Design Wall Monday

I meant to write this post Friday. Where did the last three days go? In my defense, I did get a lot done over the weekend. I prepped quilts for the actual quilting. This is one of them:

I whipped this up from the leftovers of the next quilt. I didn't want to make enough blocks to make the other quilt larger but I didn't want to throw them away either. A lot of work went into making those circles! I only had to make two more blocks and the setting triangles to finish. I made the back from leftovers too and now it's ready to quilt.

This is ready to quilt as soon as I purchase fabric for the back. I started working on this five years ago. It feels good to be finished! I was surprised to see my dog, Roxy, in the photo. She's afraid of the camera. I think it's the noise that bothers her. Now that she's an old lady and loosing her hearing she isn't so sensitive.

Design Wall Monday

I accomplished quite a bit of quilting being on vacation the last 5 days. I finished all 12 of the drunkard's path blocks and discovered I don't have enough quite fabric to finish. I put it away until I have time to see if I can find more and I took out this old project. It's a drunkard's path variation called Millwheel. The first time I posted about it was September 2010.

Cross the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along

I work for the local school district and we take Wednesday as a holiday, too. I sewed ALL day and was able to finish all the blocks!

Then I did some calculations and I don't have enough fabric left to finish this quilt the way I originally planned. I have two choices: Find more fabric or change my plan. I bought the fabric at Dharma Trading so I will see if I can find the same PFD fabric or an acceptable replacement. Back in the box this goes until I have time for that. In the meantime, I have another similar project that has been languishing in a box. This is a drunkard's path variation called Millwheel.

I looked over my notes which I could hardly make heads or tales of so I decided to see how large it would be with the blocks I have already made. It looks like it will be lap size.

Design Wall Monday

My friend, Nancy, was visiting today. After we had brunch we sewed all afternoon, walked dogs, had dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant and sewed late into the night. She has to drive home to Oregon tomorrow so we had to squeeze a lot in. I finished three of these blocks today. The other two I did last week.

For more design walls, visit Judy's blog.

Cross the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along

Back in 2009 I collected Drunkard's Path block variations and arranged them as a BOM for a group of quilting friends.

My BOM Plan

I even hand dyed half yards of kona cotton especially for this project.

Then I made two blocks and lost interest. My project has languished in a box for almost 5 years.

When I saw Vicki Welsh's post about her Cross the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along it reminded me about this unfinished project. It took me a few weeks to get back in the mood to work on it. This week I planned my color placement and cut all the pieces.

Design Wall

Last night I sewed a few test units to remind myself how to sew curves.

I keep thinking I should be putting this together in a different way, making it more artsy or sophisticated, therefore more complicated. I am forcing myself to stick with my original plan. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, just has to be finished.

What do you do with the leftovers from drunkard's path blocks?

I'll probably work the yardage into the border. I might use the quarter circles in another project........

Design Wall Monday

I worked on the giant dahlia this weekend and got the main piecing finished. Next I need to applique it to  a background, put a small circle over the center and decide on borders.

For more design walls, visit Judy's blog.

Design Wall Monday

After I finished my first One Block Wonder, I immediately began another and bought fabric for two more. I happened to have 10 yards of this fabric:

I found it in the sale bin at my LQS. My friend, the owner, said it wasn't selling. I was surprised since I think it's beautiful! I was going to put it on the back of another quilt but I think this is a much better use.

This is only the upper half as the long arm is in the way. I will have to slide it out of the way to work. It will take a few weeks of rearranging. I'm going for the look of a meadow and I love it so far! The small white triangle is a slip of paper to mark the center. I had to put up a temporary design wall since my usual one is too small.

This is my first OBW finished:

I didn't buy enough fabric for the borders so I used the sunflowers. It's another print from the same line. Here's a closeup of some of the blocks. I love the little bird heads.

This is the original fabric:

For more design walls, visit Judy's blog.

Design Wall Monday

Finally, something new! My first one block wonder. I am working on this at the Ranch Hands Retreat.

I am finished with the table runners and the wedding was last Saturday. Here's a pic of one of the tables at the reception.

Design Wall Monday

Not many changes, just more progress with the table runners. Two more ready for quilting.

  

This photo shows my process: first I match up the fabrics and tie them into bundles. Then I sew the strip sets. I don't cut the pieces until I'm ready to sew them to avoid fraying, stitches pulling out or pieces getting lost.

I had to buy a new refrigerator and in order to get the old fridge out I had to remove the shelves in the hallway that hold my quilting thread. Since I had it spread out on the table, I took a photo. That is about 200 spools.

Visit Judy's blog for more design walls.

