I’m glad I have more than one quilt in progress so there is always something to work on. I made 2 more of the paper pieced sections and then decided on this layout. I have a few more seams to sew and it will be a finished top. I wanted it to finish at the same size as the other flannel quilt so I ended up with just 2 rows across the top instead of the 3 that I thought I would do. I think I have enough of the same backing fabric to use on this one too.
The Hunter Star quilt top is finally sewn together. I put the last 4 blocks up on the wall and then spent a half hour moving blocks around until they were pleasing to my eye. It ended up 47″ x 71″.
When 4 blocks come together it makes multicolor stars.
This also shows the true colors in the quilt better than the whole quilt photo.
Our twice monthly sewing group met yesterday and I paper pieced flannel arcs to use in the next flannel quilt.
I had only printed 6 arcs so I need to decide how I am going to place them so I know how many more I need. I was thinking of maybe a half circle on both sides and a full one in the center. Then it will be filled in with more squares around these blocks and maybe 3 more rows of squares at the top. Right now it is 56″ wide and I want the length to be at least 72″.
I’m going to do a zig zag with this strata. I know it would be pretty as a Trip Around the World too, but I already have a Kaffe TAW. This is just one strata so far. I sewed another one last night but didn’t press it yet.
It was the twice monthly sew-in yesterday so I finished sewing the cross seams in the last 2 sections of this flannel quilt top and got it all sewn together. It ended up 56″ x 74″.
Here is a closeup of some of the variety of flannel pieces. I had a little stack of squares left over so I will cut more from the rest of my flannel scraps and make another one.
This is the quilt I have been working on at the twice monthly sewing group. Because of limited table space I am doing the construction in three pieces. The top piece is all sewn together. The second piece is connected by thread in the vertical seams.
The third section also has vertical seams sewn and I have pressed all of the seams in both sections 2 and 3. I will probably save the cross seams for our next sewing day. This is all 4.5″ squares cut from the scraps of several of the flannel quilts that I made last year. It should end up about 56″ x 76″.
We had our second monthly sewing day yesterday since the 4th Thursday falls on Christmas. My new project is a flannel quilt with 4.5″ squares that I cut when I made the 4 flannel quilts at the beginning of this year. I cut a few more squares on Wednesday so I could make it a little larger. I will save this to work on in January at our next sewing day.
I finally made the decision that the Christmas stocking for my great grandson would be denim and machine embroidered. This design took over 2 hours to sew out. It had 22 thread changes so I was “on call” for a long time. I made 2 batches of Chex mix while it sewed.
Bear Trap, or should it be Bear Traps?, is finished. It ended up about 60″ x 75″. There are a couple wobbles in the quilting because of the stretchiness of the melon shapes and the bulk at the corners but I’m not taking it out. This will be wrapped around a body, not entered in a show. If you have ever tried to pick stitching with a fine thread out of flannel you know why.
By the way my goal was to finish 8 in March because I only finished one in January and one in February. I had hoped to finish 4 a month when this year started. I have 2 basted so I may hit the goal. Or I could put another small one on the longarm and finish it the same day…..just thinking out loud here.
Number 3 flannel quilt quilted this month, number 4 flannel quilted this year. My goal was to use up some flannel and to have a few quilts on hand to use as gifts or to sell. I used 33 yards of flannel in the 4 quilts, all from my stash. This one ended up 59″ x 75″ so it didn’t shrink much with quilting since I used a large meander on it. Tight quilting will make more shrinkage. I have one more to quilt that I pieced last year.
I got busy yesterday morning and quilted the Windy City flannel quilt with a large loose meander. It is so nice and soft after quilting. You can see the backing fabric is also in the piecing of the top. I cut binding from the edges that I trimmed off.
Yesterday was our first church sewing circle of the year. We either had snow or subzero temps on the previous 4 dates we would have met. It was in the 50s as predicted. I stopped 3 places on the way home and was so wiped out all I did was read and knit in the evening.
When I was hanging this on my design wall for the photo I saw the spools standing up and laying down. I don’t see that as much when I look at it from a distance. I wasn’t sure I was going to like the light binding but I do. It was the only fabric I had enough of from the front of the quilt and I couldn’t find anything else in my stash that I liked better. This ended up 57″ x 76″.
The back is one long panel of the navy blue floral and then a side panel of four pieces of the two paisleys that are in the quilt top.
I made one more Vintage Spin block yesterday and trimmed it and the 5 from the night before. I thought I didn’t have enough light blocks before and now I think I have too many. Maybe I will go ahead and make 20 blocks like the one in the book. Then I can get the lights and darks balanced.
I quilted this Stack and Slash quilt yesterday morning. I had loaded it several days before. Last night I put the binding on all by machine.
The back is two pieces running the long way. The stripe is a coordinate of a couple fabrics that are on the front of the quilt.
Fourteen of the twenty fabrics in the quilt are in this photo.
In the afternoon I loaded this quilt and quilted it. Having several backings pieced and pressed makes it a lot easier to get to the next one right away. I’ll cut the binding for this one today.
I pieced the next Vintage Spin block and haven’t trimmed it into a square yet. The pieces trimmed off would really bother some people but for me they are seeds for another project.
We had 3″ of white sparkles (snow) by 11p.m. last night and it was still snowing when I went to bed.
Exuberant Color 