Design Wall Monday--Plaidish2 Progress

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

I got the final two rows attached to the Plaidish2 quilt top.  

This is a big quilt already, and will grow another few inches in each direction after the outer borders are added.  I spent a couple of hours cutting up colors from my precut 2.5" scrap drawer, which is completely full!  The outer border is assembled in groupings, so lots of mixing and matching will be happening.  

I love using my rotating Omnigrid mat and a small rotary cutter for trimming jobs like this.  

Caught a couple of crows that landed in the backyard--very unusual to see them here.  I watch flocks of them head inland almost every evening, but they don't often stop!  Our hills and lawns are still very green from all the wet weather these past couple of months, though the snow on the local mountains has melted. My favorite volunteer flowers did bloom recently, after a several year absence due to the drought. 

This patch is below the bridge I pass over every day on my way to work.  So pretty. 

I'd say these flower spikes were about 18-20" tall.  Lots of poppies in bloom in different areas, too, including my small backyard patch.  The garden centers have been crowded with folks putting in spring plantings.  I have avoided going on the weekends but plan to get some flowers soon. 

Bookshelf Quilt Top is Done

So happy to report that the Bookshelf Quilt in progress for nearly a year is a completed TOP!  I really wanted to have it finished by March 31, but April 1 is not a bad second:)  I used the Fabric at Work Bookshelf Quilt pattern as my basic guide for my bookshelf's construction. The background fabric I was waiting for arrived  pretty quickly. 

This is Carmen, by Nancy Gere, from Windham Fabrics.  I liked the stylized print late-1800's print and thought it would make good "wallpaper" behind the bookshelf.  I started with the feet. 

My idea sketch for the feet turned out to be too small, but upon enlarging it, I ran into the hardest kind of math--QUILT MATH!  Eventually I found myself sewing a 30 degree angle and nearly had an aneurysm trying to attach the opposite foot piece and make it come out the right size and width! Finally the bottom of the bookshelf was complete. 

I was really happy with the contrast of the print to the solid brown of the bookshelf. Next was more design decision-making for the bookshelf 's top. 

I had cut WOF strips of the brown solid in two widths, just to start with.  I knew I wanted to have a crown at the top of the bookshelf so there was a lot of trial and redesign for the height and configuration. For reference, the bottom shelves are 12" tall, the top shelf is about 9", and the bottom drawers about 9" as well. 

Here I was confusing myself by trying to add a 45 degree angle to the crown, but this was entirely wrong and way too heavy looking. 

That's much better.  It was quite a struggle to get to this point!  I ended up cutting the crown pieces down and sewing two different strips of background on the ends to form the angle I wanted, without making it too heavy-looking. 

I'm certain this could have been more simplified by appliqueing the ends of the crown onto the background, but overall I think it works just fine--the print is busy enough. 

Finally, today all the border pieces were added and the top completed!  The drawers will get two knobs each at some point in the finishing process.  I have yardage with a white and black print from stash to use as backing, and the binding will be solid black. On to the next step...

Design Wall Monday--Bookshelf Quilt, More Additions and Decisions

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

I'm continuing to plug away on the bookshelf quilt for my niece, Emma.  I had assembled three shelves' worth of books, but this left the quilt top too small to be more than a wall quilt.  I already had plans to add a cornice to the top and feet to the bottom, and while looking around Pinterest, found a quilt with another feature to add, bottom drawers.  

I sketched out a plan and began pulling options from stash, finally settling on a compatible brown and black textured fabric. 

A bit of glam with a thin stripe of gold fabric a mock-up of some drawer handles were added to the design wall.  After looking at it some more, I trimmed down the depth of the drawers and then stitched the strip to the rest of the quilt.  

This daylight pic shows the color of the drawers better. The sides of the bookshelf now added, it looks more like a proper piece of furniture :)  The strips on the top are temporary--I will cut the correct size piece lengthwise from the solid brown to avoid seams. 

