Friday, April 28, 2017

Plus quilt....


This is another customer quilt.  

My first thought on seeing this quilt was straight line quilting and that did cross the customer's mind, too; but she said she was looking to make this quilt look old.  That is one of the reasons she used red and cream rather than red and white.  

Anyways, designs were running through her head....straight line quilting, a boxy motif and crosshatching were some of her ideas.  

Straight line was definitely modern; and I felt the boxy motif look was modern but too close to the hard lines of the pluses. I like to do the opposite of what the quilt blocks are.  If there are hard edges in the block, then go with curves.   Crosshatching would make the quilt look more antique, but that could get pricey depending on how close the crosshatch was stitched.  

I suggested the Diamonds are Forever pantograph.  It's modern, but gives a bit of a mock up of the crosshatch.


I was liking how the diamonds looked close up.  Once the whole quilt was done though, I think the design really sang for this quilt.


I can't wait to use this panto for something else...maybe for myself!

As always, my customer has great backings for her quilts.



Hope she is pleased with this one.  


Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Customer quilting today......

Ok, I had to drag myself down to the basement to work on the long arm.  I may regret it since it was so nice out today and it's not supposed to be nice out tomorrow, but I got one of my customer quilts on and off the long arm so that is a good thing.


This is a jelly roll quilt.  Sorry, I don't know the name of the jelly roll, but it is really pretty with it's soft yellows and light browns.  

I wanted to use a new-to-me panto called Gatsby.  

I really like how it looked on the quilt.  


It has everything....straight lines (which I made sure went in the opposite direction of the jelly roll strips) and it had curves (concave and convex).  For as open as this panto appears, it gave great coverage; and I am really pleased with how it turned out.  



I used a dark taupe thread (So Fine) since the top was light and the backing was very dark.  Overall, I think it blended in quite well. 

My customer always has such great backings for her quilts, too.  Pieced strings in the center and lovely dots on the outside.  



Well, I hope Nancy loves her quilt.  

Now on to the next customer quilt, but maybe a Hearts and Hand block tonight before I start that one.  heehee.....we will see.  



Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Two more down.

Two more of the Hearts and Hands blocks are done.



These were the last of the five that were of the same design.

There are now five more other blocks prepped.

As for how many more blocks are left.......well; I am out of the teens.

Looking good!  

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Getting there.

Three more of the Hearts and Hands blocks are done.  These were three of the previously prepped blocks.




I am not even going to count how many are left since my recent attempts at counting kept giving me different numbers, but I can see a light at the end of this tunnel.  There are just a handful of blocks to do.  Of course, I left the more difficult ones to last.  (insert rolling eyes here!)

All I can say is I am getting there and I am getting excited!

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Layer cake project.

Recently when I was going through my sewing closet, cupboard, and drawers looking for a hand project, I came across two layer cakes.   I don't remember buying layer cakes, so I am thinking that the two that I have were either gifted to me or won at a retreat.  

This one was Strawberries and Lemonade.  I don't see myself using this one as I have made a whole quilt from this line of fabric already.


Then there is this one.


The name tag is missing, so I don't know what the line is, but I love the fresh colors in this one. 

If you have an idea of what line this is, I would greatly appreciate knowing since at this point, I may want to find something that would look good as a border.  
(Someone from Facebook gave me the name.  It is an April Cornell fabric line called Maypole) 

Anyways, some time back I had pulled this one out and not knowing what to do, I paired up fabrics and was going to make half square triangles out of the whole thing.  I did one set and it just didn't sing to me. It got put away for who knows how many years. 



Well, upon coming across them again, I did some research on line looking for patterns with layer cakes and have decided on the disappearing hourglass found on Missouri Star Quilt's site.  To add to this layer cake, I bought another one that is all white.  


Since I have already used two of the 10" squares, I will be short two blocks in this quilt, but I will work that out in the end.  

I am going to show you the process I took to come up with my block.

Take one colored one and one white one.


Lay them right sides together and stitch 1/4" all the way around.  


Cut diagonally.  


 Press to the colored side, trim the dog tails,and lay them out in an hourglass fashion.


Stitch these four blocks together.



Measure your block and then divide by 3.  

Cut yourself a 9-patch using that measurement.  My measurement is 4 1/4".  


Turn your center block one turn.


Take your four corner blocks and make sure the little points are pointing to the outside corners.  (It's interesting how each turn of a section makes a new  block that could make a whole different quilt!)  


The center block from each "outside" row is turned so that the HST is making a star point on the center block.


Sew your rows together.

You now have your Disappearing Hourglass block.  It makes a lovely star with a tiny hourglass in the outside corner.  

This is what four look like together.


I made these four blocks in preparation for taking the rest of the layer cake to a day-long sew-in at the local quilt shop with my quilting gal pals.  

FAST FORWARD.....

Spent the day at the local quilt shop for my sew-in (6 hours).

How time flew!


I thought I would come out with a whole quilt top.  I guess I am delusional.  

I did come away with several blocks sewn together, but all fabrics were touched and taken to one stage of block construction or another.  So I can see this becoming a top very soon. 

All left over fabric pairs are sewn together.


Some were already cut on the diagonal


Some are  made into the hourglass blocks and ready for dissection.  


Here are the completed blocks at this point.  



So I guess there was a lot completed, just not a whole quilt yet.

Border/binding fabrics are  ordered and backing fabric is still being decided on; but I am very anxious to see this one come to fruition.  

Stay tuned for the finished quilt.  







Monday, April 17, 2017

Update on Hearts and Hands.

There are only a handful of blocks that need to be appliqued at this point, so I prepped 7 blocks to get me going.  

Here is the first of five that are alike.





Another one prepped is this one.


Then there is this five-layered one that was just  completed.



I have counted and recounted.  Don't know why I keep coming up with different numbers, but I am thinking that I am in a better position than I thought I was.  I am saying "today" that I have 15 more to go.  If that's the case, then I am thinking that just maybe this quilt will get done in the not too distant future. I just need to keep plugging away.  



Friday, April 14, 2017

Bound and determined this time around

I cannot put these quilt blocks away again.

To refresh your minds, I have been working sporadically on Hearts and Hands for EONS!!!


Here's a close up of the blocks.


When I recently pulled this UFO out of the bowels of my sewing closet, I went on a binge of making 31 paper pieced star burst blocks.  I nearly burned myself out; and this is where I probably would have put it away "again" for a year or two.  Those 31 blocks are done and added to the rest of the star burst blocks that I had already done.


There are 52 here.  Oh!  When I looked at the pattern, I was supposed to have 53.  Oh no!  I have to make another one of those?!!

Well, as I was  looking over my blocks, I found that I had one extra of a star burst that has just a few spires.  Ok.....I have decided to go with that and not make an extra one.  Thank goodness!


As I have been completing blocks (in the past), I have been pinning them to the pattern, so I am going to show you what I have completed so far.


These are some more paper pieced star bursts with a medium amount of spires and one applique block on this page.  

Here are all the other pages.  Where there is nothing.....I have to make one or more blocks. 






Do you get the idea that I have left the more complex blocks to last?  Yeah....that's probably what I did.

I have kept my working stash with the blocks.


I am really going to try and not add to this.  There should be enough fabric to complete 22 more blocks.  Wouldn't you say?

OK....wish me luck!




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