Hand Quilting a UFO

Back in early 2011 I made a quilt with Lori at her blog Humble Quilts. She begins each year with a fun little doll quilt tutorial--it's a fun, laid-back sort of project, and I always look forward to them.

It is called Cheddar and Crackers and that little doll quilt has camped out on my design wall for nearly 3 years, unfortunately. Once I finished the flimsy I just left it hanging. Fast forward to 2014. The Frankfort girls decide to devote the year to finishing UFOs with a friendly challenge. Finishing this doll quilt made it onto my list, and I've removed it from the design wall at long last. It is now safely tucked into a quilting frame that I can carry with me to work on when handwork is warranted.

Let me talk to you a little bit how I am quilting this. I was inspired by that talk at the Laurie Simpson trunk show last month at Old Town Fabric Shop. She explained that she hand quilts many of her creations free-handed. Yes, you read that right - free-handed. I saw some of those quilts with my own eyes and they were lovely. So I decided that a little doll quilt might be just the right quilt to experiment on with my own free-handed quilting.

The object is to make bigger stitches than you might normally think is acceptable, and to not worry about everything being even and symmetrical. The quilt below is one of Laurie's from the trunk show. If you click on the picture and get an enlarged version, I think the stitching will show up more clearly.

Okay. I am giving it a go. Laurie says it is a faster way to get a big project hand-quilted. With just the little bit that I have done, I can concur that it is faster. I think I am going to like it!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Midwinter Blues

Snow, snow and more snow! Yes, we had 4-5" of the stuff on Sunday, and I think most Ohioans are indeed experiencing the blues. Bring on spring!

Lori at Humble Quilts hosted another doll quilt quilt-along last month. She generally does one early each year. This one is called Midwinter Blues, and the name is most fitting! I was a bit late to the game, but I did finally finish my little quilt last evening.

This picture was taken Monday afternoon, at which time I still needed to tack the binding. You can see my pins. While watching TV last evening, I took care of that binding, and can now count Midwinter Blues as a 2014 finish!! Yay!

If you'd like to see the quilts made by others who quilted along with Lori, just click on this link. You will see some beauties!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

My January UFO

Coming up on Friday, the Frankfort girls will meet at JoAnn's for our regular 9-noon session. Since it is the first get-together of February, we will be showing our completed January UFOs for the little UFO challenge we are having this calendar year.

Mine was to quilt and bind the little doll quilt called Pink Lemonade, which I made in a quilt along sponsored by Lori at Humble Quilts back in January and February of 2012. I have made several of her little quilts - there are teeny-tiny pieces, but who cares when you're making a doll quilt? I like the intricate nature of her little quilts, and then you throw in all that wonderful scrappiness and you have a winning combination!

On Friday afternoon, I sat down with the new Bernina and her walking foot and got right to work. It took me no time at all to cross-hatch quilt this little gem, and in the evening while watching television, I stitched down the binding.

The little doll quilts that Lori shares with us are such fun, and coincidentally, she has one going right now! It is called Midwinter Blues, and while I have not begun it, I do plan on joining in.

Here is a list of all the ones I've done with Lori:
1. Pink Lemonade (hand-pieced, machine quilted and finished)
2. Midnight Stars (machine-pieced, hand-quilted and finished)
3. Cheddar and Crackers (hand-pieced and still a flimsy)
4. Abundance (machine-pieced, machine-quilted and finished)
5. Faithful (machine-pieced, machine-quilted and finished)

If you want to see these, I am pretty sure that they will show up if you put the name in the search box over on my sidebar. Or if you like browsing, look through the year tabs at the top to see finished quilts since 2010.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sweet Faithful

This is a rarity, I'll have you know.

It's a rare day when I finish all the way to the quilted-and-bound stage of a project - in the same month that it was started!

With that statement made, I will introduce my totally finished Faithful, the sweet block that Lori at Humble Quilts has been doing as a quilt-along.

