Making Progress

I've been participating in the Drop and Give Me Twenty challenge over at Quilting Hottie Haven.  I'm plodding along, but I AM making progress.  I am such a slow quilter!

I'm finally, completely finished Sand and Sea Glass.  I made Mr. CQT climb up on a ladder in the snowy back deck to hold it up for me.

As I was hand-sewing the binding on, in my living room, I was pleasantly surprised to find the quilt blends in remarkably well with my grey-green furniture.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but it's become a living room snuggle quilt.

And, I've been keeping up with the Scrap in a Box mystery.

This is Step 2 of the mystery.  I've made 82 of these.  Now, I'm just squaring them up.

Twenty one down - sixty three to go!  I'm really happy with how cheerful these blocks look.

Scrap-In-A-Box Part One

Charlotte, over at Scrapitude Quilts, posted her first clue for the Scrap-In-A-Box mystery a couple weeks ago.

This week, I completed it - 82 of this little block - each squared up to 2 1/2 inches.

I had a little fun trying out different ways of putting them together.

However, there are lots of cut pieces yet to incorporate into this quilt - I'm sure the finished product will have none of these combinations in it!

I have not forgotten about my Drop and Give Me Twenty commitment.  Today was February 1st, and I actually gave Beth about 200 minutes, being Sunday and all.  I cut my binding for the Sand and Sea Glass quilt...

 ...sewed it on the front, and started hand stitching the back.

Linking up to

and

The Log Jam has Broken!

Are you like me?  If I have something I feel I have to do, but I don't want to do, then I feel guilty doing anything else - which means I don't get anything done!

I started Sand and Sea Glass back in 2011.  That's three years ago - around the same time I started this blog.  It was a block of the month, and I was pretty good about keeping up with the blocks.  I even put them together fairly promptly.  Then it came time to quilt it.  And I stalled, and stalled.

I actually started quilting it over a year ago.  I got the bright idea to quilt each block differently.  Which meant I had to think up a quilting design for each block - yikes!

It got put on hold while we renovated, last year, and after that, I seemed to be unable to focus on any other project.  In my mind I ought to be finishing the quilting on that monster.  And yet, I wasn't finishing the quilting.  Gak!

While I was off over Christmas, I twisted my own arm, and got back to work on the quilt.  And got it done!  Well, almost - I still have to bind it.

Hopefully, now that this monkey is off my back, I'll be able to get back my quilting mojo!

Here it is, draped over the fence.

Sand and Sea Glass

And, draped the other way round.

I'll post some close-ups, and try and convince Mr. CQT to hold it up for a proper photo after the binding goes on.

Now, I remember that I cut the binding strips for this quilt at the time I put all the blocks together.  But, do you think I can remember where I put them?

Q4 Finish Along Goals

I've been suffering from serious quilters block over the last few months.  I blame this:

Yes, you have seen this before - it's Sand and Sea Glass, the block of the month project from (now defunct) Traditional Pastimes.  I have quilted the easy parts of this quilt - the sashing and borders.  I've started quilting the blocks, and I'm not having any fun.  And, I've got it in my head that I have to finish this one before I can enjoy starting any others.  I don't even like this quilt any more!  But I WILL finish it!  I will!  And, so, I'm putting it on my list for one more quarter.

You've also seen this one - another one I'm hesitant about.

This is Scrapitude, and it's still at the flimsy stage.  How to quilt it?  On the one hand, it's scrappy, so an all over pattern would be fine.  On the other hand, there are some nice white patches in there that could do with some custom quilting.  Decisions, decisions!

This one is new.  (I managed to push the quilters block aside for a bit.)   I won this pattern,  Sunrise, from Carolyn Friedlander, through  a giveaway on Modern Sewciety.  I spent some pleasant hours this summer, with easy paper piecing, and have started quilting.

