But it’s done:
This is Bonnie Hunter’s Easy Street Mystery pattern from 2012, soon to be available in her new book. I added 3 1/2 borders to it to bring it up to king size. A 1 1/2″ skinny purple border, a HST border only on the sides, a fun print border all the way around, and a teal border to finish off the top. The binding is more of the crazy sheep print that started this whole color scheme.
After I finished the first Easy Street quilt I did (a Christmas gift for my in-laws), I thought I might want to do one for myself. I was not sure, however, what color scheme to go with.
I kept thinking back to these pieces of fabric I got through an inherited stash the year before. This crazy sheep fabric with the hot pink spinning wheels and weird purple knitting accessories. Rather ugly, in my opinion, but a guild class on color taught by my friend Lynn inspired me to pull out other fabrics from my stash to see if I could make a beautiful quilt inspired by this ugly fabric.
Here’s the others I pulled out - lots of rich purples and teals. A fun print for a border. Creams for the backgrounds, and a washed out green for the constant in the pattern. As the blocks took shape, I really fell in love with the color combination.
I still have some of the original sheep fabric left (I think I started with 3-4 yards of it!), so I think I’ll make a storage bag for the quilt out of it. You can see the sheep throughout the quilt in various 3 1/2″ squares, and in glimpses on the binding.
I really think I made an ugly fabric turn out to be good looking after all.
Christmas Star Surround - Finished!
At my marathon long-arming session on Saturday, I was able to knock out the quilting for the Star Surround quilt, which I’m calling the Christmas Star Surround quilt. If I let my daughter name it, as she picked the fabrics based on the 12 Cats of Christmas fabric and it’s for her bed, it would be something like “Happy Kitty Santa Star Quilt YAY”.
She’s seven, and shares my affinity for cats and presents, so who knows, maybe I would come up with that name too on my own!
I stuck with a simple meander quilting on this because the prints are super busy, and that’s what I’m most comfortable with on a longarm right now. Also, it’s a full size quilt, finishing at 80 x 96″ or so and the thought of doing a pattern I wasn’t comfortable with for something that big made me feel a bit ill. For the binding I used the same stripey pattern in a couple of the blocks, but cut on the bias for the diagonal look.
I’m quite pleased I was able to piece the back together out of a lot of different Christmas fabrics from my stash that seem to languish since I don’t do a lot of holiday projects.
It’s a great pattern that I might reuse someday (in fabrics I take a little more control over choosing!), so go check out the whole tutorial series.
Star Surround Progress
Once the magical package delivery man arrived with the remainder of my background fabric (Kona Sand) (which I accidentally over-ordered and now have 3 1/2 yards to spare) (oh well!), I was able to finish cutting all my bits and pieces for the Star Surround quilt.
To recap, I’m doing a 4×5 block layout of 16″ blocks.
I have around 3 different variations of this photo; Nina’s was the least obtrusive, Morelli’s has him draped over the cut colored squares, and Jett’s has him knocking over the stacks of the background fabrics. They have since been safely tucked away into a project box to avoid further cat hair contamination. Honestly, that’s sort of a losing battle since all three cats go in the for wake-up call when it’s time to wake up my daughter, on whose bed this quilt will ultimately reside.
In other sneaky peek news, I finished the top for Easy Street Redux. Here’s a preview to see how I did borders on it to make it king sized. The extra HST border is on the two sides to give it a little more drop on the sides of the quilt, to protect our precious piddies when they hang over the sides from certain aforementioned cats.
WIP Wednesday - Quit Yer Naggin’
I am putting the final stitches on the Easy Street Redux top. Well, not at this moment… at this moment I am clickety-clacking on the keyboard and trying to tear my eyes away from the final chapters of The Cuckoo’s Calling while simultaneously answering “How much longer until we leave for camp?” from my daughter every 30 seconds.
Ahem.
So two more seams and that top will be done, and I think I’ve worked out when I can long-arm the center of it on my friend’s long arm machine. In the mean time, I’ve picked out fabrics for the Star Surround Quilt Along.
Now before anyone shrieks in horror, the 12 Cats of Christmas fabric is over a decade old, I think, and will be used as a border on the quilt. The quilt will be a Christmas quilt for my daughter’s full size bed, hence 1) cats and 2) Christmas. I’m going to do a 4×5 block layout of 16″ blocks, which means although Melissa has done an awesome job of providing all sorts of math already worked out, I’m still going to have to be a math nerd and do some myself.
My plan is for each star block to have a red in it, and it will pair with either a blue or a green from the other stack. The Kona Sand is the background. I have a feeling her method for HST and Flying Geese construction is to pair squares and rectangles instead of triangle pieces so there will be some “waste” triangles, which I suppose just means I’ll have little bits leftover to make pillow covers out of.
Anyway, enough worrying about that! In between the steps for the SSQA, I’m working on Beachwalk next. FINALLY. Thanks to Katie’s post about fear of failure.
WIP Wednesday: Taking It (Not So) Easy
I have all but one A Block pieced for Easy Street Redux, and I’m happy with the colors I picked. I like that the constant is subtle - it’s a lighter green that blends with the background, but I think it helps the teal and purple stand out more. The brown is a little more subtle, and I was afraid it would blend with the background too much. I think it’s okay, though.
I’m not sure what the border is going to look like yet, since I want to get the center pieced together and laid on my bed to get the exact drop length I need. We like a little more drop on the sides than the top and bottom, so it might be a smidge wider than longer.
WIP Wednesday: Taking it Easy (Street)
In truth I am taking it easy with the sewing this week for two main reasons:
- It’s the last week of school and we’re going on vacation and my lady times are upon me and it’s really hard to see through this veil of tears, which are a result of aforementioned reasons.
- I’ve also gotten caught up in a jigsaw puzzle. As has Morelli.
Not surprising to anyone who knows me, it’s a puzzle with quilts and a cat on it.
I have plodded along on a couple other projects, though, and have finished the setting triangles (both side and corners) for Easy Street Redux. The main colors are teal, purple, and a warm brown. My constant is a paler green with a floral print on it, and I’m using the same cream tones for my background. I’m hoping to get the B blocks pieced before vacation, if only so I don’t have to leave them out on my sewing table where the cats will frolic with them in my absence.
When not piecing I’ve been cutting out some pieces for another Scrappy Swoon, which will be a wedding present. I’ve got the blues and the creams cut out for it, but need some more white on white prints for the background (I’m doing a low contrast on the background and the ring part of the star with blue in the middle to help me figure out value contrast). I’m in the “readying to sprint” phase of this project, and will probably whip it up after Beachwalk and Easy Street Redux this summer. Morelli has been extra helper-ful with this as well.
Morelli, you have been charged with too much helpering. Back in the box.