Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Jared Takes A Wife is a Quilt Top

June 26, 2014 12:15 pm ⋅

JTAWtop

 

This is my Jared Takes a Wife quilt top. It’s a free pattern from Bonnie Hunter.

I started making black and white 4-patches as leader/enders back in November with the intent of making Bricks and Stepping Stones, another free pattern from Bonnie. However, on the Facebook group Quiltville Open Studio, a quilt-a-long was suggested for JTAW and I repurposed my 4-patches.

I started with my border fabric and found the pink and green to use for star points and center squares. The intent was to finish the top by the end of April, but I had to set it aside a couple of times as I worked on other quilts.

The other day I found a cool variegated thread which I want to quilt this with, so now I need to find a backing.

Thanks, Bonnie for a great pattern!

Posted in: Jared Takes a Wife

It’s Beginning To Look Like A Quilt Top

June 25, 2014 6:30 am ⋅

jtawcenter

 

This is the center of Jared Takes a Wife, a free pattern from Bonnie Hunter. It was at the top of my list of quilts to work on at the retreat. The blocks just needed two seams each and the cornerstones were cut.  But then I discovered I completely forgot a quilt which a “real” deadline, so that quilt went to the top of the list, so I didn’t pull JTAW out until either Friday or Saturday mid-morning.

Anyway after the blocks were finished and the sashing sewn to one edge, it was time to figure out which cornerstone went where and I discovered I was 5 short and now it’s Saturday evening and there are no open quilt shops.  One of the retreaters had a piece of black fabric and I decided I could put matching cornerstones in the corners and the center and it would be OK.

As I started sewing the sashing on to the last row of blocks I realized I was really short 10 cornerstones and I really didn’t want matching stones on the bottom of the quilt. So, this got tucked away and I worked on something else.

Last night I dug through my fabric and found 10 more black fabrics for cornerstones.  I replaced the two on the top row, leaving the one in the “center” so I  now have 30 unique cornerstones. Who knew I had that many black fabrics.

All that is left now is a narrow pink inner border and then the wide paisley border.  Perhaps I’ll get that done tomorrow, but I do need to make the backing for the forgotten quilt and sandwich Eeyore so I can start to quilt it.

Posted in: Jared Takes a Wife

A New Finish

June 24, 2014 12:30 pm ⋅

PurpleThanglesBOM

 

Monday afternoon I rented time on the long arm and quilted this little quilt.  After washing it measures about 39″ square.  The pieced blocks were part of a Thangles BOM that I started in 2008. I only used 5 of the 12 blocks because I didn’t think all 12 of them went together well.  Another 5 are in another quilt and there are two which I suspect will end up in the orphan block box.

The batting is Hobbs Bleached Tuscany.  I used Superior’s Omni Thread in Verbena on the top and a lavender pre-wound bobbin in the bottom. For quilting, I did a “feathery” fill in the red squares, 1/2 feathers and echo around the pieced blocks, curved outlining of the black pieces in the blocks and attempted a circular filler in the borders.

I found a printed plaid in my stash that worked well for the backing.

PurpleThanglesBOMBacking

 

This quilt is on several of my UFO goal lists for the year, including the 2014 Finish Along sponsored by The Littlest Thistle. I’ll update the link when I  link up.

Here’s the link to the 2nd Quarter Finish Party over at The Littlest Thistle and my 2nd Qtr list.

Posted in: 2014 Finish Along, finish, UFOs

What Happens at Retreat…

June 24, 2014 1:45 am ⋅

roadtripfabric

 

There’s a saying “What Happens at Retreat Stays at Retreat”.  Due to the projects I was working on I can’t show anything yet. But it was all not sewing. There was the shopping.

Starting at the bottom center and working clockwise:  Several Kansas Troubles Patterns, a 20 piece charm pack of KTQ lights, a spool of thread that works well with KTQ fabrics, 9 – F8 of KTQ fabrics a stack of KTQ scraps, Perfect Circles (the smaller ones), a light FQ, backing for a secret project, a yard of a cool cat/music fabric, a FQ of a music/Halloween fabric, fabric that I’m not using for the secret project and fabric to make a tie for my husband.  I just realized that I don’t have the ruler that I bought in the picture. Oh well.

I sewed, completing a quilt top start to finish with only one sewing mistake and one cutting error. Then I started working on Jared Takes a Wife with the intention of finishing it. Either I can’t count, or I simply didn’t finish cutting the cornerstones for the quilt because I came up 10 short.  As I worked on these two projects my leader/ender was the 4-patches for the border of Candy Sunflower Seeds. By the time I realized I couldn’t finish JTAW, I was too tired to think through finishing Candy Sunflower Seeds.

