Update on the vintage quilt project

 Hello, everyone.

Today's update on the vintage quilt project: there is light at the end of the tunnel! Most of the quilting is done. (Perhaps 10 inches are left to go, approaching the left side from the center.) Then the binding, then it will be done!

Just to refresh, these are the vintage side

and the new side

The new side, and the batting, are a little bit larger than the almost-queen-sized vintage side. There will be a bit of trimming after the quilting is done and before the binding is added.

The large "tile" block near the top is from the My Favorite Color Is Moda book. The log cabins and the angels and other various scenic-centered blocks are from stash. Yes, there are still a lot of orphan blocks in my stash! 

The vintage side has a lot of stars that were made from crumb quilting, in a huge assortment of clothing fabrics of the 1930's. Cotton muslins, various blousings, even cotton flannel are represented. The green, red, lavender diamonds that form the hexagons around the stars also incidentally form a 3-dimensional block at the intersections of the hexagons. All of the vintage seams are hand sewn. 

So, leaving y'all to resume the rows of quilting and hoping to finish Real Soon Now....

The back of the quilt is assembled!

 Hello, everyone.  Today I sewed the final seams  of the quilt backing.

A little better look at the floral fabrics. I got them from A Block Away. The purple solid was at Hobby Lobby. 

I stood on a chair to get the overall view. The pieced strip in the center is intentionally offset, by making one of the white floral strips twice the size of the other.

I used up all of the angel blocks in the stash, I think. Plus a lot of leftover Log Cabin blocks!

I love Log Cabin because it goes so well with making larger designs in the layout. There are a lot of layout ideas on Pinterest; interested readers can use their search setup to have a look.

The next step for this quilt is to find somewhere I can lay out each of the layers, tape them down smooth with painter's tape, and using basting spray and safety pins baste it all together for quilting.

Latest on the quilt

 Hello, everyone. Today I have a small update on the vintage quilt top and new back.

First, the current status on the back.

Now, the washed and ironed top:

I found numerous little orphan blocks, Square within a Square type. Here are three of them.

Color Play: backing

 Hello, everyone.  Today is a day of trying out things.

For background,  I have come into possession of a vintage quilt top, twin size, and I feel the call to make it into a functional quilt.

I have batting. I have an assortment of fabrics. I have made a Courthouse Steps kind of block from Moda's little book My Favorite Color Is Moda, the 18 inch one with concentric rings of color. And I have a lot of orphan blocks in various sizes and colors. 

Today it's been lay things out, move them around, measure the length, if it may have potential take a photo.

A new sewing project under way

Hello, everyone.

I have begun a new sewing project--well, it uses a previously sewn orphan block, so it might be called stash usage instead.

This "chenille" Christmas tree block was made by mistake when I was at the Jingle All The Way class at A Block Away. (Selected the wrong size in the pattern choice screen. Oops. there are a LOT of items in that set of patterns, it's important to read the size and check the book before starting to sew it out.) As there isn't any place for the small chenille tree in the quilt, and none of the bonus projects seems to have a spot for it either, the block has languished in my sewing studio. 

I noticed a round pillow form, likewise languishing in disuse, tucked into the tub of "things" and after some mental experimentation concluded that the tree block needed to be a round block to make it look nice. And as the pillow form is 14 inches, there will be a surrounding gathered bit to connect the tree block fabric to the side seams of the pillow. Whether to put a bit of piping in is still up in the air.

This required a nice round circle to be made on the block for trimming. Also for seaming, of course!

Enter my Janome circle sewing guide.

 

Above right, the cute little gizmo almost ready to do its thing. The black bit sticking up is the protective cover on the *sharp* tack point. This is the trick that makes the fabric go in a pretty circle with no divots or bobbles in the line.

Above left, the tack cover was removed and the tree was centered on the tack. I placed the tack cover GENTLY on the point as I'm not fond of bleeding on the work. 

Left, the back of the package, showing where it goes on the machine. 

This worked out very well.

I gathered the border strip in the usual way with a row of long-ish stitches and gentle pulling. It's currently in the process of being basted onto the seam line y'all see in the top left photo. After the basting (hand basting, don't faint, sometimes it's the only way) is done, I will stitch the ruffle down, make the two parts for an envelope closure on the back, and assemble the pillow. 

Another baby quilt

Hello, everyone.

This is one of the projects that has been working in the background. It is now with DGS3. (Thanks to DH for holding it up for the picture just before boxing-up and mailing!)

The picture was somewhat underexposed and yellowed by the lighting in the room, so I put a little work into trying to correct the color tones. The blues are a little bit light in this image, but probably that's as good as it's going to get.

