2019 Finish-A-Long: First Finish for Second Quarter

Completed my first finish for the second quarter of the 2019 Finish-A-Long. You can find my goal list HERE.

Admittedly, I was almost at the end of this, had just the binding to do, but a finish nevertheless.

This came together very quickly. I bought a packet of 6 1/2in strips of the baby blue fabric at our recent quilt show and just cut this into squares. To pretty it up a bit I put a few appliqued hearts on it and I was done. For the quilting I chose a simple allover clamshell design, done with the HQ Versa tool. 

Quilting the clamshell design

And that was it. Done!

The quilt measures 36 1/2 x 36 1/2in.
My next baby quilt will be a bit more involved, with applique and piecing...a fun and colourful design which I designed a while back. But first I will have a few other tasks to finish...

Karin

Project - The Camden Bowl

This video from Mom and Pop Quilt Shop is fabulous! On my list to make...

Karin

Clamshell Design

I started to quilt my little baby quilt with an allover clamshell design

The orange thread that you see running across the quilt is my basting stitch which will come out at the end. I did pin this quilt and then ran  over it with a large meander basting stitch taking most, but not all of the pins out in order to do the ruler work.

I am using the Handiquilter Versa tool for this which makes the clamshells 2in x 4in. If you want to be super precise you could mark your quilt up with a 2in grid for ease of alignment, however that would be quite a tedious task. Following the first row of clamshells I just drew a line across the top of the clamshells to keep my design straight and also did some vertical 'helper lines' to hit the centre of the clamshells on my way back (more or less precisely). 

The Versa tool has an alignment line at the bottom of the clamshell that I used to stay on my line across the quilt. After having done almost 3/4 of the quilt I remembered that Bethanne Nemesh draws on her rulers with a Sharpie pen. Ingenious...why did I not think about this before?

I drew some additional lines on the Versa tool

I extended the centre line of the clamshell so that I could better judge the halfway point of the clamshells underneath to make sure that they stayed approximately on top of each other. In addition, I also drew in additional horizontal lines which should sit (again approximately) on top of each of the clamshells rows underneath the row I was working on. 

This made alignment much easier and ensured consistency...should have thought of this earlier which would have avoided me drawing in lines all over the quilt! The Sharpie pen can be wiped off with alcohol, but I might leave them on there...might become handy for something else.

 

Karin

2019 Finish-A-Long Proposed List Q2

Cannot believe it...I missed the link up for the first quarter! I thought I was so organised...even made a tab at the top so I would find my posts quickly to link up. For some reason, I had the 10th April in my head and when I looked today I realised that that was the date for the proposed list for the second quarter. What a bugger...and I was so productive in the first quarter! I finished 4 projects of my list in the first quarter...if you are interested to see them go to the tab on the top of the page to view them.

Definitely need to make a note on the calendar for the next link up date! 

You can find the information about the Finish-A- Long on  Leanne's blog She Can Quilt. There you will find more detail on how this link up works and also find the list of bloggers who are hosting this great event.

My goal list for the second quarter will be small. I am in a bit of a lull at the moment, contemplating what to do next.

1. Another Baby Quilt

Currently quilting this with an overall clamshell design. This is unexpectedly quick, only got a few more rows left.

2. Wholecloth Quilt

This is leftover from the first quarter. I did do some work on the design, but stopped half way through to finish another Wholecloth UFO which was not on the list. Still in the designing stages

Got everything ready...the fabric, ordered some more binding fabric etc....however not 100% happy with my design, so will have to keep going on re-drawing it until I am happy with it. Over the years I have learned the hard way not to rush Wholecloth quilts...just too much work that goes into it, so you have to be absolutely happy with your design.

3. Scrappy Spiderweb quilt

Also a leftover from the first quarter. Made absolutely no progress on this.

4. Funky Bird Quilt

This is a project I would like to do...did a bit of a test block to see how work intensive this would be. Found that I was a bit rusty with my applique (put the bird the wrong way around), but thought overall that this would be fun.

However, I also got one of Elizabeth Hartmann's patterns recently (The Fox) and am a bit torn as to which one to make. Decisions, decisions!

5. The Camden Bowl

Having way too much fun over here... saw a video the other day which explained how to put this together, so I did a trial piece 

Definitely need to do one of those bowls...maybe I can then graduate towards a jelly roll rug. Would love to do that, but maybe not in this quarter 😃

Linking up to the Proposed Finishes List over at She Can Quilt for the first quarter.

Karin

Another Baby Quilt!

This must be the year for babies...I am in need of another baby quilt! I only got baby girl quilts that are already finished, so I was looking for a very quick project that I could just throw together. Initially I was looking for a panel, but could not find anything that I really liked. When I was at a recent quilt show, I discovered a packet of fabric, already cut up into 6 1/2in strips. Bought that and cut it up into squares and just mixed some applique hearts with it. 

Presto...done!

Very blue and cutesy.  Planning on doing a clamshell design over it that I can stitch out with the HQ Versa tool. Prepared everything ready for basting today, so this should be finished in the next 2 weeks. 

Apart from that, dragging my feet. Still have to put my quilt show entry in...currently sewing on the binding and will then get on to all the paper work. I have had some time off work, but now have gone back to my regular working hours. This was supposed to be leading into retirement, however as I have found out, I am just not ready. So, it's back to work for me for a while...not sure, how long, but I am confident I will know when it's time to quit for good.

Today I also got side tracked again...I am just so distractible. Have been searching the internet for a while for tutorials on jelly roll rugs and rugs that are made by braiding fabric strips. Today I came across a really nice You Tube video called 'Weekend Project - The Camden Bowl' by Mom and Pop Quilt Shop. I have seen this fabric bowl at my local sewing shop before...it follows the same principles as the jelly roll rugs, so I started watching this. The woman in the video is hilarious...I laughed out loud a couple of times...very humorous and thoroughly enjoyable! She made it look quite easy and her casual way of putting things together really appealed to me, so I got straight into this and tried it out.

First attempt at just getting the method down...very enjoyable indeed!

yep, I got hooked straight away, so I will try this out in the next few weeks. Still have some leftover jelly roll from French General, so I will use those strips for this to make the bowl. Like the idea of using bits and pieces of leftover batting and fabric. Also have seen bags made out of this and will need to investigate this further as even this little piece that I constructed is unbelievably sturdy, hence really useful for bags. I am also thinking that I may not need a lining if I use this for a bag, but we shall see. 

 

Karin