Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Easy Breezy

Then There Were Three

That is 3 starbursts that will go into my quilt. Each one gets a bit faster. Which is not to say they go fast. The last one I made took me about an hour.  I’m struggling with getting the background cut big enough, then orientating it in the correct direction so when I flip it back it covers everything it is supposed to cover.

Meanwhile, I finished the quilting on my SILs Narragansett Blues.  I’ll get both of the quilts trimmed, then I’ll box them up and ship them back to her to bind.

Easy Breezy = 40

 

Another Quilt is on the Frame

This in Narragansett Blues – not mine, but my sister-in-laws.  She gave me free reign, so I picked Overlapping Crop Circles as the quilting design and red thread.

Before I loaded it I need to piece the backing. Two widths wasn’t quite wide enough, so I quickly made some 4-patches and pulled out some blue bricks leftover from when I made my Narragansett Blues.

I have some work to do on the Guild website so I don’t  know that I’ll get it finished tonight or not. My sister is coming out to use the machine Friday, so I’ll have to have it done before then.

Easy Breezy = 40

 

Chicken Bobbin

As I was finishing the last row of quilting on my SIL’s Frolic I thought I was playing Chicken Bobbin.  In reality I was playing Chicken Cone.  I ran out of cone thread, but not before I had finished the quilting.

I still need to trim the quilt, then I’ll send it back to my SIL to bind.

While the computer was quilting, I finished my first Starburst from Atomic Starburst.  This one will be used for quilting practice when I get that far as there are two spots where I didn’t catch the fabric.

This is my first “real” one as there are no missed seams.  The piecing went faster tonight, so I might get this done sooner than I thought.

Since I’m paper piecing I haven’t tried to do any leader/enders, but now that I have a better understanding of what I’m doing, I might be able to do them. My Easy Breezy count currently remains at 39.

 

 

New Month – New Projects

I suppose technically the title of this post would have been more apt for Saturday, but I couldn’t figure out a better title given the various topics of today’s post.

The day started off way earlier than I prefer on any day, but especially on a weekend, but I had a go-live for work. As a result there was plenty of time to quilt today. First up my SILs Frolic. It’s nearly finished – I think there are two more passes before I can take it off the frame. While the machine was running, I pulled out a project box from 2019 and cleaned up the scraps.

I finished the pink and brown top back in the spring of 2009. I also did a small wall hanging a couple of years later. The folded “FQs” are pieces which measure at least 6″ x 20″. I fold them all to 5″ tall by 6″ high to fit into my fabric boxes.  As you can see I also added to my pre-cuts with strips, bricks, blocks, and strings.  The box of fabric from the purple and green log cabin quilt that I recently finished was also dealt with, leaving me 2 empty project boxes. Which I immediately filled up with these fabrics.

I have 3 quilts planned. Atomic Star Burst, Bauble ‘n Beads and Shimmer. The first two will have the blue for background.  I think Shimmer will have a light background, but as it is the 3rd quilt, I’ll worry about it later. Anyway, I started on Atomic Star Burst tonight. I will conquer paper piecing, but that first half starburst needs to be redone. One of the spokes didn’t get fully caught in the seam. So, what do you think? 1/2 a starburst a night? 20 starbursts would work out to 40 days.  No, I am not going to do do another challenge – at least not one so intense.

Easy Breezy – 39

Cascade is on the Frame

Of course before I could put it on the frame, it had to become a top.  I finished the top Monday after locating more the same black fabric and ordering it for the binding.  The top now measures 50 x 60.

Before loading the top, I cleaned up all the batting scraps from the whirlwind of quilting that’s taken place around her – mostly by my sister.  The batting has been measured and neatly folded to become frankenbatts in the future.  I have a bag of scraps which I’ll eventually cut into 2-1/2″ strips for rugs and the smaller scraps were cut up to eventually go into a pet bed. I made a frankenbatt for Cascade then loaded it on the machine.

This picture was taken earlier this week. I’ve decided to do continuous curves inside the diamonds and in the border where I have it marked. In the background I’ll do something circular.  I’ve ordered the Big HQ Swiss Cheese Template as I’m thinking bubbles.  We’ll see if I can pull it off.

Easy Breezy = 39

Cascade is Almost a Top

After completing Frolic I needed to find something mindless to work on. This is Cascade. I started it in April 2018, cutting all the pieces as retreat project. I spent most of the retreat working on swap blocks, so I didn’t get very far. I’ve pulled it out a couple of times making a block here and there, so when I resumed working on it Saturday half the blocks were already made. This should be quick to finish up.

Easy Breezy – 36

Frolic is a Top!

At 118″ square, it’s too long to hang off the gutters and I didn’t want to climb the ladder – well the fully extended ladder – to get a picture straight on.

I need to make a few more blocks for the backing, but for now, I’m going to work on something else.

Cascade. Most of these blocks were done prior to me pulling it out Saturday afternoon.

Easy Breezy – 34

So Close

My Frolic has gotten huge!  It has become quite unwieldy as I’ve added the borders. Originally, my plan was to just add a matching 1-1/2″ outer gray border, but I decided to make it wider. The first plan was to increase the border so there was 1-1/2″ of gray between the binding and pieced border, but when it came time to actually add the border I was concerned that the narrow border would look weird, so I opted for a 5″ border.  I still have one more to add to call this top done.

Of course what I failed to take into account is the top is now 118″ square.  My backing is only 108″ wide. I had a plan to add 10″ to the backing, which would have made it tight, but not impossible, but now I need at least another 4″ and 6-8″ would be better. At least the backing will be lighter when I finish piecing it.

The larger quilt has also thrown my binding choices into limbo.  My sister gave me a bit over a yard of blue fabric which I have used as the cornerstones, possibly one star block (I simply can’t remember), and the inner blue border.  The plan was to bind the quilt in the same fabric. Now I’m not sure I have enough. We think she still has a yard of the fabric, but it’s buried in her sewing room. Naturally she bought the last of the bolt and it was an older fabric. But I suppose I don’t need to cross that bridge quite yet.

Easy Breezy – 33

 

Progress on Frolic

The end is near. That is I can see the finish line for my Frolic top.  Today I finished the inner borders and attached 3 of the 4 pieced borders.  I practiced sewed the 4th border – pulling pins as I went until I was about 12 – 15 inches from then end. At that point I discovered I ran out of bobbin thread about 12- 15 inched from the beginning of the border. At that point I called it a night.

Speaking of running out of thread, I finished off a cone tonight. It took me about 4 months to use this cone. Yes, I’ve been sewing a lot, but I didn’t realize just how much thread I was going through. It was kind of nice not having to worry about getting thread as I watched it dwindle on the cone, so I think I’ll go ahead and order another cone of thread.  It took nearly a month of get it in this spring.

Easy Breezy – 33

 

The Pieced Borders Are Complete

This is the 4th pieced border for Frolic. I probably could have gotten it attached if I hadn’t gone off to try to see the comet.

But as you can see there was some cloud cover.  I don’t know if I’ll try again tomorrow or not.

Easy Breezy = 32