February Frenzy

 

I surprised myself with my February Finish for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. Number 4 was pulled and my project on my list was to make a quilt using almost seven year old scraps. It would be doable if February wasn’t filled with appointments for lab, annual physical exams with both my regular doctor and endocrinologist, a much needed haircut, two trips to the GP House and Hubby having five gigs (love hearing his rendition of Dreamlover) but worse of all my bridge from my very recent dental implant fell out. Of course, this happened right before our first GP visit and upon our return meant another visit which involved four Novocain shots and removing some gum tissues which had rapidly grown over the screws. The pain was excruciating when the bridge was reinserted and it took over two weeks for the pain and swelling to go away—thank you ice packs. Anyhoot, I was resigned to thinking that I was lucky if I had a flimsy finish since my #4 wasn’t a fast project.

My Spunky Americana Quilt was made almost seven years ago which seems like only yesterday to me and it was a fun make. This quilt measured 54”x72” and has been gracing the family room quilt rack since then.

As with most of my quilt projects, there were lots of patches and scraps left and I kept them in a bin where it reminded me that I needed to make something. Since the Funky Americana quilt was all 6” and 3” HSTs and I didn’’t want to sew any connecting corners, a simple Broken Dish block would be a fast and simple make. I was sort of right. First, I had to die cut more HSTs using additional fabrics which went well with the scraps and then over 150 6” and 66 3” HSTs were sewn. After that,  fifty-three 12” Broken Dish blocks were sewn in various fabric and patch combinations. You will see them later in the close up pics. 

Thankfully, I had a great audiobook to listened during this tedious sewing. Sadly though, there was no way I was going to make a quilt that large in order to use up all of the blocks. Before we left for the second GP visit, I decided that only forty-two blocks would be used after any blocks containing the cheddar/orange were eliminated and this would make a 72”x84” quilt.

I know I just mentioned in recent Posts that I planned on only making smaller quilts but I’ve amended it to if the large quilt would be used and not sitting on a shelf, then sew for it and Hello new couch quilt! Upon our return from the GP House this past Tuesday, the blocks were up on the design wall and the flimsy was finished on Wednesday. It was then I realized that with three days left in February, I could have a Finally Finish rather than just a flimsy.

I have to mention this was made possible by earlier pulling out from a seldom-visited bin, a seven yard piece of a brush Navy plaid which I offered to Quilt Peep Mary who politely passed on it and I am now very thankful she did. I machine quilted using a CT Essential Thread in variegated blues on top and a medium dark blue for the bottom, straight lines every 6” and wavy lines every 3” which created an interesting grid. The binding is a dark blue Aged Muslin which went well with both the top and back of the quilt. I’ve been hand sewing the binding with my last few quilts but this time since the plan is to use this quilt a lot, it was machine sewn this time.

My Quilt Fairy Godmother was definitely present when I was pin basting this quilt every 3”and much to my horror after I moved the quilt sandwich to pin baste the final edge, disaster involving very loud screaming was avoided. Usually, I am very careful to center my batting but not this time. It took me around three hours to pin baste and I would have been so unhappy if I had to remove it because of this mistake. I have to mention that I used Pellon Cotton/ Soy Batting again and I just love it. I machine quilted horizontally first which the pins were all removed which made it slow but then the vertical machine quilting went fast and I understand why some of us spray baste. My fingers were so sore from opening and closing almost 1000 pins.

Here’s a side by side of the two quilts and I think Spunky Americana  looks more bluer and the reds in the second one look more dominant. I’ve named this quilt Ricochet since looking at it my eyes bounced all over the quilt.

There were sixteen blocks leftover and I was determined not to let them sit for another seven years, so I quickly made a lap size quilt measuring 48”x60”. I’ve temporarily named this quilt Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Hopefully, once my new roll of soy batting arrives, I can finish it since I already have the backing. As for the leftover block and still beaucoup scraps, I’m planning on making placemats.

Yesterday it was sunny and in the sixties, so it would have been nice to take an outside glam shot but it was finished too late to take advantage of the light. So this morning with much cooler weather and snowflakes in the air, I settled for an inside pic with Ricochet on the family room couch where it will reside. I am so looking forward to snuggling with it while watching TV or a movie. The way the weather has been I’m pretty sure I’ll have several days to do this. Also, I am looking forward to a new number to be drawn for the UFO Challenge and whatever number it is, it’s going to be just a flimsy needing to be machine quilted.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

March DrEAMi: Dynamic Haphazard Pattern/Spunky Americana

Looking at my quilt which I started working on National Quilt Day, Saturday, 3/16, you might think that I was merrily sewing together HSTs any which way and without any plan whatsoever.  It might have saved me some time if I had but my Spunky Quilt was made with the assistance of a free quilt design software program, Dynamic Patterns, created and developed by Liz of Savor Every Stitch in 2017.  This program consists of two styles, Haphazard which is just HSTs and Mondrian which is just squares.  You can see I chose the Haphazard pattern which lives up to the name because the quilt definitely looks random, unplanned and unsystematic or just plain fun.

This is a DrEAMi project for me even though it was in the making for the past several years. I first purchased a fat quarter bundle of fabric which included prints of Jennifer Sampou's Studio Stash and some bright homespuns and then added some prints by Art Gallery's Denim Studio and other homespun prints from my stash. It took me awhile to realize that these would be the right fabric to make the Haphazard Pattern with HSTs and finally used the software for the first time last year.  Since making my Postcards from Sweden last year, I've become fond of HSTs especially when I can die-cut them myself.

I did something a little different with the Dynamic Pattern program since I wanted my quilt to be 54"x72" rather than square so rather than designing an entire quilt, I designed a series of 18" blocks, like over forty. These were fun to design; after you input your HST sizes (always 6" and 3"), the colors (dark and medium blue, red, tan and yellow-I didn't get hung up on matching the exact shades) and the proportions of the sizes and colors for each block, the software program will automatically generate blocks. I couldn't stop at just twelve, even though that's all I needed. I guess this is a testament to how well Liz designed this program because I did not crash it.

I decided that this would be the project I wanted to work on for National Quilt Day so in preparation I had to choose twelve blocks from the forty designed and the ones chosen were based on the blocks which were more dark and medium blues and had more 6" HSTs than 3" HSTs. I decided to use the neon yellow homespuns sparingly in 3" HST, orange replaced the 6" yellow HST and the apple green homespun in the bundle was eliminated. After the twelve blocks were chosen, being the anal planner I am, drew each block up on graph paper, indicating the color combo which was handy so I knew how many HSTs of each color combo was needed and also when laying out and sewing the blocks.  Since each of the HSTs would have a dark blue print, I added two additional Aged Muslin dark blues to make sure I had enough variety and being the more the merrier type of quilter, I then added more reds, tans and oranges. I spent all day preparing the fabrics and die-cutting HSTs. Once that was done, I teamed up combinations of dark blues with either light blue, red, tan, orange and yellows and these combinations were the same for the 6" and 3" HSTs. And yes, I had extras.

After all of the HSTs were sewn, the blocks were put together and sewn together one at a time.  It really helped that each HST was numbered just to make sure I didn't inadvertently sewed them in the wrong order or orientation but when I did happen to do it a few times, it didn't matter except when a yellow HST was involved and placement was important, then I did take it apart.  My little display board came in handy when sewing the blocks together.  When pressing the HSTs, I pressed towards the dark blue and once the HSTs were sewn together, I pressed the seams open.

 Here's an example of the computer design and the resulting block made.  If you're wondering why I didn't just use printouts instead of spending time drawing them out on graph paper, it's because I didn't want to use up all of the color ink on my printer.  But what is nice about the printout  is that it shows how many of each color combination is needed to make the block.

There is an element of a mystery quilt after all of the blocks were sewn and then needed to be turned into a top. The left photo are all of the blocks and the right photo is the final layout. (Another pressing tip, the row of blocks were pressed in alternating directions so they nested when the rows were sewn together). While laying out the blocks, I was regretting my decision to use the neon yellow homespuns since it looked like post-it notes but after came up with a layout with the neon yellow HSTs spread out like they're bursting from the center like fireworks. I'm glad I kept them and included the orange to give this quilt its name, Spunky Americana.

Machine quilting was a breeze with vertical straight lines, approximately l" apart using Connecting Threads Essential Thread in Bluebird. The backing was also from Connecting Threads, 104" wide denim and you can see the Bluebird thread blended very nicely. I'm happy to mention that my usual stubbornness in finding the right binding paid off this time.  I was going to settle for using one of the blue Aged Muslin since I didn't have enough of the other prints, or if I did, it wasn't right but kept thinking the perfect binding for Spunky Americana would be a Debbie Mumm print, denim blue with super skinny stripes-a favorite of mine for binding, something I thought I used up all I had.  Well, after looking through my four bins of traditional blue fabrics, I was so happy to find it in the fourth bin which I wasn't going to check but am glad I did--and I had just enough--a little over one-half yard--yep, meant to be.

Would I make another Haphazard quilt--yes, especially with all of the scraps I have like Kaffe Fassett, Patriotic, Homespuns, etc.  There are so many possibilities with just using two colors like black and white or just solids and also "disappearing" the blocks like cutting them in quarters after they are sewn.  Hopefully, I won't have to wait until the next National Quilt Day to start die-cutting another one and also if I need new block patterns, I'm going to splurge and print them out-- I'll make sure I have enough color ink.

On a side note, I'm glad to have my Spunky Americana quilt ready for the March DrEAMi link-up this Saturday, 3/30 hosted by Sandra of mmm quilts who will be hosting her third QAL starting April 3rd.  Since I've participated in her other two QAL, I'm sewing the Trifeca.  Hopefully, I should be able to find the right fabric in my stash since my fabric diet is going very well.

Also, starting this month, there's a new linky party-Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup hosted by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs and will definitely be linking up my Spunky Americana quilt because I have to admit this is my favorite finish for March.

And lastly and more importantly, I would like to thank Liz for creating and designing the Dynamic Patterns program and allowing us quilters free access to it--it's a kind and wonderful way to share your talent.  If you're not familiar with Liz's blog, please check out Savor Every Stitch and see what an amazing quilter she is and to think she has been only quilting for just a few years now.  Her machine quilting is jaw dropping beautiful and maybe one day Liz will inspire me to try a few curves and meandering with my machine quilting. Meanwhile, if that day ever happens, I'm fine with gushing over her beautiful quilts.

Linking up with MMMiQuilts DrEAMi, Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework, Oh Scrap!, My Quilt Infatuation NTT and Meadow Mist Designs, Favorite