SewCalGal's Quilter's Auction

Quilter's Auction Fundraiser for Operation Homefront

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Quilter's Auction Fundraiser 

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Easy Street 2012 Mystery Quilt



For the past several years I have participated in Quiltville's annual Mystery Quilt.  After a couple of years making quilts with some very intense piecing, it was announced that this quilt would be easier.  Nothing smaller than 2".  I can tell you that it takes a LOT of 2" squares to cover a queen size mattress, especially since a 2" square becomes 1 1/2" once it's sewn into a quilt!  The name of this year's quilt is Easy Street!

Earlier this summer I took a workshop from Bonnie Hunter.  Bonnie is the designer of the mystery quilt and many other quilts that I've made.  During the workshop, she suggested that, if we are planning on participating in the 2012 Mystery, that we start stashing turquoise, lime green, purple, white with black print and gray fabrics.  A few weeks ago, the color palette was published.  And I bought my gray and white with black print.  This morning, the first clue was released.  It was nice saying in and working on this mystery quilt.  I'm quite excited to see what she does with these colors!

Easy Street

Easy Street Mystery Quilt Fabrics
 



Step one is four-patch units! Background and gray. My background is the black and white fabric. I'm using only one fabric for the background rather than many prints.

 The first clue was to make 4-patch units with gray and white with black print fabric.  I cut 19 strips of each fabric, sewed them together, pressed open, stacked in pairs, alternating the colors.  This gets them ready for cutting. 

 

Working on the 4-patches.

Once the pairs were stacked, I cut them into 2" segments.  Carry to the sewing machine, making sure the dark fabric (gray) is on top.  It has to be this way for the seams to spin.  Sew together, open, press.

 

Press.  Spin the seam allowances so all of the seams lay clockwise.

 

 

192 four-patch units done! All of the centers are spun (see bottom left). Now I'll have to wait until Friday for step 2.

 

Doll Quilt with Piped Binding

Piped Binding on a Doll Quilt

The doll quilt is a service project for one of the guilds that I belong to.  I decided to experiment with a couple of new techniques.  One was piped binding.  It was not difficult and I like the way it turned out.  Best of all, no hand sewing!

Love the duck with sunglasses and the bright red balloon in the border fabric!  This type of binding was very easy to do, but I was careful to be accurate in my cutting, pressing and sewing.  I will certainly use this again, especially on a small quilt!

Hand Dyed fabric preview

Hand Dyed fabrics from last weekend.  We tried several different techniques including a color wheel, gradations (mine were purple on white-on-white fabric), 2-color run (yellow to blue for me) along with a 2-layer jelly jar technique on a different white-on-white to coordinate.  Also, a couple of shaker-of-salt fabrics, another 2-layer jelly jar and an ice-dyed piece.  I think  I ended up with 34 pieces.

Spyglass Quilt

I had a very nice day Saturday working on charity quilts with some of the Oxford Piecemakers quilt guild members.  Several quilts were made by the ladies that gathered and several more were made at members' homes.  I made two quilts and brought home two others to be quilted.  Two of them are done, two more to do.

While at the sew-in, we talked about the upcoming retreat and the projects that I was going to teach.  One of them is the Spyglass quilt.  We had a nice coversation about the fabric choices.  For the spyglasses, you need a 4" circle of fabric with an item in it.  You need a 8" square of background fabric.  There are 12 or 13 spyglasses in the quilt.  It's fun picking background fabric that you can look deeply into to find the hidden item!  If you are collecting fabrics for this quilt, I'd suggest using 5" squares of novelty fabrics.  We will then add fusible web to them and cut them down to the 4" circle.

In addition to the spyglass and background fabrics, the quilt uses 124 3" squares.  I like using squares of fabric with small "things" in them.  It provides more of a challenge to find a tiny ladybug, than a big dinosaur!  We could set up an exchange so that everyone could trade their extra fabrics for more variety! 

And if anyone doesn't want to gather their fabrics, I can make kits.  I can do the spyglasses and backgrounds, the 3" squares or both.

The border and binding will take a yard of fabric.  The backing will take about 2 1/2 yards if you piece it diagonally.  The quilt is about 48" square.  The blocks finish at 7 1/2".

So, for those of you collecting fabrics for the Spyglass quilt, you need:

124 3" squares of fabric (solids, tonals, novelty prints - anything goes)
13 5" squares of fabric with "things" that will be under the spyglass.  These will be cut into 4" circles
13 8" squares of background fabric for the spyglasses
Spyglass handle fabric (large scrap(s), fat quarter, eighth yard)
1 yard border/binding
2 1/2 yards backing fabric

Scrappy Double Irish Chain Quilt

I really wasn't planning on working on the binding of the Scrappy Double Irish Chain quilt tonight, but I had a bit of time available while dinner was in the oven.  After a long day, just sitting in the chair for a bit was appealing.  I picked up the quilt, needle and thread and got started.  After dinner, and a swim for Cooper, I picked up the quilt again.  I looked ahead and realized that I was almost at the corner.  And I knew that it was my last corner.  I was almost done!

I finished the binding and was so happy to take the finished picture!  You can see the top and bottom border here.  I repeated the dark and medium design, but not the white. 

It makes for an interesting border.  Not borderless, but not distinctive either. 

The Scrappy Double Irish Chain is a generous queen size quilt.  I don't have any idea what I will do with it.  Time will tell.  Here is a close up of the quilting.

On a smaller note, I do know what I am doing with this quilt!  This is going to a special not-yet-born little girl! 

I quilted it Sunday.  Oh my gosh!  That is so fun to say!  I quilted it all in ONE DAY!  The quilt is about 50" square.  I can quilt that size on my regular machine in a day, but it would take ALL DAY, especially if I was doing something nice.  With the long arm, I can do something nice and only spend a few hours!

I really like this design.  It is Chevron Feather.  I was going to do either the daises or hearts, but when I brought the quilt downstairs, this panto was out and spoke to me.  I love the little curly queue in it.  I guess I'll have to try the hearts on another one.

Another Border Option

Not totally happy with any of the pieced borders that I've tried, I went back to a plain border.  All of my blues are either very dark or very gray.  I needed something more of a Royal Blue. 

Last week, a new Quilt Store opened a couple of miles from my house in Middletown, Ohio.  I stopped in today and spent some time talking to the owner and purchasing a potential border for the quilt - in Royal Blue. 

I think the blue needs to be a bit wider that what is show here.  I do think the hue mimics the overall color of blue that is in the quilt.