Bounce or Hubble?

The Another Year of Schnibbles project for October is to do Bounce or Hubble.



They both finish at the same size.  I couldn't decide which to make.  I didn't really have a need for either, but of course, need doesn't always drive the making of a quilt!  After considering things, though, I remembered that my niece, Alex, had asked me to make her a new bed-sized quilt.  She turned 7 and has decided that she is more sophisticated than pink and purple now, and likes other colors like blue, etc.

I decided to make her a Bounce quilt.  I made her a quilt for her wall back here using Me and My Sister fabric.  They have a new line out, Good Morning, so I got some of that.

Here are the completed blocks before I "bounced" them.

I needed to make this quilt larger, and what I really like about Carrie's patterns is that she has suggestions for doing so.  I'm making 56 blocks, for a 7 x 8 block arrangement.  I also used my 9.5 inch square ruler to trim them down (the bouncing process as you manipulate the ruler into different areas of the block to trim) instead of squaring them to 9 inches.  I'm not sure if you can tell in the photo, but the background fabric is light blue. 

Just what is the bouncing process?  It is quite fun, actually.  The blocks come together larger than needed and you trim them down in different ways to get the stars to look like they are "bouncing."

You can center the star and trim it down:

You can center the star across the ruler but have one edge closer than the other:

You can push the ruler all the way into one corner:

And finally, you can be really daring (which I'm not) and even trim it off-kilter:

The above ways are the basic configurations, but they don't have to be quite so exaggerated.  All in all, you can trim and manipulate the block into really varied  positions.

Here is how they might look when the trimming is done and they are all arranged:

What is really fun is that the trimmed blocks will now have their seam allowances in different locations, so when you sew them all together, you don't have to match any of them and thus worry about which direction they are going!  It made it so easy and fun!

Carrie also offers several variations.  I chose to use on large square for the center of my stars, so that the star is made up entirely of the same fabric.  You can also choose to piece the star center by making a 4-patch block of other scraps.  I chose the first option because it was easier!  Yep, I'll admit it!  Sometimes I like the more complex version, but this time I wasn't feeling it.  I'm glad I did it this way, too, because this fabric is fairly large scale, and the larger pieces let it show more.

Another variation is that you can make all the blocks one size, or you can make some a bit smaller.  I did do this.  Can you see in the photo above that the purple star in the upper right corner is smaller than the dark pink one to its left?  It is just that subtle difference that accentuates the "bounce."

There were some variations in the border, as well.  I'll talk about them next.  I plan to spend the day quilting my Speck so it is ready for this month's parade.

Have a great day!
JoAnne

Another quilt finish and a thrift store find

The next quilt I'm featuring that I finally got quilted and bound is Alex's quilt.  I blogged about it before and after way over-thinking the corner squares and getting some much needed intervention and advice from some good quilting friends (thanks Joan and Kim) I finished the top, layered it, and promptly added it to the pile.  I finally quilted it on Sunday and it came out great.

So far I free motion a meander over my quilts.  But, I'm going to learn to do other things.  Somday...

Yesterday I popped into the thrift store on post becasue I was too early for the post office.  I looked around and didn't really see anything, but I had some more time to kill, so I kept looking and my eye finally fell on something in the bedding/linen section.  It is a hand crocheted coverlet/throw and it is marvelous.

Here is part of it.  It looks very LeMoyne star/tumbling blocks, doesn't it?

What is really neat?  The little crocheted pompoms!  They remind me of the fuzzy ball trims that are so popular right now, but they are all crocheted, not fuzzy.  I love it!  I have no idea where I'm going to display it, but I had to have it.  Oh, and one of the volunteers told me she had just put it out on the shelf.  It had been consigned that morning by an older woman who said her mother made it.

Today I'm back to hand stitching binding.  Anyone have any good streaming Netflix recommendations?  Yesterday I finally watched Whalerider--it was really good.

Aloha,
JoAnne

Alex's Quilt pt. 2 or Fussy-Cutting Borders

Alex's quilt went together so easily.  The cutting and piecing were pretty simple, yet the finished flower block is so cute.   Borders were next.  The blue inner border was easy enough.  The pink outer border was a whole different matter.  The fabric is tricky.  There are clusters of flowers, about the size of a hand, scattered on the fabric, so I didn't want to just haphazardly cut and sew.  I carefully examined the fabric and saw that the clusters were positioned in near rows down the length of the fabric.  (I had bought enough fabric to cut the borders from the length to avoid joining seams.)    Across the 40-42 inch width of fabric were 4 1/2 rows.  (Why is there always a half?  At least it wasn't 3 1/2 though)  The rows were 8-9 inches wide, and my border needed 6 inch wide strips, so I centered the 6 inches over the row as best as I could.  I cut the first row.  Of the 4 rows, there were two identical pairs--all 4 were not the same.  I carefully lined up the first one I had cut on top of it's matching pair to cut an identical 6" border strips.  These would be the top and bottom.  I cut another strip from the third row, and an identical mate from the last row to use for the 2 sides of the quilt.  I determined an identical center point in all four strips--the white center of the orange flower.

I sewed on the borders, mitering the corners, and this is how it came out.  I'm pretty satisfied with the borders, but I'm not liking the way the miters are meeting.  I really have problems with "half flowers."  Now I'm thinking of making corner squares, but what color?  Green would work, but I think I'd like more of the purple fabric better.  The only problem I can see is that I set one of the purple flower blocks in a corner and I'm not sure I'd like a purple border corner there so near. 

While pondering all my options, and carefully studying things, now I'm not sure I like the orange and yellow flowers.  They were fabrics in the same line as the border, and they match perfectly, I just don't like how "strong" they are--they don't look like they belong.  Ugh!  This quilt was supposed to be easy!

Here is how it would look with corner squares.  I'm trying out both the purple and green.  I placed the purple by the purple flower block.  I'm not sure how I'm liking it.  What do you think?

Alex's Quilt

On Friday, I did straighten up my quilting room before deciding which new project to start.  It really wasn't a difficult decision.  At Christmas time, my 5 year old neice, Alexandra, asked me if I would make a quilt for her to hang on the wall in her bedroom.  It wasn't a matter of "if" so much as "what."  I didn't immediately have something in mind, so I filed the request away to ponder.  A few weeks ago, there was a blog tour for this book:

And with all the photos of the projects featured, I settled on one for Alex.  Fabric choices were next, and since she is a 5 year old girl, this means purple and pink.  I looked around and decided on Moda's Happy by Me and My Sisters as well as some other Me and My Sisters designs from Dilly Dally, etc. I got the top done and started on the borders.  I am going to blog about the borders tomorrow.

The weekend was good.  My husband went diving Saturday morning and so I was able to finish (maybe) the top for Alex's quilt and piece the back.  On Sunday we were able to go snorkeling in the afternoon, so that was good.  He will be home on leave all this week, so hopefully we can do some fun things, other than taking care of taxes, other paperwork, and any more prepartions we have to make prior to his abscence.

Aloha,
JoAnne