Half Square Triangles

Last year, or was it the year before, I attended several all day mystery quilt workshops at my local quilt shop. One of these had lots of bonus triangles that everyone was pitching into the trash. Gasp! Being a thrifty soul, I, of course, rooted in the trash and 'saved' these bonus triangles from a certain fate.

Since June, the Baltimore Christmas applique quilt has occupied all my time. Over the weekend I needed to sew and I'm not talking about the applique. I needed a brainless type of sewing and all you quilters out there know what I'm talking about. So I dug out those triangles, set Singer up and started to stitch. Ah bliss.

I have no clue how many half square triangles I've ended up with, but I know that several of the 'groupings' will work in a Quilt of Valor quilt. There are three groupings (from 3 different ladies) in red/white/blue. I think the ones with the yellow hanging on the design wall will look nice in a table runner, and so will those lime green ones on the sewing table.

What's on your design wall? To see more, visit Judy's blog.

Double 4-Patch Update

I committed to finish one UFO by June of this year, 2011, at Myra's PhD Challenge. Why only one? Because this quilt is a barter quilt and I have already received the bronze sculpture. It is hard to get a quilt done quickly when one works outside the home so I am focusing all my attention on this one quilt. I usually only get one good day a week at the sewing machine, so I try to take advantage of that one day.

Last weekend I was able to get all the blocks constructed for the quilt. My client wanted 'earthy' colors so I raided my stash and came up with greens, blacks, dark grays, browns, golds, blues and dark reds for the blocks. 140 blocks that will finish at 8".

Because of this size of this thing and since I am doing the quilting on my domestic sewing machine, I will have to do a divide and conquer and quilt it in sections. I have gotten one quadrant totally put together and have another quadrant placed on the design wall ready to sew together. I am quite pleased with the way the first quadrant looks. I am wondering about that one light green block in the second quadrant. I'll have to keep looking at it.

Can you tell that the layout is in the barn raising style?

Ducks Unlimited

Have you ever had something in your fabric stash that was so old you can not even remember purchasing it? That is the way it was with a fabric panel of preprinted duck blocks. I first used some of the panels in 1991. And just to show you, I dug out my scrapbook and scanned the page. Just look at those points on the flying geese blocks! The photo should be clickable so you can somewhat see the details in the wall hanging and be able to read the text.

Okay. Fast forward to last week. On Monday, I dropped two quilt tops off at my long arm quilter and said that they did not need to be ready by Christmas. On Thursday I got a call saying that both quilts were ready to pick up. Already? Wow!

The remaining preprinted duck blocks and two alternating blocks created this nice sized quilt of 54x72”. Using two colorways of the same fabric worked quite well for the alternating blocks and a solid blue Kona cotton made up the backing. My long arm quilter recommended the cattail panto that can been seen in the close up.

I am really, really pleased with this quilt and it will be very hard to give it away. O, and the title of this post? A play on words; the first quilt was 'Limited Ducks' so the second quilt is 'Ducks Unlimited'. *grin*

UFO Challenges

Have you seen the mentions of UFO challenges lately? Here are two that I’ve come across:

• UFO Challenge 2011
  JudyL of Patchwork Times is issuing a 12 month challenge to finish one UFO per month
• PhD Challenge
  Myra’s PHD (project half done) Challenge is for 6 months and you commit to a certain # of projects.

I keep a spreadsheet online of the quilts I’ve finished, the UFOs and the haven’t started projects. I know, I know – it is a bit OCD but I have tons of information at the touch of a keyboard. I accessed my spreadsheet just to see what I have in the UFO category; I am terming my UFOs as a project that has actually been started in some fashion.

1. A Christmas Wish – only needs quilting and binding
2. Echinacea – appliqué
3. She Wants to DANCE! – appliqué
4. Hugs and Kisses – appliqué
5. Iris Garden – appliqué
6. Shore Birds -- appliqué
7. Faithful Circle – hand piecing
8. Double 4-Patch – piecing
9. Embroidered 30’s flower blocks– piecing
10. X-stitch Calendar blocks – piecing

Do you see what I see in that list? A lot of long-term projects: #2 - #7 to be exact. Not something that could be completed in a month’s time, no matter how much I wish it so. I may commit to the PhD Challenge for #8, #9, and #10 since all three are machine piecing and I can then send them to a long arm quilter.

Did you notice that #1 was not mentioned? That is because it is part of the New Year’s Eve UFO Challenge. Hopefully, it will be quilted this coming weekend.

Wordless Wednesday - Squares Revisited