Sew Day Quilt #2

I had 11 more of the made fabric blocks. I made one more and cut 12 blocks of blue circle fabric and voila! Sew Day quilt # 2. Quilt #1 has been quilted and bound.

Sew Day

Our guild had a Sew Day yesterday at Janie Lou Quilt Shop. We  used Victoria Findlay Wolfe's made fabric technique to sew 6" blocks for our Comfort Quilt project. We are making small quilts for Nurses for Newborns, a local non-profit. Some of the members didn't want to make an entire quilt, so I took the "leftovers" and paired them with a neutral fabric to make this small quilt. I used my treadle and will sandwich it and quilt it today. using one of the kits we made up from fabric donated by Janie Lou. The neutral squares are from Brigitte Heitland's Zen Chic line. I found a black and white striped binding on the free table at the last guild meeting, and may use that to bind this quilt. Or I might use a purple fat quarter that was in the kit I picked up.

Victoria, What Have You Wrought?

I no sooner finished the quilt top from Victoria Findlay Wolfe's workshop in Paducah, than I started another. I am using blocks exchanged in a guild activity years ago. Lo and behold, there were a bunch of Halloween themed ones  in the box! Enough to make another double wedding ring quilt.This one will be a bit less involved - no pieced outside arcs. All the arcs will be orange and all the melons will be black. This is a pick-it-up-off-the-floor-and-cut-it quilt. Oh, Victoria, what terrible path of obsession have you led me down?

In case you are wondering about the first one I made, the top is now finished and will be resting while the quilting makes itself known to me.

Boo!

I had the most fantastic and inspiring three days at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY with Victoria Findlay Wolfe. She posted a video about the workshop on Double Wedding Ring Quilts at her blog.

My quilt has a Halloween theme and is almost all sewn together. At the bottom center of the quilt, the orange polka dot arc will be replaced with a cheddar and black striped arc to make the border uniform around the quilt.

If life had not intervened today, this would have been completely sewn together.  It will have a tiny purple flange all around the outside edge and will be sewn down onto a gray and black striped outer border. It will have to be mitered, which normally I avoid like the plague, but I don't want anything visually to mar the outer border, such as cornerstones, so I will suck it up and miter the border for the effect.

Victoria is an excellent teacher. if ever you have the opportunity to take a workshop with her, jump at the chance! The classroom at the Quilt Museum was excellent and overall the experience was 100% positive.

School Bus Block

I don't Have a lot to report. I made this block this afternoon for my guild's monthly optional block activity. The choice of fabric to put in the windows was up to us, so I loaded up the bus with a crew of happy Trick-or-Treaters.

I have begun packing up for a trip to Paducah on Wednesday. Virgina Findlay Wolfe is giving a class on her Double Wedding Rings at the National Quilt Museum there. Two friends will be with me as well as the other students that I hope will be friends by the end of the three day experience.

For something to do in the evening while watching television, I dug out this oldie moldy hand applique project. It is a William Morris pattern and all but two of the center blocks were finished. I have since finished one of them and am partly through the last block. The setting and corner triangles have scroll work applique in them. Not really keen on making 8 identical setting triangles and four corner triangles, I may resort to fusible in the interests of moving this thing forward to completion.

One Step Forward....

The Fancy Forest baby quilt is sandwiched and ready for quilting. I am planning on a free motion wood grain design. A bit more practice and I will begin the process.

Some progress has been made on Bonnie Hunter's 2016 leader/ender challenge. The challenge for me is keeping ahead of the process by having the fabric cut and ready to hand. I probably could have had the top and bottom green borders and the next round of neutral blocks done by now while piecing Fancy Forest if I had been prepared.

Sunday I took a short workshop on how to finish up this project that I started ages ago. I had initially decided on an aqua background, but surprisingly it wasn't doing anything for the Dresden plates. With the help of the teacher, I settled on a taupe-ish background. I am so not sure this wallhanging will be a winner; the colors are no longer speaking to me. The smallest block in the bottom left hand corner was a lot of work for the dog it has turned out to be. I will salvage the teal segments and possibly reuse them somewhere else. Or maybe not. The yellow plates are giving it a bit more punch and I will make more with that color in them. The plates are fun to make except when they turn out ugly. The one lightish one with the rick rack trim may also be saying bye-bye. Maybe if  it gets a more vibrant overlay it is salvageable. I tell you, the design wall is a double edged sword. Can't live with it and sometimes you just can't live with it either. Or at least what you put on it..