Another Quilt Quilted

So far June has been productive at the long arm machine. This week I loaded another Kaffe Fassett quilt from a very long time ago - I will look it up later - and quilted it on Wednesday afternoon.

This quilt top wasn't exactly square and flat. It had a fair amount of waviness and stretchy bits. I don't have really vivid memories of making it, but it has been long enough ago that I am sure I wasn't as careful about bias stitching as I am now. Waviness notwithstanding, I plowed on and worked it out as I went. I know it is never gonna' pass quilt police inspection by any stretch, but I don't need this quilt to be perfect - I just need it to be finished!!!

The quilt is called Economy Blue and is featured in the book Country Garden Quilts. I looked back and found that I made this in 2011. Here's a flashback post. I later posted this update. The quilt measures 62" square.

It was quite pleasurable gazing at all these magnificent KF fabrics as I quilted along. I have only small bits of most of these fabrics now; I have made a lot of blue KF quilts since 2011, that's for sure. I ought to tally them up just to see what the total would be.

For this quilt, I used the same backing as the previous one. I also used white thread on top and navy thread on the bottom.You can see that my tension is a bit less than perfect by all the tiny white dots of white top thread showing through on the back. Since this quilt is for me, I will wash it and then ignore it. With all the wonk stretchy wavy blocks on the front, this additional imperfection on the back won't bother me in the least.

I know quilters are supposed to measure things, but this quilter often opts to "guessitmate" or "eyeball it" which often comes back to bite me in the butt. This was one such time. I thought for sure I had cut enough binding, but daggone it! I needed a few more inches. Sigh. 

I ought to learn. 

I doubt I have.

I am stitching the binding down today, as I am with the Frankfort Girls at Terry's house. It will go fast, and I will soon have it in the washing machine to achieve that crinkly goodness. I will try taking some pictures of this quilt outside; these indoor pictures don't do it justice. The colors should be more vibrant and vivid.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Cobalt Stars Quilted

In attempting to boost my long-arm activity, I pulled a quilt top out of the closet. Many were the options, to be sure, and I considered several.

This blue and white quilt top is one I made in 2021 called Cobalt Stars. The stars chaining across it were inspired by a picture I saw somewhere on the world wide web. I searched several of my books for star patterns and came up with the two featured in this quilt.

I detailed much of this quilt top in this post from November 2021 when I finished it. As I reread my account, I am glad I showed the two individual blocks. I used blues from my stash of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I had in my stash the white-on-white background, and the two solid blues used in the corner units of the two blocks. One star has polka dot star points, which gives some unity to the design.

So, yes, I pulled this top to put on the Tin Lizzie and set to work quilting it over the weekend.

Do you see that polka dot backing that is rolled on the upper bar? I bought it off a sale table soon after finishing this quilt top specifically to be used for backing this quilt. 

The navy backing fabric brings me to the interesting part of working on this quilt. It was necessary to use a navy bobbin thread and a white upper thread. I had more than a bit of apprehension about this because it would require my tension to be nearly perfect. I didn't want white to show on the back nor navy to show on the top.

And if you've followed my long arm journey for any length of time, you know that tension issues have absolutely plagued me in my attempt to master the long-arm.

Mostly, I did just fine. I am hoping that once I launder the quilt, the crinkling will hide the tell-tale bits that did end up showing through. It's minor, so even if the washing doesn't hide it, the issue won't trouble me.

I decided that I would hand stitch the binding, and I have a good start on that. It's good for evenings when we are watching baseball or a tv show. With only a 60-inch square quilt, it will be quick work.

Perhaps my plan for a year of quilting lots of quilts can be as fruitful as I'd hoped. I have now quilted 3 in the first 5 months; how many in the remaining 7 months?

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Ocean Ripples Goal Met

One of my goals for 2022 was to make Ocean Ripples, a quilt from an older Kaffe Fassett book, Burano. After finishing Cottage Green, I dove right into the blue KF fabrics at my disposal and with great fervor made HSTs - lots of HSTs - big ones and little ones. The process of beginning a much-anticipated quilt began again.

This post from March 14 (11 days ago), shows that I'd made quite a few of the large triangles, but at that point, not nearly enough. In between binding Cottage Green and Red Jacob's Ladder, and tidying up the cutting table, my anticipation of making this new quilt intensified. 

Today, I've finally attached the small triangle strips that serve as borders. Done. Well, the quilt top is done. The quilting will be down the line a bit. Backing decisions will have to be made first.

With all these triangles, the very best thing I did was to trim every last one of them to size. Even with that, I had two or three places where I had to ease fullness. The smaller triangles which make the border seem as though they will be wavy, but I'm hoping that once it's quilted and bound that it will lay reasonably flat.

