Western 9-Patch

This is the last of my A Quilted Gift finishes for this week.

This is a simple sashed 9-patch with a cowboy border. There was enough of these fabrics in the donation bins to make 3 of this quilt, with more left over. I put one together and made up kits for two more. The kits will make up quilts identical to this one, but with different backing fabrics. I don't think I'm going to quilt this one, I'm going to hand it in and let another Guild member do the quilting. I included the strips for binding to match the red bandanna-print sashing in each kit and made some for my finished top as well.

Cowboy Panel Quilt

Cowboy Panel Quilt, 2025

Continuing the finishes of the quilts I have been working on creating for my guild's charity quilt project -- A Quilted Gift. 

The bin of Western fabric included 4 of the same panel featuring cowboy images. There were 11 different pictures in a variety of sizes. 

I worked out the math, added an extra side unit to make the quilt more balanced and came up with this design. I plan to quilt this top before turning it in for distribution. I also made up kits with the remaining 3 panels including the needed fabrics (the background and accent fabrics vary) and directions to recreate this quilt. The kits will be available at the next AQG meeting.

Scrappy Eagle Quilt

Eagle Scrap Quilt, 2025

I have a bunch of finishes to share this week. I have been working on creating quilts from a big bin of Western-themed fabric for my guild's charity quilt project -- A Quilted Gift. 

The fabric with the eagles that I used for center panels in this Scrappy quilt was one big piece with a very large repeat so I had to cut the feature squares 9.5" which made a big quilt. I usually put 3 rounds of scraps around each image when I make this design, but this time I stopped at 2 rounds so the quilt wouldn't be outrageously large. 

 

Finish #1 of 7

 I set it as a goal to try and finish 7 in-progress quilts by the end of the year. I have completed the first one which is my house quilt. 

It was inspired by all the cute house blocks I was seeing on Instagram early in 2021 and is made entirely from my scrap baskets. (I am linking this up with O Scrap!) 

OMG February

Basted, some quilting begun

My #onemonthlygoal for this month is to finish machine quilting my Light/bright Stars Quilt. I have done swirls in all the light four-patches, with a pastel variegated thread, and began doing continuous curves in the pink/purple star blocks using a variegated purple. I have an orange variegated thread planned for the green/orange stars. After all the star blocks are quilted there will be another pass to fill in the white corner squares with white thread quilting. Then something in the border.  

This is an ambitious goal as it is a lot of quilting in a short month AND I just started piecing a string-block quilt which I am much more excited about than I am about finishing this very old UFO. 

Scrappy Baby Quilt

A Finished Top

I have been trying to work through my stash and have been playing around with scrap fabrics. This project is a baby quilt that began with a balloon print that I got in a kit from my Guild's donation quilts committee. It had a red print with it. I added orange, blue, and green scraps and ended up with a fun, bright quilt top. I pieced a backing from larger pieces of an orange, blue, and green that I used in the blocks and will use the original red fabric from the kit as the binding. When it is quilted it will go to the Guild committee to be donated.

Linking up with Oh Scrap!

Mary's January Wrap-up

Fabulous ocean fabric

My January 2019 Forward Progress project was the Summer Jelly Roll. My goal was to decide what to make with this fabulous fabric. I didn't entirely accomplish that goal, but I spent quite a bit of time thinking about it. I found various quilts on instagram that seemed like possibilities for a design: this one from the_quilt_police and this one from societyofseams both have elements that I thought might work in my quilt. I also liked the simplicity of this one from theflemings9. I was hunting for a pale ocean-y fabric that I could use as the background in my design, whatever it ends up being, when I came upon a gorgeous ombre fabric with an ocean print which I bought immediately. There was 1.5 yards of it available so that is what I have and will have to design around that. I want to use the background so that the color gradation is maintained in the quilt and use scrappy blocks from the jelly-roll, probably on-point. That is as far as I got, but I would call that progress. I am currently leaning toward the idea of 9-patches with pink centers set on point against the ocean background, but am still playing around with ideas and haven't begun working out the math yet. 

Mary's August Finish

This month's project, #10 on my 2018 Forward Progress list, was my Batik Jelly Roll Quilt which is now finished. I think it needs a better name.

Batik Jelly Roll Quilt, completed August 2018

Summer Literary Sewing Circle

Mermaid Purse, 2018

The Summer Literary Sewing Circle, hosted at Following the Thread, focused on the novel The New Moon's Arms which I wrote about over at bibliographic manifestations. For my project I was inspired by the mermaid element of the novel and decided to make a purse with a mermaid theme. I went to the fabric store and found a beautiful blue and teal mermaid fabric and a dark swirly grey. The grey is much more in the tone of the novel, there is a lot of swirling angst in the characters lives, than the mermaid fabric was. However, the mermaid fabric has a magical quality which was definitely part of this novel. I enhanced the magical-sparkly element by adding beads to all the stars on the mermaid fabric on the purse flap and using a fused-glass button that I bought many years ago at a craft festival and had not found a home for until now.

Detail of iridescent beads on stars

The body of the purse is quilted with variegated blue thread in a wave pattern and for the lining I used a pale blue fabric I had leftover from the background of the memorial quilt for my mom. The bag pattern is one I developed and have made many times (including a flowered version). It has 2 pockets inside and one on the back (from the grey fabric). 

I almost made the deadline (which was Friday) on this.

Mary's August Start

Quilting begun on Batik Jelly Roll Quilt

Project #10 on my 2018 Forward Progress list is my Batik Jelly Roll Quilt. When I made my list it was a finished top. Since then I found backing fabric, basted it, and started quilting it. At the start of August about 2 blocks worth of the quilting was done. My goal for the month is to complete the quilting and sew binding on the quilt. Hand sewing of the binding probably won't get done this month. 

Lisa's Post: A Comfort Quilt

Usually I'm guest posting here on Mary's blog for Making Forward Progress, but this post is about a different project. Last Sunday, Mary arrived home from vacation, and we let her know that my mother-in-law had been diagnosed with cancer and would be starting chemo the following Monday. Mary suggested that we work together to make a quilt for my mother-in-law as she knew that people are often cold when going through treatment - so a lap quilt not only would be a practical thing, but also would let 'mom' know we were thinking about her.

The challenge was that the quilt needed to be finished in six days when my husband  was leaving to Nova Scotia to be with her for a week.

We quickly decided on a pattern (friendship star), and pulled cream neutrals from Mary's stash for the background and a set of batiks from mine for the stars. We each sewed 10 blocks, and then came back together to add sashing, assemble the quilt top, piece together a backing, and pin baste the quilt. Mary quilted it, and I made the binding and machine sewed that to the front of the quilt. We both worked on hand-sewing the binding to the back. Great teamwork that resulted in a beautiful quilt, finished in time!

Pieced Backing

Mary's May Progress

I made progress this month on my New York Beauty Chunky Mini Wall Quilt. My goal for the month was to make a sample block using the technique. I did this. There were aspects of Linda Hahn's technique that I liked: starching the curved pieces made them easier to work with and the way she did the paper piecing was quick once I got used to it. I didn't like the way she has you sew the curves--very little pinning and you make one or two stitches then lift the presser foot and readjust the pieces to align the next stitch or two. I used this approach on the test block and that went OK, but when I went to make another block I had to unsew it twice which was irritating and the method is SUPER slow. I went back to pinning the curved pieces (which were crunchy with starch which made them line up easily). The test block showed me that the design I was planning on with the bird fabric wasn't going to work the way I had hoped. 
So, I found a bunch of fabrics in my stash (florals, sky-blues, and some greens) and came up with a new design. 

Center of NY Beauty Bird Quilt, May 2018

I made a center block from 4 NY Beauty blocks set in a circle and then put it on point using the bird print. I designed a border for it using the spires from the center block and have created all the paper piecing patterns for that and cut the fabrics to make it. My next step will be to paper-piece the border units.

I am linking this up with One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts.

Mary's April Progress

Light/Bright Stars - April 2018

I added border to my light/bright stars quilt which was my goal for this month's project. I decided a a piano key border with 4-patch corners suited the center design and had enough fabric left to do this. I used all the colors (but not greay or white) from the blocks in the border.
The next step is to find backing fabric for this quilt and decide on thread for quilting. I am going to do the continuous curves quilting design that I have used on these types of stars before. None of this is going to happen before the end of the month as I have other stuff going on, so I am wrapping up this month's project a few days ahead of the end of the month.

Mary's April Start

Project #6 on my 2018 Forward Progress list is the Light/Bright Stars quilt. It is exactly where it finished up last year -- the center section of the top is done and I need to decide what I want (if anything) for borders. 

Mary's February Progress

Rainbow strings pieced and basted for quilting

My February project was a rainbow string quilt I had sketched. It is now a finished top which I have begun quilting. I was pleased with how the design turned out. The original sketch integrated the black sashing into the piecing of each string block, but I decided after I made the first block that I didn't like how that would turn out so I just used the colors in the blocks and then a narrow sashing of a single black fabric between the blocks. The same fabric also became a border around the whole thing. Overall I am pleased with this design so far. I have begun the quilting which will be a loop-de-loop pattern following the diagonals of each block in a matching color.

A quilted block in Rainbow Strings

Mary's February Start

Design sketch for Rainbow String Quilt

Project #8 on my 2018 Forward Progress list is the Rainbow Strings Wall Quilt. At this point it is sketch and the foundation squares for the string piecing. The very next step to move this project forward is to pull out my big bag of fabric strips and start string piecing the blocks.

Mary's December Start

Blocks at start of December 2017

The twelfth project on my Making Forward Progress list is my Batik Jelly Roll Quilt. When I made the list I had the strips collected and the pattern I had created for a Christmas Quilt. Since then I have made all the component blocks so that is where I started from at the beginning of December. Each block of the quilt is made of 4 smaller blocks which could be set in matching groups (the way the purple one is laid out in the picture) or mixed and matched. The very next step to move this project forward is to lay the whole thing out and decide how I want to arrange it. Once I figure that out the blocks go together super quick.

Mary's Progress - August and September

Light/Bright Stars quilt, center section, 2017

I completed the center section of the quilt that was my September Forward Progress project. That was my goal for the month so I'm pleased. I am quite happy with how it turned out. I think the border may be the dark fabric that was used for the star points with squares set on-point out of the various colors used in the quilt running around the edge. I haven't decided for sure yet though.
My August project, which I neglected to post about at the end of last month, went reasonably well. My goals were to  (1) to write a new draft of the flag wall quilt pattern ready for testing (2) to kit up the pieces I have cut into quilt-sized groups and (3) to make 1 quilt top. 
I wrote a revised version of the part of the pattern that needed changing which I think counts as a revised draft. I have 3 kits ready to go for flag quilts from the assorted pieces in my box and I have all the rows and blocks done for a top (not one of the 3) ready to sew together. Definitely forward progress.

Mary's September Start

The pieces of the Light/Bright Stars Quilt on 9/9/2017

The number for September is 1 which makes my forward progress project for the month my Light/Bright Stars quilt. This is a lap-size quilt that was inspired by a wall hanging-sized quilt I made several years ago. This one is an alternating pattern of the same star in light colored fabrics and bright versions of (mostly) the same colors. The backgrounds are charcoal and white so the colors should pop nicely. 

I have all the units for the main part of the quilt made and now I need to assemble the rows. I will also have to figure out if the design needs a border and if so what it is going to be. The very next step to move this project forward is to lay out the rows/units in the proper order to sew them together. My goal for the month is to complete the main part of the quilt top. If I figure out the border that will be a bonus.

WIP: Coin/Card Purses

I started playing around a few months ago with a design for a little zippered pouch to hold some money and a card or two. My friend Lisa tested out the first version and determined that it worked well, but was a little bigger than it needed to be.  This past week I resized my design and made a second version which measures approximately 3" x 5". The bird fabric is a pocket, the other side has another bird-fabric pocket and there is a zipper across the top. I'm pleased with this design. I have a friend with a fondness for birds who will probably get this test-model.  

Once I had the pattern and the assembly process worked out it was time to pick out fabrics and cut pieces for a batch of these to go into my Etsy Shop. 

Pouch, pocket, lining fabrics, and zippers for 6 more coin/card pouches like the yellow bird one.

I hope to get these made up, and may make another batch for Christmas presents, this week.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday is a link-up hosted at Freshly Pieced.