Tuesday Archives - Layer Cake Quilts

I'm a bit late linking up today, I had to leave early this morning to take the car to the shop and wasn't able to wait till Val had her Tuesday Archive post up.  It's been awhile since I've had a project that fits into the weekly theme of the Tuesday Archives.

Though I'm not sure it's exactly wise to share this particular piece of my quilting history.  I've only made one quilt using a layer cake.  Moose on the Porch offered a Layer Cake Quilt Along starting in September of 2010.   I had a layer cake that had been purchased for a special project, but I ended up not using it.  So this quilt along seemed ideal to make use of that left over layer cake. I don't remember the fabric line, but it was one of those that had a lot of color lines that didn't necessary all play together really well.  But I was game. 

Layer Cake Quilt Along
Moose on the Porch Quilts

The blocks aren't too bad, though some of them don't really have enough contrast.  But I think it was the border fabric that led the whole project astray.  That border print was one of the fabrics in the layer cake, so I just assumed it would work.  The narrow teal borders work and had I used more of that color, it would have calmed the quilt down.  Oh well, live and learn.  

This top hasn't been quilted.  I was saving it to practice my free motion quilting on since I wouldn't be upset if the quilting wasn't perfect.  It has lain in the "to be finished" pile for the last 4 years, so it's probably time to use the left over layer cake pieces to make the back and then get if off the pile. 

That's it for my dive into blog history.  For more archives, check out all the posts over at Val's Quilting Studio.  

Christmas Vacation

Just 2 more days of work and then I'm off work for the rest of the year!   Lots of Christmas stuff to finish up, but there will be time for quilting, especially the week after Christmas.  What's on the top of my list?

Sew the quilt label to the 2009 mystery quilt (No I still haven't managed to get that done!).











Finish block 4 in the Layer Cake Quilt Along




Finish the center block and assemble the Seeing Stars BOM.  It also needs a back pieced so it can be sent out for quilting.




Bind the 2008 BOM and the 2010 mystery quilt.


 

I've also been working on my quilting goals for next year.  I'm down to 5 UFO's, also known as PhDs (projects half done).  I'd like to get all 5 of those done next year.   Last year I participated in monthly UFO challenges on Connecting Threads Quilt With Us community and that helped keep me motivated.  For next year, I looked at participating in Judy's UFO challenge, which looks like lots of fun.  But I was afraid that trying to finish any one of these UFO's in a month would just frustrate me.  Mrs. Pyjamas over at Quilting in My Pyjamas had linked up to Myra's PhD Challenge.  I'll have till June to finish up the 3 projects I selected.  This challenge looks more my speed.  My challenge projects are posted here. 





So the UFO's (PhDs) are under control.  I'm going to look at stash management plans for next year (Note I did not say stash reduction).  Plus, 2011 may be the time to look at my PIGS (Projects in Grocery Sacks).  You know those projects you bought the fabric or the kit, have a pattern, but just never started.  At least that's my definition.  I'm not sure how many of those I have.  So that may be my after Christmas assignment, find the PIGS and decide if I want to work on any of them for next year. 

So what are your quilty plans for the holiday?  How are your 2011 quilting plans coming along?

Design Wall Monday - November 22nd

Not much sewing this weekend due to kiddo's out of town swim meet.  She did well, taking time off almost every event she swam.  We also had the opportunity to see my Mom and Sister for dinner on Saturday, which was nice since we are spending Thanksgiving with my in-laws. 

So what's up on the design wall?  The Seeing Stars BOM is still up and so is the purple/yellow scrap quilt.  But no progress to show on either of those projects.  Last weekend I made the binding for the a mystery quilt I ordered from  Homespun Hearth in Monument, CO.  They have a quarterly mystery quilt program called Agatha & Sherlock's Quilter's Mystery of the Week.  I ordered one of the kits last year and had a lot of fun with it.  I'm still hand sewing the binding to the back of the quilt.  Hopefully I'll get that done this week and I'll be able to post about a finish which takes one more quilt off the UFO list! 

I decided on my fabrics for the Layer Cake Quilt Along going on over at Moose on the Porch Quilts.  The squares are all cut, so hopefully that block will come together tonight. 

The pattern calls for 4 colors, but I couldn't make that work with the layer cake I'm using, so I decided to just use two fabrics.  \It's a good thing they don't give grades for these blocks because the block definitely will not look like the one given with the instructions! 

Check out all the other design walls over at Judy's Patchwork Times. 

Making a Layer Cake to Bust Some Stash

Only in quilting can you talk about making a layer cake to reduce something!   I decided to participate in the Layer Cake Quilt Along being sponsored over on the Moose on a Porch's blog.  So I spent some time last night rummaging through my fabric tote bins looking for the accent and border fabric.  I bought a layer cake a couple of years ago to make a quilt for kiddo's school auction.  I had quite a number of squares left over after the quilt was done.  Turns out I had bought some yardage from the same collection, so that will be the border.  Finding the accent was hard.  Nothing really seemed to work well.  I'm going to try white as the accent and hope it's not too stark against the darker fabrics.  The layer cake and border fabric are a from a fabric collection called Patti Paisley. 

So that's one new project that will run into May of next year.  I have two BOMs that should finish up at the end of the year, so it will be nice to have something else already started.  Everything for this project will from the stash, which if you've been looking at my weekly stash reports is definitely a step in the right direction.