Garden Maze...What was I thinking?

Well the next UFO I pulled from the pile is a Garden Maze. I think I started it about 2000. The original pattern was done in 2 fabrics. I wanted to do mine in Batiks and of course I didn't want to just stick to two fabrics. So I decided that each section should have a different batik fabric.

What was I thinking???????

 That meant that each of those little pointy diamond sections was composed of a square and 2 triangle units that were actually 2 sections of the little cross blocks that you see in the corners.....so I had to do lots of figuring out and construct each section of the block after I had done the block before it. There was certainly no chain sewing on this quilt.

 Once I got it 3 blocks x 4 blocks I said to myself...."Well, I think this quilt is as big as it's going to be!"

 I framed the quilt center with a narrow black inner border, then cut up all my left over batiks into 2" strips and made the piano keys border. I had some extra cross blocks and decided to use those in the corners instead of mitering my piano keys border. 

This quilt will have a black binding....which is already made! 

 My sister loves this quilt. Actually, she loves anything made with Batiks. LOL

I finished this quilt days ago, but got busy making some microwave mitts and also made myself a jacket. I kind of forgot about updating my blog.

Oh, and I did pull out another UFO and hang it on my design wall. And I have that "rule" that once something goes up it has to be completed....I am not allowed to take it down and put it away again. But this next one has not been calling to me. I want to put it away. 

I just might make an exception to my rule. If I am not motivated to work on this quilt I just might pull out another to work on. I don't want to lose my MOJO and get stalled in reaching my goal of 30 quilts in 30 weeks. I was on such a roll.

Quilty Hugs, 

Wanda

Buzz Saw Quilt

I actually finished this quilt day before yesterday, but got busy working on another quilt and forgot to do a blog update.

 This quilt measures 100"x 100"....a very good size for my bed.

 I have named it Buzz Saw....I kind of just made up the design as I went along. I started with large squares. I think I used 10" squares. I placed a print and background square right sides together, drew a line diagonally from corner to corner and then stitched 1/4" either side of that line. Then cut on the drawn line, ending up with 2 Half Square Triangles, which I then cut into four sections. Mix them all up and sew the blocks. I then added an extra 2" strip to one side of the block quarter. Then rotate each block quarter and sew 4 into the larger block. I'm sure there is an available pattern out there somewhere for this quilt, but I like to just wing it and do my own thing.

  I used all my border fabric so I don't have enough for binding. I used the red print that I used for the narrow inner border to make my binding.

I also made pillow shams to match the quilt....this is the first time I've ever made pillow shams to go with a quilt. I'm not too sure what prompted that decision. LOL
Here is a picture of one sham hanging on my ironing board.

I don't want a pieced backing on this quilt and I have no wide backings in my stash, so I will wait to find some on sale in the future. I will use that same fabric for the pillow sham backs as well. I think I will also make piping for the pillow shams from my binding I have already made.
So quilt top is pieced, binding made, shams pieced and it's hanging in my quilt closet awaiting backing and to be quilted.
This makes "quilt package" number 12 of my intended 30 for my personal challenge before March 31, 2015.
I am making great progress and think I will complete those 30 "quilt packages" long before my deadline.

One thing I have been concentrating on the past few weeks is that when I pull a UFO project out and put it up on my design wall, I am determined to finish it and not put it away again until I am done.
I am feeling a great satisfaction completing these projects!
And I have realized I have WAY MORE projects on the go than I originally thought!
I have unearthed lots I had forgotten about.

I am working on a batik quilt now.....and I have named it "What Was I Thinking!!!!!" LOL
It is a Garden Maze design....I will post it tomorrow and you will see why I keep asking myself that question not only when I pulled it out but repeatedly while working on the quilt. LOL

I have it to the border stage now. I'm hoping I can finish it tonight.

Quilty Hugs, Wanda

Continuing My Quilting Marathon.

The next project I dug out of my UFO bin was this Round Robin Quilt. For many years I participated in Round Robins with a group of 6 gals online. We would each make a center block and send that block to the next person on the list. When we received someones block we then put a pieced border around their center block and sent it on to the next person down the list so that they could add a border....and so on and so forth. Six months later I received my completed top back in the mail. What a lovely surprise when I opened up this beauty!!!!

 Some close up shots of some of the details in this quilt. There is lots of paper pieced designs and I just love it so much.

This is my center block that I made and sent off to the gals to work their magic.

See those little triangles in this border. I think they finish at a teeny tiny 1".

Amazing work these gals accomplished.

All this quilt needed was backing pieced and binding made. I found a nice black print in my stash and had those done in no time flat.
This one is all ready for the long arm machine.

I then dug out this top. I had the center pieced and all it needed was borders added, backing pieced and binding made. I got the borders and binding done last night and got up early this morning and pieced the backing.

This is a free pattern on Bonnie Hunter's site....www.quiltville.com

It's called Bricks & Stepping Stones. It makes up very quickly.

My count of completed quilt tops, backings and bindings is at  11 now.

I had challenged myself to complete 30 tops in 30 weeks.

I am in week 6 now and way ahead of the game. 

I have been working very hard.

This is really amazing to me as I had lost my quilting MoJo four years ago when I went through a divorce and in the process lost my long arm machine and my business.

I was unable to even look at my quilts for most of those years as I grieved those losses. 

But I am happy to say I have found my MOJO again and I am having so much fun spending time in my quilt studio. 

Quilty Hugs,

Wanda

WILD & WONKY SAFARI QUILT

Whew, I have been on a roll. I thought it was time I came up for a breath of air and did a Blog Report.

I finished piecing the top for my Wild & Wonky Safari Quilt.

This blog post is photo heavy!!!

Here is what it looked like when I dug it out of the UFO bin. Lots of blocks pieced and a couple rows sewn together.

 Beside the blocks on the design wall you can see all the "fillers" I plan to use in the quilt.

Most of these "fillers" are leftovers from a Seminole Wall hanging I made a few years ago as a class sample.

I never throw anything away as I know at some point in the future it will be the perfect thing I need in a quilt.

 Here is a close up photo of a few blocks, leftover seminole fillers, and poverty piecing.

More blocks and fillers, seminole piecing leftovers.

Another seminole strip that I framed in black because it wasn't quite big enough.

The finished quilt top!

I happened to find a batik in my stash that worked great for borders. 

Here is the very technical way I figure out borders. :)

Determine the measurements of my quilt center. 

Add up these numbers....width x 2 + length x 2=border length needed. I generally add an additional 20 inches to this number to account for the extra I will need because once I put on my side borders then I have a larger measurement needed for my top & bottom borders. Easy math.

Take that final figure and divide it by 40.....because most fabric is about 42" wide and I allow for trimming off selvages.

The answer you get is how many strips cut across the width of your fabric you will need to cut for your borders. 

 In this case I needed 8 strips.

Measure how much fabric I have......I happened to have just a smidgen over 40 inches.

Divide 40" by 8 (number of strips I needed).

I could get eight 5" strips from the fabric I had.

So my quilt got a 5" border. DaDa.

The borders look a little wonky, but I think it is just the way I have it on my design wall. I'll fix that when quilting it.

Some close up shots of the finished quilt top. I really love this quilt.

 This quilt will get a black binding.

The backing and binding are already made and the entire "quilt package" is hanging in my quilt closet ready to go on the longarm machine.

I've gotten lots more done in the past few days, but I will do a separate blog post for each quilt. Just so this one isn't too long.

Quilty Hugs, 

Wanda

Lessons in Values

What a learning experience quilting is to me. Every  time I make a quilt I learn something new.
This Pink & Green quilt (I'm not even sure what to call it). I decided to just name it Lessons in Values.
I had started this quilt in 2001 because I got this idea I should make a pink and green quilt. I like scrappy quilts so chose lots of different pink and green fat quarters.


