Quilts for Boston Quilt Blocks

Over the weekend I managed to make this block for the Quilts for Boston effort the Boston MQG is organizing. Blocks are to be 12.5" x whatever, so I made this block 12.5" x a lot longer. I totally forgot to grab the final measurements.

While working on another project that I hope to reveal soon, I made this block as a leader and ender project. This one finishes at 12.5" x 12.5" and uses a whole bunch of 2.5" squares that I had just lying around.

A huge thank you to everyone who has already made and contributed blocks. We have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of support and love. I've taken the lead on the sponsorship/donation component of this effort and personally, I have been blown away by the generosity of so many vendors and quilt shops.

WIP Wednesday: Octagonal Orb

I finally started on a new project - an Octagonal Orb quilt based on the pattern posted on The Modern Quilt Guild Blog a while back.  I saw the grey and red block and thought it would be great to make a whole quilt with a different color in each orb.

Here's the first block that I made with grey and aqua.  I really love this block and I think I'm really going to love this quilt.  I'm going to wait to trim all of the blocks until I have all of them made.  I prefer to wait to trim my blocks until all are made to ensure all will be the same size.

The next one I will be piecing is the yellow block.  I really like the yellow with the grey here as well.

The lime green block is also ready to be sewn together.  Once again, loving this one.

I also have a dark purple, red, orange, pink, teal and dark blue that are prepped and ready to be pieced together, but those are all still in the small 2 1/2" square stage.

I'm hoping to have this done by the beginning of August in time for the special exhibit at the Lowell Quilt Festival where the BMQG will have a special exhibit. We'll see if I make that goal with everything that I have going on this summer before the festival, with the 4th of July, weddings, etc. I'll give myself a 50/50 chance.

Trying Something Out

I signed up for the Modern She Made Swap on Flickr last week and received my partner info on Monday.  All of last weekend, I had an idea in my mind that I just had to try out.  I kept seeing a lot of traditional blocks made in a modern way.  I had this idea for a house block that I just had to try out.

This is what I sketched out in MS Publisher to get a sense of what I was looking to do.  I was thinking that the rainbow would be a strip of 1/4" bits of fabric.

What did I do? Test it out of course.

I cut out strips of Kona in 3/4" widths and sewed them together. Cut them in half, sewed them together.  

Rinse and repeat until you're left with this:

A rainbow strand of fabric.

I was so pumped with where I was going with this, I just continued even further and created this:

Um, I think I'm in love!

I think I'll add a small border in a light brown.

I'm debating between the cream, which is actually lighter than this picture depicts since it was taken late at night, or a light brown.  I'm going to have to sit on this one for a little bit to decide which one I want. 

I'm not sure this is really my partner's style for this swap, but I thought it would be fun to try anyway. 

Tile Quilt Block 3 Finished

While traveling last week I managed to finish the third tile quilt that I started during my work trip to Vegas a few weeks ago.

These blocks take a LONG time to finish.  They will be cut down to finish at 10" when all said and done, but with 20+ pieces that need to be needle turned, they sure can take a while.  Basically, it took me four 4-hour flights to almost finish it and another hour or so at home.  I find needle turn applique on a plane to be more difficult than at home because of the vibration of the plane, so it certainly took longer than if I were at home.

Here are the first three blocks. 1/3 of the way done!  At this pace, maybe I'll finish in a few years! ::wink wink::

Guess What I Finished?

That's right, I finally finished the ten stars that are going to be a part of the border for my 12 Days of Christmas, FQS BOM quilt.

The tricky part about these blocks was matching the point where the white points met near the center of the star.  Because the white pieces were at different angles, I couldn't just line them up and sew 1/4" seam.  I had to slightly overlap one over the other.  Let's just say I became friendly with my seam ripper while piecing these.  After I pieced the entire block, I realized that it actually looked cool when some of the blue points were cut off because it gave the block a more random look, which is the look that I think the block is going for, so I actually did it on purpose on some of the blocks.  It's so counter-intuitive to cut off points that I tried to make perfect, but I like the effect.

Octagonal Orb

On The Modern Quilt Guild's blog, a tutorial was recently posted for an Octagonal Orb quilt block.

*Image source: The Modern Quilt Guild Blog

I decided that I wanted to make a quilt using this pattern.  I like the color scheme of this block, but I thought it would be cool to alternate the color where the red is in the block above for each block I make.  One block could be red, another green, another purple, etc.

Last weekend I started going through my stash and began cutting my grey and white fabric into squares per the tutorial.  I realized I don't have very many grey/white fabrics, so I ordered some and plan to seek out some more as I visit fabric stores over the near future.  The biggest challenge is finding grey and white fabrics without black or other colors.  I want the look of just grey and white with the accent color.  This will probably be a longer-term project.

These half yard cuts just arrived last night.  The color is off a bit since this photo was taken late at night and the lighting wasn't great.  They're all grey grey and white fabrics.

What did I do with them? I began cutting them all up!

I still have a bunch left to cut, but hey, what else will I be doing without my sewing machine?  CUTTING!

Storm at Sea Progress

I began planning and making a storm at sea quilt for my parents a while back but put it aside to work on a few other things recently. 

