20 Blocks

I have just finished all 20 blocks for the Badger Quilt.  It turned out to be prettier than it looked on the paper pattern.  I initially thought it looked  too plain and boring.  I still do wish it had more color in it, but this is what the customer wanted!  Chain piecing all these units really sped things up.  I never chain pieced like this before.  I tend to make one block at a time because I like to see finished blocks, not just a pile of pieces.  However, I will probably do a lot more chain piecing in the future.  It really does go faster.  Anyway, here are the quilt blocks on the design wall:

Now I will sew block to block, and row to row. Pin, quilt, bind.  Can't wait to get it done!

Flying Geese

The Badger quilt that I am working on has a lot of flying geese units.  I have not made a quilt that uses so many of these units, and the few flying geese I have made have most likely been paper pieced.  But for this quilt, I need 80 flying geese units.  I didn't want to paper piece that many.  I looked at all the way to make flying geese, and decided on this method, that makes 4 at a time.  Using the directions and the cheat sheet below, I whipped these units out quite quickly with chain piecing.

 

Chain piecing the Flying Geese

I want to stress that I did not use the method of making flying geese shown on the cheat sheet.  I ONLY used the size measurements for cutting SQUARES!  I  did not cut any triangles to make these units.  My unfinished flying geese unit measured 2.5 x 4.5".  I started with a 5.25" red square, and four 3" gray squares.  After doing all the steps in the directions (first set of directions), I had four flying geese units.  I only used the MEASUREMENTS found in the cheat sheet. The only difference is that the cheat sheet says to use 3" squares, the directions say the squares should be 2 7/8.  Only an eighth of an inch difference.  Now if you sew like me, you'd take that eighth of an inch!  My quarter inch seam allowance is still shaky, although I'm getting more and more accurate.  Still, I'd rather make a unit larger and trim it down, rather than risk it being too small. 

These directions and the 3" square produced surprisingly accurate flying geese units.  When I trimmed and squared the units, very little scraps were left.  Here are the trimmings left over after I trimmed the units.  Hardly anything, especially considering I trimmed 80 flying geese!!  On some units, all I had to do was snip off the dog ears!  I was glad for that fudge factor eighth of an inch because some of my sewing was wonky, but not too many.

Also, I used a specialty ruler I bought long long ago and never used.  It's the Wing Clipper for trimming up flying geese, and boy did it work well!  I would highly recommend this ruler if you love flying geese units or need to make a lot of them.  It's super easy to use and makes 10 different sized flying geese.

Anyway, my flying geese will be sewn to my twice-framed Bucky Badger star centers, and I'll have 20 stars ready to go!

Badger Quilt Modifications

Here is the pattern of the Badger Quilt as published.  It's a 2-color quilt, and a holiday quilt pattern.  The fabrics I have been given are red, gray, and a yard of a Wisconsin Badgers graphic print.  My friend wants the Bucky Badger pictures centered in each of the 12 white stars of a twin sized quilt.  There will be 20 blocks, each 16" finished, in a 4 x 5 layout.  Originally, each block would look like this:

However, I need to center a Bucky in each gray star.  Instead of simply cutting one 5.5" gray square, I had to fussy cut 20 Buckies.  This wasted a lot of fabric because I had to cut into each of the surrounding pictures for the seam allowances.  I framed them in red, each frame only about 3/8 inch wide,  then framed them again in gray and squared them up at a mere 3.5"--3" finished:

 

This results in a very small unit.  A lot of work for such a small unit! At least that is the only modifications I need to do.  I can go back to the regular (boring) pattern now.  I may try to jazz it up somehow.  Or maybe not.  Just get it done so I can move on to more fabulous things! Modifications are time consuming!

I made one block center to see how it looks.  Flying geese units, and red squares complete the center of the star:  I still need to put on the star points to finish the block but here it is so far:

I'm going to chain piece these now, hopefully it'll go fast.

OH NO! I did it again!!

I have vowed not to start a brand new quilt until I finished some of my UFO's.  But there is something about an empty design wall that seems so wrong!!

OH OH OH! Heaven help me, I couldn't resist!  I started another quilt.  This is one I had been asked to do for a friend's son for Christmas (last year) and  had put it on hold because I was having fun doing other quilts.  So, TECHNICALLY, it IS a UFO, albeit not started yet.  Right?  (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

This quilt was easy to set on the back burner, I'm not crazy about the pattern, the fabrics, or the fact that the recipient of this quilt already has a quilt made by me in the fall of 2015 (as a birthday present from my friend). Also, there is a modification to the pattern that I have to work out.  Sometimes people just know know what they're asking!

  

 I AM flattered that he loved it so much that he wanted another one, BUT he doesn't know how much time/work is involved, obviously.  Anyway, my friend provided all the fabric and the patterns, I just donate my time.  I love my friend, and I will make this quilt for her.  She can give it to whoever she likes.  She offered to pay me, but I do not charge for making quilts, to me, that would make the project "a job" instead of a fun hobby.  Ok, enough venting! I could have said "no", and I would not be in this position.  I know, I know, I'm a marshmallow.  Maybe I should call this the "Marshmallow Quilt" instead of Badger Quilt #2.

Quilting the Graduation Quilt

The Graduation Quilt is about 70" x 70".  It fit nicely under the needle of the Q20.  It was a joy to quilt. I used a turquoise thread, and it went well.  I did free motion quilting, outlining the text of the sayings and decorating the borders.  Here's some detail:

  

Here is the back of the quilt.  There are smaller positive affirmations on the backing fabric.

I used the black fabric for the binding, and here is the finished quilt: