Monday, February 29, 2016

February Progress of Quilty Circle 365

As you know, I have joined the Quilty 365 Quiltalong. See the link in the sidebar. Basically, the goal is to make one circle block a day to represent your day, so that at the end of the year, you will have 365 blocks.

I started my project in November, and today is Day 106.  As I finish each set of 21 blocks, I add them to the quilt top.  I thought today, instead of showing you individual blocks, I would show you how the quilt top looks so far.

The quilt is hard to photograph in one piece, so I took pictures of sections.


Starting from the left and working my day down. It was a windy day, and I decided to hold the quilt down with two books from the library.  They did a good job making sure that the quilt did not fly away, but it ends did keep flapping up.




 It is strange that most of the serious rule breaking happened in Week 3 of each three week period - the blocks that caused adjustments in other blocks to make them fit.  In the top row, the embroidered one is bigger than the others,  row 3 saw the supersized block , and row five saw the double block and the skinny block.  You can see all the squares don't line up nicely with each other as some blocks were sashed,  resized to fit, or eased in.

I guess this is appropriate. The left side tells you what the rules are, and the right side breaks them.  I will be breaking the rules on the left and center sides soon enough though.



 I'm loving my new porch.  It is a convenient way to take photographs outdoors even if the shadows from the railing gets in the pictures.  It will be painted or sealed this summer. Right now, I'm thinking about painting all but the floor white, but haven't decided what to do with the floor yet.


To get the story behind each block, click on the Quilty Project 365 label below this post.

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Sunday, February 28, 2016

End of February Recap

For the month of February, I had two quilting goals.  One was to meet my one monthly goal (OMG) of piecing the blocks together of my rail fence quilt.  The other was to keep up with the Quilty 365 project.  I have met both of those goals.  Here's the proof.

One Monthly Goal: Rail Fence


For the Cultural Fusion Rail Fence, here's the pieced top.


I know I've shown it to you earlier this month. I don't want to start quilting this one yet, because I already have a sandwiched quilt that needs to be finished first. The Daisies Chickenpox quilt, which has been sandwiched and ready to quilt since December 2013. Yikes! Wasn't that just yesterday?  I have two sandwiched quilts, and I decided that instead of buying more safety pins or making do with the ones I do have available, I would finish quilting one of the quilts that are holding my safety pins for ransom for March's One Monthly Goal.

Quilty 365: Rule Breaking Quilt


The second goal was the circles. I showed you earlier in the week that I had caught up with making 100 circles in 100 days. Today, I want to show you more circles. Today is Day 105 so I should have 5 more circles to show you, but I should have 6 more for a true end of the month recap.

Blocks 101 and 102

I saw a quilt made of drunkard path blocks to represent sunrise or sunset, and thought I should use that in my quilt.

 Block 103

This skinny block is only one inch wide finished.Who said all blocks have to be square? I didn't sew the circles individually but made a grid pattern to secure the circles.

 Block 104


The pattern for this block comes from the Splendid Sampler quiltalong.  I reduced the pattern to fit the size of this block.  This block doesn't do the pattern justice.  I highly recommend looking into this quilt-along.  The Facebook page shows all sorts of color choices.  Many quilters have also added applique and embroidery to their blocks.  The creativity is amazing.  It is a good lesson on how to take a pattern and putting your own spin on it.

I know there are a lot of Quilt-Alongs this year, and I found a great resource that provides a list of the 2016 Quilt-Alongs and shows you what they each look like.

Block 105


These are scallops made the lazy way.  This block is made to commemorate some new fabric I purchased from Connecting Threads.  I have been feeling guilty about my fabric purchases this year and last because I've probably bought more in this time period than the previous decade. I'm not used to buying a lot of fabric at any one time without having a purpose for it, but when you buy online, you have to buy enough to get the free shipping!

 I also had a hard time using this in a block, but I made myself do it.  It's only two pieces from a charm pack and this quilt is worthy of using new fabric!

This block is very thick because of the layers of fabric and fusible.  I decided not to try to follow the curves when sewing this down because of all the applique blocks I still need to sew.  Those will need more precise work.

 Block 106


I was originally planning on making a large circle with two smaller circles like this in a horizontal setting, but once I had them cut up and ready to place, I found I liked the diagonal placement better.

I now have enough blocks to make a row.  I will add these to the quilt top and show you tomorrow.

 Blocks 107 and 108

These are the scraps from Blocks 101 and 102. It didn't seem right not to go ahead and sew these too.  I didn't want to put them side by side with those other blocks so I waited to make these.  I debated turning these around to make a big four block square, but have decided to leave each as a separate pair.

I know I am making more blocks than I need to.  I am breaking the rule that you can't sew ahead of schedule!  With spring coming, I will be entering a busy season at work, and with yard work, I will be much busier.  I feel better getting a few circles ready ahead of time.  It will mean fewer catch-up blocks further down the line.

Blocks 109, 110, 111 and 112

This one gets four block numbers because it is an extra large block.  I still need to sew the applique down. This one is inspired by the 1857 quilt and uses the fabric from that quilt (I bought less than I need for that quilt and I am using up the fabric before they are truly scraps!)

The pattern for this block is from a Quilt-along at Legends and Lace. Click on the block in the sidebar.  There are several free patterns.  I really, really like the way the background works with the applique in this piece, and am debating whether I should add busier backgrounds to the 1857 Quilt.

1857 Quilt



Speaking of the 1857 Quilt, I have prepared the last block.  I need to sew down the applique for all of the blocks for this quilt.  Besides being boring, the white background makes the blocks hard to photograph.  This block uses the same beautiful fabrics as the last picture I showed you of the Rule Breaking Quilt, but they don't look nearly as good in the pictures for this quilt.

Linked to:
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Thursday, February 25, 2016

1857 Album Quilt

I've been talking about the 1857 Album Quilt for a while, but I haven't shown you any of it yet.  The pattern is free from Sentimental Stitches as a 2016 quilt-along.  I've always wanted to do an album quilt, and I don't know what it is about this quilt that made me decide this is the one, besides the fact that the pattern was free, and it is hard to resist so many quilt-alongs.  I really like the beautiful variety of images in this quilt. There are 64 blocks in the quilt.

I sneakily talked about buying fabric - it is very rare for me to buy fabric specifically for a quilt. I tried to retain the mood of the quilt, but will not be using reproduction fabrics. Some of these are from a charm pack for variety, and others are from yardage.  I washed, dried, and pressed the fabric, something that is probably even more rare for me than buying fabric!  I traced shapes onto fusible, pressed them to fabric and then cut out the shapes out of  the fabric.

Yesterday, I was finally able to arrange the shapes onto the background and can show them to you. These pictures don't do the blocks justice - still winter and dark.  I will use a machine buttonhole stitch to secure the applique. I am showing them with the pattern so I could keep track of the block numbers.





 Forgot to reverse the pattern - you were right Allie!



I did press these blocks but it certainly doesn't look like it. Do I need a new iron?

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

100 Circles for 100 Days

Yesterday, I showed you some circles up to 87. Today is Day 100, and it was my hope to catch up and have 100 circles made to commemorate the milestone of 100 days. Let's see if I was successful.

The photos turned out to load out of order so some of my explanation will make more sense as you see the other circles in this batch.

Circle 88 

This circle came much later in the batch, when I realized that most of the colors I had used were not primary colors, and since I started with them, I wanted to make sure I maintained continuity with using red.  I had also realized earlier that I had not been including other shapes besides circles very much so I used triangles and squares here as well.


Circle 89 

This simple block breaks a lot of rules. I used a selvage here. I usually don't use selvages so this breaks that rule.  I also had the circle be the same fabric as the background, and I don't think I've done that in this quilt.  I also didn't sew down the square and left the ends loose.  When I sew this square to the others, the ends will extend into other blocks. Since all the other blocks are self contained, this breaks that rule.


Circle 90 

I pieced the X on this one so all the circles in this batch wouldn't be applique circles. The background fabric is also right side down because I wanted a lighter yellow.


Circle 91 

This one uses leftovers of Circle 95 which was made first. The circles made a square!


Circle 92 

This is a leftover of circle 96. It uses an embroidery stitch. The others are too neat and I wanted a messy one in the bunch.


Circle 93

I've been wanting to make a bulls eye block, and I know this one isn't one exactly, but I didn't feel like making four blocks and only being able to use one quarter of all of them, at least not  now when I am working under a deadline. This is the first one in the batch where I only sewed down the center and left the edges free.


Circle 94 

I saw a circle in a corner on another blog, and realized that all of my circles are relatively centered, so I had to break a rule I didn't know I had!


Circle 95 

The circles are cut out of a square. One of the 1857 blocks uses this idea.


Circle 96 

I wanted to use a whole circle, and got this fabric from my stash. I want to use mostly scraps for this quilt, but this is a rule breaking quilt after all. The fabric does all the work here.  I just cut out a circle and slapped it on the background.


Circle 97 

This is another attempt to use primary colors. I haven't used blue and green for a while.


Circle 98 

This uses scraps from Circle 99.  I wanted another messy one and really like the asterisk circle.


Circle 99 

 I've been using brown a lot as my dark background and wanted to use something different.  The plain circle looked boring so I decided to add the purple scrap.


Circle 100 

Woo hoo! I did it! I made 100 circles in 100 days.  This one uses other shapes in addition to the circle, and uses green.

Scenic Route

As a present for you for sticking with me for 100 days, I also want to show you the finished rail fence quilt.  When I pieced it, I was thinking of roads, since I pieced the dark strips together. When I was making it, I thought about adding pieces on the side so the road would be continuous but decided against it.


I quilted a small circle around that drop that showed up on its own, and using other circular things from around the house to add more circles randomly in the quilt. I used a washable marker to mark the lines and then when I was done, became worried that it might not wash out.



You can see that the marker was able to wash out.  I rinsed it in cold water, following Allie's suggestion to avoid detergent.  There was one fabric that didn't want to let go of the dye, but it washed out also.I did get a chuckle out of the thought that I could have circles in my circle quilt that weren't actually in the quilt.


This little doggie wanted to model the quilt.


The back uses a cute dog fabric playing in the yard.  I appliqued a square on the left as a label.


In retrospect, I do think that this quilt could represent road trips and getting lost and going around in circles.  The key is to just relax and take the time to enjoy the scenery.  I am going to call it Scenic Route.



It was a beautiful sunny day outside again, and even though the doggie wants a nap, I thoroughly enjoyed making circles today and showing you Scenic Route.

Linked to:
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Monday, February 22, 2016

Circles 79 - 87

Here's another batch of circles for the Quilty 365 Circle project. Mine is currently named The Rule Breaking Quilt.

 Circle 79

I already showed you Circle 78 which is on the left. It uses leftovers from the Adrinka quilt.
Circle 79 is on the right. An apple is not quite round, but I thought it was close enough. It was a scrap of fabric I picked up to trim and decided to turn into a circle instead.

 Circle 80

 I used a pieced background because I wanted something different that didn't look I made these batches at a time.  I was piecing it as a leader and ender while quilting the leftover rails quilt, which meant that this one finished before the other ones that were being prepped. I think I am going to choose the arrangement in the quilt for this batch, but I have to number them to show you.


Circle 81

PBS (Create TV) had a six hour marathon where they showed quilting shows. My allergies were really bad, so I couldn't do much work but it did give me a good excuse to watch all of them.

I'm pretty sure that all the shows were reruns but since I don't get up at 6am to watch tv, I had only seen a couple of them which had aired at more reasonable times.  It was nice to put faces and personalities to some of the names I had seen on the internet.

One of the techniques they presented on Quilting Arts was layering the fabrics, sewing circles, and cutting the layers.  Then using machine embroidery to embellish.

 Here is me butchering this technique. I put the layers in an incorrect order(I think the background goes in the back  not the front)  and cut the black line way too skinny so it is hard to see, but I like the way it looks here.

 Circle 82

The reason my dining table is not rid of scraps that need to be trimmed for scrap vortex is that I keep bringing more downstairs.  This is one I brought downstairs. I want to keep making plain circles because that is absolutely allowed and I don't want people to forget that. I like that this one is dark and sedate. I used embroidery stitches around it which you can't see very well in the picture, but it will be a nice reward for people who bother to take the time to look at the individual circles.

 Circle 83

 Another do, using a small scrap from the railfence quilt.  This one makes me hungry for All Sorts candy.

 Circle 84

One of the scraps I brought downstairs was a bag of leftovers from the Daisies Do Tell quilt. (That quilt is sandwiched and holding my safety pins for ransom.)  The scraps are very tiny, and only some of them have fusible on the back of them.  I had the fusible out anyway as I am tracing the blocks for the 1857 quilt, so it was an easy decision to make these.

 Circle 85

This one uses leftovers of a circle block which uses leftovers from the rail fence leftovers which uses leftovers of the rail fence quilt. These pieces already had fusible on them so it was a simple matter of arranging them and sewing them down.

 Circle 86

These are more leftovers from the Daisies Do Tell.  I wanted to make a circle out of shapes that were not circular.

Circle 87

The glasses were supposed to be the circular part, but they didn't turn out as circular as I wanted, and the background fabric wasn't flat enough to use so I cut it out and appliqued it on a new background. This one one represents my new pair of glasses, although they don't look like that.


I have also quilted circles on my leftover rail fence quilt.  I used a green washable marker to draw the circles and am hoping that it washes out.  Poor Zeus was so confused when I brought out different sizes of  plates but no food!  Yesterday with my allergies, I chose a sedate green for the binding, but today I cut out a bright orange. I want to hurry and bind it so I can get it washed before the marker becomes permanent.

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