PEI Mystery

Slipping this photo in just under the wire. I acutally finished the blocks for both versions of my mystery quilts a couple of weeks ago, but blogging has been slow to happen, so here is a quick photo of the December clue for my dark quilt, before the clock strikes 12.

I'm enjoying this mystery process, but hoping desperately that scrappy is the way to go here.  I've again substituted some of my fat quarters for 2.5" squares that I had on hand.  And the light quilt (not shown here) had a small assembly error which resulted in even more scrappiness in that set of blocks.

Linking up with the mystery crew over at the PEI Modern Quilt blog.

Guild mystery - step 3

I've been working away on a few mysteries these past months. This is one of them, from the Ottawa Valley Quilt Guild. I'm not sure I'm thrilled with my colour choices - the yellow is really not right. But I'm stubborn and determined to push through anyway.  If I totally hate it in the end, maybe I'll remake the yellow squares - but probably not. 

The blocks are fun though, and when you are also doing Bonnie Hunter's mystery, a REALLY nice break. These pieces finished at 4". Bonnie's tend to finish at 1.5".  It's like working in giant-land when you switch directly from Bonnie to this one :)

Mini Trifecta

I saw this pattern - Trifecta - a couple of times recently. Once at a quilt show in May, and then a couple of months ago when a customer brought me one to quilt.  I absolutely love it, and knew back in May that I was going to make that quilt.  And that was reinforced when my customer dropped hers off. But it is so big -about 90" square - and I just don't need another giant quilt in my house.

So, rather than give up on the dream completely, I decided to downsize it and see what I could do from some precuts in my stash.  The original pattern uses strips that finish at 1". I originally considered using a jelly roll, and cutting each strip in half. But those would finish at 3/4", and it was still going to be a pretty big quilt (about 70x70" and my jelly roll would obviously not be enough fabric for it). So, a bit more thought, and I decided to cut each jelly roll strip in 3 pieces, 3/4" each. The resulting strips would finish at 1/4".

Never one to shy away from a challenge, I packed up my jelly roll and a bunch of white fabric and headed to a retreat.  Some further math suggested I only needed 1/2 of the jelly roll to make the miniature version of the quilt - which was perfect, because my jelly roll included 2 of each strip.  I spent the first morning at retreat cutting itty bitty strips. And then sewing them all back together again, in sets of 5.  Using a techinque I learned recently at class - to follow the previous stitching line, rather than the raw edge, when sewing a 1/4" piece - I managed to keep the strips all relatively straight and even.

Cut into the cutest little equilateral triangles you have ever seen (about 1 1/2" on a side), and from there, assembly was pretty straight forward. Simple in-the-ditch quilting was perfect for this quilt - which finishes at 20x22".

Ruler Bag

I'm working on a bag to carry all of my rulers. I am tired of trying to juggle the big cutting board and my 24" ruler into retreats, so I've been pondering a bag for some time. It's been redesigned several times in my head, and now it's finally seeing light of day.

Of course, the redesigning hasn't stopped just because I started sewing. A few corrections as I go (always measure the actual cutting board, don't assume it's the same as another one you happen to have), but it's starting to take shape. Hopefully the final result will come close to my vision. And if I didn't miss anything, it will have a pocket for every ruler I own.

UFOs

Do I dare count my UFOs this year?  I think I missed last year, and the closet has certainly changed its contents since then, so maybe a look-see is worthwhile. Then I can link up with Judy's UFO challenge and see if I get anything done this year :)

Tops in progress

1. Winding Ways
2. Kaffe jacob's ladder
3. 150 Canadian Women
4. spinning star
5. small bulging checkerboard
6. mini houses
7. purple/olive quilt (needs borders)
8. mini one block wonder
9. squedge stripes
10. ombre quilt
11. 3-D cubes quilt
12. Richmond guild mystery
13. Patchwork Year 
14. Gardener's Alphabet

Tops to quilt

1. Labyrinth
2. Row by Row (Water theme)
3. Edge of 17 shop hop
4.  yellow triangles
5. Toes in the sand (?)
6. Tell it to the stars - Patchwork Times 2014
7. Border Creek mystery
8. Peace, Love, Quilt mystery (hearts)
9. scrappy swoon
10. Kaffe Handkerchief 
11. recipes wall hanging
12. paper pieced houses
13. paper pieced stars
14. Easy Street - Bonnie Hunter 2012
15. Block of the week
16. Modern plus quilt
17. One fabric quilt
18. modern abstract quilt
19. en Provence
20. Triangle log cabin table runner
21. diamond chain
22. Blackford's Beauty
23. Rainbow explosion
24. hexies
25. jar quilt (?)
26. reflections of the north
27. Kaffe stripes

Plus current projects (not yet UFO worthy)

1. Bonnie Hunter mystery
2. PEI Modern Guild mystery (times 2)
3. OVQG mystery
4. birthday quilt 
5. string star

So, that's 41 UFOs, plus all my current projects.  I guess I have to pick 12 for Judy's challenge this year.  Let's aim for these completed in 2018:

1.  150 Canadian Women
2. small bulging checkerboard
3. Kaffe jacob's ladder
4. purple/olive quilt (needs borders)
5. Richmond guild mystery
6. Winding Ways
7. en Provence
8. Blackford's Beauty
9. hexies
10. Labyrinth
11. Peace, Love, Quilt mystery (hearts)
12. scrappy swoon

"All Wrapped Up" Christmas Tree

 I'm on a bit of a Christmas kick around here, which is appropriate given the time of year. I have a few Christmas projects from past years that have been languishing for a while, so I pulled them out to finish up.  Number one is my All Wrapped Up Christmas Tree.  The block pattern in this quilt is "All Wrapped Up" from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I did it in half-size - using 5" squares cut into quarters for the presents.

When the blocks were made at a retreat last November, I knew I didn't want to set them in a standard rectangular setting.  I had 36 blocks, but a 6x6 layout just seemed boring.  So I played around for a while and realized I could make a tree out of them. A few hours later, and some input from my retreat friends, and I had a Christmas tree with a few packages underneath.

I came home from retreat all inspired, and even bought some more of the ribbon fabric for binding. And then I put the tree away and ignored it for a year.  Pulled it out last week, dug out some backing for it (a grey flannel that I had bought for another project but changed my mind about), and loaded it on the longarm.  I knew this quit deserved custom quilting, so after some thought I settled on stars and swirls in the background, and outlining the packages and ribbons for the rest of the quilt.

Done and ready for use, in plenty of time for this Christmas.

Redesigning

This quilt top has been on a journey. 2 years ago, I won a block draw at a quilting retreat. Everyone at that retreat made 2 blocks. They were large (9") half square triangle blocks, with Kaffe Fassett fabric in one half and white in the other.  I loved the fabrics, but the quilt top seemed a bit too simple for my tastes, so I decided to modify it. This was the original pattern.

I've played with this block design a few times now, and it cuts perfectly from the half-square triangle. By cutting all my blocks into 4 pieces, I got two half-square triangles and 2 plain squares from each block. The plain squares were easily made into two 4-patches, and the result could then be re-assembled into Jacob's Ladder blocks.

I knew what layout I wanted, and realized (half-way through making blocks) that it takes 2 slightly different blocks to make it. Fortunately, I figured that out before I got too far, and ended up with just the right number of blocks.  I decided an offset design would be a bit more interesting than centering it.  I tried to keep the arrangements random, mixing fabrics with each step of the process so no two blocks are alike, and (almost) no two identical fabrics are side by side.

The quilt top ended up 56x70". I think a border is needed, so I'll have to find a Kaffe Fassett fabric I like for that.