Design Wall Monday--Winding Ways and Winding Up

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

I've again reached maximum density in the sewing room and need to thin out the overload.  Soo many baggies with leftovers from quilt tops and HSTs/leftovers I hate to waste!  

Purple block left over from My Lupine Heaven quilt top  got some borders and quilting  to become a tablemat (Bonnie Hunter's My Blue Heaven pattern).  My sister/sales rep marketed this to Dad for $25, lol.  I'll need to deliver it soon and collect the fee. 

This should be the last batch of Easy Breezy blocks for the layout I chose for another Bonnie Hunter design--this was her 2020 leader-ender project. 

This container holding leftover Accuquilt die cut Winding Ways block pieces has been sitting here for years. In 2015 I finished a commissioned quilt for a family friend's relatives as an anniversary quilt. I got out the die cutter and, amazingly, found a leftover strip of the turquoise print in the fat quarter dresser big enough to cut more shapes.

They are fiddly blocks but the notches and precise die cuts really help.  The hardest seams are the last ones joining the two sections. 

Well hi, Skinny Mini!

--here's a cat-free version :)  That copper color was--and is-- difficult to find.  

I made a clip cushion by request for my sister for her birthday, from some other solid scraps, but couldn't help throwing just a little pattern in the mix.  I cut the cushion pieces 6 x 7.5" and the clip holders 2" wide, as per the pattern instructions I found on thesewingdirectory.co.uk.  I again used scraps of fusible batting to give them body, and for cushion stuffing thriftily sliced up and pulled apart more leftover wool batting cutoffs that have been hanging around for ages.

Kathy put it right to use :)  It holds a lot of clips and hopefully is large enough to keep from getting buried on her cutting table too often!

Winding Ways Commission Finish

At last,  Winding Ways is a completed commission!   My sister Kathy helped me make my deadline by burying threads (there was cursing) while I sewed on the label.  I was still stitching it when my client friend Sarah arrived for pickup.  She was very pleased with the quilt and looking forward to sending it off to her sister and brother in law in Arizona--a gift for their 50th wedding anniversary. A few photos were quickly taken with my phone before she departed. 

Amateur shot--footed wavy quilt with shadow and chimney hat.

I emailed her the next day to ask if I could come over to get better photos and also to fix an error that would bug me forever if I didn't correct it. 

Much better!  Click to enlarge.

Here is Winding Ways with the scrappy binding and threads all buried. And the Minky back:

Spot the Rookie Mistake?

Of course, no one would know looking at the quilt back in the photo, but the label is sideways.  I wanted it to be in the lower right corner and somehow it ended up in the upper right facing the side.  This is what happens when you are rushing at the end of a long overdue deadline!  Luckily, it was an easy fix and I got to spend time chatting with my friends and some last minutes with the quilt while I resewed.  I love the extra shapes the quilting brings out.

My friend will give the washing instructions and also tell the couple about the meaning of the turquoise circle--the heart of the quilt and a sign of the two becoming one.  I hope they love the design as much I do, and that the quilt gives them many years of happy use.  One final photo I await sharing--a picture of the couple with the quilt.

Quilt Facts: 8x10 layout, 64x80", 960 pieces, 8 different copper prints, 8-9 different cream prints, 1 turquoise print.  All pieces cut with Accuquilt Go Winding Ways die.  Minky backing from Fabric.com. Pieced, quilted and bound all by domestic sewing machine.  Started September 2014--Finished 4/5/2015.

Progress

The Winding Ways quilt has reached final stages at long last. Over the weekend I got all of the quilting completed. 

A hunt for the proper sized circle ended with this charger from the craft store. I used a water soluble pen, which I've never done before. I read some online reviews and although some people said they had problems with the pens running dry after 5 minutes, mine lasted for the whole quilt. 

I've copied the APQ magazine cover quilt's use of simple circles--great way to avoid all those thick seam intersections. 

