{Post 1,468} Squares Surrounded in Use!!!

Here is my latest quilt for our bedroom, Squares Surrounded.  It is, of course, my favorite so far.  It combines my favorite things...scraps, a unifying striking color, scraps, small pieces, scraps, upcycled shirts, and scraps!!

Here are two views and then a peek at the back.

I am glad I took the extra time to make a beautiful machine quilting pattern instead of just meandering or something simple.  My only regret?  I would have made it longer.  Ah, well...it is fine!!

If you are new to my blog, here is a tip for you.  If you click on the label at the bottom, it will take you to all the posts for that subject.

{Post 1,467} Machine Quilting Squares Surrounded

Just started quilting this today.  I was going to do a fast and easy meandering, but it's for MY bed, and I'll be seeing it a lot.  I thought it was worth the extra time for the fancier stitching.  Only have two passes done.

We had bad weather yesterday afternoon and night...sleet, rain, then snow.  Everything was covered with a thin layer of ice.  We never lost power though, and we are thankful for that.

View out my front door:

{Post 1,458} Squares Surrounded Top Finished

Here is my finished queen-sized top.  Hope to quilt it and use it soon.  Windy, cold day.  Best picture I could get.

{Post 1,457} One Border Section Added

Turns out I pieced about 4" too much for one border today.  So I went ahead and sewd it onto the mother ship.  Now I have two long sides' worth of border to piece and attach.  I really like this!  I need to make a note to use more light fabrics in the side ones because they'll be seen a lot more.  Our new bed has a footboard which hides the end of the quilt.

  

{Post 1,456} Sewing Today

Today I sewed from about 9:30 to 2:00.  I am adding another border of the string-pieced units on the 3 sides that already have one.  That way I can make the bed with a pillow tuck and it will be just the way I want.  

I got about 12 eleven-inch-long sections finished.  They are untrimmed above  I did a lot of chatting and helping others with cutting, answering questions, etc.  Used up tons of little scraps.  About half of the strips were pieced from two, and that takes a little longer as well.

Here is the quilt top I am making for our "new" room:

{Post #1,182} Some Sewing Time

I still don't have my new camera.  Bear with me while I post on my tablet.

Finished the wedding quilt top this AM.  I will post a picture after it is quilted.  INCREDIBLY boring...checkerboard of 2 fabrics.  

The shirt strings abound.  Now that the wedding quilt is out of the way, I am going to focus on finishing up my Squares Surrounded.  Here is a long piece of paper-pieced border.  I need to measure to see just how much I need.  

I am also starting string blocks for a quilt made with 20 of these blocks.  I printed the templates on phone book pages.  Then lines are really easy to see.  I was pleased and surprised that I could use my old phone book for these.  The original pattern is called "Virginia Bound", but I am going to call it "Shirts Abound".  Very clever, huh?

{Post 1,024} Squares Surrounded Center Pieced!

Here is Squares Surrounded, with the entire center pieced.  I am nearly out of the brightish blue I am using for the alternate squares.  What I'd like to do at this point is plan out the blue for an inner border, using every last inch most likely.  Then I'll put on a pieced border of some type out of shirts.  I might make it a string border.  I love sewing strings.  My string box keeps filling as I trim my shirts down anyway.  I am going to make pillow shams out of strings as well.  

This measures 72" x 86" now.  My two design walls are not the same height, so it looks like part of the left side of the quilt is missing.  It just fell down behind the edge of the wall.  I'm grateful for what I have!

How is it possible to love every quilt one makes more than the one before??  I was making this quilt just to use up some of the small pieces of shirting fabrics I have, but I like it so much that I'm going to make it into a bed quilt to use for our bedroom.

My sewing time is going to be slowing down here soon.  I think it would be best to finish the fall and Christmas quilts I already have under way before I work on this one any more.  I'll fold it up and tuck it away (meanwhile sewing strings onto foundations as leader/enders).  

Here's a picture of the top right corner and the upper border, as they are now.  I'm thinking a thin (1-1/2" or less) inner border of the same blue and a string-pieced outer border.

The blue has a faint stripe running through the background.  Just so you know, my OCD kicked in, and all the stripes are running the same direction.

~Joan, who prefers CDO (alphabetical, as it should be!)

{Post 1,021} Squares Surrounded

I only sewed for a little while on the machine today.  I added 4 more rows to my Squares Surrounded quilt.  The left edge measures 73" long.  I am going to set it by counting the pieced squares...9 x 11.  The left edge is 9 long.  I need to add 2 more rows before I hit a corner, if that makes sense.  All the blocks and setting triangles are pieced for this.  


Inspiration hit in the area of keeping track of on-point rows.  I used 4 daisy-head pins (shaped like a daisy, but flat...I use them for pinning my quilts onto my leaders on my quilt frame).  I numbered them 1-4 and pinned them onto the top triangle of the rows after I laid them out.  Then I pinned each block to the next in its row with a regular pin.  Pieced them, ironed them, and attached them to the mother ship w/o any mix-ups.  Grand!!

I hardly thought it possible, but I think we have too many large quilts.  Our quilt rack and my closet shelf overfloweth.  

So I was thinking about the gift-giving quilts thing again.  What if I contacted people I want to give a quilt to and showed them pictures (with measurements) and said, "I'd like to give you a quilt.  Which one of these would you like?"  Is that super tacky??

Lastly, I am putting up new curtains in my bedroom.  In this post I talked about the possibility of having a Christmas quilt in my room.  My curtains were a fall print.  A lovely fall print--quite possibly my favorite Thimbleberries print EVER.  My current bed quilt has a string of red squares down the center of each braid.  The Christmas quilt, obviously, would go better with red.  So I bought these two types of red valances.  The problem is that I like the color of one and the design of the other.  I am returning both sets.  I have another plan.  I am going to buy one panel of the color I like and make my own valances.

Here are the two that bombed:

I wanted something that looked like it went with quilts, but wasn't ho-hum old-fashioned looking.  I think what I really want is a dark mostly red homespun with a tiny cream plaid line in it.

~Joan

{Post #994} Square Surrounded Coming Along

Here is the part of my Square Surrounded that are sewn together so far.  I don't know how to make the red in the picture be some other color.  The second picture shows another two rows laid out but not attached to the mother ship yet.

The top picture measures 42" from the edge of the quilt to the edge of the last blue square's point.


~Joan

{Post #986} Mostly Dead

Princess Bride is probably my favorite movie.  At least in the top three.  If you've seen it you will understand this, "I've been mostly dead all day."


My daughter Susie had her high school graduation this past Saturday.  So much fun packed into a few hours.  All week we were shopping and planning and shopping some more and planning some more.  That was just for the party.  All my children came home by Friday night (Elisabeth was a surprise guest!).  My parents, Susie's friend Abby (from CO) and 3 of my sister's children were here.  Whew.  No wonder I've been mostly dead all day.


Got up at some early hour this AM and went back to sleep.  That is rare for me.  Then I went to the sewing room (where I've been very little the past week) and pieced a few blocks while I did laundry (it was after noon, as in after 12:00).  Had laundry from DH and me as well as 3 loads of towels and 2 loads of sheets.


Speaking of laundry detergent, I just made a second batch. The first one lasted us SIX months!!  I love it.


Here is what I've been working on today.  Had just a few blocks finished when I started this AM.  I took pics of straight set as well as on point, then I started sewing them together on point with string-pieced triangles.

I took the pic with my hand to show perspective on size.  The alternate squares are 5-1/2" square.  The ones with the shirt squares sewn around them are 3-1/2" square.  

Here is what it looks like now with the top left two rows sewn together.  

My design wall is 48" wide, and this nearly fills it.  Many more blocks underway.  I need to piece lots more setting triangles.  

Seems to me that I prefer quilts set on point.  How about you?

I saw this online somewhere and liked it, but it was straight set.  I thought it would make a good recycled shirt quilt.

~Joan