Quilting Insanity Week 5

Another row is completed on Nearly Insane. All of the 6" finished blocks have been stitched in the ditch.

Left side border and half triangle block.

I know you can't see the stitching in the border. I'll show you a picture of the back of the quilt when she is finished. The white thread should show nicely in the blue backing fabric.

This was my favorite block of all the blocks I've quilted so far. 

When I pieced this block, I pressed the seams open so I was unable to stitch in the ditch. I quilted in from the seam not quite 1/4th inch. I love the texture this created. And yes, the octagon shapes are supposed to all have the same measurement of edge. Even though I paper pieced this block, they can still get not perfect. That's OK, it's just give my quilt character.

Half triangle block and left side border.

Have you noticed that the half triangles that are every other row is the same on each side? When the triangles were pieced you had a choice of two ways. First way, piece one block and cut it in half but then you don't have a quarter inch seam allowance. Or the second way, which is what I did, piece each half separately.

The above row was row 2 1/2 of the Nearly Insane quilt (for my own use I call the rows with the side triangles half rows). I had finished the quilting by Wednesday. Thursday afternoon I sat down to just stitch a few stitches and I couldn't stop quilting! Friday I quilted a lot too and I finished row 3; this week was a twofer so here are those blocks.

This block was one of the blocks I think Salinda was using leftover pieces of fabric. I don't like it that well but I can live with it. I certainly wouldn't want a whole quilt with blocks like this.

Since this block has so many dark fabrics, I tried to see if I could make the quilting show more. It does in the white and yellow fabrics but doesn't show very well in the dark fabric.

I didn't show you the outside and zigzag borders. They always look the same.

I'm sure I won't get 2 rows quilted this week. Spring has slowly arrived, the temperature is warmer, the grass is green and needs to be mowed.

Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Esther's Wednesday WOW!

Appliqueing Star Dance

The first applique corner of Star Dance is  finished. All four corners will have the same design but I'll use different fabrics for the stars and circle centers.

I am making a lot of extra circles. When the applique is finished, the extra circles will be added randomly to the border. I think the applique design is rather sparse and needs some extra zing. I might change my mind when the borders are finished. 

The pieced 4" finished stars were made in 2017 as a  RSC project. I decided to finish this quilt first before I start another RSC project.

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday, Oh Scrap, Show & Tell with Bambi, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Whatever Wednesday

Regatta Quilt, the Rest of the Story

After returning from my retreat in the middle of April, I had crossed 4 projects off my list of 10 unfinished quilts to progress to the flimsy stage in 2018. I decided to spend the rest of April finishing smaller projects not on the big list. This is what has been completed so far.

Regatta was pieced last January and I'm finally getting the quilting accomplished. The quilting design was an easy decision, horizontal lines. Regatta measures 56" by 70". I don't know how my Regatta size compares to the other finished Regattas.

For backing of Regatta, I used a sheet top. I've seen other people do this on other blogs and decided this was the project for me to try this. I was very careful when I pinned the top to the backing because the sheet has light stripes. I think I did a good job, those lines and the quilting look straight.

Regatta Leftovers Quilt is quilted too. I quilted straight line quilting but left an inch space in between several half inch rows. I thought this made a little more interest than entirely quilting the whole quilt in half inch lines. This quilt was made from the pieces cut off while piecing Regatta. Leftovers measures 46" by 55".

For backing I used some Friends & Neighbors fabric that I purchased on clearance from Connecting Threads.

I tried various places outside around the house trying to get cute pictures. Here are a few more.

Both these quilts are rather odd sizes but they'll do for  charity quilts for children. I haven't decided which charity they'll be donated to. I like to let the charity quilts accumulate through the year and then donate them the end of November/first of December.

Linking to Let's Bee Social, Whatever Wednesday, Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Finish It Up Friday, Free Motion Mavericks, Show Off Saturday, Slice of Pi

Star Dance & Week 4, Quilting Nearly Insane

The appliqueing has started on the border of Star Dance. I just couldn't decide what to use for the vine but I finally settled on a greenish/brown/yellow batik which I had on hand.

I started sewing the stars for Star Dance in February or March 2017 for RSC. There are so many inspiring projects that quilters are making for the RSC but I want to finish Star Dance before starting another RSC project.

After a long weekend of sewing on my Baby Lock, it felt good to sit and hand quilt Nearly Insane this week. Again I was able to do a full row. And, because someone always asks the size in the comments, the blocks finish at 6".

Left border and the first block.

.

Seventh block and right side border.

And a close up of the 7th block. I didn't stitch in the ditch on this block. I used a Baptist Fan design which looks more interesting. The curves are 1/2" apart. 

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, BOM's Away, Fiber Tuesday, Esther's Wednesday WOW!

Jane Stickle Quilt Retreat

Normally when I attend the Jane Stickle Retreat in Shipshewana, Ind., I work on several small projects. This spring I decided to change it up and worked mainly on a king sized Boston Commons quilt. I had sewn and cut the individual strips ahead of time so my time at the retreat was spent sewing the strips together and adding the borders.

The retreat started Wednesday afternoon. By noon Thursday I had the center pieced.

By evening I had added the cream center border, pieced and attached the corners and the pieced top section. (Sorry, no pictures of this progress)

I'm an early riser so by 6 am Friday I was sewing the strips together for the sides. When you are piecing a Boston Commons, the strips are sewn together diagonally so it is very important to make sure you are sewing the correct diagonal angle. By 10 am, I had those side strips pieced. I laid them down on the sides and I had sewn them incorrectly, my angle went the opposite direction. 

I spent the rest of the morning, afternoon and early evening taking the rows apart. During the show & tell Friday evening, I was pulling all those little threads out of the seam rows. After show & tell I pressed them and then started sewing the strips together correctly. I went to bed around 11pm. Saturday morning I was up and sewing them onto the main body by 5:30 am. (I never stay up late at night at home. My husband wonders why I'm so exhausted when I return home.)

After the main body was finished, I got the outside borders attached and the edge was zigzagged. I was finished by noon. The quilt flimsy measures 102" by 120". This unquilted top is one of my donations to the school auction my Pennsylvania grands attend. Someone there will hand quilt her before the 2019 auction. It's going to take awhile to quilt that giant quilt.

Boston Commons was the 4th flimsy to be crossed off my list of 10 unfinished quilts to progress to the flimsy stage this year.

I had taken another project along to work on and would have sewed on it if I hadn't had to spend Friday unsewing. I finished embroidering a block I wanted to finish before I started appliqueing the Star Dance border. 

I also made the bias vine for Star Dance. The appliqueing has started and I will show you the progress on Sunday's Slow Stitching post.

I'm adding links to other retreat attendees who have blogs. Rosemary will have several posts including a smilebox of show and tell.

Judy Hansen - Small Quilts and Doll Quilts; Rosemary Youngs - Reproducing an Antique Quilt; Rosemary Youngs - Smile Box from Jane Stickle Retreat. 

Linking to Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Let's Bee Social, Whatever Wednesday, Sew, Stitch, Snap SHOW, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Finish It Up Friday, Show Off Saturday

Quilting Nearly Insane, Week 3

This post has been written ahead of time on Tuesday evening. Tomorrow morning I'm headed to the Jane Stickle Retreat held at the Farmstead Inn located in Shipshewana, Indiana.

I really pushed the hand quilting on Nearly Insane this week and finished this row of 5 squares and 2 triangles. I'm trying to get as much quilting done now while it is still winter. Sometime spring is actually going to show up. I'll have flowerbeds to work in and grass to mow. 

Someone commented last week and asked me how large the square blocks are. They're 6" finished and the sashing is 1".

As in last week's row, the blocks are all stitched in the ditch or as much as I can in the ditch.

Left side borders and half triangle block. 

In remember piecing this block. The wonky zig-zags were very challenging to piece. They had strange angles.

And no, the tiny little HST's are not individually quilted.

Right side triangle and borders.

I'm using YLI thread for my hand quilting. This thread stitches so nicely without all the tangles I got from the that nasty spool of King Tut thread that was used on Spring Fever.

This is the bottom of the spool. The spools come in two sizes, 400 yards or 1000 yards.

I'm home from the retreat. I wanted to finish the embroidery on this block before I start the applique on Star Dance so I took it along to the retreat. 

My friend Elaine showed me how to make bias using a bias maker. It worked wonderful and the bias vine is made for Star Dance. I'll start the applique this week.

I'll show the rest of my retreat work later this week.

Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, BOM's Away, Esther's Wednesday WOW!

Quilting Nearly Insane, Week 2

This week has been cold and windy, a good week to stay home and quilt. Good progress has been made hand quilting Nearly Insane. The bottom half triangles are quilted and so is the first row of blocks.

There are 7 square blocks in a row. The next row will have 5 square blocks and 2 side triangles.

So far the quilting has been stitch in the ditch. There will be a few blocks in this quilt that might have an overall design but not in this row.

I've made good progress on prepping the Star Dance applique but nothing to show. 

Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, BOM's Away, Fiber Tuesday, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Let's Bee Social, Whatever Wednesday.