I needed my design walls for some photography so I took down this Australian fabric quilt top and sewed the last 5 seams on it. It looks so much better sewn together than it did in the design stage. It is just a little under 60" x 80".
Most of the intersections of the triangle seams were good.
There were a few that are off by a tiny bit. The quilt is so busy that I'm not taking them out and doing them over. There is one tiny pucker that I will fix however.
I worked on this top a few different times yesterday. It had to be constructed in sections because of the big blocks. The top section is actually 3 parts, a top row, a double row and a bottom row. All of the rest are waiting to be joined together. I'm determined to have this top done by tomorrow so I'll have a finished top for my recap of the month even though I have no full quilt finishes. Hopefully I will have some finishes in December so my year will not look too bad. I have 19 finished quilts so far this year. I would be happy to finish 5 more. That might be too ambitious but I can try.
I sewed one more section on the Australian fabric triangle quilt and then decided to play with the blocks I made inspired by the work of Maria Shell. I don't know at this point if I'm going to sew this or wait and make more blocks. Maria's new book is starting to ship now so I will have more fun looking through it. I brought in all of the lighter weight pots that have geraniums in them. We are supposed to have 3 nights in a row of very cold weather so most of the pots are probably done for the season. I wore my lightweight winter coat yesterday for the first time this season.
I got my Australian fabric triangles quilt designed yesterday while my 2 friends were here. After lunch our committee of 3 did some fine tuning and then it was ready to sew.
I had to do some thinking about how to sew it together since the large squares broke up the rows. I sewed the vertical seams to create many sections.
At 2:30 we took a break to eat some four berry pie that one of them brought. This is my piece for today.
Last night I started at the bottom and sewed sections together, again with just vertical seams. I have to figure out the pressing sequence before I can sew the horizontal seams. I could have sewn one more section which is 3 rows that go continuously across the quilt but I knew my limits and stopped.
It has been a little over 2 months since my 2 friends have been here to sew and they are coming today. I am going to play with the Australian fabric pieces sooner than I thought. It is great to be back at the design wall.
I have these pieces to play with too. I may get 2 quilts designed; I may just play and have nothing ready to sew. It will just be a fun day.
My littlest great-grandson and his mom visited me yesterday morning. The little guy is a confident walker now and he moves fast! I think he enjoyed playing with the toys without his big brother being here. Later in the day I cut some 10.5" and 5.5" blocks to alternate with the triangle blocks that I have been sewing the last few nights. Now the quilt should be closer to 60" x 80".
It was too dark and gloomy to take a photo of the first cactus bloom 2 days ago. Today the sun came out for awhile so I had plenty of light. This is one of my very favorite plants. I love the pale pink. I have moved all of my shipping boxes, tape, etc. out of the living room now that the first pop-up shop is closed. I will be doing the photography for the second one for the next few weeks, lots of detail shots. I will still have plenty of time to play with my fabric and design walls. The only question is what to work on first.......I have about 5 that I want to work on.
It took almost 2 hours to press all 180 triangle squares last night. They are 5" finished squares. I was calculating how big of a quilt I can make with them. If I do 12 rows across by 15 rows down it would be 60" x 75" using just these squares. If I added some plain squares in I could make it larger. I have a couple larger print Australian fabrics that I didn't cut into triangles. Actually a 10" finished square would show off the print even better. I was gone for over half of the day yesterday. I had to move my appointment with my eye Dr. in Chicago after I had my pacemaker surgery. We traveled in rain both ways, 2 hours getting there and an hour and a half getting home. My vision has improved since my last visit and I don't have to go back for 6 months so no winter driving. The tumor (which was treated with radiation 5 years ago) is stable and has a good appearance. No further radiation damage of healthy tissue at this point. My pop-up shop closes tonight CST and it will be a few weeks before the next one opens. This gives me time to continue making quilts and do more photography for the next one. Thanks to everyone who has visited the shop and to all of the purchasers!
I cut triangles (5" finished squares) from the Australian fabric back when I was making the Hunter Star quilt. I sewed 180 pairs in the last 2 days. Now it is time to turn on the iron ..........
and on the ironing mat are all of these 2" finished triangle squares, also waiting to be pressed. It is supposed to be cold today so I guess it will be a good time to work on this.
Yesterday I pulled out my black and white batiks. Most of them are from the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Here is the photo on the pattern I showed Saturday on my blog post. The size I am making takes 10 black and white horizontal bars.
Here are the 10 I pulled as possible choices. I am wondering if the white on top will work for the little background squares.
By tonight or tomorrow this bud should be fully opened on my cactus. This plant has 7 buds and I have another that has smaller buds and they will be white blooms.
I had enough of the leaf batik to cut 3.25" borders so now the top is somewhere near 61" x 76". The stars are floating now with the border sewn on. I pulled out another project and did some sewing on it. I will give it to someone who does service projects. It was a sample when I was teaching the disappearing 9 patch I don't care for the fabrics. I also found a bunch of floral blocks in the box, some 9 patches not sliced yet as well as many strips ready to make more blocks. I may finish that one some day.
