The Tell Tale Blues Quilt

I thought that my Tell Tale Blues quilt, which was one of the eight flimsies made since July, would be the one I would finally finish. This quilt was made with a Jelly Roll, last Saturday was Sew A Jelly Roll Day and I seem to be sew-lebrating with making quilts with 2.5” strips this month since The Kitty Corn Mix quilt was a finally finish earlier this month and another flimsy made which you will see later in this post. I mentioned this quilt in a July post when it was a flimsy and called it a dream/scream project: I’m thinking a better name for a project of this type would be a daydream since I worked on it for one day and then set it aside.

Like some of my quilts, I wasn’t planning to make my Tell Tale Blues quilt. Every day, I receive a memory photo feed from either Apple or Amazon, and I just so happened to receive the above photo of The Opposites 2.5” strip roll taken in October, 2020 which was when I purchased it. Of course, it prompted me to make another Staggered Strips and Bricks quilt like my Celestial Moonrise Quilt.

After pulling additional fabrics from The Opposite collection from my stash of Marcia Derse fabrics since the roll was not going to be enough, I decided to use the yardage of The Blue One which was a nice accent against the black, gray, white and natural tones of The Opposite fabrics.

Here’s a photo of my yardage of The Blue One before it was cut up into 4.5”x16.5” bricks, both horizontally and vertically.

Lessons learnt from the making of The Celestial Moonrise quilt on the right was applied to The Tell Tale Blues quilt. I wish I had more of the blue fabric since I think it almost gets lost against the black, grays, white and natural and not liking it too much after the flimsy was finished. It sort of looks “spooky” doesn’t it, which how I came up with the name because thumping sounds and Edgar Allen Poe came into mind as I was sewing this late into the night.

I had the perfect backing for The Tell Tale Blues quilt which was my last piece of IKEA’s 2010 Beckmans of Design print which fits the spooky feel. Even though the backing was 60” wide, I still had to sew additional strips on the side to accommodate the width of this quilt.

I was happy with my choice of using #4060 Aurifil thread for the top since it blended nicely with all of the colors and silver was used for the bottom.

Here’s some close-ups of the fabrics and the machine quilting of straight and wavey lines. For the binding, I used leftovers from The Blue One along with additional blue prints from the Marcia Derse stash. The Tell Tale Blues quilt measures 60”x80”(approx.). 

It was just a little bit windy this morning when an outside photo was taken and the Master Quilt Holder had no problems holding it up. It looks so pretty in the morning light.

Before The Tell Tale Blues quilt was a finally finished, I worked on another daydream project for several days with my 2.5” strips leftover from previous Staggered Strips and Squares quilts. Once this is quilted, I’ll have more details but wanted to show you a pic of the Master Quilt Holder and the Apprentice Quilt Holder who both were needed to hold up this 80”x92” flimsy. The Apprentice Quilt Holder is leaving the Nest which means he may not be around much to help hold up the quilts. I don’t think this was an incentive for him to finally move but it sure is nice for me to have his old bedroom for another creative space. BTW, this quilt will be for the bed which will still remain.

We’ll be heading to the GP house tomorrow where the darling Granddaughter will be babysitting us for a week. Trips to the Zoo and Pumpkin Patch are planned and maybe a little chance of some sewing and knitting.  Upon our return, some home reorganization and makeover will definitely keep Hubby and I busy.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Celestial Moonrise

After finishing my UFO project commitments, studio reorganization, taxes, QALing, a somewhat secret sewing project, etc., I was finally ready in April for easy sewing involving some new fabrics.

Ever since I received my Fat Quarter Sew Sampler box in February which included a junior Jelly Roll of Zen Chic Celestial, I’ve been wanting to make a version of my Staggered Strips and Squares Quilt. It also helped that I already had in my stash another junior Jelly Roll and Fat Quarters of Zen Chic’s Modern Background Even More Background. I still needed to buy additional yardage of the Celestial fabric since I wanted to include more pink and feature the main focus print of the circles and text which ties in most of the colors.

After die-cutting the additional 2.5” strips, I then subcut the approximate 110+ strips into various segments of 5” to wofq depending on the colors. My initial plan was to do a horizontal layout of the strip sets with an 8”(f) square of the focus print but changed it to a vertical layout with an 8”x12”(f) rectangle of the focus print since I love this print so much.

My favorite part of this pattern is first sewing the strips together, then sewing the very long strip together to make two rows and then sewing the two rows together to make a four-row strip set. After this was done, I then subcut twelve 8-1/2”x16-1/2” and three 8-1/2” x 84-1/2” strip sets/panels. This was going to be a quick quilt I thought with a row of the rectangle focus print with an 8-1/2”x16-1/2” strip set alternated with an 8-1/2”x 84-1/2 strip set.

After the flimsy on the left was sewn, the layout looked off balanced with the row of rectangles on the top. I realized I should have started and ended this row with an 8-1/2” square of the strip so I trimmed 8-1/2”off the bottom and then sewed it to the top. But I still was not happy with the way the rectangles looked with the strip sets.

I decided that I wanted the rectangles to “float” more so I added a two row strip set to each side of the flimsy which was an easy fix since I had almost enough left over from the original strip set sewn, I just had to seam rip it apart and then sew some more patches. 

Once I was finally happy with the flimsy, I can say finishing Celestial Moonrise was easy. I had to piece a backing which is something which I do not like to sew but I only had a four-yard piece of the gray Good Neighbor strip. Normally when I use a stripe print for a backing, I like it to run vertically but since I wanted to use this, I was okay with the stripe running horizontally and in order to have enough length, I inserted an 8” strip of the gray Impressions Newsprint which is another print from Connecting Threads (not an affiliate link). Machine quilting went well, and it helped that I was able to use my laser light to keep the lines straight whenever I had to quilt over the rectangles. BTW, when I cut the rectangles, I made sure to cut it so that the circles would be centered on the strip set.

The machine quilting was a combination of straight and curvy lines which is my favorite whenever I make  this pattern. I used the focus print for the binding also which I love how it add an interesting touch to Celestial Moonrise. It almost looks scrappy which I am one who does not like to do scrappy bindings but I might consider it now for the right quilt. This quilt measures 64” x 84”.

I wanted to take a photo of Celestial Moonrise outside and this was the best I could do since today we’re having high winds up to 60+ miles. I really need to stop making such long quilts since the Master Quilt Holder has trouble demonstrating his ability when they’re this long especially since he is experiencing some knee problems now (nothing I did but maybe the darling Granddaughter was involved). As for the Apprentice Quilt Holder, his right arm is in a cast and neither I nor the Granddaughter was involved in this.

Once last photo of Celestial Moonrise and I think the colors of the fabrics look better here. It’s nice to finally make a quilt you’ve been just “itching” to make but you surprisingly stayed on task plus getting to use some new fabric. Now it’s back to the Quilt Mines since I have to start working on my April quilt for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge.

Wishing you a Happy and Blessed Easter.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT