Colour Challenge

This month's colour challenge - the one I wasn't going to do - is complete!  So much for making a small quilt though - I think this one ended at 60x80".  I went to the LQS this past weekend to buy some fabric for the background, since I didn't have enough of anything in my stash (and some extra pink & yellow because I'd run out).

My plan was to get something in cream for the background, but when I showed it to someone there, she immediately said "Black.  Or something dark".  Being stubborn :) I headed over the creams anyway, but when I tried some out it looked insipid.  Just blah.  I should know better - the quilt ladies are always right :)

It took me a while, but I got my head turned around and into the "dark" zone, and came home with this purple fabric.  Which, of course, the lady at the quilt shop had picked out immediately (once I unburied myself from the cream fabrics).

And the bonus feature is, the dark purple was the one colour I was missing from the palette - I really should have known what colour I needed, shouldn't I?

Check out more challenge quilts on Judy's blog

Design Wall Monday - July 30

Wow, it's the end of July already.  I wasn't going to participate in this month's colour challenge, because I had enough on my plate.  Camp Loopy (project 2 done, project 3 started).  New long arm machine (4 quilts done, 1 more practice quilt loaded). Plenty of Block of the Month to keep me busy.  But one day last week I decided to see what I could pull from my stash for the challenge this month, and I came up with these fabrics.  Then, I figured I'd make an easy, small quilt.  It would after all be nice to hit the end of the year able to say I'd done every colour challenge.

So I designed a quilt, and cut all my pieces.  Put it together, and the "small" quilt was 50" across!  Well, at that point, I decided I might as well make it a full twin size quilt. So here is the current progress of my "small" colour challenge this month.  A few border strips to sew, and I should be able to call it done, before the end of the month tomorrow.  The colours are a bit brighter in person - it was pretty dark when I took this photo.

Hop over to Patchwork Times to see more design walls today.

Stash report - July 29

This was a really good week for, in stash usage.  It was also a good week for stash enhancement :)  I did use every scrap of fabric I bought for baby quilts - so much so, that I had to head back out and buy some additional fabric for bindings.  I guess I forgot to calculate that into my plans.  I was reasonably well-restrained at my fabric shop yesterday, but I did also pick up some additional fabric for the colour challenge quilt - background and a couple quarters to add a border to the quilt.  5 1/2 yards came home in total.

Stash used this week
4 3/4 yards - backing for baby quilts
4 yards - practice quilts (is this cheating?  Four 1 yard strips, put together to make 2 "quilts" for long arm practice.)
4 1/2 - colour challenge star
Total used this week: 13 1/4 yards

Stash usage this year:
102 yards out

Now, back to watching the Olympics and knitting (since I don't have a TV in the sewing room)

Saturday musings

Another quilt done on my long arm.  I still have a ways to go, but I'm really enjoying this.  2 hours, loaded to off the machine.  No more crawling around on the floor for an hour, pinning the heck out of a quilt.  And no more stuffing oodles of fabric and batting through a little 7" throat on my Husqvarna.  I can see what I'm doing, things don't shift, and the machine (mostly) plays nice with me :)

I tried a couple different things this time.  I did a border design.  I thought I'd try taking the quilt off and turning it, to complete the side borders rather than stopping and starting my way down the length.  Neat idea, but I quilted a small crease into the backing by doing this - I didn't stretch it quite enough when attaching back to the frame.  At least I know what to be careful of for next time.

In the main area, I did a small stipple in the focus blocks, around the animals to make them stand out.   Then a  simple meander in the brown background, and a wave along the striped border sections.

And then, because I needed a break, I did some work on my colour challenge quilt for this month.  I had not planned to do one - the palette did not really speak to me, and I had so much to do with the new long arm.  But I pulled some fabric a week ago, and decided to do a quick small quilt.  Quick I still agree with, even if the ladies at the LQS laughed when I showed them my definition of quick :) 

However, I did not manage the "small" part.  This star is 50" square (once I add the background blocks it will be square, anyway). So, since it is so big already, I'm going to add a top/bottom border about 10" each, and then another border all around, to make it about 60x80 - which should be about right for a twin bed.

Success!

Guess what this is.  It is my very first quilt completed on my Handi Quilter Avante!!  The machine arrived on Friday, and after I set it up I've spent a few days doing some practice quilts.  And finally I couldn't stand the suspense any longer (I've never claimed to be a patient person :) ), so I loaded one of my recent charity quilts to have a go at it.  I decided to use a pantograph for this one - it seemed a bit easier, and would give me a good view of my driving skills.

Overall, not too bad in my opinion.  A bit wobbly in places, but I hope that will improve with more practice. The machine performed wonderfully.  And I have now figured out where/how to oil it, so hopefully I didn't do any damage running it for 3 days without basic maintenance.

Here are some of my practice sections, for posterity :)  Some more sad feathers.  Although they do seem a bit improved over the last set, so maybe there is still hope for me.

A random selection of filler options.  I really like the way the flames came out.  And how easy they were.  With a bit of practice, the one beside that (clamshells?) may turn into a reasonable option too.  I'm thinking I will save this sampler, and run the same patterns again in about a month.  Hopefully there will be some marked improvement at that point :)

 And just for fun, my name again. This time with a dot over the i, and a much better job of tracing the lines where I needed to backtrack.

Design Wall Monday - July 23

There's lots going on today. Even some actually sewing on my design wall (well, table, since my wall is still full of quilts).  This is my colour challenge quilt. for July.  I needed a break from long arming, so I put this together last night.

I got my long arm running yesterday, so that occupied most of my day.  I had a great time playing with it, and finsihed my first "quilt".  Just a practice piece, to see how bad I am at this :)

I wrote my name.

Made some really bad feathers.

And some leaves.  I'm pretty happy with how these came out, but I do seem to have a problem.  The machine *really* likes to go left/right, so a lot of my stems are straight horizontal.  I'm not sure if that's typical and I just need practice, if I'm doing something wrong, or if there's an issue with my setup.  I should be able to find out this week from the distributor (I'm betting on #1 or 2).

Stash Report - July 27

Finally, a positive stash report.  Of course, it falls the week Judy isn't doing a link-up, because her blog is moving, but I'm posting my success anyway :)  I have 7 yards out this week.  4 yards for 2 baby quilt tops.  And 3 yards for my first "quilt" loaded on my long arm!!!

Stash usage this year:
88 3/4 yards out

I loaded 2 pieces of flat fabric, just for practice. And I've been playing most of the afternoon.  I'm going to go find all the Free Motion Quilting challenges from past months, and try some of them out next.  I'm having a ton of fun!  Here it is, all set to start pass #3.

I also went digging this month, and picked some fabric for the colour challenge.  I have a design in mind - not sure it'll happen before the end of the week, with this new toy in my basement, but the option is there if I need a break from standing up quilting.