Little progress on quilty stuff

This past week since the weekend has not allowed me much time to do any quilty stuff.  I have been knee deep in paper work, being tax season and all.  I always leave the bulk of my paper work and filing to this time of year.  I'm almost done all of it, just waiting for some numbers to come in the mail to finish the last of it.

This coming week may be a repeat of last week, where I find little time to do quilty stuff.  I am getting the itch to finish up some renovation jobs that have been started in my laundry room and my livingroom.  I would like them done before the really nice weather comes, when you want to spend more time outdoors.

Even with everything that I have been doing around here, I did manage to sew more than half of the apple core quilt and in handwork I got a half Dresden plate block done.  I have three of these half blocks left to do.

In all of the confusion going on here, this little girl still wanting to be a part of it and have some of her own attention.  This little girl of ours is getting big.  She is, I think, almost full size, which is at knee height.  Isn't she pretty, In a down position, patiently waiting.

I keep telling myself that even though this may be a slow week for quilting, I have made good progress.  It helps to peek at my list every once in a while.  Keeps me from getting down.

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

Work in progress:  

3. Quilting - Lise's hexagon quilt (family)..........two and a half large diamonds left to frog...rip-it, rip-it

4. Quilting - Navy blue & cream quilt (my own)

7. Main work - Spools quilt (my own)..........first row done, taking a break to do quilting

8. Main work - Mel's romance & roses quilt (family)
9. Leader/Ender - 16-patch pinwheel quilt (my own)..........more done while working on apple core
10. Handwork - Reconstructed Dresden plate quilt (my own)...........some done, 11 & 3 halves to do

11. Main work - Lise's Dresden plate quilt (family)..........all blocks appliquéd, moved to main work

12. Handwork - Machine wall hanging (my own)

13. Paper piece - Pineapple quilt (my own)..........these are put on hold again for a bit

Total number of quilts completed - 9
Total number of quilts left to be completed - 9

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

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

16. Reversable crazy quilt & matching doll quilt (charity)

15. Log cabin quilt (my own)
18. Small wonders quilt (charity)
17. Scrappy stripes quilt (charity)

2. Michelle's midnight flight quilt (family)

6. Jean material quilt (charity)

5. Midnight flight runway quilt (charity)

One of my own Dresden plates done

I am sure everyone recalls my reconstructed Dresden plate quilt.  I talked about taking it all apart, ironing everything and trimming down all the pieces to a uniform size.  Recently I spoke about putting the plates together during an evening off.

Since, I put them aside while I did the hand work on my cousin's Dresden plate blocks.  Well, since I finished them recently, I was able to pull these back out.  Handwork wise I have these blocks and the sewing machine wall hanging.  I decided to do these.

These are all authentic old fabrics with some feed sacks in there too.  As the foundation feed sack material that these where sewn to originally, were fraying and disintegrating I had to replace them.  I chose a neutral muslin fabric for the background, as the colour closely resembled the feed sacks.

This picture of my little puppy girl was taken as I was working on the Apple core quilt.  She is sitting pretty at that moment, acting all prim, but seconds before she was a crazed animal trying to mutilate one of her doggie beds.  I called her out on it and she just sprang into the I am innocent stance. 

I tell you......she is a very smart puppy.  She already knows how to work her people family.  How could you get mad at that innocent face......lol.

In closing, I thought I would share with you another quote from Bonnie Hunter's blog Quiltville.com.  It is something that I remind myself of all the time.  Very much like stop and smell the roses kind of thing.  Or life is too short, stop and take some time to enjoy it.  You really do have to count your blessings and not take things for granted.

Similar quilt sighting

In quilting, there is not much that hasn't been done over and over again.  The scale may be different, the colours may be different, but there is not a whole lot that is really different.

When I saw this quilt on Bonnie Hunter's blog, the first thing I thought was oh, that looks familiar.  A bit later, it came to me, that I have one almost the same.  These are common four patch blocks sewn together side by side.  Bonnie saw this one at a flea market in the states.

   

This here is mine.  I bought mine as a flimsy through eBay without borders from someone in the states.  The colouring is slightly different, but very close.  When I got my flimsy in the mail I started off by washing it.  The workmanship was not great, so I knew I was going to take it apart and redo the top, but I wanted to make sure the fabrics would hold up to the wear.  No use remaking a quilt completely, only to have it fall apart or disintegrated in the first wash.

