Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Ladder to the Stars – Reveal

L2TS-small

I finished Ladder to the Stars October 13, 2013.  Quilted, bound and labeled, you may remember this picture:

dw1014-1Why the wait? My pattern for this original design is published in this month’s issue of The Quilt Pattern Magazine!

I designed this quilt using 9″ blocks for The Main Street Strippers Quilt Club at Heritage Fine Fabric in Belton, Missouri to use for their 2008 raffle quilt. The quilt finished at 88″ x 105″ which is bigger than I wanted. So, I scaled the blocks down to 6″ and made myself a smaller quilt. My top was finished in April 2009, but then it sat waiting for quilting inspiration and skills to develop.

In September 2013 I joined the quiltdesigners list and less than a week later a call went out from TQPM for projects for upcoming issues. What a luck! I sent in a photo of my top and they said they wanted to publish the pattern.

Eck! I had the instructions for the blocks and sashing — written at 9″, so I madly started revising and completing my instructions.  Then I needed to test the pattern. That’s when I pulled from my stash, browns, greens and beiges to make a second quilt.

I got the pattern written and the 2nd quilt top made. It was then on to the quilting. Inspiration struck and I had a plan.  It’s a good thing I had a test quilt as it turns out my vision and quilting skills just weren’t in-synch.  Given the timeframe I had to work with, I moved on to a compromise of my vision to meet my deadline.

I quilted the top at Quilted Memories using the pantograph Feather Me by Meredith England. Coats & Clark Star thread #0815 – Americana was used on the top and white pre-wound Superior Bottom Line in the bobbin. Hobbs Bleached 80/20 with scrim is the batting.

For the record the blocks in the top are various red, white and blue “scraps” from my stash. The blue cornerstones, sashing, setting triangles, border and binding is Michael Miller Krystal in Royal Blue. The gold star points and accent border is Robert Kauffman Fusions in Antique and the red border is Paula Nadelstern Holiday Luminosity Prismaglass in Red.  The sashing was paper pieced and the borders are mitered. For the backing I found a length of red and blue stars on white which came from Mom’s stash. It says Signature Classics by Oakhurst Textiles on the selvage.

After washing the quilt measures 57 x 67.

Shhh…Don’t Tell

deadline2 thread

No additional progress has been made on Eeyore since last night, but I’ve started the quilting on the project that I would like to have finished by the 1st.  If I wasn’t going to the retreat, I think I might make it.  I’ve got half the sashing quilted and figured out a way to quilt the sashing in the other direction which doesn’t require a lot of starts and stops. Who knows, maybe I’ll take it with me and work on it if there is enough room.

As for the picture…I can’t believe how well the thread blends. I thought for sure I would be able to see it on the back.  The arrow is pointing to some of the stitching…it’s tough to see except in a close up. Click on the picture below to see that I really have been quilting.

deadline2 threadclose

A Possible Problem

eeyore-missing

It’s time to tape my “master” pattern back together — however I seem to be missing a page….

Fortunately I still have the traced double bass and it appears to match up with the main piece of Eeyore’s head — which tells me I had the page in March and it could still be kicking around. If not, I think I can make this work between the print out and the tracings.

eeyore-traced

Well, shoot.  I thought I just had Eeyore’s eyes & mane and the end pin to cut out before I could start the assembling, but now I have to make a decision regarding his mouth.

eeyoremouth

 

I bought fabric for both “Baby Eeyore” the blue/purple on the left which has a pink mouth and the “older” Eeyore  which is two shades of gray.  Looking at the color printout which is of “Baby Eeyore” I cut the mouth from the pink. Maybe I’ll make a gray mouth and see which I like best.

Back to October

deadline2ripped

I have a very good friend. She ripped the quilting out of this quilt for me – after she told me in October that if I was going to need it ripped out to stop quilting on it. I kept going on the quilting in October because I thought it wouldn’t be too bad.  I was wrong. It was.

Now I’ve been told I to finish Eeyore before I work on this quilt.  I’m not sure how that’s going to work.  I really would like to have this one done by Sunday when the pattern is published (this is a second colorway).  Eeyore doesn’t need to be done until a week from Friday and I’m spending Friday afternoon/evening and all day/evening Saturday at a quilt retreat.  Maybe if I get all the pieces to Eeyore cut out this evening I can sneak this one in.

Progress. Really.

eeyore0526

 

Piglet came down when I took the fingerboard down to replace it.  I simply don’t have him back up. Eeyore’s feet have been embellished, I’ve cut out the bow and there is an embellished ear.

What’s On My Design Wall

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First off, I finished the quilting and binding on this quilt for Sydney.  She pieced the top. It measures about 51″ square. I think she’s giving it to her cousin.

As for my own quilts…

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All the green star points have been sewn, so into pairs and then I can start piecing the blocks.

dw0526candy

I cut the squares for the replacement 4-patches for this UFO. The original 4-patches are bright white and the blocks are off white/cream.  I’ve got 6 different light fabrics to use in the border. These are going to be my leader/enders at the retreat this weekend.

dw0526retreatbag

My projects are packed – Orca Bay (Bonnie Hunter, String Fling) is in the box — ooh I need to go find my Flying Geese Ruler for “squaring” the geese  and put them in the box with the rest of the rulers I’m taking with me (12-1/2″ square, 6″ x 12″, Easy Angle and Companion Angle).

Under the box is the box with Jared Takes a Wife and the zipper bag with Candy Sunflower Seeds (The Chain Event by Dorothy Young).  In the flat zip bag is the fabric and instructions for my “August  C” done in black and batiks.

