Colour Catcher String Quilt

First, these are some pictures of our backyard.  My plant pots are visible from my kitchen window.

I think of this area as my little sanctuary.

We have been enjoying the feathered visitors to our yard as well.

This weekend was a long weekend for me (I was off from work Friday to Monday).  While North and South played on the laptop, I sewed.  It seamed appropriate that I was watching North and South--a made-for-TV miniseries about the Civil War during the July 4th (American Independence Day) long weekend. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_and_South_(TV_miniseries)

The center of these blocks are colour catcher string blocks.  I pieced my string blocks on used colour catcher foundations.  http://www.shoutitout.com/preserve-colors.aspx 

My friend, started to call this quilt a "conversation quilt".  The strings are from many of the scraps and bits leftover from previous quilt projects.  Since each piece has a story to tell, the name conversation quilt was born.

I used all I had of the two black/white fabrics that I purchased last weekend to make this quilt.  The quilt is plenty long enough, but it should be a little wider to better fit our bed.  A couple of my friends and I were discussing border options on-line.  Since this is a conversation quilt, we decided that the quilt would tell us what it needed for borders.  We listened, and with the assistance of a friend, I have secured more of the two black and white fabrics.  Once the fabrics are received in the mail, I will be making this quilt top two blocks wider.  Even though I almost always add at least one border to my quilts, this quilt definitely was not in need of a border. 

I used quite a few of the colour catcher string blocks that I had on hand and I still have more left.  I will be on the lookout for more quilting ideas to use up the remainder of the blocks so stay tuned for more colour catcher string quilts!

Using up Scraps and Strings

I am determined to use up every last string and scrap in my studio! To that end, I have been continuing to work on these string scrappy chevron Log Cabin blocks. I have finished 74 - 9.5 inch blocks so far. By my calculations, I need 11 more of these blocks to make a large queen or king sized quilt top.

I have also been working on a new scrap block (like the block to the right in the photo below). These blocks are fast to make and are great to make when you want to use up those strata trimmings left from all those other projects. I find that if I use Ellen's Best Press on the block when I am finished piecing, I can flatten out those bulky seams so they are super flat and ensure a perfectly square block once trimmed.

This picture shows what a group of nine blocks might look like if they were pieced together without any sashing.

I am determined to leave no string or scrap behind!

Strips, Strings, and Leftovers

I have been busy playing with my bin of strips, strings, and bits again. I love making blocks from that jumble of fabric. This time, I have been making half log cabin blocks. These blocks are rather mindless and low stress. There is no matching of intersections or points, just fun sewing! Once I had a few blocks made, I tried out some layouts on the "design floor".



This layout was inspired by, "Mumbo Gumbo".


Linda thought this layout looked a little dimensional--like blocks that are overlapping one another.

This is my favorite layout--on point in a chevron design.



The funny thing about that bin of strips, strings, and leftovers--no matter how many blocks I make, the pile does not seem to go down at all! I swear these things multiply when you aren't looking!

Quilt Retreat - Strip Twist Quilt

Thursday morning I leave for Oregon to attend the first FAB Quilting Retreat. The quilt that we are going to work on is Strip Twist from G.E. Designs. This is the pattern jacket.
I started out with two fat quarter packs of soft pastel blues, greens, and pinks. I have since changed my mind on what fabric I want to make my version of Strip Twist from. While organizing my fabric cupboard, I became re-acquainted with a fabulous chicken/rooster print that was in my stash. This is a picture of that print with my rotary cutter in the picture to show the scale of the birds.

I have now decided to use this print as the border on my Strip Twist quilt. The blocks are all going to be made from the many colours taken from the birds in the print. All of the strips that I have cut for my blocks so far have come from my stash.

These are the strips that I have cut so far. As you can see from the picture, there are more green strips than any other colour. I guess that is no surprise since my favorite colour is green and I have more green fabrics in my stash than any other colour. LOL The wild rust and green print on the bottom of the picture was part of a basket of fabric and notions that I won at our guild's quilt show last year. it is a little out there, but the colours work so in it goes. I am trying to follow some of the guidelines that Alex Anderson uses when making her quilts.

I needed to test the pattern to figure out how many blocks I could get out of a strip of fabric. The pattern says you should get 4 blocks from a strip of fabric. I tried a couple of different strips of fabric and find that I can get only 3 blocks from some strips (just a tad short) and I can get 4 blocks from others. I may run out of the chicken wire fabric (that I am using for my light) before anything else. I want to make my quilt bed size - preferably queen. Although this project is a little "planned", it will also be somewhat driven by the number of blocks I can get out of that chicken wire print. I may pull a backup light from my stash if I need to squeeze in a few more blocks.

This is a very cute pattern and the construction is simple. The pattern is solely made from 2.5 inch strips. That narrow light strip is cleverly constructed after sewing 2.5 inch strips together into stratas of 3 strips and then making a secondary cut. The blocks also make use of the partial seam method which avoids set in seams. It will be fun to see this same pattern in the fabric choices of the other FABs.

Dryer Sheet String Flimsy

This was yesterday's finish. The dryer sheet string top is now a completed flimsy. This is another big one - 92" wide x 104" long. I have used up every last little scrap of the blue batik star fabric on the sashing and outer border. I was originally going to put a 6" outer border on this one, but the remaining fabric after cutting sashing only allowed for a 4" border. I have lots of the red fabric left so this one will likely be bound in red once it is quilted.

We are in for another bright sunny day and you can see the sun already shining through the top of this quilt top as it hangs from the clothes line.

Moving Projects Forward

I have had a couple of fabrics lately that have decided that they do not want to keep all their dye. One of the fabrics was a deep blue batik and the second was a red cotton. Both fabrics can be bad for bleeding, but really, after 6 washes? I tried vinegar and salt and had to luck. Finally, I found a source for Retayne locally. After one wash with Retayne, the fabrics stopped bleeding. I could not believe it. I did a test wash with Color Catchers after the Retayne treatment and the Color Catchers came out of the wash as white as they went it. I will be using this product a lot more often now that I know how well it works! Friday, I spent my time making a Mother's Day present for my Mom. This is the table runner that I made for her.

Today, we started the day with breakfast out at a local restaurant--my DH, DS, Mom, Dad, and myself. After presenting my Mom with her table runner, she took it home and put it on her coffee table and took this picture for me. I was worried that I had not made it long enough, but it looks like it works on her coffee table.

Saturday, I finished putting the last of the sashing bits on this quilt top and then added the inner and outer borders. The outer border fabric is suns on a black background. I loved this fabric. I had enough backing fabric and batting in my stash so by the end of the evening Saturday, I had this quilt loaded on the long arm and had started the quilting.

This afternoon, I was able to finish the quilting on this one.

I used a new to me batting on this one -- Soft and Bright by the Warm Company. This batting is 100% polyester. It is needled to hold the batting together without glue, resin, or hard coatings. This batting has a bit of loft to it which shows off the quilting perfectly. Because the fibers are needled, they stay in place and the batting doesn't shift or go thin in some places like other polyester battings do. My long arm did not object to this batting at all and unlike other polyester battings, this one did not slip or shift. Because this quilt top was heavy from the weight of all the seams in the string blocks, I really did not want to add more weight to the top by using a cotton batting. I also have intended this to be a utility quilt so I expect it to be used and washed frequently. I am hoping the polyester holds up to the frequent use I expect the quilt to receive.

This last picture shows the gold thread i used to highlight the Wave quilting design.

My plans are to bind this one in black. The binding will have to wait for another day though as I am short of black fabric in my stash. Running out of stash fabric is a good thing though--it means that I am using up what I have on hand!