My goodness this past month has flown by. I have been very busy in the quilting aspect of things. I got my Mona Lisa quilt completed. We all know the original Mona Lisa was not that beautiful, but she is still a work of art. This process is outlined in the second half of the first video, and all of part2 video.
Basically this is a gob of raw edge scraps just thrown onto the longarm in no particular pattern which then gets encapsulated with organza. This is great for orphan blocks that are not the same size or very strange shaped scraps. This works for the straight cuts and such too.
I chose to quilt this with uneven spaced lines. It adds a modern touch to this scrappy event.
And to look at the quilt as a whole really looks like abstract art. I am not a fan of abstract art, but really like how the dark colors are softened with the organza and how artsy fartsy this looks because that is not my style. I created something abnormal for me. I used about 4 gallons of scraps. I could probably make this repeatedly for about 15 quilts.
And here is the completed quilt. And yes, I am calling this less than pretty girl, Mona Lisa. She is not much to look at, but she is a work of abstract art. HAHA.
This has me brainstorming about my half square triangles. If I just press them open I could do this and not have to square them up, nor make them all measurably the same size. Hmmm…the gears are turning.
Additionally I got back to some scrappy swap squares from 2019. I took those 9 patches and made them into stars. There were not very many in the swap, but I wanted a quilt of usable size. So I put those scraps to use. The center 9 patches of the stars were from a TOGA (treadle on gathering academy) retreat and each of those blocks is signed and the vintage machine listed. I hold these very special as the group moved to a different location which I can attend, it just is farther away….one day.
I am also digging through my Kaffe Fasset and cutting those down into precut sizes and using those up. Even though they are on the large size of scraps, I guess everyone defines the size of the scrap themselves. It is alot like a personal 1/4 inch LOL.
I have been busy busy. And I am on the planning committee this year for our annual quilt hop. This will be some scrappy quilt patterns when the time comes I will make sure to share that design too.
Be sure to check out all the scrap happy loveliness below by clicking the links. And thank you for reading my blog!
Greetings all! Welcome (back) to the No Name Yet Quilt Along. Today is an easy 16 patch of HSTs. In EQ8 it was called Mosaic Number 17.
As compared to previous weeks, this block you will find a cinch. There are no written instructions this week other than, gather your fabrics, cut strips at 2 inches. Use your easy angle ruler to make 16 sets. Sew those sets of HSTs. Press to the dark side. Trim to 2 inches. Sew hour HSTs into rows. Sew each row together nesting seams. I pressed every other row in a different direction. Spin the seams when you can, and viola, block done!
Here is the video for the make of this block. Due to the holiday, I could not run video or audio, it is what it is. But this one is simple enough
Move over Tilda blocks. Changing lanes, changing speed, changing course, changing heading!
I tend to be an opportunist and strike when the iron is hot! As a quilter, I have a bucket list of quilts. One that has been on the list the longest is the Cathedral Windows quilt. I have make a couple of these blocks in the past and they are very fiddly. You take a square, fold it in half twice, then sew a seam and turn it right side out, and a gob of pressing 1/2 seam allowance all which get hidden underneath the cathedral windows style quilt melons. It is very persnickety.
I actually come across a quilt along that is starting offering a free pattern for making an improved version of the cathedral windows, but with out all the fussiness! Make sure you go sign up for the free pattern, you are sharing your email to get the pattern. No strings attached. If this is on your bucket list you can opt to stitch along or sit out and wait until you get finished with your current project. go to LowandBeholdstitchery.com to sign up for the free pattern which will be in your email inbox.
This is not my pattern so I cannot share any of the details with you, but the pattern is free and oh sew much easier than the standard cathdral windows pattern.
I am going for a charmed versions of this pattern where all of my scraps are different, which if I make this king size will be more than 2000 fabrics. Do I even have more than 2000 fabrics? Between charm packs, scraps, and other precuts, I just might. (I am unsure if I should be glad about this or disturbed by how much fabric stash I have!). This picture is only 250 square scraps, which is not even 1/4 of the way there. Maybe this will be smaller. My fabrics will end up determining my size.
I have a whole bolt of this orange. This is a Riley Blake bolt. If this goes to king size it requires over 9 yards of the background fabric…..so orange it is. This quilt would be gorgeous with two colors for the background making them every other square.
Here is what I have gotten done so far. I have learned that the ugly fabrics you put in the starting blocks, and the interesting prints you put on the top for the diamonds.
Gosh, this has been on my bucket list for a long time and it is finally happening!!!!
And here is the not so glamorous side, the back. I have not given thought to how I will quilt this when the time comes, but I have plenty of time to brainstorm on this.
What else have I been up to? Well, I have been thinking pretty hard about the costs of this hobby. Let’s talk quilting templates. They are so expensive for plastic which is very readily available and no shortage in supply, but gosh darn it hits ya right in the pocket book. I got to thinking why not 3D print and give these template manufacturers a run for their money. These print out relatively fast and this one cost only 5 dollars.
He made it see thru as best he could. And guess what? This arch matches the arch in the cathedral windows perfectly. And if your template slips at the longarm, because of all the holes manufactured, it will not untimely your machine if that happens.
I was also thinking, what if I design a spirograph for behind the longarm. Yeah, a template with gears like the spirograph that is placed where you put the pantograph kind of working like Hartley fence which is no longer manufactured, and it would stitch out the prettiest flower ever. That is in the works now and I presume will be more costly. But gosh, it beats cost of computerized and would come with the same accuracy. If any of you are interested in quilting templates made from a 3D printer, I will get you the link to the guy I purchased from. He has an Etsy shop and said he could make these up if there is interest. Reach out to me and let me know if you are interested in his Etsy.
I have taken the day off and will relish in the fact I do not have to get out in the 109 heat today! Sew day proclaimed it is! And thank you for reading my blog!
I have refrained from blogging during this make. I signed up for a secretive swap and I did not want to let the cat out of the bag so to speak. As this posts, my mini quilt will have been received by it’s new home and this post will get all eyes who wish to look.
I have never swapped a whole quilt before. Basically how this swap went, you signed up and answered a few questions of things you like. And a couple of posts on instagram of all your interests, your swap partner collected this information and makes you a miniature quilt from your suggestions and tweaks it a little with something she likes.
I am not going to lie, after first I was very insecure about this because the clues the swap partner gives are random and unrelated. My swap partner likes pink and gummy worms. In a later post, she likes Halloween fabric, listed some patterns she likes and divulged she likes hexagons.
The hexagon clue was the start down the path. I am not gonna fib about this either, when I started down the hexi path I did not have a plan. You could call this make improv totally from start to finish. My idea originally was to just cut out some neutral and pink hexis and sew them together. After glue basting (more on this in minute), I realized, all this cutting and stuff I had done was going to leave me an inch shy of being legal size in the swap. The shape I was making was more of not a shape at all, but just a bunch of hexis in a grouping, that was more rectangular and kind of blah.
And I started getting very insecure about this choice I made because no one wants to gift a handmade gift, and the recipient NOT like it. So, I went back and reread what she liked. She liked Bee’s. Wait, the light bulb moment turned on and just like that I was a tad more confident in my choice.
That little three letter word, Bee, saved this project from being an epic fail. Because Bees like flowers, I would transform the hexis into a flower shape and insert a bee somehow in the flower. I recall I had two fabrics with bees on it, one pictured above and another that was black and yellow on turquoise. Since this project was going down the road of very pastel in nature, I opted with fussy cutting a few Bees out of this fabric and making that work.
