CQG Spiderweb Quilt

We're almost ready to baste -- although I've since changed my mind about one or two things as you'll see as you read.

Summertime means spotty attendance from our local crew, so it's taken us a very long time to get from our piles of strips to a finished top -- but we've made it at last!

Because our initial math was wrong (my fault), we've added borders rather than making approximately 44 more triangles. Initially, the borders were going to be scrappy.

Then just the top and bottom would be scrappy with this on the side. (Isn't it nice!)

Then the top fought and fought laying straight, so I chopped it off and went with borders on 3 sides:

You can see where this is going... another group member is picking off the strip border and we're going to go with the other border all around. So much for all those extra strips, but it's the right thing to do.

I'm looking forward to quilting this -- once we get it basted. I've got a couple of ideas, although I'm not sure it'll fit well through my machine. I'm also tempted to send it out or rent some time at a local shop instead... We'll see.

The Prayer Quilt -- Update

I'm still waiting to receive blocks back -- in fact, I'm fairly certain I will get most of them when I drive to another state for a birthday party (assuming I get the car fixed enough to do just that) -- but I have a whole pile of options ready to go. I've been making blocks like there's no tomorrow.

Honestly, I love foundation paper piecing. It's easy to interrupt. It's usually small. It's quickly rewarding -- at least with the pieces I take on. And now that I've started, I don't want to stop.

 A fox, from my husband to the niece.

 A sloth, from my kid to his cousin.

  A pig, probably from me to the niece.

A snail, not paper pieced, not perfect, but I still really want to include it.

A bird, which I thought was from the kiddo, but he chose the 'bubbles' (which based off pointing, was the sloth). So this one is unclaimed too, but sitting in the pile to see if it is needed to help balance out the top.

A penguin. Also unclaimed. But how cute!!

A semi-pirate-ical looking cat, from my cat to the niece (why not?).

A moose block (needing some hand work still) from one aunt and uncle to the niece.

I'm having a blast. Do they work with the sashing fabric? Ummm... probably not. I think I might have to add a white border around each block before the pink gingham.

Can't wait to get more. Or make more. But I'm trying to make myself work on other things instead.

Update: Turns out, even though no one has contacted me, no one else has finished at all. They are thinking they'll each be finished with their single block in time for me to give this as a Christmas gift. Are they aware that Christmas this year is happening at Thanksgiving? Who knows. But I guess I might as well shelve this one for a while. End of Update

CQG Spiderweb Quilt -- Decision time.

So, my local quilting group has been working together on a little quilt something like this:

I thought we were done making triangles. I promised the group we were.

To be a twin size, it really needs one more row and one more column.

That's about 11 more squares (or 44 triangles).

I thought I could do it myself over the last few weeks, because I'm so tired of hearing about how everyone else is tired of working on these blocks.

I haven't gotten them made. I got parts of them made, but I'm out of white fabric in large enough chunks to make the needed triangles/squares and...

I could add a border around the outside once the rest of the top is completed. It would have to be about 12-15 inches (total, not per side) to get enough total top to actually cover a person in a twin size bed -- which seems like a massive border to me. That said, it would be so much easier, and require no more fabric being purchased.

I have a few pieces of fabric big enough to do some bordering out of -- or I could make a scrappy border out of the precut strips we have left. Or some of both.

It would look better with another set of stars, but I'm with the rest of the group, I'm done with this.

I don't have to rationalize my decision, but it's also too hot to work on it at my house (it's over 90 outside, and I'm not sure it is any cooler inside -- so turning on my iron for an hour is the last thing I want to do).

I think our next group project ought to be one where we each make 1-2 big blocks and then are done.

Confetti and Blogging Behind

I'm fighting to get things onto the blog these days. Not only because my progress tends to happen one block per day or slower, but it's taking me multiple days to get the pictures from my phone to my computer (and for whatever reason, I can't blog from my phone). That's making Instagram (my latest social media join, what can I say, I'm slow to take on new things) the easier place to update. I'm not giving up on here -- I like being able to type so much, more for journal reasons than anything else -- but I'm afraid it is increasingly behind.

