Friday, December 30, 2011

In This Corner...

4, 3, 2, 1, 0...


I decided to start with the hardest corner piece first. It wasn't really all that hard, just very time-consuming. But that's to be expected when it has 74 pieces (76 if you add the two adjoining dark triangles on the top and right.

"This is BLC (Bottom Left Corner), Goshen", an advanced-level corner kite piece that I paper pieced. This is where I rant about the software -- when I tried to print a paper-piecing pattern for this kite, the software said that "this applique block cannot be paper pieced". That's absurd...this block is not appliqued and a pattern can easily be made to paper piece it. So that's what I did. I paid good money for the software and it has bugs like this? And they haven't provided patches for downloading?

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Last @#$%^ Triangle!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0...


Finally, the last of the 52 triangles!

This is "LS8, Northern Lights", an intermediate-level triangle for which I used the raw-edge machine-buttonhole stitch method of applique.

Now to deal with the four corner kite-shaped pieces...Stay tuned...It may take me a while...One of them has  74 (!) pieces!!!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Getting Down to the Wire

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0...


This is "LS4, Virginia's Kite", an advanced-level triangle which I paper pieced and also used the raw-edge machine-buttonhole stitch method of applique.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Going and Going...

7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0...


This is "LS1, Nancee's Fantasy", an advanced-level triangle. The main part of it (on the right of the above photo) is sewn on using the raw-edge machine-buttonhole stitch method of applique and the parts seen on the left side of the photo were paper pieced. The dark red fabric for the applique was cut out as one single piece of fabric as explained in this post here.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Countdown Continues

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0...


My Christmas present to me was time -- time to work on another triangle. This one is "LS5, Olympic Torch", an advanced-level triangle which I mostly paper pieced except for that little half-circle. It's sewn on using the raw-edge machine-buttonhole stitch method of applique.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

A Little Early


Since I'm not sure if I'll be blogging in the next several days, I want to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and I hope the spirit of Christmas lives in all of us through 2012 and beyond!

Happy Festivus to all!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Finished!


Check out my group blog, Random Acts of Stitching, for the info on all these great quilts!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Ugly Duckling No More

Remember these awful fabrics that I blogged about here...


Well, I turned them into this...


This was the result of the first challenge presented by my mean girlfriends art quilters' group. Click on the link at the beginning of my post to read about the challenge.

Earlier this week, the group got together to reveal our projects (I'll show a photo of all of them in another post next week). What you see today is my finished piece -- it's about 13" x 16".

The fabrics that I was given sat in my quilting studio for weeks before I figured out what to do with them. Everyone said they were Civil War-style fabrics, but they reminded me of colonial/revolutionary times more than Civil War. The fabric with the cherries made me think of George Washington (the fabled cherry-tree story), which then made me think of making a quilt with a tree or cherries or something, but nothing really thrilled me. Nothing was inspiring me.

That is, until a friend of mine gave me a quilt top to machine quilt for her. It hung on my design wall for a day or so while I figured out how to quilt it. It was a Gee's Bend-style quilt, with the usual improvisational piecing. As I was deciding on a quilting pattern for my friend's quilt, something hit me and told me to make my challenge quilt in a Gee's Bend style. So I quickly started cutting and sewing and before I knew it, I had a piece that I actually liked (even though I can't stand the fabrics by themselves).

I added the white fabric and the striped binding fabric. The cherry fabric is on the back. The piecing is all improvisational and the quilting was done to mimic hand quilting (my Bernina has a "hand-quilting" stitch). While I was researching Gee's Bend quilts, I read a description of the quilting that was something like this -- "Somewhat parallel lines, random distances apart". So that's what I did. And I love the result!

Unfortunately, my friend's quilt is still on my frame....

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Modern BOM Block 5


This is my version of block #5 of the Modern Block of the Month Sew-Along on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog. As I've said before, I'm making these blocks using leftover fabrics from my son's high school graduation/going-off-to-college quilt. If you're new to my blog, you can see his quilt here.

To see my first four blocks in this series, click on the "SMS BOM" label on my blog sidebar.


Monday, December 12, 2011

Still Working Toward the Goal

9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0...



This is "LS-12, Button Hook", an intermediate-level triangle that I mostly paper-pieced and then added the two diamond shapes using the raw-edge machine-buttonhole stitch method of applique. The one piece of background fabric that looks different from the others bothers me a bit (it is the same fabric, just has a bit more color to it), but not enough for me to re-do the triangle...

Onward....

Friday, December 9, 2011

The Final Countdown Has Begun

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0...


This is "LS10, Megan's Cathedral", an intermediate-level triangle that I paper pieced.

Now we're down to 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0... (5 triangles and 4 corner kites).

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Not So Mean After All?


One week from today, this project will be revealed to my mean girlfriends art quilters' group. Although I hate the fabrics (see my post here), I am really enjoying the process of making my quilt. When it's done, I probably won't be able to say that I love the finished piece, but I think I can probably safely say that I like it!

Monday, December 5, 2011

No Waste Quilting (continued)

Some of the scraps shown in my previous post were sewn together to make new crumb fabric like this...


And then I used my GO cutter to cut out some crumb tumbler blocks from this new fabric...


So far, I've made 11 of these tumbler blocks...still have some scraps left, but this project will be put aside while I concentrate on a few other things that have deadlines. Maybe after the new year I'll figure out what to do with these.

Oh, and the pile of really small scraps that was on the left side of Friday's photo went into a bag that I will give to a fellow guild member who makes animal beds for the local animal shelter. The slivers of fabric and batting that most quilters throw away are used by her as stuffing for the beds.

Voila -- no waste quilting!

Friday, December 2, 2011

No Waste Quilting

I had these scraps left over after I made the tumbler quilt I blogged about last week...


 I cut them up into two piles....small scraps and even smaller scraps...


Believe it or not, none of this will go into the trash...Stay tuned...