Comfort Quilt Finish

  

       I love using scraps to “make fabric” and this lap size pattern is a great place to show off made-fabric pieces or a large print.  The pattern is “Baker’s Dozen” by Sherri B Driver and was a web bonus at McCalls Quilting for March/April 2013.  I simplified the frames around the made-fabric.

     I quilted Leah Day’s Echo Shortcut motif in the made-fabric areas. 

I stitched-in-the-ditch the frames and meandered the background. 

     This was an easy pattern and I plan to use it again to show off made-fabric pieces, maybe even for a queen size quilt.

Stay cool and enjoy time sewing or quilting.

I'm linking up with Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  

Scrap Play and Finishes

     I love playing with scraps, rainbows and bright quilts so I am excited to be participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year. The color for March has been red.  I pulled scraps from my stash plus spent some time cutting units as well as made-fabric play. I put this month’s creations with the past 2 and here are my blocks so far. 

 By the end of the year I should have several beautiful bright small quilts to donate or gift.

    When I am at my home away from home, I frequently piece made-fabric from crumbs.  Last summer I created many green/blue blocks.  I started sewing them into a quilt top and decided I wanted it larger.  Next time I sewed green/blue made-fabric, I did not have the others with me.  When I put them with the first batch, they had much more bright green and not much blue and I felt they did not match.   The next time I paid closer attention and made more.  I have a lap quilt of mostly green made-fabric blocks which I finished a few months back and now the full bed size green/blue quilt is finished.  The design was inspired by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. 

To go with the modern design I used my walking foot and quilted the center using the serpentine utility stitch. I did a FM motif in the border which does not show up well on the large print.

I also finished a couple of pillowcases for our local Ronald McDonald House.  The main fabric was donated by Springfield Fabrics of Fort Mill, SC.

It is still too cold to work in the yard.

Enjoy some time sewing or quilting.
I'm linking up with SoScrappy Scrap Happy Saturday .  

Scraps in 2017

    My quilting plan for 2017 has been formed. I have prioritized 7 UFOs for the new year ( 3 only need quilting) and 1 new project that has been in the planning for a couple of years.  The 1^st is to finish quilting my Blue, Yellow, Green sampler.  The ditch quilting is done but each block wants a custom design and I am working contemplating what to do. 

   

When I needed a break, I turned to blog reading for inspiration which led me to Cynthia’s blog and her Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

I love scraps and wanted to play some so this was great timing.  January’s color is purple.  I already had some purple made-fabric and pieced another purple heart block.

If you love scraps, you might think about joining in. I hope to end the year with at least a couple of rainbow scrap quilts.

Somehow I found my way to this 16-patch star quilt by ScrapboxQuilts 

It reminded me of the wonky, maverick stars I have made in the past and decided to use my stash of 4 1/2” squares to make one.  I wanted all the 15 purple squares to be different so I had to dig and even cut a few more.  

Enjoy time sewing or quilting!

Scrap Management

     When I am at my home away from home in between painting, spending time with granddaughters or free time, I like to work on scrap management. One type is sewing crumbs together into “made fabric”. I am working on rainbow pieces for a future quilt.  Here is some purple “made fabric”. 

Second type of scrap management is cutting down fabric pieces less than a fat quarter.  I cut strips to 6 ½”, 4 ½”, 3 ½” and 2 ½”.  Strips less than 2 ½” become strings.  Too short to be a string pieces are grouped as crumbs.

I also finished a couple of painting projects during this visit. The bathroom cabinets have a new coat of paint.  Here is a photo of work in progress   

 

 and after.

Enjoy some time sewing and quilting!

One of Those Days

     I recently had one of those days when several things just did not go right.  I planned to add a wide border to a top of made-fabric blocks.  I was inspired by a quilt by Victoria Findlay Wolfe in her book 15 Minutes of Play – Improvisational Quilts. I measured and had fabric to cut the borders lengthwise without piecing.  It sat for a few days until I decided to add them.  Wouldn’t you know, I did not think about my plan and cut strips crosswise. Once I cut one I had to continue and seam pieces together. The top is done even though it does not look as neat as I had planned.  It is a full size bed version of my green made-fabric lap quilt.

     I finished quilting the large block comfort quilt for my church.

 I quilted in a large simple meander but it was a struggle because of thread breaks and tension problems at the end.  I changed the needle a couple of times and I am still not sure what the problem is so the next quilt top will wait until it is solved.

Enjoy some time sewing and quilting!

Weekend of Piecing

     I enjoyed a Mother's Day brunch prepared by son Will and weekend soccer games for each granddaughter.  I also found time to piece blocks for a couple of scrappy projects.  A couple of years ago I made a class sample with black, white and red.  With a few blocks left as orphans and some improvisational piecing with the scraps plus a couple of paper-pieced hearts from another class, I now have 20 blocks.  Here is the layout so far.

I may move a couple of blocks, then add a scrappy red and black border and call it complete.

   I also pieced these 7 scrappy anvil blocks (inspired by a quilt by Victoria Findlay Wolfe).  I think that gives me 20 blocks.  I am planning to use scrappy sashing.

Have some fun piecing and quilting!

Made-Fabric Finish

    I am know in my guild as one who works with lots of fabric scraps.  I have been inspired by the work of Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  I used a bunch of green scraps to create blocks of "made-fabric".  I used them in this quilt and another.

I decided to quilt it with a wavy grid which is rather uninteresting. I used a light green thread.

I also have pieced a full size bed top like this one except the borders are different fabric.  I hope I can come up with a more interesting way to quilt it when I am ready.

Enjoy sewing and quilting today.

