Design Wall Monday - January 31, 2022

Good Morning Quilters!  Lots happening this week with quilting and otherwise.    

Remember, last week I was preparing to make an appliquéd border for the Birds of A Feather quilt top.  I changed my mind, and made a pieced border, which is so much easier for me.  I am a piecer at heart.  So this is what the quilt looks like today, with the left and right side borders attached, and the top and bottom borders ready to be attached soon.  After the hsts, there will be another plain 5 inch border on all sides.  I am happy with my decision and am sure it will go to a longarm quilter soon.  Serendipity!

Hubby brought me these tulips Saturday…..aren’t they lovely?

My only sister Nancy, is in the hospital with pneumonia right now.  She has dialysis 3X a week, so she was transferred to a hospital where she could receive that service within the hospital.   I am so thankful she was transferred to Blodgett Hospital in Grand Rapids, as it is near me and I can spend lots of time with her.  Even as she is recovering from pneumonia, changes may have to be made in her care post hospital.  Lots of hard decisions ahead for her two sons.

I love to watch the four big tennis tournaments as I love the game so much.  I used to play tennis in college years ago.  One of my favorite players is Rafael Nadal from Spain.  I was watching the Australian Open very very early Sunday morning and saw an incredible match.  Over five hours of two great players battling on the court!  Rafael won after being down two sets, which is a very tough thing to do,  

So lots going on here.  What is on your design wall?  I am looking forward to reading all of your blogs as I sit with my sister this week at the hospital.   Please join the Design Wall Monday Linky Party this week.  Thanks so much for those of you who mention Design Wall Mondays in your blog post, and also link back to this post.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - January 24, 2022

 Good Morning Quilters!   TaDah! Viola!  Bazinga!  The WIP from last week has become a quilt top!  There were several issues to overcome, as there always are, but I overcame them.  Here is a picture of it on my design wall:

If you are interested in the issues, here they are:

A) Several blocks were made years ago when I didn’t understand that these blocks would all have to fit together into one big quilt top.  The upper left side block with the hour glasses next to it was too small.  So a small border on two sides corrected that.  Some pieces had to be trimmed, or tweaked, or redone, to make them fit.  Trust me, a consistent 1/4 inch seam is essential when combining blocks of different shapes and sizes.

B) Partial seams were involved in the instructions.  I hadn’t joined very much of the quilt together until this week, and found I could eliminate one of the partial seams.  See this picture of the lower third:

The original instructions had the checkerboard piece being sewn onto a block above it before sewing other pieces together.  I kept it with these pieces and no partial seam was needed.

C) My love for making appliquéd  pieces had waned by assembly time,  and I substituted three 6x6 inch churn dash blocks for the last undone appliquéd block.  The appliquéd piece was 6x18 inches.   Easy decision for me, because I am more comfortable piecing than appliquéing.

 D)  When sewing seams together, I found some of my appliquéd leaves were too close to a seam line, and I adjusted them slightly (made the leaf smaller) to avoid losing part of it in a seam.  This happened three times.  I shall be conscious of this in future projects to be sure nothing is in the 1/4 inch seam line,

E) My color choice did not show enough contrast in one blue three blocks set.  I moved the block set to the top of the quilt, which helped slightly, and I ended up redoing one of the three pieced blocks to make the center a lighter color, to give more contrast.  Here is a picture before I substituted a lighter blue for the far left block of the three:

The first picture at the top of this post shows the revised version.  Probably wouldn’t have bothered anyone else, but I like it better with the change.

I intend to add an appliquéd border to this quilt.  The original quilt, made by Blackbird Designs, has an outer border of vines, leaves, and small birds.  Barb Adams of Blackbird Designs’ version:

I saw one version with the makers initials added at the bottom, and I may do that.  So I am on the next happy step of making biased vines and lots of leaves.  It makes me smile to move this quilt along.  The darker inner border will be about 1 or 1.5 inches wide and the cream colored outer border will be 9.5 inches wide.

What is on your design wall this week?  I’m looking forward to seeing what you are working on!  Please join the Design Wall Mondays Linky Party below.  Those of you who link back to this post and mention the Design Wall Monday Linky Party in your post are appreciated.  Thank you.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - January 17, 2022

Good Morning Quilters!  This week I pulled out an old UFO and it is now a WIP!  It is the quilt "Birds of a Feather" by Blackbird Designs.  I looked back on my blog and the last time I blogged about it was in 2013.  (Here)  After working on it this week, it only needs a few more blocks before I can sew all of the blocks together.  The small checkerboard blocks are not sewn together yet, and you can see a few blank spots.  Here is the progress picture from the Design Wall:

This week I finished the leaves and berries on the block with the red bird, near the bottom left.  I also pieced the block below, which goes in the bottom left corner.  I have to make one more of this block to go at the top right.

Then I have to make one more "bird" from four drunkard's path blocks, as there are three in the quilt, and I only have two.  But that should be easy, since I made so many drunkard's path blocks for a quilt I finished last year.

The last block to finish is another applique one - the blank spot at the top of the quilt.  I think it has one or two birds on it, and some flowers.  I haven't studied the directions for it yet.  But I am definitely seeing the finish line with this WIP.  I will work on it again this week, and see how far I get. 

What is on your Design Wall?  Send us a picture and show us what your project is for this week.  Thanks so much for joining in the Design Wall Linky Party, and giving us a peek at what you are working on.  When you link with Design Wall Mondays below, please mention this party somewhere within your post, and also provide a link back here so people can come to this page from your blog.  I appreciate it so much when you do.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - January 10, 2022

 Good Morning Quilters!

The new quilting year has started well for me.  As I usually do, I took a look around at the projects I hope to work on in the future.   The list is long, but after reading the internet definition of a UFO (Un-Finished Object), I decided, I don’t have any.  You see, the internet defines a quilter’s UFO as “something you started, but haven’t worked on in over a year”.  I reasoned that if this definition is true (and it must be true because I read it on the internet) then I can change my perspective.

With a brand new year ahead of me, I could eliminate all of my UFOs.    Because, when I work on every one of them in 2022,  they will change status and be WIPs! This is a much nicer definition for them, and it will provide us much variety every Monday as I give updates  We all know I need variety.  

The box of plaid fabrics occupied my quilt room this week.  I sorted and cut plaid fabrics and now have three future quilts planned from this box. 

 The first is a square block surrounded by smaller squares.  

This future quilt will have large blocks finishing at 16” square (center 8” square surrounded by 2” squares.). All squares are cut, and four blocks assembled.  The remaining block parts are separated into zip lock baggies, 49 pieces per bag, for the next time I work on it.  

The second one is made of very large hsts, and the quilt top is planned out and blocks made.  The blocks are in baggies by rows, ready to assemble into a quilt top.  Here it is lying on the floor for a picture before being bagged up.

The hsts will finish at 9” square, so the quilt top will be 72” square.

 

The third future quilt is just a box full of cut squares, which will finish at 6” by 6”.

This quilt is planned to be very simple, just sewing these blocks together.  It is a project for one of those days when my brain in not ready for anything complicated.

So my week was spent taming the overflowing box of plaid fabrics.  What was your week like?   Please join our Design Wall Monday Linky Party, and show us.  Thanks to all of you who link up and also link back to this post from within your post.  I encourage you to send your readers over here to visit the many blogs in the linky party.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - January 3, 2022

Happy New Year!  Here is the picture of my Wedding Ring full sized quilt that was finished in November, 2021.  It is about 75” by 80” and is only on my side of the bed at night (hubby is too warm with a quilt on top of him).

The pattern is from a book called Quick Quilts from the Heart, by Liz Porter and Marianne Fons.  Picture from the book: 

 It was a joint project that my friend Joan Brink and I made at the same time.  She gave me this picture showing both of the quilts being shown in a retreat in Shipshewana, IN :

Joan’s quilt has double batting and is custom machine quilted with beautiful feathers.  Mine is edge to edge machine quilted with pretty hearts and leaves.

My small quilt/doll quilt is still in progress.  I decided to add hsts around the edge, and this is the current status:

My annual assessment/reality check/organization of my quilting hobby is progressing nicely.  I have boxed up a lot of magazines to give away, and am going to divide the remaining ones into seasonal small groups, as I like to look at a group of magazines together at the start of each season.  

Speaking of give aways, does anyone want the book with the above pattern in it?  It has lots of nice patterns with good instructions, and I just discovered I have two copies.  I will send one to anyone who wants it.  If more than one replies, I will have a drawing.  

Here is a quote I saw on the internet and liked:

Please share with us your design walls, and projects that you are starting or finishing in this first week of a new year.  Thanks for participating!  As always, please link back to this particular blog post from somewhere within your post.

And thanks to all of you who encourage others to join our Design Wall Mondays Linky Party.  We will have a lot of finishes in 2022.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter