Bright Pink

     Project Quilt Challenge 4 theme, was "Bright".  I was really unsure what to do at first, but then as as I went thru my precuts, I found some precut Breast Cancer scrap fabric.  I also found a box of rainbow fabric scraps that I was saving for a quilt.  The dilemma was that a family friend is having a personal struggle with breast cancer.  I wanted to do the pink and started the pink quilt, but in a post in the quilt group, someone suggested the cancer patient usually does not like the constant reminder. So for the first time ever, I asked Donna which quilt she would prefer.  And she told me the Pink breast cancer one, its her favorite color!

     On to sewing I went!  I quickly came up with a plan.  There were lots of 4 inch and 2 inch quilt squares in my breast cancer scrap material box and I threw in a few extra bright pinks.  I decided to make 16 patches with each, alternating with white on white ribbon print.

     On the outside of the 16 patches I added white fabric smashing to make all the blocks the same size (14 1/2 Inches).

   I squared them all up and sewed them together alternating blocks.  Making the quilt 4 blocks
The quilt *** by ***, plenty long enough

    The backing is a plain pink vintage sheet.  It's sooo soft. Not something I usually do, but I was led to it.

     It's bound in bright pink fabric to go with the bright theme!

     The quilt was photographed on a road at the hunting club that Donnas son and my family has spent many years at.

A Boy and His Many Shirts!!

   The theme for Project Quilt Week 5 is "A well dressed Man".  I had soooo many ideas go thru my mind.  I thought about pulling out some of my husbands grandfathers clothes and doing a quit for my son.  I had a T-shitt quilt to do and a purse I am dying to make.  But ultimately I decided to do the project I already had on my to do list for 6 months.  The T-shirt quilt!!

     I had already measured up the t-shirts and had a halfway plan already written up.  Only bad thing was I couldn't figure out half of my drawing.  So I just cut and got started, knowing I would make a go of whatever I made.  I cut the shirts and ironed the french fuse to the t-shirts.

     I sat and debated on the fabric I bought months ago for the sashing and filler.  I bought this fabric because I liked the Eagle fabric and its patriotic meaning and His college mascot.  The flag fabric, though busier then I usually pick just stuck out as a good match.  I decided to use the busy flag fabric as the sashing and binding, then the blue eagle fabric as the filler and outer border. I decided to make the sashing two and a quarter inches.

     When I do a t-shirt quilt, I do not cut all of my blocks to match.  I cut them at different heights and widths dependent on the size of what is on them.  I then try to organize the rows with like heights or widths.  In the end, I wish I would have done this quilt with the blocks facing the opposite direction, but things like that are sometimes just an afterthought.

     Usually I use a lot of filler material.  For this quilt, I had 2 vests, a dress shirt and camo shirt to put in somewhere.  Instead of using the filler I put the vests and shirt in the bigger spaces.  I really did not know what to do of a dress shirt that had prints of New York City on it.  In the end the tall row needed a four and a half inch filler, the Statue of Liberty fit in perfect.  So I put it in the middle.  It may be my favorite part of this quilt!

      This quilt ended up being huge at 82 x 91, it kept growing.  The young man this quilt will belong to is tall like his parents.  So that's a good thing.

      I decided to make the outer border 5 inches.  That allowed the Eagles on the blue to stand out. And when I found a side that was not squared well,  hid my mistake perfectly.

     I don't have my Juki back,  so I decided due to the size of this quilt, I would straight line quilt it.

      I haven't made a T-shirt quilt in a while,  sometimes making them is very unpredictable when it comes to the fabrics provided and you never know how the person your making it for will act.  So I only will do these for a few people, with the understanding that they won't always be perfect.

Scrappy Strips

  

   I was so unsure of what to do this challenge.  I really wanted to go and dig out one of my boys pieces of Art, but I have had no time.  Truly barely enough time to do the challenge.  So Thursday night I pulled up the challenge link and an idea popped in my head.  I saw this piece and knew that I could make a scrap runner for my tall dresser.  Here is the photo I used.


https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6h72VC7EZOmutog_DieAsOgvE72RXh5Q_H_Vkol7nKPLF-7oInRCPPSjcD3fLwvTI3O7P6ooZv46w7awpL1F-AlLzOem7qEX5Z4FEEmVAb3Hb7kdovATCPLOTWVRsMfMU4PJo5hurVx0/s1600-h/IMG_5256%25255B6%25255D.jpg


     Out cam my scrap batik box and a bag of like fabric I collected from friends at a retreat 2 years ago.  I had previously cut pieces in 4 and 3.5 inch strips.  I sewed these strips together into 2 long rows.  I then cut the rows into 16.5 inch strips.

     I used a backing piece of old fabric as the base.  I sewed two pieces of batik strips on each side to make the lines on the outside.  These strips were uneven and I left them that way.  The art work lines were uneven also. 

    I then kept building until the piece was 28 inches. I sandwiched the quilt to do a reverse finished edge.  I sewed around the outside leaving an area to flip.

    I then flipped the piece inside out and sewed the edges to keep them pressed down.  I  FMQ it in an all over doodle like a child.  I made lots of circles and just swirled around.  I became upset though because the tension spring on my machine broke during this process. 

    My life has been an up and down roller coaster during the last few months.  This is the first thing I have stitched on my sewing machine in the 3 weeks I have been in my new house.  I am praying that I will have many more successful adventures in my sewing room once I get it set up!

My Mini Vacations!!

     So this quilt is totally out of my norm and so is the photo.   I have had a stressful last few weeks and can finally say I have moved into my new house!  Unfortunately,  My sewing room is not moved in.  That is the last thing I need to move out of the other house.  Then I unexpectedly had to work a 16 hour shift yesterday followed by a 12 today.  My sewing time for yesterday evening was officially shot. 

     At 1020 last night when I finally got home I went into what is going to be my sewing room, looked at the stuff I brought there to use to make this quilt and walked out to go to bed.  Yes, I was a little overwhelmed.  This morning I got up early and took the scraps I picked up and took them to work. 

     This is my little hand sewn piece I came up with.  No adhesive.  All done the old fashion way. It is a version of what I originally planned.  My Pink Kayak going down the river. 

   Its 12 x 14 and Made of all scrap strips.  I did a sew as you go method, quilting down each piece on top of each other.  I did fold over binding.

     No time for my usual photos, so here is one in the back seat of my car.

Spring Clovers

     

One of my favorite signs of spring is that the clovers start to turn a bright green in the yard.  Spring for me is a sign of warmth and summer to come.   Needless to say I am not a winter person. 

     My mother is Irish and her family loves Saint Patrick's Day.   Two years ago I cut out a bunch of squares and rectangles to do a Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt.  I started to mark them and got a call this week at that time.  My mother was dying.  I put these down and have not touched them since.  As I packed up my boxes at my old house I threw the pieces in a bin.  I was trying to take only unfinished pieces to my temporary house in hopes that I would find time to finish them.  As I went thru the boxes I found this bag and knew it was meant to be a project.

     I then Googled the internet to find Saint Patrick's Day patterns.  I came across this clover design and loved it. 

http://www.quiltingworks.com/howto/shamrock-block.htm

    These blocks were pretty easy and sewed up quickly.  I decided to make 4 of the blocks and then make a runner.  But then I thought of maybe making them as a square and using them as a table topper.

  I could not decide which so of course I used a quilting Facebook page to help me decide.  And the decision was this....

     But they liked the square also.  Might be a project for later.

     Bonnie's design for these made them equal a chevron type layout.  The scrap pieces went together well because I already had them marked.  if not I would not have finished this in a week.  I used the Chevron to make a border around the runner.


     I decided to leave the White inside to make it appear to be a continuation of the blocks.

