Not novelty but long time projects that deserve some acknowledgement

I wanted to share these are two applique projects that have been MANY years in the making - or should I say completing.

This first was started in December 2016.  The pattern is Rose window by Eye of the beholder quilts.  I had made a table runner from one of their patterns several years ago and really enjoyed the reverse applique method.  It is constructed where the pattern outline is basted.  Then gradually you cut away the fabric and needle turn under the edge while removing small sections of the basting.  This makes it very portable and easy to work on while traveling.  I started it on a skiing trip to New Mexico with my family.  The applique was finished  in late 2020, then I hand quilted outlining the applique and a simple grid.  I wasn't sure exactly how to finish - it needed something special.  So I asked for suggestions from some quilting friends.  They suggested a corded looped binding.  Hmmm, I had seen those finishes at quilt shows but never attempted one.  So I search the internet, found some blog posts about how others had done it and decided to give it a try.  It wasn't as difficult as it looks, but I doubt I'll ever try one again.  I was definitely glad it was a small piece.  It looks great on my mothers round coffee table in our living room, I am very proud of how it turned out.  

The second quilt was started in 2012.  I wanted a take along project when my daughter and I went to Canada - a trip to celebrate her 21st and my 40th birthday.  The pattern is Fiesta de Talevera designed by J. Michelle Watts who is from Roswell, NM.  I loved the pattern as it reminded me of our time living in Santa Fe where the Talevera style tiles are everywhere.  The pattern has 12 blocks.  But after finishing 4 of them I realized how repetitive they were and decided I didn't want to do any more.  Instead I modified the border blocks to make a corner design and made a medallion layout instead.  The question then was how to quilt it.  I felt I had spent sooooo long on the applique but my quilting skills are pretty basic.  So I packed it away.  Then about a year ago I was visiting with some quilt friends about how many unfinished quilts each of us had.  I mentioned this applique and a friend who does amazing custom quilting said she would like to quilt it for me.  I knew I could trust her to take a good quilt and make it amazing.  I was not disappointed.  It now hangs in the place of honor in my sewing room.

some details of the quilting:

Some Summertime Ideas

 As I'm sure I've mentioned before, ideas of novelty quilts seem to come in bunches.  Discovering that one of my favorite pattern designers had a couple of books I had missed got my creative engines going again.  I discussed the fun secondary designs in my last blog post.  Here are those two finished tops along with a couple of others.  

This pattern is called Windmills from Kim Brackett's book Scrap-Basket Strips and Squares.  The hardest part of this quilt was remembering which corner to put the white triangle.  I have 4 blocks that spin the wrong say in my scrap basket now.  I tried constructing that corner triangle a little differently than I usually do.  Rather than sewing on the triangle then trimming the waste from the rectangle, I trimmed the small triangle away first.  Then I sewed the white triangle using a 1/4" seam on the bias.  It worked pretty well as long as I remembered to cut all the rectangles with the right side up.  My windmills spin the opposite way from the book because I cut from the backside.  Oh well.  A good reminder that rectangles are NOT reversible.  The layout was very critical on this one.  I'm proud to say I only had to resew one block.  My numbered flannel flags were lifesavers.

This quilt, also from the same book, had a similar challenge  - you have to sew those triangles on the same corners EVERY TIME.  But by this time I was paying attention and put a sample block right in front of my machine as a reminder.  Since the color placement was random, this quilt went together very fast.  I did put them up on the wall and try to scatter the different colors - planned random.

This quilt is from another one of Kim Brackett's books, Scrap-basket surprises.    Initially I was going to use black in the corners but it felt like the contrast was too harsh, so I used a dark gray tone on tone instead.

This pattern also uses 2" strips and 2" squares, but the pattern is by Cluck Cluck sew, called Shortcake #122.  It was fun to use up a bunch of left over squares in the 9 patch section.

None of these have borders yet.  They are hanging in the closet aging a bit until I know what I'm going to do with them.

