Monday, April 30, 2018

Another Finally Finish: Dot Is Crazy Quilt

Today is the last day of the 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop hosted by Carla of Creatin' In The Sticks in which I have enjoyed participating with the other bloggers by presenting a project made from one of the blocks and by making all of the 30 blocks somehow.  I'm glad I was able to finish my quilt to celebrate the end of the blog hop.
The month of April has been crazy in terms of the weather we had; snow, ice, rain, wind, etc. all unseasonable for Spring but must have been good for my quilt output because I was going subconsciously for a five for five or a quintuplet of quilt final finishes.  It seems that anything I sewed turned into quilts which is a nice superpower to have and the only time I seem to have possessed it was when I had to make a number of baby quilts for the Blanket Ministry in a short period of time which was expected and not unexpected like my April quilts were. Or it could be another instance of hexing myself, but in a good way, when I say or write something, the opposite will happen and in this case, I mentioned that I thought my 2018 production so far was lacking.
For my thirty blocks, I decided to use a stash of fat eighths and some light yardage of Zen Chic's Hey Dot which has sitting idle for awhile and as you can see above I still have some leftover.  I deviated from the original quilt by not using the same background fabric in all of the blocks or lights were excluded from some of the blocks.  I have to admit, but you probably could figure out, that I did not make the block of the day on the assigned day but rather made them in groups of five and one time I made ten blocks in one evening because I needed to catch up.  All of the blocks sewed up fast and it was very easy to make more than one at a time.  I ended up finishing my blocks ahead of schedule and decided that I would finish the quilt by the end of the month to coincide with the end of the blog hop.
And another admission which sort of contradict my statement that all of the blocks sewed up fast which is that #29 Block-Dovetail had sixteen 1-3/4" x 4-1/4" strips for two rail blocks which I decided not to do because I still had a one-eighth piece of this funky stripe left and thought it had the same essence of the dovetail strips.  So I guess, if you sewed #29 like I did, then all of the blocks do sew up fast.
The blocks were arranged by block number for the quilt.  It helped that after I made each block, I placed it on my design board to ensure that the colors were evenly spread  throughout the quilt.
If there was any indecisions for this quilt, it would be for the quilting and for the backing.  I couldn't decide at first if I was going to do straight line or curvy line quilting and settled on horizontal straight line but then after sewing the top I realized that vertical curvy line would look better.  And for the backing, they say three times the charm and after choosing two other possible backings I decided on this wonderful yellow patchwork print with stripes and dots which helped me to choose lemon yellow thread for the quilting.  If there's a lesson to be learned, it's to buy additional yardage when buying precuts for the binding and sadly I did not have any Hey Dot yardage which I could use (I don't do scrappy binding) but I did have this gray plaid dot in my stash.
Have I mentioned how much fun I had making these blocks.  This is definitely a fun and happy quilt. It measures 50" X 60" and each block finishes 10" square.  While I was making the blocks, I thought it could easily be renamed 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Hours and thought it would make a great quilt marathon where the quilters stayed up for at least 30 hours straight to make these blocks but there would need to be some safety rules like no rotary cutters or scissors could be used after the eighth hour.  But, I thought better and decided it would instead really be a fun quilt guild project for each member to draw the number of the block they're to make and #29 is the block you don't want if you don't like cutting odd sizes.
And you can guess who's going to receive this quilt to go with her new play porch?  Yes, my sweet granddaughter Micah whose mother worked very hard this past weekend to put it together but to my quilt horror took a photo of Micah with her Christmas quilt (which I won't show) in her play porch.  It's also time Micah receives a new quilt because Sandra, MMM Quilts mentioned to me that she thought I needed to make a 1-1/4 year old quilt for her but it's too early so Dot Is Crazy will be her 1-1/8 year old quilt.
And in case you didn't see my post for my Jungle Crosswalk quilt made from Block #22, you can read about it HERE.  If you're looking for a quick and easy quilt to make, a lot of these block patterns could be used.  Be sure to check out the 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Link.

