Design Wall Monday - February 26, 2018

I will be watching basketball all this week, as I am a big basketball fan, and it's the week of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament.  Games Wednesday through Sunday.......and then the NCAA tournament is coming up after that.  Yeah!!

I feel I haven't much to show you in my quilt room, but I did work on two projects.  The Valentine quilt is partially sewn together, and I am making progress on it every day.  Here is the portion that is still on the design wall:

And here is the part that is now all in one piece - out on the carpeting in the next room:

Little by little, inch by inch, the final seams are getting finished.  I am also working on Lisa Bongean's Triangle Gatherings.  (see my last week's post for more information about both of these projects).   Here are four blocks laid out, ready to sew into 16 patches.  The half-square triangles in the picture are 1.5 by 1.5 inches before sewing them together.  The blocks finish at 4 inches square.

Now I have 60 of the blocks made, and about 30 to go.  When I started, I had half-square triangles left over from another project, but I've used up most of them.  So now I am using my shoebox of 2 in X 2 in cut squares to make more triangles.  I pick out 8 neutral and 8 dark or medium squares to make a Triangle Gathering block.  When I put two squares together, and sew down the middle, on each side of the center diagonal line, and cut them apart, it makes two half-square triangles that can be trimmed to 1.5 by 1.5 inches.  It's a very peaceful project, and I enjoy making these squares in between sewing the long connecting seams on the Valentine quilt.  

What are you working on this week?  

My instruction for the Design Wall Monday link-up are the same each week:  Please link back to this particular post somewhere within your blog post.  I appreciate it so much when you do.

When you set up the ink, use this web address:

http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/2018/design-wall-monday-february-26-2018.html

And not the generic address of http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com

Thanks!  Can't wait to see what you are sewing.

An InLinkz Link-up

Design Wall Monday - February 19, 2018

The Valentine Quilt is moving along.  Here it is on the design wall:










What needs to be done next is sew larger parts together, and I am doing it a little each day, as it isn't my favorite part of quilting - lots of pinning of seams involved.

So I took a break from seams and worked on the Lisa Bongean's "Triangle Gatherings" blocks.  I talked about this project (Here) and  (Here) .  It was free on her website for a while, but is now taken down, as she said she is going to do a book about them.  I have about 50 finished blocks, and I think she quit at 98.  Here is an example of one of the small blocks:

Each block is made of 16 half-square triangles, and each of the 98 blocks are different.  I am making them to finish at 4 inches by 4 inches.  I haven't decided on what kind of quilt I will make from them - just making the little blocks for now.  

It was a tragic week here in America, with the shooting at the school in Florida, and in times like these, quilting comforts my broken heart.   I am looking forward to seeing what you are working on, as it comforts me also to see your work.

As usual, my instructions are the same, please link back to this particular post somewhere within your blog post.  I appreciate it so much when you do.

When you set up the link, use this web address:

http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/2018/2/design-wall-monday-february-19-2018.html

What have you been working on?

An InLinkz Link-up

Design Wall Monday - June 19, 2017

Well, I am still working on the Valentine Quilt, but for a break from viewing my design wall, I thought I'd show you pictures of the blocks I am making for Lisa Bongean's Triangle Gatherings.  Her website is (Here)   I first talked about these triangle blocks (Here)

How could I pass up a 'gathering' of hst blocks?  They are made of 16 small hst pieces, and since I have shoeboxes full of hst's, it has been fun to assemble them into Lisa's weekly patterns.

This week I made #29 through #36 and here is a picture:

There are 45 patterns published so far, and I have made 36 of them.  The way I write out the patterns is to copy the block pictures onto graph paper.  This way, I don't waste a lot of computer ink printing out a pattern page for each square, as I already have the hsts in my stash.  Here's a picture to show you what I mean:

  

What's on your design wall this Monday?

An InLinkz Link-up

Spring Is Here At Last!

I am so glad spring is here!  We still have some snow on the ground, but with the calendar saying it is spring, it makes me glad.  The daffodils are a present from my hubby,  as a celebration that spring is officially here.

Lisa Bonegan started a free triangle blocks sew-a-long.  (link here - for instructions) and I saw lots of pretty blocks from their group on the internet.  I love triangles, and am easily drawn into a project using them, so I pulled out my box of small half square triangles, and began laying out some of the blocks.  Lisa is calling the project "Triangle Gatherings", and it was a lot of fun making the blocks, and so easy when the hsts are all made ahead of time.

Two days later, I have them all made so far, and I don't know what the finished quilt will be like.  But that will be decided later.  There are instructions for 21 blocks right now, and I think a block comes out each week.  My blocks are using triangles that finish at 1 inch, so the blocks are 4.5" x 4.5" unfinished size.

The three quilts that I sent to the machine quilter are finished now, so I just have to go pick them up, and put on the binding.  I can't wait.  One is a wedding quilt for a newly wed couple, and the other two are for my home.  (Pictures are coming after they are bound.)

This week I worked on an unfinished sampler quilt that was 90% finished in 2011, and for some reason, it never was completed.  The goals for 2017 are to finish some of these quilts, so it is now ready for the outside borders to be sewn on.  I will post some pictures when the borders are attached.

Today I took another picture of my design wall, with the Valentine's Day quilt up there.  It will probably be taken down soon, but I am still enjoying the process of adding another grid section of 10 x 10 squares.

Here is the design wall for "Design Wall Mondays"  as I like to link up with Judy Laquidara's blog to see all the design walls  (Here).  The three longer grids have the columns sewn together, but not the rows.  After sewing the rows, they will be as short as the grids on the left side of the picture.