Easter Pillowcases

I finished 3 pillowcases today.  I'm happy that I'll finally have some yards used to report on Sunday!

Stash Report, Timeless Treasures Seaside Added

I've been trying to come up with an idea for a quilt for a girl who will be graduating from college next year.  I made her sister the Harry Potter Project of Doom quilt, and both girls loved it, but I don't think I have another Harry Potter quilt in me. 

After consulting with her mom, we decided maybe something with cats or something beachy would be good.  I looked at cat fabric and cat patterns, but nothing grabbed me. ( If you know an awesome cat pattern, let me know).  When I was in an LQS last week, I saw 'Seaside' by Timeless Treasures.

 

I love the color (sapphire), and the prints are beachy, and cute without being cutesy.  A few years ago I made this red and white quilt for my MIL. 

 

 

The cover quilt is 'Making History' by Swirly Girls.  The red and white quilt I made turned out great, and I think the blue fabric I bought will be just as pretty. All of which is a long winded way of saying I bought enough fabric to make a queen sized quilt.

 

If I come up with something I like better for Amanda, my husband has already said he wants a 'Making History' quilt.  I don't normally make a pattern more than once, but this one is a keeper, I think.

 

Used This Week: 0 yard
Used Year to Date: 17.5 yards
Added this week: 15.75 yards
Added year to date: 36.375 yards
 Net Added: 18.625  yards

Linking up with Judy:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/04/06/stash-report-week-14-2014/

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/