I don't know if I can keep up this momentum for May but I do know that I'm ready for my next QAL, MMM Quilts Adult Playtime Plus QAL.  My fabric has been chosen and instructions will be posted next week.  And I know there's a couple of projects which need finishing or starting lurking in my studio but then again we're going to have some nice 70 to 80 degree weather this week and the garden centers are filling up with flowers.  I'm pretty sure we're finally going to experience Spring or Too Soon Summer now and I'm really hoping I'm not hexing myself again if snow happens to appear next week.



16 comments :

  1. What a lovely bright and happy quilt, Micah will love all the colours Rose, congrats on another great finish Rose, your workflow is phenomenal. Another QAL? Wow, I haven't finished Postcards yet.

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  2. Wow Rose. I am so impressed with your productivity . How many quilts does Micah have? This one is so much fun! I love the idea of a 30 hour quilt marathon but who am I kidding, I'm in bed by 10. But picking the numbers for the blocks sounds fun as well.

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  3. Well I would say all the bad weather you had in April made you a very productive quilter! Wow! I just love that Dotty quilt. Happy indeed. And we all know that little Micah will love it no matter which "milestone" it is!

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  4. I think you have super powers all the time, not just in April! 5 quilt finishes is wonderful. Your quilt is beautifully colorful.

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  5. Rose, I love your dot quilt! Is that a clothesline I see it hanging from?! Nice. Love your winding line quilting, too. Perfect. Wow, you are a quilt making machine! Can't wait to see what May brings, for weather and for quilts!

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  6. I love your version of this quilt. When I first saw it with all the white background, it didn't appeal to me at all (and I'm definitely on the modern side of the quilting fence...usually), but your brights and everything goes sort if color selection is wonderful. And good for you in terms of productivity. I'm not sure where you live, but here in the US midwest, we were referring to out weather as Third Winter. Today it's supposed to be 80, though, so I think Too Soon Summer is coming... Here's to hoping May will be just as productive...if you want it to be!

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  7. I love Dot is Crazy, it's so cute! The fabric is gorgeous, but you know I love Zen Chic! I wonder how many quilts Micah will have by the time she's a teenager ...

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  8. I love this one! So bright and cheerful, perfect for Micah. It's funny that you used a stripey fabric instead of piecing a stripey block. And why shouldn't you? It's your quilt, after all! Congrats on this finish and a very productive month of April :)

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  9. Hi Rose,
    We all know Micah is a sweetheart and well deserves a 1 and 1/8 year new quilt! This is just the ticket for her. It is so sweet and I just love the polka dot fabrics. Perfecto!
    ~smile~ Roseanne

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  10. This is spectacular Rose! You have an amazing talent at using simple shapes and creating vibrant and interesting quilts!

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  11. You are on a roll! I love the superpower you discovered and hope that some of that will come my way! I think the idea of a 30 hr marathon is bit much but 10 hours a day OR 5 over a week- not a bad plan. I love your decisions about the binding and back and am facing that with what I bought for the Plus QAL. Maybe better order some binding/back while that fabric is still around!

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  12. This will be a perfect quilt for Micah, with all those fun bright colors. I can only imagine the amount of seam ripping that would come out of a 30 hour quilt marathon :)

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  13. I laughed at your no rotary cutters after the eighth hour! I was thinking after the 20th but that’s probably totally pushing it! Glad that my suggestion is producing two more quilts for that darling quilt diva. Micah’s mother is to building a play porch like you are to quilt production—both machines! You’d better not have hexed the weather because yours usually slides east to me...

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  14. Yes....it is really a happy and fun quilt! And fun to quilt along with others doing the same quilt!

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  15. Such a happy quilt! Micah will love it- how could she not? And you won't have to hide any pictures of the Christmas quilt being used in spring. Unless Micah decides it's her favourite. Five quilts in one month! My goodness, you've been busy. Bet your sewing machine is wishing for nice weather.

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  16. Oh Rose, what a pretty quilt--perfect for a play porch (or any room, actually). You made all the right choices...well, except that you seem to have to make Micah eight quilts this year. Maybe I've got that wrong, but truthfully grandies can make us do all manner of crazy things. A quilt or eight is nothing, am I right?

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I appreciate your comments but due to traveling and my ineptitude with typing on either my iPhone or iPad, my response may be somewhat delayed. Thank You for your understanding.