HST's

Working on Max's quilt, I have all the fabrics cut, and have been sewing the HST's.  I've been chain piecing these, and it goes pretty fast. I'm not a fan of chain piecing, generally, but in this case, since so many of the patches are the same, it works just fine.  I usually like to build and sew one block at a time.  It seems like I am making progress faster that way.  It's probably faster with chain piecing though.  Here are all the gray/white HST, getting squared up and trimmed to size.

Let me say one thing about making HST's.  The standard formula of  starting squares for HST's  is "finished size + 7/8".  I'm not overly concerned about wasting fabric with an extra 1/8" of an inch, so I use the formula "finished size + 1 inch."   I've tried it both ways.  That extra 1/8" in MY formula (finished size + 1 inch), gives you enough wiggle room to have a little "trim space" on all 4 sides.  You end up with a perfect HST.  AND it's easier to measure and cut! The "finished size + 7/8" formula is pretty exacting, and can leave you with a less than perfect HST.  There's no room for error.  Some people make them this way and don't trim them. Just use them however they turn out.  Much faster to skip the trimming step, but unless your quarter inch seams are perfect, and your cutting is exact, do yourself a favor and go the extra mile... I mean, 1/8"--- you'll be glad you did!

Max's Two-block Quilt

Now that Something Blue is finished, I am jumping in with Max's Christmas Quilt.  I have chosen a two-block quilt, which when combined, forms a secondary pattern.

Last Christmas, after Aidan received his quilt, there was a general discussion on who should get the next Christmas quilt.  Max and Landon are the two McGuire grandkids that don't yet have a quilt from me yet.  After the discussion, I asked Max what was his favorite colors.  Max said Blue and Maroon.  I asked what color was "maroon" (it can range in a lot of variations from cranberry to purple), and Max said it was a dark purple.  Ok, I can deal with those colors.  A little later on, Max came up to me and said he really would like "blue and maroon 'underwear'" for Christmas next year. (A private joke there, involving the colors in Aidan's quilt.  He wanted to know why I wanted to know his favorite colors, and I said so I would know what color "underwear" to buy him for Christmas.  He DID get red and blue underwear, that was the joke, but also a red and blue quilt...)

Ok, so back to the 2-block quilt.  These are the two blocks:

 

Light blue, dark blue, Very dark blue, purple, gray and white.  They combine into a quilt that looks something like this:

It's not a complicated quilt, only 2 blocks, and both blocks are 9-patches, one has V-blocks, one has HST's. I DID add an extra "row" to the top and bottom, to help round out the circley-parts.  I think I may also add that same kid of a row to the sides. That way, all the blue stars will have all four points on them. Notice how the side stars run into the purple inner border, and are missing that last point?  This would add 6 inches to the width of the quilt.

I've been cutting fabrics, I have all the fabric I need already in my stash.  That's really nice!  I won't have to buy any fabric.  I might even have a piece of backing fabric that will work.  Gotta check on how big it is though.  This quilt will wind up being around 76" x 91."  Or 82 x 91 if I add on the extra "rows" to the left and the right of the quilt.)  A good size for a 13-yr old.

Something Blue is Finished

Today I cut the final thread of the Something Blue quilt!!  Officially finished, measuring @ 85" x 85.  It took me 7 1/2 months to do.  And what a finish it is!  This quilt  is beautiful on BOTH sides!  It almost looks like a "whole cloth" quilt on the back, with all the quilting.  I am so happy with this quilt.  The binding went on perfectly.  I wasn't sure how this would work because I cut rounded corners, and then needed bias-cut binding strips for them.  It went so well that I will probably only use rounded corners on my quilts in the future!  No mitered corners to worry about with all their thickness and  touch-ups!

Here it is, front and back:

 

Raffle Quilt Finally Finished

After a long and frustrating time of working with the Quilt Committee, the Log Cabin Star quilt is FINALLY done.  A lot of this quilt had to be ripped out and redone. The committee majority decided to have the quilt guild ladies sew the blocks.  I was in the minority here, but we had built in a "fudge factor" and made extras of each block, "just in case."  Thank goodness!  That saved us.  Some of the blocks were unusable.  One committee member sewed the blocks together, this part also had to be redone as the quilt didn't even halfway resemble a star.  Someone else sewed the borders on.  Someone with a long arm quilted it.  I put the binding on.  Just seemed like a big hodgepodge to me.

