Showing posts with label It's the Point quilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label It's the Point quilt. Show all posts

Sunday, April 10, 2022

April showers

 We've had some very typical early spring weather lately, and the bulbs are really springing up now.  I've even seen some buds on the daffodils.  My tulips are about 6" high, and the bleeding heart out back is beginning to wake up.  Can flowers be far behind?

Yesterday, at my monthly sewing group, I managed to hand stitch half of the binding on It's the Point.  I forgot that Tess wasn't going to be there, but I'll see her in May at the state guild meeting when I'll bring the quilt for Show and Tell.  I was pleased when Soni admired the straightline quilting. It looks wobbly to me, but the overall effect is great.  That "galloping horse" rule is definitely in effect with that quilt.

Meanwhile, I've been chipping away at the blocks for the RSC and other blocks of the month.  The rainbow color this month is pink, and I have a lot of it that needs sorting and going through.  I'm making variously sized house blocks, an online guild block of the month, and four 6" pineapple blocks.  Here are a few.  First, two of the four pineapples I've been making every month for a year and a half, and then a couple of houses and some posies.



Next up is my local guild's block of the month - churn dash in Ukrainian colors.  I really like that yellow/blue color combination.


I also finished the April portion of the Unity Quilt, but it's gotten too big and it's been too gloomy to take a picture indoors.  Those Bonnie Hunter quilts are truly fiddly, but so rewarding when done!


Thursday, March 31, 2022

Just machine quilting with a little handwork

Not much to show here - I've been busy at the computer, running around town on errands, and slowly machine quilting lines down my It's the Point quilt.  I'm using a variegated gray King Tut thread, and it's coming along pretty well.  I had been having a lot of trouble with my painter's tape popping up on long seams, so I tried a variety of other brands and weights.  Frog tape seems to work the best for me, considering I have a black background and a mix of batiks and other cottons.  The blue tape used to react differently depending on colors and types of cotton.  It was incredibly frustrating!  Now I'm facing a few weeks of straight line quilting with my walking foot.  It's a little dull but looks pretty good so I'll continue.  


I won't be working on any other machine projects for a while, but yesterday I did get the hanging sleeve on my Harriet's Journey quilt so I can send it to the Champlain Valley Quilters Guild show - April 22-24.  I'm mailing it but will go to the show on the 24th so I can pick it up afterwards.  I'm not having it judged and also noticed a couple of mistakes I made in the entry form so I'll send a message to the registrar today.

If I do sit down to do any sewing, it will be to work on some embroidery, both with the crazy quilt block I started at my sewing group's meeting in February and some wool pennies.  Both need quite a bit of embroidery embellishing which is more like play than anything else.

When I finish the machine quilting and binding, I will try to get my machine its much-delayed annual check up.  I always hate to see it go for a couple of weeks, but I do have plenty of handwork to keep me going.  And now that spring is trying hard to come, we will take more walks and even putter around the yard a bit.  We took the feeders down the other day because the bears are waking up.  There's plenty of seed that's been dropped on the grass underneath for the chickadees.  Quite a few tiny crabapples left on the tree have attracted flocks of robins and Bohemian waxwings - fun to watch from my sewing room window.


Monday, March 7, 2022

Ahhhh!

 It was a surprising ly sunny 59 degrees here yesterday, and our foot of snow was reduced to mere inches.  We took a different walk along the muddy streets, as did many other people and their dogs.  What a nice relief.   We will be having wintry weather for a while in the coming weeks, but this was just the break we needed.

Meanwhile, in the quilting room, I managed to put together the first corner of It's the Point, and I really like it.   Turning it so that the blocks are on point gave me a better view, and I now have a good idea of how to proceed with the setting triangles.  It should be smoother sailing now as I get the sashing cut and sewn on.

Saturday, March 5, 2022

Lots of color

I have made all of the blocks for the center of It's the Point, and now I keep shuffling them around to spread the colors throughout.  There will be black sashing between the blocks with colored cornerstones so that there are colorful nine patches between the big squares.  Without the sashing right now, it's almost overwhelming.

After finishing the blocks, I started working on one of the corners.  Because my friend Tess has not yet finished writing the pattern, I am working only from her cutting chart and a photo of her quilt.  As with the blocks, there are options with the sides and corners.  Here is a very rough draft, with two options for the side triangles.  Bear in mind that the blocks will be on point.

