Design Wall Monday 2/11/13

This is my version of Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street.  It's much further along than in this picture but I have it all laid out getting borders measured and there is no good picture-taking light over that table.  Anyone else have this problem??

I elected to go with a straight set instead of the on-point setting because I like the strong diagonal lines that the pinks give.  Whew - that's a lot of pink for me.  I'm the only girl in the house, we don't count Izzy, and there is often debate if we should count me!  I am way more comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt than in pink girly things.  But I am liking it and I am sure that if I don't keep it someone somewhere will swoon over all the pink.

Hop over to Judy's blog to see what other talented designers are up to.


Chris

Design Wall Monday 1-9-12

WHEW! This is the only Orca Bay block that I have completed. We were so busy over the weekend that I didn't get to sew as much as I'd hoped. We got all our Christmas decorations put away and the tree recycled. In the process, we reorganized the storage space and emptied two boxes of things we inherited from DH's parents.

We also had a few people over for dinner - that was the incentive to make us FINISH cleaning up Christmas and return our home to its normal state of "lived-in-ness." One of the couples brought their two daughters, ages 9 and 12. We are so immature here that I had plenty of toys to keep them happy. The biggest hit of the night was the two nerf guns we had put in our grown sons' stockings. The boys very kindly left them behind when they returned to their grown-up lives!!

Back to Orca Bay: I am really liking the blue and brown. I have to make a few more before I am convinced about the pink accent, however.

Check out Judy's blog to see what's on some more design walls.

DW Monday and Orca Bay Progress

This is where I am with Orca Bay.  I have had trouble getting enough sewing time to keep up.  My friend, Patti, and I had a private retreat at her house yesterday.  We sewed for 6 hours.  In that time I completed 10 brown string blocks, cut and sewed 55 HST for step 5 and completed all my Ohio stars.  I am really looking forward to seeing my quilt all together.  My fabric choices are seeming a little sketchy to me now.  Off white may have been a better choice.  We'll see.  It's been fun - labor intensive like all of Bonnie's quilts - but fun!

What have you been working on?
Hop over to Judy's blog and Bonnie's blog to see what others have been up to.

Hope the New Year is starting off well for each of you.

Design Wall Monday - Cuteness

I'm on Step Two of Bonnie Hunter's Orca Bay Mystery.  We are making a gazillion 72 3.5" string blocks.  They are SO CUTE!  I love making string blocks but I hate the mess they make while in process.  Just look at that tangled mess of pink strings.  I have three boxes of strings that I dug through to pick out all the pinks for my version of Orca Bay.  Apparently, I am not such a pink girl.  I found the most miserly pile of pinks you can imagine.  Nevertheless, I think my tiny blocks are adorable.


Head over to Judy's to see what other people are working on.

Head over to Bonnie's to see other people's progress on their Orca Bay Mystery.

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 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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Design Wall Monday

This one is coming out again.  I got the top finished a few months ago and it has hung, not without a LOT of company, in my finished TOPS closet.  You know the place where all your tops wait while they age gracefully until you finally decide to quilt them.  You don't have a closet like that??  Dang!

Anyway, my cousin who has a lot to do with the San Diego Quilt Show sent me an innocent email musing that while she was going through all the entrants to date, she hadn't seen anything with my name on it.  SIGH.  I can recognize an arm-twisting when I read one!  I agreed to enter this little (actually quite large) gem so I have to get right on quilting it.

This is a mystery quilt I made along with all of Bonnie Hunters followers.  You can still get the pattern online here.  Just click on Roll Roll Cotton Boll on the top banner.  I named mine "600 1/2-Square Triangles."  Not original or witty but VERY descriptive.  I love all of Bonnie's patterns but she does love her some SMALL pieces.

Go on over to Judy's blog and see all the luscious design walls people have posted today.

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Design Wall Monday

There are just a bunch of bits on my wall this week.  Well, that and that darn Myna Bird Quilt that is still hanging around waiting for inspiration.  Here is one of the bits that I am getting excited about:

I took Bonnie Hunter's Blue Ridge Beauty class at Road to California earlier this year.  In between my regular projects, I have been plugging away at the 224 blocks I need to finish this quilt.  No, this is NOT all I have completed.  I think I have about 80 completed blocks, all of the 1/2 square triangles, and almost all of the 4-patches.

It is going to be for our king-size bed because DH has started to grumble that "everyone has a quilt but us."

 Here is a reminder of Bonnie's quilt:

 (Posted sideways because blogger refuses to leave my photos rotated even though they are rotated in my album.  GRRRR)










You all have a great day.

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