11-20-09 Bull's Eye

Here is my Bull's Eye quilt so far. There will not be much progress on it for the foreseeable future. Something about a scavenger hunt, girls' Sunday school party, breakfast guests, extra play practice, feeding 20 on Sunday, and I think there is a major cooking holiday coming up, too. At least that's the word on the street.

So...I did the unthinkable and stored away all my parts and pieces for this quilt until my lovely friend can come over and play again. I might call this the potato chip quilt...just one more block...just one more...SO addictive. Each quarter block adds a little more flavor, a little more za-za-za-zing!! How much more can it take? About twice as much since this represents only half of the blocks of the finished quilt. Yes, it will be a feast for the eyes. To think that this is made up primarily of fabrics for which we could see no future.

~Joan

Memory Quilt #1 of 3, Mostly Pieced

Below is the beginning of my son's memory quilt from high school graduation. If you look back here you can see its humble beginnings. I wasn't sure where to go from the signed blocks. My quilting e-friend, Sam, sent me a pic of her beautiful quilt of the same block where she made half blocks to finish out the design. So I adopted her idea, and below is the result.

Then I had to figure where to go from there. James likes blue, so I added an inner blue border, below. I added it so that the half block row and the inner border combined equalled one of the star blocks in size. That way I had several options of what to do from there.

For starters, I added a border of 4" finished blocks all around, using the same colors as were already used in the center. This was taken at night under fluorescent lighting, so the colors are definitely not true.

I haven't measure it yet, but it is quite large already. I want to make it large enough to use on his bunk at school as a bedspread, so there will need to be some additions. I am going to measure tomorrow or Saturday and see where I need to go from here. It is a challenge to be to keep it masculine in color and fabric design. So far, so good!

~Joan

11-12-09 Bull's Eye Progress

Diane came over to sew again today. Here is a picture of our progress so far. After just two sewing sessions, we are nearly halfway finished with our blocks. These are just the completely finished ones. We have lots more in various stages of completion. Not too bad for fabrics we were ready to pitch, huh?

Luke made me a new design wall this morning that is far superior to my old one, although it did the trick for a many years. The old one was formerly screwed into a wall in our home. Now I don't have the wall space, so the most important characteristic of the new on is that it must be portable. We went to Lowe's and had several funny moments just being us. We got a sheet of 1/4" plywood and a piece of 3/4" foam insulation board. I had gotten a flannel-backed tablecloth on clearance yesterday for $3. I didn't realize you would be able to see the apples through the back, but oh, well.

Luke stapled the plywood to the insulation, then wrapped the tablecloth with the flannel side out and stapled it in to the plywood on the back. With the insulation board on the front, I can pin blocks in place if necessary. The plywood on the back makes it much better for leaning against a wall or bookshelf. Thanks, Luke! Oh, and yes--the Lowe's guy DOES speak English!

~Joan

11-11-09 Bull's Eye

I was up at 6 with a horrid headache, so I decided to sew a few half blocks. They take next to no thought, and I had my iPod playing the end of the book of Judges and then Ruth. Naturally I wanted to see what the addition of those blocks would look like, so I added them to my design wall to get the full effect.

Diane, I put half of the half blocks in your stack!

~Joan

Bull's Eye Progress

Had our first sewing session for the Bull's Eye quilt last night. Here is our progress for the night (only two hours). We got a lot of cutting done, of both background squares and circles (which are hand cut). We spent quite a bit of time sorting through fabrics. My friend brought all HER uglies, and coupled with mine, the above is our results. The best part of the night was having time to chat!

~Joan

Bull's Eye Quilt Top Blocks

I commented on my last post that I was making a raw-edged seam allowance quilt top with a friend. This is one of the easiest and most relaxing quilts to be made! I don't want to plagiarize the instructions, but just answer a few questions. The blocks are made by laying a large circle on the square, then stitching a seam allowance with a sewing machine. The back is cut out and the next smaller circle is then centered and sewn, and finally the smallest circle. The circles are to be cut out free hand, too, but I make mine really close to perfectly round. I can't take THAT casual!! After all the blocks are made, you cut them into fourths and mix them up and resew them. Very easy, great stash buster, and even greater when done with a friend.

~Joan

New Fall Table Runner...

...it's still in the quilt top stage, but I pieced a new fall table runner for us. I used up all scraps except for the black for the chain running diagonally through the top. Quick and easy. I originally had 6 blocks, but it ended up being too long for our table for twelve. A little frog stitching, and I was all set! It's very large (don't have an exact measurement). My daughter is standing on a chair in the pic, and it's barely off the floor.

I also pieced a few blocks for a quilt I'm going to be piecing with a friend. It's the 21st Century Bull's Eye from Quilts from Aunt Amy by Country Threads. I wanted to make a few blocks to show my friend what it will look like on a small scale. The seam allowances are on the top, so they curl up slightly after washing and add an interesting dimension to the quilt. Another stashbuster!

~Joan