My Reconstructed Dresden plate blocks

Well, I've decided not to show you the Midnight flight runway quilt yet.  I really do not like the quality of the pictures I took.  I will wait until the weekend when I can try in the natural light of the day.

Instead, I want to show you what I've been playing with lately.  I forgot to post about it.  On Sunday night, when I had the night off of puppy duty, I wanted to do something different and something just for myself.  What came to me was my own Dresden plate quilt.

My Dresden plate quilt is a reconstruction.  I spoke of it in earlier posts. It's a quilt top that I purchased online, but due to the disintegration of the feed sacks and the less than par workmanship, I decided to take it apart and remake the quilt.  I liked the overall simplicity and look of the original, so as I remake it I am doing it pretty much the same, outside of trimming pieces and replacing what has disintegrated. 

Above is the first block, all cut out with petals sewn together and pinned to the muslin background. Since this picture, I have already hand basted the Dresden plate in place and later will hand sew it down.  But that will be after I get some other hand work done.

Here is another Dresden plate laid out waiting to be sewn.  This is the third plate.  I completed the second one yesturday morning during my late start time. I also finished making all the purple centres for my cousins Dresden plate quilt blocks.  On that one I now only have eight blocks to go before sewing the top together.

For this quilt, my Dresden plate quilt, there are a total of twelve full blocks and four half blocks that make up the top, with large 3" medium blue sashings and border all around.  The top block currently measures 14.5", so by the time I sew the plate down and trim up the block I may end up being 14" square.  When the top is done it will measure approx. 71" X 81".  A fair size, I think.

Today happens to be my night off from doggy duty as well.  Wonder what I will be inspired to do....

More sixteen patches and quilting inspiration

I did another four sixteen patch blocks, while putting on the borders of the Midnight flight runway quilt.  That quilt is done for now.  I will share it with you on my next post.  For now it will wait in line until I am able to quilt it.  Sorry about the quality of the pictures. They were all taken at night when the light quality is just not good.

I thought I would share with you a bit of a funny.  I took a break when I went to being my daughter to work.  When I got back I thought to myself, this is a good time for a tea break.  The funny was while I was just standing there waiting for the water to boil, I actually took notice of my mugs.

I've had these mugs since before Christmas, but never really noticed them.  When I say noticed them, I am referring to the design on them.  They have a Moroccan type look to them, I think.  But what I really noticed was the fact that these designs would make great quilting designs.

I figured I'd keep theses pictures for future possibility.  I can trace them out and alter the designs to make them more machine quilting friendly.

It is neat how you can find inspiration in just about everything.  From mugs, flooring, old architecture.  You just have to have your eyes open.  I guess now that puppy is sleeping through to at least 5:00 am, I am getting a bit more sleep and had my "eyes open".  Before this time I am surprised I was able to function.

Things are starting settle a little, so I am able to find some bits of time to work on my quilting.  I have  a bunch of quilts only needing binding and a few more added to the bunch I had to do the quilting, so I should have some finishes to report shortly.

Colouring squares

This morning I did a lot of puttering about.  I took care of putting some things away and cleaning up in my quilt room.  I sat for a bit to have my morning tea.

I am the type of person that likes to see and track my progress, so while I sat and drank my tea, I did some colouring.  We are never too old to colour, I am sure the people who came up with the adult colouring books are making a mint.  In my case I was colouring the pattern for my pineapple quilt.  Each colour represents a different type of block.

The green colour is for the four corner blocks,  the pink is for the side half squares, the turquoise is the outer full blocks that I have to make one corner black and the purple is for all the remaining regular full blocks.  As you can see from the diagram I am almost half way done.  I am actually at 40% of the way done with the purple full blocks.

I get so excited when I see progress, that It inspires me to keep going.  Now that I have the two machines set up permanently I can leave the pieces for the pineapple blocks beside my machine.  This way if I have even just a few minutes, I can come and sew up a few pieces.  As I took the time on Thursday to cut up the black, blue and green edges, I have all that I need to make more blocks.

Another thing I did this morning was the random layout for the charity Jean quilt I am making.  It is on my list of twelve that turned into eighteen.  I have all the blocks labelled, the border fabric and backing fabric picked out.  When time allows I will sew it up.

This afternoon on my puppy sitting time, Maddie fell asleep.  This gave me some time to finish a peach Dresden plate block.  Sorry about the shadows, I didn't realize I was taking a picture, of my hands taking a picture.  This evening I also prepared another five more purple centres, for the next blocks.  I counted what is left on these blocks and was pleasantly surprised to find out I only have eight and a half left to do.

Before and after puppy duty, I was ironing all the very small hexagons that I washed, that are part of the hexagon quilt I am reconstructing.  All this between puppy training class this morning and son's hockey game.  I'd have to say that this day has been very productive!!!  I like these kind of days.

A few pineapple side half squares

Today was my late day.  I didn't start work until 11:00 am.  That gave me some time to work on my pineapple quilt.  I got three more half squares done with the blue tips.  The blue tips either go on the top or the bottom edge of the quilt.  After I take the paper out one will go at the top to finish that edge and the remaining two will go for the bottom.  In the bottom I will only have three more half squares to do.

I also got a full side block done.  This side block has one tip that is black and in this case the opposite side has one tip that is green.  The green tip is for either the right or the left side of the quilt.

After I finished these few things I had to take a break to cut up some strips.  I ran out of the black, blue and green tips and edge pieces.  Now I have all the long black edge pieces cut to complete the quilt and a bunch of black tips too.  I cut a bunch of blue and green tips.  That should keep me going for a while.

By this time I only had about half an hour left before I needed to get ready for work, so I sat down a bit and started ironing the washed hexagon pieces.

I felt productive today!  There is still going to be many more hours work on the pineapple quilt, but a bit of this and a bit of that, gets me closer to the end.

Almost finished the Midnight flight runway quilt

I am almost finished the Midnight flight runway quilt.  I completed the centre.  All the rows are done and assembled.  I have all three borders cut out and the middle one pieced already.  Now I just have to find time to sew them on.  

I chose a nice butterfly fabric for the backing.  It was a donation from the spouse of one of our bee members, who passed away.  The fabric colours are the same as the top.  The quilt width though is larger than the top, so I am figuring out what to piece with it to make it larger.  I still have some border fabrics that I can make stripes down the centre, with some left over pieces from the centre of the top.  That may look nice.  It will definitely coordinate.

While working on these rows, I managed to assemble nine sixteen patch blocks.  They are really starting to pile up.  I only have two small bundles in my leader/ender container beside the sewing machine.  After they are are done I will work on the pinwheel parts of the sixteen patch pinwheel quilt.  This one is coming together with minimal effort.

I am still optimistic about getting things done this year, but I have to say it is going much slower than I am used to.  I just have to be patient.  Things ARE moving along.

Working on some prep work

I had a bit of time Wednesdays evening, as the quilting bee was call off, due to the hostess being sick.  I took advantage of the time and pulled out my Dresden plate parts.  This is my Reconstructed Dresden plate quilt.  The pieces are mostly from 1930-40s.  The background was feed sacks.  Some of the feed sacks still had the faint print from the product logo on them.

Unfortunately, some of them were deteriorating and the workmanship was lacking, that some of the plates were starting to fall apart. Possibly the thread was old and starting to snap.  In any case, I picked this quilt top off of eBay for less than $10.00 US.

I liked the quilt enough to gently take it apart, find some matching sashing fabric, and I'm going to reassemble the quilt again.  This time though with more stable background fabric.  This time it should last longer too because it will get quilted.  I feel the top was being used for a summer cover, but without the benefit of the backing and quilting, it started to breakdown with use.

This is all that I accomplished.  It is hard to believe, but this little basket holds 165 petals.  There are 8 oranges, 7 purple, 9 stripes, 12 blacks, 14 reds, 12 browns, 26 yellows, 28 greens, 47 pinks & 2 blues.  I have a large stack of blues left to trim.  In total I need 364 blades to make this quilt the same as it was when I bought it.

There are an unusual amount of blades in each block, 26 of them.  And there are 12 full blocks and 4 half blocks that make up this quilt.

Tonight is my night off.  Yay!!!!

I plan on finishing the remaining 199 petals that I need.  After I can move this quilt up my list from prep work to main work.  This is one of the quilts on my list of twelve to do this year, and maybe I can get back to assembling the Midnight flight runway quilt.

Enjoy your evening everyone and take advantage of your time, you will miss it when it is gone.

Progress on Midnight flight runway and Sixteen patch pinwheel

I've made some progress on the Midnight flight runway quilt.  I am about two thirds of the way done assembling the rows.  Picture to follow when I am complete.

While I have been working on the Midnight flight runway quilt, I have also been working on the Sixteen patch pinwheel quilt, as my leader/ender.  I can get almost one sixteen patch block done per row.  I now have another eight blocks completed.  It is going good.

The last two days have been really slow quilty wise with my many other commitments, but I feel positive that things are progressing.

Enjoy your evening everyone!

A little bit of this and that

Today was a bit of this and a bit of that.  I started the morning after puppy fell back asleep with my tea and some hand work.  I had enough time to attach another purple centre and about six stems of the Dresden plate block.  When I was relieved from my shift, I headed down to the rec room to make room for pinning a queen size quilt.  I had to start by clearing out the room and vacuuming the floor, which took me a bit, and I had to iron the backing and the top before layering the quilt.

It took me a few hours maybe even four to press and pin the quilt.  This one is now ready for quilting.  This is the Midnight flight quilt.  I am going to slowly work on getting it quilted.  It is a large quilt so it will take some time, but I am going to quilt something simple.  I was thinking of just a simple stippling for this quilt, because the people I am giving it to will put a lot of wear on it.  The stippling will hold up the best I think.

Just now before I started my next shift with puppy, I was sewing on piecing the Midnight flight runway quilt.  Tonight is my night off of puppy duty, so after making dinner for everyone I plan to putter some more in my quilting room.  I am going to take advantage of my time off.

One more Dresden plate block done

It didn't happen last night, but I just today finished another Dresden plate block.  Yesturday I made up a few purple centres, so now I have a few that I can complete.  This yellow one is done and the next two are pinned and ready to be sewn.

Today started late for me, all this early 3:00 am, 4:00 am and 5:00 am wake ups with the puppy is really starting to catch up on me.  This morning she only woke up at 4:00 am, again at 5:00 am, so it was a bit better, but when my shift ended at 6:30 am I went back to bed.  I've lost precious time sleeping, but I am feeling much better for it.

When I woke up at 8:30 am, I still had two hours before my next shift, so I removed the paper from the pineapple blocks, cleaned out my machine and started sewing on the Midnight flight runway quilt and the sixteen patch pinwheel as my leader/ender.

The pineapple quilt is filling in.  Next with this one I will work on full blocks with one black tip.  These blocks will also fill in the perimeter of the quilt.  The black piece that I have been using is to stimulate a small border.  I will show you the progress on this one after I do some more perimeter blocks.

Let's see how much I can get done on the Midnight flight runway quilt.

More pineapple blocks

I had another late start today.  Late starts seem to translate to more quilting time, as puppy sleeps.

Today I got four more side pieces done.  Before I got into this though, I made four large purple centres for the Dresden plate blocks I am working on.

After I completed the four side pieces, I trimmed all of them, including the ones I did yesturday.  This will be a slow process, but slow and steady wins the race.  Isn't that how it goes.

I had just enough time to also remove the paper from the corner pieces and a couple of side pieces before I had to get ready for work.  That is when the puppy woke up too.  So take some time to play with her until she is content and curls up on her large pillow bed and falls back asleep for a while.

We will see if tonight I will be given the chance to do some hand work.  I am wanting to applique the purple centres onto the Dresden plates.

