Stash Report - Nov 29

I did pick up some fabric this weekend.  2 yards, to fill out some colours/fabrics for my block in a group project.  Now I just have to figure out how to make a steam engine quilt block.  I have a design, but creating it with improve piecing (one of the rules) is going to be a challenge.

I get to count some fabric out, too. This top was made at my retreat a couple of weeks ago.  It was a block I saw online - wrote my own instructions, because I didn't like the way the original was put together (too many fiddly little pieces).  I used pretty much every single scrap of fabric I had, and had just enough to make 24 blocks. I'm still debating whether this needs borders, but I'm leaning towards not.  This is 4.5 yards out.

Backing for this quilt is another 3 yards out.

It's been a while since I wrote a stash report, but here are my totals as of today

This week:
7.5 yards out
2 yards in

Stash totals for the year:
101 3/4 yards in
217 1/4 yards out
Total: 115 1/2 yards out

Mystery Time!

It's time for Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery, over at Quiltville.com.  These are always lots of fun (and lots of work - Bonnie does love her little pieces). Today - hundreds of 1/2 square triangles are on the schedule.  I'm having second thoughts about my grey fabric, given the white in it and the fact that we are pairing this grey with the white.  So I'm going to go have another dig through the stash. Recent cleaning unearthed some forgotten fabrics in my sewing room, so maybe something new will jump out at me today.

TBT - Pineapple Blues

Shortly after I started quilting, I had the silly idea that I wanted to make a Hawaiian quilt, using (somewhat) traditional methods.  I found a book about them, took one of the patterns (which of course makes it not a true Hawaiian quilt, since those should be unique for each project), and set to work. At first I considered a 40" square (the largest you can make without piecing seams in the quilt), but common sense prevailed and I went with 20" instead. I figured if I loved the technique I could make a few blocks to create a large quilt.

So I set to work, carefully following the directions - folding my fabric, tracing the design.  I was using a fairly heavy broadcloth for the colour (I still hadn't discovered the joy of quilt shops, way back then, so finding solids to work with was limiting), so I cut each section of the design individually (it was too think to cut in layers).  I carefully marked the background, pinned the applique and needle-turned the whole thing. That part actually went really went, and quite quickly.  Then I mounted the quilt top in a hoop and started the hand quilting. That went not so quickly.  I really did not enjoy the handquilting process at all. In retrospect, I think it was the restrictions of the hoop that bothered me - the next quilt I do by hand will be done out of the hoop. I recall doing that for a baby quilt for my nephew (when I didn't know any better) and I had really enjoyed doing it.

However, in 2010, as part of a UFO blitz, I finally finished this little quilt.  This poor little quilt sat out for so long that the colour in the background faded from off-white to white. I was going to do a skinny binding with the same fabric as the background, but the colour difference in the quilt and the leftover fabric was really noticeable. Oddly, the dark blue hardly faded at all, and fortunately I had some leftover. I decided, as I hunted for a suitable binding, that I had looked at this quilt long enough, and rather than being a wall hanging, it is going to be donated to the local children's hospital. They want quilts about 24" square, so I added a wide binding to bring this one up to size.

I was really happy with the outcome of this quilt. But I do wish it hadn't taken me so long to finish that I was sick of seeing it around. I kind of miss the little thing now, and would like to have that souvenir of my foray into Hawaiian quilting.

Please join me for Throwback Thursday today. The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.

Retreat Joy

I spent last weekend at a quilt retreat, and had a fabulous time!  So much going on that I had no time for blogging (not to mention that I can't blog from my phone).  But I'm back now, my visitors have left, and I plan to buckle down and get back to quilting.  To start things off, I won a block draw at the retreat!  This means that 39 people made blocks, and names were placed in a hat.

My name was drawn for the first prize - 30 blocks, plus all the bits to finish the quilt (pre-cut applique, borders, backing, binding, batting - the whole shebang).  The other 9 blocks went to a second winner, along with all the bits to finish a wall hanging. I finished up my
quilt top at the retreat, so everyone could see what their blocks became.

Now the challenge is to see if I can get it quilted before the next guild meeting. I suspect it might not make it, but maybe the January meeting.

TBT - Morning Splash

In November of 2009, Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times was doing a quilt-along.  I decided to jump in, but being pretty new to the whole process still, I decided to do a smaller version of her quilt using some fat quarters and other yardage that I had in my (small at the time) stash.   The quilt pattern was called "Morning Splash".

This was one of my first quilt that used a variety of colours, rather than shades of one colour. It took some convincing to decide to do this, and I followed Judy's colour scheme pretty closely in the hopes that I would not be disappointed with my choices.

I recall that I made a change to one section of the blocks, to avoid having the green and yellow side-by-side when I put the blocks together. But other than that, I was really happy with the colour choices and the end result of the quilt.  It was smaller than Judy's design, and that required me to recalculate some of the border sections. And I was pretty tight on some of the fabric (the colours of the border sections changed based on the pieces of fabric I was able to cut.

However, I was really happy with the end result. I quilted it with a meander in variegated purple thread, and backed it with green to match the green on the front.  It's a lovely lap-sized quilt, although currently spends most of its time protecting my couch from my kitties.  They seem to love it :)

Please join me for Throwback Thursday today. The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.