Brackman Bricks & Stepping Stones Quilt Top Finish

There are two types of "finish" when it comes to my quilting projects: it's a "finish" when a quilt top is done and a "finally finish" when the quilt is quilted and bound.  I have to admit that I have more finishes than finally finishes and sometimes there are many years in between when one of my quilts goes from finish to finally finish.  This doesn't bother me as much as an UFO which for me is when the patches are cut and ready to be sewn into blocks or the blocks are done and ready to be sewn together for a top.  UFOs happen because I get distracted by another project or I've decided to put it aside because I'm not quite sure if this is something I want to continue to sew.   My 2017 Project List initially had 46 projects in which eight of them are UFOs.  From these eight UFOs, the Brackman Bricks and Stepping Stones was my oldest UFO which I started almost four years ago and I can now say it is a finish.   I could really to go into details about the thought process and the making of this quilt top but then this post would be in written in chapters; I'll just give some tidbits instead.

• I originally intended to make Bonnie Hunter's Lozenge Quilt (see it here)  which I thought would use up a lot of the stash and scraps from the early Barbara Brackman fabric lines I have accumulated. I spent several days picking fabrics, rotary cutting around 350 3-1/2" x 6-1/2" rectangles and over a thousand 2" squares and then drew sewing lines on the back of the 2" squares which were going to be the connecting corners.  After doing all of this work, I decided that I didn't want to sew all of these squares onto the rectangles so the patches just sat on my shelf while I figured out over the course of the next few years what to make with them.
• My answer turned out to be a version of another Bonnie Hunter pattern; Bricks and Stepping Stones see it here, I just needed to change the patch sizes so I could use what was already cut and it turned out I had more than what was needed.  So from the thousand of 2" squares with the lines drawn on the back, I sewed matching four patches, some blue/light and some red/light.  By the time I finished sewing the four patches, I once again I put the project back on the shelf because I wanted to work on something else.  
• When I was compiling my 2017 project list, I decided that this quilt will be put on the list and I would finish the top once and for all.  Last week I devoted a lot of time sewing the four patches to the rectangles and then this week sewed the blocks together while going back and forth in my mind as to what size I wanted to make the top.  I had enough rectangles to make a king size top but I would have to make another 100 four patch units which didn't thrill me.  I need a new king size quilt for my bed during the Winter but couldn't decide if I wanted it to be this quilt with the Brackman fabrics which would mean I would need to make a new wallhanging.  In the end, I decided that this quilt would be a bed quilt for the guest room or for the family room couch.  It measures 78" x 90".
• This quilt is definitely going to my longarm quilter and there's a strong possibility that it can be a finally finish for 2017. I just had to decide if that's what I want it to be.  BTW, this quilt did not make a dent in the Barbara Brackman stash.

For me, I like having a mix assortment of projects; some that appeal to the task oriented/practical side of me which are the projects that I can use up scraps from past projects or stash accumulated from past purchases and some that appeal to the play side where I am inspired to make something immediately because of something I've seen,  like on Pinterest, and I happen to have the right fabric in my stash.  It seems like I  am forever balancing my projects and trying to decide what I should be making; this is why I like having a Project List.   And when I get overwhelm and can't decide, I know it's time to take a break.  Fortunately, this doesn't happen too often.

This week, I also finished five more Smitten Blocks which means I watched a lot of Gilmore Girls.  These blocks were a little easier than the first five I made so far and I'm still enjoying the process.  The making of a voodoo doll named Carol has not yet crossed my mind.

It's now March and I did not buy any fabric during January or February--two whole months of fabric fasting--this is a big record for me!

Minus 100 Yards Challenge YTD Total: -45.625 yards

It helps now that I'm blogging and reading other quilters' blogs that I don't shop or look for fabric online, I'm even resisting the sales.  I love finding inspiration or like-minded quilters with the same angsts as me online.  I've been invited to participate in the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop so I will be learning how to improve my blog, increase my blogging skills and get more involved in the online quilting community.  I am so excited.  

