It is with a bit of wonder and a sad smile that I announce the Lincoln quilt top is completed.  It has been on my design wall for two years, so it will be strange not to see it there.  But first, this is what the Lincoln quilt top looked like week ago Sunday December 10th.

The top and one side border had been attached.  Last week had very little sewing time, but I jumped right in on Saturday and finished all the border blocks.

The blocks were pressed and sewn together, then attached on Sunday.

Now the big reveal – ta da!

In the spirit of full disclosure the center of the quilt does not lay as flat as I would like.  My current working theory is that I should not have had it hanging on a design wall for two years, especially an on-point design.  I think it stretched out the corners a bit, but I am not in panic mode.  My plan of attack calls for a hot iron, spray starch and careful machine quilting to take care of any pesky problems.

The finished size is 84″ square which will be a good size for my bed.  And no – I have no idea how to quilt it.

I wonder what project will be next up on this design wall?  That is a decision for 2018.

Check out all the other quilting inspiration at Judy’s Design Wall Monday.

Happy Holidays

Marlene

The center of the Lincoln quilt is quickly coming together.  On Saturday the dark green block was completed –

and on Sunday I finished the golden Lincoln block.

And now there is one – the dark purple block.  I don’t know if I am happy or sad that I am down to the last block.  This project has been on my large design wall for two years now and the space will look strange without the Lincoln quilt hanging there.

Once the dark green block was completed, I was able to finish the lower right side section of the top.

When the golden block was finished, I pieced it to the black block along with all the sashing and cornerstones.  While working on quilt blocks, I like to start sewing them together so that I don’t have all that at the end.  Sometimes you can’t do that, but anytime I can I do.

All the final decisions regarding the border have been made, so once the center is all together I will be ready to power sew and get it done.

Check in with Judy’s Design Wall Monday for wonderful quilt inspiration.

Marlene

February was oriental fabric month and I thought that I would be moving on to something different in March.  However in the process of organizing the fabric room, I came across a plastic bag filled with blocks made with – you guessed it – oriental fabric.

There are rail fence blocks, bow tie blocks, broken dishes blocks and a 16 patch block.  There are even a couple of blocks that I don’t know the name of – including the block on the right.

I decided to put all the blocks in the orphan block bin except for the blocks on the right.  They are fast and easy to sew and I got quite a few finished this last weekend.

The setting is going to be 5 x 6 with sashing and cornerstones.  My best guess right now is that the quilt will end up somewhere around 55″ x 65″.  There will be sashing around the outside, but no border.  Hopefully this will be completed by this weekend.

Check in at Judy’s Design Wall Monday to see what everyone is working on.

Marlene

The Interlocking Circles (Beachside Bungalow by Kim Brackett) quilt top is finished.  I decided that an outer border would be too distracting, so this is it.  The quilt top measures 58″ x 69 1/2″.

The quilt was inspired by this batik fabric and a Robert Kaufmann jelly roll.

Does anyone but me get a bit frustrated at quilt yardage requirements that leave you with huge amounts of extra fabric?

This quilt calls for 2 1/2 yards for the background, 7/8 yard for the setting triangles and 5/8 yard for binding – a total of 4 yards.  I had 2 yards of the batik, and after deciding on this pattern I ordered another yard – a total of 3 yards.   Out of the 3 yards of fabric, I sewed all the blocks, cut all the setting triangles and had enough left over to cut the binding.  I rarely buy extra fabric for the binding for this very reason.

This week’s goal is to finish machine quilting and binding a couple small wall hangings.

Linking up with Judy’s Design Wall Monday.

Marlene

The pattern is Beachside Bungalow from Scrap-Basket Beauties by Kim Brackett, but changed so that each ring is one fabric.  I wanted the interlocking circles to be prominent.  The strips along the bottom show the colors for those circles.

It is slow piecing to make sure that I sew all the correct pieces together, but I like how it looks.  There may be enough background material to cut the setting triangles, but I have no idea what I will use for the outer border.  It looks like there may be a trip to the quilt store in my future – oh darn!

Today I will start searching my stash to find the fabric for Bonnie Hunter’s mystery quilt Grand Illusion.

Check out all the quilting inspiration at Judy’s Design Wall Monday.

Marlene

Good Grief – Is September half over already?  It doesn’t seem possible.

This is a view of my hexie project box last week.

The very last hexie was added, the project appliqued to the background fabric, and a quilt sandwich made.  The next step is deciding on the quilting motif for it.

While I am making that decision, I started on some Spiderweb blocks using the free pattern from Bonnie Hunter’s website.

I really like the black and white strip between the kite shapes and the strings.  There was one yard of the yellow middle fabric and I was able to cut enough kites to make 30 blocks.  This is a perfect pattern for just feeding fabric through the machine which appeals to me right now.

Check out other fall projects at Judy’s Design Wall Monday.

Marlene

One of my main goals this last week was my hexie project.

All the gold hexies are completed and the only thing left is the black pathway.  There are a couple of wool projects calling my name, but I am resisting until this project is completed.

I have also been working on a small pieced wallhanging.  At the last quilt guild meeting, I was gifted with a charm pack.  I was thinking about a block or pattern for the charms and I had a “light bulb” moment – a Disappearing 9 Patch literally.

Not what you expected, right?  I love it – it makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Wouldn’t this be cute as a baby quilt with the baby’s name across the top?  This quilt is 28″ x 36″ with the squares for the 9 patches cut at 2″.  It would be so easy to increase the size of the quilt by increasing the size of the squares.

The plan is to gift this project back to the person who gave me the charms, but I think that I will need to make another one for me.

Check out all the other quilting inspirations at Judy’s Design Wall Monday.

Marlene

The Arabic Lattice quilt top is finished.It measures 64″ square and was made with the Arabic Lattice templates by John Flynn.  Each block is 9 1/2″ unfinished.

I was interested in exploring a light to dark / inside to outside shading for this project.   I think it was successful.

There has also been some progress on my hexie project – Oriental Flower Garden.I counted this morning and there are only 10 more gold hexies.  The goal is to have this project completed this month.

Check out everyone else is working on at Judy’s Design Wall Monday.

Marlene

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post.  I was out-of-town babysitting four of my grandchildren.  There wasn’t much sewing going on, but lots of hugs and snuggles.

However I did get the binding completed on my little wool project.

This wall hanging is 28″ square.  I am very pleased with this quilt and plan to do more wool applique projects in the future.

One of the first things I did when I got home was to start cutting fabric for a new quilt.  My sewing machine had been so lonesome and I needed to give it some attention, right?

Years ago I have bought the John Flynn templates for Arabic Lattice and now it was time to – finally – use them.

The gray is really more of a blueish gray and the background is navy blue.  I grouped all the light-colored blocks in the center, then shaded out to the darker blocks.  It looks much better than the picture.

The blocks are sewn together with partial seams starting with the top row and moving downward.  The plan is to get the top completed this week.

I am also working on a small D9P quilt as leaders and enders which I will show when it is done.

Check out what else is going on in the quilting world at Judy’s Design Wall Monday.

Marlene

The Buggy Barn quilt top – Gus –  is finished.
Actually the top was finished Saturday evening.  Since then I have been trying to decide if I am happy with the result or not – is it too busy? do I like my fabric choices? should the Gus block be moved to the back?

Looking at the photograph helps and I am leaving it as it is.  It seems to me that this is just the nature of the Buggy Barn technique – a bit crazy.  I also have to remind myself that the cat blocks will look more complete once the whiskers and eyes have been added.

The goal for this week is to get the quilt sandwich together and start the machine quilting.

Check out all the quilty inspiration at Judy’s Design Wall Monday.

Marlene