A Very Crafty Month

My yard still looks exactly the same as it did in the photo from my last post, only there's more snow. A LOT more snow. We had a little January thaw in the middle of the month, and most of the snow on the ground melted. Sunday's nor'easter dumped 14 inches in my town, and it's been so cold there's no hope of melting. We're still waking up to mornings near or below zero this week with daytime highs in the teens. Perfect sewing weather!

The second little Courthouse Steps mini got finished earlier this month. The fabrics are mostly the same as the first one, except where I ran out of the original fabric or changed my mind. I hang my minis down my hallway wall with the Command strips, which work perfectly, and this one has been hung.

I finished quilting the big Courthouse Steps yesterday afternoon. Once I settled down to work on it, I was surprised how fast the blocks went--they're 14 inches finished. The quilt will finish at 56 x 70 inches, which is a fine size for a lap quilt. This one will be donated to Maine Veterans Home after I get the binding on. 

I used a pantograph called Two Fold Feathers by Lorien Quilting. I love this design because it's easy and not too dense, and because I love feathers. The large scale of the pantograph worked well with the big blocks, I thought. 
 

With the last of this hunting print stripped into the middle of the backing, I had just enough green to finish it off. More fabric out of the stash, my quilt chapter's stash, that is. 

It would be nice to get another finish for the month of January; but with only two days left in the month, I doubt that will happen.  

At our second chapter meeting this month, we did a square in a square workshop for charity. The blocks are set 7 x 7 and finish at 7", so the quilt should finish at close to 50" square. 

These block were pretty fast to make, and I especially liked them because the on point squares are floating; that is, after the seam allowance is taken, the point of the square is back from the seam line. That means nothing to match when you sew them together. 

There are plenty of patterns out there for square in a square blocks and variations, so I could see another one of these in my future. 

 We cut 5" squares for the centers of these blocks, but you could substitute a pieced square if you wanted. Coincidentally, Studio 180 just came out with a brand new ruler for nine patch blocks in nine sizes or something, so for example you could put a nine patch block in the center. Or you could change the dimensions of the outer triangles so you didn't have to deal with crazy math. 

The Tango top has been finished for a little while and will be the next quilt to go on the frame. This was from a workshop I took with Diane Harris, the Stash Bandit, last summer at Maine Quilts. It was a fun class, but I changed up my methods a bit when I got home. The fabrics are all from my Lori Holt collection. Because like 30s repros, they just all go together, lol. 

This is another pattern I've seen around the web in different sizes and variations. SewCanShe has one called Fancy That, 1 and 2, I think. 

The block size was pretty big, and I took all my cutaways from the corners of the big blocks, turned them into half square triangle blocks and sewed them together this way, which will turn into a nice sized baby quilt. 

I'm hoping I can find a backing fabric in the stash big enough to quilt both of these tops at the same time.

I have large scrap bins with lids in every color squirreled away in another part of the sewing room. The organization of said scraps occurred several years ago, here, one of the most sensible things I ever did. Additionally I had a big drawer full of scraps, also sorted by color, that I could dive into for something quick or throw in a few handfuls left over from some other project. It was handy to have that drawer full so accessible right in the sewing room. When it got too full, I'd move some scraps into the larger bins. 

Last month I guess, the triangles got out of control; so I moved all the scraps out of the drawer and replaced them with these containers of triangles. These are baby wipe containers I saved from when my granddaughter was still in diapers, because what good quilter doesn't save all kinds of containers? 12 of these containers fit perfectly in the drawer, all sorted by color. Brilliant.   

Then I had nowhere to throw a few scraps before I either sorted them into the big bins or used them. So I cleared everything off my countertop, and I am making these small bins in rainbow colors for a quick toss of a handful of scraps. 

I am loving these containers. The pattern is the medium fold up basket from SewCanShe, and they finish at about 5-3/4 x 7 inches, plenty big enough for a few good handfuls of scraps. After the sewing is done, the flaps allow you to fold it up into a basket. 

These fold up baskets are available in three sizes. The directions are free on the website, but you have to contend with ads; so the patterns are also offered as pdf files for $5. 

You need two fat quarters to make the medium size basket, so that's another half yard out of the stash! 

The best part about these containers is that they're easy to sew, there's no hardware to attach, and they unfold to store flat. This is what it looks like unfolded. 

I have three made so far and trying to get two more made this week. 

Two more ornaments were finished this month. This one is called Bethlehem Star....

... and this one is called Reflection and was given to a friend for Christmas. 

I finished this little cross stitch last week too. This design hung in the bathroom in my friend's quilt studio for years. When she passed away, it was given to our other friend Sherry. 

I hunted in vain for the pattern online and never found it, so I borrowed it from Sherry and duplicated it. At long last it is finished. The cost of having it framed like Koleen's original is stupid, so I want to make it into a small quilt. I haven't a clue how to do that right now, so I'm trying to find out something about that online. Blue Pip Designs has a little tutorial on how she finishes her small cross stitch pieces, so there's a starting point. 

Somewhere in there, a dishcloth got finished this month too, but I didn't take a snap of it. 

More fun next week! 

**Linking to Alycia's  Finished (or not!) Friday

 

 
 

January OMG - Mission Accomplished

My One Monthly Goal for January is completed, quilted and bound. This was my little Twister quilt that I'm calling "It's A Girl!". Backed with flannel, which is my favorite backing for kids quilts.

To see what projects others completed in the month of January, click here.

The quilt was quilted with a simple pantograph, Angel Wings from Willow Leaf Studio, I think. You almost can't see the quilting because of the cirles in the background fabric, haha. Simple was good in this case.

I've been busy with other quilting projects too all month but very scattered in my approach. Seems like everybody had a new block of the month starting up at the beginning of the year, and I started collecting the instructions for no less than four of them, lol, and I'll be starting another with a friend later this month.
-- Michelle Renee Hiatt is doing a mystery quilt on her blog, Sew On The Go, called Grand Central. I am still working on her last mystery, Ticker Tape Parade, which just finished last month, I think; so I haven't started the Grand Central yet.
-- Alex Anderson's The Quilt Show online has started a BOM from one of Sue Garman's patterns, Afternoon Delight. I saw Sue's quilt a long time ago and always liked it, so I'm collecting the patterns for that one.
-- Moda is hosting their third Blockheads block of the week on their blog, so there are over 50 blocks that will be presented. There are 14 participating designers, each of whom will contribute one or more blocks. I decided to make mine up in batiks that I've had sitting around in the stash for years. The blocks can be made in multiple sizes, so I have to decide what I'll do for a layout before I can start sewing. I think I'm going to go with multiple sizes like the Blockheads 2 Moda hosted in 2018.

--The last one is the only one that is an actual BOM where the instructions and fabrics are shipped every month. Esther's Bloomers is a block of the month by Kim Diehl using her new Heirloom Shirtings collection, and I loved it when I first saw it back in November. It's a 6-month program, so fabric and instructions for multiple sections are shipped every month.

This is the center block. I made a bunch of four patches from a variety of backgrounds to surround it. Some have applique, and I'm still working on those. I think the next installment  ships around the 10th of the month, so I have time yet.

One of my friends will start receiving her Farm Girl Vintage 2 BOM kits later this month. I already bought the book and the fabric collection, so I'll do mine along with her. Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet, who is the designer, has already started a quilt along on her blog, so we'll follow along with that too.

Guess that's enough Blocks of the Month!

This is not a block of the month, just what I hope will be a fast project to make to use up some fabric and which will probably be my One Monthly Goal for February. I'd like it to be a shelter quilt to donate but haven't decided yet. It is Happy Trails from a tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Company using a different setting that I really liked. I modified the size so I could get a larger quilt and also so I could use my Studio 180 rulers, which I have come to love.

I may make some other blue and white scrap quilts this year. I want to make a few more shelter quilts and also some quilts for camp. Next up is a blue and tan snowball quilt with a flying geese border from last month's issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. I've made snowball blocks before but never a whole quilt full, and I think it will be relatively quick. Plus I can use my Studio 180 Corner Pop ruler on the corners so I don't have to draw all those lines on the corner squares. A great invention, those rulers. Wish I'd had them years ago.

New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year to all. It's a new year with a new set of goals and new projects I want to work on. I'm doing the One Monthly Goal again this year--for me it was not 100% successful last year, but it was enough of a motivator that I'll do it again this year. Although I did not list the last one, Woodlands, I did finish 11 quilts, so I'm happy.

For the month of January, my goal is to finish this small baby quilt. My chapter is doing a bucket list challenge this year, and I chose a Twister quilt. To see what others are planning for OMG for January, click here!

I've had the smallest size ruler for years but never used it. There are now 6 different Twister rulers from two different companies in a range of sizes--and I now own all of them. For my challenge, my plan is to make one in each size. This is the first, and if this is the only one I finish, I will have still met the challenge.

This will be a baby quilt for a new baby in the family. The blocks finish to 9", and I'm adding two rounds of borders to bring it up to about 36" square. In the upper left corner of the photograph, I have two border squares set in place, 30 more to go. One seam, should be quick.

The process to make a Twister quilt is not difficult or time consuming--it's actually pretty quick. You must have the Twister ruler though: and I have to say, there is a fair amount of waste, which some people will find unacceptable. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet, so I made myself a template for the border squares instead of using the Twister method, no waste there.

The packaging for each ruler tells you what size squares to cut for the first step. For this quilt, I needed 5" squares--a charm pack would have worked very well. I happened to have a layer cake, so I took one of each print out of the stack and cut them into quarters, which gave me 4 charm packs, essentially. It'll be fun to see how many quilts I can get out of this one layer cake.

The first step for my block was to sew the required number of squares together and  surrounded with strips of background fabric. Making blocks rather than sewing together rows and rows of squares for a whole quilt, as some patterns call for, is an easier way to learn how to do this, I think. Plus I liked the way the blocks looked and the design flexibility that comes with it.

It is not easy to see, but in the photograph, the ruler has been placed for the first cut in the upper left corner of the block. The lines on the ruler are aligned with the seams you have sewn in the block.

Here, the units have all been cut out from the block, and the scraps around the edges and the middles have been removed. Four squares and a border gave me 9 units.

Next, the units are rotated slightly to form a square.....

.... and then they're sewn together to make one block. I love this!

As these are smaller units, larger scale prints probably wouldn't have worked well. Some of mine were a medium scale, and I think they'll be fine. I also knew the prints with white backgrounds wouldn't have enough contrast with my background fabric, but I elected to use them anyway to use them up. Baby won't mind, lol.