The plan for today is to make progress on Eeyore. I’d really like to have the applique done by before I go to the retreat.  We’ll see if that happens.

eeyoreagain

To see what other are working on, check out the links over at Patchwork Times.

Stash Report

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Yesterday morning I saw a notice that the shop where I rent time on the long arm was having a sale on packaged batting. Since I used up the last of my Warm and Natural and this was less expensive than W&N on sale, I bought one to use on the Scrappy Trips quilt which I hope to get quilted in June.

The Tossed Cats and Magic Black came from another LQS. They were having a moving and bolt sale – both pieces were on sale.  The Cats will go with the paw prints I bought a few weeks back which in turn go with the panel I bought several years ago. I really need to start thinking about that quilt and gathering the rest of the fabric I’m going to need.  I hope I can pull it from my stash.

The Magic Black will be used in the Eeyore quilt.  I need to redo the fingerboard and tail piece on the bass without glitter.

So, what have I gotten done so far this weekend?  The red, black and white rail fence quilt is bound and headed to the wash. I ripped out about 6″ of the quilting on the brown quilt, then a friend offered to work on it while she watches TV — works for me.  Then last night after I finished the binding, I wasn’t quite ready to work on Eeyore, so I stitched some star points on JTAW while I finished listening to The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Angels Anglada.

So, this week’s tally is:

Fabric added this week: 2.865 yards
Fabric added to date: 76.744 yards

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used to date: 49.382 yards

Net used to date: -27.362 yards

Check out how others are doing over at Patchwork Times.

Plans for a Long (?) Weekend

weekend

 

eeyoreagain

I’m not able to take Friday off and I’m working on Monday, so this really isn’t a long weekend – I’ll get that next week when I take off a noon to go to a local retreat.

So what do I plan on working on this weekend?  These three quilts.  The red, white and black needs a binding — I have a bit of leeway – I don’t think it needs delivered until the 6th, but I may get the call earlier. I’ll work on it tonight after dinner since it’s the easiest/quickest to do.

That mass of brown and batting? That’s a quilt that I quilted a while back (October 2013) that I didn’t like the quilting on. I was encouraged to just bind it and call it done, but I can’t do it. But the good news, is I’ve had a flash of inspiration and know how I’ll quilt it when I get the original quilting ripped out. Fortunately it is a relatively small quilt (60 x 71).  My deadline is June 1st.

Then there is Eeyore/Piglet. I need to get this done – as in quilted, bound, labeled & washed – by the 6th.

So, the weekend is binding, ripping, quilting and applique — and going to the Lee’s Summit Symphony Showcase Sunday afternoon. I wonder what I’ll have done by Monday?

 

What’s On My Design Wall

orca

 

After finishing up the Irish Chain quilt I needed to figure out what to work on.  I pulled out Orca Bay, thinking I was ready to attach the black and white corner pieces to the purple string triangles — only I found that the paper had not been removed from the triangles yet.  I did that and then got maybe 20 “geese” built when I decided I really needed a leader/ender project.

So, I pulled out Jared Takes a Wife, cut the pink squares and green star points and the green star points will be my leader/enders. Since I had the fabric cut I went ahead and made one block up.

jtaw

 

Finally on Saturday, I quilted Sydney’s quilt for Samantha.  It still needs trimming and binding something to get done this week.

sam

See what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.

Stash Report

shirts

 

If I had only stayed away from the thrift shops and garage sales….

Saturday morning, I pulled a list of garage sales that I thought might be good prospects for shirts. My plan was to call and see if there was an open machine where I rent time on the long arm and then go to the sales afterwards. But given it took nearly 15 minutes to find a parking place last weekend, I started toward the shop before I knew there was a machine available.

There wouldn’t be one until 1 PM, so that gave me plenty of time to hit the sales. The first stop — clothes $5 a bag didn’t have any cotton shirts, other than t-shirts. I headed to the second stop, a fund raiser for a youth group. There were 6 shirts, but at $2 a shirt – admittedly a better price than the big thrift shops, I only bought 2.

I thought I had been told there was a quilt shop out that direction, so I searched on my recently updated Garmin and found one supposedly 6 miles away. It was closer to 11 miles away and when I got there I realized that was the shop which closed several years ago. Oh well. On to the next destination.

Before I could get there I spotted a guy waving a sign “Blowout sale. Thrift Store”. Naturally I turned in.  Shirts were $1 a piece normally, and for the sale buy 3 get one free.  I picked up 4, including a reversible shirt — blue on one side and green on the other.

Back into the car, spotted another shop, but no shirts and tried again to get to my next stop only to find another thrift shop with a sale going on. Picked up 2 more shirts at $1 each.

Finally got to the quilt shop I was headed for and they were having a “garage sale”.  They are moving at the end of the month. Saw a lot of cute stuff, but given I knew I was going to be buying a punch card for long arm time, I managed to not spend any money.

Pulled in at 1 to the rental place.  Two hours later, I had quilted Sydney’s latest quilt and purchased 3 cones of thread — all at 40% off.

Swung by to pick up “lunch” — it was pushing 4 when I got home, ate then took a nap.

8 shirts – 12 yards. I don’t get to count the backing as that came out of Sydney’s stash, but I did make a pillowcase. I think I need to finish something of my own soon.

Fabric added this week: 12 yards
Fabric added to date: 73.879 yards

Fabric used this week: 1.111 yards
Fabric used to date: 49.382 yards

Net used to date: -24.497 yards

See how others are doing with their stash over at Patchwork Times.