The Minky backing shows the quilting nicely.  I've removed the marking pen from about half the quilt top, and have a lot of threads to bury, but am pleased with the way it turned out. Binding and a label and this commission is done!

And now, some baby spam:

After bath hair :) 

National Quilting Day

What I did:

Crawled around on the floor a lot measuring and cutting the Minky backing and batting for the Winding Ways top. I went to five local stores this past week looking for quilt basting spray but finally found some. I enlisted my sister's help for the chore. 

She swept off my back patio while I gathered my prepared top, batting and backing. Naturally, the wind picked up just as we started laying out the backing and she sprayed the can. Sticky and with sore knees, we celebrated our success. 

It took the two of us about half an hour to get the three layers assembled. I'm guessing that it would have taken me about 2.5 hours to layout and pin baste by myself. And now I don't have to take out any pins while I wrestle this large throw through my small sewing machine!

I also quilted a tablerunner that's been ready for months. I promised this to my dad for his birthday--in October--oy!

Some very casual and imperfect peaks and valleys. I've got the binding stitched down and ready to turn to the back. As usual, I'll machine sew the whole thing. 

Today I'll start quilting the Winding Ways quilt--about an inch or so inside each of the 80 circles with cream thread. Excited to finally get to the finishing steps.  My client has been very patient and I'm eager to get this job to completion. 

What did you do on National Quilting Day?

Winding A-Way

 First three rows are pieced and ready to be sewn into a section!

The commissioner of the quilt ordered the Minky backing and dropped it off yesterday along with batting. Getting closer to a real quilt. 

I'm clipping the seam allowances of the blocks to eliminate some bulk as I assemble the rows, and making 4 patches as leader-enders.  I'm just about out of thread so am off to Joann's for supplies and sale finds. Here's some baby spam to close the post:

Winter in SoCal is over, apparently!

Winding Ways Reveal

Last night I hurried home from work, shoved furniture around, vacuumed, and started laying out blocks on the living room floor. My husband, coming down the stairs, remarked about all the circles. It was a little thrill to see them all appear as I added to the rows. 

Can you see them?  My customer and daughter were amazed when they came in the door. I asked them to help me find any like fabrics touching in the copper blocks and they didn't find any. I suggested one change, and they agreed, to move one row from the side to the bottom. I just don't like square quilts!  

This photo is a side view; the turquoise "heart" will be on the upper right when all sewn. 

It felt great to see all the blocks in place and get compliments from my project commissioner!  She's ordering Minky for the backing and will pick up just a bit more of one copper fabric for the binding. MATH again!  Now to sew all the rows...

Design Wall Monday--1/26/2015

On my design surface is the ongoing commissioned quilt I've been working on, Winding Ways.  I'm happy to report that another task has been crossed off the list. 

The last blocks have finally been pieced!  I cut these with my Accuquilt GO die.  That helped a lot by making all the pieces identical. 

I did seem to need a lot of pins on that final joining of the curved half sections. 

36 Copper blocks, 36 Cream blocks, and 9 mixed blocks with turquoise equals 972 pieces sewn.   The quilt commissioner and her daughter will be coming over one night this week to help me play layout and switcheroo.  From now on there are no more curved seams.  I will have to match a million points but all the seams will be straight. Yay for that!

See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.  

My sister and I went to the Road to California show on Saturday.  We walked around for about five hours straight and had a great time, though the four hours of driving there and back was tiring with the high winds we were having.  I went to bed early and fell asleep reading a new pattern.

There was a lot of replenishment of neutrals, but also some fun batik bundles and a taste of cheddar.  I didn't find the Sew Kind of Wonderful pattern I was looking for, but did come home with another for the Quick Curve Ruler (Metro Twist).  The Little Bites pattern "Whit" was the one I fell asleep reading :)  The crowd thinned late in the afternoon and we were being handed free items right and left, including the Gammill bag that can be worn as a backpack, and a tape measure.  I took many photos of quilts and could have taken a couple of hundred more.  I'll share some in another post--so many talented quilters out there! 

