Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge—First Quarter Catch-up of Finally Finished

I’ve been keeping up with my participation in CountryThreads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge with the exception of January in which I was a week late but otherwise February and March I was done before the end of the month. January’s UFO finish is one project from last year, blocks were made and the top needed to be assembled and quilted and February and March were UFOs, flimsies, from 2013, the year I retired. Here are the deets:

Modern Puzzle Pattern by Christa Watson 

I originally was planning on making Pat Sloan’s Stoplight pattern and had all of the 2.5” strips done but the squares still needed to be cut. I switched patterns when I saw Janine’s Quilts From the Little House Modern Puzzle Quilt which only uses strips and no squares.

Size: 54” x 72”, 8” blocks, fabrics used were mostly from Pat Sloan collections with some Bonnie and Camille and Crazy/Mom Good Neighbor fabrics.

Quilting was vertical wavey lines using variegated threads of primary colors.

The backing was pieced using leftover blocks, several decade old dark blue print with a Connecting Threads stripe print. It still wasn’t long enough so I had to several inches of a denim print leftover from the backing from the I Love London quilt. My yardage of Pat Sloan fabrics is dwindling and had to scrounge to find the red tone on tone print which there was enough for the binding.

Fig Tree Square

I retired in 2013 and one of my goals was to use some of the bundles purchased from the Fat Quarter Shop. I remember my subscription to the Moda Fabric of the Month Club which I received twelve fat quarters from different Moda designers. I designed this quilt top based on the fat quarters of the Butterscotch and Roses fabric line designed by Fig Tree; I used the floral fat quarters for the plain blocks in a controlled layout and the smaller prints for the rail blocks along with yardage of the rick rack and gingham from other Fig Tree fabric lines. Again the layout for the rail blocks was controlled.

This quilt measures approximately 52” square and quilted in diagonal wavey lines and straight grid lines using a Connecting Threads’ apricot/peach thread.

The backing was purchased online after the bundle was received and have been patiently waiting in the backing vault. And once again the gingham print which was used for some of the rail blocks was used for the binding which was safely tucked away in the binding drawer for almost eight years.

Dominique Square

This was another flimsie made in 2013 and I’m pretty sure if involved buying a Dominique Charm Pack along with yardage. This fabric line was designed by Sentimental Studios and has the most gorgeous Rose print. There aren’t too many Rose prints that I don’t like and justify buying rose prints because it has my name on it. I just love quilts mixed with pretty florals, toile, plaids, stripes and ticking. The pattern was again based on what I had and I’m pretty sure the plaids, stripes and ticking was from other Moda collections like Three Sisters.

This quilt measures 56” squares and was quilted with straight horizontal lines spaced 3/4” apart.  I’ve always admired this type of quilting done by Mary Etherington, Country Threads, and was determined to do this with the Dominique quilt  and resisted doing cross-hatching.  I love how modern quilting looks on traditional quilts.

A golden khaki tan thread from Star Machine Quilt Thread was used and blended nicely with all of the prints.

The tan backing was found in the backing vault and fortunately had enough even though it involved some piecing. The binding was the floral print used in the top and bottom borders and I was tempted to use the red ticking on the side borders but it’s the floral print which was saved in the binding drawer.

The next three UFOs remaining in the Challenge involves the last remaining square quilt top made in 2013 and used Lori Holt’s first fabric line. And of course, one of the other two was one I really was anxious to finally finish since I want to hang it up at the GP house. Joining this UFO Challenge was a great way for me to finally finish some very old projects and I’m looking forward to doing a recap post in July.

For someone who doesn’t like making square quilts, I made one as a bystander in the SAHRR (Stay at Home Round Robin) QAL since I liked the idea of making a quilt from an orphan block leftover in a Pat Sloan BOM and some Granny Blocks made last year with my Bee Sistas.  I didn’t do all of the rounds and wanted to keep it a small 40” square. The top is ready to be quilted and bound and had to scrounge once again for binding in my Pat Sloan stash.  

I’m trying to be good by not starting any new projects when I’m home which sometimes is only three to four days a week, and want to quilt some flimsies from last year but I keep finding wonderful fabrics and know the squirrels are calling. Plus, my left arm is pretty sore from receiving my second vaccination on Monday so not sure if I could handle doing machine quilting right now. I am working on projects involving small quilts and slow stitching when I’m at the GP House and I will share by the end of the month.

Hope all is well and if you’re experiencing snow still like we are, I am so looking forward to Spring.

SPA Spurts:The Finally Finished Dot and Dash Quilt

This quilt just happened to get finally finished.  I started it in March while misbehaving when I was supposed to be working from my project lists and QALs so I guess you can say this would be considered a DREAMi project. But truly it's a beyond DREAMi project since I was originally distracted to make another Staggered Strips and Squares Quilt with shades of teals, pinks, grays, colors that was inspired by Patchwork N Play's Delilah Quilt and low-volume fabrics.  The strips were die-cut and ready to be sewn together but before I started, I happened to be putting away some fabrics and came upon the Spa Green Quilters Linen fabric which I had forgotten I bought a mere six months ago.

