That is the viewer’s left – about the width of Piglet’s right foot. Fortunately the pieces are just pinned in place. I can’t really cut the extra off the left edge or there won’t be enough room for the letters at the bottom — but I briefly thought about it. (Yes, I’m missing the mane and two strings.)
When it comes to quilting, I always think I can get more done than I can in the amount of time I have available. This month will probably prove the point. Of these 5 projects I want to completely finish 2 of them and get the other 3 tops made.
Top left – Jared Takes a Wife. Two seams on each block and then a simple set with sashing and cornerstones. Middle left – Orca Bay. I think I have all the pieces sew for the center of the quilt – I still need to finish piecing the border. Bottom left – Eeyore. Still in pieces.
Top Right – Scrappy Trips Around the World – I’m planning on quilting this on the treadle. I brought the backing fabric up from the basement this morning. Bottom Right – Candy Sunflower Seeds. It has a pieced border which I’ve been working on as my leader/ender.
If I only focus on these 5 quilts, it could happen. I leave for a quilt retreat in two weeks. My plan is to focus on Eeyore and hopefully finish him. Then at the retreat I should be able to finish the 3 quilt tops. (That is if I don’t take all the projects I have stacked on the ironing board to take with me – 3 new quilts and 2 to finish.) Which means I’ll have a week and a half to get Scrappy Trips quilted.
This morning I have two things to show. First up is Ladder to the Stars 2 – aka Deadline II. This is the quilt I made back in October to test my pattern which was published yesterday in The Quilt Pattern Magazine. Not only was I testing the pattern, I was also testing my quilting design. It was an epic fail, so I backed up and punted to get the original Ladder to the Stars quilted.
A very good friend ripped out all of the quilting for me and then I spent the last part of the week quilting this on my sewing machine. Curves in the sashing and straight lines in the blocks and setting triangles. The border has a diamond cable. I used bleached Warm and Natural batting and the thread – top & bottom – is — well shoot. I’ve lost the label — I’ve used it before so I’ll dig through the blog and find the information and add it to this post later. cairo-quilt 100% cotton in Honey Gold.
After washing the quilt finished at 57″ x 68″.
This quilt is on several of my UFO goal lists for the year, including the 2014 Finish Along sponsored by The Littlest Thistle. I’ll update the link when I link up.
In addition to finishing the quilt, I worked on my Jared Takes a Wife blocks. Two more seams on each block to go.
See what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.
Here’s the link to the 2nd Quarter Finish Party over at The Littlest Thistle and my 2nd Qtr list.
One of the things I learned at the retreat this past weekend is where to find inexpensive cotton shirts. One of the thrift shop chains in town picks one color tag each Sunday and sells the clothes for 25¢ each or 5 for $1. This week the color was yellow. At the first shop I picked up 10 pieces. At the second I found 3. There were yellow tagged 100% cotton shirts left behind at both shops.
My best guess is 19-1/2 yards of recycled fabric for $2.75 which is a little over 14¢ a yard.
This could be bad for my long-term stash report now that I know where to get the shirts…
Whoo Hoo! It’s not bound, but it’s quilted.
At the retreat Friday and Saturday I finished the quilting on my Green, Brown and Gold Ladder to the Stars — AKA Deadline II. I’ve been calling it Deadline II because back in October I made it to both test my Ladder to the Stars pattern and to test the quilting I wanted to do on the original Red, White & Blue Ladder to the Stars which was published today in The Quilt Pattern Magazine — an on-line quilting magazine. It’s my first published quilt pattern!
I had about an hour after finishing up LTTS-2 to work on Jared Takes a Wife and I’m ready to assemble blocks.
Since the quilt is quilted, I get to count the backing fabric. It’s off set by the bit of fabric I received at the retreat to make a Flip Flop block — I got the flip flops cut out, but that’s as far as I got since I was focused. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the blocks the other ladies made. They were awesome.
Anyway here’s the weekly stats:
Fabric added this week: 0.5 yards
Fabric added to date: 77.244 yards
Fabric used this week: 3.348 yards
Fabric used to date: 52.73 yards
Net used to date: -24.514 yards
Check out how others are doing over at Patchwork Times.
