Monday, February 18, 2019

A Giveaway Winner and Project underway


     Thank you to everyone who visited my blog during the recent blog hop.  I had so much fun looking at all the other quilts!  Such creativity and talent!  If you are new to my blog, I hope you visit often and also like my Facebook Page (Snug Harbor Quilts) and follow me on Instagram (@snugharborquilts)! 
     GranChris, who was comment #21 on my blog, is the winner of the pdf copy of the whole Turnabout Patchwork book.  I am going to make another quilt from the book soon!   Congrats, Chris, I hope you enjoy it!
     I can now turn my attention to other projects.  One of my first 2019 "to do" projects was to finish the center portion of the spider web quilt I have been working on for years for my husband.   TaDa!  The center is DONE!
      I love it, and he loves it.  Now I need to settle on a border, and get that done, but I feel great that this part is completed.  It was 240 paper foundation triangles.  I sewed two together to make a square, then removed the paper before sewing any further.   I filled many a trash bin, at least one of which my kittens turned over! 

Here is a close up of one of the sections.  The fabrics are all civil war repro fabrics.
I also managed to finally quilt a charity top that had been donated to one of my guilds.  Pinning the quilt is one of my least favorite parts of quilting, and so I tend to put it off.  I finally got it done. 
     I use binder clips with my craft table to get a nice taut back without having to tape anything to the floor.   I quilted it with a free motion loopy loop which followed the jelly roll strips, using a dark red aurifil.  It looks fine, and it is done and delivered! 

  I have two small projects underway for competitions late this spring, and I am going to get my On Ringo Lake quilt quilted.  It is already pinned - I just need to figure out what I am doing with it!  Stay tuned, in between these projects, I have lots more I want to accomplish!  
    My goal is to post a blog once a week, but I am finding that the studio art classes I am taking are quite challenging and time consuming, so please bear with me if I am delayed a bit on my posts! 
     Take care,
Gretchen 
  


Friday, February 1, 2019

Turnabout Patchwork - Modern Shoofly Block


Teresa's Flying Rainblow quilt on the cover of her book! 
     I am so very happy to share my version of Teresa's "Flying Rainbow" quilt, from her terrific new book, Turnabout Patchwork.  (click here to purchase, if you don't win my giveaway - details at the end of the blog!)  If this is your first time visiting my blog, welcome!  I like to share the good, bad and sometimes funny aspects of making quilts, and this quilt had all of them! 
     This blog hop experience has been a delight from day one.  Teresa was very organized, and communicated often and well!  I chose to do a version of her Modern Shoofly block, the "Flying Rainbow" quilt that is on the cover of her book.  I love her version, but didn't want to copy it.  One of the things I love about quilting is how the same pattern can look so different with different fabric choices.   Give the same pattern to ten quilters, and you will get ten very different quilts! 
     Now I have a great big stash of fabrics.  I had in mind a children's "tossed" sort of print for the background, but didn't have enough of a that type of fabric in my stash.   Although I try to support my local quilt shops, I was browsing the internet, and found a  'Dear Stella Moonlight Circus Animal' print on sale (under $5 a yard!) and thought it would be perfect.  It looked like a nice blue background, which I liked a lot.   There was also what I took to  be a companion print,  'Dear Stella Moonlight Merry Go Round' also on sale.  I thought that would be perfect for the border, and the backing.    I ordered just enough of the tossed print for the background, and enough yardage of the other for the backing and border. 
     The tossed circus animals were perfect, and I had some bright chartreuse Kona solid in my stash that picked up some of the accent colors in the print.   I wasn't sure whether to use only the chartreuse for the triangles, or to also use white.  I sewed up a few small blocks to put on my wall to decide.   
Traditional Shoofly block with just chartreuse

Traditional Shoofly block with both white and chartreuse.  I like how the white made the unicorns pop! 
     I liked the energy that using both the white and chartreuse gave to the dark fabric, so worked out a plan for the shoofly block that had colors in opposite corners before doing the cutting!
     This is an easy pattern with good instructions, but my problem with easy patterns sometimes is that I forge ahead, and forget to check the details.  I wanted to make one block as a sample, and at first sewed the pieces together the wrong way. 

The triangles are pointed in the wrong directions!  
     Then when I redid that sample, I had totally messed up a corner.  In all honesty, in a bigger quilt, or on one for myself for watching TV, I'd probably let this go, but I wasn't going to have a decapitated corner on a quilt in an international blog hop!  
     Last year, I had purchased a Bloc_Loc ruler that I had used only once.  I pulled that out, and used it to square up all of the half square triangles before putting the shoofly block together.  It worked like a dream!  All my points turned out pretty well, although some are tucked under the flange.
     After those minor adjustments, the shoofly blocks came together quickly, and I just worked by way through the "turnabout process" block by block without any further problems.  
Getting started with the blocks on the design wall.  This design wall is really working out for me! 
All of the shoofly blocks done!


     I really love how the center part turned out when the blocks were all sewn together!    
     I had decided to do a border a bit wider than Teresa's instructions had indicated, because the 'Merry Go Round' fabric had two rows in its pattern, and I like a bigger border.  
     However, it turned out that the blue backgrounds in the two fabrics were NOT the same.  Arrggghhh!  The Merry Go Round fabric was slightly more muted, and a tad lighter.  I thought it still might work if I put a strip of orange in between the pieces.  I had a small amount of Tiger Lily Kona in my stash. Since I was already enlarging the border, I decided to try a flange to add a color separation without adding any more width. I had never made a flange before, but it was pretty easy. 

    While I really liked the flange, once I put the borders on, I didn't like it.  It really just didn't work for me.  The color difference, which I think is clear in the picture below, was still pronounced even with the flange divider, and I also didn't like the busy-ness of the pattern itself.    Honestly,  I was so disappointed.   
blech! 
     And, I was worried, because it was the holiday season, I was busy with family, and I needed to finish the quilt before my spring college semester started.  The tossed 'Circus Animal' print was still available online, so I ordered up some yardage, and crossed by fingers that it would arrive in time!  Luckily,  it did.
     I carefully picked off the old border, put on a new one (keeping the flange), and got the quilt all pinned and quilted.   I was much happier with this version.  
      I used a big loopy overall quilting, almost bubbles, in a yellow green Aurifil thread that went well with the chartreuse Kona.  I did have to break up the quilting between the center panel and the border to keep the flange from getting sewn.   I bound the quilt with the remainder of my Tiger Lily Kona.  The deep orange picks up the little tigers in the fabric. 
Close up of the quilting
   The 'Merry Go Round' fabric did not go to waste.  I used it for the back, and experimented with a glue stick to match the pattern when piecing the back from three separate pieces.  (Since I had cut it up for the border, I didn't have quite enough for just a two piece back!).  I cannot believe how well that technique worked. Honestly, would you see the seams if I didn't point them out?  Three pieces come together at that point!  I am unabashedly proud of this part of the quilt!  The glue appears to have washed out when I washed the quilt. 

     I love this little quilt.  What a great experience working with Teresa, experimenting with some new techniques, and ending up with a great piece!  
     I know it is hotter than blazes in Australia, where Teresa resides.  We are in the middle of the polar vortex here in the Buffalo, NY area!  
Brrrr, cold and windy!  
        GIVEAWAY!  I am able to give away a pdf copy of the book, so please leave a comment  below, and I will be picking a winner at random after the blog hop ends!  
    ETSY SALE!  Also, for the month of February, my subtly sewing themed collage art work is on sale for 30% off in my ETSY shop.  Please take a look!  
     Thank you, Teresa, for inviting me to take part in this blog hop! 
    Thank you, readers, for taking a look at my blog.  Please come back often.  I have a Snug Harbor Quilts facebook page, and can be found on Instagram @snugharborquilts!  

Here is the Blog Hop Schedule - please check them all out! 

January 30 - Quarter Snow Ball

     Arrowhead
     Sweet Bows
     Tutti-frutti
     Sun Dunes

๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸFebruary 1 - Modern Shoofly

     Flying Rainbows
     Flying Butterflies
     Flying Flags
     Flying Confetti

February 2 - Half Square Triangles (HSTs) and squares

     Rose Garden Star
     Swirl
     Houndstooth
     Diamond Star

February 4 - Striped Fabric Block

     Shells
     Xs and Os
     Jaws
     Arrowhead

February 6 - Coordinated Strips

     Peaks
     Diamond and Crosses
     Knots and Crosses

February 8 - Double Disappearing Nine-Patch

     Holiday Trellis
     Stepping Stones
     Two for One
     Cross
Take care,
Gretchen