I’m too tired tonight to sandwich the quilt, but I’ve prepped the backing, made the binding, found a piece of batting the right size and wound two bobbins. I see quilting (instead of piecing) in my future.
Category Archives: Quilts
January 2011 UFO Challenge Met
Three Sisters’ Choice is now a top. It’s come along way from a pile of pieces with no design (or good name) in mind to this finished quilt top.
The name is derived from the fabric designer, Three Sisters, and the block, Sister’s Choice. I don’t see where I have any other choice but to call it Three Sisters’ Choice.
Earlier today I rooted around in my yardage boxes, and found 4 yards of a peach fabric which will make the perfect backing.
The fabric was originally intended to be either the framing or sashing around some 4-patch Stacked Posies blocks, but I used the 4-Patch fabric back in October or November to back the Row Quilt I gave my brother and his wife for Christmas. There is enough of the border fabric for binding and the cuff of a pillow case. All I have left of the rest of the fabric is 2 – 2″ strips WOF of the green and a pile of trimmings. I’m going to have to be inventive for the body of the pillowcase.
What’s on my Design Wall
This weekend I was on call for work, so I spent some quality time with my sewing machine and completed the center of my 2008 Charm Challenge quilt which is UFO #6 for Judy’s UFO Challenge. Now I’m working on the borders.
I had 13 1/2 inches of the green fabric and 7 inches of the peach. Needless to say my options were limited. I managed to mangle the math, but I think it’s going to be OK. The inner peach border will finish at 1/2 inch, the middle green border 1 inch and the outer border 3″. The finished size of the quilt will be about 54 x 76 — a smaller than the 60 x 85 I try to aim for.
Another evening or two, and I’ll have this quilt top finished and off my UFO list and on to my “to be quilted list”. I do hope that whatever # Judy draws next month, it’s something I can finish without much thought. #2 or #7 would be good numbers for February.
Check out what others are working on by following the links over at Patchwork Times.
Return of the Leaders/Enders
Or, how I solved two problems at once.
I’m a big fan of Bonnie Hunter and her Scrap User’s System. I really like Leaders & Enders. I’ve used these two systems to get rid of my scrap basket, waste less thread and make more quilt tops. I have one quirk (ok, many, but only one I want to talk about today) which I haven’t been able to overcome — I don’t like sewing leader/enders unless I know where the patches will end up. I haven’t been able to just make light/dark 4-patches and throw them in a box to be used in some quilt yet to be identified. As a result, when the new year started, I didn’t have any leader/enders sitting by my sewing machine when I started working on UFO #6.
Although I have a lengthy list of UFOs which are still in the piecing stage, there is nothing which mindlessly lends itself to Leaders & Enders. So, as I worked on my Sister Choice blocks for the UFO Challenge, I tried to keep the chain going. It wasn’t entirely successful, but I wasn’t clipping thread tails every 6 or 12 inches either.
Now I’m sewing the blocks together into rows.
There’s no getting around it, I’ve got thread tails much more frequently and it’s driving me crazy. I’ve got to find a Leader & Ender project.
I pulled out my 2″ Brick and Block box. It’s stuffed.
Look at all of these 2″ x 3 1/2″ bricks.
Next, I visited Quiltville.com to look for a pattern.
I found Fun with Bricks! It uses 2″ strips sewn together and subcut into 3 1/2″ squares. I’ll just sew two bricks together — and worry about the 3 1/2″ light square later.
So there is just one question left.
When do I count my Leader/Enders as a new start?
Mystery Quilt Top Done
Just a peek. Over the last couple of nights I’ve been working on a baby quilt that I’m writing a pattern for. It will be the retreat mystery quilt in April, so I can’t show it until then. Now off to type up the instructions.
The Blocks are Finished
This will stay up until this weekend to let it simmer. I keep swapping blocks around to try and distribute the dark blocks and keep the 5/4 peach pattern. I really hope the dark border fabric I ordered doesn’t overwhelm it.
A Solution
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All month I’ve been working on UFO # 6 for Judy’s UFO Challenge. This quilt was started back in 2008. One of the reasons it got set aside was because I made two wrong cuts – messing up 4 of the 9-patches. Normally this would not be a big deal, but since I was working with a charm pack and had no more fabric it brought me to a screeching halt.
When I resumed working on the quilt, I had to figure out how to deal with my bad cuts. My first attempt to resolve the problem was to rip out my original piecing and take narrower seams. I even double stitched them for added security. But the more I thought about it the more I got concerned that it would rip out. The narrow seam allowance can be seen in picture 1.
So I came up with another solution. I ripped the stitching out – again. Picture 2 shows how much smaller the pieces are from what they are supposed to be. Then I put a piece of Lite Steam-A-Seam2 on the edges (3). The fabric was then fused to a thin piece of muslin (4) and trimmed to the correct size (5). 1 5/8 inches by 1 5/8 inches. Picture 6 shows how I’ll sew the block back together.
I’ll sew the block back together with 1/4 inch seams, but only 1/8 inch of fabric will be caught on some edges. I hope that the extra layer of fabric, along with the fusible will keep fabric from unraveling.
What’s on my Design Wall
Eight more blocks and I’ll have all 96 blocks done. Then I can start sewing them into rows and ultimately a quilt top. I’m going to have to temporarily clear the hearth off so I can get the last two rows up on the design wall. Those blocks on the right really go on the bottom of the quilt.
For a border I’ve decided on three narrow inner borders – 3/4- inch green, 1/2 – inch peach, and 3/4 inch green — this will use up the remaining peach and green fabric. The final outer border and binding will be a 4 to 5 inch wide brown print. I finally found two different brown prints from the collection on-line and ordered one of them last night. Since Shangri-La is an older collection (2008), I’m thrilled that I can find anything in stock.
Since I’m off from work, I’ll spend a good bit of time working on this, hopefully finishing it up – well as much as I can with out the border fabric — and then get started on my next project.
Follow the links over at Judy’s to see if others are making progress on their UFOs or working on something new.
What’s on my Design Wall
Today’s wall contains UFO # 6 – the 2008 Charm Challenge. I found out the name of the charm pack is Shangra-La. It is a Moda line by 3 Sisters. I spent most of Friday evening cutting the light fabrics and part of Saturday cutting the green squares for the star points. I ‘batched’ up 9 kits of 8 blocks each and it looks like I have a few more light pieces to cut and definitely more green squares to cut. At the moment the plan is to make the quilt 8 blocks by 12 blocks.
This is the first time in a long time I’ve worked on just one project at a time. I don’t have a leader/ender project going. I’m not sure if that a good thing or a bad thing.
I hope to get this top finished by next weekend. I have a couple of current projects which I need to make progress on this month.
See if others are working on their UFO challenges or something else by following the links over at Patchwork Times.
A Design is Found
I’ve been pondering what to do with my 9-patches for UFO # 6. Today I read this post which Bonnie wrote showing a Sister’s Choice quilt which Clare had made. It took a while, but eventually I made the connection and decided to turn my 9-patches into Sister’s Choice blocks.
I have 2 yards of the green and a box full of lights, so I should be able to finish the top from my stash.
Now on to cut. I need a total of 768 – 1 5/8″ green squares, 384 – 1 5/8″ light squares and 384 – 1 5/8″ x 3 7/8″ light rectangles. I could be cutting a while.
