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
Batik Catawampus Flimsy:Friday Finish
It’s better late than never. I have my own Friday Finish to share this week. I have been hosting TGIFF linky party today so it’s only fitting that I get my top finished before the linky party ends.
This is my Batik Catawampus and Yes, it is a version of a scrappy Irish Chain (is described as that even on the pattern cover. ) It has 27 different batiks that I had scraps from making quilts over the last 5 years.
It finished off at the 100 inches square. I am thinking that I might want to add to the two sides to make it 110 by 100 as it does not cover the sides of bed as far as I would like. I am thinking of add a strip of the solid gray and somehow incorporate the last few scraps I have.
As for quilting this in the near future, I am thinking of some organic waves all across the quilt. I have never sewn or quilted with Aurifil threads as I live in the middle of nowhere and it just is not available around here. I did purchase a spool last year to try out sometime, and for some reason I picked a variegated color. I am thinking it will finally work with this project. It is Aurifil Mako’NE 50/2 in color 3817. Since I do not know much about this thread, I do not know whether the one fairly decent size spool will be enough to do what I need. I think I would just use as the top thread. For a back to this quilt, I am going to use gray and add some navy and possibly pull some of the bright colors from the front. I had planned on using some of the last scraps of the batiks for the backing but am thinking now that they might get all used up in extending a border.
It’s been a long week’s sewing but I feel quite successful in cutting all the multiple fabrics for the quilt and assembling the whole top with in a week’s time. It has been fun having the chance to host TGIFF and I am enjoying seeing what everyone has completed. There is a lot of beautiful work and it’s quite inspiring. Be sure to check it out if you get a chance.
I am linking up my quilt top with Crazy Mom Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Oh Scrap and of course TGIFF.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope that everyone has a great weekend.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
TGIFF: Catawampus Flimsy
Hi, I am Shelley and I blog as The Carpenter’s Daughter who Quilts. I am hosting TGIFF (Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday) linky party this week.
I have been working on creating a queen/king sized batik quilt from the pattern Catawampus by Freckled Whimsy this past week. I have used scraps from 27 different batiks that I have used previously in 4 different quilts over the last 5 years. (I have blogged about 3 of them, Buttonholes, Shadowbox and High Tea.)
The quilt top will be 100 inches square and will fit our king size bed fairly well. I layed the first part of my flimsy across the bed from head to toe and side to side. It would be great if the pattern was 110 by 100 inches and it would fit more how I think it should fit the bed. The background color is a soft gray but looks rather blue in the photo.
Here are the rest of my rows of blocks. I had hoped to have the whole flimsy together before the time I needed to start up this week’s linky party. I do hope to have it finished on Friday so I can still have a Friday Finish. I have put many hours into sewing in the last two days. I am pretty excited to see this top finished. I hope that all my quilting friends that have ventured to QuiltCon have a great time and hope they will share what they learned and saw when they come back home.
I look forward to seeing what everyone has to share this week.
Please link up your latest finishes to TGIFF. Please take some time to look around at what our other quilty friends have been working on and be sure to leave some great comments for encouragement along the way.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
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
Catawampus Block Mockup:WIP
Hi, I thought I would pop in and give an update on my work on my batik Catawampus quilt top.
The quilt is made up of two different blocks. The one block will or should have 4 different batik prints, and the other block will or should have 13 different batiks in it. For my lay out, I only had four out of 15 different combos made up for the tiny 1 1/2 inch pieces of the second block. Keeping 1 1/2 inch strips accurate and straight can be a bit nerve wracking. I do really like that this quilt will be able to go together with lots of chain piecing.
These are going to be so pretty and oh, so colorful blocks.
It is amazing how small of a pile that 6 yards of fabric can be cut down to. I purchased the fabric during the Black Friday sales at Hancock Fabrics. I have a little over 4 yds left on my bolt, so I can make a large strip in a pieced backing and have enough for binding as well.
I am still working on my custom bench pillow for my grandsons. I did get 10 yards of 1 1/2 inch bias piping made yesterday. I will probably need 2/3 of that just for the cushion. The storage bench has brown and gray canvas basket/bins for storage of their gloves and stocking caps etc. The cushion will be 12 by 40 inches long. I found a 24 inch zipper in my supplies. The cushion is only 1 1/2 inches thick and that is what the zipper finishes off at. I am hoping to size the cushion so that the original encased cushion will slip into the new one.
I will be hosting next Friday’s (February 20th) TGIFF linky party. I did not realize that this would be right in the midst of everyone going to Austin, Texas to QuiltCon, when I signed up to host. I hope that there will still be someone around to share their latest quilty finishes. Please remember to stop by as I hope to have a fun finish to show you all.
I am linking up with this week’s Crazy Mom Quilts and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday linky parties.
Have a good weekend and Happy Valentine’s Day.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Batik Catawampus :WIP
Hi, Today I am sharing my latest quilt project. In the last two weeks, I have finished off and hand delivered the last two quilts that were to be Christmas gifts. With that task completed, it was of course time to cut out fabric for a new quilt.
I have chosen to make the queen size of Catawampus by Freckled Whimsy. The queen size is supposed to be 100 inches square, so I thought that should actually work as a quilt for our new king size bed. This pattern is set up to use Fat Eighths precuts and the designer has a really neat way about cutting all the needed strips and squares from the fat eighths. I won a Fat eighths set of Color Theory by V & Co. back in December. The designer shows her quilt made from V & Co.’s Simply Color, which is one of my favorite but is basically no longer available. My fat eighths set is of the whole line of fabrics but is not enough to make the queen size. I did multiple calculations and figured those fabrics should make a 90 inch square quilt, since I want larger than that, I will set them aside for another project.
When I first saw the pattern in our local quilt shop, I thought it could look lovely in batiks. So I pulled all of my available batiks and with some careful cutting, I managed to cut all my needed squares and strips. I have had many of these batiks since 2010 and have used them in three quilts now. It is pretty amazing just how far some fat quarters can be stretched (of course I did add a few extras along the way, but not too many.) I am now left with some tiny scraps that may be able to be worked into a string or paper pieced pillow ( like arrows or feathers.)
Here are all my pretties. There ended up being 27 different batik prints.
When I come across a new quilt pattern I like, it is fun and interesting to do an online search of Google Images to see what other quilters have done with the pattern. For Catawampus, I only have come across the designer’s version and one other so far, with the last one being made with a gray solid background and numerous bright prints (not batiks). I have decided to use a light gray with my batiks.
This quilt will certainly not be lacking in fun colors. Gray will help hide the cat hair. Buddy, the Maine Coon seems to be molting quite badly and of course loves to lay on our bed or all my quilt projects.
I hope to be able to get some of the quilt blocks made to show yet this week. I have 6 yards of gray to cut into all the numerous background strips. I have one project I need to start and finish before I can start my quilt sewing. I am making a piped cushion for a bench for my grandsons and their Mom. It’s 12 by 40 inches long and needs to have a zipper placed in it somewhere. The cushion that came with the bench was not to her liking, so I am in charge of creating a custom one to replace it (from cell phone photos and a carpenter’s tape measure). So wish me luck. 🙂 I am off to make 6 yards of bias binding/piping.
I am linking up my new quilting project and it’s fabric pull to various weekly linky parties. Thanks for stopping by.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Boxed In and Out: Quilt Finished
Hi there, I have a Saturday finish to share this week. I have completed my Boxed In and Out quilt that I made in the colors of the Minnesota Vikings football team. It is a gift for friends whose whole family are big Vikings fans.
Here is Boxed In and Out finished, quilted and bound. I quilted diagonally across the blocks. The pattern designer quilted in multiple rows across and diagonal the blocks. I would have liked to have done that as well, but it did not want to line up for me correctly.
This is how I chose to make the backing for this quilt. I thought it looked nice to add the gray to the purple and gold. It shows the quilting nicely. (The wind picked up and I did not photograph the completed back of the quilt.) I used gray thread to quilt the top.
I reallly like the graphic overall look to this quilt. I hope that our friends like it as well. We get to meet up with them this weekend, after not seeing them for 3 months. This will be a housewarming and late Christmas gift rolled up into one.
It has been brought to my attention by one of my blog’s email followers, that they are receiving three messages everytime I post. I do apologize if more of you or if all of you are receiving the same. It’s a service from ReadyGraph and I am not sure how they have the email updates set up. I will ask my other blog admin for help in possibly correcting the matter as soon as we can.
Thanks for stopping by this week. I am linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and other weekend linky parties.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Plus Dash: A Friday Finish
Hi, It is kind of chilly here in Iowa today, but the Sun is shining. Yeah! I just finished binding Plus Dash this morning.
Double Yeah!! I have a Friday Finish to share.
She sure is pretty even against the brown corn stubble.
I forgot I placed the four blue churn dash in a diagonal across the quilt. I really need to get a full length view of the entire quilt in the daylight, so you can see all 20 of the blocks. I think I made the largest version of this quilt from all the pattern testers. Even larger than what the designer, Jan made for her test of the pattern. It is a real fun quilt and lends itself to all kind of fabric combinations.
The back turned out really cool and the color banding really shows off the quilting nicely.
Here is a shot of the candy cane striped binding. I found it in my stash and it captured most of the colors in the quilt. Yes, I know I applied the binding to the wrong side. I choose to do it that way sometimes. It lays nice and flat and gives a true pop of fun color to finish off the quilt. (If it was going to be a show quilt, it would have been applied to the back and handstitched down. )
Here are the lovely Gutermann threads that I quilted my Plus Dash with. I was taught to use good quality thread. I am thankful to have collected a large selection of colors. I now need to purchase white and gray as they have taken a big hit. I live an hour from any store that sells this thread so I need to restock up.
I am very happy with how this quilt turned out. I hope that my friend who will receive it likes it as much.
I will be linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Can I get a Whoop Whoop Friday, TGIFF and a couple other weekend linky parties.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
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
QIP: Plus Dash
Hi, It’s Twentysome days into the New Year, and I am finally getting back to quilting this week. I have basted my Plus Dash quilt top and have the first length wise row completed.
This is a closeup of one of my favorite blocks. I really like this turquoise print. I wish I had more than the fat eighth I started this quilt with. I may have to scour the shelves at JoAnn’s to see if there is any yardage.
It took me quite a bit of time to get the top properly basted with no wrinkles on the bottom. Our two tom cats either wanted to claim the top of the quilt sandwich as their blanket or use the blanketed dining room table as a hideaway fort so they could jump out at each other from hiding and attempt to pull the quilt off the table in the mean time.
For the quilting, I am using my walking foot and quilting a 1/4 inch inside the shape of the churn dash and center plus signs. I have pulled matching colors for the pink, purple, orange, yellow, green and blue churn dashes. Gray of course for the pluses. I am stitching in the gray on each of the plus sashings so there will be a nice boxed framework in the design on the back. I am using gray in the bobbin. I think I waited so long to start quilting this top as I did not know how I wanted to do it. I know I need to learn how to FMQ. I know that I am going to need a different table set up to attempt it properly so I eliminate the heavy drag of the quilt, and it’s effect on the thread tension. I am using a 3.0 stitch to quilt vs. the 2.5 I usually use for normal sewing. This is a Hobbs Heirloom Cotton batt.
I really like how the quilting shows up.
We finally got our King size bed this past weekend. Boy, was that a comical time attempting to get the mattress up the stairs to our second story bedroom. We had the two piece box springs, so there was no problem with that. The mattress would not clear the door trim and got wedged midway up the stairs. So tightly wedged, it would not go up or down. We ended up folding the mattress into a C shape. With lots of pulling and pushing, it finally made it’s way upstairs. Now that it is upstairs, it will not likely go downstairs in one piece, when it wears out. I was told there will likely be a chain saw coming into play. Later, I found some papers that fell off the mattress, that supposedly it is hinged someway or another, to help going upstairs. Just do not bend it further than a 45 degree angle. That would have been nice to know??
It is nice to have a spot to lay out a quilt top in entirety. The mattress is so big that I had to climb back into the closet to get a photo. I can not wait to see this Plus Dash top done. My friend has been having an extra hard time and I am sure could really use a pick me up. This quilt is still a surprise gift to her.
I will be linking up my QIP with various midweek linky parties.
Thanks for stopping by this week to check out my latest quilt projects.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
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