Design Wall Monday

On and off the Design surface are the Winding Ways blocks.  Due to some recent time sitting in doctor's waiting rooms, I was able to pin a bunch more pieces.  These curvy blocks require a lot of pinning, which of course adds to the total time it takes to make a 12 piece block.  But after some dedicated hours I have a pile of finished blocks:  

All 36 copper blocks are complete, and join the 6 cream blocks already sewn, and the 9 combined teal and copper blocks for my planned layout.  I have 30 cream blocks to make before assembly can happen but I'm feeling that downhill slope!  Feeling virtuous, I allowed myself to start a new project.  Well, this is two year old idea that I've wanted to make. 

This is a picture of the finished mini quilt I made in 2012.  I bought this as a kit at Helen's Hen House Quilt Shop in Florissant, MO (the website now shows a new name and location for the shop), which I made and gave away in 2012.  I always meant to make one for myself, and was reminded of this during my scrap drawer organization a couple of months ago, when I found some leftovers from the kit. 

Most of the browns in my new Turkey came from a bargain-priced scrap bag I bought at Helen's Hen House. I had fun digging through my nicely sorted 2.5" and 3.5" scrap drawers for additional prints and background selections. 

Poorly lighted shot of the quilted sandwich. I changed the kit layout to add a plain row to the right of the tailfeathers. 

This fat quarter for the backing also came from Helen's Hen House.  I used a couple of leftover triangle-squares for corner hangers and will bind this with a Jo Morton print.  I had a really fun time putting this together and plan to get the binding on tout suite.  

Thanksgiving is rushing up fast and there's a lot to do in the next few days, as we will host as usual and I've just learned of three more guests coming, making our total 22.  I've taken Wednesday off but this dear little grandson will be spending it with me, as his daycare is closed that day: 

Silly face, Cove, waiting for more snacks, please, at his last visit. He's getting close to 9 months old and already trying to stand alone for a few seconds, I hear.  Four teeth now, and as active as can be.  I doubt much holiday prep will happen Wednesday, but can't wait to have a Mimi day again!

See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

Current State of Affairs

The current state of affairs around here is quite the mixed bag.  I feel behind on everything and the end of the year is rushing towards me at top speed.  A number of deadlines are looming.

This is the current state of my sewing room.  It's amazing anything nice comes out of this disaster. Someday I hope to see the tabletop of the Hoosier cabinet again...

On the cutting table currently are this batik table-runner, layers basted and binding cut, ready for quilting.  I've promised this to my dad.  His birthday was this week and I skipped the party due to catching a cold.  My dad never wants anyone who is sick to show up and possibly infect him.  Plus Cove was there and I didn't want to get him sick, either.  Today I'm home from work due to said cold. 

These mug mats were made for the guild meeting--at the last minute, of course.  I had some tumblers precut and matched up some other scrappy leftovers to fashion the mug mats. 

Simple stitch and turn and some minimal quilting. I like to have little things like this on hand to give as gifts.

I think I mentioned my sister and I joined the local Modern Quilt Guild, a couple of months ago.  This month we signed up to provide snacks for the members.  Kathy made a blackberry cobbler and announced that "none of it better come home with her".  That started a run to the snack table.  I made the fabulous dark gingerbread that Trader Joe's sells this time of year, and provided whipped cream for the topping.  That was popular too :)  Some members rented a table for $5 each to sell their surplus items.  I came home with these fabric chunks.  There are William Morris prints and a bundle of coordinating fat quarter prints tied with the ribbon.  These will fit nicely in the stash dresser. Can't beat the prices! 

Winding Ways block parts are slowly accumulating, but not fast enough.  I am way behind and already have been working on them between coughing attacks.

Of course there is baby spam.  Here's Cove this morning with his basting brush and plastic box.  His father laments that he is stretching out all his pants when he crawls.

But Cove helps out with the laundry he makes!