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Another UFO Finish: Indigo Tiles Quilt

We've been experiencing wonderful Spring-like weather here in the Midwest and I couldn't resist taking a photo of my Indigo Tiles Quilt outside with some of my wooden birds as props for a seaside vibe or am I channeling a scene from the Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds"?

I made the Indigo Tiles Quilt top back in the summer of 2014 and I used Janet Clare's Hearty Good Wishes, Moda Indigo Collection and other Japanese Indigo prints I had in my stash.  I've been wanting to machine quilt this top for so long and thought I was ready to do it last week but somehow at the last minute decided to take a pause.  I'm glad I did because originally I had planned to do organic vertical straight line quilting and realized several days ago that my quilting should be horizontal instead and then I was ready.

This is the first quilt that I've done an entire quilt with organic straight lines.  I just love how the quilting turned out; the fluid movement of the horizontal organic lines really accentuates the prints from Hearty Good Wishes. Before I started to machine quit,  I read two great tutorials on organic straight line quilting:

• A Quilter's Table (here)
• Bella Online (here)

The key to doing organic straight line quilting is making sure you mark registration lines or have seam lines which can help you guide your stitching so that it ends at the same height as it began.  You don't want to create an uphill or downhill movement on one side of your quilt.  I used my walking foot, set my stitch length at 5.0 stitch line and used a blue denim variegated thread.  Again, I really loved how the quilting turned out and will do it again on the right quilt.

Indigo Tiles measures 48" x 64" and the blocks are 16" finished.  I based this block on something I saw on Pinterest which used 2-1/2" strips and thought I could make it using my 4-1/2" x 8-1/2" rectangle die.  This is such an easy block made with eight of the same size rectangles.  I thought I could find a link for this block but couldn't so I'm providing a hand-drawn diagram to show how simple this block is.  This block design can be used for other strip sizes as you can see on the diagram.

When I bought the Hearty Good Wishes and Moda Indigo fabrics back in 2014, I immediately made a bag from Missouri Star Quilt Co.'s pattern The Everything Bag (here) and it's a big bag.  I use it to pack the quilts we take on our vacations/road trips and I now have a matching quilt to go with this bag.  I can see taking my new combo on vacations to Michigan, the Oregon Coast or anywhere there is a deep blue ocean or lake.

In other sew-doings, I finished #5 Smitten Block this week and ready to start the next set of hexagons which means choosing and preparing fabrics and watching more Gilmore Girls.

I consider myself to be a modern-traditional quilter and like to use my traditional fabrics in a modern setting.  Since I've been doing a lot of quilts lately with my modern fabric stash, I thought I should spend some time with my traditional stash by sewing the rest of the blocks I made with my Barbara Brackman fabrics over four years ago.  It's one of those projects that I saw a pattern, thought it would use up a lot of the BB stash, cut all the pieces (before I had a die-cutter) and then decided I couldn't bear to sew all those 1" HST and came up with another pattern.  BTW, I still have a lot of BB stash.  I'm hoping to have a quilt top done this weekend.

The fabric fast continues and the month of February is almost over and I still have not purchased any fabric.  I'm really looking forward to receiving my FQS Sew Sampler Box this week.

Minus 100 Yard Challenge YTD Total - 37.875

Burp Cloths: A Boo-Boo and A Re-Do

Lots of Life happening this week:  Baby Shower II Preparation, Income Tax preparation, celebrating Valentines Day, attending the monthly Senior Luncheon, Volunteer Ministry Commitment and traveling in addition to watching the Westminster Dog Show on TV for two nights which means very little time to work on one of the many quilt projects on my list.