The scrappiness of it is what appealed to me from the start. I am also rather enamored with triangles. What a perfect pairing, right?

I can directly attribute the decision to machine quilt this block to the new Bernina that you met here. Lori's instructions were "quilt as desired," and since I need practice, I decided to just stitch in the ditch of each ring around the center. In addition, I did a little extra stitching-still in the ditch-in that center block. I'm getting better at it, and feel pretty confident that I could handle straight-line quilting on any smallish quilt. I'm not ready for anything full-size, and may never be, actually.

But I digress. The scraps used are mostly from recent projects, and are 100% stash fabric. Even the batting was a scrap that I pieced to make fit. To read the bits and pieces of my construction process you can click here, here and here.

Lori is hosting a Linky Party today on her blog. This permits us to see the finishes of others who participated in the quilt-along. I think you will enjoy seeing the variety. Click on the link to view them.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Faithful

A week or so ago, I was reading one of my favorite blogs - Humble Quilts. Lori, the blogger, offers some great quiltalongs several times each year, and I have had fun making a few of them. Here are pictures of the projects I have made in the Humble Quilts quiltalongs.

Abundance

 

Midnight Stars

 

Pink Lemonade

So, when I saw that Lori was doing a new quiltalong, and that it was full of scrappy goodness, I decided that I would join in. If you would like to read the blog post that provides the first set of directions for the project, just click here. Then you can go back to earlier posts to see tidbits about it, too. She calls the project Faithful, and it just looked like it would be a lot of fun to make. Here we go!

I pulled my 6.5-inch-already-made block. I explained yesterday how that it was really closer to 6-3/8 inches, but I figured I could make it work. I can't explain why this look so red, because it is in reality burgundy. I did some photo editing, but never could get the color to look true.

Next, I had to cut a border, so that is where the Paula Barnes red floral (mentioned yesterday) came in.

This was to be a border around the center block. Here we go!

This was simple, easy and fun, so I kept going. Lori's next step has us creating a pile of little half-square triangles. I used scraps from the leftovers of Carson's Courtyard, which I made a couple of months ago. Because CC was a rather dark quilt, I need to add in some lights.

Now, the next step is to create strips of triangles which will be attached all around the block. If everything is measuring correctly, I would need 2 strips of 8 HSTs, and 2 strips of 10 HSTs. However, because I was trying to "fudge" with a somewhat smaller original block, I only needed 9 instead of 10. It seems to look okay, at this stage, so I am plowing ahead.

After the row of triangles, we are to add another solid row, and this time I chose a reproduction gold-ish yellow. Again, I am unhappy with the color in the picture, and I just don't get what I am doing wrong. (Maybe I should use a regular camera instead of my phone.)

This is where I stopped, but the next step is to add another row of triangles, somewhat bigger than those in the first row. I will try to get those made and added soon.

This is a fun and happy little block, and I love the scrappiness of it. Scrap quilts - there's just something about them that seems homey and loved. Maybe because our grandmothers made scrappy quilts from dresses and shirts out of necessity, we have a special fondness for them.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Riddle - Cheddar Cheese Style

What do you get when you take 13 of these:

And add 12 of these:

Plus 8 of these:

And 8 of these?

Well, of course, what you get is a beautiful little doll quilt called Cheddar Cheese and Crackers!

Mine is pieced, but not yet quilted. I am so pleased with the results. I love scrappy quilts. This quilt was, for a time, featured in the header of a blog I follow called Humble Quilts. Apparently several Humble Quilt followers asked about it, so Lori, the blog owner, made and shared instructions for it! Instantly, I found myself a part of a quilt-along, something I'd never done before.

I made this doll quilt entirely from my stash. The blocks which include the 'cheddar' are all hand-pieced, while everything else is machine-pieced.

I've never machine-quilted, so I'm thinking I will attempt that on this quilt. I will just do straight diagonal lines, so it should go well. Since my Bernina is newly serviced, I should think that I would get along with flying colors.