Crumby orange table runner

The RSC colour is orange this month. I emptied my orange scrap bag and made these eight 4.5" crumb blocks. Together with improv triangles from 3.5" orange strips and Bella solid yardage in navy blue they've become a table runner.

Measurements: 38"x 17.5" (0.97m x 0.45m)

Thank you to those who responded last week about the orientation of the triangles. I tried both directions but found them rather threatening pointing outwards; pointing inwards they resemble shark's teeth about to devour the crumb blocks, which is fine by me! 

Quilting will have to wait; at present I'm layering a large lap quilt.

I used to layer quilts on the living room floor, but nowadays I can get down on the floor OK, but getting up when I've finished ...!! I'm trying to layer on the table, but this lot keeps slipping off!

I'm linking this weekend to:

      

 Click on the buttons to see more (orange) scrappiness 

and this week's progress. 

Keep safe and healthy

Happy sewing

Marly.

Quite a blue catch!

My April table runner is as blue as the sea. Blue is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour this month, and the table runner is a response to the table scraps challenge.

My inspiration came from Nicholas Ball's "Shoal" quilt in his book "Inspiring Improv".  The fish were cut freehand from grey and white scraps together with blue scraps, and then more blue scraps were added to the fish blocks.

This measures 49"x13" (1.25m x 0.33m)

I have yet to quilt it. First I need to get backing fabric! Our lockdown is likely to finish next week; I know where I shall be going first! After 5 months of  shops being closed I'm tired of choosing fabric from a computer screen. I know how I'm going to quilt it, so that's one puzzle less.

I'm linking to:    

  

Click on the button above to see more table scraps.

Keep safe and healthy.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Shoo Fly Leaders and Enders: a new goal

About a year ago Bonnie Hunter suggested making Shoo Fly blocks as leaders and enders. I've never been very successful with the L& E challenge, because

1. I can't stop what I'm working on to cut more pieces for the L & E
2. With chain piecing I use the pieces I'm working on as L & E

This year, however, I have sixty-four 4.5" blocks.

That's considerably more than I've made in the past. For a few weeks I've been thinking how I would lay them out, with which block would I combine them. While various ideas occurred, most would involve buying more fabric, while the object is too use scraps. Yesterday I saw the answer - not in my imagination, but in Bonnie Hunter's blog post! Shamelessly I'm copying her and combining the Shoo Fly blocks with 4.5" 4-patches. Yesterday I cut up almost my entire draw-full of 2.5" strips into 5" and 7.5" strips, and found a few 2.5" squares along the way.

My goal for July is to convert these strips into 4-patches and to make a top, which should measure around 50" square. A reasonable size for a lap quilt I think.

In case you're wondering what happened to the wonky log cabin table runner: yesterday evening at the bee I started hand quilting it! I think it will be finished ....

in a year's time!

I'm linking this to:

Click on the buttons to visit the links-up.

Happy Sewing

Marly.

Wonky Log Cabins: end in sight!

My one monthly goal for this month was to finish the table runner using the wonky log cabins I made with the scraps left over from last year's summer sampler. All I needed to do was add the backing and quilt it! Shouldn't take long, should it? I wanted to use the blocks I was making in the online course "Mid-Century Modern curves" (click, and then scroll down for course info), but they are too big.

The next plan was to use the modern curves technique, and make smaller blocks. Finally, this afternoon, I opened a mystery project box (not a mystery quilt, but a project box, whose content was a mystery to me). On top were some reasonably sized pieces of solid fabric - definitely potentially useful. And then, underneath them, some 8" squares already cut - definitely highly useable! But under them eight 6.5" Windmill Block units, made several years ago, following the instructions in Sujata Shah's "Cultural Fusion Quilts", and using the 8" squares already cut.

Within half an hour I had made four more Windmill units, added them to the eight existing, resulting in three windmill blocks, just the right size for the reverse of the table runner. I think a 2" border will just bring them up to size. Nothing to it really! Why did the thinking take so long? No, rather, why didn't I look in that box sooner?

I already know how I'm going to quilt it, but I doubt I'll get that finished in the next four days. This isn't a report of a finish, but of progress made this month. This will quite likely be finished sometime next week. Watch this space! 😀

In the meantime, join me at the links-up.

 

                                         

           

Click on the buttons above.

Stay safe and healthy.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Wonky log-cabin table runner still needs a reverse side

Finishing this was my goal for last month.

