Progress on the Hawaiian Stack and Whacks

Well, finally sewed all the "Hawaiian" blocks together.  This is bunch one and bunches two and three follow.  I decided against the "one-block wonder" arrangement.

I decided to use white to make inner stars and then a nice orangey batik to fill in around the blocks.The next steps were to figure out what to fill in on the sides.  I thought that this dark green might work.  Didn't think it did.

Then I decided to try a light green.  Hmm.  Didn't work either.

I then decided to try this pretty green splotchy fabric that matched the various greens.

No, didn't work either.

Finally decided on more of the golden orange.  I literally had just enough to finish this up and a little left over (not wide enough for triangles) to do small borders.

 I decided to do a thin white stripe and then the dark green border.  Now just to sew them together.  I have enough to make three more small quilts -- one more like this one and then two that are 3-4-3-4-3.  I will have used up all the blocks then.  They will all have different backgrounds.  I think that there will be white in most of them.  I have lots of white cotton sateen that isn't good for dyeing.

This is another fabric that I really liked and which I will make into hexagons (not enough or an eight sided block).  The repeat on this one was 24 1/2 inches.  I only cut up half the fabric.  I really like this one and  may use some in borders.

Two More Tops Done and Starting with Another Fabric - the Fever Rages

Very frustrating that this quite pretty quilt doesn't photo well because of the gold in the background fabric which just reflects.  The colors are pale green, pale blue, cream and a purple/brick and some darker green.

I just note that I had been accumulating fabrics that would work as  stack and whacks for years.  I stopped doing this type of quilt years ago but am trying to use up some of these fabrics which I really like too well to just give them away.  Because of impending cataract surgery, I just can't motivate myself to get into something a bit more creative. I am giving away many that I just am not interested in finishing.  I like a little challenge!  Some of these are big enough to work as backs.  I have relegated some of those originally picked to be stack and whacks to be just that!

The second one from the fabric is done also.  I decided to just do more of the cream color for the border.  

I changed my mind and did a table runner or wall hanging with the remaining four blocks, putting them on point.  It gave me an idea for using the background fabric in the corners instead of the green I did here so that may come with a subsequent one although I don't have too many prints with enough for 8 repeats.

I took advantage of a great sale on batting yesterday at Joann's (60% off the by the yard stuff).  Now to baste all these finished tops!  I have eight currently in the backlog that are finished tops from the past couple of weeks!

I decided to delve into another bunch of fabric that I had cut up.  (I have about six different ones in the backlog now.  Doing the pinning you need to do to align the fabrics is a good task to do while watching the tube at night.)  I wasn't sure how this one would work but think it will be nice and bright!!  The fabric was not the most attractive -- looked like it was supposed to be a Hawaiian print and the repeat was 24 inches so I have 70 blocks like I did with the mushroom fabric.

This is the fabric used to create the above.  You can see there are large areas of green and light fuchsia so thought it might work as a "one-block wonder".  Of course I sewed them altogether forgetting I was going to do this!!  With the one-block wonders,  you don't do the final seam sewing the two three piece sides together which makes it simple to sew together.  I have only done 6 so far just to see how they would look as I feared there was just too much of one color in many of them.  Was pleased to see they are very graphic.

I placed them in a configuration for a one-block wonder so haven't discounted this arrangement yet.  Won't sew that final seam in the remaining blocks and will see what I come up with.

Stack and Whack Fever Continues....

It is almost impossible to get good pictures of this quilt top as there are flecks of gold both in the main fabric and in the green that I am using.  It really is a lot nicer looking in person than in my pictures -- it looks lacy almost and the green is very subtle.  It was almost impossible to find a green that would work just like the last fabric I used.  I started deciding I would do one with 24 blocks in a 4 x 6 arrangement resulting in a quilt that is about 48 x 70.  

I just didn't like the proportions on the above arrangement so decided on a 4 x 5 arrangement which is more pleasing to my eye.  Here it is all sewn together but without the borders.

Here I have added the first border around the whole quilt.  It is just an extension of the pattern I used for the sashing.  

I wanted a darker fabric to border the whole quilt and this one fit the best.  It again has gold flecks in it nd multiple shades of green.  This closeup shows the blocks more closely and you can see the colors more closely.  I haven't decided how wide to make that final border though.