Design Wall Monday

A lot has happened in the last week. First, the design wall:

I'm still working on matching up the "sand" strips for the wedding table runners. I did get one completely finished. The final measurements are 13" x 40".

My friend, Chris, snapped this photo while she was helping me on Saturday.

The Sonoma Marin Fair was this past week and while I knew my entry won an award, I didn't see it until this afternoon. Danielle Couch pieced this and I quilted it. We entered it in the group category and won first place. We also won the Joyce Gross Award of Excellence, sponsored by the Petaluma Quilt Guild. Joyce was a well-known quilt historian and a member of our guild.

To see more design walls, visit Judy's blog.

Design Wall Monday

I spent the weekend cutting and matching fabric for the wedding table runners. I went a little crazy. I have 27 sets so far and I only need 17. I will probably make them all and give the extras as gifts.

This is the final design:

I used two fewer colors and left off the two outside rows on each side. This makes them about 13" x 40". This size fits the table better and takes less time to make.

Design Wall Monday

Finally something new! This is a prototype of the table runner I will be making for my daughter's wedding. The wedding theme is the beach so I was trying for a "surf and sand" feel. I think I nailed it! They are a little big. I have never done bargello-style before so I followed the instructions exactly. I think the final product will need to be narrower to fit the tables better. The second picture shows it on my work table which I think is about the same size as the reception hall tables. Now to make 20 more!

 

Design Wall Monday

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. I really should write my posts Sunday evening. Once Monday comes and I have to go back to work, I forget.

This is still on the wall but I have made some decisions about it. I was unhappy about how bright the large outer petals are. It's even more annoying in person. A comment was made that it looked fine. My only "rule" in quilting is that if something bothers me, it must be corrected. I considered making this smaller and leaving off that row. A few weeks after the original post I had a dream that I finished this in it's original size, with different red fabric. That seemed like a sign I should finish. So I headed down to the LQS and purchased a different red but I haven't had time to work on this. I've been to the spring quilt retreat, had lots of customer quilts, started my daughter's wedding quilt and I am currently quilting my Easy Street for a show in early June. I probably won't get back to this until after the show.

Design Wall Monday

The giant dahlia is back on the design wall. I had to take it down to work on a project I can't show yet. Now that I have the next row of red added, the fabric looks too light. I don't like it enough that it needs to be changed. I have two choices, find a replacement fabric or leave off the row entirely and make a smaller quilt. I will have to think about it for a few days.

 

Now a sneak peek of my next project, my daughter's wedding quilt:

 

This is a variation of Double Wedding Ring called Pickledish. I hoped to get 120 of these done by the time I went to the quilt retreat at the end of the month but I forgot how much I hate paper piecing. It took me two hours and three pieces of paper to finish one! The next one only took one hour, but that's still too much time. A fellow quilter gave me some tips Friday night so hopefully this will go faster. I need to have them finished so I can put the top together at the retreat.



Design Wall Monday

I started my quilt for the  red and white challenge hosted by SewCalGal. . I've been wanting to make a giant dahlia for a long time. I was fortunate to find the Marti Michell templates on a cast off table as they are quite expensive. They are well made and the pieces are fitting together perfectly. I so rarely use red in my quilts I had to buy fabric for this project. I'm not sure why I feel compelled to make a red and white quilt. There are other projects I should be working on but this one was speaking to me.

See more design walls over at Judy's blog.

Design Wall Monday

I actually took this picture a few weeks ago, when I finished this for Judy's January Scrappy Challenge. I finished this quickly for two reasons: I really like this block and I was able to reuse some half square triangle units leftover from another project.

For those of you who find "scrappy" a challenge, try this: make each block with different fabrics, with the same fabrics for the individual units. I call it "controlled scrappy" and I got the idea from a Judy Martin book years ago.

I'll get this quilted as soon as I get my longarm fixed. One of the switches is broken and since I'm not sure which one, I'm going to have all 4 replaced. That should be done this week.

For more design walls, check out Judy's blog.

Design Wall Monday

I took vacation time over the holidays and worked on this project. I haven't worked on it for several months. In fact, it had been so long I didn't set my sewing machine up correctly and sewed a bunch of squares with the seam allowance too wide. So I had to rip and begin again. My advice to you all out in blogland is don't leave your project so long you forget what you are doing! So now I'm back on track and I am happy to report that the top part of this photo is the edge of the quilt!

The lower part is actually five sections pinned on top of each other. Next I will sew all the sections together and begin working towards the other edge, on the right. I will make this quilt as wide as I can with the remaining red fabric. I'll have to calculate how many red squares I'll need. Hopefully it will end up 97" x 97".

For more design walls, visit Judy's blog at patchworktimes.com.