Workshop in Progress - February 2, 2011

Time to step back into the Workshop at Naptime Quilter!

It has taken me two weeks to decide on the border and finish the top of my disappearing nine patch quilt.

Thanks to all for the wonderful comment and suggestions!

The general consensus was that the blue was too dark

and too much of a contrast

against the explosion of color.

I whole heartedly agree.

This seemed to be the least offensive shot of all my choices.

I played with other options and found a rather nice

magenta batik that worked very well.

I also tried the piano key approach that was suggested.

I cut my 5" squares in half,

(because I wasn't cutting anymore stash!)

but they just didn't seem wide enough to make a statement.

They won't go to waste though,

I will piece them into the back of this lovely lavender

fabric to finish off this wedding quilt.

I love the hatch lines in here, looks like doodles.

So are you ready for the finished border???

Are you wondering what I choose?

Without further delay, drum roll please!

Ta-dah! I made more disappearing nine patch blocks as suggested by one kind reader,

and they did the job! My magenta border contains the chaos,

and the extra row of blocks finishes it off nicely.

My question for you this week is about batting . . .

I usually use Warm & Natural cotton batting, but this week tried a wool batting.

I use the spray baste with the cotton and it works really well,

but on the wool, it just didn't hold at all.

Half way through quilting, I was getting puckers and sliding,

so I had to stop and pin everything in a million places.

The quilt came out better than I thought it would when I was cursing

about the sliding, so I am happy.

Here is the question, what is your preferred method of basting?

on another note . . . .

Has anyone seen the rascally ground hog?

What's the verdict?

Yeah I know dream on and don't put your shovel away!

Field Trip!

Gidget & I had a little field trip today.

We have cabin fever and needed to get out and see the world.

We started out at NEAT for a latte and raspberry danish from Sono Bakery.

YUM!

Then we headed to Ridgefield to the Quilter's Alley.

Gidget was like a kid in the candy store.

She has a pattern for a market bag she wants to make.

She got some cute bicycle fabric which I forgot to take a picture of.

Her mission is to get everything cut out

and then tomorrow

she will come over and we will sew together!

I'm sure there will be a story tomorrow . . . .

This is some of the wonderful fabrics that Roxanne and Stuart have in their shop.

Look at all those yummy colors!

That is the back of Gidget's head. She is still camera shy,

but at least she allowed some part of her body to be photographed today.

See that frame in the back of the picture???
That is a long arm quilting frame.

I dropped off my log cabin quilt to be quilted.
Roxanne helped me pick out the perfect pattern for quilting.
I can't wait to see it all done in about three to four weeks!
YEAH!


Need to decide on a binding now, I like to do that part.


I couldn't leave without buying any fabric myself!
I got the lavender for the backing of my commissioned quilt,
and the other two just because.

Where did you sneak off to today?

Are you trying to shake the cabin fever too??

Workshop in Progess - January 19, 2011

Cheryl over at Naptime Quilter is hosting

Workshop in Progress!

This is an opportunity to show what you are working on

and get some feed back on questions you might have.

This is my first time participating in this workshop and I am thrilled to have the chance to get some wonderful advice from all of you!

I have been working on this commissioned quilt for a friend.

You can see how it started here.

She gave my free reign on everything!

It is a disappearing nine patch block made with all Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

It measures 59" x 72" right now, but needs to be a bit bigger.

It is a wedding present for a queen size bed.

So my dilemma is the borders.

I'm not big on borders, but I thought this quilt needed one to frame

all that delicious fabric.

So first off above, a three inch blue and 5" squares of the same fabric.



Then I added another three inch blue. Too heavy I think.

Why is this picture on it's side?

Anyway, then I tried the three inch blue strips with 3"blocks and spaced them apart.

I think it's still too heavy, but I like the idea of this. Maybe if I scaled everything down by half it wouldn't be so heavy???

This last shot is of the border at 1.5" with the 5" blocks. So far I like this, but I could really use some help here. And if you have another idea entirely, let's hear it!

I am open to anything.

Thanks again to Cheryl for putting this all together and hosting!

SNOW DAY!!!

You can't help but feel like an 8 year old kid when you find out

you don't have to go to work!

Even better I had not one inkling to go sledding today.

After I dug out a bit and took the kid to the train . . .

(she had to work, you can imagine the looks)

I hussled up to my sewing room to get started.

I received Tonya's book, Word Play Quilts, right before Christmas

and haven't had a chance to try the letter blocks yet.

My first letter project was my name of course!

Four letters and not too hard.

I LOVED IT!

I can't wait to start a whole wordy quilt.

Now to decide what it will say . . .

Then I set to work on my disappearing nine patch commission.

I made all the blocks, 99 total

and laid them out on my guest bed.

It is looking mighty fine.

I actually pieced the whole top after I took this picture.

Now to figure out a border. It needs to be a bit bigger.

I'm so glad that for once I cut tons of fabric for this project.

I think I can make a whole other quilt!

I have a hard time giving away my quilts,

I'll want one for me too.

How did you spend your snow day?

Warm and cozy I hope.

Sunday Projects #10

Now that all the Christmas decorations are finally tucked away,

I can focus more on sewing.

My very good friend Barb has commissioned a quilt from me!

She is giving me free rein, but really liked Auntie Mo's quilt.

hint, hint, hint.

I've already made that quilt twice, so not really feeling the love on that.

I am going to use all the Kaffe Fassett fabrics that she loves . . .

but . . . I am going to use a disappearing nine patch design to put it together.

This is a very easy block to make.

There is a great tutorial here if you would like to see it in video form.

I really like seeing a video. I am a visual learner, you have to show

me step by step.

So after you make the traditional nine patch,
you whack it into quarters.

I am doing this quilt totally scrappy, but you can see how you could
really play around with color and pattern
to get a dramatic effect.


This is just kind of thrown together to show you the idea.

I'm sure I will play around with the layout when I have many more blocks completed.
The blocks sew up really fast.
Hoping this will be a quick quilt . . .
It was supposed to be done before Christmas. Hahaha!
Glad Barb is such a great friend, she knows my deadline issues.




I also finished piecing my Hard Candy top today.

You can read about this quilt here.
I have been working on it for a class and I needed it done for tomorrow!

Hard Candy was inspired totally from a quilt that Rita at Red Pepper Quilts made.

It's amazing how similar they turned out. I used 60* triangles,
and Rita used half square triangles.


I am still figuring out the quilting design.

It's quite bulky at the intersections, so I need to avoid those areas.

Any ideas???




Quite a productive day!

I even vacuumed up all those awful pine needles from the Christmas tree!

What did you work on today?