Rachel McPhail — The Creative Quilt Girl

Side B

Jun 5, 2009 Quilting Leave a comment

As I mentioned earlier, I’m piecing the back to my Chinese Coin quilt, aka Side B. I ended up with a lot of extra coins. In fact, enough to make another quilt. So that’s what I’m doing. Only, I’m making a different style Chinese Coin quilt. Instead of the neat row and column look, I’m going for the staggered look. I mocked up a section of the quilt in photoshop. Just imagine it in color.

I decided to stick with the color gradation. Only this time, the color blocks are big. Here is most of the quilt laid out on my table.

The quilt is 41 coins across, half will be white, and 16 rows down. On each piece of paper, I laid out 6-7 coins. I divided all these pieces of paper into nine groups.

Each group or folder contains 5-6 rows.

Believe or not, all the color pieces to this quilt are stored in these nine folder.

I’ll concede that my method might be a bit over the top, but it’s worth it. By storing the coins on pieces of paper, I manhandle the pieces less, keeping the fabric integrity. Also it’s easier to cart the quilt upstairs to lay out on the table. As I piece the quilt together, I’m able to sew in order without having to think about the whole process with each new piece.

I’ve manage to sew one section together, and I’m working on the second. By the end of the weekend, I’ll have some thing that I’d like to share.

Chinese Coin Quilt in Progress

Jun 3, 2009 Quilting Leave a comment

About three months ago, my quilt group exchanged 2.5″ fabric strips. We each gave away eight stacks of 25 strips 2.5″ by 22″ (the length of a fat quarter) with no duplicates in each stack. The goal was to use fabric from your stash. I’ll be honest, before I started cutting fabric, I didn’t think I had enough fabric without cutting into the “precious” fabric. Well not only did I have enough fabric, I have plenty left on my shelves. After exchanging strips, I had 200 unique strips from my fellow quilters, plus a whole bunch of strips from my own stash.

Then the hard part of the project started, deciding what to do with my strips. After lots of little sketches, I decided to make mine into a Chinese Coin Quilt with the fabric sorted by color. I spent many hours making this perfect gradation. Oh, I love sorting fabric!

I cut the strips into 5.5″ pieces and sorted into nice rows and columns.

Then the little pieces turned into a piece of art.

Side note: I took quite a few pictures of this quilt, and every last one of them has at least one cat in the picture. They each wanted to be on the quilt by themselves. They tried to chase one another off the quilt without leaving the quilt. So the quilt isn’t even done and they are already fight over it. Sigh.

Since the last picture, I added a 10″ white border. I’m pleased with the look. Now for the back. Well, I could go for the traditional whole piece back, but I think a scrap quilt needs a scrap back. I used less than half of my strips to make the quilt top. The other half will be the back of the quilt. Actually, I’m starting to think the quilt will have two fronts and no back. Pictures are forthcoming. I’m excited to share my method of keeping track of it all.

I Wish I Had Before Pictures

May 21, 2009 Home Improvement, Outdoor Adventure Leave a comment

If you just read my blog, you might think I’ve dropped off the face of the Earth into an unproductive abyss. I’m still here, getting a lot done. Unfortunately for my blog, I have not energy by the end of the day. So what have I been up to? Yard work! Isn’t that the purpose of Spring?

This year we decided to tackle the backyard. While it doesn’t look horrible, portions of the yard haven’t really been touched in decades. Anything that is growing survived years of neglect.

Here’s the short list of activities:

• Cut down garbage trees and dead trees
• Weed large flower bed
• Fill trailer with old wood bins, picket fence, and other debris
• Trim crabapple tree
• Plant lots of plants in the front yard

My nemesis, our neighbors dead pine tree, is schedule to be cut down in a few weeks. Then we’ll have a new set of projects:

• Tear down shed
• Remove old fence
• Build new fence
• Build raised beds for vegetables (the vegetables probably won’t be planted until next year)

It’s fun to see our yard transform into a place we love.

Earth Day 2009

Apr 22, 2009 Cycling Leave a comment

I think Earth Day should be on a Saturday. So I have time to properly think about the day. Instead, my brain and body were deep in thought about work. I guess in my own way I did do something good for the Earth. I rode my bike to work. In fact, this week I’m 3 for 3, and tomorrow is looking good as well.

(The pretty picture is courtesy of Trek)

I did give my bike/myself a small present today. I installed a water bottle cage to my handle bars. Unfortunately for me, my arms are too short to reach my water bottle from the frame while riding. For longer rides, I have a small Camelback. I’m all about proper hydration. It’s the difference between a fun ride and a not-so-fun ride.

Enjoying Spring

Apr 6, 2009 Family Moments Leave a comment

Today I spent the day with my niece at Hogle Zoo. It felt so good for so many reasons. I loved having the sun on my face, breathing fresh hair, and spending the day with my niece. Let me just say that 10 is such a good age. I wish it could last for every. More zoo pictures at Flickr.

A Fresh Look for My Blog

Mar 29, 2009 Techy Stuff 1 Comment

OK, I finally updated my blog. So take the extra step and click past Bloglines/Google Reader to take a look at my hard work. It’s about 90% finished. I want to work on a few behind the scenes features over the next week. When I’m all done, I’ll write about my redesign process. It’s been quite the adventure.