Works in Progress - Working Ahead a Bit

It's been a slow week for stitching.  I've been down for the count with some type of respiratory infection, which may be one of the less severe flu strains, coupled with a sinus infection. 

Before I got to feeling so bad, block 11 of the Chocolate Marshmallow sampler did get finished. 

Chocolate Marshmallows, pattern by Amanda Bergamin of Sea Breeze Quilts

I ended up recoloring this one to work with just the 5 fabrics I've been using for the sampler blocks.  I need to cut out block 12, but haven't gotten that far yet.  

I've felt too bad to sew, but not so bad that I couldn't play on the computer.  I started working up settings for these blocks in EQ.  I've got it narrowed down to three possible settings.

Sample sashing with simple borders:

More complicated sashing with pieced borders:

And finally an on-point setting:

I don't have enough of the dark brown to make anything but a very thin border.  I'm having a hard time deciding between these three.  Which one would you make?

You can check out more WIPS over at WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, WIPS on Wednesday at Esther's Blog, and at Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.  

Wordless Wednesday - Wishing for Spring

Tuesday Archives - Original Patterns

It's Tuesday so it's time for the Tuesday Archives over at Val's Quilting Studio.  

The topic this week is "original patterns by you".  Before I could pick a quilt to highlight, I had to ask what is an "original pattern"?  Is that a quilt made without following a pattern published by some one else?  For it to count as a pattern does it have to be published some where?   Since Val didn't give more particulars, I'm going to highlight the first quilt I made on my own with out using any type of pattern.  It's another project that I can't find posted elsewhere on the blog.  

When Drama Teen was just a little thing, she developed a liking of stuffed tigers. She has quite the collection.  Her favorite was a white tiger she named Siberian.  

Drama Teen when she was just a kiddo of  7 or 8 with Siberian who was "stealing" breakfast

Siberian pretty much went everywhere with her.  Siberian even flew to Washington State with us on vacation one year.  She was quite happy to reside in the overhead compartment during the flight, much to the delight of several younger flyers seated near us.  

I was fortunate enough to attend the Houston quilt festival in 2005. During the festival, a fat quarter packet with several tiger prints caught my eye.   Those fat quarters just had to come home with me. DT (aka Kiddo) absolutely needed a tiger quilt for Christmas.    I really wanted to let the tigers take center stage so the idea of using simple squares came from that.  One early problem was that one of the fat quarters only had enough tigers in it to make two squares.  So I took pictures of some of her stuffed tigers, including Siberian, and printed those onto fabric.  From that Kiddo's Tigers Quilt came to be.

Tigers designed by Kate

DT loved that the quilt included her tigers on it, especially Siberian.  At the time it was the perfect size for her to cuddle under on the couch.  She has since outgrown it, so it sits in the closet waiting for the next little one.  

It's certainly not a perfect quilt.  I had to piece one of the tigers to have enough to make a full square.  But at age 6 Drama Teen wasn't the quilt critic she is now, the fabric photos were the coolest thing to her.   It was a fun quilt to make.  I really enjoyed figuring out how to use the fabrics to the best advantage.  Credit for the setting fabric choices has to be given to one of the ladies who worked at the local quilt shop.  She suggested the orange fabric for the sashing and the black fabric in the border.  I had my doubts as they just didn't seem like the fabrics to use for a 6 year old.  But they were exactly right.

That's my blast from the past for this week.  You can check out more archival posts over at Val's Quilting Studio.  

Design Wall Monday - Finishes of a Sort

Sunday wasn't one of my better days.  I ran a low grade fever most of the day, struggled with a sore throat and runny nose.  Drama Teen thinks I've caught the cold she had a couple of weeks ago.  I'm not much better this morning, so I'm taking a sick day.  Hopefully I will feel more myself tomorrow.  Hopefully what follows is readable, I have the fuzzy brain feeling that seems to be the norm when I have a cold.   

I did get into the sewing room for a bit over the weekend, when I wasn't in bed sleeping off the cold medicine.  Now that the 2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler is off the big design wall, I can move on to something else.  For a very brief time this weekend the Inverted Star blocks were up on the design wall.  

Inverted Star by Jessica Boschem of Common Threads
available from Craftsy as a free download

The red-violet block in the center of the bottom row was finished up last week.  The plan is to frame all the blocks, but I'll need to check if I have enough of the tone on tone white from the blocks to do that.  I have a plan B if there isn't enough.  

Grand Illusion is still up on the other design wall. The plan is to finish up the blocks for this project in March.  I'd like to get this one to the finished flimsy stage, off the design wall and keep it off the UFO list.  No picture this week as it hasn't changed much from what I showed last week.  

That's it for my design wall this week.  You can find other design walls posted over at Judy's Patchwork Times.   

Stash Report - Week 9 of 2015

It snowed most of Saturday.  Very unusual weather for the end of February in Oklahoma.  Usually by this time the early blooming wildflowers have started showing up.  This year it's still brown everywhere.  The snow was pretty, with big fluffy flakes falling most of the day.  The sparrows don't seem to mind the snow.  

They just fluff up more.  We had a male and female cardinal visit along with the sparrows, but they were both camera shy.

It was a good week in the sewing room, the borders got added to the 2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler, which helped a lot with the outgoing numbers.  The back is all cut out, but didn't get stitched together because by late Saturday afternoon I wasn't feeling so hot.  I woke up this morning with the same scratchy throat and low grade fever that I went to bed with.  

Getting back on topic, as they say on NPR's Marketplace, "lets do the numbers":

Used last week:  1.23 yards
Used in February:  3.18 yards
Used year to date:  5.8 yards

The 5.8 yards out may not seem like much, but it's more than I had used by this time last year.  Even better, there's been no fabric in yet this year.  So I've managed to maintain the fabric diet for two months.  Since the plan is to finish up a number of UFOs that have all the fabrics they need, I don't have a reason to be looking for new fabrics.  That has helped me keep the acquisition mode turned off.  The back for the 2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler should add a nice boost to next week's numbers.  Hopefully I'll feel well enough this afternoon to spend some time in the sewing room.  

That's it for me this week.  For more stash reports, check out the links over at Judy's Patchwork Times.