Thursday, July 30, 2015

July's completed project

I'm sure that you're all waiting with bated breath - did she finish her project on time?  Yes, I did!
It's hard to believe, but when I started quilting, I wanted / needed every aspect of my quilts to match - there's NO way that I would make a scrappy quilt!  I enjoyed other people's scrappy quilts, but it just wasn't my thing.  I can't remember when that changed, but now it seems to be the only kind of quilt that I make!  (I still have the odd unfinished "matchy-matchy" project in a box somewhere, but I'm not sure I can finish them....)
I'm also unable to pass up interesting Fat Quarters - take me to a quilt shop, or a show, and I'll inevitably end up with half a dozen FQs in my hand.  I usually don't have a plan for them, but I'll find a quilt for them someday!  That's partly how this quilt came to be - I had odds and ends of other quilt projects, or random FQs, and even a few cotton fabrics that came from "yard sales" at guild meetings.
I've made 3 or 4 disappearing 9-patch quilts, and have at least one more in the works.  It's a fun project - basically, you chose a colour for the middle block, then pick 8 more fabrics to go around it.  They can coordinate, or be any colour of the rainbow.  Sew them together, then cut the block into 4 equal sections - mix and match with other blocks and sew them together again.  The center block becomes the focus.  In my quilt, I chose red for the centers - different fabrics and shades of red, but always red in the center.  How you sew them together brings the reds together again, across the corners.
You can use as few as 2 colours, or as many as you want, but the scrappier, the better!  And here's my quilt:

Sunday, July 19, 2015

An "In-progress" report

I thought that I had posted this update a few days ago, but apparently I was dreaming!
The first thing I found out was that the 9-patch blocks varied somewhat in size - enough to make it a problem that "fudging" wouldn't fix.  So, after I cut all the squares, I measured a few blocks to find their average size, and trimmed all of the blocks down to that measurement.
You wouldn't think that just trimming off 1/4" or even just 1/8" would take up so much time, but it did!  That job is finally finished - thankfully!
This picture shows just some of the blocks, and some of the little strips that I cut off - and there were so many more!  But, that job is finally done, and I hope to start assembling the top in the next day or two...

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

My goal for July

I've had a tough time deciding what to choose for July's "A Lovely Year of Finishes" project.  I had a bunch of charm squares that needed to be assembled into a top - great!  It would be a relatively easy finish - and it was!  I have it done already, so that really isn't going to be much of a challenge (it still needs a border, but that won't take more than 10 minutes once I have the fabric I need).  I'll show it to you anyway - and then I'll repost it with it's borders.
I finally choose this disappearing 9-patch.  The 9-patches have been assembled for at least 4 years, so it's a perfect candidate for the challenge.  Every block has a red center, and will be cut into quarters.  The blocks are then mixed up, and re-assembled.  These are a few of the 9-patches, and a few of the quarters.  You'll have to pop in a few days from now to see how it's progressing!

I'm off to link up to Melissa's site!

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

A day late...

I'm really annoyed with myself - I had my June "A Lovely Year of Finishes" project completed a day before month's end, but I didn't blog about it Monday night because it was getting really late...  I knew that I still had a day to post it - and I would have, except that our phone line went out, and we had no internet either.  So, I didn't get my project linked up - once again, my procrastination has kicked me in the backside...
I know that you still want to see it though - so here's my top:
The quilt doesn't have borders - every quilt that I've seen like this just has the strips running out to the quilt edges, and I really like the look!
Note to self: When you finish your monthly goal, post it right away!