Camp Loopy Safari – Project 3 Completed

Today was such a lazy day here.  I didn’t get out of my jammies until about 7:00 p.m. and I only did it then because I wanted to run outside and get a photo of this quilt ( and my neighbors just didn’t need to see me dressed that way).

  So as a reminder – these were my fabrics.    The first short stack (which looks like solids but is really little tone on tone checks) was extra I bought and I mixed some of them in with the other challenge fabrics.  My challenge fabric short stack are little Christmas prints.  I love Christmas quilts that are the traditional red and green.  Oh and the other part of the challenge – to use fabrics outside your comfort zone — that would be the pink tones in those fabrics because if you know me, you know I dislike pink in all things (tho occasionally I do force myself to use it but it’s usually in things that will be going to other people).   And truthfully, I don’t hate it in this quilt because I love the overall combination.  It will be my lap quilt this winter.

 

And  here’s the finished quilt.  It uses two blocks from EQ – one called Tiramisu and one called French Silk Pie – which are alternated and since they have dessert names, I call this quilt “Just Desserts.”   It ended up about 57″ x 77″.  The binding is made up of scraps from many of the fabrics since I didn’t have enough of the sashing fabric to bind it with just that fabric.

Now that I’m done with my Camp projects, I’m already planning what quilting project to work on next.

State of the Fabric Stash report – 8/2/15

Yesterday was extremely productive.  My own little sewing marathon all day and evening long.   So my fabric use numbers stand as follows:

Purchased fabric year to date – 44.5 yards

Fabric used year to date – 89 yards

Net fabric used year to date – 44.5 yards

So I’ve used twice as much as I purchased so far.

Here’s the lastest two projects that helped those numbers:

I finished adding the binding to Eleanor’s (great niece’s) baby quilt and hand stitched it down last night.

Her name is quilted into one of the Onesie blocks.

These are really fun and simple applique blocks to make.  It’s fun to choose the fabrics and you could embellish them in so many ways – especially if you had an embroidery machine.  Mine are needle turn.  The pattern is free at Fat Cat Patterns

 

The last photo is my completed top for my Camp Loopy Safari August project – that was made during yesterday’s sewing marathon.

 

As for today – I think there needs to be some cleaning up of the sewing room before deciding what to use for backing for the Camp Loopy project – the front is made up of a Short Stack of Christmas fabrics so I think I’ll be able to find something in th stash of Christmas stuff that will work.

 

Camp Loopy Safari – Fabric project 3

As those who read the blog on a regular basis probably know – sleeping is overrated in my world.  I’m definitely a night owl and an extremely late night owl on Friday and Saturday nights.  So since we could start our Camp Loopy project three on August 1 – you know where I was at 12:01 a.m. this morning. 🙂

Yep – in my sewing room.  I worked for probably four hours or so and got everything cut out, and the individual component pieces sewn (flying geese and corner sections).  I did actually sleep for a couple hours and was back at it this a.m. fueled with much coffee.  I’ve already decided the pizza place will be delivering my dinner (and maybe they will bring me some ice cream too – it’s BAD that they sell ice cream and I can have it delivered to my door) so that I can continue working.  I am going to have to take a break soon for some lunch since I never had breakfast.

Anyway — I’m am moving along quickly and hope that by tonight I can actually have my whole top done.  The blocks are 18″ finished and big blocks with larger pieces seem to go so much more quickly.

 Here’s basically what it will look like.  I changed the sashing pieces just a bit to accommodate the fabric I had left.  The pinky color I had just 18″ of not 18-1/2″ that I would have needed to cut the sashing strips so I added some pieced sections to each sash where it meets the corner stone so it looks more like a plus sign (with a different colored center) where they meet.

  This is the scrap heap left over from making all my flying geese units.  Normally I would just toss them but I think, since I really like this fabric like – Christmas prints but doesn’t scream Christmas prints – I may, sometime after camp is finished, stitch them all together to make a little runner for the breakfast bar.

 

The second photo is all the other scraps left from my fabrics for this project.  Not much – most fabrics just a strip that was too small to use for the binding.

 

and speaking of  binding — it’s scrappy and I actually already have it made.

Now off the computer, find some lunch, and then back to work – I’ve got much sewing to get done. 🙂

The plan

I was going to get so much stuff done today since I took the day off and while I did get a load or two of laundry done, and picked up a few things around the apartment (very few), I spent the majority of the day playing in EQ.  Okay so this morning I was “working” in EQ since I have a design for Hoffman Fabrics I need to write the pattern up for, had to write up the PatchKats installment, and then decided to see what I could come up with for my Camp Loopy 3 quilting project.