The second baby shower for my youngest son and his wife is this weekend and will be a little bit more relaxing for me since I don't have any hosting responsibilities.  Nevertheless, I didn't want to come empty-handed, so I thought I would make a bundle of burp cloths which would allow me to use up some up more stash.  I thought making twelve of them (two of the same print) would be a nice number to make and of course they have to be gender neutral.  I decided that I would make six with a flannel backing and six with white toweling fabric which I had in my stash and had bought when I was thinking about making reuseable paper towels.

I found a free pattern on Pinterest and printed it and I swear I checked to make sure it was set to print at 100%  Fortunately for me, I did a test run of the pattern and could tell that it was way too small.  Also, I didn't like that I had to basically cut the pieces by hand because of the curves, so I came up with an alternative pattern which can be entirely cut with a rotary cutter.

I cut two pieces, 9" x 20", one for the front and one for the back.  Folding the two pieces together, RST, along the long edge, I rounded the corners using Sharon Hultgren's Easy Circle Cut Ruler and then unfolded, found the center and then cut the neck notch using the 7" circle mark  (it's not a complete 7" half circle, I lined it up at the top of the blue masking tape which is approx. 2" under the 7" mark to create a more rounded oval cut).  I sewed with a 1/4" seam all around,  leaving a 2-3" opening on the straight side, clipped around all the curve areas, turned right side out, press and then top-stitched all the way around to close the opening.  This was a quick and easy pattern. fat quarter friendly and I'm sure I would have enjoyed making them more if I hadn't decided to make twelve at one time.

When both of my boys were babies, I used cloth diapers for burp cloths and I can say these burp cloths are way cuter.  I'll be sure to mention to my son at the Shower that his baby will have better burp cloths than he did.  That's what happens when your mama didn't sew back then.

I know I'm going to have to make more of these once the baby is born and the gender finally revealed and I'm thinking of doing them without the neck notch to make them even faster.  Also, I love how the toweling fabric feels which is similar to the old-time rotating cloth towel dispensers that were around when I was young, so I'm thinking of making hand towels with it using some more stash.  I'll first make a few to test to see how well they launder and also to train the men in the house that these are not disposable.

Looking forward to resuming my quilt projects and hopefully I will have something finish for next week.  And still another week of no fabric purchases.

Minus 100 Yards Challenge YTD Total : - 34.375 yards

The Kingwell Sew Alongs: Flutterby Quilt Finished and Still Smitten-ing

I previously posted about doing two sew alongs this year both involving a Kingwell:  Flutterby by Jen Kingwell and Smitten by Lucy Carson Kingwell (you can read the post here) which is sort of ironic since I barely recovered from my Gypsy Wife experience and never thought I would do another  pattern by Jen Kingwell.  Though Flutterby is much more simpler than Gypsy Wife, ( I changed the dimensions so I could use my die-cutter 😊) it still was head spinning which could be due to each of the thirty blocks having 36 patches and trying to make sure that each one of the prints were different in each block.  I also had to be careful that the HRT patches were sewn in the correct orientation which  for an angle-challenge person makes the sewing slow.  And then there's the quilt layout where I wanted to make sure the same print weren't in the same vicinity and that's when I finally began to feel dizzy and decided then that there is so much movement in this quilt, it's wasn't going to be too noticeable if the same print is right next to each other.

If that wasn't challenging enough for me to make a quilt with over a thousand patches, I decided I wanted to do 1/2" skinny straight line quilting which there were problems in the beginning, my fault and not my Juki's, and it turned out pretty well despite a few puckers in the backing.  Flutterby measures 60" x 72" and I didn't use any of my much-loved Cotton + Steel fabrics because I felt I've been ignoring the other wonderful prints in my stash. Fabrics were from Zen Chic which was given to me from an exchange with Connie Tesene, several Allison Glass charm packs and other modern and low volume prints.  The Flutterby pattern is from Jen Kingwell's Quilt Lovely book and there are other patterns I may want to do now with Cotton + Steel and my die-cutter but will give my head a much needed rest before  I do.

I've now finished four out of the twenty-seven full hexagons (these measure 10" x 12") needed for the Smitten Quilt and am still friends with Carol who got me started on this project.  I like how these blocks turned out and enjoy sewing them while binge watching Gilmore Girls.  I've now watched 30 episodes and it looks like it's taking me an average of almost eight episodes to complete one block which is pretty slow since each episode is 45 minutes long.  I am finding that I'm getting faster and it's easier for me if I baste through the paper and not tacking down at the corners.  I have one more block left to make of this hexagon type and these might be the easiest out of all the other hexagons.  There's only five and half seasons left of Gilmore Girls for me to watch so in the event I'm not done with Smitten by the end of the series, I have another TV series lined up to watch:  Blue Bloods.  I used to be smitten with Tom Selleck.

Minus 100 Yard Challenge YTD Total:  - 31.375 yards

I still haven't bought any new fabric and we're past the first week of February.  Thankfully, I just received my monthly Cotton + Steel fabric package from Pink Cast Fabric and enjoyed oogling over the twelve fat quarters.  But best of all, I just received a wonderful gift of feedsack squares from a fellow blogger who is also a feedsack lover and am amazed that all of the prints were those I don't have.  As I said in an earlier post, feedsack fabrics and friends go together.  I think I'm going to make it through the end of February because by then I will be receiving my FQS Sew Sampler box.

Sew Strong!

The Grandpa Quilt and More

The much anticipated arrival of our first grandchild in late March has really put my creative energy into high gear.  I thought I was done after finishing the baby shower favors, the Woodland baby quilt and the Valentine, a.k.a. Grandma quilt last week but divine inspiration hit me after I posted last week.  I realized, or common sense came knocking, that the Grandma quilt which I was planning on bringing to the hospital for the pending arrival was meant for a photo opportunity with a new granddaughter and since we don't know the gender, there is a 50% chance we may have a grandson so I was going to need to make a Grandpa quilt.

Fortunately, it didn't take me long to find the fabrics or the pattern for the Grandpa quilt since I already had a grouping of fabrics I put together to go with the motorcycle fabric you see in this quilt which I was going to make ten years ago but never did.  (I'm beginning to wonder if something happened ten years ago since I made the Grandma quilt top ten years and never quilted it.)  I added the music fabrics, car and fish fabric to the mix because these are a few of my hubby's favorite activities and I had the perfect backing fabric of vintage Chevys (also a hubby favorite) which I found in the stash and probably was for a quilt that I never gotten around to making.  I love big blocks especially for novelty prints.  The blocks are 20" and I used a simple framed block for the large novelty prints and the alternate pieced block is from the Quilting Jet Girl Bundle Buster Quilt pattern which I purchased from Craftsy: Bundle Buster Pattern.

The Grandpa quilt measures 40"x60" and is the same size as the Grandma Quilt. They're now both ready to take to the hospital once we receive the call.   I'm pretty sure my hubby loves the quilt because he already asked when he could start using it and confirming that this quilt will not be left with the grandbaby.

Another finish for the week and interrupted the making of the Grandpa quilt, was a new mini quilt for the front door to celebrate the first day of February or because I happened to come across the red heart fabric and had to make something with it.  The Heart Quilt measures 18" square and I found the pattern on Pinterest: Heart Block.   I used 3" finished cuts for the blocks and HST.  I started and finished it in an afternoon and delighted that I made it time for Valentines Day.  I love the combination of red and aqua and am amazed to see this color combination being used for Xmas and Fourth of July quilts.

I've already thought of more sewing projects for the new grand baby and should have them done in time for the next Shower in two weeks.  I always love being busy when it involves fabric.

Minus 100 Yard Challenge YTD Total:  -19.375 yards

Also worth noting is the fact that I did not buy any fabric during the entire month of January, breaking my previous record of acquiescing  by the third week of January!  😇  Susan Snooks (PatchworknPlay) and I have made a pact to continue this trend for February which if I succeed, I am pretty sure UPS, Federal Express and the  USPS are going to stop by for a well being check.

