2016 Finished Quilts - Unknown Name #13

Finally, the weather has been cooperating with me in order to take pictures of my finishes from 2016. I have 9 quilts that were finished last fall, and I was unable to get pictures of them until now.  You will notice as the days go by, that the number assigned to the quilt will be out of order, and that is because I had to give some away, and I have already blogged about them with very poor pictures.  But poor pictures are better than no pictures, right?

So, to kick off the next 9 quilts, we start with this one.  

It is an approximately twin sized quilt, using the pattern I have no clue, done in Kansas Troubles fabric line.  And, that's all I can recall about this quilt.  Yep, I sewed up the top several years ago, stored it, and brought it out to finish (to meet my 2016 resolution of completing 2 quilts a month), and for the life of me, I can't not remember anything about it, where I got it from, why I chose to do this quilt, or even what the fabric line is called.  Nothing, Nada, Zip, Zero, Zilch, empty brain.....

All lain out, showing the pattern design.

View of the border fabric used.

A picture of the backing, with a better view of the binding, which is the same as the border.

Warmest...

Size: 58" X 85"

Fabric Lines Used:  Kansas Troubles (Not sure which line?)

Pattern: Unknown

Designer:  Unknown

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Logan Nelson

Year Began: Have to do further research (Probably around 2006 - 2008)

Year Completed: 08/2016

Primrose Prairie Update

Finally.  Yes, finally, I have finished all 244 pieces that will be used for the sashing for the blocks of this quilt.

I started sewing the pieces together a few months back and it has taken a lot longer than I ever thought it would to get done.  Now I have to sew 8 pieces for each set a total of 24 sets (to go around 12 blocks.  They are scrappy, looking like a weird accordion!

The blocks will require sets of sashing and corner posts.  Not sure if I shared the corner posts in the past, but here are what they look like:

I put together (sort of) one block, so I can get an idea of what the block will look like with he sashing and corner posts.  I had to take it outside to lay it out, because my sewing table was too full of projects to get a good picture.

I'm liking this more and more, the further along I get in completing the quilt.

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Spring Has Taken Over

I have a confession to make, when I read different bloggers who start out a post something along the lines of "Life has gotten in the way of my blogging" I have always judged the blogger rather harshly. Who doesn't have the time to sew, I always make time to sew.  So this this an apology to all those bloggers, because this Spring has taken over my life, and has caused me not to even take a step in the direction of sewing,  quilting and then blogging about it.

I started a new task  hobby, that I thought would not take up  as much time.  Ha! Ha! It  really turned out to have gobbled up time and more time and even more time as the hobby progressed.   If you remember, my wonderful hubby built me a greenhouse last fall, just in time to use it in around mid winter and early spring.  Little did I know how much time would be spent starting over 500 seedlings from scratch and then the effort it takes to get them from seed into the ground is monumental.  The learning curve was rather large, and hopefully I can do better in time management next year. (I have pondered this some, and it is not looking too good right now.)

But the end result is all my new plants in the garden have been either saved from previous years and planted directly in the ground, or seeds that have been grown and nurtured in the greenhouse and then planted in the garden boxes.

Here is a picture of the garden as it stands last week when I planted 56 tomato starts.  (I even gave away several plants to my neighbors and my hubby's coworkers.)

This picture is a pano pic of the whole one side of my back yard.  Starting at the left is my chicken house and yard, then the garden is in the middle, then the greenhouse is next to the back of the house.  It is all nicely fenced off and in sections, making it nice to keep out the dogs, and gives the chickens some area to live freely as well.  

This is just the food garden area,  I have three large flower beds around the property that I also grew annual and perennial flowers and plants that have been set out and planted as well.

So, in closing, while I am so delighted in the outcome of this endeavor, I have also had to sacrifice time in the sewing room to accomplish this new hobby of mine.

P.S.  I did sneak an evening of sewing one day last week, but I worked on the pieced sashings for the the Prairie Primrose quilt that I have been working on since last fall.  I did't want to bore you again with a single post about them, as you have seen several posts on the progress already.

What I like about this little project is that, I can just sit down and start sewing without thinking about how to sew them up, as I already have the pieces cut out, and I know how to sew them without looking at a pattern and it gives me a sense of accomplishment in the area of my sewing life.

These are old pictures you have see before, but it gives you an idea of what I worked on the other night.  My box of pre cut pieces is almost empty, I think I have 6 sets left to get sewn up, and then I will be ready to piece it together.

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Back in the Saddle Again

For the first time in so many weeks, I was back in the sewing room, working on a few things.  One of the first things I worked on was a custom order for a tablecloth for an oblong table in an Easter print.  It is for the same customer that I made 9 sets of holiday themed potholders a couple of months ago.  I was able to find the same Easter print that I used in making the potholders, to make this tablecloth.  It was a fairly simple make, starting with the size of the table, adding  4" hang all the way around, and an additional 1" for a hem all away around.  Then I took a serving plate, about 14" in diameter to round out the corners to fit the oblong part of the table.

Then it was back to the making of the pieced sashing for the Primrose Prairie UFO quilt.  Remember I have to make 214 of these pieces, and each piece has 7 pieces.  Making the sashing scrappy, there are 18 different dark prints, and 12 different light prints.  Somehow the math worked out to be, I needed to make 13 blocks of each print, using one duplicate light print with each 13 pieces set.  After I get them all done, I will either be short a few or have a few extra.  Either way, I have a lot of pieces to make to complete the sashing.  

The box of the cut out pieces show below, here shows that I had one 13 piece dark color set done, and I have 5 sets done.  Only 13 sets to go....I will be sounding like a broken record blogging about this until I get them done.  Sigh...

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Leaders and Enders

While doing the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt, I learned about a technique Bonnie Hunter calls Leaders and Enders.  You can read all about it here, if interested.

I hope I can explain how I plan on doing this different technique.  Basically, if you need to make the same unit over and over again for either a whole quilt or for a portion of a quilt, it can get really boring making the same unit piece over and over and over again.  For instance, the Primrose Prairie quilt needs 244 of these units to make the sashing between the main blocks.    Each unit has 7 pieces, which becomes tedious in the making one after another.

But, putting her technique in to practice, if you do a unit before (leader) and after (ender) other projects, eventually the leaders and enders become a finished project themselves.

For example, while I was making the last five blocks for the Patchwork Party 2007, at the beginning of each block, I would make one of these units, and after making the a block, I would make another one of these blocks.  TaDah, I now have 10 units complete and it went quick.  I know this way may take a little longer, but I think I might be able to stay on task of getting the Primrose Prairie done by staying on target using this leaders and enders technique!

Now, I also needed a way to keep all the pieces by my sewing machine, all readily available, so I can just pick up a set and sew away.  I took one of my "famous" cardboard trays and set up all the pieces in it and set it by my sewing machine.  Now, I have the ability to sew a unit whenever I can fit one in before or after a block or project.

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Primrose Prairie UFO BOM Update

In the pauses of custom orders (waiting on clients, ordering materials for projects, etc), I have had some time to work on my latest UFO BOM.  Remember the one that I started a few weeks back?  Primrose Prairie?  Yep, this really big one?

Well, I am now finished with the nine center appliquéd blocks and here is pictures of the last four I did this week:

If you want to see the posts about the other blocks completed, scroll down to the bottom of this blog, and there will be a list of labels.  Just click on the "Primrose Prairie" label and it will bring up all the posts related to this project.  

Remember, each block measures 20", so they are much larger than the standard 12' blocks most quilts I done in the past.  With that said, the nine appliquéd blocks will almost cover the top of a queen sized bed, and then add the sashing, corner posts, and the large appliquéd borders, it will be an oversized King size quilt.

The next step is to do the corner post appliqués and the pieced scrappy sashing that will be sewn between the large blocks.  So,  I got busy and cut them out.  All 1200 of them!!! And, then this afternoon, I appliquéd all the center posts, sixteen 5" blocks with a double circles.

So, now I will have to work on the pieced sashing.  A small project that will get the name of "forever scrappy piecing project".  There are over 1100 pieces that have to be sewn together in a randomness to make it look scrappy.  Yes a forever project!  Yikes!!

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Couple More Prairie Primrose Blocks

Yep, just stopping in and showing off a couple more blocks to the massive quilt, Prairie Primrose.

This makes a total of 5 completed, and only 4 more to go, more than half-way done.  Except I looked at all the appliqué work on the corner posts, the corner sashings, aaannndd all around the quilt boarders.  Yikes!!!

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More Prairie Primrose

I spent the last two days, cutting out, doing the placement and stitching of the next two blocks in my UFO BOM Prairie Primrose.  The background of each block is different, as well as the flower design.  Each block will be completely different from each other.  So I have been doing the machine stitching around the pieces with different color thread.  

This is block two.

This is block three.

Close up of block three.

And a picture of the first three blocks.  I used a wheat color thread on the first block, a navy color on the second, and a brick red on the third one.

I thought any of you who do machine appliqué might like to know, I did not use any adhesive produce to hold down the appliqué pieces (like Heat n' Bond, Wonder Under, etc.).  I laid out the whole design with pins and stitch in place.  For years, I have read, been taught, and understood the only way to do machine appliqué is to use one of these type products.  Of course, the underlying reason to use these products, is to hold the design in place so it doesn't move, get distorted, or pucker.    But the draw back in using these products is they cause a stiffness in the overall block, and then as an end result, causing the quilt to be even stiffer and not draping well as all.  Originally, I was going to do the needle turn appliqué  hand technique, thus using freezer paper to cut out the design for the first block.  Since I didn't use one of the adhesive products, I went ahead, without too much thought, and started machine stitching down the pieces.  About half-way through the first block, I realized that the pieces were staying in place just fine without using the products, and the end result is a very soft and supple feeling block.  I am very happy with this result, and most likely not be suing any appliqué adhesive product in the future.  This will be a money saver, as these type products can be quite costly.

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New BOM UFO - Prairie Primrose

Most quilters know who Kim Diehl is, and if you are new to quilting and discover her, you will surely like her and her style.  She combines simple piecing and appliqué to make gorgeous quilts.  

So, to move the story along,  Homestead Hearth was offering a BOM using the pattern Prairie Primrose in Kim's book, Simple Traditions.  I already had the book, so I signed up for the BOM.    

This is a big quilt, 106" X 106", and each block measures 21" square.  See how nice it looks on a bed?  When I saw this, I wanted this on one of my beds in the house.

Initially, I was all gung-ho in working on this BOM, mostly because I wanted to try my hand at "hand turn appliqué".  Big failure!  I am sure I would have gotten better with practice.  Ah, no.  Not.  So, I got busy, and since it wasn't a great success right away, I stuck it in a tub and never thought about it again.  Then, again, I was surfing through Pinterest, and came across several pins of Kim's work, and I remembered that I had all the fabric and pattern to do one of her quilts.  So, I went on a treasure hunt through my tubs of BOM's and projects, and found it all the individual month packets and the first block I worked on.   I knew I would not be doing the hand appliqué on this quilt, so I took out all the handwork I did on block one and redid it on the machine using one of the stitches (blanket stitch) to do all the pieces.  Here is the newly redone block 1.  So much better than the original.  It was so bad, I didn't even want to take a picture.  Pathetic!!!  But after doing this block on the machine, I am excited to work on the other blocks and do this quilt.

Just for information, the fabric used in this BOM is Moda, Kansas Troubles.  Two lines were used, called Bound to the Prairie 2, and Winter Rose.  Beautiful!

Warmest...