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.

RSC 15: week 18: the last purple hex and pulling green

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. In April the colour was purple. This month's colour is dark to medium green. On Saturdays we link up to show one another what we've been making in the last week. 

One more purple hexagon squeezed in at the eleventh hour last month and is looking forward to green. Maybe it's jealous? Anyway it's heart is with green.

That's the only green I sewed yesterday, although I did manage to pull out some small green pieces and a few (almost) fat quarters.

Because I'm using dark blue as my background fabric I can't use really dark green. This is as dark as I expect to go. I'm looking forward to piecing the sawtooth within a sawtooth star as soon as I've finished quilting RSC14 - border now under the FMQ foot.

I'm linking up to:

   

Click on the buttons to see what creative scrappiness has been happening this week.

Happy Sewing

Marly.

Finish Batik table runner

This is my third finish for the second quarter of the 2015 Finish Along. For my Q2 list, click here.

This was not a difficult table runner to make but I only finished it yesterday, even though I started in February. I had trouble finding a suitable light fabric for the background, and had to wait for it.

I used Wanda Hansen's plus quilt tutorial for making the pluses. It's interesting because most patterns I had seen use five square pieces to make a plus, but Wanda demonstrates using two squares and a rectangle - less fabric and less sewing.

For the first time I quilted with Aurifil 50 which I bought when in the UK a couple of weeks ago (my local shop sells Aurifil 50 only on small spools) using a Schmetz Quilting needle size 75/11. The quilting lines are the width of the walking foot (3/8") apart and I'm pleased with the appearance of the lines. There is a problem however: the wadding is escaping! I'm covered in white fluff! I hope that when I've washed the runner the fabric will shrink and "seal".

I tried a slightly different technique when sewing on the binding. It's machine sewn onto the front, but I followed Lynne's (Lily's Quilts) advice, which she posted earlier this week, to make sure to let the feed dogs move the quilt through, but pull on the binding to make it really taut. The unbound piece was quite undulating along the edges but now the binding has tamed it into submission. Usually I cut binding strips at 2" which makes a nice narrow binding, but this time I was using up the 2.5" strips so sewed the binding on at 3/8" from the edge which just happens to be the minimum distance between the needle and the right hand edge of the walking foot! The binding has never gone on so easily! Right first go; no ripping required!

I'm pleased with this table runner, and will definitely be making more, and using this plus pattern for other projects. 

Statistics:

Size: 44 x 14.5" 

Fabric: Assorted 2.5 " batik strips from various sources

Thread: piecing: Aurifil 40 2324; quilting: Aurifil 50 2615

Wadding: cotton

Binding: leftovers of the 2.5" strips used in the top.

I'm linking up with

 

So hop over there to see more of this week's sewing achievements,

And at the end of June to

Happy sewing

Marly.

Over the Hills and Far Away - an optical illusion finish.

  This is my second finish for the 2015 Q2 Finish Along. For my second quarter list click here.

Finally it's finished. My Optical Illusion wall hanging has been named "Over the Hills and Far Away" because when I was quilting it that line from a traditional English song kept going through my head. I see hills and valleys in the design.

When quilting I left the square of the 25 smallest pieces as it was. but quilted through the other purple blocks diagonally in both directions. The yellow and green pieces I left alone, except for the largest (and darkest) green pieces which are also quilted diagonally in both directions, and the adjacent greens which are quilted diagonally in one direction.  Originally they were unquilted but the space between quilting lines was much too large.

Here's a close up which shows my very sparse quilting; I was afraid that dense quilting would detract from the optical effect so quilting is practical rather than aesthetic.

For the backing I used a Halloween fabric from the LQS's special offer shelf. We don't really do Halloween here, so it's not surprising it didn't sell. The colour is just right for this though, isn't it.

Quilt statistics:

Size 41 x 28.5"  (104 x 71 cm)
fabric: Bella solids in nine shades of yellow and green and one purple
Thread; Aurifil 40 in matching purple and green
Wadding: cotton (standard as supplied locally)
Backing: Happy H"owl-o-ween by Deb Strain for Moda

If you're interested in the process of designing and making this wall hanging you can read about it here, here and here.

Having bound it yesterday evening and washed it this morning I'm going to share it this week with:

   

 

so click on the buttons for the link (as they become available) to see what others have been working on this week.

At the end of June I'll be linking up with

 

Happy sewing

Marly.

RSC15 week 17: The Last Full Purple Week.

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 purple. On Saturdays we link up to show one another what we've been making in the last week. As this is the last post his month, here's a round-up of the whole month.


Firstly the two sampler blocks given by Angela:

Carrie Nation

Broken Sugar Bowl

In addition to the sampler blocks, I made:

Four nine-patches

Four hexagon flowers

and two scissors cases

pattern by Dawn Cornell

for the Moda Bakeshop (19 May 2014)

of which this is one; the other  I gave away without photographing it first! I was so glad I'd met the deadline, I wrapped it, packed it, took it to England, and it wasn't until I was on my way back to the Netherlands that I thought that I had maybe forgotten to take a photo!

I have also been quilting my Optical Illusion Quilt, which is 50% purple, and has 95% purple quilting thread! In my book, that counts as purple! All that's left to do is sew down the binding; at last I can pull the purple thread out of my machine!

I'm linking up to Angela at Soscrappy for

Happy Sewing

Marly.