Category Archives: Designwall

What’s On My Design Wall

January 16, 2017 11:40 am ⋅ Pam

eptophalf

Yes, it’s En Provence, the Bonnie Hunter mystery. The pattern is still available HERE.

For two weeks I’ve been telling myself that over the 3 day weekend I would pull out the Blue Disappearing 9-Patch and quilt it. But, I just can’t move away from En Provence. I can’t decide if it is because I’m afraid it will be months before I get back to it or because I’m so close to finishing it. Although “so close” in this instance is realistically close to 10 hours. At least for the first couple of blocks they were taking me about an hour each to make.

There are two more up on the design wall.

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Of course they may go faster now that I have gone through and pulled all of the pieces for each block so I don’t have to make that decision before starting to sew a block.

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I’ve also swapped out my leader/ender project for the border. For a brief time, I was sewing 1-1/2″ squares together for the postage stamp quilt.

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Then I switched back to pieces for En Provence. I’m now sewing 4-patches together for the borders. I hope that by the time I have the center finished, I’ll have the extra border pieced together.

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I’ve tried webbing blocks together in the past, but have not had much luck. It’s working this time, and I’m convinced that it is making these blocks go together quicker than my usual assembly process. This is the bottom left corner block, so I have the bottom sashing attached.

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As for the Blue Disappearing 9-patch? Perhaps next weekend.

See what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence

What’s On My Design Wall – En Provence – Final Link Up

January 9, 2017 8:19 am ⋅ Pam

enprovencecompletedunits

Today is the final link up for the Bonnie Hunter’s Free En Provence Mystery Quilt. The pattern is still available HERE until the end of the month.

I had great hopes of finishing the top, or at least getting all of the units completed, but this cold/crud that showed up after Christmas has kept me sitting at the sewing machine for very long. The picture above is all of the units I’ve completed — except for the ones up on the design wall.

Once the reveal was made, I finished cutting the fabric for the remaining units. I stitch some on each unit, then press, and trim. Up next are the parts for 10 hourglass units, 10 hour glasses and 10 4-patches.

enprovencenextunits

I still have the hourglass units from the last batch left to trim.

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In theory this keeps me from sitting for hours, getting tired of just trimming and keeps the quilt moving forward. I have a few more rounds to go.

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In the meantime, I’ve put up some of the pieces on the design wall, along with my border fabric. I’d like the quilt to fit my king size mattress, so I need to have the quilt finish around 95″ x 106″ without a pillow tuck. Needless to say the final layout is up in the air. enprovenceonthewall

Making the quilt 5 x 5 blocks then adding the nutcracker fabric brings the quilt size up to 117″ square, which is really larger than I’d like. On the other hand this might work:

borderdrawing

This design will require another 124 neutral 4-patches and the quilt will finish at 106″ square, which will allow for a pillow tuck. As much as I’d like to push through and finish the top, I need to quilt the Blue Disappearing 9-Patch before the end of the month. Once I stitch up what I currently have cut, I’ll box it up, along with nutcracker, blue and neutral fabrics for a decision later in the year.

Check out the Mystery Link Up and Design Wall Monday.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts

What’s On My Design Wall – Allietare

January 2, 2017 12:36 pm ⋅ Pam

allietarecenter

For the first Design Wall Monday post of 2017, I offer the center of Allietare, Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery quilt from 2015. I’ve been working on it as I’ve been assembling it while using the 2016 Mystery Quilt, En Provence as my leader/enders. There are a ton of 4-patches in the new quilt.

The 6th clue came out Friday morning. But could I find either of my Companion Angle rulers? So, I had to start cleaning my flat surfaces. from the Final Countdown Task 2. The ironing board has been cleared.

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Yes, I’ve found my ruler — not that it was on the ironing board. More cleaning was required. So, I tackled the floor. Yes, this is better.

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In the foreground are the fabrics I’m using for EnProvence. On the chair is a quilt that was supposed to be a give Christmas 2015. The shoebox of fabrics is from two quilts — Allietare and a StripTwist. Time to put the Allietare fabric up. They are sitting on two boxes of upholstery samples. The two laundry baskets have batting in them. The box with the yellow bag and the box it is sitting on are scraps I was given in early 2015. Perhaps I need to go through them this year. There’s a box of books/magazines that I will probably give away — need to flip through them one more time. The green crate in the corner contains ‘sewing stuff’. I went through it last night while I was looking for the ruler. Sorted, tossed and put away enough stuff that the box is no longer overflowing. I can’t say the same for the larger crate it is sitting on — more scraps and another crate of scraps under the shelf. But no Companion Angle ruler.

That left the cutting board.

cuttingboard

I started clearing it off. Stuff had gotten piled high on it. After excavating the top 2 or 3 layers I found the ruler. So naturally I quit cleaning. Actually, I gave up. I’ve been fighting the crud for the past few days so I went to bed.

I go back to work tomorrow, so no long days of quilting. My goal this week is to get En Provence finished and the cutting table cleared.

Check out what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Allietare, designwall, Final Countdown

What’s On My Design Wall – En Provence Edition Part 5

December 26, 2016 11:07 am ⋅ Pam

clue5 Part five of Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery quilt came out late Thursday night. It’s still not too late to join. The instructions can be found HERE.

Even with the hustle and bustle surrounding Christmas, I finished the clue – admittedly early Monday morning – but it’s the first clue I’ve finished between the release of the instructions and the link-up.

More progress was made on clue # 1. If I’ve counted correctly, I have enough pairs of 2-patches to complete the clue. I’ve been sewing a single pair of 2-patches into a 4-patch as my leader/ender.

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I sewed 8 of the half square triangle units followed by 20 dark/light green (remember my colors have been swapped out) 2-patches for Clue # 3 then got up to press and trim.

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So now, I have Clues # 2, #4, and #5 complete.

clue2done

part4 I don’t go back to work until Wednesday, so I have 2 more days to sew. I have 2 projects I need to work on — getting last year’s mystery off the design wall and quilting a top that I finished in January. Who knows which one I’ll work on this week.

In the meantime, I’m linking up to Design Wall Monday and the Mystery Link-up.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts

What’s on My Design Wall – En Provence Edition Part 4

December 19, 2016 1:19 pm ⋅ Pam

clue2done Part ~~three~~ four of Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery quilt came out on Friday. It’s not too late to join. The instructions can be found HERE.

No, the first picture is not of part 4, but rather the completed Clue # 2! I swapped the magenta out and used royal blue for my Christmas colored quilt. That’s not to say that I didn’t make progress on Clue # 4.

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Friday evening all I got done was cutting Clue # 4. That’s the dark green in the picture above. I’m subbing dark and light green for purple and lavender. When I took this picture I thought the pile of neutral squares was short compared to the greens, but since I had already stitched a few 2-patches as my leader and enders, I thought that explained the difference. It wasn’t until I had the 2-patches paired up that I realized I don’t have enough neutral squares cut.

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But that’s OK — It’s not a race, I’m on PTO this week and I need a leader/ender project to finish up a couple of projects.

This morning I stitched up 10 of Clue #4.

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I see more sewing in my future this week between decorating and baking.

I’m linking up to the Mystery Link Up and Design Wall Monday.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts

What’s on My Design Wall – En Provence Edition Part 3

December 12, 2016 10:27 am ⋅ Pam

part3

Part three of Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery quilt came out on Friday. It’s not too late to join. The instructions can be found HERE.

It’s more 4-patches this time with the dark and light purple, or in my case dark and light green. I’ve only got these three patches made — and only so I’d have something to post this morning.

I’m linking up with both the Mystery Link Up and Design Wall Monday.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts

What’s on My Design Wall – En Provence Edition Part 2

December 5, 2016 8:55 am ⋅ Pam

part2

Part two of Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery quilt came out on Friday. It’s not too late to join. The instructions can be found HERE.

