One Monthly Goal for February

Since the Cheddar Crackers is nearing completion, I wanted to make a plan for what I will finish next.  Therefore, it is time for

Right now, I have a lot of quilts that have some or all blocks made, but have not been pieced together into a top. This is creating clutter in my sewing space, and I have decided to clean that up by turning some of these blocks into a top. I'd rather clean by sewing than, well, cleaning.

Therefore, my one monthly goal will be to take all these loose rail fence blocks and turn it into a top this month. It is quite possible that I may even be able to turn it into a finished quilt this month, but I don't want to promise that. Better to keep the goals realistic, right?

 

Why these? Because they are the ones that have not been put away. The Elephant Parade and Life of Plenty and other blocks are tucked away in drawers or boxes so they don't bother me as much. 

The remaining leftover rails are also out and they are also bothering me, so I have chained all of them together into one very long row. I think I will be able to finish this top / quilt too, but again, no promises on this one.

Quilt Reveal: Dog Gone Cute

Dog Gone Cute is ready for a quilt reveal.

This is Lorna Mahon's pattern from Sew Fresh quilts.  She offered it on her blog for free.  She has many other dog patterns as well.  She is also getting ready to host an Ugly Sweaters quilt-along.

I adapted this one - okay, it was partly an error that I decided to keep because I thought it would get a longer nose this way.  Then I looked at Zeus and realized that I only see his nose when he is looking down but when he is looking up, I see his mouth and chin.  So I  gave the quilt dog a chin.


I quilted straight organic lines, like Lorna would do, but it looked like the Bad Dog picture in the Small Quilts photo album. He looked like he was in jail. I then quilted wavy lines between all the straight lines. I started on the right side, and didn't like the really wavy lines so I made them less wavy as I went to the left.

I bound it with a solid brown. To make sure it got finished this month, since I don't have hand work time, I sewed down the binding on both sides by machine.  It isn't perfect, since I am not used to doing to sewing down the binding by machine (and I was sewing from the front where I couldn't see if the binding was catching on the back), but I managed to get it done, and pretty quickly too.

I showed you the back of the quilt yesterday. With so many finishes so quickly and limited space, the improv elephant quilt didn't get to stay on the bulletin board very long.

It is 17"  x 17 3/4". To see other posts about this quilt, click on the Dog Gone Cute label under this post or in the sidebar. To see other posts about finished quilts, click on Quilt Reveal label under this post or in the sidebar. I think I finished more quilts this month than I did all of last year combined.

Wanda said that for each finished quilt, I can start three new ones. Who am I to argue with that?  So I have picked out three quilts to start!

Shirts Quilt

I received a stack of solid blue shirts from my brother-in-law and I have decided to make a quilt with these to give back to him.  I was considering all kinds of quilt patterns to make but I recently saw the Gee's Bend documentary, and saw a quick glimpse of a Courthouse Steps quilt. The steps are on two sides instead of all four sides.  It only uses two colors and there is very little of the other color.  I figure I could use a pair of jeans for my second color, and make this simple quilt that showcases the shirts.  I won't make it improv method though; I think he would prefer straight lines.  This will be a pretty big quilt though, even if it means I have to buy more shirts, so it won't be a quick finish.

Adinkra Quilt 2016

Debby Kratovil is offering an Adinkra Quilt 2016 block of the month.  I have decided to join her, because this quilt uses African fabrics in a beautiful way and I want to use my African fabrics. It is a simple quilt. Alternating blocks are pieced, and one design is appliqued every month. When I printed the pattern, it printed smaller than the size needed to make the block. This is probably my fault, since I didn't check to see if the printer was going to print actual size.  I was going to consider reducing the size anyway, and now I didn't need to. I decided to use the smaller size. I am going to have to remember to make my alternating blocks smaller.

Scrap Quilt

I am going to start cutting fabric for my next scrap quilt.  When I pull out scraps for the Quilty 365, I wind up having to put the remaining scrap away.  I think it would be better for me to trim these scraps down and get them ready for a scrap quilt.  I am thinking Quilt Vortex, which lets the scraps be the size they are for the most part.  I also want to start cutting fabric for the triangle quilt for my own bed.  I haven't made a quilt for my bed, and although it hasn't bothered me before, it is bothering me now. Mostly because my Walmart quilt is shredding to pieces day by day.

Linked to:
Fabric Tuesday 
Linky Tuesday 
Let's Bee Social #110

Quilting and Quilt Label

Hand quilting continues on the Cheddar and Crackers quilt. I am still hoping on finishing the quilting this month.

I machine quilted the Dog Gone Cute quilt using organic lines.  I am going to show you how I made the quilt label. This quilt label is sewn into the binding of the quilt.  There are several benefits of doing it this way. First, you only have to hand sew two sides of it, since the other two sides are under the binding.  Second, it provides a nice professional finish. Third, it makes it harder to steal the quilt since someone cannot simply take out the label without having to re-do the binding.

I first pieced together the bonus triangles that came from making the front of the quilt. You know, those bits that you are supposed to throw away.  Since this is a label, I tried to keep all the white places together so they would form a continuous space to write the information for the label.

