Tag: Challenge

EXACTLY 20-inch square

Yesterday I promised that I would finish the Monarch Challenge Quilt and, for the most part, I will…..

When I left you yesterday, everything was finished except for the binding.

But, before I could add binding, I needed to ensure that the quilt was going to be 20 inches square…..EXACTLY!!!

One of the big challenges of the Cherry Wood Challenge is that they have to be the EXACT size. You can understand that when you see the way that they are displayed…..

Now I had to figure out how I was going to finish the quilt…..if I used a facing, then the quilt would need to be cut at 20-1/2 inch because turning the facing will take away the 1/2 -inch.

However, IF I am going to bind the quilt, I need to trim it to 20-inches because once the binding is folded back over itself, it doesn’t take up any of the size.

Does that explanation make ANY sense???

Anyway….. I decided that a facing wouldn’t work well because of the bulk along the bottom where the leaves were. They would not have turned under well!!

So, after a lot of measuring, I carefully trimmed the quilt top, starting with squaring-up the bottom portion.

Then I measured up to the top-right corner and squared it further…..

Happily, it measured exactly 20-inches!!

I added the binding and set out to take photos so that I can enter it into the challenge.

What do you see when you look at this photo?

Does the bottom right corner stick out to you??

It certainly does to me and I feel sure that having such a bad (un-square) corner would immediately take me out of contention for acceptance.

So that means that there is ONE more thing to do before I can call this quilt finished…..

Come back on Tuesday and I PROMISE that it will be finished!!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

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!!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..

Click HERE for more information

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!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In this blog, I post 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 as it becomes available.

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 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 as it becomes available.

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 blog, please share it with your friends!!!

Thank you…….