Charlevoix UFO...continued

Well I ended up with 21 blocks....I had to squeeze out one extra for the design I decided on.

I BARELY had enough.

So this is the design I settled on. I needed a larger quilt than 4'x5'. An extra 21 blocks will give me 6'x7'. 

I had plenty of the background fabric and a good sized piece of the light blue. The orange had to be pieced to get enough for the centers.

So the light blue squares had to be a very specific size...3-5/16"!! And I had to cut 84 of them. I cut a paper template that size first then used double stick tape to temporarily attach it to my 3-1/2" template. It gives me a good visual for lining up and cutting blocks. 

It's all cut now and I'm starting to stitch blocks ....I think the layout will work. 

Architectual quilting

If any of you are on Instagram, check out robertkaufman today. They are featuring my daughter Lisa's quilt blocks. She finds pictures of buildings that she likes and turns them into quilt blocks.

 

You can also she all her quilting on her instagram, @lizafranfran on Instagram.

Since Al and I returned from vacation in Florida I've been catching up on projects started before our trip. I finished all my scrappy blocks and finished quilting my Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt.

Now I have to decide on a binding....

I might do something very dark or very red...so that it stands out.

Now this quilt top below is the UFO of the month that has to be finished. I am pushing myself to have it done by the end of the month. That leaves me what?...3 or 4 days? Sounds reasonable..

And this is the paper pieced stars that I took to Florida and worked on. I was able to add on about 2 rows. It needs a couple more stars in the row on the left and then one row on the bottom. After that I have to figure out how I'm finishing it and IF I'm hand quilting. That's the way I'm leaning.

Working on Fancy Forest blocks

Today was a "Henry day" so Grandpa and I spent most of the day playing with Henry...but at nap time I had a chance to sew a little. 

I'm planning on making the large size of the Fancy Forest quilt. Sooooo...that means I need 8 of these cute little Hazel Hedgehog blocks and 16 Fancy fox blocks. I need to get stitching!

The fox is super simple and sews up quickly....the hedgehog takes quite a bit longer and has to be stitched very exactly to end up with the correct size at the finish. But both were fun and could possibly become a class I will teach in Charlevoix. 

First quilt finish of 2017!

Finally! It's done...big sighhhh. 

This is a mishmash of solid blocks (and partial blocks) that I had laying around the sewing room. I decided not to make certain quilts or projects but I still liked my "tester" piece so I decided on a sampler.

This was a bit of a challenge mathematically...I had to measure each piece/block then sash it or join it to another to get them to work together. Graph paper saves me! 

Isn't it odd how cast offs and scraps can end up being a favorite quilt? 

Januarys purple blocks are becoming a quilt!!

Here's my purple Scrap Jar blocks with the setting I decided on. This decision took FOREVER! 

Last night I played with my EQ program trying out different colors and setting blocks but they were all too traditional or too bright or too white. I wanted to bring in a little gray or black to tone everything down but still let the purples shine. 

So I brought out all my little pieces of low volumes and black or grays on white. Loved it!

Then I had to decide if I still wanted setting blocks or just sashing. Since I wanted this quilt to be a lap size, the sashing made sense.. Now the cornerstones....I wanted something modern but something that used up more scraps so I played with the little leftover pieces from the star centers. 

The plus signs were more modern than a regular nine patch and if I added a different purple center then I would get the design I wanted AND use up lots of purple pieces. Added bonus...when I cut the sashing I had lots of little black on white scraps to use in making the cornerstone background. 

With any luck I'll have the top done tomorrow!