One Block Wonder: No Y Seams

My sister's quilt is still on the design wall.

 

I've started sewing it together.  The center is going to be bordered by hot pink, and where there are hexagons 'missing', pink will fill in the space. You can see I've added pink triangles to the zig-zag edges.  I will trim off the points and add a strip of pink to finish the border. 

 

Some people prefer to trim the hexagon blocks to get a straight edge, but my floral fabric was expensive, and I don't want to waste it.  Other people applique the zig-zag edge to another piece of fabric.  My applique technique is sorely lacking, so I just add the border triangles, trim and sew on a solid strip. This method has worked well  with my other OBW quilts. 

 

 

Someone asked a question about sewing the quilt without Y seams.  This is the way I do it.

 

1. Sew 1/2 hexagons together, being mindful of which way the seams go.  I like them to nest together.

 

2.  Keeping each 1/2 hexagon pinned to its twin, add them to a design wall.  Move them around until you are satisfied with the placement.  Add cubes now, if you want them.  Keep the cube bits in 1/2 hexagons, pinned to their  twins too.

 

3. Keep every thing on the design wall until the quilt is sewn together.  If you don't, you will have to do step 2 again.  Unpin the 1/2 hexagon twins in the part of the quilt you want to work on first, and SEW ROWS TOGETHER.  The hexagon twins will be in 2 different rows.

 

4.  Put each row back on the design wall and check to make sure you haven't sewn any of them in the wrong place. 

 

You can see in this picture a row that is sewn together.

 

 

5. After the rows are complete, sew them together.

 

I think this is an easy method as long as you stay organized.  I don't like to do Y-seams, and I feel like this way simplifies the piecing.

 

Linking up with Judy, who is also doing a One Block Wonder.  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/03/31/design-wall-march-31-2014/

 

 

Stash Report

I bought hot pink fabric this week to use as a border for my sister's quilt.  This pushed me farther into the net added territory.  Oh well, I have 2 quilts at the longarmer, so my numbers will look better soon.

Used This Week: 0 yard
Used Year to Date: 17.5 yards
Added this week: 2.25 yards
Added year to date: 20.375  yards
 Net Added: 2.875  yards

No sewing this weekend because I went to Nags Head with a friend.  The beach was nice, not many people, and the weather was ok.  It was 50-65 degrees during the day.  It sprinkled a little, but we still had 3 long walks on the beach and an afternoon of sitting by the waves. 

Gypsy Wife, March Blocks

I finished my March Gypsy Wife blocks this morning.  Or at least I think I did.  This pattern is hard for me to follow, and I'm not really sure why.  I'm used to Bonnie Hunter's very straight forward directions.  The Gypsy Wife pattern has pages of instructions, and sometimes you make little blocks that you use a couple of pages later as other block centers.  I get lost.  Anyway, here is what I came up with.

 

I think I need some more dark blocks.  The colors are starting to look a little too 'Easter Eggy' to me.  Too much yellow, pale green, and pink.  I need some more orange for sure and some more blue in next month's blocks.  I also broke one of my original goals:  to use no solids.  I did this out of laziness.  I had solids on my cutting table already, so that's what I used. 

 

Linking up Blossom Heart Quilts:  http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/2014/03/sew-cute-tuesday-20/

Angie's Quilt: Adding Blocks

I started adding cubes to Angie's quilt yesterday.  This is not the final layout, but I'm getting closer.

 

Linking up with Judy today.  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/03/24/design-wall-monday-march-24-2014/

Stash Report, Angie's Quilt Take Two

I played around with Angie's quilt some more.  It is a long process because the blocks don't stick to my makeshift design wall; they are all pinned to it, and both halves of each hexagon are pinned together too.  It too about an hour to move the blocks around.

Here's where I started:

 

 

 I wanted to move all that pink/fuchsia out of the middle of the quilt.  Here's what I came up with.

 

This is closer to the size and shape I want than my last rendition, but there is still work to do.

 

I had some fabric used to report this week because I finished Celtic Solstice #1 top.

Used This Week: 3.5 yard
Used Year to Date: 17.5 yards
Added this week: 3 yards
Added year to date:  18.125 yards
Net Added:  0.625 yards

Linking up with Judy this week. http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/03/23/stash-report-week-12-2014/

Celtic Solstice, Quilt 1

I participated in Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery quilt that started last November.  I was going to make a king sized quilt.  I made 121 blocks and started piecing the top together.  Then I lost interest.  It sat for a while.  Then I decided I didn't like the quilt enough to make it for my bed.  So it sat some more.

After my son moved into his own apartment last month, I decided to make the Celtic Solstice blocks into 2 quilts for the bunk beds in his old room.  I finished the top bunk quilt top this morning. 

