What's Next?

I usually have several projects going at once - each at a different stage. This habit allows me to work on what suits my mood of the moment. There is often a backlog at the FMQ stage since that is where I am weakest and trying to skill build. Here is what is hanging ready to be quilted. On the left is my overlapping squares top, in the middle is my strip quilt of Barnyard Buddies fabric, and on the right is Bugs R Us. I will probably do the center one next since that is the one for which I have the clearest idea of a stitching pattern.

These sheep will get something with loop de loops to accent their curly coats.

This scenic section will get some long sweeping curves to echo the shapes of the hillsides.

While I am thinking I resort to my soothing and mindless production of burp cloths. Here I've cut the fabric for eight. The fabric will be paired as it is laid out from top to bottom; bubbles with plaid cats, elephants with giraffes, diagonal stripes with reindeer, and polka dots with hot air balloons. I plan to post pictures of the eight complementary pairs once I've sewn them.

When I set my camera down next to the tape measure on the countertop upstairs I accidentally snapped this photo. I thought it was cool enough to share. See where the mind wanders when I do not know what comes next?

I am also at the very beginning design stages of a new quilt for which I have no pattern. It will be made from a repurposed cloth book panel by John Butler, children's book illustrator, titled Who says Woof.

Here is my design wall. Background fabric will be a gray mini-print. Three pseudo-solid fabrics that echo colors in the page outlines and lettering will border the pages in some way. The colors have a softened tone to them, yet they are not pastel.

Here is my Power Point playing. I took screen shots of each page from online sales of the book fabric panel, inserted them into a Power Point file and drew triangles around them. I will group the pages rather than bordering each separately. I got the idea from a book I recently bought, Panel Play by Barbara Becker. I have not decided how big to make the points on the stars. I also do not know if I will use solid stripes and solid corner accents or if I will insert sawtooth-strips instead. It may depend on how far my fabric goes. I have only ½ yard each of the soft red, soft blue, and soft orange.

The last time I posted my projects status list was May 13, 2015. If I do not know where I am going, at least I can show where I've been.

Completed projects since May 13, 2015:

1. Traveling Mandala (June 7, 2015)
2. Simple Gifts (June 10, 2015)
3. Fun Guys (June 17, 2015)
4. Dinosaur Crib Sheet (June 22, 2015)

Ongoing projects:

1. Bugs R Us  (May 31, 2015) awaiting FMQ
2. Barnyard Buddies strip quilt (April 15, 2015) awaiting FMQ
3. Overlapping square wall hanging - (March 4, 2015 post) awaiting FMQ
4. Mask quilt (October 19, 2011 post) - packed away... again ... may abandon

New projects since May 13, 2015:

1. Mandala
2. Who says Woof?
3. Crib Sheets
4. Burp cloths

I am hooking up to today's Freshly Pieced post for WIP Wednesday.

Checkerboard Whoops

In my post for April 29th, I left a teaser about some rectangular checkerboards I was making. After a trip to Southern California to see one granddaughter and a trip to Oklahoma to see another granddaughter I am back to that project. I added a cream strip to the long side of half the checkerboards and created something that looks suspiciously like sashing.

I put the four colorways together and – oh, no – I spotted a mistake. Can you see it? The green colorway checkerboard is different. All the other colorways have the spotted square in the upper right corner, not the upper left corner. The pattern that accompanied the kit was minimal and did not caution about orientation so maybe it is not an issue. There will be a horizontal sashing as well so perhaps having adjacent orange and green dots does not matter.

I decided it mattered to me and that I would change it anyway. This shows the seams I had to take out to correct the error. I needed to remove the side cream strip. Then I had to remove one row of checkers from the top and add it back on again to the bottom. Then I could sew the cream strip back on and be in business again.

At least my checkerboards were self-consistent within the other three colorways.  I only had to do this four times with the green alone and I was able to do it assembly line style.

I am glad I caught it early on in the block assembly. When they are grouped together I think it does make a difference. That green one being different would have always bothered me. There are four of these four checkerboard sections.

The next mystery section is this peculiar block. There are five of these. I'll confess that I goofed in this one also and had to rip out. I sewed the diagonal the wrong way in the split sashing on the right side so it was not a mirror image of the split sashing on the left. I am glad I doubled checked before I made a 45° slice off the corners of the two orthogonal strips.  I ripped out those five short seams and tried again. It is a bummer that I am making mistakes but luckily I am catching them early. I think I am more prone to these types of errors when I pick up and set down a project and do not work on it exclusively. Little details tend to fade from my brain.

My next step on this quilt is the "A" word. Once the applique is complete it will be hard to hide what this is. Applique is not my strong suite. I have done the iron on type with zig-zag around the raw edges but I think I would like the needle turned look on this. It is unclear if I am brave enough to try. One part has a spiral like this. The soft outside and inside curves should be manageable but I am not quite sure how to handle that sharp corner in the interior. On the other hand, one raw spot to worry about fraying is better than having raw edges all around to fret about. I think I have some googling and you-tubing ahead of me to resolve this.

I am still poking along on my Simple Gifts quilting. I am really longing to do a curvy, continuous motion, more forgiving quilting pattern on my next project. My next project to quilt will be one of those two strip quilts I pieced one evening.

The last time I posted my projects list was April 1, 2015.  Here are my stats since then. I figure giving my stats once a week is too often to show progress but once a month gives me a better sense of accomplishment. It is amusing to see items jump from new to completed without passing through ongoing. Does this mean they do not pass GO and do not collect $200? If so, is the opposite true? If it is, then I think my Simple Gifts quilt has passed GO a gazillion times. Sigh... I should be rich.

 

Completed projects since April 1, 2015 (9+ trips):

1. Visit to granddaughter Vivian in Southern California
2. Visit to granddaughter Autumn in Oklahoma
3. Two gray whale burp cloths (April 15, 2015 post)
4. One Campbell Soup apron (April 15, 2015 post)
5. Three graphic burp cloths (May 9, 2015)
6. Three animals and friends burp cloths (May 9, 2015)

Ongoing projects (6):

1. Simple Gifts quilt - (April 29, 2015 post) FMQ in progress
2. Checkerboard surprise yet to be revealed (April 29, 2015)
3. Barnyard Buddies strip quilt (April 15, 2015) awaiting FMQ
4. Life in the Jungle strip quilt (April 15, 2015) awaiting FMQ
5. Overlapping square wall hanging - (March 4, 2015 post) awaiting FMQ
6. Mask quilt (October 19, 2011 post) - packed away... again ... may abandon

New projects since April 1, 2015 (12):

1. Checkerboard surprise yet to be revealed
2. Barnyard Buddies strip quilt
3. Two gray whale burp cloths
4. Life in the Jungle strip quilt
5. Campbell Soup apron
6. Three graphic burp cloths
7. Three animals and friends burp cloths

On that note... I am hooking up to today's Freshly Pieced post for WIP Wednesday.

December Day Tree Table Topper

Starting off the New Year, I focused on two of my 2015 goals - reduce my number of kits and get some FMQ skills under my belt on my new HQ Sweet Sixteen longarm. I tackled a small kit first since the holidays and traveling leave me tuckered out. Ironically, this small kit did not even make it into my list of kits to work on, but sometimes I find if I work on Christmas stuff right after Christmas then I have it ready for the next yuletide season, plus I have a handmade item to gift if I need to.

This kit is a small 26½" square table topper of an RJR fabric line called Thimbleberries December Day with a pattern by Debbie Beaves. Here are the prints in the typical muted golds, greens, and reds characteristic of Thimbleberries.

The kit is a medallion style pattern and here is the central tree section. Each tree block measures 6" square finished.

When making the tops of the trees I used the pieces cut off from the corners of those four flying geese blocks to sew up into eight HSTs. This is not helping my other 2015 goal of scrap management. The corner pieces cut off from the lower boughs could have been made into HSTs also but at 1¼" on a side before seam allowance this was too small a scrap even for a miser like me. I tossed those small ones. Yay, scrap management!

I sewed the eight HST's into two pinwheels. One of the HSTs I goofed and trimmed twice on the same two sides so one of the pinwheels is less than perfect in the center and outer corner. I was about to cut into the remaining fabric to make a better one and (sanely) stopped myself. These are scraps for gosh sake!

Here is the 26½" square topper ready for quilting and binding. I have a thing for piano key borders. As an effort toward scrap management I am thinking of piecing the back from leftovers. (Good thing I did not use up fabric some to remake that pinwheel.) I have not yet decided a quilting pattern but, since the topper is square, I am considering one big spiral that will read sort of like concentric circles. It is a modern type pattern on a classic type quilt so I think the juxtaposition may be unexpected but work anyway. I may stop the spiral short of the pieced border though and do that in lines that parallel the seaming to accent the piano key aspect. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions. I will sleep on it.

This kit dates back to the era when I had an ongoing love affair with Thimbleberries patterns and their trademark color palette. I lusted over the large Thimbleberries Hometown Christmas Kit but discovered it after kit stock had been sold out in most stores. I did manage to buy the four volumes of the 2004 copyrighted pattern book for the quilt, intending to gather the fabrics or close resemblances to them myself. My husband, a googling whiz, found the kit for me on e-bay in a quilt shop several states away and bought it for me as a surprise. Here is the quilt I made. It placed third in our county fair.

I chose not to add the appliqued seasonal holly leaves and berries along the gold pieced border and hence I leave it on the guest room bed year round. It was a blast to do, with the excellent piecing directions and every block different. I may just make another in a brighter colorway. I have two copies of that set of four pattern books since another set of four came with the kit my husband purchased for me. I am lucky I have a daughter who also quilts.

The last time I posted my projects list was December 3, 2014.  Here are my stats since then. I figure giving my stats once a month is frequent enough.

Completed projects since December 3, 2014 (5):

1. Baby Surprise Jacket  (December 8, 2014 post)
2. Knitted Christmas Stocking for Autumn (December 10, 2014 post)
3. Knitted Christmas Stocking for Vivian (December 17, 2014 post)
4. Baby Sign Book  (December 26, 2014 post)
5. Rope window seat cushions (January 6, 2015 post)

Ongoing projects (4):

1. December Table Topper (today, January 7, 2015 post)
2. Classic Cars strip quilt (August 3, 2013 post) - need to back, quilt, and bind
3. Overlapping square wall hanging - paired with thread, awaiting FMQ
4. Mask quilt (October 19, 2011 post) - packed away... again ... may abandon 

New projects since December 3, 2014 (3):

1. Knitted Christmas Stocking for Vivian
2. Baby Sign Book
3. December Table Topper

I am hooking up to today's Freshly Pieced post for WIP Wednesday.