The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts

Category: WIP Wednesday

Scrappy Dr. Seuss : Wed. Finish

Hi, Today I am happy to share my Scrappy Dr. Seuss baby quilt as a Wednesday Finish.

We are having gorgeous weather here in Iowa this week. The sun is shining and almost all the snow is melted. It’s in the 50’s and so nice to not have to weather 4 layers when you go outside.

I quilted my Scrappy Dr. Seuss in a boxy quilt pattern, going around and around while staying inside the pieced blocks. It makes for a really neat texture. I used a variegated thread on top that had yellow, orange, red and blue with green. I used the bright blue as my bobbin thread and it blended in nicely with the back fabrics.

(The wind picked up and caught the one side of quilt so it appears out of square when it is not.)

For a different view of things, I layed the quilt out on our old moss covered picnic table. The sunlight filtering through the trees was quite pretty I thought.

There should be some really wrinkly soft goodness after the quilt is washed and dried. The quilt is still pretty flexible even with the close stitching.

And for a couple silly photos, I decided to have Dr. Seuss meet Mr. Bird, my metal bird lawn sculpture that my Husband created for me from used farm tools.

Mr. Bird looks majestic with his technicolor quilted wings. He could use to have a fresh paint job.

I look forward to giving this quilt to our newest nephew. It was a fun project using up some of my favorite fabric scraps and I learned a new quilting style technique.

I will be linking up my quilt finish with WIP Wednesday, Oh Scrap, Scraptastic Tuesday- March linkup and other midweek linky parties. (My quilt is highlighted on And Sew We Craft Together Week 12. )

Thank you for stopping by and I will be back yet this week with another project that I am working on another nephew who turns 1 tomorrow.

Happy Sewing,
Shelley

March 11, 2015
WIP Wed: Boxy Quilt Stitch

Hi, Today I have started quilting my scrappy Dr. Seuss baby quilt.

Since it has a different style block, I thought I should try some different types of quilting. I am using my walking foot to create a meandering boxy pattern. I practiced on a block left over from my Catawampus quilt.

This is a variegated size 40 cotton Signature brand thread. I do not see an actual name of the color, except Tex 40 as a possible color name. It has red, orange, green and blue to purple colors. For my Dr. Seuss quilt, I used a matching blue thread for the bobbin color. I really liked the look and texture of my sample and would like to make a batik purse in the future with this stitching all over.

I am using Warm and Natural batting and this quilting gives it a really neat texture. I am trying not to get too close together so it would cause any stiffness.

I am trying to keep my boxy stitch contained within the colored portion of my quilt block. I think I will take white thread and either stitch in the ditch or stitch very close to the outer white border to finish off the individual quilt blocks.

This quilt was an experiment to use up what I had for scraps from making two other quilts and attempt to try out a new quilt pattern to see if I would like to use it in a larger quilt.

I will be linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Sewing,
Shelley

March 4, 2015
Eagle Plus B’Day Flimsy

Hi, I am sharing today what is probably one of my fastest quilt top finishes. This is made with Adding Up Nicely by Meadow Mist Designs and the blocks are super-sized in the same fashion as my Scooby Doo Crossing quilts . I started cutting the fabrics on Tuesday morning and had the entire flimy put together by the time supper was on the table except for the last three rows. I finished attaching the last three rows this morning.

I am making this a gift for our Uncle whose birthday is today. He is a Viet Nam Veteran. His family farm is a prime location for bird watching and has regular visitors of all sorts of wildlife including eagles. A family joke would have been to make this out of Turkey Vulture fabrics as he used to be visited by numerous buzzards at one time and they would hang out on the eaves of his barn. Eagles are a more beautiful bird of course, and fitting as a patriotic theme as well. I am looking to piece a stars and stripes backing to make the quilt even more patriotic. I am so happy that all my intersections joined up nicely on this quilt top. Yeah, for pressing the seams in opposite directions in a consistent manner!

I purchased the eagle print from Hancock Fabrics last year. It was an end of the bolt (2 yds.) and I thought I could come up with a good use for it in the near future. Nice prints like this are few and far between. The gold or mustard is a JoAnn Fabric’s exclusive. I just found it on Saturday and with a 50% off coupon, I purchased all that was left on bolt (over 6 yds.). I will be able to use it in a quilt I have in the works in the near future. And the white fabric has diamonds or triangles in a slight cream color on it and this fabric has been in my stash since maybe 2001. I know I have used it in other quilts and still have quite a bit left, maybe it can go into a low volume quilt project in the future.

I hope that I am able to finish up this quilt yet this week, and get it delivered. I am looking to finish quilting my little Dr. Seuss baby quilt this weekend in time for Dr. Seuss’ birthday on March 2nd. I intended to give it to my SIL, but we also have a friend who is going to be a Grandmother for the first time soon, and she is the biggest Dr. Seuss fan, so it might be fitting to gift it to her. Our Niece gave birth to a son this morning, and he was given the name Connor Earl. I have been looking at possible Irish Chain quilt variations as a possible quilt for him, in honor of his Irish family backgrounds.

I am linking up this quilt top finish with WIP Wednesday and various mid week linky parties.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

February 25, 2015
Almost Wordless Wednesday: WIP

Just a quick peek at my lovely pile of batik pieced blocks. I have learned this morning, the very importance of keeping even the smallest scraps of fabrics. I finished piecing yesterday what I thought was 200 0f the smaller block components shown on the right side of photo. Well, I only counted 196, and with some quick scrambling and a few choice words, I pieced the missing four blocks.

Heads Up: I am hosting this Friday’s TGIFF linky party.

I hope that all my quilty friends heading to Austin, Texas for QuiltCon have safe travels this week. Have lots of fun and take lots of photos!

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

February 18, 2015
Plus Dash: Quilt Progress

Hi, I thought I would share where I am at with the progress of my quilting of Plus Dash.

This top has taken a lot longer for me to quilt than others. Quilting around all the blocks and the pluses in the sashing is a real work out. Lots of stops and starts and alot of turns. My walking foot has taken a good licking this past week. It has gotten quite noisy and squeaky. I think I read recently online that it might be possible to open up the walking foot and clean it and possibly oil it in some fashion. I will have to look into that more before I take a screwdriver to a sewing machine foot that cost over a $100.

The quilt top is quilted but I have one corner that I am not happy with. I am not sure what happened to it, but the rows of stitching really gathered up. I am going to take them out and redo them. After that I will be able to bind it.

You can see more of the quilting detail on the backing.

Yesterday, Buddy who is our adopted Maine Coon tom cat came indoors with wet muddy feet. I had finished up a long period of quilting and finished all the gray pluses. We were going away for the afternoon and I ran to the gas station to gas up the car. I folded up the quilt, but silly me, I left it out on my sewing table. My daughter came home from school and let Buddy in the house, and he proceeded to run in and walk all over my quilt. She did her best getting some of the stains out with a Tide stain remover pen. I always wash my quilts when I am finished with them, but this time it will need a little extra care and soaking to get the muddy foot prints out.

I am hoping to have the quilt finished and bound by Friday so I can share it with all the Friday Finish linky parties. I am sharing this progress report with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

January 28, 2015
Wednesday’s Works and Ponderings

Hi, I thought I would share what I have been working on this week.

I finished piecing the last available pieces of the Dr. Seuss scraps into a Stacked Coins design that I centered into the backing for the baby quilt.

I was able to cut three stacks of 4.5 inch wide coins and two 4 inch wide coin stacks. They ended up about 16 inches tall and I added a 2.5 inch strip of blue in between them all. I took the last of this shade of blue yardage and cut it down the middle fold and added the length to both sides of my coin stacks. I had plans to add in a red solid stripe divided into the blue spanse on each side, but it appears that I have enough length without adding in more fabric. I plan to use the red solid as binding.

Yesterday, I got some fun “squishy” mail. A package of fabric that I won during the Sew Mama Sew’s Giveaway Day back in December finally arrived. I won a jelly roll, a charm pack and three mini charm packs from the blogger ChooChooSkadoo.

Here is my jelly roll strip set. I am not sure what line they are from as a whole, or if possibly they were a theme of fabrics pulled from many lines by a fabric shop (it appears there are various makers.)

White on white to black on white prints.

Black on white prints to black solid. (Butterflies, Koi fish, a chrysanthemum flower of sorts and ginkgo leaves)

Red solid to red with white and black prints.

I have not used too many jelly roll sets in the past in my quilt making. I have cut my own strips from yardage. These fabrics are quite pretty and I am sure I can come up with something to do with them.

Here is a Kona Solids charm pack in the Botanicals coloring. Mini charms of Snowman Gatherings, The Boo Crew and V&Co’s Color Me Happy fabric lines. I needed more solids for my stash and I have seen a solid colors Framed quilt made up that I have had my eye on this week. I have not used mini charms yet, and these can make up some cute pillow tops.

I just have not had the chance to pull out my quilt tops and get them basted together to start quilting yet this week. Our daughter started back in college this week and everyone is adjusting to new schedules around the house. We are planning on getting a king size bed this weekend, so we are going to need new bedding and quilts. Two of my four quilts needing quilting will be going on our new bed, but the two smaller quilts are to be gifts, so they should take priority to being finished. Our daughter will be getting a different bed and would like a new cover for her comforter. I have had fabric set aside for this purpose, for quite a while. She likes Cowboys and Horses and the general, all western theme.

This is Alexander Henry’s Wranglers (Pin up Cowboys) fabric. I have 5 yards of it. And somewhere in this house, but for the life of me, I can not find it…is another 5 yards of a cowboy and cowgirls riding horses fabric on a light sort of minty green background. I know I am not imagining it or dreaming, as my daughter remembers that we have the two prints to make reversible comforter. I made up a quilt kit bag from a large zip loc bag and had the fabrics in it, but the other print is missing. How do you lose 5 yards of fabric?? 🙂

While digging through my fabric bins and chest of drawers, I come across a fun project from last year. I started making Disappearing 4 Patches from a red with white hearts print fabric. I had this fabric yardage back from when I made primitive fabric dolls back in 1999-2001 for wholesale market. This fabric was used to make a Raggedy Annie doll dress.

I think I started out with 10 inch white and print squares. It makes up a 18.5 inch block. I think it was based on the Missouri Star Quilts tutorial. I cut up all the red/white heart fabric I had left and ended up with 8 blocks.

This is 2 rows of 3 blocks sewn together. The blocks are sewn but the rows are not yet. With having 8 pieced blocks instead of 9, I am not sure how I want to or should lay them out. Take the last two blocks and piece in a plain block in the center, or piece the two blocks together and end with the plain block. Either way, the plain white block could have some sort of applique applied to it, or do some sort of Valentine’s Day redwork embroidery??? Any thoughts??? If made into a 9 block quilt, it would finish off at around 54 inches square.

I plan to baste the Dr. Seuss baby quilt and get the Plus Dash and Boxed In and Out quilt tops ready for basting in the upcoming days. No matter how fun it is to think about playing with new fabrics, I need to get back on schedule.

Thanks for stopping by. I will be linking up with the various midweek linky parties.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

January 14, 2015
Wednesday Work In Progresses

Hi, I thought I would share a couple of my current work in progresses.

I am testing a new quilt pattern for quilt blogger and designer, On the Windy Side. Since the pattern has not been released yet, I am only allowed to share a sneak peek. I am showing one of my finished blocks. I am using a possible 70 some different batiks in my quilt top. I purchased a set of 100 batik charm squares off of Etsy and there were multiples in the set, and I cut down some of the leftover squares from my Batik Shadowbox quilt to make up my needed squares. So I would estimate 70-75 different batiks and I am using gray and black solid as my coordinating fabrics. I think it is possible the pattern will be announced in the next couple weeks.

I pulled one of my older long term work in progresses from the storage bin to play with a mock layout of the quilt design. I am using the fabric line Fandango to make the Sunnie Skies quilt pattern by Missouri Star Quilt Co.

This quilt’s block need a major pressing, maybe even a little starch. I am thinking I might take the chevron’s apart and rework the main seam. I think they are more than a scant 1/4 inch so things should go back together better, if reworked.

I will be linking up my Wednesday WIPs with various linky parties.

October 22, 2014
WIP: Scooby Doo Birthday Quilts Appliqued Backs

Hi, I thought I would give a quick peek and progress report on my two Scooby Doo Crossing quilts I am making for birthday gift for my grandsons.

The second of the quilt tops was finished being pieced over the weekend. I knew I wanted to feature both boy’s names on their quilts. I have done this on a few quilts before. I made quilts for a former boyfriend of my daughter’s that had his last name on the back like a Chicago Bears jersey, quilts with the children’s names of one of our adopted deployed soldiers but my favorite had to be a Chicago Bears quilt I made jointly with my Mom for a retiring Marine Recruiter with his last name on back like the jersey and all the party guests signed the back around his name. I would have thought by now after making numerous name quilts that I would have all the letters printed out. Nope…was missing a W, which was needed for Sawyer’s name. I forgot which font I used but after a frantic search was able to recreate it. When I look at the photos I took, it appears Sawyer’s S is not sized properly. All my letters were sized the same and it is the same S as used in his brother’s name. Maybe my alignment is just a tad off but since they are all fused and machine zigzagged on, they are not going anywhere. Somehow I notched off one of the top points of my W with the scissors and did my best to fill it in with stitching.

I feel very lucky to have been able to pull fabrics for the entire backs of these quilts from my stash. I found three shades of blue greens to make large striped components to add to the top and bottom of my appliqued name strips. I found 4 yards of black solid that I used to finish off the tops and bottoms of my back quilts. I feel it really pulls everything together. It really makes the names and Scooby prints bright colors pop out. I found the endless sewing of all the long stripes a bit tedious. I was thinking ahead and pressed the separate segments before they all were joined. The quilt backs turned out pretty cool and will make the quilts reversible. I may or may not cut out and applique the numbers 3 and 7 on their quilts yet to commemorate their birthday years.

So today, I have to finish pressing my quilt tops and can start basting the quilts together to prepare for quilting. I found a nice yellow on yellow stripe fabric that I want to use as binding. I am going to get them all cut out today and pressed so they are ready as well. All in all I am still looking good to finish both quilts in time for the birthday party.

Thanks for looking. I will be linking up my WIPs with WIP Wednesdays , Let’s Bee Social , Needle and Thread Thursdays and I Quilt Thursdays this week.

September 24, 2014
WIP Square in a Square Patriotic Quilt Top Finished

Yesterday, I had a very productive day of sewing. I am continuing to sew on my second Scooby Doo Crossing quilt top made from Meadow Mist Designs Adding Up Nicely pattern. I finished cutting my strips into the needed size and have all but the last strips sewn onto the 32 “H” patterned blocks. These blocks should be finished today. I am still well within time of completing my two quilts by the 27th.

I got to thinking about one of my long waiting WIPs when I took a break from piecing my blocks and decided to pull it out of the bin and see if I could make some quick work of finishing sewing the blocks into rows and finish the quilt top.

My Square in Square patriotic quilt ended up finishing as a larger quilt than I thought I was going to make. Or I should say longer in length. I really enjoyed making the blocks. I took extra time to square up my blocks and it was so, so helpful in piecing them together. All the seams just automatically wanted to butt together. The main focal print of my squares is a white background print with US Flags and a script word of America printed all haphazard over the fabric. It makes me wince a bit that no matter how flipped my cut squares around some of the flags were going to be upside down.

I took a few quick photos of my quilt top finish. I need a better set up to show off my quilt finishes. Alot of times when I have finished a quilt, I am taking a photo before it is rushed out the door as a gift. I end up laying them out on our 4 poster bed to be able to get as much of quilt in a photo. I know it is not very imaginative but when I did not have a helper to hold it what was I to do. This morning the sunlight showed oddly through the windows, so my photos are not the greatest at showing the true shades of blue and red in my quilt. I tried to take a photo of the quilt hanging from the upstairs railing. Please do not pay any attention to our woodwork needing a much needed paint job.

When I pulled out the pieces of this WIP quilt from my fabric bins, I decided to take a couple quick photos of my patriotic fabric stash that I wrote about last week. I had forgotten some of the prints that I had. I was also surprised on what yardage I had of some fabrics. I also had a great find of a mottled blue solid and a mottled yellow tone on tone striped fabric that I can use in designing the pieced backs for the Scooby Doo quilts for our grandsons. The yellow stripe would work great for binding. I am very thankful to find them as I am on a tight budget this month.

I really like the print with the Army tanks and Aircraft Carriers. I think I have close to 2 yards of each of these.

Marines, Army and Bald Eagles. What is not to love. Again upwards of 2 yards a piece.

All sorts of blues and stars galore. And can not forget the Navy Seal print. These fabrics range from under a yard to over 2 yards.

This has to be one of my favorite fabrics. I used the brown wood grain version of this fabric as the backing of the patriotic quilt I made and donated to a Wounded Warrior Foundation auction. I purchased two 3 yard pieces of this denim blue wood grain and eagle print for future backings of quilts. This fabric has such a wonderful hand to it.

I have various white fabrics and shades of blue and red solids that I can put with all these fabrics to make numerous quilt projects. I usually purchase my white and cream solid fabrics by the entire bolt. One has to love those 40-50% off coupons that JoAnn Fabrics puts out. I used my Christmas money from my Dad to get another bolt of muslin at an end of the year mail order sale from JoAnn’s. The bolt still has the plastic on it. I seem to be getting short on white solid, so maybe my birthday money next month will go to that purchase.

Thanks for continuing to read about all my quilting projects. Please consider following my blog on Bloglovin or by email or Facebook.

I will be linking up this quilt with Fabric Tuesday, Let’s Bee Social and WIP Wednesday.

Happy Sewing!

Shelley

September 17, 2014
ScoobyDoo Coming to a Bed Near You: WIP 1 of 2 Tops

I thought I would bring you all up to speed on my current WIPs. I made good progress on my Scooby Doo quilts for my grandsons’ bunk beds. I am using the Adding Up Nicely pattern by Meadow Mist Designs. I have super sized the first patterns blocks from 5 inches to 9.5 inches.

I will admit even after 20 years of quilting experience, I still wrestle with a lot of self doubt when it comes to picking colors and putting them together. I knew that I wanted to avoid using white or cream in my quilt top backgrounds. Our past experience with little boys and food that stains like Pop Tarts or Chocolate milk…eek. (this why I have a stack of I Spy blocks for a quilt for them, stashed in a bin….white background, duh.) Any way, I decided to highlight some of the yellow from the original Scooby print and make it the background for my Plus/Cross blocks. As suggested by my daughter, I chose brown as the Plus/Cross blocks. Brown is a color that is out of my comfort zone. I just have not worked it into many of my quilts.

Here is my completed Scooby Doo quilt top. It is finishing at approximately 63 by 81 inches. I really like how the Brown Crosses pop out of the yellow background. Today, I am cutting more brown fabric for my needed strips. I did not have enough of the first shade of brown, so the second quilt will be slightly different. I am still working up ideas in my head on how to create backs for the quilts. Our little guy Sawyer has not had a quilt with his name on it yet. I am thinking of putting their names on the back to eliminate the battle of No, that one is Mine?

I will be linking up my WIP with WIP Wednesday , Let’s Bee Social , I Quilt Thursdays, and Needle and Thread Thursday.

September 10, 2014