This is baby sized.  The quilt ends at the teal border - what shows as white outside that is just batting.  I only have the white parts to quilt yet.  I'm actually pretty pleased with the quilting so far.  Just when I start to fall into despair (see Sand and Sea Glass, above), I look at something like this quilt, and I see that I HAVE improved my quilting.  I'll never be Angela Walters, but I'm coming along!

I also put together this one, in the early days of spring - hoping to have a nice table runner by summer. This is a Thimbleberries pattern that was kitted in more modern fabric. It's still a flimsy:

And - in for a penny, in for a pound - I might as well throw in these two once more:

 Maple Sugar, above, and Aqua Stars, below.

So, that's it.  List everything, I say, and perhaps I'll finish a few.

My list:

• Sand and Sea Glass
• Scrapitude
• Sunrise
• Watermelon
• Maple Sugar
• Aqua Stars

Linking up to the Q4 FAL at The Littlest Thistle

February 7 - 10

The Drop and Give me Twenty challenge is turning out to be a real motivation for me.  I've been down in my sewing room every day, and 20 minutes has turned into an hour or more on most days. I've finished the Freebie Fifteen top!

Actually, I didn't think it was finished.  After all, I've got 208 hourglass blocks that I made along with the monthly blocks, and they were supposed to be a second border.  But, as soon as I sewed on the first border, the quilt said to me, "Colleen, I am busy enough with all of these complicated blocks.  I do not need a pieced border!"  Well, who am I to argue with a quilt!  So, it's finished.  And I'm glad.

Now, for the backing.  I did buy fabric for the back, online.  When it arrived, it was all wrong.  So wrong!  It is a teal colour, and I thought it looked kind of oceany when I saw it.  (After all, the real name of the quilt is Sand and Sea Glass.)  But the blues in the quilt are more of a sky blue, not teal at all.  I'll save that for a backing for something else, and find new fabric for this one.

So, today, my plan is to clean in my sewing room.  I'm getting distracted by all of the bits of thread and fuzz on the floor!

February 5 and 6

No new photos tonight.  I'm still putting together those Freebie Fifteen blocks.  Chugging along.

Linking up with Quilting Hottie Haven.

February 3

First, to show my progress from yesterday.  I sewed all of the sashings on one side of the blocks, and laid them out to see what arrangement I would like.

I moved them around a bit, but they are all so different from each other, and the colours are so soft that I found it really didn't matter all that much.  However, just to make sure, I marked them all - A1, A2, etc.  I've started sewing the left hand sashing strips on.

Today, these will be put aside for a bit, as I work on a crafting project, for my Manager.  I'll post a picture when it's done.

Tonight, though, no sewing.  It's Downton Abbey night!

Linking up with Quilting Hottie Haven.

Chugging Along on Freebie Fifteen

I finished a couple more blocks on the Freebie Fifteen quilt.

I went back to doing the pinwheels with the templates, instead of the cheating, quarter square triangle method.  Those flying geese are 5/8 by 7/8 finished.  At least mine are, but you can see they aren’t all that equal in size.  One complaint I have about this series is that they never tell you what the parts of the blocks are supposed to measure out at.  And the pieces are such odd sizes that it is challenging to figure out yourself.  If I ever design a quilt, I will be sure to put in the size of every portion of every block!

One more block to go.  I haven’t even unfolded the instructions yet, but I can tell it’s a doozie.  Looks like about a million tiny pieces!

This quilt also calls for a many, many hourglass blocks.  I’ve been saving those up, and was working on what will be about 100 of these today, using The Angler 2 taped to my sewing machine.  I put the 4 1/2 inch squares together and was using the Angler to sew 1/4 inch on each side of the diagonal.  After sewing them all, I noticed that I had bumped the Angler at some point, and my seams were off.  Oops!  So, tonight, I’ll be measuring them all, and ripping out the ones that are off.  There is a good movie on tonight (Inglourious Basterds – Brad Pitt!) so that will be a good TV watching job.

Layout Ideas for Freebie Fifteen

The instructions for finishing the Freebie Fifteen quilt have the blocks sewn together side by side, along with some extra blocks with those awful template pinwheels in them.  (Awful to make, not to look at.)  Then, there are two rows of 3 inch hourglass blocks at the top and the bottom.  I should have thought to take a picture of the partially finished quilt top in the store, but I didn’t.
I think, though, that these blocks are far to busy to be sewn together side by side.  I’d like to put some sashing between them.
I’ve laid them out on my deck, with some of the deck boards showing through to look like sashing.

The deck boards are a light grey.  I would use a taupe sashing, as I think it will match the grey and sand in the blocks best – but I’m wondering if it should be light, like the boards, or darker, like, say, the darker colour in this block:

What do you think?

Freebie Fifteen - the Penultimate Blocks

Do you have some words that you just like?  One of mine is "penultimate".  I don't get to use it very often, but when I do, I smile.  OK, I'm strange that way.

I've got 3 more blocks done for the Freebie Fifteen.  Here is the actual freebie block:

I cheated like CRAZY on this block.  I am so tired of these teeny tiny templates.  I have decided that I am not a template girl.  So, I just cut those darker strips and fused them on.  I didn't even stitch around them - I'm planning on having the quilting hold them on.

And here are the other two - these are companion blocks:

Again, I cheated on the pinwheel blocks.  They were supposed to be those narrow pinwheels made with (aargh) templates, but I just quickly did them with half square triangles.  And, I made them by cutting a square and sewing on either side of the diagonal - which is why the pinwheels spin in different directions.

So, then, I went in to get the final blocks and the finishing kit, and the nice woman at the checkout tells me to make sure to keep certain of the fabrics separate, as "You'll need them to make a whole bunch of these pinwheels" - pointing to the dreaded template pinwheels on the wall.  Yikes!  I think I'm going to find another way to finish this quilt.

And to finish this post, a nice picture of the turning leaves in the park behind our house.

Freebie Fifteen

It's coming up to the 15th of the month again.  I have to remember... I have to remember...

Last month, I completely forgot!  I had my block done and everything, and the 15th came and went and I didn't even think about it.  So, I had to pay a whole $6 for my "free" block.  Darn!

Here is the freebie block for this month.  Not too hard to do.

I did cheat a little bit.  The instructions for those grey and white quarter square triangles were to cut out each individual triangle, then sew them together.  I put a grey square together with a white square, and sewed on either side of the centre line, like I was making half square triangles.  Then I cut it in half again.  The result was two triangles with the grey on the wrong side, but I think it's fine as is.

Speaking of cheating, here's one of the companion blocks:

This one was another that had those wretched template wonky pinwheels.  I am so tired of templates!  I had to use some of my own fabric, but I did regular pinwheels instead.  And those hearts and the white parts around them were also supposed to be templates, but I measured them out instead.  I feel like I'm pulling something over on the designer of these blocks when I avoid their templates!

This one did use the template for the pinwheels.

It was really finicky to make.  Those dark squares are 1/4 inch finished.  But I like the plaid look.

Finally:

I think this was last month's freebie block.  They are all starting to run together now!

One More Freebie Fifteen

I'm still plugging away on these blocks.  I think there are just two more months to go.  At Traditional Pastimes this last month, they had part of the quilt put together - made me realize that the end is near!

So, here is this month's block:

Compared to the last couple months, this one was a piece of cake!  Nice squares and half square triangles - I didn't have to moan to Mr. CQT about it being "too haaaarrrd" once!  (He's not all that helpful when I do moan.  He says "Well, don't do it then."  What kind of advice is that to a quilter?  Of course I have to do it!  He just needs to pat me on the back and agree that I really am tortured by all of those horrible templates and to compensate, he'll take over the housecleaning or take me out to dinner.  Why doesn't he think of that?)

Next Freebie Fifteen Done

I'm done a little lot early this time.  It helps to be on vacation!  This is the Freebie Fifteen block of the month from Traditional Pastimes.  It isn't actually due till June 15th.

This is the one I mucked up a bit.  I had cut the strip sets to make all of those 9 patches, but accidentally cut them at 13 /16 instead of 1 3/16.  Of course, there wasn't enough fabric left to cut strips of the correct size. Luckily, though, I have a fabric or two in my stash.  They had provided a mostly black fabric for the dark squares.  I had some Kona charcoal left from the baby quilt, and I think that looks just fine with the other colours in this BOM.

Freebie Fifteen Tomorrow

I'm on vacation for the next 3 weeks.  Nice!!  I'll be going away for part of it, but for now, I'm at home, just relaxing.

Being on vacation makes it easier to get in for this month's Freebie Fifteen at Traditional Pastimes.  I'll even have time to do a little shopping!

I've got the block all ready to go.

Nice blues and browns in this one.  I haven't got the companion block done yet - in fact, I haven't got last month's companion block done!  I will have some time, though, in the next 3 weeks!

Now, I'm off for a little nap.  Oh, the luxury of a vacation!

This is Getting Ridiculous!

Take a look at that diagram.  Note that it says it finishes at 2 inches by 5 inches.  Now count the pieces.  Did you get 72?  72??  And, they want us to do it with templates!!  Each of those little right angle triangles finishes 1/4 inch by 3/4 inch.  Are they crazy?  Do they think I'm crazy?

This, by the way, is the companion block from last month's Freebie Fifteen.   The quilt shop that is offering this will remain anonymous for this post.

I'm seriously thinking of just making 3 stripes and be done with it.  On the other hand, I could draft up a paper piecing pattern...

Freebie Fifteen This Month

Well, it's time for the Freebie Fifteen block again at my LQS.  Although today is the 15th, the store isn't open today, so I'll bring it in tomorrow.

This one has a bit of a Valentine's theme - I guess they were designing it last month this time!

Again with the templates!  I have to say - these are certainly (ahem) unusual blocks!

This is the alternate block from last month.

Again with the pinwheel templates, but I'm getting used to those.  This one had a little more colour than most of the others.  You might think my photos are washed out, but those are the colours of the fabrics - very subdued!

It was Mr. CQT's birthday on Friday.  My daughter was home for the week, as it's spring break at the school where she teaches.  Mr. CQT is a huge John Deere fan, so my daughter made him a John Deere cake.

Needless to say, he was delighted!

Another Freebie Fifteen Finish

Actually, I finished this one a couple weeks ago, as it was due March 15th.

As you may recall, this is the block of the month program from Traditional Pastimes.  It is called Sea and Sand Glass and the colours are really muted - soft blues, greens, pinks and browns.  This photo looks like it's black and white, but the fabric is actually two shades of white and a sandy grey.  I changed the pattern a bit - they didn't have the diamond shape in the centre, but I liked the symmetry.

It's usually an adventure getting to the shop for this block.  This BOM program is like the "Saturday Sampler" programs that many quilt shops run - where you have to come in on a specific day to get the next block free.  The one difference is that it's on the fifteenth of the month.  If you check the calendar for 2012, you'll notice that the fifteenth falls on a Saturday only twice.  (It falls on Sunday a few times, but the shop is closed, so they move it to the Monday.)  I work until 4:30.  The shop is open to 5:00 during the week.  Usually, I don't leave work at 4:30 - but on the fifteenth, I have to remember to do that - then it's a mad rush to get to the shop just before closing time!  Sometimes I can do the mad rush on my lunch break, but often I don't have enough time then to make the trip.

I don't quite understand it.  With Saturday Samplers,there are two advantages for the shop owner.  One is that they get to promote their products for a few minutes.  The second is that people use the opportunity to browse and shop.  With this one, I rush in, breathless, grab my new block and rush out so that I can go home and make supper!  And there are usually other people doing the same thing.

For me, the mad rush is worth it.  I'm drawn to these kinds of BOM's as I love the idea of it being free.

I haven't even looked at this months' block yet.  And, then there are the companion blocks - I haven't done last months' companion block yet either!  Yikes!  I'd better get on those!