Most of the fabrics made it through the wash.  The few that didn't were because the seams were so skimpy that they started to fray.  Once it was washed I took the top apart, ironed everything, trimmed all the blocks and remade the top.  In my version though I added a couple of borders.  This was during a time that I felt all quilts should have borders.  I do like the one up top without borders too.

Another variation of the Dresden plate block

When my friend Carol sent me all those magazines to go through, she also sent a few other goodies in with the pile.  In one of the bags with the log cabin blocks and the shadow quilt blocks, I found three of these blocks.  They are another variation of a Dresden plate.  In this version though the edges are done in points.  They are very colourful and cheerful. 

   

These blocks were made a bit different as well.  Instead of the Dresden plates being assembled in a circle, they were appliqued to a rectangular piece of white fabric.  One quarter of a Dresden plate to each corner.  When these rectangles are sewn together the four quarters will come together to make a full Dresden plate.

I put these aside to play with them later.  I have a few things already on the go right now and my list of to do work to get done.  I will enjoy working with these bright fabrics.  I think I will go into my stash of older bright fabrics to see about making a larger top.

I copied this quote from Bonnie Hunter's blog Quiltville.com.  I like the quote, but I copied it mainly for the quilt that she has pictured here.

As far as quilts on my quilt-want-to-be list.  This quilt is not on it, because this quilt is already started.  I am making this quilt in Christmas colours.  Mine is in green, red, gold and some black.  I was working on it for a bit as a leader/ender, but like everything else I got distracted.  I still very much like this mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter.  I will get back to it......soon.

Simple two coloured squares quilt

In with the bags of fabric I got, there was a simple alternating squares quilt top.  It is a crib sized quilt top.  I am assuming the top was not finished because it was not flat.  When you lay this top on the floor there are some mountains/peeks.  No amount of quilting would have helped with this.

On top of that, a lot of the seams did not match.  Some of them were out by over an inch.  When I investigated the top, trying to figure out what went wrong, I noticed that none of the seams are the same size.  Some of the seams are less than a 1/4" and some are over 1/2".  This on its own is enough to have created the mountains, but when I really looked at the blocks I noticed that they were not all cut the same size either.  With the blocks all different sizes, this quilt top was doomed from the start.

I liked the simplicity of the squares and the pretty colours.  As this top is only crib size, I decided to take it all apart and start from scratch.  I've already taken the blocks apart while on puppy duty.  When I get a chance, I will iron all the blocks, trim them to one common size and sew them back together.

It shouldn't take me too long, as they are all the same colours I can easily assemble them in four patch style and in a grid format without much thought.

Dealing with fabric

So.......I got another load of bags from my friend Carol.  She is decluttering.  She is coming to a realization that she will never use what she currently has, in her lifetime and has decided to start dealing with it.  Whether that be finishing things she started or letting go of things she knows she will not get to do.

She has been sharing her wealth with our quilting bee group.  She started with her magazines and moved on to her fabric.  I went through all the magazines, kept what I wanted and shared the rest with the other quilting bee members.

This last batch of bags was mostly fabric.  I went through the fabric and kept a good portion of it.  What I didn't keep, my mom took with her.  Carol knew my mom used a lot of solid fabrics.  She made up a full bag of fabrics in solid colours alone with my mom in mind.  My mom just informed me that she is planning an Amish style quilt, with all the solid fabrics she just got.

I washed all the fabrics that I took in.  I did a load of lights on Saturday, after work and finished by doing a load of darks on Sunday morning, before I started making breakfast.

Here is the pile of laundry that my hubby dumped on my quilting table, so that he could get a load of laundry in.  The pile is so large that you cannot see it all.  The lights and darks are all there.

Sunday happened to be my night off of puppy duty.  My last shift ended at 6:00 pm.  I finished making dinner for the kids just on time.  After dinner I went to my quilting room/studio.  As I ironed the fabrics a quilt pattern came to mind.  I had decided to keep a piece of linen fabric, in a solid yellow colour.  I wanted to make a simple squares pattern quilt.

This is what I decided to make with the linen fabric.  I mixed it in with some pastel fabric pieces that were in with the lights that I washed.  My blocks are cut at 4" square.  I used the full piece of yellow linen fabric that I had.

It was meant to be.  I had just enough of the the yellow to do alternating blocks.  I will need to add in some borders, to make the quilt a reasonable size.  I think for a last minute decision, it turned out nice.  The yellow is bright, but mellow enough to not be dominant. 

