Design Wall Monday 4/30/12

WHEW!!  I DID IT!  My April UFO is Done.

This is possibly the second or third quilt that I ever made.  It has languished in a closet for almost ten years. Thank goodness that Judy pulled the number for the April UFO challenge.

It's twin size so I didn't want to quilt it on my DSM.  I've shared a Tin Lizzie with two friends for about 4 years now and STILL I never tackled it.  I was stalled on how to quilt it.  That is what ALWAYS stalls me.  I lack so much confidence in my quilting except for stippling -- I can do that all day.  This quilt seemed to want some bugs.  It didn't get all the bugs it needed or wanted but it did get a bunch of curlicues and butterflies.

 

There's a big butterfly in the yellow jar.   There are also lots of threads --  OOOPS!

So this post is a twofer:  April UFO and Design wall Monday.   Hop over to Jusy's to see what other's are doing.

Design Wall Monday

I've been out of the blog-writing loop for a while.  I've been quilting quite a bit but we've had a lot of stuff going on at the house that has kept me away from the computer.


This is a little quilt I made for a friend's baby. Her nursery theme was fish.  These deep sea fishes may be a bit sophisticated but I like the way the quilt turned out.  The pattern is based on a Judy Martin design.

Check out what else is posted at Judy's Blog

February's UFO DONE!!

Here she is.  I'm very happy with how this quilt turned out.  From a box full of VERY odd 1/2 square triangles, given to me by an elderly friend who could no longer quilt, I was able to make this.  I'm simply calling it Audrey's Quilt to commemorate her friendship and generosity.  I hope that she knows I made this quilt from her gift.

Hop over to Judy's blog to see what other things got taken off the UFO list this month.

January UFO DONE!

Here it is.  It measures 18 x 24 inches.  I wimped out on the quilting and chose a VERY simplified feather stencil. It's bound, labeled and sleeved!  It just needs a good washing to get the chalk out and soften up the quilting (you know, make it puffy so the quilting hides a bit...)

Glad it's off the list and out in public.
Hop over to Judy's to see what other people are finishing.

I love these little quilts

This is the little quilt I was binding for FNSI.  It measures almost 12" square and I can hardly stand how cute it is.  LOL - I crack myself up.

I made this with the cut-off corners of snowball blocks from this quilt that I made in a Mystery Quilt Weekend Retreat in Palm Springs. 

There were 10 of us in the same group and most of them gave me their "bonus" triangles so I should have many more tiny quilts to post before the next retreat.

YEAH!! I finished another one!

I am so happy to have finished this quilt.  I love, love it but it has hung, unfinished for more than five years.  I just lacked confidence in my quilting ability to finish it.  Judy's UFO challenge, though, has pushed me to just pull up my big-girl pants and get things done!  This isn't a large quilt at all.  I struggled with adding some borders to make it bigger but decided, finally, to donate it to the VA for use by veterans in wheel chairs.  I'm hoping it's not too wide because I thinks it will appeal to a man.

I just photographed this yesterday in my back yard.  The grass is really a lot greener than it appears int he photo.  I just added this information so those of you who just got slammed on the east coast can be a little jealous of us on the west coast with our good weather.  I am constantly jealous of all your gorgeous spring and summer flowers so it is fair that you can be jealous of our mild winter. 

Everything has its plusses and minuses, though. For instance, our mild winters lead to a problem most of the cold US might not consider:  We have FLEAS in San Diego.  Lots of them.  In fact, the first Spanish or Portuguese explorers labeled San Diego the Flea Capital of the world.  Fleas never die off here because it doesn't get cold enough to kill the eggs.  I would guess that Southern California can single-handedly keep Advantage in business.  I'm getting itchy just typing this.

September UFO DONE!!

TaDa!!

It was a challenge to get this finished this month because I have my boy here!!  More on that in the next post, I want to talk about this quilt today.  This quilt was begun as a leader/ender project about, I don't know, SIX years ago!  I began by using  2-inch squares of dark fabric and sewing them into 2-patches.