 I got this far with the quilt and for some reason I put it away in the growing UFO pile.
I had an AHAH moment while working on it the other day.
I HAD NOT PAID ANY ATTENTION TO THE VALUES OF THE FABRICS I HAD CHOSEN!!!!

I realize if \I had paid attention to my value placement that my stars would have stood out more when looking at the quilt.

I don't like this quilt very much.

I just wanted to rip it all apart and start over again. But then I thought it would take me less time to start another quilt from scratch and be more aware of my value placements of fabrics.

Live and learn.

 I decided to just continue sewing the blocks together.

Finished is better than perfect....right?

 It is done now and ready for the longarm machine.

I couldn't find a large enough piece of fabric in my stash for the back, so I took all my leftover fabrics from the front (I did not want another pink and green quilt anyway!) and just started sewing them all together.

I didn't take a photo of the backing. You will have to wait until the quilt is complete and I will take one.

Before piecing my backing I made my binding....everything else went into the backing. 

Even this random Carpenter's Wheel block I found in the bag with this quilt.

I used a few left over blocks from the front as well and sewed up all my left over strips into checkerboard strips and inserted those here and there. 

I'm glad to have this one moved further along in the process of thought to completed quilt. 

The quilt measures 76" x 94".

Done, Done!!!

Quilty Hugs,

Wanda

A Scrappy Mish Mash!

This is the UFO top I posted about yesterday morning.

At first I planned a HST border and I worked on it for hours! 

But once I got 2 side borders done I didn't like it with the quilt and they weren't playing nice! My measurements were all off and the borders didn't fit.

So I pulled them off the design wall, folded them and put them away!!!

I had some String Blocks I had been working on and thought I wonder how those would look....I had almost enough to go around the quilt. I think I had to make 4 more.

Then what to do with the corners? 

My string border was cut at 6", so finishes at 5-1/2".

My HST blocks in the quilt top finished at 6" so they were 6-1/2" unfinished.

I solved that problem by trimming down my HST units and squares to 3-1/4" instead of 3-1/2".

Everything just fit perfectly and I got up early this morning and applied the borders, pieced the backing and made the binding. 

All are hanging in my quilt closet waiting to go on the longarm. Nice.

I went digging in my UFO's this morning and unearthed this. It was all packaged up in a large bag with all the fabrics I was using and some more pieced blocks that are currently sitting on the floor beneath the design wall. 

I remember starting this in 2001 and I remember thinking I don't really like pink and green quilt. LOL

So I lost interest and put it away.

Time to resurrect it and get it completed. 

Actually in the photo I think it looks very nice. I just might find I do like it after all after I have gotten it a little further along.

This is one of my own designs. I obviously like the blocks as I have another quilt I made 7 years ago with the same blocks.

 A close up of the blocks.

 This Carpenter's Wheel block was also in the bag with the other quilt. It's made with some of the same fabrics.

Wonder what my plan was for that?

Carpenter's Wheel is one of my favorite blocks and I think there just might be another quilt in my future using this block. Interesting!!!!

Well, it is just after 9:00 am. I am off to spend the day with my Dear Mom.

Quilty Hugs to Everyone.

Wanda

Another day, Another UFO.

I don't like having an empty design wall in my quilt studio, so this morning I went to my box of UFO's 

(unfinished objects, in this case, unfinished quilts).

This is what I pulled out. I don't remember making it, don't know when I made it, but I know I did the work as I recognize some of the fabrics from previous projects.

I was obviously using up left over parts. 

This quilt top is made up of Rail Fence blocks, Half Square Triangles, 4 patches. 

Can't say I love it....probably why it got shoved aside and forgotten.

I think I will just add borders and call it finished. 

I will post the finished top as soon as I am done it. 

There is always the chance this will turn into an amazing work of art. LOL

I'm off to contemplate borders.

Quilty Hugs,

Wanda