I then auditioned a number of fabrics for the border "wall" the bookshelf will be standing against.  Many fabrics were pulled from stash and I finally settled on a contrasting cream and black print that will look like wallpaper. It is from an antique reproduction line called Carmen, by Nancy Gere for Windham Fabrics.  Naturally I did not have enough fabric and have ordered more.  Lots more cutting and  sewing until this quilt top is finished, but I may actually meet the month-end deadline if the fabric gets here quick enough!  I am thinking of a solid black for the binding, but I will wait to cut that after the quilt center is complete.  

Bookshelf Quilt Assembly Progress

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

The bookshelf quilt project for my niece, Emma, got a lot of attention over the weekend--this was mainly because of the rainstorms canceling baseball, as we would have spent about 3-4 hours Saturday at the park watching our older grandsons play!  I was determined to make a lot of progress. 

The bottom right section got a large reworking and some short, fat books to hold up an initial E, for Emma. I used Steam-A Seam to applique onto the black background and zig-zagged the edges. Some book spine details and staggered groupings completed this section. 

For one of the middle sections, I had framed this cherry embroidery I made a few years ago.  I wanted to pose it on an easel and there was a lot of decision making after I had already chosen the warm orange and green framing.   

This project produces a lot of messy piles, but I decided on the frame fabric and built it slowly. 

I liked the texture this brown and black print leant to the block. 

The simple easel  turned out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself :)  It also filled up a lot of the shelf.

After quite a bit more design and assembly, the six sections were finally ready to sew together by Sunday afternoon. 

I am happy with the focus items in each section.  There seems to be enough of the black background showing to highlight all the groupings.  The top and bottom shelf pieces are not yet attached as there is more to decide about an outer border, perhaps a crown and some feet for the bookshelf. Then, of course, will be the backing, quilting and binding to complete!

Cleaning Up the Bookshelves

The bookshelf quilt for my niece Emma needed editing decisions and "unblocking" before more creative ideas could flow.  

Trimming the "framed" cactus embroidery block and removing and reorienting the books it was sitting on led to great relief in this grouping. I also moved it to the center due to its "weight".  I decided to limit the larger decorative pieces to one per section. 

The Kitty friends got some more shape with the addition of a triangle on the lower corners.  A full width patterned book and a shorter book are their resting place. More play needed for books surrounding the kitties. 

I also decided to limit the number of shelves and sections to six evenly divided rectangles 12 x 20"

This quickly added a lot of structure to the design and will help push along the project. The kitties may be happier on a higher shelf...we shall see :)  Still a lot of sewing and editing to come--more wide books are needed to fill up the shelves and break up all the skinny books.  I like big books! The cherries embroidery will get an easel frame.  There may need to be a quilt block framed too, and maybe a vase or plant added. My sister suggested an E letter block for Emma.  Pinterest is full of ideas too.  

Design Wall Monday--9/26/2022

Design Wall Monday is here again.  See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

Our trip to Palm Springs Sewtopia weekend will be here before we know it.  I looked around the sewing room for a project already in the works and found a box with table runner I adapted from one of Kim Brackett's quilt designs.  This one is called Beachside Bungalow, from the Scrap Basket Beauties book.  

The idea was to use up most of the leftover jelly roll pieces I had bought while shopping for placemat fabrics with daughter Erica a few years ago.  The jelly roll was at JoAnn's fabrics and Erica liked ONE of the fabrics a lot, a pretty mauve.  I used mostly neutrals from stash for those placemat fronts, and some of the brights from the jelly roll for the back.  

Lots of pieces in this project.  I chose one of my favorite Kona neutrals, Shale, a gray-green, to go with all the brighter colors.

Naturally there was an OOPS while cutting.  I had made one A block and was cutting more squares of the Kona for my plan....

..And sliced off a corner at the wrong angle.  Fortunately a rummage through the leftover solid scrap drawer yielded a large enough piece of Kone Shale to recut the square.  Since these photos I have completed sewing up a lot of the A and B Block Parts and filled a project box.  I've got the remaining two-patches paired and at the sewing machine to stitch up.  I will be all ready to layout and sew sew sew. Pondering what second project I will work on....

Design Wall Monday--More Scrappy play

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

I played with more scraps over the weekend.  There were a bunch of long strips left over from the cutting party for my SIL last weekend, which were 1.5" wide, just right for this little project. I used four different green 1.5 x 2.5" prints and a neutral center, but lots of variety for the four corners of the rectangular blocks. 

It didn't take long to sew up the remining sets I'd laid out and sew them into this small quilt.  The blocks finished at 3x6".  For now I'll set it aside. 

I made a visit to Superbuzzy quilt shop on Saturday while hubby Grant was playing golf.  There were lots of new fabrics and patterns to look at.  I wanted to see if I could find a solid fabric to match the nail polish my manicurist picked out for me.  I told my idea to the shop owner, Kelly, who advised that the color was a difficult one to match!  The closest Kona solid was Burgundy, so I got some of that.  Then, while perusing the sale shelves I found a print that was even closer. 

The color was very close and I liked the geometric shapes. 

It is an Art Gallery Fabric called Succulence by Bonnie Christine.  I think it would be fun to make placemats out of this print. I'll have to ask my manicurist friend what color OPI the polish is.  I often let her choose the color for me--she loves that I like to change polish all the time and it's a fun change for her from the same three neutrals most people choose!

Design Wall Monday--Bookshelf Quilt Additions.

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

I'm still working on the bookshelf quilt for my niece, with the recent focus on objects other than books, to help fill up the shelves. A search online for a cat block that would be suitable yielded plenty of options, but a lot of them were too tall for my purpose.  However, in 2009 I made this quilt from an online mystery called Twisted Tails, from which I saved the directions.   The center used a traditional Snail's Trail/Monkey Wrench block.  I had a lot of fun with the batiks and bright prints I chose from stash back then.    

For the Bookshelf quilt, I'm using only the cat body portion.  I lengthened the body to better fit my shelf size. 

Pretty batiks from stash for the body, and black background pieces for the shelves. 

Two friendly cats that sewed up very quickly. 

My vinyl-backed tablecloth design wall is working great for this project.  

Placed on the shelf, the cats looked a little plain.  While I could not add the snail's trail for only two cats, I drew a tail to applique on. 

These two batiks are options for the tail fabric, however the proportion of the tail is not quite right.  I think it needs to be longer and maybe intertwine or touch in the center--that would be fun.  I sent a pic to my niece and she said she loved the cats.  I'm next going to try to make an easel for the cherry embroidery, add a coffee cup or wine glass, maybe a vase or plant.  So much fun to decorate the shelves. Maybe the cats will sit on a couple of books...

Design Wall Monday--Bookshelf Quilt

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

I have long wanted a design wall, but not a permanent one. Previously I had used a flannel backed tablecloth hung on the wall in my first sewing room in an upstairs bedroom.  It worked well, but in the open former family room where I am now, I needed it to be easily put away. Years ago at a quilt show I had bought a Hangit-Dangit quilt hanger and felt that was my best option for a temporary design wall.  Surprisingly, finding a decent quality flannel-backed tablecloth took a three store search.  I was not able to find a solid colored one, but for $3 at Big Lots, I found one with a white background. 

It is a pretty busy print with the bicycles and phrases, but I went forward with my efforts. I held it up to the wall to determine how much to fold over to keep it off the floor. Duct tape worked great to make the "hanging sleeve".  The HangIt DangIt is a telescoping rod with a plastic hanger that snaps over the center. 

I also put duct tape over the center of the design wall where I cut a slit for the hanger.  One nail pounded in, and it was ready to try out.

I threw up a few blocks to see if they held.  Ta-da!  It worked great.  The main reason I wanted a design wall was for the bookshelf quilt project for my niece, Emma, that stalled out.  

The brown strips are the shelves--cut full WOF, which is the size limit I settled on for this project.  I worked many hours on adding more details and playing in the scrap bins. 

Lots of fun!  For the cherries embroidery on the second shelf, I am thinking it would be fun to make it  sit on an easel.  I will also add some other objects, bookends and maybe a mini quilt or other art object.  There will be five shelves so I have lots more scraps to incorporate.  The pieces are in no particular order now.  I see an oops block to fix that has the black background on the bottom instead of the top! Many many more book pieces are needed as these will shrink when sewn together, of course. I've pinned some great ideas on Pinterest.  So glad to be making progress again!