March's goal ...

... is to make a dent in the pile of tops waiting to be quilted and bound.

There are quite a few:

Only the last one is just a top, the other three are partially quilted and need binding. I doubt if I will get them all finished because I have to tidy my sewing room first; at present I have no space on the table to lay out a quilt!

Wish me luck!

I'm linking up to

Click on the button to see more aspirations for March.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Overlapping Octagons is finished!

Overlapping Octagons is copied from a photograph of a quilt made around 1950 and featured in the book "Unconventional and Unexpected, American quilts under the radar", by Roderick Kiracofe. Making a replica of a quilt in this book was a challenge issued by Sujata Shah about a year ago.
Unlike the original maker I used the sewing machine throughout, although I now think I would have been faster sewing all those y-seams by hand. I chose to use red to meet the criteria of another challenge; about the same time the Ad Hoc Improv Quilters issued the challenge: "Red is the new Neutral"

The Y-seams are not only at the four corners of the red squares but also at the X joins of the string sections.
In this photo the octagons are maybe easier to identify.

Originally I tried using hourglass blocks as cornerstones in the string sashing. That didn't work as the hourglass blocks became too visible as hourglasses and didn't blend into the octagons. The seams also became very bulky as five fabrics came together at one point, as opposed to just three now. In the original the fabric in the "sashing" continues into the "cornerstone" so I went with that, as you can see in the picture above.

I used fabric scraps throughout. I started with red and blue 19th century reproduction fabrics - the ones that have been hanging around the longest - but soon used up that lot (hooray!!) and moved on to the more recent fabrics. Just two colours - red and blue - became very boring, so quite early in the process I introduced small pieces of other colours among the blue strings.

fabrics: scraps from stash
measurements: 38" x 44"
pieced with Aurifil 50 wt light grey
quilted with Aurifil 40 wt dark blue, dark red and bright red

 Although this was intended as a small lap quilt my DH has claimed it for the wall above his desk! 

Finishing this quilt was my goal of the month this month, (and last, and the one before!) but now it really is bound, labelled and all the threads are buried!
It is also the first item on my Q4 list for the 2019 Finish A-Long, hosted by Sandra at Studio sew of course.

I'm linking to: 

              

Click on the buttons to see more scrappy quilts and goals achieved. 

Happy sewing

Marly.

One Monthly Goal for March

My goal for March is the same as my goal for February! To finish this quilt:

Rainbow Bears' Square Dance

 In February I only managed to buy fabric for the back, piece the back, layer the whole thing and quilt the wide "sashings"  between the blocks. It seems like next to nothing, but it took me all month. OK, I got sidetracked by the "Year of Scrappy Triangles", had the 'flu' for a week, did a bit of paid work, and made a couple of RSC18 sampler blocks. I managed to avoid housework pretty effectively.

For March there's relatively little left to do: quilt the blocks, starting with this one:

Then quilt the label, make a binding and bind the quilt. Put that way it'll be done in half a day!  Not really! Binding by hand will keep me occupied for at least two evenings. Not to forget burying the threads ...

If I get this finished I'll resurrect En Provence :

Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, winter 2016-2017

which has been boxed for nearly a year. The backing is partly pieced; I'm not sure how much, but I shall be very happy if this is layered by the end of March.

I'm linking up to Elm Street Quilts



Click on the button to visit the party.

Happy sewing

Marly

Allietare! finished, at last

I have a second finish to report this week. This one was really a UFO, as it was the Quiltville mystery from December 2015 of which I finished the piecing well over a year ago. It took me another six months to get the borders done.

After my frustration while quilting Star Light, Star Dark I decided on simple all-over "circles-on-a-string" in the centre section which was so easy (but still with the odd pointed bit in a circle here or there!) and on a vine with leaves and bunches of grapes in the corners (a nod to Chianti here) for the outer border.

I could have used any colour thread on the border but because my quilting often has those erratic hooks in it I decided to match the thread to the border fabric. Have you ever tried sewing black on black? Well mistakes certainly wouldn't have been noticeable; when I finished the first leaf I couldn't see where it had begun. When you sew white on white the stitches have shadows; you can't see the shadows on black. It's a shame about the Chianti but it was not to be! More unpicking, and then I quilted "tramlines" with the walking foot - easy and .... boring!

Tramlines! Alas no Chianti!

I was really happy to have this finished and ready to be used this winter.

Fabric: assorted from stash, mostly scraps
Thread: Aurifil light grey (
Wadding: cotton from my LQS
Size 1.75m x 1.75m

I'm linking up to

 

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

Happy sewing

Marly.

Star Light, Star Dark finished

This is my variation of Star Light, Star Dark from the QAL at Quilty Habit last summer.  The challenge was to use only three colours, six or seven fabrics in light tones and six or seven in dark.
I finished the piecing quite quickly, but when I got to that point I still hadn't decided on the quilting designs. The only thing I was clear about was that it needed doing in two halves to be joined later. (On 1 October last year I showed this in more detail)

I started with the dark half and tried to use a different quilting motif in each section. Each section has six or seven different fabrics and I wanted to use a different motif on each.

The centre star (yellow) was done with the walking foot, and having only half a quilt to turn the whole time was a Godsend.

square stippling in the big star; dot-to-dot from Angels Walters surrounding it; orange peel shapes in the centre of the friendship star; stippling surrounding it; baptist fan centre right; vine with leaves top left

The green section went OK too, though admittedly with a few wobbles. Then I tried doing feathers in the large dark purple star. What a disaster! I just can't backtrack, so there was such a build up of thread along the spine of the feathers I thought, "this bird would never get off the ground!"

Then I decided that there was only one thing for it - unpicking all the feathers - which took me every evening for a week. Then I tried swirls, after all I would only have to follow the motif of the print. No! What a mess! Fortunately this time I decided after just a couple of minutes that it had to go. Out it all came! Totally disheartened by my failures in the dark half of the quilt I moved onto the light section until I got distracted by Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt. That was in November! That was how it stayed for more than half a year.

Matrix rays from Leah Day in the big star; dot to dot from Angela Walters surrounding it; McTavishing top left

Until two weeks ago when I thought of Leah Day and all her online FMQ videos. That dark purple fabric wouldn't stand another unpicking session so I needed something simple and foolproof. I chose Matrix Rays, and the quilting was finished in no time. All that remained was to join the two halves and then a lot of hand sewing to cover the join on the back, and to sew down the binding.

Square Flower from Lori Kennedy in the centre of the dark purple friendship star

I was pleased with how this square flower turned out. I quilted square flowers in all three purple Friendship Stars, but this one turned out best. In the green F.Stars I quilted orange peels, and in the yellow spirals.

McTavishing in the big star; fantasy leaves surrounding it; more McTavishing in the freehand drawn heart (!!); string of beads bottom left (from Pinterest: origin unknown)

In the light purple block I used more McTavishing;  I used this quilting style three times in this quilt. So much for using a different motif on each fabric. I really found it hard to come up with enough quilting motifs.

Fabric: assorted fat quarters and scraps
Thread: Aurifil 40 wt. in matching colours
Wadding: cotton as supplied at my LQS
Size: 1.75m x 1.27m (69" x 50")

Finally one more photo to show why all the photos were taken indoors this afternoon.

I draped it artistically over the bench, took two steps back and took a photo just as the wind caught it. As I live on the ninth floor I didn't want the wind carrying it away altogether: I'd never catch up with it!

I'm linking up to

so go over there and see more of this week's finishes.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Finish Along 4th quarter 2015: 2nd finish

At the beginning of October I made my list of proposed finishes.

This is really terrible - almost Christmas and only two finishes in the fourth quarter! And an almost finish!

Anyway, here is my second finish, all quilted, bound and washed, ready to be snuggled under.

Modern Maples, pattern by Amanda Jennings

After minimally quilting the leaves:

I quilted leaves in the white space. To one side of the central vein I quilted circles and on the other stippling.

Now the quilt has been washed the difference is not so clear. I then quilted swirls between the leaves and in the empty corners. The leaves subsequently got lost in the swirls! Mental note - make more contrast in the quilting. Straight lines in the background would have been better. I had intended quilting much larger swirls, but my first attempt was so uneven I unpicked it, and did a size my hands are comfortable with.

My modern maples is 60" square,

• made from Bella solid off-white (background and backing) and prints from stash; each leaf is a different fabric
• and sewn and quilted with Aurifil 40wt; off white in the background, and colours to match the leaves

I shall be linking up at the beginning of January with 

and

 Head over there to see more wonderful finishes

And now on to the "almost finish"!

Drunkard's Path Poinsettia table topper, pattern by Anne Deister at SpringLeaf Studio

This is only a flimsy, and is unlikely to be finished before Christmas, but who knows I might get it done in the last week of the year.

It measures 36.5" square and was made in the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along at SpringLeaf Studio. I made the Drunkard's path blocks on the machine with no pins, following Leanne's excellent tutorial



Have a wonderful Christmas, whether it be white, or wet (like here!) or scorching

Happy sewing

Marly.

Modern Maples throw - top finished

Last weekend I finished the top of my Modern Maples throw. The pattern is by Amanda Woodward-Jennings, and was the first pattern I downloaded when I discovered the Internet was full of quilty stuff! I posted about it earlier here and here.

The next step is to quilt it on my Bernina 440 QE. I have decided to quilt maple leaves in the centres of the white space squares and was wondering how to do this when I read this post from Debby Kratovil.

I drew the shape of the maple leaf block roughly on freezer paper, ironed it onto the first block - bottom right in the photo above - and started to sew around it with a 3mm length stitch and the appliqué foot. Debby was using a long arm machine in the tutorial with a free-motion foot, but I was nervous of ironing the paper onto a quilt that had already been sandwiched; wouldn't the wadding loose its puff?

using the appliqué foot for better sight on the sewing line.

I'm not sewing the paper, just roughly around it, to make a perimeter line of the leaf for when I start free motion quilting the shape of the leaf. A washable pen would function as well, except their lines tend to disappear before you're ready, and sometimes not to wash out completely. These large stitches will come out easily, I hope, once the quilting has been done. This started off fine, but by the time I was half way round it looked like this:

the paper had come loose, and I had to pin it before  I could finish the shape:

the maple leaf outline, a little puckered  but no worries it's soon to be quilted

Debby's method is great if you are making a fairly small project which manoeuvres easily through the sewing machine and are doing FMQ. My adaptation didn't work!
My lesson learnt: next time I should sew the outline onto the 12.5" square before I add it to the top.

My solution to the problem was to cut a pattern from dressmakers' tracing paper, of which I have masses, and which, unlike freezer paper, is readily available here (and cheap!), and to pin that to the squares and sew round them. The freezer paper template I'm keeping for now, to use for another project I have in mind.

I'm linking up to

so hop over there to see what else has been achieved 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.