A Prairie Home Quilts

When I ordered Christmas fabric online to make a tree skirt, I had to order 1/2 yard of each of the fabrics I planned to use.  I had about 1/4 yard of each left after I cut out the tree skirt. The stripe caught my eye as a great fabric to fussy cut using the Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses [POTC] collection. The main shape in the collection is an elongated hexagon. When you fussy cut using a striped fabric, it’s easier to get a kaleidoscopic effect. Here are the 3 blocks I was able to create with the leftover fabric.

Instead of printing onto the back of the fabric like you would normally do with Inklingo, I printed the hexagon and square shapes onto freezer paper and cut them out.  Then I ironed the freezer paper to the front of the fabric to make it easier to fussy cut each shape exactly the same.

I needed 2 sets of 4 and 1 set of 8 matching hexagons for each block.  Also some squares were needed for the corners and connectors.  I wasn’t as excited about the kaleidoscope effect the squares made and some of the hexagons that I cut.  I discovered the in order to get the best effect, the hexagons should be cut perpendicular to the stripe and the squares need to be cut on the diagonal.  [But I didn't discover that until I started sewing the shapes together and by then I was out of fabric.]

Pretend that the stripe runs horizontally all the way across the fabric here…  This is how to orient the hexagons — at least for the center and next row of the block.  You can see in the second and third blocks that the last row of 8 hexagons also looks okay with the stripe running through the length of the hexagon.  In that instance, iron on the freezer paper with the hexagon points going horizontally instead of vertically.

The squares look best when you iron the freezer paper on to fussy cut them this way…  Once again, imagine that the stripe runs horizontally all the way across the fabric.  [This was the only fabric I could lay my hands on this afternoon that had any sort of stripe to show what I'm trying to explain.]

After the blocks were done, the design dilemma monster reared its head.  What to use for the border around each block?? The red and green in the Christmas fabric was hard to match.  For the tree skirt I ended up with some Fairy Frost Glitz fabric.

Uhm, no. This is just way more sparkle and glitz than I want to use here.  I did like the gold border framing the block though.

Much better.  I purchased some regular Fairy Frost in a gold and black when I was first trying to match the green and red so I used them.  It’ll be a table runner.  It measures approximately 11″ x 31″.

Not totally jazzed with the square sections all being different and wondering how this might look as a table topper, I played around in Paint Shop Pro.  I’m thinking I need to order a bit more of this fabric. The fabric is Holiday Flourish III Elegant Stripe Crimson by Peggy Toole.

The edges might look better in black only although I do like the design effect in 3 of the corners.  The center squares might be nicer surrounded by black much the way the original POTC looks.  More playing with Paint Shop Pro ensued.  Oh, and imagine that each block looks different here… [teehee]

A project for next year maybe…

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Hmmm. These are from the supposed “distinguished essay writing/good custom writing service.”  I do hope that “honest students” all over America aren’t paying for essays with similar English grammar.

Okay, on to the finishes! The first three are just to the finished top stage.  I don’t have a picture of the Orange Peel topper [Improved 9 Patch] and I’m house sitting so I’ll try to get a shot of that some time next week.

This little LeMoyne Star wall hanging, Polka Dot & Paisley, I made with the scraps from the table topper.  I watched the free Jinny Beyer episode on The Quilt Show and she demonstrated a better way [than what I was doing] to put together 8 pointed stars.  So, you know, I had to try it out.  I think I’m going to hang this on the wall near the sewing machine when I get it quilted.   This next one is a class sample.  I’m going to teach a Winding Ways class at the LQS at the end of February/first part of March.

I also finished putting the binding on three scrappy quilts.  I made a Scrappy Irish Chain quilt and two matching table toppers as leader/ender projects.  My friend, Stacy at Mimi’s Quilting Cottage, quilted them for me.  I’ve already sold one of the table toppers. Here is the quilt in all it’s scrappy, crinkled goodness…

Now I’m hoping for a repeat performance of finishes for February!

Grandma’s Dream Quilt for Rachelle

This quilt is my first-ever quilt. I have always admired quilts, old and new, and have wanted to learn to make them since the early ’80s. I’ve sewn and enjoyed handwork since I was a little girl. My grandmother showed me how to sew and embroider. Finally, in the summer of 2003, a DF showed me how to get started with this quilt project. (Thank you, Cindy! How many times have we discussed this obsession we’ve acquired??) I started out making it for myself, but DD Rachelle wanted it. I thought at some point I’d switch the color scheme of my room to something other than burgundy and green so eventually I said she could have it when I got it done even though my room is still burgundy and green. Little did she know that it would take more than 3 years to complete. [sigh]

I completed most of the work on it in 2003, getting all the blocks together probably by early 2004, but I didn’t get the top completely put together until late 2005 and sandwiched until early 2006. As a side note: I should explain that our house was on the market from October 2004 through October 2005 and I really didn’t have an opportunity to do much quilting during that time. From the summer of 2005 (when it looked like our house might finally be sold) until now, I’ve been feeding my obsession by starting numerous other projects! LOL And, of course, hand quilting takes some time. That’s where I was with it at the end of 2006.

So now it’s 2007… Hopefully, Rachelle will forgive her mother for finishing a quilt for *everyone* else but her and I’ll get this done in 2007. She has asked me to machine quilt it–probably thinking it’s the only way I’ll get it done in my lifetime, at this point! LOL Right now, it’s sitting on a quilt frame in the living room where it goes very well with the decor but soon I’m going to take apart the quilt sandwich and throw it on the machine quilting frame. (I promise, Rachelle.)