I ironed the fabric.  As I went along, I also cut the pieces that I would need to make the quilt that I was thinking about making.  By the time I was done ironing, taking a break, I notices that I went though the lights and was left with mostly the darks left to iron.

After working in the garage, trying to clean up some of the mess made during the winter months, in the morning and working on the garden during the afternoon, now in the evening after processing some fabric, I need to call it a day.  I can hardly keep my eyes open.  I want to do more, but the busy day is catching up on me.

Tomorrow is back to work.  I need to get some sleep.  Sleep tight.

Random colour placement log cabin quilt

In amongst the stuff Carol gave me to go through, there was also a gold coloured box.  I thought to myself, oh! what could this be.  It felt like a treasure hunt.  When I opened up the box, I found a bunch of strips of fabric.  I was thinking this will be good, as it will add some variety to my own straps.   As I move the strips around to admire the different patterns, I spy something pieced.  After a bit more investigation, at the bottom of the box, I found a stack of random coloured log cabin blocks.

The blocks are cheerful.  They are bright and vivid.  Not your traditional old log cabins with one side dark and one side light.  I haven't had much time to really examine them to see if there is a theme to them.  For now I am having to content myself with the thoughts that, when I do get a chance to go through this box thoroughly, I am going to have some fun with colour.

The log cabin block is such an old favourite that I can bet most quilters have completed at least one in there lives.  I myself have completed at least three variations that I can think of off hand and I am in the process of completing another one now with my mini paper piece log cabin blocks.

There is just something about them that people are drawn to.

Well, I will end my post here.  I have to get ready for work.  It will be a bit odd today, as this is my first Saturday working for my real job.  It is usually a Monday to Friday type job, but they are asking for help with volumes, so thought I would do my share to help.

Amish style shadow quilt

At the last quilt bee meeting, my friend Carol brought a couple of bags of scraps and books to go through.  In with the scraps was a bag with this single shadow block in solids and a few rows of strips sewn together to be sub cut into triangles to make more shadow blocks.

Carol knows I do quilts for charities and knows I will use the scraps.  For this one, I've already gone and purchased a small piece of black fabric to make more shadow blocks.  I also cut all the triangles from the strips.  I basically organized the pieces for when I can take some time to put it all together.

While I was going through some of the mazagines she gave me, I came across this little article about the different layouts.  I am thinking that, as I do not have many blocks, I will probably stick with the traditional straight layout, where each block is oriented facing the same direction.  But that could change along the way.  We will have to see.

Thank you Carol.  Once the quilt is completed it will go to someone who needs it.

More Dresden plate blocks done

On Monday during my day off, l also had a chance to do some handwork.  I did some more Dresden plate blocks.  I did two and a half blocks, so now I only have one and a half blocks left of the handwork for this Dresden plate quilt. 

I only noticed recently that almost all the last few blocks are green, except the very last one which is pink.

Later this evening I have my quilt bee meeting.  I am looking forward to it.  It seems that it has been a long time since our last meeting, though it hasn't.  My friend Carol said she was going to bring in her sample of a crazy quilt block, showing all the fancy stitches she used.  I am anxious to see it.

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

Work in progress:  

3. Quilting - Lise's hexagon quilt (family)..........three large diamonds left to frog...rip-it, rip-it

4. Quilting - Navy blue & cream quilt (my own)

7. Main work - Spools quilt (my own)..........first row done, taking a break to do quilting

8. Main work - Mel's romance & roses quilt (family)
9. Leader/Ender - 16-patch pinwheel quilt (my own)..........more done while working on apple core
10. Handwork - Reconstructed Dresden plate quilt (my own)...........this now needs to wait a bit

11. Handwork - Lise's Dresden plate quilt (family)..........more blocks done, only two left to go

12. Handwork - Machine wall hanging (my own)

13. Paper piece - Pineapple quilt (my own)..........did some more of these

Total number of quilts completed - 9
Total number of quilts left to be completed - 9

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

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

16. Reversable crazy quilt & matching doll quilt (charity)

15. Log cabin quilt (my own)
18. Small wonders quilt (charity)
17. Scrappy stripes quilt (charity)

2. Michelle's midnight flight quilt (family)

6. Jean material quilt (charity)

5. Midnight flight runway quilt (charity)

Started the Apple core quilt

I am sure everyone remembers this set of four apple core blocks.  Well, yesturday during my day off of work I decided to get the pieces out and see what I could do to get this quilt done.

