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.

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop: Jungle Crosswalk

Today is my turn to be hoppy for the 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop by showing you the baby quilt I made with the Crosswalk Block.

When Carla first put out the call early this year for bloggers to participate in the Blog Hop, I knew I wanted to because I just love making quilts with simple blocks.  And the #22 Crosswalk block couldn't be any simpler and what a wonderful block it is to showcase fabrics.

Here is the link to the original TUTORIAL for this block.  Disclaimer:  since I was making multiple blocks in a different variation, I constructed my blocks differently.

I think I have a new favorite pattern for baby quilts thanks to the Crosswalk Block.  As you will see later in this post, my quilt uses two variations of the Crosswalk Block which I did in order to create the colorful checkerboard sashing.

To make my 40" square quilt, I used the following fabrics:

1/3 yd each of two prints for the rectangles each block

1/3 yd each of four different colors for the side squares (sashing)*

1/3 yard for binding

1-1/4 yard for backing (provided the wof is at least 45" wide)

*the original pattern called for two colors to be used for the squares but I wanted to make this quilt as colorful as possible so I chose to use four different colors.

Before making the blocks, the side squares (sashing) need to be made first. From the 1/3 yard of each of the four different colors, cut three 3" x wof strips.  When sewing strip sets, I like to cut my wof strips in half which will give me at least 22" to prevent the strips from warping.  Once you decide on the color order of the strips, make six panels, all in the same order,  which should measures 10-1/2" high by the width of the strips.  Press all of the seams open.  Depending upon how wide your strips are, you may be able to cut seven strip sets from each panel which means you will have an extra panel to save for another project.  You will need 32 strip sets for the quilt.

From each of the two prints, cut eight 5-1/2" x 10-1/2" rectangles.  Decide which print will be used for either the Type 1 and Type 2 blocks; the same print should be used for the same type block.

You are now ready to sew eight Type 1 Blocks and eight Type 2 Blocks.  You will see that the difference between the two blocks besides the different rectangles is the placement of the strip sets.  If you look at the Type 1 block, the strip set with the blue square on the top is on the left side (see red arrow) and and on the bottom on the right side. For the Type 2 block, the strip set with the blue square is on the bottom on the left side and the blue square on top is on the right side (see red arrow).  For both of these blocks, the seams when sewing the rectangles to the sashing squares should be pressed open.

Each row of the quilt consists of two Type 1 and two Type 2 blocks and when the blocks are set in an alternating block layout, you will see that a checkerboard sashing is created.  If you were to sew all of the blocks the same way, the colors squares will not alternate like a checkerboard and you will have two squares of the same color next to each other.

Here's a photo of the quilt and you can see how the checkerboard sashing is creating by alternating the layout of the Type 1 and Type 2 blocks.

For the backing of the quilt, I chose one of the prints from the top as well as for the binding, it's one of the colors used in the sashing squares.  I machine quilted with simple diagonal lines across the blocks and also quilted in the ditch around each block--nice and simple.

Did I mention how much I love this pattern and the resulting quilt.  I thought taking photos of the quilt warranted a visit to the nearby play park and Hubby, my Master Quilt Holder, was able to climb up the jungle gym and stoop down for me to take this photo.  I told him it was good training for him when our granddaughter comes to visit.

I enjoyed participating in the Blog Hop and making this quilt which turns out will soon be going to a new home.  We just found out that our niece is expecting a baby boy in August so the timing was just perfect.  

I hope you find this quilt fast, easy and fun to make and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Here's a LINK to Carla's blog where you will find the schedule of the bloggers who are participating in the 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop and to check out their projects.  This blog hop runs until April 30th so there are eight bloggers after me who will be posting their projects.

Thank you Carla for hosting this wonderful blog hop; I am so happy I was chosen to be one of the participants. I've been sewing along and these blocks sure are fun to make and I will be able to share  my quilt made with the 30 blocks soon after the Blog Hop is over.

Hoppy Reading and Sewing!

Kaffe Fassett Stripe Quilt: Another Ernie Quilt Finally Finished

It's been awhile since I've made an Ernie Quilt and it's one of my favorite patterns because I just love making quilts with 2.5" strips.  I've had the Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton and Woven Stripes strips die-cut and ready to sew since last year and finally had the opportunity to make this quilt since buying my new, sweet, very portable Juki HZL-70 HWA sewing machine which meant I am now able to sew in the kitchen while watching TV, a cause for much of my quilting downtime.

I posted several times about Ernie quilts HERE, THERE and IN BETWEEN.