     After I finished I could not decide if I needed to add a border or not.  The runner was already very wide and might actually work better as a wall hanging.  If I did not add a border, the binding  might cover the green points.   So again I asked the quilting group because I am indecisive and not good deciding in a hurry.

     The decision was made.  Thin yellow.  I cut 1.25 inch strips. Only a little scrappy this time.  

     To quilt it I did my favorite swirls in a pattern on the clovers in a branching pattern.

     In rows on the green border I did a continuous swirl. 

     In the white I did a swirl pattern as a filler.


    For the yellow I did a zig zag to match the points. 


    The backing is made of 2 scrap pieces.


    The binding is one of the green colors in the clovers and border.  I thing it helps to highlight the clovers.


     I finished this during one of our coldest days so far this year.  A day that we received Snow.  A rarity for our area.   So I am now screaming come on spring!!!


     This is actually on of my favorite pieces I have made in a while.  Not sure if its just a family thing, that I know my mother would be happy or that its full of bright spring colors!!! Already ready to enjoy it! 

     Another project finished that is made completely from my stash.  Now I am ready for my next adventure.!!

     

Batik Confetti Runner

     Will try to go into detail more later.  This is my first couchibg item and a lesson in the making!  

     This is a 14x90 runner for my new counter.  Inspired by a friend!  100% scraps from other projects! 

June's Focus Through the Prism Friendship Star

     The June Project Quily Focus Through the Prism Challenge left me struggling.  I had an idea of what I wanted to do,  but couldn't figure out how I wanted to do it. The 20 inch size requirement is not an easy dimension to divide by 3.  So on to the thinking process. 

     In the process I emailed my friend Bea Lee.  She is really good at working with the EQ7 software.  I am thinking hard about buying it.  She emailed me back and made this blog post. 

http://www.beaquilter.com/2015/06/eq7-tutorial-tuesday-friendship-star.html?m=1

     She had the same issues with the dividing by three without making the block size odd.  So we decide to add the outer boarder.  But after watching how easy it was to design the quilt on EQ7,  I was sold.  Once we move in the new house,  it's my first me purchase!!

     I followed what Bea did in the blog but added two extra blocks at the corners. 

     I decided at the beginning of this challenge that I would only use the challenge color hand dyed fabric and a and a neutral in each mini quilt.  I would also do the colors in the line of ROYGBIV, which makes this month, Orange.   I am trying to only my use my fabric stash. So I thought I had enough of the fabric but was a few inches short.   So with improvisation in mind,  I changed up one fabric on the small blocks.

    I added a chevron to the smalln blocks in the corner. It really made those small friendships to pop more!  Even though I wish I could have seen it done all in the other fabric! 

     The blocks are 6 1/2 inches each then a 1 inch border.  I bordered it in the hand dyed fabric.  For the binding I used the chevron.  I actually hand sewed it.  Not my usual stitch on by machine!

     I finished the top early in the month and just did not know what I wanted to do to quilt it.  I finally decided to stop outside of my comfort zone and go simple.  I only outlined the star inside of the large block 3 times and the small blocks once. 

     Two months down and here are my 2 together.  The first after a boo boo washing.  So sad to see it bleed but this month I prewashed my fabric. 

It's the end of May and it's not all done...

     I had high hopes this month to get a lot done.  It's of course the month I go to my yearly retreat and usually finish a bunch of work.  

     This year I brought a lot of unfinished projects to the retreat. But I only finished 3 old projects and was almost done with 2 new.   But I guess there is always next year to knock a few more off my list. 

     I finished Anna's Quilt,

     Cindy's brothers Quilt, 

     Aprils Improvisation Challenge Pillow Cases. 

     May's Prism Monkey Wrench Challenge 

     And a Girls John Deere Quilt

     Almost done sewing the bottom on my tuffet.  

     Finished a lot of my projects.  So now to think about June Goals!!