Clamity Cloud Cluster Coverlet

My Clamity Cloud Cluster Coverlet is my May finish for the CT Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. Like the other quilts which I’ve finished so far since July, 2021 for this challenge, this one has a story to explain how this quilt came to be or more precisely this pattern. BTW, since finishing Clamity Cloud Cluster and if I already wasn’t set on this name, I’m thinking Feedsack Fundae would have have been a good name also. The clouds are starting to look like scoops of ice cream now.

Back in 2006, I purchased a set of clam shell freezer paper pieces which I first had to cut apart by hand and then cut hundreds of feedsack fabric squares which then an individual clam shell was ironed to it and then trimmed and basted in order for the clam shells to be sewn together to make rows. Back then I didn’t have an iPhone so I have no pictures to show for this long and laborious process. The above coverlet was finished in 2014 and this was what I considered a forever project which I worked on during many road trips. Would you believe after I made this, I then made one with 30’s fabrics which has been waiting for me to add the borders for at least eight years now. After I made these, my good Quilt Peep Linda asked me if she could borrow my clam shell freezer paper pieces which were still useable so she could make one.

After she was finished with her clam shell top in 2015, Linda returned the freezer paper pieces to me along with the extras she made with feedsack fabrics as well as 40’s and 50’s fabrics. Not wanting to let these clam shell blocks lay idle, I came up with an appliqué block which I thought was different but fun.

After that, I had to separate Linda’s clam shells either by two or by one for the clam clouds and then appliqued them to rectangles of Springmaid Natural Charm muslin. Once these were finished, I then sewed strips of black/white gingham to feedsack rectangles and made around 81 of these blocks. This was an on and off project for almost seven years. Last year, I decided to add this to the UFO challenge since I hated seeing these blocks laying around my studio.

I needed to trim all of the blocks to 7” first before laying them out on my design board. I initially was planning on a 9x9 or 66” square layout with one vertical row of clouds going up and the next row going down. 

After I sewed two rows together and they were laying on the table ready for me to press the seams, I noticed that I liked the look of the clam clouds and feedsack rectangles butting up against each other. I thought the new layout would look better as a 7x10 rectangular layout which meant removing two blocks from the two rows already sewn and eliminating the blocks which contained mostly brown fabrics.

Once the blocks were sewn together, I knew I needed to add a border and didn’t think I had anything in my stash. Luckily, while I was looking at photos in my Clamshell album, I saw the Clamshell Coverlet and knew the border I used would be perfect for Clamity Cloud and I still had a length of it leftover which was enough for a 2.5” border and binding. I was planning on quilting Clamity Cloud but decided against it and made it a coverlet by just sewing a fabric backing (no batting) like I did with the Clamshell Coverlet. (FYI, when I just back a quilt top with just fabric, I call it a coverlet and when I back it with a plush I call it a throw). Because I used Natural Charm muslin for the appliqued portion of the block which was thin, I could not use a print for the backing since it would show through. I had yardage of Kona Snow in my stash which I ended up using and am pleased with how it looks backing the appliqué. I quilted in the ditch along the vertical rows and in the borders with a 50 wt. Aurifil thread in Natural. The binding was hand sewn and because there was no batting, it was slow because I had to make sure the stitches did not go through to the top which can easily happen. The Clamity Cloud Cluster Coverlet measures approximately 52”x 70”.

And now I have a couple of Clamshell Coverlets. Despite not having any batting in the middle, the first Clamshell Coverlet folded up nicely and did not have any deep creases from sitting on the shelf for the past eight years. After finishing the Clamity Cloud Cluster Coverlet, I pulled out the 30’s clamshell and decided it is time to finally pick a border fabric. I’m thinking green. If I participate in the 2022/23 CT Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge, this should be one I list.

A Finally Finish and a Big Flimsy Finish for November

 

It’s been almost six weeks since my last Post which also means it’s been that long since I’ve finished a quilt. It’s not that I haven’t been quilting when we weren’t traveling to the Grandparent House but was rather involved with a new quilt project which is the Big Flimsy Finish and will be seen later in the post. While working on this quilt, I somehow re-injured my left knee which I fractured three years ago and resulted being laid up for around a week and interrupted my sewjo. Once I was able to move around a bit, I needed to work on my #11 of  Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge which is a quilt inspired by GE Design’s Locus Pattern.  Over five years ago, I had cut over fifty 8” squares from my Kansas Trouble stash for a pattern I decided I didn’t want to make so I’ve been looking for another pattern to make with these squares.