Top left, a four-patch with log cabin blocks surrounding Route 66 images. Top center, the Texas state flag surrounded by bluebonnet strips. Top right, um, I think those were bear paws in that four patch.

Center, ships at sea on top of four patches with blue accents to even out the sizing. Center, a Greek cross with the US flag and a bald eagle in the center.

Bottom left, more log cabins, then in the center some flying geese, and on the right four patch squares.

The orange things below the Texas flag and the blue things below the flying geese are fish looking at each other.

The star in the Texas flag is applique. I used my Starmaker 5 (I think that's the cutting guide name, it's still packed in boxes right now!) to make it. The cutting guide is great, as long as you don't forget how to use it between uses.

Progress on the Tech quilt: quilting in progress

Hello everyone.
The Tech quilt is slowly approaching completion.  I'm hoping to finish in time to present it at Christmas.

The center has been quilted. There are a couple of spots that will need to be "unsewn" but it's a good start.

I added some interior quilting to the elephant's blanket and ear.

Now that the center is quilted there needs to be some planning and marking before the sides and top and bottom get quilted.  There are just too large of spaces without natural landmarks to wing it there.

Progress on the Tech quilt

Hello, everyone.

Y'all may remember a little while back a red and black elephant square. This is being turned into a quilt for DD2, who requested one.

One of the gray and red
filler bits for around the elephant is this one:

Top right corner of the quilt, with ray of sunshine in one corner.

Sharp eyes will note that some of the Texas Tech print has made its way into the corners. (Goes with the blanket on the elephant's back.)

Much, but not all, of this quilt is being done out of stash fabric. The many grays are mostly left over from the pink and gray whale quilt that was done last year.

The large piece above is a 6" square. The four patch squares in this part include one where the red squares were pieced from red and white strips. There were a lot of those squares made.
Making them went along swimmingly--and all of the squares had the red squares in the same corners. The red squares with a white strip along one side. Oops. These four patches can't just be rolled 90 degrees to get a flipped square with the red corners in the next corner around. I had to make some more to get the needed mirrorwise ones. (There may be some gray-and-red mug rugs in the works down the road a bit.) But things are working out.

Revised Block Idea

Hello, everyone.

As is probably common, there was more noodling around with the block sketches the other day.

This is the revised Double T block, now a 12x12 size instead.

The base looked too tall, so the row of checkered piecing at the bottom was added. In addition, using the larger size allowed for a more recognizable shape for the letters of the T. I'm thinking red, of course, for the parts outlined in red ink, black for the shadowed parts of the letters, white or ivory for the main background, and then the checkers at the bottom in gray or beige with black.

Block Play Ideas

Hello, everyone.

In connection with a new quilt that has been requested, there has been some pencil block work done lately. The requestor is a Texas Tech student.

A quick stroll through Pinterest didn't come up with a whole lot of candidates...there was the square named Ararat for an elephant square from the Kansas City star, and a whole lot of applique elephants, and a couple of other pieced designs that just didn't appeal a lot.

A Tech elephant

Yes, yes, I know that Tech are the Red Raiders. And one of their big slogans is "Guns up!" But the masked rider is way, way beyond my artistic level. As is the hand in "guns up!" position. (Any hands, actually, are beyond my artistic level.)
The doggie with a blanket shown earlier was a possibility, and it might even make an appearance, substituting Tech fabric for the Aggie fabric that was used for the first dog blanket.
Here is an elephant, suggested colors being two shades of gray (the ear different from the rest) and the blanket being Tech-design fabric. The corners could be black, here, and the "floor" could be green, with the remainder of the background either a nondescript "solid" of any color or maybe a sky type design. There is just enough extra room at the top to add a little more shape to the ear if wanted. But do we want an elephant ear that looks like a straight-up lozenge?

The Double T in 6x6 square

This one to have the Double T in black and the main background red. Possibly a contrast shade of white or pearl gray in the side bar. (Side bar is there because I am really uninterested in blocks with odd-numbered dimensions--it was 6 tall and 5 wide until that was added.) If the square was made in 12x12 format, the double coloration of red and black in the square could be done. Also the serifs on the smaller T could be done with no problem, and the larger tee could have square serifs too. In that case, I would sub pale gray or white for the background and either a strip of Tech pattern fabric for the side bar or just have the side bar as part of the regular background. (Switching the sides of the bar could give a nice zigzag effect in a vertical stack of the T squares, too.)

And an attempt at a bridge

For this one, colors might be gray and/or black for the bridge structure and either a plain background for the rest or possibly something that suggests a body of water near the bottom and sky above.

The previously shown hammer and wrench blocks might even make an appearance, too, in the thematic colors of red and black.