January Round-up

So ends the first complete month of my blog, and I thought I would take a look at what I've achieved this month.  When I think about what I have done it doesn't seem very much.  I have spent a lot of time looking after my aged dad who hasn't been too well this month.  Taking him to hospital and doctor's appointments have eaten into my time, as well as the extra shopping trips for him, and let's not forget shovelling snow, and just keeping him company.  He's 88 and is generally quite active, and likes to get out and about, but his jaunts have been curtailed this month and it makes him grumpy.  Still, he seems to be on the mend now so should be a bit happier.

Let's see what I've done then.

1. Doves in the Window mini quilt (blogged here)
2. Little Red Schoolhouses mini quilt (blogged here)
3. 7 blocks for the 2012 Crafsty BOM (blogged here and here and here)
4. 14 Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks (blogged, here, here, here and below)
5. 5 blocks for the combined 2013 BOMs (blogged here, here, here, here and below)

In the last couple of days I've made a couple of Scrappy Trips, bringing my total up to 14, so only another 10 to go.  Here's what they look like so far.

I saw this block on Dizzy Quilts blog.  It's designed by Bonnie and Camille for the FQS Mystery BOM. and is called Lime Sherbert.  I copied it onto squared paper and made it in my combined BOM colours.

Here are the 5 blocks I've made for this quilt so far.  I'm rather liking how they look.  So glad I added the red to the Chambray Rose fabrics.

So, two completed mini quilts and 26 blocks for three different quilts.  Not so bad after all.

I haven't started any of the blocks for the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt so I hope to make a start on them in February.

Linking up with Lily's Quilts.

Grandmother's Favourite

This block is by Lynne Harris of The Little Red Hen for the Bee Block Blog Hop by Daisy Janie and is called Grandmother's Favourite.

I wasn't too sure if I wanted to make this block when I saw the instructions as it uses lots of triangles joined together.  I've made Half Square Triangles using the method whereby you sew two squares together 1/4" on either side of the diagonal and then cut it in half to make two HSTs, but not cutting separate triangles first and then joining them.  I've read that it is difficult this way because you are joining pieces on the bias and it is easy to stretch and distort them, but I've also read that using spray starch to stabilise the fabric first helps.  So I starched my fabrics back and front, several times, before cutting them and I'm pleased to say they behaved themselves perfectly.  No stretching of the bias and no distorting.  In fact, I think it is one of the best finishes of a pieced block I've done so far.  The seams nested perfectly, and I only nipped off one little tip of a triangle.  I paid special attention to how I pressed the seams and managed to get a really flat finish.

I fussy cut the centre square to get a whole rose in the middle.

This is the reverse, showing how I pressed the seams to get a good, flat  finish.  I know some of the seams are pressed towards the light fabric, but that is the way they wanted to go, so I went with that.

Fabric used is from the Chambray Rose collection by Shabby Chic, Clermont Farms by Moda, and Kona Snow.

Completed blocks

This is the final block for my BOM 2012 quilt.  It is the LeMoyne Star and I used this excellent tutorial from Piece n Quilt.  As you can see I chose to use four different fabrics in my star points instead of two.

Here are all of the completed blocks laid out on my living room floor.

I started with just Craftsy Blocks of the Month but didn't like some of them so added others I  liked better. You can probably spot two of the same block.  It was the very first one I made and didn't think I'd made it very well, so repeated it, but it turned out the same, so I've kept them both in.  The colour is rubbish in these photos, really much brighter in real life.  This isn't the final layout, that will come much later.  At the moment, I'm thinking I will quilt them all individually and then join them up, but I may change my mind.

More haste, less speed

I had half an hour to kill before I needed to start on dinner so thought I would make a very quick block.  I've been seeing the Scrappy Trip Around the World by Bonnie Hunter absolutely everywhere.  Everyone says how quick and easy it is so I thought 'That's the one for me'.  Tutorial here.  It was really easy to cut out, just six strips 2 1/2" wide by 16".  Sew all the strips together along  the long edges to form a tube, and then sub-cut into 2 1/2"   sections.  The trickiest bit seems to be then unpicking a seam on each piece to make 6 flat pieces, which are then sewn together.  Dead Easy!  Took me just half an hour from start to finish.   Final press, quick photo,  then start the dinner.   Here it is.

Ooops!  That isn't what it's supposed to look like!

I knew I wanted the orange to run through the middle and I'd been concentrating on that so I hadn't noticed that I'd sewn the middle strips in upside down.  A quick session with the seam ripper, re-sewn and it was soon put to rights.

That's better!

This block really needs to be joined with three others the same to make a lovely diamond pattern in a huge 24" square, but I'm just using this one to fill in my BOM quilt, but I do want to make more of these as they're such fun to make.    I can feel another quilt coming on!

Three More Blocks

I made these three blocks yesterday for my Craftsy BOM quilt.  The first one is a Craftsy block and is supposed to be the Wonky Log Cabin block, but mine isn't very wonky at all.  I tried doing wonky on a couple of Hot Pads for Xmas and they didn't turn out well either, just looked a mess.  I guess I'm not very good at improvising.

If you look hard you can see that the red spotty strips are actually different widths.  That's the 'wonky' bit!  This block is going to need a bit of special quilting to cheer it up, I think.

The next block is a Churn Dash block.  I've been seeing these everywhere and I love them.  I'd actually like a whole quilt made of these.  It was very quick and easy to put together too.  I used a tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts.

The last one is called Bricks in the Barnyard and I found this one on Quiltville.  It comes from Bonnie Hunter's book Scraps and Shirttails 2.  I don't have the book but I saw a photo of the block on her blog and copied it out onto squared paper and worked it out from that.

I've decided to make this quilt a bit bigger so I need to do another two blocks to make it up to twenty blocks total.  I think I will use these blocks to try machine quilting techniques so will quilt them all separately and join them after. I've only ever done straight line quilting on the machine so this will be something new for me to try. 

Squares

Last August I started making some of the Craftsy Block-of-the-Month squares.  This was a very good introduction for me as I am very new to quilting and piecing.  Amy Gibson's tutorial videos were very easy to follow and included so many helpful tips.  I bought a few fat quarters of likely fabric and used a few scraps that I already had.  I made 12 blocks and then felt empowered with knowledge and went on to make a few quilts, but now I want to finish these blocks.  I don't like all of them and am still too scared to try curved piecing, so I have substituted other blocks for those.  I intend to make 16 blocks in all.  These are the latest two I've made this week.

This one is called Moth in the Window and measures 12 1/2"square.  I saw this one on Quiltville.com but it was a 6" block, so I resized it.  I'm getting quite good at working out cutting plans for blocks.  I draw the block out on squared paper using one square per half inch, and I colour it in with my grandchilren's colouring pencils.  This one was really easy to cut and piece.  I cut a strip the width of fabric in floral and cream, seamed them along the longest edge and then cut the desired lengths from that.  Much easier than sewing lots of little pieces.

This one is one of the Craftsy blocks.  It's foundation pieced onto a cream square (the bit showing in the middle of each quarter).  I'd like to make a whole quilt using this block, but I think I would use paper foundations as it comes out very thick with two layers of fabric plus all those seams.