Making out with BOB - week 3.3

SO, after a few days with no stitching (paid work does interfere with the rest of one's life), I'm back to BOB, and to trying to make something.
And now, the ambition has become, that this one needs to become a finished, actually FINISHED quilt during Lent (and thus, before Easter), so the first stop is : The backing.
I am dithering between two fabrics. Both from stash. One is the 'Princess Diana' fabric, which I - for reasons that are at the present completely unclear to me - rushed out and bought back when the lady died.
The other is a sale-fabric from 1-2 years back.

So now I'm walking around myself, looking at both, draping the 'main blue' of the front across them, and trying to make a decision.
Any input?

Making out with BOB - week 3.2

And I give you : A finished top.
I decided to go with the blue borders, and it looks ... good! Makes the blocks and the pink inner border pop better. At least I think so :-)

Took me just two weeks to get here too!
I can't remember when last I worked this fast.
Of course, all the blocks were there already, and that speeds up the process immensely. Now comes the big question : Can I keep it up until I have an actual finished quilt?
Well, I intend to give it my best. Just not these coming 24 odd hours, because there are things like paid-work which needs doing :-)

 BUT, stay tuned all the same. You never know :-)

Making out with BOB - week 3

 Hard decisions to make : 

Do I add blue corners to make the corners 90 degrees, or don't I?

Do I add a blue border all the way around or don't I?

It will definitely, eventually, be bound by the blue batik, but:

Will there be a border?
If 'yes', how wide?

I find myself at the point where I worry a bit, whether adding to it will detract from it. As a carpenter freind once taught me 'if it gets any better, it'll go to pot'. The trick is to know when you hit that particular point.

So far I am surprised - in the best possible way - by how well it is turning out.

Making out with BOB - week 2.7

Closing in on having a finished top.

Making out with BOB - week 2.6

So, here they are, two rows of hexagon-flowers stitched together. The two strips are not joined to each other, just a mock-up, and ... looking good.

If they don't work with the quilt, I will have a lovely table-runner for spring.

Making out with BOB - week 2.5

 Not much visual difference to the main body compared to previous posts, but the edge has been trimmed, and there is a pink strip added all around.

Making out with BOB - week 2.4

SO, triangles are printed (using the Inklingo 3" Diamond collection), and here's the mock-up.

I think this will work.
Next step : Get the top and bottom strips joined into strips instead of just being a mock-up on a design wall.

Making out with BOB - week 2.3

Don't get too used to see me posting every day, it's just ... I seem to be on a roll with this one, and have - so far - had time to actually work on it, AND take pictures, AND write on this blog.
The really shocking thing about this is, that if you work on a project, it will progress !

The 'Tilde has time to quilt'-thing can change at the drop of a hat, but until that happens, I'll post my daily progress, or, if I think that is too little to merit interest, post 'something else'.

... now ... where was I ... yes ... something to make it longer.

A search through BOB brought forth 16 Hexagon flowers, each with 3" finished sides ... they are remnants of a project I don't remember even thinking of doing, but made with Inklingo (so they are no more than 5 years old). I can see that I used the now sold-out CD-1, but the 1" Hexagons and 1" Diamonds are available as downloads.
They look sort-of nice as they are placed above and below the body of the quilt, so I think I'll print some 3" Inklingo 60-degree triangles, in both the pink and the blue setting-fabric and use 14 of the 16 to make top and bottom borders of this one.

If all goes to pot, or the two elements don't work well together, I can always make a table-runner from the flowers.

Making out with BOB - week 2.2

All together now.
... and I could just end it here.
As is, it is 42.5 x 51". Not a huge quilt by any standards, but ... I think it could do with becoming just a tad taller ... ideally somewhere between 60 and 65" tall ... that would give a fair balance with the 'just over 40" wide' ... I think.
I'll go dig into BOB and see if anything (else) suitable hides in there. If there isn't anything bright and batik-y, I'll end the party here.

Making out with BOB - week 2

AND log-cabining is done, and one half of the blocks has been stitched together.

... this is going to be a cutie of a quilt, even if I say so myself :-) Who would have thunk that BOB hid such cuteness. Not me, that's for certain :-) but it seems it did.
Onward and forward!

Making out with BOB - week 1.5

The first eight 4.5" (and 5") blocks have been log-cabined, setting squares AND setting triangles have been printed and cut, and the mock-up is on the design-wall.

 And the Yep's have it.

Oh, and I've been asked if the cross that is formed by the larger blocks was by design (seeing that this is my personal challenge for lent), and the answer is, that it is happenstance (or serendipity). There were 10 blocks that were 6" square, and this was the way they looked the best (to my eyes).

Making out with BOB - week 1.4

And then I remembered the mostly pink batik with butterflies. Whatever block colours that are not found in the mottled blue, are, most definitely in the pink.
And I remembered that Linda Franz has two collections out with HST (Half Square Triangles) and QST (Quarter Square Triangles) the size that works with 4.5" and 6" blocks set on point.
I'll use the 6" On-Point Triangles for this one.
This too will work.

Making out with BOB - week 1.3

I think this blue batik (which was bought to go with Sunflowers, but seemed too washed out when it arrived and said Sunflowers were laid upon it for scrutiny), will play nicely with all the blocks.

Most of the block-colours are in there anyway :-)
But since these blocks are in all sizes I'll start by log-cabin'ing them.
Log-cabin / border strips, cut at 1.25" wide should work.
... or I could just print them with Inklingo. I've got the 0.75" wide Log Cabin collection that will make the 4.5" blocks into 6" ones.
Yep. Inklingo 0.75" LogCabin collection will do the trick.
... I'll cut the squares, all on my own.

Making out with BOB - week 1.2

10 Dear Jane and Dear Hannah blocks, all 6" finished size.
2 Jeanna Kimball applique blocks, both 5" size
A single Heart and Hand applique-block, 4.5" size
17 Dear Jane and Dear Hannah blocks, all 4.5" size
... now, if I can find the right fabric with which to set them, this could become an ... interesting quilt ... I think ... hope ... um ... well ... I'll go looking through my stash.

Making out with BOB - week 1

Lent starts today, and lasts until Easter (April 4th)
Well, it does in my corner of Christianity.
And traditionally, one 'gives up something' for lent. The eating of certain food-stuffs. A minor (or major) indulgence one usually allows oneself.

So, what about a quilty lent? I used to be a proponent of not buying any new quilty stuff during lent, but really, the economy can do with our business, so I won't suggest that. But seeing that lent is also about being frugal, about meditating on what has and has not been done, about facing one's failings and shortcomings and trying to do something positive about it, that is what I plan to do.

In a corner of my sewing-room, I have a bag, which is bursting at the seams. Really. Bursting!
 

It is full of odd blocks. All different sizes, fabrics, styles.
And for a short, mad, moment, I considered making a list of all of them, and publish the list here.
I gave that one up. When I hit 30 different styles/types of blocks, I stopped counting.

BUT, here's a small selection:
Quite a few of them are Dear Jane and Dear Hannah (and similar) blocks. Christmas-swap blocks (25). Signature-swap blocks (123). Various "I'll try making this a different way" blocks (42). 6" mostly-Jane blocks made with batiks (10)

There are Quilted Diamonds (28) that never made it into "The Advantages of Natural Folly" or, indeed, into the "Two inches wide" quilt-let.

There are Nearly Insane blocks (5), which were made to test if I could do them on a sewing-machine (I can, but I don't like to) ... there is just about any and every style, size and colouration block you can think of.

SO: My challenge to me, this lent, is to make something of as many blocks as possible that are currently languishing in BOB. Finish something from it !
And I'll be using my sewing-machine to do it.
I will.
Really !
Wish me luck.

Hexagon Alphabet

I have finally moved on the Hexagon letters that I published on the Inklingo Sampler blog in 2011
(see here). There will - in the fullness of time - be better directions for putting it together than is now up at the Sampler-blog, but ... here are the pictures to tide you over :-)

The front, all pieced together and with the border attached.

Backing, pieced from left overs, miscuts and other scraps of the two fabrics used in the top.

Marked up! and with the thread ready to roll.

Gratuitous kitty-picture

My machine and I

You who read this blog on a regular basis will know that I like hand-work.
Any kind of hand-work really.
With a preference for what my freind Diane in NY calls 'DLS' (Dinky Little Sh ... Stuff).
BUT, I do have a sewing-machine. As a matter of fact, I have 3. I have a hand-crank, that DH salvaged from a dump, took home, gave some TLC and now it purrs on like nobody's business.
Then there is the Viking / Husquarna. It was top-of-the-line 22 years ago, it isn't anymore, but it still goes strong.
Finally, there is the tiny Janome, which is what I tend to use mostly. It is small, doesn't have a zillion different stitches, but it works.
... most of the time.

Now. I like my machines well enough. Yes. All of them. And in broad general, they are not too averse to me. We're not like BFF, or intimate in any way (remember my hand-work preference), but ... generally we can work together well enough.
And then, one day, we couldn't.
The little one just stopped. Wouldn't budge.
And, after some work, I understood perfectly why :

Exhibit A (on your right) shows the compact used-to-be-fluff I picked out of the spool-house. Using tweezers. It was stuck fast and really hard.
There is nothing fluffy about it. The spool is there to show just how much there actually was.

After I had carefully lifted all of that from the spool-house, I 'stole' DHs canned air, and gave it a good blow-through as well.
And now the little Janome purrs on again, and harmony has been re-established in the little home.

The moral of the story :
Clean your machine.
If you are on intimate terms with yours, you probably know already, and don't need my reminder, if you are more like me, and not all that close with your machine, now would - probably - be a good time to get out the tweezers, the canned air, a bit of patience, and get the fluff out of the spool-house :-)

Hybrid-piecing Hexagons

Hand-piecing hexagons is - for me - the natural way to do it.
Occasionally (rarely, but it happens) I get impatient and feel that I 'need' to move forward faster, and that is when machine-piecing comes into the picture.

