Design Wall Monday - April 18, 2022

 Good Morning Quilters!

I’ve moved along a little bit on sewing the pieces together on my design wall.  Here is the current picture:

I take a block to the cutting board, trimmed it to 9.5” x 9.5” and put it back on the design wall.  Then when I have a row all trimmed, I sew them together.  Only the middle two rows are sewn together.  It is taking me more time than I had expected.  

The only other quilt I worked on was the chevron quilt.  This quilt was partially sewn together and I didn’t like the amount of contrast between the blocks. 

My solution to the problem was to take most of it apart.  Mr. seam ripper and I spent a few evenings together, and now this project is ready for my second try at high contrast.  It is a learning experience.

Also my birthday was Saturday (79) and we celebrated Easter on Sunday.  A very happy weekend spent with friends and family and church.  

What was your week like?  I’m looking forward to seeing your linkups to the Design Wall Monday Linky Party.  Thanks to you who follow my requests to put a link back to this block post within your post and also talk about the Design Wall Mondays Linky Party within your post.  You are appreciated.  

Happy Easter!  Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!

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Design Wall Mondays - April 11, 2022

Good Morning Quilters! 

This is the last month I am working on reducing the plaid stash.  I have the two quilts I talked about last week packaged up ready for the long arm quilter.  

So here is another plaid quilt on the design wall.  The squares have to be trimmed to the same size, and sewn together.  I may rearrange some of them before that, but they are on the design wall for a few days to see if this is their final version.

Here's a picture of all the blocks:

And here is a closer picture of the center, and this picture shows the colors better:

The only plaid quilt in the UFOs now is the one where I was not happy with the contrast between lights and darks.  Remember this one?  I like the contrast in the far right column best, and am unhappy with the far left two columns with little contrast.  It is still in time out.

The good news is that next month I am getting the 30 embroidered May Day Baskets blocks out and plan to get that quilt on the design wall for a May finish.  I have the 30s green fabric purchased for the alternate squares, and just have to cut the green fabric and put it all together on the wall.  I am looking forward to getting it finished.

What are you working on this week?  I am so happy that I get to see what you are working on.  Sometimes after reading one of your blogs, I want to drop my own plans and do the same project you are doing.  So I live vicariously through all of you.  Thank you!  Please join the Design Wall Mondays Linky Party below, and don't forget to mention Design Wall Monday in your post, and also provide a link back to this post (also within your post)  I appreciate you.

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Design Wall Monday - April 4, 2022

Good Morning Quilters!  The plaid squares within plaids blocks are assembled into a quilt top - almost.  I have to add the outside borders top, bottom, and both sides (solid red).  It is off the floor, and now on the design wall.  The cornerstones are four patches of plaids and whites, which goes well with the rest of the quilt.  It feels good to have another one near the finish line.

Remember those "orphan plaid blocks" that might have been part of this quilt?  I also sewed them into a long strip, and it will be in the middle of the muslin backing for the quilt that I made recently of 6 inch squares of plaids.

The 6 inch squares plaid quilt measures 84 inches by 90 inches and the 12 inch orphan blocks shown above are seven blocks, so they measure 84 inches when sewn together.  Just as if it had been planned, right?  

Here is another picture of the 84 by 90 inch plaid blocks front of the quilt:

The width of the 12 inch blocks on the back will be the width of two six inch blocks on the front.  I found a big piece of muslin in my stash with a note on it saying "backing", and it is the right size for this quilt.  I will cut that into two pieces, and put the orphan blocks in the middle.  I feel good that this is all working out.  It is amazing that it does sometimes because sometimes it doesn't.  

Wednesday was Penny Lane's 4th Birthday.  We gave her half of a plain donut with several dog treats on the top.  She is waiting for our signal that it is ok to dive into it.     

This picture was taken less than 30 seconds later:

She enjoyed her birthday cake very much!