My burning bush is not at all pretty this year. It is usually a brilliant red. The long dry spell we had at the end of summer has dried up some of the leaves already. I'm hoping after the frost (predicted for Tuesday night) that maybe it will turn more red before the leaves all fall off.
I had a lot of computer work to do yesterday so I didn't do any sewing. I did look at this Interweave pattern that I purchased last year and I might start cutting for it. I like the black and white with reds and pinks the best. Mine will have more rows than that photo though. I also want to do some more cutting of Kaffe 2.5" squares to finish up the project I started many months ago. I'm like a lot of other people, lots of ideas and not enough time to work on all of them.
I thought I would get so much done yesterday because I started sewing the cross seams in late morning. All I got done though was the four seams in this top. It is SO much prettier in person. Somehow I didn't expect to like it so well and that is why it stayed unfinished in a box for so long. The fact is I love it! I want to add a 2" border of the same leaf batik all around it. I found another piece of it in my stash so I do have enough to do that.
I had a long list of errands to do yesterday plus boxing up the last 2 sales from my pop up shop and a trip to the post office. Last night I sewed 6 long seams in one direction on the kite star quilt top and 4 seams the other way. I have 4 seams left to sew. I did move the light block from the top row before stacking the rows to take to the sewing machine. I exchanged it with one that was just a little darker.
I took the last 3 blocks down to the design wall and then spent about a half hour rearranging blocks so I could space out the blocks with red/pink and also the very dark and very light blocks. The only block I'm still questioning is the light one in the top row. I could exchange it with the second star from the left in the second horizontal row. It should finish at approximately 56" x 72".
Last night I just wanted some mindless sewing while I caught up on some TV shows. I brought all of the 2" finished triangles upstairs and got all these sewn. I need to cut some more light triangles to pair with the remaining dark triangles. I'll probably do pressing tonight while I watch a couple shows.
I had a rest day yesterday, only stripping beds and doing laundry and sewing 3 blocks. I will get to the design wall today and rearrange the blocks in a pleasing order. Then I can sew the top together.
My amazing daughter left here (60 miles west of Chicago) at 5:45 a.m. to drive to Jonesborough TN to attend Kaffe Fassett's lecture on her way home. I wasn't sure she would get there in time and when she sent me this photo it made my day. She had purchased tickets before I had my pacemaker surgery and I didn't think I was ready to travel yet. She said the program was really good and I'm sorry I couldn't be there. Brandon and Kaffe both have shirts made of their own fabrics.
All that got done yesterday was cutting. Since these 3 blocks have repeats of the light colors I will have to rearrange blocks to space them apart. My daughter and I were wrapping up all of the things related to my website for the rest of the day because she is leaving soon.
Here is another mock-up created yesterday to place in my pop up shop (which closes late in the day on Oct. 25). I had 3 more sales over the weekend so today is shipping day.
I added 7 more large squares and 5 more stars since yesterday. I have to find fabrics for 3 more stars and then I will rearrange the blocks. Rain, rain, rain....after almost a month and a half of dry weather we got a lot of rain yesterday. I would guess that it was over 5.5" and maybe way over that. My rain gauge was running over yesterday morning and it holds 2". I emptied it and we got another inch before it got dark. Then it rained hard again and there was 2" more in the guage. The trees and perennials are probably loving it as they prepare for winter.
After a social afternoon I got to the design wall to layout this quilt. The star blocks are the Kite block that I cut with my die cutter. If I made one more row on the side and one more on the end it would start and end with a star block on every row. I have enough of the alternate block fabric to make this larger.
This is what you see when you get closer to the quilt. For the cellphone readers of my blog: we realize the 2 links I have made, one below the header and one on the right sidebar don't show up for you so I'll give you the link to my new website and store here.
I have had this project in a box for quite awhile. I hadn't committed to cutting that beautiful batik into the alternating blocks. I think I'm ready now though. Here is the post where the blocks are laying on it. I had 23 pieced blocks on that post, there are 24 now. With 24 alternate squares it will make a 6 x 8 layout for a quilt approximately 48" x 64". When I get that sewn I can decide if it needs a border to become a larger quilt. I have added a link on the right sidebar for my new website. When you get to the website, the link to the shop is in the top right corner of the banner. Eventually we hope to have the blog integrated into that site. Right now we're having some technical problems with it. Anyone who has built a website knows there will always be a few quirky situations leading up to the final product.
If you are not a subscriber to my new website you now have access to my new store. It is a pop up store and will be open for 2 weeks (until October 25th). Thank you so much to all who have made purchases and those who have sent positive comments and emails! If you are not on the mailing list and want early access for future offerings, sign up here. There is also a sign up form on the right side bar.
Thank you everyone for the great response to my online store opening yesterday! Pictured above is Circles, a piece I love, and was thrilled when it SOLD... first sale on my new store...purchased by an avid supporter of my work. Shipping today!!! If you didn't sign up for early access to the store, you can here .
The last label is attached on my pieces of art. I'm excited to offer a number of works that have never been released to the public. ALL SUBSCRIBERS: Watch for an email in your inbox later today with your early access link to my new store. If you haven'tsubscribed sign uphere.
My friend Merrill, one of the art quilters, uses a lot of unique fabrics. Here are her first finished paper pieced log cabin blocks. I think it is going to be a fantastic quilt. We had a beautiful warm sunny day yesterday. We haven't had a frost so everything is still growing. I'm going to add this notice to the bottom of every post for a few days. I realize that cellphone readers don't see my sidebar unless they click on "view web version" so they would miss the opportunity to sign up.
Take a look at the new sign up form on the right side bar of my blog (or click on the link). I'll be opening a new online store soon and will be offering quilts, quilt tops, fabric kits and more. I'd love for you to be first in line when the store opens.
I finished cleaning the basement because the art quilters are coming today. I haven't seen them since the Monday before my pacemaker surgery, 6 weeks ago. We are still measuring quilts, stacking them when all of the stats are entered in the new online store. We're still hoping for a mid-week opening. I'm going to add this notice to the bottom of every post for a few days. I realize that cellphone readers don't see my sidebar unless they click on "view web version" so they would miss the opportunity to sign up. Take a look at the new sign up form on the right side bar of my blog (or click on the link). I'll be opening a new online store soon and will be offering quilts, quilt tops, fabric kits and more. I'd love for you to be first in line when the store opens.
My daughter and I have spent hours measuring, photographing, writing descriptions, etc. This pile is waiting to be photographed. She is setting up the new website because I don't have a clue how to do that.
I'm going back over all of the quilts and taking detail shots and making sure there are labels on most things. I don't usually label baby quilts or table runners. A few more days and we hope we are ready to show it to all of you. I'm going to add this notice to the bottom of every post for a few days. I realize that cellphone readers don't see my sidebar unless they click on "view web version" so they would miss the opportunity to sign up. Take a look at the new sign up form on the right side bar of my blog (or click on the link). I'll be opening a new online store soon and will be offering quilts, quilt tops, fabric kits and more. I'd love for you to be first in line when the store opens.
One way to do Hunter Star is in scrappy format with 8 different triangle sections making up each block. I really like it and probably will continue making blocks like this.
Another way is to have all 8 of the triangles that make a star block of the same 2 fabrics. This is the first Hunter Star quilt top that I made in 2015.
The third way was the layout of my most recent Hunter Star quilt top. In this one the quarter square blocks are 2 triangles from the same fabric combination sewn together and placed diagonally across from each other and a second combination is in the other 2 corners. In this quilt each fabric pair is in 2 blocks rather than all in the same block as in the photo above. That makes this one look a little more scrappy but not as random as the first photo.
You can see that a little more clearly in the shot of one block. I hope this gives you more ideas for playing with the blocks if you make a Hunter Star quilt. I'm going to add this notice to the bottom of every post for a few days. I realize that cellphone readers don't see my sidebar unless they click on "view web version" so they would miss the opportunity to sign up. Take a look at the new sign up form on the right side bar of my blog (or click on the link). I'll be opening a new online store soon and will be offering quilts, quilt tops, fabric kits and more. I'd love for you to be first in line when the store opens.
I got a wonderful treat in the mail a couple days ago, the new 2017 fall Kaffe collective, some in half yards and some in quarter yards. Take a look at the new sign up form on the right side bar of my blog (or click on the link). I'll be opening a new online store soon and will be offering quilts, quilt tops, fabric kits and more. I'd love for you to be first in line when the store opens.
Here it the sewn top.I love the texture that the Australian fabrics have with all of their
little dots.It is close to 59” x 70”
and all of the edges are bias so I’m not sure what the finished size will
be.I think I should add a border to stabilize
it so I’ll look today to see what I have that would not take away from the
pieced blocks.I have already
staystitched but that isn’t enough to keep the edges straight but it will keep
them from stretching. Take a look at the new sign up form on the right side bar of my blog. I'll be opening a new store soon and will be offering quilts, quilt tops, fabric kits and more. I'd love for you to be first in line when the store opens.
I chose to sew the right side layout. Thank you for all of the comments and votes yesterday. 24 chose the right side layout, 11 chose the left side (see yesterday's post if you don't know what I'm talking about!). 10 people like both sides equally well or were undecided. I just turned 2 quarter blocks a half turn on every big star block on the left half to be the same as the right half layout. Then I noticed the dark squares touched the top and bottom of the quilt but the ends right and left were only half a square.
I took half blocks from the left and placed them on the right edge and now I was really happy with it. Now it is ready to sew. Well, not really, there is one quarter block turned the wrong way in both of these photos. Actually I moved a couple blocks too after the first photo was taken.
Here is a large view and a small view so you can see how different it looks. In the large view the star points seem more prominent and in the small view the plaid or gingham effect is more visible.