 We shall see.

Here's the picture of the quilt in the book.

I knew I wanted it to be larger, and I knew I wanted to rotary cut my pieces rather than use templates. I recently read that because all of Fassett's books are published in the UK, he has to use metric measures. Secondly, because so many of his patterns are designed block by block for optimal, artistic color placement, they opt to use templates so that they can fussy cut, or select a portion of a fabric based on the predominant color or shape. 

Conversely, I am interested in making quilts FAST. I did some moderate figuring for the best, most economical use of the layer cakes I planned to use. The results are as follows: cut 6" squares for making the large HSTs; cut 3.5" squares for making the smaller, border HSTs. I trimmed my large triangles to 5.5", and, yes I did trim every single triangle. The smaller triangles were trimmed to 3" and I made way, way more than I needed. Even with the extra border row on each side (not the top or bottom, although I could), I have over 100 HSTs left over.

Did I mention that I trimmed every single triangle? It was time consuming, for sure, and tedious, but construction of this quilt top came together nearly perfectly. I am glad I made myself do all that trimming.

Here is my quilt top pinned to the design wall. I should have spread it out on the bed, but I had a day-date with DH, so I had to be satisfied with this. Maybe a few more pictures will be forthcoming.

Now, it seems a good time to re-examine the 2022 goals, and I am happy to say that less than 1/4 way through the year, I have 1/3 of my goals met. So far, I can mark off 1 -  Teter Baby Quilt, 6 - Temecula Baskets, and the subject of today's post, 11 - Ocean Ripples. Additionally, I am ahead of schedule for 14, as I have quilted 7 this calendar year. And that last item, 'Numerous TBA Quilts,' will cover my  4-Patch Delight and Cottage Green. 

Wonderful!

Hope you have a relaxing, productive weekend! Will it include some quilting? Mine will!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Introducing Cobalt Stars

I just love it when a quilt I "figure out" comes together as good as I had hoped. That is exactly what has occurred with this sweet little number. 

Yesterday, I put the finishing touches on this quilt that I created based off a picture I saw on Facebook. I was enamored with it for two reasons: one, it is blue and white (with pops of pink, purple and green), and two, it is made using Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I had to make it.

It is 62" square, so will do very nicely as a throw quilt or lap quilt. It is made with 12 blocks of one design and 13 blocks of another design. When the corners of the two blocks meet, a very interesting secondary design is formed, making this an altogether interesting quilt to study.

For as long as it has taken me to finally get to work on this quilt, I am so excited to have it finished to this stage, and am now considering what fabric to use for backing, as it may soon go on the longarm.

I'm sure there is a pattern out there somewhere for this quilt, but I could not locate it. After studying a screenshot from Facebook, I could see that it required two star blocks, and with all the reference books around here, I was able to find two that were sufficient for replicating the look. I did look for the pattern in my Fassett books; you saw in yesterday's post that I have many, yet I'd never seen this pattern in any of them. 

The two stars are pictured below. Let's take a closer examination of them, shall we? All 25 stars have a variety of blues for the large center piece, with a few repeats. Also, all 25 stars have a consistent background of white-on-white. For the first star, consistency is achieved by giving all 12 the same polka dot star points and a solid blue square in each corner unit. For the second star, a variety of blues are used as star points, and the consistent element in all 13 blocks is the 4-patch in each corner.

 

I have this quilt on my 2021 Goals List, and I even made a couple of blocks way back in January. Then for whatever reason, I determined that other projects should be dealt with first, so this was set aside for about 10 months. I never put it away, though; it was always in my eyesight and within arm's reach.

Because I spent some time perusing Fassett's books this week, I took a cue from him in deciding to call this quilt Cobalt Stars. He uses that term 'cobalt' in several of his descriptions and quilt names, so if it works for him, it works for me, too. It's a whole lot better than 'blue Kaffe Fassett star quilt', right? 

I am a real happy gal, right now. Having crossed another item off my goals list makes me happy. Having a finish makes me happy. Using this scrumptious KF fabric makes me happy. Feasting my eyes on this beauty makes me happy. I'm feeling all the feels, as the cool kids on social media say.

Hope you are doing something that makes you happy!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sewing With Sharon

 

On Tuesday Sharon was here to sew. We'd missed sewing together the week before, so we had a lot of catching up to do. She brought her tub of Roman Holiday (3 Sisters/Moda) remnants, and was making Tag Sale. This fun quilt is a pattern by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie Quilts. Both of us have made Tag Sale before.

And I do not have a picture of Sharon's work. We get to talking and sewing, and I never think to go over to her table to snap pictures. She was making 9-patch blocks, so imagine, if you will.

I worked on the second set of blue stars using Kaffe Fassett fabrics. To say that I had been procrastinating would be an understatement. I need the motivation of having Sharon here to get me in gear and keep me focused. Holds me accountable!

My sewing plan was to make about 10 more of this version of blue star for the project I aim to complete. I made two individual stars to check my measurements, and then cut all the remaining parts for the remaining stars. Some super-efficient chain piecing would soon begin.

While we talked and sewed, and since I was digging around in my Kaffe Fassett stash, we got onto the topic of what we might make with our KF material. Both of us have quite a lot, and we always enjoy the opportunity to use these beautiful, colorful pieces. Some question we posed caused me to grab a couple of books off the shelf to check something (heaven only knows what we needed to know!).

Oh the dreaming and planning that ensued! We could spend the coming year working on quilts made from these two books alone. So many appealing patterns. I have already made several from the Kaleidoscope of Quilts, and you can see how many tabs are sticking out of the top of Quilts in Burano representing quilts I am considering making. Yikes.

We just had the very best kind of day, talking nonstop, planning future beautiful projects, looking ahead to a few special events coming up, and making routine block units like 9-patches (Sharon) and 4-patches (me).

Yesterday, before putting those two books back on the shelf, I decided to take out all my KF books. I might have to spend a cold evening this week looking through this inviting stack.

I don't have all his books, but I have enough, wouldn't you say? It's safe to say that I could remain busy for years on end working through all the potential quilts represented in the pages of these books.

Since Tuesday, I have finished all the stars, and am now ready to begin putting the quilt top together. You know what I plan for my next post, right?

Hope you come back to have a look!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Assembly Line Piecing

One way the quilter has streamlined piecing is by employing an assembly line methods of quilt construction. Since I have begun working on the blue stars quilt, I've been looking for ways to make the units in as streamlined a way as possible.

By using the book I mentioned in the previous post, Patchwork Math by Lynn Wilder, I have my 12 blocks finished. Here are the simple steps.

In the previous post, I shared how I finished the corner square triangle units. This post shows the process of making flying geese, the points of which will be the points of the stars. I started by referencing the section of the book for no-waste flying geese. The picture above shows the first part of the process that I photographed. The actual starting point requires a large white-on-white square and 4 smaller squares which will yield 4 flying geese, enough for one star.

After pressing the blue sections open, the remaining squares will be added.

I needed to make star points for 7 stars; the parts for those very points are all ready for the next round of stitching.

And here are the finished flying geese units, all trimmed and ready to be sewn into stars. 

Ready to be joined to those flying geese are these parts - the center squares, and the corner square triangles. Now for the assembly line. I lined up all the star parts and stitched 'em up lickety-split.

I had 5 made earlier, individually. The last seven went together easy-peasy using the book and chain piecing.

These 12 stars will need to have 13 coordinating stars, and you can bet that I will be chain piecing those as well.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Stars of Blue

At the beginning of each year I make a goals list of quilts I most want to make by year's end. It's my quilter's version of new year's resolutions. The quilt I am working on now is from that goal's list, and it makes me very happy to be delving once again into the Kaffe Fassett tubs of fabrics.

For the longest time, this star and three others similar to it, lived on my design wall - like from January through June. Then my attention focused on our sew along, and then on Irish Chains, and all manner of other projects that crossed my radar. Here is a reference post from when I made the earlier blocks.

The "blue Kaffe" as I referred to it was never far from my heart, though, and this week I have returned to it with my entire focus! As excited as I was back in January to make this quilt, I sure have delayed in returning to it - 10 months!

The longer I spent away from this project, the more my angst grew concerning all the units needed for making more of these blocks. Sometimes, when I know there will be a lot of unit preparation, I tend to allow the task to become daunting. The units on the corners were particularly worrisome, as the measurements for all those smaller parts would be tricky. The units that make the star points are flying geese, and I knew I could locate directions for chain piecing those using a no-waste method, but still that was yet another 'chore' - it's like I expect these units to magically appear from my sewing machine or something. I definitely made it a bigger deal than it was. 

Lynn Wilder of Sew'n Wild Oaks blog came to my rescue. A purchase I made from her Etsy shop earlier this year included her book Patchwork Math. This handy workbook-style manual helps quilters figure sizes for units just like those needed on my star block. A title with the word 'math' in it doesn't seem like something I would ever buy, but most likely, Lynn wrote the book for quilters like me who have a general aversion to math.

With careful study and careful measuring and cutting, I am proud to report that the corner units have been completed successfully. 

I cut all the required pieces for 10 blocks, then proceeded to make just one set - the instructions make 4 at a time, which is nice since 4 are needed for each block. Once that trial effort was finished and measured accurately, I went about chaining the rest. Whew! finished like a dream!

