New Project - more layout possibilities

Played around with this a little more and have come up with a couple more possible layouts.  I also tweaked the first layout possibility.    Top two would make baby quilt size after a border was added, the third one would be approx. 40" by 60" before borders and could be used as a lap quilt or a toddler quilt.

I know I've got enough of the pink fabric for the top two, and there shouldn't be a problem getting the last one either.

Now to decide which one I like best......

Gratitudes:

1.  That my jaw/implant isn't hurting much even tho there are issues with the implant.

2. It's almost the weekend.....lol.

Naming Blocks and Quilts

I don't know about you, but I always struggle to figure out what to name the blocks that I design and the quilts that I make.  I've been strongly reminded of that as I've been designing the Teddy Bear blocks for for the BOM, and the extra ones that I'll be posting for sale.   Another series of blocks I've struggled to name are the ones that I've submitted to QuiltMaker for their "100 Blocks from Top Designers" magazine.  Most of my quilts I end up not naming because of how I struggle with coming up with names for them.

Some of the Teddy Bear blocks I've done have been easy to name, others not so much.  Lately though I've found some inspiration in sources that are close to home......namely my family.

This lovely bride bear is named in honor of my paternal Grandmother whose first name was Lucy.  Her groom is named in honor of my paternal Grandfather, whose first name was Benjamin. (And yes, these two blocks actually use the same fabric for the background fabric....the camera did something funky with the color to the groom pic.)

Both of these two are in the bonus block series that I'll be posting for sale.

The third bear shown here is one that I had drawn up and made a couple of months ago (will be the bear for October) and had a hard time deciding on a name for, is now named in honor of my only brother and sibling, Brian whose birthday was in October.


The next two teddy bear patterns that I have designed and am ready to make the samples for will be named in honor of my maternal grandparents.

Now if only I could decide what to do with all of my block samples I'd be doing good.

How do you name any blocks you design or quilts that you make?

Gratitudes:

1. Friends who put up with my designing

2. It hasn't gotten too hot here in N. TX yet.

Design Ponderings and Musings....

I'm still pondering how to set these blocks that I have for Sunshine Quilts.   There are four with the orange and six more that have the same blue fabric set with yellow.   They were from a challenge that I had made 18 or so months ago and were made by another Sunshine member.

















I'll admit, I'm a bit of a doodler.   And when I doodle, it's normally things like quilt blocks, or in this case quilt layouts.  Here you can see some of my doodles today as I continue to ponder how to set the 4 blocks together into a cohesive quilt.  At this point I'm leaning towards either the upper left or bottom layouts, with both of them would be set asymmetrically.  (Yes, QuiltCon is having an influence on me.)   I'm really intrigued by the one in the upper left of the pic with the "circle" in fabric that matches in color the orange in the block.  But the bottom layout would be easier to do, again I would probably use an orange as the first border.   Decisions, decisions, decisions.  Anyone else have any ideas?

One of the other things that I've been pondering and find so interesting is where all people are reading my blog from and now accessing the patterns I've uploaded to Craftsy.  Even after traveling to several countries outside of the US, I still find it interesting to see all of the countries.

Some of the countries (other than the US) where people who have downloaded patterns include - Italy, Ireland, Greece, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Canada, South Korea, Australia and Germany.   Blog visitors have come from France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Argentina, Italy and Canada.

Maybe one of these days I can visit more of the world and see these countries for myself and perhaps even meet quilters there in person.

Gratitudes:
1. My truck driver niece and her DH have been safe in the midst of the blizzard in the east.

2. For the opportunities to attend two quilt shows recently and the inspiration from them.

Doodles.....

What do I do when I'm bored or need a break from what I'm doing at work (and this week that is lots of research looking for specific information) -- that would be sketching (aka doodling) new block designs.   I usually use bits and pieces of paper to sketch on, but as you can see here I'll also use white boards in my office.

I hope to test this block out this weekend to see how it looks made up.   Just gotta draw up the PP'd pattern for it first then I can make it.

Gratitudes:

1. Car registration is in process, 2 steps done, only the final one to go.

2. Insurance is in process of being transferred to TX and doesn't look like it will be as expensive as I feared.  (Still double tho what I've been paying.)

Test new designs

Saw a block design on some blog that I can't remember now, but I sketched it out so that I could take and play around with it.  My intent was to not only make one for me, but to use if for some of my F2F blocks for the remaining months.

Well I've done that, but in doing so have realized that I can not PP the entire block section because I don't have paper that big......lol.   So I'll be PP'ing the triangular section and then adding the strips to them.  

The fun part will be in "squaring" up the triangle sections to the block.

Gratitudes -
1. Unexpected checks in the mail.

