Nine-Patch Monday

My latest quilting obsession has been the humble nine-patch. One of my chosen projects for the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge is the amazing pattern "Ring Cycles" by Lessa Siegele. Here is my favorite version from her quilt pattern.

Ring Cycles" by Lessa Siegele, available from Craftsy

My version of the quilt will be a reversal of the colors above, a light background with blocks in blues, teals, greens and purples. I found a great background fabric, Chromadots from Blank Quilting. I knew I didn't want a solid background, but it couldn't be too distracting either. Here's the background with some of the first few blue blocks.

So far I have made about 140 blocks, approximately half of what is needed for the quilt. I couldn't resist putting a batch of blocks up on the wall to see how the design is coming together. It's so exciting to see the rings begin to show up (even though this doesn't include the background fabric except in the 9P blocks.)

I will be sharing with the following linky parties.:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Scraptastic Tuesday at Mrs Sew and Sow
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 1/25/16

There are some quilters who can cut and stitch quilts fast enough to make your head spin. I will never be one of those quilters. I am much more like the tortoise than the hare--slow and steady. Lately I have been trying harder to keep going on current projects rather than setting them aside for something new. As long as I keep making progress, I am happy. That is certainly better than adding to the UFO collection!

My latest slow-and-steady project has been Allietare, Bonnie Hunter's 2015 mystery quilt. I am not one of those quilters who had their quilt top finished within a day or a week of Bonnie's reveal on New Year's Eve. I made my blocks over the first 10 or so days of January, and I have been getting them all joined together since then. I have the center of the quilt finished and just need to get a border or two on it next.

I will be sharing with the following linky parties.:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Julie in GA

Moving Along on Allietare

It was a lovely, relaxing weekend with plenty of time spent quilting. I spent most of Saturday afternoon doing some cleaning up in the sewing room, and I also started working on a new project. Best of all, I finished making all of the blocks and setting triangles for Allietare, Bonnie Hunter's 2015 mystery. Next I will begin joining the blocks together. It's my usual photo angle through a doorway, cutting off some of the blocks on the right side and the bottom.

I am very happy with how this quilt is turning out and had a great time doing Bonnie's mystery. Because I decided in advance to make a smaller version of the pattern, I made 2/3 - 3/4 of the number of units Bonnie's directions listed. It worked out very well and I have surprisingly few extra parts left over. Those leftovers will probably be incorporated into the back.

I will be sharing with the following linky parties.:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Scraptastic Tuesday at Mrs. Sew and Sow
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Julie in GA

Halfway There with Allietare

Actually, I'm not truly halfway there (I just liked the rhyme), but I have made half of my blocks for Bonnie Hunter's 2015 mystery Allietare. Bonnie shared the final reveal of her beautiful quilt on New Year's Eve, and I spent some time over the weekend working on my blocks.

My version is being made as a Quilt of Valor. Where I used light and dark blues, Bonnie had grey and black. Otherwise the colors are similar. My version will end up with 20 of the star blocks, set 4 x 5, and 12 of the alternate blocks. I haven't starting making the pieced setting triangles yet.

I will be sharing with the following linky parties.:

Allietare Mystery Link-Up at Quiltville
Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Julie in GA

String Pinwheel blocks

There are a couple of Christmas projects in the works that I can't show here yet. In between those I spent some time last week making String Pinwheel blocks to send to Kat for her Covered in Love block drive. Each month Kat chooses a block design and color palette, then takes all the blocks she receives and makes them into quilts for the families of patients who pass away in the hospital where she works as a nurse.

Here are the 9 String Pinwheel blocks that I will be sending to Kat soon. Her requested color scheme this month was peacock colors of green, sky blue and purple for the string section, and browns for the corner triangles. It's not a color combination I would have put together, but the finished blocks look terrific as a group. They are also a greay way to use up scraps. Kat, these blocks will be on their way to you soon.

I am linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday at Mrs Sew and Sow and with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Julie in GA

Allietare Mystery Link-Up

Bonnie Hunter is world famous for her scrappy quilts, and every year she conducts a mystery quilt-along beginning the day after Thanksgiving. I have done one of her previous mysteries, and was undecided about whether I would participate this year until I saw her fabric palette. I always prefer to go my own direction on fabrics/colors rather than copying the designer's choices, but this can be quite nerve wracking on a mystery quilt.

Bonnie's colors for this year's mystery "Allietare" are deep red, gold, black, grey, and light neutrals. I realized that it would work nicely to switch out just a couple of those colors to turn it into a patriotic palette for a Quilt of Valor. Where Bonnie is using grey, I am substituting light blue, and I will use deep blue instead of her black. The red, gold, and lights will remain in my version.Here is my inspiration fabric.

I got a late start on the first step due to being out of town over Thanksgiving. My plan is to make 1/2 - 2/3 as many units as Bonnie's instructions call for to make a large throw size. I have about 140 HSTs finished from Step 1, and have just started on Step 2.

I will be sharing with the following linky parties.:

Allietare Mystery Link-Up at Quiltville
Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Julie in GA

Design Wall Assortment

My design wall is covered in all sorts of different blocks today, showing the range of projects that I have been working on lately. The one thing they have in common is that they are all scrappy, as are most of my quilts lately. I just love playing with a wide variety of fabrics, the more the better!

At the top right are some of the bowties I have been making all year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. At the bottom left are three groupings of circle applique blocks, my other RSC quilt for 2015. I have all the blocks for this quilt joined into groups like those shown and hope to finish assembling the top this week.

The hexagon star and snowflakes were one of my earlier RSC projects, begun in August, 2013. I have started joining the stars and snowflakes together, but it is a very slow process for me. I have a total of 10 large stars and 20 snowflakes to stitch together.

At the upper left are four Falling Leaves blocks. These were made for the Covered in Love block drive over at Kat and Cat Quilts. Kat is a nurse, and she has started a charity making quilts to give to the families of patients who have died at the hospital where she works. You can find the block pattern HERE and read more about Covered in Love HERE. 

Those sure are some big leaves, aren't they?! They make quite the contrast to my other blocks. The leaf blocks finish at 12", the bowties and the circle blocks all finish at 4".

Besides working on all these projects last week, I also made the back for a quilt. I am hoping to get the back for the circle quilt made in the next few days so I can take it to my long-arm quilter over the weekend.

I will be sharing with the following linky parties.:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Julie in GA

Scrap Hexies

For some reason, this seems to be a period when I am more interested in hand stitching than spending time at the machine. I finished making appliqued circle blocks for my current Rainbow Scrap Challenge project a week ago, which left me wondering what to work on next. I pulled out the hexagon stars and snowflakes, a past RSC project that I started in 2013.

All of the stars and snowflakes are made, and I have started joining them together. After that I will need to finish off the background areas around the sides. There's still a long ways to go on this quilt, but it will be fun to see it come together.

I will be sharing with the following linky parties.:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Julie in GA

Some Assembly Required

Over the weekend I appliqued the last of the circle blocks that I have been making for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge all throughout 2015. It was bittersweet when I finished that final block, but it was also exciting because it meant I could start joining the blocks together into a top.

My usual method of joining blocks is to do them in sections rather than big long rows, especially when the blocks are set on point. For this quilt I started with a 5x5 grouping at the center of the quilt. The section at the lower right also has the blocks stitched together. I am currently working on the upper left section.

"True Colors" pattern by Nancy Mahoney from her book Simple Circles and Quick Curves

I am very eager to get this quilt top put together. I haven't decided yet if I will add a border or not. If I do, it will be black and white. I will audition some options after the center is done.

I will be sharing with the following linky parties.:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Julie in GA

Wall of Wonky Stars

I began making Wonky Star blocks for Alycia's block drive back in September. I posted photos of the blocks on the blog, which inspired my sister to start making some blocks too. We decided to join forces and try to get enough blocks made for a Quilt of Valor. Here is my design wall covered with our collection of wonky stars.

Somehow I ended up with two extra blocks, but they will go to Alycia along with the quilt top that these will become. I hope to start sewing them together this week. After that, they will only need a border or two, then away they go to Quilts of Valor for quilting. Wonky is not my usual style, but I sure had a good time making these stars.

I will be sharing with the following linky parties.:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Julie in GA

More Fun with Circles

My design wall is still covered with the rainbow of circle blocks. The empty spaces are for the blocks that still need to be appliqued. There are also several of the light green circles up there waiting to be stitched to the backgrounds.

The main change to this project over the past week was that I added the setting triangles around the four sides. I might also add scrappy borders of the white and black prints later if I decide the quilt should be bigger. I think I will start sewing the blocks together into sections soon. I'm happy with the arrangement of the colors and ready to start putting it all together.

I will be sharing with the following linky parties.:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Julie in GA

WIP Wednesday--Improv Scrappy blocks

When visiting family in Wisconsin a few weeks ago, my sister and I started making scrappy blocks using some of the huge collection of scraps at our mother's house that had accumulated over the past several decades. You can read more about that visit and see plenty of photos of our project HERE.

We are hoping to have enough blocks made when I return there in a couple of weeks so that we can start putting them together into throw quilts. I finally started making some additional blocks this week. It's not as much fun making them by myself as it was working as a team, but I hope to have a dozen blocks done when I go back.

These blocks feature some old favorite friends--Holly Hobbie, Raggedy Andy, and the Cheshire Cat. None of us remembers what the piece of Alice in Wonderland fabric was used for, but it is adorable!

I am linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. Check it out for tons of amazing ideas and inspiration. 

Julie in GA

Improv Scrappy blocks

The past few days have been a wonderful scrappy quilt-a-thon. My sister and I have been sorting through a multitude of fabrics scraps accumulated over several decades of family garment sewing. We decided to use them in improvisationally-pieced blocks to make at least 3 throw quilts, one for each of us plus our mother.

We got together on Sunday and began working our way through a basket of scraps, cutting strips and piecing the first few blocks. We each continued working on more blocks the next day, then got together again today to join forces again. We decided to finish 36 blocks today, 12 for each quilt. Once we got them all done, we laid them all out on the floor to admire our work. 

We all agreed that we preferred the blocks with spacing between, and will probably go with a medium grey sashing similar to the color of the carpet. Unfortunately, when we reduced the layout to our planned 12 blocks, the effect was rather disappointing. However, when we switched to 20 blocks, the result was much more satisfying. That means more blocks to make, but it's worth the extra effort.

Most of the scraps and strips will remain at our mother's house, although my sister took some pieces home to continue making blocks. Our original plan of 36 blocks has now been bumped up to 60, which may require another trip to Wisconsin and mini quilting retreat. It's been a wonderful few days visiting with family and quilting together.

I am linking up to Scraptastic Tuesday at Mrs Sew and Sow and to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. Check them both out for tons of amazing ideas and inspiration. 

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 2/3/14

After finishing the quilt top for my Scrappy Sampler quilt a week ago, I decided to treat myself and begin a new project. I have been planning to make a baby quilt for a co-worker, and I finally decided to get it started. So far I have made close to 80 bowtie blocks and have pieces for 20 or 30 more cut out. Yesterday I started playing with possible layouts for my blocks.

The blocks measure 5" finished, and I will probably do a 6 x 8 block setting, plus a 2-1/2 or 3" border. My favorite layout right now is the barn-raising type setting (upper right.) That may change once the rest of the blocks are finished. I need to get this quilt done soon--baby's due date is March 11th!

I am linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. Check it out for tons of amazing ideas and inspiration. I am also linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Fabric Frenzy Friday at Fort Worth Fabric Studio.

Julie in GA

WIP Wednesday--Bonus Day Off! 11/27/13

Today was originally scheduled to be a work day, but my wonderful boss announced yesterday afternoon that she was giving us an extra day off for the Thanksgiving weekend. What a wonderful treat!

We were surprised to discover a sprinkling of snow on the back deck and around the yard when we got up this morning. I realize it is nothing compared to many areas of the country. Such things aren't unusual where I grew up in Wisconsin, but snow is big news in the Atlanta area, especially before Thanksgiving. I hope the thousands of travelers at the nearby Atlanta airport all make it to their Thanksgiving destinations safely.

I hope to have plenty of quilting time throughout the weekend. I have been sewing together my brown hexies into a star for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. So far I have two rows made and several to go, then the rows get joined together.

I am linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. There is so much to see there! Last time I checked, there were over 100 blogs linked up.

Happy Thanksgiving to friends and family everywhere!

Julie in GA

Dazzle block test 9/11/13

Not too long ago I discovered the Paper Piecing Party on Fridays at Quiet Play. I love the accuracy possible with paper piecing and was happy to see examples of other quilter's projects. One design that really spoke to me was "Dazzle," a new block designed by Esther who blogs at ipatchandquilt.wordpress.com. The following photo shows a gorgeous pillow she made from this block. Isn't that fabulous!

Since it is a new pattern, Esther was looking for volunteers to try it out for her, and I offered to be one of her testers. She emailed me the pattern with instructions and color options. One of my favorite things that she included was a page with line drawings of the design so I could try out my color scheme ideas. Here are a couple of versions. I decided to go with the second one, and you can see my fabric swatches for it at the bottom.

This pattern is constructed in 12 wedge-shaped sections with a total of nearly 100 pieces. You can see the numbers below my fabric swatches. I coded my foundations with these same numbers to help me get the right fabrics in the right places. I printed an extra set of foundations which I cut up to use as patterns for pre-cutting my fabrics. I like to rough cut my fabric to match the shape it needs to cover. You can see the red arrows in two areas which are there to help me keep the straight grain of the fabric at the outer edge of the block.

Piecing the pattern went pretty smoothly. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of that part of the process...except when I screwed up! I pieced all 12 of the wedges and started joining them together in groups of three, then into two halves of six wedges each. Unfortunately, I had gotten a couple of the groups of three switched in position, which left me with this: 

The biggest problem I had in making this block was in my fabric selection. I like the color scheme, but the two lightest yellow-orange fabrics are too close to the same and blend together too much. Not surprisingly, the most difficult part in making this block was matching up the twelve points at the center of the block. Mine isn't perfect, but it turned out pretty well. I need to go back in and close up the little hole where all the seams meet up at the center.

Here is my finished "Dazzle" block.

Thank you to Esther for allowing me to test your beautiful new block design. For anyone else interested, you can see her other patterns at Craftsy, or check out her blog here. I am linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and to the Paper Piecing Party on Friday at Quiet Play.

Julie in GA

WIP Wednesday--Flag quilt

In honor of Memorial Day, I decided to pull out this flag quilt top and get it quilted up for the summer. It was started in my quilt guild when we exchanged triangle squares to increase the variety of fabrics in our flags. I've had it packed away in a box for several years, and it feels great to be getting it  finished.

I got it layered and pin-basted yesterday, then started on the quilting. I used this great fabric from Connecting Threads on the back. I wish I had bought lots more of this one!

This should finish up pretty quickly, then I can hang it up to be enjoyed until Labor Day. I love the idea of having more seasonal quilt hangings that we can switch in and out through the year.

I am linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. You can check out lots of great projects there.

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday & WIP Wednesday

My design wall has blocks for three different projects hanging together right now.  I have been working on two of them recently, and am trying to decide what to do with the other one.

It feels a little scattered to have three different projects going at once, but I like it that way.  If I get stuck on one, I can switch over to another.  Some days I feel like planning and designing a quilt, other days I just want to sit down and sew something.  As long as I can follow through on finishing these quilts, all will be well. And the best part right now--all three of these projects are made with fabrics from my stash!

I should have been cleaning up my sewing room over the three-day weekend, but I couldn't resist these little pink & black Dancing Stars blocks.  I currently have seven blocks together, and they are so much fun to make!  The pattern is a quilt-along at Amy's Creative Side.  They are foundation pieced, and I cut fabrics for another 7 blocks on Saturday.  I am making the blocks as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013, and this month's color is pink.  My goal is to make 10-12 blocks each month in whatever color is chosen for the rainbow challenge, and that should give me enough by the end of the year for a throw quilt based on Amy's pattern.

I did a little work on my Scrappy Sampler blocks since last week's Design Wall.  I remade one block to get more contrast, and there are a couple more finished bowties.  I also spent some time playing in EQ7 with this quilt's blocks, trying to settle on my color palette.  Other than pulling together more fabrics for this project, I am set until our next meeting in February.

The other project hanging on the design wall is my Scrap Club Stars from last year.  I have a few more blocks made for this, but I need to settle on my final design in order to know how many additional blocks to make.  It's time to get back to this project and get it finished!

As usual, I will be linking up to Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.  Check out all the great inspiration there.  I am also linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Julie