Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Eye Fooler

Side Tracked

BlueRidge-revised

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.

19-RWBSampler

11-Victory

As for the graduation quilt, it’s been gathered up and is now sitting in a million pieces on the corner of my desk.

gradquilt03007

 

Then There Were 17

gradquilt-17

8 of 63

gradquilt-blocks1-8

What’s on My Design Wall

dw0302-gradquilt

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.

stars

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

gradquilt-pieces

 

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.

orcabay-top

staraday-february

I have nothing to show for the UFO Parade at 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks. Orca Bay only made it to the top stage.

UFO Busting Link Up

  • # 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

gradquilt-tostitch

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.

gradquilt-stitched

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.

butterscotchblackfabric

This is the pile of fabric I’m working from now — all that is left to cut from it are HST.

gradquilt-forhst

I may need a new blade before I’m done.

What’s On My Design Wall

orcabay-top

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.

saturdaystitching-kalli

 

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.

dw0223 - strips

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.


dw0223 - trianglesquare

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.

 

 

Saturday Stitching

saturdaystitching-kalli

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.

saturdaystitching-ob

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!

saturdaystitching-blacksqure

 

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

saturdaystitching-butter

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.

 

 

Progress On Multiple Quilts

orca-borders75

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.

kalli-brights

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.