RSC 15 week 21: More Green and a finish!

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Angela, at Soscrappy, gives a different colour each month and we concentrate on using up scraps in that colour for the whole month.

I took advantage of the absence of a sampler block this week to start making a trial block for the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along run by Anne at SpringLeaf Studios. The QAL started in January, but it took me until April to get suitable fabric. Here I'm using some scraps (one of which happens to be green!) and I didn't have quite enough teal to make the last leaf.

WIP: 16" Drunkard's Path block

 I have only made one Drunkard's Path block ever, and that by hand, with about twenty pins in each unit, most of which were also in my hands before I finished! I don't remember who told me you could make them on the machine without pins, however an Internet search led to the most perfect video tutorial by Leanne at She Can Quilt. Drunkard's path ... on the machine ... NO PINS!

Absolutely brilliant - look, all four:  RIGHT FIRST TIME!! And now to cut the background "legs" and one more "leaf" section and piece the other twelve. I shan't be making  full-sized quilt, maybe just two blocks; I have yet to decide.

At the beginning of this week I finished last year's Rainbow sampler.

Too big for my assistant to comfortably hold!

I posted about it on Thursday so click here for more pictures and the story.

I'm linking up to 

 

so go over there and see what else has been created this week.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Finished: Rainbow Scrap Challenge sampler Quilt 2014

This is my fourth finish for 2015 Q2.

Finally it's finished!

The patterns for the 6" sampler blocks were posted by Angela at Soscrappy: several each month. I didn't make all of them; my stash wasn't very big at the beginning of the year, but caught up later wherever I could. A couple of the blocks in the bottom row are from Tula Pink's "100 Modern Quilt Blocks."

I pieced the quilt with 1" sashings and a 5" border.
[Click on the next two photos below for more information]

I joined the blocks into four square sections and added the borders before quilting. After quilting the patchwork blocks, but not the borders, the four parts came together using a QAYG method. Each part of the quilt has a different backing fabric:

I only had standard width fabric, so piecing the back would have inevitable, even without this QAYG method.

Quilting over the blocks is generally all-over stippling. I started with ambitions to quilt each block according to the patchwork design, but gave up on that idea quickly. It proved too difficult to keep a continuous line going, and with so much going on in the patchwork I decided there was little point in making the quilting complex. I didn't unpick the part I'd already done, so the discerning may find some non-stippled blocks.

Lastly I quilted the border, and added the label and binding. After about a week of deliberation: how did I want to quilt the border? Which quilting design would I do? I decided on a scrappy quilted border! There's something of everything, in my own non-too-perfect chaotic style!

swirling wind: design from Leah Day

McTavishing: design from Karen McTavish
(sort of, more like MacWilliams-ing!)

hearts

Sun

my first ever feathers!

large flower in each corner; this one with leaves and flowers
(photo last week, before the finish)

crayon/pencil: "Je suis Charlie"

Quilt Statistics:

Size: 82 x 82"
Fabric: assorted from stash
Sashings and border: Bella solids - off-white
Backing: pieced from stash
Binding: from "Brights and Pastels Basic Styles" by Windham Fabrics
Wadding: Cotton
Thread: piecing Aurifil 40/2 assorted colours, Quilting: Aurifil 40/2 off-white (2309)

I'm linking to

    

as they become available.

So pop over there to see what other quilters have been doing recently.

I shall be linking up to

 

at the end of June.

Happy sewing

Marly.

RSC 15: week 19: One green star

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) is hosted by Angela at Soscrappy who gives some block patterns for a sampler quilt each month and also designates a different colour for the blocks each month. This month the colour is green.

There has just been one block so far this month:

Sawtooth Star inside a Sawtooth Star

Further this week I have been quilting the border of last year's Rainbow sampler.

Having quilted the centre of the quilt simply with large stippling, I went overboard on the border. now I'm sewing down the binding, all 8 x WOF! I hope to be able to show a finish next week.

I'm linking up to 

where you can see how others have used green this week.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Finish Along 2015 Second Quarter

This year the finish along is being hosted by Adrianne at The Windy Side

Last quarter I only finished one project from my list. So now the other four head the new list. Click on the photo caption by each picture to read a post about the project.

1. Toadstool House
heads the list. This is it's fourth appearance on my list, but I have worked on it each quarter.

Toadstool House

Originally it was going to be a wall hanging. Changed my mind. Then my daughter wanted a cushion. Changed my mind. Now It's going to be a book cover, but I need to make it bigger.

2 Optical illusion

was a project for a course running from November to January at QuiltersPalet in The Hague. 

Optical Illusion

I started quilting this in January, then hit a problem. 

3 Rainbow Scrap quilt

From the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014,

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014

is nearly finished as I write. It just needs to have the joins and borders quilted, labelled and bound. Doesn't sound like much work does it?

4 Sew Together bag

Sew Together bag (photo from Craftsy site)

This is a pattern (by Sew Demented and available through Craftsy) that I bought on New Years Eve. 

Essential supplies for the Sew Essential bag.

This is as far as I've got, but the fabric will be from stash.

5. Batik table runner

Batik table runner

I optimistically started in February, using a roll of 2½" batik strips but hit a problem after about 4 days when the local shop didn't have any white/off-white batik with a green or brown or even purple vein. I should have some next weekend.

6. Secret sewing

The deadline for this is in April, so I  should must get this done!

I hope that's realistic and even though it's longer than my last list I'll be doing my best to get them ALL finished by the end of June!

