This is the pile of quarter square blocks paired up and ready to be sewn. This is a neutral Strip Twist quilt. I just hope it turns out as cool as I’ve imagined it.
What’s On My Design Wall
I’m bouncing all over the place this week. This is nearly half of the blocks I’ll use as the background for the crossword puzzle quilt. I still need to piece the rest of the blocks I’ve got cut out, and I think due to a miscalculation on my part, I need to make another 8 blocks. Over the weekend I picked up 5 more FQs. I’ve said it before, but at this point, this is it. If I don’t have enough fabric, the quilt will simply be smaller. The good news is I have final confirmation of the last name I need to include in the quilt. Isabelle, my sister’s granddaughter to be was born last night. So, once I get the rest of the blocks pieced I’ll figure out the final block arrangement.
But, since at this time I’m only aiming for a quilt top by the end of may and I have time booked to use the long arm next week, I’ve got to get at least one more quilt top done.
These are the strips sewn into pairs for a Strip Twist quilt. Since this picture was taken Sunday afternoon, they’ve been pressed open and matched up to sewn into sets of 4. Tonight is the Guild meeting, but I hope to get the strip sets sewn afterwards.
Finally my Peacock BQ2 quilt is finished! OK, it still needs a label, but that’s the least of my worries. This is quilt # 3 in my 10 by June.
I made this quilt top in May 2009 – but then had no idea how to quilt it. Honestly, I still didn’t know what I was going to do until my husband suggested loopy flowers. I had my doubts, but it works. Sure, feathers would have been cool, but since I’m giving this quilt to my aunt, I wanted to make sure it looked good – or at least not embarrassing.
Hop over to Patchwork Times for links to other design walls.
Stash Report
I’ve been busy this past week. The week started with quilting a couple of quilt, ended with a trip to MQS and in between I finished cutting the fabric for the crossword puzzle quilt and the neutral Strip Twist. Half crossword background blocks are pieced, one side of the binding is stitched down on the Turning Twenty quilt and the binding on the BQ2 quilt is complete, but it still needs a label.
Meanwhile the backing for the crossword puzzle quilt came in and I picked up a few more red and neutral FQs.
Here are the numbers:
Fabric Added last week: 12 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 77.019 yards *
Fabric Used last weeks: 16 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 99.923 yards
Net Used for 2011: 22.904 yards
Checkout the links over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing.
* I discovered a mistake in my numbers from a couple of weeks ago. 8 FQ is only 2 yards, not 4 as I previously counted it.
Wednesday’s Progress
If my math is correct, this is 1/4 of the Drunkard’s Path blocks. 120 more to go!
Tuesday’s Progress
Wow! With the Go! Cutter I was able to cut all of my strip sets in about an hour. Now I’m ready to sew!
Monday’s Progress
It doesn’t look like much, but I spent all evening sewing the red strips into strip sets. Next they’ll get run through the Go! I don’t know if I’ll get it done tomorrow or not. My niece’s band concert is tomorrow evening.
What’s on my Design Wall
There’s several quilts on my “design ironing board” today.
First is this stack of quilts (5 of the 10 by June). The middle one I’m still working on the binding. The one below it and the one on top are ready for binding. The bottom quilt I need to quilt the borders. The second one down – well, it has some issues and will be meeting the seam ripper as soon as I figure out how much needs to be ripped.
But quilting was not all that I got done this past week. I finally got all of the fabric cut out for the Crossword Puzzle quilt.
I can’t decide if the color is good on this picture or not. As I was finishing up the cutting, I was grouching to myself about how “orange” the fabrics were. I had a fluorescent light shining on them. I cut that off and turned on my Daylight light and the color improved immensely.
The strips will be sewn into sets of 4, then they’ll be cut with the Go! cutter as well. Only then will I be able to start assembling blocks. This quilt is the next one that has to be completed, so it becomes the priority.
See what others have on their design walls by checking out the links over at Patchwork Times.
Stash Report
This was the week for quilt backs. I made two quilt backs early in the week for this weekend’s quilting, but when I got home last night I changed my mind on what I am going to quilt this afternoon. As a result, I made two more quilt backs. I also made the binding for “Summertime”. It’s still not completely sewn down. So lots of fabric out that I’m counting this week. I’ve got about 1/2 of the fabric cut for the Crossword Puzzle (CP) quilt, but I’m going to count it when I get it all cut. I expect to get the rest of it cut this week and it will nicely offset the backing fabric I expect to arrive later this week and count in next weeks report.
Early in the week, I bought several more red FQs for CP, but after I got to cutting I realized I needed more and why just buy 4 FQs when you can buy 8 FQs? Actually I ended up with 4 half yard pieces since several a couple of the pieces were $5 and FQ were $2.50. At this point if I don’t have enough fabric, I’m making the quilt smaller!
Here the numbers:
Fabric Added last week: 5.875 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 67.019 yards
Fabric Used last weeks: 19 yards (got to love weeks with backings)
Fabric Used to Date: 83.923 yards
Net Used for 2011: 19.904 yards
Checkout the links over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing.
Year of the PIG – Question #9
This week’s question from Jill is:
This week, we will be discussing Leaders and Enders and whether you multitask when quilting. Do you work on one project at a time or are you better when you are juggling 2 or more?
I fell in love with the Leader/Ender (L/E) concept shortly after finding Bonnie Hunter’s website Quiltville.com. At this point, I can’t remember what my first project was, but I have been known to complete entire quilts including sewing the blocks into rows as a L/E. As a result, I’ve been able to finish lots of tops and do the boring stuff while working on the fun stuff.
In January, I decided I was going to focus on my UFOs and I didn’t have anything appropriate already in progress, that didn’t require thinking (very important) for L/E. That lasted for three weeks. At that time I started sewing patches together for Fun With Bricks. This project is nearing completion, but now the short seam is 8″ and that’s getting a bit large for L/E. Of course it might have something to do with my last piecing project had 2″ finished blocks!
Since I got back from the quilt retreat, I’ve been focused on a single project – the Miniature Ohio Star. Then I started in with quilting. Although I now have 3 machines, if I’m quilting, I get focused on that. So, I started to say at the beginning, I’m currently only working on one project. But upon reflection, that’s not quite accurate.
First up is The Chain Event.
Although this quilt was prepped for the long arm last week, I’m still reviewing my quilting plan. I’ll go over it a couple of more times before I load the quilt on the long arm Saturday morning. It looks huge, but that’s because it’s attached to the leaders.
Next is Ribbon Candy.
Tonight I made the backing and cut the batting. I’m still debating the quilting. The original had swirls through the rail fence blocks and grid work in the borders. I’m leaning toward an all-over design, but I’ve got to get it down by Saturday. Somehow I don’t think daisies or dragonflies is quite the right motif for a quilt for my FIL.
This is Kansas Spirit.
Since it’s a sampler quilt, I can’t decide if I want an all-over design, one design repeated in all of the blocks and another the setting blocks or go custom. I figure I have until Sunday morning to figure this out. The backing and batting were prepared this evening as well.
Crossword Puzzle.
Yes, those block/pieces are pink and I’ve said the Crossword Puzzle quilt will be red. Well, since I think I have just enough red fabric I thought I should play with some other fabric and I pulled the pink/purple box down. I’m not certain I’ve achieved what I envisioned, but time is short and I need to get this done, so I’m going with it. The pieces were cut with a Go! cutter, some after I ‘made’ fabric out of strips. I’ve also been stitching down the letters — I think I have 20 more to go.
Finally there is “Summertime”.
In between all this other work I’ve been doing I’ve been stitching on the binding. I WILL take the time to get the binding correct so I can machine finish it on these next quilts. If I don’t I’ll never get them all bound by the time I have to give them to the recipients. I clearly wasn’t thinking straight earlier in the week when I tossed in the towel and decided to hand stitch the binding. I’ve worked on it for 3 or 4 nights and I still haven’t hit the 1/2 way mark. I can only do 3 or 4 needle fulls of thread before my wrist starts to ache.
So, do I do better when I multitask? I think so. I found out quickly in January that when I have to focus on just a single project – especially when I’m working toward a deadline – it takes the fun out of quilting.
To see what other think, check out the links over on Jill’s blog.
