Friday, March 25, 2016

Now I can share

Now that dad has received his quilt, I can share it here.  You've seen peeks of it in progress, but I really thought he should be the first to see the finished quilt!


This quilt was designed just for dad, who loves to sail.  The applique sailboat was a bit of a stretch for me, as I haven't done much applique and I had to draw the shape myself too.  However, I really wanted a sailboat, and I really wanted the Ocean Waves blocks.  I couldn't figure out a better way to make the two work together so I took the plunge and there it is.  I'm quite pleased with the result!


It was really fun to play with color in the ocean waves.  I hadn't planned to add the stars.  I just wanted to dig into my blue scraps.  However, after coloring in my sketch, I thought it looked a little bland.  Looking at how the triangles met at block corners, I saw a star shape so decided to play with that idea.


I quilted this entirely with a walking foot.  I really did not want the quilting to compete with all those blues so I just quilted in the ditch in the "waves"  (but not around every triangle!).  My daughter helped me pick out the stencil for the border quilting.  My husband helped talk me out of talking myself out of quilting that border design after I marked it.  It looks much better and fits in much better with the whole look when quilted in matching thread than it did when marked in white pencil!

We went out to a local park on the way to the post office to mail the quilt.  There's a lake off to the left of the photo.  It was windy.  I was nervous.  Hubby assured me he had a good grip on the quilt!

He did!  

And just because you know I love quilt with feet:

I particularly like this one.  If you knew my husband, you'd think he was the least likely person to have bright orange shoelaces!

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Playing with curves

I have been playing with my Quick Curves Ruler this week.  You might notice that these are not my usual fabric choices. The shop I work at needs new samples, and I wanted to see what I could do with the ruler, so I am making small pieces to show off different uses for the ruler.  Since the shop is providing the fabric for the samples, the boss got a say.  It's good for me to stretch! I have been enjoying playing with these more modern fabrics.  I'm not ready to give up my usual brights though!



The flower is a Spring Fling block.  It's a biggy: 22" finished.  The pattern is free on the Sew Kind of Wonderful website. The curves in this one were pretty easy to sew.

The aqua project is the Urban Runner, the pattern included with the ruler.  I found those curves a bit more challenging, but starching them into submission helped a lot!


Next up will be one or two runners made with the blocks from the QCR Chic Sisters pattern.  I'm not sure if it will be one or two until I make the blocks and play with them a bit to choose a layout.

After that, I'll take a break from curves for one or two quilts before starting my daughter's Chic Country quilt in those bright greens and a splash of orange that I shared earlier this month



Friday, March 4, 2016

Progress

I'm still plugging away at those Ocean Waves blocks.  Only twelve more to go! I'm still making them one block at a time so I can plan my pressing to make things nest to help me match seams, but I have a good routine so each block is getting made faster than the previous one.


This is not progressing as quickly as I had hoped, but once I had this idea in mind nothing else would do. The only thing to do is keep at it!  It will be worth it in the end.

I was very good and did not let this squirrel in the house in the meantime:


I had these all picked out for a sample to showcase the Quick Curves Ruler at the shop where I work, but then we decided several runners showcasing different blocks would be better.  There were all those gorgeous spring greens and that little splash of orange and those Modern Backgrounds, all loaded on the cart with nowhere to go.  So sad!

This is not on my "to do" list.  Nope.  Just checked the list again.  Not there.  This is definitely a distraction (known as a squirrel in this house, as a squirrel can distract the dog from just about anything).  But these colors, used in Chic Country, would be perfect for my daughter.  I would even use the QCR ruler she gave me for Christmas....  There is now a nice little "Quilt in Progress" beanbag sitting on these fabrics at the shop so they won't get reshelved until I cut off what I need, but the fabrics are not actually in the house yet. 

First, the blue one.  Gotta go sew so I can finish the blue quilt then let the squirrel in!