Variations on a Theme

With all of the blocks for my last Bordered Nine-Patch together and in the process of being assembled into a flimsy, I still have tons of 2.5" squares to play with and am in need of a new hand piecing project, so more Nine-Patches it is!

This time I'm using 8 squares all in the same colour family and then a neutral - not necessarily plain white - for the centre of the block.

It's fun, but fairly quickly I was back to cutting down either some of the 2.5" strips in my box or strips from yardage to get the 8 squares of one colour that I need. And so the pile grows!

I only have 7 blocks together so it's early days in terms of layout, but I'm thinking of maybe putting the blocks on point with a narrow sashing and bright cornerstone(s) and then maybe adding a border or two. That would mean fewer blocks to make. Time will tell....M

Lots of Ooohs and Ahhhhs

When I visited with Sandy recently she gave me a lovely bundle of goodies to include in our Quilts for Survivors shipment this fall, the main one being this fantastic Postage Stamp quilt.

It's made from tiny 3" Nine Patches made with 1.5" squares. 

If you do the math, she's got 9 Nine-Patches per block (81 tiny squares) and there are 20 blocks - all hand pieced - so that makes for 1,620 squares!

Apparently she was channeling me and trying to use up as many of her tiny scraps as she could in this one. I'd say mission accomplished! It sounds like there were several times when there was a fair bit of blue smoke as she worked her way through this, but finish it she did, and it's just gorgeous.

And she didn't stop there. It's machine quilted and bound and, after they add a label, ready to be shipped to a survivor.

Yesterday I shared it with our circle of quilters at the church and they were completely gob smacked, not only that she put all of that work into this beauty, but that she was prepared to give it away. That butter yellow border was a huge hit. Several doubted that they could be quite this generous.

Thank you so much Sandy; someone will receive and enjoy a real treasure to help them along on their healing journey....M

No Longer Sewing in Circles

My effort at completing Jan's Double Wedding Ring flimsy has worked, and no one is more surprised than I.

Thanks to some very rainy weather over the August long weekend I was able to hide in the sewing room and slowly work my way to a finish, and I'm tickled. More than once I was convinced that this just wasn't going to happen, but happen it did!

Remember that corner that I ripped off the existing panel? Well, I decided to try and use it to help minimize the yellow on the 'new' side of the quilt, and it worked. I ripped the vertical seam between the rings so that I could add the circle segments to the columns that I was creating to help complete that big 'S' curve that I needed to.

When it came time to sew that S seam I matched up the seams at the corners and then found the middle of the cream centres of each block, finger pressed them and then attached them to the relevant arc. It meant that half of the time the cream curve was facing me and the other half it was the pieced arc. Surprisingly, both systems worked well as long as that centre point was accurately marked and pinned.

I don't think I've seen a Double Wedding Ring lap quilt but it's very sweet at this size. And the strong colours are lovely, a very different look from the one that our quilting circle finished off earlier in the year.

This one is scrappy with a capital 's', so lots of treasures to unearth as you work your way through it. These vintage cherries are a favourite that show up several times...

as is this sweet almost checked green, which is modern day.

I found a piece of the cream fabric in the project box large enough for a backing so I will send that along to the folks at Quilts for Survivors as well.

Interesting that in all of the years that I have been quilting, this pattern has never been on my list and yet this year I've worked on two of them! Can't wait to let Jan know that her project will now find its forever home....M 

My Nine-Patches Take a Getaway

Wanting some hand stitching to do during a short getaway, I got busy and threw the scrappy Nine-Patches that I've been working on lately for another QFS quilt up on the design wall. I wanted to lay everything out and then pin the rows/columns so that I could easily stitch in the car or as we sat and gabbed. 

Not sure just how many I had made, I discovered that I needed a few more. I also decided that I wanted it one row longer (you know my aversion to square quilts!) so I whipped up a few on the machine in order to meet my deadline. The blocks weren't in any particular order and I made very few tweaks to the final layout, which I really like. Those 3 1/2" border blocks make me happy. I snapped a photo for insurance so that I had a reference in case I got myself messed up.

I made a rough sketch of how everything would go together, numbered and pinned each row/column, and everything was tucked into a bin with thread and scissors. Time to hit the road!...M

It's Decided

I've taken the plunge - the Double Wedding Ring quilt will be a lap quilt and not full-sized. My intention when picking up Jan's WIP was to make it for Quilts for Survivors and that's what I'll do. It also makes it much more likely that it will some day be a finish. I haven't let my mind move forward too too much as to just how to finish it yet - just dealing with the bits and bobs in front of me - but I'm counting on the quilting gods to have my back.

So, I've taken the panel that is all sewn together and ripped out the seam that joins the bottom two rings to the rest of the top, planning to make it 4W x 5H rings.

And I'm left with a corner piece that looks like this. It may be the start of something else but for now its removal has helped move me along. I've just parked it in a corner of the design wall.

Then I started puzzling just how this baby is to come together. I've been referring to Christine Baker's tutorial and the goal is to have columns come together in an elongated S seam. But because I jumped into this midstream, instead of having two consistent shapes, I'm working with an interesting combo of partial rings, like tops of rings...

right sides of rings, and ...

corners of rings (if that's possible...).

I'm just talking myself through it like someone trying to convince a jumper not to jump, but progress is being made....M