Design Wall Monday - June 6

 It's design wall Monday already.  Where does the time go? This seems like it's been a really short week for some reason.  However despite that, my design wall has something new this week.  I've started working on my indigo quilt, for Judy's monochromatic challenge for June.  Indigo is not a colour I have a lot of, but I went into my stash and I found one perfect piece - a nice deep purplish blue.  Sadly, I only have 1/4 yard of it.  So I dug out a few complementary blues that are within the range of indigo, and set out to design something that would showcase my favourite.

Here is part #1.  A 3" lemoyne star.  Once I had that done, I was really happy that it was the only one I needed to do for this quilt.  Sewing all those "Y-seams" is hard enough on a regular sized block - it was a real challenge in 3 inches.

Part 2 is done, too.  Now at least I have something sizeable to work with.

Now that the mystery quilt is almost done, this is all that is sitting on my design wall - one lonely block.  I'm sure its friends will be coming out to play soon :)

What's on your design wall?  Check out some others over at Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - June 5

I feel like I made a lot of progress this week.  Maybe that's because I finished quilting a couple of  quilts, and added them to the (growing) binding pile.  It's a good thing Vancouver is in the playoffs - I'll do my hand-stitching on the bindings during the games and maybe get some of these quilts done.

My stash was decreased by my mystery quilt - 4.75 yards out.  I'm working on an indigo quilt for June, but I'll have to count that fabric once it's done, since I'm designing/sizing as I go.

Totals for this year:
Overall, 11.75 yards in, 27.75 yards out.
Net for the year:  16 yards out.

Head over to Judy's blog to see what other quilters have done with their stash this week.

Mystery Progress

I finished all the blocks for my mystery quilt yesterday.  Now I have to find a layout I like.  Several options come to mind - and the mystery writer suggested one I never came up with.  I've played around with them a few times, now I think I'll let them stew for a day or two before I move on.  My design wall is too small, so these are just parts of the quilt - the top and bottom rows are missing.

The good news is that, as I hoped, the brights are toned down a bit in the final quilt. I think I like this quilt.  While I might have put the colours in different locations if I'd had the design to work from originally, I think the end result is nice.

Taking the pictures down for now, because I realized there might be others still working on their mystery.  I'll post a finished pic in a couple of weeks, instead.

Fabric Choices

This picture is step 3 of the mystery quilt I'm working on.  At this point, I started to seriously question my fabric choices.  That yellow/green/pink combs is bright! However, I don't have enough yardage in anything else appropriate to switch at this point, so I'm trucking on forward.  I'm really hoping that the dark background will tone down the brights a bit.  If not, I guess I'll have to find a recipient who loves bright colours.

This is the area I struggle with the most, when I'm quilting.  Picking a set of fabrics that go well together.  I prefer to work with tone on tone fabrics, but that's even more challenging to match (for me, anyway).  At least if I can pick a focus fabric, I can theoretically draw my other fabrics from that.  Although, that was the approach for this quilt, and as you can see, it didn't work as well as I was hoping.

Maybe I should stick to monochromatic or 2-colour designs.  It certainly would be easier to match, without worrying about that oddball fabric that looks great with one or two of the others, and not so happy in full combination.

I had this same problem with another quilt I made.  Judy's "Morning Splash" pattern called for 6 different bright fabrics.  When I started to put it together, my particular fabric choices meant that there was a green center in the yellow squares.  It was terrible.  In this case, I could easily swap that block for a dark purple, and I love the end result.

Unfortunately, with this mystery quilt, not knowing how the fabrics were going to mix made it difficult for me to make good choices.  I guess that's part of the mystery, but I'm starting to think these just aren't my thing.  I need a bit more control over my fabric choices and layout.

Quilty Cats

I finished my second set of placemats today.  These used up my cat fabric, plus some miscellaneous browns I had in my stash.  I would have liked to do a narrow border in the circle fabric, before the outer border.  But I didn't have any of that left, so I worked with what I had.  I think they came out well.

And Caramel apparently agrees.  First thing she did when I put them on the table was to sit on one.  That's why it's folded in the picture - I know the cats use them as pillows, so wrong-side up they stay until they are in use :)

UFO Challenge

I mentioned last week that Judy over at Patchwork Times is hosting a UFO challenge this year.  I am late to part (really, really late), but I hope she won't mind if I jump on the train now.  Last week, I posted a plan for the week, and included a list of my current UFOs.  Actually, it's a list of 12 of my UFOs, not all of them.  Each month, Judy picks a number, and that's the UFO of the month.  The challenge is to finish that particular quilt before the end of the month.

Well, the numbers have aligned this month, so I think I'm going to join in.  When I did up my list of last week's projects, I considered picking #9 off my UFO list because May's UFO was #9.  I decided not to - it wasn't one of the first projects I pulled out, so I trucked along with my plans which included #4 and #8 on my list.

Low and behold, what number does Judy pull this month, but #8 - my Rainbow Dreams quilt which I completed yesterday.  So, I'm taking this as a sign that I should join in.  I'll swap 8 and 9, and #8 is my finish for May.  I'll add #9 to my to-do list for June.

Check out other May finishes on Judy's blog.

Accountability Challenge - June 1

Wow.  Being held accountable for my quilting plans sure does light a fire :)  Last weekend I posted my plans/hopes for this week - what I wanted to get accomplished.  And I made real progress on that list!

1. quilt Over the Rainbow - in progress, half done the quilting
2. quilt Rainbow Dreams - Done!
3. quilt the unnamed quilt (and name it) - ready for binding, still no name.
4 label & finish binding my black & white quilt - Done!
5. label (and name) my lavender quilt - Done!

I think I'm impressed - and certainly knowing that I would be reporting today gave me some incentive to finish.  Like last night - Rainbow Dreams got bound and labeled while I watched TV, because I really wanted it off my list this week.  Check out Bari's blog to see who else is being accountable this week.

Rainbow Dreams, shown here, is all set to be donated to the local children's hospital.  That probably won't happen until September, since I missed the last guild meeting where they collect donations.  But that's OK.  Hopefully it will have some friends to take along at that point.

Below are the other 2 quilts I finished this week.  Time Flies (on top) and Contrasts (on bottom).  No pics of the tops at this point.  They have to be boxed up and sent away shortly.

What's up for next week?  I think I'll be a little less optimistic this time, since it's likely to be a busy week.

1. bind the unnamed quilt (and name it)
2. finish quilting Over the Rainbow
3. finish mystery top
4. Pick one more UFO to move forward.


That's probably enough to keep me busy.