Here are this week’s stars. The turquoise stripe and the neutrals came from my stash. The rest from the Craigslist scraps.
Category Archives: Quilts
Still Goofing Off
This mess can only mean one thing. I’m digging for fabrics for my Star-A-Day quilt — the one that’s apparently going to take at least 2 years to piece if I don’t get a move on it. I’m digging through the scraps I got off Craigslist for the prints and my stash for the neutrals. fortunately I’m finding some neutrals in the scraps as well.
How One Quilt Top Becomes Two
4 or 5 years ago I made this quilt top from Bonnie Hunter’s free pattern Star Struck. It measures 64″ x 80″. My intention was to eventually quilt it and bind it in either red or blue when I got that far. Last night I started packing up the quilt tops I’m sending to Vicki and I thought about this one. It’s too big for the purposes of Country School Quilters, but with the removal of 4 rows it’s about right — 48″ x 64″.
But now I have 32 “orphan blocks” and there’s room in the box for one more quilt top.
I dug through my neutral stash and made this ‘Boston Commons’ layout with the rest of the stars. – 3/4 of yard of fabric from my stash, no orphan blocks and two quilt tops for the quilters to give to the veteran’s hospital.
It’s a win all the way around.
UFO Count (Quilts in Progress + Tops to Be Quilted): 63 down from 69 January 1st.
What’s On My Design Wall
As I mentioned late Saturday night, I’ve gotten distracted. Vicki at Field Trips in Fiber suggested sending smaller quilts (48″ x 60″) to her quilt club would be a win-win. A veteran’s hospital would get a quilt and the UFO count could be reduced. I checked my spreadsheet and found one quilt top which was waiting on borders, and I found two partial block sets.
From the block sets and a couple of orphan blocks, I made the quilt top pictured above. The 2nd quilt top is on the design wall waiting for the sashing.
As soon as I get these in the mail, I’ll cross them off my “To Be Quilted” list and reduce the number of my UFOs (“Quilts In Progress” + “To Be Quilted”) by three. Then it will be back to the graduation quilt.
See what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.
Side Tracked
This is my Blue Ridge Beauty re-worked. Previously it was two rows longer and needed borders, additional blocks or both. But I found a group who is looking for smaller quilts tops – 48″ x 60″ – so I removed a couple of rows and it now measures 48″ x 60″. I’ll move this top to the “To Be Quilted” list so I can record the ‘finish’ and then cross it off, reducing the number of UFOs. The two rows of removed blocks are now in the orphan block box.
I then pulled out the Red, White & Blue sampler blocks and the Victory Quilt blocks and found a few blocks in the orphan block box. With a bit of framing and sashing, I’ll be able to get two more of these smaller quilt tops.
As for the graduation quilt, it’s been gathered up and is now sitting in a million pieces on the corner of my desk.
What’s on My Design Wall
I’m using EQ to help me shuffle the bits and pieces of the graduation quilt, so that hopefully, the colors will be dispersed throughout the quilt and not lumped together. The pieces are scattered on various surfaces in my sewing room.
Although I did not get a star made yesterday, I did get the two sections stitched together.
Hop over to Patchwork Times to see what others are working on.
Stash Report / February Recap
A whole lot of fabric passed under my needle this past week – the majority of it at the retreat Friday and Saturday. Most of the units needed for the blocks for the graduation quilt are made. I still need all of the HST in both sizes and the triangle in a square units for the outer blocks. That pile in the top right corner is the start of the block assembly.
Stash Report: – Reported at Patchwork Times
Fabric Added Since Last Report 0.25 yards (FQ from the retreat)
Fabric Added to Date: 18.91 yards
Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0.75 yards (Orca Bay Borders)
Fabric Used to Date: 16.964 yards
INCREASE in Stash to Date: 1.946 yards
350 Blocks Report at Prairie Moon Quilts
I reported 23 blocks. I counted the Orca Bay pieced border as 10 and I finished 13 stars.
I have nothing to show for the UFO Parade at 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks. Orca Bay only made it to the top stage.
- # of Projects in Process February 1st: 66
- # of Projects Completed: 0
- # of New Projects Started: 1
- # of Projects in Process February 28th: 67
A Bazillion Pieces
Not really, it just seems like it. Someone said that Orca Bay had too many pieces in it for them to make, but I didn’t notice it (well, until I got to the string piecing) as we did one unit at a time. This quilt doesn’t have as many pieces (I did the math), but it does seem like there are a bazillion since I have cut about half of the quilt out for quick assembly line piecing.
In this first picture is the brights for the black & bright 4-patches, flying geese & triangle in a square. Normally I piece with a gray thread, but I realized that I don’t have any empty bobbins, so I’ve dug out the partial bobbins and will use them up. Thus the color coordinated piles. Currently I’m stitching with gray thread in the top and yellow in the bobbin. I just finished the yellows and I’m currently working on the “multi-colored” pile.
Stitch 5 triangles, 5 geese, 5 2-patches – get up and press, repeat.
Clearly I’m making progress. That bunch in the bag is for my bright 4-patches. Somewhere along the way I’m going to have to get the cat hair off the rest of the black fabric so I can cut more 2″ squares and HST.
This is the pile of fabric I’m working from now — all that is left to cut from it are HST.
I may need a new blade before I’m done.