I was fairly busy with puppy duty, however between puppy naps I was able to get a fair amount done.  I am almost half way done.  With this quilt, I consider a set of four to be one row, so now I have two and a bit more than half rows done.  

The picture may not look so good with the other pieces of other quilts peeking from underneath, but I am sure everyone gets the idea.  These are random colour placement.  

This quilt is a bit more challenging for me, as there is not one single seam that is straight sewing.  The whole quilt is curves.  A bit tricky.  You really have to be careful that you do not stretch the fabric while sewing, otherwise you get pleats or gathers.

While working on this quilt as my main work, I have been working away on the leader/ender project, which happens to be the sixteen patch pinwheel quilt right now.

And......just to spice things up a little bit, I added in a monkey wrench block that was sitting in my leader/ender box at the side of my machine.  These are very old, simple, traditional blocks and for some reason, lately I have been drawn to them.

I do have a few more of these blocks cut and waiting.  I like slipping them in from time to time.  It gives me some variety to sew on.

Hoping everyone is doing well.  I just had my first weekday night off from puppy duty since we got her three months ago.  So, I took advantage of it and closed myself off in the basement to watch a movie.

Do you want to guess what movie I watched........................

How to Make an American Quilt.  I like the movie.  I watched it quite some time ago, but couldn't remember the whole movie and borrowed it from my mom to watch again.  It's good.  It's about a young engaged girl spending the summer in the country with her grandmother, who belongs to a quilting bee.  The movie is her trepidations about marriage and about the seven older women in the quilting bee with their life situations, with their spouse/lover/relationships that they went through.

If you've never watched it and get a chance to watch it, do.

Apple core quilt

Look at the trouble I got myself into now.  The quilting bee ladies were talking about borrowing my Go! Cutter.  One of the ladies is looking into doing a hexagon quilt and I have the template for it.  This is another template I have.  The block is called an apple core.  An obvious name for the block.

I started collecting some fabric the last time I went to Quilt Junction with my mom and my daughter, a while back.  I wanted to make a brown and blue quilt.  My browns are from dark chocolate to beige and my blues are from navy to a soft almost grey blue.  

As these were cut with the Go! cutter, it took me no time at all to do and all the pieces are precise.  They even have a dart/notch on all four sides to match up and make it easier to sew the curves.

Last weekend I laid out the colours and did one set of four blocks into a four patch block.  It went pretty smoothly.......but I put it aside, because I had to do other things......things on my list.  

Had I remembered it, I may have taken this back out on my evening off from puppy duty.  My next night off is tonight.  Who knows, maybe after groceries, putting them all away, dinner and clean up, I will still have some energy to do some sewing.  The other part of my problem, besides the energy or lack of it, is the guilt I get when working on something that is not on the list, even during times that are classified as my own time.

I will just have to get over it......the guilt that is, because I really want to get this quilt done.  This is going to be a gift to my sister.  She is needing a comfort quilt right now.  She has taken my father's passing last October really hard.  She was his main caregiver, always looking after his needs and now there is a void.  I think that reason alone should help me overcome my guilt, don't you?

Did up some more pineapple blocks

I had Friday night off from puppy duty, so I decided to work some more on the pineapple blocks.  On average it takes approximately one hour to do one large block.  My plan was to work on my large perimeter block to fill in the hole.  I did that.  Things were going well, so I added the last corner block to my plan.  I got that done too.  That is how the evening went, once I finished that I added the half squares with the blue tips and so on.  In total I managed to get 1-large perimeter block, 1-corner block and 6-half square perimeter blocks done.

Saturday morning after puppy duty, while having my tea, I trimmed all the blocks and removed all the papers.  It's looking good.  I have only six more half square perimeter blocks with green tips to do to finish the outside edges of the quilt.

With these perimeter pieces coming together it makes it easier to see the size of the top.  The next time I get to play with these I will try and finish the half square triangles, than start filling it in.

In the meantime, I am still working at removing the quilting stitches from the diamond hexagon quilt and quilting some more in a different section.  Moving along slowly, but surely.