Here's an attempt at catching up:

I've been working on this for a few months, one and off as I'd like. Mostly not working on it. But I pulled it out again recently and thought I would get it working again. I started building blocks and thought I was happy with it.

Until I tried it on a design wall.

Not quite what I wanted at all. Interesting how the change in lighting -- and surface background -- can change how things look and feel.

I sat on it for a couple days, debating solutions and taking opinions. Most opinions suggested adding a darker border between the existing blocks. My gut said I needed to chop up the existing blocks -- that each pop of color was too big.

I took a two prong approach to solving my problem: I chopped them up and added some low volume borders -- low volume that is more 'medium' compared to the white and white-on-white I'd been using thus far.

It's hard to see the majority of the low volume additions, but I promise they are there -- and that it has made a huge difference.  Not quite every block got an addition, and some got 2 or 3, which makes it easier to begin thinking about turning my newly-small blocks back into bigger blocks.

The boldest low-volume additions include gold metalics, and two of them additions are more 'cream,' but my favorite ones are white with cream -- although they are significantly harder to see in these pictures.

I'm debating whether this will be a wall hanging in the kiddo's room, or whether it will hang on my design wall area when nothing else is. I think by the time it is put together, it will be too small for a baby quilt. I do have more low volume whites and white fabrics, so I could add a little bit of a border around the outside if it's close to baby quilt sized by the time I'm done.

Truthfully, I'm just playing, and enjoying the break from using my brain too much. Even if that sometimes leads to me needing to use my brain more. I've got a lot of work ahead of me to begin piecing these little blocks into larger and larger blocks, but that's the kind of work I love.

Welcome Baby Bridesmaid!

I told myself that this would be a small package, but truthfully, as always, it grew beyond what I was planning on.

Of course I included a quilt:

A hooded towel and coordinating bib. ( And can I gush for a moment about how perfectly these stash-pulled Ardently Austen charms worked with the coral-pink towel! Memory says this charm pack was a daily special purchase, something I picked up just because it was very on sale.)

Only three little outfits -- which shows great restraint.

Un-pictured, there are also a few toys, a book, and a couple of 'wish I'd had these' kind of additions. The big box ought to arrive this week -- and the little girl ought to arrive in about 9 more weeks.

I can't wait to see my friend as a parent. She's going to be great!

Quilt 32: For the Bridesmaid's Baby

I'm the very first to admit that this quilt has not turned out like I planned. The moment I heard she was expecting, I had visions of flying geese in a scrappy low volume background. I was certain it would be fairly do-able. I was... not right. Flying geese triangles aren't the easiest for me. They are do-able, but not in the amount of time I had to do it.

So, after a total rethink of the project -- after buying fabric -- I wound up with a split rail inspired top, and a very happy baby quilt.

This came together so, so quickly, but the result? I absolutely love.

Sharp eyes will catch the spot where the binding didn't quite catch the top. I've since fixed it. Yet another reason why washing and taking photos -- and processing them -- are part of the 'pre-finish' action. Sometimes I see things in the photos that I completely missed when I check every edge in person!

Have I ever been the kind of quilter to talk about texture? Because I am now. This quilt looks so ready to snuggle now that it's wrinkled up a bit more! I love it. Quilting around those pop blocks was a challenge -- nothing I'd do on a domestic machine with a larger quilt, but the result was exactly what I wanted. I'm so glad I pushed on through it.

I felt like I was taking a little bit of a risk with this amazing Cotton + Steel Wonderland backing, but with the addition of red binding, it's a perfect finish. The fabric is incredibly fun to look at, and I love the extra touch the little bit of gold gives it. Fun without being particularly 'nursery' looking.

 I'm just in love. I hope the new mom and her little one will like it half as much as I do.

The finished size is just about 40 inches square, which I think is a perfect size for those newborn months.

Now, to put a snap in a bib, take a photo of the whole package put together, and get it in the mail asap! I'm so excited to get to 'meet' this baby when she arrives. And more excited for my friend to get to be a parent (it is so not for everyone, it's hard, but it is also so much fun -- I could gush about my kid for an hour solid if I get started).

CQG Spider Web Quilt -- Day 5 and 6

Day 5:
I know we had some people feeling a little disheartened over how long we've been working on this quilt.

Except, I think this was only our 5th or 6th day of working on it, and at 2-ish hours a meeting, we're actually doing really well. Especially when one of those meetings was only 2 people, and almost everyone is making summer vacation plans to miss other dates before it's finished.

I have enough triangles cut to make one or two more rows of blocks. If I have enough for 2 additional rows, we'll have an extra long twin. (The goal was a full, but I think morale is low enough we'll call it good at a twin...) If I only have enough for one row, I think I'll finish it out with some strip pieces for a header or footer. I'm tempted to border it out all the way around to get a full, but I have enough on my plate I'm not sure that's the wisest course of action.

Truthfully, we are making good progress -- just everyone is tired of it.

I think our next project might need to be something really fast. Maybe disappearing nine-patch blocks in large sizes, or a large paper piece pattern?

It is tiring to work on the same thing twice a month for four months...


Day 6:

In theory, we are done with triangles.

In practice, I think it needs more.

What we have now will cover the top of a twin mattress -- but there's no wrapability in it. That's not what we want.

I can (and probably will) add some borders from the strips we over-cut. But I'm thinking another row and another column of triangle blocks would be nice. That's... a lot to take on by myself in the next couple weeks, but I think it's the right thing to do.

I'm sure the rest of the group would pitch in if I asked, but I'm also sure they'd rather work on piecing the rest of the top.

Basting and Beginning

Despite my whining, I've made progress. In fact, in the length of one nap (thanks Mom!), I managed to baste the quilt and begin quilting it. Hardly worth all the time I spent blowing it off!

It basted quickly -- and I had a good distraction.

If you can't see, it's the new Beauty and the Beast movie -- which I finally managed to watch. I'll keep my opinions there to myself, but it was a good distraction while I was pinning and quilting.

I love the fabric I'm using as the back - Wonderland, Cotton + Steel - and it really shows what I'm doing with the quilting. Wrestling this quilt through the machine has been a frustration, despite it being such a small quilt, but I'm more than halfway done, so I think I can survive the frustration to get the outcome I want.

The Standstill...

Well, first up, the good news.

I made another paper pieced block using a little more orange. I'm not in love with it, but it is a nice one to have on hand in case I need an additional block.

Bluebird pattern by Liljabs via Craftsy

It's a little odd where the head and neck attach; I didn't catch the way it misaligned in time to easily fix it, and I'm not going back now. The 'missing' background piece is there, but mostly hidden in the seam allowance. I thought I put it on properly, but obviously there was an issue. I had removed it once and "fixed" it after an earlier error there (brown instead of background!) so I know this is user error rather than pattern error.

I'd been watching and waiting for another pattern to go up for sale on Craftsy, so I pounced and thought I'd whip it out as my 'last block' before I made myself sit down and baste that other quilt!

This is where it starts being the bad news part.

Firstly, pop over and take a look at what The Cat's Meow pattern should / could look like.

Do not rely on my pictures, because I've made mistake after mistake -- and several changes. I do not recommend doing any of what I've done.

Okay, did you look at it? Such a cool pattern, right!? I love it.

Well, of course I need a smaller block than this finishes at... so I printed it at a 75% scale. Not a great choice. It's not impossible, but not ideal.

I adore that Kate (the pattern maker) included a 'coloring' page that helps plot out what your cat will look like. It was a fun way to begin, and a good way to start planning.

