Wednesday, February 28, 2018

February OMG Successes

I have started on my English Paper Pieced Brimfield Blocks .  The plan is to make a Grinchie baby quilt. My problem is how to incorporate the panels into the quilt.  I have worked out a pattern for the tree blocks between the Brimfield blocks but the solution for the panels has not come to me yet.  I will probably incorporate them in a border somehow, but I am not happy with my first efforts.  Meanwhile a baby shower is being held Next month so I need to come up with another quilt.  I have the top underway.  I also finished washing and folding the last of the fabric from my sister-in-law.  And have begun to catch up on my mystery quilt.  

My successes include:

1.  Creating my own design using Brimfield EPP pieces.
2.  Fabric washing, folding and sorting.
3.  Designing a quilt to be made from the Elizabeth Hartman Blocks and Gyleen Fitzgerald Blocks.
4.  Catching up on Gina Perkes Mastery Ruler Class
5.  Designing a baby quilt from hour glass blocks and fabric that I cut up into panel sections. I also have a quilting plan that includes trying Batist Fan rulers and clamshell rulers.  

Come join in the fun at Elm Street Quilts and make your own monthly goal.  Get encouragement from the other participant's and see what other are doing.  You will be inspired.

www.elmstreetquilts.com/p/omg-one-monthly-goal.html
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Sunday, February 25, 2018

BabyQuilt from Kismet to Willy Nilly

I had a quilting plan all laid out in a diagram.  I had used random numbers to decide what went where.  Everything was ready and then I started quilting.  I referred to my diagram but mistakenly started quilting a flower in the top of the row of the first quarter instead of the bottom.  Oh well it was random so this would just be more so.  I was not as thrilled with my flower block in the 35 weight Lava so I unstitched it and used the Microquilting thread throughout.  When I redid the flower I decided that I wanted to use another ruler on the diagonals.  I thought is resembled a petals on leaves.  When I was reorganizing my rulers I came upon my Westalee mini Baptist Fan.  I thought that it quite looks like waves and would look good near the fish.  I watched a video and gave it a go.  I made several mistakes but I just kept going in the same pattern so I think it is still effective.  That was great fun and I learned much.  I am very well pleased to have this set of rulers.  There are many variations that one could use.  I had planned on flipping the rulers horizontally but upon further reflection I changed my mind.  My quilting plan is now just a suggestion.  I decided that the fabric below the fish reminded me of clam shells so I went hunting for my clamshell rulers.  I decided to use Gina Perkes ' Jane and Baby Jane rulers and quilt two sizes of clamshells under the fish.  I did not carefully place the rulers or properly mark as to take advantage of the registration marks on the rulers.  My quilting is more free form.  I managed to get about 1/3 of the quilting done.  Tomorrow I need to speed up or I will not have something to post for OMG.  I have until March 10th to finish this before the shower.  I had better get to it.

Friday, February 23, 2018

Baby Quilt Progress Kismet be my guide

I have created my quilting plan after watching some Craftsy classes for inspiration.  That was fun.  One thing I learned while watching one of the courses was to let Kismet rule the day.  What a wonderful freeing thought.  Don't worry about your quilting decision, just roll a die or flip a coin and see what happens.  In my case I decided that I wanted to use rulers to make a spinning design in some of the blocks but not all.  I have 71 hourglass blocks and I thought I would like about 25% of them to have the spinning flower design.  I numbered them from 1 to 71 and then used an Excel spreadsheet to generate random numbers from 1 to 4.  Any block with the number 1 would be a flower and the others would be other designs.  That was fun.  It took all the worry out of the process.  

I got out my quilting rulers and fiddled with them till I decided that I wanted to make 5 pinwheels and some  blocks with one of my new Gina Perkes rulers that I think resembles leaves.  I have flowers and leaves and pinwheels on my quilt design.  

I do think that my pinwheel blocks may not "spin" because my peach and tourquoise hour glass blocks are too close in value.  I decided to see if I could get the quilting to help it spin.  I am heavily quilting the peach parts and stitching around the blue/green parts.  I am using my HandiQuilter ruler to help with the straight line quilting, two clamshell Westalee rulers (one from the sampler pack and another from my new mini fill pack).  I quite like working with rulers.  It works just fine on this baby size quilt.  I think for bigger quilts I would use my Tiara rather than my Bernina.   
I stitched in the ditch up on side of the blue triangle.  I used the handiquilter ruler as a stopping point marker for my ruler foot.
I abutted the clamshell ruler to the handiquilter ruler for placement then removed the handiquilter ruler so I could stitch three clamshells across the top of my triangle stopping at the seam and not finishing the last one.
I kept the needle down and snugged a medium clamshell mini fill ruler around my ruler foot.  I stitched round the clamshell until the needle rested in the seam at the other end of the ruler and then slid the ruler down the seam line and snugged it back around the ruler foot again.  Easy Peasey.  I made clamshells until I got back to the center and repeated the steps for the remainder of the pinwheel.
I used my handiquilter ruler with its handy 1/4 inch lines to add straight lines to the peach triangles.  I was thinking that the extra quilting would make the blue parts pop up so the blue/green parts would dominate.  I don't think that worked but I like the result well enough and the pinwheel parts add variety to my quilting plan.  

 I used a variegated 35 weight thread for my flower blocks.  The tension is not quite right,  I used Superior's microquilting thread for the rest of the quilting.  I think it looks great.
 Here it the bat looking from the backside.
Here is my pinwheel. Fronside.
 And backside.

 Here is my star from the back
 My leaf parts.
and my tension problem flower.  Have fun quilting.  I am thinking 4 days to finish the quilting and another 2 for the binding and it will be a quilt.  We will see if my prediction happens.

Friday, February 9, 2018

Improvisational Adventure

I made a mistake...but I am considering it a design opportunity.  I had my quilt all up on my design wall and I just had to plump up the motifs from my Cotton and Steel panel to fit the space.  I had planned on a quilt that was 9 hour glass blocks wide each at four inch finished.  When I was plumping out my moon block I was thinking that it needed to be 3 hour glass blocks wide so the section needed to be 12.5 inch.  I plumped out the moon to 12.5 inches.  Except the whole moon section was to be 12.5 inches including the hour glass row.  OOPS!!  The top section of my quilt is now 10 blocks wide and not 9.  I figured that out when I was stitching the next quarter of the quilt and it was not matching up.  I puzzled about it for a while because I kept mentally counting the moon section as having 3 blocks but it is a four block unit.  DUH!!  I am not deconstructing.  I just have to plump out the rest of the quilt sections with a vertical row of hour glass blocks.  I had some extra that I was going to use on a changing mat but I can make some more for that if I need to make more.  I am making it up as I go.  Not exactly improvisational quilting but improvisational for me.  I am not joining the sections together at the moment.

On previous quilts I added loops of elastic to attach some baby links.  For my shower gift I usually add some links and a toy and pacifier and the like.  It can fold and roll up as a mobile play mat with attached amusements.  I am guessing that the links have a circumference the size of a pen or thereabouts.  I want the loops to be closer to the edge than to the middle but I do not want them to fall off the edge of the quilt.

Baby Quilt Progress

This quilt was my kernel of an idea for a baby quilt.  I have a cotton and steel panel with some adorable images.  I thought I could separate the rows of hour glasses cut up the panel and place the motifs in the open spaces and fill the other open spaces with a grey fabric.  That did not quite work out.  
 
I had two charm packs on hand.  One was a solid color that came from a Sew Sampler Box that was the color of the year.  I rarely use solids so it was fabric in search of a project.  I had won another charm pack from a blogger.  She had cut the some 5 inch blocks from a fabric line and placed them in a draw string bag that she had sewn from one of the fabrics that went with that line.  

My sister had participated in a Bonnie Hunter Leaders and Enders project using hour glasses.  At the time I was struggling with piecing hour glasses so I bought a Fons and Porter Hour Glass ruler.  
I made hour glass blocks out of the charm packs, cut up the panel and through it up on the design wall.  Since I was using coordinating grey fabric the open space Idea did not work.  It did not look like floating hourglasses it just looked like a collection of grey blocks and hour glass blocks.  

I put the panel sections and hour glass blocks up on the design wall and started rearranging.  
I had started with the fish down at the bottom but then I thought about the notion of a flying fish so I moved it up.  After several rearrangements, I settled on one and am now assembling.  I have the top quarter of the quilt pieced.  I am squaring (really rectangling) up the panel pieces by sewing on strips of grey fabrics.  

I have a black and grey fabric that I will use for the binding and a print of teal and olive leaves on pinky peach background to use for the backing.  I need some wadding.  That part is a not decided yet.  Back to sewing.  

Sunday, February 4, 2018

February OMG Goal

I inherited some of my sister-in-law's stash thanks to the generosity of my brother.  I have been washing and folding for quite sometime.  My goal is to finish washing and folding all of the remaining fabric so that it is in a form for me to use it.  I had collected melon,  turquoise and brown fabric for Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt.  I made all the units for that quilt.  I decided to use them for Gyleen Fitzgerald's Mystery Quilt.  I am a month behind so my goal is to catch back up.  That quilt is a secret so I will not be able to post here images of that quilt so I am also going to commit to making several Brimfield Blocks for a baby quilt that needs finishing.  This quilt is a mystery to me because I have not figured out the design.  It is an experiment in creativity.  

Come join in the fun at Elm Street Quilts and make your own monthly goal.  Get encouragement from the other participant's and see what other are doing.  You will be inspired.
www.elmstreetquilts.com/p/omg-one-monthly-goal.html
ElmStreetQuilts