I learned that this unit is called a Corner Square Triangle. The size I needed for my star blocks was a 3" square unit, and her example instructions were for that exact size - so I really didn't do any 'patchwork math' - but we will trust that I can do the required math next time, right?

I will be testing my formula conversion (math) with this next unit - flying geese, which is also covered in this book. My size does not match her example. Oh well, here we go! Wish me luck!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

New Year, New Projects, part 2

In the last post I alluded to a couple of new projects that have captured my fancy as this new year gets rolling. Then I proceeded to delve into a lengthy discussion of particulars involving the first project. I never got around to sharing the second project; I thought it best to hold off and do that in a separate post. 

I am making this quilt solely from a picture I saw online, making up my dimensions as I go. I saved a screen shot from Facebook, and not knowing that I would be so smitten by it, I failed to capture few additional details; the partial sentence with the photo mentions "Falling Stars pattern." A search through hashtags with that name brings up a wide variety of star quilts, and this same picture is there. Perhaps somehow I can come across the actual pattern. 

Before starting on 'Lucy,' I decided to cut out a few of the stars for this quilt. Like I have said, without a pattern, I was winging it. I took bits and pieces from other patterns to create the blocks I needed. If you study the stars, though, you will see that truly the only parts that are different are the corner units of each star. 

Are these gorgeous or what?!! I am over-the-moon excited to continue this quilt. Anytime I get to dip into my Kaffe Fassett fabrics, especially the blues, I become super-stoked to proceed. After making these two blocks, I took the pictures through an editing app on my phone and came up with two mock-ups.

The mock-ups show all the stars looking the same; the bonus for me is that the real quilt will have star centers of a wide variety of blue prints; it will be a veritable feast for the eyes.

My first focus, of course, is to finish 'Lucy.' Then I will return to this blue quilt. Maybe I should refer to it as 'Falling Stars,' since that is all I have to go on for now.  

Happy Quilting, Friends!

An Update on Sharon

My dear friend Sharon, with whom I taught for 29 years and have quilted with in our retirement, has been in a blue period. I suppose most of us know about Picasso and his "blue period," and he really was blue. Sharon just love blue quilts. No somber moods here!  

It has been ages since I last updated her sewing activities here on the blog, so let's see what she has been up to in recent months. 

In September, she unfurled this column-style quilt she'd made - she does not normally have time for sewing unless it's here, so to see this beauty was a treat. She spent some birthday money on - what else - gorgeous fabric - and made a fast and super-simple columns quilt in luscious blues. We didn't take the time to lay it out neatly, (we should have!) but here are some rough shots of it. Soak in those beautiful florals!

Sometimes, the fabric can do all the work. Why fuss with cutting and piecing intricate designs when a group of fabulous fabrics can result in a fast and satisfying finish?

A quilt that she did work on  here on our Tuesday sewing sessions was this 9-patch blue and cream quilt with gorgeous sashing strips. These fabrics are mostly (if not all) Laundry Basket Quilts Fabric, and Sharon has had a wild affection for them, for sure. Below is a more complete shot, however it is a big quilt, so not nearly all of it fit into the frame.

And, in staying with fabrics from Laundry Basket, she began working on this so-simple quilt that uses 10" squares or layer cakes. The pattern is called Star Gazer and is free from Andover Fabrics; I think I will have to make this, too - someday. It looks so easy and fast, and it makes a 72" square quilt which is rather a nice size.

Sometime this fall - September, I believe - the internets and blogs were all abuzz about Jelly Rolls. Sharon and I could not spend the actual day of the celebration working together, but on our next available Tuesday, we did spend our time making a jelly roll quilt. (I will share mine at some point - it was a huge disaster, and I will 'fess up about it; just not yet.) Sharon used a jelly roll of Kaffe Fassett blues/greens to make this cool quilt. The first picture is what we did on that one day; the second picture is of her finish. It is a variation of the traditional jelly roll race quilt. Since we'd both done a couple of those, we found this alternative.

And just this week when we sewed at Terry's, Sharon was working on a flannel quilt in her nephew's college colors - blue and gray. Won't this be great for a college apartment?

Now, not all of Sharon's creating has been of the blue variety. Take a look at this luscious flannel quilt  she plans to use for the back of her sofa - what a great quilt for winter reading or movie-watching. I think I could get lost in this for a day or two.

That pretty much completes our catching up with what Sharon has been up to. We will be missing her today at our Frienzies Veterans' Day sewing with Sherrie. Sharon has to perform gramma duties for her two grandsons. She will be with us in spirit, though, I just know it!

Happy Quilting, Friends!