Friday, June 29, 2012

I finished some quilts before vacation

We're leaving the 16th for Colorado, so I wanted to take some completed quilts and tops to the guild meeting today. 

First, I tied and bound three of the scrap-busting split 9-patch quilts. Each one is made with 2" squares and HSTs.



I also finished a pink one, but forgot to take a picture.  All four of these were donated to our community service program.

Next, I donated this top to our Home of the Brave project.  Cathy and I talked about how there was a need for quilts for older little girls - too often the children's quilts are pretty "young."  This one will be nice for an older little girl who has lost her father/mother in combat.  It's a paper-pieced pattern I adapted from one I found in an old quilting magazine - I can't remember which one.

It's just a top, but Cathy will quilt it and someone else will bind it before it's presented.

Lastly, I finished our upholstery challenge.  A few weeks ago I asked for advice as to where I should place the buttons - and the consensus was on the "cornerstones" and not the blocks.  I think this turned out really, really cute!



Saturday, June 16, 2012

3 more colors in the Bumblebeans Color Challenge

The next three colors in the Bumblebeans Color Challenge are tomato red, grape, and bubble gum pink.  I had more pink in my stash than I thought I'd have - as well as plenty of tomato and grape.  These stars are going to look great together in the finished quilts - one large, one small.  I'm glad I decided to do them on white.




1464 1.5" squares = another top made

This one went together pretty quickly. I had several stacks of 9-patches left from when I assembled them as leaders and enders last year, and decided to put them together into sets of 4. I added some sashing, a border, and four more 9-patches on the corners, and I have another top!



Memories of Sisters - finally finished!

As more and more tops piled up in my closet, I decided I'd better take some out and finish them up.  I use a Featherweight for all my sewing, so quilting is not easy.  But I gave it a try for this one:

This is called "Memories of Sisters."  It's a paper-pieced pattern designed by Vivienne Moore. I bought the pattern when I volunteered at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Festival in 2008, made the top that fall, but just now quilted and bound it.  I learned from the Stitchin' Post website that the pattern has been retired. Lucky me!

Friday, June 8, 2012

July block for Sew Bee Wonky

Sew Bee Wonky is a Flickr group I'm in, and if you're interested in joining, please visit it and ask to join. We could use some more members. What we do:  Each month, one person is the recipient. S/he chooses some kind of block for everyone else to make from their own stash, and provides a tutorial or link to a tutorial. Everyone else makes two blocks and sends them to the person whose month it is.

My month is July, but since we don't have a June person, I'm posting my block now.

For those of you who are familiar with Gwen Marston's books Liberated Quilting and Liberated Quilting II, I want little basket blocks.  Here are my wishes for these blocks:
- please make 2, and make them different from each other (the background can be the same)
- finished blocks are to be no larger than 8" wide or tall
- I'll be adding any fabric necessary to fit them into the finished quilt, so don't worry about sizes all being the same
- BOLD colors - I want the colors to SHOUT - to say "PINK!!!!" for example.  No light pastels or dull drab Civil War tones.  I"m thinking pink, yellow, orange, lime/chartreuse, red, royal blue, turquoise, purple (but not lavender).  It's your choice as to what color is background and what color is basket.
- Please make the handles in a different fabric or material from the basket.  You can do a bias handle out of fabric, or you can use large rick-rack, fancy ribbon, cording, yarn, or something else.


Here's what I did yesterday:

I started with a piece of fabric that was 6.5" x 10".  Ignore the ugly color. 


 Cut it into two pieces - they can be unequal in size. Set one aside to make the second basket.


 Cut a basket.  It can be short and fat or tall and skinny - it's up to you.



Lay it on top of the background fabric, and then cut the background fabric even with the top of the basket.

 With both pieces right side up, place the basket shape on the bottom half of the background piece. Shift the basket slightly to the right, and cut along the left side of the basket. Then shift the basket slightly to the left, and cut along the right side of the basket.

Sew the trimmed-off left and right background pieces to the basket shape. You've now completed the bottom section of the block.

 Trim the edges - you will either be cutting more off the bottom, or a piece off the top - to align the top and bottom pieces.

Decide what your handle will be - whether it will be a fabric handle, or one made from rick-rack, ribbon, lace, cording, fancy yarn, or something else.  But make sure it's a contrasting handle.  As Gwen Marston says, "the handles are where the action is."


Pin the handle to the top piece of fabric, with the ends hanging loose. When you sew the top and bottom of the basket together, it will anchor the ends of the handle. You can then either appliqué or top-stitch the handle down.  I hate to appliqué, so I just top-stitched mine down.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Miscellaneous

Star from an idea I saw in a swap

In Color Order's HST Block of the Month for June
Bloggers' BOM - re-do of a star I didn't like the first time (I made two)

Barrister's Block Sew-Along - Modified Lemoyne Star
received from Alicia - Quilters' Board Monthly Bee

for Sew Bee Wonky Flickr group
for Sew Bee Wonky Flickr group

Bloggers' BOM block for May
Modern Monday - Week 34 - Checkerboard Skew

Traditional Tuesday - Week 34 - Unequal 9-Patch
Modern Monday - Week 35 - Kansas Dugout

Traditional Tuesday - Week 35 - Kansas Dugout
Modern Monday - Week 36 - 4H

Traditional Tuesday - Week 36  - 4H

More Boomerang Blocks Received

We've got about a month left before all the blocks should be received. Here are some more I've gotten the last few weeks:
from Judy B
from Donna M

from Shari

from Sue S
from Mary C

from Marcia S
from Lisa B

from Debra R