Finished The Piecing!

I am so glad I finished the piecing for Natalia Bonner's 'A Year of Stars' quiltalong. I had left the most challenging block to last (did not think that through). By that time, I had hardly any fabric left, so was faced with the scenario of only being able to have one go at it. Must admit, while I was putting it together I was already thinking  about what other block I could substitute this one for with the scraps I had left over. Was not at all confident that this would work out, 

but, tada... The Spider Star!

Amazement over amazement...after an excruciatingly slow cutting this to size it came out at 12 1/2in. Only problem were the corners...they were totally off. I only had one corner that resembled a HST but I fixed this since taking the photograph and it is looking good. Basically maneuvered that inaccuracy into the last flying geese unit by re-doing the corners which then makes it hardly noticeable. Very pleased. 

Now I am ready to do the sashing and get going on putting this together. Thinking of getting a dusty pink sashing as the white is always hard on the eyes if we are going to quilt in the sashing. I am really looking forward to this quiltalong...lots of ruler work coming up for the entire year!

This exercise has got me thinking that I probably should piece a bit more so as to not get so woefully out of practice. Most of the time I freemotion quilt, so I might have to work on finding a bit of a balance. So at the moment I am super motivated with at least three new patterns  in the pipeline. Even made a test block with my newly refined piecing skills.

This is the Duck Tracks block...

...an oldie, but I like the older type quilt blocks. Planning a cute little baby quilt around this, just need to work on cutting requirements, making the quilt and putting the pattern together. This morning then I thought of another pattern that I could whip up relatively easy...that makes it three in the pipeline. I am on fire!

If you are interested in easy to construct quilt patterns, have a look at my Etsy shop (link above in tab) or on the new Madeit site

Currently running a 20% sale for this week only on the entire range. 

Karin

Plugging Away

I cannot believe it, but I started a new project. Still working on my Scrappy House quilt, but got a bit bored and promptly whipped up something else in preparation to freemotion quilt an allover design.

This is my win from the 2019 Finishalong...a Fat Sixteenth Bundle of fabric from Hillstitches Fabrics. I was really curious what I could make with this. I did develop an irregular grid some time back in the EQ8 program and promptly gave that a try. The quilt will turn out at 36in x 36in using every available fabric. I got quite excited by the possibilities of the pattern. Comes together so quickly and looks great. The selection of fabrics is just beautiful. Not sure what I use it for, but it will find its place.

My brain went into overdrive as I am already thinking of extending the pattern somewhat making it into a bold toddler/baby quilt using solids or tone-on-tone fabrics, echoing the wooden blocks we used to play with when the kids were small.

But...I need to also complete what I am working on and get a move on on the Natalia Bonner Quiltalong coming in January (A Year of Stars). There are 12 blocks to make and they are killing me. I am not a strong piecer and am finding it quite difficult to put together. There is the option of a panel, but with postage that is just not feasible over here, so I must persevere. 

Does not look like much but there were so many pieces! So far I have done 5 blocks, alternating between really involved and less involved blocks. That seems to be working for me as I have given up on being super precise...now I just want to get them together !

Take my hat off to people who can just whip this up in no time at all. The way I am going, I might just make it to January. I bought the booklet, so I am committed to participate, even if I now fall behind. As the quiltalong goes for the entire year, I will be able to catch up, but wow...

Don't want to turn people off, this will be great when it is finished. Looking forward to the quilting as per usual. The blocks are quite big so lots you can do with them and no doubt Natalia will stretch our skill level just that little bit further. 

Karin

Scrap Project

I am determined to make a dent in my scrap accumulation. It's just ridiculous how much I have got stuffed away all over the place.

So, I am working on these houses. It's a free Bonnie Hunter pattern called "Happy Scrappy Houses". Certainly not a super quick way to use up scraps, however it is effective once you get going. This is how far I got in the last few days.

I experimented a bit with the surrounds of the houses as Bonnie had given alternative measurements to do those houses without the sashings. Decided in the end to go with the sashings as I don't fancy having to deal with the almost bias edges of the blocks over the entire quilt. However left a bit more room around the houses so they float a bit and hide my sloppy squaring up of the block. I think it needs the sashing to stabilise the blocks. Initially I was tempted to go for a one-coloured sashing all over which would have meant cutting up some more fabric, however then I decided to go with whatever I have got on hand...after all, that was the idea! This will be very colourful, as the corner stones will have to be all different colours as well.

The blocks certainly 'eat up' fabric in a hurry, particularly the surrounds of the house eat up a whole chunk of fabric (I am using 2, 3in x 12in rectangle for the surrounds)...I am paying a little bit of attention to what colours I am putting together (obviously not in the first block on the left) wherever I can and try to insert a bit of a fun element in the windows just to keep me interested. The last two days have been interesting in terms of going through the scraps over and over again, sorting and trying to work out a way to speed this up. I am a very messy quilter and soon found myself working in this tiny little space on my cutting mat  Everything around me was taking up with scraps in various sizes. Today then I worked out a bit of a system of how to go about this. Sorted part of the scraps into house bodies, roofs, chimneys and doors...

...then I did non-stop strip cutting with the Accuquilt GO 2in strip cutter...and can you believe it...I remembered that I have a 2in x 3 1/2in die which is just what I need for those house bodies! I bought this for a Churn Dash quilt which is yet to eventuate. Just goes to show, like I said the other day...you forget what you have lying around when not in use.