While my Postcard from Sweden Quilt was being made, (you can read about it here), I started working on the Kaffe Stripe Quilt because I was loving the Shot Cottons and knew I had this project on the back burner--talk about constant Kaffe.  I consider this to be a DREAMi project and finally have something to cross out from one of my project lists I made too many of for this year.

I have to show you my "No Rose, You Didn't" backing for this quilt.  I do not like making pieced backings. To me it's just like making another quilt top and when I'm in a hurry to finish a quilt, I don't want to sew another quilt top.  I have a pile of quilt tops laying around in my studio and I knew laying in the pile was an 84" square top made from big patches of Kaffe fabric which may have been a modified Turning Twenty pattern, a pattern when it was first released, I couldn't stop making them.  It took me a couple of hours to remove some of the rows of this quilt top so I could use it for the backing since I really didn't have anything else in my stash vault that would be as neat as this quilt top was and besides I've come down with a slight case of not wanting to buy any new fabric (I hope this "virus" goes away real soon). Who knew five years ago I was making a future quilt backing when I made this top.  I just love the big purple cabbages. I'm thinking I may have made several quilt backings already and may be making more now without knowing it.

I don't usually talk about the color thread I use for machine quilting because I not very good at choosing a color and I mostly quilt with a light gray.  I knew gray wasn't going to work well with this quilt and luckily I had in my Connecting Threads Essential Thread stash (no affiliate link here) a spool of the Fawn thread which is an apricot beige thread which worked very well with blending in with the many colors in this quilt.  I am loving the quilting which sewed like butter on my Juki 2010Q and I could have finished the quilting in one sitting if I didn't have to go to bed at 3am in the morning--I didn't want to stop.  The quilt is bound with a solid Chartreuse Shot Cotton which was the only solid color that I had enough for the binding and fortunately worked very well.

I was really hoping to take a perfect photo of my Kaffe Fassett Stripe Quilt while in Myrtle Beach; one with it laying on the sand, sunset on the sea with a whale breaching in the background, perfectly centered on the horizon (just for Sandra) but it was not to be had--the wind was something fierce--20 to 30 mph.  It wasn't fun for the Master Quilt Holder on the balcony nor could the quilt stay on the railing at the beach. The best photos were taken either in the elevator lobby or inside the condo where we were staying.  Plus, there was no way I was going to lay it on the sand since I had visions of it parasailing over the Atlantic Ocean and onto the whale's back (again this vision prompted by Sandra's request and maybe to make it a tale, Louise (Quilt Odyssey) will rescue it during her sea travels).

I had planned to sew the binding while traveling to Myrtle Beach, but I ended up finally finishing the quilt right before we left (I'm beginning to like the look of machine sewn binding).  I definitely wanted to take photos of this quilt and my Postcard from Sweden Quilt here in warm, sunny weather since we're experiencing far too little of it in the Midwest as you can see from this photo taken on a snowy Sunday, the day before we left.  I really put the Master Quilt Holder to the test when I kept repeating to make sure the quilt does not touch the ground and get wet.  He did a practice stoop down before we went outside.  I think the quilt photographed better in Myrtle Beach, despite the wind, don't you agree?

I do hope you check out the links for the Ernie Quilts, especially the first one since it's about my dear friend Mary Etherington who started me on my Ernie adventures.  Like the old commercial saying goes "Try It, You'll Like It!".

Hubby and I will be traveling back home this Friday and look what awaits me when I return, my Dot Dot Dash blocks from Christa Watson's Piece and Quilt with Precuts book which were made during upstairs sewing time with my sweet little Juki. Also, Sandra of mmm! Quilts will be starting her Second Annual Quilt Along: Adult Plus Playtime Quilt, (you can read about it here) on April 24th. I had a fun time doing her Free Fall QAL last year and this year's pattern is not going to disappoint since I'll be using some of my Alison Glass Chroma fabrics. I'm looking forward to getting back into the groove since there's not much sewing happening in Myrtle Beach because I wanted to give my hands some rest.

And one more thing, this Sunday, April 22nd, I'll be posting my project for the 30 Quilt Block in 30 Days Blog Hop so I hope you'll check it out. (you can see it here)

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

30 Blocks in 30 Days: Blocks #1 - #6

The 30 Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop hosted by Carla Henton of Creatin' in the Sticks started this past Sunday, April 1st.   (Here is the link to this blog hop: https://createinthesticks.blogspot.com.)  My first six blocks are done and really came together real quick after I finally came up with a plan on how I was going to make these blocks.  Carla's original 30 Block quilt had a lot of negative space because the same solid white was used for all of the blocks which is wonderful for exquisite machine quilting skills which I do not have.  I decided to make each block stand out on their own by not using the same background fabric for each block and also also there will be a little less "lights" used.  My fat eighth bundle of Zen Chic's Hey Dot which I've been saving for the right project would be perfect for the 30 blocks.

 

I knew this would be the right fabrics for these 10" blocks which are wonderful to showcase the fabrics.  And I might add that these blocks are fun to make and each one can be sewn together in less than 30 minutes. The only part that may be a little time consuming is deciding which fabric to use.  I have to confess that I made all of these blocks at once so if you want to join the 30 Blocks in 30 Days blog hop it would be real easy to catch up.

There are thirty bloggers who will be showcasing their block and project every day in April.  I will be featuring my version of the "Crosswalk" block on Sunday, April 22nd by making a project with this block.  I hope you check out my blog then but also check out the other bloggers' creation by clicking on the link above where you will find the schedule and the links to the other bloggers.

Meanwhile, I'll be sewing up more of these blocks at once plus working on my project because my darling hubby scheduled a getaway the week before my scheduled post.  Yikes!  I keep telling myself won't my quilt look pretty when I photograph it in Myrtle Beach.

Linking up with:  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop

30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop

Tomorrow, Sunday, April 1st is the start of the 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop hosted by Carla Henton of Creatin' in the Sticks.  If you're like me, who likes to make simple quilts with squares and rectangles to showcase the fabrics, you may want to check out this Blog Hop by clicking on the link above.  This will take you to Carla's Blog where you can click on the 30 Quilt Blocks Tab at the top to get more information and see the schedule of Project Designers.  Each block finishes 10" square and can either be used in a variety of ways and is a great project for the scrap stash.  I know I plan on making some of these blocks individually for baby quilts which I will be doing as the Project Designer on April 22nd for the Cross Walk block.  I hope you'll join us!

I "BEE" Ready

Last week I posted the table topper I made for my granddaughter Micah's First Birthday celebration and coupled with a few more things which I'll show later, I thought I was ready.  That is, until I happened to see the coasters I made using my Checkerboard Express pattern (you can read about the Checkerboard Express block and projects here) and thought that I could make some using some of the leftover fabrics and then a big "duh" hit me: I should have made the table topper like the one I made using Christmas fabrics.  So, I had to make another topper which is 24" with 8" blocks.  

Really, you would think that I would have remember this pattern when I was planning to make the table topper; it's only been at the most four months. What's also maddening is that prior to planning the topper, I was busy die-cutting hexagons for Micah's mom to make a photo backdrop and even though hexagons and octagons are two different shapes, you would think I would have had the idea that an octagon table topper would be more fitting for the party theme.  

Here's a photo of the first table topper after I finally finished it; nice and rectangular. I like to think that divine inspiration happens but sometimes not right away. I'm pretty sure both of the toppers will be used somehow for the celebration and it can still be used afterwards.  Maybe one of them could be a wall hanging.

And speaking of divine inspiration, I happen upon this blog post, when I should have been working on some projects, and came upon this wonderful tutorial for making fabric letters, (you can read about it here) and talk about seeing it at the right moment for once.

Seriously, each of these letters can be made in  ten to fifteen minutes.  It was great that I already had a 12" paper mache' letter "M", leftover fabrics from the topper and best of all I used some of my endless mound of scrap batting.  I used both my rotary cutter with a pinking blade and pinking shears for the tighter spots. These letters turned out so cute and, of course, it wasn't until after I made my first letter, I realized I could used two different fabrics instead of the same for the front and back so they can be reversible.  I don't know how Micah's mom, who doesn't know yet that I made these, will be using them but maybe hanging them on twine with mini clothes pins would look really cute.

And last but not least, a little DIY project with $1 Soccer Baskets purchased at the Dollar Store and adding some bee stickers to make some table decor. I'm saving the other basket to do when I'm at Micah's house; maybe she'll want to help me put stickers where they don't belong.

I never realized that bees were popular so I'm glad I put my BEE game on despite having been stung by one of the big furry ones many moons ago and it was one of the worst pains I ever experienced.  BTW, I found something just as wonderful as buying fabrics, buying baby girl clothes.  I'm looking forward to bringing my baby clothes haul for my week visit with Micah and her family celebrating her first birthday and Easter. I'm not sure if I'll have much time to do any sewing, although I plan on bringing some projects. Once I'm back home, I'll have some major catching up to do as well as participating in Creatin' in the Sticks" 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop starting on April 1st (you can read about it here) which is right up my alley since all of these blocks are made with super simple squares and rectangles.  I will be posting on April 22nd with my version of the Cross Walk block.

Wishing everyone a Happy Spring, warm and sunny weather and a blessed Easter.  And don't let any Bees sting you!

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday, Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday