It was a good week for the Stash numbers. I used 9.5 yards (all from stash!) on the Disappearing Pinwheel quilt, and no fabric was purchased.
This week: +0 yards, -9.5 yards
YTD: +30.25 yards, -62.5 yards
Net stash used 2014: -32.25 yards
Hope you were able to sew yesterday for National Quilting Day, and that your Stash is diminishing nicely.
I’m linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times.
I finished the Disappearing Pinwheel quilt this weekend. This was a quilt-along we did on Twitter, during the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Sew-In, using a tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. I think A.J. talked us into it. Not sure. See other Twilters’ versions here. I made it entirely from stash, so for that reason alone it was a good project. Those aren’t wrinkles, they are shadows from bare tree branches.
If the last project was Cotton Candy, then this is Orange Sherbet. I used six (I think) different large floral prints and a light orange blender fabric. Also, I transposed the center pinwheels, though I hadn’t planned to originally, so they don’t contrast much. With all the bias, it was a bit wonky and wavy and puffy, so I quilted it all over with feathers. There are feather circles in every circular area, hearts and designs in the diamonds created by the corner triangles, and continuously around the border.
I marked a little for the hearts, but that was it. This quilt was a bit large and heavy to drag around under the machine, so my feathers aren’t perfect, but it was good practice, and it really tamed the top. I’m amazed at how flat and square it turned out.
One of my favorite parts is the backing. It’s an amazing dragonfly batik, thick and soft, and dyed like rainbow sherbet. The orange Bottom Line thread I used in the top and bottom blended nicely in some places and showed more in other spots.
I don’t think I would make this pattern again, but it did come together pretty quickly. It was fun seeing how the blocks were turning out as we were working together.
See lots of other finishes at Whoop Whoop Friday, and TGIFF, which is at Quilt Matters today.
Yesterday I sewed together all the Disappearing Pinwheel blocks for the center of the quilt. There were lots of points to match, and I found myself forced to use pins. There was also a lot of wonkiness due to all the bias. It will be fine, but if I ever made another I would make my own pinwheels first, in an evenly divisible size, rather than use the technique shown here. But I like the fabrics together.
I also sewed 88 scrappy HSTs for the outer border. This is already pretty large, and I ran out of orange fabric, so it’s not getting much of a border.
I am going to use all this peachy tone-on-tone space for some feathers. I was studying up last night from these three books, including my Christmas gift, Fabulous Feathers and Fillers by Sue Nichols. This book has useful information on designing and drafting feathers, but isn’t exactly what I thought it would be. She makes beautiful feathers, on a home machine, but they are very tight and regular, and she marks them all first. I’m looking for something more organic and freehand. Karen McTavish’s are like that, although she’s using a long arm, as does Judy Woodworth. I seem to make mine in a different direction than they do. I don’t know if that’s important, but I’m going to think about it.
I’m linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Well, I missed the linkup, but I’ll put this out here anyway for those of you who follow.
I have finished the stitch-in-the-ditch stabilizing quilting between all the blocks on the Brights quilt, which means it looks like nothing at all has been done to it. One tip I remembered as I did this was to stitch in the same direction on both sides of each row of sashing , so that it wouldn’t distort. You can probably guess how I learned this…
Today I’m on to quilting the sashing, probably with wavy lines using the walking foot, and then fmq-ing the blocks and borders with paisley designs.
Meanwhile those enablers quilters on Twitter, known as the #Twilters, have drummed up a new quilting bee.
We’re all going to make our own versions of the Missouri Star Quilt Co.’s “Disappearing Pinwheel”
quilt. Find the links to the tutorials on Gretchen’s blog, 120 Blocks. We’re going to work on these
during our Martin Luther King Day Sew-In ( #MLKSI ). In typical #Twilter fashion, this is morphing into a whole weekend of fun and silliness, so check out the blogs and podcasts to see what’s going on. Google Hangouts have been mentioned (still no success fixing my webcam…), and there will probably be a Flickr group, so you can participate even if you’re not a Twitter person. I hope you’ll join us.
This is a perfect project to use with two layer cakes, but I don’t have any, so I dug into my stash. I came up with a great batch of large-scale florals and big dots/circles, and this peach blender to serve as my solid. After editing for contrast, the dots failed to make the cut, but I’m excited about what I have. I’ve starched, pressed, and cut my 60 10″ squares, and I’m ready to go on Monday. Or sooner
if they talk me into it.
And the new step has been released for Scrapitude, so I’ll be plenty busy.
Hope you’re make progress on something.
Evening in the Garden Quilts 