More baby quilts

Here are some more of the baby quilts that finally got finished early this year. The one above was made while teaching a class from a Jan Mullens book.
This one I named Twisted Rail. It was one of the variations I came up with after experimenting with cutting Rail Fence blocks diagonally.
I taught the Trip Around the World class many times a year for several years so I always had one in progress to demonstrate the process. This one sold several bolts of the kitty border fabric for the store I taught at.

Twisted Rail tutorial

Stratas are made of 4 strips, in values from light to dark. 3.5" strips make 11" finished blocks, 3" strips make 9" finished blocks.
Sew strips together into stratas.  Press the seams toward the darkest strip.  Layer them right sides together with colors going in opposite directions as seen above.  Seams will be going opposite directions for easy matching.

Measure the width of the stratas and cut blocks that size.  Cut in half diagonally and sew the 2 sets of triangles into blocks.

You will have 2 different kinds of blocks.  I call the little square up in the corner the 'eye'.

Place the blocks with the 'eye' in the same position on all of them, alternating the 2 kinds of blocks.  It will automatically form a twisting pattern with a light twist and a dark twist.  You can make it scrappy or in just 4 fabrics.

Here is a baby quilt made with just 4 fabrics.

Cold......Brrrrrr!!...........

What do you do on a frigid day in Illinois?  Play with flannel fabric!  I pulled out all of my bins of flannel and started sorting.  This pile is all printed flannels.  My other flannels are yarn dyed woven plaids and stripes.  I have sorted out enough to make two stack and slash quilts from this stack.  I want to make fast and easy quilts from all of the flannels.

This group will be another stack and slash.

I think I many have shown this group before, and probably about 5 years ago and I still haven't made the quilt.  This will be a Twisted Rail flannel quilt.

I got some fun mail a couple days ago.  A reader who knows I love zebras saw these at a quilt shop and bought them for me.  Aren't they cute?  Thanks friend!!!

A beautiful sunrise.............

This was the sunrise yesterday morning.  I rarely ever see one this pretty.  Maybe that is because I'm not usually up at the right time, but in reality I think it is a rare thing.

My friend Mary asked yesterday what would happen if I turned the blocks in the second row a quarter turn.  I tried it and I'm not sure if this is what she meant but I like it.  It is a zig zag superimposed over a stripe background.  Now I have 3 layouts to choose from: twisted rail, stacked spools and this one.  I will be making 16 more blocks.

I had to get a better shot of the pale pink cactus bloom.  There are 20 buds on this plant this time.  I read that they like to be pot bound and this is one of the smaller pots.  It bloomed the first time in Sept., again in late Oct, and now in Jan.

On the design wall..........

All of the barometric weather changes in the last week have zapped my energy.  I know we are in for a few more changes this week too.  Yesterday I managed to get these blocks sewn together and up on the design wall.  I was too tired to decide if this is the final layout so I'll look at them again this morning.  There are 4 blocks of each of the fabric combinations and I have them in diagonal rows right now.  I think they might need mixing up.

While watching the 10 p.m. news I started sewing the strips for the Twisted Rail quilt.  I have 4 out of 12 sets sewn.  I'm using 3" strips for this one.

Flannel stash.......

Here is the rest of the flannel fabrics that I need to use up but probably not this winter.  I used 24 yards of flannel with the first 3 quilts, the two Stack and Slash and the Twisted Rail.  I haven't figured out how much was used in the Windy City quilt yet.

Thank you everyone for your well wishes yesterday about my fall on the ice.  My driveway has been clear between each snow storm and when new snow falls it is dry underneath so when I shovel it, it is dry to walk on.  Monday however I chose to walk along the edge of the driveway and it is the edge that doesn't get sun. There is a snow bank about 15" tall next to it and that creates a shadow and that is where the ice was.  I have had very little ice on the driveway all winter so I wasn't expecting it.  I have more range of movement but still sore.  We finally are above freezing for a few days so the snow level will finally go down a little.

Tomorrow I will be reviewing a new iron and there will be a giveaway so stay tuned.

It's not going to work.........

This is the layout I thought I wanted to use, zig zags superimposed over a stripe background, but as I put the last 16 blocks up I realized it won't work.  Look closely at the lower end of the light color peaks and you will see that the seams don't line up.

When blocks are lined up like this, everything is fine.

But when the blocks are like this, the seams don't match up.  The only way to make it match would be to trim the 2 edges with the long stripe, on every block and I think that would throw off the balance of the block.

So......I'm back at the design wall.  Here are the stacked spools again, all 48 blocks.

On this one the second and fourth rows of spools are turned a quarter turn.

This one is every other spool horizontal/vertical.  I like this layout as well as the stacked spools, and of course I like the original Twisted Rail.  I don't think I will have any new snow to shovel today so maybe I'll get the blocks sewn into a top.

Cleaning and borders

I finally started cleaning my house.  I had a closet I never get anything out of so I figured I must not need what was in there.  There is going to be a neighborhood of garage sales this weekend so I might as well participate. 

Last night I quit cleaning and started sewing the borders on the QOV quilt tops.  I got them both done but took the picture after the first one was done.  I also bordered the twisted rail so 3 are ready for quilting.

Here is the first pair of favorite fabrics for the triangle quilt I showed a couple days ago.  The leaf print is a Nancy Crow fabric that is at least 12 years old and I will really be sad when it is all gone.

I feel like myself again..............

The weather has changed, cooler, less humid.  I feel so energetic when it is like this.

I sewed the tesselating blocks together into a top, sewed several strip sets for a twisted rail quilt for the QOV project.  Then I sewed some more of my little bits (2.5" squares) to store in the box with the rest until I decide what the project is.

The whole week is supposed to be like this; good sleeping weather with the windows open, no A/C.

It worked!

I was hoping that my twisted rail quilt pattern was going to work in a scrappy version.  Click here to see it with just 4 fabrics.  I am pleased with the scrappy version and especially in the red/white/blue scraps.  I have 4 more blocks to sew today and cutting of kits to do as well.  This quilt will probably get a border to make it a little bigger.  I plan to post a tutorial soon.

I remembered to go out yesterday afternoon and take a picture of the porch pots in place.

Here is the top view of the bottom pot.  I just love all of the variety of plants.

More sewing and mowing............

Wednesday was a repeat of Tuesday.  I got the other half of the lawn mowed in 3 sessions of 15 minutes each. 
I cut a few of the strip sets into blocks for the twisted rail.  It is pretty easy to see the light color twisting but the dark one will be tweaked as I get more blocks cut and sewn.

My third quilt with the rectangle blocks will be in Kaffe fabrics.  I sewed 2 sets of fabrics last night but was too tired to even turn the iron on.

One more quilt top done, another on the way.......

I moved a few blocks to new positions and decided it was time to sew it together.  If you haven't been following along on this one, here is the link to the tutorial.

Both of these new Stack and Slash quilts are about 56" x 70".

I have 6 of the strip sets for the Twisted Rail quilt sewn now and pressed.  I took 2 of them and layered them like I show in my tutorial and cut them.  These are ready to take to the machine.

If you have your machine in a cabinet with an insert around it or have a table that fits around your machine to create a flat surface you shouldn't have any trouble with stretching on this seam.  After I sew it I take it to the ironing board and set the seam by setting the iron on top without sliding.  Then I press the seam to one side pressing with the grain of the fabric, not with the bias seam.

I had two reasons to make this pattern again.  One was because I need a few fast flannel quilts for gifts and the other was to try out another layout.  This is the original layout in the tutorial which works really well when you have an uneven number of blocks in one or both directions.

This is another layout that would work in a quilt with an even number of blocks in both directions.  I'm planning this one 6 blocks x 8 blocks so I may use this layout.

My orange cactus is still blooming and has a few more buds.

The pale pink one that has bloomed twice already has just started blooming again. Unfortunately in the photo I cut off the open flower at the bottom.  I have a 2 tone pink and white and a red one with buds, and the cutting from my mother-in-law's plant has buds.

I fought off a headache all day yesterday so I hope it doesn't hit me today.  Snow predicted tomorrow and the headaches sometimes come with moisture storms (and barometric pressure changes).

May 2023 monthly recap....................

Two finishes again for May.  That makes 10 so far this year.  On the left is Kaffe fabric Rail Fence baby quilt, 38" x 52".  On the right Pink Twisted Ribbons, fabrics from many years of collected stash, 35" x 48".

Two new quilt tops, numbers 16 and 17 for the year so I'm still having too much fun making new quilt tops and dragging my feet quilting and finishing them.  On the left Pastel Diamonds is 49" x 72.5".  On the right Prints and Solids: Stars, 63" x 72".

For my own record, this top was finished yesterday, 63" x 72".  30 of the blocks were finished previously so I just needed to make 26 more.  Over half of the blocks have conversation prints and all of the blocks have solid star triangles.  I started making a series of solids and prints quilts, inspired by Lynn's quilts, in 2019.  She has a label for Solids on Prints Series on her label list.  I have totally completed 2 in my series, Zipper and Framed 9 patch.  I finished my postage stamp top (another label on Lynn's blog) and have 2 more sets of blocks started.

I tried one more time to get the camera to capture the pink of the Dianthus in the backyard garden.  This is the closest I have gotten but I think they are just a little darker than this.