Four Finishes, I'm On A Roll!

Top Left:  Baby Whoo Shower Favors, Top Right: Baby Woodland Quilt,
 Botton Left: Homey Triangles, Bottom Right: Valentine, aka, Grandma Quilt

I had mentioned on my post last week that I thought that I was off to a slow start for the new year and happy to say that I feel like am on a productive pace now.  I completed two projects related to this week's baby shower; I finished my Country Thread's Sew-Along quilt and I unexpectedly machine quilted and bound a top which was made almost ten years ago.

Baby Whoo Shower Favors

I've purchased a Sizzix Owl Die early last year knowing that I would use it for a future baby shower once my son and his wife were going to start a family.  The announcement finally came in August so Owl planning have been put into motion.

My plan was to start making 36 owls in mid December so they would be done in time for this week's baby shower.  I am so glad that I planned ahead because you will see that the original pattern is nowhere near what I ended up making.  The first two owls are what I called an epic failure because they were too time consuming, hard to make and there was no way I was going to make 36 of them.  Thankfully, I did some searching on Pinterest for an alternative Owl and like what I came up with, big Yo-Yo eyes and no wings or feet, also time consuming but in an easier way.

I did use the die for the owl's body, the Clover Yo-Yo Maker for the eyes, found 40 pair of black buttons for the eyes, had brown felt in my stash for the beak and also had all the gray and yellow fabrics.  I think each owl took an hour to make and were assembled while binge watching Gilmore Girls.  While I was assembling these owls I thought something was missing and came up with putting a label on the back which I thought added a nice finishing touch.  These owls are appropriately named Baby Whoo because the expectant parents do not want to know the baby's gender until the delivery date.  The labels were the only additional expense for these owls and I ordered them from Best Wishes Boutique on Etsy.  I'm keeping one of these owls for myself and have named him Gilmore and although I think they turned out rather cute, I have no plans on making any more of these owls in the future, unless for my other son if he should ever remarry and start a family.

Baby Woodland Quilt

Last year when I was making quilts for my Church Blanket Ministry, I made two of these quilts since I knew I wanted one for my future grandchild since the nursery theme was going to be Owls.  I did not quilt mine until this past week and I really love how the machine quilting turned out, I did a tight meandering stitch which is the first time I every did this and  it made the quilt so soft and cuddly.  I've become quite adventurous on my Juki  2010Q thanks to its partnering with the Janome Walking Foot and will definitely do more quilting like this.

Homey Triangle Sew Along

This is the second sew along which Mary Etherington/Country Threads  has hosted for her recently published book Sew Charming http://country-threads-chicken-scratch.com/uncategorized/sew-along-and-giveaway/.  For my quilt, I used a Chrysalis charm pack and some fabric from the stash and it's always a good feeling when you can make a quilt with fabric you already have.  I also love the horizontal straight line quilting throughout the quilt which Mary did on her quilt.  I never quilted straight through the inner and outer border before and I really love how it looks.  I have other quilts that I am wanting to quilt like this.  The only negative about this quilt is I couldn't use my die-cutter because I needed so many HST and and not enough charm squares and had to say hello again to triangle paper.

The Valentine Quilt, aka, Grandmother Quilt

I just had to share how this quilt came to being completed this week after being an UFO for almost ten years and it not being on my list of 46 projects for 2017.   It happened because I was filing away the Sew Sampler Block recipe card #9 and while looking through the other blocks I noticed that Block #3 was the same pattern as the Love All Around Block which May Chappelle has started a sew along.  So I thought it was something that I could make a wall hanging with my Valentine fabric stash and I went to look through my Sandy Gervais fabric bin and noticed that I hardly had any which I knew I had.  I found the stash among the UFO pile and then realized I had more in another area where I had tops waiting to be quilted.  There I found the Valentine top which the main focus print is the ribbon fabric, one of the first pieces of fabric I purchased from Joann's when I started quilting in 1996.  There was a time I could remember where I purchased my fabric and those days are long gone.  But I can remember buying this and never being able to use it until I started accumulating Valentine fabric by Sandy Gervais and others.  I couldn't bear to cut up the ribbon fabric so I used WOF of it with squares and it measures 40"x60".  When I made the top, I thought it would be a sweet quilt to hold a future granddaughter with and at that time was a long ways away and what you call a gleam in my eye. I thought of this a lot probably because I had two boys and I made two other "granddaughter" tops which are also in my UFO pile.  Maybe with the upcoming baby shower,  my newly acquired machine quilting skills or Valentines Day is fast approaching, I just had to finally quilt it with meandering and straight line quilting and again I love how it turned out.  I plan on bringing this quilt with me when I go to the hospital for the impending delivery in the event I do have a granddaughter.  This thought has now has lead me to another unplanned project--a grandfather quilt using fabrics of my hubby's favorite hobbies--just in case we have a grandson and I plan on finishing it before the due date so we can take both quilts with us.  Which quilt will be in the first photographs of us holding our future grand  baby?  We can make a game of it while waiting in the delivery room with the others.

It was a very productive week for me which also included starting my first Smitten Block.

So far so good, I'm enjoying the hand piecing and definitely something I can sew while continuing to watch Gilmore Girls.  My son has set me up to watch all the seasons on Netflix and I could have sworn I watched all the episodes until maybe the last year, but after watching nine episodes of the first season, I realized maybe I didn't watch it that much.

This was a good, productive week and I was able to add  3.75 yards.

Minus 100 Yardage Challenge:  -14 yards

I was again sorely tempted this week, I'm talking five yards,  but am determined not buy any fabric at least for January so I can say I was good for one whole month.

Finally, My First Quilt Finish for 2017!

I've been so wanting to machine quilt another one of my UFOs since last November when  I've finally became successful with straight-line quilting with my Juki and Janome Walking Foot team but had to wait until I was done with my end of year projects and the holidays.  I usually have a quilt done by the first week of January but was preoccupied with the start of the year planning and an upcoming baby shower.  Thankfully, for sanity sake, I was able to finally do some machine quilting this week and finished a quilt.

I made the top back in 2013 and when it was in UFO status, I called it my Mid Century Modern Big Block Quilt using a block that I call a pillowcase since it reminds me of one.  I use this design for fabrics which I want to show off with large patches and it helps if there is an accent fabric that could be used with the blocks.  This quilt measures 56" x 80" and each block measures when finished 8" x 14".  While I was basting this quilt, I realized that I needed a quilt for my dear friend Mary's daughter, Emily, who is getting married this June and this would be perfect.  I've already made quilts for her two other kids when they got married.  I called these quilts, doghouse quilts, meaning it's going to be used when someone has to sleep on the sofa because they're in trouble.  So now this quilt is going to be called Emily and Donny's Doghouse Quilt.  I'm especially happy with this quilt because the quilting turned out so lovely and by finishing this quilt, it crosses off two projects on my list of 46, bringing it down to 44.

I haven't bought any new fabric since I've challenged myself to reducing my stash to minus 100 yards for 2017.  One of the rules I've instituted that any fabric received as a gift or won does not count.  I specifically did this because I knew that I would be receiving this lovely layer cake of Pat Sloan's Sunday Drive fabric when it was going to be released early this year, which is a result of my winning the World Series Champion Wager that I had with my dear FB friend Dee who lives in Cleveland and is, of course, an Indians fan.  This was a lovely package to receive during the gloomy and dismal days we've been experiencing this week.

I can't wait until the Sun makes a much needed appearance.

Minus 100 Yard Challenge Balance:  -10.25 yards