Also, during this, I had another light bulb moment. I used the accuquilt cube to cut out the hexi shapes. There is also a die to cut out the hexi papers. But, I did NOT want to have to remove papers because I was a little scared. You see I always use elmers school glue stick for my papers. In all the years I have been working with english paper piecing this is a cheaper alternative to the expensive glue pens that the niche market sells. I have yet to remove any of those papers and am just not so sure how well they would remove. So, with my thinking cap on, I opted to cut my papers out of interfacing. I could leave them in. And by leaving them in, the flower can become part of an applique. This will allow the project to have a background, and the background can be sized to make it a decent size mini quilt. Jackpot!
Here I am at the ironing board and snapped a photo of the interfacing papers. I also attached this using the same glue to the back ground which held it in place nicely while I applique stitched it in place. I placed the green stem and if you look at this, the green stem looked like it was leaning, even though the flower itself was perfectly centered. One of the hexis, not sure if it was green or pink, was not folded correctly and therefore made the attachment lean of the stem. So if you can not beat them, join them as I always say. I opted not to fight with that, and again, organically, this changed paths again, and made a much less symmetrical stem. Now it almost looks like a famous impression of a rose, with a curving stem and its leaves.
I also opted to make a couple more busy bees in the back ground sky. Another mention of my swap partner, she likes neon fabrics. Well, this rose print with it’s very neon looking green leaves with a touch of pink and turquoise was a perfect match to make a backing and some bias binding. A couple other things that the swap wanted you to do, is to install triangles in the corners at the binding and a label. One was for ease of hanging, and the label will let everyone know who comes across this mini quilt, who it was for, who it came from, and when it happened.
This make was a joy for me. The gift of giving lifts ones spirits and brings so many positive emotions. If you have not gifted part of yourself in a handmade gift, you have no idea what I am talking about. I look forward to future swaps because this was not a big project, rather quick from start to finish, fun, and an emotional boost for the soul!!!
This mini quilt swap was so much fun that I have decided in gifting another mini quilt. It will ship off before this posts.
This is probably smaller than a mug rug, but the recipient loves purple. There is more to this that I will not write about here, but I am also sending this with a gag that is hilarious. I am still making the gag. I will let you know how the reception is once that happens. I can’t wait to see the laugh and smile as well as the joy of this person because I made this special for her. I am very confident she will love it and cherrish it.
But wait, there is more. I will probably give a full post on this in the coming week for scrap happy. I am using some more scraps. This time I have opted to try and feel cool in this blistering hot summer.
Tilda’s swim team is under needle and foot. And these gals make me smile and daydream of days in a pool in the throws of summer. I am not sure how big I will make this. Ideally I want to make a full size quilt, but it would make a lovely mini, a cute pillow, and wonderful wall hanging. I will write more about this make in my next post.
I have had so much fun making these. These are NOT paper pieced. The legs and arms are the most frustrating part.
Sorry for not checking in, but I did not want to be tempted with showing off! haha
All of us women know that when you make a plan to sew, life happens and then we are left picking up the pieces trying to make life suitable for the situation thrown at us. In the past three weeks, I have managed to sew, but it has been very limited. First, I blew up the engine in my car. I was behind someone who would not maintain their speed, so when I got into a straight stretch, I went around them. My car stalled, and I coasted to a stop. Rather embarassing to break down in the passing of another car. The good news, it was not raining, it was not hot, it was still in the early morning during the commute, and what is even better, a coworker just drove by right when I realized the car was DOA. I was able to call him (thankfully my cell phone was charged), and not even be late to work that day. I also managed to catch a ride home with another coworker which saved the family coming after me.
The bad news, we towed the car to our mechanic and he said the engine was blown. There may or may not be more to this story at a later time.
Last weekend, was my parents 59th wedding anniversary, so they went to the casinos to gamble. I never heard if they done ok, I presume since they did not say they lost their money. While at the casino, my mom had a spell where she felt like she was going to faint. This has happened with actual fainting twice before. Twice before she was hauled in by ambulance and they could not figure out what was wrong with her. My mom had had a stroke back in 2018, which she fully recovered from, so when fainting is involved, we all worry. The fainting spell passed, and then the next day while mom was sitting watching tv, she realized she was feeling poorly again. This time she remembered to look at her fit bit. Her heart rate while sitting watching tv was elevated. So my Dad rushed her to the emergency room. This time she got diagnosed and medicated for a condition called AFIB. Mom had extensive testing the last time this happened and they could not find out what was wrong with her. This time her watch gave the doctors all the clues they needed to give a diagnoses and treatment. She was in the hospital for several days because she was at risk for stroke.