When I got a HUGE pile of those, I started L/E (leader/endering) pairs of 2-inch squares of muslin.

When I got a HUGE pile of those, I started L/E 1/2 square triangles.  I did this by pairing larger muslin and dark squares (about 3 inches each) and sewing on both sides of the center diagonal line then cutting them apart to make two 1/2 squares that I trimmed to 2 inches. 

When I got a  HUGE pile of those, I started sewing them to the two squares of muslin or two of the dark 2-patches to make strips of 3. 

When I had a HUGE pile of those, I sewed a single muslin square to two dark squares.

Soon (a relative term), I had three piles of strips of 3-patches that looked like this:

FINALLY, I started sewing these strips together into 9-patches.  I sewed and sewed and sewed until I had 192 of them.  I was finally ready to lay out a quilt top and the playing commenced.  I decided to sew them together into the blocks you see by sewing 4 of the 9-patches together.  I wanted a zig-zag effect so I sewed an extra bit onto the end of each column of six blocks.  Looking at it now, I would probably end each row with a half block. 

Those of you who are very clever will have figured out that I could have accomplished this same effect by sewing 4-patches into 16-patches and then adding the 1/2 square triangle thingy that looks like a flying goose.  OR, I could have sewn... well, there are many ways to skin a cat, this is how I did it because I wasn't sure about the final layout.

The thing I like about this block is that it can be used in MANY layouts as you would use a log cabin block.  The advantage, as I see it, is that I can make them easily as a L/E project while making other quilts.  I see L/E quilts as almost making themselves.  The blocks just get sewn together while I am making other quilts.  The only direct attention I spend on them is when it comes to putting all the blocks together into a top.

The other thing I LOVE about this quilt is that I consider it almost free.  The only fabric in it that I actually purchased is 1/2 of the backing.  I pieced the batting from leftovers of other quilts and all of the 2-inch squares are scraps from my other quilts but mostly from my quilt guild friends who know how I will use any tiny scrap that they don't want to be bothered with.

Big decision is where I will donate this quilt. 


Hop over to Patchwork Times and see the other FINISHED UFOs!

Design Wall Monday 9/12/11

Ta DA!  This is what I worked on yesterday.  It's not exactly on my design wall anymore, it's officially OFF my design wall and that feels pretty darn good.

I have a great niece expected in a few months.  Her shower is in two weeks while I am out of town.  I hope her mom will like this quilt.  The pattern is from Sweet and Simple Baby Quilts by Mary Hickey.  The book is now out of print but still available from Amazon.  I pretty much used all her fabric ideas because I just thought they were so, so cute.

It's been awhile since I quilted anything on my DSM and, boy am I rusty!  It still turned out OK as  long as you don't look too closely!  I had to get pretty creative with the binding.  I used up almost all the scraps in the quilt top so I had to dig around in my stash and come up with other fabrics that were close to the pieces in the top. 

Check out what others have on their design walls over at Judy's blog.

Design Wall Monday 8/29/11

This is what I worked on ALL DAY Saturday.  It is Done Done except the label because, I'm embarrassed to admit, I can't remember what I named it.  That shouldn't be a big deal, I could just name it something else.  Except, I entered this in a show and I put the name on the entry form.  Luckily it's not a juried show, so I won't get shot if I name it something else.

Every so often, I enter a show to give myself a deadline, otherwise I fear this behemoth would have languished while I got up the courage to tackle all those miles of binding.  It's hard to judge from the photo but this thing is a beast.  Blogger insists on putting the picture sideways but my spouse is standing on the 7th step to get it off the ground.  I do have a dilemma with it. I washed it and the batting shrank up a LOT more than I expected.  As a consequence, it looks ... a little bunchy.  I'm thinking of washing and drying it again to see if it softens up.  My sister thinks I should steam it.  I like the look of washed, wrinkled quilts but for the show I'm thinking the unwashed look would have been better.   Do any of you have any ideas?