This last one isn't a novelty quilt, but since I've been running on about Kim Brackett, it seems appropriate to put it here.  This is another of her patterns from Scrap-basket surprises, called Bali Sea Star.  I had decided to use up some of the pre-cut 2.5" strips I had in my stash.  This quilt officially used up the last of the black & white strips given to me by my cousin (I think this is the 3rd quilt I've used them).  The bright strips were a door prize from the AZ retreat from years ago.  This quilt is for me, just for fun.  And I did enjoy it, except for how badly those strips had raveled after being handled so much for years.  

I was especially pleased with how the binding turned out - I've had this fabric in my stash for years and it fit perfectly for this quilt.

Fun with Secondary patterns

One of the things that I love most about quilting is the secondary patterns that frequently result when putting together simple blocks.  I think that's why I love Kim Brackett's books so much, so many of the blocks are ridiculously simple but result in wonderful secondary patterns.  I just recently bought my 3rd & 4th copies of her books and decided to draft a couple in EQ.  Such simple blocks, but look at the magic that happens when you put them together!  Both of these are from her Scrap-Basket Strips and Squares book.

The block is very simple.  And I'll be able to use some of those waste triangles left from previous projects for the white corners.

Here is the full quilt drawn in EQ.  This one will take some effort to keep the colors in the right places.  I'm still figuring out how to get organized.  The pattern is called Windmills.  Cutting is very fast but putting it together is going to take some thought.  Also normally when I use waste triangles I draw the sewing line on the back of the squared fabric to help me align the triangle.  But I think I may trim the block corner instead with a quarter inch seam and save some time.  I'm going to try that on a few and see how it works.

Here is another block from the same book- very simple.  And I can use some waste triangles from other projects.

And here is what it looks like drawn in EQ.  Since this one is scrappy, the colors can go where ever they end up.  It kind of reminds me of woven candies.  It took me a bit to figure out the blocks on this one, but when I saw how she had done it, I laughed at how simple the block is.

  Such fun.  I'm cutting out strips now for these two and a couple of others.  Stay tuned for the finished tops.

Catching all the remaining missed quilts

As mentioned previously I have been going through my excel list of quilts and there are a handful I have never posted about.  Some I didn't take pictures of.  Some are duplicates of previous patterns so really not point in posting (I've made several floating blocks and they all look about the same).  And others just never made it into a post yet.  So in the interest of making this blog a complete reference - here they are.

This is based on the traditional jewel box pattern and used up a bunch of scraps.  The quilt was done in 2012 as a donation quilt.  I need to give this one a try again once I have enough large triangles in the scraps.

I'm surprised I missed posting on this one.  It's called Floating Novelties.  It was a fun quilt to do.  I always enjoy grouping fabrics by color and this one is pretty flashy.  It looks difficult but is actually pretty easy to piece.

This quilt was also done as a donation and specifically to use up some of the pink novelties and fabrics that never seemed to get used out of my stash.  I'm sure a little girl who loves pink loved the quilt - I however wasn't too excited about it. 

 

The pattern for this was called Wild thing by Barbara Groves.  I made a rainbow version a couple of years ago - it is another good way to use up triangles.  Made in 2006 for the daughter of my boss at the time, her favorite color was purple, so I used purple tone on tone fabrics.  

This quilt was one of my first experiments.  I didn't yet know that puffy batting wasn't a good idea and that satin binding was an even worse one.  Even the colors didn't work well.  Ugh. I've learned a lot since 2005.

This quilt idea came from a demonstration I saw several years ago at the AZ quilt retreat, presented by Quilter's lumberyard.  It has some great large blocks but is a bit more complicated due some a few partial seams.  If I make this again I think I'll make the little friendship star around the square in a different color to make the secondary pattern stand out.

I call this one Colorblock.  It uses a combination of 2" & 4" squares.  I completed this one in 2015.  Sometimes I used the same fabric in the 2" squares, but sometimes it is a coordinating fabric - when I could find one that read the same.

This is another Quilter's lumberyard idea called ladders.  It is a great way to use up 2 x 4 rectangles or even piano keys.