Spring is still waiting to happen at our house - it snowed again Sunday morning.  But the snow didn't stay, and the birds are chirping away.   They are letting us know that spring will be here soon.  We are very ready.

What is happening on your design wall?  Or at your sewing machine?  Please join the Design Wall Monday Linky Party below and show us.  Thanks for participating, and please mention the Design Wall Monday Linky Party somewhere within your blog post.  Also, a link back to this post within your post will help people navigate back here to look at more blogs in the party.  I appreciate you very much.

 

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Design Wall Monday - March 28, 2022

 Good Morning Quilters!

All of the 16 plaid blocks are now complete blocks and I am moving on to making a  quilt top of them.  I have decided to sash them with a solid red, and last night I put them on the floor just before going to bed to see how they would look.  I like it.  

I will put something different in the cornerstone spots.  (these hst blocks are too little, and I put them there temporarily to cover the hole where there are no cornerstones yet).

Remember the orphan plaid blocks that I thought might be a part of this top?

What will happen to them?  The orphan blocks will go on the back of the plaid quilt of large squares that I finished last week.  They will be in a straight line down the middle of the back.  I think that will be a good place for them. I am going to sew them into a long strip this week.

My daughter’s birthday is today…..and my baby girl is 51 years old.  She is a wonderful wife and mother and we are very proud of her.   We are blessed to have cared for her when she was young, and doubly blessed to love her as an adult.  

What are your finishes or starts this week?  Some of you tell me that you have plaids in your stash too.  If you are making something with them, please let me know.  I am looking forward to your blog posts and shared pictures on the Design Wall Mondays Linky Party.  Thanks for participating.  

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Design Wall Monday - March 21, 2022

 Good Morning Quilters!

I apologize for not answering any comments this past week.  I confess that I am not myself lately.  Grief over the loss of my sister is one explanation and the war in the Ukraine is another.  I appreciate all of you, and hope you understand.

Another week of sewing to reduce my plaid fabrics stash:

More of the plaid blocks were finished and put up on the design wall:

There are 16 of these blocks, so I’m halfway finished.  I will then decide on what color to sash them with - probably a solid color.  Here is another block on the sewing machine, ready to stitch together.

I want to get all 16 blocks together this week and decide what to do next.    

The large squares plaid quilt is off the design wall, all assembled, and ready for the long arm quilter.   It measures 84” by 90” right now and is made of 6” squares - all different plaids.  I will show it to you again when it is quilted and bound.

What’s going on in your quilt room?  Anything moving onto or off from your design wall?  

There were many exciting projects on your blogs last week.  Please join the Design Wall Monday Linky Party again this week, and continue to amaze all of us.  Such variety of projects in this group.  Thank you for participating.

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Design Wall Monday - March 14, 2022

Good Morning Quilters!  Did you miss an hour of sleep last night?  They say that Daylight Savings Time has the purpose of making better use of daylight.  There are lots of opinions for and against it, but as a quilter, it doesn’t bother my life.  

The big squares quilt is now 2/3’s down from the design wall, and it will be a complete quilt top by next Monday.   I have 5 more columns to sew onto this bigger section.  I put it on the couch for this picture so you can see Penny Lane also.  She is supervising my progress.  NOT!  She is sleeping on the job!

I put the plaid blocks on the design wall along with the “orphan blocks” that I found, and I am not sure if I like the mixture.  I will make more blocks and decide later.   I would add one row of the plaid and white squares to the outer edge of the added blocks to make them fit in size with the blocks with the outer plaid/white squares.

I plan on making more blocks of the original plan, as they are all cut and divided into baggies, one block in each baggie.  I also thought if I don’t use the “orphan blocks”  on the front, I could put a row of them on the back.  I usually don’t do anything for the back side of a quilt, do you?

Foremost in my mind this week is the empathy I feel for the people of Ukraine, and am unable to think of some way I can help them.   It is a feeling of helplessness.  I will donate to Samaritan’s Purse as I know that organization will be helping.   I am daily praying for all the people who have left their homeland and are now refugees, and for those who are staying behind to fight.  It is hard to carry on life as normal here when the tragedy of war is happening there.  Have you found a way to be of help?

I so appreciate your faithfulness in participating in the Design Wall Monday Linky Party.  Your pictures and stories on your blogs give me happiness.  Thank you.  

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Design Wall Monday - March 7, 2022

Good Morning Quilters!  A slight hint of spring showed up here on Saturday - it was in the mid 60's.  A lot of the snow melted that day, but now the weather has changed back to our usual 30-40 degrees, and we shall have to wait a little longer before spring comes.  

I worked on the plaids projects last week.  I have lots of plaid fabric, and I blogged in January about a few simple quilts to use up some of the plaids (see the pictures here)  

This plaid project (8 inch squares surrounded by smaller 2 inch squares) now has 6 completed blocks.  The blocks finish at 16 inches.  Here are the six blocks:

I also discovered some other plaid "orphan blocks" that could maybe be incorporated into this quilt.  The orphan blocks would only need one outer border of 2 inch squares to make them finish at 16 inches.  I shall have to see how they look together, or as some quilters say:  "see if they play nice together" Here are the orphan blocks:

The second plaid quilt I worked on is very simple - and is on the design wall right now.  It is made of squares, all the same size (6 inches) and the quilt will finish at 84" by 90".  To finish it, I just have to sew the blocks into columns, and sew the columns together.  I am about half way through this process.  

I also made an apple pie yesterday.  Hubby and I each had a ginormous piece, as you can see, and we shall try behave the rest of the week.  But there is really nothing better than apple pie, fresh out of the oven, right?  And with vanilla ice cream too!  God is good!

What is going on at your house?  Please join the Design Wall Monday LInky Party below to show us the fun you are having.  All of you who mention the linky party and also provide a link back to this blog post are very much appreciated.  You are my kind of people.

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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.  

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Design Wall Monday - November 2, 2020

Well it’s election week here in the United States.  I hope everyone who is a citizen votes November 3rd!  I am looking forward to going to the polls and casting my vote tomorrow.  I know a lot of you probably voted early.

In honor of our patriotic duty to vote, I finished my red, white, and blue plaid star quilt.  It now has a new bright red binding, and finished at 61.5 inches square. I would like to make a Quilts of Valor quilt someday, and checked with their requirements and this one is slightly too small.  I will make another one and add a border.  More incentive to get these UFOs out of the way.

Here is a picture of the stars and stripes in the quilting:

Penny Lane enjoying the quilt while I write this blog.

I have worked on several smaller projects this week too.  One was to finish a block that I found partially finished for a Jane Stickle indigo and shirting UFO.  I found the partially completed block while looking for something else——and finished it up, and put it with the completed blocks for this project.  Every little bite of the elephant gets me closer to getting the UFOs completed, right?

What are you doing this week?  I saw several quilts on your blogs this last week that made me want to start a new project.  For now, I am standing firm in my resolve, but I am weakening.  I do like the temptations though!  Please keep them coming and link up with a picture of your current project.  My only request is that you talk up Design Wall Monday on your post and also provide a link in your post that links back to this particular blog post.

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Design Wall Monday, June 22, 2020

My cabin design wall looks the same as it did a week ago.  We had workmen at the Grand Rapids house painting the outside trim, and also had company.  Some weeks just slip away, don’t they?

The zig zag quilt is stalled at this point, but I will have to get busy on it, as guests will be in this bed for the July 4th weekend, and the quilt will have to be moved. I am wishing the “lights” were lighter to contrast more with the darks.  And thinking of replacing some lights with even lighter ones.

The painter was painting the exterior of this door, and Penny Lane was supervising him very closely from inside.  She approved his work.

I thank you for your input on the small checked blocks and the diagonal setting question last week.  Someone suggested outlining the small checked blocks before putting them with the diagonal larger plaid.  I did that and have them on the design wall in Grand Rapids.  But something is still not giving me happiness, so they are there for a while until I figure it out.  Even though the larger plaid is cut on the diagonal, it is a straight setting.  If I had just cut the larger print straight and then set the blocks diagonally, it would have been better, and also had no bias edging.  Too much thinking, or not thinking it through.  Maybe a fabulous border will make it all right.

What is moving along at your design wall?  Or are you stalled on some projects too?  Please link up and show us what you are doing.  Thanks!  Please put a link back to this blog post from somewhere in your post, and mention Design Wall Mondays.  

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Design Wall Monday - June 15, 2020

June 15, 1963.....57 years ago today.....my wedding day.  Such wonderful memories, and such fun to still be in love with my dear hubby.  God is good.

I finished the embroidered square I was working on, and started another.  This is the completed one:

It amazes me that the same patterns are published over and over with different names as artist.  For instance, I just saw on the internet that Darlene Zimmerman had 2 panels called Laisy Daisy Baskets....with 8 baskets on each panel.  They all are simple versions of these baskets patterns from an earlier time.  Here is the panel with the above basket on it:

 It is not a clear picture, but the basket “by Darlene Zimmerman” similar to the one I just finished is in the top row, third basket.  The other panel has a simplified version of the lilacs basket on it, also top row, third from left:

The week has been busy, and I’m still playing in the box of plaids.  I put together these little precut squares of brown checks, and another larger plaid.  Which version do you like better - the larger plaid set on the diagonal?

Or straight?

Or do you have any other thoughts on a two fabric quilt from these two?  I don’t remember cutting the little squares in the past, or maybe they were given to me.  Now it’s time they became a quilt.

Please link up and show us what you are working on.  Give me some lovely pictures to look at on my anniversary!  All that is required is that you link back to this particular blog post, and mention “Design Wall Monday” in your post. Thanks!

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Design Wall Monday - May 11, 2020

Happy Mother’s Day yesterday to all of you who are mothers.  

Since this coronavirus self-distancing is making me sad......and I am going a little bit mad.......I decided to sew PLAID fabric.  I am having the best time with it.  Yes, it is a little break from my 2020 UFO mission, but the plaids were calling me.  Here’s a little doll quilt that I added a plaid binding to this week.  Old Bear, my brother’s childhood friend, has his plaid mask on and is liking the new quilt.  

Here is the doll quilt alone:

I sorted all my plaid stash and made piles of plaid fabrics that I thought would play well with each other.  Then I sewed two quilt tops, and have a third one started.  I guess I missed my sewing machine!  Also, the plaids are so much fun.

Here is the first top, with a carpenter’s square block enlarged to  64” X 64” top.  Eight blocks by eight blocks, each finishing at 8” square.  All easy solid squares or hst blocks.

Next, I took one of the piles, ginghams, and made a baby quilt top:

.

Most of the ginghams are from my Mother’s stash, and many are a blend of cotton and polyester, very thin.  But it will do to put under a tiny baby.  Each strip is cut at 3 inches wide and the block finishes at 7.5 inches.  Quilt top is 30” by 45”.

Third quilt is made of squares cut at 6.5 inches, and another darker square of 4.5 inches put on a corner, then sewn thru a diagonal line on the smaller square, with the triangle flipped up over the corner.  Of course I saved the cut-away waste triangles for a small quilt later.  You know I did.  This quilt will be 8 blocks across and 9 blocks down, before borders.  I didn’t use any pattern for any of these tops, and had fun playing with designs.  On the pic below, ignore my blue plaid bedspread in the background, as my bed is my “design wall” at the cabin.

Also, it snowed yesterday here in Michigan!   In this picture you see the white flakes in the air, and my daffodils trying to be brave.  It wasn’t enough to cover the ground, but still.....it is the middle of May.  Enough already!

What have you been up to?  Please check in with a picture so we can go to your blog to read about it.  Don’t forget to provide a link back to this blog post from somewhere within your blog post.  

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