Showing posts with label 2-Colour Mystery Quilt Along. Show all posts

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Mystery Quilt so far on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome to week 478 of Free Motion Mavericks. I'm trying to catch up in my 2 Colour Mystery Quilt with Joanne of Canuck Quilter Designs. I keep trying to get caught up, but then every Thursday we get another clue....😉

2 Colour Mystery Quilt

Today we'll be getting the Week 8 clue. Here is what I've done so far.

Week 1 was about cutting the fabric. Since that's my least favourite part of quilt making, I only cut what I have to, as I need them. So I actually started cutting Week 2, when I knew what I needed!

Week 1 - cutting for week 2

Week 2 blocks

I had quite the challenge putting the Week 2 blocks together but I did it! 😊

Week 3 was making a whole bunch of half-square triangles. That went better.

Week 3, large and small half-square triangles

In Week 4, I sewed some of the half-square triangles together. That's when things start getting a little bit wonky, but generally not too bad.

Week 4, making a block with some of the half-square triangles

Weeks 2 to 4 with a couple of Week 5 pieces

In Week 5, I used some of those extra half-square triangles to make these blocks. I also chain pieced some of these. It sewed up really well.

Chain piecing the flip and stitch pieces

Week 5 blocks

Week 5 blocks in the other colour

For Week 6, I've cut up most of my fabric and started putting them together. I have 2 blocks of each colour done - only 22 more to go!

Week 6 in first colour

Week 6 in second colour

These are my cut pieces for Week 6.
I haven't counted them yet 😃, I just kept cutting!

What I learned

I wasn't doing too badly until I started sewing the different parts together. That's when things tend to get pretty wonky!
I trimmed up what I could of my Week 4 half-square triangles, but only a couple were too large. Most of them of OK or at least an ⅛" too small. That means that things are going to get wonky quickly!
I'll be trimming the Week 5 and 6 blocks - I know that the Week 6 blocks are pretty wonky, so I'm going to be more careful when I make the 22 others (of each colour). Hopefully I'll figure it out before I'm done!
As you saw, I used chain piecing as much as I could. I hope that the accuracy is OK.
In Week 7, we start putting the different blocks together. It looks very cool 😎
I think that my best bet is to use a very scant ¼" to stitch things together.

If you haven't read it yet, for the first time ever I participated in the First Quarter Check-in with Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl. I'm glad I did because I've been all over the place, so it was good to look at what I've done so far. Thanks Yvonne!

Free Motion Mavericks

We've had a busy week! Thanks to everyone who linked up. Let's see what our quilters were up to!

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts linked up her very cute Dino Dinosaur quilt. She used a number of FMQ designs, from diamond crosshatch, stars, stippling to following the elements making up the dinosaurs blocks. If you want to see more, check out the picture of the back of the quilt on her blog post.

Kat's very cute Dino Dinosaur quilt

I saw this wonderful quilt on Frédérique's linking party and asked the author to link up 😊. It's a two-sided quilt made by the blogger of "des tulipes et des coeurs" (tulips and hearts). To read her post, you can use Google Translate which is located in the table of contents at the top right corner of the blog.

She made this quilt for 18 month old Romy. She FMQ from the back of the quilt, after stitching-in-the-ditch the bands of colour and the name. Check out the post to see close-ups of the different FMQ designs that she used - it's worth it!

The back of Romy's quilt by blogger "des tulipes et des coeurs"


The front of Romy's quilt - mostly Kaffe Fasset fabrics

Frédérique of Quilting Patchwork Appliqué finished her Jardin de corail (Coral Garden) quilt. It was made as part of a QAL and required 16 animals in the piece! She mostly quilted around each tropical fish that can be found in a lagoon. It really is wonderful. It was finished using the facing method so that it looks like they are in the lagoon, as opposed to an aquarium.

Frédérique's Jardin de corail (Coral Garden) quilt

Frédérique also made 2 stained glass mini quilts. Although she didn't quilt them, I want to share with you her poinsettia mini because it was attached to the backing and batting by using sequins and beads in the centre. How cool is that!

Frédérique's Poinsettia stained glass mini quilt,
attached with sequins and beads!

It's now your turn!

Monday, April 15, 2024

First Quarter Check-in

Hi, I was catching up on my blog reading when I found Yvonne's Quilting Jetgirl's First Quarter Check in party and post. It's been such a whirlwind of activity here that I thought that it would be nice to actually see what I said that I would do, and what actually happened so far! Thanks Yvonne!

January to March 2024

Quilts

In my Quilts section, I got distracted and chased a squirrel! I ended up not participating in this year's SAHRR (Stay At Home Round Robin) but instead signed up for Joanne's at Canuck Quilting Designs, 2 Colour Mystery Quilt. It's been a challenge because I'd forgotten how fiddly a traditional quilt can be! The mystery quilt started at the beginning of March. I followed along well for the first month but I'm a little behind at this time. I am getting there!

Weeks 1 to 5, with week 6 slowly happening! Only 1 week behind!

I did start on Hubby's wall quilt but didn't get very far. I'm hoping to get it done in June....but who knows. I ended up taking a class with Cyndi McChesney, one of the experts on quilting with panels! It was a two-part workshop on Zoom with Cyndi who taught us how to make wonderful quilts with our panels. It helped me immensely since I really had no idea where I was going. Now I know what to do, it's just a matter of getting it done!

Wonky improv strips that will be the background

Layout of the final design

I did measure between each panel to see how wide each improv section of the background needs to be. I had to get at least that far since we needed the dining room table for Easter supper 😋.

Finally, I FMQ my girlfriend's quilt. I'm happy to say that she loved it! 😊It's a beautiful quilt and she did a great job!

FMQ my girlfriend's quilt

Challenges, Journal Making, Art Quilts and Mindful Stitching

The beginning of 2024 was extremely busy as I participated in 4 of the 6 challenges of Project Quilting. I actually started another one but never got it finished.

Project Quilting 15.1 - Bird House Challenge 1 was my favourite make so far this year. It was even part of a small fibre show at a local restaurant, Chez Lucien, in the market in Ottawa.

Home to Feed - hanging at Chez Lucien

Project Quilting 15.2 - Sky Colour, Challenge 2 was a very practical make. I improv pieced and FMQ an agenda cover.

Sky Colours, my 2024 Quilting Agenda Cover

Project Quilting 15.3 - Inside Out, Challenge 3, was a smaller make. I made a meditation quilt piece and attached it into my journal. It was a lot of fun!

In a fish bowl, looking out!

Project Quilting - 15.6 - Irish Chain, Challenge 6 was more practical. I've always wanted to make an Irish Chain quilt, so this is my first one. It's a cuddle quilt that was donated to Community projects through my local guild. These lovely, tiny quilts go to the Intensive Care Neo-Natal or Post-Partum Units. I had a great time FMQ it!

Irish Chain Cuddle Quilt

My favourite year long challenge is Joyful's Table Scraps Challenge 2024. I've been participating for a few years now and love it. At the end of each month, I make a small scrappy piece. Scraps and colour - what's not to love!

For the March (purple) and January (green) Table Scraps Challenge, I made Hubby and Sarah some scrappy colourful improv placemats for the house.

Last year's and this year's scrappy improv placemats

For February, since I was away at the end of the month, I made a meditation piece for the Red challenge called Love All Around. It was perfect for making in the car and hotel.

Love All Around, February's Table Scraps Challenge

So far this year I've only made one hand-make Scrappy Journal. It was a Challenge and a lot of fun. Hubby liked it so I'll be making him a few.

Scrappy Journal Cover drying

Finished Scrappy Journal with Zig-zag stitch

In February I finished Swirling Leaves 3. It's for one of my daughter's friends who got married in the fall. Since she loves all things Fall, this was a perfect gift.

Swirling Leaves 3

I've been doing some mindful stitching - not on a daily basis, which is what I was hoping for, but rather in spirts. That's so much more my style.

My big stitching project this year is doing some mostly mindful stitching on a hand-woven tablecloth that I brought back from Istanbul many years ago. There are 16 boxes per row and I've stitched 3 rows so far. Here are a few images. I guess that I'll have to post an update soon.

Playing with colour, chain and running stitches

Celebrating my daughter's 30th birthday

Tablecloth - I now have 3 rows finished!

I also started my Outdoor Hanging Art Quilt. I started by making a meditation mini that I'm slowly using as the inspiration for my outdoor piece. You can read more about the inspiration here.

Inspiration for my Outdoor Hanging Sculpture

I'm working on different translucent scarves to make the first 3 Suns.

Dawn Sun

Noon Sun, still needs stitching and trimming

I've stopped working on these since I'm busy creating a piece for the Out of the Box (OOTB) Fibre Fling. I started at the beginning of April and it's my One Monthly Goal (OMG).

Spring Tulips - still needs a few more tulips

What I learned

I'm really glad that I took the time to write this post. Like I said, I've been so busy making that it's good to step back and see what exactly that was!
I want to add that I also celebrated 12 years of blogging!
I'm probably as productive as I was but my energy is generally fairly low, so between making, I spend a LOT of time reading! That's what re-fuels me 😍
As you can see, the smaller projects are so much easier to work on than the larger ones. It's not that their easier to do, just easier to pick up and work on, as opposed to projects that need thinking time.
As soon as I finish my Spring Tulips, I'll be focusing on my Outdoor Hanging Sculpture since that's due at the beginning of June. Although I haven't been working on it, I still think about it a lot and have figured out a few things....I hope. I won't really know till I try it!
I'm also looking forward to having a little bit of energy to play in the garden. Spring is when my favourite bulbs come out! With the rain this week, my Allium are getting big and will soon be blooming!

My favourite - I wasn't sure that they would be coming out!

Pretty pink spring bulbs

Poppy in the garden, ready to chase
squirrels, birds and bugs!

Linking parties

I'll be linking to Quilting JetGirl's linking party as well as many other ones. Let's see what others are doing! Design Wall Monday, Patchwork & Quilts, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday,

This post is based on my January 04, 2024, Making Plans on my 600th post!

Great news! Home to Feed was featured on Put your foot down. Thanks Denise 😊

Sunday, March 17, 2024

2 Colour Mystery Quilt and Updates

Hi and welcome. I hope that you're having a great weekend. I've been working on a few of my ongoing projects. Thanks for letting me share these with you. 😊

Making HSTs (half-square triangles)

This week's clue for the Mystery Quilt was to create HST. Amazingly enough, it's one of the blocks that I'm pretty good at. I make them two at a time, and because there's always a little bit of wiggle room to square them up, they usually come out pretty accurately. 😁

That's a LOT of half-square triangles (48 and 24!)

Blocks and HSTs made, with a couple of extra cut pieces

I've never participated in a mystery quilt before, and I wondered how they would keep the finished piece a mystery. After all, once you make a block or two, you're bound to have an idea of what the quilt will look like. So, instead of making blocks, the mystery is prolonged by getting you to put minor things together like partial blocks and HST. It makes use of the production line concept.

FM Embroidering the Noon Sun

Making the second Sun for my hanging outdoor piece was much easier once I'd made the sunrise sun (see Related links below). The Sunrise Sun isn't quite finished but the FM embroidering is done. For the Noon Sun, instead of using a scarf, I used a long piece of yellow organza folded in half with a layer of yellow tulle in the middle.

Noon Sun free motion embroidered in 2 shades of yellow

I couldn't help it, I ended up embroidering past the 6" border. When I finished embroidering, I tried out an 8" hoop since it fit into it.

Trying the piece in an 8" hoop

I then placed it in the 6" hoop and loved the effect that the extra stitching has outside of the hoop.

I love how the stitching looks on the outside of the centre

I'm not thrilled with the inside of the hoop, but I'll add some hand-embroidery with 2 shades of yellow perle cotton to give it more texture and interest. I may also add some beads to make it twinkle outside. At this time, I'm thinking that cutting the sheer fabric outside of the hoop to make it move in the wind, could be cool 😎

I'll be embroidering the centre with perle cotton and possibly adding beads

What I learned

I'm thrilled that the production line of the HSTs went well.
It's funny how some quilting blocks are easy and other not so much. I think that I have a lot of experience making those HST.
I've also been playing with the embroidery hoop of Sunrise. I'll share this with you when I get it right - it's been an interesting journey!
I'm looking forward to embroidering the Noon Sun. I'll be linking this post on Slow Sunday Stitching and hope to play with it today.
I can't wait to start those clouds and birds, which is the next level of the hanging piece. That's going to take some ingenuity.
Next week I want to start sewing together some of the panels for Hubby's panel quilt. Hopefully that will go well.

Monday, March 11, 2024

2-Colour Mystery Quilt

Hi and welcome 😊 I've been trying to stay away from challenges and quilt-alongs because they are my number 1 creators of UFOs. Also, I'm accuracy challenged, so traditional quilts are not my favourites....but this is a mystery quilt with only 2 colours and it's designed by Joanne at Canuck Quilting Designs. I was a tester for one of her quilts (before I dived into art quilts). I love her designs and her instructions are exactly how I like reading my patterns. So....I just had to participate.

2 Colours Mystery Quilt

I thought that I had the dark fabric for the mystery quilt but I couldn't find anything I liked in my stash for the lighter colour. I figured that if I had to buy fabric, that I might as well get both fabrics. I got lucky and found some fabric on sale at my local quilt shop. The dark green was the end of the bolt and the lighter fabric was in the reduced basement.

Fabric for week 2

Week 1 - cutting fabric

Here is my fabric cut for week 2. I really don't like cutting fabric and I'd rather do it in chunks than to cut it all at once. Besides, some days I'm more accurate than others - so it's good to spread out the task.

Choosing, washing and cutting fabric

Fabric all cut for week 2 plus an extra block for later

Before cutting anything, I figure out on paper, what I need to cut as a first step. As you can see, I arrange my fabric using large paper clips. The clips have numbers because I created them when I learned to do foundation paper piecing.

The written strips with the sizes of each block are selvage edges from the fabric that I've just cut. I find this a great way to keep myself organised.

Accuracy Challenged

I was very careful when I cut my strips but I still managed to mess up my 5" strips. Since I have more than enough green fabric, I cut as much as possible from the non-wonky part, and then sub-cut it to 3" width and then 5" long.

I was working on a green cutting mat and had difficulty seeing the green fabric underneath my ruler, so I flipped it over and cut it that way. It worked!

Cutting fabric from the back - it's easier to see!

Now I try to quilt a couple of blocks to make sure that I have everything correct, before I do chain piecing. That's because if there's more than one way to stitch the pieces together, you can guarantee that I'll find it!

The wrong way of sewing the blocks together!
The block on the right is the correct way.

I even placed a block in front of me to make sure that I got it right....and I managed to get it wrong once more before it came out ok!

A block on the wall to ensure
that I get it right...

After getting it wrong a second time, I called it quits. Today I was hoping that it would go better....well, I did get quicker at pulling the stitches out! I now have 6 blocks done of each colour combination. Six more and the first week will be done!

Blocks for week 2 done! 😊

What I learned

Is knowing that I'm accuracy challenged a good thing or is it a self-fulfilling prophecy?
I just figured out that I was using the wrong cutting chart - so I have more fabric to cut!
I really do try to be careful, but it's when I think that I finally have it under control that I stop checking 3 times before doing anything, and then get it wrong.
Don't let me deter you from making this quilt. I'm sure that you would be fine 😁
Now you know why I prefer improv blocks and art quilts - but I don't want this to stop me from making quilts with regular blocks. It's nice to have a variety of projects on the go, and I do consider myself a quilter....just not a great piecer 😊