OUT OF THE BOX QUILTS

During the past year, the volunteers who meet once a month to work on my guild's community quilt projects, spent time to sort all the donated orphan blocks and pre-made parts.  Each group of similar size and or shape were placed in a raspberry box.  (These boxes were salvaged from a local supermarket, and are cardboard, built to stack while holding quarts or pints of raspberries).

At our last get-together, our fearless leader asked if everyone would take a box home and figure out how to use the contents for a quilt.

My first box held 60 9-patch blocks that were 3 1/2 inches, and I made this quilt top.

I wrote about it on Design Wall Monday.  I had difficulty getting the true colours to show in the pictures.  The light borders are really a darker beige, the blue-ish border is much darker, and the final border is a deeper rust colour.

 Box number 2 held 29 pinwheel blocks that had been squared up to 8.25 inches.  I made one more block, then set them with sashing and cornerstones.
I decided to make a strippy border, so I sorted through my 1.5 and 2 inch strip bins and pulled all the strips that had colours found in the blocks.

I made binding for each quilt top, but don't have fabric for backing.  I'll take them to our next community quilts workshop, and hopefully I'll find backing fabric for each of them, then after pin-basting both, I'll bring them home to machine quilt.  This is a win-win - I get to use some of my fabric scraps, and there are 2 less boxes full of parts waiting to be used, and soon 2 more quilts ready to donate.

STASH REPORT SUNDAY

Fabric used this week  .5 yards

Fabric used year to date  135 yards

Fabric added this week 0 yards

Fabric added year to date  63.75 yards

Net used 2015  71.25 yards

 

Another 4 days visiting our grandson and family was great, but takes away from my quilting productivity!

My only accomplishment was to piece a quilt top, using some completed blocks from a guild member.  They were donated to community quilts, as she is trying to reduce her UFO's!  I added 1/2 yard for sashing strips, and completed the top.  It will be delivered to the group's monthly work day on Tuesday.

This weekend in Thanksgiving, so I have a turkey in the oven, and a pumpkin pie cooling on the counter.  It is just DH and I for dinner, so we'll have lots of leftovers to enjoy in our final few weeks before the bi-annual relocation!

Check out all the progress shared at Judy's blog, Patchwork Times.

DESIGN WALL MONDAY

I've been busy getting ready for company arriving this evening.  Both DH and I use our guest room as extra storage - me for quilt stuff and DH for guitars, amplifiers, stands, cables.  We had to be very creative to find accessible storage for all of the items, so our guests will have a room to themselves!

I decided to use the blue fabric with stars that I bought recently, to use as sashing around the embroidered blocks of "Long Time Ago in Bethlehem".  I couldn't find any pale colours with small stars, but I did get a buttery yellow with small polka dots.

  After looking at the completed top, I decided to finish it without the remaining borders in the original design.  I'll be using the same blue for the binding, so I machine basted a small folded strip on each edge to provide a small accent.

 I've been making hexagon units while watching the Olympics.  I want to plan the final appliqued border for my hexagon quilt, so I know how many I have to complete.

Check out all the creativity shared at Judy's blog, Patchwork Times.

STASH REPORT WEEK 6

Fabric used this week  0 yards

Fabric used year to date  50.75 yards

Fabric added this week  0 yards

Fabric added year to date  9 yards

Net used 2014  41.75 yards

Nothing completed this week - two days were too cold to sew in my room, the weather was cold and rainy for the south.  Nothing like family and friends are suffering at our northern home!

I added the sashing between the embroidered blocks for "A Long Time Ago in Bethlehem".  The original pattern had two of the blocks without sashing on the outside edge of the quilt top, so I adjusted some of the block sizes and added it.  When it was finished, I decided that the quilt is large enough for a wall hanging, so I'm not going to add any more borders.  Now I have to hunt for some backing fabric in my small stash.

Then I decided to work on finishing my hexagon quilt.  I cut the remaining burgundy fabric in strips to add a straight border to the outside edges, and spent 2 afternoons machine appliqueing the top to the border.  After measuring the top, I've decided that it needs to be larger, so I've decided to add an additional border, and I'm back to making motifs that will be appliqued to the final border to bring the hexagons to the outside of the quilt.

DH's music partner found 2 hats to add to their performance wardrobe, but they need new hat bands.  His wife found some great black and white musical striped fabric, so I'll be cutting some bias strips to dress up their new hats.

Check out Judy's blog, Patchwork Times, to see all the progress made this week!

Design Wall Monday

I added the sashing and cornerstones to my current project, but am still trying to decide on the  final border.  I am leaning toward an appliqued border, with scallops and bows, but I don't want to overwhelm the blocks.
After playing with pieced borders, I don't feel happy with a plain one.  Decision time today.  I also have two quilt tops waiting to be quilted, so I guess I have to make time for those as well!

Back to the Design Wall

I managed to get the top finished, using the blocks I had found while reorganizing my sewing room.  Since the blocks were bright colours, I decided to use some more.  I chose a bright red with bees for the strips between the block rows, then a dark blue for the first border, followed by a great colourful print that was hiding in my stash.  I am still trying to decided which piece of flannel is going on the back, but I am leaning toward one with frogs, as some of the hats have frogs on the top.....

Play Date Sampler Top Complete

Here is the completed Play Date Sampler in bright jewel tones with a white background.

The second picture is of another Play Date Sampler that I made using scraps and a dark blue-green mottled background with rose sashing and cornerstones.

The variety of choices that my quilting group made were wonderful, and each quilt has its own "flavour"