What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Remember the blocks I mentioned last week?

They are becoming what might be my FAVORITE Second Chances Quilt so far.

Finished project coming soon.

The cleanout of last week brought so many potential projects out of hiding, but this one rose above the others.

A few small panels, 10 in all. Not necessarily my style, but, in what I can only describe as a sudden attack of cute, I HAD to make something with them.

It turns out that it will be TWO somethings. Watch here for updates, soon!

Connie was a fearless quilter.  Even after she had finished the quilting; if it wasn't working, she would just cut it up and make it into something wonderful.

When I first got my longarm and was still learning, she gave me a quilt top she had made to use as a practice piece.  I cut a few sections out of it for some other project and was left with a carcass.  I decided to just cut it into squares and rectangles and see if I could make work it into something else.  

My mantra was "What would Connie do ...

Well, at least there is a lot going on everywhere except in the sewing room. The last month of school is always a busy. Good busy. But very busy.

So, not a lot of sewing. But a little binding. I want to finish the green crumb quilt by the end of the week.

With summer coming on it will be nice to spend hot afternoons in my cool basement room stitching up some fun.

I am so excited about my current Second Chances quilt.

Not ready for the complete reveal, but here’s a sneak peek…

The 25 blocks are now a top.

I used THIS TUTORIAL as a guide while I considered setting options. A tilted look fit the vibe of the quilt.

I also added a border.

And the top is finished. Quilting soon, I hope.

The green crumb quilt is moving along.

I have completed 25 blocks and am really pleased with how they look.

Given the inspiration, art murals created by our art teacher and kindergarten-grade 5 students at school, I decided on a low volume print for the setting and a “tilted” look.

Those are all coming together.

I hope to start assembly by this weekend.

A little while ago I shared pictures of a new idea.

Now I have a picture of progress.

I have never made crumb blocks before, but I am (mostly) enjoying the process. Getting the pieces to end up the “right” size isn’t as easy as it looks, but I am working along and learning as I go.

There are numerous tutorials out there, but it seems that it is most productive to just “give it a go” and learn while creating.

I’ll keep you posted…

The blocks using the Tula Pink panda fabric grew very quickly. I liked how they looked together, but they were not going to get very far on their own. Too small.

I was able to find some of the zebra fabric as well, to make alternate blocks. I also managed to find a solid to match one of the colours in the zebra fabric.

The picture is a bit untidy and obviously the fabric needs a press.

So the end result with the fabric I had was a small quilt top.

It’s about 40 by 55 ins at this ...

Inspiration for new idea.

Pulling fabric for new idea.

It looks a mess, but the excitement is real.

I am gearing up for a weekend of binding. Goal: FOUR quilts.

Here is the first victim.

Starting soon…

Some of those great scraps from Stephanie have found an idea.

And a purple patchwork project is in progress.

Right now I have three quilts in the works.

The Jewel Box quilt has become my leader/ender and there are suddenly 50 blocks complete. Only about 10% of the final total, but that is progress. One must be persistent with this sort of project.

Next we have a Second Chances quilt. It is slowly evolving and will be a fun small quilt, table topper or wall hanging soon. Fun colors!

And, finally, we have my new general scrap pattern for donation quilts. I use them to practice on the treadle. I am getting better rhythm and fewer thread breaks ...

Time to work out what to make next, so I have been trying out a few patterns to see if they are what I want. So, lots of new starts.

I started with a test block using the Tula Pink pandas.

It was a bit fiddly finding the right size to cut the centre block to use the fabric without too much wastage. I stuck with the black and white theme in two of the rounds and then mixed colours in batiks in between. I was even silly enough to try to match the colour at the top of the ...

Well, I was wrong. This border fabric was perfect and I had plenty of it. I also had a piece of backing fabric that coordinated perfectly and was the correct size.

I should have it finished in the next few days and you will get to see the full quilt.

I feel like I have been spending a lot of time preparing projects and I know this is worthwhile, but it is always good to get a finish as well.

This was an easy finish in the end. I did leave it a little while after the quilt was sandwiched, but once I started, it was a breeze.

I kept to straight line quilting through the centres of the triangles in each quarter. The picture of the backing shows that quite clearly.

And I finished it off with striped navy and white binding.

I have had the umbrella backing for ...

The blog has been a little quiet lately, but not because nothing has been going on. Life is busy, but not in a bad way. Trying to keep school in business and take care of personal obligations…that sort of thing.

It seems like when I am busy, I always get several projects going at the same time, too.

There is a whole set of Welcome Home blocks (96 of them) ready to build two twin size quilts. These were mostly sewn on my “new” treadle machine (that story coming soon).

And a 30s quilt that is using up some ...

Happy February. The year is moving along. I have been working on several projects and they are close to a finish. I am also spending a lot of time getting the preparation work done for a few more.

The trees for The Avenue are completed and are ready to come together. I played with several layouts and they have been sewn together. But this photo is from when the blocks were still being rearranged.

Since then I have added a couple of borders and it is waiting to be quilted.

The weather has been warm but I have continued with ...

The one in the middle has already been quilted in the photo. The one of the left is partially quilted but was not quilted when the photo was taken.

In addition to quilting the quilts they need finishing which can take as much time as quilting.

I will be happy when I can add them to my list of finished quilts.