I'm linking up to

Happy Sewing

Marly.

Work in Progress: Quilt as you go

This is my Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014 quilt.

It's now in two pieces, so the end is in sight. Last time I quilted a full size bed quilt on my domestic machine I had the devil of a job steering the fabric under the needle. The result was curves, meanders and circles with hooks and spikes! Every now and again the quilt would slip over the edge of the table and pull the whole thing sideways, or bump into the wall behind the machine and push everything back towards me.

Since then I've quilted a few smaller pieces and the result was much better. The weight was more manageable.

Result: quilt the RSC14 quilt in four quarters and join them afterwards. Quilt As You Go. Brilliant!

I have a magazine article on the subject where you are advised not to quilt right up to the edge of the pieces to be joined, peel the wadding and the backing aside and join the two edges of the top with the standard quarter inch seam. That done, cut off the excess wadding so that the wadding butts together, hand slip-stitch that together, and then slip-stitch the pieces of backing together. Hmm! That's what I planned to do, but towards the end of the quilting I was having serious doubts.

The idea of CUTTING into an almost finished quilt filled me with horror! What if...? Don't go there! I remembered that in a quilting workshop a few years ago, I had made a sample of a QAYG join. Fished out the sample and the instructions and hey presto!

So this is what I have been doing since the middle of last week:

1.  With 0.25" seam allowance sew a seam through both quilt sandwiches, right sides together, ie through four layers of fabric and two layers of wadding. Iron the seam open.

First attach the walking foot and put the needle as far to the right as possible.

At this stage I discovered it's difficult to hold four layers of cotton and two layers of cotton wadding in position, even when clipped together, with this as the result:

Only one thing for it:

(this happened in several places)

2.   Hand stitch the seam allowance to the backing: be careful not to stitch through into the top. 

This is where I discovered that a quarter inch seam is not enough when you have to fold two layers of fabric and a layer of wadding back over itself. There is not much seam allowance left to stitch down. It doesn't matter too much because this is only tacking to hold the layers in place.

3.   Cut a strip of fabric 1.5" wide, fold it lengthwise edge-to-centre and press.

4.   Slip stitch to the backing on each side of the seam. I think perhaps the flaps on the strip are meant to fold under the seam allowance, but that's too fiddly for my arthritic fingers.

5.   Repeat stages 1 to 4 until everything is joined. 

Conclusion: The hand stitching went perfectly, if slowly. The problem was keeping a consistent 1/4" (or 3/8") seam on the machine. On the whole quilting in parts of 42" square and joining afterwards is a more comfortable option than joining first and quilting in one go.

Since starting this I've read a tutorial on a much quicker method at Little Island Quilting, but I was too far into this method to make a switch.

I'm linking this up to
  

So pop over there and see what else has been going on this week.

Happy sewing

Marly.

RSC 15 week13: The final yellow

Each month Angela at Soscrappy gives a colour and some sampler patterns and lots of people round the world use that colour: some to make the sampler blocks, others to work on other projects. This month the colour has been yellow. On Saturdays we link up to show one another what we've been making in the last week

I sewed some 1.5 inch squares into nine patches; I don't know what for, but just because they were there. I was going to use nine patches in the border of the 2014 RSC quilt, changed my mind, but kept on making nine patches.

Last week I posted about this:

and asked you what the smallest size is you think worth saving. The answers ranged from:

• 0.5" square to 2" square, or
• 0.75"wide by 2.75" long, or "anything with a seam allowance"!

I'm amazed! I hadn't expected anything less than 1" wide.

I also asked what you do with really tiny scraps. Here is a summary of the answers I received:

• spread out on the garden as mulch
• donate to junior school / child care institution for craft projects
• save for appliqué
• use the tiniest pieces under tulle in appliqué

I don't have a garden any more, and I'm not sure if (excess) dye in fabric is good for plants, nor how quickly it rots away. If I still had some land I would try mulching the neighbour's hedge! Just testing, of course!

The other three ideas I found very encouraging. 

I've just put a bag of scraps (mostly from dressmaking) together for my granddaughter who, according to my daughter, is always cutting and gluing. 

The other small pieces I'm saving for appliqué.

Last week a no-reply blogger asked how I sewed the crumbs together. Now I don't know about everyone else, but I start with an irregular pentagon and just keep adding pieces round it. Just like a log cabin, a wonky log cabin that is. When I need a longer piece than I have in the bin, I just sew two or three together until I have a long enough piece. I don't use any foundation fabric or paper. I try to straighten up the sides by cutting off as little as possible, but if I need to cut off a large piece I make it really large and it can be the start of the next crumby block. So far it seems a lot like crazy quilting, except the pieces are much smaller, and there are no embellishments.

The other sewing this week was quilting my 2014 Rainbow quilt which came to a stop on Monday. Can you see what's missing?

A trip to the LQS on Wednesday remedied the situation and the last quarter is quilted and the quilt is being assembled. I'm putting it together by QAYG, I don't know yet how successful that will be, but quilting the smaller pieces (approximately 42" square) was much easier than holding a full-sized quilt under the needle of my machine,

I saw this afternoon that Angela has changed the background colour on her blog, so it looks like April's colour is purple. While I was pulling fabric for my granddaughter I kept all purple crumbs for myself and even found some purple blocks in there already made.

On Saturday I shall be linking to

so hop over there to look at more scrappy sunshine.

Happy sewing

Marly.

PS What's missing? I ran out of wadding! But you all saw that!!!