Archive for the ‘Quilting Projects’ Category

Multiple Uses for a Futon

Sunday, November 4th, 2007

Not only is a futon a nice place off of the floor for grandparents to sleep when they visit, but it doubles as a location for basting a quilt. How versatile! Here’s the backing with the batting spread out on top of it:
basting

And here’s the quilt top on it, with the proud owner as well.
basting 2

Unfortunately, as I had it all spread out, I noticed that I had forgotten to fix the upside-down side border. Aaargh! You may be able to see it if you look closely in the picture. The good part is that I did notice before I basted it. So, it could have been worse! I ripped that out, re-sewed it the right way, and got the basting done last night. Now, on to machine quilting…

Just Doing My Part

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

applique pillow smaller

Just Doing My Part for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month)…

Here’s the applique pillowcase I made for our couch pillows which are wearing out. I’m still working on the second one, but it’s more than half done by now. It’s getting a lot of use by two small people, so maybe hand applique wasn’t the best choice – maybe I should have picked something less delicate – but so far it’s holding up fine.

Crackpotty Backing

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

A\\\'s quilt back

It would have been much simpler just to piece a regular backing, but where’s the crackpottiness in that? Actually, I did it out of necessity because I didn’t have much left of the solid fabrics to put around the big train print in the center of the backing. What I did have was in small pieces, so this was the only way to go. It took longer, which is hard on the impatient Andrew, but I think the result is good!

Here’s a close-up:
A\\\'s quilt back close-up

Quilt Plus Baby

Friday, October 5th, 2007

As promised, a photo of quilt plus baby. No time for much else; young Master J may be stirring in the next room.

Baby on quilt

He was recovering from a strenuous tummy time experience.

Crackpot Quilt III

Thursday, September 6th, 2007

Crackpot Quilt III

Here it is!! The third in the series of Truly Awesome Crackpot Baby Quilts, the quilts that brought us Crackpots together as quilters. The recipient of this quilt has not yet put in an appearance, but will be doing so any day now. Watch this space for a photo of Quilt Plus Baby.

Nesting Project: Four Blocks Completed

Monday, August 27th, 2007

Hello! So in my copious spare time, now that I’m not working (and when I’m not busy gestating), I’ve been making some progress on the “nesting” project. I now have four completed blocks, which I think is all I’m going to aim for. Here they are, all together:

all four blocks

Clockwise from upper left, they are: Memory Wreath, Joseph’s Coat, One Union Square, and Christmas Star. I put them on some blue fabric because I think I’m going to finish them all together with blue sashing of some sort, though almost certainly NOT this fabric.

Here is a closeup of Joseph’s Coat, by far the most difficult of all of the blocks as far as piecing, especially since the pattern I had was for a 15-inch block and I had to re-draft it for a 12-inch block:

Joseph

And here is a closeup of Christmas Star, which is the one that I’m the least satisfied with. I had to resort to paper piecing for parts of this block, and the piecing is very inaccurate in places. Also, I’m really not happy with the pink in this block; it just doesn’t have enough contrast with the surrounding fabrics. The green and blue have the same problem, but I think I could live with them if the pink had more punch. I may actually re-do this block, though I dread the prospect:

Christmas Star

And here are all four blocks in the nursery itself, where you can see that they don’t entirely clash with the peach-colored walls:

Blocks on the wall in the nursery

The next step will be deciding how to work the sashing, border(s), etc. I’d love to do something scrappy with the (many, many) leftover scraps, but I need to come up with some ideas first.

Mystery Quilt, Part Three

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

So, I thought I was actually getting caught up from being behind in Quiltmaker’s Mystery Quilt series, when I finished these two blocks and was only one block behind. Then the very next day, the next issue of Quiltmaker arrived, with the final installment in the series! So I’m still behind, and not likely to catch up any time soon. Anyway, here are my most recent blocks:

the hand-pieced block from part 3

This block was hand-pieced, because I was working on it at Goshorn Lake and it seemed easier to just do it by hand than bother with setting up a sewing machine. I was also able to work on it a bit in between doctors’ appointments at the clinic, which earned me some smiles and approving glances from the older ladies walking through. 🙂

the template block from part 3

This block is done entirely with templates, which is fine, but I can’t imagine doing a whole bed-sized quilt this way! All of the tracing and cutting for just this one block got to be a pain in the neck. But I like how it turned out. Here are all of the parts of the Mystery Quilt so far:

all of the blocks from parts 1- 3

Baby Quilt for the Impending Bundle!

Thursday, July 19th, 2007

Nothing to see here, just posting photos of Crackpot Baby Quilt #3 for Cathy’s once and future co-workers:

The quilt center with various border options:

full quilt with border options

Cathy and Chris with the completed quilt top at the baby shower in Holland:

Cathy and Chris with quilt top

New Crackpot Challenge

Saturday, July 7th, 2007

Inspired by Cathy’s nesting project, I’ve created a new crackpot challenge project.

Each crackpot receives an identical set of fabric, including a focus fabric and coordinates:

crackpot challenge fabric

The block pattern is the main block from Wind In the Pinwheels, from the March-April 2003 Quiltmaker magazine

The Challenge:
Make one or more blocks using the fabric and block pattern. Note that no directions are given for which fabric goes where – that’s the fun part!

The Timeline:
None

The Result:
I haven’t planned too far beyond everyone making similar-yet-different blocks, but I do have some more of the focus fabric that can be used in assembly. (Would this be a crackpot project if I had everything planned?)

Nesting Project continues

Monday, June 4th, 2007

So here are the first two blocks in the as-yet not-quite-planned Nesting Project. There will be four blocks, either pieced together with sashing and borders into a wall hanging, or finished separately as four individual small one-block wall hangings. Or, you know, something else entirely.

One Union Square
One Union Square quilt block

Memory Wreath
Memory Wreath quilt block

These represent probably my most accurate piecing to date (not that that’s saying much), so I’m pretty pleased with them.