Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Challenges

What’s on my Design Wall

There are 4 more blocks to appliqué, quilt and then attach to the quilt center (two blocks are already quilted). Then I’ve got to figure out my inner border. I could go buy more gold Dimples so there’s no thinking involved, but what fun would that be?

The quilt is a bit stiff at the moment — at least I hope it’s just at the moment. I don’t know if it’s the batting – Soft & Black, a needled polyester batting by Warn & Natural (no longer made); the basting spray; the amount of quilting or a combination of all three.

I’m quilting a 2″ diagonal grid up to the edge of the plate. I’ve stitched in the ditch around the outer edge of the plate and center and between each blade. The sashing is edge stitched on both edges. If you click on the picture and enlarge it the quilting is visible. I’m using black thread, so any white in the grid is the result of the marking, which will wash out.

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to check out other design walls.

Another Design Change to UFO #10

I tell you, it’s as though I’m working on a new quilt, not a UFO started in 2006.

The Dresden Plate started out as a Quilt-As-You-Go (QAYG) project, originally because it’s so much easier to maneuver a 16″ square than a full size quilt under the arm of my sewing machine. I still intend to make the quilt a QAYG project, but since I couldn’t find the blocks I previously quilted, I was free to make a new design.  I no longer have a full size bed, so decided to scale the project down to twin size.

For the past four weeks I’ve been pondering how to put the quilt together, but hadn’t settled on a solution.  Then earlier this week, Fiona from BubzRugz was the guest blogger at Stash Manicure.  Fiona wrote a tutorial on QAYG where she joins her blocks with sashing by machine.  I have seen this style of joining before, but did not realize it could be done completely by machine.  Since I had 4 string blocks I tried it out.  It works pretty well.

Oh, did I mention I finally realized that my 6 1/2 yards of black fabric was not going to be enough for the border, backing and binding for the Dresden Plate and the border and binding for the Dragonfly quilt?  I’m committed to the borders and binding on both quilts, but that still left the backing for the Dresden Plate.  You do see where this is going, don’t you?

Yes, this is the new design.  I have just enough of the gold fabric for the sashing and inner border — if I don’t make any mistakes!    I’ll be able to quilt each block with ease and then join them together.  I dug through my stash and found a fuchsia and purple floral which came from Mom’s stash and half a yard of a mottled green which I’ll use for the sashing on the back.

I can’t wait to finish this quilt.  But first I need to finish the quilting on my friend’s baby quilt.  Her great-niece is two months old and needs her quilt!

March UFO Challenge

Judy has announced the # for the March UFO Challenge, and I’m not finished with February’s!  Although significant progress has been made.   It’s a good thing that Judy let us modify the rules.  As a result I have two lists – one of project to get to the top stage and one for tops which need to be quilted. The idea was I would pick one of the two projects and get it done.  January I was lucky and got both done, but February the Dresden Plate was on both lists, so I didn’t have a choice.

This month’s number is 1.

On my “get it to the top stage” list is Mom’s 4-patch Stacked Posies that she started the last time she hosted my friends and me for a quilting weekend.

To be "Topped"

On the “To be Quilted” list is a Red, White and Blue baby quilt.  This quilt top has been around since Spring 2008.

To be Quilted

So, this month, I’m going to continue working on the Dresden Plate – hopefully complete it.  I will also try to get the baby quilt finished.  The Stacked Posies is on my list of projects to work on at the quilt retreat next month, so I don’t think I’ll work on it.  Besides I have a “new” project to work on — Dragonflies —  which I’d like to have done before I go to the retreat – not to mention a few other projects which I need to make progress on this month.

What’s on my Design Wall

Yes, it’s my Colorworks Dresden Plate – or what I’ve got done of it.  I still lack 5 blocks, but that’s OK.   This quilt is so much further along than it was on February 1st.

February 1st

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see what other quilters have on their design walls.  And check back here after Judy posts the UFO Challenge # to see if I work on this as my UFO for another month, or make it my “current” project and pull another quilt into the mix.

The Year of the PIG – Question #4

Jill’s Year of the PIGS Question #4 is:

What is your last finish and what UFO are you working on now?

As Jill said, this is an easy question.  My last finish was my 5-patch Scrap baby quilt on January 31st.

