Thursday, March 31, 2011

Unfurnished Quilt by Film in the Fridge

I entered "Project Mode" on Saturday morning. For those that don't know, or have not experienced this phenomenon, this is when all other basic needs such as sleep, nourishment, and hydration, become secondary, or even tertiary concerns to the project at hand. The project has the driving force of a freight train on the individual and one is unable to focus on anything else. Frequent, "mmm-hmms," are heard from a person in Project Mode that one is may be trying to converse with. A supportive spouse who also can, at times, delve into project mode and therefore has a personal understanding of the condition is also needed to survive this time period. When quilting in this mode, one does math in one's head while supposedly sleeping and is constantly calculating yardage and counting blocks needed. This mode is what drove me to finish my king sized quilt top in a matter of 4 days. Ridiculous, I know, and I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but it's the truth.




I do have to say my previous calculations on yardage were off. I ended up doing an extra column of blocks and I still had extra blocks left over. I think that from the pattern I used, I cut my blocks on the wider side of her measurements, which is what led to the excess. I do have to say that this quilt has a TON of waste, but I don't see how the "wonky" look could be achieved otherwise. I did piece my quilt a little differently. I chain pieced all the sashing. I cut sashing 3"x wof (width of fabric) for all steps of sewing sashing to the blocks to eliminate some of the waste. I do think the chain piecing helped me complete the project way faster than what was written in the directions. This quilt was very enjoyable to piece and I would recommend it, although a lap quilt size might be a little more fun. Now I need to figure out the backing.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

How buying binding...

Turned into making a quilt for my king size bed. So the baby blanket that I sewed in my last post is what catapulted me into the project of sewing a king sized quilt for my bed. I had gone to Strawberry Patches to buy ric rac for the blanket I was sewing when I saw a blanket with minkee binding cut on a bias. I had some in my stash at home so I was thinking that my trip wasn't going to cost me anything. That's when I looked up and saw Moda's Chrysalis line.



I was smitten and my wheels began turning. I ended up buying some of that fabric and I headed home to look for the perfect quilt pattern. I was torn between doing a Stacked Coin pattern or Film in the Fridge's "Unfurnished" quilt. I was overwhelmed by the wonky rectangles, but ultimately, that pattern appealed to me most.






Next, I found this quilt online that used my Chrysalis fabric and Kona's Stone for the sashing.



I love this color combo so this is what I'm using.

Here is a link to the "Unfurnished" quilt pattern for anyone who is interested.

I think I've also figured out the the fabric needed as well as strips needed to make a Queen size quilt and a King size quilt.

King= 93x103
24 1/3 yard cuts or 32 1/4 yard cuts
120 strips needed
I'm not sure about the sashing yet

Queen=90x92
28 1/4 yard cuts or 21 1/3 yard cuts
90 strips needed
Again, I'm not sure how much sashing will be needed

I'll post pictures as my project progresses. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Cars Baby Blanket

My teaching partner is having another baby and this time it's going to be a boy! She is also decorating the room with cars so a cars blanket was on order. My first order of business was to find some more of Alexander Henry Traffic Jam fabric for the blanket. This was no easy task. After searching google for quite a while, I found it. The rest of the blanket was all from my stash.


I am really pleased with it and I hope she and the baby will love it too. Now on to my two other projects...

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Angry Birds

This week I found a tutorial about how to make Angry Birds. Since Ryan loves the game and has previously played his own version by building a block tower with a little pig inside, I decided to make plush Angry Birds for his game. They've been a lot of fun to make and we've had a good time building our block towers, then throwing our birds at them. Ryan's plan is for me to sew the other species of Angry Birds this weekend. We'll see...