Artisan's Palette Layout

Here is the layout (for the moment) for this quilt. The yellow on the left side of the picture is the wall behind the design wall. I should have started a bit more to the right, I have about 4 inches of unused space there, so it would have all fit.

I wonder if I'll have enough strips for the piano keys border. I was 7 short of the small colored squares. I'll have to see about the border. It calls for a dark inner border, then the piano keys border. Perhaps I can save some strips by putting blocks in the corners instead of going all the way around with the piano keys.

I like this one, and so does hubby--he asked earlier this evening if it really had to go to someone else. Hmmmm, I've never made him a quilt...perhaps??

Work on Artisan's Palette

Here is the beginning of the new quilt. All the center blocks of color are cut, as are the smaller corner blocks. I just have to finish all the flying geese blocks and it will be ready to be sewn together. It's not a difficult pattern, just the flying geese, but using the quilt in a day method makes them all exactly the same, which is good for me. The other blocks aren't pieced, so it should go together easily. I might even have it done tomorrow, then it's figuring out how to quilt it. I will probably end up using the walking foot and doing something fairly simple just to get it together. I was thinking this one might need fleece on the back, after all it is meant for snuggling. We'll see.

Next Quilt- Artisan's Palette

I futzed around today, trying to figure out what I was going to do next. I fooled around a bit with the idea of doing a stained glass wall hanging, but I don't think that is going to get done, just not my thing. While I was looking for batiks to use in it, I was looking through fabric and turned and noticed a plastic box under the table. It had lots of batiks in it, because I had pulled them out to make a quilt for my brother. So I started looking at the fabric and the pattern, and decided I would try to find it on my computer. It was a pattern I downloaded from the Northcott web site. I didn't find it, but I did find another one from the same site. It looked easier and more fun to me, so I decided to make it. It is called "Artisan's Palette" and they don't have it on their site anymore, but it looks like this.

It has lots of flying geese in the sashings, so I played around some more trying to figure out the quickest way to make them accurately. I have this problem with triangle blocks not being exactly right. So I tried the "no waste" method, the "Marti Mitchell" template method, and the "Eleanor Burns" method. I did OK with all the methods (but they geese weren't exactly right) but because you trim to size after you sew, I'm going with Eleanor.

I made 16 flying geese in about 65 minutes, and I need 82, so it shouldn't be too bad. Of course I took 5 hours to figure out which method I would use, so the day is mostly gone now!

Emily's is done

Emily's "suitable for framing" is done and already gone. I didn't have a chance to take a photo, but I finished tying it and used a darker teal for the binding. The family is going to visit her this week and I wanted them to be able to take it to her when they go.

Next is Christmas stuff--a baby quilt, a couple of wall hangings and maybe even quilt a top that has been waiting quite a long time will get quilted.

Not much time, so I'll have to see what gets done.

Christmas in November

Remember that I mentioned we had bunches of boxes under the house in storage, and that they've been there since 2003? Most of the upstairs is now in a livable condition, so we've started bringing them up and unpacking and putting or giving the stuff away. Well... today's boxes included another box of fabric!

It was labeled "Amish and Stack 'n Whack" and guess what? That's what it was. See...

And here is the some of the Stack n Whack fabric that was in the box...now I really have to get moving and make some quilts. I wonder if all of this will fit in the spaces left in the closet? We'll see soon enough.

More pics to come~after the folding a putting away :^)

Nearest Book

Jovaliquilts had this posted on her blog. I found it interesting, so decided to join in.

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open it to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
* Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"Initially it seemed inconsistent with the messages we'd been hearing about strong organizational cultures."

The book is "The Leadership Challenge" which I am reading for work. The other book that was near to hand had this for the 5th sentence on pg 56.

"So how does it know that any food item can be a correct answer?"

That one is from "Intellitools Extreme!", also a work book.

I think this is interesting because it give a glimpse into people's lives.

Have fun!

Tying Emily's quilt

After pinning almost the whole sandwich, and then realizing that the backing wasn't quite straight, so didn't reach the edges, then unpinning, I realized it would be much easier to just tie this quilt. The "batting" is the backing so I don't have to worry about the layers shifting. I'm tying about every 3 inches and I think that will be enough. I'm using 3 strands of embroidery floss for the ties. I think it will work OK. When I'm done I'll just sew around the outside then put some binding on and call it good. It doesn't take too terribly long to do the tying, and I found an explanation of how to do continuous ties so I don't have to stitch-cut-tie every single one. I can stitch-tie-stitch-tie etc, then cut. It goes faster and it's easier to do the tying with shorter strands so I don't have to waste so much floss.

Emily's Work in Progress

I'm still working on Emily's quilt. I found some soft fabric (not really Minky) to use for the batting and the back. Here is the whole quilt. I was going to put a darker teal around the spring green, but decided I liked it better without.
The quilt is being pin basted, and then I'm going to figure out how I'm going to quilt it. I have to see if I am going to use a walking foot, or if I'm going to tie it--I just don't know.

The backing is very soft. I think the finished quilt will be very cuddly.

Emily's Quilt

Here's a bit more of the quilt. I have to larger rectangles to finish, then the border and I'm done. The colors here are closer to reality. I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. I think I should be able to finish the top today, then I'll see about getting some cozy backing, I may use a minkee type fabric again. The last one I made was very cozy, and I think cozy is called for here.

My hubby brought up a box from under the house last week. It's been there since August of 2003, when we moved stuff under there before we went to Germany. The fabric in it was some rayons for clothing--maybe I'll get to using that; some solid fabrics I bought before we moved to Colorado in 1993 (I was really liking Amish quilts then--still do so I think I might make the "Suitable for Framing" in cool solids and black) and some white, gray and black cotton. I think that might have been from the neutral quilt I made when I was taking the color class. That quilt is now hanging in my office at work. I really like looking at it.