Hexagons Coming Together
Last month, I managed to be very productive and finish two quilting projects. This month, I’m still committed to finishing my unfinished projects only it is going a bit slower than last month.
In March, I finished a quilting sampler pillow. Then I got the bright idea to make some accompanying pillows. Here’s the first pillow to be.
I finished this top in March shortly after finishing the winter sampler. I totally put off making the second pillow top. I had three out of four hexagon center complete. The thought of making the fourth sent me searching for a different project. Well since, I’m dedicated to finishing an UFO, I’m slugged through making the hexagons. Now I’m sewing them together. I’m so close to being finished. I might even finish tonight. Then I can move on to sewing. Yea!
The project is facing one small hiccup. I’m running out of the green in the borders. I made the first pillow without even stopping to figure out if I can enough fabric to make the second pillow. I highly doubt that I’ll find more of that fabric. I purchased the green fabric over six years ago. I do think I can find fabric the same color. At least the pillows will look like they belong together.
Hourglass Quilt, Finished!
Jul 29, 2010 Quilting, Summer Fun
After a hard weekend push, I finished hand sewing the binding. Yea!
The front:
The back:
Overall, I’m quite pleased with the quilt. At first, I wanted a darker gray solid, like Kona Charcoal. I couldn’t find any at a local store. So I went with my second choice, Kona Coal. I think my second choice turned out to be the best choice. As I mentioned, I quilted it with an all over loop design. For batting, I used a 100% polyester batting by Warm & Natural. I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it either. It’s a little stiff. I’m hoping if I wash it a few more times, the quilt will soften and, it will be a cuddly quilt. Either way, my cats think it’s completely acceptable as it is.
After binding the quilt, Ross and I played with sparklers and the camera. In the picture of Ross, I think I captured my sparkler in the corner. I think playing with a sparkler in one hand and a camera in the other isn’t the best combination.
What I’ve Been Up To
Jul 29, 2010 A House is a Home, Quilting
(Note: I just realized that the post was never published. I decided to go ahead and publish it. So forgive me for presenting content out of order. RM)
OK. Some how I missed blogging the whole month of June. I thought about it, but some how my blog and I didn’t connected. Tonight, I’d like to make amends and summarize the last 4-5 weeks of my life.
Much of our time was spent in out garden. Despite neglect, our rose bushes looked beautiful. Ross shot this picture, which I love. He’s willing to take the time to set up the tripod and shoot until he gets what he wants. The rose bushes are no longer neglected. Ross has decided to care for them. It is amazing how good the look now. We’re hoping to get a second bloom.
One day in a work meeting we were talking about using games to teach, which lead me to think about my favorite video game from my youth. I loved playing A-Mazing on out TI-99. The video game inspired this maze quilt. When I get it quilted, I’ll post more information on the development process.
Then Father’s Day arrived. I had a hard time thinking of an appropriate Father’s Day gift for my dad. So to hold him over, I gave him some peanut clusters in these neat shirt boxes. I can’t find the link I used. If I do, I’ll post update.
After Father’s Day, I made a big change with my life. I started a new job. So far the change has been all positive. It was sad leaving my co-workers, but it feels really good to stretch my wings and prove to myself that I can do new things.
The veggie garden continues to grow. I think this picture is about a week old. It has grown a ton even from this picture. Green tomatoes are starting to form. Tonight I noticed baby cucumbers starting to form. I can’t wait to eat fresh food from our garden.
The holiday weekend gave me the opportunity to spend some time with some of my favorite people while we waited for fireworks. Laying in a park and reading a magazine is a perfect way to spend a Saturday evening.
I even snagged this picture of Ross washing our car. It looks all nice and spiffy. It’s ready for a road trip.
I didn’t make Ross work all weekend. We did attempt a bike ride on the Jordan Parkway. Unfortunately, about one mile into our ride, Ross’ back tire popped. While we had a patch kit, we didn’t have a spare tube as we put the spare tube on his front tire before we left. Ross has a bit of bad luck with tire tubes. Even though we didn’t get far, Ross does want to ride more. He’s even thinking about a new bike, which he really could use. I will definitely get a picture of our next bike ride.
To top off the weekend, I basted a quilt and started quilting it. I’m quilting an allover loop pattern. It is going quickly. I hope to be done by the end of the week.
