Jewels in Progress

I decided to pull out my Faceted Jewels quilt and get some good progress on it before I start back into quilting my stack of basted quilts.  I still need to piece most of the those 54 40 or Fight blocks together. I put them up on the board to make sure I didn't end up with all the blues in one block.  

Wow, after a blog post hunt I see that I cut this one out a over a year ago.  Good thing for blog posts or I would have sworn I cut this out only a couple months ago.

As I was was putting the squares up on the design board I kept thinking about Frodo, Sam, and Gandalf.  Probably because when I was cutting out all these small pieces I was listening to the audio book of Lord Of the Rings.  I wonder if I will always think of Lord of the Rings when I get this project out.  Perhaps I should rename it to my LOTR quilt.  :)

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Strip Tube Top Complete

Sunday I was a little under the weather.  Enough to stay home from church, but not bad enough to stay away from the sewing machine.  I spent all day Sunday sewing most of this top together.  I got all of it done but half the green inner border and the outer border.  I saved that for this morning.

The picture on the tutorial I used only had 5 triangles across, but I had so many extra triangle units I decided to add an extra row.  That makes the top a 78 inch square.  

I used 38 out of the 40 strips from my jelly roll.  That gave me 19 tubes to cut from. 

Each tube gave me 9 squares (4 sets that matched and one odd ball).

I also had a 2.5 inch strip left at the end of each tube, and a a triangle that wasn't quite big enough to make a full square.  I was going to sew the scraps together and add them to the back of the quilt, but after rearranging them on the design wall, I realized that I just need to add some sashing and a border and I have me a whole new quilt!


I also made myself a new design wall on Friday.  I am so excited about it.  I will try to get a good picture of the whole thing later on.  It is huge, and portable, and huge!  I love it!


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May Guild BOM

 Guild meeting was last Thursday and May's BOM was a basket pattern. We were told to use a floral fabric for the basket background, a basket colored fabric for the basket, and a light color for the border.  This is what I came up with.

 Unfortunately, I left my block at home so it didn't get up on the wall at guild meeting.  Silly me, I took it out of my pile of stuff to take to guild meeting to put my name on the back and then forgot to put it back.  I didn't get my name in the drawing this time around, but that is ok.  I won last month so I would have felt really greedy if they picked my name again, but I still want to participate and make sure there are lots of blocks in each giveaway.

We had a low turn out this time around there were only 10 blocks turned in, that includes mine and Frances's, who brought her unfinished block in an envelope for the winner to finish.  :)  

The pinwheel block in the upper right corner is the block for next month.

Hopefully next month there we will be back up to our usually big numbers.

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Summer Day

It sure doesn't feel like a summer day here today.  I woke up to 37 degrees.  I was sure the hot temps of the past couple weeks were here to stay, so I was surprised by the sudden weather change.
I still went for my morning walk though, just had to add a jacket.  

In the meantime, I have caught up on my Summer Day Schnibble quilt.  I got my geese grouped together and the sides stitched on.  Next step is putting them all together.

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Tube Blocks

I made some good progress on my Strip Tube quilt last night.
I cut and pressed all the blocks and got a few of them sewn together in pairs.

Then I fiddled around with the scraps.  I figured if I don't trim these up now they will sit for who knows how long.  There were some extra triangles at the end of each strip tube that weren't quite big enough for a full block, so I trimmed them up and sewed them together in smaller hour glass blocks.  On each tube I also had enough fabric to trim off  2.5 inch  strips.  I'm thinking of sewing these all  into blocks and adding them to the back of the quilt. That will reduce the yardage I need for the back and look pretty spiffy at the same time.

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Baby Cakes Top Done

I've been busy sewing blocks together and got my Baby Cakes top together.

I also got the quilting done on my second shirt quilt.  All it needs is the binding.

It is sitting next to the lily I won at our last guild meeting. 

They were the centerpieces for out Southern Tea Party activity.

At the end of the meeting they gave them all away as door prizes and the last name they picked to take one home was mine!!!  

I also won the guild block of the month!  

WAHOO!!

I am super excited about that too. 

I laid out all the blocks last night to get an idea of how I wanted to put them all together
and have decided to turn them on point.  I am two blocks short though.

I thought about moving the two in the center to the bottom and putting two empty squares in the middle so I can quilt something spiffy on them. Or I can just make two more blocks.

I also need to figure out what color sashing I want to use.
I will think on it for a bit while I get the quilting done on some of my other quilts.

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Blocks and Strip Tubes

I finished sewing my Baby Cake blocks yesterday. 

With Chain piecing they went together pretty quick.

Later on in the evening I worked on my Strip Tube quilt.  

I got all the tubes sewn together.

Did you notice I flipped my cutting mat over?  

I was ready for a new color on the cutting table.

Two sided cutting mats are wonderful!!

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T Blocks

I finished all 69 T blocks for my Bibelot Schnibbles pattern.  The pattern only calls for 49, but I am adding two more rows to make a rectangle quit.  I used some Urban Odyssey charm packs from Connecting Threads.

I am going to try and find some time tomorrow and put them all together.

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More Shirt Progress

This morning I sewed up the blocks for the second 4 patch shirt quilt.  Now I have a total of 5 tops done for this project.  It helped that I laid out all the blocks last night.

I took a quick photo before going to bed last night just in case something fell off the design wall in the night.  That way I could consult the photo and put them back in place if any went astray.  Luckily though everything was still in place when I woke up.

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After I finished sewing the 5th top together I started on the 6th.  For some reason I miscounted and made 5 extra 4 patches per quilt top, so I had 10 that didn't have a home.  I decided to make 10 more and use them all for the 6th shirt quilt.  