While I got the pieces assembled into a table runner top, I haven't managed to make the reverse side yet. I want to make a reversible table runner, so just slapping a piece of fabric onto the back won't do!

At present I'm following an online course with Carol Lyles Shaw, mid-centrury modern curves, which involves freehand-cut drunkard's path blocks being cut and reassembled improv-style. I had hoped to be able to use the resulting blocks as the reverse, but they finish at 16.5", wider than my table runner! I'll be making smaller modern curves blocks this month.

I'm linking this post to the One Monthly Goal link-up at Elm Street Quilts

Happy sewing

Marly

Improv wonky log cabins

Well, that didn't take long!

Only a couple of days after writing that my goal for this month was to turn my wonky log cabins into a table runner I have finished the top.

The next step is to layer and quilt this, which wouldn't take long were it not for the fact that I've signed up for the Mid-Century Modern Curves class with Carol Lyles Shaw that starts towards the end of this month. I would like to use my project pieces from the course as the other side of this "top". In reality both sides will be tops; I will have a double sided table runner. The downside is that I won't be able to start quilting for at least another month.

In the meantime there's plenty more to be getting on with!

I'm linking at the weekend to  Wendy's                                        I'm linking to:
Peacock Party

You can visit other completed goals by clicking on the buttons above.

Happy sewing

Marly.

One Monthly goal in May:

For May, my goal is to finish assembling my improv log cabins into a table runner.

First I have to make a few more blocks.

I didn't post to the April finishes link up, so what happened to April's goal? A lot of thinking, but not much action. Last time I published this photo:

Then I rearranged the blocks several times:

measurements in this layout: 60" x 48"

but each time it just wasn't working! (I'll spare you the other attempts!)

The reason hit me! Laid out like this each block is an individual, not playing with the others. My original plan to use narrow sashing wouldn't change this. It's like the Academy Awards Ceremony: too many stars jostling for the limelight! The blocks need space to show off! The original suggested layout for the Summer Sampler foresaw this and added neutrally coloured alternate blocks, resulting in an enormous quilt of  92" x 80". Much too big for my purposes.

Does anyone have an idea for using these blocks? I don't need 20 more cushion covers, nor 5 more table runners! I don't think I'll be ready to finish this in the next month; I have to order more fabric for alternate blocks or wider sashing once I've decided how to proceed.

I learnt a lot from making these blocks and enjoyed all the challenges along the way. I want to be able to see them; not leave them in a box!

I'm linking to

Click on the button to see more goals for May.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Finished March goal: Triangle Games

At the beginning of March I set my one goal for the month at Elm Street Quilts. Of course each month has several goals, but the OMG always has priority.

This month the priority is finishing my improv triangle quilt from the sew along hosted by Nicholas Ball (#quiltsfromtheattic) on Instagram  (#improvtrianglesewalong) .

 Progress quilting lines 0.5" apart on Friday morning.

For the first time I used the quilt tacking feature on my sewing machine when layering anything larger than a shopping bag, but not entirely successfully. This feature requires the fabric to be pulled through manually, the feed dogs being lowered, but I haven't mastered that fully it would seem, and the fabric bunched up a little. Not severely, so snipping the tacking thread here and there was enough to get the whole thing flat again.

Friday afternoon I finished quilting

and this time even remembered to attach a label before quilting:

There are no prizes for guessing the origin of the backing fabric!

Tuesday 24 March I finally finished sewing down the binding and the hanging sleeve.

Triangle Games

Measurements:  68 x 65 cm ( 26.5 x 25.5 in)

I'm linking to:

Click on the button to visit more goals achieved.

Happy sewing

Marly.

My goal for March

I'm goal setting each month over at Elm Street Quilts and each month I find myself wondering which of my many on-going projects can I designate as my goal this time. For me blocks of the month don't qualify because they come round every month regardless; I think my monthly goal should be something of a challenge, something that would otherwise become yet another UFO, but also achieving the goal should be feasible in a month.

This month's OMG has certainly been a challenge:

This is my result so far in the Improv triangle sew along hosted by Nick Ball on Instagram (@quiltsfromtheattic).

I'm not new to improv, but I'm finding putting this together really a task. The piece has got smaller  while I was sewing it together, so now I'm going to make a few more units to fill the awkward spaces and to make it more square.

Let's hope making this my goal will spur me to get to the finish.

