What's on the Design Wall? BOM-day

It's block of the month -- BOM -- day!

And today, I am determined to make good progress on my first UFO for 2015. It's Ryokan, a block party at Ruth's Stitchery in 2013. That means this is the third year I've been working on this quilt!

Here's what the pattern illustration looks like:

 "Ryokan" by Joe Wood for ThimbleCreek Quilts.

This quilt will be a gift for the Younger Son, who lives in Japan. When he saw the quilt while home on leave last September, he pointed out that he now has a "full-size" bed, not the narrow, short "rack" he had on the ship. So I biggie-sized the quilt, adding eight more blocks to make a total of twenty.

You'll notice there is one block missing. That is the last block, not yet finished. It's called "One More Block" from Judy Hopkins' 501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks. Appropriate for the last one, don't you think?

Here is a close-up of some of the blocks. The 1" frames are around all the blocks now, and more than half of the cobblestone sashing is pieced. 

Linking up to What a Hoot Quilts for BOMs Away Monday.

I'm hoping that my DVDs of Season 5 of Downton Abbey will arrive today. That will give me a good excuse to hibernate in the sewing room with the TV on!


From the desk of your

Sunday Stash: 2015 Jelly Roll Party Choices

I always have so many strip patterns, it's hard to choose which 12 to make for the next year! So I get help from the Jelly Roll partiers!

2015 Jelly Roll Party Patterns

Month                  Pattern                                      Designer                           Publisher

January                Strip to Shore                           Gudrun Earle                    GE Designs

February              Solar Eclipse                            Elisabeth Hartman            ohfransson.com

March                   Twirl                                       Joanna Figueroa                Fig Tree & Co.

April                     Drop Diamonds                      Daniela Stout                     Cozy Quilts

May                      Zig Zag Gets Me Everytime   Zen Chic

June                      TBD

July                       Strip Twist                              Gudrun Earle                    GE Designs

August                  County Fair                             Sherri McConnell             A Quilting Life

September            Birch Bark                               Sam Hunter                       Hunter’s Design Studio

October                Olympia                                   Daniela Stout                    Cozy Quilts

November            A Pretty Package                     Susan Marth                      www.SusnQuilts.com

December            No-Measure Bargello              Wendy Mathson               Cozy Quilts

If you aren't close to Colorado Springs, it would be fun to have you party along with us long-distance! If you can't find the pattern at your LQS, contact Ruth's Stitchery and one of the lovely ladies will be happy to do a mail-order  for you.

Patriotic fabrics are always in demand here in Colorado. So when Ruth's got these two jelly rolls in, I lapped them up in a hurry. Both are from Moda. First is "Red, White & Free" by Sandy Gervais:

And one I've designated for the July Jelly Roll Party (and a Quilts of Valor quilt), "Because of the Brave."

My special treat this week is the new "Downton Abbey" collection from Andover. Around the Block Quilts in Cheyenne, Wyoming hosted a Downton Retreat last Winter. When Barb announced she was ordering fat quarter collections of the entire line, I called her with my credit card number the very next day.

Don't those colors look yummy? I'll open the ribbon and play with the fabrics sometime soon -- and I promise to share more photos when I do.

Tomorrow is BOM (Block of the Month) day. As you can see from my checklist, I need to sew like the wind if I'm to have all my BOMs Away by the end of the year!

From the desk of your

BOM-Day

Wheee! I'm all caught up on my Blocks of the Month. OK, at least the ones that meet this week!

First, I worked on next section of Sample This! 

I'm making it twice, once in the colorway shown on the pattern cover (above) and once in the same fabric collection, but in the green colorway (below).

This "sampler" takes a long time because of the many fabrics in each section. Plus the fact that each 4.5" square is three different fabrics! It's going to be an incredible quilt when it's finished, but -- boy, howdy!

This is Marti Michell's "5 is Fabulous" block party at Ruth's Stitchery. In Bonnie Hunter's new book, More Adventures with Leaders and Enders, she recommends making the setting blocks as "leaders and enders" while piecing the main blocks on a quilt. Doh! This one is much easier than the Sample This! quilt, but I think it's going to be someone's favorite when it is finished. 

Here are the Quilty Fun rows I finished this week:

That second row from the top is supposed to be autumn leaves. At our Block Party, we decided they look more like fishing bobbers.  Anyway, here are all the rows I have finished:

Yes, the rows are different lengths. I decided not to add the end pieces until I have all the rows finished. That way, I can adjust so the rows are the same length.

I can't believe I sewed 6-8 hours every day last week and that is all I accomplished?  Oh, well, I DID bind and mail the Farmer's Wife quilt, and piece, quilt, and bind the August Jelly Roll Party sample. And make 10 Block a Day Shoo-Fly blocks. And finally get the patio planter boxes planted. And Skype with My Little Sailor from Singapore.

Tomorrow is the July 1st UFO Parade. Come back to see what the 12 in 2014 Challengers finished this month!


From the desk of your

On the Design Wall: Last of the Farmer's Wife Blocks

I've finally completed the last four of my Farmer'w Wife bocks!

This isn't the oldest WIP I've ever had, but it's probably the oldest established permanent floating WIP in my history!

I started the Farmer's Wife quilt in the Spring of 2010 after I saw the book at the Pueblo Quilt Expo. Being a Farmer's Daughter, I thought it would be a fun quilt to make. Lucky for me, Karen at High Country Quilts was offering it as a BOM.  She designed foundation-pieced patterns for many of the more difficult blocks. I plugged away at the blocks until early in 2013, when Marti Michell released her From Marti Michell templates conversion chart for the quilt. Using the templates did make the blocks easier to piece at the perfect 6.5" square!

I had only a few blocks left to make when I decided this would be the perfect 50th anniversary gift for my brother and his wife. He is the only of my brothers who became a farmer.

And so, voila -- the last four of the 111 Farmer's Wife blocks:

The blocks, clockwise, are: #42 Fruit Basket; #50 Honey's Choice; #101 Wedding Ring; and #106 Wild Rose & Square.

Sashing and setting this quilt is going to be challenging, as not all of my blocks are exactly 6.5" square! Since the anniversary party is scheduled for June 27, I have less than one month to finish it -- so this will be the only thing I work on for the next few weeks.

I just noticed 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks has 499 followers on Bloglovin'. I'm thinking the 500th follower will call for a major giveaway. Keep watching this space!

From the desk of your

BOM-day

Are you keeping up with your Blocks of the Month? I'm about halfway there for April; fortunately, April is just half over!

Ruth's Stitchery, my favorite LQS, hosts an assortment of Block Parties each month. And you know what a sucker I am for Blocks of the Month!

Here are blocks from two of the block parties in which I participate. First, not really "blocks," but a unique sampler quilt from Stephanie Prescott of A Quilter's Dream.

This is Step 2 from "Sample This" in two colorways.

The brown and black is the colorway in the cover illustration. After I bought the kit from Quilter's Stash in Windsor, Colorado, I found the green colorway at High Prairie Quilts in Parker, Colorado. I didn't find anyone to buy the brown kit from me, so I'm making two quilts.

As Anne Marie, who made the sample at Quilter's Stash, said "The hardest thing about this quilt is deciding which colors go where." Too true! Especially with the green colorway, as there is no guiding photo.

Here is a view of the finished quilt, from Stephanie's pattern:

Next month's step requires an unusual ruler, the Thirty-something Square Up Tool by Gayle Bong. Stand by for a tutorial!

Another block party is making "Quilty Fun" by Lori Holt. Lori's books are so bright and colorful. Our class instructor, Beth, is great at showing alternative ways to make the blocks. This month, we made apples.

Here is a close-up of my favorites: the new Queen Anne apple from Washington, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Braeburn, and the ever-popular Red Delicious.

Our next assignment is Flying Geese. Luckily, the clever people at Bloc-Loc tools have made a tiny Flying Geese ruler. Go here for my tutorial on using this best-of-tools for Flying Geese.

The 2013 Scrap Squad for Quiltmaker magazine is having a "bee" to make blocks for each of the members. Here's the one I made for Nicole. It's from Vol. 7 of "100 Blocks" magazine, #663. If you look closely at this block in the magazine, you can see I altered it a bit. It bothered me that the blue points were cut off, so I made my points "sharp!"

Linking up to BOMs Away at What a Hoot!

I "shopped" another Shop Hop this weekend. Come back tomorrow for a tutorial on one of the new tools I bought!

From the desk of your

Monday BOM Day

This week's BOM is no ordinary Block of the Month.

Rather than four rows of three blocks, this one is put together in seemingly random parts. It's "Sample This!" from A Quilter's Dream.

I made another quilt from the same designer last Fall and found the pattern challenging. Sample This! is definitely not for the beginning quilter, nor for the faint-of-heart. It somewhat reminds me of European knitting patterns -- it assumes the person making the project knows a lot about quilting! Lucky for those of us making this quilt as a Block Party at Ruth's Stitchery, Cathy sews each step ahead of us and has lots of good tricks to make things easier.

The hardest part of this pattern is determining what fabric goes where. Cathy recommended using a large piece of cardboard to arrange the eight fabrics needed in the first section of the quilt.

The "focus fabric" is used in each section:

I cut only one fabric at a time, so I could keep each with its assigned number:

I also made labels for each of the half-square triangle combinations:

Then arranged each section on my cardboard:

It took four hours to make these two sections! Whew!

 

And I am making the same quilt from two colorways, so I have the same two sections ahead of me!

Linking up to BOMs Away at What a Hoot.

Come back tomorrow for a tutorial on making lots and lots of four-patches!


From the desk of your

BOM-day

It's the first Monday of the month, and that means it's Block of the Month Day!

After just about killing myself last month getting caught up on BOMs, I am determined not to get that far behind again! So this weekend, I made all the BOMs for which I already have the fabric.

First, the easiest one. It's the 2013 Patchwork Party block. This year, the blocks are laser-cut and ready to sew when they come in the mail. What a great idea!

This month's block is from Fabric Essentials:

Yes, the edges of the pieces look a little "singed." That's a result of the laser used to cut the fabric, but not to worry, it's all hidden in the seam.

Next up, the other two Patchwork Party blocks. The one on the left is from 2010 and the one on the right is from 2012. Both blocks are the same design, "Waring Square."

Both the 2010 and 2012 Patchwork Parties use Marti Michell's templates. One of the block parties at Ruth's Stitchery next year will also use Marti Michell's templates -- I can't wait to see what it is!

I have only one more block to make for my Amish With a Twist quilt. Here is "Hole in the Barn Door."

I decided I don't want to use black for the background -- too predictable! I saw a customer buy some lovely aubergine Northcott solid fabric at the shop the other day, maybe my background should be purple!

I'm plugging away at my 3D Patchwork Sampler blocks. I really should place my hand in the photo to show how small these blocks are! Each pinwheel finishes at 4"!

It takes the better part of a day to make one month's worth of these tiny blocks, but they are so worth it!

Last but not least, four more Farmer's Wife blocks:

Clockwise, from upper left, Block #95, Temperance Tree; Block #63, Ozark Maple Leaf; Block #53, Jackknife; and Block #24, Country Path.  Only four more blocks in this quilt, woo hoo!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

I have quite a list of "Quilt To-Dos" for November. What's on your list this month?

From the desk of your

Design Wall Monday: BOM Catch-up

After three days of sewing nothing but "Farmer's Wife" blocks, I am caught up on all but one of my Blocks of the Month projects!

First up, finally a second colorway for the "Toes in the Sand" BOM from the Quilt Asylum. Yep, that's Tula Pink's Saltwater.

Two different colorways of the same blocks from two different years of Patchwork Party (left two are from 2010, right two are from 2012).  The more I use Marti Michell's clever templates, the more I love them!

This quilt will be the first one I put together for the 2014 UFO Challenge -- because I want to take Ryokan to Japan as a housewarming gift for My Little Sailor!

My Amish With a Twist BOM from Ruth's Stitchery is almost to the point where I can decide on a background color. I decided the black was just too predictable. Ruth's has the entire line of Northcott Premium ColorWorks Solids, so there will be a perfect color just waiting for me, I know!

This isn't one block, it's part of the "piano key" border. I appreciate that the pattern has you make a few of these each month, rather than a whole passle when the blocks are finished. They're boring!

This is my shining accomplishment of the week! That's 18 (count them. I've counted them about 100 times, I can't believe I made that many 6.5"  blocks at once!) Farmer's Wife blocks!

If you're the least bit interested in making a Farmer's Wife quilt (and I love the ones in blogland made with modern fabrics, or just two colors. But never again!), I highly recommend you sign up for Marti Michell's "Farmers Wife" conversion charts. She sends one free set of instructions per week, and the next round of 10 sets begins Friday, October 18. Using her templates, the blocks go together like a hot knife through buttah. 

Here it is, my "BOM Control Central" board. That 3D Sampler quilt from Cindy's Quilt Shop is still kicking my butt. The blocks finish at 6" and the 3D technique requires insane amounts of concentration!

And here is the "October Quilts" list. Since I took this photo, I've crossed off ONE item on the list -- the jewelry roll test sew.

A teaser photo of that project: It turned out great, but we'll have to wait until Laura publishes the pattern to see the finished product! (And BTW, Amy, she says "thanks" for the photoshop tip!)

Since this post is already enormously photo-heavy, I'll leave you with a screen shot of my new desktop wallpaper. That's the USS George Washington, CVN 73 (that means aircraft carrier) departing Busan, South Korea.

Fair winds and following seas, Sailors!

From the desk of your