Sweet Hearts

It's Valentine's Day, the perfect opportunity to share a pretty little heart-themed quilt in the making.

This is one of my sister Betty's creations, begun about six months ago for one of her two nieces and steadily worked from concept to quilt.

Each hand-pieced block is 4.5" in size and separated from it's neighbours by a narrow white sashing, which, like the pinks, are very scrappy. The hearts in each row are staggered against the adjoining rows. LUV.

She's made about 400 blocks in total but will likely use only 330.

The extra blocks were going to be worked into a border pattern I believe, but she's reimagining that idea so we'll wait and see what the final design becomes. So sweet.

Happy Valentine's Day!....M

Pawsitively Lovely

Big, Big Paws is pretty much made up of four very large nine-patch blocks so assembly went really well.

Because I had those 16 large HSTs to make, and lots of the grey remnants, it was just as easy to make two HSTs at the same time so I decided to make two flimsies. No point having a pile of remnant 6.5" HSTs lying around wondering what else I could do with them. It also gave me a helpful visual reference so that I didn't mess up the order that the blocks were to be sewn together.

My borders are slightly bigger than those on the inspiration quilt because I wanted to get the quilts to be 48" x 64" to meet the size that Quilts for Survivors prefers. The edges are 6" finished and I believe that the top and bottom borders are about 12" wide.

It took a little doing because I discovered several random marks/stains on the sheets that I wasn't able to discern what they were - wax? oil? Regardless, it meant figuring out how best to cut so that I got the most out of the fabric while still avoiding the stains, but I did it.

The little blossom at the centre of the paws was a fun addition.

These are happy quilts and I hope that whoever they are gifted to enjoys them as much as I enjoyed making them....M

Big Bear's Closeup

The longest part of the giant Bear Paw process was finding the right combination of fabrics for each quadrant, but I finally got there. Because the lighting downstairs is hit and miss, I thought I'd share closeups of each 'paw' so that you can get a better sense of just how diverse the fabric selection is. You can get even better closeups if you click on each image.

Nice bright spring greens on this cold, cold winter's day.

Orange and yellow, heading towards tan at times.

This one is still showing up a little muddy but they are all actually quite bright. I love the combo.

And last but not least, teal and blue, with a little red surprise. That's an idea that I totally stole from the designer Giuseppe Ribaudo, AKA Giucy Giuce, and I love it. That little bit of quirkiness keeps everything interesting. I've tried to find a name for the pattern but haven't had any luck so I'm sticking with Big, Big Paws....M

Big, Big Paws

I've been working on a quilt that is sort of counter intuitive for me, but I have to say that I'm really enjoying it. No itty, bitty 1" strips or squares in this one. This time it's 6" squares and HSTs. And...more grey.

Just after I mentioned that I tend not to use grey that often, I ran across a photo of a Bear Paw quilt that's been on my radar for quite some time - grey with a terrific collections of brights that often read as solids and the odd funky large print.

It was a little scant on details initially...

but as more colours filled in you could see it starting to build.

Eventually, despite the not so great lighting in the sewing cave, you can see that it has started to really come together....M

A Few More

I've been sewing around the remains of a few unmade blocks using the 1" strips that were sitting on my sewing table (note to self: find a name for this block) so I decided to put them together.

Naturally, the first scrap that I picked up wasn't one of those that I had left behind but a new piece of black floral that had followed me home from the church. I hesitated to use such a dark print but I have to say that I absolutely love the block.

This one challenged me a bit because I just couldn't land on a colour to use for the outer border. The yellow works nicely but it will be one of the challenges of trying to use only the scraps that I have on hand and not cutting into yardage. It was a close call!

This yellow strawberry print is an oldie and I know that I am coming to the end of it. It will be missed.

I'm debating if I should pick a palette/style or just work with random and see how things turn out. The green outer border on this one is a sweet print but I was uncertain about its fit until I saw it on the wall with the others.

Group photo. Here they are all together on the small design wall near my machine. They all play well together and am more convinced now that the darker prints will be key in maintaining interest throughout, but they are hardly what you would call fabric guzzlers - nine blocks used nine 2.5" squares, 108" of one-inch strips and 162" of 1.5" strips.

So, this will be my view and inspiration for the coming months (read 'years').

I seem to be spending a lot of time finding just the right combination of prints for each block so hopefully I get more spontaneous as time goes by. I'm also doing a really good job of messing up all of my strip bins. Me thinks that I'll have to figure out a system of sorts that allows me to plan several blocks in advance and then sit down and sew. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the view....M 

 

A New Life for My One-Inch Strips

Not being able to waste even the tiniest bits of fabric, I've been resolutely saving 1" strips for some time now and my basket is overflowing (there's also a second smaller one on the cutting table). While trimming remnants over the holidays I got to wondering if I would ever use them. Maybe I should just throw in the towel and start dealing with larger pieces because heaven knows, there's lots of fabric here to work with.

But then I saw some inspiration on Pinterest that had me rushing to make a few test blocks: framing a 2.5" square with 1" strips and then a 1.5" strip. It's a 5" block and just as cute as can be. LUV! 

