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I made four of these cot-sized quilts (81 x 42), three of which have this border. I liked the slightly wider border -- 3 inches finished instead of two.
This one finished up to 40 x 40 which is the usual baby quilt size.
I still have some leftover fabrics from the above five quilts but was really bored with using them so gathered up a bunch of 30's repro fabrics (I thought I had gotten rid of all of them but I guess not). After I cut everything up, I wasn't sure how dull it was going to be but looked okay with the first few blocks so onward.
Now I am finding I actually like the quilt and I think I have enough to make at least one more. What I had were mostly fat quarters. I was amazed that I randomly pieced some four patches together after cutting some strips and found I was only one four patch short of having just the right amount for one quilt (only one short). I must have made enough of these that I have a sense for how much to put together. I can't seem to tire of this layout. Of course I have been going through bolts of white fabric in doing this!
Surgery is scheduled in less than two weeks and after that I will be out of the machine sewing cycle for 2 - 3 months!! Can't imagine going that long without my sewing machine. Hopefully I will have enough info to post some blogs during that time I do have an English paper piecing project.
This was the improved version of the previous baby quilt. I still have some fabric left over but will do a different version with the leftovers. I do like this version better -- more cohesive.
I did quite a few quilts last year with this block which measures 12 1/2 inches unfinished. So far I have made 81 blocks and haven't put any together yet!!
This is a 4 x 5 arrangement of the blocks which measures about 48 x 60.
However, I am going to go with this 3 x 6 arrangement which will end up with borders to be about 42 x 78 which should be a good cot size for Sweet Charity. I figured there weren't too many people over 6 ft 6 inches which is the length of a king sized bed!
This will give me me enough for 4 of these quilts plus leftovers for one 3 by 3 quilt which will end up being 40 x 40 -- baby sized.
This is the border fabric I am going to use.
This is the pile of what was left in a 2 1/2 gallon baggie. The bag was filled neatly stacked like this almost to the top when I started. It is good to actually see some progress on getting rid of some of the strips I cut last summer. This bag contained 2 1/2 inch strips that were less than the full width of the fabric long and perfect for doing scrap quilts. I actually used up all the yellow scraps I had in the other smaller baggie and had to go into my stash and cut some more yellow strips!
My surgery date has changed yet again and no guarantees it will take place even then because of the virus. I have only been out of the house once in the past month and that was to have lunch with a friend at a good social distance outside. This is getting old!
I had these 2 inch x 4 inch and 2 inch x 7 in strips leftover from a baby quilt I made probably 15 years ago. I also had a bag of fabrics that went with it so it was time to use them up!! I decided to do my old favorite but with larger blocks so did some calculating and came up with this. I am not sold on the arrangement, but it is okay and results in a quilt the proper size which is 40 x 40.
Here it is all finished. and it is okay. I am working on a different version which should be done tomorrow. I have surrounded the feature square fabrics with the same color all the way around and just used the fuchsia, a yellow and a green. There is probably one more quilt after that one and I can consider it done and may just cut the rest of the fabric into 4 1/2 inch squares and do my more traditional sized version. The centers were Laurel Birch fabrics that I am sure I paid full price for -- a rarity for me!! I am going through bolts of white fabric at an alarming rate!!
Well, I managed to get the stains out of the Baltimore Album blocks so I have enough for a small top. As I definitely used two slightly different shades of white sateen as background, I will definitely be putting on some sashing. Just have to find the right fabric.
I will probably use these pieces together and add some color around the outside to work off that inside piece -- one of my orphan blocks.
Have to figure out what to do around the outside here. This was one of my mandalas which didn't look very good so I cut it into 8 pieces and repieced it into this arrangement which definitely is an improvement over the original dyed block!! This was one of my 22 in square ones so the final piece will be a decent size.
Here are lots of the orphan blocks some of which date back close to 40 years and the very beginnings of my quilting adventures!!
Well, I thought I would start with a bunch of blocks that actually got sewn into a top yesterday. These are leftovers from the Lorraine Mooney Spin blocks that I did a lot of last summer. I really like the scrappy version. I don't know whether this will be for Neonatal or Sweet Charity. It is about 40 x 40.
This is a very large bag that I made with some upholstery samples that I have had for years. I have given away tons of these samples over the years but kept the ones that I thought were really pretty or made out of all cotton and not too heavy. This was made with 2 27 x 27 inch samples. I did French seams so I didn't line it but it has all finished edges. It is a very heavy hand painted fabric and I didn't feel the need for lining. I probably should have made the straps further apart but oh well. I am planning on making a bunch of bags to donate to one of the food distribution centers in Wilmington. My husband and daughter volunteer at one which is closed right now. My daughter had suggested the bags were a really good idea. It will be a good use of that drapery fabric. I have some pieces though that are stunningly gorgeous so they will be made into something just for me or I will just look at them occasionally and sigh!
This was the beginning of a piece made for some sort of competition I believe. I tried cutting it up and rearranging and trimming but just too ugly to do anything with so it actually made it into the trash can as without merit!
This was done in a Nancy Crow class probably 30 years ago. It was not great then and hasn't improved with age but is about 36 x 36 so could be made into a quilt for charity or not.
I think this was done in a Jane Sassaman class about 25 years ago before anyone really knew who she was!! I think this was one is redeemable. It just needs to be sewn down onto a further background. I do love iris. Nowadays I would never do a dark background like that!! Too much time in the sunny south!
This is a block I did in a Paula Nadelstern class probably 15 years ago. I will definitely do something with this one as It is really pretty (I think). It uses principles of bilateral symmetry and I purchased lots of fabrics to do more like this, most of which I have sold by now!!
These next two pictures are leftovers from the advanced sampler class I took probably 35 years ago. It was my second pieced quilt. There are five blocks altogether. Not sure what I will do with them but will definitely make them into some kind of top.
Almost last but certainly not least are this bunch of Baltimore Album blocks. I have already made a complete quilt with 25 other blocks. I found these six plus 4 more in among the random blocks. If you look real closely at the blue one on the bottom has a yellow stain in the upper left hand corner. There were several others that were badly stained. No odor so have no idea what caused it. I used stain remover, threw them into the washer and voila, they are clean now! So I think I will have enough for a good sized top. I probably won't hand quilt this one like the last one. I used to applique these when I was flying back and forth to DC on business probably 35 years ago!!
I have no idea what this is from but definitely a class of some kind.
I have a bunch of more random pieces and a whole lot of blocks left over from various stack and whack projects. I am definitely throwing out a couple of other pieces that I don't want to work on --- not inspiring at all.
This is the first of two quilt tops I made from the fabric shown between the hexagons. I was not crazy about this fabric and it doesn't photograph well at all as it is red, orange and fuchsia which is a weird combination to begin with! I didn't want to use green around it as it would immediately turn into a Christmas quilt! It measures about 40 x 60.
Somehow my brain must have been on pause as when I cut more triangles, I made them bigger so couldn't use the leftovers from above. Fortunately, they were the exact right number for doing the same arrangement as above but with fewer hexagons. I used another fabric for the in-between pieces and it was primarily the garish red and fuchsia as well.
I always try to use up all the fabric so had enough for these posie blocks and the leftover hexagons. This won't be very big but will probably do something with it to at least make it baby quilt size (like turning the squares on point). We shall see but not until the fall as I am rapping up major quilting as I am scheduled for ankle surgery in a couple of weeks and will have to be off my feet for 2 months. Have some English paper piecing to keep me busy and will probably take a bunch of stack and whack fabric and at least pin it in preparation for cutting at some future date.
To keep ourselves busy while inside, just completed this 1000 - 3 pieces jig saw puzzle. The funny thing is that my husband and I independently purchased jig saw puzzles that were different (his only had 750 pieces) but the subject matter -- cats and books -- was the same! Guess we have been married far too long!
I have to admit I have spent a lot of time on the porch looking at the ocean (when we didn't have 50 mph winds beating down on us). A long drive on Monday!
Hopefully I have pictured all the baby quilts that I have completed over the past couple of weeks -- 11 altogether but no batting so they won't get done by me anytime soon! I did three more of this pattern as I like it and it used up all the four patches that I had created.
Same as the one above but I twisted the picture somehow!
I am actually beginning to see a dent in my green bag of 2 1/2 in strips!
I had a pile of this kid print in 4 1/2 in squares and thought I would make it a focal point of a quilt and not make it so scrappy as it would detract from the print. This was my first attempt and a definitely no!
This was the second attempt and still didn't make the cut although it was better. I did so want to use up some of the squares I had already cut up rather than doing more white ones.
I finally decided that this was an okay arrangement as you could see the kid print and the two blues went together. I have added the light blue as a border and will use the darker blue for the binding.
I got a donation of elastic from a friend in Rochester and used it to make 15 more masks today. I raided my granddaughter's toy bin (for when she visits down here) and came up with a wonderful and large assortment of kid's craft pipe cleaners which make an awesome nose piece. Also discovered those hoops you make potholders with as a kid and they are the perfect amount of stretchiness and are all different colors.
Finished this one finally and am relatively pleased although probably won't do again!!
This was definitely a oops that I didn't notice until I had it sewn together and then I only fixed the problems one at a time as I only noticed one of the twisted four patches at first. I should have taken pictures as I went along but was trying to be efficient! I must say that it did give me an idea for a different arrangement!!
Fixed!
My daughter requested some masks as she has been doing our shopping and picking up of medicines etc. She specifically asked for "tie-dyed" ones. She used to mock all my dyed t-shirts but wears them almost exclusively these days!! I hadn't considered doing dyed ones but thought it was a great use of some of those "drop cloths" I had while doing ice dyeing. I also thought that the center of the kaleidoscopic ice dyed pieces would give them a "designer" look. She told me that after thee MIRS epidemic in China several years ago, designer face masks were all the rage. The funny thing is that I was rueing the fact that I had no flannel down here as I don't quilt with flannel so the first three masks were made using some leftover cotton batting which worked fine! However, as I was assembling the third one, it suddenly occurred to me that I had yards and yards of flannel in cream, white and gray solids as I used flannel as a foundation for my jackets. As I haven't done a jacket in a couple of years, just forgot about it. I made seven masks but daughter was off with two before I got them in the picture!
Now back to baby quilts although may make some masks with ties. Shockingly, even my husband is going to take a couple back home with him!
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