Plates, plates, plates, and fans

 

 

Remember my scanner bed is too narrow to show the full 10" square. 

I am having a great time with my Christmas Candy Dishes, made from the Riley Blake layer cake I won at the Quilt Market Bloggers Meet-Up. Progress report:  I have five more plates to applique to their background, which is a quick way to say I have eleven done.  Eleven!!  This is so much fun I'm going to do it again, but with a layer cake of prints I've been saving for a rainy day. Okay, so I was out pruning roses all morning in the sunshine, how can I think about rainy day projects?  Easy, I don't have enough projects in the "Finish Someday" pile.

Side Bar:  We are already gathering the prizes for the Third Annual Sisters Quilt Weekend UFO party awards.  Check back next week for the dates for this fall.  It's never too late to to start an unfinished project.

Back to the plate project:  The plate/fan wedges are just the right size for using 10" squares efficiently.  (Efficiently = left overs so small no one thinks we should save them)


After making a plastic template, trace 6 wedges on each 10 " square.  The cutting diagram is below:



 



Note that this cutting diagram only works with non-directional prints.  If you're using fabrics with a definite direction ( and you don't want upside down trees on half your wedges) that's a whole different discussion, and there are no scraps when the six wedges are complete.








My Plate Project uses the same fabric as alternate wedges in each plate.  Those wedges are cut from 5" width-of-fabric strips.

There are pictures of the piecing of the wedges in the May 25 post

As I re-read this, I realize that my writing style is even more disjointed and parenthetical than usual.  Must be the unaccustomed sunshine.  

Christmas Candy Dishes

If I were writing a story, this would begin with a tale of fancy Christmas dishes only used in December, or describe Uncle Jack who believes the only good wedding present is a candy dish and it better be full when he comes to visit.

The truth is I won a layer cake (10" squares) of Riley Blake Christmas Candy fabrics at the Bloggers Meet-up during Quilt Market in Salt Lake City.. Then on Wednesday afternoon last week Marjorie and I went to Stylish Fabrics in Logan, Utah, and I bought some of the Candy Dishes fabric in larger pieces. I didn't have a pattern in mind, so I bought a yard of the polka dot on white and a larger piece of the scattered candy print.  Marjorie was already busy on her Blue Lemonade quilt, but I sincerely believed I wasn't ready to think about planning the Christmas Candy quilt.

So, here I am, a week later, with sixteen Christmas Candy Dishes plates pinned to blocks of white-on-white background fabric.  The center circles are cut, and I'm ready for the next step:  appliqueing the dishes to their backgrounds and finishing them off with the centers.  The camera is still  returning from Turkey, so pictures are limited to the size my scanner can handle. 
The technique for creating these fan/dish wedges is easy.  Yes, it's yet another looks-harder-than-it-is quilt pattern.  I'm about half finished with writing the pattern. Writing the pattern as I construct the quilt is interesting.  I find I have to go back and double check yardages and directions the next morning, because too many times I get involved and don't stop before !:00 AM.  I'm creative late at night, but my math skills aren't as sharp as during the day.  (Here there are people laughing in the background at the idea that my math skills are ever sharp.  Let's just say that quilters need Geometry and basic Algebra, and walk away smiling)

I suspect I'm going to make this pattern again.  The "layer cake" cuts are just right for giving lots of variety but not leaving too much left over.  Did I just imply that it is possible to have too much fabric left from a project?

The plates are 11 inches in diameter, and the scanner bed is 9 by 12.  Hmmmm.  Really need the camera to come home.

What do you think about commercial patterns with photographs ( black and white) instead of diagrams?  Is it confusing to the maker who is using fabrics other than those in the pattern?

Well, I'm off to make circles.  Somewhat more productive than running in circles.

Quilt Market Mania and Fish Tales

This is a quilter's dream:  thousands of fabulous fabrics thousands of quilts, thousands of patterns, thousands of people who love the same things we do. Marjorie and I went to Quilt Market in Salt Lake City last weekend with Renae Allen of RGA Designs www.rgadesignquilts.com which was far more fun than work. Marjorie posted photos and a running commentary  at Applique Addict. www.appliqueaddict.blogspot.com

One of our favorite events was the Quilt Market Blogger's Meet-up (some days you just have to check the  English degree at the door and enjoy the evolution of the language) held at the Blue Lemon cafe just down the block from the Salt Palace and Quilt Market.  The question of whether Quilting has a Future was answered:  there are plenty of energetic, enthusiastic, and gifted young quilters, and they are telling the world about it.

Many of our market conversations resulted from mentioning quilt blogging, and it is great to find that there are plenty of age enhanced quilters who are diving into the world-wide quilt conversation.

Batik Mimbres Fish

The fish photo is of the center of the "Grandpa Says I'm a Keeper" baby quilt I'm working on.  The applique is the project I had in my bag at market (Never leave home without a portable project) which resulted in finding the perfect  colors in new thread varieties for the needle-turn applique. I have two more threads to test-drive for my experiment.

So, I've a dozen ideas for new quilts swirling in my brain, and I need to get them on paper, and then in fabric.  Along with a bit of cooking and a lot of cleaning to catch up after being in Quilt Mode for a week, I'd better go.  Cheers!

Sophie's Wild Rose

Sophie's Wild Rose quilt is so bright it is almost as exciting as Sophia Elisabeth herself.  The back of the quilt is white to show off the geometric and floral figures of the quilting.  I used  variegated pink, green, and white threads on the top and white on the bobbin.  This is my "Bear Paw Backwards" project.  The pattern will use flying geese instead of half-square triangles for the green leaf points.  I had the design in my head, and then on paper, but I didn't start cutting and stitching until Sophie was born. It was a great pleasure to have it done to take with me to meet the baby. For my great excuse for not having the quilt done before the grand-baby arrived, see my February 26 post!

Color transfer in laundering

Mia's quilt border is an applique design by Julia Popa.  The machine quilting in the border is free-hand leaves and vines.

When I shifted to using mostly white backgrounds, I worried a bit about colors bleeding.  I usually pre-wash cotton fabrics, but in this quilt the pre-cut charm pack squares were sewn into the checkboard center before I thought about the possibility of bright colors bleeding. My final step with quilts is machine washing and drying, so color bleeding can be a disaster.  Fortunately, these fabrics are all absolutely color-fast. 

Pre-washing fabrics has plenty of advantages, but what if we didn't prewash that gorgeous dark red batik border, and it bleeds into the black and white fabrics of the quilt?  Does this sound like the beginning of a sad tale?  It's worse than sad, it was a Christmas Eve disaster, except that this story has a happy ending.  I washed the quilt again with a 'color safe' oxygen based bleach.  That helped, so I did it again, then washed the quilt a third time to be sure there were no chemicals left behind.  It will never be perfectly white and deep black again, but its pretty much white and convincingly black with a red border, rather than black and pink. 

Since my Christmas adventure, I've learned about Shout brand Color Catcher laundry sheets, an easy prevention of color transfer disaster.  So, yes, I usually pre-wash all my fabrics, but for those projects where there is any question, I use a Color Catcher sheet in the "I'm almost finished" laundering of new quilts.

Esther Aliu's Heart's Desire Block of the Month

Esther Aliu has a new Block of the Month applique mystery quilt called  Heart's Desire. Her designs are gorgeous. www.estheraliu.blogspot.com  I'm using a combination of back-basted needle turn applique and reverse applique.  Here are the first two colors basted on the first block.  Marjorie has a different color scheme and applique technique at www.appliqueaddict.blogspot.com.

Sophie's Quilt

Sophie's Wild Rose Baby Quilt:  center

Sophie's quilt is my newest Huckleberry Baby Quilt.  The center is a needle-turn applique five petal Wild Rose.  The surrounding blocks are my Wild Rose blocks, the result of one day saying, "Hmm.  I wonder what happens if Bear Paw blocks are assembled backwards?"

Bear Paw block construction diagrams

 
The white background of the wild rose block doesn't really show the reverse Bear Paw of the layout. The Flying Geese segments are actually pairs of half-square triangles.

Sophie's Wild Rose pieced block

I  had been working on "Buffalo Gals," but when Miss Sophie's mama asked for the wild rose quilt, it seemed like a good idea to make it first. Sophie decided to take her time, and was born today; the center of the quilt is almost done; all of the pieced blocks are pressed and ready for final assembly. I'm aiming for finishing assembly and quilting before she's a week old.