Meshing Triangles 2: finished

After Meshing Triangles got into the AQS quilt show in Grand Rapids, I posted the news, along with a picture, on Facebook.  It lead to an old friend reaching out and wondering if I could make a similar one for her prayer space.  This was a fun quilt to make, and I love making quilts for people, so I immediately said yes!

I love how this one came out too.  Trying to figure out how to blend the triangles while making use of what I have on hand and not going crazy is always a fun problem.  For the quilting, I did back and forth in the background and in the triangles I did a back and forths in both triangle colors.  

The photo shoot day was rather windy, but one picture almost turned out ok.  The Kona colors I used include: artichoke, bluegrass, camilla, carrot, Chinese red, corn, cosmos, hibiscus, hunter green, mint, Paris blue, sienna, teal blue, and water.  Eggshell was used for the background.

Lastly, I put a hanging sleeve on the back.  I had used some striped fabric that I had laying around since I knew it was not going to be seen.  What I didn't anticipate is that if I also made a sleeve from said fabric it would be much easier to align than normal!  If I'm expecting to make more hanging sleeves in the future I'm definitely going to do this again because everything stayed lined up.

Finished: Scrap Arrows

 It took several years, but I finally finished the scrap arrows quilt!

It's based off an piece of art in the guest bathroom at my brother's house.  I couldn't make it quite the same because otherwise it would have been too big, but they're obviously related.

I got the blocks from the Scrap Bee in during 2017.

So while I was taking the initial photo shoot for this quilt I noticed an obvious stain on the white.  It didn't wash out.  So I ended up unpicking the quilting, unpicking the piecing from that area, and replacing the piece of fabric.  It's a slightly whiter white, but at the same time if you're not looking for it you can't really tell.  I was annoyed that I needed to do it, but was happy with how the fix turned out.  (It isn't shown below.)

To quilt it I did an all-over swirl in white.  The chevrons were so busy that I didn't need anything special.

Since the front was so scrappy, I decided to use scrap minky for the back too.

Finished: library quilt

 The library quilt is finished!  

I know what you're saying; that doesn't look like it has anything to do with a library!  It's true.  One of the librarians at our local library just had a baby, and I gave it to her.  I was almost on track to finish by the time she was born, but then she came a little early and so I let myself have a little extra time to finish.

The pattern is derived from photos at TheQuiltYarn, although the colors are quite a bit different!  I had gotten the center flowers and the teal at a local quilt shop and I really do love them.  As always, it is backed with minky.  I bound it with a ribbon this time and I did not like the ribbon quality.  I've done it a few other times with ribbons and it's been fine, but this time it was not as good.

For the quilting: I matched the thread color to the fabric color.  It helps hide imperfections, and there are a lot in this quilt!  The green stripes have a back and forth, the blue stripes have an echo, and the squares have arcs in them.  I really thought I had found the arc motif in a book, but I can't find it right now. 

Doll quilt

 I recently finished a doll quilt for my mother-in-law.  It wasn't too fancy, but I had the perfect binding color to bring it all together.  It was also a perfect project to make sure my sewing machine was working well, as I had just gotten it tuned up.

The baby quilt that it goes with is this one:

Update July 2022

1. Begonia. This was finished a while ago and I finally got it on the quilter!  ...and then I realized one of the last rows was on backwards. (See the right column in the picture below.)  I had barely quilted that row, so I took the whole thing off and am unpicking things so that I can make it right.  If I had been farther along with the quilting I probably wouldn't have, but I think the wrongness would have been very obvious.

2. Librarian quilt.  I just need to post.  This quilt had two photo shoots because I had forgotten to quilt one of the orange squares.  It was easy enough to fix that though.

3. Meshing Triangles 2.  This is on the quilter and was just as much fun as the first!  This is one design that I could make several times.

4. Rebekah's quilt.  I'm making lots and lots and lots of HSTs.

Quilts with no progress since last time:

5. Scrap quilt. This is still sitting in the same bucket, waiting to be finished.  I've at least changed the picture.  This is my longest WIP, so it seems like I should get it back on the quilter.  We'll see what happens in the next six months though; I'm not holding my breath.

6. Fabric from Christmas.  I've finished burying some threads, but have a few more to do along with binding it.  I'm currently using it in it's unfinished state, which has surprisingly made me less motivated to finish it.

7. Trying to fit in - left over triangles. I put this on the quilter and got some done, but then had to take it off.  It might be off for a bit yet, but hopefully not too long.  It's small, so easy to take on and off as needed.

8. Scrap bee blocks 2017: So I finally took pictures of this after telling myself I needed to do so forever, and I found a spot in the white fabrics.  I ended up replacing the fabric with the spot and just finished requilting it.  So I have some new threads to bury and it needs a final post...possibly with new pictures?

9. Winter quilt.  I thought I'd working on this during the winter and haven't touched it.

10. Temperature quilt.  I need to quilt this.  It's from 2017, so it's rather low on the priority list. 

11. Doll quilt.  I just had my quilter get a check-up and while it's running wonderfully, all of the tension was changed and off.  This might be a good choice to quickly finish up to get the tension back to normal.  (It's almost there, just a little bit off still.)

Quilts I haven't started but don't want to forget
12. Stash Bee 2022b.  I had enough blocks to make a second baby quilt.
13. Jenny - baby quilt
14. Wendy
15. Fractured 2
16. Nephew
17. Christen

Green Quarter Log cabin - finished

I've been attending a Mom's group at church and this baby snuck up on me quickly.  I knew for most of the year that she was pregnant and yet suddenly the baby was here!

Anyway, I was Queen Bee in January for Stash Bee, so I decided to use those blocks for the quilt.  I started laying them out and realized quickly that it was way to big for a baby quilt.  So I've only used a bit over half of them, which means I can use the other half for another baby quilt!

For the bee block I asked for a log cabin block and then I cut them in quarters.  In hind-sight, this was probably not the best choice for a bee block.  Bee blocks come in with all sorts of tolerances, and then when I cut them the things seemed to get worse.  (I would like to note that I am not always the best at getting the block size perfect either, especially if I'm doing the whole quilt.  I try really hard and am getting better, but I'm often surprised at how some of my seams end up so small.)  I used Kona Hunter Green for the setting triangles.

I used a leaf motif for quilting.  I thought it fit the green theme well.  I didn't quilt on the white squares, because I didn't want the green thread showing up.

As always, the back is minky.  I used a satin ribbon for binding.

Quilting without Batting 2

 I was asked to quilt another quilt without batting!  It was a beautiful quilt, but since I had had some problems with the last one we stuck with the large loops for the quilting motif.

This time it worked so much better!  There were still some thread breaks, but not an insane number.  I started out with all new thread and tensioned the top layer instead of floating it like I normally do.  I'm not sure if one of those things made the difference or if there was something else that just worked better this time.

Quilting without batting

This month someone asked me to quilt a quilt for them.  Of course!  

She lives in a hot state, and so we decided to try quilting it without batting.  I'm always up for experiments.  I've quilted a few things without batting when I'm just working on test patterns, but that's been mainly to get the motion down and not caring too much about how it turns out.

Overall, I'd say it was a successful experiment.  There were a few hiccups along the way, and I just wanted to document them for future reference.

1.  It was hard to get the tension correct.  It wasn't bad, as I couldn't just pull the thread out of the quilt like I can when it isn't working, but I did have some eyelashes when making the loops.  I think the lack of batting was the issue here, as I haven't been having that problem otherwise.

2. The thread broke a surprising number of times.  Sometimes I was about to throw my machine across the room because they were happening so often and sometimes I could almost get a row completed before it broke.  I did get some new thread and changed the needle.  I know my machine often has some nests in the bottom of the quilt that I need to fix at the end and I wonder if the thread just broke instead of creating a nest.  (Although it still seemed to happen more often than normal.)  Jury's still out on whether this was a thread issue, machine issue, or no batting issue.  Luckily, it has a pretty easy fix...it just takes a bit longer at the end to bury all the extra thread ends.  

I sadly forgot to get a picture of the quilt before I packed it up, but I did get some pictures of the back with the quilting.  The loops are nice and big and I enjoyed doing them so large!  I usually end up with small loops because that's just what my arms do, but I'll have to remember that I can do large loops too.

Bright & Black

I had two goals: make a baby boy quilt and only use fabric that I already had.  While I can't always find what I want in my fabric stash, it is also starting to become a little too much for me.

I really, really like how this quilt turned out.  I love the assortment of colors, while still following a color theme.  I love how the (Kona) black background helps them pop.  I think I need to seriously consider using black more often.  My black cat was a pain during the photo shoot, so I finally included him in some pictures.  I think he realized that he was the same color.

For quilting, I did a meandering star.  I was running a bit late with the quilt, so wanted something I could do quickly.  I only quilted the black areas.

Ah, there was one more thing to say.  The pattern is based off of Melissa Corry's Back to Basics at Happy Quilting.

Harry Potter nine patch

I love how this quilt turned out!  (I think that about a lot of the quilts.  But nevertheless, this one is no exception.)

The pattern is Urban Nine Patch on Point by Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful.  The colors correspond to the different house colors in Harry Potter.  (There are several different links with slightly different colors, but I used this one.)  I didn't want the quilt to scream Harry Potter though, so I put the colors in the blocks and mixed up the houses.

I used the following Kona colors:

background: steel
inner background: dove
Gryffindor: Chinese Red and Papaya
Slytherin: Shale and Holly
Ravenclaw: Pacific and Gold
Hufflepuff: Citrus and Black

I went a bit crazy on the quilting.  In the background it's a star stipple - pretty easy.  In the nine patch, the corner colors have a tiny stipple and the other color has some curved lines (using a ruler).  The thread color always matched the fabric color.

Where the blocks met I did some more curves with the ruler, still matching the color of the triangle the curve went through.  If I had to do it again, I'd change this part.  I think it was a lot of extra work for not a lot of coolness...although it does make an interesting pattern and I'm still happy with how it turned out.

Update Feb 2022

Here's what I've been working on lately!

1. Begonia. I've had a few baby quilts that have taken precedence, but it's currently the one I'm working on.

2. Stash Bee 2022.  I need some dark green for setting corners.  I'll pick that up tomorrow and then continue finishing this one, as the baby is due in March.

 3. Black and scrap.  First of all, this needs a better name.  But I finished it in record time for a baby, only to have it sit in my house for a while.  It just needs a final post; pictures were already taken.

4. Harry Potter-esque.  Finished and gifted!  I just need the final post.

5. Scrap quilt. This is still sitting in the same bucket, waiting to be finished.  I've at least changed the picture.  This is my longest WIP, so it seems like I should get it back on the quilter.  We'll see what happens in the next six months though; I'm not holding my breath.

6. Fabric from Christmas.  I've finished burying some threads, but have a few more to do along with binding it.  I'm currently using it in it's unfinished state, which has surprisingly made me less motivated to finish it.

7. Trying to fit in - left over triangles. I put this on the quilter and got some done, but then had to take it off.  It might be off for a bit yet, but hopefully not too long.  It's small, so easy to take on and off as needed.

8. Scrap bee blocks 2017: So I finally took pictures of this after telling myself I needed to do so forever, and I found a spot in the white fabrics.  I ended up replacing the fabric with the spot and just finished requilting it.  So I have some new threads to bury and it needs a final post...possibly with new pictures?

9. Winter quilt.  I thought I'd working on this during the winter and haven't touched it.

10. Temperature quilt.  I need to quilt this.  It's from 2017, so it's rather low on the priority list. 

11. Doll quilt.  I just had my quilter get a check-up and while it's running wonderfully, all of the tension was changed and off.  This might be a good choice to quickly finish up to get the tension back to normal.  (It's almost there, just a little bit off still.)

12. Librarian quilt.  One of my favorite librarians is having a baby, so they obviously need a quilt!

13. Stash Bee 2022b.  I had enough blocks to make a second baby quilt.

Fading away - finished

This quilt has been finished for quite some time, but for some reason I never got around to officially blogging about it.  Today is the day to remedy that!

I really like this quilt and how it fades into blackness.  While I was pregnant and feeling terrible (seven years ago) all I did was make large strips of scrap fabric.  Most of them were used for a different scrap quilt, but I had enough to make this one too.

I added invisible blocks for the blocks/strips that are missing in the quilting areas, and some wavy lines in the areas that are "supposed" to be black.

It was a fun trip down memory lane, using all the scraps.  While I'd like to keep it, I also only need so many quilts in the house.  I think this quilt will be donated to help with adoption fees instead.  The back, while not shown, is a black minky.  Nothing too special about it other than it's soft.