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

The Flying Geese Frenzy Quilt

This is my July and first Finally Finished for the 2021/22 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge and I am off to a freakishly fast start. Once the blocks were laid out on the design board, The Flying Geese Frenzy was a quilt in less than 48 hours. But then on the other hand you can say it was six years in the makings.

The inspiration for the Flying Geese Frenzy quilt was the Fat Quarter Shop’s Fat Eighth Frenzy quilt made in 2015 with BasicGrey’s PBJ and Persimmon fabrics, some of which I purchased from Country Threads when the store was opened. This is one of my favorite collections which I made several quilts, one of them was my youngest son’s Wedding Quilt and scraps of it have appeared in other quilts like my Gypsy Wife and Smitten. These fabrics will be making another appearance in the Dirty Dozen Challenge since I have another UFO with these fabrics in the queue. 

After the Fat Eighth Frenzy quilt was finished, there were around fifty+ bonus HST (just under 8”) made from the parallelogram blocks. I like the challenge of making quilts with leftovers and with what I have in my stash. Last year, I decided I wanted to finally make a quilt with these HSTs and grouped them with yardage of the blue zig zag print and the prettiest blue floral print. I paired the HSTs which were the same and there were around 25 of them which matched. My thought was to make flying geese blocks and sashed them with 7” high cuts of the blue floral print and side bordered with a 7”width  of the zig zag print thus making a 70”x96” quilt, a super twin size. It’s a good thing it fell to the wayside because once I started planning to make this quilt on July 1st, I made a smaller version of 58”x78” by changing the size of the sashing and borders.

Before we left for the Grandparent House, the HSTs were laid out on the design board and upon my return this past Tuesday, they were sewn together. I realized after the flying geese were made and deciding that each block would be sashed individually instead of using one long strip, I was trying to determine the width of these blocks. I realized the flying geese were not what I considered an even size because I did not trim the HSTs to a consistent size of 7.5” square prior to sewing them together. Truth be told, since I use either my die cutter or triangle paper to make my HSTs, I never trim them. I should have trim these HSTs since they were cut offs when the parallelogram blocks when they were sewn together. Lesson learned, so I trimmed each flying geese blocks to 7.5” x 14.5” which resulted in some of these blocks having their points cut off once the top was assembled but otherwise the sewing went well.

You can see I alternated the sashing strip with either the floral or zig zag print because some of the flying geese blocks had either one of the prints in them. So in order to give good contrast and to avoid what I call globs, they were paired with either one of the prints and those that had the zig zag print were paired with the floral, and vice versus. The middle blocks had the floral sashing and the side blocks had the zig zag sashing since the border was now going to be the floral print. This is the reason why the quilt ended up being smaller since I only had an 80” length piece of this print and thought the zig zag border would be too busy. Also, I changed the size of the finished sashing strips from 7” to 3.5” high.

Sewing the flimsie went fast and it helped that the flying geese blocks were trimmed and that the sashing was pieced and not one long strip which I originally envisioned. I know I have a hard time lining up blocks when the sashing is one long strip which is the reason why I don’t make quilts without cornerstones. The sashing strips were cut 4” x 14.5” and the border strips were 7.5” wide.

Fast decisions were made for the quilting, vertical straight lines, 1” apart with #2610 Aurifil Light Blue Gray and the backing is a 2004 RJR stripe found in the newly organized backing vault. Another tip I learned and now going to follow is you can avoid quilting over safety pins by not quilting when it’s 3AM in the morning. Thankfully, my Juki Junebug survived and I did replace the needle right away.

When I sewed the binding with the zig zag print, I used a tip which Linda, Texas Quilt Gal just posted about who learned it from Janine, Quilts from the Liittle House and that is to use a folded post-it note to get nice, sharp corners by lining it up with the edge, sewing up to it and then angling off.

Here’s a somewhat close-up of the quilting, binding and backing. I’m especially pleased with how everything went together so nicely and freakishly fast. I wish this would happen more often.

I brought the Flying Geese Frenzy Quilt to the Grandparent House this weekend to take photos of it around the porch and fence. Unfortunately, the skies were overcast, which supposedly is great for quilt photos. The only Sunshine was provided by the Master Quilt Holder’s very sweet Assistant and yes, she was wearing her pajamas.

I couldn’t resist including more photos of the Flying Geese Frenzy Quilt since the Grandparent House is a wonderful place to take photos since I don’t have a fence nor railings at the other house. I even have a clothesline here but have yet to put it to use. I’ll be bringing this quilt back to the other house where once the other quilt from the Challenge is a finally finish, these two quilts will be part of the new Master Bedroom Ensemble. Yikes, I hope that quilt could be a fast finish since it will be king size and I’ll be quilting it myself via QAYG.

I’m glad my Challenge quilt for July is a Finally Finish because I’ll be spending some time preparing for some secret sewing which I will posting and providing “peeks” of my project shortly. The final reveal won’t be until mid-September. Is it me, or is this summer just flying by but not freakishly fast, right?

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation NTT