Turkey Tracks: Clue 4 is Done

Turkey Tracks: December 18, 2016

Clue 4 is DONE!

But not without a learning lesson…

…44 learning lessons to be exact about it.

So, NOTE TO SELF: when you are tired and it is time for dinner, STOP. No matter how close you are to finishing something.

These Tri-Rec units do have some key things to which one should pay attention.

When putting the first purple piece, yes, match up the bottom and sew to the top/wide side. When pressing, use a dry iron and just pat the seam down as the OTHER SIDE is on the bias and very stretchy.

When sewing the next strip, DO NOT just rip through the pile without checking how things are coming out every so often.

I did 44 of these without checking things:

DO pay as much attention when laying down the other purple side. Yes, the bottom needs to line up, BUT those two little triangles at the top do as well. I got fixated on the bottom and ignored how the top was so NOT matching up.

Why didn’t I see this problem? Because I was too busy pushing pieces through the machine.

Here’s how the bottom should look:

Here’s how the top should line up==the triangles at the top should MATCH. The edge of the neutral piece may be a bit stretchy, but it will fall in when you sew. You could pin it to be sure. And, again, don’t be ironing the first side down with steam or lots of pushing/pulling without thinking about the opposite, raw, bias edge.

Then you will get a unit that has a nice straight top that only needs the protruding triangles trimmed.

If your top is NOT straight, take out the seam and start over.

I hope I have saved some of you from ripping out 44 purple pieces and resewing!!!

(This unit is from Bonnie Hunter’s 2016 Mystery Quilt “En Provence.” All instructions and “clues” are on her blog, quiltville.com. Look for the tab on the top of her blog header–along with a lot of other wonderful tabs filled with free quilt patterns, tips and tricks, how-to videos, etc.)

Turkey Tracks: On My Long Arm Machine

Turkey Tracks: November 7, 2016

On My Long Arm

Here’s what is on my long arm machine today:

The tumbler block was the Bonnie Hunter leader/ender challenge for 2016–a challenge that runs from July to July.

This year’s challenge is the Broken Dishes block.

You can see Bonnie’s tumbler quilt and what she is doing with the new challenge on her blog. Go to quiltville.com.

Bonnie’s tumbler is smaller, and I like it better in many ways. I had a 3 1/2-inch template, so I used it with my 3 1/2-inch pre-cut strips–except for the veggie/fruit fabrics, which I have collected for a while and wanted to use. This seemed a good project for them.

This quilt is on the long-arm lengthwise–which means fewer passes with the long arm and NOT having to fight backing seams with every pass.

I’m using a spring green thread, and that is nice.

Wait until you see the backing fabric!

Turkey Tracks: “En Provence,” The 2016 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

Turkey Tracks: November 3, 2016

“En Provence,”

The 2016 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

I picked up the paint chips today.

Of course, Bonnie uses a wide variety of fabrics in each of these colors–which makes for a quilt with lots of hues. Nothing is flat about Bonnie’s quilts.

In addition, there are about 3 yards of neutrals.

You can get to this posting, which just came out, on Bonnie Hunter’s Quiltville.com. Go to the blog, look at the upper listing of sub-sites on the blog, for the mystery quilt, “En Provence.”

If you have any idea that you might want to make this quilt some day, which will start the day after Thanksgiving, print out the instructions each week.

Turkey Tracks: “Allietore,” Bonnie Hunter’s 2015 Mystery Quilt

Turkey Tracks: January 6, 2016

“Allietore”

So, since I returned from Charleston after a splendid Thanksgiving with my children, I have been working each week on Bonnie Hunter’s “clues” for her 2015 Mystery Quilt, “Allietore.”

Just before New Year’s Day, I caught up with all the “clues.”

Could a quilt come from this pile of “clues”?

Some of the individual units were really interesting to make–and we used Bonnie’s two favorite rulers a lot in this quilt: Easy Angle Ruler and Companion Angle Ruler.

See those little red clips holding together the blocks on the right? I LOVE those clips and am finding all sorts of uses for them.

Here are pics of the individual units so far:

Bonnie “revealed” “Allietore” New Year’s Day!

What a gift!

Here’s her computer picture, likely done on EQ7.

Here’s her own quilt in fabric–note that she has scalloped the edges:

And here are the two blocks:

These are the COOLEST blocks. Thank you Bonnie!!! There are, really, just four main colors–red, gold, black, and grey–so these blocks are going to be gorgeous in loads of colorways. It has been so fun to see all the differing colors people are using on Bonnie’s Facebook quilt studio.