Working on the side pieces of pineapple blocks

Today was my late day at work.  I had a couple of hours to myself after the kids were gone to school.  Well.....almost to myself.  Can't forget the new puppy.  Maddie is trying to settle in.  She gets frustrated with her people who are sending her mixed messages when it comes to commands, but otherwise she is very patient with us.

She had some energetic play time with throwing the ball and generally romping around.  After that I had about an hour and a half of quilting time while she slept, to build up her energy again.  During this time I stitched up some side pieces for the pineapple quilt.  I managed to get two corner pieces done and two and a half pieces of the sides.

This quilt is going to be set on point, so the side pieces are the fillers.  Don't know if you recall the design wall picture from my previous post a few days past, so I included it here again.

The pineapple quilt on the top right hand side, mainly has full blocks, one corner, plus some top and side pieces.  Now I am working on filling in all the edges.  I haven't trimmed the pieces yet or even removed the paper, but that is all the time the puppy would allow for me to play with my quilting.

Eventually, when the puppy gets more settle, I will be able to do more.  Until that time, I will steal all the little bits of time I can to have my own play.

Snowmen A to Zzzz.... letter C

Snowmen A to Zzzz.... The letter C is for candy cane.  My daughter finished yet another snowman block.  She has four left to do now.  She has to start by tracing them first though.

However, with her being in the last year of high school and exams fast approaching, I don't think this will be her first priority.  Understandable!  This last year is so stressful with big decisions to be made.  We're rooting for her!!

The candy canes are cute.  They come in red, green and pink.

For myself, I have been cleaning thing up.  I am also prepping my son's rag quilt.  More on that later.

Snowmen A to Zzzz.... letter D

Snowmen A to Zzzz.... The letter D is for drummer boy.  My daughter finished another block for her snowman quilt.  Looking good.  She is starting to get excited.  She is almost done.

My daughter has decided that she doesn't want to follow the pattern for making this quilt top exactly.  She is doing all the blocks, but she wants to redesign the layout of the quilt.  She likes the flower garden quilt I made with all the various blocks in scrappy fabrics and wants to design something like it using her snowmen blocks and Christmas fabrics.

It should be interesting to see what she comes up with.  I look forward to seeing it completed.

You go girl!!! 

Finished quilting Flo's hexagon quilt

Yay!!! I have my first finish of the year.  This is Flo's hexagon quilt.  She made a lap quilt.  The hexagons measure 1 1/2" each side.  Her layout is a single floret in the middle of the quilt surrounded by four larger florets that have three rounds to them.

This is a close up of the centre floret.  I still like the simple echo lines in each floret best to emphasize the hexagon shape.

This next picture is one of the larger florets.  I am trying to show this in shadows to help the quilting stand out, but with the different fabrics used the quilting design fades in and out.  

I decided to show the back of the larger floret.  As the backing is tone on tone white, it is easier to see the quilting design.  On each of the larger florets I quilted a feathered wreath. I filled in the hexagons with an echo of the hexagon that also echoes the feather design, just so the quilting would be consistent throughout the quilt.

I also finished the ends of this quilt in envelope style to avoid the bulky binding.  I like the overall effect the quilting and edges has on this quilt top.  It looks pretty.  For this quilt, you may have noticed that I finished off the edges a bit different on the top and bottom versus the two sides.

With the larger hexagons, I felt it would be more dainty looking to cut off the large sides of the hexagon on the top and bottom rows, but I left the little points of the side rows for a little interest to the quilt.

For an add on to my post, I am going to try something a bit different. I want to motivate myself to achieve progress on my list of quilts to do.  I have decided to list my goal for 2016.  As I finish something from my list, I can cross them off.  We will see how that goes.  Bare with me.  If it does not interest anyone, just stop reading once you see the header progress on my top 12 list, as it will always be at the very bottom of a post (I will only add this on the posts that I actually finish something from the list).

