Another Quilt Off The Frame!

It appears I have turned a corner. The Tin Lizzie is becoming less and less intimidating all the time. After finishing the Harvest Pumpkin quilt earlier this month (click here for that post), I knew this quilt of roughly the same size would be up next for me. 

This scrappy churn dash quilt with 9-patches for centers was a well-aged quilt top made in 2016 at our Canter's Cave Retreat. The Frankfort Girls all had the option of making this pattern at the retreat. and I was happy to participate; I love my finished quilt top. The quilt is by designer Kim Diehl, called All In A Row. It has just 25 blocks (5x5), and is 60" square; with all the cutting done ahead of time, it made up fast at the retreat.

Ever since, it has hung in my closet with a gazillion other quilt tops waiting to be quilted. Well, except for the day I attempted to correct a wavy border issue - that aggravating effort made its way to a blog post, which you can read here.  

So, it came out of storage and is now quilted. I loaded it last Thursday and in just an afternoon, I took it from closet to loaded to quilted to trimmed. On Sunday afternoon, I attached the binding, and have been slowly stitching it in the evenings while watching television.

This looks like a scrap quilt, and perhaps some of these fabrics were scraps at the time I made it, but mostly I just pulled a wide variety of fat quarters for a very scrappy look. The sashing fabric is consistent as is the cornerstones, and the border. That helps contain the haphazard nature of each block.

When I was trying to decide what to use for the binding, I pulled a variety of red and burgundy leftover bindings out. I opted to sew them all together and have a scrappy binding to match the scrappy nature of the quilt center. Here are a couple of pictures of the backing and binding. If you need to take a closer peek, then you'll probably have to click on the pictures to enlarge.

Mostly, I have just one side remaining to be stitched, and part of another. It could be finished tonight while we watch the Browns on Thursday night football.

Next up for the long arm is the special request quilt for DD Emma. Remember that low volume Ohio Star she wanted? I know she is anxious to get it on her bed, so I am committed to riding this wave of long-arming confidence and getting it quilted ASAP.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

All In A Row - A Parade

On Saturday, I shared with you the finished quilt top that Terry did of the Kim Diehl pattern All In A Row, and mentioned that I would pull all our different versions of this quilt together for one post. As there's no time like the present, it seemed like a good idea for today.

 

Above is my version, with the borders done correctly. I removed them multiple times before getting them right. Read all about that aggravating day here, if you like.

 

The version above is from Sharon O. Hers is quilted and bound. Lovely.

 

Sheryll has quilted, bound and entered into a quilt show her version of the pattern. 

 JoAnn made the first quilt for what was to become our quilt-along. She altered it by making the blocks larger. We all loved it so much that we came up with the idea of making our own at the retreat this past spring.

Of course, this is Terry's that she shared with us just this past Friday when we were all together. 

For some reason, I am unable to locate a picture of Jan's version of this quilt. She definitely made one, as we all kidded her about having it done before the retreat. If possible, I will get her to bring it out for me to photograph.

Isn't it interesting to see the variations of a single pattern? All of us seemed to stay with the scrappy and reproduction fabric look, which is so well-suited to this pattern. It might be fun to make one using a totally different theme to see how it translates. Maybe red and white? Maybe Christmas? Kaffe? Possibilities are endless, for sure.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Frankfort Girls

Last Friday we met at Jan's for sewing and fellowship. All were present with the exception of Terry, whose husband was recovering from recent knee-replacement surgery. We had a productive morning, so let's take a look at the various projects we were working on.

Our hostess Jan had a finish to share. She makes Crown Royal bags into quilts. Jan and her husband own a golf course; they serve Crown Royal Canadian Whiskey at the clubhouse. (I could spread rumors and tell you that Jan has a drinking problem; I'm ornery, but not that ornery! *wink*)The fabric is flannel; she deconstructs the bags, cuts the squares, adds a second flannel fabric in a pleasing color, and comes up with a bundle of gorgeousness like you see above.

A variety of deconstructed Crown Royal bags.

 

A bag in its original state. Jan is deconstructing one in the background.

Sheryll was working on this rather ambitious applique quilt. Impressive, for sure. I always feel that these sorts of patterns are just more than I can handle, for some reason. They intimidate me. But it sure is gorgeous. Sheryll hopes to enter this into her guild's upcoming quilt show.

Above, JoAnn is completing the binding on her All In A Row quilt. Do you recall that we all made this quilt at the Canter's Cave retreat back in April? I had trouble with my outer border, but eventually got it all worked out. Both JoAnn and Sharon O. have theirs quilted and bound (or nearly bound).

Above is Sharon's version. She finished her binding while we were together and showed off her finish.

Makes me want to get mine quilted. Maybe soon.

I worked on finishing that hexie table topper - it started out as 2 small ones, but I decided they'd have more impact as one big one. It has been fun stitching.