2. Insurance here is active on 9/1....I'll be able to get in and see someone about the platelets and the itching and edema that is driving me crazy.

Found Fabric......Or When To Get Rid Of Scraps

I admit it......I'm a scrapaholic......I like using every little bit of fabrics that I like.    Now I can get rid of scraps when it is something I'm not fond of, but something that I really, really like - that is a total different story all together.

My fairy frost (FF) fab's fall into the really, really, really like category of my fabrics.   And while I've been collecting them for a long time, it's been hard to use them (batiks seem to be the other major set of fab's in this category....lol).   However, the FF's are what I'm using for the contest blocks because they are made by the fabric company sponsoring the contest and what I had in the stash.

Yes, I've saved the tiny scraps I've been trimming off as I've been piecing.   Some of them down to 1 inch at the widest point by 4 or 6 inches long.  I know most people would toss these, and I do on most fabrics.   But these are FF's.....I know I can do something with the scraps....LOL.

In thinking about the May block for the Modern Quilts block design contest I decided I wanted to use these itty-bitty scraps in some way.  So I've started improv-piecing 3 1/2 inch squares using the scraps from previous blocks.  In total, I'll need 6 of these pieced blocks for what I've got pictured in my mind for this block.

And yes, I am actually tossing stuff after piecing the little blocks.....just not letting a lot go to waste.  =)














And here is how they are starting to layout for the background of the blocks.   Still more piecing to come (3 more pieced blocks to make),

This May block is to be based on the traditional Drunkards Path block and the quarter circles of the background fabric (the tan FF) to.  

So how small of scraps do you save and use?

Gratitudes:

1. Grading is almost done at school and before the end of the semester!

2. Only one final Exam left to think about and write.....maybe......lol.

Inspiration and certifiable......

The February traditional block chosen by Modern Quilts Unlimited for the contest this month was the rail fence.   A very simple, and often times uninspiring block choice for me.    As it happens though, I had been searching the internet for inspiration for a project that I can't even remember what it was now.  (Ever have one of those days?) The inspiration photo that I found was one of the airport tower for the Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe Africa.

I loved the overlapping rows of triangles and inset windows.  Took me a few days to figure out how to sketch it and then piece it.  But once that happened I was able to get my pattern drawn up.  Unlike some months blocks the color choice just flowed this month and fell into place.   That might be because I'd been trying to use these colors for several months now and they just hadn't felt right in any of the blocks.  I'm loving them though in this one.  =)

The block pattern has 48 individual pieces of fabric in each 6" section of the final 12" finished block.  That makes for a total of 192 pieces in the final block.   And yes, the background pieces are about the size of a quarter.   Easy sewing, but time consuming - I may be certifiable by the time I'm through...LOL....

Have made two strips and the only thing I'm debating about now is if the fabric at the bottom is too light for the right kind of color progression.   I'll be out of town this weekend and will be stopping by  a couple of new-to-me quilt stores, so I'll check to see if they have anything that might fit better before going on with the piecing.

Gratitudes:
1. For all the blessings of marked down food that God has provided lately.   Lots of good eats in it.

2. For the blessing of the part-time job that is interesting and takes me back to the days of my undergrad degrees in electronics and past work experience in QA as i get ready to submit my first timesheet.  =)

Back to designing and quilting......and how I design......

In once sense it is hard to believe that I've been out here in Wyoming for a month now and have already finished teaching 4 weeks in my new school out here.  On the other hand I can believe it because it has been almost 7 wks since I've been able to sew on anything here.   I'm thankful to have enough things unpacked and where they need to be here in the apt so that I can actually sew again.

To celebrate being able to sew again I thought I'd write a bit about my design process when working on a new project.    In this case it is the new block for the block design contest that I've been participating in the last 3 months.  

Modern Quilts announced that the traditional block for this month to be worked with was the Card Trick block.  I've worked with this block before, and knew that I wanted to have the basic shape from the traditional block but ramp up the woven effect of the block.    

However the first pass through with the block design just wasn't quite coming through with the look I wanted in order to honor the fact that there are normally 4 colors in the traditional block.








So to be better able to figure out the color issue, I then drew up the block on graph paper at full size.   I then played around with colors.   And then finally decided to use "Quilt Paper Dolls" so that I could see the colors in real life and full size in order to make  what I was seeing in my mind actually turn out in real life.   Can you tell that I'm definitely a visual learner?


Next step was to draw up the pp'd patterns for the block sections so that I could make a test block.   Final step was actually making the test block.   I used fabrics that I had left from another sample block used for a block I'd submitted to QuiltMaker Magazine.   I'm happy with the way that the block worked out.   Haven't a clue what I'll be using the blocks to make once I have enough blocks made out of them.   Will figure that out sometime in the future!