Category: Piecing in progress

March’s precut

~ Mary ~ 8 Comments

EDIT – Stephanie corrected me … March’s precut doesn’t have to be in a bundle! I guess I saw fat quarters and moved right to my project using a bundle of them!

Loose FQs, big chunks, 1/8s, fabric club stuff, all is fair game for March.

I know it’s not March yet but my schedule is very hectic over the next few months so I’m working when I can … rather than starting a new project that won’t get finished before the end of the month, I’m starting my fat quarter quilt now … technically I shouldn’t even be piecing because I have unpacking and laundry to do, still lots of work on the taxes, and another trip on Thursday but since we came home early from St Martin, this counts as a free day to me! So I’m spending some quality time with Finn and doing a little sewing.

I wanted to use one of my dies along with the fat quarters so I chose my chisel die, I haven’t used it in quite a while so I paired it with the 3 inch finished HST die and started piecing. I wanted to put a few blocks up on the wall before deciding if I was going to mix up the fabrics in each block or stick with one … I’ve decided to go with just one fabric plus the background in each block … I’ll use 10 or 11 fat quarters for this quilt.

Off my needles

~ Mary ~ 4 Comments

Another Ross Beanie is done and tucked away in the box to be donated. I’m not sure how many I’ll make before sending them off but I think there are 7 in there now. These are sized for men so they’re a little big on Hat Head.

I also made orange Rainbow String blocks. I didn’t have many strips/strings in orange so I cut some from scraps and fat quarters … I had enough for 10 blocks. Again, my plan for these is to make some blocks in each color and then I’ll make a Rainbow HeartStrings quilt myself and donate the leftover squares for our September project in Maine so I don’t need a specific number of each color block. So far I’ve got green, purple, and orange done.

Purple

~ Mary ~ 5 Comments

I didn’t have much time in the sewing room today. I think I mentioned that I joined the board for our association last fall and Florida has regulations about board certification training so while I did an online class right after being elected that met the requirement, I was invited to a class by one of the other board members. I found it helpful although after just a few months I’m wondering why I agreed to be on the board!

I did work a bit and pulled my purple strings and then added some additional strips I cut from scraps for more variety.

I used to keep my strings separated by color in bins but I don’t have enough space for that so now I keep two bins with strings … one with my duller fabrics and then one with the brighter ones for kids quilts. Luckily, a lot of the strings are still in clumps of colors from the last time I did the rainbow blocks so it doesn’t take too long to grab them.

Just 4 blocks were made after the sorting and cutting but now I’m set up to do more over the next few days.

Dumb, dumb, dumb!

~ Mary ~ 18 Comments

I’ve been quilting for almost 20 years and have never cut myself with the rotary cutter until today. I was distracted and the blade jumped up over my ruler edge and cut into my finger. It’s deep but not too long thanks to my fingernail stopping it. As long as I keep bandaids wrapped tightly the bleeding stops but I had to loosen them a couple times to let the fingertip get a little circulation and it bled like crazy both times. I’m going to give it a day or two and hope that I don’t have to go have it looked at.

I had Keith run to the drug store for bandages and finger cots so I can sew without worrying about bleeding through and getting blood on anything and decided that Rainbow String blocks would be the perfect thing to work on … it’s my index finger so I’m going to be slow and clumsy for a while I think. I pulled some greens for the first group of blocks cutting some extra strips from scraps for some variety.

I love this rotating mat for trimming the blocks. Trim on two sides, swing the mat around and cut the other two sides without having to lift the ruler.

I got 16 blocks made and found a leftover one from the last time I’d made these so I have 17 green blocks. I do use multi colored fabrics in these as long as the background is the same color I’m working with.

In case you don’t remember seeing the Rainbow HeartStrings quilts, this is where I’m going with these. I’ll make one or two quilts myself and the extra blocks will go to Maine in September to be joined with other blocks into tops that we’ll assemble and tie for donation. I haven’t decided whether to make the smaller or larger version or one of each. If you’re interested in making your own Rainbow HeartStrings blocks I have some brief instructions on my website.

After I finished with the green blocks, I cut the rest of my bolt of muslin into foundations for the blocks. I’m not making any set amount, I’ll just sew one color until I’m ready to move on to another. I need to start looking for a Joann’s 50% off coupon to buy another bolt of muslin but I’ve got plenty to get me started.

Quilted

~ Mary ~ 5 Comments

I love it when I get more accomplished than planned in a day. I intended to load this one today and quilt it tomorrow but I got it loaded and quilted this evening. I’m pretty sure this 16 patch was pieced by Jackie – it’s #3 of 6 I brought home from the Maine sew-in to quilt and finish. The goal is to get all 6 quilted this month.

Pantograph is call Mermaid Fingers by Apricot Moon designs. It’s the first time I’ve used this one and it’s kind of an elongated, teardrop shaped meandering.

I also managed to make a lot of progress on the Map quilt last night and I did another row of blocks today. Just two more rows to go.

2020 Precut Party

~ Mary ~ 7 Comments

We decided we’d play with precuts again this year. Here’s the list and Stephanie will pull one out of the hat each month. There’s always the option to just choose whatever precut you’d like to work on too.
1) FQs
2) Layer Cakes
3) Jelly Rolls
4) Charm Squares
5) Triangles
6) Panels
7) Kits
8) Bundles
9) Shapes
10) Scraps
11) Skinnies/Strings
12) Blocks/Orphans

January’s precut is bundles and I had leftover fat quarters from the Hunter Star quilt that Mom and I pieced that I wanted to use up so I cut a bunch of tumblers. Add in some fabric from stash and I’m ready to toss them up on the design wall. I could be more random but there are a lot of repeats and I want to make sure I distribute them throughout the quilt.

It’s going to be busy but I love busy scrap quilts.

I sewed a little

~ Mary ~ 11 Comments

I didn’t feel up to much after a difficult night but I did manage to sew a little while. The light/dark HeartStrings blocks are all sewn into rows. Normally I sew these into larger 4 block sections first but it just seemed easier to work on one row at a time tonight.

I also started another hat – Chris wanted me to make him a couple more and since he’s coming back for the children’s Gasparilla parade in a couple weeks I thought I’d get started on the second one.