Designing Quilts

Last time, I showed some layout options for the Fourth Rail quilt.  Most of my readers and I liked the first option. That one required me to make additional blocks. So I played with the first option, turning all the blocks around so that what was out is in and what was in is out.

I had a hard time seeing it the whole pattern, even with a picture, and realize that I need to make sure there is lots of contrast in the blocks in the center and the corners so the design is easier to see. I might have placed some of the blocks incorrectly, I'm not sure. The center is supposed to be "light" with rings around it.

Then Tanya said something about a spiral, which sounded really interesting, so I laid out the blocks again, this time in a spiral pattern. It doesn't really look like a spiral (unless I make additional blocks which round out the corners).  I think this is the same layout as I showed before, except for the center, but I really like this better, and I will not have to make any more blocks. To me, it looks like a three rail fence with a dark sashing.  I was hoping to be able to join these blocks without a design wall, but I think I will need to plan it out more to make sure there is enough contrast and the colors are balanced.

What do you think? Are the corners okay as is, or do you think I should make "light" rails with dark corners so the turns show better? Then they would look like concentric circles.

I am going to try seeing what it looks like when the darks in the corners are oriented next to other darks. That will make the corners bolder, but may show the spiral. Stay tuned!

In other news, I sewed some ATC holder rows together, and I am so tickled at the secondary pattern that is created! I think this will make a striking quilt even without any ATCs in them. (The dark shadows make it look badly sewn, but I just haven't pressed it yet.)

Here it looks with some ATCs in them. Looks good to me! Most of these cards have a vertical layout, but I am planning horizontal for this quilt.

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Let's Be Social
Off the Wall Friday

Next!

You probably didn't hear the Blockmaker say "next" because she mumbled it under her breath, but all those quilts waiting in the disorderly line noticed a sudden shift in their position.  The blocks for Fourth Rail are finished, and you can see the bottom of the shoe box!  I would show you the empty box, but it is a visual that only the Blockmaker would love. Since "make blocks" is a column in the progress chart, and I am able to check it off, the progress rate has moved up. The Fourth Rail blocks now move to the next station, where the Block Put-together-er is going to arrange and rearrange them to decide on a layout.

In the meantime, the next quilt scurried up to the Blockmaker's counter before anyone else noticed. This quilt happened to be ATC Holder, which is a horrible name for the quilt, but it is its name, so what can we do?  There was a spool of whitish thread in the box, and more blocks are now being made. This is a very calm, sedate block compared to the wild and scrappy Fourth Rail. This one requires precise piecing (those black cornerstones finish at half an inch) and only use three fabrics. This is a scary prospect that requires the right amount of fabric to finish the whole quilt. It looks pretty boring, but I hope to make it up in volume!

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Put Your Foot Down

WIP Inventory

Having finished a couple of small quilts, I decided to take inventory of my current works in progress and their current status.  I am hoping that this will help me see that progress is being made during the spring and summer slowdown. These are just the quilts I have been working on in the last few months, and not the other unfinished projects that are stored away.

Some people might be overwhelmed by the number of projects listed here, but I really enjoy getting to choose which project I want to work on. Since they are not standing in a straight line, being worked on one at a time, in order, when progress is made on one quilt, the whole group is making progress.

Here they are in no particular order.

 

Drunkard's Path

Ethnic Drunkard's Path was started in August 2003 and it is the closest to completion. It is already basted and a lot of the dark purple and blue spaces have been quilted.  I need to finish quilting it and bind it.  It is a fairly big quilt -  a big lap quilt. 

 

Colonial Bricks

 

Colonial Bricks was started September 2018. It has been pieced and the backing and binding fabric has been chosen and cut. The backing needs to be wider, so I am piecing the leftovers to insert to make the backing wider.

 

Sunlight in Winter

 

Sunlight in Winter was started December 2018. I am making the blocks one half yard of yellow fabric at a time. I used up half a yard of the butterfly fabric, and half a yard of the grunge fabric. I had a whole yard of the grunge fabric and since it is the darkest yellow, I decided to use that half yard to make the squares because I think the squares will show the pattern and it is my darkest yellow.  All of the yellow fabrics are very similar. I like that look but will consider adding more patterned yellows when I am closer to completion. I will not make the whole blocks until all of these subblocks are done.

 

Uncommon and Unexpected

 

Uncommon and Unexpected was started February 2019 as a part of a quilt along.  One of the things I really liked about the original quilt is how the cornerstones made the sashing look like circle dancing around the squares, and my eye moved from one overlapping circle to another.  My quilt does that, but the diagonally placed squares, and the striped fabric, and the small number of blocks stop the eye from bouncing too easily at the circles.  I want to add more blocks to help show more of that movement. Some of the border has been pieced but I am still thinking about how I want to accomplish that.