I had decided to keep
the first one for myself and to make the remaining 16 blocks into a quilt to give away and decided on this arrangement.  I decided that I wanted it narrower even though that left me with four orphan blocks.

This felt more pleasing to me and also simplifies the backing as I can use just one width of fabric.

The four remaining blocks I will make into a small quilt.  I haven't decided which blocks will be in this vs. the previous quilt.  Hopefully, they will get down tomorrow.

Again, you can see how pretty these blocks are in this closeup.

Mushroom Stack and Whack No. 2

This and the next picture show the rest of the hexagons from the mushroom fabric.  Amazingly, they are all different -- 70 in total with the ones in the last quilt -- this was from a four yard piece of fabric.

Wanted to see if this fabric would be a good background for the blocks.

Finally decided that I wanted both the lighter and darker fabrics.  

I thought I would audition some fabrics for the borders.  I tried an orange/yellow print first and didn't like it but did like this mustardy print I found in my stash (and never liked all that well).  I still liked the purple/brown batik for the border.


I still have enough blocks to make another quilt this size and one smaller one with one remaining block (one that I didn't like very well anyway).

Finally got this stack and whack done.  This is the second one and I have hexagons for two more -- one this size and one smaller with one block left over.

I was tired of working with the above hexagons, so I decided to make some blocks from one of the other sets I had.  This pattern utilizes 8 repeats and is based on the kaleidoscope block.  There are 36 blocks altogether.  This is the first half done.  I will be able to make three quilts of 12 blocks each from these.  I have the perfect background fabric.  This picture was from my phone which isn't the best.

This is the fabric used in the above blocks.  This is a truer color than the above,

Mushroom Stack and Whack Done and on to Number 2!

I ended up with 70 sets of hexagons which I calculate should make three good sized quilts.  This one uses 24 and will be about 42 x 60 finished.  Deciding what to do in the background was tricky.  I had originally thought natural muslin color.  I searched through all my greens and couldn't find anything that was yellow enough.  Finally I found a light green that is okay.

Here it is with the light green.

I ended up raiding my give-away stash for what looks like a green so dark, it looks like grey.  The first border was more of the background green, then this very dark dull green and then a maroon/dk brown batik I found in my stash.  I thought it was a perfect match.

This is  my second set started and of course I will do something slightly differently.  Originally I decided I would use more of the light green.  However, I decided to try something different just for variety.

I really think I like this background.  This is the dark green I used in the border of the other quilt.  I haven't quite decided what configuration to use yet.  I get bored really easily!  I think that is why I like these stack and whacks as the construction is fairly easy, uses only a couple of fabrics but everything is different and I love radial symmetry as you can see if you have seen my ice dyed mandalas!!  

A friend got me started making stack and whack  quilts probably 15 to 20 years ago and I have probably made over 30 over the years.  Now that I am making them for charity, I have an excuse to do something that doesn't require a lot of thinking and get rid of fabric at the same time.  My first weeks here in NY are filled with doctor and dental appointments and definitely no time for anything mental.  Hopefully, once I get cataract surgery out of the way, I will feel a bit more creative.  I didn't even bring my dyes and paints back here with me this year as I wanted to concentrate on getting rid of things not creating more!

GVQC May Meeting - Leni Wiener Speaker

My pictures aren't great as I was just too far back and couldn't get the exposures right.  We started off with an amazing show of the 53 comfort quilts that were turned in -- amazing!!  There were so many different ones and I only got a few and missed my favorite one!

The following are some of the comfort quilts turned in!

There were lots of nice quilts (as usual) during show and tell.  As usual I don't have most of the names!

I loved this baby quilt.

This was one of my favorites and an inspiration for what to do with some of those nice large prints.

This was a gorgeous large quilt done by Marcia E on commission.  She is the daughter of one of our long time members!

Leni Wiener (pronounced Winer) was our guest speaker.  The two pictures I have here were both from her slide presentation.  I was sitting so far back, I took pics so I could see what was on the slides!  She specializes in figural applique and this is a quilt featuring her son.

This showed how she took two of her photographs and combined the images to make the quilt she wanted!