So remember here at the fabrics I got for project 3

For the challenge we have to use one Short Stack and four different 1/2 yard cuts of fabric.  The center top row Short Stack is the one I picked and the four larger images are my 1/2 yard cuts (although I wasn’t paying attention and actually got 1 yard of the blue – but that’s good).  The other Short Stack I got to maybe use with these fabrics – they are all really little two tone checks.

So I came up with a design but then I had to work backwards sort of to see if I could make it work with the fabrics I have.  The first two Camp projects I had to order additional fabrics for and I’m not doing that again – really I’m not!   Actually I think I just might have the numbers working correctly but it took much recoloring and moving colors around several times and then finally I realized if I had another background fabric – a lighter one…. no I did not order one … I simply stole one from a stack of Loopy Ewe fabrics I had waiting to use for a different project.  It wasn’t quite the right shade for that other project ( wanted something a bit whiter) but it will work great for this one.

So after a bit of reworking and more recoloring (yes, the day quickly got away from me) this is what I ended up with.   The blocks are large so if I have to I can shrink them in size to get the fabrics to work but I want to see if I can leave them this size instead.  So time to get out my calculator and do some figuring.

 Most of the fabrics in the design are the actual fabrics I have but they are not showing up to scale in the design and some of them are actually more different in hue than then appear in this design – but you get the general idea.

Off the Design Wall

There is a project on the design wall but it will be there for a while so I’ll show you the most recent finish instead.

My Camp Loopy Fabric Safari project for July is done!  Finished sewing down the binding last night.

The pattern is Asymmetrical Diamond from the Robert Kaufman Fabrics free pattern pages.  I did add an extra row to the left side so that the dark  diamond around the heart would be complete .  I needed to add some applique or embroidery to meet the Camp requirements so just hand appliqued a simple heart within that space.

 

The quilting doesn’t really show up since severe storms are moving in and it’s really dark outside but there are feathers in the yellow background areas, meandering in the other patched areas, and feathers surround the outline of the heart.  There’s a corner with the year quilted into it and another spot where my first name is quilted into it.

Now to go rip open my package that arrived today with my August Camp fabrics.  I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with them yet but I’m sure I can come up with a plan before August 1. Just need to spread them all out to get the ideas flowing.

Camp Loopy Project 2

I made great progress last night on my July CL Safari project!  I did nix my idea for the applique item I needed to add to the project and changed it to something else.

One of the prints is butterfly wings so I cut two of the wings out, made a body, and pinned in place to see how it would look.

UGH! not good. Even once I turn under the edges to applique it in place it would look too big for that spot.   It may make an appearance on the back somewhere tho.

So went back to my first applique idea (before I realized one of the prints was butterfly wings) and that was just a just a simple heart out of a bright pinkish batik I had ordered.   My pan when I ordered the fabrics was to use the pink for the heart and then just in the binding so I think that’s what I will do.

The heart is appliqued in place (after much searching last night for my beloved thimble which I finally found), all my HSTS are done, so I can start sewing rows together.

First Trek of the Safari is Finished

  My Project for Camp Loopy Fabric Safari for June is done and I actually just finished hanging it on the bedroom wall!   No more trekking through the bush for me; I can sit back at “camp” around the fire and sip cocktails or eat s’mores or both for the next week and a half. 😉

This ended up being about 70 x 45 when done and the back is all pieced from leftover fabrics used on the front and one or two pieces of prints that didn’t make it on the front.

Camp Loopy Fabric Safari – Project 2

Today the announcement for the July project for Camp Loopy Safari – the fabric version – was announced so the shopping and planning could commence.

The challenge for July is to pick six different half yard cuts of fabric (you could use more but that’s the minimum) and somewhere on your project there must be a bit of applique or embroidery.

Here’s the fabrics I chose:

  I know I’ve said this before but I love the Project Planner feature that was added to TLE website.  You can add fabric (or yarn) and see them side by side and then with a click – it turns into a shopping list so you can edit how much of each one, and another click, it dumps those fabrics with the yardage you listed directly into the shopping cart.

I’ve been coveting the fabric that is in the bottom row middle for a while — these are all batiks and I can’t say I’ve ever met a batik I didn’t love — but I especially love that one.   I recalled a pattern I had wanted to make and so found the others to go with them.  It will be another large wallhanging and look similar to this pattern from the Robert Kaufman website called Asymetrical Diamond.  All just simple HSTs.

