A Finished Baby Quilt, and a Back to Piece

On my design wall I have the orphan blocks and taupey fabric I to use to piece the back to the blue and orange donation quilt.  I see one of the larger ones needs to be turned.   Returning to this after time off makes it a little better, though backings are still not my favorite.

 

On Saturday I finished the aqua and gray HST baby quilt, and it makes me very happy.  I really enjoyed doing the quilting on it.

The gray zigzags and the print feathers have an extra layer of batting under them for a gentle trapunto effect.

The back is gray, white, and yellow.  The gray and yellow look brown in photos, but in person it’s a good match to the front.

This quilt is 36″ x 42″, my favorite baby size, made from 168 3″ blocks.

I’m linking up to Design Wall Monday on Patchwork Times.

Sunday Stash Report 5/18/13

Two baby quilts finished this week, for a use of 6.5 yards.  There might be a little more fabric ordered to arrive next week.  Or a lot…

This week:  +0 yards, -6.5 yards
YTD:  +50.5 yards, -130.5 yards
Net stash used:  -80 yards

I’m linking up to Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times.

Color Spikes Quilt Finished

This week I finished up this baby quilt.  The top went together very quickly, of course.  I spent much more time arranging the blocks (originally I thought all the blocks would have the color spikes, but that gave me secondary patterns.) than when I finally sewed them.  Then all the straight line quilting was tedious and time-consuming, but very worth it.  It gives it a great crinkly texture and saves it from being so plain.

The object was to use this very bright print.  It looks like a hand dye, and like it’s crinkled, but it’s just a print.  A print that went with nothing.  I put it with two gray and white dotted fabrics.  I don’t have the selvage, but I think they were “Mix and Match Dots”, or something like that.

I used the rest of the bright on the back.  Using the Fairy Frost and nearly the last of my Mirrored Dot is probably what started me into the new HST zigzag quilt.

 

 

Hope you had a satisfying finish this week.

 

I’m linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, where I love Amanda Jean’s new finish.

 

 

 

WIP Wednesday: Lots of HSTs

I spent yesterday making HSTs from aqua and gray fabrics for this baby quilt.  The solid is Kona Azure, until I ran out, so there are also patches of a tire track print in with it.  The grays include Fairy Frost and Mirror Dot.  They do lend a little glitz and sheen.  Oddly, what appears to be the very shiny parts of the zigzags is a gray and white “bubble” or dot print, a plain cotton that’s not shiny at all.

Observant viewers will spot two turned patches, and numerous places where I need to redistribute the blocks so that the colors don’t clump.  I went though and fixed a lot, and left it to percolate overnight before I sew it together.  The design wall is so helpful for this, and so is a camera.  I just use my phone, and sometimes don’t even snap the picture.  Just looking at it on the little screen helps me see things.  Then I see more when I upload a photo to Twitter for the Twilters to check out.  If early quilters had had camera phones there wouldn’t be nearly so many “intentional” mistakes.

(Okay, Spellcheck, I didn’t expect you to know “Twilters”, we just made that up last month.  But “quilters”?  You thought I meant “quitters”???  C’mon!  Get with the program!)

 

I’m linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

On My Design Wall

I’m working today on this baby quilt using a very intense print that appears as a textured hand-dye.  The other fabrics are a gray with white dots and a white with gray dots.  I’m definitely still turning the blocks to decide where the “spikes” of color should go.  This will get diagonal straight line quilting.  Then I’m binding it with the bright print.

Are you playing with fabric today?

I’m linking up with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Sunday Stash Report 5/12/13

I only used half a yard this week on the Project Hope art quilt, but I didn’t buy any fabric, either, so it’s good.  I have a couple of tops made, so any time now those used numbers will explode…

 

This Week:  +0 yards,  – .5 yards

YTD:  =50.50 yards,  – 124 yards

Net Stash Used in 2013:  -73.5 yards

 

Now that you know that I can afford to buy fabric, here is some I’m drooling over, at Red Pepper Quilts, called Collage. I wouldn’t make this quilt, but I’m thinking. I really might need this.

 

How is your destashing going?

 

I’m linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times.

It Up Friday: Projects for Boston and Everywhere

This week I have two finishes, both sewn with thoughts of hope and peace for this troubled world in which we live.  I’m very pleased with the way my Project Hope Online Quilt Show contribution turned out.  We all know how hard it can be to translate a vision into fabric reality, but mine came very close.  I puttered around and put it off, but now that it’s finally finished, I like it.  See all the Project Hope quilts on Flickr.

On the day that I mentally committed to joining this project, the background fabric presented itself to me.  I opened the door to my fabric closet, and out tumbled a little, beribboned pack of fat quarters that I could not remember seeing before.  I mean, a sign is a sign, right?

Me:  When were we in Grantsville, MD?

DH:  Two years ago on the way to the Buffet concert.  There was a bridge…  We ate lunch there.

Me:  And there was a quilt shop there?

DH:  Yes!  In an old school building.

So then, yes, I did finally remember Four Seasons Stitchery and the little bundle of batiks I bought there.

I sprayed bleach to create the ray of sunlight.  Then I fused fabrics down to create the flowers, and use various threads to “paint” them.  There is also a chalk pencil involved for some of the white shading.  I quilted the sunbeam with iridescent Sulky mylar thread, the “Hope” with Sulky white rayon and the iridescent, and the background with Superior poly monofilament.  The stamens are French knots.

 

Enjoy the binding on this piece, because I will probably never do it again.  Fiddly!!

My flowers are charred and gray on the outside, but are opening in the ray of light to reveal their beautiful, hopeful interior.  Nature is always renewing itself, in spite of setbacks.  The binding is my reference to Jacquie’s work (Tall Grass Prairie Studio) here and here.  Her work is graphic and cathartic, but not very hopeful to me (these particular pieces).  So, my binding is blood red, but it does open to admit the sunlight.

 

 

Also finished is my flag for To Boston With Love.  See others at their page on Flickr.

 

I’m linking up with Finish It Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts.