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. 

Border Options

I think I've made enough borders to make an entire quilt! 

I started with blue strings...

I sewed them to phone book foundations

And trimmed them.  Don't they look so nice and neat all trimmed?

Layed them out

And tried them on the quilt.  It was okay, but not quite what I wanted.

I guess I could use them to make a quilt

 Next, I tried a checkerboard border.  It was okay, but I still wasn't sure.

I tried piano keys

And then a braided border. So far, it's between the braided border and the checkerboard border.

Then I tried a different braided border.  This one adds a light square down the center and matches the left and right sides. 

Here's a recap of the checkerboard, piano keys and French Braid

And the two French Braids in dim lighting

And a slightly brighter one.

I'm still not sure.  Should I just pick one and get busy making it?  Should I try a few other options?

The Scrappy Double Irish Chain is Quilted

It is quilted and I'm almost done with the binding!

Cooper just can't resist getting in the picture!  He loves the comfy floor too.

Close up of the quilting

 

        

The panto is Daisies Galore from Willow Leaf Studios 

This picture doesn't show the border, it's folded under.  You can sort of see it in the first photo.  I'll try to remember to get a decent picture of it once the binding is on!

Border Blocks are done!

The border blocks for the Scrappy Double Irish Chain are made!  I only needed a small amount of the white fabric, thank goodness, because I only had a bit left!  The white that I'm using was given to me.  It has some manufacturing defects in it, but I was able to work around them.  I wasn't sure if I'd have enough or not, but figured that I could always make the quilt a bit smaller if I need to, or I'd find more or use something very close. 

I took a little break from quilting tonight and worked on something else downstairs.  I have a friend who is interested in a bracelet made out of spoon handles.  This requires cutting and bending.  Dad let me borrow his Dremmel.  That did a good job cutting off the spoon bowl, as long as I used a decent cut off wheel.  It also did a good job cleaning up the silver.  The torch and pliers were a bit trickier.  The second spoon got too hot in a spot and broke.  There are also some tool marks from the pliers from using too much force to bend the spoon.  I bought several spoons that were the same, so we have several to experiment with!

Now let's see, the quilt lay out is 11 blocks x 12 blocks.  I'll do the long sides first, so my side borders need to have 12 blocks.  I need to keep the white squares facing the quilt.  I'll start with  the border blocks that contain the white squares.  I'll sew the border squares together alternating the two types, keeping the white square facing in (right for one border, left for the other).  That will be my next step, but that step will need to wait. 

Borders on the Scrappy Double Irish Chain

I got the Scrappy Double Irish Chain sewn together and pressed this evening.  I auditioned several different borders.  The dark blue one was just too plain.  The one with reds and purple was only okay.  I tried white and then 4-patches.  Not quite right.  Playing with the 4-patch units, we sort of filled in the outside edge while placing a white square in the center of every other block.  That did it!  Here's the quilt sewn together...

And here's a black and white rendering of how the border will look.  I need 726 more 2" squares.  Of those, 23 are white.  I have only a very small bit of white left.  I hope I have enough!

The border is actually 3 squares deep.  The block matrix looks like this:

DLDLD

LDLDL

DLDLD

Alternating with:

LDWDL

DLDLD

LDLDL

And the corners:

DLD

LDL

DLD

And:

LDL
DLD
LDL

Twenty three of the first 2 and 2 of the second 2.