 

 

 

The yellow/goldish batik will be my background (used where the white is in the quilt image), the three batiks with black in them will make up where the darker shades of blue/purple are and the three lightest batiks will be where the lighter shades of blue/purple are in the quilt.  The bright pink will be the binding and as for my bit of applique (because you know I will be doing applique rather than embroidery) 🙂 I’m thinking I’ll add a pink heart in the diamond area where the blocks meet to make sort of the center – the asymmetrical center.  Either that or one of the prints is butterfly wings so I may applique a few little butterflies flitting across it.

 

So my order is placed and my plan is in place.  Now I just have to finish off the June project and then wait for July to start this one.  But, at the last minute, I decided to  give myself a three-day weekend, so I should have my final border area quilted in no time tomorrow and get the binding on and hopefully have a totally finished project done before the end of the weekend.

Off on Safari….. and update on Hoffman Fabrics Pattern Designs

 It’s the start of Camp Loopy Safari today — I woke up way too early this a.m. so decided to make the most of it.  This neat pile of fabrics – they all got cut up and sliced into the pieces I needed before even going to work this morning.  Tonight I managed to get two of the three main sections of the large wall hanging stitched so I’m off to a great start.

 

And as for the update on my designs for Hoffman Fabrics — you can see the quilt patterns I’ve designed for them if you click the Hoffman Fabrics button in the blog’s right sidebar.    I’ve received several requests recently regarding patterns shown there that are no longer available on the Hoffman Fabrics website pattern download page.  They’ve updated things and removed many of the older patterns.   I am happy to report that I do have permission to add those pattern instructions to my blog for the ones that have been removed from the Hoffman Fabrics website.  So, as I have time, I will be adding them into the Free pattern Downloads Pages.  Everything below the fall table runners will eventually be added (if I can find them all) but it will be a work in progress since those pattern instructions are no longer on my computer, and I will have to pull them from various CDs or thumb drives.  So I will begin adding them as I have time to look for them and get them uploaded.

Camp Loopy Completed

  My third project for Camp Loopy – the Fabric Version – is now complete.  It’s amazing what you can get done when you internet provider crashes over the weekend so you can’t putter away the hours on Ravelry, or email, or playing games. LOL

Got it layered and quilted and bound.

For this  third Camp Project, we needed to use two different Short Stacks (fat quarter collections) —  one from the Collections (fabric collections) and one from the essentials  (all in one color family).  I used this Charley Harper Short Stack and this one from the essentials.  The only fabric from the Charley Harper stack that didn’t make it on the front of the quilt was the cardinal/squirrel print which you can see got pieced into the backing on the second photo.  I also ordered some additional colors of the queen anne’s lace looking print.  Originally I bought extra red to use for the binding but some crazy woman used it all when piecing the back so when I got to making the binding – DOH!  but I found a mottled blue in the stash that went well with the blues so it all worked out. Actually I’m contemplating new couch in the shades of blue in the quilt and if I get it, this will hang above it so the blue binding worked out well.

 The back is just a mishmash of all the left over pieces.  Tho you can’t tell from the first photo, the blacks are all the tone on tones from the essentials short stack.

If you are a regular blog follower – this quilt design might look familiar – it’s a smaller version of my SnowBirds quilt design I did for Hoffman California Fabrics.  You can find the full quilt pattern on their website in the free patterns section.

 

I’m sorry to see Camp Loopy end for another year but I don’t know if I could have kept up the pace of completing one knitting project and one quilting project each month!

 

So let’s recap my Camp Loopy summer activities………

First Camp knitting project was the Ethel Shawl and first sewing project was Snow on the Lake.

Camp Loopy 2014 Project 1 Start 6/1/14 Fin. 6/15/14

 

Second knitting project was the Pine Forest Baby Blanket since I’m going to become a “Great Auntie” after Christmas and since I have since found out it’s going to be a girl, I can see some little girlie sweaters in my future. 🙂  And the sewing project – Mix ‘ Match.  Mix ‘n Match pattern will be a freebie on my blog as a sew along project on Labor Day Weekend.

 

 

and my knitting project for #3 was Zigzagatory.

Whew!  Now if I can continue the momentum – I’ve got several knitting projects in the works that were put aside, and of course I just swatched for a new CustomFit Fall Knit Along sweater – just have to decide on the pattern – and there are endless quilt tops that need to be finished…………….

Camp Loopy 2 project. Start. 7/1/14 Fin. 7/13/14 Pine Forest Baby Blanket