 

ATC Holder

 

ATC Holder was started November 2018. It doesn't look like a lot of progress has been made on this, but there has been.  All of those photo corners have been cut and pressed. I think that was the hardest part.  I need to strip piece the cornerstones and once I do that, I think I will be able to piece this pretty quickly. There isn't any decision making left on this quilt until the center has been pieced. It is deliberately plain to let the ATCs stand out.

 

Circles 365

 

Circle 365 was started November 2015, and I have been sporadically working on this quilt since then. I am putting the circles together into the quilt top when I have enough, and it is 2/3rd done. The quilt is getting pretty big now so I have decided not to take it out since my blog readers have seen this quilt grow from time to time.

 

Fourth Rail

 

Fourth Rail was started January 2019 as a leader / ender to use up scraps.  The layout has not been decided but this one looks pretty interesting to me. I have a lot of pieces already cut so it is just a matter of sewing them together.

 

Stitchery 

You probably forgot about this stitchery, but it is pretty close to completion. It's been a while since I worked on it. The first time I mentioned it on my blog was August 2018, so it was started about then, but I  bought the kit from the thrift store a long time before that. It is made with yarn.

 

Seiring Genealogy Book

 

I don't think I have shown you this genealogy book, but I started it shortly after I finished the Priest Genealogy Book in December 2017. I have the pages all ready and all the genealogy information has been printed. I need to make the cover, add the genealogy printouts to the pages and embellish the pages a bit more. The cookie box is going to be used in the quilted cover to give it more stability.

 

Cultural Fusion Rail Fence

I showed the Cultural Fusion Rail Fence as part of the Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop. It was started November 2015.  The quilt top is done and the backing and binding fabric has been chosen.

 

Be a Diamond

I will be taking a part of this blog hop. My day is April 25. I want to keep it simple so this will be my April mini of the month.

 Bunny Parade

I am giving you a sneak preview of this quilt which I finished yesterday. This is a free pattern from Moda Bakeshop called Bunny Quartet. The designer of the pattern also provided a tutorial for a carrot on her blog, which I used as you can tell from the photo.  So my bunnies are a trio and not a quartet. She changed the name to Easter Parade, but since I have Elephant Parade quilt in the works, I am going to call it Bunny Parade.

Since it is a bunny quilt, I will show the whole thing to you on Easter. Since the diamond quilt will be my April mini of the month, Bunny Parade is my May mini of the month, so I will also show it to you again in May as a reminder. I don't want you to get tired of it so I am only giving you a preview now.  I know from personal experience that if you buy a Christmas present in July, it still counts as a Christmas present, even if you can't wait and give it to the recipient in July.

 

Quilt Statistics

 Since I pulled up my spreadsheet to record the finish of the bunny quilt and give you the start date for all these quilts, let's talk about the stats, shall we?  I have started 127 quilts and have finished 99 quilts, which is a 78% completion rate.

It takes me an average of 242 days to complete a quilt. This number has gone down, mostly because of all the mini quilts I have been making lately.  A lot of my quilts get done much quicker than 242 days, but I also tend to pick up projects that needed an incubation period. When I get an old UFO completed, that average number of days to completion goes up, but that won't stop me from working on my UFOs. The stats are there to record my progress, not to tell me what to do.

 

15 Minutes to Stitch: Week 11

I spent this week making the Bunny Parade quilt. I also took inventory of all of my works in process.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week: 7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year: 76 out of 76 sessions
Success Rate: 100%

I checked my results from last year, and I was at 100% on March 18th, so I am on track for this year.  The following week, the 25th, I sewed 2 out of 7 days. I'll see if I can beat that this year. It doesn't sound like a high bar to reach.

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch
What I Made on Monday Yes I did make all of these today, why do you ask?
Peacock Party

15 Minutes to Stitch 2019

My original plan was to change my blog posts to Monday so I can show you 7 days of stitching this week, but Sundays are really a better day to do this, both for me, and for the other people on this challenge, so here goes this week's numbers.

 

15 Minute to Stitch Challenge: 

This week, I spent a lot of time cutting up pieces - for Sunlight in Winter and for the ATC holder. Earlier in the week, I also did some quilting on the drunkard path quilt. Today, I worked on a pieced border for the rail fence quilt so I can be finished in February. Once again, I am jumping back and forth from the precise piecing of the first two quilts into the improv rail fence.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  6 out of 6
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  6 out of 6 sessions
Success Rate: 100%

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

Another Sunny Winter Day

It was another pretty day today and the sun was out.  Today, I appreciate the sun and the birds.

I spent time cutting out more fabric - yellow and black.  I'm not used to doing this much cutting at a time, but the sun is out so I don't mind. It will make the sewing part quicker.

I also appreciate the library for the friendly staff, and all the inspiration, knowledge, and pretty pictures I can find in their books.

Final 15 Minutes to Stitch of 2018

I waited an extra day to post the 15 Minutes to Stitch Recap so that I could incorporate today and finish out the year.

The settings of my blog somehow changed and the font looks smaller and the margins look bigger. When I tried to change the settings, the settings that show up in the editing process don't look like what the blog actually looks like. I have made the settings super big in the editing process, and hope it doesn't look as huge on your screen. Please let me know how it looks to you.

 

15 Minutes to Stitch

This week,  I have been quilting the Drunkard Path quilt. I sketched out a meandering plan and showed the picture of the plan to my sewing machine, since I learned that I had to do that last time.  But it is a complicated meander - the finish of one S curve is supposed to be the start of the next one, and mostly it isn't working, but hopefully it isn't working consistently enough to look okay.

Since I don't want to change the thread for piecing, because my last sewing machine told me not to mess with anything when things are working, and because I don't want to use up my purple thread and don't want to use anything but white for the new quilts, I have just been cutting and pressing more pieces to get them ready. The black and white is for the ATC Holder and the yellow is for the Sunshine in Winter quilt. I like how the colors go so well with the kantha quilt I bought this month.  I don't know which came first, but apparently this is my mood right now.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  8 out of 8 (to incorporate the final day of the year)
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  312 out of 365 sessions
Success Rate: 85%

Linked to:

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 52. Thank you so much Kate for encouraging me every week.

I will continue stitching every day and start a new count for the new year.

Day 24: 31 Day Blog Challenge

I did a test run with the fabrics I will be using to see if I can add the sashing and the corner triangles at the same time.  Yes it stays together very well with just pressure from my fingers and does not need any basting.  The corners are small but I think they will work just fine to show the ATC without covering it up too much.

Random picture of the day: ferret.  I picked it because it is red and green with a touch of yellow and white.

I hope you  have a very Happy Christmas Eve and an extraordinary, Merry Christmas!

Day 22: Quilts Floating in my Head

Random picture of the day: Piano flowerpot

I have so many ideas floating in my head about quilts I want to make. I usually do not write them down, because every day a bunch of new ideas come in and crowd some of the other ones out.  But it is the end of the year, and you are supposed to come up with lists, especially if you are doing a blog challenge to write every day. 

So here are some random ideas floating in my head of things to do for the rest of 2018 and 2019:

1.  Finish the drunkard path quilt. Top is already pieced, and I basted it this week, so progress is being made.

2.  Move other UFOs along to a finished state.  Here are the ones I am thinking of at this point.

• a. trip around the world needs quilting. I had high hopes of adding some kind of applique border, but it might be okay to quilt without fancy borders. I haven't seen the quilt in a long time so I don't know for sure. I know it does have wide borders.  Would a TATW look good with scalloped borders?
• a rail fence from the book Cultural Fusion. It is an awkward size - too big to be a small quilt that fits on the bulletin board and too small to be a wall hanging that fits on my hangers above my couches. The center is made with warm colors. I think I can make the border with cool colors and that will make it look like I did it on purpose and not like I ran out of fabric. Yes I know this quilt was on the list for 2016 and 2017 and 2018.
  
   

3.  Work on the ATC holder.  I've figured out I need many more triangle pieces and was thinking of starting the sewing to see how bad it is before I cut any more. My original plan (dare I say it?), is a 12 x 12 grid, which means 144 spaces, which means 576 triangles.   I am hoping I can find a way to sew on the corners and the sashing at the same time without basting.  I will get some white thread so I can get started and see how bad it is. I reserve the right to limit quantities.

4.  Make a scrap quilt, or two or three. Or a hundred.  I have to reduce the boxes of scraps.  They are contained, but there are too many containers. Instead of getting rid of the scraps, my goal is to sew them up and justify their existence. I have lots of ideas for scrap quilts but I want to keep it simple. Right now I am thinking of another rail fence. I made one with three rails, so maybe one with four rails would be different but still easy.

5. Here's another dare I say it?  I want to make the Mosaic quilt.  The reason I don't want to put that in the scrap quilt list is that this quilt has small triangles, and while the simple block is really perfect for scrap quilts, I think I will have trouble finishing it if I have to cut out so many little pieces, trim triangles, sew them back together over and over again.  I like quilts with repetition, but I tend to get whiney when I make them. So to spare you, I am thinking of making it with yardage.  I am thinking about the impulse buy of yellow fabrics I just bought.  Maybe if I use them in the Mosaic quilt, I can justify their existence too.  . Right now, I am thinking of a two color quilt - a yellow and white one. I was really taken with the blog name Sunshine in Winter, and I think a yellow and white quilt with that name is something I need to have.  I don't know if using the same colors will get monotonous for me.  I am going to make a couple of sample blocks to see.  I have to get some white thread first. I might make the blocks smaller, or use bigger pieces to make the quilt more manageable. I haven't decided yet.

6. Lorna Mahon is going to start a Harry Potter quiltalong which is very tempting. And Bonnie Hunter's mystery is tempting. And retroactively Temucula Quilt's mystery quilt is worth making.

7. Red and white quilts. I want to have a collection of red and white quilts I've made. I keep seeing them in my bloglovin' feed and I can only resist so long.

Million Little Squares on the Ironing Board

Million Little Squares on the Ironing Board
Million Little Squares
Pick One Up
Fold it in Half
Smash it down with an iron
Nine hundred ninety thousand nine hundred ninety nine little squares on the ironing board
and one triangle

Nine hundred ninety thousand nine hundred ninety nine little squares on the ironing board
Nine hundred ninety thousand nine hundred ninety nine little square
Pick One Up
Fold it in Half
Smash it down
Nine hundred ninety thousand nine hundred ninety eight little squares on the ironing board
and two triangles

Maybe exaggerating the number isn't a good idea if you are going to do a countdown.

 A few more triangles.

 Two columns worth. Why aren't there fewer squares left?

Yippie! Four columns. Forty triangles! Wait, that is only 10 blocks worth.

 More triangles.

Oh look, More triangles!

 More triangles. What a surprise.

 And a few more

One Little Squares on the Ironing Board
One  Little Square
Pick It Up
Fold it in Half
Smash it down with an iron
no little squares on the ironing board
and a million triangles


Only three million left to go.

15 Minutes to Stitch

This week,  I've been hand sewing the binding on the Droid quilt. Also cut and pressed a few triangles. I started decluttering the sewing room.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  297 out of 350 sessions
Success Rate: 85%

Wow I never thought I would end the year at this high a rate. I thought 80% would be a stretch.

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

ATC Holder

Day 9: 31 Day Blog Challenge. Random picture of the day: Crazy quilt square

I have a new camera.  I needed another, easily transportable, camera because the battery cover of the old one broke off. Apparently, you can buy battery covers, which is all I need, but my camera is too old to get such a thing. Anyway, it is a good excuse to get a new one. It's a Canon Powershot.  I tested it out. Zeus likes it.

Since I am working on a binding for the Droid quilt, it has made me think of my next project I want to start.  There are so many, but I think I should do something that has been on my list for a long time. I do not know if people still make ATCs, but I've been wanting to make a holder for it since they were popular.

An ATC is an Artist Trading Card. It is a tiny art piece, exactly 2 1/2" x 3 1/2".  It can be made out of fabric or paper.  It is always gifted and not sold.

I made a prototype of an ATC holder.  I want to make a quilt with folded corners that will hold ATCs.    Something like Kate's Advent Calendar, which I also want to make, but I picture this one to be bigger. Right now I am thinking 100 or so spaces, even though I don't have 100 or so ATCs. Here is my sample. This is using fabric that is already out, but the plan is to use neutral fabrics so that the ATCs can shine on their own. I did think about keeping the inside fabric slightly patterned, so that it wouldn't look too empty if it isn't filled up all the way.

Here it is with an ATC inside it.  It is a little big for the ATC, but I worry that making it too tight to fit in the ATCs. The corners would hide too much of the ATC and there wouldn't be a lot of room to maneuver or deal with slightly mis-sized ATCs.

The sashing is too big and is overwhelming for the ATC. Maybe the inside fabric should be very plain, like black or white since it makes a frame for the ATC. I can fill in blank spaces with quotes on paper or some such other things.

 15 Minutes to Stitch

This week,  I found fabric and pieced the backing for the drunkard path quilt. I also pressed the top and the backing, as well as the binding fabric for the Droid quilt.  I sewed the binding on (still have to handsew the other part, and made the sample block I showed on this post.  My progress as of Sunday was:

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  290 out of 343 sessions
Success rate: 85%

Linked to:
 15 Minutes to Stitch 
Oh Scrap! - I used scraps to make the sample
ScrapHappy