Thank you for all the kind comments you all leave about my quilting. I'm not very good about reply to your comments unless a direct question is asked. I really try to stay focused on not spending too much time on the computer reading blogs. An hour can slip by and it only seems like a few minutes. That hour is gone and I didn't stitch at all!
This week I quilted all the way across the row. The quilting
was mostly quilting the background fabric in between row 2 and 3 so you will get to see all the pretty designs in the corners!
I'm just going to show you the pictures and not make comments like I normally do.
Those pictures weren't in the correct order but they show you what I've done.
When I quilt in between the applique rows, I don't go straight across. I'll quilt the design in the corners .
Now the design is quilted. I'll quilt the diamonds and the applique.
Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Moving It Forward, BOM's Away, Esther's Wednesday WOW!
I have several new projects I would like to make this year. One of them is Ancient Stars, a Sue Garman pattern. This is not a fast, speedy, whip it up in a month quilt, at least not for me.
I first saw this pattern sewn into quilts at a Jane Stickle Retreat. Three friends had challenged each other to make the quilt and they were showing them in Show & Tell. Each friend had made the quilt in a different color scheme, red/black, cheddar/black and a green/brown combination. They were all beautiful! It made me want to start sewing stars immediately. I ordered the pattern when I got home from the retreat, it has patiently waited several years on the bucket list.
I have a LOT of civil war fabrics so that's what I'm using. The center of the quilt consists of 4-1/2" finished Ohio star blocks, a lot of them! If I make 10 Ohio stars a month for 10 months, I'll have all the Ohio stars I need.
I'm going to make my stars in many colors but I couldn't decide which color to start with. So for 2019 I'm going to sew along following the RSC color of the month. The QST's will be the color of the month.
Here are the 11 Ohio stars I've pieced for January. I know I said I need 10 a month but I accidentally cut extra triangles so I sewed 11 stars.
The bottom right star is not an Ohio star, he's an evening star. The Ohio stars are for the center section of the quilt, there will be an outer border of evening stars. I made one evening star to test my paper piecing pattern, it's correct.
Yes, I'm foundation paper piecing these stars. They're still not perfect but they are more correctly paper pieced than if I were making them without the paper. The paper piecing is my own addition to the pattern, they were not provided in the pattern.
I need a bazillion 1" finished HST's too. I'm also sewing those for the RSC even though I sewed some black ones this month. Here are the first 60 of many to come.
I am using Thangles for paper piecing these little guys.
When I first decided to make this pattern, my intentions were to make it exactly like the pattern. Then I thought about how much more interesting the center would look if the Ohio stars were placed on point, my favorite way. Then I thought about a couple of other changes. I'm not sure how this quilt is going to look when I get him completed but one thing for sure, it won't look like the picture on the cover of the pattern.
For now I'm going to concentrate on piecing the HST's and the Ohio Stars, the evening stars will happen in 2020. Like I said, this is going to be a slow, long term piecing project but I've made the start.
Linking to Show Off Saturday, Scrap Happy Saturday, Oh Scrap
I had sections of the pieced strings leftover after I finished String Flimsy. I don't want any of those strings laying around here for another 10 or more years so I decided it was time for a crib quilt.
Right now this flimsy measures 42" X 49", a nice sized quilt.
It was a windy day and rather challenging to get a good picture.
This yellow has never photographed right. It's a soft yellow color but it isn't as washed out as it always shows in the pictures. Maybe after it's quilted it will look a little darker.
I still had strings left so I sewed them into the backing.
Do you recognize this yellow? The yellow is left from my Nearly Insane quilt. I always buy plenty of fabric when I make a long term quilt. I didn't know how much I'd need so I bought way more than I needed.
Anyway, the strings all are gone, at least until I sew some more!
Linking to Let's Bee Social, Needle & Thread Thursday, Let's Make Baby Quilts, Peacock Party, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday
I've been quilting the Pastor's Attic quilt for 12 weeks. I'm
making slow progress and I'm still enjoying myself. Hand quilting isn't a fast process, you need patience. I try to quilt every day for at least an hour or more, just depends on what all I have going on each day.
The center section of applique row 2 is completed.
Here in my progress starting from the center and moving to the left.
Center block.
Next block left of center.
In between two of the blocks.
Left Block.
Left border.
Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Peacock Party, Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away, Moving It Forward, Esther's Wednesday WOW!
For the past year I've been reorganizing my cutting/fabric room. I've evaluated bagged projects to see if I want to still make them, then repurposed the fabric and patterns from the projects that didn't make the cut.
The best organizing tool I've incorporated is this pegboard for the small items and rulers.
It is so nice to find the small items quickly and the rulers are right there at hand.
The rulers used to be kept on a rack but that just didn't work for me.
I moved the cutting table into the center of the room under the overhead light. Now I can walk all the way around the table.
The room looks cluttered now but this picture was taken while working on Scrappy 9 Patch. That is what the boxes on the table are for. As soon as that quilt was finished, I put the boxes away. Cleaning up after each project is a good way to eliminate clutter too.
A couple years ago I bought metal shelving which has helped with the organization. The fabrics are sorted by color and kept in tubs on these shelves.
The large tubs, center bottom, contain fabrics kitted for a projects with the pattern enclosed.
Those bolts of fabric in the bags look sloppy. I'll take care of those.
This looks better with the bags off the bolts of fabric.
The second shelf still looks messy. The boxes contain varying widths of strings. I don't use strings a lot and they're starting to take over.
This is the box of 1-1/2" strips that you see on the right side in the above photo.
It originally held paper for the printer so you can visualize how large it is.
I wonder how many quilts are in this box and basket?
I've issued a challenge to myself, I'm going to see how many quilts I can piece from these strings in 2019. I did use some of them in the string quilt but that didn't even make a dent!
I will be making several log cabin flimsies. I like the log cabin block, the blocks can be arrange in so many different designs.
I've made a start on two log cabins so far. This one is brights.
And this stack consists of fall colors. Actually I'm making enough blocks to make two tops in fall colors, both different.
There will also be one in blues, purples and whatever is left in the box.
I did empty the basket of the whites and creams so I've pulled out background fabrics left from other projects.
Digging through the box has caused an explosion of strings in my sewing room and they're taking over everywhere!
The log cabin blocks are going to be an ongoing project for 2019. I will work on them in between other projects. These blocks sew fast and don't require a lot of thinking!
Linking to Let's Bee Social, Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished Or Not Friday, TGIFF!, Show Off Saturday, Oh Scrap!
I really thought Infinity would be my sewing project for the whole month of December. I'm still in shock how fast she sewed. Now what?
Moda Cutting Table recently had several posts on string quilts, here and here. Lori from Humble Quilts had 2 posts also, here and here. Other blogs have been talking about strings too. I thought strings sound interesting, that is something different. I do want to reduce the various sized strings in the boxes.
Then I remembered ten years ago (or more!) I had started a project using one of Edyta Sitar's patterns. She didn't call it 'strings'. She called it 'making fabric'. Well, I sewed and sewed and sewed. Then I ran out of enthusiasm. The string fabric was folded and put away. Time to get that out and do something with it.
Lori had linked to her pinterest page about string quilts. There was one that really interested me. They had cut the strings into triangles, sewn them together into rows and then had white sashing running in between the rows. I liked it!
But my version of that quilt is very simplified. I cut triangles for the very center but didn't cut triangles for the rows. You know, that would have involved MATH! I didn't mitre the corners either.
I wanted an easy design and this was it!
I had enough strings from the original 'string fabric' to make most of the quilt but not entirely, so I sewed more. I don't think you can tell the original strings from the newly sewn strings.
The quilt turned out square but I added a row of white/strings to the top and bottom. She measures 90" by 103".
I did trim each row after it was sewn onto the body. I'm not a perfect 1/4" sewist and need to trim.
Moda's String Along is starting December 28th and Lori's String Along starts in January. I'm at the head of the group for once, my flimsy is finished and I have a queen sized string flimsy to prove it!
What would I do different if making this quilt again? I would cut the string sections 5-1/2" wide instead of 4-1/2". The white sashing would be cut 2-1/2" instead of 3-1/2".
No telephone books were harmed in the making of this quilt. But, if someday, I do make another string quilt, I will try the paper method. And it probably won't look like this quilt.
Linking to Let's Bee Social, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Show Off Saturday, Oh Scrap
