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The blue worked out well for the sashing! I barely had enough to put a border around the outside and had to piece all four sides. Luckily this is a fabric that literally doesn't show a seam if you are more than a few inches away!
As I wanted it to be at least 40 inches wide (it is 38 right now), I figured I needed at least one more border. I tried several pieces of fabric that didn't work.
I finally decided to go with a very thin strip of the yellow from the centers and then found this piece in my stash which seemed to be perfect!!
And it's done!! I have to start getting stuff together to transport south so probably won't get too much more done. First, I have to get backings for all the quilts and match them up. I made progress on this earlier today so hopefully that will be done today. I have been gradually getting the strips downstairs -- they are really heavy as I compacted them in 2 1/2 gallon zip loc bags which probably weigh between 5 and 10 pounds each!! I did this with all the 2 1/2 and 2 inch strips. The smaller strips are just stuffed in baggies. Hopefully I will have enough room for everything.
Well as I said in my last post, I did make the two totes with the 16 squares I made with my new favorite block. I think there will be more quilts using these colors and this pattern in the future. Of course there will be variations as I get bored really easily!!
Another view of the totes, showing the lining fabrics. The sides and the bottoms of the two bags are the blue that is in the handles and was also used with the quilt top in the background. I think I will get through the whole two yards I had with these various projects.
This is the pile of 2 in scraps that is sitting next to the sewing machine waiting for a quilt!
Decided to do the "spin" block I had originally intended to do before I got side-tracked with the totes and the quilt!! I actually auditioned a duller yellow for the middle but it just didn't do it so went with this slight orange yellow. I would also see this as a red/blue/yellow palette which is an unusual combination for me. I tend to stick with the secondary colors. I really like this one though and it will be hard to give up!
All the blocks are done (although not in their final places yet) and am auditioning the blue as sashing and border and think it will be perfect. I am not going to do any cornerstones with this one. I may add another border or two but haven't decided yet. I am starting to get my stuff ready to head south in about three weeks so good part of my strips stash has already made the trip downstairs.
I do love this block and it is soooo easy, especially since I put the pattern on the back of one of my rulers which aids in the cutting of the blocks. Also, very happy I have a 10 1/2 square ruler so squaring up the blocks is a cinch!
This quilt will be about 40 x 65 when done.
Made lots and lots of trees in anticipation of making another house quilt from the little kits I had put together. I have enough trees now for three more quilts but probably will only do two more here.
Another one finished! I have actually made a sizable dent in the 2 inch green strips!!
Each house's colorful part uses about a strip 21" x 2" so a strip from a fat quarter works just fine. I literally have used scraps for these.
I had intended to do a "spin block" quilt but started sewing 2 inch strips together into groups of five which is what you would use for this block so decided to do a quilt using 2 inch strips instead of the 2 1/2 inch strips I had been using. I adjusted the length to 3 1/2 inches so the blocks finished to 9 inches instead of 12 inches. Therefore I needed 16 blocks instead of 9 to make the 40 inch quilt. I always like to finish a couple of blocks to see how it looks before I turn in for the day.
I finished the center of the quilt and am going to use a nice blue for a border.
The top is all finished now and I really like this one and the arrangement when you do the even number of blocks. I have enough for a second quilt but decided I would use the blocks to make a couple of totes rather than another quilt.
This will be the back and front of tote number 1. I will use the same blue I used on the borders for the sides and bottom of the bags. I have wild fabric for the inside of one of them (which I will keep). My older more conservative daughter will get one with a tamer inside! The bags will be 18 x 18 x 4. I have to wait now for the interfacing to arrive in the mail as I ran out before I finished interfacing the handles. I also didn't have enough for the second bag.
It was the first meeting of the 2019-2020 year of GVQC and the last meeting I will get to before spring. There was an incredible showing of our "comfort" quilts in this meeting. Altogether there were 50 quilts turned in (if you count the three shown during show and tell). This was probably my favorite of the bunch. I tried to pick out some of the unusual ones to show in the blog although I took pics of an awful lot of them!!
At the beginning of the parade, there were about 15 of this kind so I assume either one person did them or it was one of the "kits" that the group puts together to make these quilts.
This is a closeup of the above block! Forgive the slightly fuzzy pics as I was way back and couldn't get the light quite right.
These were a few more that caught my eye as possibilities for future baby quilts.
There were several that used all different size strips.
I liked the graphic quality of this one with the use of black and white. Another simple use of fabrics!
This picture and the next were three quilts shown during show and tell by our Margaret M. They are all the same simple block.
Nancy L showed this lovely quilt which is all machine appliqued.
These caught my eye but I don't know the quilter.
Pretty quilt in all neutrals.
A challenge made from a bag of brown scraps to which the quilter added orange for some color!
Last but not least is this year's raffle quilt which was made with blocks left over from last year's quilt which raised $5000 for the club. It is all hand quilted and stunning!! The Club members really outdid themselves!
The following pieces were done as part of a silk dyeing class in which many members participated. I thought about it but decided not to. The pieces were really pretty. This is Joyce's.
This is Barb's piece from the class.
This is Caren's.
These next pieces were done by Beth K! She is very active in the modern quilt group and her quilts are just stunning!!
This was done as part of a class Beth took at our quilt show.
Aren't these just beautiful!!
Started in a class with Jeanne Simpson.
Demaris is modeling gifts from Peru which her daughter recently visited.
Ann has become a big fan of crocheting and modeled a couple of her windowpane scarves. She regaled us with a lot of wisdom regarding the wearing of this type of scarf.
These next two pieces will be patterns that will be offered at the GVQC's annual Autumn Fanfare.
Gorgeous hand dyed yarn from one of our members!
Our very very talented Marcia B made this adorable felted dog figure. She taught herself just recently by looking at You Tube videos!!
I loved this simple quilt that Sarah did. Like myself, she is trying to use up scraps of fabric. This was a very simple but very effective use for sure!!!
After Sarah showed her quilt, I went out of order and showed 7 of the 11 quilts I have done since the last meeting!! All in the spirit of what you can do with strips! (and squares). I will probably cut up some of my more colorful and patterned fabric into large squares -- not strips.
This is the pile of sewn up sets of six strips which will be cut into strips 4 1/2 inches wide!
Here are the first two blocks sewn together. I didn't go scrappy with the white but will be doing some free hand stitching on them when I get to the quilting stage!
I decided to go with colorful borders which were independent of the colors in the blocks as I will add colored stitching into those white areas -- green here!
So I am done with this block for a bit although I may sew up some stitched sets. I used the short pieces of 2 1/2 inch wide strips that I had -- from fat quarters and pieces that were remnants from other projects. They were ideal for this project as I wanted lots of variety in my strips sets. I would only get three or four 4 1/2 inch wide strips out of each set and they were super fast to sew together and iron. I do like this block and may be doing it a lot more in the future!! It's a great scrap block. I actually have made a dent in those bags of this size strips.
All these quilts will be quilted and donated to our neo-natal group down in Wilmington. I have some nice pastels which may go this route as well -- the remnant of my 30's fabric phase. I had sold most of it but found a few fat quarters.
I put a 2 inch border all the way around on the quilts I have done with this pattern! After auditioning a number of colors, I decided I liked the blue best and I had a ton of it!
I really like this block as there are very very few seams that you need to pin to match and it has lots of opportunity for efficiency. Many people ask me how I get so much done. Besides the fact that I do very little housework, I am always trying to figure out a more efficient way to make anything -- from cooking to sewing!! For instance, I pin my stack and whacks together at night watching tv. I was on the phone today with a friend and I pinned my strips into groups of five so that I could quickly sew them together. I always make strip sets if I can for any scrap quilt. You would never see me just sewing 2 2in patches together I work in volumes so I would put two strips together, sew the whole thing and then cut 2 in wide strips, Of course, to make it interesting you have to piece many of these before cutting.
This block is about the most random I have ever done in a scrap quilt. I am much more likely to do about half the scrap quilt pretty randomly (I still look at the two pieces that I am putting together so I get some variety but not compulsive about it). However, I always will put all the blocks on a design wall and decide what I have too much of or too little of and will compensate accordingly. I also take some trouble to audition the blocks on the design wall before sewing together also With these quilts, I did very little of this. I just put strip sets together, trying to get value differences in pieces right next to each other. I didn't test blocks on the design wall for fabric placement. I only put the blocks up when all finished to see that the fabrics that really caught your eye were not right next to each other.
This is quilt number 2 which is the same -- 9 12 inch blocks and a 2 inch border making it 40 x 40 more or less!
This is quilt number 3 which contains 12 blocks and measures about 40 x 53 inches.
The neat thing about this block is that you can make it any number of sizes. If you make the strips 3 1/2 inches wide, you cut the sections into 6 1/2 inch wide strips. This results in an 18 inch size block. If you go smaller and use 2 inch strips, you cut the sections 3 1/2 inches wide. This results in a 9 in finished block. 1 1/2 inch strips makes a 6 inch block etc. Just have to cut different lengths.
I played around a lot in Electric Quilt with different colorations for a mostly yellow quilt. I was going to do darker pieces where the light ones are in this quilt but no color looked right so am going with a stark white which won't take your attention away from the subtleties in the yellow. There are far fewer values with which to work when limiting your palette to yellow and orange. I may try adding some browns to quilts on another day!! Having fun with yellows for now.
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