Friday, September 29, 2017

Still tackling the list!

On September 1st I posted a quilty "to do" list, and I'm happy to say I ticked a few things off this month.

Star Fall, RSC Butterfly, Wandering Geese, Sparkling Trail, Samoyed Baby

  1. Quilt Cyclone baby quilt
  2. Quilt new Wandering Geese
  3. Add final border to and quilt new Starlight Wishes
  4. Quilt both mini Sparkling Trail quilts: 1930s version, black and red version
  5. Make a new RSC butterfly or two
  6. Finish hand stitching binding on Samoyed baby quilt
  7. Start brand new Lemoyne Star quilt (or two - I have fabric options to work out!)
  8. Start Anne of Green Gable quilts (two of them, one for me, one for daughter)
  9. Start a snowflake quilt - I've been thinking of all 26, and maybe a few new ones, all together in a single quilt...

I'll have a picture or two of the new Wandering Geese soon.  We're taking it for a walk in the park for glamour shots (or my attempt at them) tomorrow.  I wrote posts about the butterfly, Sparkling Trail and Samoyed earlier this month.

I made good progress on Star Fall, a new design.

Star Fall in Tula Pink

It still need background strips on either side, then I need to decide:  border or no borders?  My original idea was to skip borders and just bind in scrappy print leftovers.  Now I'm not sure.  It will have to simmer a little bit.

In the meantime, I've been working on figuring out the details of making these Lemoyne Stars without the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star ruler.  As much as I loved using Deb Tucker's ruler to make the stars and the triangles, I fear a pattern requiring two specialty rulers might be challenging to sell.  I plan to include instructions for using the rulers, but also instructions without.

Today I worked on trimming details.

Paper trial

I had previously printed out templates from EQ7 to measure the pieces.  I then worked out how to measure to rotary cut the pieces without the templates.  What I needed next was help aligning the pieces, so I cut out paper pieces, drew in 1/4" seam allowances all around, and put pins through the seam intersections, matching the intersections of two pieces the way they would be when sewn. With the pins holding those matched points together, I could mark where one piece extended past the other piece.  That's the trim line for that piece.

I trimmed the paper as marked, then pulled out my handy dandy Marti Michell corner trimmer to see if it would trim the same way. 


 Yes!  That made things so much easier when I switched to fabric!   Trimming the tips just so lets me line up the pieces with no guesswork and no marking of each individual fabric patch.

I got impatient to see if all my figuring worked and neglected to take progress pictures.  Here's the finished test star block though.

Blue Lemoyne Star Block

I'm going to try to remake the quilt in different fabrics using these measurements, without the specialty ruler.  If that works, I'll move on to writing up the pattern both ways.  Or maybe three ways.  Paper piecing would be easy and accurate, so I could make it that way too.  I do hear a lot of people say they won't touch paper piecing though and I don't want to limit the pattern's appeal....Clearly, I have a lot of thinking still to do!

While I think, I'll cut fabric for method two.  Here's what I spent a couple of hours choosing for it at the quilt shop a few weeks ago.


Hmm.  That's not a great picture.  There's a pop of yellow in the second fabric, and the last fabric, which will be background, is deeper and richer that it appears in the photo.  I guess I need to step away from the computer and go cut the fabric in all its glorious batik color so I can put it all in a top to show it off properly!


8 comments:

  1. I find that making a list is a really good idea and you accomplished several items on yours! I was thinking about setting some goals for the next 2 months, because we plan to take a trip and be gone for all of December, so I need to get any Christmas things finished earlier than I thought. I had an aversion to paper piecing for a long time, but I think I'm kind of over that since making 2 of your table runners and especially my DJ quilt. Doing more of it does help! Love the fabrics for your Lemoyne Star quilt!

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  2. Lots crossed off the list, that's a great thing! Sounds like you are working a lot on the directions for another quilt, makes me tired thinking about it. Your fabrics are all so pretty, I'll be watching the progress of this quilt!

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  3. Such great progress on so many projects. You could audition a scrappy border for Star Fall, but it might detract from the design.

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  4. If making list gets you where you need to be with your projects, then list away! The Star Fall quilt is terrific and looks great in Tula Pink. There's a lot of work in making a pattern for others to follow so that it's successful for others. Those batiks a gorgeous.

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  5. You design such clever patterns. Star Fall is very pretty.
    Oh, I love the selection of fabrics you have chosen for the LeMoynes.

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  6. Your brain must run in overdrive all the time! Your attention to detail just mystifies me! Yet I know that's why your quilts are all so very special! ---"Love"

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  7. You've had a busy and successful month. Oh, how I like that new pattern. As you went through your deliberations about the "how to" for the stars, I kept saying PPing ..... then saw you had already added that the the considerations. I was a total PPer detester ... then discovered the simplicity and accuracy of it when doing my FWS, and now look at it as easy-peasy and a way to get perfect points/corners and accurately sized blocks. The best part ... I can turn out perfection while brain dead! :) Oh how I changed from a hater to a lover! :) Looking forward to your new pattern.

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  8. Star Fall is really neat! And that Lemoyne block is so perfectly pointy :)

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