Celtic Solstice - Step 4 - 4 Patches (and other projects, too)

This week was an easy one for the Celtic Solstice mystery -- and I almost finished over the weekend.  On Friday night I started laying out strips of orange and green from scraps from previous steps and from my stash. I was able to use up all the orange and green small strips I had, and only had to cut into fat quarters for about 25 of the 120 four patch blocks.

I sewed and sewed and when I finally counted I had 116 four patch units!  So, just four more to go:

I could not resist the urge to make a holiday four patch with some of my least favorite fabrics celebrating St. Patty's Day, Halloween, and Christmas:

And I made worked on the pinwheels - I have only 4 completely done (a whopping two more than last week). All the remainder 2 patches are sewn and need to be joined into the full pinwheels:

I did all this sewing on Sunday.  To see what other folks are doing with Celtic Solstice, click here!

On Saturday, I went to my guild's sew-in at a local library and got the binding sewn onto my Grandmother's Choice quilt:

I started handsewing it to the back last night -- I have about 80" of the 400" total done!  This I just plug away at and stitch a little at a time or when I'm watching TV (kinda rare).

I also got more done on a quilt I'm sewing for a baseball friend and I decided on the setting for another BOM.

To finish out my saga of my very productive sewing week -- AND I finished the first 25 blocks of the Dear Jane quilt I am making using charcoal and cream for the backgrounds:

I will start some applique blocks, but probably not until next weekend!

I love sewing!

Celtic Solstice - Pinwheels!

Clue number 3 in Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery has us making many tiny (1 1/2") half square triangle blocks!  200 blocks to be exact - at least for the smaller version I am making. Here's a look at every combination of yellow and orange I sewed into half square triangles!

Not only do I have many fabric combinations, I used several methods to make these blocks. Bonnie demoed the Easy Angle ruler - I used this with the fabrics I had in 2" strips.  I had a bunch of 2 1/2" squares laying around, so I used the Tucker Trimmer for those.  And - I learned a new method where you combine two squares, right sides together and draw lines diagonally and mid-line (like and asterisk). Then you sew 1/4" along the diagonals, cut along the diagonal lines and the lines through the middle of the blocks to make 8 half square triangles at once.  I especially like this method because you do not end up with bias edges and I I will use it again, especially when I need a lot of units out of the same fabrics.   I not use it a for many of the blocks because I went very scrappy and only wanted at most 8 of any one fabric combination.

As you can see in the back, there are two pinwheel blocks done - these are 3 1/2" square and will finish in the quilt at 3" square. I still need to make 23 more of these cute little guys. This means we will end up with 25 pinwheel blocks and 100 of the half square triangle blocks.

Also in the back you can see my Bell jar with all of the "bonus triangles" from Step 2 - the chevron blocks.

I was slowed down this week by a terrible cold, but still managed to finish ironing Step 2, remade a few blocks that didn't quite measure up. I also trimmed all of the step one blocks made with the Tri Recs - and only had to redo one or two of those.

Fortunately, tomorrow's clue -- Step 4 -- is the easiest of them all, Bonnie says.  I should be able to catch up over the following week and finish both step 3 and step 4.

It will get interesting in January when I start business travel again. I am trying to borrow a sewing machine to use in the hotel at night and over some weekends that I will be gone. If that doesn't work out, I will watch and learn as others continue this very fun project. And then I'll catch up when I can! No biggie!

Check out what others are doing - there are some wonderful color combinations from those who chose to go their own color way! Link up for Step 3

Stay tuned! Clue 4 comes out tomorrow morning!!

Dixie Diary Layout and Setting Concept

I decided on my layout a couple of months ago for the Dixie Diary BOM, but I wanted to wait until all of the blocks were completed before finalizing it.  I am use a light cream on cream graphic fabric for the sashing, light and/or embroidered pieces for the corner stones, a darker tan for a small inner border and a piano key border, also incorporating some embroidery pieces. I don't know what I will do yet for the largest outermost cornerstones yet.

Here's the concept laid out on my dining room table:

 

Does this layout work well?

Proposed layout of blocks

Updated option:

Cornerstone, sashing, piano key border concept

Cornerstone, sashing, piano key border concept

The sashing is 2", the inner border will be 1" finished, and the piano key border will finish at 4".

In my desire to try new things, I decided to do this piano key border, something i have never done. Currently I my plan is to alternate "keys" of light and dark. Is that too regular? Should I mix it up more - couple darks, couple lights few dark, etc.?

I think I like this - it will be a wall hanging in my bedroom. Should the piano key border stay or go?

All opinions are welcome!

Celtic Solstice - Slow and Steady Progress

It was a busy weekend for me, so I did not work on this project as much as I did last week.  In addition to this project, I met my Mom for a recital, went to a class to make a bag and a table runner, made the final block of the Dixie Diary BOM, worked on my two Dear Jane quilts, and picked up the last two blocks for another BOM!

For Celtic Solstice, I cut all the pieces I need for the 100 chevron blocks that will finish at 3", and I'd say I'm just over half way through sewing them up.

Here's where I was Sunday morning after the first 20:

I am saving the leftover triangles in the Bell jar - this is not tamped down at all.

And here's where I ended the day yesterday with 40 completely done, and 20 just needing to be pressed open.

The jar is filling up - I have to smash them into it now!.  Can you see the front block on the left?  It has both Christmas fabric and St Patrick's Day fabric in the green stripe!  I am not being very particular about pairing fabrics up, either. This was a happy suprise. I hope I can remember to place it by something made my orange fabric with Halloween candy corns.

Now that I am remembering to press the seams in each pair in the opposite direction, they are coming together. There are more pieces than it seems to me, so it is taking longer than I expected. No doubt that is exacerbated by the fact that I have 5,549 other projects in the work. Oh, and I work full time, too.

I am enjoying the process.

I wonder what Friday will bring?!

Dixie Diary - Month 12 - Turning Yankee

The story last month left us hanging to learn whether Sarah Morgan would swear allegiance to the Yankees in order to help her mother survive the war, and we learn this month that indeed they went to New Orleans. Her mother gave them "the what for", though. Read about it here!

And here is the block for this month:

This was a little challenging to construct because the embroidery is from a dish towel and not so sturdy, even with the muslin with which I always line the embroidery pieces. At the same time, once pressed the seams lay down quite nicely.

This concludes this BOM.  Now on to the setting for the quilt. I have a plan, and I hope I can execute it. It might be a while before I get to it with all the other projects on my plate. I think I will try to make a little portion of the setting every night and perhaps it will proceed more quickly than I think!

This has been a very fun project incorporating my grandmother's embroidery in the blocks. I never really knew her, though I am named for her -- my given name was her nickname. I'm not so sure I look like a "Eugenia" -- "Dena" suits me better! So this has been a therapeutic project, as well as an experiment in use of the embroidery. Success on both areas, so it's been a good year.

Thanks to Barbara Brackman for the journey through the Civil War through the eyes of young Sarah Morgan. Thanks to Dustin for moderating the Civil War Quilts flicker site where we shared our progress.

Dear Jane - Changed My Mind!

I have been a little ambivalent about using the bright colors in both of the Dear Jane quilts I am making. Sooooooo, I'm changing it up for one of them. The quilt using cream and charcoal for the backgrounds will now have shades of pink, fuschia and purples. Six of the blocks I have already done work in the new scheme, so only (!) 17 to redo. Ha!

It will be worth it. Here's the new scheme with some of the "old" blocks:

The striped fabric is my inspiration. I will use the brighter fabrics with the cream background and the more pastel fabrics with the grey background. The blocks will be arrange in concentric circles with the grey in the middle, then radiating out alternating background colors (and thus bright and pastel colors as well).

Grey-cream-grey-cream-grey-cream-grey / pastel-bright-pastel-bright-pastel-bright-pastel

I will keep the pieced border triangles in the grey/cream combinations. The non-pieced border triangles will likely be bright/medium shade or tone since the outermost blocks will be charcoal with pastel colors. Maybe I'll make them all in the medium range.

I went through my stash and I have a nice collection of fabrics to get me started.

This will make it more interesting for me to have two completely different color schemes going at the same time. 

And now I'm happy!

First Six Blocks

 Update:  Here's the first 6 blocks - I need more pastels, so I guess I just have to go shopping!

Quilt-a-Thon Weekend

I had a lovely Thanksgiving with my Mom and some friends on Thursday afternoon. Before I went, and after I got back, I worked on my Dear Jane blocks.  On Friday, Bonnie Hunter released Part 1 for her holiday mystery quilt, this year called Celtic Solstice. This was my project on Friday and Saturday.

 Dear Jane

Here are the first 13 blocks for my quilt with gray and cream backgrounds:

And here are the next 10 from the second installment of the Dear Jane club I'm in.  These are mostly paper pieced, a new skill for me. Tedious, but very precise outcome so it's worth it!

Second Month - 10 of 12 done with Black and White Backgrounds

Second Month - 10 of 12 done with Gray and Cream Backgrounds

I am amusing myself with the b/w versions by using fabric in some of the blocks that go with the name or with current events. For instance, the mustache fabric I used to honor the fact that it was "Movember" when I made it. That's a movement to focus on men's health where men grow a mustache in November, soccer ball fabric for the block called "Chris's Soccer Field", and utensils on fabric for the block called "Adelaine's Apron Strings". A little hidden humor amuses me!

I am including some of my grandmother's embroidery in the gray and cream version -- you can see two blocks in the picture from the first month that include some of the embroidery. I will scatter some in here and there, as the mood hits me.

I find it interesting to see how the blocks look in different color ways, too. The two picture of the second month have the blocks in the same positions. Interesting isn't it?

I still have 2 more center blocks to do, and 3 more border triangles. I know what I want to do with the borders for the gray/cream version, but I'm still deciding for the black and white version. More on that when I get more of them done!

Celtic Solstice

I worked all day Friday and much of Saturday on the Celtic Solstice Step 1.  We used the Tri Recs rulers seen in the first picture and made many units - orange and neutrals in the middle with blue side pieces on all of them. Here's my progress:

All orange fabrics used so far are shown here - 92 units

All neutral fabrics used so far are shown here - 96 units

 Step 1 is completed! Well, except for trimming dog ears. Maybe I'll do that and maybe I won't!

Check out what everyone else is up to here!

All in all, a very productive weekend!

During the next week, I am going to work on the baseball quilt I am designing and making for a friend who is going into the hospital next week for surgery.  I will not have Friday to sew, so I may not make as much progress on the mystery. I am going to try to keep up unless it starts to stress me. This is a FUN project, so I'll do all I can and finish up later if I need to!  Kudos to Bonnie Hunter for providing such a wonderful project for her fans each holiday for free.

Dixie Diary Month 11: Just Hominy

Perhaps corn was on my mind with the hominy, or maybe the bright sunshine, put me in a bright yellow mood for this block.  I think the graphic detail on the star pieces give it a bit of a modern flair.

I also tried some purple combinations -- if I had used purple, the middle would have been moved up and to the right slightly - you can see a bit of the purple flower in the upper portion of the block's middle square. I thought I liked it better until I took pictures and compared them, and settled on the yellow.

I had a little trouble with the Y seams, and I actually think now it is because I miscalculated and made my middle square a tad too small.  (The instructions were originally incorrect - easy typo to miss when you're posting two sizes of blocks.) Anyway - the block finished a bit too small, so I will need to add coping strips to it when setting it.  No big problem there - I've done it before and I suspect I will do it again!

There is just one more month to go for this very fun project. I have an ambitious (for me) setting and border planned so it may take into the New Year I expect before I finish this one.

I have so many projects going at the moment, but that's for another post.

