New Orleans House Project

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Carpenter's Wheel - Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2018

I thought I would join the fun and share a quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.
I started this quilt in 2014, making one block each month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   I had wanted to make a Carpenter's Wheel quilt (also known as Carpenter's Star) since my earliest days as a quilter, and I figured one block per month was a good way to accomplish the dream.  I drafted my own pattern using half-square triangles so I could avoid the dreaded Y seam in my blocks.

After completing eight blocks, I needed one more for a nine-block quilt.  Going back to my scrappy inspiration, I made the final block using all the previous colors.

I have a great working relationship with my local long-arm quilter, Cindy Braiwick.  She did a great job of adding more spark to the quilt with her quilting.

I finally put the final stitch in the binding and pronounced the quilt FINISHED early in 2018.  Right now it's hanging on the wall in my dining room where I can enjoy it every day!






Sunday, September 16, 2018

Flamingos and Football

It's football season again in the U.S.  

I was never a huge football fan, until my sons got old enough to appreciate the sport.  They both played football for a few years in school, and developed a love of the game that persists to this day.  My hubby was a life-long fan, so I had to learn to love the game in self-defense.  

Now it's a given that my family will gather together for any opportunity to watch football on television - be it college or professional.  That means I need stitching projects to keep my hands busy during the games!

Just as the season was getting started I realized I had run out of flamingo hexies to hand-stitch.

I started making these hexies about a year and a half ago, using Barb Vedder's Hex Vex pattern.  It's been a great adventure in fussy cutting!  Just when I think I've run out of ideas for fussy cut blocks, I'll get a new inspiration.

I've been taking stock of my completed blocks and thinking about what styles and colors I need to make a nicely balanced finished quilt.  These hexies are all created from three 60ยบ diamond shapes.

Inspired by Cathy's All Creatures Great and Small, I added some hexies made from equilateral triangles.

It helps to have some plain (not pieced) hexies in the mix, too.

The hexie stars are probably the most satisfying block for fabric play.  They've got the most pieces/seams, but they're so much fun!

I've been doing a lot of cutting and playing this weekend, so now I've got a stack of block components that should keep me busy for at least part of football season!  (Haha - if I run out of hexies, I've always got quilt bindings that need to be hand-stitched!)

Are you still reading?  You must like flamingos!  I've been collecting them for many years, so I'm attuned to all things flamingo.
You can imagine how tickled I was to receive this picture from my youngest son this week.  I'm glad to see he doesn't fall far from the tree!





Saturday, September 8, 2018

In Praise of Dark Blue Scraps

There's a new page on the calendar and a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  This month's challenge is to use the dark blue and dark neutral scraps in the bin.  I have a never-ending stash of blue scraps, so it was short work to pull some strips for a 49-patch block.

With this block completed, I now have 24 of these seven inch beauties.  

I think this may be my favorite block arrangement so far!  I love the effect the white squares create.  A large quilt in this style, made in rainbow colors, would be wonderful.  Unfortunately, I don't want to make any more seven inch blocks, so this will be the extent of this project.  Maybe I'll tackle a larger version - with larger blocks - at some point in the future.

These sailboat blocks were a souvenir from the Pensacola Quilter's Guild Show of 1993.  They sat around in a drawer until 2016, when I decided to assemble them as part of the blue Rainbow Scrap Challenge month.  All the assembly fabrics came from my scrap stash.  

After the sailboats were assembled, they languished some more because I couldn't decide how to quilt them.  Finally I decided to just "get 'er done" and added batting and backing and started hand quilting.  The quilting isn't fancy, but it holds the layers together and was good practice.  

The backing is scraps of lobster fabric from another quilt.  I even added a hanging sleeve!


I'm adding my blue scraps to the RSC link-up - always fun and always inspirational!