Blocks on the Brain

I guess you could call me block head this week...I'm all about the blocks.  Last week Pat Sloan introduced to us Katja Marek the January 2018 Aurifil BOM designer and her block Dresden Dreaming.  At first glace of this block I froze...English Paper Piecing.  I've never tried EPP before.  With the craziness of work right now, I really didn't feel mentally prepared to try.  Luckily for me, I came to and read on.   Pat suggested a different way of making the block using applique.  This seemed easier.  I also realized it could help with my EPP dilemma with the October 2017 block.

This is my version of Aurifil's October designer, Helen Stubbings and her Hugs 'n Kisses block.    I love how both turned out and it sure does feel good to have all of the 2017 blocks complete.

And this is my failed attempt at a color wheel with all the blocks...it ended up more like a color sideways tear drop?  The wind was blowing horribly and rain was not far away.  There was no time to grab a ladder, so I just started pinning...but I think you get what I was getting at.  I'm sure they will look better in a quilt lay out.  Dear Pat Sloan, I'm like a kid at Christmas.  I can't wait for the layout!

David, Sandra, Anja and I have still been plugging away with our social sewing experiment, of texting and making the Sewcial Bee Sampler Blocks.  This week we completed blocks 8 and 9.  Just like the kid at Christmas thing...I'm dying to stitch these blocks up with the dark blue Moda Grunge sashing fabric.  To scratch my sewing itch and prevent myself from sewing ahead, I laid them out to give myself (and you) a preview...I'm in love.

I also took some time to catch up on Cindy at Stitchin At Home's Medallion Quilt.  I thought I was several blocks behind, but once my tote was pulled out I found I was caught up all but this block, the Cross Point Block.  Me actually caught up, trust me I was surprised too.

Speaking of blocks...New Kids on the Block...no, no...New Kids on the Quilty Block.  I'm super excited to announce that on Thursday February 1st we will be announcing the sign ups for the 2018 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop being co-hosted by myself, Beth at Cooking Up Quilts, Sandra at mmm!quilts and Jen at Dizzy Quilter.

If you have been blogging for more than 2 months and less than 3 years, I hope you will check in with one of us on Thursday to find out how to sign up.  If you have any questions, please ask.  If you have been blogging for more than 3 years please pass the word along to your friends.  Mark your calendars for the hop dates, not only will you meet a batch of new quilt bloggers, but there will be lots of prizes from our amazing sponsors.  See you on Thursday!

Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, Linky Tuesday and BOM Away.

UFO Busting #4

We are four weeks into this UFO adventure and I would just like to say how proud I am of all of us.  We have already seen some finishes and definitely have made major progress.  Let's stop and give ourselves a pat on the back.

This week I was able to finish piecing together a baby quilt made from left over bits from another quilt.

I want to quilt this up so badly, but for now it must join the pile of to be quilted.  I would like to work on the companion quilt to this quilt and finish it up as well.  These quilts will have a special story, but I can't share it quite yet.  But I declare they will be finished this year!

Remember David's Not Turning Twenty Quilt I shared last week?  After much back and forth in my head I have finally started quilting on it.

I am quilting each of the pieced sections separately with the woodgrain motif.  I'm hoping it will give it a wooden plank look.  At least that is what I'm telling myself.  Hopefully, with in the next two weeks I will be sharing it with you as a finish.

These bits and pieces will become the January 2018 Aurifil BOM block designed by Katja Marek.  I will be making my block similar in construction to the way Pat Sloan made her block.  So why I am showing you this in my UFO post?  Technically it is a new project.  One, it's a new project distracting me from my old ones and two, I hope that the same technique will work with the October Aurifil block I still need to make from last year.  Fingers crossed that it does, then all I need is Pat's setting instructions and I am good to go.

Did you see this quilt last week by Anja at Anja Quilts?  She was finally able to finish up her Wayward Transparency Quilt, just in time for Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirls linky party (If you hadn't heard the party has been extended until February 7th).  I love those simple straight lines and those yummy green fabrics!  Congratulations on your finish, Anja!!  

Now it's your turn?  What have you been up too?  Are you stuck and don't know how to finish something?  Do you have a UFO finish to celebrate.  Or are you pouting in the corner because you got distracted or frustrated?  Link up and share with us.  Feel free to grab my button below and let people know, you do believe UFO's are real...you have a shelf full of them!

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An InLinkz Link-up

And on a completely different note.  For those that like to follow David and his quilting adventures, he recently checked into his blog and wrote what he's been up too.  His blogging due to time is hit or miss.  I try to mention him and his quilting from time to time here.  You can find him over at Dave The Quilt Engineer.

UFO Busting #3

Some weeks you crush things other weeks you don't.  This week was feeling like a "you don't" week.  I'm going through major withdraw.  The struggle is real right now.  My eye is twitching and I'm having trouble not throwing caution to the wind and start every new quilt along I read about.  This is harder than I thought it would be.

I have made the decision to start Pat Sloan's 2018 mystery BOM, Let's Go Camping, (though I probably wont' start till March).  My guild will be sewing on this one as a group as the year progresses, so it would be extremely unsocial not to join in, right?   

This past weekend, while the snow fell, I spent some time doing some social sewing working on the Sewcial Bee Sampler by Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland.  I probably should have bowed out from sewing because for what ever reason, I was in a cranky sewing mood.  It all started with block 6.

My block in Paradiso is on the right and David's in Bee Creative is on the left.  See any difference?  Mine is sewn together wrong.  I was so frustrated with my border strips being kind of wavy that I didn't even notice I turned my blocks wrong.  For now it stays as is.

Next up, block 7.  This is where Tish has a small melt down and starts dinner.  I pre-cut all my blocks back in July.  When I pulled out the pattern and fabrics, I couldn't remember what was what and of course me being me, planned to construct the block a bit different than the pattern.  This only added to the problem.  Super Dave was flying through his block like a hero.  While I pouted over the Instantpot in the kitchen, Dave to the rescue, was able to figure out my fabrics and with a few additional cuts, I was back in business.

This week I worked on a WIP in the form of the 2017 Aurifil BOM.  I tackled the December block by Amanda Murphy called Tightrope.  I was extra careful sewing all those little 1" white strips.  This quilt is still lingering on my WIP list.  I still have the October block to finish and I'm waiting on Pat Sloan's quilt layout.  I've also decided to participate in the 2018 BOM.  I love the small challenge that comes with piecing some of the blocks.  Plus I don't think I could call myself a good thread girlfriend, if I didn't participate in the Aurifil QAL.

As I leader/ender project while working on all these blocks, I started another kind of WIP project.  I unearthed a pile of strip sets, left over from making blocks several years ago.  I'm glad a hung on to them.  I started making little 16 patch blocks for a baby quilt.

Here they are in phase 2 of construction.  The fabric line was Moda Flirt by Sandy Garvis.  

This is going to be adorable!  I have sashing fabric already pulled.  I'm hoping to stumble onto some border fabric this weekend.  I know a local shop that did still have it.  Below is my tentative plan.

So that's about it for what I've been up to.  Ron's Quilt aka Not Turning Twenty quilt is still looming over my head.  I'm determined to start quilting on it this weekend.  David was nice enough to remind me that he did not piece this quilt 6 months ago like I originally stated.

It was exactly a YEAR ago.  Oops...time flies.

I wanted to highlight a finish from last week's linky party.  

I absolutely love this Cars quilt made by Marti at Marti's DIY!  It has very cool detachable garages for the cars that can be removed in a flash making it perfect for snuggling as well.  If you missed it from last week, please hop over to Marti's and read about it here.  I would have had hours of fun with is quilt when I was a kid.  I loved cars as much as my dolls.

I also wanted to point out Julie at Pink Doxies post from last week for a few reasons.  Number one...

This!  It is a challenge project she is working on and will be posting about on the 1st of February.  What you see above, is one of four mandalas she created using ice dying.  It as been waiting for a while for her to come up with a project for it.  Let me tell you, I have personally, with my own little Tisha eyes, viewed these mandalas and I LOVE them!  I can't wait to see exactly where these little beauties are headed.  And two, the post talks about her finding quilting/life balance and staying energized.  Both are subjects we discuss when we talk on the phone.  I also like to think of her as my QAL Sponsor....she is helping me to not lose focus and abandon this UFO quest I am on.  She keeps me from binging in QAL's.  Quilter's problems, right??  Make sure you hop over and check out Julie's post here.

Now it's your turn?  What have you been up too?  Are the squirrels and quilting gremlins calling you?  Are you stuck and don't know how to finish something?  Do you have a UFO finish to celebrate.  Or are you pouting in the corner because you got distracted or frustrated?  Link up and share with us.  Feel free to grab my button below.  We are all in this big boat together.

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An InLinkz Link-up

QAL-Getting Back into the Groove

I totally needed this weekend.  It was the first one in several that I haven't spent all weekend running around doing errands.  I hate super buys weekends packed full of "have to do's" with very little "want to do's" accomplished.  Since I had dedicated machine time, I decided to catch up on QAL's.    First up was the block above, the Aurifil BOM.  This month's block was called Sunflower Power and was by Vanessa Goertzen (you can read more about her in Pat Sloan's interview here.)  All those bright sunny yellows sure did start the weekend off right.

Next up was the 9th block in Cindy at Stitchin At Home's Medallion BOM.  Last month I introduced black into the color palette of my blocks by pairing it with green.  This month, I went for it again, but with purple.  It may be one of my favorite blocks in the quilt so far.

I still have a block to make for The Children's Library BOM, but will make it next month when the last block comes out.  Then I can piece the entire quilt together.

I've decided to play along with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl's Wayward Transparency QAL.  Last weekend I picked out fabrics for the smaller version.  I ended up with some lovely Kaufman Quilter's Linens in blue.

I admit I was a bit worried about the contrast between the light and medium tones.  The dark blue on the bottom was for binding.  Yvonne published a wonderful post last week about evaluating fabric contrast.  Following her advice, I added a black and white filter to my picture to evaluate it.

As I feared, the light and medium fabrics basically read the same value wise.  So I made a quick trip to my local quilt shop to see if I could find a fabric that would work.  After auditioning a few different fabrics I finally settled on one.

Though not a Kaufman Quilter's Linen, it still has a linen feel to its print.  I'm not sure this picture does it justice, but I believe it will work wonderfully in this quilt.

I spent the rest of my weekend working on the strip quilt from last weekend and I am happy to say that I am officially a little over 2/3 finished with it.

I brought out the design wall for a little bit of help.  I'm trying to keep things looking random and scrappy with these 10 patch blocks.  Why does random take so much planning???  I have to say I'm happy with the way the blocks are turning out.  I have two more of these super sized blocks to finish and then I can show you my finished top.  Then it will join all the other unfinished tops.  Is there a Guinness World Record for most completed quilt tops laying around?

What's that you ask?  Did David join me in another weekend of stripping?  Sadly no, he is too busy building houses.  Well, okay, log cabins.  Log cabin blocks anyway.  He finished up his strip quilt Friday,

pieced a small wall hanging for me

and then cut into some beautiful civil war reproduction fabrics he picked up last weekend to start a log cabin wall hanging.

So lots of thread flying off the spool this weekend at our house.  Hopefully, even more will be flying this week.  I'm grounded!  I have to finish quilting the butterfly quilt.  It needs to be finished by October.  So I'm going to say good bye for now.  If I catch myself writing this post, I will probably be in trouble.

Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social and Midweek Makers.

My Personal Thread Challenge

I decided to take a small break from quilting on Saturday to catch up on a few QAL blocks I'm behind on.  I started with Cindy at Stitchin At Home's Churn Dash block for the Medallion Quilt.  I have to admit Churn Dash is on my list of favorite blocks.  Simple to make and a fun block to quilt all on its own. 

So far all the blocks I've made have had a green and purple color scheme.  I went out on a limb and decided to add black to the mix.  It may seem like a strange choice at the moment, but I think it will make more sense once the quilt completely comes together.  The main fabric I'm using for a border, does have black in it.  Fingers crossed it will all work out.

Next up was catching up on the latest two blocks for the Aurifil Designer BOM quilt.  This year each designer has been assigned a color as we work our way around the color wheel.  I think it isn't much of a secret how much I love Aurifil thread.  I don't even come close to having all the 270 colors in their collection, but what is my color range as far as the color wheel goes?

So, for fun, I snapped a few pictures of the blocks to date and spools from my personal stash.

Our journey around the color wheel started in January with the color blue and Janet Clare's Cat Block.  I think these spools of Aurifil 1126 Blue Grey and 2775 Steel blue will look wonderful when I'm quilting up this block.

February brought us designer Maureen Cracknell and her Dutch Treat block in blue-purple and for me a lovely spool of  2510 Light Lilac.

Let's skip to April, the color purple and Sue Marsh's New Direction Block.  I accidently made the March block using April's colors, red purple.  This was my first time working with triangles, but not that spool of 1240 Very Dark Eggplant.  That spool and I are very well acquainted. 

March gave us Melissa Corry, Scraptastic Stars, and the start of my color confusion.  A happy accident I'm glad I made.   I love it in these shades of red purple better, especially paired with this spool of 2460 Dark Carmine Red.  Hmm...I may need a larger spool.

Mister Domestic, Matthew Boudreaux, shared his Faux Weave block in shades of brilliant red with us.  When I think red, I immediately think 2250 Christmas Red.  Don't let the fullness of this spool fool you, it's a replacement for an almost empty one.

June kept things rolling with Sarah Maxwell and her block Star Shine in shades of red orange and my spool of 5002 Medium Red.

July is where I fell behind...applique.  Shruti Dandekar shared with us the instructions to make her beautiful Reverse Applique block in orange.  I still struggle with applique.  I decided to do reverse reverse applique, meaning regular applique.  However, after purchasing new sharp scissors (just to be used for applique), I wish I had used Shruti's method of making the block.  Live and learn.  I used this spool of 2235 Orange to satin stitch around the applique.

And completely catching me up (until the 15th that is) is Brenda Ratliff's Bright Sun block in orange yellow and spools of 2214 Golden Honey and 2330 Light Chestnut.  It's such a bright happy block. 

Sadly there are only four more designers and blocks to complete our journey around the color wheel.  Wonder if I will have enough spools of thread to complete this journey as well?  Guess we will just have to wait and see.

Also, if you haven't heard the buzz...Aurifil Buzz that is, Aurifil is hosting a mini series on their blog right now about the different types of threads they have available.  Did you know that they actually make four different types of thread and have six different weights of cotton?  Me either.  You can tell from my pictures and the orange spools that I'm in love with their 50wt Egyptian Cotton threads (I like my thread like I like my sheets...Egyptian Cotton).  Part one of the series was released yesterday and you can learn more about their 12wt and 28wt cotton threads.  Check out their post and eye candy here.  I'm thinking next year might be a year of experimentation for me...well with threads anyway.

Other than quilting my little heart out, that's about all that's been going on here.  Since I won't have a quilt finish by Friday, I thought maybe I would write up a quick tutorial for the green and purple baby quilt I finished two weeks ago.  It's a great one for when you need a baby quilt by say...tomorrow.  I think we've all been there before.

Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social and Midweek Makers.