I'm linking up to

Click on the button to see more goals.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Orange hour-glasses

After January's green, Angela gave orange as the colour for February. I like orange; it's such a happy sunny colour, and sunshine is what we could use here now!

I explained in January that I was combining several challenges so the hour-glasses for the AHIQ was combined with the RSC colour for January. And now February too!

Here are my improv hour-glass blocks:

The four on the left and right are 5.75" square, and the other four are 5.25" square. That will be an interesting jig saw! But that's improv! 😀

I really need to think about what I'm going to use as my RSC block this year. I don't intend making wonky hour-glass blocks next week, whether in red?, yellow?, pink? or ? ...

...OK, it's TEAL.

I shall be linking this in due time to:

 

click on the button above to see more orange happiness!

Happy sewing

Marly.

Green hour-glasses

I take part in several challenges, and they all come together in this week's post!

Firstly, and the longest running on my list: The Rainbow Scrap Challenge, hosted by Angela at Soscrappy blog, for which this month's colour is green.
Secondly the Ad Hoc Improv Quilters online community, for whom the challenge for the first six months of 2020 is Hour Glass blocks.
Thirdly the challenge this quarter of the Dutch MQG (#dutchmqgthemavandemaand) is Improv.

These hour-glass blocks were cut freehand, and then machine stitched with a quarter inch seam. The original squares which I cut into quarters were 2.5", 3.5" and 5.5". I didn't plan them that way, that's just how they came out of my green scrap bag.

I haven't decided on my RSC block for this year, but I don't think I'll be making improv hour-glasses in all colours of the rainbow. These pieces will be going into one of the other two challenges, probably the AHIQ's.

I shall be posting this post on the blog of the AHIQ -  AHIQ: Improvisational Utility Quilts, and linking to the RSC link-up on Saturday.

 

Click on the button above to see more Rainbow fun. 

Happy sewing 

Marly

Overlapping Octagons is a top!

In January I started making this following a suggestion by Sujata Shah. I've forgotten where I first read about it, but immediately found it intriguing. The U&UQAL uses the photos in Roderick Kiracofe's book, "Unconventional and Unexpected, American Quilts under the radar." This book is a history of lesser-known American quilts from the first half of the twentieth century; there are no patterns just excellent photographs. Every participant in the QAL chooses a quilt from the book to copy. The puzzle is to work out from the photo exactly how the quilt was constructed.

While we know from the notes that the original was pieced by hand I chose to piece using the machine. Not a fast task as only the strip sets could be pieced easily. Assembling the octagons requires y-seams everywhere. I did wonder near the beginning if piecing by hand might not be faster, but persevering with y-seams has paid off, and I got both faster and more accurate.

My plan was to use 19th Century reproduction fabrics in red and blue and finish that stash. Unfortunately the reds were largely almost brown and didn't contrast enough with the blue, so I introduced flashes of other colours from the scrap bags to liven things up! When I finished those blues I had to use other, modern fabrics, and added modern reds too.

I tried hourglass blocks in the small squares between the red centres, but wasn't happy with them: they detracted from the octagon effect, and they made for excessively bulky joins. Removing them made it possible to continue the last strip into the triangle which gives less bulk, and enhances the octagons. Hourglass blocks would have made quilt assembly more straightforward, but they were giving a sashing and cornerstone effect - emphasising the squares, and not the octagons. More photos of the process can be found in my posts to A Basket Full of Scraps

Now I have to decide on the quilting, and having pieced by machine I think I'll quilt by hand. I would like to try doing Baptist fans, spaced fairly widely, maybe as wide as 1". But first I have to reduce a few wobbles in the piecing:

The joins above and to the right of the dogs in this photo are just refusing to lie flat. I will try pressing them again so that they do lie flat, and then sew along those creases by machine. If that fails I'll try by hand, and otherwise rely on the quilting to fix it. Not very scientific!

Have a good weekend.

I'm linking this to:

                
    

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Happy sewing

Marly.

OMG September

My goal for September is to finish quilting this:

My plus/minus mini quilt (± 24x24") for the Dutch Modern Quilt Guild. These pluses were improvised and then put together with filler fabric into the final layout. The minuses are in the quilting.

Only one quarter is quilted, even though the plan was to have it completely finished by the end of last week.

I shall be battling on with it and deciding on the position of minuses as I go. Quilting lines half an inch apart take forever!

I'm linking up to Elm Street Quilts:

Click on the button to see more September gaols from around the world.

Happy sewing

Marly.