I still have to cut the red and gold block centers AND some red fabric for the corner and inner border treatments, but…

Unfortunately, I can’t get to this quilt until I get the second of the two granddaughters’ quilts off the design wall.

All in good time…but I got some fabric today for the gold inner border and the black outer border. They are currently in the washing machine.

That’s progress of a sort.

YOU can print out her patterns from her blog–go to quiltville.com and click on the blog button–for a bit more time. Then she will sell this pattern.

Bonnie meticulously explains each and every step for making one of her mystery quilts.

Turkey Tracks: Playing With Fabric “Crumbs”

Turkey Tracks: December 21, 2015

Playing with Fabric “Crumbs”

What do you do with small pieces of quilting fabric that are too small to use in something like a strip or a square?

I learned from Bonnie Hunter to call them “crumbs,” and to use them. Quilting fabric is now around $12 a yard and the width has shrunk from 44-45 inches to 40-42. (How greed can kill an industry.)

Like Bonnie, I throw these pieces in a bag and when it gets full, I start a project that uses them. I also throw in large trimmed pieces that have been already sewn together.

(At the very least, you could use these scraps to stuff a dog or cat bed…)

Here’s my ongoing “crumb” project:

Some of the pieces are larger, but would not cut into a 2-inch square. I don’t cut into 1 1/2-inch squares because they would be too bias stretchy. I use 1 1/2-inch strips to form small squares.

I played with making fabric from the crumbs–which was kind of interesting. And you could cut squares out of a piece like this and use the remainders to form more blocks. If you use those blocks as a center with sashings around–or as a center to a larger pieced block, you’d have an interesting quilt.

Right now, though, I’m interested in creating sashings. So here’s my growing pile of sashings:

I cut my large piece of “made” fabric into diagonal strips measuring 2 2/1 inches wide. I use a backing piece of paper to sew these sashings and then I trim them up on the cutting board. I can sew strips together to get the length I want.

I’m thinking of using these with this block, which you’ve seen before:

Stay tuned…

So, I warn you…

This kind of “play” is addictive.

Turkey Tracks: Allietare: Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilt 2015

Turkey Tracks: November 15, 2015

Allietare:

Bonnie Hunter’s 2015 Mystery Quilt

I’m ready!

I leave for Charleston, SC, to be with my family for Thanksgiving, but my fabrics are ironed and ready to go.

Allietare, writes Bonnie, is Italian, and means “joyful,” “abundance,” etc. Bonnie, in her introduction at quiltville.com (the quilt’s instructions are on the top tabs), says this quilt was inspired by her recent trip to Italy. She will post the first clue on Black Friday–so I will be a bit behind the starting gate as I will get home on Monday. Guess what I’ll be doing first thing December 1st…

Here are my fabrics:

The colors:

The grey will be constant in the quilt. The rest, in true scrappy fashion, I will mix up as much as possible.

And the neutrals and paint cards that serve as a guide:

Turkey Tracks: One Quilt Top Finished

Turkey Tracks: November 3, 2015

One Quilt Top Finished

I got the final borders on this quilt last night–and the pics here do not do it justice. The border fabric is so cute with this quilt, for instance.

I have loved working with these bright prints and these so-fun neutrals. (You can see part of the other/companion quilt hanging over the bars on Lucy the Longarm.)

I’m going to call this quilt “Yellow Bird,” after the repeating bird in the borders.

To remind this quilt block, Carolina Chain, was designed by Bonnie Hunter for her “Addicted to Scraps” column in Quiltmaker magazine.

I am thinking that though I do have backing fabrics bought on sale that what these two quilts need is some sort of cream/black/neutral backings that match…

Not sure what I’ll do yet, so will finish the other top before deciding.

Turkey Tracks: “Garden Tumble” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: October 23, 2015

“Garden Tumble” Quilt

I don’t know…

This quilt is either the ugliest quilt I’ve ever made OR the funkiest fun quilt.

Bonnie Hunter’s current leader/ender challenge is to make a quilt with the tumbler patch. And there is something very sweet about traditional one-block scrappy quilts.

I had a 3 1/2 inch thick sturdy template bought years ago AND a lot of the veggie and fruit prints in my stash. So here’s what evolved.

Someone on Bonnie’s FB site for her fans suggested making a darker “self” border by combining dark blocks.

I like the darkish red binding…

And, here’s the backing:

Here’s a close-up of some blocks:

AND:

I quilted with a light fern green thread that’s nice on the back–using Debra D. Geissler’s 11-inch pantograph, “Deb’s Swirls.”

I think “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” with this quilt. It is funky and fun and just “is what it is.”

Turkey Tracks: “Bee Beauty” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: October 6, 2015

“Bee Beauty” Quilt

I finished the “Bee Beauty” Quilt.

I have so loved working on it.

You may recall that I spent the summer making light/dark 4-patch blocks out of my 2-inch square scrap bin. Here’s one use of those four patches. There were about 6000 squares in that bin, and I wound up with about 1600 4-patch blocks.

You may also recall that this block is a Bonnie Hunter block–as she designed a quilt using this block for the American Patchwork and Quilting 2015 scrappy challenge–using 4-patch blocks. (Bonnie’s web site is at quiltville.com.)

This pic of the quilt is not great, but I have fallen in love with it and will save it for a grandchild.

Here is a block. I quilted with limey green thread with the “Lovely” pantograph by Denise Schillenger.

The backing fabric I’ve had for a long time, and I’m pleased with how it worked with the front of this quilt. I chose the dark purples and limey greens from the backing fabric:

The backing has a strip of this block to make up for not having enough of the backing fabric.

Here’s a corner so you can see the binding and border fabrics:

It’s just such a fun, lively quilt:

I like it so much I’m going to make it with a cheddar background:

I can see red sashing, I think. Mercy!!

Turkey Tracks: Quilty Update

Turkey Tracks: September 2, 2015

Quilty Update

…and time just keeps on marching on…

…it’s been a lovely summer…

…and I’m looking forward to fall.

So, as usual, I have a lot of quilting projects “in process.”

This quilt, as yet unnamed, is on the long arm:

You already know that the block is Bonnie Hunter’s block for the American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine‘s four-patch 2015 challenge, AND that this is the first quilt using blocks from the sewing I did for most of the summer–making light/dark four-patches from the two-inch square bin.

The backing is a fabric I bought on sale some years back:

You can see part of the pantograph in the above picture. I’m using a limey green that goes well with the green in the quilt and in the backing:

I will finish with the long arm later today–“God Willing and The Creek Don’t Rise”–as my dad used to say.

I’ve been trying to make one of Bonnie Hunter’s most recent blocks from her column in Quiltmaker magazine every day or do…

Bonnie Hunter’s 2015 leader/ender challenge is to use the tumbler block. It so happened that I have a really nice tumbler template bought years and years ago AND a bunch of veggie/fruit fabrics also purchased years and years ago. So, I seem to have gotten a little side-tracked with this project, like making it a main project, not a leader/ender, and look what’s happening:

I added some fabrics to the collection to get more variety at the Pine Tree Quilt Guild state show in late July when I knew I’d use these fabrics with the tumbler block. Otherwise, I had way too many reds, oranges, and greens.

Using the dark prints together is making a nice border–something Bonnie suggested somewhere along the way.

Finally, Coastal Quilters issued a little challenge at the June 2015 meeting. The organizers gave us a brown paper bag with a collection of fabric, including a backing piece to indicate size. We were to create whatever we wanted, and we could add some fabric, but we had to use some of all the pieces in the bag.

I made a little quilt called spring moon:

I added the green polka dot background, the orange chicken legs, and the chicken’s neck fabric.

Here’s a close-up of the chicken:

(I may move her eye back just a hair. I used a picture of one of my chickens, and the bead is where the eye is in the picture, but it isn’t translating quite right here.)

I quilted with the domestic machine and by hand with pearl cotton.

Why this chicken?

I spent the summer looking at the fabric I got, and the black and white fabric looked like it wanted to be a kitchen or bathroom floor. Or, a foyer. And I just could not get excited about that idea. Eventually I worked my way around to the chicken. AND, one factor was that in an earlier challenge I made a black and white picture of my Copper Black Maran rooster, Napolean.

So now he has a sweet little hen named Spring Moon to accompany him in his quilty journey:

	louisaenright on A Scrappy Idea
	wendysquilting on Fun Play Time…
	vquiltmaker on Fun Play Time…
	celiamalm on A Scrappy Idea
	Jan Corson on The “Shattered” Pr…

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