One Quilt, One Day, Start to Finish

Yesterday I made this quilt:

OK, so it is only 11" x 13" but it's finished!

The backstory:

Our guild, the Heritage Quilters of Huntsville, is having a little contest this year:

1. Check a book out from our large library
2. Make a quilt from the book
3. Bring the quilt to a guild meeting
4. Fill out a slip
5. At the end of the guild year, August, two people will win $50 gift certificates to my favorite shop, Patches & Stitches .

I had known about this for a few months with no plans to participate. At the last guild meeting, Thursday, the Librarian made a pitch for this because, more than half way through the year, there was only ONE participant, the Librarian herself.

So the next day I was in Patches on other business and since our library is housed there, I checked out this book, Little Handfuls of Scraps  by Edyta Sitar:

That night I looked all through the book--there are several designs I really like in it. I selected the one I wanted to make, Sophie, page 66.

The next day, yesterday, I was ready to begin about 11 a.m. I selected all the fabrics from a shoebox full of reproduction prints I keep close at hand. All the pieces were cut out and assembled on a flannel board I use to take blocks ready to sew from the cutting table to the  machine:

I sewed and  pressed, took a short lunch break, sewed and pressed some more and  had the top done pretty quickly. I cut the batting and backing to size, ready for quilting.

My plan was to hand-quilt it as I needed a hand project for evening sewing. But first I would stitch-in-the-ditch on the Bernina Q20 sit-down longarm machine. That didn't take long so I thought, I'll just machine quilt the entire thing. That didn't take long either, less than 45 minutes to fill the squares with "orange peel" designs, using curved rulers.

Next, it was time to trim it, cut and create the binding, cut and create the hanging sleeve, and attach the binding and sleeve by machine.  By 3 p.m. it was done. Last evening I hand-stitched the binding and sleeve in place and this morning I hung it in the hallway.

So, one quilt, one day. I sent an email to the Librarian to let her know her pitch was heard by at least one of us. She was happy. Next month I'll take it to show and put my name in the hat.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

What Do 4096 Triangles Look Like?

My Lifetime Quilt is progressing:

Each triangle is 1.25" finished. There are 32 of those triangles in one 5" block. Four 5" blocks become one 10" block. Four 10" blocks become one 20" block. Four 20" blocks become one 40" block. Here are two 40" blocks joined together, 80" x 40", about half of what the finished quilt will be, I think. It might become bigger, time will tell.  Here you see 4,096 triangles.

The rest of the story on this quilt and how I came to make it my "Lifetime Project" can be found here:  Lifetime Leader/Ender project.   

Now that this "half" is done it's back to making a bunch of 5" blocks:

They get made as I am piecing other projects, like the Long Time Gone blocks and the Halo Star Medallion quilt. I need to cut more triangles as the bin is getting a little low. I cut leftover fabrics into 1.75" strips, put light/dark strips right sides together, then use a Half-Square Triangle ruler to cut the triangle pairs. They are sewn, pressed and trimmed right along with whatever project I'm working on.

There is very little planning as I assemble the blocks. I try not to use one fabric more than twice in any 5" block. And I try to use a variety of colors in each block.  This one has a lot of green. Some have a lot of brown. I try to have at least one cheddar/gold in each block.

I like to think of some fabric historian having fun with this quilt 100 years from now, trying to guess the years these various fabrics were made. Since some are accurate reproductions of fabrics first printed 100 years ago, that should be interesting detective work.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

X Block Swap

The X Block Swap top is done--now to machine quilt in the ditch and hand quilt in the larger triangles.  I really like how this came out.  Had to stop myself from adding a wide border on the outside--that's so late 20th century, not how this one would have been done in the late 1800's.

Jump on over to Judy L's Design Wall Monday Judy L's Design Wall Monday blog to see what other's are doing.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Over One Hundred!

I just noticed this is my 102nd blog post.  That slipped right by me.  I enjoy sharing my quilt life with you.  If you like what you see, please spread the word to your friends--I'd love to have over 100 followers too.

Here's what I've been working on this week:

These blocks are part of an X-block Swap Group I put together in my quilt guild.  There were 6 of us who made 12 blocks for each of the six.  Finally got around to trimming them to 8" and putting them on the wall.  Now to add the black sash with cheddar cornerstones--maybe later today after my outside chores are done.  I'm not sure if any of the others have played with their blocks yet.  Mine are done in 1800s reproduction fabrics--everyone chose what they wanted and it was fun to work on.  Here is the blog post I did earlier showing the other colors:  X Block Swap.

I decided to get on this for two reasons--the design wall was empty so it was easy to get started and I plan to hand quilt this and that will take some time.  Our guild quilt show is October 2013 so those entries are already a done deal.  The next show will be in 2015, most likely, and I'll be ready for that one.

While working on this one, I came up with another quilt that needs to get made--a Christmas gift for a young woman.  I spent some time yesterday looking at photos of Modern Quilts, on flickr.com and Pinterest.  I am eager to get started on that one--just as soon as this quilt is sashed and off the design wall. 

Here are my helpers:  Stitches and Patches.  Most of the day they sleep but at 10 pm the Kitty tussle begins--they are wild for about 30 minutes--then they crash!

Let's quilt!

Barbara