So this chickadee has not done much sewing. I should have gotten twice this amount done. But life happened, and now just like quilting I am putting all the pieces back together.
Sewcialites 2 is not yet a top, but I got a very good amount done. Forgive me as my rows are not in alignment but it gives the visual I needed to snap the photo. Right now this is 54 by 54.
Looking at this, is very hard. The color placement for the kaleidoscope blocks gets lost with all the color business. Lesson Learned, there is one block that turned out how I imagined it would. The Doug Leko block that is in the second row of sewcialite blocks and is on the right, the adjoining blocks circle that block almost entirely red. If I would have used a solid color to do my setting blocks, this would have given it the effect I was going for. I do like how the blocks all stair step. That is the thing I struggle with the most when “designing” a quilt. Knowing what the overall appearance will be when finished. Do any of you struggle with this? Normally all goes well for me, but about once a year, I have a quilt that is imagined, but the results are so very different. The good news is, I am rounding off to this UFO being done and moving it to another pile for tally. I aim to get this done today. Because this did not turn out how I thought it would, I am probably not going to make it any bigger. And I am calling this Clown Barf, one because it is the colors of a clown and 2 because I don’t like it. And the photo is doing it more justice than it deserves. This one will be best viewed from a great distance. The further back you step, the better it looks.
This week has not been a very productive week, and not all of them can be. We all live life, and life gets in the way. This week the hives have showed up. Amazingly they were not bad. And I am so thankful they seem to be gone. I am not gonna lie, the last time I had the hives I was bedridden with them and vowed to go to the doctor right away when they present themselves. This time I had very little itching, and the histamine reaction was low for swelling.
But, being on 24 hour allergy medicine knocks me out. And the doc said to take two 24 hour in one day. I might as well have taken bendryl because that knocks me out but for a shorter amount of time. Through my hiving, I continued to work, only missing an hour and a half for the doc appointment. As successful as this flair was, the doctor told me the stuff I had this time can affect my organs and to make sure I do not have any throat swelling shut!!! He said I really needed to figure out what caused them.
Since I am a creature of habit, the process of elimination was very easy this time. I believe it was something I ate. Last Saturday I made brownies. After mentioning this in my discord server, the ladies ooooed and ahhhhed over my picture. I made a brownie post on my other blog, the cook book project. If you are interested in that recipe, make sure to click the link and make some for yourself.
I have made brownies from scratch around 4 times. This involves a higher than normal amount of cocoa powder than cake which I also make from scratch. The whole pan of brownies was gone by Tuesday morning. Since I don’t make these often, I induldged. I do believe I am allergic to the cocoa powder. I have no other symptoms yet. After looking at the cocoa powder, it had expired 3 years ago. After looking into “does cocoa powder go bad” the answer I got was no. But I think it does. You cannot believe everything on the internet. And because this is a nut or bean that is processed to death, I believe I had a reaction to the high alkali content. I was telling mom when I cooked them on the stovetop, the alkali stained my stainless steel. Turned the pan blue. My mom used to work in a bakery and I was telling her it blued my pan, and she said the cocoa powder was probably good stuff!
Brownies was the only different food I had eaten all week. All of my creams, cosmetics, soaps, detergents, and “beauty” regiment had not changed. Although there was some new gold bond cream that I had been trying out, but had used that for over a week before the hives showed up. I suppose the brownies could have raised my alkalinity enough to react with the lotion???? As the week got farther from my last brownie, the hives disappeared.
So, as life came back to normal, the sewing commenced!
I dug around in my projects determined to get going on this.
And I almost forgot why this became a UFO, I could have sworn it was for lack of fabric in the triangle settings since this was on point. But low and behold as a dug through the bin, I had plenty of fabric. But that fabric just did not speak to me. I have decided to take a scan of these blocks on a copy machine and upload it to spoonflower to fill in the setting triangles. Because I am on a no buy fabric diet, this went back into its bin until next year.
In digging around in the bin, I found the backing for this, as well as several large pieces of white fabrics. Even a lovely gradient I had purchased thinking that would be what those triangles needed. I also found some vintage feedsack fabric in the bin. These bloomers I made eons ago and wore them out. And then they quit fitting. My grandmother was still alive when I raided her small fabric stash. There was half a yard of each print. Not enough to make shorts of one color. So I made each side a different color and contrasted the gathered fabric too. These are so soft, and because the fabric was from my grandmother, I cannot get rid of them. Eventually these shorts will end up in a quilt!
As disappointed as I was to put this away, I got out yet another project bin. Spinning 9 patch it is!
And when I got this out, I realized I used up all of my green bar fabric for other quilts and have very little left. This quilt needs the blocks homogenized so the spin shows up. So I grouped them by color which seemed to do the trick. I will eventually sew some greens to go around the perimeter of this. I think this will work.
When the design wall is full and you need a photo op, who says sewcialites2 cannot photo bomb the spinning 9 patch? hehe
That was last weeks block. And here is this weeks block…
The above block was designed by Doug Leko and I just LOVE IT! This looks complicated, but it is just some folded corners over some rectangles and some flying geese, with a pinwheel HST. I can just imagine a whole quilt made with this pattern. Perhaps this will make my new bucket list page on my pinterest board. Yes, when I have started to get inspired by all the quilty pretty things out there, I made a bucket list for quilting. No, I cannot share it, because I have made that board private.
Additionally, this week I was gifted two major patterns, the Dear Jane book, and the Tula Butterfly pattern. There is currently a sew along going on with the Tula Butterfly. As much as I want to dive into that, I am holding off.
I look forward to making both of these and maybe as a reward for getting some UFOs done I will dive into these makes. The Tula pattern since I Have no Tula fabric, I will have to plan big for the fabrics I have. I am thinking of a theme with the monarch butterfly. So blacks, yellows, oranges and whites….there is a coloring page for this pattern so I will probably play with that quite a bit and may totally reassign colors within the blocks. Believe it or not, this pattern is not hard at all if you just take it one block at a time.
Not feeling good today, feels like I have the flu. Others in the house are sick too. Hopefully I will get some sewing done. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog!
I have decided on a regular post schedule for each month to try to bring common ground and consistency to my blog readers. Today is the introductory post for the rest of the year. For those of you who follow my blog know I posted about some goals that I want to complete in the new year. Each month I will revisit my list and hopefully check mark the things I have accomplished. My list is long, so I recommend reading that blog post here. Posts that will not be affected by this are my ScrapHappy posts, which are also monthly posts. I have been doing pretty good to post weekly. I presume once a month the normal weekly blog post will just have a different title. Normal content will remain with my list and any successes or failures from the past month. Be looking for my checklists to posts around the 1st of each month. I am going to call this #CrossItOffTheList2023
So, let’s start right to business:
I had selected quilt backings to match with 6 quilt tops
5 of 6 backings are pieced and ready for longarm quilting ✅
My list of quilts to bind is 2
One is now complete ✅
Quilting quilts is still undone. The weather must warm up for quilting in the garage.
Make new design wall ✅ See new design wall captured below
Recover ironing board✅
My UFO list has made no progress
Stay on track for sew alongs
Sewcialites2✅
Triple Irish Chain (I am ahead)✅✅
Do not allow social media influencers to get to me adding squirrel projects. One day in and I am still good.✅😂
No fabric purchases for 2023, again 1 day in and all is good.✅🤣 However, I did enjoy spending on the Sew Yeah Brothers new years eve sale, which will be the last for 2022 and 2023.
Here is my new ironing board cover
Here is my latest Sewcialites2 block
Here are my 91 patches for the triple Irish chain
Here is the bound quilt
And in reference to my Sallie Tomato Smith kit, I learned something that may be the reason for the failure. Faux leather comes in different weights. Is it possible they sent me the lighter weight? After thinking about this pretty deeply and really wanting a case, I will probably remake this with quilting cottons and bosal foam for rigidity and bind the raw edges, make a pocket without a zipper. I will not have to purchase anything for the make. But, first I want to work on UFOs before I come to terms with the Smith Kit.
Well, I have had a recap of the year, and set goals for the year. I feel whatever I get accomplished now is above and beyond this year and next.
I did set goals for this past week. I Will be crossing the last off the list as this posts.
Goals for the past week were:
Finish sewing the red flags to the outer white and blue portion of the cog
Determine the fill in points left on that outer red, white, and blue cog
Make #Sewcialites2 quilt block of the week
Make a video of quilting hacks and tips for the sewing machine
I have picked the red stripe to fill in the unused diamonds, and the same white for the remaining triangles on the stars. And Because I started this on the laptop, and am finishing on the ipad, I cannot figure out how to do a strike through, grrrr.
I snapped this photo before I got it done. The hustle and bustle of the week left me wondering if I would have time later for a photo op. Oh and a new design wall is up, lol!
And this cog after the last round will be about 24 inches. This has outgrown the art bin container I have been using. So the last squirrel of 2022 happened. I made a bag for storage so it will not get wrinkled and messed up. I hunted my stash for some pretty fabrics, and did not settle on pretty. I used a 90s navy blue ornate stripe, with another red print I had a gob of. I wanted it to be a zippered pouch, but could not find my zipper tape!
Usable, not the prettiest, but workable.
The side with the pink, is a shower curtain with a binding on the edge, for the big cog to slip into. I made two pockets for the other side for the pattern, all the paper pieces, and the book. This will keep the dust from settling on my project regardless of how much time passes.
And last Friday I watched Sew Beccas Live on youtube, and won her giveaway! Check that video out here for the replay.
And speaking of youtube, today Sean, the Guy Who Sews on youtube had a wonderful coming together of many content creators showing their favorite quilts, with the quilt story, and I was lucky enough to be chosen for this colab! Curious about my quilt? Curious about all the quilts? Make sure you watch the video, this video was a joy to watch.
The icons show the order of story. At the end you can vote for your favorites. Wonder, beautiful quilts with lovely stories!
So here are my winnings from Sew Becca’s Friday night live.
A beautiful pile of nice size scraps, and a home made slap bracelet for pins and wonderclips. If you are interested in owning one of these, this was given to Sew Becca from Jamie the maker. Here is her details for her etsy shop.
And after watching Coriander Quilts last Saturday decided to prep for a quilt along. This week I sorted through my 2 1/2 inch squares picked out what colorway direction I wanted to go. And then vigorously prepped and cut 800 plus 2 1/2 inch squares. That took a couple of days. Here is my boxful, and in the coming week will prep the background and one continuous print.
Colors are turquoise, white, off white, yellow, pink, red, with a white background, and a solid turquoise. Going controlled scrappy.
Not setting any goals for the week. It is officially family time. Merry Christmas! And thank you for reading my blog!
Hello folks! Welcome to the Churn Dash Quilt Along! In this instruction I am deciding on the weekly blocks. I know none of the list above makes a bit of sense above, but today and always you can come and refer back to this page as it will never go away! As promised I am stating fabric requirements in this blog post as well as the dates for all the posts. This is a weekly quilt along, meaning instructions will be given out weekly. Does this mean you have to sew all your blocks in a week? The easy answer is no, sew at your own pace, make the blocks whatever week you wish, or whatever fits your schedule. Be sure to bookmark this page so you can refer back to it regularly. I will link each instruction as it comes out to this post. So as time transpires, the blocks will all be linked here in one place with build instructions at the linked page.
I will always link my instagram account and my youtube channel to this blog so you can get it all here. I will also link this blog in instagram, youtube, and to the Quilt Space App so everything is all criss-crossing in social media so it will be easier for you to pick and choose how you want to quilt along. If you are a visual learner, you may want to head to youtube. If you like very detailed text instructions, this may be the right place for you.
Fabric requirements:
I was shocked how much fabric will go into the quilt. The calculator in EQ8 gave the fabric requirements, and I think it estimates high. But if it is one thing us quilters have, its fabric. So, shop your stash and scraps. And remember as you scrap along with this quilt along, if you run out of a neutrals or blues, you can always add to this as you sew your blocks. That is the real beauty of this scrappy quilt along. Use what you have and if it is not enough, buy more and add to it at any time!
These neutrals I eliminated because of the saturation of another color. When I stand greater than 6 ft from these pieces, they are no longer white. The red and white becomes a weird pink. And of course the print on the blue and white, you see blue from across the room, not white.
For your neutrals (backgrounds), you will need 5 1/2 yards of various whites, off whites, ecrus, tans, light grays, or very light pastels. Do you need to stick to my plan of fabric choices? Absolutely not. You can use black fabric as your back ground if you wish. Having a large variety of prints for this will make it look nice and scrappy. My plan is to create each block as it’s own mini quilt. This may just use two colors of fabrics or up to 16 fabrics. Use your scraps wisely.
And for your blues (or whatever color you decide), you will need 4 1/2 yards of scraps or yardage. Make sure you have many colors of blue, probably more so than your neutrals. I designed this quilt and used 33 different fabrics. Let’s look closely at hue of color for a moment.
It is probably a good idea to just make a huge fabric pull of blues, and segregate them into categories. Dark blue like navy blues, country blues, gray blues, and so on. Ultimately it is your quilt, but you may want to refrain from pastel blues as this will wash out with the neutrals. It may be possible depending on your fabric pull if you could sneak teals, or turquoise in, but this is where your camera can come in handy. Make your color fabric pull, take a picture, and then turn it black and white. See how well the values of your fabrics play together using that feature. If there is something that just looks amiss in that black and white photo, probably a good idea to eliminate it from your quilt. As a rule of thumb, whatever color you decide for your churn dash, get a paint swatch that matches the color you want at the hardware store. The swatches are free. You can then go darker by a couple colors, or lighter by a couple colors. But you really want to stick to the darker fabrics in the scale on your swatch.
The lower right hand corner, I may eliminate that one as well as the blue and white stripe. These can impact the design of each block because of the small pieces. There is a floral above on the 4th fabric from the left. I will either use that on the larger pieces, or not use it at all.
Colors I do not recommend using with neutrals? Yellow. Yellow will be up against tans and grays and may get washed out. You can use yellow if you are using a dark background like blue or black.
This would be so much fun to do as a rainbow, and for those of you quilters who are experienced enough, go for it. Those of you who are not there in your quilting hobby, just pick two colors that compliment one another.
Can you use a designer line for this quilt along? You might be able to do that. I know that Lisa Bonegean has great blue bundles and great red bundles. Her colors are very close together in color saturation, so your blocks might get washed out.
Lets talk volume of fabrics. Many of these blocks have very small pieces. If you have a beautiful blue floral print and the flowers are white, if the flowers are larger than 1/2 inch, you may not want to use that fabric on the smaller pieces. Have you ever seen a quilt that the piecing just happened to have a coordinating color in the neutral fabric placed next to the color fabric and bam, when you step back from the quilt, it looks weird, like the block was constructed wrong? Volume of fabrics is important. Not saying you cannot use it period, but save those pieces for the larger scraps in this quilt. Having a good variety of solids, polka dots, plaids, and prints will make the quilt sparkle with color.
