Design Wall Monday

Finally some blocks on the design wall.  They are not trimmed to their final size yet but here’s what I’ve got so far.

The upper left below it are the same print but in different color backgrounds so I think I may switch the black background one out and make another to mat the double cardinals in the lower right corner so I don’t have two of the same prints next to each other.  So two blocks left to make before I trim them up and can start setting together with the sashing.

I posted an EQ drawing of a large snowglobe block I plan to use in another project wher the inside of the snowglobe is all appliqued rather than just a solid fabric like these.

Here’s the layout I came up with for that block.  Another project to add to my list of things I want to make .  🙂

 

Denise

Saturday Stuff

  I’m thinking quilting even if I haven’t gotten to do any yet today.  Pull this wallhanging out, Thankful Bounty, which was a Thanksgiving project we did a few years ago on The Quilting Post that I had designed in EQ.  It’s one of my most favorites and it’s time to get it up on the living room wall before the fall season and Thanksgiving is over.

This morning I was out of the house early and off to breakfast with a friend.  Then we did some shopping – groceries and a stop at JoAnn’s so I could get some grommets for the larger Booga Bags I’m knitting.  I got the largest ones they had but it will depend on how much the drawstrings shrink as to whether they are large enough.  May have to do some searching on line for some larger ones.  These are just plain metal ones.  I had seen some really pretty ones – plastic in all kinds of colors at Wisconsin Quilt Expo but didn’t have anything in mind for them so didn’t get any.  If only I had seen the Booga bags at that time I would have been well stocked.

Speaking of Booga Bags – here’s a large one I have all knit and ready to go into the washer for felting.

  Aren’t those colors pretty!   I used a double strand for the drawstring for this one – one trand of the solid aqua and  the other of the multicolored Noro. 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve started another and here’s how far I’ve gotten. Blues, lilac and grays.  I’ve got one more to make after I finish this one.

We also stopped at Wisconsin Craft Market – sort of like Michael’s but on a smaller scale – and I found this great looking yarn.

It’s a lovely hairy mohair blend I plan to use for a scarf – once all the gifts are finished since I think I’ll claim it for me. Pretty shades of light purples.  Now I just have to find the right pattern to use it for.

The weather today has nixed my original plans to get the flower pots outside emptied and put away and get the table and chairs brought in.  It’s a rainy day and now the cushions on the chairs need to dry out too.  Hopefully next weekend will be a sunny one so I can get it done or they may end up covered in snow one of these days!  It’s too dark when I get home now to do it in the evening.

Now to get the latest bag in the wash and start it felting and then back to some knitting.  My knit along socks haven’t made much progress since I finished the heel since the gifts have taken priority but I may get a few more rows added to it today.

Denise

The Wedding Quilt

Here it is.  I put the finishing stitches in the binding and label at 3 a.m.  this morning. WHEW!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm.. now what shall I work on?  Seems like I’ve been mostly busy with graduation quilts and this wedding quilt.  Of course there are many possibilities — tubs of tops to be quilted, a tub of swap blocks to be made into something, the quest to make a Christmas quilt for my parents, sibilings, nieces and nephews, Continuous Chain to work on, Christmas Charm to start on, and way too many other projects in progress.  Of course then there’s all those new projects I want to make.  So many decisions so for now, think I’ll go see if I can find some fabric to make some pillowcases.

Denise

 

Just in the nick of time

I have actually accomplished what I set out to do as my Saturday project.  Crocus Clusters is now a finished top — finished at 11:50 p.m. — still on Saturday but cutting it close. 🙂    And it went together very nicely EXCEPT…. I had the top sewn into two halves with the sashing attached and joined that last seam.  Laid it out on the floor and then had to say many bad words because I half flipped on half upside down.  Yes rippit rippit rippit.   But once I took it apart and fixed, the borders went on great.  I’m always a bit worried when adding pieced borders to plain ones — were all those seam allowances right? will it fit?  Yep no adjustment at all needed.  They fit perfectly. WHEW!   I’ll take pictures in the light of day.

Also thank you Aurora for letting me know the EQ file for Spring at the Crossroads was downloading with a notecard error.  I’ve deleted the link and marked it temporarily unavailable.  I’m not sure why it’s doing that since my original file opens fine.  Even tried reloading but still an error so when I get time I’ll try to figure out what the problem is.

July 4 – Stashbusting report

I nearly forgot it was stashbusting report day.  This week, 4.25 purchased, 12.25 used.

YTD used: 194  YTD purchased: 76.25 so Net fabric used YTD is 117.75 yds.

I got my Continuous Chain shown in previous post all cut out.  And laid out Crocus Clusters on the design wall – or at least most of it since I was running out of wall.

 You’ll have to imagine the plain inner purple border going all the way around.  I put just some scraps of it in the upper left corner.  I’ve either hidden the strips I cut for that border or was too anxious to get sewinng and never cut them.  Have to go back and see if I marked them off on my notes before I start the search to find them. I think I might have just not cut them yet.  I also didn’t put the plain border strips up on the wall between blocks but I like the way it turned out.  I used three greens for my leaves instead  of two and had extra fabric of the light green so decided I wanted that in the outer border instead of the dark green I originally drew the pattern for – I always seem to change something on my own version from the original drawing I did – artistic license. 🙂

 

Denise

And don’t forget to vote in McCall’s Design Star Challenge – whether for my quilt, Ode to Spring, or another one you love.  (My MOm has been busy casting her vote every day) 🙂  There’s 147 quilts to provide viewing eye candy.  There’s a link to the contest in the right sidebar.

More Crocus Clusters

My Crocus Cluster blocks are progressing.  The four grouped blocks are my center and are all done.  The block on the right is one of the outer blocks and I decided I wanted to add a third green into my version of the quilt to add a  more little variety on the version I’m making.  And those stems shown in the original pattern I’m not going to be putting on mine – I plan to quit in the leaf veins or maybe feathers down the centers of the leaves so decided to leave off the stem applique.

My greens are looking a bit blah in the photo.  The darkest leaf is sort of pea soup color but the green in the squares that meet up are actually a really pretty celery color – just don’t want to photograph right.

But remember, it will be your quilt your making and no reason it has to be purples.  See some images below where I switched out some of the colors.  The pink reminds me of rosebuds.

First Continous Chain

Well I got all the Continuous Chains blocks that fell of the wall and now have them pieced into larger sections.  I usually piece them into 9 patches or 4 patches of blocks  first since I hate sewing long single rows together so that’s where they’re at right now – four large 9 patches and then the extra sections at the bottom.  So just need to get all those larger sections sewn together.  It has a little different look than my original drawing since my values are so similar but I like the way the design inside the background area stands out.  This one will probably just get some simple borders added rather than the pieced one – I save the pieced border for the next one I do.  Now I just have to figure out what fabrics I want to use for the larger quilt.  This one will be a nice largish lap size – a good size for the auction.

And a further “check it out”….

Here’s Janet Parde’s completed Crop Circles top.  She done good! 🙂  It turned out stunning Janet.  Thanks for letting us see it.

If you have a photo of a project from one of my designs, please be sure to send me a photo so I can share it here. 🙂

 

 

 

And thank you for all the name suggestions for this design – so many good ones that fit it well!

I had been trying to come up with a name using the word “prism”.  Why prism? Well, I have a prism on one of my eyeglass lenses to correct a vision problem (amazing what a little grooved piece of plasticy stuff can do) and when the sun catches it at a particular angle, I see little bursts of rainbow colors which is what this design reminded me of.  However, I just couldn’t think of anything.  Then when I saw Janet T’s suggestion of “reflections” I knew that was what I was missing.  So, it is now christened “Prism Reflections”.  Thank you Janet.  I may have to hire her as my official quilt namer.  A few years back on The Quilting Post we were using another of my designs as a BOM.  This quilt needed a name.

  So I asked the TQP ladies to help name it and Janet T’s suggestion was the keeper – Ode to Spring.   Fit it perfectly.  Wonder how much you have to pay a person to be your official quilt namer – she’s got the knack! 🙂

Design Wall Monday

 Here’s what’s on the design wall today.  More pieces of Continuous Chain I was working on yesterday.

But here’s what’s not on the design wall.

 

 

 

 All the dampness in the air having the windows open yesterday while it was drizzling must have sent them tumbling off the wall.  Good thing it was just a temporary spot and they weren’t really laid out in order.

Check this out. 

 Pat Bandura sent me a photo of the quilt she made for her grandson from my Baxter at the Beach design in the EQ download files.  It turned out wonderful Pat and look at that ribbon! she entered it in her local show and it took first place.  She added her own touch with the border pattern which sets if off so nicely.  One lucky grandson! Congratulations Pat! and thanks for sharing the photo.

 

Denise

Just one more minute

Remember when you were a kid and didn’t want to come inside from playing or wanted to avoid bedtime… just one more minute? was the plea (tho it seldom worked).   I had just one more thought so decided to keep EQ open… just one more minute (translate to about actually an hour).   But I came up with a pieced border I liked, changed some colors around, changed other border sizes, change the block size (it’s paper pieced so I didn’t want to have to tape pattern pieces together for a larger sized block) and made the project smaller (again it’s paperpieced – smaller project less to paper piece) and voila! I think I like this version as is.   Alas, it still needs a name.