quilting misc.

this is my roman square block. now all of the blocks are complete and ready to go. 

and a preview of things to come...

friday workday

madison house

with christmas break, we haven't had friday workday in a while. my mom and trish came down today and we did the madison house square and it came together pretty easily.

i have one more square to make - roman squares. it will be easy and i just need to do it on my own. i'll post a picture as soon as i'm done. we did some preliminary layouts today to see how we wanted to put the whole thing together and unanimously decided that we definitely need to put sashing between the squares. so, next time we are going to go to the fabric store together and pick out some sashing. after that, we'll be on our way to putting the whole quilt top together.

christmas quilt for kyle and kim's family

as a christmas present for kyle and kim's family this year, i decided to make them a quilt. they are an on-the-go family, so i made a utilitarian picnic quilt for them that they can throw in the back of the car and use wherever. i actually finished it in october and had a hard time keeping it a secret for over two months.

front of the quilt

back of the quilt

 when i quilted the quilt, i decided to stitch the letters p-e-c-k into one of the rows to personalize the quilt a little bit more. don't look too close:

i really like how the quilt turned out and love how the fabric came together. i warned kyle and kim that if they don't use it, i will come and take it away. and having it labeled with peck won't be a problem.

this was a big undertaking for a christmas gift and i'm glad that i got it done early, but don't think i will be doing it again any time soon. and certainly not two in one year.

friday workday

le moynes star

 we learned the y-seam this week and made the le moynes star square and spools. i love the le moynes star, but probably because it features my red fabric. i'm a sucker for red.

spools

the spools turned out well too. after all of my polling, i ended up going with a completely different option that my mom suggested and i think that it looks the most like spools.

only two more squares to make and then we are on to putting the quilt together. next time we are doing madison house and then on the side, we will also be making a roman squares square. that is an easy filler one that we already know the skills for. i can't wait to see it all together.

spools

1

2

which is better, 1 or 2?

friday workday

pinwheels

since last friday workday, i finished my pinwheels block. we had already learned the skills for it, so my mom and trish just gave us instructions and told us to put them together on our own. done.

drunkard's path

this was the week for drunkard's path. my mom loves this square. it's pretty, but i don't know if it was worth the hassle of putting it together. i don't like sewing on curved lines. it didn't get better as i went, either. in fact, i would say it probably got worse and worse. this was the week of the seam ripper. i can't tell you how many seams i had to take out and redo. i'm pretty happy with the result, but the square is a little warped when you see it in person. not great. but i'm not taking out another seam. 

kaleidoscope before

we also did our kaleidoscope square. i liked this much better and am really happy with how everything came out. that is not to say that i didn't have problems during the process though.

despite trish's specific warnings and my confidence that i wouldn't make such a mistake, i sewed the corners to the wrong fabrics on two of the squares (see before picture. did you catch it on your own?). i didn't even notice until i went to take a picture, and even then, only barely noticed it after the fact.

more seam ripping.

kaleidoscope after

but, i finally got everything in the right place and finished them up. waiting to put them together until i lay out the whole quilt.

we are marching along and almost done. next time, we are learning the "y-seam" with spools and le moynes star. only two more after that.

friday workday

sawtooth star

 beth had to go to work unexpectedly this friday, so i was the only student for friday workday this week. beth was sorely missed, but now i will have a chance to reinforce the lesson by teaching it to her.

wild goose chase

we learned the technique of the double half square triangle with the sawtooth star and wild goose chase squares. this is actually something i had already had exposure to with another quilt that i am working on, so it wasn't too hard. once again, i'm happy with how they turned out.

we have a heavy homework load coming up. next time: pinwheels, drunkards path, and kaleidoscope.

thursday workday

bear claw

 due to some scheduling problems, we moved our workday to thursday this week. we learned to do half square triangles (although i had already used this technique in my pink lemonade quilt) and pieced our bear claw square. i love how mine came together. i went with the traditional browns for it instead of incorporating my focus fabric, but i'm glad i did. especially because i tend to neglect my light brown fabric if i have to leave a fabric out of a square design.

t block

 we didn't have time to piece the t block squares during our workday, but i finished them yesterday. we are leaving them separate until we know how we are putting the final quilt together. the t block isn't my favorite quilting square, but it is fun that the negative space makes its own t block.

overall, another successful workday. next time: wild goose chase and sawtooth star.

friday workday

postage stamp baskets

i didn't post about my last friday workday because we spent the whole time learning applique and didn't have any new squares to show for it. but today, we put the postage stamp basket squares together (the handles are the applique part), as well as doing our ocean wave squares.

we didn't sew all four of the baskets together (although i started to and had to take them apart) because we're still not sure how we're going to put the whole thing together in the end and don't know if they'll be together or separate. the pins are little reminders to myself.

ocean waves

we actually didn't get to sewing the ocean waves block together during our workday either (sometimes we get distracted by things like shirley's orange rolls, changing diapers, getting snacks for hungry two year olds, and taking children to go potty, among many other things), but my girls took a nap immediately after my mom and trish left and i took advantage of the rare opportunity i had to sew while both girls slept at the same time. i'm happy with how both of these came out.

next time: bear paw and t-blocks.

friday workday

my finished squares. hard to see the brown against the background (see picture below), but i like the light for the fabric better.

my mom and trish came down again yesterday for our second friday workday. beth and i had completed our homework and it was time to put some squares together.

finished work against a better background

i am really happy with how my squares are coming and fall more in love with my fabrics every time i pull them out and work with them. that's a good thing. trish and my mom are patient teachers and even better, were extremely helpful with a fussy diane while i was trying to get things done.

fence rail square

we started with our fence rail square. we had already sewn the strips together and learned how to measure and cut when dealing with multiple strips like this. then, we laid it out and sewed the square together.

log cabin

i love the log cabin square and have been itching to make an entire log cabin quilt. perhaps my next project... we cut our strips to length and then sewed the square together. we learned the log cabin trick from my mom. this is what we are paying the big bucks for.

nine patch

last, we sewed our nine patch squares. we aren't sewing them together yet, because we're not sure if they'll be together or separate in the quilt, but they are all ready to go.

if you made it to the end of this post, you must be a quilter.

friday workday

my mom has had wednesday workday for years - a day each week to quilt with her friend, trish. it has actually been on thursday for the past several years, but i still think of it as wednesday workday. the alliteration is nice.

a couple of months ago, when my sister, beth, and i were talking about maybe taking a quilt class together, trish and my mom came up with the much better idea of them teaching us to quilt instead. they are very experienced quilters, have learned a lot through the years, are great company, and volunteered to come to us, so of course, we took them up on the offer. friday was the best day for all of us to do it together and so, every other friday, we will be having our own friday workday.

the fabric i picked out for my sampler

we are going to be making a sampler quilt with them, one that allows us to learn several different quilting skills, depending on the square. about a month ago, we all went and picked out fabric together. this is quite the process for me (an oddity, given my generally decisive nature) and i finally came up with a group of fabrics that i really like. the fabric pictured at the beginning of the post is my focus fabric for the quilt.

cutting some strips of fabric

yesterday was our first workday. trish and my mom gave us tips on how to iron and press fabric (yes, they are two different things), showed us the ropes on cutting fabric, and then we calibrated our sewing with the machines we will be using to make sure that we are sewing a 1/4" seam. we also did a lot of chatting. we're good at that.

my fellow student

after our lesson, my mom pulled out a notebook and gave us our homework assignment: cutting out fabric for three squares (fence rail, log cabin, and nine patch) and sewing one of them. it's like i'm in school again. but much more fun.

i'll keep you updated on my school work.

my first quilt

well, sort of. i actually finished randy's christmas quilt before this one, but this is the first one that i started. my mom bought the fabric for me for my birthday last year and i just finished it this last weekend. such is quilting with small children.

as with all of my crafting projects, this quilt has a little character, but i am really happy with how it turned out in general. most of the character comes from the fact that none of us realized that i was quilting without the walking foot on the sewing machine until about 80% of the way through the quilt.

when i was picking out the fabric, i was pregnant (read: incredibly indecisive). i was not sure how it would all come together, but i really love it. i have seen this quilt pattern made with several different fabric combinations and i am surprised at how different they all feel. i have to say, i think i like mine the best so far. could be that i picked out the fabric.

an unobstructed view.

i have to say, i think that it goes pretty well with my parents rocker. it seems a shame for them to be apart. don't you think, mom and dad?