March New FO Posting

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Today is the last day of March, can you believe it?  I can.  Truly it seems like only a short time ago we were selecting DH's vacation time and April seemed rather far off, sure will be nice having him around more for the next week.

This has been a good month both New FO and FO wise.  I revisited the Hawaiian Applique Turtle Quilt, and decided to scale back.  Instead of it being a Full/Double bed size quilt, I opted for a Twin size instead, and then started and finished up the last two blocks needed.  I also made an entire pieced back and have everything waiting on the frame.  As you can see from the pictures Tiny likes this one and just when I thought I had everything ready to go I found she'd made herself a bed between the rails.  I'll need to fix that before I start quilting.  Someone once told me that's why they use zippers for attaching quilts to the frame, that way when they are done for the day they can just unzip one side of the quilt.  Yet, I was sure it would take her more than 6 hours to find the frame had a quilt on it again...

Back

Though that wasn't what I'd intended as my March FO.  You see I have long wanted to take apart one of the cat water filters, which I have to buy on a regular basis, make a new one with natural batting and fresh carbon.  Call me crazy but I just had to do it.  I used to know someone who owned an aquarium business as well as maintaining some of the not going to name drop big tanks in Orlando.  Well, I ran my idea by him and the consensus was that my theory was sound - if a bit spend thrift and so after all this time I did it.  I seem to have deleted the picture I took for you though so when I make another one I'll photograph that one.

Hope you had a great March and that April will be even better.  Did you do anything new this month?  Why not take a minute to join us and drop your name in the hat for one of the quilters pins Barbara at Cat Patches is giving away?

Hawaiian Ocean Quilt Back Completed

Well now the last time we talked, I was just beginning to think about how to put the quilt back together for my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt and now here it is all done.  The back is 67.5" x 109" so instead of having a border around my pieced center, the quilt will just flow off the edges.  With a bit of centering I think it will look quite good, giving a glass bottom boat effect.

Now I'm all ready for quilting, well almost, I ordered some larger needles in titanium that I will be trying for the first time together with a thicker thread than I normally give the Janome 1600P, those are all set to arrive on Tuesday and then it will be time to quilt, quilt, quilt.

When I finished the top of this quilt I set two goals; one for DH and one for myself.  My goal was to piece this back and have it ready before the machine quilting needles arrived and the goal for DH was to extend the Inspira quilt frame from it's little size the way we had it for Christmas to the larger size that I prefer.  I think he was waiting to see if I made my own goal before starting his.  Isn't it nice to finish something when you plan to?

Now for the quilting I'm going to quilt this one sideways so that it goes on the uptake roller more slowly and my throat space wont shrink as fast, hence why I need the frame extended.  As a bonus this quilt doesn't have borders on the top nor the bottom so I will not need to turn it when I'm finished.  You can scroll down to the previous post or click here to see the completed top.

This will mean my quilt status is back to right where I like it.  With one quilt on the quilt frame and one quilt at my domestic sewing machine.  Are you wondering which quilt is going to be on the sewing machine?  It's the Lone Star Glows!  I ran into some trouble with the fabric which I will go into later and I'm really looking forward to getting back into the swing of working on that quilt.

Ocean Turtles Flood Living Room: Cat Swims!

My ocean turtle quilt top is done.  Yippie!  This is a twin/twin XL measuring at 62.5" x 100".  I have a really wonderful dolphin print that will make up the quilt back and I'm thinking I'd like to restate the green for the binding.

DH took this picture.  I left the quilt on the floor for him to see when he walked by and it seems Tiny was loving all over it after I left the room.

Of course while I was taking pictures she was much more reserved...

I'm am planning to stitch around the turtles and then to a variation of quilted echos which will ripple over the water.  The variation will allow me to use the mid arm on the frame and will hopefully will work out nicely enough that I can apply it to other quilts that I'd like to echo in the future.

I'm also planning quilt baby turtles swimming up the sides and then a row swimming down the middle, in the spacer strips on the sides as well as the one in the center.  As for thread colors, I believe I will quilt the echos in blue and the turtles in green.  What do you think?  The threads I have in mind to use are a bit heavier so I'll need bigger needles for the Janome, oh darn that means I'll have to go shopping.

Now to figure out how to make my 40" wide novelty print become 60" wide...  Have you been up to anything fun lately?

Foto Finish: Something You Don't See Everyday

This weeks theme at Foto Finish was a bit harder, but I always seem to be to caught up to join in on Quilt-a-long days so I had to show something today.  I found some pictures that I thought you'd like, my DH cleaning the ceiling fan, DH ironing, DH knitting, and you know those just didn't seem quite right.  Then I found one with Sunny licking a spoon.  But I figured that would be a bit much first thing in the morning.
So instead, I'm showing you the one above when she is about 3 weeks old, she's a little bit older maybe two months in the one at the left.  My Tiny Girl just turned seven years old three days ago.  I know some of you have seen her and wonder where her name came from so now you know.  She was such a cute little scrap of a kitten.  Her ears would flick when she would drink from her bottle and I always loved it would she would make nursing motions in her sleep because her own momma abandoned her right after birth, so I always knew those blissful dreams were about me.

Happy Birthday my darling, to the baby I didn't want while I waited for my own, you are truly My Dear Sweet Princess Cat.

Who Remembers these?

These are my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Turtles.  I've decided I'm tired of them being a UFO not to mention being burned out on this method of quilting.  Would you believe me if I told you this is the third quilt I've made with this turtle pattern?  So I've moved them to the WIP pile.  After having them there for a couple of days (a week?) I started thinking that if I downsize this quilt from a full size to a twin size it will match it's reverse applique twin (see below) both in pattern and in finished quilt size.  So I'm going for it.  I finished up block number 9 yesterday afternoon and am ready to begin working on the final block number 10.  Wont it be great to see these laid out as a quilt soon?

Now just in case you were wondering about the third quilt I used this pattern in you can see it below.  It was a reversible lap quilt that I donated to project Linus in 2010.  This was my test quilt for the Ocean turtles and the earth turtles seen above are a happy coincidence of my DH's careful planning and cutting. Hopefully it's seeing plenty of use these days.

It's surprising but after all this time I almost like the back the best.

First Glow for Lone Star!

I just finished up the first glow for the Lone Star Quilt.  Sure does look quite a bit different from when I laid it partially out for you the other day.  Seven more of these to make, and would you believe my white on white paisley is all sold out from the sale they had, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed they will get another bolt in.  It was crazy, the store was normally supplied except the white on white section was completely emptied out with only four or so bolts per shelf.

Lone Star Diamonds with Newly Made Glow Block

Christmas Quilt-a-long Year 3 March Dinner Check

Hi everyone!  I just finished up the 48 little four patch blocks for this month.  Sunny is surprised to model them for you.  I wish I could have had the camera in hand as I set them down, he looked at his feet as though he'd somehow grown those blocks from his very paws!  Even in this picture his surprise still shows.

At the risk of sounding like a party pooper I think I'm going to call it a day here in the sewing room.  Everyone is home today and I'd like to go rustle up a bit of family time.  (evil laugh - they so don't know what they're in for!!!)

Looking forward to seeing you next month!

Christmas Quilt-a-Long Year 3 March Checkin

I'm here I'm here!  I'm likely the last one to make checkin today, but we are have a Quilt Show in my neck of the woods this weekend, and I have been busy having breakfast out and gabbing about the wonders of the show that I saw yesterday on opening day.

These are my quilting finds from the show.  Are my little pink cat thread snips cute?  The fabric is the new Paula Nadelstern panel in her Patternista collection.  I bought 3 panels, so I have 18 of these beautiful kaleidoscope circles. **Updated 9/12/2012 ~ The basis for my Mandala Quilt

The thread though that was a real gem of a find.  Seems up the road "a-ways" is a dealer who actually sells Superior Thread locally.  She didn't have any So Fine in the blues I was looking for, so I went with the Omni in the Wintergreen just because.  Sure looks like it could match whatever I plan those panels for hu?

So let's get started!  It's Christmas Quilt-a-long Day and Joanna is our hostess.  If you join now you could even steal my title of latest quilter of the day!

Christmas Quilt-a-Long Year 3 March

Jeeez, I'm still reeling that it's March already.  This month our hostess with the most-est is Joanna of Needle, Thread, Happiness.  She says she's all set and ready to go and I'm looking forward to visiting her as our Miss March.  More to the point, I am can't wait to get my hands on to the first set of sewing directions for our Mystery Quilt, I switched out my red fabric for a luscious green one and will reserve the red for the binding which should be enchanting.  Just like you hang out your stockings at Christmas Time I have my fabric all cut and my thread selected, I couldn't believe I had such a perfect match.  

That brings me to a question, do you match your thread to your fabric like a seamstress or do you go with shades of gray?  Honestly I'm a thread color matcher myself and yes that means when I switch fabrics I switch colors too.  I just can't seem to help myself.  So I'm all ready to sew.  If you're not quite ready yet, that's okay you have until Saturday and then we never mind a straggler or two, it's your quilt and you'll make it at your own pace.

So grab a cup of hot chocolate (I know you have some left!) or a spot of coffee and join us this month.  We'd love to have you.

How to Scale a Paper Pieced Block

In the spirit of today's Lone Star Quilt-a-long Meeting, I'm going to share with you a simple set of tips for scaling a paper pieced block.

First the block size you have.  That's 8" if you're using one of the free paper pieced blocks that Vicki located here.  Now anyone for anyone wondering; the text on those background curves says in German, spilt to fit on paper, it doesn't really need split there.

For my Lone Star I needed my background blocks to finish at 23.5".  That means sewn in at 23.5", which is an off measurement but certainly something we can easily work with.

Let's punch that into a Calculator.  23.5" Divided by 8 equals 2.9375.  Good.

Now just change that into a percentage.  2.9375 move the decimal point right two places and add a % sign to the end 293.75%.  The block needs to increase 293.75%  Most places can't increase by a fraction of a percent so we'll round the .75 up to 294%.

Now it's just a simple case of printing out your paper pieced block and taking it to a copy place or a blue print place and have them make the enlargement.

When you get your enlargement back you'll notice that your 1/4" seam allowance marks are now huge, but that's okay.  Just use your templates and rulers to draw the offset line by drawing your exterior line 1/4" outside of the block and ignore the printed seam allowance marks in favor of the ones you just made.

You're all set, see that wasn't so bad.  If you're ready to take the plunge and want to make beautiful background glows/rays to set off your Lone Star, just drop me a comment and I'll hold your hand through the process.  Shoot, if you say please I'll likely do the math for you.  Happy Sewing.

This also will work for reductions.  Starting with an 8" paper pieced block and making it a 4".  4" divided by 8" equals .5  move the decimal twice to the left is a 50% reduction.

Note this is for paper pieced blocks as the only planned seam allowance is on the outside edge other traditionally pieced blocks are more complicated.

Lone Star Support Group Day!

Pieced Lone Star Diamond with Glow

It's that time again, time for the Lone Star Quilt-a-long for those of us who like a bit of a support Network for taking on this difficult quilt.  How has everyone been this month?  It has been a slow quilt month for me with not much to show.  I scaled up my Lone Star Glow blocks that I found for free online here and I started working on them after selecting the right colors and fabrics for my background blocks.  It turns out this upscaled pattern is more fabric hungry than I'd thought so my dear friend Vicki sent more more of her lovely hand dyed fabric which will make up the rays of the glow, and a coupon came in the mail so I can buy more of the white fabric tomorrow.

For anyone who might have skipped last week my diamonds are all pieced and I'm holding off on sewing them together so that I can use my Y-Seam Free Method which I posted a tutorial for last month and you can find here.

I'm looking forward to seeing your progress!

Lone Star laid out Together

Mystery Quilt Cutting

I'm all caught up on the fabric cutting for the Mystery Quilt.  I have to say I have no idea where Sue is going with these pieces.  Though I'm sure it's going to be lovely.

The next set of instructions will be a week from Saturday.