A Few Finishes

Hello Everyone,

Boy, this has just been a terrible week!  I fervently hope that it can be over without any more big news stories.  We woke this morning to the news about the big explosion in West, Texas.  We used to live at Fort Hood, Texas, and whenever we drove back to South Dakota, we would stop in West at the Czech Stop for kolaches.  I'm Czech on my father's side of the family and although no one makes as good kolaches as my Grandma did, theirs are pretty tasty.  (a kolache is a pastry)

I am happy to show some finishes today.  First up is a purse that I've been working on the past week.  When I went to the quilt shop in Manassas (after our Ikea experience) I found this pattern and got it.  It is by Pink Sand Beach Designs and is called "Barbados."

The pattern called for using fusible fleece to provide the substance, however, on other projects, I've used ByAnnie's Soft and Stable and I really like the body that product provides to bags and purses, so I experimented and used it.  Because the Soft and Stable isn't fusible, I had to do some quilting to attach the fabric to the product, but that was easy enough.  The only issue is that I also used it in the lining, and I think that made for a bit too many thicknesses--the lining doesn't lay as nice as I would like, so the next time I make this, I'll use the S&S on the outside, and fleece on the inside.

It is a great size with the necessary pockets for my tastes.  On the front is a zippered pocket as well as a large pocket behind the tan batik accent strip.

The back features a large pocket that is divided into two--perfect for sunglasses and cell phone!

There are two small pockets inside, as well.  Now that I made the pattern, I can see that one could easily add more pockets to the lining. 

I had never made a pattern from this company before.  While I found the pattern to be confusing while just reading it (I always try to read the pattern first, before I start construction) when I was working with the fabric and had a visual in front of me, it was easier to see what was meant in the instructions.  I will be making more of these bags!

Here are my other two finishes:

Our king sized quilt came back from the longarmer!  I bound it entirely by machine. 

While it was in the laundry, getting all crinkly, I made the bedskirt.  Both the binding fabric and the skirt fabric are from Old Glory Gatherings by Primitive Gatherings.  Not surprisingly, I LOVE that fabric line.

Don't forget that you can email me photos of your favorite bindings and please come back tomorrow.  This week I got my one hundredth follower and my next post will be my 250th, so I am celebrating with a giveaway!  See you then!

JoAnne

A Big, Big Finish

Goodness, it has been nearly a year ago since I first saw this:



It was a wall-hanging sized quilt in McCalls from last year's May/June issue.  I fell immediately in love and knew it would be our next bed quilt.  In the meantime I had to move from Hawaii to Virginia and boy that was a long process that wasn't really complete until August and in the midst of it all, we got a new, king-sized bed, so I had to refigure everything. 

I began making star blocks.  A few weeks ago I had this stack of 84 or so.  I needed 100.




I got them all done but it was NO FUN sewing all those star blocks to each others.  The seam allowances were all pressed the same way.  It was sewing over hills and valleys.  Luckily, when I complained about it here, many of you wrote to say I could do it!  And so I perservered.

Then I began on the borders.  Around the big block of 100 stars went a cream border (cut at 2" finishing at 1.5") then a navy border (also cut 2") a gold border (cut 1" finishing at .5") and then another red border (cut 2.")  I was about to start the red borders when I realized my math was wrong and that I "grew" the quilt by nearly 2 inches.  UGH!  I had to rip off all the borders down to the cream one and begin again.

I got the inner borders all on and began with the double-sawtooth borders.  When I make half-square triangles, I cut a bit larger and then trim them down to the correct measurement so that they fit perfectly.  There was a lot of trimming to do, but Harry Potter on the audiobooks helped pass the time.  I think I've listened to all all those books at least 10 times, if not more.  They entertain me, but if I miss part of it, no big deal.

Anyway, Saturday morning was the big day!  I finished!!!!!  Next up, photography.  Only it rained or snowed most of the day.  Sunday morning it was sunny, but still a bit slushy, so we waited.  Finally, in the afternoon it was a bit breezy, but otherwise okay to take photos.


TA DA!!!

It finishes at 108" square.  King-sized!  I was really liking it all blue and white, but once I added the first red border, it really started singing to me!

Here is a detail of those pesky inner borders which I had to remove and redo.

 

Cream, navy, gold, and red. 

 

I almost didn't use the gold border, but I think that it brings a lot to the party.  That little jolt of difference really packs a punch.

 

 



  I love the variety of blues in the stars.  If we look at the whole thing again, notice how the different blues shimmer across the quilt.

It was a bit windy, but my darling husband managed the quilt on a ladder, clamped to a length of bamboo.

The original quilt was designed by Lynn Lister.  I enlarged the stars to finish at 8" and my large sawtooth border consisted of 6" half-square triangles and the smaller one is made of 3" half-square triangles.  Changing the sizes of the units helped keep my much-larger project more in scale to hers, but also allowed me to make far less stars than I would have needed if they were smaller. 

I am so tickled that this project is finally done--except for the long-arm quilting.  I'll be sending it off soon.

Maybe it will actually make it onto the bed before winter is technically over!

I hope you all have a great day!
JoAnne

Happy Valentine's Day

This is a quilt that I made and donated to my quilt guild to raffle at our meeting Tuesday night.   I particularly like the middle left heart.

I fussy-cut it.

Do any of you have special plans for the day?  I don't think we do.  We will probably exchange cards and that is about it.  We are sort of beyond the romatic gesture-phase in our relationship where the day requires over-priced or drooping-head roses.  I would rather have a cheerful bouquet on a different day.  We will also avoid going out to dinner as the crowds are not worth it.  Friday is a day off for my husband (Monday too) so I expect we will do something fun then--maybe lunch out or something. 

I spent yesterday unsewing nearly all that I had done on Tuesday.  Ugh!  Thanks to all of your encouragement, I got all 100 stars pieced together for my king-sized quilt and I had begun to do the borders.  There is a cream one, then a navy, then a gold, and then a red.  After the red comes a large pieced sawtooth border of hsts.  Since I have enlarged the pattern, I didn't have the necessary measurments.  I "figured" them out on paper and set about sewing them on.  All 4 of the cream.  All 4 of the navy.  All four of the gold.  This morning I started out to work on the red.  But something wasn't quite right.  The interior of the quilt (the stars) finished at 80" so it was 80.5"  The cream, navy, gold, and red borders finish at 5" so that when on, the quilt will now measure 90.5"  (to finish at 90")  I have to have a number divisible by 6 so that the pieced sawtooth borders fit.  The problem was that my borders were mostly on and the quilt was going to end up being 92!"  What had happened?  I went over it all a few times.  Finally, I realized that I had forgotten to take off the quarter inch seam allowances of the center of the quilt each time I did the figuring to determine the lenth of the next borders.  This made the quilt grow by a half inch with each round.  I was surprised that I hadn't noticed an extra half inch when I was applying them.  I even cut and pin, but I guess losing a half inch in a length over 80 inches is pretty easy.  Nothing was left to do but to rip them all off.  Luckily I hadn't messed up the first one, so the cream could stay on. 

It took about two hour-long tv shows to get them all off.  My stitch was tiny!  This is a good place to mention that I got new glasses early last week and I'm still not used to them.  My new prescription is drastically different than my old, so they said it would take awhile.  Well, it wasn't fun trying to see those tiny stitches, but I perservered.  Once I got them off, I pressed them, recut them, and sewed them back on.  Luckily the borders were too long and not too short!!!!!!

So today I shall go back up and begin (again) with the red border and then start making tons of HSTs for the sawtooth borders.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!
JoAnne

Easy Street Part 4

Hi All,

Friday morning Bonnie released the next step in Easy Street.  More flying geese and some cutting.  The geese were easy enough, it was the cutting that took the most time for me.

Friday morning it also became abundantly clear to me that my cell phone was on its last leg and I should get a new one before the old one died and I lost stuff.  I got one Friday night and it has been a frustrating weekend for technology, believe me!  We even had to stop back in the cell phone store today to get some questions answered.  It is mostly my own fault--if I had just got the newer version of my old phone, it would have been pretty easy, but nooo, I had to switch phone brands, systems, etc.  Ugh.  Anyway, it is my own fault and I should be functioning more or less back to normal soon.  (I hope.)  What is it about getting a new "smart phone" that makes me feel so dumb?  When you factor in the fact that my home email wasn't working all weekend, too, it just hasn't been a technology-friendly few days.

Luckily I could escape to the quilting room where everything was normal and intuitive!!  I began by cutting the pieces for the flying geese.  I had leftovers from before, both cut and in strips, so that didn't take too long.  I was a bit nervous though with my color selections.  More blue and blue units.

I'm trusting my choices though and am reminding myself that it will turn out to be sensational!  I like these units.  They look like chevrons or little arrowheads!

The cutting involved red fabric.  I'm also working on and off on a quilt for our new king-sized bed and for it I also needed a big variety of red.  Bonnie said to use as much as possible, so I decided to go through my red bin and cut as much fabric as possible. 

It worked out really neat to cut for both projects at the same time.  For the king quilt, I needed 7" and 4" squares.  For Easy Street I needed 145 3.5" squares.  This is what I did.

I got out the pieces of fabric (mostly fat quarters to half yards and smaller "chunks.")  I pressed them and layer 4 pieces at a time.  Here you can maybe make out the four different fabrics.

 

I straightened the edge and then cut a 7" strip.  The width of the fabrics is about 18" plus or minus an inch here or there.

 

So that gave me a strip 7" x 18" (or thereabouts)

 

So I turned the strip and cut two 7" squares.  Seven twice is 14", so that left a chunk left over that is 7" x around 4"

 

 

I trimmed that chunk to 3.5"  Now it is 7" x 3.5"

 

 

Then I cut it in half, giving me two 3.5" squares for Easy Street!  No waste!  I LOVE THIS!

 

 

Next I cut a 4" strip off my layered pieces and subcut into the 4" squares that I also need for the king quilt.

I was able to cut for two quilts in roughly the same time as it takes to cut for one!   I got out 70-75 different fabrics, pressed them, cut the pieces, and folded up the rest of the fabrics and put them away, and I only had to do it once for both projects.  I only cut two squares from each fabric for Easy Street, so I will really have a variety!

Boy this next step is the one that hope is easiest!  We are leaving Saturday morning for Christmas and won't be back til the following Friday, so I have to get the next step done on the same day so I can link up next week! 

Have a great day everyone!
JoAnne

Summer Stars

 

Despite joining in six weeks late, I was able to complete the Summer Stars "mystery" quilt hosted by the Temecula Quilt Shop this summer!  I finished on Saturday.

It was a fun, easy little project.  I still have to quilt it, but that won't take long.  

Here is an update on my blue and cream stars for my new King-sized bed.   I have 28 done now and if you remember, I need 121 total.  What you don't see is the big stacks of pieces I have cut.  I'm using fabric from my "fat quarter and smaller" stash, so cutting isn't as straight-forward as it may seem.

I got distracted by Another Year of Schnibbles.  Our new project for September is what many of us were expecting/predicting/hoping/anticipating/longing for:  one of Carries new Little Bites--Speck

You can see that there are two versions--it is made of the same units, but arranged into two different blocks: the "X" or the "O."  I'm working away on my version already.  We also got a "heads up" about the October project.  That one will be a larger project than normal.  We have a choice of two patterns, Hubble or Bounce, and both finish around 70 inches. 






I haven't been able to make up my mind yet about which one I want to do.  I'm pondering.

Have a great day!
JoAnne