Sewing progress – 11/21/2105

 Well there were many things I thought I might do today but I got a bit sidetracked when I realized I had two quilt patterns I needed to finish writing up and send off.  Those are done and I did get to the item at the top of my list to do today.  I wanted to get the blocks sashed and rows together on this quilt and I did.

I need to put one final row of the gray sashing all the way around.  Originally it was going to have the cornerstones in the outer sash where the blocks meet but since my next border is going to be a black print (at least that’s the plan at the moment) I don’t think I want the black cornerstones around the outside.  Hopefully I’ll get the borders on this tomorrow.

 

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.

July Camp Loopy Project

It’s the 4th of July and the top is finished for my July Camp Loopy project.   So I’m definitely ahead of schedule at least for the moment.

I’m going to have to see if there’s any batting here but hopefully next weekend I’ll get it layered and ready to go.

 

Then since I had all these batiks piled around me I decided why not pull out a bunch more.  So grabbed a stack from the closet and I was just going to cut out a block or two to test a new pattern to make sure things fit together correctly.    You know how I get, that led to cutting out more blocks and I have nearly the whole design up on my design wall.

It looks totally different in the batiks compared to the fabric line it was design for but I like it nonetheless.  Some of the single triangles get replaced with sections made up of pieced triangles so when all the rows are sewn together they look like hexagons.  But I wanted to fill most of it in on the design wall to see how I liked I before making the smaller blocks to substitute in.  I have one pieced area done but the fabrics are too light and blend with each other too much so that will be replaced.  Of course my photo doesn’t really do the fabrics justice since the lights in the sewing room throw a yellow cast light at night but it’s going to be a fun riot of color.

Needless to say, tomorrow will be spent folding and putting away fabrics since the table, chair, floor and ironing board are buried under them.

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.

Tragelaphus Strepsiceros Quilt

No – my fingers were not on the wrong keys – I really am making a large wall hanging for The Loopy Ewe Fabric Safari Camp loosely based on a Tragelaphus Strepsiceros, otherwise known as a Greater Kudu which is an African antelope.

But that’s now how I started out.  I had a plan to use the fabrics I ordered for sort of landscape – I have some stripes with birds (those would be random strips in the sky) and similar striped looking fabric with animals and trees (random strips along the bottom) and I’d applique some African animal silouhettes – that was my general basic plan along with maybe printout out some actual photographs of African animals and framing them so they looked like vacation/safari photos.  Then my other plan I had been thinking of was something along the lines of African masks.  But I randomly started adding in strips in EQ7 to a custom layout quilt and when I got this far..

I decided that hey – that design made by the lighter colored print (not the stripe) looked like squiggly (highly technical term) 🙂 horns.  Isn’t there an African animal with squiggly horns — a little web surfing to the rescue and meet the Tragelaphus Strepsiceros with the squiggly horns.

Oh yeah — my plan emerged — sort of a squiggly horned animal mask — not made to specifically look like him (when you see my you will note among other things I didn’t add ears to mine) – but my final design was definitely “inspired” by this photo.  I love he white line across the face that makes them look like they had their sunglasses on in the sun too long an then took them off and had a tan line there!

So this is just the general look of what I will be making — the fabric images are not to scale — it’s going to be a large wall hanging about 72″ x 45″ when it’s done and yes – I need to get it made start to finish between June 1 and June 30. Yikes! But then I have been thinking I need to schedule a vacation day or two  soon.

Any way, since Tragelaphus Strepsiceros  is a mouthful, I think I’ll just call this design Safari Squiggles. 😉  There may still be a few tweaks before June 1 on the design (and I had to order just a little more fabric since I ordered before having a project designed) but I think it’s going to be fun to make.  The “traditional” block (you have to include at least one) I’m using is the Roman Stripe which makes up the border blocks and four of them used together make the medallions above and below the Squiggles’ heads.

Now that I’ve spent the entire morning playing in EQ – I need to get dressed and get to those cleaning chores!

Camp Loopy …. Safari Style

While it was “Glamping” in fancy campers last year for Camp Loopy, this year, we’re going on Safari!  I decided I would not drive myself crazy doing both Knitting Safari and Sewing Safari and plan to do just the Sewing Safari this year.  Information for both groups are on the Loopy Ewe Blog.  This post is the fabric version and has all the specifics and rules for the first project and the post the day before the one I linked is for the knit/crochet version.  I don’t think I’ve missed a single Camp year and it’s always loads of fun.  Also a great way to get some Christmas gifts done early if you are one of those advance planners.

Anyway – the logo for the Safari is oh so adorable.  There was one fabric line I had been thinking about using for a project but last time I placed an order I didn’t get it, specifically in the hopes it would work for one of the Camp projects.  Well it’s absolutely perfect for a Safari project.

Most of the fabrics are from the Serengeti line.  Yes, we are only required to use 4 one-half yard cuts for the first project.  Yes, I know you can count and there a few more more than twice as many fabric images shown at the left.  Yes, I got a bit carried way … but I have a plan and with exactly a month from start to finish it simply would not do to run out of fabric and have to wait for more since this plan is just floating around in my brain, changing and growing and has not yet been figured out in those pesky specifics like inches and yards.  But I love those fabrics.

Can’t wait until the Safari starts!

