October UFO finished

I was afraid i might need more days in October to finish the UFO challenge for this month.... #6. i just finished it yesterday. in the interests of time, it was quilted with Baptist Fan boards from Quiltazoid. there was no time for custom quilting.

I am kind of glad this year is about over....only 2 more challenges to go...and my last 2 are simple ones....thankfully.

This one started out with this idea...just a page pulled out of a magazine somewhere.

I had several blocks paper pieced....but not the fabrics that i used for all of it. i realized early on that this original pattern wasn't going to happen if it was to be done by the end of the month.

i had these corners....when you put them together they actually don't join to properly make a circle. unless that was operator error...it's possible.

I only had 2 of these star blocks done...so 6 more of those to do.

The black in one of these corner blocks doesn't match the others. i found the black fabric that i used originally....AFTER i finished the fourth block with a diferent black. i was NOT going to re-do it. it is what it is. you might not notice if i didn't point it out. 3 blocks have dots and one block is plain black.

Did not have any of the log cabin blocks made....but they go together fairly easily and quickly. by this point i realized i better call it done or it would never get finished.

Many little other paper pieced blocks had to be assembled. i sure like paper piecing but it is time consuming.

I had to add the rows of red and gray/brown lattice to make the size match up with the corner blocks.

Those stars seem to take forever....there are 8 sections for each one.

It wound up being about 77" square...not a bad size but not anywhere near queen size. but i am ok with that. i hung onto the pattern. i still might go back and revisit that one day and make it as the pattern shows. i still like it.

This is the back.

Don't you love my bright yellow binding?  LOL   i thought it needed it to tie back to the yellow in the middle.

I was anxious every month that Judy pulled a number....i knew this one was going to be a bear to finish. i pulled it out about 3 months ago and worked a few blocks when i could....and good thing, too, or it still might not be finished.

November and December are gonna be a breeze....nothing elaborate like this. thank you, Judy, for pushing us to finish those UFOs. Dare i try 2 UFOs a month for 2013?   we'll see...

Later

Spectacular customer quilt

I just finished this terrific customer quilt. terrific because of her piecing skills and this pattern....not my quilting...just making that clear. hahahaha

It wasn't quite queen size....but pretty close. took me about a week. she 'just' wanted SID....ALL the seams...SID. 

After a couple blocks i figured out how to travel around with one start and stop and just a few trace overs.

I used (at customer request) flat black So Fine thread...top and bottom.

Absolutely no quilting shows except in that narrow green border.

There are 7 borders....4 narrow reds, 2 blacks, and a green. she wanted some feathers...so i put those in the green. the black borders have freehand fills.

I think she paper pieced this. those are some awesome pineapple blocks.

The back was a black wide fabric. i tried to mute the color a bit to gray so the quilting might be seen....but i don't think i was very successful.

So, the main reason for this post is the awesome quilt....just pretend you can see quilting. LOL

That's 2 down and 4 to go for this month. gonna throw one of my small ones on the frame tomorrow and panto it up. then class on Monday and back to quilting on Tuesday. my sister's quilt is up next.

Hope to get all caught up in the next 2 weeks so i can go play at the Duck

Later

Marquita's Stellar

This quilt belongs to my friend, Marquita. it is called Stellar and was designed by my friend, Maralie. this is one of our class quilts...so i have quilted a few of them.

It is 82" square...Glide thread on top...Bottom Line on bottom.

Cool applique flower in the middle. the only directions i got were to outline the applique and crosshatch the middle.

There are lots of different stars...

Stars...

And more stars 

All the stars (except one that looks like a cross) are the same star but with different middles.

Cute little prairie points around the middle. i made up the design in the corner. kind of looks like the leaves of a water lily plant.

First border with 9 patches on point....they look like band-aids to me. LOL

Back is a muslin

The 'band-aids' got CC and the last border got a swirly thing that i just made up.

Cross hatching around applique is hard....have to keep backtracking to get in small places.

I have one more quilt to do for Marquita....probably next month.

She doesn't live close any more so have to wait till she comes into town to see it. hope you like it Marquita.

More to come...

Later

First customer quilt of 2012

I just finished this lovely star quilt that was designed and pieced by my friend, Mary. i know she has a name for it....but i just can't think of it. i think of it as a floral centered star....not too original. LOL

She always has lovely fabrics that go together well...they are not fabrics that i would have chosen myself...i can't seem to pull them together like that... she has the knack.

She showed us how to do these stars one time in class. but mine never got all put together. i think i did 1 or 2 of them.

I kept the quilting rather simple...the stars got SID and a star in the center.

The background looked like circles to me. it took me a while to figure out how to quilt that concept...but i think this worked. used circle templates.

The inside border got feathers and the outside border got a 4 tier swag with 1 more swag between the original 4.

The back was one large piece...which i always like. and she let me cut the selvages off when i was through quilting. how cool is that. yards of selvages. thanks Mary

Now the rest of the month will be 3 or 4 of mine and 1 more customer quilt...for the church. gonna be a busy month.

Later

Twilight Stars in selvages

I am pushing to get my UFO selvage tops done so they can be quilted for a class i have in February. this one has been in the making for over a year. most of that time spent sitting in the cabinet.

The pattern is from Karen Griska's book  Quilts from the Selvage Edge.  it is one great book. although she only shows the pattern with the large white stars....you know i always have to change things up some. LOL 

I cut the triangles...hundreds and hundreds of them with my AccuQuilt machine. i dug out all the dark blue, purple, red and brown fabrics i had in the scrap boxes. a little tip....when you are cutting out parts...find a border at that time and put it with the pieces, too. then you don't have to scramble to find something for a border a year later once you have used up all the original fabrics. i wanted a dark purple border but didn't have enough of that. this border is a hand dyed piece that was sort of a reject...it is purple and brown...and didn't come out as i envisioned. but it seems to go alright with the stars.

Originally i just made 6 blocks but decided it wasn't the right proportion...so i made 3 more. those 3 were the recent additions. and one block had to be a reverse with a white background. and, yes, the white one probably should have been in the middle...but i already had the other 6 together and was too lazy to take it back apart again.

Making all those selvage triangles took some time. the little middle star has 12; the large star has 36; the background is 84 triangles. then multiply all that by 9.  you do the math...i don't want to think about it any more. i have a top and am going to try and quilt this up in january. i need a prayer to the quilting gods.

Although i like this pattern i probably won't be making another one. it's a whole lot of pieces. but there is another one in that book i want to make.

Gotta go quilt.

Later

Star Dance

This quilt is called Star Dance and the pattern is in the book Dancing Quilts from Straight Pieces by Debbie Bowles. there are so, so many cool quilts in this book that you will want to make them all.

I am using up my stash so this would have looked much different...and probably better...had i bought specific fabric. but i am on a mission to bust that stash. LOL

The bits of rectangles going around the border were supposed to go all the way around but i ran out of that fabric, so i improvised. i think it still looks acceptable. the yellow fabric was given to me by my sister. she had made plain curtains for her classroom a couple years ago and at the end of the year she gifted the fabric to me. i have finally used the last of that yellow. in fact, i was piecing tiny pieces together to get the last of that border done. had i realized i was running out i would have spread the piecing around a bit...but my overall planning is poor so one corner is a hodgepodge of pieces.

Here is a bit of a closer view. the pieces in the border and the 'dancers' inside the stars are from fabric that was brightly painted Easter eggs. i really don't know why i bought that fabric but it seemed to work ok here. and it is now all gone. LOL

And the backing is another Aunt Sophie inheritance piece. it is a pale blue of unknown parentage. it is thicker than a normal cotton but it quilted up just fine. i used the Star Swirl panto on this one....one of my favorite pantos.

The whole quilt is about 52" x 58"....good snuggly size for a munchkin.

I have to make more quilts from this book. some of the other patterns are: Line Dance, Electric Slide, Jitterbug, Cha Cha Zigzag, and Rock & Roll. gotta love those titles. There are 13 different quilts in this book. You might want to check it out....it's great fun.