Scrappy Quilt - Neutral Background - Day 6

Two days of kids at school and husband on afternoon shift have resulted in progress for me.

Lots of cutting.  Lots of sewing.  Lots of pressing.  More cutting....

Yet it seems that not lots is getting done....

I am so used to doing quick quilts - large pieces - small quilts - easy quilting - ta-da!

But this project is different and it has become another lesson for me - or rather a process.

My first lesson was to teach myself to finish what I start and not to leave a project 1/2 done.  It's not that I don't believe in UFO's or have a problem with them.  It's just that I have had a lifelong problem with loosing interest in things and not finishing.

Next lesson to learn:
Patience.  Planning all the way through.  Taking the time to do anything over that I am not completely happy with.  Not that I am expecting perfection.  That will never happen!  But I know that if I notice something that is not quite the way it should be, maybe no one else will be able to notice later.... However, I will look back on it and think, "Now that the quilt is completed, I wish I would have been more patient.  Redid that block or piece and been completely and wholly satisfied with it before continuing."

I am an impatient quilter.  I guess that comes from being an impatient person.  Ha, ha!  Impatient and impulsive... That's me! Great for road trips though!

I started with a few ideas for a neutral background, scrappy quilt.  Decided if I was planning on scrappy and wanted lots of variety... 2" finished sized squares were needed for nothing smaller than a queen size quilt.

2" sized finished squares!!!!!!!!! Am I completely nuts?  Scarey to me...  And this project is not a lot of strip piecing.  Some, but not a lot.  Otherwise it would not be random enough... And I am shooting for variety.  Scrappy.

The past two days have involved a lot of HST production.  And practicing patience.  But I could not resist laying out those prepared pieces for a little look at how it will look when it comes time to start the actual sewing of rows!

Sew here is a little peek at the fruits of my patience.  I need to add some variety to my choice of warm colours.....

Oh, and P.S.  the feature fabric.... I finally read the selvage... It's Florentine.  Designed by Peggy Toole for Robert Kaufman.

Scrappy Quilt - Neutral Background - Day 4

Slow progress....

Yesterday was Saturday, and I wanted to let my daughter sleep in a bit.  So, I ended up doing the dishes and baking some muffins.  Her bedroom is right next to my sewing area.

Eventually, I did get my neutral strips sewn together and cross cut into 2.5" sets.


Experimented with a few layouts.... 

And considered making some revisions to my plans...
And did some unsewing...

I did not feel like I had made much progress, but today I awoke determined not to feel discouraged.  By the time I returned from church, I had a mental image of EXACTLY how this quilt would be when finished.  I returned to my grid paper and solidified the plan!  Just got started in the sewing room....

When in walks my son, Russell.  He is the guy I rely on for decisions concerning colours and design.  I can always trust him to give me a worthy second opinion.  But today it was different....

You see the light green shoe box to the right of Janome?  This is Russell's quilt box - a project he started soon after I got my machine and it has been waiting for a time when Russell was ready to continue the work and I was willing to give him some time on the machine!

So here we are in the quilting hallway...  Russell has five rows of 12 - 5" finished squares together and three more rows ready to go.  He was wanting a break after that.... Agreed he wanted some pics taken and be in a blog post....  And now he says he wants the computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The nerve...

Sew I'm outa here and getting back to Janome before Russell changes his mind!!!!!!!

Scrappy Quilt - Neutral Background - Day 2

Spent the day yesterday washing and ironing all the new fabrics... Not very exciting, but satisfying.  And I began cutting strips.  2.5" for the scrappy squares and 3" for any hst's.

This quilt is planning on being 96" x 96".... Sew a finished square of 2" is quite small.... I'm a bit scared!

I am not accustomed to doing a project that will take so long to finish.  And all those corners to get them all lined up.... Yikes!  Maybe I should plan ahead and go out and buy a new seam ripper now.  The one I am currently using is getting a bit dull and I have a feeling it will be quite useless by the time I make it to connecting rows for this quilt!

I chose all the fabrics to be used in the scrappy neutral background - 22 of them.  Included four light 'coloured' strips just to jazz it up a bit.  All beige and grey seemed little boring to me.  And lined up the strips in a row to get a feel for the order.  Called my son for his opinion.  Any that look like they should not be included?  Should they be rearranged?

And began sewing the strips....

Now it is Saturday morning.... Waiting for my daughter to get up so I can continue.  Her room is right next to the sewing room.  I'll give her until 10:00.  Does that sound fair?

Scrappy Quilt - Neutral Background

It took a little while this time - but it's happened again....

I have a plan that's been forming.  And a new quilt is taking shape in my head.

It all started on May 4th, when I seen ChrissieD's blog post here.  This post was called Bonzer Trunk Show - Up Close With Sarah Fielke's 'hand quilted with love' Quilts.

Sarah's Paint by Numbers quilt wiggled it's way into my mind and has refused to leave.
And now that neutral background has become my latest obsession. Now, I know it's not something that is new to everyone.  Maybe I am the only one that had yet to realize how wonderful it can be on a quilt...

Also, I must admit that the Scrappy Swoon that made it's way onto Google Images via the Hopeful Homemaker has also had an impact. This Swoon block was originally created by Camille Roskelley of Simplify.  Her Swoon quilt pattern is available here.  But I really admired the scrappy version.

So, gazing at all the images of the scrappy neutral backgrounds and the scrappy swoons till my eyes were burning.  And cramming them into my mind (and onto my Sew Fresh Quilts facebook page) until the two were become quite nicely acquainted....

I did spent a lot of time, Googling around, looking for block inspiration, scrappy examples, neutral backgrounds....

When I run into this free tutorial by Jessica of Common Threads on Craftsy called the Inverted Star block.  What inspired me with this star block was the use of warm and cool colours....

Aha!  Now we have a neutral, scrappy background....  Some kind of scrappy version of a block... Made with warm and cool colours.  Choosing a block was almost all that remained.

I decided to go with the Inverted Star block and the Weathervane block, both very similar blocks - enlarged to enable a scrappiness - but not so large that the whole quilt is made of only one block!  The centers of both blocks contain a negative space - one a star and the other a square.

Out comes the grid paper and a freshly sharpened pencil.... How big is this quilt planning on being?
The old pencil crayons fill in the little scrappy squares of the blocks and their background... and then the centers - What to do with the negative space in the centers?  No. Not white. Sleep on it.

I was treated to a day out with my friend Linda today.  We went to a little Red Work workshop in Waterloo.  And then viewed some quilts at a couple of small shows.  Went to a nearby quilt shop whose fabric did not get my attention. Had some great ice cream.  And then went to Len's Mill Ends fabric shop in Hawksville.

Here I found some great additions for my neutral background - from right to left - a grey, shimmery stone-like fabric, some text prints, a light green I could not resist, and a map layout found on the clearance rack.  I was satisfied with my find!  Went to the cutting table, which was unmanned - or womaned..... And it was there that I found the beauty on the left.  Expensivest fabric I ever let myself indulge in.  It went against everything I was raised to live by concerning expenditures.... But it didn't take me long to decide that no matter the cost - that fabric was going to tie it all together.  Fill in the negative space, go with the blue and green cool colours of the block AND go nicely with that negative background without becoming one itself!  Besides it matches the light green fabric that I could not resist!  And I DESERVE it!  And am happy with it. And I'm in love with it. And it completes me!  Ahem...  Er, was that a little too loud?

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring 2013 - Flowers in the Sun

  It's time to celebrate quilts!  This is my first time participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival and I would like to thank Amy.  Sew....  "Thank you for hosting, Amy!"  And thank you to all her wonderful sponsors who have made this year's festival possible!

I sure have enjoyed reading through many of the posts of past entries, from the last three years, and am sew excited to be a part of this year's festival!

Flowers in the Sun

After seeing Julie Pickles - Mod Pop quilt, I wanted to design something using curved piecing, too.  I had been wanting to make a full size quilt and this is the second project I came up with using curved piecing.

I was drawn to turquoise fabrics and had managed to grow these retro beauties into a nice little humble stack.  A recent acquisition of some pretty black and white prints paired up with them nicely.  The Kona green and a green batik, along with the array of oranges and yellows, seem to compliment those turquoise flowers perfectly.

 

  

 

The pieced backing was created using fabrics left over from making the front and includes one of my labels, which I ordered from Spoonflower.

I used Amanda Jean's method of Honeycomb quilting as seen on her Crazy Mom Quilts blog.  It took two full days at the kitchen table - and a Doris Day marathon on Turner Classic Movies... But I LOVE how it turned out!

I chose my favorite machine sewn binding method, which I found on Aunt Marti's 52 quilts blog.  I am addicted to it!  The little pop of color is such a nice touch.

Sew as you can see, I did not make this quilt without any help.... I found my inspiration all over the web.  Thank you all, fellow quilting bloggers!  The online quilting community has given me the inspiration to do what I love - and love what I do.  Thanks to all quilting bloggers for sharing their projects, their ideas, and that love of quilting with others.

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures : 80″x 92.5″

Special techniques used : curved piecing

Quilted by : Myself on my Janome home sewing machine

Best Category : Favorite Bed Quilt, Favorite Home Machine Quilted Quilt

—–

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring 2013 - Sew Retro, Baby!

It's time to celebrate quilts!  This is my first time participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival and I would like to thank Amy.  Sew....  "Thank you for hosting, Amy!"  And thank you to all her wonderful sponsors who have made this year's festival possible!

I sure have enjoyed reading through many of the posts of past entries, from the last three years, and am sew excited to be a part of this year's festival!

 

Sew Retro, Baby!

After seeing Julie Pickles - Mod Pop quilt, I wanted to design something using curved piecing, too.  This is the first project I came up with.  When my son, Russell viewed the drawing I had made on graph paper, he said the design was very old fashioned - hence the choice of Retro in the name.

I   

If there was any one fabric color I had collected in abundance, it was pinks.  Some dark, some plain, some polka dotted.  Some with a touch of green.

A pink, grey and white polka dot flannel was purchased for the backing.

 This close up shows the detail of the simple outline quilting along each seam.

I chose my favorite machine sewn binding method, which I found on Aunt Marti's 52 quilts blog.  It has become my signature binding!  It did take me a while to decide on just what fabric to use, but when I seen this checkered candy cane, I knew she was just the one.

The online quilting community has given me the inspiration to do what I love - and love what I do.  Thanks to all quilting bloggers for sharing their projects, their ideas, and that love of quilting with others.

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures : 48″x 54″

Special techniques used : curved piecing

Quilted by : Myself on my Janome home sewing machine

Best Category : Favorite Baby Quilt, Favorite Home Machine Quilted Quilt

—–

Oink A Doodle Moo - In Blue!

Finished my 40" square baby boy quilt.
  And it's ready for some little farmer to be snuggled in!

Spent all day Thursday piecing something for the backing... But it was ugly :)
Finally decided to go with the blue fabric used on the blocks and am sew happy I did.  Much sweeter!  And I love the little goat pieced in with the label.  He's a keeper!

Yesterday was running around and cutting the lawn, but I found a little time to start the quilting, which I completed late this afternoon.  And started applying the binding using my favourite method.  I am sew hooked on that!

Finished the binding right before supper...
And quilted the stars right after...

Linking up (this last minute Friday finish) to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Link a Finish Friday, Freedom Fridays and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Oink A Doodle Moo

I have never purchased fabric online - only looked.
Since we live on a farm, I was quite taken with the Oink A Doodle Moo by Jenn Ski for Moda, available at Fat Quarter Shop.

And then I went back to the little fabric store in Newton - E & E Cloth Creations.

I am impressed with this little country store.  Emaline carries some prints that you can't find at the big name fabric outlets here in this area of Ontario.  And ALL of her prints are $10.95 a meter (39") and the Kona Solids are $5.95!  Sew much easier to choose fabric when you don't have to look at the end of the bolt to compare prices....

At the counter, when she was cutting the new additions for my stash.... I noticed two bolts on her counter display.  The only two.  Oink A Doodle Moo - both with green background.  So I quickly had her add a meter of each to my purchase.

I wanted to chose a design with a farming theme for this farm themed fabric.  And liked the Weathervane block and the Farmer's daughter block.  The Weathervane is 6" increments while the Farmer's Daughter is 5".   I went with the Weathervane in a 12" block, mostly because it's center square can show off a nice size fussy cut of the moo-i-ness.

Here was my first attempt at that block...

Too much going on here... It was giving me a headache!

Then I have asked my 12 year old son, Russell for his opinion.  He really has an eye for what looks good.  And his descriptions amaze me.  He said, "There's too much going on."
Here is the revised version with a white background...

 

This is the first square baby quilt I have made and it measures approx. 40" x 40".

Yesterday, I finished the top... chose and made the binding... and today I am piecing the backing.
Back to the fun stuff!

Baby quilt for Lucia - finished!

Just a really quick post ....

Lucia's duck and frog baby quilt is done!  Put the binding on this morning in time to link up for my Friday finish.

 I love the fuzzy, flannel backing.  The turtles are so happy looking!

I wondered when I bought the binding fabric what I would ever use it for...