I knew I had to dump one DREAMi project to work on this new DREAMi project because I had the perfect pattern which has been in my head to use the Spa Green fabric with the 2.5" strips already cut--Dot and Dash from Christa Watson's latest book Piece and Quilt with Precuts book which I used to participate in her Squiggle QAL.  There are quite a few "I wanna make" patterns in her book and the Dot and Dash quilt was the one I really wanted to make since it uses 2.5" which is my favorite precut size and I can die cut strips myself.  All I needed to do was to die-cut the Spa Green fabric into 2.5" strips.

This quilt was seemingly done during spurts of time found in between other projects I had going on and the blocks were all sewn by the time we left for our getaway last week.  Even though I needed to catch up with the 30 Quilts Blocks in 30 Days QAL when I came home, I wanted a change of quilt pace which didn't involve Kaffe Fassett fabrics or a QAL (since the start of 2018, I've made four quilts with Fassett fabrics and have participated or am participating in four QALs.)  What started as a quilt being made during spurts of time found became a mad dash to the finally finished line.  The top was finished this past Sunday, the basting and quilting started on Monday and the quilting and binding was completed late Tuesday (after I had lunch and a nice shopping spree with my partner in quilt crime, Carol, at my favorite quilt shop where I bought the binding for this quilt and 28 fat quarters and yardage also wanted to come home with me too.)  This rarely happens, no, not my fabric binge buying which happens more often that I like to admit, but a quilt top made and then quilted and bound within the same week.  Usually once a top is made, it's on quilting standby for more than a week but maybe less than ten years, standard quilt making procedures for me.   So yay for me for doing the totally unexpected this week.

I decided to add a little pizzaz (for me) to the machine quilting by adding a meandering, wavy line in between the straight lines. Since the fabrics are somewhat on the calm and quiet side, like a Spa, I wanted the quilting to show up so I used Connecting Threads Essential Thread in Parchment.  Since the Quilters Linen was a more tightly woven fabric, I used a Microtex Sharp Needle and the quilting went smooth and fast. I do a lot of straight line quilting,  so I did quilt it using the same method Christa does in her book by starting the quilting on one side (instead of the center of the quilt) and quilting it to the other side. I can say I've done it this way on my last four quilts and the distortion at the ends of the rows is minimal unlike when I start the quilting in the center.

Here are some closeups showing the mash of fun prints which included Meows, Mushrooms and a Mermaid print.  I wish I included more peachy/pink prints (this quilt may look a little too calm) but when I do make the other quilt which I was intending to make before Spa Spurts, I will definitely be using more peachy/pinky, which is a nice accent color for the teals and grays.

I've been saving my precious yardage of SUCH Design's 108" wide backing of Newsprint in Spackle for just the right quilt which I already used some strips for the front so I was happy to finally use it and the binding is a wonderful dark blue/green print from the Cotton + Steel Basics Collection.

I was hoping to take a nice photo outside but the wind once again reminded us that it wanted to be included.  I thought for sure we left it back in Myrtle Beach. It sure was nice, though, to see the sun making an appearance during these past few days and I wouldn't mind if it still stuck around, just lose that wind.

Now that I've enjoyed this brief change of quilt pace, I'm ready to work on finishing up the 30 Quilt Blocks QAL and putting the quilt together so I can be ready for MMM Quilts Adult Plus Playtime  QAL which started this week. And I was planning on giving the Fassett Fabric Stash a rest but my son has requested a quilt made with Shot Cottons since he loves my Postcard from Sweden Quilt and I can't say No to him (most of the time) or another Kaffe Fassett project.

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

Miss Behaving or Misbehaving in March

It was a pretty good week of sewing for me: something I needed to do, I done did; I'm current with two QAL projects, I got to DREAMi! and still found some time and a way to start on two more projects.

The table topper for Micah's First Birthday party is on the way to be ready for the big celebration at the end of month.  The theme of her party will be Bees and I found the sweetest fabric by Timeless Treasures "You are My Sunshine."  The topper measures 27" x 39" and I just used a simple nine-patch pattern to showcase the fabrics and also because I didn't want to put in too time on something which may be on the receiving end of some party spills and crumbs.

My March blocks for the Classic Meet Modern Block of the Month Quilt Along hosted by My Quilt Infatuation are finished.  This month's blocks were the 10" Propeller block (left) and two 6" Sawtooth blocks and sewed together very easy.

All of the half-square triangles have been cut, sewn and arranged for the Postcards from Sweden from MMM quilts.  Since I used my stash of Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons with some Peppered Cottons, my quilt doesn't look at bright as some of the other Postcard quilts so I may be calling mine Postcards from Kaffe.  We have two weeks to sew the rows together and I'm hoping Sandra will change it to three weeks since we'll be spending some time with the darling granddaughter at the end of the month.

This is my DREAMi! project which is  another quilt from Christa Watson's Piece and Quilt from Precut book, Dot 'N Dash which I happen upon quite innocently (wink).  I was putting away some fabric and came upon the wonderful Robert Kaufmann's Quilters Linen in a color I call Steel Teal which I forgot I had bought less than six months ago.  I knew it would work well with some 2-1/2" strips I already had cut in shades of grays, teals, pinks, etc. to make the Dot 'N Dash quilt.  Since Sandra is the host for both the Postcards from Sweden QAL and the monthly DREAMi linky party, it's going to be pretty okay if I take a little time away from the Postcard Quilt to spend a little time working on the Dot 'N Dash quilt, right Sandra?

In my never-ending quest to carve out more sewing time during the day, I thought a new portable sewing machine, a Juki HZL 70HW-A to use either in the dining room or kitchen would help.  I already own a Janome Gold which is a sweet little machine but the only drawback is that it does not have a needle up and down feature which I kick myself for not wanting to spend the extra $100 for it.  I sew in my studio which is in the basement or lower level of my house and too often I am drawn to the laptop which is sitting on the kitchen desk and I find myself spending way too much time on Social Media, Blogs, computer games, etc. which could be better spent on sewing.  I thought maybe having a sewing machine upstairs would distract me from the computer.  Also, since there are the TV shows I want to watch in the evenings, I also can also sew then as long as I have Closed Caption on. Really, it's not because the sewing machine is noisy, it's just that Hubby likes to play his guitar while watching TV.

I'm thinking my idea is working out quite well.  Since the arrival of the new Juki, I sewed sixty-four 8"x 12" strip blocks made from 2-1/2" strips of Kaffe Fassett stripes and shot cottons which have been waiting to be made for awhile so I'm considering it to be an unidentified UFO project.  And yes, I'm still spending more time with Kaffe and am pretty sure this is going to be my last project for the year using his fabrics, maybe.

And I sewed a mega strip for a future Staggered Strips and Squares quilt using low volume fabrics with some black and white Cotton + Steel fabrics. Once the strip sets and blocks are cut, I can finish sewing the top upstairs.  

I think my Juki Jr. and kitchen table sewing is just what I needed to get more of my projects done.  And as for my Janome Gold, I'll be saving it for Micah, she doesn't need to know about the wonders of needle up and down until later. Hopefully, whatever March Mode I'm on, either Miss Behaving by staying on task or Misbehaving where the fun is, it continues.  I'm happy with doing both.

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  MMM Quilts, 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

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The Last Quilt of 2017: Splash of Color Quilt is Finally Finished

Doesn't this quilt make you think of warm, sunny weather and forget that it's windy and sub-zero temperatures outside.  No, it doesn't, hubby will vouch for that.  I know it's the season for taking indoor photos now but I just had to take some outside photos.  It would have been nice, though, if outside was warm and perfect like Australia or New Zealand, maybe.

All it took to make this quilt to turn out this way it did was the Splash of Color QAL and a flash of faux pas.  There is no pattern for this quilt but maybe a pattern for getting into another situation called "Whoops".  I think I may be a member of the Chaos School of Quilting  after finally finishing this quilt.  At least it's ready to be part of the parade of quilts in January.  My mind is somewhat clear now to relay how my colorful quilt came to be made.

Myra from Busy Hands Quilts hosted a QAL back in October for quilts to be made with black and white fabrics with a splash of color.  Those who joined in this fun QAL had the choice of deciding which pattern they wanted to use and the only requirement to be eligible to win prizes was that the finished quilt top needed to be at least 40" square.

When I joined the QAL, I commented I was looking forward to doing a relaxing project which as I found out several times this year that sometimes quilts don't turn out the way I say it will.  This quilt was more of a challenge; I think I may have somewhat mentioned this already. I was all for making a quilt since I have a huge stash of black and white fabrics and thought I would use my Crayola solid fabrics for the splash of color.  One of the quilt patterns I considered was doing a hexagon pattern but instead decided to make a tessellating pinwheel pattern using my Sizzix die which I have never used.  Before I started die-cutting, I changed my fabric choice for the color prints and switched to Crazy Mom's Good Neighbor fabrics since I thought it would make the quilt brighter with the black and white prints.

