Yes, It's Confirmed. I'm Crazy. Joined Another BOM.

I must be certifiably crazy as I have decided to join another BOM.  It's addictive, I tell you!

I'm joining in the Blogger Girls BOM, read about it here.  And check out their Flickr group here.

I have been wanting to use batiks again so I am using fabric I have in my stash. I have some catching up to do as it is only 6 months and here we are already in March.  Here is my first block:

Month 1

Some folks are doing two blocks a month with the same pattern using different fabric placement in the block.  It's fun to see how different the same block can look based on color values.  I will be doing only one a month and plan to use them in a wall hanging for my bedroom.

And now, here is the second block:

Month 2

And I finished the third block:

  I am now caught up.  Block 4 was posted here today!

On a Roll - Completed Tops

In March I have completed three tops!

First is the Easy Street by Bonnie Hunter that she offered as a mystery quilt over the holidays late in 2012.  I finally buckled down to finish it and I put the borders on at my guild's retreat over the St. Patrick's Day weekend.  I almost put it in a UFO pile, but decided to persevere and I am so glad I did. After borders, it is 104" square and someone on the Flickr group said there are over 2300 (2700?) pieces in the darn thing.  I love the colors and the movement in this one.

I have been working on the Pointing the Way quilt for about a year - the pattern is from the 2012 National Quilting Day.  I adapted the pattern some and did not use a Mariner's Compass in the middle of the star.  For one thing, I don't think I would do a very good job on that type of applique yet and I did pretty well matching the center points and I don't want to hide them.  I worked on this at the retreat, too, by adding the first border.  Unfortunately, I had put it on upside down!  As I drove us home from the retreat, my friend ripped the seams out and I was able to redo it over the weekend.  Yeah for friends who will rip out your mistakes!!

Finally, I started on this quilt at the retreat and got the inner, colorful rectangles done while I was there.  I finished this one up just today.  It's a very easy pattern from the magazine Simple Quilts and Sewing #125.  I had been looking for a pattern to show off the new Snap Pop line from Moda and this fit the bill perfectly.

The next stop for all three is at the long armers.  Then, I feel a whole lot of binding coming on!

Grandmother's Choice: Broad Arrow - Prison Garb

Did you know that the English used to use a symbol much like an arrow on prisoners' clothing? This week's block represents these arrows. I was a little worried about the design this week because one of the pieces is a 5" block - that's a lot of real estate for fabric!  It's been fun to see what people have done.  Some have used large prints that work very well, and others chose to do a 4-arrow version of the block.

I did not want to spend the time to figure out how to draft the 4 arrow version, and none of my fabrics seemed to work great as part of an arrow in that large block.  I have recently been perusing Pinterest and one of my friends has a lot of strip quilting projects on her page.  So - I thought that would be a good idea as it also ties into the block we did in Week 8.  This is my first attempt at this method, and I like the results:

It's a bit cheery to represent prisoners' clothing, but I have to admit it was fun to do!  I expect I will also have fun deciding where to place it in the quilt.  It must point at something I really like.

Week 30 is done and we have 19 more to go.

Grandmother's Choice: Week 29 - 7 Pointed Star

Really?!  Really.  I was at a retreat with my guild this weekend and Colvin Kiwi Quilts and I were discussing this block when we saw it on Saturday morning.  After discussions, we found a place to print the template and made several copies at 100%, 85% and I think 75%.  I decided to wait on trying it, and I'm glad I did.

Thanks to honas52 for the stripe inspiration and to RCCHeryl for the stripe inspiration as well and for her comments on her blog for construction ideas.

To construct the block, I used the PDF provided, but did not use all the pieces. Based on the idea from RCCheryl, instead of using different background shapes all around the star, I repeated the shape to the left of the top middle star point and reversed it when I cut it out for the top right piece. I did the same with the other two pieces on the left, reversing them when cutting for the right side. Then I used one of the star points as the template for the star. To make the paper templates, I printed two copies of the pdf, drew the 1/4" seams around each of the pieces I was using, and then cut them out.

I sewed the block pieces together starting at the bottom with the triangle and the two star points attached to it in counter-clockwise direction. When I got to the last star point, I completed the last seam on the star. The last piece I sewed in was the bottom left one, and I sewed both seams from the inner portion of the block outwards.

I don't know if this makes sense, but it worked for me!

My block finished at 8 1/2" x 8 1/4" and I'm calling it done! Now I need to try week 27 again!

RBD BOM - Simplicity

Riley Blake Designs is hosting a Block of the Month on their blog at http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/blog/.  It is all about things they love. This month it is "Simplicity" and the block is a cute, simple Churn Dash block.

Here's my version:

I love the Owl fabric - it's Owlivia by Benartex; the background fabric is from the same line.  The other fabrics are from Riley Blake Designs.

And here's the first three blocks together:

Block of the Week, Blocks of the Month

This past weekend, the Grandmother's Choice BOW talked about women pioneers in the military and Barbara talked about her friend, Erma who was in the Navy.  To complement this story, she chose to have us make a block called Ocean Waves.  I decided to use only white and turquoise in the block, and I have been wanting to use a larger scale polka dot.  It represents the bubbles you see when a wave crashes on the shore.  I then used various shades of turquoise in a row to simulate how a wave rolls in and out.  I don't know that the story shines through, but I do enjoy how my block came out this week:

Week 28:  My Friend Erma: Ocean Waves

Last weekend I was out my LQS, WebFabrics and picked up the blocks of the month for March.  I made each of these over the past week.  It should make for an interesting scrappy sampler.  I admit, although I get to pick which packet I am going to use, I kinda miss picking out the fabrics.  This makes me see the fabrics Carly chooses, though, and I'm learning how to put different items together than perhaps I would have done. 

Month 3, Block 6: Blackbird Designs

Month 3, Block 7

Month 3, Block 8: Lily Ashbury

East Street Pieced, Now for Borders

Did you hear the yell of excitement today?  I finished piecing the Easy Street quilt I started in Sept 2012.  What a lot of pieces it had.  Now, of course I am deciding on borders.   I definitely want to incorporate a 6" outer border in the turquoise.  Most of the pictures below show a 4" border, but I like the wider version.

So - what to do in the inner borders?  Put the solid black next to the pieced portion or have it in between the black and white check and the turquoise or leave it out all together? 

Here's the options I'm looking at and currently leaning toward option 1, eliminating option 2 and still considering option 3.  I may change my mind after dinner! 

Option 1: Narrow black border separates blue and check borders

Option 2: Leave out the narrow black border

Option 3: Black border as innermost border

Aren't pool tables a great place to lay out quilts to see how they look?  I am so happy my condo has one in our community room.

Grandmother's Choice Week 27 - Wowsa

After a couple of weeks with easy sewing, this week was a bear!  WOWSA!!!

I made one block and not only did I dislike the construction, I disliked the design:

 Those big black blobs disturbed me!  I kind of like the chevron fabric in the cross, though and the design it made.  I think the pale blue I am using each week was not strong enough to use by itself, but I don't like the fabric I put with it in the frame.  So - on to try 2. 

I like the design of the block better, and I did a little better in the construction of the block.  However, it's still not done very well.  Silly me, picking a fabric that had a stripe effect for the frame portion - the stretching is obvious!  Ah well, someone on the flicker group said there are 16 Y seams in this block.  I did not count, but some baaaaad words came out of my mouth.  THEN, I was almost done, and I noticed that I put one of the cross pieces in upside down and messed up the visual flow of the block.

Here's try 2 (and most like the final one, don't think I want to tackle this one again):

The story was quite interesting.  It seems Katherine Hepburn came by her independent streak honestly.  Check out the blog posting and read the story!

Saturday Sewing

I am enjoying being back home and having my sewing machine available.  This morning I went with Suzanne to Web Fabrics and engaged in some serious retail therapy.

I picked up some fabric for the borders and backing for the Easy Street quilt.  Hopefully it will motivate me to finish the doggone thing!

Then I went to my guild's sew-in and completed the Brackman Grandmother's Choice BOW for last Saturday, and the Brackman Dixie Diary BOM that was posted online today:

Grandmother's Choice Week 26

Dixie Diary Month 3

Both were fun to make.  The Grandmother's choice was supposed to be a wreath commemorating the fact that so many women used to die from childbirth due to ignorance and legislation banning contraception.  Sheesh! 

In the Dixie Diary pinwheel block, I again incorporated embroidery from my paternal Grandmother, Eugenia "Dena" Brannen.  I quite like how these blocks with the embroidery are coming out.  I was not sure how well it would work and I am very pleased.  At the sew-in, someone suggested that I press the seams towards the embroidery to make those sections stand out.  What a great idea!  I am going to repress my previous blocks because I do like how it makes the block look. 

After dinner when I returned home, I made this week's Grandmother's Choice.  It did not come out so well, from the construction nor the design standpoints.  So - it's on to try 2.  This is a difficult block and I hope I can have the patience to make it well.  Stay tuned!