I've made this pattern once before, called When I'm 64.  But this version uses only cat fabrics.  I was given a large stack of cat squares and was having trouble using them up as I try not to repeat pictures in my kid quilts  So I decided to put the all cats in one quilt for a co-worker who owned several cats.  Not sure why the pattern was called that, there are only 50 large squares and a lot more small squares.  But it definitely helped use up some of those cat squares.

This last one was a family joke, made for my son.  [He decided to get a tattoo on his leg and thought he had chosen sharks, which was one of his favorite toys as a kid.  But the tattoo turned out to be Koi fish.  I had fabrics for both in my stash, so I made this for him the following Christmas.  Just to help him tell the difference.

Well I think that gets everything caught up and organized.  It is always interesting looking back through older quilts, seeing how my quilts and skills have changed through the years.

Novelty but not quilts

 I also recently realized I never posted a couple of novelty fabric projects that weren't technically quilts but were still very fun to make.

This soft book was inspired by a blog post by Crafty Staci - linked here quiet-book-of-colors.  Great idea & instructions.  I had purchased a book several years ago with instructions for fabric books that used novelty fabrics but never did make one.  Then I ran across this blog post which was so simple and straight forward.  So I got busy and really enjoyed making it.  

This was made for a friend of my daughter last year for her baby shower (along with a quilt).  Here is the finished cover, which just features a 9 patch showing the 9 colors in the book in tone on tone fabrics.

And here are the 10 pages, one for each color plus a multi-colored page and the back and front covers.  This is before they were sewn together.

I thought it was especially appropriate as the new mom is an art teacher.  It was a fun project, fun to pick out the best fabrics to represent each color.

I also made a two I spy travel games for twin little boys who had joined our church.  They were too old for quilts but thought they might enjoy the fabrics presented as a game.  Momma gave me some ideas of things they were currently interested in and I went hunting through my stash.  I didn't take photos of the games as they weren't particularly pretty (the pictures were the point) but the idea is a very quick and easy one.  If/when I make them again I need to take pictures.  Here is the link to the blog post by Stitched by Crystal- i-spy-toddler-travel-game

This last idea I have not yet made as I think it will take significant time - I will likely do it for someone extra special - perhaps my own someday grandchild (sigh).  Really fun idea though, using a fabric featuring the letter of the alphabet in the shape of the letter itself.  The idea came from a post I saw on Facebook - I don't know this individual, she just posted on a group I was following.  Such a great idea.  I'm guessing she found it somewhere but she didn't reference the source in her post.

I missed one!

Not sure how but I missed posting about this quilt.  Kind of surprising because I remember spending a lot of time figuring out how to do it.  I think I finished the quilt about the same time I started this blog, so it likely got lost in the shuffle.  I was recently looking through the excel file I keep of my various quilts and blog posts (yes I'm an accountant) and realized I never posted this one.  So here it goes.

This quilt was made for my boss's 1st grandchild in October 2014.  She now has 3 grandkids, all who have their own quilts and she tells me they still love them and play with them, consider them special.  Which is so sweet to hear.

The idea was for this quilt was the pattern Urban Abacus by Sew Kind of Wonderful - I saw several quilts made using this pattern at the Dallas quilt show that year, all made in "contemporary" colors - gray and pastels - bleck.  I didn't want to purchase a special ruler to cut the arc but a friend gave me an extra long arm ruler that I was able to use.  It was fun to be able to use large prints and not have lots of seams.  I struggled with what to make the "strings" out of, settled on a striped fabric that I had previously used for borders.

It turned out well, but I think this one falls in the probably not again list of patterns.  Looking at it now, I should have made the strings narrower and it needs a contrasting inner border.  But Kennedy doesn't mind.  Several months ago her grandma showed me a video of her & her little sister comparing their quilts and finding matching fabrics, getting so excited.  Made me grin from ear to ear.  Sigh.  And that is one of the reasons I keep making these things, imaging little people getting joy and comfort from something I enjoyed making.

