Double Delight done, done DONE

Yesterday afternoon I finished the extra quilting that I thought my Double Delight needed to balance what Catherine Martin had done. Then I washed it, and put it in the dryer. When I get to that point with any quilt, I think it is DONE. I can mark it down as finished in May, on the very last day! [Counts for One-Project-A-Month plan.]

I have shown this before, but here it is washed and dried, with all the bumpiness of the quilting really showing up.

And today I started the "Quilt-along" offered by Dana at http://oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/ .

Step 1 was choosing your fabric--and after thinking hard about GREEN, I decided on yellow. When I looked into my Yellow Box, I saw a lot of orangey/goldish fabrics I would be glad to use up--so THAT's the kind of yellow I am using. My idea is a summer quilt--maybe with all the yellows: "Summer Sun."

I cut some 2.5" strips as directed in Step 2, and sewed some together. I could see by the Sample that this was going to be a Rail Fence quilt. But I don't have the new fabric she is planning for, so I wasn't able to cut Width-of-Fabric strips. I wasn't going to cut my strips from my scraps until I knew how long they had to be.

Today Step 3 gave me that information, and her particular plan is not going to work for me. I have changed the plan to a FIVE rail block instead of six rails, therefore I am making my blocks 10.5" instead of 12.5". I think this will still work out to a twin sized quilt. I can make something over 50 blocks, so that will make a 60" x 90" center section.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Quiet, rainiy day, good for sewing

Leftovers made dinner easy

More iris in bloom

Double Delight DONE

I finished the scrappy brown binding last night, and today I hung the Double Delight mystery from Bonnie Hunter on the kitchen quilt wall.

Scrappy light inner border and scrappy brown outer border together make this into a double size bed quilt--so big I had to hang it sideways or it would have drooped on the floor. Other people made more complex borders, but I think the center is complicated enough.

Here is a close-up of the Baroque lines of quilting Catherine used to criss-cross the blocks. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but she used twice as many lines on the Irish Chain blocks as she used on the Rolling Stones blocks. This leaves a pretty big UNquilted section on those blocks.

How shall I fix it? Right now I'm just going to say it is done. And live with it for a while.

Sara

Gratitudes:

100 calorie cookie packets

The YELLOW season of forsythia and daffodils

Sue is here for a visit

Big Quilt Action

Last night at our monthly Spoolspinners' meeting, Catherine brought me the too LARGE quilts she worked on while I was gone to Florida. I'm just showinig you the corners, so you can see the great quilting work she did on the borders. Below is the border on the Double Delight (Bonnie Hunter design).

And the next on is also a Bonnie Hunter design, Orange Crush. I just LOVE the orange/red thread for the border quilting. AND Catherine used the enormous paisley deaign on the backing fabric to creaste her own original pattern! This may be my alltime favorite quilt, and it is even big enoughf or our queen bed (if we lie close together).I need to get right to work on the bindings, and then I'll show you the whole quilt.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Sunshine, sunshine

Daffodils in bloom

Garden clean-up finished

Fresh bread fragrance

Wonderful return of quilts

Final Retreat Results

The very first thing that I worked on at the retreat was my Double Delight, the fourth mystery by Bonnie Hunter. I had all the blocks made, and the setting triangles cut, so I just had to sew all the rows together. I had pieced a few of the setting triangles, and now that I see them in the final piece, a couple will have to be switched out since the piecing really shows on the polka dots and is distracting. Luckily I have a few large enough pink fabrics to do that, once I get my machine set up again at home.

People at the retreat had an interesting reaction to this quilt top. They LIKE it, and then say they are surprised they like it because the color combination is so unusual. They never would have thought that the cheddar yellow would go so well with the pinks. [But Bonnie says that this is an old combination, now gone out of use.]

The other top I managed to get together was a very quick one that I got off the internet. "Stashbuster Quilt" has very few pieces and is made from Fat Quarters. I had been given six FQs from the same line of fabrics, and I found six more to make this quilt. Each block has only five pieces and ends up being 16" square. Seet blocks 3 X 4. Very fast indeed.

So all in all I put together four tops on the retreat, finished my sample blocks for the Your Way Mystery, and I made a few leader-ender blocks for a future project. Now I need to find borders and backings for those tops, and quilt the little ones.

Dianne has offered to loan me a smaller machine for our monthlong trip to Florida, so I tried two out during the retreat, a Featherweight, and a Singer 301. Both worked very well. I have decided to borrow the Featherweight, mostly because it is a smaller package to fit into a crowded car.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Sunshine today!

Leftover chili I can serve for dinner

Charlie's first class on his Mac laptop

Double Delight Clue 3 & more improv

Thursday I took the day off from Double Delight and had fun, fun, fun making some more orange.pink blocks for 'project improv'. Here they are laid out on the floor to see how they look butted up against each other. More are in process but not up to 12.5" yet.

Yesterday I went back to working mostly on Clue #3 of Bonnie Hunter's Double Delight, which is pink Nine-patches. We need 130 of these babies. Right now I'm around 110. I assumed that I would have some extras that I could use in a neonatal quilt for the Guild's collection in March. Maybe not. Looks like I'm going to come out just about right!

Drove in constant snow across town for lunch with friends today, and tho' the driving was not too hard, it was a little tense, always expecting to slide around. I'm considering staying home from the symphony tonight, but will see if this snow continues or not. Hate to stop doing things because of the weather!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Four wheel drive on my Forrester

Steak AND shrimp for my noontime dinner

Happy dogs "helping" me shovel the walk

Double Delight and Another Challenge

So, having finished ALL the 240 little blocks, I fell for the idea of making the first block Bonnie described in her mystery Double Delight, rather than waiting until I had made 130 pink nine-patches. This big block requires careful pinning (PINNING!) of the little blocks together. We are going to make 30 of these, which will use up ALL of the two sets of 120 square-in-a-square blocks. Plus one of the pink nine-patches. I made one, and it made me tired.The next step is to make the Double Nine-patches that are the alternate big block. So I had to make one of these, just to SEE it, and also find out how difficult these were to put together. Easy-peasy as it turned out.
I continued making nine-patches segments for a short time, but the pile of what is left to do suddenly overcame me, and I wanted to do something else.

Reading blogs yeasterday I found that Jacquie of http://tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com/ has issued a challenge to those who want to join her in 'project improv', which she describes as "to support each other in our goal to quilt improvisationally, to quilt outside the lines and to find our own voice as quilters."

Her idea is to start with wonky log cabin blocks, and agree to send in one 12.5" block (in specific color sets) to be put together into charity quilts.

So I want to try the PINK/ORANGE color group. And because I was tired of the Double Delight, I set to work and made this block:

And because you need at least two blocks going through the machine to save thread (using each as a 'leader/ender' for the other), I started another as well, and then another becausse I was cutting off tail ends. . . . but I pulled myself up short and stopped [until tomorrow].

Sara

Gratitudes:

holiday lunch with the lectionary group

compliments on my jacket

fun with orange/pink

Twelfth Night, Double Delight!

The Wise Ones have arrived at the manger and are giving presents and adoration. Soon Herod will be on their trail, so everyone had better move out SOON.

And THANK GOODNESS! I trimmed the last of the 120 blocks with chocolate brown corners!m Getting to this point took me most of yesterday and today. I should cut all the scraps into useable squares and strips like Bonnie does.

Now I am cutting 1.5" strips for Nine-patches of "double pink" and shirtings. Maybe I'll get a few together this evening.

Sara

Gratitudes:

only a few interruptions today

new furniture arrangement in rec room could work with tweaks

new music at chorus rehearsal last night, "Breast Cancer Oratorio"

Double Delight step 2 + Epiphany

Here's the progress I made on the Step 2 blocks today.

These blocks do seem to take quite a bit of time, especially for the trimming and pressing. I am doing them in groups of 10 at a time, changing position from sewing to trimming to pressing helps me not get too stiff. But I still keep slumping. Got to keep the bend from my hips, not curving my back!

At the top you can see that I "took a break" from the Square-in-a square blocks and made a few of the pink 9-patches for a change. I peeked ahead and know that we are going to be making a whole bunch of those next.

Charlie and I had our last Epiphany celebration at Holy Cross, here is a photo of two of the Magi leaving on the last verse of "We Three Kings". These were SINGING Magi, which is not always the case. Each sang one of the verses. And afterwards we had Crown Cake with prizes inside, and a pinata, and the White Elephant Game, and then the DE-greening of the church. A long celebration, expecially because we had the addition of the Morris Dancers as a gift to us.

Sara

Gratitudes:

So much love at Holy Cross

Another farewell dinner last night

Zillah only barfed once

WISPs

"WISP" , which means "Work In Slow Progress", is what May Britt and Khris are challenging us to complete...one per month for 2009.

I've joined in because I was so motivated by Finn's challenge to work on UFOs [a less gentle name]the last four months of the year. I would like to get through a lot more of them in 2009.

Here's the little icon you can put on your sidebar if you join in. And register your interest with them at http://tagalongteddies.blogspot.com/2009/01/gobsmacked.html .

I'm continuing my Slow Progress on Double Delight with Clue 2. I think I have 40 of 120 blocks made and squared up.

Double Delight, Clue 1 finished

I worked most of the day today, of course with some breaks, making these Square-in-a-square blocks. At one point I timed how long it took to make 10, and it was a little over 30 minutes. So if it is calculated out, 120 blocks must have taken 6 hours in total over two days.

Clue 2 requires making another 120, but a different coloration! Boo-hoo!

I think that I should work on some other project and use this as my "leaders and enders'.

Meanwhile I can't do anything without winding more bobbins.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Pork sandwich for lunch

visiting dog, Zillah, tho' energetic has caused no problems

planning for quilt retreat in February

Double Delight - Clue 1

These are stacks of 10 each of all the parts needed for 120 blocks of Square-in-a-Square. Bonnie Hunter has started her newest mystery. Blue middle and "shirtings" for three of the corners, "cheddar" for the last corner. Mine don't EXACTLY meet her descriptions, but they are all from my stash!
I have sewn three stacks together, and am trimming the last batch. Each one needs to be 3.5 inches square.

Unfortunately she has moved a head to the second clue while I have a long wayto go on this one. O well, she keeps reminding us that this is NOT a race. Enjoy the process!

Stopped my forward progress in order to have New Yesr's shrimp with my honey and watch most of the Rose Bowl game.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Never got in the car all day

Pickled herring

Planning for changes to the rec room