I’m working on two different UFOs at the moment.  At the sewing machine I’m working on a brightly colored Dresden Plate on a black background.

I started this quilt sometime in 2006.  I’m using a skirt my mom made for me in the early ’90s.  One of these days I’ll need to see if I can find a picture of it before I started chopping into it.  This is what is left of the skirt.

There were at least two more tiers to the skirt.  I had to cut into another layer to get enough pieces.

I wore that skirt frequently for 10 years (clearly I’m not a clothes horse.)  I always wanted a black blouse and black slouch boots to wear with it.  But never got the blouse made or found the boots.  Instead I wore it with a purple “camp shirt” and some sort of black shoes.  For accessories I had a “silver” concho belt and a multi-colored turquoise phoenix brooch.  I finally rolled over the hem of the skirt with my desk chair one time too many and decided I shouldn’t wear it any more.

When I’m not sitting in front of my sewing machine, I’m hand quilting my Double Wedding Ring Quilt.

Last night I discovered that I only have 2 rings left on the row I’m currently working on, then two more rows for a total of 16 rings to go.  I’ve blogged a lot about this quilt over the past couple of year.  Clicking on “dwr” on the right of my screen take you to those entries.

Check out the link’s at Jill’s to the last finish others have had and what they are currently working on now.

Option 1 or Option 2?

 

Option #1

Option #2

 

There will be 15 total plates. Since I’m quilting them in sections, I’ll potentially need to make up my mind before I get all 15 appliquéd (there’s that word again) to the background.

Progress

The remaining 12 plates have been faced.  Now to turn and press them.

What’s on my Design Wall?

Or perhaps a better title is Why UFOs are Created.

Last week I ran into an issue with my Dresden Plates.  No, it’s not getting them to lay flat — although that can be a challenge — but rather I sewed the petals in the wrong order and didn’t discover it until I clipped and turned the plate.  Argh!  There was no salvaging that plate and since I used a smaller stitch, I wasn’t looking forward to ripping out the stitches on the 2nd plate sewn wrong, but not yet clipped.

So, I cut more petals – enough for 4 plates so I didn’t have to rip out the two plates I did back when I was first working on this project.  Between this and that, all I accomplished on the Dresden Plate was getting the 4 new plates sewn together and prepping the centers .  So, now there are 8 days left in the month and I’m supposed to finish the Dresden Plate because it’s UFO # 10.

So did I work on it over the weekend?  No, I finished up the Dragonflies during the week and decided I needed to know if I had enough black and white fabric for the quilt. I did, so I starting cutting the fabric, essentially starting a new quilt over the weekend.  Although technically it’s not a new quilt since I started the dragonflies last August.

I even held back on cutting the black squares, but that didn’t stop me from putting one block together.  The yellow square was easy to cut from the yellow strip I’ve been hauling around since August.  The only reason I don’t have more dragonfly blocks done, is I’ve got to trim them and that was going to take some time.

So, the Dresden Plate quilt could easily get set aside for the “new” quilt.  It’s more exciting.  It’s new.  I want it finished by early April, and there’s no way I’m going to finish the Dresden Plate by the end of February, so give up and work on the new quilt.

But, instead I’m going to buck up, put the pieces for the dragonfly quilt in a bag and set it aside to work on next month. I’ve checked my calendar and there’s nothing on the schedule after work this week, so there should be nothing to prevent me from making progress.  If As I make noticeable progress on the quilt, I’ll post pictures.  But until then, I may be incognito.

Meanwhile, check out the quilts being worked on by others by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

What’s on my Design Wall

For this week’s design wall, I have three of my completed Dresden Plates for this month’s UFO Challenge.  This does not include the two I made previously because I want to realign them on the background and change out the centers.  The color is not very accurate in the above picture, but it’s pretty close in this second picture.

Notice anything wrong?

Yep — I sewed the quarters together wrong — at least twice — and didn’t notice it until I was turning the plate.  I’m going to be cutting more blades later this week as I trimmed and clipped.    I guess I need to go through the rest of the plates to see if they are put together correctly and see how many more I need to make.

Check out other design walls by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Found in my Stash…

…a length of gold Dimples (Judy would be so proud). Although, can you call less than a yard “a length”?

Anyway, there’s enough to make the inner gold border and all of the centers for my Colorworks Dresden Plate, which is this month’s UFO Challenge.