Dear Jane - Month 1

My final scheme for the Dear Jane quilts is to make the blocks with cream and gray backgrounds in a pattern ringing out from the center along with the bright fabrics provided as part of the club I joined through Kelly Ann's Quilting, taught by Doreen Johnson. I will also sporadically insert embroidery work into these blocks.

My background fabrics are on order, so I made some samples to test out the patterns and to work with the small pieces.  Each of these blocks is made at 5 inches, finishing in the quilt at 4.5 inches. I did a couple of "practice" blocks using black and white fabrics as my background and bright fabrics in a variety of colors and hues. Then I did one practice block with some embroidery incorporated.


Well, I then proceeded to make all thirteen of the blocks posted for October in the black/white/bright scheme. I do love how they look.

And I really like this version with the embroidery incorporated.








Here's the black and white blocks placed in the locations where they would appear in the quilt:

You see where this is going, right?  Yes, I am going to proceed with making two versions of the Dear Jane.  I may realize the insanity of it all and stop one of them part way through.  Hey, they're just 4.5" squares, right?

And here's the rest of the blocks with the black and white backgrounds:

Snowman Wall Hanging

In another finish for 2013, I completed a wall hanging of a snowman that Kelly Ann's Quilting presented as a Block of the Week. This was my first foray into the world of fusible applique.  I am still undecided how much I like the technique, but it was certainly faster and more accurate for me than needle-turned applique.  And it's really cute!

One of my big projects for the coming year is going to be a large Gerbera daisy wall hanging that will use fusible applique so I'm glad I got to practice on this one.

RBD 2013 BOM Mystery Top Completed

I completed the top for the Riley Blake Designs block of the month mystery.  The series was titled "Things We Love".  The first 8 months for this BOM included three applique blocks.  I did them because I decided to do blocks of the week/month this year so that I would make blocks I would not have otherwise tried.

HOWEVER, I drew the line at the final block they posted for month 9 (September).

Flower Garden by Cindy Guch (from Pinterest)

Flower Garden

The left is what they designed. Umm, I do not LOVE applique, so I opted to substitute a Flower Basket block on the right above.

For the setting, since this was about learning new techniques, I decided to do a Twist n Turn treatment to the blocks as shown by Sharyn Squier Craig.  Then, I used sashing with cornerstones which was also something I have not done before. The top is done!

I will bind it in the orange fabric used for the little cornerstones.

Since this is now three tops I have completed and are ready to go to a longarmer, I guess I better go contact someone.

Dear Jane .... And so it starts ....

I have officially, bona-fide-ily lost my ever-lovin' mind!  I have joined a Dear Jane club at Kelly Ann's Quilting!  I went to an information session this past Saturday and signed up.  Doreen Johnson is presenting her methods for making (and finishing!) a Dear Jane quilt in 13 months.  Well, we shall see if I can keep up with that pace, but it sounds very interesting and very fun.

Besides, what's a girl to do without an intense project on her plate?  I finished the Grandmother's Choice so thought I would try this one next.  We will meet once a month to see techniques demonstrated/taught and there may be a "sew-in" once a month as well if there is enough interest.

The first thing I am doing is deciding on a color scheme.  With the club we have a choice of receiving a packet of reproduction fabrics or bright fabrics each month to incorporate (or not) into our quilt.  Anybody who knows me, knows I selected the bright option - oh yes!

However, I am not sure I want to do a completely scrappy, bright quilt.  I may use the fabric we are given in practice pieces or other projects.  I am just not sure yet.  I have developed a plan to use grays, purple/lavenders, and mustardy-yellows.  I think I will use gray as the background and probably the sashing for the blocks and use the purple and yellow shades in the block patterns.  I will likely mix in a different bright color or two as I go as well.

The club does not start until the second week of October, so I may come up with 10 more designs before I finalize my decision!  I really like this idea, though!

There's still time to sign up if you're in the Northern Virginia and Warrenton areas. There are three sessions you can join, two on Thursdays and one on Saturdays the second week of the month.

Update!  I changed my mind from the lavendar/yellow scheme below.  I am going to use the bright colors provided each month along with embroidery pieces, similar to what I am doing in the Dixie Diary BOM.  I think this will be really cool, and I won't have to buy any more fabric for it.  Except, of course, for the background and sashing.


Here's my tentative plan for use of colors:

I will probably use a purple instead of the black for the center cross. Or a medium gray.  Or not.

Dixie Diary - Month 9 - The Hands of Strangers

This month we read about how difficult it was to know someone else was in your house using your things and knowing you could not do a thing about it and would not get back.  So Barbara Brackman split the center square of the block "to represent the break in the Morgan family life."  It resonates a bit with me because I hate being in my grandparent's home town and not being able to sleep in that house - the one they lived in for 50 years, and I visited for over 40 years.  Sigh.  Time does march on.

I had a little trouble conceiving this block. After a couple of false starts I'm pleased with the end result:

I believe it blends nicely with the set so far:

Three more months to go.  I have planned my setting and have started working on it off and on.  Part of it will entail a bit of work, so I will be working on it from here on out so that I keep momentum to finish it once the final block is completed.

Here's a sneak peak:

Grandmother's Choice Top is Finished!

I finished the top for the Grandmother's Choice a week or so after the final block was posted.  I was so excited to see if my plan would work!  And it did!  Here's the sketch I made about two thirds of the way through the project to which I later added cutting measurements for the sashing/borders.  The numbers in the blocks do not correspond to the weeks, rather were used for me to keep track of which block went where once I had placed them on my design board.

Once I had the setting established, I also decided on a couple of other "rules" for myself.  The groups of three blocks have red in each of those blocks. The center block of each group of nine blocks also has red.  Further, each block horizontally next to the center block in the groups of nine use only blue and white/cream fabrics.  The remainder of the blocks are blue, black and white/cream. I think in the end this helped me distribute the colors evenly.

Once the blocks were done, I had to measure each one because they did not all finish at 8.5"!  (I did get more accurate later in the project.)  For the ones that did not measure up, I added small "frames" or strips around the outside of the block.  (I now understand these are "coping" strips - still learning the terminology of this art form.) These generally measured 1/4" finished.  I wanted the blocks perfectly 8.5" square since my setting required accuracy to pull off the look. I toyed with the ideas of using contrasting fabric for these little frames, but took my friend Suzanne's advice and made them blend into the blocks:

Once the blocks were all 8.5" and the sizes of the sashing and borders was established (another design wall exercise with lots of sample cuts) it was pretty quick to put together.  I finished it by working intently over 3 or 4 days. The quilt finished at 80" square.

I am very pleased with the result of my first Sampler Quilt and I am so very grateful to my quilting colleagues who cheered me on and helped with details from time to time! And listened to my whining from time to time as well.

The finished top:

I tend to jump around with the type of things I enjoy doing, but I think Becky nailed my quilting aesthetic with this comment from the Grandmother's Choice flickr group: "Your color choices give a contemporary spin to very traditional blocks".  Have I found my niche?  Time will tell.

Now I have to figure out how I want it quilted!  And select a binding!  And then finish the darn thing!
 
Yay for quilting!

It's August Already!

I have been incredibly busy this summer including a wonderful trip to a wedding in Cabo San Lucas and a few business trips.

That has not kept me from keeping up with my various projects and starting new ones.  I'll catch up with documenting them at some point!

We have finished the last block for the Grandmother's Choice Block of the Week by Barbara Brackman.  I learned so much about both construction and design on top of all the great stories and history on women and the vote.

Here are my 49 blocks:

They are not quite in order because I redid a couple, an one has been redone yet again. And how about that purple background?  I forgot to change it to black when I made the collage. But you get the gist!

Here is my start at my setting - sashing of a group of 9:

There is more to come but I'm off on a business trip all week.  I am currently deciding how thick I want the sashing to be around that group of 9.  The same size as what separates the blocks or a bit wider. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I hope to work on this next weekend when I return.  Until then, I'll check in on the Flickr site to see what folks are up to.