A Square Conundrum!

My original online quilting group was a newsgroup (remember those?).  It was a text only group and you could only access this group using a UseNet server.  It wasn't a large group, only less than 300 members, but we were a close group.  We swapped blocks and mug rugs, sent "squishies" (envelopes with fabric in them) and made Hug quilts for members who lost a loved one, was fighting a terrible disease or were going through a hard time.  This group is still active although it is now migrated to Facebook.  Some use both, some use one or the other. 

One of the fun activities of this group that I have participated in for a number of years now is the Baseball Swap.  Each person who choses to participate selects a baseball team from the National League and/or the American League.  The premise is very simple:  if my team wins, I get a 6.5" square of fabric from the person backing the losing team.  If my team loses, I have to give the same to the backer of the winning team.  Over the years I have backed the Phillies, the Tigers, and currently am backing the Nationals and the Orioles.  There are 15 teams in each League and some teams sometimes get more than one backer.  Now, you don't need to know anything about baseball to enjoy this swap.  I didn't, but I sure learned a lot over the years.  I can follow stats and standings and I have 2 apps on my smartphone to keep track of my teams and how they are doing.  Plus, I enjoy working on my spreadsheets to keep track of my square tally. 

All this starts in April and goes until the mid-season when the All Star game is held.  The counts are then tallied by the group statistician and the backers are told how many squares they owe and how many they will get.  The squares are packaged in baggies by recipient.  The squares are sent to one person who then sorts the baggies and gets the appropriate baggies to the backers. 

The second half starts after the All Star game and continues until the World Series starts.  The tally process is repeated. 

Some folks wait for their tally report before cutting their squares, other keep track of their wins and losses either manually or by using a spreadsheet.  With 162 games played by each team, the number of squares you can win - or lose - is substantial, not to mention the cutting that needs to happen!  The squares need to be of good quality cotton fabric and cut accurately to 6.5 inches.

That being said, you will remember that I said early on in this post that I have been doing this for a number of years.  Over those years I received a good number of squares and I had to cut a good number of squares each season.  I have set up a spreadsheet (you had to know I did!) so I have a pretty good idea where I stand and can get started cutting ahead of the reports coming in.  I use the reports to verify my number so I don't shortchange anyone.  So I send off my package and await the arrival of mine which usually comes within two weeks or so.  When the package arrives, I look through all my squares and add them to the ones from the previous year.  I have done this each year and try to think of what to do with my squares.  Year after year this goes on. 

So, I finally decided what to do with my squares - why, make quilts of course!  I now have 3 twin beds that could use a quilt.  I also have a queen and a king but I didn't think I would have enough squares for those.  I started to look for a quilt pattern that would use the squares without cutting them any further. 

I wasn't able to find a pattern that "spoke" to me but then I remembered I had a very simple quilt design software program.  I used this to design a simple quilt using the squares on point.  It would use 77 squares in a 7 x 11 layout.  It would look something like this:

I printed it out and kept it with the squares.  Another year goes by, then another.  More squares get added. 

After I received my squares from the 2015 season, I discovered that my storage bin for these squares was full.  It would not take one more square!  It was time to start sewing the squares!  All 837 of them!!!  Enough to make the 3 twin quilts and both a queen and a king quilt as well!  To put it mildly, I had run out of runway!

First step was to sort the squares into colors or patterns.  Here's how they were distributed:

This weekend, I set aside the time to sort all the baggies into color or pattern.  I separated all the novelty fabrics from the colors then sorted the colors into their own pile.  Here is what that looks like:

The novelty squares will be used in other projects such as Project Linus quilts, I Spy quilts, etc.  The remaining 651 squares will be used in the bed quilts, starting with the 3 twin quilts.  Two of them will be used at our cabin in the mountains.  The third will be used in our guest room in our NJ home.  I haven't quite decided how to select the squares.  I have enough squares to make them in tones of a single color - blue, green, purple, pink.  I also thought I could make a "Boston Commons" layout of several colors.  That is my next challenge.  I am not a "brown bag" kind of quilter where all the squares are placed in a brown bag which is then shaken.  Then whatever square is pulled out first is sewn to the second square pulled.  The other extreme is to go into "analysis paralysis" in the arrangement.  Hopefully, I will find a happy medium, hopefully!