BUT, machine-piecing hexagons seems to me to be a cruel and unusual way of doing hexagon-blocks. My sewing-machine and I like each other well enough - most of the time - but we are not on what you might call intimate terms, and me doing inset seams of any kind on the machine is not a sight to be soon forgotten (no matter how fervently you might wish that it was, and that your ears would stop burning)

Hybrid-piecing to the rescue !

Machine-piece the straight, not-inset seams, and then hand-piece the 'troublesome' inset seams. And because that sounds complicated (but isn't) here is a small description, with pictures.

I would like, at this point, to apologize for the quality of the pictures. I am not a professional photographer, and getting clear pictures when doing closeups like this, is - frankly - a bear to do. Know that I did it as well as I could. If you have trouble seeing how a picture could possibly illustrate the point I'm trying to make, double-click on it, and it will open 'on its own' in a (much) larger size.


Lay out your block (in this case, a double GFG-flower). I prefer to lay it out with the back up.
(and yes, eagle-eyed reader, there is a number on one of the hexagons. That is because it is printed from the CD. These hexies have been around for a loooong time)







Machine-piece into what might be called hexagon-strips.

Piece edge to edge (!)







When cutting the pieces apart, trim the thread on both sides, so that no ends 'stick out'. On the picture (right), you can see that one side of the seam has been trimmed, the other hasn't.
Trim them all.

Doing this means, that you can 'open' the seam when hand-piecing the strips together, but it still leaves just (!) enough thread to ensure that the whole seam doesn't unravel on you. If you feel iffy about having only 0.25" of thread-end between you and an unraveling seam, clip the thread a little bit further out, and then, with your needle, unpick one stitch at each end. You can do that while piecing.

If you want to press as you go, this is the point where you press the strips.
It isn't necessary, because the rest of your stitching will be by hand, so you can just leave well alone and press it all when the flower is finished. If you really want to press, press all seams the same way. Yes. Same way. It will work out and will press up a treat in the end.


Once all the strips for the flower has been machine-pieced, the hand-piecing part comes.
Since your pieces have been prepared with Inklingo, use a plain running-stitch.

At corners, take a backstitch, so you get both of two pieces anchored to the same match-mark on the single-piece (click on the picture if you have trouble seeing the back-stitch ... I do). Do not break the thread, but 'pass' from one hexagon to the next until the whole strip has been pieced.
Then move on to the next one.


When all the hexagon-strips have been joined, press your double hexagon flower.

It will press flat a treat, and all the intersections will open beautifully.





Requirements :
One of the (many) Inklingo 60-degree hexagon-collections.
1 flower-centre hexagon
6 inner-flower hexagons
12 outer-flower hexagons

Repeat as desired :-)

Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler

Over at the Inklingo Sampler-blog, I'm following Barbara Brackman's Civil War sampler, and writing up printing-tables for the blocks. Brackman does hers in the 8" format, I do the ones at the Inklingo Sampler in a 6" format.
Occasionally, a block pops up, which doesn't really agree with me. Or with Inklingo. Either or both.
And one such, was the block for week 30, Peterson's Stars and Strips. Oh, the 'stripes' part is a piece of cake to make with Inklingo, just use the 1" Log Cabin collection, print 3 reds and 3 whites, and you're good.
The part that doesn't sit well with me is the applique'ed, 5-pointed star.
I don't do applique stars. Not if I can help it.
And yes, I have done'em. 5-point, 6-point, 8-point. And I'm not doing any more than I absolutely have to.
So, I didn't stitch the block. Just wrote up the printing-table, and made a link to a web-page with directions on how to make a 5-pointed star.
And then, a few days ago, I realized that the actual quilt, over which Brackman has constructed her block, does have applique'ed stars, but ... it also has a blue border with white stars.
So, here is my version.
It's a 6" block, and is very simple to make. You can make it 8" by adding some more strips, or by using the Inklingo 1" Log Cabin collection rather than the 0.75" collection I've been using for this block. What is important for this one is : red fabric, white fabric, and blue fabric with white stars.

Follow the link to download a printing-table for the 6" block.

Another one bites the dust

This is a finished quilt-top. Not a finished quilt, but at least it is a finished top.

Project was started in late August 2008, and have been stitched on rarely. Until this May, where it moved to the top of the list, and became my priority project.
The blocks are entirely hand-pieced, but the joining of the blocks is by machine.
For the longest time, I called it 'Rectangular Hexagons', but after the previous quilt was finished and up on the design-wall, and this one went up (while the last blocks were pieced), DH said that it looked like old-fashioned, English Tea Roses, so that's the name.
TeaRoses.

In May, I decided to make an effort to finish this top, before my b'day this year, and I'm proud to see that I met my goal.
Now on to piecing the backing.