I really want the edges to be black to showcase the color in the center.  I ended up making two more variations for the side triangles but didn't sew the strips together.  I'm going to sleep on this and maybe stop here and show it all to Tess when I see her next week.  I can be sewing the sashing between the blocks and the sashing strips with cornerstones in the meantime.  It's a puzzle, that's for sure.

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Options on point

Sunday, I started working on It's the Point, gathering fabrics, cutting, and making some samples as I test out Tess' pattern.  There were several ways I could make this lap-sized quilt - black or gray sashing, colorful or black cornerstones, colorful or black setting triangles (since the blocks are on point).  The individual blocks end up being 7" which is a bit unusual.  Here's my favorite of the three color combinations I tried out.  I have two others which I'll probably sew together to use on the back.

The picture makes it look like there's a spot on one of the cornerstones, but it's just a big polka dot.  After sleeping on it, I settled on this option and cut out all the big center squares.  They're 5" so a couple of charm squares would have worked, but I'm not real wild about using precuts.  Instead, I got two identical bundles of batik fat eighths, cut those up for both the centers and the cornerstones and added squares from stash.  The grays and black came from stash and Joann's.

So far, the blocks are pretty easy to put together, which I think is The Point of this pattern.  I have about a third done and still need to figure out what to use for the setting triangles.  Later today, I'll venture to the quilt shop and see if I can find a multi-colored print with a black background.  

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to the return of the dryer repair guy tomorrow afternoon.  Doing small loads almost daily and drying on a rack and the treadmill in the basement is getting old.  With almost daily overnight snows and very cold temperatures lately, we've been indoors more, so I've replaced some curtains, washed others, and done a little more baking - whole wheat bread and muffins, mostly.   


Sunday, February 27, 2022

Another foot of snow

It snowed all day Friday, but yesterday was typically sunny and cold (high of 20 but 5 degrees when we got up).  Everything got plowed and shoveled, and the world was bright and shiny.  I stayed in and watched Paul fill the bird feeders which had gone empty during the snow.  This morning, I surprised a big deer at one - no wonder they get empty so fast!  And six more ran through the backyard in the dark.  

Meanwhile, I finished the next round of the Unity quilt and anticipated the next one - 6" blocks that are a variation on Friendship Star.  Will I have enough fabric?  I know I have enough neutrals and bright yellow, but what about navy and light blues?  Guess I'll find out later in the month when I do the next round.  It's about 42" square now and will end up queen-sized.  

I'm going to set it aside and work on a few other things, including various blocks of the month.   I have a lot of projects going here and there and have run out of project boxes.  I need to get a few more so I can retire some of my pizza boxes.  The Unity quilt doesn't fit in one, so I'm using a plastic bag Paul got at the hospital.

My first project today will be making a few blocks of It's The Point so I can show them to a potential customer and to the pattern designer, Tess.  I have quite a few charm squares all cut but need to cut the framing/sashing strips.  My version is going to look quite a bit different than Tess' sample, but I'm testing the pattern and hope my bright and black colorway will be helpful to her.

Monday, February 21, 2022

Spinners

I finished this time's Austen Jubilee blocks with these four 6" Bonnie Hunter "Spinner" blocks. 

They were really easy!  I am running low on my "Jane Austen at Home" fabrics and wonder if I ought to order some more.  Guess I'll wait and see what the next assignment will be before I do.  

This was a very easy pattern, and I finished the blocks within an hour.  I wondered if they might be a good block to make in quantity for my mixed RSC in April.  I also wanted to try having the background fabric as a true background and not as the focal point of the block.  So I made a few more with yellow centers.  Easy peasy.

They do look an awful lot like the Friendship Stars I made in January, but with different colors, they will be fine.  I'll put these aside for now and wait until I find out what the color for April will be.  In the meantime, it's time to get back to work on my Unity quilt and start getting fabric together to test Tess' It's the Point quilt.  

Yesterday was a blustery, cold day, so I finished reading Quilt City Murder and started on another cozy set in a bookstore on Maryland's Eastern Shore.  We took one walk which was about all we could stand.  Today it's warmer, but cloudy, so we will most likely get in a few walks.  We need the fresh air!