Back to Free Motion Quilting
Jul 23, 2010 Quilting
Lately, I’ve been in straight-quilt-line mood, which is easy and doesn’t require the same commitment as free-motion quilting. Well I decided it was time to get out of the rut and do a bit of free-motion quilting.
To keep things simple, I decided to do an all over loop pattern. It is a forgiving pattern that doesn’t require marking or too much pre-planning. The quilting process did take more time than quilting straight lines, but I’m so happy with the results that I can live with the time investment. Here’s a glimpse at a corner. I used gray thread to match the Kona Coal.
For the most part, I maintained my stitch length, and there aren’t too many jagged curved. My machine even cooperated. It really could use a tune-up. So I’m counting myself lucky. I was surprise at how much thread I used. When I bought the quilting supplies, I bought 500 yards of thread. 500 yards didn’t even finish half the quilt. I went back and bought three more spools. When I was done, I had a bit of thread left on the fifth spool. That’s over 1000 yards of thread for a quilt that measures 64″ x 64″.
And for a parting shot, here’s the whole back. I’ll reveal the front when I’m done hand sewing the binding. I need to go find a good movie.
Progress with Hourglass Squares
May 23, 2010 Quilting
This week, I spent my sewing time making hourglass blocks. This pictures represents 100 blocks.
And this picture represents squaring all blocks to 4″, definitely the boring part of the project.
Well after making 100 blocks, I decided to finalize a design and decide how many blocks I needed to make. No matter what design I came up with, I needed 144 blocks. I want the quilt to be symmetrical. Here’s the final design:
Since each pair of 5″ squares makes two blocks, I needed 44 squares. Luckily last summer, I participated in a charm swap sponsored by Chickpea Sewing Studio. This gave me 23 blocks. Then I dug through my fabric to find the remaining blocks. I really wanted to used each fabric only once. Hopefully, I don’t have duplicates from my own stash.
This afternoon, I finished the remaining blocks. Already, I’m liking the fact that this quilt won’t produce a lot of leftover scraps. I still have 2.5″ strips leftover from my last scrap quilt project. I feel like I need to do something with them, but I’m ready to move on to different projects.
The next step is making four-patch blocks from the hourglass blocks. I need to decided if I’ll sort by color or let the color placement appear random. The sashing will be a Kona Charcoal. My goal is to hit Joann’s over the holiday weekend. I need at least six yards. So if live in Salt Lake and want to buy Kona charcoal, leave six yards for me. Much appreciated.
Fabric Swaps
Apr 11, 2010 Quilting
I participate in a quilt group that meets once a month. Last year we exchange 2.5″ fabric strips. Each quilter gave every member of the quilt group 25 strips. There are nine members. We each received a total of 25 strips, which doesn’t sound like a ton of fabric, but it is. I made the front and back of the Color Bar Code quilt. Then using the appropriate leftover exchange scraps and some scraps from my own collection, I made my Half Hexagon quilt, which I still need to quilt. It’s on my Spring t0-do list. Even with all these quilts, I have enough 2.5″ scraps to make at least one more quilt top.
The whole exercise of sharing and using scraps spoke to the whole group. We all have healthy fabric stashes. In our tough economic times, it felt prudent to use what we had. After we made our quilts, it felt satisfying to create works of art using what we had. If my great-grandmother can do it, then why can’t I? Well our fabric exchange movement has been carried forward to 2010.
On Saturday, we exchanged 5″ squares. Each quilt gave every other quilter 10 5″ squares. After having a ton of fabric from last year, we decided to make this exchange a bit smaller. I received 80 5″ squares.
This afternoon, I spent a few hours sorting my fabric. Last year, my quilts were all about color. I learned a lot of about the nuances of different shades color. This year I’ve decided to concentrate on value. Each square was sorted with a square of a different value, such as dark with light. I ended up adding a few block from my stash to find just the right mate for each square. Now I have about 45 sets. Echo has set out to guard the fabric.
As you can see, all the light sides point up.
The next step is deciding what to do with them. I’m keeping it simple and a bit spontaneous. I’m making hour glass blocks from each set. I’ve made one test set.
I apologize for the slightly blurry pictures. I promise better ones will show up soon. After I make the hour glass blocks, I have no idea what I’m going to do. I do think it will involve a solid sashing, perhaps charcoal. Other than that, I have no idea. I kind of like the idea of just seeing where it all goes. This is a bit against the grain for me.