Borders and bindings

One more post related to my recent finishing ten I spy quilts.  Many times I will make a top but not add borders or quilt it until I know what I am going to do with it.  On occasion I have wanted to make it bigger for an older child and so will make the borders larger.  But this time I wanted to finish all the tops I had made (plus one I found in the closet).  So I was adding borders, quilting and binding all 10 at the same time.  Just to mix things up a bit I tries some different things.

This border & binding is pretty typical of what I usually use.  A bright narrow inner border (1" wide) with a dark patterned wide border of 2.5" and a binding from the same fabric.  I like this on quilts where I want the pattern of the quilt to be the center of attention and the borders to act like a picture frame & mat.

On this I had added a pieced inner border to make the quilt larger and made the outside border from the same fabric as the corner stones in the quilt.  But I didn't have enough for the binding.  I decided to use a nice black with larger polka dots.  It doesn't fight with the busy border at all, kind of fades into the background. I had purchased the fabric thinking to use it for narrow inner borders but it works pretty well for bindings too - I may have to go back by Hobby lobby to get more.  I have a feeling I'll use this one frequently and I only got 2 yards.  

For this quilt I liked a green inner border and I used the last of the fabric with those little scattered squares (the reason I didn't have enough for binding the previous quilt).  I didn't want to use the black dots again for the binding - and definitely didn't want green so what else would work?

I had this rainbow loops fabric that I have purchased for borders many MANY years ago but it never seemed to work on any of the quilts I tried it with - always too busy or something.  It had been in my stash for at least 8 years (I know it was at least that long because I did use a little of it on a T-shirt quilt).  I decided it was time to use it and so I cut it all up for binding. It works pretty well on the quilt - a bit crazier than the black with polka dots but since the quilt itself has a lot of calm white background I think it will be ok.  

Here's a bigger pic of the loops.

Since I was "using up" old fabric, I pulled out this one too.  I actually was given this fabric by a coworker when her mother died - since I have not worked with her for 12 years that gives you an idea how long it has been in my stash.

But see how well it works on this quilt - it sets off the simple pattern  and makes the novelties sparkle.  I like that it reads more as a color of it's own instead of the black multi that I frequently use.  

This string quilt was looking a little calm with the chambray border/sashing so I gave it the rainbow loops binding and it really set it off great, a perfect use of that wild fabric.

After adding this border fabric I realized I was getting pretty low on this fabric and wanted to save it for another quilt.  So I used the remainder of the blue/purple binding instead.  I wish it was a better match for the blue inner border but it's such a busy quilt I think I'm probably overthinking it.  Certainly not worth replacing the inner border.

This border I struggled what to use for binding also, but I had some notes binding left from another quilt, so I made a bit more and added it.  The colors work and it's so narrow I don't think anyone will notes I mixed alphabet & music notes.

After adding all these borders I got nervous that I was getting low on border fabric so I went by Hobby Lobby to see if they still had either of the numbers/letter fabrics I had gotten last summer.  Of course they didn't - but they did have some great fireworks fabric.  I had previously purchased some of this to use in the novelty quilts (for eXplosions - haha) but decided it might work well for borders too.  So I bought 2 more yards.   Certainly it is bright enough.  I also purchased 2 yards of the black with dots for the narrow border.  The dots are larger than what I've used in background before, I like that you can really see the colors of the dots.  On this I didn't want more contrast so I made the binding from the same fabric as the border.

I like how it sets off this quilt with so much white background.  It balances it will without overpowering.

This next quilt had me stumped for a while.  I really liked how it turned out but everything I tried as a border just didn't work right.  They all seemed to distract from the fun rainbow wave pattern.

Finally I decided to just add a binding with no border but make it a bit wider than my usual 2.5".  I had just a bit of this striped fabric left in my stash and cut it straight of grain so the stripes would be perpendicular to the quilt. 

This is another one of those fabrics that I have used in several I spy (and T-shirt) quilts over the years.  Joann fabrics carried this along with a coordinating black background with scattered multi dots for several years and I used them a lot.  But no more - they are both gone now. Part of quilting is using things up, even favorite fabrics.  I'm sure I'll find new favorites.