Another little finish

During one of my stash diving ventures in January I found a bag of pink 9 patch blocks I had received in a block swap back in the 90's and I felt they had aged enough and were ready to become a quilt :)
I cut the blocks into 4 pieces (disappearing 9 patch trick again - if you haven't made one yet, check out the tutorial here) and sewed them back together, then put them on pointe.
It looked kind of odd (and maybe still does) so I added some vertical strings of pink RicRac.

I haven't used RicRac on anything except mini quilts and now I am wondering how it will wash. Does anyone have any advice about this? I just quilted a line right down the middle, but for a baby quilt that will be washed frequently, should I also add some free motion on the RicRac edges? Now that it is finished I am wondering if I should have pre-washed the RicRac?  Do you prewash your RicRac or have any other suggestions?

First finish for 2010!

In addition to using up stash fabric this year (especially in pieced quilt backings - see the backing for this quilt here), I want to use up old spools of thread. When quilting a piece this large in the past, I would have gone to Triangle Sewing and picked out thread specifically matched to the project, and usually buy extra so that I would never run out.
However, this year I am going to use up spools that I already have....the year of "threadbusting"!  I used to worry about having enough thread to quilt the entire piece with the SAME colour. I'm over that now, since I have a large stash of partially used spools that need to be emptied, and since I realized that most people cannot tell that I have used 4 different shades of teal thread in this quilt!
I started with these 3 spools and quickly used them up.
Here is one of the spools dangling from the thread feeder on my sewing machine...time for another spool!
I had a great time with this quilting. Some people really dislike machine quilting, but I love it almost as much as the piecing (and sometimes more). I decided to quilt this disappearing 9 patch in straight lines, making it completely different from the pink and purple polka dot disappearing 9 patch that I made last year (click here to see it) which I quilted with wavy lines and circles.

Above is a picture of quilting straight lines across the diagonal of the blocks using my walking foot.

I also practised quilting straight lines using my free motion foot in these white diamonds. It was a lot of starting and stopping (as opposed to continuous line quilting) and it required focus and concentration, but I was happy with the results.

Here is a picture of how the blocks were quilted.


And...drum roll please...
here is my first finished quilt of 2010...
the red and aqua disappearing 9 patch!
Thanks to Jane for hosting the block swap in November and to those quilters who contributed blocks for my quilt!

Design Wall Monday #1

It's a New Year and my first Design Wall post of 2010 and this is what is up there today. Nothing exciting, just leftover blocks from making gingerbreads before Christmas, triangle practise blocks for a new mini, and borders that I'm sewing for my Red & Aqua quilt top. This is the first UFO that I am tackling for this year, and if you're a long time blog reader, you know how I hate sewing borders!! It's so boring...and there's all that annoying measuring to do. But I'm so close to finishing this quilt, that I am inspired to get the borders on and get to the quilting stage.
Yesterday this was on my design wall....sewing together bits and pieces of red and aqua fabrics into a quilt backing. I must admit that I really love buying the wide backings...it's so easy and convenient, no big pieces to measure, no additional piecing to do right at the end of the project and then no bulky seams to quilt through. However, using the wide backings doesn't use up any stash, especially all those pieces that are hanging around after the quilt top is complete.
Look at my cutting table here...I have cut the binding strips (on the right of the table) and they are ready to sew together. After piecing a quilt, there are so many little pieces hanging around! Some people throw them out, but I could never do that...{shudder}.
I think to myself  "I paid for all of the fabric and I'm going to use every piece"! But this thinking results in lots of little packages of small bits filling up my storage space. SO...this year I am going to try to piece more backings and use up these scraps. I do have more red and aqua blocks and briefly considered putting those in the backing, but I decided to make a second quilt with those.  I wonder what I'll use for that backing since there are very few scraps left now!?!?

Red & Aqua blocks

The weather here is dull and dreary...more rain in the forecast for today. Where is our snow?!?!  I sometimes start to feel a little desperate to see the sun in November, and if it starts to peak out, I hurry outside to go for a walk. This morning I hung my "Soak up the Sun" mini quilt in the hall in lieu of the real sun!  It's foundation pieced on muslin and it is a mini quilt...about 7" square, and has a few buttons and beads for embellishment. But this little quilt sure makes me feel happier when I walk past.

I have been playing with my red and aqua blocks and I have decided on this block layout. I just started but it has been a bit of a challenge piecing the blocks together since everyone's quarter inch seam is different. If a block is too short, I have to either rebuild it with a smaller seam allowance or try to stretch it out.  I have also divided the blocks into 2 groups, and this quilt will have only the red and aqua blocks. The second quilt will have the blocks that include other colours. Off to sew...

Red & Aqua blocks on the design wall

I am having fun playing with my blocks from Jane's red and aqua disappearing 9 patch block swap. Here are some layout possibilities. This is one of my favorite parts of quilting and I prolong the "playing with the blocks" stage until I am convinced that the layout I have is my favorite, or until I get tired of it!
Any suggestions?!?
Brighten up your Monday morning in November with some quilting inspiration... visit Judy's blog to see the design walls of other quilters.

Block fun

Remember those churn dash blocks I made in September? (You can check them out on this post.)
They were sewn together with blocks from other bloggers and made into a lovely quilt. You can read about it on Carol's blog here, or read about Darlene receiving her quilt on Darlene's blog entry from November 15th. Hope you enjoy your quilted hug Darlene!

I haven't done a lot of quilting this week. But I did go to Toronto with some friends to see the Radio City Rockettes Christmas show.
It was a fantastic show with amazing special effects, great choreography, and music. Two things that were delightful and rare these days...it was all "family friendly" entertainment, and it included a Nativity Scene. This is a very bad photo of the wise men following the star, but the costumes were spectacular in this scene. You can see some video clips of the show here.  In my favorite dance number the Rockettes were dressed as Santas.

In sewing adventures this week... I will be playing with my red and aqua blocks from Jane's disappearing 9 patch block swap. I got into the swap just under the wire and made my blocks up so fast that I didn't even take a picture of them before I sent them away. But here is the pile of blocks I received. I think there might be enough for 2 quilts, so I'll be sorting and sewing them this week.
And guess what else is happening this week?!?!
Bonnie at Quiltville is starting another mystery quilt on Friday. I have played along with 3 of her mysteries so far (Carolina Crossroads, Orange Crush, and Double Delight) so I know they are always lots of fun.
I will definately be sewing this one, but am still undecided as to which fabrics I will use...decisions, decisions!  No pressure...I have until Friday to decide!

D9P Finish

Here it is...my last post on the disappearing 9 patch quilt because it is finished!! Not a bad turnaround time since I just started playing with the fabric and making some experimental blocks at the beginning of August! The finished quilt turned out to be 54" x 76".

Here is a photo of the back of one of the corners. 

I had a very fun time quilting it, especially the borders. I used the hooked feathers that Sally Terry describes in her book Hooked on Feathers. As always, I practised with my pencil and old computer paper first, and when I felt comfortable,  jumped right in to the quilting.

And I did not have one single problem with thread breakage, even at top speeds,  because I used Aurofil on the top and in the bobbin....have I mentioned how much I love that thread?!?

And here is the finished quilt laying on my daughter's empty bed in her empty, lonely room. Unfortunately she recovered very quickly from her cold and is already back at school.  Luckily I still have my Molly dog to keep me company and pose for photos.

More quilting on the D9P

I am watching CNN today and remembering that disastrous day 8 years ago on 9/11. Although I did not know anyone who died, and live in a different country than the one in which this tragedy occurred, I was deeply affected by it.  It was one of those life changing days that I will never forget and it was the topic of my first real blog post 3 years ago. Click here to read it. 

Today I will be quilting my way back to peace and serenity, as I have tried to do every day since then.  Here are some photos from quilting my disappearing 9 patch. I always start quilting with a stabilizing grid in the seams of the blocks and then I quilted a wavy line over those seams...I have no idea why, but it was fun. 

Then I got the crazy idea to make circles in the connecting corner blocks. As soon as this idea came to my mind, I was annoyed because I knew I would do it, and it wouldn't be fun, and I knew it would take a long time!  I proceeded to make a quilting pattern using my very fancy design tools - a CD, 2 sizes of dinner plates, and a jam jar lid! I quilted this design in the 7 connecting corner blocks and this is how it looked when it was done. 

