One Finished Finish and some Tops finished

I've kind of been balancing larger projects with smaller ones so this week I finished quilting and binding this baby quilt.  The genesis of this project was finding those cute flannel squares in the guild flea market.  Easy peasy, it will make a nice donation quilt.

I used this wonderful snoopy flannel for the backing.  It's really soft.  Perfect for a baby!

I also finished a few tops!  Some how putting on borders is a challenge for me so I have a lot of projects that are waiting for borders.  Hopefully I can get them quilted pretty quick now that they are finished!

I added the blue strips to the top and bottom and the yellow flower print (an old skirt) all the way around.  I thought it matched the vintage blocks pretty well.

 This quilt had a lot of structural problems starting with the piecing.   I wondered if it was even worth salvaging these orphan blocks they were so wonky and rather loosely hand pieced.  But I decided to put them together hoping that the quilting will help stabilize everything.  We shall see!

You might remember this next top from a post in Sept.  These were a whole set of orphan blocks given to me as part of a "Thank You" gift from my guild.  I was stunned that someone would part with a whole set of these beautiful blocks!  But I talked to the person who gave them to me and she said that she got them in a block swap and when she finely received her blocks they just didn't 'wow' her the way she had initially thought they would.  I think they are gorgeous!  And I'm really happy with the border.  I found both those fabrics in my stash!!

This last border finish is a pretty old UFO.  I think I started it 3 or 4 years ago.  Every year about this time I'd get it out and work on the blocks but this year I was determined to get it done before Halloween so we could enjoy it's seasonal design!  This one will get moved to the front of the line for quilting so hopefully it will be done soon!!!

Sooo many fun fabrics in this one.  My stash of Halloween fabric grew quite a bit while working on this project.  But I have another Halloween project that will hopefully put a dent in that.

Well that's all for now.  I hope to get some more "Finished Finishes" done by next week.  I have stayed true to my goal to not Start anything new!  It was hard.  I did fiddle around with a few stacks of fabric,  I didn't cut anything so that doesn't count, right?!

I hope you are all enjoying the Fall!  It's been really nice weather here!

cheers, CW

Splicing border prints

 When Randy (Barrister's block) and I went to Maine in June, Wendy (the Constant Quilter) who is a most wonderful hostess directed us to her friend Cindy who has great quilt shop, Busy thimble, in Litchfield, Maine .  Cindy was having her annual 30% off sale and she has a fabulous range of fabrics!  Randy and I definitely spent more than a few pennies!

Lucky me I found an old French Laundry Fab that made a perfect match to a center of one of my UFOs.  And it was on sale!!!!  The print has two distinct bar prints running the length of the fabric.  Being the thrifty person I am I did not want to have to cut 4 full bars to make everything match so I ended up splicing the last border so's to conserve fabric (for what project I have no idea).

So here's an easy accurate way to splice a border pattern:
First I looked at each end of the cut fabric to see which end might have a better "match".   This one was pretty close.

I folded  and pressed the left piece of fabric, which was already cut to the correct width.

That  way I could lay it onto the  end piece and match up the pattern as perfectly as possible.

It helped that there were three printed lines that I could line-up.

Once I got the overlap as close as possible I used my ruler and wood marking tool to score a mark in the right hand piece of fabric.  You can just see the mark near the tip of the tool if you focus in on that point.  This marks the actual stitching line.

Then I opened the fold on the left fabric and matched the fold line to the marked line I made in the last picture  with lots of pins and I stitched along the fold line.

It's not entirely invisible but it's pretty close! 

Here's the end result.  The center was a hand full of 'leftovers'  but with that border it made a pretty nice lap quilt!  

I finished putting the binding on today.  

I'm feeling pretty good about my new UFO program.  

 I did a fair bit of sewing this week and I managed to refrain from starting anything new!  I occupied myself with a few borders which  so I have a couple more quilt tops to add to the "to be quilted pile" and ai have a "finished Finish"!

Two down and a couple more hundred to go!

Have a great week!

cheers, CW 

Working on my UFO's

Note:  If you are a SBAMQG member looking for the Block of the Every Other Month instructions use the tab in the upper left for that link.

Several years ago I tried  a self imposed system to reduce my number of UFO's.  I called it my 2 for 1 program.  I had to finish two projects for every one project I started.  It worked pretty well for awhile.  Of course being a mouse attracted to shinny things (well actually fabric)  I inevitably fell off the wagon and got distracted by this, that and the other...

I have decided to renew my 'vow' so-to-speak and reinstitute my 2 for 1 system but go even further.  I will work only on UFO's until further notice.  I know that seems like a tall order but I have so many  I don't think I will be bored for quite some time.  I just have to keep from getting distracted by all those bright shinny things.  And, oh ya, stop buying fabric.  That would help with the stash reduction
as well.

So here's my first effort toward that goal.  This top was not that old.  I think I started it about a year ago.  The order in which things get done is not so important, just that I keep pulling out old projects, not starting new ones.  I got it quilted and bound this past week.  One down,  and a couple hundred to go!

I rarely buy patterns but I liked this one a lot so I thought I would try following some directions for once.  It said  'fat quarter friendly'  so I used this ADORNit packet of fat quarters.  It turned out there were not enough fat quarters in the packet so I only made 5 of those large square in squares and then I had to monkey around with the layout to make it all fit so even when I tried to follow directions I can't seem to do it!  But that's OK,  I'm reasonably happy with the results and it will make a fine donation quilt. 

I liked this floral print but I did not think all of the fabrics in the packet worked equally well with each other.   I ended up not using a few.

I  quilted it very simply but I think the straight line quilting is an excellent compliment to the general geometry of the composition. 

As usual I backed the quilt with a nice yarn dyed flannel.  Warm and cozy! 

My longarm is definitely a huge help in my new UFO reduction program.  I already have the next top pinned in the frame.

I don't know how long this will last, but I'm optimistic!

Have a great week!

cheers, CW

Block of The Every Other Month- September - October 2019

Besides my Traditional Quilt Guild I also belong to my local Modern Quilt Guild called South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild (SBAMQG).   SBAMQG has a block of the Every Other Month program.  I volunteered to provide the design and instructions for the September Block.

I looked at some of the past Months designs.  A lot of the recent designs were on the  improv  side so I thought it might be a nice change of pace to offer some Traditional piecing with a Modern twist.

The color palette is voted on by the members attending the previous Month's general meeting.
Here were the choices:

The majority voted for the color group on the right.

I decided to make it easy for everyone (including myself) and use the Go-To Modern background of plain white / off white with all solid colors!

Here's the block which measures 8.5" unfinished.

It's not complicated.  It's really just a 4 patch- in 4patch.  But the diagonal spine has endless possibilities for the Layout.  There's a lot of flexibility in this block and I'm leaving those choices up to the individual maker.

You get to choose:

1-  The diagonal patches need to be from the color palette but you can arrange them in any order you choose.

2-  The upper right corner patch can be the same as one of the diagonal fabs or it can be another tone or tint of  one of those colors.

3- The lower left hand block can be whatever little pieced patch the maker likes!  It just has to finish at 2".  I will refer to it as the "choice patch"  The sample above has a Quarter Square Triangle.   But you could make a HST,  4patch,  1patch or make something up.  The colors need to be from the palette but as specified in #2 they can be a tone or tint of those colors. The possibilities are almost endless!

Fabric picks:

Choose from your stash,  1- solid fabric in each of the 4 colors similar to those in the chosen Palette. 

And for the back ground you can use any white or 'light' off-white solid fabric

Note:  Tone on Tones are OK as long as they are subtle and they 'read' as solid.

From your back ground Cut:

6- 2.5" squares 

              2- 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles 

From your solids Cut: 

5- 2.5" squares 

There could be one in each color with one repeat or a second shade of one of the colors for the upper right corner.   You can see there are two different shades of the "pink Gumdrop" color in the sample block.

For the "choice patch" in the lower left:

Make whatever kind of 2.5" unfinished patch you want. Just keep it in the palette.

Step 1

Layout your patches according to the picture of the finished block.   Orient the rectangles as shown.  This will be important later.  Decide what you want for your "choice patch" and make that first.

Step 2

Assemble your 4 patches:

Sew one 2.5" colored patch to each of your 2.5" back ground patches and sew your "choice patch" to a 2.5" background patch.

You will have  6 units that look like this...

Press toward the colored fabric,  except for the "choice patch" which will probably  press more easily toward the background.

Step 3

Layout the block again being mindful of which way the seams are going.

The 4-patches should have seams that "Nest"  Sew each of these pairs together. 

Before you press the 4 patches make sure the solids are trimmed off so's not to show through on the background  Then open the seam intersections  (you may have to pick out a few stitches) and press toward the background.

The new seams are all pressed toward the background and they will also "Nest" in the next step when sewn together.

Step 4 

Finish the block by sewing the two upper 4 patches together and the two lower 4 patches together and press toward the background.

And sew the top half to the bottom half.  All three seams should "Nest"

Easy Peasy!

And here are some of the fun ways you can arrange these blocks!

You can insert plain square blocks in between and play with the diagonals...

Or smaller blocks to create a different geometry...

or arrange the blocks in different alignments...

or more like an Irish chain!

Have Fun!!

Any questions feel free to email me:

cspoonquilt@yahoo.com

cheers, CW

Where did the week go?

I've been doing a lot of sewing but the only thing close to a finish this week is this Eye Spy quilt which is now quilted!  Just needs a binding and it will be ready to go.  I think it's going to be a baby gift but I wanted to consult with the prospective Grandma first as to the suitability.  I don't know her daughter's tastes that well.  And I don't think the gender has been announced yet?!  Altho'  I think this could be Gender neutral.... 

We shall see!

Have a great week!

cheers, CW

Another Orphan Project

The center of this piece was given to me almost done.  I just sewed up a few of the central seams and then added the strip on the left to make the borders the same size.  But it needed to be bigger so I added the blue border and started making little scrappy units to mimic the blocks in the middle.

But some how I got some of my pieces to these four patches turned around...

Where does my mind go ?!  Well, happily I realized that I only needed the 4 patches to be 6" wide so the length of the units could be shorter and I could salvage these wonky blocks with a little trimming!

Red crumbs anyone?!

We were at the cabin last week,  just got home Friday.  We had many beautiful sunny days there and came home to overcast drizzle.  But I should not complain,  we've got a lot of yard work to do having been gone 2.5 weeks.  So overcast is good.  Gotta go dig up the bearded  irises.  It's that time of year!

Have a great week!

cheers, cw

Liberated UFO finish and a little more

So here's how the Liberated UFO turned out.  It measures about 53" by 68" so it's a good size for a Camp Erin quilt.  Camp Erin is a Summer camp for kids who are in some way impacted by Cancer.  Hospice which runs the camp requests Quilts of about this size so they fit well on the bunk beds for the kids.  And the kids get to take their quilts home.

Now usually when I finish a top like this where I've Struggled a lot over the design I take all the leftovers and associated yardage and put it in basket and shove it where I don't have to look at it for awhile.  But for some reason I got a flea in my ear and started in the next day sewing all the leftover bits and blocks together.  I even worked through lunch 'cause I thought if I stopped I would never start it up again.  So I just kept sewing until I got it done!!!

I was kind of channeling my inner Gypsy Wife?!

OK it's kind of a scrappy mess but I think it will make a decent lap quilt for donation.

I'm going to have to really get my game on with the quilting with all these finished tops!

Have a great week!

cheers, cw