Wild and Crazy Kinda Quilt - done

Bound, labeled and loved, "Best gift ever" according to my DD, the recipient, one happy Mom.

Wild and Crazy Kind of Quilt

Another top is done. I've been working on parts of tops for a while, and all of a sudden things are turning into tops. I have dubbed this one a "Wild and Crazy Kind of Quilt". It includes leftovers of things (like a vest I made my daughter when she was about 6) and new stuff and all bright and wonderful. It is her going away to college quilt, that took a little longer than it should have, but almost done now. Now if I can just find someone to get it quilted before Christmas!

Wild and Crazy

I think this is the brightest, wildest, quilt I have ever attempted. Fun too . The original was from American Patchwork and Quilting, Feb 2008, Bohemian Charm. Sandra - it is also in a new magazine, a compilation of scrappy quilts from AP&Q. Been going back and forth on various quilts trying to get them all done, getting closer.

Lots been going on!

Lots of stuff has happened since I blogged last. The Churn Dash blocks are done (99 of them), but they are waiting for a space to lay them out, soon I hope. These are the 4 1/2" ones.

I found a box of stuff in the shed when cleaning it, including some autumn placemats and napkins that were cut but not sewn. I pulled out batting and stitched up the placemats, although they still need the opening closed, and need to be quilted. I actually had some King Tut the right color, and they will get finished soon. What I didn’t have was the Wooly nylon to do the napkin rolled edge serging. Got that last night, so now can pull out the serger and get those done.

Pacific International Quilt Festival came and went. I went Thursday and Friday with my sister. I had a shopping list and mostly kept to it. I did get another Martelli cutting mat, this one for classes or to sit next to my sewing machine when not in class. I also got several more colors of King Tut thread, so now I can quilt my Christmas Mexican Star table runner and my Split Star Mariner’s Compass wall hanging. One of the vendors had all of the Marti Michell templates, so I got the S set (for 6” five patch blocks!), the small drunkards path and both Kaleidoscope rulers. There were lots of pretty quilts this year, and of course I didn’t have my camera on Thursday when I went through most of them. There were two Dear Jane quilts, I like mine better, but that is OK, after all I did pick out the fabrics for mine . I did get a bit of new fabric, from the Bittersweet line that the new Patchwork Party 2011 is using.

And I started another quilt, this one the Mill Girls quilt from Jennifer Chiaverini’s More Elm Creek quilts, a quilt along with a Yahoo group. I got most of it cut out, and lots of half square triangles made to now turn into quarter square triangles. I will get back to it soon, maybe tonight. I love the fabric, pulled lots of fat quarters from my stash of Asian inspired fabrics, and also found the background fabric in stash. Love shopping from my room, and it also helps to remind me of all the things I have, and don’t need to add to!

Then I worked on my Christmas Greetings from Elm Creek Manor center. After much debate with myself I decided to use fusible (for the trees and outer pieces) and invisible machine appliqué on a starched turned edge (over freezer paper) for the buildings and snow (and one tree). My hand just won’t be happy doing all of the hand work right now, and I want to get this quilt finished! (I also got some King Tut to quilt it while at PIQF). The plus side of using machine appliqué is I can assemble off the fabric to align the edges and either press the bits together, if fusible, or glue stick the edges if doing a turned edge. This let me get the alignment right, since I could just start from the right edge with the snow bank (as you look at it) and then keep going. All the pieces went together perfectly! After the center parts were attached (and stitched!) I pressed diagonal lines to help align the corner pieces, and chalked the seam line so I could keep the appliqué inside the line. Next will be doing machine embellishment, after I practice on some of the cut-away bits! When I am rested.

I am now three blocks behind in Barbara Brackman’s Civil War BOW, and one more done. I should assemble another row or two after I get caught back up.

Oh, and I got back the Author’s Album blocks that I swapped! Now to make a bunch more and get quilting friends to sign them, in the new year. This is not a priority project!

Churn Dash Progress

The 6" blocks are all done! Now to work on the 4 1/2" blocks, 5 down, 28 to go. The grouping on the right shows the four different sizes and how they work together. There will also be a little spacer strip by the 4 1/2" blocks.

Blocks 31 to 34

Got back and did four blocks of Barbara Brackman's Civil War BOW, Spool, Carolina Lily variation, Indiana Puzzle and Rosebud. While I was at it, I also made four more 6" Churn Dash blocks, now to pick out fabrics for the last two.

Beth's Churn Dash

I am getting rather tired of making churn dash blocks. As you can see, I have been making quite a few, different sizes. The largest ones (16.5" finished) are all done (18 of them), as are the second largest (10.5", twenty one of them), plus quite a few 6" blocks and just four 4.5" blocks.

These are most of the 10.5" blocks

And these are the 6" blocks, along with a few 10.5" and 4.5" blocks. I still have six 6" blocks to go, and about 30 4.5" blocks. I am taking a break and am going to work on my Barbara Brackman Civil War Quilt for today.

Churn Dash

Lately I have been working on this Churn Dash quilt for my daughter. She is heading off to college, and I wanted to make her a new quilt to take with her. Only problem is, I started way too late! Plus I went on vacation, and very little sewing done then. The blocks are going to be four different sizes, 16 1/2", 10 1/2", 6" and 4 1/2", along with some spacer bits. All of the large blocks are done and I am working on the 10 1/2" blocks now.