Let’s piece it…..

Yesterday I showed you my lazy-girl mock-up.

Now it was time to actually piece the squares!!

Since I was going to be working with smaller pieces of fabric, I decided that I would starch them before cutting. I like to use Magic Sizing, spraying the piece liberally and then ironing dry.

It made the fabric much stiffer and I think that it did help with the cutting and piecing!!

I started piecing the various sections…..

…..adding one strip at a time…..

Then I moved to the background sets…..

Before long I was ready to put the two sections together…..

In my original mock-up, I used a blue small square in the center…..

….but I had the thought that a red/maroon one might be better…..

I was right!!!

Once I had all of the squares made, it was time to add the background triangles……

One of my big concerns was that the threads from the color fabrics would shadow through the light-colored background fabric…..

To combat this, I did some extra trimming after each seam was sewed.

First I pulled back the seam allowance…..

….and trimmed the offending fabrics/threads off…..

Now I don’t have to worry about shadowing!!!

So here is my basic design…..

Next step is to decide if I need to add more squares….or maybe two “half-squares” on each end.

I think that I will plan the quilting next to see what other piecing I need to add.

Come back tomorrow for the planning process!!!

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Lazy Mock-up

Yesterday I shared my initial thoughts for the upcoming MQG Fabric Challenge.

Now it was time to make some decisions….. and it was the day before we were leaving on a 7-day overseas trip!! The bags were packed and ready to roll, the house was cleaned up, my studio was immaculate, and I had time on my hands.

Like any good quilter, I started a new project!!

I wanted to make a mock-up of my ideas to see if they would work, but I didn’t want to sew!!

Glue sticks to the rescue!!!

I pulled one piece of the background fabric and drew a line from top to bottom to allow positioning of the pieces…..

I started cutting out each of the fabric pieces, dotting a little glue on the back, and sticking it to the background…..

In a short time, I had this set glued together……

Now I got lazy!!

Instead of making even more glued designs, I took the original to my photocopier……

….and quickly had a bunch to play with……

I now moved to the paper versions and “pieced” them together to give the full design…..

I then pulled a larger piece of background fabric and pinned the paper mock-up to it……

I wasn’t sure that I wanted the extra strips, so I pinned them on.

With this in mind, I headed out on my trip, still thinking about it as I toured around the wilds of Sweden!!

I also had an ulterior motive for making the mock-up before I left…. I wanted to play with quilting designs using Procreate on my iPad. These are two of the ideas that I hatched……

I really like the thought of using a Dreamcatcher in the quilting…..but more about that coming up!!!

This project is well on its way!!!

How do you mock-up your future quilts?

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Another challenge…

The next project that I need to work on is the MQG (Modern Quilt Guild) Fabric Challenge. I have shown you these fabrics before……

….and I was really excited about using them in a quilt.

I knew that I wouldn’t have much time to work on this quilt before the entry deadline of October 31st, so I decided to keep it reasonably small.

As I looked at the colors, I kept thinking about Seminole patchwork, so I immediately grabbed my book…..

I once made men’s ties for Christmas gifts and used a Seminole strip at an angle across each one. I sure wish that I had photos of those!!!!

I also called my friend Phyllis and asked for her resources. She had lived in Florida (where the Seminole Indians lived) for many years and she KNEW her Seminole Patchwork. She showed up with a slew of other resources……

….. and I happily started looking for designs.

Of course, now I can’t find the block that inspired this design…..I know that it is in one of those books, but this is what I started playing with……

And yes, I took photos of the fabric and scanned them into Electric Quilt 8 so that I could get a better idea of how it would look.

I put it on point and added another block with some strips and came up with this quilt……

Ignore the color gradation in the background blocks. That was from the photo that I used!!

I knew that I didn’t want to make THAT many blocks so I needed another way to test my design.

Come back tomorrow and I will show you my super-quick, no-sew drafting idea.

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Thank you…….

I bet you forgot about the BQL

This time last year I started posting about a twelve-month challenge that I had participated in WAY back in the early 2000’s.

My intention had been to post one block each month thru the end of the year, but…..

So now, over a year later we will take up this tale!!!

The parameters of the challenge were this…..

Each month we were presented with a certain style of quilt and were challenged to make our own version. Oh did I forget to mention that these quilts were only 12-inches in size!!

It was a perfect challenge as it didn’t take forever to make but still gave me a chance to try new things.

So, the June offering was using twisted pleats……

Back in this time period, this particular style of quilting was very popular and I was excited to be “forced” to give it a try!!

I don’t remember much about how it was made, but I BELIEVE that we sewed the two sides of the pleat together first and then pieced them into the backing fabric.

Because of the size of the quilt, it was hard to get much “twist” to it, but I really do like this quilt and it is happily displayed during the summer months!!

Have you ever tried a pleated quilt?? If so, I would love to see photos!!!

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

Thank you…….

FINISHED…..REALLY!!

Yesterday I fooled you and said that it was finished, but really, I needed to redo the binding so that the bottom-right corner looked better.

Don’t EVER do this unless you absolutely can’t stand it the way it is.

One of the hardest things that I have ever done was to rip that binding off…..

I knew that I was going to need to add a bit more binding so that I would have room to finish it off when it met up on the other side.

The problem was that I didn’t have much fabric left and this was the longest strip that I could make!!

Then….when I sat down to re-attach it…..THIS HAPPENED…..

Remember also, that this was the day that I was packing for our 3-week trip to Africa so there were LOTS of things on my To-Do list. I didn’t have time for this particular problem!!

Once I had worked around both corners, I folded and check the errant corner before I connected the binding…..

That is definitely an improvement.

When I rounded the corner to attach the two bindings together, I ended up with three connects really close together. I don’t particularly like it, but I can’t change it now.

SO….. after an evening of handwork, I can call this quilt officially finished!!!

Now I am taking photos (including a ruler to show that it is exactly 20-inches)…..

…..and filling out the registration form. And of course….paying my $30.

I hope that this quilt is accepted into the Cherrywood Challenge but regardless, I have had a BLAST working on it.

I guess that means that I can take down the “Monarch Challenge” sticker that has resided on my design wall since I came back from Houston with the fabrics!!

Thanks to all of you who have sewed along with me, offering encouragement and suggestions. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Does this mean that it needs to go into a “group” category????

Until next time…..

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One of my favorite things about quilting is motivating others and helping them in their quilting journey. As part of this endeavor, I LOVE to present programs and workshops to groups and guilds around the world. All of my programs work well with Zoom meetings, and I would love to speak to your group.

You can find out more at this link…..