After I had added quite a few hexies, I stopped to see my progress. The only good place to lay it out was on the floor by the table where we were working. Ha! Look at Jan's kitchen floor! Hexies! I posted this pic to both FB and IG with the caption 'hexies on hexies."

Now we are all caught up on the Frankfort girls!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Border Wars

The possibilities for today's title are numerous.

One Inch

Ah-Ha Moment

Measuring Accurately Makes All the Difference

Can't Ignore It

Why Is This So Hard??

Get the Ripper

You may recall that I made my All In A Row quilt at the Canter's Cave retreat early in April. When I got home from retreat, I pinned the quilt top up on my design wall, and basically just admired it all  month long.

Yet as much as I admired, I also knew that something was just not right. I really had to ease those borders on, and the result was that I had a quilt that was waving at me. Yes, those borders were too big for the quilt center. Maybe you can detect it from the photo above. I tried and tried NOT to notice, to no avail. Finally, I broke down; there would be no forcing myself to ignore it. Even if I'd gone ahead and finished it, I would always kick myself for not taking those borders off and making things right.

And so I bit the bullet, and took it downstairs last night to "unsew" while watching the Cavs-Hawks game. Above is the "denuded" quilt center. It deserves this extra attention, I kept telling myself.

 Above are the borders. The black needed to be trimmed down a bit, I thought. In the month since making the quilt, I was pretty sure I hadn't forgotten that I'd had to stretch the center part to fit the borders. Yet when I measured, it appeared that I had it all backwards. I needed to add just an inch to the black outer border. So I "unsewed" one end of each border, cut small bits, shown below, and added them as extensions.

Then I reattached the corner blocks and pinned it all in place. What the ?!?!?!?! It was waaay too big! Aggghh! What on earth was I doing wrong?? Pardon my emotional use of italics and excessive punctuation, but I was becoming perturbed.


I tell you this next part to illustrate that even a seasoned veteran quilter can have issues with measuring. I added, then removed, then added again, and then removed again these extenders before finally having my "ah-ha moment." Talk about frustration! The reason those extenders shown above are so frayed and frazzled is because they'd been in, out, in and out of the border so many times. Geesh. My seam ripper was working overtime today.

The simple explanation is that when I measured, I failed to account for the small inner border. I included it when I measured; I should have excluded it. I measured numerous times and never caught my error. I ended up having to cut away an inch of the black border (instead of adding an inch) and voila! I had a perfect fit! Whew. What a dense brain I have.

Now all my borders are back on, and I am a very happy seamstress with a satisfied grin on her face. My All In A Row quilt doesn't wave any more; it will make me happy every time I look at it. After some time, maybe all I will remember about this excruciatingly difficult journey is that it was totally worth it.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

All In A Row - A Closer Look

At the retreat a week and a half ago, I worked hard to finish the group sew-along we worked on, All In A Row by designer Kim Diehl. I thought I would show a little bit about my construction process. I talked about pulling the fabric and cutting the kit prior to going to retreat. You can click back here to review, if you like.

Going from the preparing of the fabric to this finished flimsey was quite the fun journey. I would never have made this quilt if the girls hadn't agreed to make it a group sew-along at retreat. I am ever-so-grateful that we did it. I just love my finish, and am considering hand-quilting it.

I've prepared a collage of photos that represent the major parts of the construction process. First up was to make 25 little 9-patch blocks - all with individually cut 1.5" squares. That is what you see in the upper left photo.

In the upper right photo, you can see that I have made all the HSTs for the corners and the bars for the sides of each churn dash. I lay out every single block and stack them up on top of each other. This is how I keep the parts straight, and know that all the right parts are being sewn together.

The lower left photo shows the chain piecing process. I have attached one seam top to bottom on all 25 blocks. I lay them back out beside their remaining parts, and proceed to chain piece these seams in the same way.

The lower right photo has all the parts sewn, and ready for pressing.

That is very abbreviated explanation of the way I manage chain piecing. It works for me, so I figure (if you could follow those details) it might also work for others.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Canter's Cave Accomplishments

It seems as though I've been prattling on about the retreat at Canter's Cave for a very long time, and I do apologize for dragging it out so long. Today I will share with you the actual accomplishments we made while at the retreat. I have things from JoAnn, Sheryll and Terry for your viewing pleasure.

First, JoAnn. She was into making lots of small, easily accomplished projects, and therefore, she had several. She was the one of us who's already made the All In A Row quilt that we worked on together, so her time was free to make other things. And she did.

Now that I have these 4 photos arranged in a collage, I think I might have given JoAnn credit for one that is not hers. Well, let's just say that the two hexie blocks are definitely JoAnn's, as well as the patriotic quilt. The upper right picture is either hers or Jan's, and the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Jan had this to show us.

Jan made the quilt from blocks that Terry gave to her; she is going to pay it forward to one of her daughter's special needs students who will soon be graduating from high school.

The patriotic quilt is a community service project that JoAnn's Florida guild is heavily involved in. The quilts are finished and given to veterans who have retired in the central Florida area.

 

The quilts above are the gorgeous efforts of Sheryll. Her All In A Row quilt top was the first to be completed at the retreat. Seeing hers gave me the boost I needed to keep working on mine. Her other quilt was one she had in progress and finished while at Canter's Cave. It is a pattern called Laura's Hat Pins, made with 4-inch blocks and finishing at 30.5 x 36.25 inches. Really pretty - delicate and whimsical.

The two projects above come from the sewing machine of Terry. Her purple and tan quilt is one she had started before arrival and finished quickly before moving on to All In A Row. Her blocks are laid out on the right, and she stopped there because she planned to revisit an old UFO friend - Long Road Home. Yes, that's the same quilt that she wanted to make so many, many months ago. Instead, both Sheryll and I have finished ours, and hers is still in the early construction stage. I do not have any pictures of her Long Road Home progress, but I'm sure I will have in the coming weeks.

Jan attended retreat for just one day. Since she was still in a cast from her recent rotator cuff surgery, she was unable to stay and do any significant sewing, but we did enjoy her company and she did, as always, bring us treats. She goes way overboard in treating, that's for sure! A bag full of goodies and a t-shirt!

Laura, Susan and Sharon O. were present, too, and I've shown most of what they did. I do want to bring you one more post on my All In A Row quilt, but that may wait a few days, as it really has nothing to do with retreat. I will focus more on how I constructed it - my assembly line.

I hope all these pretty quilts have given you some inspiration for your own quilt-making. I sure am inspired from seeing these wonderful friends creating such fantastic quilts.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Back On Track

After cutting out the wrong quilt for retreat, I have refocused my scatterbrained self, and have the correct quilt cut and ready for stitching. I'd like you to meet what will become All In A Row, a quilt by designer Kim Diehl.

I saved a plastic box from Christmas candy and have all the little 9-patch parts and churn dash parts stored there for easy transport. In the foreground are the sashing and border fabrics. And stacked over to the right are the fabrics I will take, should I find that my cutting was off. (Never! Ha!)

What an assembly line of cutting I had going. Above are the makings of 25 9-patch blocks, all cut at 1.5 inches.

And, yes, I did make a sample block. Easy-peasy. This will be fun to construct. Not nearly so labor-intensive as the one I cut out by mistake. That one will require concentration; this one won't so much.

Click back here to see what All In A Row will look like, and to read about my cutting snafu.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

About That Cutting Frenzy...

The last post I wrote before the week-long hiatus, was about this fabulous cutting frenzy I was in. I'd cut out 16 blocks to make a scrappy star quilt to be prepared for our upcoming sew-along at the Canter's Cave retreat. Have a click-back to read about it. I was so pleased with the variety of all my blocks and the clever way in which I organized them in that flat box.

When I went to quilting on Friday morning to meet the Frankfort girls, I learned that 'Best of All' was not the quilt we were doing together for the sew-along. Geesh. I'd cut out the wrong quilt.

That's what I get for feeling proud of myself. (Pride goeth before the fall?) When I thought I was getting ahead in cutting, I was actually devoting valuable time to a quilt that we aren't making. Oh, goodness.

The quilt we are making, I was informed, is a Kim Diehl quilt called 'All In A Row.' It is a wonderful churn dash quilt, using very similar scrappy fabrics as 'Best Of All.' Jan had given me the pattern, and I vaguely recalled where I'd put it - where I'd remember, of course. I dug it out yesterday. It will take a lot of time to cut out, so I'd best get started on it. I do want to make it, and I do think a sew-along with the girls will be fun.

The photo above, a bit fuzzy, was taken from the Martingale website where the pattern is available for download. (I hope they don't mind my using it. I will be making their pattern, so I hope it's okay to use the picture.) My print-off is also fuzzy, so I'd hoped to find a clearer image.

Why will it take me forever to cut out? The directions say to cut out each of the center 9-patches individually - as in 1.5" squares of all that variety of scrappiness - a time-consuming endeavor, for sure. 

This major cutting mistake was another of those "episodes" mentioned in yesterday's post which interfered with posting to the blog. It is a lot more fun to write about good stuff than it is to write about mistakes. And now you are beginning to see a fuller picture of the week. A setback like this tends to put me in "shut-down" mode. I just stop. No going back to the sewing room; no getting right back to work with the correct project. I couldn't think about it for a few days. And with Easter and the arrival of house guests and then that awful dogbite, I was stymied.

But it appears I've returned with new resolve. I have a couple more catching-up posts to write about, so I hope you will join me back here tomorrow!

Happy Quilting, Friends!