Spent most of the day cutting out strips and shapes and working out a bit of a manageable structure where I can chain-piece whole sections of the houses in one hit, i.e.
- sew strip sets and crosscut into chimney sections (pairing the chimneys to the roof whenever possible)
- sew the roofs in bulk as this involves marking a square which will then be flipped over to become the triangle of the roof
- cut out house bodies in bulk and have them ready to go at the machine,  stitching up 3 to 4 at a time,
- have the doors cut out and ready to go,
- sort bigger strips into pile to be used for surrounds, and...
- organise my work space at least a little bit

Still working in a rather smallish space, but I feel I am now more organised to tackle this. Also can report that the white scraps are gone by half...the strip sets take up a lot of fabric.

I wonder how many houses I can stitch up before I start looking for more fabric. The surrounds of the houses will be the most difficult as you need a fair chunk of fabric...but we shall see. If nothing else, I'll get a lap quilt out of this with hopefully half of my scraps gone. I am hoping that I will be left with the smaller strings that I will then sew up into a string quilt. Also thinking about using up some uglies to piece the backing together...certainly got a stack of them where I am wondering what possessed me to buy that fabric.

How funny, this was not what I was intending to work on next actually but it certainly has gripped me...
Linking up to Quilting is more fun than Housework ‘Oh Scrap’ Linky

Karin

1000 Pyramids Quilt Top Finished

I finally knuckled down to finish the 1000 Pyramids quilt top. Not sure what I was thinking when I started this...definitely were not thinking of all those points you had to match!

I did purchase an Accuquilt Equilateral Triangle Die last at the last quilt show or maybe even the one before that.

Don't know about you but I get a bit frustrated if I do not use what I purchase...over the years I have accumulated a lot of stuff, so I bought this with the 1000 Pyramids in mind. I thought ...great, I can get rid of all my scraps and I do love scrap quilts and their riot of colour.

So I started and pretty quickly realised that I had a lot (!) of points to match. I am not the greatest piecer and even with those little notches in the die I struggled somewhat as you are dealing with bias edges. So, I began to drag my feet and this project definitely was in danger of becoming yet another UFO. Also made it really big to cover the King Single bed in the spare room which meant that when I picked it up again the other day I had a good eight double rows to do. What happens to me with UFOs is that I forget how I exactly thought this through in terms of ironing the rows and as I had several starts and stops, I had the rows going in all sorts of directions! What a hassle!

I decided not to sweat the small imperfections at the points or the mismatched seams and started again to just get this done. It went pretty quickly, mind you, I was dreading to sew the rows together. As I expected the matching of the points got very tricky over the entire width of the rows as I had ironed seams sometimes left and sometimes right...no idea what I was thinking. Anyway, I struggled along and about half way through I started using my glue stick for paper piecing to line up the points. What a great little trick!...I aligned my points, put a tiny dot of glue on the point in the 1/4in seam allowance and then pinned the rest. This worked fantastically...not perfect but a lot neater than some of my other rows. Given that I have handled the pieces for well over a year, some of the bias was definitely mis-shapen and getting the point stuck down with glue really helped with the alignment.

It is absolutely huge, coming in at about 66.5inx87in. Will nicely cover the bed but I am a bit worried re the quilting. Just sewing this together, I could feel the weight of all the material, so even without batting this is already heavy. Not sure how I am going to do this...pinning this will make this very heavy, I think. Also was looking at this today and thought that I have absolutely no idea on how to quilt this other than that it would have to be some sort of overall design. Was thinking of maybe doing Baptist fans with the rulers, however even with the Sweet 16 I would have over 2 m of pinned quilt in front of me starting at the bottom. Not sure this would work. Have my HQ group on the weekend and will have a bit of a talk about how people go about quilting this size. If all fails I can always do just wavy lines down the length.

Anyway, very pleased I finished this top!

Linking up to SEW FRESH Quilts for the Let's Bee Social Weekly Link Up

Karin

Relaxation

My Wholecloth has gone into the Festival of Quilts which will run over here from 14 -16/7/17. Looking forward to this and have taken a few days off work for this.

So now I am back to piecing and let me tell you, it shows that I have not done any piecing for approx. 5 months.
However thanks to the Accuquilt GO cutter, at least my cutting is accurate. I am actually amazed with what ease the half square triangles come together even though you are sewing them together on the bias. Much more accurate than if I would do it the normal way of sewing two squares together and then cutting it on the diagonal.

This is what I am working on...a baby quilt that needs to be finished before 4 weeks are up

Finally using that 'bug' fabric that I have had for years. Very cute! The quilt will look something like this (except for the mistake in the corner)

Very colourful...there are actually a number of ways to lay this out and I have not completely settled on one design. I am playing around with it in the EQ7 program to see which one I might like best.

In addition I am chain-piecing another quilt together while I am doing the above. I won some Moda Charm Squares at our local Guild meeting some time ago - Get a Clue with Nancy Drew. Not sure who or what this is...looks like coming from a teenage novel. To use this up I decided to just put some sashing in between.

I am planning to use this for ruler practice. The quilt should come to about lap size and I am sure, someone will like it. Thinking of doing some simple arcs in the squares, practising some in-the-ditch quilting with the ruler and something simple in the sashing. Looking forward to this.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts

Karin