Last night I added the rest of the green borders to my Christmas Row Quilt.  My original intent was to add a wider red border, but I think I’m calling it a Top.  The quilt measures 86 1/2″ square – plenty big enough for a bed topper which will only be used for few weeks each year.

The good news is I won’t have to buy a king size batt when I get ready to quilt it.

This Christmas fabric by Cranston Print Works came from my Mom’s stash.   There’s no date on the selvage, but I seem to remember her buying it when I worked at Northwest Fabrics & Crafts — that was between Aug 1990 – Sept 1991.  I’m going to use it for the backing — when I get that far.

BTW — This was June’s UFO off my ‘Get it to a Top’ list.

The August UFO # was 7.  That was Mom’s Chain of Star (on the left) to be made into a top,  and the Red, White and Blue baby quilt to be quilted.  I finished them both in August.  I also finished the other July quilt – True Friends.  definitely a good month for UFOs.

Judy pulled #11 for September.  That is my Compass Lone Star.

This is a quilt-as-you-go project that I’ve been working on for a while.  The center is pieced and partially quilted.  I’ve got some of the LeMoyne Stars made.  The quilt has been through many design changes since I started it.  I knew this quilt was coming up soon (there were only 4 quilts left) so off and on I’ve been thinking about it.  As a result there may still be another design change – especially if I’m going to get this done this month!

Follow the links over on Judy’s page to see what everyone got done this past month.

Yesterday I asked if I had too much white space before my green border.  The consensus is no.  Which is good — that means I don’t have to frog the borders.  I’ve set the blocks this way to fool the eye into believing all the blocks are the same size – which they are since I added white coping strips to the smaller blocks.  Anyway, since I know the measurement of the ‘coping strip’ I added before the green border I can’t tell if I added to much. It’s not like I needed the quilt to be an exact measure to fit a pieced border — I just needed that red cornerstone square to not butt up against the green border.

There was no quilting last night as my husband and I attended a concert – The Low Anthem.  At least this time when we walked into the bar they didn’t ask us if we were the parents.  That happened a few weeks ago when we saw My First Born.

This evening no concerts, but I’ve been on a mission to finish cutting the fabric for the log cabin quilt I’m working on as a leader/ender project.

I started sewing the red and neutral squares together June 1st, or there about.  Now I have less than 60 light logs to make the block square.  I’ve cut fabric for 180 – 7 ” blocks, but I think I’m only going to need 168 blocks for an 84″ x 98″ inch quilt.

So, if I’m using this as my leader/ender quilt, why the push to get it all cut?

Well — I now have a completely contained project that I can take to work on the next time my quilting buddies get together to sew.   We are over due for a sewing weekend, but our schedules simply haven’t meshed.

Yesterday I debated my choices on how to piece the border.  4-patches or Seminole piecing.  Mary suggested square in a square – I did say not too long ago I found away to make them nearly perfect.

I opted for the 4-patches with the setting triangles for a couple of reasons. Seminole piecing would result in a bias edge and I’ll have enough trouble with the border without adding a bias edge into the mix.  Square in a Square blocks would be difficult to line the points up.  That leaves the 4-patches with setting triangles.  I’ll cut them with the Companion Angle Ruler and since they’ll be 4 1/2 inches on one side they wont’ be too bad.

So why the title of the post?

I grabbed a hunk of white/off white fabric from my stash that I had enough of and made nearly all of my 4-patches.  Oops, the quilt center lean creamy instead of bright white.  So now I have to make a decision – do I remake these — meaning I tear these apart — I don’t think I have enough brown fabric to red0 them or do I leave well enough alone.

kwiltnkats asked if a pieced borer was in the works for Candy Sunflower Seeds.  There wasn’t, but admittedly I wasn’t excited by what I was planning on doing or the finished size the quilt was going to be (approx 54 x 71).  So, I started playing with borders in EQ.  This is what I’ve come up with now:

I don’t like the big cornerstones — but I just had a flash of inspiration and if I go with this option I’ll make those the same size squares as the rest of them – 2 1/2″ finished.   The pieced border also makes the quilt a bit larger – approx 63 x 80 and more inline with the size I frequently  make.

Now I’m off to figure out exactly how I’m going to piece that border — 4-patches or Seminole piecing….

It’s a Quilt Top!

This top is from a kit I won from a quilting web site back in 2005 or 2006. The kit is called Building Blocks and the fabrics are from Nancy Halvorsen True Friends line.  The kit came with pre-cut pieces and provided several options.  It measures approximately 50″ x 60″.

So what’s next?

I can either take another stab at sandwiching the Crossword Puzzle quilt, go a head and sandwich and quilt this quilt, add the borders on the Christmas Row Quilt or work on this:

Check back to see what I work on.  I’m guessing it will be a combination of all of the above.

Admittedly the top is not quite finished, but it’s never to early to think about backing and binding.  I dug through my stash and found two fabrics that I think work with this quilt.  The green on the top right is what I originally pulled for the backing and binding.  Then I discovered I don’t have enough of it for both, so I dug deeper to find something to stretch it.

I came up with a yard of the peach on the top left.  Now I’m wondering if I instead of using the green for the binding and stretching the backing with the peach, I’ll just use the peach for the binding.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t dream and obsess over it.

Today I picked up the October 2011 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.  It seems every time I’m at the store I gravitate to this issue.  Occasionally, I pick it up and flip through it, only to set it back down.  I don’t need to start another quilt.  I don’t really want to start another quilt.  But today that didn’t stop me from buying the magazine.

There’s something about the cover quilt — well, the quilt on the cover of my copy of the Oct issue.  It seems there are two different covers.  The quilt I’m drooling over is Star Formation.  It’s simple, scrappy and stunning.  I’m not sure if it’s the color – love the blue and gold – or the quilting.  Whatever it is, I want to make that quilt!

OK, now that I have that off my chest, I’ll go back to work on True Friends.  I finished the extra 5 blocks I needed and have the first two rows sewn together.  I may have even found something to use for the backing or binding.  There’s not enough for both.

Since I can’t make a decision on the Christmas Row Quilt, I decided to pull another slip from my “UFO Quilt Steps” bag.  I’m not sure this is really what I want to work on, but on the other hand, if I get the top assembled, it can come off my design wall.

This is what is on the wall right now. I think I need to make five more blocks so the quilt will be 50 x 60 — unless I try to extend the quilt with the leftover fabric.  There is nothing in my stash that I can use for a border — at least I don’t think there is.  I guess I’ll cross that bridge after I get the center assembled, but first I’ve got blocks to piece.

The center of the row quilt is complete.  Now I need to decide how wide to make my spacer white border.  I think I want a bit of separation between the edge of the red squares and the inner green border.  The outer border will be the same fabric as the red squares.

These blocks are from a block swap I participated in back in November 2008 on the Quilt in A Day forum.  Unless someone in the family claims it when it’s done, I think I’ll use it on our bed.  Believe it or not, I don’t have a bed size Christmas quilt.  Of course, who know when it will get quilted.  But first I’ve got that decision to make.