Two UFO Quilt Finishes

     I have been concentrating on UFOs so I won’t feel guilty about starting a new project.  I have been one in my guild who takes UFOs that no one else will.  Probably 20 years ago someone started a   

lap quilt Georgia Bonesteel style by hand quilting individual blocks.  Four blocks were hand quilted with the old timey polyester batting of twelve pieced blocks and then the project was donated to guild.  I brought home the pieces and some fabric scraps. Instead of piecing any more blocks, I created 4  plain blocks, machine quilted a motif using a template and added meandering in the center.  Not very dense quilting so they would better match the rest.

I quilted the other pieced blocks in the ditch similar to those hand quilted and joined them together Georgia Bonesteel style except by machine.  Here I am adding the 2 side columns. 

Here is the finished quilt.

    I LOVE made-fabric and have been inspired by the work of Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  The following project was inspired by a quilt in her first book, 15 Minutes of Play – Improvisational Quilts.  You can see the post for Nov. 2014 where I worked on the border here.  

Here is a close-up of some of the quilting.

    After finishing those 2, I pulled out another UFO of mine and a comfort quilt top and spent a rainy Friday afternoon sandwiching them. I am ready for another week of quilting. 

Have fun sewing and quilting!

Finishes

     I finished the last FMQ on the bug jar baby quilt and hand sewed the back of the binding Saturday morning while watching “Sewing with Nancy” on TV.

I quilted the Echo Shortcut motif ( learned from Leah Day) in the red made-fabric border, then a simple meander in the green outer border.  

     In the afternoon I quilted a large meander on this adult comfort quilt for guild.  The guild cuts and packages kits which members sew together.  Most adult kits are 5" squares and finish at 60 by 72". I sandwiched and quilted the top another member sewed together.  There are other members who will add the binding. 

   I have a small version of Bonnie Hunter’s “Grand Illusion” Mystery from 2014 sandwiched and ready to be quilted next but it will probably wait a week.  Starting next Thursday I will be substituting for the nanny and taking care of granddaughters for a week. Hopefully Mattie and I will have time for another sewing lesson.

Enjoy a relaxing few minutes to sew, quilt and create.

Final Finish for 2015

     Today I finished sewing a scrappy binding on the Scrappy Duo lap quilt which makes it the final finished quilt for the year.  If you want to make one, you can find out more about the pattern here. 

      Saturday I spent most of the day playing with scraps and “made-fabric”. 

I already had a piece of made-fabric about 15 by 15” that I wanted to use for a 4” finished border but I needed more that was similar.  Here is the pile of scraps I pulled to use and there is a piece of made-fabric in the middle.  After free piecing a section, I trimmed it to 4 1/2" for the border.  The larger trimmed pieces became part of another section.

Today the top is finished.  A niece is expecting in May and she wants a garden theme for the nursery.  I hope she will like this. 

 If you are in the Columbia area and want to try playing with crumbs and made-fabric, Saturday morning, March 19^th I will be teaching a workshop at Midlands Technical College, Harbison branch. You can find out more on their website.

Enjoy a few minutes of sewing or quilting!

Made-Fabric Pieces

     I know it has been awhile since I posted.  I have mostly been working on more Christmas gifts.  a My youngest granddaughter enjoys dress-up play so I decided to make a princess dress for her for Christmas.  The past year she has been wild about purple so I spent at least 3 days making a dress.  I used an elegant dress pattern ( Simplicity 1508) and changed a couple of things  to simplify.  That is a lot of time to spend making a dress-up play dress, but I can do it so I did.

    I have also been playing with my green and blue crumbs to create made-fabric.  I free-pieced some more made-fabric to add a row to a top and then found I had too much green in them and decided to piece more with more blue.  This top is now 52.5” by 76.75”.  I may use the print fabric at the bottom left as a wide border to make it larger. 

Since I already had several mostly green made-fabric squares pieced together, I made a few more and put together a small top (40.5 by 52.5”).  This may also get a border to make it larger, although I like the modern feel of it without a border. 

My stash of green crumbs is now very low and I am ready for a break from free-piecing.  This coming week will have my guild holiday gathering and my church quilt group.  I better get busy thinking of some treats to fix.

Enjoy this special time of year and maybe a few minutes of sewing as a break from the hustle and bustle.   

Playing with Scraps ( aka Crumbs)

My Stack the Deck quilt top is together and waiting to be sandwiched for quilting. 

I had a pile of scraps left from the trimming of the blocks.  You know I can’t throw those away and most are also too large to be put in pet beds.

I started sewing pieces together, then found some block units that have very similar fabrics and decided to use them. 

I loved playing and have made 20 blocks that will finish at 6”.   The Stack the Deck blocks were easier and quicker so make a good beginner project. However, I like the crumb blocks better than the Stack the Deck blocks.  

There are so many ways to use them.  I can sew them together to make 12” finished blocks or use as “made-fabric” ( I love  and am inspired by Victoria Findlay Wolfe's work.)

They would make an interesting border.

I still have more scrap pieces so I may continue to play for a few more blocks.

   I better take a few minutes to clean house and then I'll be back to piecing.

Playing with Made-Fabric

     I enjoyed a visit with my sister, made a presentation to ACPQ guild and led a workshop on creating and using made-fabric. 

I have been inspired by the work of Victoria Findlay Wolfe and her book, 15 Minutes of Play: Improvisational Quilts.  You can find many tips on her blog   and also many made-fabric tutorials and challenges at http://www.15minutesplay.com/ .

In the workshop the ladies had fun creating their made-fabric.  Here are some photos from their play with scraps. 

Sue was not 100% because of eye surgery so she acted as assistant. 

Sue has also been busy playing with her green crumbs.  Isn’t it lovely?