Monday, January 14, 2013

Ideas for Scrapbusting Classes

These are class ideas for a friend, but I don't mind other people seeing this post.

1.  x+ quilt 

I would show the planned version with the striped fabric, and then the scrappy version. I have figured out the size of the quilt - 44 x 52 with a 4" border, along with the fabric requirements.  We could do the initial corner pieces (x) one day, then the center pieces (+) another day, and begin piecing the blocks together either that day or an other one. In the photo above, my scrappy version has a border of strips - but I'm taking that off and replacing it with a solid border in red, blue, green or something like that (I need to see what I've got).

2. bow ties mini quilt
Uses up 2" and 1 1/4" squares.  Makes a mini quilt about 20 x 15 (I can get exact measurement later).

3. strings, or strings and crumbs



The first two are simple string quilts.  This is a one-day class to show the technique of sewing the strings on a phone book paper foundation. Fabric requirement is a bag or box of assorted strings. The third quilt is called Crumb Chaos, and it uses small pieces at first, and incorporates spare triangles if people have them, and uses a lot of strings.  This quilt top shown is a King. 

4. 9-patch HSTs



The above are the ones I told you about in the shop today - using 2" squares and HSTs (the HSTs are made from 2.5" squares and scrap triangles). I've given away the top 3, but I the bottom one and can get it sandwiched and tied or quilted.

5. tiny squares

Both of the above are made from 1.5" scraps. The top one has 100-patch squares surrounded by more tiny squares. The bottom one is all 36-patch squares.  Neither one is sandwiched/quilted yet.

6. New York Beauties
This is the one we discussed at the shop today. I'll bring it in to be quilted soon. I have paper copies of the patterns as well as .pdf files - how would we deal with those? Perhaps people could provide their email addresses when they sign up, I can email them the patterns and ask them to print them up at  home and bring them, and then I can provide paper copies at the class for late joiners or people who don't have computers.

7. boxed stars


This is a block I designed myself based on the one called "boxes #2."  It uses up a bunch of 2" strips, since I used the companion angle ruler to make the hsts.  The neutrals are 3.5" squares, if I remember correctly. I don't have that top any more, though - I donated it to CBQ.


This last quilt is a completed quilt made during an online sew-along. I can show it as an example of something made entirely from scraps and orphan blocks.




Sunday, January 6, 2013

2013 BOMs - January Blocks

I've started 3 BOMs (so far) for 2013.

Amy of Stitchery Dickory Dock is having one called the Sugar Block Club. Each month we get a block pattern AND a recipe for a delicious treat. The January block is called Snow Blossom. This will be my first quilt using all solids.

January - Sugar Block Club



Anne Marie of Gen X Quilters is hosting a BOM called the Sisters' 10 Modern Block of the Month Club.  Each month for 10 months we're making 2 blocks, and they're going to be finished in a unique setting.  I decided this would be the perfect quilt for my Kaffe Fassett fabric!

January - Sisters' 10

Elizabeth on Don't Call Me Betsy calls her BOM the Lucky Stars BOM.  It's all paper-piecing, and can be done in either 9" or 12" (or both).  I think I'll do both!

January - Lucky Stars

Thread of 2012


For 2012 I used 9 extra large spools of thread, 2 large, 1 medium and 2 small.  All was used just for piecing. I'm thinking I can make something crafty with the extra large ones, don't you think?

Modern Monday/Traditional Tuesday - almost finished!

Since I finished my Sow-Along quilt top, I decided to tackle another long-term project - getting caught up on the Modern Monday and Traditional Tuesday blocks.  Today I was able to get 16 of them done - 17 if you count the one that's the wrong size. 

Week 55 - Hearts

Week 56 - Split 9-Patch and Hour Glass 2

Week 57 - Piano Keys

Week 58 - 4-Patch Snowball and Bear Paw
Week 59 - Sunshine Star and Disappearing 9-Patch

Week 60 - No Name Block and Modified 4-Patch

Week 61 - Improve and Square in a Square

Week 62 - Mod Shape and Gem Block
There are only a couple of blocks left to do, and then I need to think about sewing them together in two different tops. Since I didn't do all 64 of each one, I think I'll select my favorites and do 56 of each one. I can put the extra ones on the backs.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Sow-Along Quilt top completed!


Last spring I started the online "Sow-Along" with Randy of Barrister's Block.  Originally, she was going to do a sew-along of the Farmer's Wife quilt, but she was asked by the author of the book to not do it.  So instead, she selected blocks that are in the public domain - some of them are in the book, some aren't - and decided to call it a "Sow-Along" quilt.

I used some 30s reproduction fabric for this. I really don't like 30s reproduction fabrics, but I picked up a half-yard bundle in Oregon about 4 years ago that I needed to use. It had the blue, the red, the white-based multi-colored floral, and a black and white gingham (which I didn't use on this quilt). I wanted some other colors for this quilt, so I found a nice green at JoAnn, and then Donna Sheridan at Calico Horse helped me find a good cheddar.  I decided to use Kona White for the background, and I think it really makes it look "modern."  All the blocks are traditional blocks, the fabrics are 30s' repro, but the quilt looks contemporary (to me).


My next task is to make a backing - I think I'm just going to piece together the rest of the yardage of the 30's repro fabrics - I said I don't like them - and that way I'm DONE with them.