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Monday, February 02, 2015

Design Wall Monday



UFO busting at it's finest is what is happening on my design wall this week. I pulled out a bin full of SWAN (Swap Without A Name) blocks that were made by a group of internet friends in 2005. For this swap, when it was our turn-2 quilters per month-we sent each of the 23 participants a 12" square of our focus fabric along with any wishes we had for the quilt block. I used some of my stash fabric-the purples, green and peach, I asked for white or WOW background. These needed to be 12 1/2" unfinished, do your best work.  I did have to remake 1 of the blocks but no big deal. I have 4 that just didn't fit so they will be used in the orphan block quilt.


This purple star is my favorite...made by my friend Sonya. I remember her asking if I had any extra purple fabric because she wanted to make me a special block. I did and Oh Boy did she make me a special block. It's called Connecticut from Carol Doak's 50 Paper Pieced Stars book.


Step 1 - Make 20 9 patch blocks for the back using 5" charms. At one of our retreats, I won a huge stack of charms, such a fabulous variety of fabrics-even a Millennium square. I set the stack of charms at the machine, reached over, picked up 2 off the pile and sewed them together, picked up the next pair and the next and next, you get the idea. Then I added the 3rd charm. Pressed those all in one direction, grabbed a few, flipped them around so the seams would butt up to each other. Then did it again until I had 20 blocks.  There are only a few charms left to go into the charm bin. That UFO bag is busted!

Step 2- Make the batting squares.. Since Quilt As You Go is being used on these blocks. (Lots of tutorials on YouTube.) I am able to use up a big bag of batting scraps. All the batting is Hobbs 80/20 from other quilts. Batting scraps bag busted!

Step 3 - Quilt each square-Done!! How much fun I had doing this all week. I pulled out matching thread, filled bobbin with white thread, put on my walking foot and had a blast.  No new thread was purchased but no spools were emptied either. No problem since I didn't want to run out of thread.

Step 4 - Add borders to blocks. I messed up this step. I should have added borders to each block before quilting, 10 with one fabric, 10 with another fabric. I need to do this because the blocks now range in size from 11 3/4" to 12 1/2 ". So I now have to do this by adding backing strips, batting and sashing strips, quilt and cut to 15" since that's the size of my biggest ruler, that's the size I will use. The 9 patch seams will not line up, that doesn't bother me since they will have sashing on them also. I have the fabric to use on the back but I'll buy something coordinating for the front. My stash isn't that deep. I learned a very valuable lesson here.

Step 5 - Make borders.

Step 6 - Join everything together.

Step - Bind, wash, dry, cuddle.

Looks like I have a good plan for the week.  See what everyone is working on today at Patchwork Times.

2 comments:

Mary said...

Good Plan. I heard about the SWAN Swaps, missed out on them with WASIQ. I joined in 2005. LOVE the Purple block from Sonja. Good friends to remember with this quilt as you play with it.

Ramona said...

Great goals!! Your blocks are lovely. It will be fun to see your beautiful quilt in the end.