2016 Finishes - 8 of them - More to Come

Treasure Hunt was made for line dancing friends residing in Indianapolis for their wedding in May.  I made the center panel with some leftover flying geese from a previous quilt to make the stars.  Afterwards, I added a mix of borders to get the quilt to an appropriate size.  I had fun reminiscing over past projects as I used my scraps to make this quilt.

 BP Express:  Bowling Hall of Famer is a quilt I made for my husband who is listed in the national bowling hall of fame for his many accomplishments.  I quilted this quilt with a panto called Bowling Fun.  It was a challenge.  See the close up photo.  I also have a video review of this panto.

Gypsy Conversion (The Gypsy's Wife) is now completed!  I love the entire process and how colorful the quilt is.  Again, I adapted this quilt with my orphan blocks instead of piecing the blocks as indicated in the original pattern.  I have included some close up photos of  some of the quilting.

This Streak of Lightening quilt is a UFO top that I never got around to quilting.  Now that I have my own longarm quilting machine, I will be finishing a lot of the tops on my projects list.  This one was made the old fashion, time consuming way by adding HSTs to opposite sides of a square.

Asian influence was a great design to use some Asian charm packs in my collection.

Batiks Modified Bento Boxes used some of my scrappy batik fabrics.  I love the colors in this quilt.

One of the most underutilized quilting tools in the market is the X-Block Ruler.  This variation is Ribbon Star.  Instead of making 9-patches, I used 3 rectangles.

 Another X-Block quilt I call Animal Kingdom.  I love finding ways to use the pieces in the border that are trimmed when making the center blocks.

I have a few more finishes that need photos.  I fear I gave away some charity quilts that I forgot to photograph.  I'll have to look at all my media storage devices to be sure.

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More Videos and WIP

I've been busy with quilting projects.  I think I mentioned that I have some challenge projects that I will share with you later this month.  In addition, I've uploaded two more videos:

1.  Long Arm Quilting Machine Haul
2. Scrapbuster:  Rail Fence

















Here is a photo of my Gypsy Convergence (Gypsy's Wife) quilt that I quilted.  I now need to find an appropriate binding fabric and then I can remove this from my list of things to do.

I'm involved in some home improvement projects as well but the weather keeps interrupting the schedule.  We did hire a contractor to replace our front porch.  While it's wonderful to have the porch updated, it calls for me to repaint the door step, door, and regrade the area around the steps with mulch and grass seeds.  I'm finding that when you fix one thing, something else gets added to the list of to-dos.  I've power washed the deck and back of the house and repainted the awning.  Now I need to replace and seal some of  the decking and complete power washing the rest of the house.  All I can say, is that I'm never idle around here.  I feel like I may have missed a completed project, but I will need to read through my blog to make sure.

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Gypsy Wife Sections 8, 9, and 10 = Flimsy

 I finally finished the top!  It was an exciting and colorful journey that began on February 26, 2016.  I am so glad to have used over 70 orphan blocks.  I added borders to blocks or trimmed them down to fit each area.

 Section 8:  Used 5 orphan blocks.  This one was really easy to piece.  I just wish my two fabrics in the leftmost position contrasted better.

Section 9:  Used 4 orphan blocks.  By this time, I was running out of blocks that would fit the size requirement.  I had to add larger borders and/or sew HST units to form blocks. There is also some trickery with this unit where if you don't have the book, you may miss it.

Sections 8 and 9 sewn together.  I wish the pinwheel block was turned 180 degrees so the white was against the red.  I considered taking it apart but decided not to because I'd already taken it apart once before.

 Section 10 continued with the slight trickery created in section 9.  I really had to build up two blocks with wide borders on this one.  Used 11 blocks.

Sections 8-10 sewn together.

Flimsy.  All done!  I enjoyed this journey and may do it again some day with planned background strips instead of all of them being a different fabric, choosing many colors.  In total, I used 72 orphan blocks that would have otherwise continued their hibernation in my studio.  Also, I've named my quilt Gypsy Convergence.  It's so fitting with all the prints.

If you've completed a Gypsy Wife quilt, please leave a link in the comments section.
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Gypsy Wife: Section 7

After working on section 6, section 7 was easy.  It does include even more partial seams so plan the sewing ahead of time.  I have three more sections to complete.  I've already selected the orphan blocks I will use.  I also did some housekeeping of my strips.  I remove all strips that I've already used from my pile to reduce the stack.  I have about sixteen strips I haven't used but need about twenty one to finish the project.

Section 7:  Used 7 Orphan Blocks

 Section 1-7

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Gypsy Wife Section 6

Well...

If I start that way, you know something is coming.  Section 6 was by far the hardest section to piece.  I love a challenge and that is exactly what this quilt is.  I pieced all the sections together that included a few partial seams.  No biggie, just work each "mini section" to get it done.  I did just that and got it done.

Then, I got my section 1-5 to add number 6.  "Oh no!!!!!" It is not lining up!  I felt something unpleasant wash through me.  I figured out that I missed adding a strip where the first time it is used is in this section.  If you look closely at the first and second photos, you can see the missing green strip on the right side of the bow tie block.  So.....I began taking the entire section apart.  I was hoping I could change some strips around and wouldn't have to take it all apart, but that wasn't happening.  Therefore, this section was already time consuming and then I had to take it apart and resew it together again.

In viewing the next photo and comparing it to the first, you see that the gold strip on the end is now red, as it should be.  I like the first version better, but this will just have to suffice.

Used 21 orphan blocks:   Here is sections 1-6 sewn together.

Here's to praying I pay better attention in section 7!

REMINDER:  I'm using orphan blocks in my version instead of piecing the required blocks recommended in the book.

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My Gypsy Wife Rendition

On February 26, 2016 I began my journey with the Gypsy Wife quilt by Jen Kingwell.  The quilt required the piecing of numerous blocks.  I decided that since I have a lot of orphan blocks already pieced, that I would do one of the following:  (1) cut larger blocks down/rip apart sections or (2) frame smaller blocks to make them fit the allocated spacing in the chart.  That's why my version is a rendition of the original.  My quilt will not have the blocks used in the original version by Jen.

I love making scrap quilts with random blocks placed throughout the quilt.  I meant to start this journey in 2014 as a scrap club yearlong project but life got in the way of my following through.  I recently saw new quilt alongs starting up in March so I thought I get my quilt going as well.

I cut numerous strips from my scrap stash in yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, blue, and green.  I decided to omit tans, browns, black and white unless it was already in a pieced block.  I mostly omitted fabrics that read didn't read as a particular color.





As I began piecing the sections, I could feel the addiction growing stronger and stronger.  It was fast becoming the only project that I wanted to work on.  The addiction won and I made five sections within 24 hours and want to share them with you.

SECTION #1:  I used 5 orphan blocks.  Also, I am using the same fabric strip in the vertical construction of this quilt.  It will become more obvious as I complete the sections.

SECTION #2:  I used 6 orphan blocks.

SECTION 1 & 2 COMBINED:

SECTION 3:  I used 4 orphan blocks.

SECTION 1-3:

SECTION 4:  I used 2 orphan blocks

SECTION 1-4 COMBINED:

SECTION 5:  I used 7 orphan blocks.

SECTION 1-5 COMBINED:

Although I wish I could work on this quilt further, I have to put it aside to work on uploading some of my recent finished projects, scrap quilting club show-n-tell, work of some yearlong projects, make binding for three quilts, and prepare a few income taxes for my family.  I am sadden that I had to put Ms. Gypsy up for a little while.  I'm hoping to be able to publish section 6 within a week otherwise I'll give an update in a blog post.



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