***Progress on my top 12 list (which turned out to be 18 instead)***

From the quilting section:

2. Michelle's midnight flight quilt (family)

3. Lise's hexagon quilt (family)

4. Navy blue & cream quilt (my own)

From the assemble section:

5. Main work - Midnight flight runway quilt (charity)

6. Main work - Jean material quilt (charity)

7. Main work - Spools quilt (my own)

8. Main work - Mel's romance & roses quilt (family)

9. Handwork - Lise's Dresden plate quilt (family)

10. Handwork - Machine wall hanging (my own)

11. Leader/Ender - 16-patch pinwheel quilt (my own)

12. Prep work - Reconstructed Dresden plate quilt (my own)

13. Paper piece - Pineapple quilt (my own)

To be binded: 

14. Sabryna's 16-patch pinwheel quilt (family)

15. Log cabin quilt (my own)

16. Crazy quilt (charity)

17. Scrappy stripes quilt (charity)

18. Small wonders quilt (charity)

Total number of quilts completed - 1
Total number of quilts left to be completed - 17

Completed quilts:
1. Flo's hexagon quilt (commissioned)

Snowmen A to Zzzz.... letter O

Snowmen A to Zzzz.... The letter O is for ornaments.  My daughter has been busy stitching up some snowman blocks.  This one was completed a while back except for the lazy daisy stitches and the French knots that were just finished yesturday.

She is doing a great job of these blocks.  I believe outside of a couple more blocks she is trying to put the final touches on, she will have only four more blocks to do.  That is exciting. This is her first big handwork quilt.

As for me, I have been working on finishing the edges and quilting Flo's hexagon quilt.  I am almost there.  Hopefully today if I have time I can finish the last three feathered wreaths.  This will be my first finish of this New Year.

Happy New Years (January/2016)

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!  Hard to believe we are already in 2016.  

I've been preparing for it, to start another year.  You know, like what everyone does, thinking about New Years resolutions and setting new goals.  I have the usual resolutions of eating healthier, doing more exercises, losing weight, etc., and I have my quilty ones like finishing off quilts.

Here is a picture of my design wall now.  I have decided that my design wall will be limited to only the quilts on my list.  My two main quilts to assemble will start off with the midnight flight runway quilt and the paper piece pineapple quilt.

This year I chose my top twelve quilts that I want to see completed.  Some are for others, but many more are mine.  Last year I didn't get much of my own stuff done, mostly they were commissioned quilts or gifts for family and charities.  This year I plan to see more of my own done.  I need to bring my list back down to something more manageable.  

I still want to make them all.  I just need to concentrate more on specific quilts and tasks. I went through my list and this is what I chose.

From the quilting section:

1. Flo's hexagon quilt (commissioned)

2. Michelle's midnight flight quilt (family)

3. Lise's hexagon quilt (family)

4. Navy blue & cream quilt (my own)

From the assemble section:

5. Main work - Midnight flight runway quilt (charity)

6. Main work - Jean material quilt (charity)

7. Main work - Spools quilt (my own)

8. Main work - Mel's romance & roses quilt (family)

9. Handwork - Lise's Dresden plate quilt (family)

10. Handwork - Machine wall hanging (my own)

11. Leader/Ender - 16-patch pinwheel quilt (my own)

12. Prep work - Reconstructed Dresden plate quilt (my own)

13. Paper piece - Pineapple quilt (my own)

As you can see by the list above, I don't seem to be able to count.  As a last minute decision I added in the commissioned quilt, as it too needs to be done.  I got to thinking that as well as those above, I also have a number of quilts that are complete and just waiting for me to tack down the binding by hand. So.....these are also being added to the list

To be binded: 

14. Sabryna's 16-patch pinwheel quilt (family)

15. Log cabin quilt (my own)

16. Crazy quilt (charity)

17. Scrappy stripes quilt (charity)

18. Small wonders quilt (charity)

In the end, my top 12 list turned into a list of 18. That is how it goes....

I am wishing everyone a very happy and healthy New Years!!!