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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!
This is probably my favorite of the various patterns that I have been trying with the 4 patches. I may do more now that I have discovered another bolt of plain non-pfd white fabric as I used up the last of the one bolt. Funny how the bolts disappear but the scrap bag stays about the same.
I saw this variation on the Scrap Enthusiasts Facebook page and decided to try it. You could not do this one without a design wall and carefully moving pieces to your sewing machine. It is okay but I decided to try a different variation which I haven't seen anywhere so I guess it is my design!
This is the variation before it was finished. I finished it today but don't have the picture up yet! No need for borders on these three as they all measure about 40 inches square. I still have a huge pile of 4 1/2 inch squares and ended up with two 4 patches after done which I thought was amazing! There were also only 3 white squares left. I didn't plan this at all. Today I cut up the remainder of the first bolt into 4 1/2 squares and 2 1/2 strips so that I can make more 4 patches. After this batch, I may give the remainder of the squares and 2 1/2 miscellaneous strips to someone else. I get bored with the same fabrics after a while! While binge watching Death in Paradise on Britbox, started sewing the strips together to make more 4 patches!!
Stay tuned.
I finally finished machine quilting the two quilts using my ice dyed mandala blocks. These were the result of trying to find some new settings to show off these blocks which need to be the center of attention. As a result of doing these, I tried some new machine quilting techniques on the hotpads I showed a couple of blogs ago.
I really liked this one. Both of these used my hand dyes exclusively except for the back on the large one which used a gorgeous piece of fabric my sister gave me from Hoffman.
This is the aforementioned back!
I am back to doing baby quilt tops again as life is really a jumble now and I need something totally mindless to do -- which does challenge me a bit to try some different things with these simple simple blocks. I am addicted to four patches!! Have probably made close to 500 the past couple of weeks and haven't made a dent in my scrap bag!!
Another of the same!
I overachieved on cutting 4 1/2 inch colored squares and this was my first thought on a different arrangement. I didn't care for it.
Moved some around to make it a bit more random but you can see that there is a pretty controlled color palette in all these quilt tops.
Another one done but boring to do so won't probably do too many more like this.
I had seen a version of this on Pinterest and thought I would try my version. You will note I have two of the blocks going in the wrong direction! Funny you don't see that until you take pictures!! I always take pictures before finishing up a top (and even doing that have an occasional slip). I do like this arrangement a lot. I am starting to run out of white though (of the non-PFD variety) so may have to actually go buy a bolt when on super cheap sale at Joann's.
I have finished half of the putting together here. It should end up measuring about 35 x 35 before I put on some borders.
Some birds in my daughter's back yard for your perusal! This is a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker.
This is a beautiful Bluebird who posed a lot for us the other afternoon.
Her ever present cardinal in all his glory!
Now that I have my Juki back, I am getting some of my machine quilting done. This was the first to be completed and is now on my bed.
This shows some of the quilting.
This is the stack and whack I was working on in the workshop. It will go to Sweet Charity as soon as I get batting and get it quilted.
I also have quilted two wall hangings that feature my kaleidoscopic hand dyed blocks just for fun. As soon as I get the binding done, I will post pictures of the completed projects.
I was not particularly pleased with the quilting of those blocks so I decided to do some experimenting with different machine quilting looks. I took four of the kaleidoscopic blocks -- each about 12 inches square - and chose a different technique for each one seeing what I liked best without messing up a whole quilt top. I am getting there. To make the blocks useful, I backed them with the heat resistant quilted material used for pot holders so that I would have hot pads!! They match my daughter's pillows so I will give a couple to her!
Here are the four. Don't kow whether you can see clearly but the first one was an attempt to follow the pattern, the second one used the orange peel pattern, the third was just four straight lines bisecting the block on the square side and the diagonal, and the fourth was just an endless circle. I am okay with the minimal stitching for this use but don't think it would be great in a quilt. The second and fourth ones might have some use for certain blocks but the first -- trying to follow the pattern - still would be my favorite though. I have decided in the future to not try to follow the pattern exactly but to superimpose a roughly right pattern on top. Didn't have time to do today!
It was much nicer to sit on my porch and watch the ocean waves while reading a junky book! I am beginning to get a little stir crazy though with everything cancelled, grocery stores empty and no idea whether I will be able to have my much needed ankle surgery scheduled in May.
These are blocks I made from leftover fabric with which I backed another quilt!! It was really pretty ugly material but worked up well into these posie blocks! I have put together a bunch of dyed fabrics to border them which I will get to eventually.
This corona virus thing has caused the cancellation of about everything which includes the monthly quilt guild meeting. As I am old and have asthma, I am being pretty cautious these days. I am scheduled to have elective surgery in May and hope that will happen! If it doesn't, it doesn't, I guess!
This is the stack and whack I was demonstrating with in class. I almost liked the fabric but am not thrilled with the blocks. They are okay but not exciting. The fabric had a decent repeat but still not enough variety. Sometimes the ugliest fabric make the best stack and whacks. This might have worked better as a hexie!
I surrounded each of the blocks with black as nothing else seemed to work and I did audition a bunch of colors!
Here I auditioned some fabrics for the borders. The basic fabric is on the side and I didn't go with the dark green as an inside border as it just didn't work. I used a very pale pale yellow for the sashing as white was too stark.
The top is finished now and will post it in the next blog.
I am currently machine quilting a top I made last summer which is pretty big. Basting it was a disaster as the basting spray just wasn't sticking for some reason. I think I should have washed the back first maybe. There will be some tucks in the back but the front looks good and the back is such a dark blue, the tucks won't show too much thankfully and they weren't as bad as could be expected. It won't be in any quilt shows!! Standing and basting something this large is torture with my bad ankle and heel. So I will be keeping to smaller items until i get this all taken care of! I can do them on my tables with pool noodles sitting down!
I should also comment that I had a sewing machine melt down in February. The top tension on my Juki fell off and then the Juki decided to stop functioning due to my attempt at repair! So off to the closest dealer who is two hours away! He cleaned it all up, greased it (didn't know you were supposed to have that done periodically) and it works l like new now! Well, after my Juki failed, I went to use my Featherweight which had worked just fine just a few days before. The belt was slipping terribly so onto Amazon to order a new belt. Then I pulled out my old Bernina 830. Of course the light decided to not work on that but at least the machine functioned!! So onto Amazon again to get a light. Well the new belt came and the FW worked for about a minute and then didn't again. I then noticed that the motor was wobbling a bit (it is not easy to get a new belt on a machine) and found a screw that was loose. I tightened that up and all is well. New belt and new light on the Bernina!!
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