New Project..so quilting again..

I saw a quilt at a local quilt store..it looked interesting, I took a pic of it..and then forgot about it for a while until my brain stewed out what I wanted to do.  Late last year, when I ordered the fabric for the backings for the granddaughter quilts, a mixup happened with the fabric store..and I ended up with getting a good deal on future fabric.  Last February, I ordered a few 10 inch square charm packs and some 5 inch charm packs..think they have different names...but we will go with that...;-)..

The design calls for topstitching a five inch square in the middle of a ten inch square, then cuttting the 10 inch square into four five inch squares.  Rearrange the squares and sew them all back together in a pleasing pattern.

A freiend of mine has a fabric cutting machine that is awesome to play with.  He brought it over and for the next few weeks, I cut all of my stash of extra fabric into ten inch blocks and five inch blocks.

I decided that I am going to make a king size quilt for our bed.  It will require 144 blocks of the ten inch variety..but with blocking them down, etc, they will be 9 inch blocks.  Since I had so many colors, I stewed over the combinations and have decided to work with the color wheel.  I am including sections that each primary and secondary color will have a focus on the blanket and that I will use black in the center.

As I finish more sections, I will include pics...but for now..I will show pics of the inspiration..and the pamphlet that gives basic instructions.

The inspiration:

  

The Pattern Basics

The color palette I am working with:  

Left side:  Purple, Yellow, Green            Right side:  Blue, Red, Orange

  I decided that whatever the main color of the ten inch block, I would try and put the opposite color on the color wheel as the five inch block.  I also decided that the thread to topstitch with would be the color of the five inch block.  ie:  the green blocks have red as the center block sewn with red thread.  I also decided to do the topstitch in a blanket stitch.

I then had to decide how I wanted to mix and match.  

Here is the Master Plan:  

I divided the colors into patterns and then began matching up colors to form a ten inch block.  In the pic above, the first box in the upper left corner will have black, red, yellow, blue in the block.  I will be putting together 7 blocks with that color combination.  

The following are samples of how I have combined colors and just an idea for putting them together.

I like the pattern I see in the various blocks as I sew them...but will not sew them into a larger block until I have laid them all out to see the overall affect.

Quilts arrived

I just spoke to my granddaughters.  They love the quilts.

Three quilts are finished and mailed

I finished the three quilts for my granddaughters and they have been sent to them.  They should receive them today.  Since I have recorded everything, here are the bindings for each and the labels..

and moving forward..

and they arrived from the quilter .. Terri Clark from Vancouver, WA.

http://salmoncreekquilting.com


I need to put the binding on for them to be totally complete, but here they are..
 

                   

Jaci's Black and White.

  

 

 

Tori's Spring and Summer

   

  

Livi's Pink.

       

    

  

                               

   

   

Finally, quilt top 3 of 3 done..

I finally finished the top for the third quilt in the series for my three granddaughters.  I walked into this third one with the feeling it would never be finished..but it is.  I am trying out a new long arm quilter recommended by a friend of mine.  She is from Vancouver, Washington, so the tops and such had to be mailed to her to work on.  And naturally, behind is my middle name...so I got them to her late..but she had them for just a week and already they are headed back..

So.. here is quilt number 3:  The black and white..for the 15 year old.

I ended up putting a six inch black border all around the top to frame it off.

These three colors are the backings for the quilts.

Black for the Black & White

Green for the Green/Yellow/Blue etc 

Lavendar for the Pink 

One more top done

I finished another top.  Trying to get a decent pic of it has been a challenge, but will post what I have.

Laid out on the bed:

       

A bear hiding under the blanket...

Fancy corner

Keep the fancy corner going..

Another project to share

I did this project several years ago.  I went to a xmas party with my gift exchange item.  i had spent a good afternoon in a garden shop looking for the right thing.  The group of people at the party were pretty much garden type people, so I thought with the exchange thing that goes on, someone would like it.

Wrong.  The people that got it were bikers and I could see they were not happy.  I had picked up a bottle of wine as my gift.  After the exchange I walked up to them and offered to exchange gifts.  The wine was grabbed out of my hands so fast..I didn't have time to blink.  haha.

So I brought home my little plant holder wire frame and thought ... hmm now what do I do with it.  I am not much of an indoor plant person, so it sat around holding CD's and movies and such for a while. Then one day when I really needed something to hold items in my main bathroom.  -- No medicine chest --  I saw the basket and thought..hmm, I can make a box to go inside and put the odds and ends I want in that and put it on the toilet lid.

Previous projects of making boxes covered in fabric came to mind.  I went through my stash of fabric and this is the result.

The process is quite simple.

Cut out your cardboard shapes that will make the box.
Place all of your cardboard pieces on your fabric to know how much fabric you will need.
Cover the backside of that fabric in double faced iron on facing.
Trace your cardboard pieces on back of fabric with a half inch border around all cardboard.
Cut out pieces.
Remove backing of iron on interface.
Place cardboard pieces on back of fabric and iron fabric to cardboard.
Put the pieces together so that all are joining and forming a box.

I will come back and do a line by line example of how to do it..

For now, here are the pictures of the completed project.