Design Wall Monday--Oct 6, 2014

The continuing saga of the Winding Ways quilt is on my design surface today.  I started with the focus blocks to give me inspiration to keep working at all those curved seams.

The only straight seam in the whole block is the 1/2" joining of the center bridge piece between the block halves!  Otherwise it is curve curve curve.

I worked until late last night to complete all nine blocks that have the turquoise parts.  The rest of the blocks will be copper and cream. 9 completed, 81 to go! So far, so good.  Trying not to stress about imperfections in the block centers--that 1/2" wide bridge piece is darn fussy to get right.  I've resewn a couple of block centers but have been satisfied with them for the most part. Turns out I've used block parts as leader-enders so work on last week's design wall hasn't progressed.  

And now, more baby spam!

 

Cove is standing in his crib--and everywhere else now.  Good thing he is short or he'd be out of there in a minute!   See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday--9/29/2014

On my design surface today is what I'm calling "Rescuing the Medallion Star", a revamp of a quilt top that was given to me.

 

There were three different combos of the two prints and one neutral I'm using for the border sections.  Though the pattern gave directions to sew strip sets and then cut 1.5" segments from each, I used a shortcut I learned from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville to speed up the process and keep the pieces matched, but carried it one step further by marking the paired strips and sewing 1/4" from the marked line before cutting it apart.  Not a new idea, by any means, but one that improved my accuracy.  I always did have trouble getting those small pairs all exact.

I'm not sure I would use this method if I had several dozens of blocks to sew for a quilt, but in this case there were only 12 blocks.  It was faster for me to use scissors to cut them apart on the marked lines, so that's what I did.

So far, so good!  I plan on using these block parts as leader-enders while I make dozens of blocks for the Winding Ways quilt. 

A long cutting session on Saturday at a guild sew-in saw all the remaining pieces get fed through the GO die cutter and fill this box. I believe I now have enough block parts, but given my MATH history, we shall see!  It was a busy Saturday, including a haircut where I left 4" of length on the floor, the sew-in, and an engagement party for a nephew.  We got to see this little guy twice this weekend:

Grandson Cove sure looks like his Mama in this photo :)  He's 7 months old now, has two teeth, is crawling like crazy, pulling himself up to stand any time he can, and as our daughter said, mowing down all food offered to him.  What a joy he is in our lives!

See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.   

What I'm Working On Wednesday

It took until Sunday, thanks to a bout of what has been diagnosed as probable diverticulitis, before I got a chance to go to the fabric store and get a couple of additional copper prints for the Winding Ways custom quilt.  This being Fall, I didn't think it would be difficult to find such colors, but it has been!

These are two Hoffman prints.  The one on the right was from a Christmas collection, but seems to blend well with ones already cut.  I've washed and ironed the new prints and just need to cut them to width for the GO! die cutter.

Due to my MATH error, there also was not enough of the neutral fabric for all the blocks.  I added these from my stash.  Now to get a long cutting session done... 

Among the projects languishing  ripening for years in boxes in the Hoosier cabinet is a quilt top I didn't make. 

My former boss's wife made this, sometime in the 80s, perhaps.  I already cut off an additional 20" piece from each end of what I'm calling a Medallion Star.  My plan is to take away the 80s by breaking up all that blue print with something lively.

 Like this border idea from an APQ Calendar pattern.  I like the two colors woven in and out and am using a brighter white for the neutral to add some cheer.

When my former boss gave me the bag with the quilt top some years ago, there were lots of pieces of the fabrics his wife used in the quilt.  I still have plenty of the berry colored print, but none of these blues or creams--I've used them up in other scrap quilts already.

This is the pattern book that came with the calendar.  It was surprisingly hard to find berry/wine colored prints right now.  I always seem to be looking for fabric colors and prints that aren't easily available!  I'm hoping I can squeeze out all the sections needed.  As for the rest of the languishing ripening projects in the Hoosier cabinet, I have plans for most of those too :)