A New Variation -- I Wonder Whether I Created This Particular Variation...

I found this block and a bag full of strips to made more of this block so decided to keep going.  It was obvious that I did this a long time ago as I never would put such closely matched fabric together.  I cut a bunch of squares from one of the strips of fabric and soon realized that I had cut them wrong and it did take me some time to work out how to correctly cut them, but only after several mistakes!!

I sewed up a bunch of the fabrics that make up each of the four squares that make up this larger square.  I stuck them up on my design wall and decided I didn't like them at all and figured there must be a better way!

H

Here are the two squares cut from the same strip and you put these on top of one another and make a diagonal cut. You then get wthe proper squares to make up the block.  As I mentioned, it took me a while to get this right!

I

   This is the arrangement that I came up with, using the blocks individually.  I am going to reorganize them again before I sew them together but I like this a lot better than the origianl. block.

I think I have discovered a much quicker way of making a common block too.  It is really fast to sew long strips of fabric together, cut them into squares and then cut them diagonally to make a block that looks like a square with strips around its.  I only need one seam instead of 8 seams per block.  I don't know wheether anyone has come  up with this variation before but I wanted to document it and will embark on making a quilt that shows this arrangment better next!  

This is the single block.

This is the final top except for some borders.  I had a few extra blocks so they will become potholders as well as some 16 patches I made with the leftovers when cutting the strips!

It's Been Forever Since I Posted but I Have Been Busy With Donation Quilts!

 

This is just a 10 in square of the fabric that I used for the next two tops.  I thought it would be okay for a "stack and whack" but was a bit disappointed when I got the two done.  The repeat on this fabric was 24 inches so I had a lot of blocks!

This is one of the two quitt tops I made.  It actually looks better in person but still a bit like Halloween with all the orange! 

This is the second one where I spaced the blocks a bit further apart.  I will probably put a small border but I don't add borders until I am quilting these days!

The next three are baby qults made with already constructed four-patches and some of my 5 in squares that I had to cut down to 4 1/2 inches.

This was also four-patches but Ihad to create most of these as t had no four-patches that had three darks or three lights together.

I have been trying to find uses for all those orphan blocks I  have accumulated and this was created from blocks from 3 different quilts.  I think I had to make a few more of those outside blocks to fill in the space.

This is another of the bagel quilts made from purple pieces I had on hand.  I probably have made four or five quilts from these leftover purple triangles.  The original quilt they were cut for was finished 25 years ago!!

 

What To Do With 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 Strips!

Well, this actually uses not only those 4 1/2 in strips that I had a ton of, but also uses 2 1/2 in shite squares and 6 1/2 x 2 1/2 in pieces.  I have made several quilts from these 2 blocks which I illustrated in an earlier blog.  I will put borders on this and it will end up about 40 x 60.  I will quilt it down in the south when I get there.

 
These next two are the so-caled potato chip blocks and are made totally of 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 strips.    These will end up as 40 x 40 for the neo-natal quilts.  Super easy block to make.  These are totally scrappy!

This one hasn't been sewn together yet and I will rearrange a couple of the pieces!

We had a great RAFA meeting this week with Joyce Martelli teaching us how to make origami books using  2 5 in pieces of cardboard, 2 pieces of 7 in square fabrics and 3 pieces of paper 8 1/2 in square. It was great fun!!  Here is mine done and expanded up.

Here it is all closed up.  You can put pictures in or writing on the surfaces.

I had to share this fantastic felted piece that Demaris did of her cat! It even has some cat whiskers which she saves when she finds them!

More Comfort Quilts and Challenge Quilt Beginning!

 

These next three quilts are all for our guild's Habitat for Humanity donations.

This and the next quilt were originally to be a king-sized quilt but I just didn't need another king-sized quilt and wasn't all that crazy about them either so I decided to go with 2 twin sized quilts that I will donate.  They are each about 45 x 90 so would go great in some shelter.

Another comfort quilt with the blue stripe fabric and blocks made several years ago when teaching some ladies how to do a "disappearing 9-patch".

I managed to get 17 blocks of the QAYG type done at our sewing day on Monday.  My back may never be the same so will have to bring a pillow to back me up the next time!

I have started the challenge quilt which will be for a show in 2024 at one of the historic houses in Wilmington.  The theme of the challenge is the Cape Fear River.  I frequently photo sunset scenes down at Ft. Fisher so decided that is what I would use for the challenge.  I like the ones I take through the trees the best but wasn't up to tackling the trees so decided to go with a picture taken at sunset looking out from the very end of Ft. Fisher.  The view shows the historic breakwater that was built in the mid 1800s and it separates the Cape Fear River from the ocean.  

This was the beginning of the sunset.  I struggled to find some of the exact colors I wanted to use.

Here are all the layers of the background sunset and it looks very bright and overwhelming to me here.  I am making everything oversized at this point as the final piece has to measure 30-36 inches tall and 24 - 30 inches wide.  I am cuttently skirting around 36 inches tall and 30 inches wide.

This is my current iteration of the piece where I have  cut off some of the top.  

The further black line is the opposite shore and the blue between the two black lines is the Cape Fear River. The closer black area is of course the breakwater which is pretty flat on top but craggy on the bottom.

The foreground is the inlet of the ocean.  There will also be scattered reeds which I will machine quilt coming up from the bottom of the piece.

I haven't decided yet whether I will do some painting as well as the machine quilting I will be doing.  

I am feeling like I am on the right track now and have some time to get this done as it doesn't have to be finished until January.  My biggest fear is that it will be too different from anyone else's and just won't fit in.

Almost Finished all the Tops!

Have been busy, basting and machine quilting the many, many tops I made this past summer and I still have a few more to go!

All of these are about 40 x 60 inches.

This one is a little smaller.  I backed this one and the next one with more Kaffe fabrics -- browns which I really don't work with much down here.  I am really affected by my environment when it comes to color.

I had completely forgotten this stack and whack that I found in a baggie down here!  It was all ready to go except for figuring out a backing.

These quilts plus others shown recently were all donated to our Comfort Quilts down here - 10 altogether.  Lisa claimed one of the "stained glass" ones which she wants to use as a wall hanging.

1

It's been a while since I posted bird pictures as I haven't seen as many as usual as there are lots of people!  

This is a juvenile Tri-colored Heron.  The above is one of several Ibis in a tree!

This is a Lesser Yellowlegs.  This is the first time I have seen one of these at Carolina Beach Lake (I think!).

A pretty Snowy Egret.  There have been lots of thse at the lake.

This is a Willet, a bird I usually see along the shore not at the lake!

This was the biggest surprise of all -- a Roseate Spoonbill at Carolina Beach Lake, just hanging out!!  I see them frequently down at Huntington Beach State Park in S. Carolina but never up here!  It was a real treat for one of my first days back.


 

Introducing the Sweet Charity Bee

Wilmington's Coastal Sewing and Vac hosted our first "production" meeting of the newly named Sweet Charity Bee.  Our purpose is to use quick processing techniques to make quilts which will be donated to various local organizations.  We managed to finish  mostly six tops that were about 40 x 54 in a little over two hours!!  

We had a couple of people picking the strips to go together (the strips had been cut ahead of time), I think four of us sewing and a couple of people pressing, cutting the strip sets up and trimming the sashing pieces as well as cutting the sashing pieces and borders.  We basically made a 20 piece strip set from 2 1/2 inch strips.  These were then trimmed and cut into three sections.  Sashing was added and then a border around the whole piece.  These will then be quilted and bound.

The pieces are being sorted into groups of 20.

First we sewed them in groups of two, then sewed the two strip pieces together to make four, and then the four strip groups into eight etc until we had all 20 sew in one big strip set.   She is sewing her duos together here!

Here are some larger grouping being put together and Dianne has taken on the ironing role.

Miranda was our general helper and did ironing, trimming, cutting sashing and grouping fabrics in her spare time!!

This was the top that I finished!

Getting close to done!

Another one done!!

Another  one done!!

Here are the ladies with the six mostly completed tops.  Just a little work left on two.  Pretty good for a small group in slightly more than two hours!!