Tiny Town quilt progress

These here are the pieces that I have placed on the design wall. My Tiny Town quilt is starting to take shape.  I have block number one done on the left.  Block number two is all cut out and ready to sew and block number four is also all cut out and ready to sew.  I had this much done for at least two weeks now.  

At the beginning of the week I realized that I have only two weeks left to completely sew block number four.  So I started to take this to work, to work on, during my lunch.  This is how far I got on it.

Now today is the last Saturday before the meeting at Sew Sister's quilt store and I am running out of time.  Even though I am running out of time, I am still procrastinating.  I headed out this morning with my daughter and one of the ladies from my quilting bee to The Hobby Horse.  What I got there will be for another post.

When I got home I had no more excuses.  I had to get my block done.  I worked on it all afternoon and after dinner too.  What did I get done?  Well,  I finished all the pieces of the post office including the embroidered details.  I finished the mail box and the embroidered details, plus the tree.  But, now I cannot see anymore and have to head to bed.  

Tomorrow I will have to finish the bird that I started.  That will complete the top half of block number four.  I still have to do the bottom half of block number four, which is the car and the postal truck.  All this needs to be done and sewn together with the top by the meeting at 11:30 am Saturday.

The clock is ticking.  Tick......tick......tick......will I get it done........(the theme from Jaws)......dah-dah.....dah-dah............................of coarse I will.  Even if it means I am up late on Friday.  I always get what I need done.

Quilting Bee last night

Last night I had a quilting bee meeting.  I thought I would share with you what some of the ladies were working on.  They were nice enough to let me take pictures and share their work with you.

One of the ladies, Florence or as we know her Flo, is expecting to be a first time grandmother.  She has started to make an appliqué baby quilt.  I believe she has completed a block already and is now working on block number two.  This one has alphabet tumbling blocks.  It looks cute in pastel colours.  She is also doing the hand stitching around the letters.

Another one of the ladies, Carol, is working on a full size quilt in appliqué. This one has got major detailing in the quilt.  You may not see it in the picture but all of those miniature rocking horses have an actual mane.  The rocking horses are part of the border on the right and bottom of the block and on the left there is a pieces ribbon in red.  Carol is assembling these blocks in a quilt-as-you-go method.

This next block is right below the one pictured above.  You can see a portion of the rocking horse border.  This block has the same red ribbon border along the left and a chevron border along the bottom.  These blocks are just sooooo beautiful.  All the tiny details.  I like the subtle texture changes between the head/face and the muzzle or the paws. And the quilting really make everything stand out.

Carol has been working hard on this quilt.  She has many of the blocks already done, but I didn't think to take pictures until now.  Maybe, if the ladies are willing I could take more pictures down the road, to share with you.  It is always nice to see things other people are working on.

Fourth batch of pictures from the Etobicoke quilt show 2015

This would be the fourth and last batch of pictures from the Etobicoke Guild Quilt show 2015.  There were many gorgeous quilts at the show, I was in such ahh that some points I forgot to take the pictures.

I took the picture of this first quilt, as it reminded me of a technique I saw in one of the books I have. I want to make one, one day.  It is not really difficult and looks great.  I've seen a bunch of different colour ways and each one is pretty.  

This next one I thought was really pretty.  This quilt is all appliqué with dainty little pieces.  The quilting itself is also very beautiful.  Very detailed.

A close up of the applique block from the quilt above. Don't you just love those tiny vines, curvy leaves and the itty bitty berries.  This maker had to have had patients in spades to finish this quilt.

This last picture was taken for the stunning layout with the bear's paws blocks.  I also like the effect of the black and solids. I should have taken a picture of the whole quilt, because the paws were also framed nicely and made for a pretty quilt overall.

Mini blocks log cabin quilt

Between all the productivity last week I still took some time to play.  My daughter cringes when I answer to her question, "What have you been up to?", and I answer "Playing".  She knows it means I have been up to trouble and have started yet another quilt.  She considers herself my good angle on my shoulder.  The one that try's to keep you out of trouble.  In my case accumulating too many quilts in progress.  I just can't help myself.  I like the variety.  I seem to have ADD when it comes to quilting.  Thankfully, only in quilting.

I am always trying to find a quilt to make that uses up scraps, in this case very small pieces of scraps. In this case pieces that sometimes measure just under an inch.  Aren't they sweet?  It's a mini log cabin block.  Believe it or not, I plan to make a queen size quilt with these.  Well......480 of these blocks.

Each block will finish at 3".  The individual strips finish at just under a 1/2".  I am making them by paper piece.  This way I can use all my very small scraps, without worrying about the grain of the fabric.  Below is the pattern that I made using my EQ program.  I also used the program to make up the blocks.  Six blocks fit on an 8 1/2" x 11" paper.

