Design Wall Monday--Memory Lane Quilt Update

 Design Wall Monday--see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

There has been a lot of time with needle and thread the last few days.  I did a lot of cutting before getting to some sewing.  Trying to empty baggies and bins of projects is a neverending challenge in my sewing room.  I started with a baggie of leftover black and white pieces from the baby quilt I made for middle grandson Hunter, who is now 6 years old!  I wanted to use them as leader-enders. 

The first pink solid I pulled from stash had to be augmented by a darker shade, and just for fun I threw in the print for the last two blocks. 

The block is from the quilt Adam's Rib by Fons and Porter.

The first Memory Lane block laid out.  I love this clever design! 

And first block finished under Mini's watchful eye. These are big blocks, 16 inches finished, so will make a big quilt fast.  I had fun picking and choosing fabrics for each from the 20 fat quarters required; I used the Oh My Darling fat quarter collection I bought some years back from Connecting Threads. 

Playing with color and print is my favorite pastime.  Each block has 5 fabrics in different arrangements so I am doing my best to mix color, scale and prints. 

The quilt is in this book which was published in 2006--I picked it up several years ago at a guild sale. Lots more piecing for me to do, my favorite part of quilting :)

Design Wall Monday--Be My Neighbor

 Design Wall Monday--see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog.

Over the weekend I enjoyed playing with a sale bin block kit I picked up on the Sewtopia Orlando shop hop last September.   

The instructions included a cutting chart that someone had drafted for the kit fabrics, which was very handy. There was a lot of cutting, though...

I added a couple of colors to the tree, and changed one of the flying geese fabrics from stash; I also changed the roof and chimney fabric to a navy print. 

I used my Folded Corner Clipper tool to mark a guideline for the flying geese.  I find it easier to mark a guide for my sewing machine FOOT, with the sewing machine set for the 1/4" seam.

The excess can be trimmed with the same tool and a rotary cutter, of course, but I used scissors on my marked line.

It seemed to take half the day to get to this point, but I was enjoying taking my time, as hubby was off  playing in a golf tournament with his buddies. 

I am pleased with the way the block turned out.  It will make a cute wallhanging. I also finished a quilt top started at Sewtopia and will show that next post. 

Vintage Fabric and Treasures

I have been meaning to get binding made for a quilt top that's been hanging around unfinished for some time.  I bought this vintage gingham piece I believe at the last local Guild show before the pandemic.  

I could tell it was vintage because it is actual woven gingham, is a full 45" wide, and has no selvage markings. Revisiting directions for cutting bias binding wasn't too tedious.  

The green gingham center was pieced by me from a kit I bought at Sewtopia Boston; that is not yardage!  I found the charming border at JoAnn's fabrics.  I think this will make a cute picnic quilt. 

Speaking of vintage, a quick trip through the local Goodwill Thrift Store today turned up some unusual finds. 

This vintage, rare dark red Bauer ringed bowl was on a cart and not yet shelved when I spotted it. 99cents!!!

It is not in perfect condition, it has a crack and the glazing is patchy there on the bottom, but it will be gorgeous as a display piece. I checked eBay for similar bowls and found one priced at $75.00!

A vintage souvenir also caught my eye on the Goodwill shelves.

An unopened souvenir from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was another "for pennies" purchase.  My parents and a cousin and I actually attended some Olympic rowing competitions locally at Lake Casitas in Ojai, in 1984.  I also have a poster from the 1984 Olympics.  

This hanger contraption came home with me.  I think it was 49 cents.  I'm wondering if it might work for hanging an embroidery piece, or I can choose from artwork I have. I had a great shopping day :)

I Know I Just Had That...

I spent two days searching for the I Just Had That item of the week..the APQ magazine with the Make the Connection quilt pattern in it.  I was POSITIVE it was the cover. quilt. I had cut border pieces but wanted to double-check the sewing instructions after completing all the rows. 

Finally I sat down at the computer to look up the issue.  I had to laugh at my misplaced positivity...WRONG!

Well, I was kinda right-- there was no  picture of the Make the Connection Quilt, but it WAS mentioned on the right lower corner of the cover:) 

The border instructions were standard, as I'd thought, adding the sides first and then the top and bottom strips.  

Backing options resulted in a fairly recently acquired yardage--less than a year old. 

It's a Ruby Star Society print I picked up in Simi Valley at Quilty Pleasures quilt shop.  Love that cheddar.  I sewed up some more strip sets to lengthen the leftover blue solid strip bring the backing to size. The top and back are now hanging in the closet with the other completed tops.  The Make the Connection quilt was a fun detour.

Make the Connection Progress

 It was easy cutting and piecing blocks for the Make the Connection quilt, followed by the rows fairly quickly. Free charity quilt pattern from APQ magazine, by Jo Kramer/Kelli Hanken.

Nice warm blue--I don't remember what shade of Kona this is. Our daughter Erica's boyfriend is very interested in my quilting and asked if I would make him a quilt.  Of course I said yes.  Ryan designs and builds playgrounds with his father so is used to dealing with color and shape.  He looked through a bunch of my quilt magazines and got some ideas.  I expect to see something modern with a lot of open space in his sketching :)

Border pieces are cut and ready for this baby sized quilt, which will finish about 44".  I also sewed up some leader ender blocks into doll quilt size tops as I pieced.  

Random arrangement on this one...

A little more thought with the cheddar and blue backgrounds on this one.  The center four patches started with 1.5" squares and the corner triangles are cut from two matching 2.5" squares. I may add top and bottom borders to increase the length.  

Inspiration Sewing Madness

The sewing room has been humming with all kinds of projects!  Inspiration hits and I enter a "must sew now!" session.  

Thanks to encouragement from several commenters, the fat quarter miscutting was rescued on the Memory Lane quilt. 

To my great amazement, sewing together all the squares resulted in the exact size strip I needed. 

All cutting completed and ready to start switching up the fabrics for the blocks.  I originally fell in love with this Connecting Threads line called Oh My Darling because of the two green prints, which I purchased in yardage to make a Kim Diehl lap quilt called Twilight Hopscotch. 

I finished this quilt during the first year of the pandemic.  I added an extra row of stars and chains to make it longer. One of my favorite quilts ever! 

I finished another A block for the Plaidish2 quilt so I could lay it out with the B blocks I've made so far and check out the plaid.  Sew much scrappy! My sister pointed out all the fabrics that were from her scrap piles :)  Lots more sewing to do on this one. The smaller pieces are 2.5" wide before sewing. 

I added a bunch of details to the pieces for the Bookshelf quilt I'm making my niece Enna. 

Here's all the pieces so far, not in any final arrangement at all.  I need to decide on fabric for the shelves so I can make more design decisions.  A design wall would sure be handy for this!

Lastly, THIS Squirrel leapt out of the precuts bin!  I may have gotten the charm pack as a freebie at Sewtopia or won it at guild, I don't recall.  I had an APQ magazine out with a charity quilt pattern. 

 The Make The Connection free pattern is by Jo Kramer and her daughter Kelli from Jo's Country Junction.  It is comprised of two blocks and is super simple to put together. using 5" charms  The bright blue solid I pulled from stash is just barely large enough to make the baby size quilt, so I will have to cut carefully--obviously not my strong point, lol, but will be fun to put together. 

  Last summer I finally quilted the one I made using random mini charms and donated it to guild.

The fast and easy walking foot quilting was fun to do.  Lots of sewing and quilting coming up!