So naturally, I pulled out my applique project. It was pretty straight forward. Cut along the dotted line – so to speak – and then fuse into place. At that point I called it a night. The next morning, I figured out the cutting plan for the quilt which will be my next leader/ender project and then stitched one length of thread on the red work snowmen.

After I pulled out the machine today, I had to give the machine a bit of a cleaning…

retreatfuzz1

It was a bit fuzzy.  This is what I pulled out of the machine before I started sewing on the binding to my latest finish:

retreatfuzz2

 

Stay tuned to see my latest finish in the next post.

Posted in: Candy Sunflower Seeds, Jared Takes a Wife, red work, retreat, scraps, shopping

What’s On My Design Wall

June 16, 2014 1:08 am ⋅

backingdone

I thought I would never get this quilt backing done.  For three days I cut 2-1/2″ strips from my stash of music fabric. While I was at it I also cut 5″ charms.  

backing

Then I sewed them end to end, occasionally throwing in mitered seam if I was joining two longer pieces together.  When I got through this pile I only had 3318″, but it wasn’t enough. So, I cut more strips and charms. In the end I had approximately 4500″.

It took me 3 hours to get that first seam sewn.  The second seam took at least 2 – I only kind of timed it.  They really did get faster then – the last 4 seams only took 1-1/2 hours — not including time to press each seam after stitching.  Having made a jelly roll quilt w/o pressing and one w/pressing, I think it came out much better having pressed the seams.

backingDW

The piece currently measures 70″ x 128″ — way longer than I need but I wanted 68″ in width without having to put a border on it.  The excess length will become the starting point of another quilt which I will call “Accidental”.

Oh — and my music stash?  It’s 8 yards smaller now. Admittedly the two drawers weren’t stuffed when I started but they both were “full”.

musicstash

To see what others are up to hop over to Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall

Stash Report

June 15, 2014 1:47 am ⋅

I went to the thrift shop last Sunday.  Just one. But still 13 shirts or 19 1/2 yards came home with me for $2.75.  No pictures. Tied the bags shut, tossed them down the stairs to wash and haven’t gotten that far. I also picked up fabric for the borders for Eeyore

On the other hand, I finally finished the Eeyore quilt to, so I get to count some yardage used. I’m refraining from counting the backing yardage just to bump my numbers up since the backing is at least 4 1/2 hours away from becoming a backing.  This happens when you increase the length of the initial strip of a jelly roll race quilt.  But look out next week.

Not only will I be able to count the backing, with any luck I should be able to count Jared Takes A Wife, and part of Candy Sunflower Seeds & Orca Bay (these were started when I was counting as I pieced instead of upon the completed top).

So, the numbers:

Fabric added this week: 19.75 yards
Fabric added to date: 122.439 yards – includes 61.25 yards recycled fabric

Fabric used this week: 5.25 yards
Fabric used to date: 57.98 yards

Net used to date: -64.459 yards

Check out how others are doing over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

This Is A Quilt Backing?

June 13, 2014 1:23 am ⋅

backing

 

Not the 5″ squares – those are for a future project. That pile of 2 1/2″ strips of various lengths.

Posted in: Uncategorized

Quilts From My Past

June 11, 2014 10:57 pm ⋅

30eggmoneyquilt

 

This is my Egg Money Quilt from the Eleanor Burns book of the same name.  I started this as a BOM at the LQS in August 2005 and finished binding Jun 2007.  I know the block in the lower right corner is not in the book. I wanted a quilt for my king size bed so added a few. Without looking in the book I couldn’t tell you which others I added.

I did this quilt using Quilt-As-You-Go techniques.

To mark the quilting in the framing, I printed circles and diamonds onto labels and then cut them out. I used each label several times until it wouldn’t stick to the fabric any more.

In the sashing I found a diamond cable in one of my books and cut it out of template material to trace around. I just reused that cable the other day.

The blocks themselves I just did simple outlining.  I can’t remember how the green inner border is quilted and the outer scalloped border has two rows of quilting following the scallop.

eggbacking

 

eggbed

 

I used Warm and Natural batting so this quilt is heavy.

Posted in: Uncategorized

Quilt Progress In Pictures

June 10, 2014 11:35 pm ⋅

withdates

 

eeyoretop

 

Now to make the backing!

Posted in: UFOs

First Border

June 10, 2014 1:00 am ⋅

eeyore0609

 

Last night I finished outlining the letters, re-outlined Piglet in a darker pink and put on the first border. I’m aiming for 62″ x 80″, so two more borders to go.

After I got the first border on I stopped and read for a bit. Then before I headed to bed I thought I’d see if I could get the next border on. The sides are stitched and the top and bottom are pinned, so I might get the top done tonight — especially if it rains.  We have plans to go and see Frozen at Theater in the Park — if it stops raining.

Posted in: UFOs