Design Wall Monday--Accidental Squirrel

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

While hubby was off golfing on Sunday, I poked around my small projects drawer and the precut squares and strip drawers for entertainment.  There were some brown/white HSTs that looked like a good starting point.  Soon I was pulling more browns and neutrals, cutting up more scraps to make HSTs. 

A pattern soon showed up, though it seemed to take all afternoon to get to this point!  Finding enough of one brown scrap/partial fat quarter to cut matching 4" squares  for the HSTs was the first hurdle.  Initially I was going to make only three blocks...

Then I made three more, and included the blue print. That led to needing another row to make a more cohesive scrappy quilt. Improv is hard!  I do better when there is some commonality; in this case, cheddar centers with the four brown squares, and creamy yellowy prints with red centers for the simple churn dash blocks.  

Lots of auditioning, trimming, refolding and reorganizing.  It was good to poke into the fat quarter dresser, but a colorful squirrel showed up, too!

While at Sewtopia Palm  Springs last November, I bought a curated fat quarter stack  at the in-event shop, in colors foreign to most of my stash.  They have been in a wire bin on top of the fat quarter dresser, so I  see them frequently.  I decided to find a fat quarter friendly pattern among my library.  Several options were narrowed down to the Livin Large pattern booklet by Heather Mulder Peterson--seems she's my favorite designer recently--having just finished the bindings on two runners from another booklet of hers :)  

The pattern I was drawn to is on the back of the booklet, Pretty in Pink, and required additional fat quarters for the throw size, meaning many auditions from the stash drawers. The curated fat quarter bundle is the top group in this photo.

Pink and blue are not colors I have much of, but I did find some sweet coral options and a repro blue print that blended. The pattern also can be cut from 10" squares. I likely will not add the applique, but we'll see!  The bolt of Kona Snow I bought last year still has plenty of fabric on it, which I will use for the narrow sashing. Nice to have all the fabric I need for this on hand!  

Design Wall Monday--Square Dance Quilt Progress

Design Wall Monday rolls around again--I didn't get a chance to post before work so here I am late again. See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

There was no sewing to speak of during the week--and there were outside activities--so I caught up with the Square Dance quilt on Sunday while Grant was playing in a golf tournament with his buddies. 

I added the last two block selections, a third green and a third yellow block. This nighttime pic doesn't flatter the blocks much!  The pattern book (Livin Large by Heather Mulder Peterson) called for brown squares to be cut for some of the block intersections.  I did not want to have a lot of leftover triangles so I used my new favorite Folded Corner Clipper tool to cut HSTs from the appropriate width strip of solid brown. 

There will be a 2" cut border of the brown and then rectangles of all the different prints for a final border.  It seemed to take me all day to get these corners lined up correctly and then sewn and trimmed.

Another nighttime pic, but I was pleased with how well the corners matched.  The brown looks very dark in this pic but the color is truer in the prior photo.  The individual rows were sewn but not yet assembled to complete the top.  I'm hoping to work on this tomorrow afternoon if not needed to babysit grandson Dane.  He and his parents came to the older grandson's soccer game on the weekend so we got to see them all.

My next sewing assignment is a Hedwig Halloween costume for grandson Hunter....more on that adventure in another post :)

Design Wall Monday--Livin' Large

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

*Edit: I was not able to link up this morning due to computer problems on my end--my apologies for those of you who are seeing this post twice today!

While at Sewtopia Orlando, I was able to complete a few blocks of the second project I had partially precut, before we had to pack up on the last day of sewing.  I have been hoarding a fat quarter bundle for many years that I won in a giveaway on Heather Mulder Peterson's blog, Trends and Traditions. I just searched on my blog and hers, and OMG that was in JULY 2010.  It  has probably been 5 years since I picked a pattern from her Livin Large pattern booklet--the Square Dance quilt :).   

Precutting all the outer border cream fabric with my GO cutter before Sewtopia saved a lot of time when it came to constructing the blocks. I had fun mixing and matching the prints.  Love these colors. 

There were odd size lengths for the border neutrals and I had to keep a close eye on which set I was constructing.  Thumbs up again for the Omnigrid rotating mat and the Creative Grids Folded Corner Clipper for all the trimming.  

Closeup of the border fabric.  I like the ribbon white on white complementing the straight lines of the block. 

 

Also appreciated in Heather's book are all the different sizes offered, and very clear pressing directions.  I'm making the throw size, which is 20 blocks. 

I have now completed a second set of 9 blocks. Mini provided inspection services as always. 

Two more blocks to make!  They will be duplicates from the fat quarter bundle.  I just have to decide which two.  There is a lot more sewing to do to finish the top, but I am so happy to free these pretty prints from their bundle after all these years!