 Next step - find an acceptable layout!   

APQ 2016 March UFO

My March UFO turned out to be an attic windows quilt that I started way back when.  I believe this panel was purchased at the Rag Shop in Hamilton, NJ so that may give some folks an idea of how long this one has been in hibernation.  I enjoyed doing the attic window and I loved the fabrics I was using so I have no idea why I didn't get this one done then.  Once my UFO projects go into a bin, also known as the "abyss", I lose track of them.  I am glad this one surfaced.  This is how it looked when I found it again.  (The white blob at the bottom of the picture is my socked foot).  It really only needed to be sandwiched with the backing, then quilted and bound.  It's a small wall hanging measuring 29" x 36".  Easy, right?  Think again. 

 



I already had the fabrics for the backing and binding, along with the batting.  So I didn't need to go scavenging for those items.  I learned that lesson the hard way and have packaged my pieces and parts together ever since. 

My biggest challenge with this one was the quilting.  Not the process since I have now gotten the hang of machine quilting with my Bernina and walking foot.  This time, the issue was "how" to do the quilting.  I knew I wanted to keep it simple, straight lines focusing on the windows.  I didn't want to have a lot of stops and starts.  Another lesson I learned recently.  I needed to find a way to go around each window along with it's frame and sill with one section of quilting.  Although I love to do puzzles,  this one tried my patience.  I traced and traced the lines with my finger and finally found a way to do the quilting with only two starts and stops.  One would have been nice but I'll take it! 

I used a topstitch needle with black Aurifil 50wt thread.  I recently switched to the Aurifil threads and I think it was a great move.  I love this thread!  I stitched in the ditch around each of the 12 windows and then around the outside of the narrow sashing.  I then did an echo stitch in the center of the border and mimicked the mitered corners. 

My lesson learned from this project was in the choice of batting.  Since this was a small project I looked through my batting stash.  I found a piece that was a perfect size and, a bonus (so I thought), it was double sided fusible batting.   It didn't iron down as smoothly as I wanted, creating bunching on the back.  I needed to lift the batting in spots and smooth it all out.  I was not impressed with this batting and it is not anything I would use again.  I will stick with spray basting when at all possible in the future! 

So here is the finished project.  I even remembered to sew on the hanging sleeve! 

 

So, 3 UFOs done, 9 more to go!

It's always a food event!

My intention was to make a quilt for my wonderful husband to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in November 2015.  We had taken our first cruise to Bermuda in June of that year to celebrate our anniversary and I took hundreds of pictures of that trip.  So I changed my mind and made him a picture book with many of the pictures and lots of descriptions of the event.  Now that I had all of the fabrics, I decided to make the quilt for him for Christmas.  We have a rule that we don't buy each other gifts for Christmas, but I figured making him a quilt didn't count as a purchased gift. 

There is a back story to this quilt.  My husband loves to eat, especially when we go somewhere.  Where ever we go, we always need to find a place to eat.  Doesn't matter if it's breakfast, lunch or dinner!  We have a standing joke that every place we go is a "food event", or needs to be! 

So, I started collecting food fabrics.  You name the food, I found fabric for it.  Liver is the only food he will not NEVER eat!  It took a while, but I was able to get 82 different foods.  My biggest issue was finding fat quarters.  I certainly didn't need very large pieces of each fabric, even a fat quarter gave me more than I needed for the blocks.  I did find some at quilt shows and I found a good number online, especially at the www.4my3boyz.com site.  They had all the foods I needed by the FQ.  Many were on sale, but their prices were great.  My husband is used to seeing boxes and bags of fabrics on our doorstep so I had them delivered right under his nose.  He often brought the packages to me not knowing he would eventually be sleeping under them! 

So the fabrics were chosen, now what pattern should I use? 

I thought about the illusion block that would make them look like the blocks were floating.  I made a few blocks but then discovered that quilt would turn out to be bigger than I had planned.  I wanted a large lap that would cover him in his recliner at the cabin but it also needed to cover our Kirby dog who always sleep at this feet.  I went with the "KISS" method and sewed the blocks together with the columns offset.  That let the blocks show off by themselves and eliminated the need to match seams. 

Next I had to decide about borders, backing and binding.  I needed to keep the backing on the masculine side and wanted to pick that before I decided on the border.  Not as easy as I thought.  Then I went to the quilt show in Oaks, PA and found the perfect fabric - I bought all they had.  So now with the backing, I found a good color for the borders.  Black was the obvious choice for the binding. 

I was able to get the top done complete with borders, the backing cut and sewn to size and the binding made but did not have enough time to get it to the long armer in time for Christmas.  I packed them all together and gave it to him nicely packaged!  It went to the quilter at Olde City Quilts as soon as the holiday was over.  Six weeks later, he was sleeping under it! 

Finished top laying on the backing fabric

 

Backing fabric with border fabric.  The backing fabric is all different soda caps!

Almost done!

 

He was shocked, but he loved it! 

 

 

I decided to have the quilting done in circles to match the shape of the bottle caps on the backing fabric.  It turned out great! 

 

 

So now, where ever we are, it will ALWAYS be a food event! 

 

 

 

APQ 2016 February UFO - Update!

As predicted, I needed all 29 days in February to meet my deadline.  Of course, a trip to Florida was thrown into the mix with very short notice. 

But, I finished my UFO! 

 

This was a class project that I took at the Quilter's Barn around 2003, if memory serves me correctly. It is the Lasagna pattern from the Spring Cleaning book by Atkinson Designs.  Lots of good scrap busting projects in this book!  When this project was chosen as the UFO for February,  I did not realize that the top was mostly complete except for the three borders, but they were already cut.  I needed to cut the backing to size though.  Now most folks, including me, thought this would be an easy, peasy project to finish!  Well, not so much! 

 

Here's what I learned from this quilt:

 

I need to remember for the next time that I need a larger surface if I want to spray baste a larger quilt.  This one ended up being 60" x 70" and my work table is only 48" x 60".  A bit to small for what I needed to do.  I started out on the table but eventually moved to the floor.  I still prefer to spray baste, but not on my knees, and not on my cement garage floor!  I must shop for a larger table! 

 

As a rule, I don't do bias bindings.  I think I have only been successful at making a few one so far.  Since this was a Christmas project and there really wasn't much I needed to do to complete it, I thought I would throw in a level of difficulty and make a bias binding from red and white striped fabric to give it a candy cane look.  Before I cut any fabric, I watched some many, many You Tube videos and looked through my reference sheets.  I finally bit the bullet and made the first cut!  I was surprised at how well it turned out on the first attempt.  My confidence got a big boost so I may try this again soon! 

 

 

Finally, in my attempt to do more machine quilting on my smaller projects, I thought long and hard on how to quilt this project.  I resisted doing stitch in the ditch since I wanted the quilting to break up all the linearity of the quilt.  I had recently taken a machine quilting class and learned, among other things, how to do cross hatch quilting.  I thought this would enhance the horizontal and vertical seams.  I used my walking foot on my newish Bernina along with the stitching guides to make my quilting lines 2 inches apart.  I cross hatched the quilt from edge to edge.  I was pleased at the result so now I have another quilting technique in my tool box!  I attached the binding by machine as well, using a decorative stitch.  I need to practice on this technique for future projects.  I love the hand stitched binding technique but I was running out of runway for this project.  It will do for a quilt I will have out for two weeks a year. 

 

The UFO for March will be my lighthouse wall hanging.  The top is done.  The backing is already cut.  I need to make the binding.  Then the top can be sandwiched and quilted.  That's as far as I have gotten on this one.  I would like to say it should not be a difficult finish, but I don't want to jinx myself! 

 

2 UFOs done, 10 to go! 

 

Stay tuned!