The tools I recommend using:
You can utilize the following tools. But use what works best for you. I know every one has a different method for making a covered corner, HST, or even a triangle in a square. For some blocks I will provide templates. I recommend the following:
All of these will allow you more accurate piecing and get the job done faster. (I will provide foundation papers to cut all irregular pieces with a normal ruler.) All of these tools are linked to Amazon so you can see the pricing (no I am not affiliated, and no I do not make money from any of this). The priciest is the Folded Corners. You are more than welcome to draw a line on your squares and get the same result. Do you have to purchase rulers….no. My instructions will give at least two ways to get where you need to. One way may use more fabric than the other, so if your scraps are small, you may want to think about some of these rulers.
And lastly, ladies and gentlemen, please be kind. This is my first quilt along. I am human and can error. I will do my best to go forth accurately. This is a huge undertaking. I work a 40 hour job, and my weekends are filled with chores. Do I know what time I will make the post each Saturday until it is done? Nope. Like I said, I will do my best, be we all know life can get in the way, so I will be a graceful as possible in a normalcy of posts. But know, I may need to fudge a bit.
As promised here is the coloring page for you to determine your colors. If you are going rainbow, you can print this sheet out as many times as you need and play with crayons, map pencils, or markers.
And so I can find you, if you are on pinterest, instagram, or youtube and are sewing along, please post your photos with the following hashtag: #ScrappyChurnDashQAL
I will enjoy seeing all your blocks! Youtube does have a function that you can post pictures. If you have a youtube account use that and don’t forget the hashtag. You can also upload your photos to pinterest. I will be looking for you!
Please do not stress about this quilt along, and please if I have not made something crystal clear comment in social media and let me know and I will fix it.
Let the scraps fall as they may! And thank you for reading my blog!
Readers, my goal is to bring content. In the past several weeks, all I have accomplished is quilt show prep. Sleeves sewn. Quilt labels on. And surviving the heat wave of this summer. That heat wave makes one want to move as little as possible to survive and stay non-sweaty so to speak.
And then there was the quilt hop which I dedicated two whole days too, so not much sewing has occurred.
I did sew a tid-bit on the Farm Girl Vintage baby quilt. After staring at it for weeks on the design wall, I opted to remove the tractor and trailer. It messed with the Feng-Shui of the quilt. I am sick that I spent all that effort and am not going to use it. Without all the “rust” from the tractor, this looks a little more baby friendly. Because it was so large it drastically affected the layout. Before and After photos.
It needed the sparkle of color!
After looking at this a bit more I have also decided to add chenille for the tail, nostrils, and eyes. I want to sew buttons for the eyes, but am more worried about baby safety, so I will just make some eyes with bias.
I will be piecing this and aim to get this done with a nice girly border and hopefully start quilting it next weekend. But gosh, did I tell ya how hot it is here? It is supposed to cool off and not reach a 100 for a few days this week, so maybe that will add energy to my caboose!
I swung by the antique store today on my way home from work. The last time I was in there they had old copies of the workbasket, and because I did not have my glasses with me, I was not able to really see any of the fine print and patterns in the books. So today, glasses on, I enjoyed looking through them specifically for tatting patterns. And I found one that I will eventually make! Along with that I have been collecting old feedsack fabric and found a few of those bargained priced.
And amazingly I found a Jenny Beyer quilt kit (I KNOW RIGHT, at the antique store of all places). The pattern is called tessellating cats and it is no longer offered, but this kit back in 2001 originally sold for $140. I purchased it for 10. It looks like they cut out all the pieces in the correct shapes for foundation paper piecing, which is puzzling. I will attempt to make a go of it one day.
The kit I got seems to go to blue in one corner. The fabrics are rich and beautiful and the border print is gorgeous!
Well, like I said not much happened, perhaps in the coming weeks I will have a little more exciting posts. 🙂 And thank you for reading my blog!
myquiltprojects 