Midnight Blues is now in the flimsy stage and is hanging in the to be quilted closet until it's turn to be hand quilted.
This looks a lot like an old antique quilt which is where Jayne got the idea.
I knew how I wanted the borders even before I started piecing the blocks. I was going to have a 5" finished cream background border with an appliqued gentle curving vine with lots of leaves in the various blue fabric.
But while quilting the Floral Triangles border, I changed my mind, I decided I was going to make a border like this in Midnight Blues quilted with various blue threads.
So I attached the cream 5" finished border then added the blue side borders. I laid the quilt on the floor to measure before cutting the last two borders, looked at it and thought it looks awful!
No picture!
I removed the blue borders then trimmed the cream background to 1" finished then added the blue borders, perfect! I like it. Sometimes our plans just don't look right.
Yes, I know, the long sides have selvages. Don't get yourself in a tizzy, they will be cut off before the binding but that won't happen for a long time.
I leave the selvages on so there is more stability in the quilting and also because I don't feel like zigzagging the edge.
Right now the flimsy measures 90" by 97" but of course it will be small after trimming.
My idea for my quilt came from this post on Jayne's blog. She made her blocks finish at 6" while my blocks finish at 4-1/2".
I started making the shoofly blocks when Bonnie Hunter started her shoofly challenge last summer. I didn't use Bonnie's shoofly design, my blocks are made the regular way.
As I predicted, Bonnie's quilt (actually quilts since she made 2 of them) is bright and colorful while my quilt is not but we're both very happy with our own quilt.
Here's a picture of the waiting to be quilted closet.
Some of these quilts will be hand quilted, some of the smaller ones will be quilted with my sewing machine.
Some, like the redwork embroidery in front, are waiting to be sewn into a quilt.
Several years ago, a blogger showed her waiting to be quilted closet, I think she had at least 30 quilts in waiting. She had used metal pants hangers, you know, the kind that things can easily slide off of.
Since I have grandchildren who love to play hide & seek and this closet seems to be the most popular hiding spot, I decided not to go with the metal easy slide off hangers. I purchased my hangers at Target. They are shaped like regular hangers but they're thicker and they are felt coated, no slipping! They come in various colors but I thought white was the way to go.
In case you're wondering why the heifers weren't in the picture of the quilt, I moved over to the right and took this picture. They were grazing behind the quilt!
Linking to Peacock Party, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday, UFO Busting
The center for Midnight Blues is completed, now to add the borders.
You can't probably see it in the photo but when I made the snowballs, the cream fabric of one block was sewn backwards. It immediately popped out and waved at me when I laid the center of the floor. I'll remove that block and insert one of the leftover blocks. Some mistakes don't bother me but this one did.
The center measures 77" by 85-1/2", the rows are set 17 blocks by 19 blocks and the blocks finish at 4-1/2".
Isn't it interesting how two different blocks can make such a neat design?
Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Clever Chameleon, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday
Since the fast and easy projects have been pieced and are at the long arm quilter, the next project to be progressed is Midnight Blues.
I last posted about Midnight Blues in December 2019 when I showed the snowball blocks made at the Jane Stickle November retreat.
The snowball blocks are the alternate blocks to the shoofly blocks I made for Bonnie Hunter's shoofly block challenge.
My pattern is based on this quilt by Jayne. She gave her quilt a different name but I decided on Midnight Blues for my quilt.
My plan had been to sew these blocks together at this year's Jane Stickle retreat in April but we all know how planned activities in April went this year. I did tentatively think about saving this project for the November retreat this fall but decided I want it finished NOW!
The individual blocks finish at 4-1/2". Sewing a row 17 blocks by 4-1/2" is just too fiddly. I'm sewing the center section in 4 parts then sewing the sections together. The picture below is the top left section.
Below are the top two sections sewn together.
The width measurement is 77" which is actually what it should be!
I like dark blues and have lots of small fabric pieces left from former projects. There are over 20+ blues in this quilt. What is amazing is when I look at the fabric, I remember the quilt it was used in!
Linking to Peacock Party, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday, UFO Busting
I don't normally sew Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts or sew along with her leader & ender project. I was curious though to see what she had planned for this year. This year's Bonnie Hunter's Leader and Ender project for the next year involves piecing shoo fly blocks.
I've been wanting to start a shoo fly project ever since Jayne posted about her project back in December 2017.
My shoo fly blocks are going to finish at 4 1/2". I pieced 5 blocks so far, just wanted to see how they look.
And I made a couple snowball blocks, just to see what they look like with the shoo fly blocks.
For now I'm going to concentrate on sewing HST's before I piece anymore blocks.
A year from now Bonnie is going to have a bright bold colorful scrappy quilt. My quilt won't look like hers. My quilt will have the quiet gentle dignified beauty that comes with a two color quilt. The important thing is that we'll both be happy with our own quilt.
After I took this picture, I remember another 2 block quilt from Kathy's Quilts that I bookmarked. I see that this quilt involves churn dash blocks and 9 patches, not shoo fly blocks.
But still I wonder, what would shoo fly blocks look with 9 patch blocks? So of course I made some 9 patches to see.
First 9 patches with dark corners.
Interesting but I don't like the big light center blocks next to each other but I do like the corners. Can you envision a dark chain running through the quilt?
Next the 9 patches with light corners.
I like that the center light blocks aren't next to each other but I'm not sure about all the light fabric in the corners.
Both these settings have potential but I think I'll stick with the original alternate snowball block.
I even purchased a special stencil that fits perfectly in the snowball block, because, as you know, hand quilting is what I do.
Since I took the picture, I did peel the lower left sticker off since it was covering up part of the marking line.
If sewing shoo fly blocks isn't your thing, Kevin the Quilter is hosting a Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt mystery this summer.
Meadow Mist also has Mosaic Mystery in progress. Her mystery runs through April 2020.
In the mood to piece a Christmas quilt? Check out Sarah and her Christmas in July sew along.
And then there's the Disappearing 9 Patch Quilt Along that Julie is hosting. It's happened in June - July, so they're at the end of the quilt along but the pattern is still available. Here's a link to week 5 where the participants are displaying their quilts.
Linking to Let's Bee Social, WIP's on Wednesday, Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday
