My latest quilt is a commission for a baby girl, the client wanted “something girly”. I sent out a few ideas of flower quilts and designs, but they weren’t feminine enough. Then I saw a simple quilt made with soft pastel colors and florals, yes, that’ll do. Next, the fabric search, what did we ever do with out google search? Rose & Violet’s garden fabric line popped up a few times and it was “perfect”. Luckily it was still available (what did I ever do without Etsy?) and I ordered a fat quarter pack and a few yards for the outer border.

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The blocks were simple, my mind started working on how to make them in a quick and efficient manner. I first though I would do the square on the corner, sew a diagonal and cut method. I didn’t want to take the time to mark or cut and have a bunch of extra triangles though. Folded corners would be a good way to reduce waste and increase efficiency. Next thought, how big of a starting square? I got out a pencil and paper and the easy angle ruler. I have two folded corner rulers, but since I didn’t know what my block size was going to be, I had to work backwards. I didn’t want to waste the cut off corners, I would make them 2 ½ inch HSTs. Then after a few tries of block size, I figured 6 inch finished would give me a balanced look. Then I had to figure out the white triangle size, if you look at the drawing/pattern you’ll see four lines marked sew or cut. I placed my easy angle on the innermost cut line, and came up with a 3 1/4 triangle. I then figured that I would need 42 blocks to make the top. I cut them from the 21 FQ’s and then cut the 84 – 3 1/4 triangles from Kona “Bone”. I like bone, because it has a slight pink undertone, and it went well with the Rose and Violet. Some quick chain piecing and ironing and the blocks were done. I then achieved a semblance of random, without two of the same fabrics touching.

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All together and waiting for quilting. Lots of fabric left for a few more girly quilts too.

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I am starting to think about making some Hands2Help quilts. I have a bin of binding scraps, most are 2 ½ inches wide. This was my go to size for a while, but in the past few years I have decreased it to 2 1/4 wide. I like the lesser width for machine sewing the binding on. I sew it to the back first and bring it over to the front and machine sew it to the front. The narrower size allows for a better 1/4 inch showing on the front, although its more like 3/8ths, truly. I don’t like to cut those border HST points off either. I’m thinking scrappy log cabin or split rail, less cutting and more sewing. First there will be ironing, getting those center fold lines out, not fun. Maybe I can use the steamer, what can I hang them over? Maybe the laundry drying rack… I’ll let you know.

Today I want to finish the strips for Hampton Court, they had to take the back seat while I worked on the baby quilt. I have three more sets of 15 to make, then the assembly of the top can start.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese today, for “Put Your Foot Down”. She’s been making a special baby quilt too.

Be Kind.

In case you were wondering, the bees have a new home. My neighbors bee keeping friend came by on Saturday and gently persuaded the swarm into this box. It was fascinating to watch, and after a few hours, they had all settled down into their new home.

I was busy inside (safely) sewing together the Evolution top. I’m happy with the way it turned out. Only one or two spots where colors meet, but I’m leaving it.

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I worked some more on getting the strip sets cut into units for Hampton Court. I sewed units together into rows too, I’m making a queen size top and they are long. This week I’m planning on getting them together into quilt sections, 7 strips sewn together. I think it would be too unwieldily to try to sew all the rows (49?) at one time. Plus I want to avoid the stretching and warping that may occur.

I started quilting the Garden City quilt too. I decided to do an all over diamond pattern for the center, and will probably do ruler work in the two borders.

This coming week I have another commissioned baby quilt to do. I ordered the fabric Friday, so I am hoping it’ll be here soon. The store is in Utah, so we’ll see. The fabric I ordered from Joann’s is having a jaunt around the state, it made it to Hayward, but for some reason, it then made a hard 180 to Tracy, ah FedEx ground so special. I am supposed to get more fabric delivered today, from Nancy’s Notions. They were having a sale, I got some cute coffee themed charms and coordination yards. I also want to start making plans for this years Hands 2 Help quilts.

I did a little shopping for Cross stitch supplies, bought some linen, two charts and some thread. One of the charts is for a Long Dog Sampler design called Pilgrims Progress. I am going to use one color thread for it, it calls for 300 meters of it. Since DMC and Weeks Dye Works are 8 yard skeins, that would get a bit pricey. I am going to try 12wt Aurifil thread, I got a pretty medium blue and it was less than ten dollars for 350 yards. Using it one thread over two strands with the 36 count linen.

Be Kind.

Yesterday, I was puzzled to see a crowd of honey bees on my doorstep. They were sort of flying around drunkenly, and crawling on the concrete. I am allergic to any kind of stinging thing, including bees, but I am fascinated by them and respect them. I called my neighbor who has a hive, and asked her if they were hers, nope, hers were all together in their home, not active yet. I continued to watch them through the day, I thought maybe there was a swarm, but couldn’t see any from my vantage point, and I wasn’t keen on going out there to look. At around five, my DD came home from work and she told me that when she got out of her car she could hear a buzzing and looked up, and there in the small oak above was a massive swarm. They were there all right, and I could see them from the safety of my kitchen. I called my neighbor back and asked her if she was sure her’s were home, yes, they were. She also said that the bee keeper who helps her was coming tomorrow, and he could take a look and take them with him to a new home. That was my excitement of the day. They are still hanging out this morning, I am hoping the Keeper will be able to get them. In a way, I’d like them to stay, find a nice hollow tree somewhere, but I can’t risk it. They will have a new hive later today.

