Design Wall Monday--Squares, squares, squares

It's DWM again. See more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog.  

Lots of activity in the sewing room, a few more things checked off the list.  Off my design wall and finished are two small quilts for guild, to be donated to an infant/mommy exercise class with the City. 

Falling Charms a la Missouri Star Quilt Company's method, using 25 charm squares.  My sister did this fun swirl quilting on her longarm.  I found a matching length in my leftover binding bin, love that!

Leftover flannel on the back--which my longarm quilter complained about, "It's stretchy", lol.  I hope some young mom will love it. 

What I'm calling a garlic knot/minecraft quilt is also finished.  I lightened the pic to try to show Kathy's quilting better--birds and leaves.  This is mostly made from a box of 2.5" squares I bought at a guild show, with some additions of solids from stash.  No pattern--this was just an enjoyable scrap box puzzle to layout.

The backing is the same as the binding, which was a cutoff from another quilt. Using it up! This quilt is a little longer than the charm pack one. 

I like this shape so much that I used it for our guild Pizza Box block swap.  This month's pizza box had all black and white fabrics for Maria. 

I used a few leftover pieces from the baby quilt for grandson Hunter (Adam's Rib from Fons and Porter), and filled in with her fabrics.  The monkeys were the backing fabric for Hunter's quilt.  I'm hoping this looks modern enough.

More squares in my sewing room---I finished the top made from Aussie fabrics bought on my trip to Australia in 2009, adding the two outer borders. 

I had quite a time with these pieced borders, having to take in numerous seam allowances on the squares to make the top and bottom fit.  The side borders lost an entire square and I still had to take in some seam allowances.  This is a Darlene Zimmerman free pattern that came long ago with a magazine solicitation, which she designed for feedsack prints.  Although the instruction sheet claimed this quilt was designed for "beginners and experts", I would never recommend this for a beginner---so many pieces to cut and seams to match.  It looks great now, but there was some frustration getting it together.  The quilt is small, 37x45, I think.  I'll probably end up donating it, but not yet :)

Three for March Wrapup

The last pick for my Three for March UFO self-challenge, Sliced Cake, has its center finished.  I enjoyed sewing the rows together for this quick to piece top, a la Canoe Ridge Creations' tutorial. 

Pressing the seams in opposite directions per completed vertical row made the seams nest nicely and there was no need for any ripping, thankfully.  I've yet to make a decision about borders and backing, but am happy to be at this point with the project.  I used border pieces for Pick #4, Aussie Feedsacks, as leader-enders while constructing this.

Overall, my self-challenge was successful over the month--of the 10 projects, three are completely finished projects, two are completed tops, and all have been moved along--some more than others.   The oldest project, Pick #3, the Sanctuary panel with applique, is now a finished quilt.  Yes!

 I used some leftover jelly roll strips for the binding and a couple of pieces from stash that matched.

Closeup of the quilting I did around the appliques.  This was just the finishing touch the quilt needed to elevate it from a panel, I think.  The quilt is destined for an extended family member; I'll need to get a label stitched on but it has had its first bath and looks good. 

Pick #5, Round Robin Star, is also a completed quilt, with the binding finished today.  I'm really happy with the spiral quilting.

The back is not flawless--the fabric was sun-faded when I bought it--but I think it is fine. 

Today I sewed the four corner blocks on the #1 pick, Go FOUR It quilt, the center is now complete. A backing has arrived for Jewels in the Curio--no picture of that yet, but I did get a pic of more batiks bought for the  Beach Cottage quilt last week for additional variety. 

It was wonderful to spend concentrated time with the 10 projects, even better to cross a few off the UFO list, which of course shall never be completely cleared! 

Thanks for all the encouragement and comments all month, I so appreciate it. 

Final Pick for Three for March, and Lantern update

Sliced Cake is the tenth and final pick for my month-long challenge, and was inspired by a fabric I couldn't resist.

The macrame print was so cute. It's a little washed out in this pic, better in the next pic.  It is a Cotton + Steel print.  I last worked on this project in 2017, so it is only toddler aged :)

I saw the Sliced Cake Quilt tutorial on Canoe Ridge Creations' Facebook page using 10" squares, however I'm only making 4 rows of 17 strips.  I bought most of the coordinates from the clearance section on Connecting Threads--more came from stash.  This morning I laid out all the pieces and played switcheroo. 

Bright and fun colors and prints to play with.  There were a couple more switches after this pic.  I got right to sewing the rows before work.

Two rows complete, two to go! I will use the macrame print as borders to make the quilt a bit bigger, child size.   Meanwhile, pick #9 is now a finished pillow cover. 

In laying out the pieces after making the yellow print drunkard's path block, I remembered why this project stalled--the leftover DP blocks were all different sizes.  But since there were only four of them to trim, it went quickly and I sewed the pillow front together pretty easily. Originally I thought about finishing the pillow with a binding, but decided it would cover up too much of the rounded corner effect, so made a regular split back and stitched and turned the cover. 

This made an 18" pillow cover, a good size for a chair or couch.

The split back has >1" hemmed edges and overlaps on the sides by 3".  I'm glad to have the Lantern into a finished item and out of UFO jail.  Jen Carlton Bailly has many more DP-based patterns and lots of tips and tricks for easy construction on her website, bettycrockerass.com. 

Back to piecing and pressing...:)

Three for March--#9 Pick

This morning's number draw was #4 on my UFO list, Mythical Lanterns, a Jen Carlton-Bailly pattern. Jen taught this class for our guild last year.  I purchased a full set of her templates for the class--which she discounted for us. 

I bought some Essex Linen to use with a charm pack I had of Wing and Leaf.  Unfortunately, my choice of charms meant using the 3.5" templates, which were hard to sew neatly with the thicker Essex Linen.  I have decided to use just this block to make a pillow cover, requiring one more Drunkard's Path block to use in the corners, with borders of the Essex Linen.  I have several coordinating 1/4 cuts of the purple print that I can use for a pieced back and binding. I better not mess up as I used the rest of the Wing and Leaf charm pack to make a playmat for guild.

There was a beach trip following my last post--after a visit with my Mom and Dad, I bought a drive-thru burger and took myself to Surfer's Point.  Just as I found a parking spot, a huge group of pelicans was flying past, but I was not quick enough to get a good shot of them with my phone. There was other scenery, though, while I stitched a little on the Blackwork embroidery. 

Clouds, palm trees, surfers, shoreline and the Santa Monica Mountains in the distance. It was windy and cool and I enjoyed watching from my car.

Here's part of the Superbloom of California Poppies--from our backyard.  My brother lives close to where the Lake Elsinore Superbloom covers multiple mountains and the crowds are thick.  Pretty tame in my backyard :)

Three for March Keeps on Going!

Three for March, my UFO self-challenge, is nearing the close, only a few more picks left.  Last night I worked on pick #7, Beach Cottage, a Kim Brackett pattern from 2 1/2 inch strips.

It was good to spend time at the sewing machine after a very long and difficult day at work, getting some of each of the four color combos sewn. The blocks are assembled into ABCD blocks before final assembly. I'm looking forward to more yummy batik block making--these are easy to sew, no tiny pieces :)  Today I have off and am spending more time in the sewing room.  The pick this morning was #8, which happened to match with the same project number on my list, a small quilt with Blackwork embroidery by Stitchin' by the River that I bought at a quilt show several years ago. 

I had already cut the embroidery background pieces from this tea-dyed look Primitive Gatherings yardage, and got the edges zigzagged before tracing the pattern.

It is a beautiful day in SoCal and perhaps I will drive down to the beach and watch the waves while I stitch.  It has been quite a while since I was down there.  Later there will be some more sewing machine time and perhaps some clean up--flat surfaces are a complete disaster in the sewing room with all the projects being worked on this month!

Three for March--Another pick and progress

Yesterday it was time to choose another UFO to work on for three days in March.  The draw was #10, Beach Cottage Beauty.  

This is another slow build project that I collected Batik fabrics for gradually. It was curiously difficult to find light green batiks, so there will be many repeats. There are four different blocks made from the color combos, here are some I worked on pairing last night.  The pattern is from Kim Brackett.

I have made a number of her quilts and have several of her books, but not her latest.  The quilt on the cover of this book is gorgeous and also made from Batiks.  I cut most of the fabrics with my GO cutter sometime last year, and am happy that they will be sewn into blocks at last.  More cutting and maybe shopping for more variety will be necessary---I don't have enough of each combo for the required number of blocks.  

Meanwhile, more progress was made on Three for March projects.  The Round Robin Star's binding is attached and the quilt trimmed. I'm loving the spiral quilting. 

So glad I had just enough of that light teal blue for the binding, which I'll hand sew to the back.

Also moved along is the Aussie Feedsacks.  The quilt center is now complete.

There is a pieced border next, requiring prints to be sewn before cutting into sections, and I got those paired up. 

Some of my favorite prints are in this closeup.  Very pleased with the construction so far.  I'll try using the pairs as leader-enders with the Beach Cottage blocks and move both along.

Three for March--Jewels in the Curio Update

I had a productive couple of afternoons this weekend in the sewing room, finishing off the borders for the Jewels in the Curio quilt.  Our son came over and collected his dad Saturday afternoon for a long drive to look at a car, so I had plenty of room to lay out the quilt in the living/dining room.  Well, after I shoved over the table and chairs. 

The pieced borders fit nicely and I was happy with the color/print mix.  Then the final 2.5" plain border got measured and cut wrong. 

 My mistake was turning the quilt when I laid it down the second time--but no matter, I just added leftover border pieces and measured again. The edge really is not wavy--the quilt is just a little wrinkled in the middle.  I looked through my fabric bins today and decided against piecing a back--this top is just under 80" square so will need a lot of fabric.  I'll order or locally buy an extra wide backing, and will also need to purchase batting.  I got the binding all made today too.

My sister Kathy came over in the middle of this process Saturday night and after I made us a tri-tip and cheese quesadilla for dinner, we spent time in the sewing room.  She was making blocks for the pizza box guild challenge, and I laid out another quilt top on the floor to cut borders.  

I had sewn the lengths of border together weeks ago and just needed to measure and cut. This quilt is not on my Three for March list but is one I'd like to get done by next month to give as a gift.

A closeup of the prints, a mix of stash and charm packs from Connecting Threads.  I sewed  the borders on today and made a backing.  However, while I was pressing the backing seam I noticed a big flaw and a tiny hole in one of the backing fabrics.  Sigh.  Repairs will be necessary.  The final task in the sewing room today was repairing some pillow covers for daughter Elaine.  The tassels were drifting away from the corners :)  

There is one more day allotted to the Jewels in the Curio pick, but since I don't have any more sewing to do for it right now, I'll work more on the Aussie Feedsacks or the Sanctuary panel.