I couldn’t resist

I did take a break after dinner in my cleaning – totally distracted by the fabrics I got for the Onsie baby quilt I want to make.  I wanted to see how some of them looked cut out to shape.  So I quickly grabbed the freezer paper and traced the pattern, folded the paper to make multiple copies, cut them out and ironed them on.  In just a few minute I had all of these cut out.  The background fabric will be a white tone on tone.  The top six, were from the fat quarters I bought today; the bottom two came from the stash.

I still need to pick fabrics for four more blocks but I may also replace one of these with something else since I’m not sure I like it.  It should be a fun and quick quilt to make.

Piece & Comfort Challenge by Moda

Challenge quilts from various participating quilt shops are now available for viewing (and voting!) on the Moda blog.

The challenge was to create a quilt, meeting the size requirements, and using the challenge fabrics.  There were two different fabric lines that you could use and pretty much the rest of was up to the quilter.  I’m always up for a challenge and most of my quilts are donated to one place or another, so this was the perfect opportunity to find a way to use the fabric and then in the end, have it donated to a military family.  The quilt design as actually already drawn in EQ but I hadn’t found the right fabrics to use for it.  When I saw the fabric that has the silhouettes of service people on it, I thought the design just might be perfect since I didn’t want to cut that particular fabric up much.

The quilts, when finished, were to be sent to “your participating quilt shop”.  In this case, my participating quilt shop, from where I ordered the fabric (which also happens to be my favorite online yarn shop) is over 1,000 miles away in Ft. Collins, CO.  🙂  Off to The Loopy Ewe I sent my quilt called: Diamond Formation.

 Sheri, owner of The Loopy Ewe (TLE), snapped this photo and posted in the Ravelry TLE fabric thread of my quilt hanging in the shop. (Yes there is a Ravelry thread for Loopy Fabric Groupies). 🙂

The second photo I snagged off the Moda blog, which I’m sure was taken by Sheri’s very talented photographer husband.

So, one quilt photo was then submitted to Moda per quilt shop for judging there.  (I lucked out – I think I was the only submission) 😉   So on to the voting on the Moda blog for the quilt you like best.  If you choose to vote for me, thanks!  It’s listed in the right sidebar of the Moda Blog as “The Loopy Ewe – Denise Russart”.  However, there are many gorgeous quilts in the submissions – some original, some not, some modern, some traditional – so much eye candy!  And if you make Quilts of Valor or other patriotic quilts — you may get some new quilt ideas.

The link to the Moda Blog is http://blog.modafabrics.com/2015/04/piece-comfort/

You can see all the quilts at that link and vote for the one you like best. Voting is open until midnight, May 6 and you can vote once a day.

Now if patriotic fabrics aren’t your thing, but quilts with flying geese in them are, I’m planning a quilt along using this same pattern.  For the quilt along, the design has been renamed Block Party Picnic (named after the fabric line I picked to use for my quilt along version (Block Party – which by coincidence is also Moda Fabric and can be found at The Loopy Ewe)  (totally unsolicited plug for TLE – I love their fabric selections and heck you earn “rewards” buying fabric just like buying yarn, what’s not to love.  It’s like getting a present when that Box of Fun arrives and your fabrics are all in tidy stacks tied up with bright red ribbons).

Anyway, here’s the EQ drawing of the version I’ll be making for the quilt along. It’s a very bright and happy quilt in those fabrics so I can’t wait to start working on it.

The Block Party Picnic quilt along is set to start on May 25 May 23 (the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in the U.S.).  If you click on the button for the information page about this quilt along (button is in the right sidebar and looks like the quilt image),  you’ll find all the pertinent information to date, including downloads for  yardage and a line drawing so you can color in and plot your own unique color placement of fabrics, etc.  The shop for some fun fabrics, dig in the stash, make every flying geese a different fabric, use 30’s prints, solids, what about a dark background and bright batiks – lots of possibilities – so I hope you’ll be gathering your fabrics so you can sew/quilt along with me.

4/5/15 Stashbusting Report

 

Autumn Ripples Revisited – 4/4/15

I just had to show yesterday’s finish again because I love fall colored quilts.  You can see the full report here with updated photos of recent finishes/ufos to completed top stage.  One more project out of the tops stash and now finished and ready to use and today’s project will be quilting a baby quilt which I should have done by the end of the day.  Then on to quilting the queen size wedding quilt.

It’s been a very relaxing week of vacation with much knitting and quilting – someone really should clean up the mess I made in the sewing room but for today, I’ll concentrate on quilting.

So 10 more yards used this week, no purchases added in. There are purchases coming, but they haven’t arrived yet.  The purchases will be for the Block Party Picnic quilt along and I might have ordered a quilt kit – something I very seldom do since I normally like picking my own fabrics.  But it was on sale, and it’s a bit of a mystery since it warns that some of the fabrics are not the same as shown – and it’s one of those designs that just makes me smile when I look at it.  Thank goodness vacation is over and I go back to work tomorrow – being on vacation can be expensive even if you don’t go anywhere. 🙂

But in the meantime, if you’d like to work on a great stashbusting quilt (or need an excuse to order new fabric) click the Block Party Picnic image in the sidebar and it will take you to the links for the yardage, color image of the quilt, and also a blank line drawing in case you want to get your colored pencils out and color in where you want to place certain fabrics.  I haven’t decided the exact date for the Block Party Picnic QAL, but it will be sometime next month.

Happy stashbusting!