The only piece of fabric that did not come out of my scrap bin is the red that I am using for the centre.  The centre will be the only part the will be consistent in the whole quilt.  Otherwise I am doing a scrappy traditional log cabin block with a light side and a dark side.  Here is my little basket of parts.  To give you a reference point, the little red squares are only 1" square.  The pile of paper blocks is stacked 478 high, as I have completed two already.

These little blocks are something that I will do on and off until they are done.  There is no time line on them.  When ever I want to "play", I will do them up.  For now it has taken up residence beside my sewing machine.

PS.  I don't feel guilty starting this one, I mean I did finish one this past week, didn't I?  But please don't tell the good angle.  ☺️😉😛

Preparing the templates for my Daughter's Easy Street quilt

My daughter has been waiting patiently for me to get to quilting her quilt.  She finished it during summer break of last year 2014.  The quilt that I am quilting is her Easy Street Mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.  Thus far I completed all the in-the-ditch quilting and the chain that we consider a sashing.  

The quilt consists of two blocks set on point, but my daughter's version is not on point.  When it is not on point the one part of the block creates a diagonal chain.  We are treating this as a sashing for the quilting designs.  Check out the earlier post which shows the pictures of the quilting so far.

Now what I have left to do is the large blocks left between the sashing and the two borders.  When I have a lot of blocks to quilt or the borders, I like to make myself a template.  I use this blue plastic available in quilt stores.  The first one here is for the large block.  In this case I only cut out a quarter of the block and rotate it a quarter turn around the block to complete all four corners.  This way it is easier to manage instead of a 12.5" square.  

Notice that I also drew the lines of the block on the plastic template for easy placement.  The little white slots are the design.  I will use the pounce block with blue or white chalk to mark the design on the quilt.  This will wash away later.

My daughter has chosen to go with the Fleur-de-Lis for her quilting throughout the quilt.  This next picture is of the last border.  This pattern is from Designs For Continuous Line Quilting by Shirley Thompson.  In the space right in the corner we will quilt her name, the quilt name and the date she made the quilt.  I still have to cut this pattern out.

Lastly we have the small border.  This one measures only 1.5".  It will be tedious to cut out, but because it is small, it will be easy to quilt.

Stay tuned.  The next pictures of my daughter's Easy Street quilt, will be of the completed quilt.

Some progress on this and that

I have been on vacations this past week and have been catching up on all kinds of quilty things.  One of the things was this Mariner's compass wall hanging.  The top is done.  I can move it up the list to the quilting category.

I also finished a portion of all the Midnight Flight blocks both in blue and green.  Next step will be to attach, in 4-patch style, the chevrons that complete this block.  What you see here are all the blocks that I need to finish the quilt.  Making some good progress there.

I even started another batch of ten pineapple blocks.  Each block has four rounds of lights and five of darks.  The blocks finish at 7.5" and take about 50 to 60 minutes each to do.  The quilt requires 83 full blocks, 24 half blocks and 4 corner blocks.  I am at least 30% of the way done, maybe a bit more.

I have been doing a bit of this and a bit of that between everything.  I will save some of it for another post.  I am definitely happy with the progress.  Talk to you soon.

Third batch of pictures from the Etobicoke quilt show 2015

Here is the third batch of pictures from the Etobicoke quilt show 2015.  This batch is a variety of examples of how one can use their scraps,

This first on is the simple block called courthouse steps.  The layout in this one is with all the blocks oriented in the same direction, but there are numerous layouts that you can choose from.  The fabric used was reproduction '30-'40s.  There were not many '30-'40s fabrics at this quilt show.  This type of quilt is great for using up all your small scraps.

This next quilt is one that I have done in the past, minus the small squares.  It was easy to make and was great for my precut 2" strips.  This one is done with all black fabric and little bursts of blue.  The one I did was done in a variety of blues.  I took this picture as well to remind me to make another.  This time I may choose to do it as completely scrappy with only the squares a specific colour.

I took a picture of this table runner for my mom.  She likes it a lot.  I am going to try and find the pattern for this one.  This is a paper piece project.  I like the autumn colours that were used.  I can envision this done up in Easter colours, winter blues and even summer bright floral colours.

Lastly for this batch we have an art quilt.  It is very impressive in person.  As you can see it won an award, for creativity.  Some of these blocks measured less than an inch.  This quilt would have been a test of patients to line things up just so.  This quilt is completely a scrap quilt.  One can look at this for a long time and be inspired to try some improv of there own.  I don't imagine this quilt as being a one time affair.  I feel this would have been a work in progress for quite some time as the ideas evolved over time.  With the variety of shapes and added curved tiny borders around the circles, I would have to guess that this was done by a very experiences quilter.

So there you have it for examples of scrappy quilts.  Scrappy is "in", in a big way and I don't think it is just to use up those left over pieces.  I for one enjoy scrappy much more than looking at a quilt that is all the same.  Scrappy keeps your eyes moving across a quilt trying to see everything.  It holds my interest for longer.