Last year while looking through Gudrun Erla’s Stripology Squared Quilt Book for 10” squares, I saw her Locus pattern and thought if I changed up the size of the cuts, I would be able to use the 8” squares. To make a lapsize quilt, I needed to cut an additional 50 squares and while I was at it and had the stash, I decided to cut an additional 100 squares. I started this quilt last year and wanted to finish it sooner than later so I added this quilt to my UFO Challenge and was happy that this was pulled for November since I thought this was a perfect Fall quilt. I’ve named this quilt Hocus as in Pocus since it’s almost a Locus quilt and there was something magical about making this rail-style quilt which starts out as squares. 

This block pattern reminds me of the Ernie Express Quilt except it’s made in a way I would never have imagined and that is what is neat about Gudrun Erla’s designs. It’s a great pattern for both traditional and modern fabrics and already have one planned for the Thimbleberries stash but will use strips instead of squares and will also use the same measurements as the Hocus quilt. It’s a flexible pattern if you want larger or smaller strips.

Even though I only had a few blocks made, this was a quick make since the squares were already sewn and just need to be cut.

Quilting was a combination of straight wavey lines with a Cornsilk thread from Connecting Threads which went well with both the top and the backing. The binding was the bright blue Splatter print from one of the Kansas Trouble fabric lines. My Hocus Quilt measures 58” x 78”. I love that I finally have another quilt made with the Kansas Trouble fabrics and thinking since I have a lot of it remaining in my stash and the extra squares I already cut that I would make a king size version of this quilt.

After the Hocus Quilt was a Finally Finish this past weekend, I was able to resume working on my Tinkering Quilt which is the latest My Quilt Infatuation pattern (not an affiliate link) and my Big Flimsy Finish. This quilt measures 84” square and is made with just Cotton+Steel and Ruby Star Society fabrics. Once this is a Finally Finish which I hope it will be once we return from spending Thanksgiving at the Grandparent House I will write more about this quilt and what could have caused my knee mishap.  Any ideas?

I hope you are blessed with a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT, OhScrap, Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

The Gypsy King Quilt

The Gypsy King is my #4 of the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge for October and is a Finally Finish. Big sign of relief here because I seriously thought this would be the first time since participating in this yearly challenge that I would not finish on time.  Even before I started this quilt, I was in QAL Escape Artist mode by asking myself do I really need to make this quilt and do I still like these fabrics and I had to say Yes. This was reluctantly decided after much procrastination by viewing too many BTS and Fiona the Hippo photo/videos. I thought when I decided to participate in another year of the UFO Challenge, I would step it up by committing to finishing projects which were in the block stage rather than just needing to be quilted like I mostly did last year. This wasn’t a bad idea except the UFO was a king size quilt with more than half of the blocks still needed to be made. It’s challenge enough to make a king size quilt let alone making it a double challenge by finishing it during a certain time frame. I wanted to QAYG, even though it was only going to be my third time using this technique, because it’s the only way I could quilt a king size quilt. Normally this would be something I would send to my long arm quilter but because of the pattern and scrappiness, I thought the quilting would be somewhat lost plus I rather save my money for a quilt more deserving of fine longarm machine quilting.

I mentioned in my Flying Geese Frenzy Quilt post which was my July finish for the UFO Challenge that the fabrics used in that quilt would be seen again for this project. The blocks are a modified version of the Unruly Pattern by My Quilt Infatuation (not an affiliate link) and were made while at the Grandparent House. The fabrics used were mostly Basic Grey’s PB&J line and Felicity Miller’s Charleston line, both of which came out around 2012/2013. I’ve used these fabrics in other quilts and mainly one which I will show later in this post. I needed thirty blocks to made a 90” x 108” quilt which I thought at first would make a King, but then I was briefly disappointed when I thought I made a mistake in  the measurement  and that this would only made a Queen. It was only after I was halfway through the quilting that I realized that I was confusing the measurement with that of a Queen size batting and yes I was making a King size quilt which is really what I wanted. I needed to sew 17 more blocks and thankfully the patches were already cut and ready to be sewn into bocks.

Here are the thirty blocks arranged on my design board. Initially the plan was to QAYG each block but then I realized that I could instead QAYG vertical rows of 5 blocks each which would be a lot simpler. The blocks were laid out with the seams of the blocks in each row either pressed going up or down so once the rows were sewn together, the seams would nest.  Otherwise not too much attention was paid where each block went and if it was too close to the same fabric which usually matters to me but since there is so much scrappening going on I didn’t care.

