Design Wall Monday

It's been a long time since I posted, not because I haven't been working on anything quilty but because I have been too busy and distracted. I do have exciting news: the quilt I submitted to the Sonoma County Fair was awarded a blue ribbon!

 

Sorry for the poor quality photo. They hang the quilts from the rafters making photos difficult. The same quilt was also awarded a blue ribbon at the Sonoma Marin Fair last month. I also received an offer to purchase it but I'm not sure I'm ready to part with it. On the other hand, I could always make another!

This is on my design wall today. The upper left is the center medallion of my Star of Istanbul project I have been working on for three years. It's all hand sewn using the English paper piecing method. I had made almost 100 rosettes and realized I needed work out the details of the center before continuing. The orange hexagons are one inch along the edge.

The lower right is a sample block from a pattern called Log Cabin Cutouts by Judy Niemeyer. It's designed to use the leftovers from another pattern called Cabin Fever. The outer circle is the leftover part. I'm thinking of saving this project for the Ranch Hand's Retreat in October.

Design Wall Monday

I accomplished a lot of quilt related work the last 12 days I was on vacation. I quilted nine charity quilts, two of my own, put binding on six quilts and made one baby quilt top, pictured below.

This is a block called Star Cluster, from Judy Martin's website. I super sized it so each star is 16 inches across. The whole top is about 38 inches square. I know two women about to become grandmothers and three women about to have babies so I ran out of small quilts to give away and had to whip this one up.

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.

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.

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.

Design Wall Monday

This is the first Monday of two weeks of vacation from work! I should clarify that I'm on vacation from my day job. I will be working on customer quilts during the next two weeks. Here's what's on the wall today, the last corner of my latest quilt.

This is a photo I took a couple of days ago. I should have this finished today. Then I have to decide about the borders. It's about 85" square right now and I need it to be closer to 100" but I don't want to just slap on giant borders. I also need to think of a name for it!

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

Design Wall Monday



I worked on this quilt more over the holiday. These pictures don't really do it justice. Then I started a tree skirt for my daughter.

 



See more design walls on Judy's blog.

Design Wall Monday

This is the first new project in quite a while. I'm making this quilt for a friend who lost her home in a fire last year. The pattern is based on an antique quilt shown in the February 2013 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. The original quilt was done in yellow and white. When I look at the photos, I see overlapping squares. I never do anything the easy way so I'll be making each square with different fabric.

Visit Judy's blog for more desigh walls.