I put the binding on today, and that went very well.  It was the first time I ever sewed on a binding without having to go back and redo a section, or fix anything!  I was so happy!! Despite all the problems,  I have to admit, the quilt is very pretty, the fabrics are gorgeous and very high quality.  It's also BIG!  Around 104" square!  This will be a nice quilt to win!  I am just glad it is done and I don't have to work in a quilt committee for another 2 years!  I guess I am OCD about certain things, and I had to swallow my opinions about the quality of  other people's work. I need to work on that more.

Anyway, here is the finished quilt.

Want to buy a raffle ticket?  One dollar each, or 6 for $5.00!  

Borders for Something Blue

My extra fabric for the Something Blue quilt came finally.  There was a  problem with the light blue I ordered for the skinny border, and I had to choose something else.  The fabric I ordered in place of my light blue raindrop fabric turned out to be too green, so booo, now what?  After auditioning numerous fabrics, I decided to use a strip of the backing fabric for this border.  What do you think?

The turquoise strip bring out more of the turquoise colors in the batiks of the quilt fabrics.  There's a good contrast too.  I love it!  This is the one!  Ok, back to the sewing machine I go!  There's lots to do if I want to have this done by the middle of September!

Whirligig is Finished!

There is a quilt show coming up in September, and I have been working to finish at least ONE quilt to enter in the show!  (At the quilt show 2 years ago, I entered 5 quilts!) I make a lot of quilts, but end up giving them all away! I will ask Aidan if I can borrow his quilt (Argyle) that I gave him last Christmas to put in the show.  I also gave a quilt to Drew (Asteroid), but won't ask him to send it up from Georgia. Too bad, that is a beautiful quilt too! I am working on Something Blue, but don't know if I can finish it in time.  The could be the Fan quilt to enter, if Dianne and I get it put together in time for me to quilt it. Sooooo!  Whirligig is my only entry so far! I finally finished it, and it turned out really really nice!

I quilted it with black thread.  This was, for me, a bold and risky color choice, as it WILL show --black thread against bright colors!  The backing fabric is black, so that looks great.  If there were any tension problems, you just can't see them!  I echoed the shapes of the whirligigs, but it's not a continuous line, so there was a lot of breaking of thread and knots.  I will do it differently next time. But it still looks ok.  Here it is:

How to Sew PARTIAL SEAMS

Here is the block I've called the "chained pinwheel."

The "frame" pieces in the Chained Pinwheel enclose the pinwheel in an offset way.  These need to be sewed with what is known as a "partial seam".

First, sew the Center Pinwheel entirely.

Next, sew the "frame strips", you'll need 4 of them.  You will be matching the squares which will form the chain links to the appropriate corner in the above pinwheel picture.

Next will you will sew the first strip to the pinwheel.  The first strip is only "partially sewed", thus the name "partial seam."  Match the colored square to the same colored triangle.  Sew until you are about 1 or 2 inches from the end of the pinwheel.  Backstitch to secure, cut the thread.  There will be a "flap" that you will be able to move out of the way later.

Rotate you block 90 degrees clockwise.  Align your second frame strip, matching the corner colors.  This strip will fit the block, sew the entire length as usual.

Rotate you block 90 degrees clockwise.  Align your third strip, matching the corner colors, sew the entire length.

Rotate you block 90 degrees clockwise.  Fold the "flap" from Frame strip 1 out of the way.  Align your 4th and last strip, matching the corner colors, sew the entire length.

Now you can go back and finish sewing the partial seam from the first strip.  Fold the flap back into place, align the edges.  In the seamline, find your sewing line and your backstitch.  Starting a little before that backstitch, about a half inch or so, do another backstitch to secure this new line of stitching, start sewing again, right over the first backstitch, and sew to the end of the strip. 

Voila!  Your block is complete, and beautiful no doubt!