January UFO Finished!

Yeaa! Now I'm caught up again.  I don't know why the quilt looks 'stretched' it really is square. Just funny photography I guess.  Here's front and back!

And a bonus picture of what it looked like outside yesterday. Lot's of hail and then sunshine and then more hail.

Now to work on a quilt for the grandkids teacher.

Enjoy!
Toni

Design Wall Tuesday?

Not really!  I didn't have anything new to show on the design wall. BUT, I did get my February UFO(s) done! You will be able to tell by the fabric that both of these quilts are very old. Not quite vintage but probably from the early '90ies.  When I made my list for the 2011 UFO Challenge, number 8 for me was "Whirligig" but when I unfolded it, I found that I had two! So I decided that even tho' I wasn't very excited about them, I would finish them.  Here they are, they will be used around here, certainly not given as gifts!

And what about my January UFO you ask....wellll, I had hoped to show that today too, but I've not finished hand sewing the binding.  I should have it done by Friday.

Cheers!
Toni

Design Wall Monday~February 7

If I showed a picture of my whole design wall, it would pretty much look like last week. I'm playing too much and not working on my UFO's or my Monochromatic quilt but quilting is supposed to be fun.Not an exercise in "have to do"

So I played! I want to do an airplane quilt and I want to do a blue and white quilt. So I think I am going to combine both and later this year be able to cross two off my list. Let me tell you about the following blocks.

In a Fons and Porter book there is a quilt called "Safe Landing" very much like the blue and white block above. I cut the templates and I cut fabric for one block. I started sewing and found...had I not paid attention earlier? That the block required set in seams. I hate set in seams! Many people hate curves, I don't but I do hate set it seams. I struggled with the block, it was only going to be a test block anyway but after that one, I knew I was not going to be making a full size quilt using that pattern.

But now that I've been working on being "liberated" I thought "ha! I can modify that block and it doesn't have to have set in seams."  That is what I did. Thus the blue and white block.

Then I thought "that was too fun but not exactly what I want so why not continue to play and use a tutorial I had saved previously and make another airplane?" It doesn't require templates. It doesn't require measuring and there are no set rules. You know what an airplane looks like. I made the blue and gold block from the following tutorial. (Thanks Amy!)

http://badskirt.blogspot.com/2009/10/airplane-block-tutorial.html

The gold and blue plane isn't exactly what I want either, the proportions are wrong but now that I've done one from Amy's tutortial I'm feeling very bold and this week I will continue to play with other sizes of airplane blocks, different tail options and different propeller shapes.

We are all artists. We just have to believe that we can do it!

Do you have an airplane block that you really like? I would love to see other designs.

Enjoy!
Toni

Liberated House Study

I need to practice roofs!  I guess that is why Sarah and Molly are sponsoring this liberated study!

Remember the Liberated Birds from January? They will be in the same quilt eventually.

Enjoy!
Toni

Design Wall Monday~January 31

This isn't a great picture but I think you can get the idea. I've got a lot going on! Besides the Yellow Challenge that I just finished, I've got my January UFO 3/4 of the way finished. So I'm still a little behind on that but it is an improvement  as it had been sitting in the closet for years as only an incomplete flimsy. Now it's backed and layered and I've begun the quilting.

On the wall are; the dark patches are my mindless sewing blocks. Their destination will be in a "Road to Oklahoma" Quilt. The pink wonky Churn Dashes are the blocks I've asked my fellow bee members from the Modern Stash Quilting Bee to make for me but I wanted to try the tute' before I asked them to do this block. Then there are the hearts...you know there is a shelf life on those. This week I need to make them into a table runner or a table topper. And lastly, you can barely see it on the right are the cutest BOM from Miss Shabby. I didn't let it bother me that I had not embroidered for at least ten years!

February won't be as busy as January but I'm already booked to finish a second UFO, a violet challenge quilt, another stitchery block, 2 blocks to send to my two different bees and then there will be more blocks to do for the Liberated challenge. 

How lucky that I'm retired!

Enjoy!
Toni

January Monochromatic Yellow~Finished!

Just in time...! Jan 31 4:00 PST. Here is a picture of front and back. This is the largest quilt that I've FMQ on my regular domestic machine.  Don't look too closely!  I need more practice!

Anyone have a suggestion for a name?

Enjoy!
Toni

MSQB-February is my Month!

MSQB-Modern Stash Quilting Bee...my first virtual quilting bee on Flickr! February is my month. In this bee we each get to choose a block and the Bee members make your block from their fabric stash. I am so excited! For months I have been thinking about what block do I want? I've made lists and revised them several times but the Liberated Churn Dash by Sarah at  http://sewjoy.blogspot.com/2010/10/liberated-churn-dash-tutorial.html has been on every list.  I was concerned, as we have many beginning quilters in our group, that the lack of structure in a liberated block might be intimidating, rather than freeing. I decided I had better build a block from the tutorial before I made my decision.  This is my first block



Somehow this doesn't say "Churn Dash" to me. But the block was fun to build and I was willing to try again.

Hey! This is much better! What clarification would I add to the original tute? I would say when making the second cut on the corners remember to think "triangle". The part of the foundation to which you are adding colored fabric scraps should look like a triangle. It's liberated, you don't need to have an exact angle but do think triangle. At the same time, when making the second cut on the corners, think about cutting this triangle wider than the pieced "bars" both horizonally and vertically. Both of these considerations lead to a better Churn Dash.

I did do a third block and on this one I used bigger scraps. Do I like the chunky one as well as the skinny one?  I do!

 I think this will be a fun block for the group. I am also going to offer a standard Churn Dash as an option. I picture a quilt top that has both the standard and liberated blocks. But I'm hoping that everyone at least tries one liberated block before going for the standard block.

Isn't this fun?

Toni

p.s. You can see other liberated churn dashes on the Sew Modern Bee.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1370708@N23/