Another finish!

So, we are off visiting my parents, but I did manage to get one more thing done before we left--

 Vin du Jour is now a completely finished quilt!

This turned out so well and is destined to hang on the wall of my office this fall.  It measures 48 by 48 (or so) and will fill the wall nicely.

The quilting on this turned out so well.  Diane did a beautiful job, as usual. It was a good decision to take it to her.  This is a quilting design called Simple Feather, which I use a lot, and is quilted in a pale yellow thread. Here's some detail:

Loving how this turned out!

On a different topic, have you all heard about the Row by Row Experience shop hop? It's a "hop" that involves 1250 shops, each of which has a free pattern for one row of a row quilt. While we are travelling we are stopping at several quilt shops, and many of them are participating. Go HERE for more information. At the very least, the website is a really good list of quilt shops across the US (which is how I originally found out about it). And I did remember to bring those white and red 4 patches to look for some coordinating fabric, so I have a mission in each shop.  No way we're getting to all 1250 though.

Have a good and relaxing weekend everyone!

If I have some Internet access, I will link up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts again.

Scrap happy

Whew! It has been a long week. Why does everyone seem to think smashing in "one more thing" would be good and helpful? There's not enough week to do it all. But we all lived through it!

Along with managing all my "stuff," I finished the Vin du Jour project this week.

 I used a piano key border, and that made me remember why I don't do piano key borders very often. Holy cow, those corners gave me fits! I first made them and they were way too big, then I remade them and they were still too big, and then I finally just trimmed them down so that they fit the border. I should have just made miters, but I thought that would take too long. I am really happy with the way it turned out and really, really pleased that I used those scraps. I have four 2 inch squares of the yellow left, along with some random strings of the other fabrics. That's it! Good use of fabric, wouldn't you say?

Not sure if I will quilt this myself or take it to the longarmer. It's about 49 by 49, right at the edge of what I feel comfortable quilting on my machine. Plus, the border is pretty stretchy, so I will probably take it to Diane. I guess I made up my mind while typing that sentence.

I also made my green triangle blocks for the Rainbow Scrap challenge:

It was very gray outside when I took this picture, so I think that affected the colors. The one on the left is not nearly as light as it appears in the picture.  Here they are with all their colorful friends:

This will be a pretty quilt! I like it already.

Since May's color is green, I think I might find something to do with this strip set:

This was a "candy bar" set I got from my local quilt shop quite a while ago. I'll bet I can think up something fun to do with it. Any ideas?

Everyone have a good weekend! We will have commencement and such to do, then I really have to do some heavy cleaning around here. Maybe I'll even clean the sewing room. Who knows what I'd find there? The only sewing I'll get to do is garment sewing. Why don't workout clothes have pockets? I need them!

Linking to Sarah, Amanda, and Scrappy Saturday again. You should go on over and take a look at the great eye candy!

More Vin du Jour

I may have said this last time, but it has been a very stressful week. I really dislike giving final, high-stakes exams. I just don't think a large part of assessment should ride on one test. The rules say we have to have an exam, though, so I give exams that aren't a huge part of the grade for students. You would think this would be less stressful, but it isn't, because everything has to be completed in a very short time, especially for graduating seniors. So lots and lots of anxiety on all sides this week. Thank goodness it's Friday, and the last exam is over.

Working on my little scrap project kept me sane this week, but I did not finish the quilt completely. I did finish the center, though! Here it is:

Not bad for a bag of scraps! These blocks are really big. This measures about 37 by 37 already. One reason I didn't finish it is that I haven't got any large pieces left for a border. I kind of like it without a border at all, but I do think a border will set off the stars in the center. So I need to make a piano key border to use up the small pieces I have left. That would be a good use of the fabric and a nice finish, I think. I have just enough of the yellow to make either a small inner border or a binding. Not sure which one is the best use of the yellow. I'm thinking the small border, but I might change my mind.

As I said last time, this pattern (found HERE with tons of other free patterns) looks complicated but really isn't. Big pieces and easy shapes, even though it doesn't look like it in the finished product. One thing I found really useful is to cut a pattern for the circles out of freezer paper and iron it onto the pieced stars before trimming them into a circle. This works a lot better than trying to draw or trace the circle and then cut it out. Less chance of scissors slipping. Also, when putting the frames on the circle, stitch with the circle on top. That way the feed dogs can ease the frames just a tiny bit, just enough so that everything fits right. (If you want some more tips on the pattern, check out the earlier post. It really is a good pattern and not very difficult.)

I really do love these fabrics, and I'm really glad I saved them (for several years!) for just the right project. I also think this was the right pattern to finally use them in. But can I complain one more time about the waste? LOTS of waste in this pattern! Good thing I use white scraps all the time!

Anyway, that's where I am right now. I'll be grading (and grading. . .) this weekend, so not a lot of time to sew. I don't really sew much on the weekends, anyway, because there's a lot to do, and it's really the only time the hubster and I have together. Weird, I know. If I get a chance, though, I will be cutting my way through this:

This is a bin of small scraps just waiting to be cut into 1 1/2 and 2 inch squares. I should be able to find some time for that, right?

Everybody have a great weekend! Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, especially the new moms. You're all doing a great job, and don't let anybody tell you different!

Linking to Sarah and Amanda again. Go check out everyone's great projects!

Vin du Jour

It's a very stressful and busy week here. Final exams, final papers, grading, more grading, meetings. . .it's a lot to pack in to one week. To keep me sane, I am working on a pattern that I thought would be easy enough and still engaging enough to let my mind rest a bit. I always stress a lot over final grades, so I need to do something to get my mind off it for a while. The pattern is Vin du Jour, a free pattern from Moda fabrics which you can find and download HERE. Even if you don't go there for this pattern, there are a ton of other free patterns there, so it's worth checking out.

I thought that making a few blocks from this pattern and then creating a small wall hanging would be great for some scraps I saved that I really love.  They are the scraps from this quilt:

The fabric is Portugal by April Cornell. I just loved this fabric so much, especially the yellow. This quilt hung in my office for a while, and I think I may hang it again this fall.  It just makes me happy to look at it. I had a good-sized pile of scraps from this one, and I saved them all together. When I saw the Vin du Jour pattern I knew this was the place to use them. It just seemed right.

This makes some really pretty giant blocks (18 inches!), but it's a weird pattern. First of all, it calls for a really expensive and limited-use ruler to make the center of the block. Since I own enough pieces of plastic, there's no way I was doing that.  I just made a kaleidoscope block, like this:

I paper-pieced mine, but there are a lot of different ways to make it. (It's a 6 inch finished block.) Just be sure to use white in the corners so that the pattern finishes out correctly in the larger block. You could even use a solid piece of fabric and just "snowball" it by adding triangles to the corners to create an angled snowball block if you didn't want to piece it. After making the center, the pattern has you make quarter square triangles and cut part of them off, like this:

Okay. A little odd, but it does work. I don't know how you'd get the final design otherwise, really. Then there are frames for the block (more waste!) and then the center is cut into a circle and the frames are joined to it. It sounds complicated, and it looks a little scary in the pattern, but it isn't really. Just takes some attention--and pinning. You end up with this really pretty block:

Isn't that a nice design? I like it. It is giant, though, so I only have enough scraps to make four blocks, which will be plenty big enough for a wall-hanging or table-topper. I may have to make a piano-key border, though, or something similar, because I don't have big pieces left after cutting everything.

One thing about this pattern--there is a LOT of waste. I cut up a whole yard of white fabric for the backgrounds, and that's just for four blocks! I ended up cutting off a lot of it to make the circles, plus what I lost in cutting for the frames and lopping off the quarter-square triangles. Good thing I was using scraps! If I had used new fabric I would have been really mad. Fabric is too expensive to waste that much of it. Pattern designers, are you listening?

Anyway, that's what I'm doing to save my sanity during the next few stressful days. I hope to finish it by Friday, just after the last exam. We're having thunderstorms today, which seems to suit everyone's mood, especially the students'. It will all be over soon.

Everyone have a good Wednesday. I am going to link up with Lee at Freshly Pieced. She gave a presentation at our local quilt shop and her Wavelength quilt is outstanding! Hop on over and have a look!