Unfortunately, I really wanted to work with scrap fabrics instead of pulling things from a pile someone else curated. You know, because occasionally I like to challenge myself to take on my weaknesses. This was probably not a good project for me to take on that challenge. It was certainly not a good 'pull' of fabrics.

Here's the first half of the cat and my coloring page:

You might have already noticed my issue. I didn't.

Okay, there are a number of issues -- namely my poor choices of background fabrics and the lack of contrast between the background and the ear fabric -- but the big one is staring right at us. And I missed it. For about a week.

And here's about where I realized my issue. I made the first eye completely wrong! I inverted some of the colors, giving the cat a blue/green pupil in a black eye and black patch, rather than a black pupil, blue/green eye, and black patch! Ooooh, I was so furious with myself for not realizing it.

After properly finishing up the second half of the cat, I started pulling apart the first half to get back to the first eye. I must fix it.

I've only got a little more ripping to do, part of the seam between the orange patch and the eye, then disconnecting the eye from the remainder of the black (streaky) patch. I'll then re-do both the eye (one section) and the tiny black and white section nearest to it -- not because there's an issue with the second section, but because I don't think I can remove it in a salvageable piece. Also, I'd rather remake than continue to seam rip... Honestly, I very nearly just remade the entire first half rather than pick it all apart. But, I'm hopeful I can get this apart, fixed, and back together.

I just don't want to pick again.

But if I'm not picking, I'd better be basting.

Uuuuugh.

Thus, the standstill.

The Prayer Quilt (2)

I've hardly heard from anyone else who is working on this quilt, but I hope they're having as much fun coming up with things as I've been having!

In fact, I've been enjoying myself so much I'm having a very hard time feeling like I should stop -- though obviously if I keep going, some of the blocks will not be used for her quilt.

After my happy little fox and sloth blocks, I turned my attention in a different direction:

I've been watching these adorable snails pop up in my Instagram feed for ages -- and as soon as I saw this adorable pink fabric, I knew I wanted to make a snail with it.

Because I had to shrink the pattern slightly to make it fit in my requirements (and then it looks like I had room after all, as you'll see in a moment), my little snail wound up a little bit... wonkier than intended. But still cute!

The tail seems out of proportion with what I've seen on other snails, but I checked and double checked my pattern and it says I did it right... I wish the itty bitty triangle on the head had turned out the same size as the other (it should have, it was when I started) but I'm not undoing any of it. I say 'she' is cute and I'm good with it.

But yeah, look at that border I added at the tail end, I think I could have not shrunk any measurements and wound up okay.

After that, it was back to foundation paper piecing. And another block that turned out adorable, but was a pain to get there!

I'm the first to say, it's adorable. I love it, I really do. But I did not think I was going to make it through this pattern. If it had been a free pattern, I would have quit before I finished the second unit. But, I pushed through and I'm glad I did. The hardest part was deciding whether I wanted to use the floral pattern fabric for the body or the ears. She was initially going to be dots all over, but I learned with the fox that the dots are far enough apart they don't always show up, and I had two votes for the patterned body. They were right.

Again, since I shrunk the pattern to ensure all of the animal would fit in the block, I had to add a little bit of a border.

Much of this border will be lost when I add the sash, but I'm loving the way it really pops. And I will have some room to add a name or other message if I choose to do so. I've still got to figure out a way to do that...

So, here are my four blocks (so far) together.

I'm thinking the fox looks lonely in orange, so I might make another with more orange/red tones to see if that should swap in for one of them (unfortunately, probably the snail). I might also just wait until I see what everyone else has done. And I might just keep picking away at free patterns until I have dozens of these blocks and make something for myself! (Or my kid!)

I'm having a blast. And it lets me ignore basting on that other quilt shown above... even though I really need to swap back to it tomorrow. I've got the back made and I think I know how I'm quilting (just need to decide on soft gray thread vs barely pink). And then baste it. Ugh.

The Prayer Quilt

In the past, a friend of my husband's family has been in charge of making a 'prayer quilt' for each baby born into the family. For whatever reason, this time it's fallen to me. And she's not a baby anymore, she's nearly 2! And I have no idea what I'm doing. But we're going to make it work anyway.

So, family members are asked to make blocks -- using quilting, fabric markers, fabric paint, or whatever washable medium they want to use -- and the leader collects the blocks, sashes them, and makes a small quilt.

Because I don't know how many people are participating -- only how many people I invited -- and I don't know how many blocks people are making -- only how many I sent out -- I'm choosing to make one per person in my little family -- and probably one extra from the cat.

We'll see when I begin getting blocks back whether I need to make more or not.

(There's no size requirement on the quilt, but I do need it to fit in a grid nicely, and some numbers are easier for that than others.)

Here are the fabric bundles I purchased for my blocks (and some yardage that might be binding). Although I know the sash will be pink gingham (to coordinate with big brother and dad's quilts), I told people to use whatever colors they want. I mean it, and I'm leading by example!

My husband requested a fox, and thanks to a free pattern, I was able to accommodate! The fox finished around 6.75 inches -- and I needed 8. So I added a border, which I hope to use to include the name of the giver. I found the pattern on craftsy (link goes directly to the pattern).

My toddler didn't exactly choose an animal -- but I offered him a choice of the patterns I'd collected and this sloth was the winner. I did have to shrink the pattern to about 75% scale to ensure the sloth would fit in the block. I'll probably have to border it out with excess background materials to get an 8 inch block, but that shouldn't be an issue. Working at 75% gives me some painfully tiny pieces, but I'm almost finished with tiny pieces... just the claws left that will be itty bitty... I might simplify that into 1 piece rather than 3 each hand like I want to do, simply for the size I'm working in...

Okay, how seriously adorable is that!?

Doing a few blocks like this is appealing to my 'start but don't finish' nature. Maybe the next time I have room for a new project, I should work on something like this... just pick away at blocks until I have enough to make something... It could take years. But it's nice to feel like I've accomplished something so cute is such a short amount of time!

Progress Update May 2017

Our Bedroom Quilts (2) -- No recent work

Recent Progress: Top 1 is finished, Top 2 is finished
Yet to do: Make 1 back, baste, quilt, bind,

Half-Square Triangle Quilts (Muted/Brown)

Recent Progress: Test layout made, now to actually sew together


Selfish Sewing: Raspberry Kisses Blocks -- No recent work

Recent Progress: began cutting
Yet to Do: um... let's talk about that later...

Quilted Sleeping Bag

Recent Progress:
Yet to Do: baste

(Inherited) Scrappy Crow Quilt

Recent Progress: top finished, scrappy back made, binding made
Yet to Do: baste, quilt, bind,

(Inherited) Dresden Plate Quilt

Recent Progress: Partial sash success, partial sash failure...
Yet to Do: Fix sash issue

CGQ Dresden Plate Quilt (Jan 2017 - top complete March 2017)

Recent Progress: Basted
Yet to Do: It's off to be quilted by another group member, I'll see it again when it's ready for binding.

CQG Spiderweb Quilt (April 2017 - )

Recent Progress: Slowly but surely making progress. This one requires more strips than I planned on... we might need more fabric!

The Prayer Quilt (Jan 2017 - ) 

Recent Progress: mailed out blocks -- anticipating a slow trickle back between now and mid-July.
Yet to do: wait

Ombre Jelly Roll Quilt (Nov 2016 - )

Recent Progress: Reassembling blocks.

Scrap Blast (Dec 31 2016 - ) 

I'm not going to track this one. It's just for fun.

Bridesmaid's Baby Quilt

Recent Progress: top completed, ready for basting!

Tall Tales Blocks

Recent Progress: slowly making blocks. No plan yet... other than using up a chunk of my Wee Wander fabric.



Waiting to Start:

• Possibly: confetti quilt 
•