While I was working on those blocks, I was thinking about what I might like to do with the border, which is one of my favorite parts of making a quilt. The end is in site, it's the last step before binding, and it's your last chance to add something special to the quilt.  

D9P borders and basting

I auditioned about a dozen fabrics for the borders on my D9P and finally settled on this purple. Then I wanted to bring some of the white connecting corners out into the borders, but didn't want the white to overpower the border, so I sewed 2 diamonds on the top and bottom and 3 diamonds on the sides. 

Tada...a finished quilt top!

It sure looks different than what I had anticipated!

I just noticed that the white blocks with the connecting corners look like bowtie blocks set on a diagonal...I like that too!

In looking around at my garden it is apparent that I really do like pink and purple...my Rose of Sharon bushes bloomed at the same time as I was sewing this quilt top together...more purple and pink to enjoy! I love these bushes and really enjoy their blooming season.  I even saw a hummingbird in the blooms one day but couldn't get my camera out fast enough to snap a photo.

The next step for my pink and purple quilt is pin basting with my handy dandy Kwik Klip. I know lots of people don't like pin basting, but I still love it. I am afraid of inhaling the spray basting fumes since I don't have a large enough table outside to use, and I was very unhappy with the quilts on which I used a basting gun. So I'll stick with my favorite method for now. 

And I put the basting time to good use by practising my quilt whispering skills (you can read about my abilities here) LOL. I ask the quilt "what kind of quilting would you like" and I start to get some ideas of things I could do. Some ideas I refuse outright because they are too labour intensive but the other ideas I make note of and let them percolate while I finish the basting. Then I usually quilt a "stitch in the ditch" grid horizontally and vertically to stabilize the whole thing and then I go to town with the free motion.

D9P on the Design Wall

I have been having so much fun with my disappearing 9 patch quilt. (To see the development of the quilt click here.)  Here are the 24 blocks up on my design wall. I really wanted to add connecting corners to some of the blocks since I liked the look of Becky's disappearing 9 patch quilt that she showed back in June - click here.  I auditioned some of my darker fabrics for the connecting corners but didn't like it because the contrast was too stark.  I was going to scrap that idea, but then decided to give the white fabric a try on the corners and liked it. So here is the quilt top with the blocks sewn together and ready to start the border auditioning.

This has been the most fun I've had making a quilt in a long time! In thinking about why it has been so much fun, I came up with these reasons:

1) I used up a lot of fabric - at least 12 Fat Quarters from my stash that I had collected over the years

2) the actual sewing was very enjoyable/relaxing (no trickey seams to match, no math to do)

3) the quilt top is turning out totally different than I anticipated (and I like surprises/mysteries)

4) there were so many design possibilities and it was great fun playing with the various layouts

Tomorrow I will post the outcome of the border audition...stay tuned!

P.S. For those of my quilting friends who are wondering, I have survived dropping off my daughter at university, with a minimal amount of weaping and howling, knowing that it would embarrass her. So now we wait for the texts and emails with baited breath - because kids don't make phone calls these days. We will have to wait until the weekend to hear her voice again. I am tempted to sit in the basement, eat chocolate, and watch old home videos, but I will do some productive quilting instead!

Design Wall Monday

Remember this photo from a previous design wall post? I have been playing around with these disappearing 9 patch blocks and trying to make it into a more interesting quilt. 

The first idea I had was to add in some white fabric and I found a little piece that was perfect...white with little pink dots! The fabrics in this quilt are all polka dot fabrics that I have been collecting for a long time. 

The addition of the white fabric made me happy.

What next?

I tried to add in a darker purple dotty fabric but I really did not like that...it sticks out like a sore thumb! So I took the dark purple blocks out and am continuing to play around with some other ideas.

See what other quilters are creating by surfing the blogs listed on Judy's blog - click here.

Design Wall Monday

I was experiencing machine quilting overload this week and was itching to do some piecing. So I indulged myself with some old pink and purple Fat Quarters I had collected a long time ago (and rediscovered when I was looking for some batting last week). Here are the 12 FQ's I started with.

And here are some of the blocks I have at the moment. I'm not sure if I am liking it, and have sadly come to the following conclusion...

I need to buy more fabric!!! 

Oh dear...my goal was to use up fabric not to buy more! Maybe the urge will pass?! I'll just keep sewing blocks and rearranging them and see what happens.