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.

Finish Along 2018 Q4 list

 With some degree of optimism, here is my list:

1. Play mat - already a top, but needs decision on final size, then adding borders and quilting.

   

   Play mat top, folded: it's almost all there, but for now a secret.

2. Knitting fingerless gloves from the pattern "Secret Grove" by Linaknits on Ravelry. 
   
3. Lap quilt from RSC sampler blocks, "Squared Away". The last block pattern has just been released so I need to get cutting to make it, and then put the lot together. I'm thinking of making it on point, something like this,
   
   but with two dark blue, two dark green added, and another purple, to make up the numbers!
4. Baby beanies from discarded T-shirts, from a pattern to be found at www.thelittleststudio.com.
   
   
   I'm making them for a pair of yet-to-be-born family members, but they're so simple I shall probably continue sewing them for the local maternity unit. We have enough T-shirts waiting to be cut up and repurposed.

 I'm linking to 

 

Click on the button to see more projected finishes in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Some Improv, some foundation piecing, and some mindless sewing.

To start with the improv piece I'm making following the first score in Sherri Lynn Wood's "The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters". Although I've been working on this for what seems like ages I haven't posted a photo since July; other projects got in the way, the fabric in a particular colour ran out, or my inspiration dried up! This week I added the section on the right, most of the part with navy in it and I'll be going further when I've finished this post.

Improv lap quilt following score 1 from The Improv Quilters' Handbook

Improv should be spontaneous; it should grow as you work and just develop within the limitations the quilter has set. I don't think months of deliberation are part of the picture.

Foundation piecing, on the other hand is strictly organised. To start with there's a pattern so designed to ensure perfect points - forget that in my case. At least with this pattern from Make Modern magazine  I didn't make my usual errors of cutting the fabric back to front. That's something I always do at least once, which would be fine if I wanted to use the back of the fabric!

4" Rainbow pincushion top: pattern by Angie Wilson for Make Modern issue 18

There are some missed points, all in the final joining stage; the sections themselves are fine. Does anyone have any tips for keeping the presser foot on track when sewing through so many layers of fabric and paper?! It was like a doing a skid course! In spite of the points I'm satisfied with the result, and it was a good learning experience.

After all that concentration I was ready for some mindless catch-up sewing in aqua which was February's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Each month from January to November Angela gives a colour to work with. This month's colour is brown/black, so I'm taking the opportunity to catch up on my projects.
 

I still have to do green, yellow and orange. If I don't manage to sew them this year there's always next year!

I am linking up later today to 

Click on the button to view other catch-up and finishing projects.

Happy sewing

Marly.

An old project revisited: lap quilt

I never posted about this quilt because I made it in the summer of 2013, about four months before I started blogging.

So here now is an account of the lap quilt I made for my husband's birthday in 2013.

In the middle of winter he suggested that as he was feeling rather cold while watching TV, I might be interested in making him a quilt. No sooner said than started! Well, started ... planning!

I found a pattern fairly quickly: this is the Disappearing Nine-Patch which I saw on YouTube from The Missouri Star Quilt Company.

For the fabric I had to wait until I could make a trip to the LQS, which doesn't carry many pre-cuts, but fortunately did have two charm packs of Barbara Brackman's "Metropolitan Fair", which purveys the necessary sense of conservative manliness for this project. To this I added the end of a roll of "Battle Hymn" (also by Barbara Brackman) for the backing, and half a metre of a Bella Solid (I believe "Sand" but I'm not certain any more) which matched the base dye of the printed fabric (the background colour in the selvedge). From this I cut 5" squares to use as the centre squares in the nine-patch (they get cut once in each direction during the disappearing trick) and for the middle border.

As far as possible I reserved the charms with large prints for the outer corners of the nine-patch (they're the ones that don't get cut), and used the small and medium prints in the sides of the nine patch (they get cut once through the middle) Unfortunately, as seen in the photo above, there were fewer large print squares than needed.

Sewing, cutting, sewing again went according to plan, and in the greatest secrecy, but not as quickly as I'd hoped because life got in the way! Finally in the middle of July, just BEFORE my second carpal tunnel operation, I managed to get it quilted. Managed, but I don't know how; I had to stop every 5 minutes because the pain was too much. Then followed a pause of a month for the operation and recuperation until my wrist had recovered enough to sew the binding.

By then I was feeling as fit as a fiddle, and could take anything on, but the weather intervened. While the average summer temperature here is probably about 22ºC I found myself sitting in my shorts on the balcony with a quilt on my lap in temperatures of 35ºC - just 1ºC less than normal body temperature! - while I hand sewed the binding. 

Definitely not the ideal conditions. But the deadline of the middle of August was fast approaching.

Remember I said something above about the greatest secrecy? That was not easy when the temperatures were so high, as my husband was working a "tropical timetable" - starting a 05:30  or 06:00 and finishing at ??? - sometimes 12 noon, or 13:00. Several times I bundled the whole quilt into a box and shoved it into the bottom of a cupboard when I heard his key in the latch!

Finally it was completed with a couple of days to spare, after being in the make for six months. I named it "Hop-Scotch" because the pattern made by the light squares reminds me of a game of that name I played as a child: hopping from square to square in a grid drawn on paving stones. The quilt was well received: he doesn't know the game hop-Scotch, but he knows Scotch! 

Congratulations for reading this far! If you're interested in making a Disappearing nine-patch click the link to the Missouri Star QC above and for more lap quilt inspiration hop over to Val's:

Happy sewing

Marly.