My inspiration had the narrow strip sewn like you would sew a Courthouse Steps block with two short strips opposite each other and then the two longer strips opposite each other. All of the narrow strips were one colour, but mixing them up just seemed like much more fun. Double LUV!

I found myself wondering what it would look like if I just stayed within the same colour family and sewed the strips more like you would a Log Cabin block, just circling that centre square. Just too much fun! Given that my strips are relatively short, this approach would give me much more flexibility because I wouldn't need to find enough for all four strips.

I wrote a quick reminder as to the lengths that I would need so that I wouldn't have to keep measuring every time.

This block was sewn the same way but it's hard to tell because I used a single print throughout. Nothing says that I couldn't make it a combo and use both styles because it would be scrappy anyway.

Of course the inevitable was going to happen. Any remnant shorter than 2.5" but longer than 1" was cut into a 1" square, maybe for tiny nine patches? Crazy, I know, but fun!...M

Template Time

It's been forever since I've made a quilting template but we needed one to mark the quilting pattern for the Double Wedding Ring. I'm thinking that a purchased stencil may have been used for the portion that is already quilted but there was no sign of one when the quilt was dropped off for us, so I brought it home to try and figure out a way to do it.

As a reminder, my mission was to create a template for this pattern. After a little pondering I decided to just make an oval for each quadrant rather than attempting a stencil for the entire pattern, so I rescued a cereal box from the recycling bin and proceeded to draft one. It went quicker that I had imagined.

I just measured one of the ovals from the existing pattern from end and then determined it's overall width at the mid point. Once I had that cut I made it 1/4" wide and cut the centre out.

The maker had pressed the centre panel of each block so as to mark it's centre, so I just positioned one end of the petal point at the centre of the block and the other end pointing towards a corner. For the circle that encased the petals I was lucky enough to find a plastic container the same size as the outer ring and then marked an echo line 1/4" inside of that. Easy peasy.

It took several hours to mark the remaining 32 blocks that need quilting but I was determined to do it all in one day. For whatever reason, it was tricky getting a light pencil line to show up well on the fabric but I eventually got to the point that things moved along. I don't like a heavy quilting line but also wanted to ensure that the quilters could see the pattern.

It's been up on the frame at the church since early January and we are seeing good progress. Because the edges of the quilt are scalloped, we first hand basted all of those outer circles so that everything was stabilized, which took a fair bit of time. Eventually we were able to begin quilting and this past Friday we finished the first column of eight blocks and were thrilled to roll it for the first time. Woohoo! Only 24 more to go!....M

A Special Double Wedding Ring Surprise

Back in November, just as we were prepping for the bazaar, Jan sent through a note about a gal named Carrie who had contacted her guild in Kingston enquiring as to anyone who might be interested in finishing a Double Wedding Ring quilt.

It was made by Carrie's mother who had passed away in 2010. After her death, Carrie's dad had bundled it up and tucked it into a drawer, not quite sure what to do with it. They recently discovered it safe and sound. She is keen to have the hand quilting finished up and getting it bound so that she can gift it to her daughter for her upcoming wedding this spring. It's to be a surprise.

It is beautiful. About 2/3 of it is quilted and her work is lovely. It proved to be a challenge that we couldn't refuse. I mean, to be able to work on a sentimental surprise like that? Really? 

So we've put our heads together to develop a line of attack, not the least of which is drafting and marking this motif for the centre of the rings.

So far, it's been quilted in a hoop and it is very well basted with pins, so there's been little or no shifting of the quilt sandwich....M

Something From Nothing

I'm a little giddy with my Quadrangle quilt progress this week.

A few evenings of hand stitching while watching TV and I now have seven (eight?) blocks made and ready to be pressed. It's particularly welcome on those days when I'm pooped and don't have the motivation to trundle down to the machine.

With everything cut and the coloured squares bundled and ready to go, it's easy to pick things up and make a little progress every time. The greatest part of this type of sewing is that, with the exception of several neutrals that I am using, almost everything came from my 2.5" scraps. That's when I pat myself on the back for taking the time to trim remnants rather than pitching them in the trash. A beautiful way to get something from 'nothing'!....M

A New Hand Stitching Project

New year, new project. I've been missing having a quilt to hand piece and my recent Pinterest trolling has filled that void for me. It's a free Moda pattern called Quadrangle. 

Of course it's scrappy and there are lots of neutrals to play with, too. 

For whatever reason, I printed a photo of the inspiration quilt but didn't have the smarts to Pin it so it's taken a bit of time to track down the source again. It would have helped considerably if I had been searching for 'quadrangle' rather than 'quartile'. Sigh. If I only had a brain... 

Anyway, huge thanks to suepatch12 (her photo) for her inspiration. Isn't it lovely?

I was somewhat surprised when I saw the original pattern as it is much denser than Sue's. By choosing to make every alternate block a neutral instead of a pieced block she has made it beautifully light and airy. 

I'm taking the neutrals up a notch, using a random assortment in each block rather than only a single neutral in each. Thinking I might forgo the cornerstones in the sashing too, but we will see. Love being able to work on something without running down to the machine; so relaxing....M