Monday, August 31, 2015

Heidi's Quilt

The other project I finished which had nothing to do with my "Get RR Done" group is a quilt for Heidi.  She made it for her daughter who has gone off to college.  
It is a fun double sided T-Shirt quilt. That is right the back is also made of T-Shirts.  I like to follow a patter or go around the designs of the front, but I had to keep reminding myself it isn't going to work that way on the back and to just go for it. 


Here is the front.  I didn't take a picture of the back. 


Look at how nice and puffy it will be even with low-loft batting.


 My favorite block.  This T-shirt is from the first quilt shop I ever taught at.  Quilter's Emporium.  My best friend was the owner and she asked me to teach paper piecing because I was the only person she knew who knew how to paper piece.  Man I have good memories of that place.  I miss it and I miss Rosie.  Rosie is now in the Heavenly Quilt group.  I will be eternally grateful to her for introducing me to quilting, we took our first classes together.  And for inviting me to teach at her shop which expanded to teaching all kinds of classes. I also did the monthly newsletter for the shop.  

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Progress on Projects

Do you ever get those feelings, of I can't move on to this or the next project until I finish or get so far on such and such.  Well that is were I have been with the Pink Princess.  I am not always sure if that means I am stalling on starting the next project or if that means the current project just needs to be done.  
Today I finally finished added the last borders and once I did that I was able to pull out what is left to do on my Dear Jane. 

So here is my Pink Princess.  I like how it looks. 


I cut the borders wrong, I cut two strips 4" and two 3.5 inches.   My plan was for 3.5" all the way around.  I just couldn't cut the 4" ones down so I left them at 4".  I put them on the top and bottom since a longer quilt never hurt and I knew I was going to have add on to the side borders and I had one piece left over that would give me two 3.5" pieces.  

When I added on the extra pieces for the side borders, one of the pieces had the words below, Her Royal Majesty, and one of my side borders did also.  So one border has that on it three times.  
It looks like I have a thread to clip.


The other side has Adorable on it in three places. It was so cute I was thinking about changing the name of the quilt to Adorable.  
I am going to quilt this on my frame.


So after this I pulled out all my DJ stuff, except for the backing, and binding.


I went through all my triangles to see which ones are missing, I need to make four and I need to make 2 corners. 
I am not sure why I stopped so close to the end.  I think I got a little intimidated by constructing the borders and 
having it all fit together. 

Here is center of the quilt has it has been since, 2002 or 2003.


Is is part of the top row. 


The other part of the top row.


The bottom row of triangles, all of the pieced triangles are done. 


Left side and right side triangles, each border is missing two triangles. One triangle on the right side border is missing a little triangle, but I think I left it off since the print I had used was cool by itself, as it has a large flower right in the center. I might leave it that way.  After all it is my quilt. 


I have to pick out fabric for all those plain triangles.  Grrrr 

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Get RR Done #4

Well this project is really #3 and it was due last week.  It isn't done.  I was working on it last week when I realized I didn't have enough of my main fabric.  It is a Crafty class, called Pattern Free Quilt Design.  I was opening it would help me be a little freer with design.  No such luck, it actually made me a little crazy.  I made six blocks and I was like how do you cut it any size you want. I finally had to come up with a plan, cut one 2.5" another 3.5" and another 4.5".  I think I even made one 5".  That is the size of the coordinating fabric strips.  
Than I ran out of fabric.  I followed the instructions which weren't very clear, and very vague. I purchased my one yard of each fabric.  I am sure there would have been and easier way to cut the fabric and have the same results. 
So I finally drafted the quilt in EQ7 and changed it around and I am much happier.  I just need a little plan to the quilt.  The quilt is supposed to be 6 x 6 block layout but since I ran out of fabric, I decided to make it a 5 x 7 block layout.  Than I only needed end strips for 8 blocks instead of 9 blocks.
I went to the Get RR Done group and asked a couple of my friends what they would do.  I had enough scraps to piece four more edges, but I would still be short four edges.  Try to find a fabric that matched or bring in another color.  Of course the fabric I had is gone, since I purchased it three years ago. 
So I found a fabric that we all liked. 
I came home, cut some fabric and did some sewing. 

This is what I came up with. 

 It just doesn't thrill me. I actually don't like it.  The gray just sticks out and looks out of place.  Like oops I made a mistake. 

This is my second arrangement and I like this one a little better. 


I do have 8 strips of the dark pink and lots of the white with words, I just might make some strips of that and replace the gray.  The picture of the class sample had some blocks like that, so it might work.  So stay tune for updates.

I did find a nice dark raspberry for a resting border and binding and I have enough of the white with words on it for a small border. 

I was going to make this for Little Bit but my nephew's girlfriend had a baby girl so I thought I would give it to them. 

The next project due is the borders on the Dear Jane Quilt.