I thought I show a before and after shot of the batting pulled from the scrap stash and it doesn’t look like it made a big dent but nevertheless I was happy I was able to culled some large enough pieces to use for this quilt. I need six pieces measuring at least 22” x 96” and had four but was able to piece the other two using a pieced batting method found on A Quilter’s Table Tutorial. It really was very simple and know I plan on piecing more batting for future projects. I originally pulled the batting thinking I was going to QAYG blocks rather than rows so this also saved batting. I think the scrap pile on the right would have been a lot bigger. Before this gets tossed out, I first will cut up the useable pieces to make squares to use for dusting which comes in very handy around the house.

I sewed and QAYG one row/panel at a time. Once the row was sewn together, then all of the loose threads were removed and then pressed before placing it on the batting. Because the rows were only around 25” wide, I pin basted using the long arm straight pins. When you do this, you definitely need to be  sure your arms and legs are covered, armor around the torso would have been nice.  Each row/panel was straight-line quilted 1” apart with #2610 Blue Gray Aurifil thread. Since these were going to be sewn together, the quilting started and ended l” away from each side since this would also be the area where additional anchoring quilting would be done once the backing is added.

Once the batting was trimmed, two rows/panels were sewn together, one pair at a time and the 1/4” seams were pressed opened.

Here is a photo of four rows/panels sewn together. I had to say despite having to sew the rows together with the batting, the seams nested together very nicely. And even when they didn’t, it isn’t very noticeable.

After machine quilting four rows/panels rather cautiously and suffering some pricks, I remembered that I had made some pin point protectors and boy did that make a difference in how fast the last two rows/panels were quilted. I was rather annoyed about forgetting that I had these, so to avoid this happening again the future, I packed the long arm straight pins with the pin protectors. I just hope I remember that I did this when I’m looking for the pins.

Once the six rows/panels were sewn together which I might say it was a little cumbersome, I discovered a new absolute “hate”; pressing a 108” x 124” wide backing. For me, this is one of  the good reasons why king size quilts should be sent to a longarmer. I have to mention that the dusty blue Moda Marble wide backing has been sitting in the backing vault for awhile and that it was the right color. You don’t want to use a light backing when you QAYG, because the seams of the top and batting will show through the backing.

Also, a little cumbersome and time consuming was placing the top/batting on top of the backing. I still pin basted 4” apart.

Once the quilt was layered, I originally only planned to anchor quilt around the seam lines of the rows, but then decided to also quilt it approximately a 1/2” away from the sixth line of quilting just for added anchoring.

I thought the final machine quilting went well until I saw this which happened at one of the corners as a result of bad basting but was an easy fix. I am hopeful the QAYG technique will be stable enough for the Gypsy King quilt which will be used for our bed and will be subject to numerous washings. If not,  then I know five or six people/dogs who might want a yoga mat.

I was going to machine bind the quilt with a yellow print in the quilt which I had yardage of but I remembered I had this Basic Grey text print on grunge which I think is from their Merkai line. I thought it would be perfect although I can’t read some of the verbiage; I just love using text prints for binding especially when you can read all of it.

I mentioned earlier in this post where the fabric for the Gypsy King quilt came from and would show the quilt where it was used mainly for; my often mentioned but seldom shown, but still gives me the willies, Gypsy Wife Quilt which I put to great use my QAL Escape Artist skill by finishing it sampler style and not with the strips. If you’ve made a Gypsy Wife Quilt and have since recovered, you know what I am talking about.  A funny tidbit here, the yellow binding I was going to use for Gypsy King, I used it for Gypsy Wife which I didn’t realize until I pulled it out from her sitting spot.

And now you know why I named this quilt Gypsy King as a reference to the Gypsy Wife quilt and as to the size of it. Truth be told, I didn’t come up with this name until I put together these four quilts for this pic to show my new bedroom ensemble which almost was eight years in the making. I now have a quilt to hang on the wall which can only be Gypsy Wife, Gypsy King for the bed, Flying Geese Frenzy for the rocker and Fat Eighth Frenzy for the bench. I would love to put this in my bedroom now but sadly the Winter quilts were just hung or laid on the bed this week. I will have to wait until either next Spring or Fall for my new ensemble can make an appearance. Meanwhile the Gypsy Wife Quilt will be hanging around my studio to remove any bad woo-woo between us so I will be comfortable sleeping with it hanging above my head.