I wanted to include the raw edges in the seam allowance of the quilt.  That left two sides that would need to be hand sewn.  Since this is pieced, I wanted to make sure that these hand sewn sides were neatly turned under.  To do that, I sewed these two sides rights sides together to plain square.

Turn it right side out and poke out the corner. Note that the other two sides are still raw edges.

Align the raw edges to the edge of the quilted and trimmed quilt and pin in place.

Then baste it in place using a smaller seam allowance than you will use for the binding.  You will notice that I also folded squares in half and basted the triangles in place to serve as quilt hangers.  I just have to bind as usual to cover these raw edges.

When I sew the binding down, I plan the path for sewing that includes the label. Which means that I start the quilting near the label if I plan to do the label last. I usually start with the label first and then work my way around the quilt.  When I start near the label, I don't have to tie off the thread to end in one place and just to have to move to do the label.

Circle Progress

I was planning on showing you pictures of my circles put together after I joined the rows of the 21 circles.  Even though I can't join the rows because of the size of the circle I just finished making, I am showing what they look like so far.

It is hard to photograph them all together since the rows are so long.

Each row is made up of three weeks.  Here are all the first weeks of each row.

Second weeks.

Third weeks.  I am now working on the third week of row three.

Linked to:
AHIQ - share your improv #5 
Oh Scrap! 
February Quilty 365 Linkup

Super Size Circle

I had been meaning to make a larger circle during these 21 days, so when I came to the 20 and 21st day, it was now and never. I decided to make double the length and width of the background. Instead of a 3 1/2 square, this is a 7 inch square, finished.

I cut some blunt tip triangles and sewed them together, and luckily they fit perfectly into a circle! My ruler does not have a lot of diagonal lines for triangles so I just eyeballed the triangles.  I was expecting to have to do some fudging to make things fit. Not only did it make a nice circle, it was just the right size for the background!

 I then appliqued the circle on the top of the result, and appliqued the whole circle on the background.  I thought it looked better with a green background than the blue background, but if I had realized how much it looked like a buoy, I might have used a blue background. A buoy is one of the shapes I drew early on in my idea book.

Since this was a larger circle that would attract attention,  and since I wanted to practice different techniques, I even turned under the edges of both circles.  I used a trick I just learned about using foil paper and cardboard to turn the edges using this Youtube video from Sarah Fielke. It's obviously not perfect, but I am happy with it.

Last time I had to decide whether blocks with more than one circle would count as more than one day, and I decided no. I would use the background, not the number of circles, to decide how many days it represented.  Now I have to decide whether blocks this big count as more than one day, and I have decided yes. Since this block takes up the room of four small blocks, this one represents four days.

The big size does mean that I can not sew this block to the previous circles until that row is the correct size, so it will have to wait  four weeks.

Sunday Circles Continued

Here are the circles I made yesterday.  Today is Day 71 but after this batch, I have 53 blocks. I haven't made today's circle(s) yet. They don't take too long to make, so I am not worried about being able to catch up.

I debated using flowers in the wintertime, but that's when I need them the most! I didn't realize until it was too late that the background fabric is wrong side up. Oh well, Gwen Marston said we could use the other side for variety!

I find that my most creative ones come from scraps so here's another one with the trimmings of the shirt circles I showed you yesterday. Let the quilt police debate whether ovals count as circles.

More flowers. Even though there are three circles in this block, it counts as one block.

And to keep it from looking too springy, here is one that is more fall-like. It's been a while since I've done a pieced circle.

I have two more circles to make before this row can be joined to the one above it.

Sunday Circles

The cross hatching of all the background on Cheese and Crackers is finished.  There are 12 feature squares that I am quilting circles on, and six of those are done.  I only do one a day, but since there are more than six days left in the month, I should be able to get the quilting done by then, and maybe even the binding.  We'll see how my wrist holds up.

The daily work on Cheese and Crackers has kept me from doing daily work on Quilty 365 Circles. I have been making a few circles, but have fallen behind.  Today, I will be making more to catch up, so this project can finish in a year.  After all, the closer to the day the circle was due, the more similar the fabric / weather, mood situation. It's no pressure;  I'll make circles until I don't want to make any more.

Let me show you the circles I have made.

The bird is for our first real snowfall of the winter. I thought the blue reflected the coldness.

The polka dotted fabrics are leftovers from the Dog Gone Cute quilt.

During a walk, I saw two oranges in the snow by a trash can. I liked the contrast between the white and the orange and decided to recreate that.

The pink is just a tiny scrap I found on the sewing room floor and decided it was just the right size to use for a circle.

I was given a bunch of blue shirts and am trying to think of a quilt I can make with them.  In the meantime, I made the four circles from one of them.

And while I was at it, I made a leftover of two of the four circles into another block.

The snowman is leftover fabric from the Winter Scene quilt. We didn't get any snow during the storm but I have friends who did.

I do have some more circles prepped and will show them after they have been sewn down. To see more circles, just click on Quilty Project 365 in the labels below this post or in the sidebar. Or click the Quilty 365 button to see how other quilters are interpreting this circle a day project.