This clue has us making triangle in a square blocks. My plan was to use the Quilt in a Day rulers as I’ve had more luck with that method than the Tri-Recs, but I found the correct size strips in my bins, so I cut the first few with the Tri-Recs. Since they came out so much better than they have in the past, I’ve decided to stick with the Tri-Recs. I’m still cutting fabric, but that’s OK. Slow and steady will eventually get the quilt complete.

I’m linking up to both the Mystery Link Up and Design Wall Monday.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts

What’s on My Design Wall – En Provence Edition

November 28, 2016 11:22 am ⋅ Pam

Bonnie Hunter is hosting her annual mystery quilt. This year it is En Provence in purple, lavender, green, yellow, magenta and of course neutrals. Information about the mystery quilt can be found HERE.

Since I haven’t spent much time quilting this year, I’m hoping the mystery will get me going again. But as with most mystery quilts I do, I’m pulling from my stash. Although I love the mystery colors, I didn’t find enough for the quilt in my stash. Shopping is not an option, so I thought I would have to sit this one out (and I still need to finish Aletaire). While I was contemplating alternative color schemes, someone on Facebook said they were going to use Christmas colors.

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Yes, I can do this. Dark/kelly green for Purple, light green for lavender, red instead of green, lean my yellows toward dark/gold. Neutrals should stay the same. But what to use for magenta? Taking a que from the Nutcracker fabric my sister gave me for Christmas last year, I chose Royal Blue. It’s the only thing not from my stash — I used a gift certificate I was given in late January, and bought extra for binding and pillowcases – $0.89 with shipping.

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This weekend I started by cutting strips, then squares. I know, Bonnie said sew strips together then cut, but I need some leader/enders to finish up Alietare. Two 4-patches are made. I have a way to go to get all my 4-patches done. Let’s hope they aren’t need for Clue 2 on Friday.

Head over to the Mystery Link Up to see how others are doing on their quilt — and remember it’s not to late to join.

I’ve also linked to Judy’s Design Wall Monday. I’m guessing there will be lots of 4-patches.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts

What’s On My Design Wall

May 23, 2016 6:30 am ⋅ Pam

retreatmystery

Today’s post is actually of my design wall! This past weekend I went on a retreat and finished the Allietare blocks — that’s the mystery quilt that Bonnie Hunter presented this past December. These are not all of the blocks, but just the one’s I tossed up on the design wall last night.

When I head to a retreat, I do my best to get up frequently and walk to the ironing board. This results in lots of progress on the leader/ender project, which currently is Tumblers. I have all but 8 rows finished, and those 8 rows just need 3 pieces attached to them. I’ve started sewing the rows together and have 16 sewn together.

retreattumblers

It is about 70″ wide and eventually will be 80″ long.

The rest of this month is going to be crazy, so I doubt I’ll do much but repack my bags as I head out to another retreat on the 6th.

See what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Allietare, designwall, Tumblers

What’s on My Design Wall

May 16, 2016 6:30 am ⋅ Pam

striptwistFabric

I’m preparing to go to a quilt retreat this week. So naturally I need to get a few projects lined up. Allietare is boxed up and ready to go. It will be my primary project. I’ll take the Tumblers as my leader/ender project and just because will toss in my postage stamp L/E. The retreat is from Thursday evening until Noon Sunday, so I hope to have time to work on at least one more project.

For that project I cut strips for a Strip Twist quilt. After I had the fabric cut, I made two sample blocks. This quilt should go together quickly — provided I remember to test my seam allowance first. I spent a good bit of time ripping out seams since my strip set was too narrow.

striptwistblocks

Remember those 2″ and 1-1/2″ shirting strips I cut a few weeks ago? Something set me off and I decided that I would make Pineapple Blossom. I’m going to use the name neutral throughout since I have a length of this fabric. I’ll keep making blocks until I run out of 2″ strips of shirting, so I have no idea how big this quilt will be or where it will end up.

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As for what I should be working on, I’ve got 3 of 10 rows sewn together in 2 sections (6 blocks and 3-1/2 blocks) with two more rows pined and ready to sew together.

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