Here's the backing.  I like to make backs a little interesting.  At least Blogger is consistent and is also putting this one in sideways.

Here's a little closeup of the quilting.  It's still a little hard to see.

I had a lot of fun making this quilt.  It was a mystery on Bonnie Hunter's blog.  Because of this quilt, I am no longer intimidated by quilts requiring hundreds of 1/2 square triangles.  Seriously, this quilt has 600 1/2 square triangles.

Check out the other design walls at Patchwork Times.

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Ta Da!

I wrote that I wouldn't post another Toucan photo till the quilt was done.
Here it is:

 

My photo is a little shaky but I still wanted to write a post about it. 

I made this quilt in response to our annual guild challenge.  We all got the same instructions:

1. start with a center block of your choosing in whatever size. (I chose a mola from my MIL)

2. First border is five inches and much have something curved (in mine, sides, and top)

3. Second border was two inches and something dimensional (bottom border)

4. final border, 3 inches and it had to contain letters of some sort. (mine reads, "If Toucan, Three Can")

I had so much fun with this.  It challenged me to do things I normally don't do: applique, printing on fabric, dimensional flowers.

AND!  It won an award. The "I wish I'd thought of that" award.

Here are photos of the other entries.  Remember, we ALL had the SAME instructions/guidelines.

This one won the "Warm and snuggly" award.

This one (It's sideways, I hate it when Blogger does that) won the "One I'd like to have in my home" award.

This one won the "WOW!" award

Aren't they all fabulous!?  

Do you belong to a guild?  Do you ever participate in their challenges?

Here's a nice quote:

“ Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others 

without getting a few drops on yourself. ”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Go splash some perfume around.

May UFO Finish!!

I can't believe that I have finished FIVE old UFOs.  Judy's UFO challenge has really helped push me to get things done so I can post my success every month.  Does it make me shallow that I crave the acknowledgement of others?  Shouldn't my own praise be enough?

SIGH.  It's not.  LOL!!  I really like to be able to post my finishes for everyone to see.  In fact, I don't think that, as adults, we get enough credit.  Who is telling us "Good job!" I fear that too few bosses do that.  Certainly our kids don't do it often enough.  It never occurred to me how hard a job parenting is until I had my own.  SO, I am on my own bandwagon to pat myself on the back and let everyone else do so too.

Try it on yourself.  Give yourself at LEAST 10 "Good Jobs" today and see how you feel tonight.  Did a load of laundry? Good Job!  Cooked a nice meal?  Way to go!  Finished a report at work?  Fabulous!  You Rock!

It's fun. Go out there and sing your praises.  Then go over to Judy's blog and drool over all the fabulous finishes.

Quilts for Japan

I managed to get a box sent off to Quiltmaker with quilts for their humanitarian efforts for Japan.  (WHEW that was a really awkward sentence!)  My friend Patti gave me two of hers to include.  The quilt above if one of the ones I made.


Here's the second quilt I sent off.

 I love this bright quilt.  I made it from a pattern on Bonnie Hunter's website.  It's called Scrap X.  I also really like the back that I made from 10-inch squares of a bunch of leftover kid fabric that I've been hoarding hanging on to for a long time.  This quilt is a great way to use up all those short strips that you can't bear to waste.

(BTW these two photos look odd because Blogger won't keep them rotated in the correct orientation.  SIGH)

The next two quilts were made by Patti.  When I first started quilting I would hang onto every quilt I made.  Patti would generously give away quilts right and left.  I was amazed at her generosity.  After ten years of quilting, I am finally finding myself easily parting with quilts.  It feels good.  I am at peace knowing that it is the PROCESS of making the quilt that I really love.  I don't have to own it too.

Go forth and donate.  It feels good!

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is every wasted." 

                                                            - Aesop

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