Challenge piecing….

On Thursday I told you about the start of my “two for the price of one” challenge!!

When I left you, I had cut and pieced the first set of duet strips for the background squares…..

But, I wasn’t happy with them.

I wanted the blocks to have lots of strips in them to add interest….

…and these were simply TOO wide!!

So, I started cutting the strips down and re-sewing them together again.

I knew that this would use even more fabric so at this point…..

Please tell me that you do this too!!

I kept adding strips one at a time…..

….until I had a strip set that was the width that I needed.

Now it was time to cut the squares and this took a bit more planning…..

The unfinished squares need to be 5.5 inches and I am going to piece a curve in the corner. Since I know that I may lose a bit of size with piecing the curve, I wanted the squares to be a bit bigger than needed.

BUT, since I am working with fat-quarters and still want to make the best use of the fabric, I needed to know the maximum number of squares that I could get from my strip set.

That number was 3 squares out of the “almost 18-inch” strip.

Since the strip wasn’t quite 18-inches, I settled on 5-7/8’s inch squares.

Yes, that is getting a bit picky, but the sizes need to be exact to produce the needed 20-inch quilt!!

And it got even crazier after that as I started adding the curves…..

Come back next week for more!!

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I’ve made a start….

Last week, I posted about my idea of turning two challenges into one quilt…

Time’s up…..

…and this week, I have made a start!!

The first thing that I needed to do was make the strip sets for the background blocks…

I only had 3 fat-quarters in the needed greens so I knew that I was going to have to be VERY precise in my cutting and planning!

I trimmed a minimal amount to even up the edges…

….and cut a set of strips out of each fabric. They varied in width from 1-inch to 2-1/2- inches.

I matched the fabrics into duets….

….and sewed them together, being REALLY sure of my 1/4-inch seam allowance…..

I even chose to piece with a Bottom Line thread which is 60 weight thread. I have never used this before but it seems to be working well.

OKAY….the first set of strips are sewn…..

Am I happy with them?

Not so much!!!

Come back on Saturday to see the next moves!

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Time’s up…..

Tuesday was my BIG deadline day!!!

And I made it…..YIPPEE…..

So yesterday, I had a bit later start to the day and worked more in my office, but in a much more relaxed manner!!

And then at 4:00pm, I decided that it was time to do something else…..

SOMETHING FUN…..

SOMETHING INVOLVING FABRIC!!!!

I have two challenges quickly approaching……

The first is the Monarch Challenge from Cherrywood Fabrics….

….and the second is a “Drunkard’s Path” challenge in my local guild…..

The question is WHEN am I going to find time to make two quilts?

The answer is NEVER…..however, I MIGHT be able to make ONE!! I am thinking that I can use the monarch challenge fabrics but make the background in the Drunkards Path design.

What do you think???

The Monarch Challenge has a size limitation of 20 inches. Fortunately, the guild challenge doesn’t have a specified size.

What if I start with the background and do it in a Drunkard’s Path design? Maybe something like this…..

My biggest concern with this plan is that I have a limited amount of fabrics for the background (3 fat-quarters in various greens)……

….so I am doing a LOT of planning before I start cutting!!!

Stay tuned to see what happens next!!

In this blog, I post DAILY stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog.

You also might also be interested in the free pattern that you receive when you subscribe to my email newsletter.

Both of these sign-up forms are in the right column….scroll ALL the way up if you are on a desktop and ALL the way down if you are on your phone!! And, please share this post with someone who might enjoy it!!

Orange You Glad She’s Wearing A Mask??

Back in 2006, my quilt guild ran a challenge called “ORANGE you glad it’s not pink”.

The rules were that the piece had to be predominantly orange and had to be twice as long as it was wide.

I had just spent some time playing with Colorsticks and rubbing plates but hadn’t been particularly excited bout any of them……

I put them up on my design wall and the idea for the mask just appeared when I was arranging the blocks to try to make it fit the size requirement.

I remember how much fun I had designing the mask!

I started with a basic mask shape that I found online and started adding fabrics.

There was an amazing African stripe fabric that brought it all together and you can see bits of it all thru the piece.

I don’t remember where the shiny fabric came from for the face but it was perfect….

I found these great buttons in some of my Grandmother’s collection and they made wonderful eyes!!!

I remember having SO much fun giving her some jewelry, starting with the feather and bead earrings…..

…..and I painted wooden pony beads for the necklace……

Here she is in all her glory……

I remember that there were SO many great quilts in this challenge and I found this photo from an old newsletter. Aren’t they great!!!!

I think that this was one of my favorite challenges and probably the best participation!!

Do you have a favorite challenge??

If you enjoy this daily blog, please share it with your friends!!!

Thank you…….

Flowers Will Bloom Again!

On Friday I posted about building the Bargello top for my guild challenge which is named “Flowers Will Bloom Again.

Yesterday we took a break as I celebrated my 14th Blogoversary!!!

Today, let’s get the quilting done on this challenge!!

The first step was to follow the ups and downs of the bargello and divide the quilt into three sections…..

Much like the design for the piecing, I wanted to make the darker, bottom portion really austere and then have it become more fun as it moved to the top.

So, I started with 1/2-inch spaced straight lines…….

In the next section, I kept the lines spaced at 1/2-inch but made them wiggly and used a black & white variegated thread….

I wasn’t super happy with how it looked when the white thread had to travel along the already stitched black thread…..

But I quickly fixed that using a Fabrico Marker…..

That looks so much better!!

In the next section, I decided to quilt vines (which are pretty hard to see)….

As I rose further into the “fun” section, I debated about which flower meander to use…..

Of course, the obvious answer was BOTH….

So, I combined the two designs. This photo is actually from the back but you can see better……

I outlined the flowers and added some details to the petals….

….and finished off with a paisley meander between the flowers…..

I had a leftover strata strip and, knowing that I would NEVER use it in another project, I added it to the back…..

Here is the finished quilt……

It definitely reminds me that we have been through some hard times but that, in the end, the flowers will always bloom and life will be good!!!

Thanks for joining me on this bargello journey!!!

In this blog, I post DAILY stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog.

You also might also be interested in the free pattern that you receive when you subscribe to my email newsletter.

Both of these sign-up forms are in the right column….scroll ALL the way up if you are on a desktop and ALL the way down if you are on your phone!! And, please share this post with someone who might enjoy it!!