Design Wall Monday

I worked earlier in the week and made all the optional blocks for the guild year.  You can see the blocks in a previous post.

In addition, I worked on the Pineapple Nine Patch quilt top.  I have the first border on the quilt center.  I pieced the 2nd border and when I went to put the sides onto the top, they wouldn't fit.  I found that Martingale has a corrections page posted online.  So, I'll tackle the quilt top later this week.  Here is a picture of half the quilt top with the border attached but it sure doesn't match up.

Saturday my small guild met and I made this meeting my cutting day.  I cut over 300 tumblers and 300 chisels.  I didn't cut too many apple core shapes as I wanted to test sew them first.  The longest task with using scraps is prepping them for cutting.  I spent hours starching and pressing fabric and a little over an hour to cut all the pieces.  The GO! Cutter has definitely changed the way I view cutting. 

So I didn't win a copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Collector's Edition Vol. 2 magazine so I purchased one on Sunday.  I just had to have my own copy as the participating designers had their blocks posted on their blogs last week and they were oh so pretty.  As I was driving home from Hancocks, I thought about the fact that I purchased the first volume of this magazine and did not make one block.  So, the challenge for me is to make ALL the blocks within a year.  I'm starting this week and plan to make 2 blocks per week.  Anyone want to play along?  It would be neat to see the blocks showing up in blog land.  I said I didn't win a magazine.  However, I did win some flurry friends fabric that I should receive in the mail this week.  Check out the fabric at The Whimsical Workshop; they have fabrics and projects that are perfect for children quilts.

One challenge isn't enough!  While shopping this week I came across this drunkard's path sampler.  I was buying door prizes for my scrap quilting club and just couldn't pass up one for me too.  I plan to make these 12 blocks, one per week.  If you want to play along, purchase the Many Paths All Around from Elisa's Backporch Designs (scroll down...I think it's 4th from the bottom).

To see more design walls visit Patchwork Times.



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Some progress around here...

I'll admit up front that I've been home so far this week and haven't been to work.  I have a very bad upper respiratory infection and my doctor is not sure if it's sinus related or walking pneumonia.  I'm so heavily drugged that I've only been awake for very short periods of time.  In those moments, I've been working on my projects.

Here is the center of my quilt all sewn together now.  I need to cut sashing strips for the 1st border.  It also has a pieced 2nd border that I have to cut as well.  We'll see how far I get on this over the weekend.

 I also worked on the quilt guild's optional blocks for the year.  They were so easy that I made each block in 30 minutes or less.

October, November and December 2010

January, February and March 2011

 April, May and June 2011

July, August and September 2011

 I was so embarrassed by the pictures of the optional blocks that I cleaned the strings from my design wall.  It's been over a year since I last swiped it with something.


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Type-u-later,
http://www.teaquilts.com

Design Wall Monday

I got a little preoccupied this week.  I've been going through things in my sewing room and straightening up at the same time.  I purchased a couple of shoe racks and a storage unit to organize my art bin containers.  They were stacked on top of each other and of course every time I needed something that case was on the bottom.  I did work in the Pineapple Nine Patch quilt.  I now have all the blocks sewn and half the quilt top sewn together.  I was a little disappointed as I couldn't get the pinwheels to match up accurately.  I guess this will be that quilt that I'll get to use some of the buttons in my stash (of course blogger would turn my photo AGAIN. )

So in frustration, I decided to work on the blocks for my guild's optional block program.  The one on the left was due in October; we have a month's grace period to get them done.  The leaf block is due at the November meeting.  I hope to work on these ahead of schedule, maybe getting all the blocks done by the end of the year.

Then I cut and pieced the center block of my Tessellation Pinwheels work in progress I started last week.  You can see the details here.  I'm planning to put two rows of blocks completely around the center.  The goal is to have each pinwheel made from a different fabric.  That means I'll need to cut more squares.  I've already used 57 different prints and need to make 24 more blocks.

I've been looking at this free pattern, Cotton Candy Quilt, from Robert Kaufman's site.  However, the pattern uses templates to make the block.  After staring at this for a while, I decided I could cut the print units with my GO! Chisels die.  However, what about the triangles that make the pinwheels?  I then thought maybe my GO! Bountiful Baskets die would work.  

Cotton Candy Quilt Pattern from Robert Kaufman

Yes, it worked!  I'm about a 1/16" too short but I can make that up in the seam allowance as I'm only missing the triangle points that I'd trim any way.  My block is larger of course than the pattern and I have bias seams on the outside of the block (which has been happening a lot lately with the techniques I've been working with.)  In addition, I cut the 8-point star using the GO! 2.5" Strip Die that I pieced into the block on the right.  I need to tweak the size of the setting triangles and squares for this one.  No plans to make the star into a quilt, just testing cutting on an angle with the die cutter.

To see more design walls, visit Patchwork Times.
-------------------------- Type-u-later, http://www.teaquilts.com