I worked on fixing the Mrs. Miller’s Apprentice quilt top this weekend.  Last week I ripped out most of the stitching that connected the columns together, I was able to leave the webbing connections in most of the rows.  So I wasn’t really taking the whole thing apart.  I spread it out on a spare bed, that way I could clearly see all the mis-placed blocks.  I then stuck bright yellow headed pins in each block that needed to be switched out.  You may recall from a previous post that I made a mistake of not using the correct blue and tan squares because they were made from really similar fabric prints.  Bending over the bed to un-pick the blocks wasn’t the best thing for my back, but I think it was easier to see the top as a whole than having it on my design wall where I can only see about 2/3rds of it at one time.  I would pick a block, un-stitch it and put it where it should go, un-stitch the block that was in that spot and pin the correct one in.  I checked the layout four times to make sure every block was in it’s spot.  Then I sewed the row parts and columns back together.  Big sigh.

Okay, now onto the four borders.  Two plain narrow ones, one pieced and one wide outer border.  Since this is a BOM, I had limited fabric, I think it’s still available, but not widely.  The pieced border first, as I wanted to make sure I had enough to do all 88 split cats cradle blocks, ugh.  I wish I had been able to make these throughout the whole preceding year.  Instead, each month, I was instructed to cut four blue squares and put them aside.  This pattern uses the “sew two diagonal seams a square and cut in between on the diagonal” method to make half square triangles.  Not the way I like to make HSTs, I’ll use my EZ-angle thank you.

I made the 88 HSTs and got them sewn to rectangles, then put two together.  Next I sewed them to contrasting rectangles, then cut them apart.  Pam Buda, the pattern designer came up with this technique.  She doesn’t have a web tutorial, but sells it as part of one of her books.  I googled it, and found that Creative grids makes a Cats cradle  specialty ruler for the blocks. The ruler uses this same technique as I used, but it’s a bit more accurate.  I might want to get one.

 

I spent a few hours yesterday assembling the top. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but the quilt blocks are 6 inches finished and the Cats Cradle blocks are 3 inches finished.  I left the final border for today, it’s a simple 6 inch wide one, I think some swirling feathers might be called for on it.

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

 

 

I did some mindless sewing this week.  Putting together the Live Simply top and the last baby quilt tops.  Looking at the picture I realize that it is a whole row shorter than the last two.  Looks like there will be some ripping and resewing in the next few days.

I finished the eighth clue for Frolic.  Which wasn’t very easy/fun.  I got a bit over zealous sewing clue seven, and sewed the all HST’s together.  I discovered this when I needed them to attach to my QST’s for the flying geese.  So instead of all matchy- matchy 16 of my sets are sort of matchy,  Nine sets are perfect 👌.  I wasn’t going to unpick all those HST blocks.

I’m making head way on quilting the Feathered Star, it’s not as intimidating to me as the Fire Island Hosta was.  I saw a finished one on Instagram and I am getting “inspiration” from it.  Doing a bit of texture quilting and a lot of ruler work.  This quilt is a bit smaller than the Hosta one, with no curved lines, which also makes it a bit easier.

I found some cute (?) or rather appropriate backing fabric for the Halloween quilt I made a few months ago. It was in the clearance pile at Joann’s, 2.50 a yard, couldn’t resist.  I want to get the backing together this week and add it to the TBQ queue. Next up is Live Simply and the Christmas tree quilt then the halloween quilt or I have been thinking of doing Berties Year.  I really need a new quilt to hang in the main room of my house.  I switch them out every month or so.

Also this week I’d like to use up some of these scraps of minky for backings or small quilts.  I have seen kits that use six inch wide strips to make a striped quilt.  I don’t want to buy a pattern,  some internet research is needed.  I’m thinking its sort of a quilt as you go type of project.  That was easy I found just what I was looking for Row By Row Minky and this one looks easy too Self binding baby blanket .  The self binding one is the easiest, I especially want to try the one with double gauze on the top and minky on the bottom.

Finally I got this kit from Bluprint that is made with simple quarter square triangles.  The fabric is really pretty, its called Heritage.  I was impressed with the quality of it, usually the Boundless brand isn’t quite up to A-1.  I used my AccuQuilt cutter and was able to cut the twenty fat quarters into triangles (960!) in about an hour.  There are 240 QSTs to make now.  I love chain piecing – it’s so mindless.

 

I am ending this post with this beautiful photo my friend Liz took the other day.  This was taken with an iPhone, out at the coast near Santa Cruz CA.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love Of Geese for Put your foot down #34 today.

I finished the three baby quilts yesterday and got them mailed.  I crossed the finish line at the post office when I handed over the package.  Yay! I was so busy yesterday afternoon doing things unrelated to sewing, it was like a reward for binding those three quilts in the morning.  I thought I was done sewing for the day, but I made myself work on the Frolic pieces.  I sewed “just one more” until I was done with all the cut pieces I had.  Im about 2/3rds done with clue 7.  Hard to believe I have been working on this quilt for seven weeks.  I think I average two weeks for a top finish, a little less for smaller ones a little more for larger.

All my block parts/pieces are in this zippered bag, funny how this is a queen sized quilt in a gallon sized bag.

Or 2020.  I’ve been busy this past week.  In my spare time I’ve been scrolling blogs and admiring the to-to lists, the UFO lists, the best of lists, the must do lists, and the recaps.  Lists, lists and more lists.  I think I did a list post a week or so ago, 2020 Aspirations  yep.  Then I started sewing the four baby quilts, the Bonnie Hunter Mystery, the Live Simply quilt and Mrs. Millers Apprentice.

I got the baby girl quilts quilted, there were two, as one of the babies turned out to be a boy, and I had already made a “girl colored” top.  I was able to fit two across on the long arm and quilt them together.  Just to make it interesting, I used two different pantos, daisies and hearts & bubbles.  The blue quilts are on the frame, waiting to make/finish one more top.

My Frolic pieces are coming together, the sneaky 1/1/20 clue threw a wrench into my keeping up routine.  I have been trying to make 10 sets a day (40 Geese) which is manageable, but I have not started Clue 7 yet.  There seems to be a lot of sets of 41, so I’m thinking 41 blocks.  But she always has a pieced border, or maybe she’s doing medallion style this year? Usually she does on point settings, although Good Fortune wasn’t, was it?Soon we’ll know.

The Live Simply, the amish inspired/colored quilt is webbed and the borders are pieced.  It’s hanging on the design wall, not too pretty at the moment.  I’m auditioning quilting pattens in my head.  Thinking all over feathers, or feathers to go in the cabins.

Last on the to-do list is Mrs. Miller,  I am upset with myself about this top.  I was so careful in putting it together, it’s an on point setting with HST’s setting squares in a diamond pattern.  I did misplace one, near the center, but otherwise everything was going the right direction and in the right place.  Then I noticed the blue triangles were made from two different fabrics.  They are the same shades, but one has flowers and the other has dingle berries  cherries.  These are not where they are supposed to be, there is an inner diamond of one type and an outer diamond of the other.  There were many expletives uttered when I held up the top for a look.  I webbed this top, so I unstitched all the columns and now I’m going to lay it out and remove/replace any blocks not in their right row/spot.  Needless to say the missus is in timeout for a while.

That wraps up week one of this year, only 51 more to go.

 

I walked past my sewing room today and was amazed at the mess of it.  It is a big mess of projects, fabric, bins and boxes of fabric, piles of fabric, rulers, papers/patterns, and…more fabrics.  I am working on three main projects right now, Mrs. Millers Apprentice, Live Simply and Frolic.  All are large and all are in various states of done-ness.  I am at the put-together stage of MMA, all the blocks are done, the setting blocks are done too.  The borders need to be cut, but I can’t do that until the main body is sewn together.  I also need 88 more 3-triangle blocks to do one of the outer borders.  Yesterday I worked on months 10 and 11, today I want to get the center part together.  It’s sort of a mini quilt, using nine, 3 1/2 inch blocks that were made each month.  The background story of this quilt is Mrs. Miller (farmers wife) teaches her neighbor’s daughter to sew.  These little blocks are supposed to represent her work.  I like the blues and tans of this quilt, it is one I am making for me.

The Frolic pieces are coming together too, although I am a bit low on Aqua colored scraps.  I was forced to buy/order more fabric to alleviate this deficit.  While looking through my current stock of scraps for more aqua, I came across a large bag of mixed solid scraps.  They had fallen behind some other piles and had been quietly multiplying themselves for the past few years.  These scraps are from my Amish with a Twist 2 quilt (circa 2015),  I think if I combine them with the scraps from my Gravity quilt and the Live Simply quilt, I’d have enough for a bed size quilt. The colors are compatible in “real life”, what I have in mind is similar to this leader ender quilt that KatyQuilts is making.  I am hoping all the jewel tones will sparkle and shine, AND there will be three less bags of scraps.

I have a scrappy top made from 2 ½ inch squares, from Wedding Dress Blue called Growing Up Odd.  I thought I had a picture of it, but not on this computer.  Not sure if I want to do something with the sashing strips or just go free range squares.

This is my design wall today, it is the least chaotic area in my room today.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.  She has a post about finding calm in December.  I think I need to read it now.