I thought I include some more pics of Gypsy King just to show how well I think it turned out and the size of it although it looks rather small hanging from outside the screen room. Also to show how wonderful the Master Quilt Holder/Hanger is for climbing up the ladder after recovering from whatever he had, wasn’t Covid, Strep Throat or telling me too often how much he loves helping me, etc. Because he was laying low this week and didn’t go to the Grandparent House, I was able to finish Gypsy King. Finally, I now know my limitations and don’t plan on ever quilting a King quilt ever again…but I do have plans for making another one.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Innocent Crush Patchwork Throw

My Innocent Crush Patchwork Throw is my August finish for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. Like my July Finish, my August UFO was finished early and involved HSTs waiting to be assembled into a quilt. I knew once I decided on a layout for the blocks, I wanted this to be a quick and easy finish, so the plan was to make it a Patchwork Throw by only adding a plush backing and no batting.

This Patchwork Throw has been in the makings for over ten years when the Innocent Crush fabrics designed by Anna Maria Horner was released in 2010. I purchased a Fat Quarter Shop Designer Bundle of twelve fat quarters along with a yard cut of the red Mixed Signal print which came in handy once I decided on the layout. Whenever I purchase pre-cuts, I always try to remember to buy yardage of one of the prints for binding.  Since this project was started before I began blogging and using an iPhone to record my quilting activity, the best I can remember is the HSTs were probably made after the fat quarter bundle was sitting around for at least five years and I decided to use these mostly large prints for HSTs after I purchased an 8” HST die. To the best of my recollection and forgetting to look through my old quilt planners to verify the dates, these HSTs were made at least five years ago and the last time I looked at these HSTs was almost four years ago. Along with the twelve fat quarters from the bundle, I also cut a fat quarter from the red Mixed Signal print since it was not included in the bundle so fifty-six HSTs were sewn. I only needed fifty-four for the top.

When I started working with the HSTs, I couldn’t remember the name of the fabric collection and spent some time online searching the many Anna Maria Horner fabric lines to determine which one it was and of course had I looked at the yard cut of fabric I had, the name was was on the selvedge. (And then again I could have also found it had I look through my old planners.) This lovely group of fabrics has lovely shades of teal, lavender, pinks, blue and rusty reds so I decided to make flying geese blocks with the boldest colors which were mostly reds and blues for the points. These blocks measure 8”x16” (finished).

When I first started laying out the flying geese blocks point side down on my design board, my initial plan was not to match the sides but decided I liked the look of the flying geese blocks linking although some of the same prints are too close together for my liking. When the blocks were originally laid out with the points down, I thought of naming the quilt Half Hearted but decided I like the layout better with the points up. The remaining yardage of the red Mixed Signal print which I intended for the binding was used instead to add a four-inch pieced border on the sides so the top would measure 56”x72”.

Since my plan was to make a Patchwork Throw, the layout wasn’t too important and not so noticeable because once the plush backing was added,  it would look nice scrunched up on a chair or sofa. My favorite plush Chenille backing was used along with a black and gray mini check for the binding.

My first Patchwork Throw was made around five years ago when I wanted to make a quick quilt for my Godmother who had knee surgery from an accident and was going to be recovering in a convalescence home. I had HSTs already made with Amy Butler fabric, which were made the same time as the Innocent Crush HSTs, and some apple green Minky. It turned out great. The lessons I learned with this throw is to use sewing machine needles for knits, ball points, polyester thread and baste well. Also, you only need to do simple quilting since there is no batting in between and I find when I do too much quilting, it makes the throw too puffy. This is the only Patchwork Throw I’ve self bind with the Minky and I am wondering why I decided to start binding them. BTW, I made quite a few of these Amy Butler HSTs and have enough left to make another Patchwork Throw which I added to this year’s Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge so you may see it sooner or later.

Patchwork Throws really are quick and easy to make, especially if you already have a flimsy made. We’re in the midst of a heat wave as well as other parts of this U.S. so I’m thinking in around sixty days, my Innocent Crush Patchwork Throw will be very much appreciated and snug worthy. I’m hoping I will be able to see my friend by then so I can give her this very belated gift.

And speaking of gifts, this quilt formerly known as the Jolly Jinny Jungle Quilt has now been renamed as the Wetland Quilt and given to my favorite nephew, Jim, in celebration of his recent marriage and his new position as the Director of the James Kennedy Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation Center in South Carolina. I’m so glad I had just the right quilt to give him and although I miss it, I can always make another quilt with these fabrics since I still have some leftover fabrics and blocks.

Before I end this post, I thought a share a peek of the secret sewing I’m doing in preparation of an upcoming Blog Hop in September for a new quilt publication to be released on August 23rd which is absolutely wonderful. More details and peeks to follow.

I’m glad my August commitment  is finished because the rest of the month we will be busy traveling to and from the Grandparent House and looking forward to an upcoming road trip to Colorado. Hoping to stay healthy and for you too, as well as having an Awesome August.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT