{Post 1,472} Then There Were a Few More

{Post 1,471} All Scrap-A-Plenty's Fault

Maybe this is just a reality check, but I don't think I bought THAT many shirts.  If you click on "shirt quilt" under labels, you will see that I have already made quite a few quilts from shirts already.  

I have so many crumbs of my shirts.  I keep them all corralled, so they are easy to access and keep track of anyway.

Top picture is a string of 2-piecers waiting to be ironed.

My friend, N, of Scraps-A-Plenty made a crumb quilt lately.  Hers isn't made of shirts, but mine will be. Look here to see hers.  I like the zigzag setting, so that's what I am going to try.  I don't have many light shirts, so I just cut up some whole pieces of light shirts.  I will eventually have scraps of those as well.  I need some bright colors.  These are really dark and boring.  

{Post #782} Crumb Quilt Completely Finished!

Wow, is this a horrid picture!  The crumb quilt is washed and dried and all quilty crinkly.  It measures 72" x 88".  I looked way back at the dimensions of the top.  It lost nearly 6" in width and length from the quilting, washing, and drying.  It started out being 77" x 94".  

Good news--I used a "color catcher" sheet in the washer...not a speck of color bled from the Thimbleberries fabrics! 

Here is the back...one of my friends saw it recently and said, "Oh--surprises on the back!"

~Joan

{Post #779} Binding and Birthday

This girl needs her pancakes!!  Rachel asked me last night if she could take me out for my free breakfast at Denny's this AM.  So we did! 

There was no end to the fun of the AM...we went from Denny's to Leonard Truck Supplies to have a hitch put on our Pilot...Rachel and I both brought hand sewing for the two-hour wait.  Here she is working on a pair of pants for Jacob.

And here are my 49-year-old hands stitching down the binding on my Crumb quilt by hand.

When Susie gets back from a grocery run, she wants to sew with me the rest of the night!  Whoo-hoo!!  Fun times ahead.

~Joan

{#776} Crumb Quilt Quilted ~ Whoo Hoo

Finished quilting the crumb quilt this AM.  I only had about 12" to go.  Since my frame is in my bedroom, I rolled out of bed and started it before I even changed out of my jammies. 

I started counting the number of pieces in it, but forgot if I had counted one block (fortunately, I was only on the second row of blocks when this happened).  Statistics to come.

Several times when I was rolling the quilted part ahead, the batting felt lumpy (like I had picked up a sock or something).  I flattened it out best I could.  I think it was just the seams from the blocks in the pieced back.  I would hate to think that I had ACTUALLY quilted a sock into my quilt!

Had a strange but fun phone call yesterday.  I had a cell phone call from a number I didn't recognize (didn't even know where the area code was from).  I didn't answer it, thinking it was a wrong number.  The person left a voice mail, so I listened to it.  It was a woman asking if I could enlarge a quilt I made for her.  A plaid rag quilt, black and cream, with red stars.  I knew right away she had the wrong person.  The only plaid quilt I made was about 18 months ago, and I'd never sold a rag quilt as far as I could remember.  So I figured I better call her back and let her know she had the wrong person.  She insisted it was me...wasn't I at the Boise show last year?  Black hair?  Um...NO.  Yet she was sure it was me.  After all, she had Joan Quilt on her phone.  Well, at least that part was right!  As I kept explaining that the person she sought was NOT me (I've never been to Idaho or Iowa or any other place she thought I'd been), I told her about my one and only plaid quilt.  She said, "Oh--I bought that from you on eBay!"  Sure enough, she had bought these two tops.  Ends up she never had them quilted, so she's sending them back for me to quilt.  I have only machine quilted for a handful of people, so this was a nice surprise.  

Have a great day,
~Joan
 

{#775} Crumb Quilt on Frame!

I'm on a quilting roll...I did Diane's Scrap Bag Stars, then the secret quilt, and now I pinned on my Crumb Quilt and am making progress on that. 

~Joan

{752} Crumb Quilt Top, Section 3

This measures 63" x 98".  I just need 18" more of width.  I hardly have any more blue scraps, but I will try to use them up.  Rachel and I are watching Bolt, but Sarah, Plain and Tall has been found!!  A double feature!!

~Joan

{750} Beginning of Back

This is the beginning of the back of my crumb quilt.  I figured if the front was made from all crumbs, the back should use up odds and ends as well.  Only one problem...I've never done this before!  First up to use up was the 10 extra flying geese I made that were supposedly needed for the border for the front.  I needed 138, counted 128, so made 10 more.  Oops.  These were a good start for the back!

Here was the progress after my second strip was added:

Working on strip 3 now, which is much wider.  I might get there yet.   Rachel asked if I would have a craft night with her tonight and watch Sarah, Plain and Tall.  Oh, yeah!!

~Joan

Crumb Quilt Top Finished

This quilt top is so big.  77" wide by 94" long.  I didn't take the time to make sure it was lying completely flat.  That is not a pucker in the bottom blue border, just laziness on my part.  I didn't want to retake the picture.

I am eager to get it quilted.  I added all the borders today.  Since I had pieced the flying geese strips last week in Ohio, it was relatively easy to cut the blue borders and add them.  The outer border is 4-1/2".  Looking at it now, it was so worth taking the time to piece all the geese.  It makes the quilt look so finished and framed.  Thanks for the great pattern, Natasha!!

Instead of cutting and piecing strips cut perpendicular to the selvage, I cut a 94" wide piece of fabric, then cut single-piece strips from it.  I will also use it for binding, so I will have a piece about 8" x 94" left over.  That will be the beginning of my backing.  At some point I will count the pieces in the quilt top.  Any guesses??

What is surprising is that except for the cream and the blue for borders, this was all truly scrap...mostly pulled from my little stacked drawers.  Won't even miss it!

I used Bonnie's instructions for measuring for floater strips here, and they turned out perfectly.  My top and bottom inner borders were cut 2-1/8" wide...the side ones were cut 1-7/8".   The geese borders went on perfectly, too.  I made 4 crumb blocks for the "cornerstones" instead of piecing a little something. 

Perhaps the back will use up lots of large small pieces, too.  Stay tuned!

Enjoy the celebration of our Independence Day.  I am more thankful for March 26--my personal Independence Day.  That is the day I trusted Christ as my Saviour and gained independence from the hold of sin and the responsibility for its penalty.  Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow.

~Joan

{742} Quilting in Ohio

You've heard of ducks in a row...well these are my geese in a row.  Thirty for each top and bottom, 39 for each side.  In a bit I will mix them up and sew them into strips so I can attach them to my crumb quilt top when I get home.

Susanna took these pictures for me and of me.  I absolutely despise having my picture taken...  I hand quilted the whole way up here.  My son Ben just got his permit a week ago, and he got lots of practice on our way.





On the drive up I quilted around the 4 hearts so I would not have to mark anything.  So this AM I marked and quilted where the four blank corners of the blocks meet.  I sat outside for a couple hours and hand quilted.  Beautiful.

~Joan

138 Geese in a Row

This was the quilty part of my evening.  I finished piecing all 138 of the flying geese units I needed. 

My phone is in the picture because I lost my voice.  My sweet soon-to-be-son-in-law was texting back and forth with me.  

I'll look forward to starting to put my borders together soon.

~Joan 

Seventy-One Geese A Laying...

...laying on my cutting table, that is.  I know, "lying" is proper, but I wanted to reference the Twelve Days of Christmas so we could think some cool thoughts.

For the border for my crumb quilt, I need 138 flying geese units.  As of tonight I have 71 completely finished (pieced, pressed, and trimmed).  I often get questions about how to mix up the colors in a scrappy quilt.

You can see from the picture that I took the time to carefully trim each unit.  There was a time when I did not do that.  And I still don't do it all the time, but for borders, yes!  I will need to measure my quilt center as well as my borders to measure for "floater" inner borders.  That will be explained when the big moment comes!

Here is my plan for the geese units...I am pinning 10 of a similar color/value together.  That makes it easier to count where I am in the process as well as keeping the similar values together.  When I reach the magic number (in this case 138), I will deal out the four borders like dealing cards.  The sides have more than the top and bottom, but I will deal out all the greens until I run out (perhaps adding a few more to the side piles).  Then I'll continue with each color.

After the color balance is good, I'll arrange each border mixing up the colors.  Then I'll use the leader/ender method to sew each border together. 

Another good reason to pin together like colors is that since I'm cutting all of these from scraps, I can see if I need to balance things out with more of a particular color.  I know now I need some browns and oranges.  I have lots of gold, blue, purple (my favorite!), greens, and reds. 

~Joan, who is voiceless and still finds it amusing when people whisper back to her :)

Little Changes

I made two tiny changes to my quilt top.  I toyed with the idea of removing my initials and replacing them with regular crumb blocks, but then just could not do it.  In person they don't stand out that much, and this will be a lap or bed quilt, so the whole thing won't be visible (well, not THAT much).  At least not as much as if it was a wall quilt!

I removed two very light/bright yellow squares and replaced them with dark orange.  They are the ones two to the left of my "J" block and three up from my "J" block.  See?  The initial blocks are landmarks!!  Every time I glanced over at my design wall, I saw the yellow squares, which means they stood out a tad too much.

My latest sewing project has been cutting and sewing the flying geese so my quilt can look just like Natasha's.  Slow going, but I've only little crumbs of time in which to sew.

Took Susie in to get 4 wisdom teeth removed today.  She did well.  Sore a lot faster than my other children, but a real trooper. 

~Joan

Crumb Quilt Top Center Finished

It's now or never.  See my initials in the bottom right corner of my quilt center top?  If I'm going to give this away as a gift, now is the time to remove those letters and piece in some "regular" 4-1/2" centers.  Giving someone a quilt with my initials in LARGE PRINT seems tacky.  I don't know if this one will stay here or not.  Hmmm...what to do, what to do? 

I think I'll sleep on it.  I am making my quilt just like Natasha's...with an inner plain border, flying geese border, then another matching plain border.  So I've got some time to let it marinate and think on it.

This is 56" x 72" now.  Blocks are 8" square finished.

~Joan

Sewing Crumb Blocks Into Quilt Center

Here are my blocks minus one vertical row that would not fit on my design wall.  I am in the process of sewing the blocks to each other.  After I get these finished, I will add the last row on the right that you don't see.

Clear as mud, eh?

~Joan

Updated Crumb Block Picture

Is this too much?  I thought using the same cream everywhere would tone it down, but now I'm not sure...the pieced cornerstones sort of puts it in the over-the-top category!  Input desired...please leave a comment!

~Joan

Do You See What I See?

Do you see the new blocks in this picture?  I made my initials (JVP) in the wonky letter style and framed them.  Then I sewed the 3 blocks together so they wouldn't get separated.  Ever.

Do you think it's tacky to put my own initials in this quilt?

The bottom left block is a little leftover 4-1/2" block from this runner.  Another one made in 2008.  I made that one incorrectly.  I don't have any more "real" quilt blocks that will be showing up in here, so the few will have to be evenly spaced since they're so attention getting.

Sewing some more blocks this AM...sewing is sew relaxing for me, and heaven knows I need it right now.

~Joan

Crumb!

Usually when someone says, "Crumb!" they are frustrated or something.  Not this girl.  Last night I was looking at my new b-friend's blog.  Her name is Natasha, and she is a new quilter.  She made a gorgeous crumb quilt and even had a tutorial.  I've seen these, and they have never interested me, until NOW.  I thought I'd try one block. 

I thought I didn't have many crumbs, but a search in my small-pieces drawers yielded enough and MORE for a large top.  I have all of the block centers finished, and am now working on making the blocks I want from them.

Years ago I sold Thimbleberries fabric (I still do, but don't work at selling it, KWIM?) and got sample squares (about 2-1/2" squares...a small piece from each fabric in the new line).  I had some weird colored packs...pinks, mint green, bright purple!!  I threw them all in the mix.  They are Thimbleberries, and they fit right in in spite of not matching at all.

This IS  like eating potato chips...I could not stop with just one.  I had all kinds of tiny blocks that I don't recall making.  But they do make the cutest block centers when framed out with odds and ends. 

The pictures below show my original plan on how to set them.  But the more I looked at Natasha's, the more I liked the way the two blocks played together.  The first picture is my 9-patch blocks with a larger center.  I got really creative and pieced my cornerstone blocks (the ones in the pic below are single pieces of fabric).

Here is a pic of both types of blocks together...the 9-patch and the 8-point star blocks.

Here are a couple of my favorite blocks...I don't know where else I would have used them.  The first one's center star was from this post...in 2008.

People are always asking me how I decided to put this fabric here or that one there.  I have no real plan except this rule for this quilt.  The block centers (which measure 4-1/2" unfinished, BTW) that have cream touching the outside are being used for the 8-point star blocks.  The all color ones are being used for 9-patches. 

As I was looking through my drawers, I came across 25 string blocks that miraculously measured 4-1/2" square.  I don't remember why I started making them.  Only two were incomplete.  I had been piecing them onto phone book foundations.  The paper had been torn off 23 of them.

I can't wait till the kids go to bed so I can sew some more.

~Joan