November Finishes

     November has been another productive month....  Yeah!  

     My first finish for the month was this "Boxy Stars"  by Bonnie Hunter.  It's a free pattern on her blog.     I started this a few years ago as a stash buster for donation of the many 80's calicos I have in my stash that are blues and pinks.   I  didn't purchase all of these,  but folks seem to think I like these colors,  because the collection just keeps growing.   

     This is a going to the Corbett Windy Quilters Donations.    I decided to quilt this one simply,  using echo stitching in the center stars,  and switchbacks to help hold down the outer designs.    I used a wishbones motif in the sashings. 

      I used a new to me batting, which is Fairfield Cotton.  It is thinner than warm and natural,   quilts up similar to an 80/20 blend.  The price was right!  I bought the 20 yard roll for less than $ 70 on sale with a bonus coupon.  It washed up great!   And it is soft and supple after washing.  One of my new battings for donation quilts.  

   It measures approx 58 x 70.  No borders were used on this quilt, because it reached the size I wanted without one.  

    I wish I could say that I'm done with this color combo and these vintage prints,  but it's safe to say that there will be more quilts using these colors in my future.   

     "Autumn Leaves"  was my second finish for the month.  This is another quilt that has been lurking in my "Needs Quilting Pile" for too long.   These fun little "Happy Blocks" were some I won from an online quilting forum that  I used to visit often, called Block Central.   I made a whole bunch of quilty friends there before it went dark.   We still keep in touch on a facebook group,  but I think we all have so many blocks and projects from those previous exchanges and swaps that we don't really do that much any more.   

     Each month, the previous month's winner chose a theme.  It might have been color combos such as "turquoise and browns"  or a season, "fall leaves".   We made as many of these little 8" blocks as we wanted to, and for each set of 2,  our name went into the hat once.   I won several of these wonderful, luscious leaf blocks back in 2008, 2009....   I pieced to top after we moved to this house in 2009.  I had to make about a dozen more blocks to get it to the size I wanted.   It is a great lap size at 58 x 68. 

       I found a bunch of different leaves  using a google search for FREE clipart.   Then I enlarged or cropped each of them to get to the size I wanted.   I then traced these onto  Golden Threads Paper.  I stitched over the paper in the center of each leaf.  Then,  I filled in all around those leaves with a small swirl pattern.  No straight stitching or ditch work.   It feels like butter!  So soft and snuggly!   This one stays with me!  

      I used Hobbs 80/20 for the batting in this one. The beautiful backing was in a box of fabrics I purchased at an estate sale,  so it was a bargain.  It was a great piece  from Hancocks' that has a very soft, satiny feel.   

     "Friends and Fellows"  is my third finish or November.   You may have noticed a theme here,  but this top was pieced in 2009.  I've tested patterns in the past, and this is one of the patterns I tested.  Jessica J. E. Smith from the "Quilt and Needle"  designed this quilt as a mystery weekend.   I believe it is one of the few patterns that she has designed that is not available for sale on her website.  

     The original mystery quilt had plain, simple borders on it,  but I decided that I wanted to extend the corner blocks out into the borders,  and then I added the applique.   The appliques are fused and machine satin stitched.   

     84 x 84 before quilting and washing, it was one of the larger quilts I've finished.  My Janome 9400 QCP handled it well.  I love the 11" harp space.  I used Hobbs 80/20 for the batting.   I spent a couple hours each day over about 2 weeks to get the quilting done.  I chose  1" Cross hatching in the black printed areas.  Stitch in the ditch around the block components.  Medium sized swirls in green areas, and a mix of motifs in the block portions in the center.   I decided to keep the borders simple, using a 1/2" bead design  along with 1" piano key quilting.  

     

The quilt below is one made by my quilting friend, Jami Carr Schroeder in Iowa.  This is the way the original pattern was designed with simple borders. 
     

A Study in Pinks and Blues... (really old pinks and blues)

Boxy Stars  a Bonnie Hunter Pattern 

     I'm linking up with Bonnie's mystery link up tonite.... Linking to Bonnie's link up party

      In the interest of trying to push many UFO's out of the nooks and crannies of my quilty space,  I promised myself that I was just printing off mystery quilt directions and that I need to completely finish 5 UFOs (quilted, binding and label) BEFORE  I can start anything new.  

      Sew... instead of the mystery,  this is what I've been working on.   I put the last row onto this donation quilt....  Not sure why it wasn't yet attached.... but it is now.    Ready to be quilted!  

     Although I had (and still have)  many of these fabrics in my stash,  the majority of these fabrics were 2 1/2" strips that were in the boxes of fabric we pull from for donation quilts out in Corbett.   Someone had cut the strips,  many, many strips... I find it hard to believe that these were leftover from a project.  I doubt I'll ever work my way through.  

     I used Bonnie Hunter's pattern,  "Boxy Stars",  which uses 2 1/2" strips exclusively.   You can find the pattern under the FREE Pattern Tab on Bonnie's website.    Go here    

     I still have a project box full of blues,  pinks,  and burgundy to use use up.   As I was cleaning up,  I found the baggie full of the bonus triangles that were already stitched, that had been cut off when creating the points of the stars.   and... better yet,  I decided not to put them in the drawer of project parts.... since I had the fabrics still handy I decided to play.    I pressed and matched sets to create pinwheels.   (see my tutorial on how I saved a step in making these in the tutorial tab above)     I ended up with a total of 48 pinwheels,   about 1/2 of them measuring 3 1/2"... and the other half 3" after trimming.    

Working on the pinwheels....

     Once the pinwheels were done,  I divided them by size.  Using the larger (3 1/2") ones,  I played with a couple of quick layouts.   I chose to place them in four patches  and make some (12) 6 1/2" pinwheels to mix with them.  My goal was to have a lap quilt to donate to our guild's project... and they like them about 45" square.  

     While digging through the box of pinks and blues... I ran across some leftover piano key sections from another quilt I had worked on several years ago....  hmmmm  this will work!   After some coping borders,  I came up with my 45" top.... and believe it or not... I had a total of 1" of that piano key border left after trimming in in half.   Score!  

Lap Quilt       45" square  

     You can see that the pinwheels are not all the same fabrics within each pinwheel....  some are, but most are not... just  the luck of the draw in how the triangles worked out when cut from the original project, which was random.  
   

Center Section Detail 

Detail photo 

    

      Now... about those 3" pinwheels....  Next up is a doll quilt,  also for our guild.  This measures about 22 x 27".   I had some 3" strips of the blue with hearts in the box, and since they don't play nicely with the 2 1/2" strips... I cut them in half at 1 1/2"  and used them as a border around each pinwheel.  This made it much easier to work with those little edges, and gave me the size I was looking for.  

Doll Quilt  Donation for Toy n Joy.....   22 x 27"

     
    There were also 3 full leftover blocks and 3 partial sections left from the Boxy stars... 
 I see the making of a second doll quilt!   In the interest of  wanting to move forward quickly,   I made the executive decision to just fill in the missing piece with a large solid square.... rather than cutting pieces for another unit.  (Believe me... I emptied the bin out and looked to see if I could find the missing unit, but I think I vaguely remember a rotary cutting accident where one got sliced by mistake) 

Boxy Stars  Orphan blocks.... Now  a Doll quilt    24" square

     Unfortunately,  these all still need to be quilted, and bound to be called "FINISHED",  but they are closer than they were..... and I am well on my way to helping both our guild, and the Corbett Windy Hill Quilters in meeting the needs of community members for 2017.  
     I also kept some pieces out of my orphan block bin....   Now.... what to do with all the rest of those 2 1/2" strips....  thinking I might do a "Jelly Roll Race"  and use them up!   I haven't made one of those yet.... and I have enough strips that I could probably get 2 lap quilts made.   I'll keep you all posted,  but you'll have to wait awhile,  'cuz that would be starting something entirely new,  which I can't do just yet.   So for now,  I'll neatly fold the strips and extra fabrics together in their project box and put them away for another day.