I spent an evening watching TV and die-cutting the pieces-enough to make over 200 4.5" blocks. Then, I realized, after going to bed, I made a huge faux pas which I could have avoided had I remember prior to starting the die cutting.  Unlike the half-square triangle which is an equally divided square cut at a 45 degree angle (I'm taking my hubby's word on this since I've never taken a Geometry class), any other half triangle, like the half rectangle, has a definite right and left side, meaning the point at the bottom faces either right or left.  There may be a mathematical  term for this but I don't know what it is.  If you want all of your half rectangles to point the same direction and you use a die cutter like I do, the fabric must all face up or face down depending upon what side you want to point to, you cannot fan fold the fabric over the die because you will get both right and left side blocks.

Righty Quilt on the left and Lefty Quilt on the right

I learned this several years ago when I die cut half rectangles for what I thought was going to be one Cotton + Steel quilt which I ended making two quilts; one quilt with with right pointing half rectangles and the other quilt with the left pointing half rectangles. (When I look back at this, I could have made a diamond quilt but it's not what I wanted to make with my half rectangles). I should have remember this when I was die cutting the tessellating pinwheels but didn't realize what I did until after all the blocks were die cut.  A big whoops and faux pas has now happened.

Again, I was stuck with two different blocks, one tessellating right and one tessellating left, which meant making two quilts again and they would each be 40" square.  I really didn't like the pinwheels and decided, even though it involved taking apart the blocks I already sewn together and repressing the seams several times and playing with layouts, I decided to make elongated hexagon blocks with the patches.

Once again, this would involve making two separate quilts because there are two different types of blocks, one with the black patch on the top left and the other with the black patch on the top right.  Sewing them in one quilt didn't look right to me because I made another faux pas by using the same low volume print for the color patches.  As you can see the light patches do not alternate when the two types of blocks are next to each other.  I really wished that I would have used different prints for the color patches but didn't have enough white low volume prints in my stash.  Looking back at this now, I could have opted for making separate black and white blocks and color prints blocks but my thinking then would have meant die cutting more color print blocks but chose not to because I was at the point of just wanting to get this quilt done.

I came up with a layout which could use the two different type blocks together in horizontal row by sewing two rows of the same type blocks together and then separating the double rows with a 2-1/2" sashing made with two different black prints so the same low volume print next to each other wouldn't be so noticeable.  This quilt top measured 56" x 70" and I thought my top was done until I happened to noticed after sewing the rows together that I really liked the way the quilt top look when the blocks were vertical.

So, I decided that I could have it both ways if I removed the bottom two rows with sashing from the top which would make the new measurements to be 56" x 54", close enough to be a square.  I like the idea of seeing lava lights or lozenges when I look at this quilt.

The next decision to be made was how to back and quilt it and it took me several days to come up with a plan.  I finally decided to back it with an Ikea print which has the right colors but I was hesitant to use because it was decorator weight. After I prewashed it and some of the sizing/stiffness was removed, I was happy with the way it felt. It really was perfect for the quilt which is going to be another playmat for the very quilt-spoiled granddaughter.  It's going to reside in the Grandparent's pad at her house and it's going to look quite nice on the black and white tile floor.

I was really indecisive about whether I wanted to quilt it with straight lines or curvy lines and I'm glad I chose to once again do curvy lines with pale yellow thread.  It sort of helped that my Primitiva quilt with the curvy lines was laying on my dining room table during the Fall holidays and each time I pass it I would admire the quilting which sealed my decision. (you can see the Primitiva Quilt here.  I normally quilt with an 80/12 Quilting Needle but used a Microtex Sharp needle for this quilt because of the decorator weight backing and the quilting turned out so nice.  The black binding was sewn down by machine with black thread which was another challenge when you decide to do this at one o'clock in the morning but it turned out really nice.  I've been reading my Christa Watson's books, Machine Quilting with Style and Piece and Quilt with Precuts and she uses Sharp needles for machine quilting which I may now have to stock up on these needles. The Sharp needles gave the binding a nice topstitch look.  BTW, Christa is starting Squiggles QAL, (you can read about it here) and I'll be participating. I really love her style of machine quilting and she has inspired me to try out some of her techniques in 2018.

This is my final quilt finish for 2017 and you can say I ended it with a splash. To avoid making the same mistakes with my half-rectangle dies again, I plan on marking them, but not with just a color dot because knowing me I'll forget what the dot is for.  And yay for me for using up some of the black and white stash but sad that my stash of Good Neighbor fabrics is getting low and there's no more to be bought.

And before I close out this post, I like to give a big shout-out and Thank You to my hubby, the man behind my quilts who is always willing to be the Master Quilt Holder, no matter how cold it is outside and Baby, it was cold outside. Mwah!

Hope everyone is staying warm if cold weather is visiting you and enjoying the holiday week.  It's been a busy week of posting for me ( you can read my Best of 2017 post (here) and my Quilty Confessions (here) and I have just one left to write; my year-end and New Year post which has been brewing in my head now for the past few weeks.  It'll be nice to finally download it from my brain; it's getting crowded up there.

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