Category Archives: Quilts

A Bazillion Pieces

February 24, 2015 11:45 pm ⋅ Pam

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.

Posted in: Eye Fooler

What’s On My Design Wall

February 23, 2015 12:58 am ⋅ Pam

First up is the Orca Bay top. This was the 2011 Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt. I have the batting, backing and thread to quilt it, I just need to scheduled long arm rental time.

So, having finished one quilt top, I’m on to the next one. Eye Fooler in black and brights.

Saturday I got a few 2-patches and flying geese made while I was avoiding the borders for Orca Bay. There are tons more of these units which need to be made. The bright fabric for these units are cut but I haven’t cut the black fabric. I made myself wait until the Orca Bay top was done.

These 4″ wide bright strips should be enough for the rest of the black and bright units.

By getting these cut, I’ve been able to fold up the rest of the fabric. Admittedly it’s not put away – but that’s only because there’s a quilt top hanging from the shelving.

I did cut one 5″ strip of the black to make the background of the triangle in a square units.

Next up is to figure out how many units of each fabric I need. I suspect I’ll be cutting all week.

Linking up to Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall, Eye Fooler, Orca Bay

Saturday Stitching

February 21, 2015 4:26 pm ⋅ Pam

I’m working today on a software go-live, which means I have 15 minutes to an hour of activity, followed by several hours of nothing but monitoring e-mail repeated several times today. So, with one eye on the e-mail, I’m piecing.

All week I’ve been cutting the bright fabric for the graduation quilt, with the intent of taking it to the quilt retreat next weekend. I’ve got the fabric cut for the 4-patches and flying geese, so I thought I’d cut the gazillion squares I need from the black fabric. I cut 110 (10 strips) and decided that I should trying sewing a few before cutting the rest (if my math is right I need a total of 832 squares).

I’m making the geese with the stitch and flip method. It’s not necessarily the most efficient use of fabric, but since I’m only making 2 or 3 geese from each fabric and I started with bricks from my pre-cut box, it’s working for me.

This quilt needs 160 black & bright 4-patches, 256 geese (plus a ton of other pieces) so I need to do a bit of power sewing, but I’m also paying closer attention to detail.

You see, I really want to finish Orca Bay. It just needs the borders. But 75 of the pieced units had issues. Since I last posted, I fixed 4 of them – but I’m finding that I need to go back and re-work the pieced triangles. Which makes me want to box the whole thing up and do something else.

But because of these last 21 units, I’ve paid more attention to the piecing I’ve done on the black & bright units. In fact there was one goose that I attempted to stitch and flip the sky on 3 or 4 times before I decided it wasn’t meant to be and set the unit aside. Finally I ripped it apart and remeasured everything again. The square was short on one side!

It works in this 2-patch, but no wonder I couldn’t get the goose to fly.

Butterscotch has the right idea. A nap would be good. But I have a period of activity coming up with the go-live, so instead I’m going to rip the rest of the Orca Bay pieced triangles apart and build them from scratch — this before I cut any more of the black fabric for the graduation quilt.

As for what I’ll work on at the retreat? I’ll still be working on the graduation quilt – just different units.

Posted in: Eye Fooler, Orca Bay

Progress On Multiple Quilts

February 20, 2015 1:22 am ⋅ Pam

Slowly I’m getting the border pieces done for Orca Bay. I have 75 units trimmed. The other 25 units have issues so there’s ripping and re-sewing in my future. My goal is to get all the units finished this weekend and maybe, just maybe get the border on the quilt.

Next weekend I’m going to a 2-day quilt day retreat. 22 hours if I last that long. So, I’ve started cutting the fabric for Eye Fooler, the quilt I’m making for my niece to take and work on. These pieces are for the black & bright 4-patches and flying geese. I still have a few more pieces to cut and of course all of the black fabric. Once I get these units done, I’ll move on to the triangle in a square and half-square triangle units.

Posted in: Eye Fooler, Orca Bay

89 And Counting

February 10, 2015 11:13 pm ⋅ Pam

Remember that Star-A-Day project I started back in September? The one which says I should be closing in on the half-way mark? Well, I’m behind. I lost it in November and I’m stitching to catch up. This is the latest section I’ve worked on. There are two more rows to attach to this section and then I’ll attach it to the larger section. 89 stars have been completed so far. My current goal is to not fall any farther behind and maybe, just maybe catch up in a 3 or 4 months by doing more than one star a day.

Posted in: Star-A-Day

What’s On My Design Wall

January 26, 2015 12:45 am ⋅ Pam

This week all I’ve accomplished with needle and thread is 3 new stars (which still need pressing). What can I say? Tuesday afternoon I started tearing the office space apart in preparation for a “new desk”. Well, that and to clean up some broken glass.

I think I’ve finally got all of the glass up and the computers are hooked back up. But there are still boxes to unpack and stuff to put away. There are boxes are piled up in front of the design wall

and on the cart.

Flat surfaces are piled high.

But the quilting books are now on the bookshelf that I swapped out. The wall hanging will need to be moved.

Others hung back up.

I can however say with certainty neither the ironing or cutting boards are piled with stuff. The only decision I have to make now is if this new arrangement is going to work for me. I’ll try it out for a week and in the meantime, put what I can away.

Hopefully there will be better eye candy through some of the other links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall, Star-A-Day

Prepping Stars

January 23, 2015 12:18 am ⋅ Pam

Earlier this week the modem took a nose dive off the bookshelf and fell on a just emptied glass, breaking it. Why is this important? Because it means I’ve torn my office/sewing room apart to get behind the desks to clean up the bits and pieces. But moving the big desk will be easier with two people – especially since I want to switch some furniture out, so the final push won’t happen until this weekend. Meanwhile, I can’t get to the sewing machine so I’ve been working on my Star-a-Day blocks.

Tonight, instead of stitching a block, I prepped stars. This is some of the fabric I picked back in November. I finally sat still long enough to trace the pieces off and cut them out. I need to find my alternate square fabric and cut a few squares, but all the star pieces are ready now for 9 more blocks. At the moment I have 73 stars made.

Posted in: Star-A-Day

Another UFO Bites the Dust

January 20, 2015 2:46 am ⋅ Pam

Last year I was making black and white 4-patches with the intention of making Bricks & Stepping Stones, but then there was quilt-a-long for Jared Takes A Wife and I repurposed the 4-patches.

I quilted this with the panto “Floral Meander” using Transitions Variegated thread #41062 – Primary Explosion in the top and a burgundy bobbin thread. The batting is Hobb’s Tuscany Collection.

The quilt is bound with Susie’s Magic Binding – the same green as the sashing with a touch of the pink showing.

After washing the quilt measures 65″ x 77″.

While I was at it I also made a pillowcase.

I’ll link this finish up to:

UFO Parade over at Aunt Marti’s 52 Quilts
UFO Busting at Field Trips in Fiber
1st Quarter finish in the 2015 Finish-A-Long (1st qtr goals)

Now on to those stars!

Posted in: Finish-A-Long - 2015, Jared Takes a Wife, UFO Busting - 2015, UFO Parade - 2015, UFOs

What’s On My Design Wall

January 19, 2015 6:32 am ⋅ Pam

Yesterday I put my Star-A-Day blocks up on the wall just so it wouldn’t be empty this week. Not that I didn’t work on other things last week (Scrappy Trips and “matching” pillowcase). Since the first of the month I’ve completed 8 new stars. I think I need to kick it in gear since I would like to make about 45 this month.

On the ironing board is Jared Takes A Wife. I’m off to quilt it later this morning.

The Christmas BOM is the big news. Saturday I got the borders on the quilt! I’ve found the backing fabric in my stash. Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to quilt it and what color thread to use. Needless to say, this quilt top is going to have to age a bit.

See what others have been up to by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Christmas BOM, goals, Jared Takes a Wife, Stash Busting Report, UFOs

A Treadle Project

January 16, 2015 11:54 am ⋅ Pam

Scrappy Trips was completely made on my treadle machine “Miss Florence Jane“. Everything from piecing the blocks, assembling the quilt top, piecing the quilt backing, the quilting itself, piecing the binding and attaching the binding – both front and back to the quilt was done on the treadle. The only thing I didn’t do on the treadle was stitch the label down. I did that by hand.

I used Scrappy Trips, a Bonnie Hunter pattern for the blocks, and then set them as one big trip.

The quilt tops was started April 4, 2013 and I finished the top January 11, 2014. I started the quilting on January 10, 2015 and put the last stitch in the label on January 15, 2015.

The washed quilt measures 68″ x 90″. I used Hobb’s Heirloom Natural Cotton Batting. I used a khaki colored thread on the top and a white thread in the bobbin. The binding is red with a gold flange. I used Susie’s Magic Binding. The backing was pieced from two 60″ wide lengths of this Kansas City Chiefs fabric which came from Mom.