I finished Ladder to the Stars October 13, 2013. Quilted, bound and labeled, you may remember this picture:
Why the wait? My pattern for this original design is published in this month’s issue of The Quilt Pattern Magazine!
I designed this quilt using 9″ blocks for The Main Street Strippers Quilt Club at Heritage Fine Fabric in Belton, Missouri to use for their 2008 raffle quilt. The quilt finished at 88″ x 105″ which is bigger than I wanted. So, I scaled the blocks down to 6″ and made myself a smaller quilt. My top was finished in April 2009, but then it sat waiting for quilting inspiration and skills to develop.
In September 2013 I joined the quiltdesigners list and less than a week later a call went out from TQPM for projects for upcoming issues. What a luck! I sent in a photo of my top and they said they wanted to publish the pattern.
Eck! I had the instructions for the blocks and sashing — written at 9″, so I madly started revising and completing my instructions. Then I needed to test the pattern. That’s when I pulled from my stash, browns, greens and beiges to make a second quilt.
I got the pattern written and the 2nd quilt top made. It was then on to the quilting. Inspiration struck and I had a plan. It’s a good thing I had a test quilt as it turns out my vision and quilting skills just weren’t in-synch. Given the timeframe I had to work with, I moved on to a compromise of my vision to meet my deadline.
I quilted the top at Quilted Memories using the pantograph Feather Me by Meredith England. Coats & Clark Star thread #0815 – Americana was used on the top and white pre-wound Superior Bottom Line in the bobbin. Hobbs Bleached 80/20 with scrim is the batting.
For the record the blocks in the top are various red, white and blue “scraps” from my stash. The blue cornerstones, sashing, setting triangles, border and binding is Michael Miller Krystal in Royal Blue. The gold star points and accent border is Robert Kauffman Fusions in Antique and the red border is Paula Nadelstern Holiday Luminosity Prismaglass in Red. The sashing was paper pieced and the borders are mitered. For the backing I found a length of red and blue stars on white which came from Mom’s stash. It says Signature Classics by Oakhurst Textiles on the selvage.
After washing the quilt measures 57 x 67.
No additional progress has been made on Eeyore since last night, but I’ve started the quilting on the project that I would like to have finished by the 1st. If I wasn’t going to the retreat, I think I might make it. I’ve got half the sashing quilted and figured out a way to quilt the sashing in the other direction which doesn’t require a lot of starts and stops. Who knows, maybe I’ll take it with me and work on it if there is enough room.
As for the picture…I can’t believe how well the thread blends. I thought for sure I would be able to see it on the back. The arrow is pointing to some of the stitching…it’s tough to see except in a close up. Click on the picture below to see that I really have been quilting.
It’s time to tape my “master” pattern back together — however I seem to be missing a page….
Fortunately I still have the traced double bass and it appears to match up with the main piece of Eeyore’s head — which tells me I had the page in March and it could still be kicking around. If not, I think I can make this work between the print out and the tracings.
Well, shoot. I thought I just had Eeyore’s eyes & mane and the end pin to cut out before I could start the assembling, but now I have to make a decision regarding his mouth.
I bought fabric for both “Baby Eeyore” the blue/purple on the left which has a pink mouth and the “older” Eeyore which is two shades of gray. Looking at the color printout which is of “Baby Eeyore” I cut the mouth from the pink. Maybe I’ll make a gray mouth and see which I like best.
I have a very good friend. She ripped the quilting out of this quilt for me – after she told me in October that if I was going to need it ripped out to stop quilting on it. I kept going on the quilting in October because I thought it wouldn’t be too bad. I was wrong. It was.
Now I’ve been told I to finish Eeyore before I work on this quilt. I’m not sure how that’s going to work. I really would like to have this one done by Sunday when the pattern is published (this is a second colorway). Eeyore doesn’t need to be done until a week from Friday and I’m spending Friday afternoon/evening and all day/evening Saturday at a quilt retreat. Maybe if I get all the pieces to Eeyore cut out this evening I can sneak this one in.
Piglet came down when I took the fingerboard down to replace it. I simply don’t have him back up. Eeyore’s feet have been embellished, I’ve cut out the bow and there is an embellished ear.
