Double Wedding Ring / Metro Rings Quilt

Some sewing progress is being made.  Summer activities are starting to take up more time...  I have now made all the strip sets, plus some extras for pillow shams and in case I need more of one colour than another, depending on the final layout.  I now have 1/3 of them cut into arcs.

Next step is to cut out some of the background pieces.

Double Wedding Ring Quilt / Metro Rings

Awhile ago, I did a practise baby quilt with this pattern which I'm making for my daughter and her fiance for her wedding.  If you click on "Double Wedding Ring / Metro Rings" in the list on the side bar you can see all the previous posts.  Today I cut out all the coloured fabric for the strip sets for the rings.  I had to be very careful as I had no extra fabric.  Here are all the leftover trimmings with nothing big enough to save.

I have 16 of the 40 strip sets sewn together.  Here's a peek at some of them.

Ainsley has told me that she is OK with me showing the progress of this quilt, but before I show anything more, I need my daughter to post a comment on this blog to say for sure yes that she wants to see the quilt in progress or no that she wants to wait and have it be a surprise. 

Dear Jane Quilt, G10, H10, I10 & J10 - 49 of 225

Lately I have been blogging each time I have five blocks made but right now I have a seven by seven section done so thought that was a very good point to make a post with four blocks made.

I made G10 yesterday.  It had a lot of pieces but was just piecing rows and then sewing them together and then trimming to make it square.  Here it is with the picture.

And here is the close up.  I think it turned out really well.

I also made H10 which was simply two half square triangles, some strips and four quarter square triangles.  I paid attention to the fact that the corner hour glass blocks have the colour vertical, but I have the centre reversed.  Ah well, not worth taking apart and resewing.

Here's the close up.

I also got I10 made. I didn't bother with the little bit of black on the outside of the squares near the border.  I pieced the four edge triangles and cut out a template to cut them into the barn roof shape and then I did partial y seams to get the centre star in place.  It was fiddly.

And here's the close up but don't look too close.

Today I made J10.  It is one of the blocks that is all orange peels and I have made them using a faux cathedral window method.

Here's the close up.  I like the purple oranges peels framed with black better than the black oranges peels framed with purple.

And here are the first 49 put together.  I took the picture outdoors and some of the yellow blocks really look washed out.

I now have to put this aside and work on some other sewing projects.  I've been having so much fun I've been working on it too much and ignoring other projects.

Dear Jane Quilt, I4, J4, D10, E10, F10 - 45 of 225

I made this block three days ago with a faux cathedral window in the centre surrounded by half square triangles and flying geese.

And here's the close up.

Next I made J4 which was very easy.

And its close up.

Yesterday I made D10.  I paper pieced the two square in a squares but not the half square triangles

Here's the close up.  I really like this block.

Then I made E10.  It was pretty easy with only two cathedral window orange peels.

Here's its close up.

Next I made F10.  I redrafted the corner diamonds so they went all the way out to the corners and paper pieced them.  I made a strip set for the sides and made a template so I knew what angle to cut the edges at.  I also made the coloured strip go all the way out to the edge.  It was fairly easy to put this together using two really gentle y seams.

Here's a close up of F10.  I like this block too.

So, here is what 45 blocks looks like altogether.

A few of you might have noticed that D4 and D6 have swapped places.  I made D4 the wrong colour so it had to move to the D6 spot, so then I just made D6 the right colour to fit in the D4 spot which was easier than making D4 over....

It won't be long until I'm working on another round and more importantly,  I'm still having fun!

Finished Nautical Baby Quilt with Gift Bag

I put the binding on the quilt a few days ago.  Here's a picture before washing.

I was waiting to hear back from Glorianna what she wanted written on the label so I could finish off the gift bag.  Here' a close up of the binding and the texture on the quilt all nice and crinkly from being washed and dried.

Here's a picture of the quilt and the gift bag which I made out of left over pieces.

And here's the quilt in it's gift bag ready for gifting.

I have also made pillow cases to match quilts and gifted the quilt inside the cases.

Flower Arranging for Quilters

I participated in a workshop yesterday put on by my quilt guild called Flower Arranging for Quilters.  It was taught by Anne Morrell Robinson, one of Nova Scotia's most renowned quilters.  It was a fun and informative class and I would recommend taking a class from Anne if you get the chance.   You can browse her website by clicking on her name above.  These are the pieces I made in the class and this is how I arranged them this morning, but not how I had them arranged yesterday and will not likely be the final arrangement by the time I am done.  In class I had them arranged overlapping and not symmetrically.  Today I was going for symmetrical which I like except for the central yellow flower.  I think I need to tilt the two purple flowers out further so I can place the yellow flower higher.

I have to decide what colour vase to make to replace this one which will contrast better with the background.  I am thinking of turquoise.  I also have to add a lot more little flowers to fill in the gaps.  I know I am going to start with some orange ones.  The green random strips are just trimmings from stems in case I need them when I rearrange things.

This will be a work in progress for awhile.  If it turns out well, I plan to make a queen size medallion quilt using this as the centre.  If it turns out that it doesn't warrant that amount of commitment, it will become a wall hanging or a smaller quilt. 

Nautical Rail Fence Baby Quilt Plus a Few Older Ones.

A co-worker I haven't seen for approximately six years contacted me to see if I was still making baby quilts.  I had made two for her a dozen or so years ago.  She wanted a nautical baby quilt made the same way I had made the others.   I said yes of course and after buying fabric started making strip sets.

It only took me three hours from cutting the strips until I had the top made.  The next day I quilted it with a paper pantograph using a laser light on my quilt frame.

Here's a close up so you can see the anchors.

You can see them better on the flannel back.

So now all that's left is the binding and a little drawstring bag made with the left over fabric to gift the quilt in.  I won't get to that until the weekend as I am attending an all day sewing class on Friday.

I went looking and found a picture of some of the other quilts.  Glorianna is holding up one of the gift bags and the quilt to go in it is on the desk in front of her.  You can also see a little bit of the gift bag for the other quilt peeking out from under the quilt.  I don't appear to have taken a picture of the second quilt but it was made with a blue gingham and Noah's ark fabric in both blue and yellow.  I made the labels on the bags by printing on specially treated fabric with a coloured ink jet printer.

 Here are several more rail fence baby quilts which were made for other co-workers who all seemed to be having babies around the same time.  It was awhile ago, but I think Marilyn and I pieced them and I quilted them and she bound them.

This one isn't quite in focus.

I really like the sheep flannel on the back of this one.

They are good sized crib quilts, 36" x 48" before washing.  I'll post again when I get the latest one bound and the bag and label made.  This label will just be hand written though.

Dear Jane Quilt, D4, E4, F4, G4 & H4 - 40 of 225

I started D4 a couple of days ago and got it pieced, but didn't get the orange peels opened and sewn down.  I made the orange peels Monday.  I used my Tri Recs ruler for the triangles and strips in the outer border and made mitred corners to orange peel.  Here it is with it's picture.  I think it's a very good likeness.

And here it is close up.

I made E4 on Monday.  I redrafted it a bit so the central diamond went right out to the corners of the block and so that the little triangles went right out to the edge of the block as well.  I decided to paper piece it in three sections and made the central diamond out of two triangles instead of one piece of fabric.

And here it is sewn together with its picture.  The changes I made didn't take away from the block at all and simplified the piecing.

Here is its close up.  It looks crooked, but it is an optical illusion, it is perfectly square.

Today I made the first violet block, F4.  It was pretty simple.

And it's close up.  Love the colour.

Next I made G4.  It had lots of tiny pieces, but was easy to paper piece.

And it's close up.  I like the effect from starting with lighter fabric and working out to darker fabric.

I then made H4.  I made three templates for the shapes and then "Y" seamed them together.

And the close up.

Five more blocks done and still having fun!

Victoria and her Wedding Triad Quilt

Here is one last picture of the Triad Quilt with Victoria, her husband Dave was off running an errand so we didn't get a picture with him.  Ainsley took this picture.

Judging from the grin on her face, I think it is fair to say she was quite happy with it!

Triad Quilt, Bound, Labeled and Finished

On Wednesday, I got the quilt trimmed and made the binding and bound the quilt.  I also made a cushion cover with some left over blocks.

On Thursday, Ainsley came over and we took a few more pictures.  Here's Ainsley, happy with how the quilt and cushion cover turned out!

On Friday I got the label sewn on the quilt and my husband took its final picture before gifting.

Victoria's wedding is tomorrow and we found a gift bag printed with green and white triangles!

For all previous posts, you can click on the label "Triad Quilt" in the right hand margin to see the quilt being made from start to finish.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday