Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Happy Surprise - Aunt's quilt

My aunt's quilt is finished!  It is based on a quilt from the American Patchwork & Quilting 2016 Calendar, month June.


The main differences include the center square all being the same fabric and the fabric layout.  It is scrappy, but all the pairs are the same...purple & pink, blue & yellow, and orange & green.  I had meant to put complimentary colors together, but made a mistake.  I like it though.

I spent a very long time on the layout.  I'm not really going to describe the pattern to you, but it is there. 


I put a minky cloud on the back.  Because minky is for adults too. I thought the clouds went nicely with the trees, and was light enough that it wouldn't be showing up on the white fabric on the front.


For the quilting, I did three different motifs in the white squares.  An 8-pointed flower, flower power - it looks like a chrysanthemum to me, and Fancy Hook Feathers (from 180 Doodle Quilting Designs).  In the colored sections I did some leaves...ground cover for the trees.


Since there were so many pine trees in the quilt, it is only fitting that a picture be taken near a pine tree too.

This was my February goal.  I finished it about a week ago, but had to hurry up and get pictures!

Monday, February 27, 2017

My Quilting Space: blog hop

I always find it interesting to see what other people's quilting set up looks like.  I haven't shared mine in detail before and I really needed to clean it up, so I jumped on the chance to join this blog hop.
http://faithandfabricdesign.com

This is my piecing and finishing area.

Some things that I think make it interesting:
*It is also my computer desk and I often go back and forth between piecing and playing computer games within an evening.
*The tiny scrap jars, up on the top, started as just decoration.  Now the first two on the left hold my solid salvages.  I pretend it is because the color card swatches aren't big enough, but I'm not sure I'll ever do anything with them.  The third from the left has salvages which I want to make into a rug someday, and the three on the right are my green scraps, yellow/orange/red scraps, and blue/purple scraps.  My children enjoy taking out the scraps and looking at them sometimes.
*My binding roll is all the extra pieces of binding that I've made.  Mostly solids.  I should probably sort all of it out and put it away, but it's also fun to see how big it will become.  It is currently 4.7" in diameter as I made a ton of extra binding for the one that started the roll.
*My large quilts in progress just go on the floor.  Usually there are several and they get walked on by my youngest.  It is not a very neat pile, typically.
*My scrap bucket was cleaned out for the first time in about two years, and I realized I should really do it more often.  Currently I'm taking apart random pieces that are still sewn together, as I've realized nothing will happen to them if I don't take them apart and put the individual fabrics away.


Here's a different shot of the piecing area.  I took a picture of the credenza, but then realized it was rather messy.  It has a few books and magazines, along with my quilt notes and the notions I don't use very often like buttons.


This is my fabric storage area.  It is in the same room as my desk shown above, but is still several steps away.
*The in progress shelf usually isn't that full, but since I cleaned up my desk several things went in there.  "in progress" means that the fabric on that shelf has a specific purpose, even if I haven't started the project yet.
*The rest of the fabric is up for grabs - for bee blocks or other quilts that I "need" to start.
*I just realized my non-quilting cotton fabric seems to be exploding.  I'll need to deal with that soon.
*This system as worked rather well for me, as I can just pull the bin that I need to my desk.  I do need to start using the scrap backings, all minky and flannel, better though.


Lastly, this is my quilting area.
*There is a whole bin with scrap batting.
*I have a trash box.  It looks really ugly, but it is nice for sticking sharp needles into so they don't hurt anyone.
*The thread bowl is where I keep all the bobbins for the current project.
*There's another bin back there for quilts ready to be quilted (or in progress, since I take them off sometimes.)
*This area is on the same floor as my piecing area, but on the other side of the house.  At night I usually play some computer games, come over here to quilt, and then go back to piece.


To the side of the quilter is the batter and thread.  I need a new thread holder soon as this one is almost full.  Through the door I have a few more random supplies like pantographs and stencils.


This is one more view of the quilting area.

Thanks for joining me!  Here are the other people on the blog hop; I hope you'll stop by and say hi.

Jen Frost @ Faith and Fabric
Raylee Bielenberg @  Sunflower Stitcheries & Quilting
Tisha Nagel @ Quilty Therapy
Emily Carrol @ Toothpaste and Orange Cat
Sherry Smedly @ Adventures in Life
Emma Wingier @ Emkie Designs
Anne Beier @ Hudson Valley Quilts

Cindy Pieters @ Stitch In At Home
Ivete Tecedor @  Fabric Nerd
Amanda Hilldore @ Fabric Engineer (you're here)

Saturday, February 11, 2017

interlocking HST progress

I finally all the HSTs made and trimmed, so I started laying out.  The first layout didn't go very well.  The second layout I tried to make more controlled, but that looked ugly.  My third try looked ok.






I stepped away for a bit and then tried again.  I'm much happier with this one.  I had a better starting seed and realized how to make the colors flow between pairs better.  Taking that first picture was a huge help.




I need to make just a few more HSTs to integrate in between some of the awkward spots.  There will also be quite a bit of negative space, but I think that'll look nice.

I also laid it out in an out of the way hallway, so for once I'm somewhat optimistic that it won't get trampled on.


What I need to make, for my own purposes:
4x dark blue, med purple
2x dark blue, orange
4x light green, light orange
3x med red, med light blue
2x med dark blue, med green
4x pink, light blue

Sunday, February 5, 2017

January recap

1. Aunt's quilt. I put this on the quilter about half way through January.  The quilting is almost done - maybe one or two more nights, threads need to be buried and the binding attached.  Finishing it is my February goal.
 
2. Rainbow log cabin.  It's all put together!  It's for me, so I'm afraid it is low priority to get on the quilter.
 
3. Simply solids bee quilt.  Piecing is finished, but it isn't very square. I was going to quilt and then square it up, but after looking at the picture I may try to square it up first.  It's my current problem child.

4. Meshing solid HSTs.  I made a bunch of HSTs and am now trimming them up.  (The picture is from earlier when I paired all the colors together.  It should be more like a rainbow then the picture shows.)

5. Temperature quilt.  I'm staying pretty up-to-date with January completed.  Catching up is pretty fast, so I tend to do a week at a time.                               

Other items still waiting around
6. Sunset wall hanging.  I just have the half the binding left to do. It's getting finished, still slowly but steadily.  I also have to bury some threads in the back.
7. scrap quilt #2. 

8. Scrap quilt.  

9. Orphan rocket block. 
10. Jeweled floors.

11. Lost piece (almost whole cloth quilt).  

12. Winter quilt.   

13. fabric from Christmas.   

14. A pillow with green/purple fabric.

15. Quilt nautical quilt.
16. green/white hourglass quilt.

17. baby quilt - possibly pair with another quilt on the list.

18. woodlands quilt.

19. Trying to fit in - left over triangle quilt. 

20. Riley Blake Fabric Challenge.  I have the fabric and ideas are in my head, but nothing for sure yet.
21. baby quilt - possibly pair with another idea TBD 

Hmm, my number seems to be going up instead of down.  Oh well, it's only the beginning of February!