Design Wall Monday, October 17

I got home yesterday, and was pretty tired. I wasn't up to much last evening, I just knitted for a while, had a nap, took a really long bath, knitted a while more, and went to bed. Wild party animal, that's me ;-)

Today my design wall is sporting the two blocks I got started on from the Improvisational Adventure Quilt class I took on Friday. I'm not sure how much I'll work on these this week, but I'm leaving them up on the design wall because I enjoy looking at them and pondering what comes next.



Check out Judy's blog, to see what other quilters have on their design walls. Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Design Wall Monday, 6/13/2011

I can't believe June is almost half over already! I haven't done any sewing, really, since I've been back from retreat. That's almost a month now, and the withdrawal symptoms are getting bad!

On my design wall at the moment are these pieced backgrounds, from scrap squares. I plan to applique silhouettes in Kona black on top of them. Eventually, they'll be for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. It's a good concept, I think, but I'm still letting it stew in my brain for a while.



I really need to get some sewing done, both to cure my withdrawal symptoms, and to make some more progress on my UFOs. Check out Judy's blog, to see what others are working on today.

Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Design Wall Monday, 6/6/2011

I have two small things on my design wall, both of which have been there for a while. I haven't done a bit of sewing since I got home from retreat. I'm planning to change all that this week, but for now, here's what I have to show:

These are squares that were cut (according to the pattern instructions) for my blue and green "Sassy Sixteen" quilt, one of the tops I finished at retreat last month. They were supposed to be used to make a pieced border, but I decided that I wanted to do plain borders instead. So then these squares were left, so I put them up on the design wall. I haven't completely decided yet whether to sew them together as-is, or put them in with the rest of my precut scraps. But I'll probably sew them together. Some time.


This is from a class kit from Debby Kratovil, called "Coffee Filter Fans." I made these blocks at retreat last month, though I still need to stitch the fans down to the background squares. I might sew these together into a quilt, but the more I think about it the more I think they may become the basis for a jacket. These were quick and fun to do.


I hope to get some sewing done this week, have some finishes and get something new up on the design wall. Wish me luck! Stop by Judy's blog, to see what other folks have up on their design walls.

Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon -- and I promise to post more regularly ;-)

What's on the Design Wall Today?

This week there are two things on my design wall. First is blocks in blues and greens, from a pattern called "Sassy Sixteen" by Kimberly Crenshaw. Her pattern calls for 16 fat quarters, but I had more. She also calls for a border of squares all the way around, cut from the same fabrics, the same width as all the rectangles in the blocks. I cut the squares, but I doubt I'll use them. Instead, I have about 4 or 5 fabrics I like for borders. I'm not yet sure if I'll use all of them, or some of them, or none of them. I'll get the blocks sewn together first, then decide. I made these blocks at the retreat I was on at the beginning of March. I'm liking this one, and want to get it finished soon! They're 12" (finished) blocks, set 5x6, so without borders it'll measure 60"x72". That might just be good enough on its own, I don't know yet.

This is DNP (disappearing nine patch) blocks from the Moda line called "Cider Mill Road." I just LOVE that fabric line, and bought several charm packs of it. I have a couple fabrics from the line for borders on this one, and I think it'll need them. If my arithmetic is working properly here, before borders it'll measure 52" square. I really don't like square quilts too much, so I'll probably make the top and bottom borders wider than the side borders, to turn it into more of a rectangle. On the other hand, I'm not totally set on this block arrangement yet -- I might decide to turn them on point! We'll see when I get there.


Both of these projects are on my Spring UFO Club project list from the Quilters Knitting group on Ravelry.

Check out Judy's blog, and see what others have on their Design Walls.

Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

On the Design Wall Today...

Today I'm sharing two things. First, here's what's on the makeshift design wall at the moment:




This is a set of blocks for a charity quilt. At a guild meeting some time last year, I picked up a large plastic bag labeled "Blocks and Bits and Pieces," which was to be made into a charity quilt. Well, the other bits and pieces have been made into two tops, one that was just squares, and one that was just bricks. These blocks were already made, along with 10 smaller ones (with one fewer round on them). I decided I didn't want to make any more blocks, so I'll finish them up as they are. I'm planning to set these on point, and make borders top and bottom with the smaller blocks, either also on point, or set straight. I'll probably use a solid Kona cotton for the setting squares and triangles, but haven't yet decided on a color for them.


Then, although this isn't on a design wall per se, I'm going to be auditioning borders for it very soon. This is the quilt center that I assembled on my recent retreat.

Can you tell it was windy?

This is my version of the quilt on the main characters' bed in the Britcom "As Time Goes By," which stars Dame Judy Dench and Geoffrey Palmer. I love that series, and from the first time I saw the quilt on the bed, I wanted it! I've watched and watched, and rather than trying to make an exact replica, I figured out what elements about the quilt in the show I liked, and made sure to include those. The things I liked were the center design, and the fact that many of the pinwheels had fabric substitutions in them. My pinwheels are almost all a bit "maverick." There are very few of them that are made from only two fabrics. Anyhow, I made myself a sketch on graph paper:

And went from there. The eagle-eyed will notice that my center design deviates from my sketch. I mis-cut for the squares in the corners of the center unit, and decided to just use what I'd cut. Then I decided to put half-square triangles in the corners of the borders around the center, to continue the pinwheels' movement. I'm not sure I like it better than the sketch, now that I see it, but I'm NOT going to undo it all and change it. I've been excited about making this quilt for quite some time, so I'm going to finish it up very soon, so I can start enjoying it.

Thanks for coming by to play. Check out Judy's blog, to see what others have on their design walls today. Come back again soon!

Design Wall Monday

I'm back! I was in Florida visiting my friend Sue, and we went to the Ricky Tims Super Quilt Seminar in Jacksonville the weekend before last. Then I was in Ohio, checking on our house there. While there, I put together blocks from my last Design Wall Monday post (two weeks ago):

They're ready to sew together, now that I've decided I'm not going to sash them. As I was making the blocks, I thought I would, until I saw just how nicely they play when set block-to-block. The photo's sideways, but you can still get the idea. I need to figure out what I want to do for borders, and get this top finished up.

Today I hope to finish up a little something that I've been planning to finish for some time now. Pictures tomorrow, I hope! Some photos soon from the Ricky Tims seminar, too.

Thanks for coming by to play. Come back again soon.

Design Wall Monday

For the first time, I'm joining in Judy's Design Wall Monday. Here's what's on my Design Wall today:







This is a Thimbleberries pattern, from the book North Bay Quilts. I started this at Thimbleberries Club back in 1999, at a shop in the Cleveland, Ohio area called Abigayle's. The pattern was for a table runner, three blocks set block-to-block. I don't really use table runners, and decided to make twelve blocks to make a good-sized lap/throw quilt. I only have one block up because they're all the same, and this design wall is pretty small so all 12 of them wouldn't fit anyway. Actually, the blocks are all still in 3 rows, and need sewn together into blocks, then the blocks set together into a top. With or without sashing (I haven't decided yet about that), and with borders.


I'm hoping to have this together as a top very soon!


Thanks for stopping by. Come back again any time, and enjoy seeing everyone else's design walls, too.