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

Work in progress:  

3. Quilting - Lise's hexagon quilt (family)..........quilting along

4. Quilting - Navy blue & cream quilt (my own)

7. Main work - Spools quilt (my own)..........first row done, taking a break to do quilting

8. Main work - Mel's romance & roses quilt (family)
9. Leader/Ender - 16-patch pinwheel quilt (my own)..........working on this when doing main work
10. Handwork - Reconstructed Dresden plate quilt (my own)...........this now needs to wait a bit

11. Handwork - Lise's Dresden plate quilt (family)..........another block done, only four left to go

12. Handwork - Machine wall hanging (my own)

13. Paper piece - Pineapple quilt (my own)..........did some more of these

Total number of quilts completed - 9
Total number of quilts left to be completed - 9 ***Yay!!! I am in the single digits now, woohoo!!!

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

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

16. Reversable crazy quilt & matching doll quilt (charity)

15. Log cabin quilt (my own)
18. Small wonders quilt (charity)
17. Scrappy stripes quilt (charity)

2. Michelle's midnight flight quilt (family)

6. Jean material quilt (charity)

5. Midnight flight runway quilt (charity)

I get so excited when I look at this list and see just how much I got done already.  I started this in January, we are now the start of April and already I have nine completed with progress being made on some of the others too.  But......I have to calm myself down, reasoning that I did the easy ones first and that the rest of the quilts will take me a lot longer to finish.  I am hoping that riding on the wave of my progress so far, will help to keep me motivated throughout the year.  Wish me luck!

Examples of an Ocean wave quilt

Here is another quilt pattern I want to make.  This is on my quilt-want-to-be list.  It is an ocean wave quilt and it is a traditional quilt pattern.

The first three photos are of an antique quilt that Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville purchased.  You can check out the full story about this quilt at her blog.  According to the ruler these small blocks are only  about 1" square.  That makes for a lot of half square triangles.  

This next picture is also an old scrappy ocean wave quilt with the background in pink instead of the white like the one above.  I like the soft pink version too.

We have an all blue and white version.  This one has minimal variety of scraps used.  It almost looks like all the same blue fabric, until you look up close.

Lastly, here is a version close to what I want to make, using the black as a background.  This one came from an issue of QNM April 1994.  I plan to make an Amish version of the ocean wave quilt using a solid black as the background and a variety of solid colours for the waves.

A quilting bee friend has been going through all of her magazines and decluttering.  She gave me several bags of magazines and shared many more with another friend.  Eventually we all go through them to see if there is anything that we would like to keep and we pass them along to the next person.

So, for the past couple of weeks I have slowly been going through all the magazines.  I am starting to think it may not be a good thing.  Since I have been looking at all the pictures, I have been reminded of all the quilts that are still on my quilt-want-to-be list.  Yet, I still have many that I have to finish before I can start the ones on this list.

Oh, my mind is going wild with anticipation!  You just may be seeing some up coming posts, just about what I want to make.  I will also share with you some of my friends UFOs (UnFinished Objects).  She gave them to me, thinking that I would finish them and could give them to a charity or what ever I wish.  She gave me some blocks, but no patterns to go with them.  This way I can take what I have and interpret it in my own way.  Thereby possibly making a completely different quilt than was intended for the blocks in the first place.  

I look forward to the time when I get a chance to play with these blocks.  It is fun working with other people's stuff.  Sometimes the blocks are not something that I may have made myself or thought to do.  Sometimes I even have to use my imagination to stretch outside of my comfort zone to create a quilt pleasing to my eyes.

Another Dresden plate block done and some leader/ender blocks too

I finished another Dresden plate block yesturday.  Now I only have four more to go and I can start putting the quilt together.  I'm still trying to firm up the layout.  It is one of two in my head.  The only difference between the two is the sashing.  I still have time to consider.

Last week when I was finishing the first row of my spools quilt, I got one sixteen patch block done and one small drunkards path section.  I haven't been doing a lot of main work lately, to work on these leader/enders.  I have been trying to get some quilting done or all the binding I had to do.

Now I am putting my energy into getting my cousin's quilts done.  I started the quilting of the diamond hexagon quilt and when I need a bit of a break and feel like hand work, I will continue to do the Dresden plates.  I still have some more frogging to do with the diamond hexagon quilt.  I did get a portion done, so that's good.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the quilts I will be working on in the next little bit will take some time to complete.  You may be seeing some repeat topics.  That is how quilting goes, but I will try to add in some other stuff.  Maybe some more about my quilt-want-to -be(s).

Enjoy!

Wild and goosey block

I started making Bonnie Hunter's paper piece wild and goosey block.  She offered it in her column of a magazine.  This block is a real scrap user.  The top block in the picture below measures only 3 1/2", when finished will measure 3".  With thirteen pieces per block, it uses up very small pieces.

For the colouring of my block, I chose to do it completely scrappy with specific colour placements.  All the flying geese points are being done in blue, from medium to dark and the sides are neutral, from white to cream.  The last piece that make up the row of flying geese is bright yellows and lastly the two half triangles on either side are in green.  All my blocks will be the same colouring, but different because of the unlimited fabric scraps in those colours.   

The larger block shown above is four wild and goosey blocks put together with sashing in between.  This block finishes at 7" in a quilt, with fifty-seven pieces in each.  I have decided to do the sashing colour coded as well.  The long strips will be neutral, from white to cream.  Where each of the flying geese meet in the centre, I am doing the corner stone squares in blue.  When I go to attach all these blocks together I will put a yellow square where the yellow points meet and likewise a green square where the green points meet.

The points with the same coloured squares form a secondary design of a churn dash block.  I hope the quilt turns out like I envision it in my mind.  I think it will look nice, even if it doesn't turn out quite the same.  The constant colours will help blend the blocks together.  

Bonnie Hunter took this picture from one of her classes show and share sessions.  One of her students brought in her version of the wild and goosey quilt.  It's gorgeous!  The layout is similar to what I intend to do, except this person did hers completely scrappy.  I am not even going to try and count how many pieces are in this quilt.  I thing it is too daunting to think about when I consider the fact that, unlike this person who completed her quilt, I still only have the one main block done.

This quilt too will need to wait patiently, while I work on the quilts on my list of twelve.  When I do get to it, this quilt will be more of a long term quilt, due to all the small pieces per block.

I know this post is long, but I thought I would end it with a nice positive quote from Bonnie Hunter's blog at Quiltville.com.  Note: I have made a quilt like this one.  It was so fun to make, that even though I have many on my quilt-want-to-be list, I still want to make another one of these.

Enjoy your day!

Cake plate blocks

Cake plate blocks are popular.  I started the one made in red and white fabrics a while back.  I only made the one, because I didn't want to start another quilt at the time. Since though, I have started and completed many other quilts.  I don't know why exactly but the block got put aside.  It actually got put away in a drawer and forgotten.

Maybe I didn't like it enough to spend all the time required to making a quilt of this kind.  I still like the cake plate block, just not a whole quilt done in red and white.

Recently on Bonnie Hunter's blog, called Quiltville, I was blown away by her table full of cake plate blocks.  Wow!!!  I love them!  They are so scrappy with a lot of gorgeous variety.  Her cake plate variation has the added small dark half square triangle in the centre.  I like that too.  It adds a bit of interest.

I want to make these cake plate blocks!  A lot of them.  And I want to make them multi coloured scrappy instead of the red and white.

Bonnie has been posting about her cake plates for a while and I have been day dreaming about them for that long.  I just cannot get rid of the itch to make them.  Maybe once I have more of my stuff done, I can consider starting these blocks as a leader/ender project.  Maybe by that time she will have the pattern/layout published in another one of her books.  I like what Bonnie does with scraps.

I will save my red and white fabric for some other quilts I dream of making in my lifetime.  They are part of my wish list of quilts I want to do.  I call them my quilt-want-to-be.  My son got a kick out of the name I use for them. LOL

Mom's Texas Braid quilt

As my quilting day consisted of frogging the quilting stitches yesturday, rip-it rip-it.  I thought I would share with you my Mom's Texas Braid quilt.  She recently finished it, or the top that is.  The full top is too large to show you on her floor, so I only got a portion of it in the picture.

The Texas braid quilt is in one from Bonnie Hunter's books.  My mom liked this pattern as well as a few others from the same book, that she bought her own copy.  My mom, who has a lot of bits and pieces of fabric from making clothes for her children and theirs, plus stuffed animals and doll clothes, is trying to use up her scraps.  Even after the last few quilts she made in queen size, she feels that it has not made much of a dent.

Up top is a picture of the length of the braids.  Mom's scraps are many with a lot of variety.  The only reason this quilt took a bit of time to make was because mom had to cut all her fabric to the right size.  When I realized she was cutting the fabric for this one, it was too late to suggest she use my Go! cutter.

So when I was there and heard she was heading to the fabric store to get a piece of red for the chain of squares, I told her to wash the fabric but hold off on cutting it.  When I got there for a visit that Friday I was able to cut all of the squares in no time at all.  She was grateful for it.

Here is a closeup of the border.  The border has a lot of the colours in the quilt and helps each of them stand out depending on what section of the quilt you are looking at.

Mom did I great job assembling the quilt, soon she is going to have to move the furniture in order to pin it for quilting.

Quilting the Hexagon diamonds, not doing so well

It started out well.  Yesturday, late morning after cleaning the quilt room up a bit and putting things away, I started quilting the Hexagon quilt.  I figured I would echo the white hexagons that surround all the diamonds, and do a fancy feather design for the diamonds. 

The echoing was going well.  I started from the top middle and worked my way down following the lines on a diagonal.  It was going so well I started getting excited and thinking ahead about the feather design.  I started to outline the perimeter of the diamonds.

I got so excited that I couldn't wait any longer to quilt the diamond.  The problem was that I didn't have the design yet.  I had drafted up a machine quiltable design, but needed to enlarge it for this quilt.  So, off I went to Staples to enlarge the design.  The paper below is the enlargement and above is the stencil that I have half cut out for the pounce.  The middle of the design is where the white hexagon is, where I was going to do an echo.

On the back it looks very nice.  It adds a bit of a feminine touch with the curviness of the feathers, and with the echo in the middle the design resembles a flower.

The problem is that on the front, where it is more important, you don't see anything.  The design is completely lost on the scrappy hexagon diamonds.  The only time you actually see anything is when the lines go through a darker hexagon.  I don't like it at all.  When the lines only show on a few of the hexagons it tends to look messy.

So.......unfortunately it all has to come out.  By the time I realized this yesturday it was time to start dinner.

Today is another day and I hope to be motivated to at least take out the stitches.  I have to take out four full diamond outlines, three half diamond outlines and one full feather design.

I am though, looking on the bright side.  I am still happy that I got excited to do the feather design and worked on it right away, because if I didn't I would have had to take out ALL the outlines on all the diamonds.

That is how I have to look at it.  It could have been worst.  Just a little step back.  I will fix it up and be on my way again.

Enjoy your day.

Finished the Midnight flight runway quilt

I have another finish, yay!!!  That makes one more quilt off my list of twelve that turned out to be eighteen.  This quilt was made with all the leftover pieces from the Midnight flight quilt.  This is going to charity.  The size is almost a twin bed size.

I like the fact that all these left over pieces where used in a creative way to make a completely different quilt from the original.  By using them right away, they don't end up back in my stash.

Here is a closeup of the quilting in the centre of the quilt. These four patch blocks finish in this quilt at 2" square.  Each little block 1" square each.

This picture is a section of the border.  I kept it simple for this quilting.  Everything was done freehand.  The backing is the same as the binding, which is a mix of the blue and green of the four patches.  The only think I don't care for is the batting.  I had a piece of batting just large enough to fit this quilt.  It was meant to be, but the batting leaves the quilt poofy.  Sometimes I like poofy and other times I don't.  In this case I don't, but I am sure someone will be happy to have it.

Earlier today I started quilting the next quilt from my list.  The next quilt on the list is my cousin and her husband's hexagon quilt.  I had a small section done before breaking for lunch.  Now I am ready to get back to it.  We will see how long this one will take me to do.  Each of he hexagons measures just over 1 1/4" across.  Stay tuned.

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

Work in progress:  

3. Quilting - Lise's hexagon quilt (family)..........basted and waiting for quilting

4. Quilting - Navy blue & cream quilt (my own)

7. Main work - Spools quilt (my own)..........started back on my spools, first row almost done

8. Main work - Mel's romance & roses quilt (family)
9. Leader/Ender - 16-patch pinwheel quilt (my own)..........started back up on this too
10. Handwork - Reconstructed Dresden plate quilt (my own)...........this now needs to wait a bit

11. Handwork - Lise's Dresden plate quilt (family)..........last five blocks basted and ready to sew

12. Handwork - Machine wall hanging (my own)

13. Paper piece - Pineapple quilt (my own)..........taking a short break

Total number of quilts completed - 9
Total number of quilts left to be completed - 9 ***Yay!!! I am in the single fidgets now, woohoo!!!

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

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

16. Reversable crazy quilt & matching doll quilt (charity)

15. Log cabin quilt (my own)
18. Small wonders quilt (charity)
17. Scrappy stripes quilt (charity)

2. Michelle's midnight flight quilt (family)

6. Jean material quilt (charity)

5. Midnight flight runway quilt (charity)