Modern Monday Quilt Along

I did my own thing for this week. Here is my block 31:

Go visit Caroll at Attic Window Quilt Shop to see her block. Then stop by Jenifer's at 42 Quilts to see what we will be making this week.

I also made myself a signature recently. I used My Live Signature if you want to make one for yourself. It was very easy to do!

Oh My Stars! Progress

I have completed all 15 of the twelve inch star blocks!

And I have the pieces cut for the remaining 18 eight inch stars I need to make.

I still can't wrap my head around the number of 1" finished half square triangle units I still need to make though. In case you don't remember, it's 480! If you would like to join in the fun and make a bazillion half square triangles too (really, it's fun!) the tutorials for all the blocks can be found by clicking the Oh My Stars! button on the right hand side of this page or just click here. This takes you to the main landing page for the quilt along. The tutorials for each block can be found by clicking on the image of the blocks at the bottom of this main page.

It should be noted that if you follow the directions in the tutorials you will not have to make a bazillion half square triangles. I have chosen to construct the blocks differently because I know I will be more accurate if I make half square triangles rather than the flying geese construction described in the tutorials. The first tutorial gives an excellent explanation of the basic flying geese type method used in most of the blocks.

The things I like about this quilt are (1) its stars, (2) the sizes of the stars varies, and (3) the layout is interesting (by this I mean not rows or on-point or anything standard).

Another Splurge

Stores should put a warning label on emailed Sale Flyers! I subscribe to the weekly Hawthorne Threads newsletter and last week they were having a sale on pre-cuts. I couldn't resist these two bundles.

Ten fabrics in each bundle and they were only $13.25 each! I'll do the math for you, that's $1.33 per fat quarter!

Here's what the fabrics in the right hand bundle look like.

And the left hand bundle

I have three of the prints from this bundle already. I purchased them a couple years ago at a show and I'm glad to get more because I've used most of them already.

These lovelies are just going to "augment my collection." They were too good a deal to pass up.

Award Winner

My guild challenge was due at our meeting last Saturday. My little Love Birds piece, blogged originally here and here, won Most Unusual Color Combination. Below you can see it with it's award.

I was a very bad blogger and completely forgot to take my camera to guild! I do have a photo of one other entrant though.

This one belongs to Jan Watkins who has tried and failed to grow hollyhocks. So she made some quilted ones instead!

Holy Half Square Triangles Batman!

After completing several charity quilts in the last couple of weeks, I decided it was time to work on something for me for a while. I pulled out my Oh My Stars! project.

As of Sunday (April 22) I had twelve 12" blocks completed, ten 8" blocks completed and eight 4" blocks completed.

The two most recent blocks I completed were these:

Each one of these babies contains 24 half square triangle units! It took me a while to figure out how to make the star points since I am not following the directions (LOL!!!). While making these it occurred to me that I didn't know how many of the little 4" stars I needed to make. In case you are wondering, it's 68. I have only 8 made so far. Each block requires 8 half square triangles for the star points. I have 60 4" stars left to make and 60 times 8 is 480 - hence the title of this post. And that is just for the 4" blocks. Each of these half square triangle units finish at 1"! I really wish I hadn't done the arithmetic, but ... Good thing I am enjoying the process on this one!

My supervisor is on the job, sort of!

For your reference, I wrote a post on the Heartstrings and Heirlooms blog about the formula for how to figure out what size squares you need to make any finished size half square triangle unit. It can be found here, Half Square Triangle Formula.

Modern Monday Quilt Along

Block 30:

I chose to make my block last week a little different than the instructions. I made my center square off-center and smaller.

I also did a group shot this time. Here are all 30 of my blocks so far.

Go visit Caroll at Attic Window Quilt Shop to see her block. And you can stop by 42 Quilts to see what will be making this week.

Friday Finish

Two more charity quilts finished this week. These are the mystery blocks from my guild's February retreat. I blogged about them originally here. The first quilt in this earlier post is yet to be quilted. The second is finished and has already been donated. Details on that one were posted here.

Both finished at 42.5" by 50.5" and are quilted the same, a big stipple or meander. My guild meets tomorrow and I will turn these in then.

Art Walk Quilt Show

Last weekend my town held an Art Walk. The local library didn't want to be left out and asked if our guild would hang some quilts for the weekend.

We hung three panels in a triangular layout. Due to the wall and a post, I had a hard time getting all of the third panel in one shot. The last two photos are of the quilts the post was blocking.

Charity Finish

I finished another charity quilt last week. I blogged about this one here and here.

I love the quilting.

It isn't as fast as stippling, but didn't take that much longer and is much more interesting.

This quilt is fairly simple to make. It's a great way to use up some larger scraps, the blocks can be laid out in a variety of interesting ways, and it makes an attractive charity quilt. I am thinking about starting a charity quilt tutorial tab on my blog. I think this will be the first one I do.

Splurge

I follow quite a few shop blogs and on Facebook and via email newsletters. This can be dangerous!

Case in point: I follow Red Rocks Threads on Facebook and get their newsletter. Recently they sent out a sale flyer to newsletter subscribers. One of the sale items was this collection of Aurifil thread.

I browsed. I put it in my cart and then took it out. I thought about it all morning. Then caved and bought it for 50% off! It was just too good a deal to pass up for a collection of 12 large spools of thread. Eleven of the colors are new to my collection. The twelfth one is a light gray one (top left in the photo below) that I use for piecing. Perfect!

Aren't they lovely?!

Modern Monday Quilt Along

Block 29:

I tried the corner pieces in various orientations. This was my favorite. After getting the block together I realized it would have been neat to fussy cut the center square so that one dot was centered. Not neat enough to rip it apart though!

Go see Caroll's block at Attic Window Quilt Shop. Then stop by Jenifer's at 42 Quilts to see what we will be making this week.

Urban Nine Patch Variation Finished

My Urban Nine Patch Variation is complete!

I'm very pleased with how it has turned out!

It is 36" square. Once it is done hanging as a class sample at the shop, it will go nicely in my living room.

Strippy Pillow Cover

I saw this pattern posted on the Moda Bake Shop recently. I couldn't find it on the Moda blog so the link takes you directly to the designer's blog, Quilting in the Rain.

I thought the idea was really cute. For some reason I've had a brand new 14" square pillow form in my closet for a while. I thought this was the perfect pattern to use to make it an outfit.

I adjusted the original pattern a bit because my pillow is smaller than the 16" one the pattern is written for. However, it was very easy to tweak the pattern and fairly quick to make.

Urban Baby

My Urban Baby quilt is finished!

I'm in love with this one! I may need to make a larger version for myself.

I really wasn't sure how to quilt this and did not end up doing any of the designs I had planned. They just weren't speaking to me so I simply started on one part, the print parts. The ideas for the rest came to me as I was working.

The back:

I used up almost all of the Dazzle line of prints I had for this one. I'll have to use different fabrics if I make another one. The finished size is 42" by 52". I quilted it with Signature Cotton 40 wt. Pink thread.

The pattern is an adaptation of the free runner pattern that comes with the Quick Curve Ruler.

One more picture of the front. I just enjoy looking at it.

Modern Monday Quilt Along

Block 28:

And I got all my squiggly stripes going the same direction! I can't take credit for that though. It was just luck.

Go over to Caroll's blog, Attic Window Quilt Shop, to see how her pansy turned out. Then stop by Jenifer's at 42 Quilts to see what will be making this week.

New Bag

I had my head turned by this bag on my friend Caroll's blog. Then my friend Stephanie decided to take the class and do a pattern review with tips for me. Thanks so much Stephanie! I got my elastic yesterday. I don't need another bag, but I am making this one any way.

I ordered the pattern and hardware kit from an Etsy store, iTrust. While at work yesterday I had a few minutes in between customers to shop for some fabric for my bag. I couldn't decide between the light blue and the gold fabrics for the bag interior, so I bought both. I'm thinking one will be the interior and one the pockets.

I have been admiring that circle batik for a while and I thought it would go nicely with the antique brass hardware. I would have preferred a different finish on the metal, but this was the only option. I hope to start on my new bag next week. This is the kind of thing I need to concentrate on to do a good job. Thus not a good project to start during Spring Break when the boy is home.

Charity Finish

I finished one of the charity tops I pieced at the February retreat.

I just did an all over meander for the quilting. Nothing fancy but it looks nice and is functional. The finished size is 35.5" by 44". I think the pattern called for a border, but obviously I forgot to put that on. C'est la vie!

The back is really cute! Click on the photo to see it larger.

I used up the very last of my pre-made leftover binding on this quilt so I made up some more.

I really like making up a bunch of binding for scrappy charity quilts all at once as well as using up every last bit of binding leftover from other projects.

Love Birds

I finished my guild challenge piece.

Love Birds

The flowers came from a lei I brought home from a party. The lei went into the dress-up box and these were rescued from it once it fell apart. The little heart dangle the birds are holding might have originally been an earring. It was a "treasure" brought home by my son. He found it somewhere and thought I needed it. The finished size is 9" by 14.5".

I've also started a new project, a class sample.

This is just the first block. There will be forty in the quilt. I'm using a packet of Tonga Treats in the Blueberry colorway. Unfortunately, every single strip (yes, all 40!) were 2.5" at one end and 2.25" at the other end!!!! Not a happy quilter here. My working title for this project is "Tonga Torture"!

Luckily I only sewed two pairs together before realizing the problem. I ended up just cutting all of them down to 2.25". Using pre-cuts is suppose to be a time saver, but not if you have to square up 40 strips! I'm pretty sure I could have cut forty 2.5" strips from yardage in less time than it took me to fix the entire package. As far as the pattern goes, using 2.25" wide strips as opposed to 2.5" wide strips is not going to make a bit of difference. However, I may never purchase another package of Tonga Treats again. 

Modern Monday Quilt Along

Block 27:

I opted to make something different than Jenifer last week.

This week we are making a pansy block. I love pansies! Go over to Caroll's at Attic Window Quilt Shop to see what we were suppose to make last week. She is also advertising a biweekly block beginning in May that looks really fun.

As I mentioned last week, I have taken over the blog for my local quilt shop, Heartstrings and Heirlooms. We are having a giveaway this week for four fat quarters of brand new to the shop fabric. Enter here. The drawing will be next Monday morning, so there is plenty of time to enter.