Here's the rough sketch that I did a while back based on the fabrics that I am using.  The colors are totally off shade wise, but It's good enough to get the gist of things.

I finished the 42 3" small squares yesterday and I'm going to move to the large squares next.  I think there's 30-something large square blocks.  I'm paper piecing this quilt because I like the accuracy it gives me without having to worry about my 1/4" seam being off a bit.  That's the beauty of paper piecing, you don't have to worry about that.  Just sew on the line.

This is what a stack of 42 3" paper pieced blocks looks like all trimmed up. 

Designer Mystery BOM - Block 9

Whew, I'm on a roll.  I not only finished block 8 of the Fat Quarter Shop's designer mystery BOM, I finished block 9 too.  This one is supposed to be two matching ornaments, but i think it looks more like two Chinese lanterns.

Can I keep this momentum up?  I certainly hope so. 

Tile Quilt Class

On Saturday KK and I took a class at Emma's Quilt Cupboard in Franklin, MA to make a tile quilt using needle turn applique.  I've been learning more needle turn applique this year and I thought this would be a fun class to take. 

This is the class sample.  I thought the quilt was cute, although not quite my style.  After looking at it, I decided to make mine in Asian fabrics. 

Here is the beginning of my block, pre any applique.  It looks busy and not that wonderful, but once I started to needle turn, things really started to come to life and I really liked the block more and more.

Here's the block as of this morning, almost finished.  I just have to turn the three end pieces on the right and the one on the bottom left.  I really like it now that the grout has been formed. 

Here are blocks from other students.  (sorry for the blurryness, all of the photos were taken with my phone.)  I love the idea of using different background fabrics.  I think it would be cool to have multiple blocks with a rainbow of fabrics for the background, red for one, orange for another, etc. 

I might prep a few blocks to take with me on my upcoming trip to Paris.  I think this would make a good project to do on a plane. 

Designer Mystery BOM - Block 7

A finished up block 7 of the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery BOM recently.  I have blocks 8 and 9 that I need to make up.  Yes, I'm behind.  I'm actually behind on both of my BOMs.  Oh well, it is what it is.  Life has been crazy lately.  I'm not on a deadline or anything.  I find that when I put myself on a deadline that it just stresses me out and takes the fun away from quilting.  I want quilting to remain fun, so I will continue to do things on my terms and not stress out about being behind. 

I love this block.  Isn't it cute?  I think so.  Believe it or not, in my 8+ years of quilting, this is the first time I have ever made flying geese.  I don't know why.  I don't have an aversion to them, I just have never made them.  Now I can say that I have.

Here are the first 7 blocks all together.  Once finished the quilt will have some sashing in between all of the blocks.

My UFO Collection

Have you ever stopped to check out your UFO collection?  Yeah, I did that recently and realized I have quite a few.  Here are some of them and what I plan to do with them (schedule, if I have one, etc.)

This quilt was one of the first ones that I featured on this blog.  I still need to have this quilt quilted.  I might send this one out.  Basically, I'm not sure yet when I plan to have this finished.

Yet another quilt top that needs to be quilted.  I started to piece the back to get this quilted, but again, I'm not sure when I'm going to finish this one. 

This quilt also needs quilting.  I don't even know how I want to quilt it, so it will likely stay unfinished for a while.

This quilt is partially quilted.  I had issues with the tension with my old sewing machine, but I've yet to take it back out now that I have had my Bernina for the past year. 

 

These two are blocks from the McCall's Mystery quilt.  I hated how the quilt ended up, so I stopped making the blocks and put this one aside.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it now.  I'll have to find something else to do.

I still need to quilt this quilt as well.  I really love this quilt.  I've been waiting for my machine quilting stills to improve before I dig into this one. 

 

I made all of these hexagons from a 2.5" charm pack that I won but I haven't finished piecing them together.  Who knows when I'll get back to this.

I just have to get the binding on this quilt.  I plan to give this as a wedding present this year, so this will be finished by the end of the year.

I still need to quilt this quilt as well.  I'm thinking of doing something simple because there are so many small pieces, so hopefully this is one that will be completed this year.

I'm actually in the middle of quilting this top, so I should have this quilt finished once I get my sewing room back in shape. 

I still haven't received all of the BOMs for this quilt, so it is still in progress.  I would love to have it completed by next Christmas, but I don't know if that will actually happen.

These are the blocks I got back from the NEMQG bee.  I now need to figure out what to do with them all.  Hmm...

I made this block when I was learning to hand applique.  I now need to figure out how I want to finish it.  Hmm...

I need to figure out what I want to do next with this block.  Do I want to add a border, just quilt it.  I don't know.  I'm leaning towards a small border, but we'll see. 

My goal is to have the Fiesta! quilt top completed by mid-June so that I can send it off to the quilter then.  I just added myself to her schedule for August/September, so I should have some time. 

I have three more blocks that have been released for this BOM to catch up on and make all of the setting blocks.  I don't think I'll have this top finished by the end of the year, but we'll see.

This is a block I made that Carol Doak released to celebrate 4500 members in her Yahoon group.  It's now over 7000 members and I've yet to do anything with it.  I am so stumped with this one.  I don't know if I will ever finish it. 

Phew, that's a lot.  ::Sigh::