Category Archives: Quilts

Return of the Leaders/Enders

January 22, 2011 11:58 am ⋅ Pam

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?

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, Fun with Bricks, scraps

Mystery Quilt Top Done

January 20, 2011 11:27 pm ⋅ Pam

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.

Posted in: 2011 Mystery Quilt

The Blocks are Finished

January 18, 2011 10:58 pm ⋅ Pam

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.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

A Solution

January 18, 2011 2:32 am ⋅ Pam

: 1

: 2

: 3

: 4

: 5

: 6

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.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

What’s on my Design Wall

January 17, 2011 2:22 am ⋅ Pam

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.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, designwall, UFO Challenge 2011

What’s on my Design Wall

January 10, 2011 12:44 am ⋅ Pam

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.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, designwall, UFO Challenge 2011

A Design is Found

January 6, 2011 10:35 pm ⋅ Pam

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.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

The Easy Part is Done

January 5, 2011 10:43 pm ⋅ Pam

I’ve made all of my 9-patches. The hard part is now figuring out what to do with them. The truth is, I didn’t have much of a plan when I started this project back in the spring of 2008. Only a recognizable part of each charm square was required to be in the project. I vaguely remember thinking I wanted to use as much of the charm squares as possible. Thus my 9-patches are a weird size. I think they are supposed to finish at 3 3/8″. There should be 4 more blocks, but I made two incorrect cuts early on and I haven’t figured out what to do about it yet.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

January UFO Challenge

January 1, 2011 7:37 am ⋅ Pam

Judy has drawn # 6.

That means this month I’ll be either get my Charm Challenge into a top

or quilt my Scrappy 5-Patch.

Now for a bit of history on these two quilts.

For several years, my LQS, Heritage Fine Fabrics, issues a Charm Pack Challenge. The rules are pretty simple. Create a quilted object containing a recognizable piece of every charm in the package. In 2008 I think the charm pack was a Three Sisters line. I decided to make 9-patches using the ‘quick pieced’ method where you start off with two squares of fabric and end up with 2 9-patches. I hadn’t thought past that point, and when I didn’t finish the 9-patches and the contest deadline passed, the pieces were set aside.

The Scrapy 5-Patch is a quilt top I completed in 2009. It just needs quilting. The backing and binding are folded up with the quilt top and I’m sure there’s a piece of batting big enough in my batting box (or I can piece one together). I just have to decide how I’m going to quilt it. That’s where I frequently get stuck – although generally, I don’t get as far as making the binding and having the backing ready.

My brother and sister and their families are coming to dinner tomorrow, so I won’t get much quilting done this weekend. Good thing I have Monday off!

Good luck to all of the participants in this challenge. I’m sure we’ll finish lots of quilts by the end of the year.

Posted in: 5-patch scraps, Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

No Blue Geese in My Tropical Garden – A Finish

December 28, 2010 4:42 pm ⋅ Pam

Early this morning (2 AM?) I finished sewing down the binding on No Blue Geese in my Tropical Garden. I used the pattern Geese in my Garden by Mary Honas. My quilt name reflects that there is no blue in the quilt top. At the time I started this quilt it seemed like every quilt I made had blue in it.

Last month I took it down to Rocking Chair Quilts and rented time on their HQ16. I loaded the top in sideways so I would have a good run for the feathers I did down the print and black strips. The quilting is not award winning. At the time, I thought it horrible. But once it was off the frame and washed, it’s not bad — still won’t win any awards.

The feathers in the top and bottom strip were done starting and stopping as I rolled the quilt up. I obviously need to practice more with that concept. Here are a few detail pictures. You should be able to click on them to see them larger.