UFO Block Quilt Top

When I test out new block designs, whether for submission somewhere, a new quilt or for self-release, I always end up making a test block or two to make sure it all works ok.  And usually when doing that I use the same colors for them, such as red, white and blue, so that I can put them together in a sampler quilt at a later date.

Sometimes though I use a different color scheme because something catches my eye.   This was the case with the four blocks in this quilt.  All of the blocks were made at least 3 years ago but then had sat in a tote with nothing being done further.

In finishing the top, I used up as much of the leftover fabrics that I could in the piano key border, along with the HST's in the corner that had been leftover from one of the blocks. 

The quilt finished at roughly 39" square and at this point will be finished and donated to one of the groups for Hands2Help this year.   Even better this is one that won't end up as a UFO quilt top because it needs to be finished so I can donate it.  =)

The final strip set that I didn't use in the border, and all the leftover bits of strips were put into these two 12" blocks and they are destined to become snail shells for my quilt.








Gratitudes:

1. For friends at church who anonymously give gifts when they know that finances aren't as sound as they could be thanks to no pay at work (and yes they know me pretty well to do it anonymously because I'm horrible at accepting help)

2.  For the two new commissions that are coming in before I've got the current two (memory pillows/stockings and pants hemming) finished up.

Snail #16 and thoughts

I'm slot to think about things when designing at times, and sometimes use more pieces than needed to get the look that I'm going after.  From this first block which was done in 3" finished squares and HST's for the entire block.

To this one which I started using a 4" finished square instead of what would have been 2" finished squares to make the largest part of the snail body......

To this last block completed this morning (#16) where I made a modified snowball block for the biggest part of the snail body.  Much faster and few seams to have to match up.  But since I'm using scraps for the bodies this won't always work because they aren't always big enough for a finished 6-9 inch square to be cut.

And here is the back of this block.  Because the corners of the shell need to match the background fabric in the rest of the block, I used the seams that were there on the corner HST's to sew the seams for the WOW fabric and then just trimmed away the original fabric.  =)    And for a change had everything all match up like it was supposed to.

Gratitudes:

1. I've accumulated enough from the sewing I've been doing to be able to pay off the next bill in March.....now to decide which of the next two I'm planning to pay off that it will be.

2. My best quilting buddy is stopping by overnight on Friday on her way thru town, been almost 3 yrs since I've seen her and I can't wait to spend time with her.

February F2F blocks

Kate was the recipient of this months F2F blocks.    These are the color hints that she gave us - lovely lavender, charcoal grey, and white.

The three blocks I made were these.   I fell in love with the white and lavender print I used in two of them. and am happy that I've still got a bunch of it left for myself.  =) 




Gratitudes:

1. For long-distance friends to swap blocks with

2. For counts that while they dropped, did not go into a critical range.

HST hints

When making HST can be a time consuming process, especially if you need lots of them for whatever you're making.  I've been looking for ways to make this faster while working on the snails blocks.

For some time, I would lay out extra triangles on top of a fabric strip like this.  Then sew down both sides of the strip and trim the HST's to size.







This time though, I tried the same basic thing with 2 squares.  First I made sure that the red square was big enough to get the size I needed out of it (2" finished - 4.5" square).

Then stitched around all four edges as shown (and yes, I don't necessarily match thread colors when I sew.....lol).

Next up was trimming the HST's to the size needed.   Love trimming before pressing because I only have to make two cuts instead of four.

And this is what I had once I trimmed all 4 HST's.  The center 'X' is what was waste.

Now the downside of these ways of making the HST's is that you have bias edges on the block.  But for me the time savings and ease of doing it this way makes that worthwhile dealing with.

Gratitudes -

1. Only 2 more infusions are scheduled

2. I'm not having to pay anything for the infusions - a good thing when they are billed at $23,000 each! (And that's cheap compared to what was billed in WY when I had to have the same treatment)

More snails

More snail blocks have been made this week.  All started with orphan blocks.  Three finish at 15" wide by 12" tall, and the two smaller ones finish at 9" tall by 13.5" wide.   All fabrics used are either scraps or from remnants (which counts as scraps in my book....lol).

I have one more orphan block pulled that will make one of the larger blocks of these shown here.

I'm thinking that I need to start laying them out  and assembling where I can so I can start figuring out what size I need for filler blocks and making those as well.



Gratitudes:

1. So far we still have insurance here at work............

2. We're getting the first paycheck from Feb today (will still be behind one tho as of tomorrow)

Mystery Fabric QAL Reveal

Three of my quilting friends and I have been working on a mystery Quilt-A-Long.  The mystery part comes in the form of all of us working with the same FQ of fabric, and then doing whatever we wanted to with it.

For my quilt, I decided to use this panel as the base for my quilt.








The mystery fabric is the one that my friend Susan used in her pillow here .   And it matched up perfectly with the lightest blue in the novelty fabric above.

After cutting the squares apart, I bordered them out so that I could square them up to 10" finished.   Then made the 4 extra blocks I needed with assorted WOW's and the mystery fabric.   When finished this will most likely be donated somewhere.



Gratitudes:

1. Weather is starting to look a wee bit better after a really bad evening T-Storm earlier in the week.

2. The PT job is going well and bringing in a wee bit of money to help pay the bills off.