I got about half of the evolution quilt top rows sewn together yesterday, I worked on it after making a bunch of strip sets for the Hampton Court QAL. I had to quit after half, because I had been at the machine too long, my upper back was starting to ache a bit. The Hampton Court strip sets are going quickly. In my last post I explained that I mistakenly cut the brown strips for the single piece piecing plan, and realized half way through. I sewed the all the right sized strips I had together to make as many strips sets as I could. Then I got creative and figured out I could sew the rest in web-mode. I sewed the pairs or three’s of the prints together, cut them to width and then made a web with those strips and the brown spacers. It was quite a bit slower than normal strip piecing, but I only had so much brown. I’m glad I went with the brown, I was afraid that it would be lost in the prints, but it is a nice rich color, like the Sequoia fabric line. I want to finish these sets (36 more) today, and if I’m up to it the Evolution quilt top too.

Happy Worldwide Quilting Day!

Be Kind.

The best laid plans…

I waver between liking quilting patterns and free form quilt making. Maybe because I can get lost both ways. The Evolution quilt top is almost a top, I web stitched it vertically together. I was able to put most of it on my design wall, I had to use the wall sideways on a chair, but it help most of the pieces. The lower third were on the floor, and I remembered to keep the door closed, so the dogs only walked through it once. This pattern-less quilt went through three different design attempts, it is much different than my original idea, but the colors are the same. Sadly, the main reason I started this was to use up the Arctic charm pack. I think I’ll just make something simple with that, maybe a disappearing 4 patch. I want to sew the rows on this one together this weekend. First I have to fix that errant HST in the second row.

I got side tracked when the Essex Linen for the Hampton Court QAL got here. I had already cut the fat quarter bundle into the proper sized pieces called for in the pattern. Just had to cut the solid, easy strip piecing ahead. I didn’t end up liking the linen color, Sierra, with the Laundry Basket Sequoia prints, it was a bit too pink. No worries though, since I ordered a bit (ahem) too much, I can use it on the backing of one of two other quilt kits I have in the queue. I started cutting the brown strips, only to discover that I had been looking at the wrong page/chart. I cut about 30 strips for the separate piecing version, not the size for the strip piecing version that I wanted to do. At least they are the right size, so I’ll be doing both versions of piecing this pattern requires. I figure, this way the fabrics will be sufficiently mixed and I will experience the fun of making a half and half quilt.

Was watching a FlossTube video the other day and the hostess was talking about her stitching WIPs. She had 41, FORTY ONE. I guess its possible to get that backed up, especially if that’s your main hobby, but really? I’m about half way done with ‘Pet All The Dogs’ to date, and I have two projects kitted up and waiting for me when it’s done. ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘Heaven and Nature’, SF is pretty small, and H&N is a medium size sampler.

I’ve seen a couple of cute smalls or minis lately, but I’m strangely not interested in actually starting any thing new. I have, however, found a few new charts on Etsy, that I might have to have.

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I have to remember I am a quilter first. Yep.

Linking up with Denise today for Put Your Foot Down #91 at For the Love Of Geese.

Be Kind.

This weekend I worked on a new project, which I am calling Evolution. I started out with the intent to use up a charm pack and a roll of 8 inch wide Boundless brand solids. The charm is a collection from Elizabeth Hartman, called Arctic. The two color families complimented each other nicely. I started out by cutting 5 inch squares from the solids and sewing them together with the Arctic squares in a random fashion. I wasn’t thrilled with how it was looking, dull and boring. I thought I’d add some four patches, still, not interesting. Hmm. Maybe some HST’s? I need a constant here, gray, coal gray, and I had two yards of it. The HST’s were looking good, I decided to drop the Actic charms. They just looked too washed out, the cute polar bears looked forlorn. I needed to let it rest for a day or so. On Friday, I was looking at Sarah’s site, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and saw a link to Crafts, Cavies and Cooking and her current project called Sunny Lanes. I googled Sunny Lanes, I should have put the words “quilt pattern” in the search though, because SL is also the name of an “actress” of a certain type of films. Ugh, this should be an interesting next few weeks on social sites. Anyway, I found a bunch of patterns with the same name, some similar to CC&C’s, but I liked her version. It’s pretty simple, a sixteen patch block and four HST’s in a block. By rotating the blocks you get diamonds surrounding the sixteen patches and the seem to float in the background of other sixteen patches. I had a plan. Now the counting and figuring started, I finally mocked one up on EQ8 so I could count the pieces. I needed more fabric, I dug through some left over charms and found half a pack of Kona charms called “Dusty”. They matched pretty well, and since this is a stash quilt, that is good. I finished up the HST’s yesterday and need to iron them. This is going to be a design wall quilt, as achieving the proper random-ness will be easier that way.

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Also this weekend I got the bindings on three quilts, the two Mia Charro baby quilts, and Grassy Creek. I did end up cutting the outer row of squares in half to cover the quilting stitches that were, um, where they shouldn’t be. I cut out the Halloween Figs BOM blocks too. The mail brought another installment of the Holiday Snow Village, now I am two months behind. I’m really trying to like this quilt, but I just don’t like the way the printed accents look, too fake. I received the original brown yardage I bought for the Hampton Court quilt-a-long too, but I am waiting for the Essex linen I ordered to arrive to make a final decision on which to use. We are supposed to be putting the pieces together in the next two weeks to finish by 3/29. It’s doable.

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Pet All the Dogs is progressing too. I did the border, thankfully, it joined up on the left side. I also took it off the frame, trimmed it and finished the edges with an overlock stitch. I was hesitant to do so before stitching the border, as I didn’t want to cut off too much. Waiting meant I could have a three inch outer border with which to frame the piece. It is still a bit too wide for the frame, but I folded the extra inch under and it works fine.

It’s a rainy day today, I think I’ll get the ironing done, and head out to the post office, then get the long arm set to quilt the Garden City quilt.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

Be Kind.