 

The top bunk quilt is 57 1/2 inches wide by 84 1/2 inches long.  I used 40 of the blocks for this top. I think it needs a blue binding to balance all that yellow. The quilt for the bottom bunk will be 8 by 7 blocks.  The inside of this quilt is already put together, but I need to make more triangle units for the outer border.  I will have 25 blocks left over, so I'll either make a baby quilt out of them or donate them to charity. 

 

I'm glad to have a plan for these blocks since I spent hours and hours piecing them.

 

 

I'm linking up with Sarah.  http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2014/03/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-butterflies-and.html

 

Design Wall, Angie's Quilt

Here's the first draft of my third one block wonder quilt.  This one will be for my sister.  It takes me about 3 weeks of staring at the design wall and moving things around to decide exactly where the blocks will go.

 

I need to make 3D cubes for this too.  Here is the original fabric I cut up:

 

It is wild and loud, and reminded me of my sister.

 

The funny thing is that the orange background fabric almost disappears when it is cut up, and what jumps out is the BRIGHT pink and red.  This kind of quilt forces me to slow down and really think about color.  I do more planning for my OBW quilts than I do for any other kind.

 

To see more design walls:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/03/17/design-wall-march-17-2014/

Stash Report

I bought more backing this week and took 2 quilts to the longarmer.  My numbers will look better when I get these quilts back!

Used This Week: 0 yard
Used Year to Date: 14 yards
Added this week: 5.75 yards
Added year to date:  15.125 yards
Net Added:  1.125 yards 


Linking up with Judy:
http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/03/16/stash-report-week-11-2014/

Spring is Coming

Three days ago I was whining because I had no daffodils.  One warm weekend, and look what happened:

 

I'm feeling much more optimistic now that winter will soon be gone.  We have just a little snow left in the yard.

 

My Lenten rose is also in bloom now.  You can see how the cold damaged some of the leaves, but the rest of the plant looks great.

 

 

Box and Stash Report

I bought 5 yards of flannel backing fabric this week, but I had to send 3 of it back because there was a flaw running selvage to selvage in it.  I didn't see the flaw until after I washed it, but there was no way to work around it, so I sent it back to fabric.com.  They have great customer service! I called to complain on Wednesday, they picked up the old fabric from my house on Thursday, and new fabric was delivered on Friday.  I'm going to look over the new piece well before I count in added to my stash.  I noticed another flaw in this piece, but it is very close to the edge, so I think it will be OK. 

 Used This Week: 0.25 yard
Used Year to Date: 14 yards
Added this week: 2.25 yards
Added year to date:  9.375 yards
Net Used:  4.625 yards 

My big project for this week was a box that I just finished tonight.  It is for my friend Sue for St. Patrick's Day.  The cross stitching is a Sweetheart Tree chart called 'Irish Shamrocks Chubby Nutcracker',  a weird mix of a  nutcracker and a leprechaun.  I had planned to turn it into an ornament, but it was a little too big for my taste, so I made it into a box top.

 

 This is my first box, and it took about 8 hours to do plus drying time for the glue.  There is a lot of hand sewing in the box, and it used more fabric (1/4 yard) than you might expect. I think using  print fabric would have made the sewing neater and less noticeable, but I needed a bluish-gray green, and there wasn't much to chose from at my LQS.  I used direction from  Judy O'dell's 'The Flat-fold and Friends'.

Linking up with http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/03/09/stash-report-week-10-2014/ and Sarah http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2014/03/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-whole-lot-of-stuff.html since I'm so glad to have finally finished something!

Waiting for the Daffodils

It is not my imagination:  spring  is late this year.  In 2012, my daffodils were blooming by Feb. 1.  In 2013, a more typical year, I had my first open on Feb. 21.  Here it is March 7, and I'm still waiting for the first bloom.  In fact, I'm still waiting for the first bud to show up.  The forsythia isn't even blooming yet! 

Daffodils are what get me through the winter.  When they bloom early, and it stays cold, they last for a long time.  I'm afraid this year they will wait until it is warm to bloom, then it will get hot, and they will be gone 3 weeks.  In a good year, my daffodils bloom from Feb. to almost May.  A quilting podcaster I know doesn't complain about the weather, she just reports on it.  I've crossed the line to complaining.  I'm ready for spring!

Here's a picture from 2011.

New Job, New Apartment

My son who just graduated in December, got his first real job!  We moved him to Pennsylvania this weekend and have spent the last 2 days building IKEA furniture:  2 desks, 3 bookcases, 2 chests, 8 chairs, 4 tables, 1 sofa and 5 lamps.  He was mostly unpacked by the time we left.  After living in the dorms for 5 1/2 years, he is thrilled to have his own apartment. 

 

 

He is 4 1/2 hours away now, and I'm going to miss him a lot.  But he found a great job in his field  and an apartment that he loves.  I hope he will be happy and make friends in his new town.

 

Here's my stash report for this week:

 

Used This Week: 6.5 yard
Used Year to Date: 13.75 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date:  7.125 yards
Net Used:  6.625 yards