This is the layout I am playing with for now.  I was undecided as to which type of border to use. The smaller 3.5 solid squares on the left  or the larger 4.5 alternating solid/stripe squares on the right.   So I took a vote among the kids. 3 voted for the big squares and 1 voted for the smaller ones.  

I am thinking of using black again as the sashing, or perhaps an off white this time.  Ah decisions decisions....

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Shirt Quilts Progress

Yesterday I finished up the 40 blocks I need for two more shirt tops.  

They will go with these blocks I finished at the end of February:

I was going to put my design wall up to layout all these blocks and start sewing them together, but I am baby sitting this week and need easy access to the room I sew in and the living room. Since the design wall covers the french doors that connect the two, I decided to wait.

Instead I started the quilting on Shirt Quilt #1. 
 I am almost finished with the stitch in the ditch, I have 1 side of the border and a wee bit left on the other corner. Once that is done I will break out the darning foot for some free motion quilting in the string blocks.


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FQSQA Catch Up

I got my last three blocks done for the Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along.  

Block #10

Block #11

 Block twelve was posted last Tuesday. Picture deadline is this following Tuesday so I am all caught up.  

Block #12

Next on the list is to put them altogether in a quilt top.  Picture deadline for that is March 26.

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Guild BOM for March

The pinwheel block was the March BOM for my guild.

The only rule for this month was that one of the pinwheels had to be green.

I mixed my green with some lemonade fabric.

 Below are all the blocks that were turned in.
I didn't get a shot before they took them all down, but luckily Lorene got a good photo for me.
They didn't draw my name this month, perhaps next month I will come home with all the blocks.  

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Jewel Box Progress

Instead of picking out fabrics for my February Schnibbles project, I spent Saturday putting the blocks together for my Jewel Box Quilt.  Then I put them all on my "design wall" - a flannel table cloth that is tapped to the french doors in my living room - to make sure I don't end up sewing all the reds in the top left corner.  I am excited to sew them all together, but that will have to wait....

Before I do anything else, I need to pick out the fabrics for the i.s.t.h. pattern. March 1rst is soon aproaching and I haven't even started the February quilt for Another Year of Schnibbles. 

I think I keep delaying this process because the pattern isn't one of my favorite Schnibble patterns.
I like the star blocks and the checkerboard border, but I am not big on the column setting.
Perhaps I will take the columns out and see how that looks.  

Ok, I am off to my stash to pick out some fabrics.  No more computer till the task is done!

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Lots of 4 Patches

Hot off the ironing board.  70 four patches.  They measure 8.5 inches.  There are enough for two quilts.  I want to make two similar to the one Crazy Mom Quilts made last fall.  The colors will be different of course, but the pattern will be the same.  Now I need to make 40 coordinating blocks to go with the 4 patches.

I have a huge pile of leftover 4.5 inch squares to choose centers for the alternate blocks, but I don't have any background fabric.  That means fabric shopping is in my immediate futre.   YAY!! I love the fabric store!

Once these two tops are put together I will only have one top left. My hubby's aunt said I could work on them whenever, but I have made a personal goal to get them all finished by the end of April and so far so good, they are going together according to schedule.

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Results of February FNSI

 I spent most of my Friday Night Sew In finishing up the top of my third Shirt Quilt.  

I cut and added all the sashing and border.  I can now add it to my "Ready for Quilting" pile.

Yay!! Only three more tops to make.

After that I fiddled around with some more smaller 9 patches before hitting the hay.

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February Guild Block

This is the block I turned in today at my guild meeting for our BOM.

The rules for February were for a 12.5 inch block that had to use two colors, one being red, and had to have a heart somewhere in the block either by applique, piecing, or showcased in the fabric 

There were 20 blocks turned in.  Unfortunately I didn't win them this time around.  

Perhaps next month I will be lucky.

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FQSQA #9

#9

Done early this time around.  I like this block.

FQSQA #7 & #8

These are the latest two blocks for the Fat Quarter Star Quilt Along.  I really like this first one,

#7

#8

This second one I am not liking so much.   To me it just look like a messy arrangement of colors.  It is hard for my eye to focus on the star.   The block was suppose to have dark fabric squares in the corners but I omitted them hoping to tone down the craziness of the block. Perhaps I didn't pick the right colors for this pattern.  I am thinking if I would have stuck with two color families (with a light and dark from each) I would like the block better.  I saw one on the flikr group done in shades of black and gray and it looked pretty good.  We shall see how it looks combined with all the others at the end.  If I am still not happy with it, I may just make a new one in shades of blue and green.

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60 Nine Patches

 I finished cutting up all the shirts except the two black ones and one white one.  I am not sure what to do with those two yet.  Perhaps I can use them for shashing if there is enough.  Out of the other 9 shirts I cut a bunch of 3.5 and 4.5 squares.  I took the smaller squares and made 60 nine patch blocks.  These will make two different quilts.  But I can't decide if I want to shash them with either white or black.  So I took a photo of them with both backgrounds to get a feel for what each one would look like.  Seeing them side by side I am leaning towards the black.  But my hubby said he thinks black is too dark so I am still on the fence.

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I'm on a roll!

For my Starry Eyed quilt, each block only needed the outer row sewn on. I finished that up this evening and put the ones that would fit on my temporary design wall.  The others were on the ironing board, but they didn't stay there long.  I was excited to get this top done so I sewed all the blocks together!  I will take a picture of the whole top tomorrow when the sun comes up.

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