New Blue Table Quilt

 

This is my interpretation of the Happy Stripes quilt. I made some strip sets then decided where the snowball triangles should go.

After that I decided to custom make each block, so here is how I decided how to make the blocks.

Then I used a leftover HST to figure out where the white HST would go, and took a picture so I would know how to sew it together.

This has eight rows, and I need nine, and I wasn't thrilled.

I tried rearranging the blocks, but this didn't exactly thrill me either. I needed nine rows and this left a row of what looked like half blocks that looked weird. 

So I put it all back the way it was, and started sewing it all together.

Last month I sewed rows in a quilt the wrong way - TWICE - so I worked out a way to make sure I got the rows in the right place:

I used safety pins attached to the left edge of the quilt. For rows one to five, I attached that number of safety pins to the edge. For rows six through nine I put one safety pin in the bottom half of the block, representing FIVE, and then in the top half the number of safety pins that plus five would add up to the row number. In the photo above you can see rows six and seven.

Hey, whatever works!

The quilt needs a name. it's blue and white. Got any suggestions?

June Table Quilt

It's already a week into June, and I finally put the June table cover on the dining room table.

There is a new addition to the tablescape. I broke my butter dish a few months ago, and finally decided to replace it.

I bought this octopus painted butter dish by Sara Hunter on Etsy. 

The Zebra tutorial is a day or two away. There is one final area that needs a bit of work, but it's really really close.

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It's That Time of Year...

Time to change up the table quilt. Much as I love the Blue Deco quilt, autumn is here, and it is time for the Fall House Top quilt to grace my dining room table. Since this quilt is so big, I added one of the extra leaves (extensions) to the table to make it bigger. I changed the bowl, too.

When Megan was here, she inquired about the quilt on the table. "Don't you worry about it getting wet, or stained?"

"No. It's washable."

She said she wouldn't do it (at least that's what I think she said. I'm sure she'll correct me if I got it wrong.) But that's fine with me.

Good and Bad

I finished assembling the blocks for the Peppermint Candy (Red) quilt. Finally.

Then I tinkered, measured, and trimmed a couple of blocks, then sewed a sample pair together. This pair of blocks is WRONG. It's what happens when you keep working past your bedtime when you really should have gone to bed. You can count the squares to figure out why.

This pair is GOOD. (Again, I'll let you count the squares to figure out why.) **

So now I know what I am going for. The layout on the design wall can now be rearranged to evenly distribute the reds, and to avoid the dreaded BLOBs, or areas of "too much dark" or in this case, "too much busy" together. (A geeky aside: a BLOB is a real term in computing, specifically in database management. It means "Binary Large Object.")

Once I get the layout nailed down, (I need two more rows to the design in Saturday's post to get the size I want for my dining room table), I will start taking the blocks off the wall, trimming them to size and sewing them together.

To Nancy, who wondered if I could fix the first pair: Yes, of course, but I have to unsew the two long rectangular blocks from each other, then trim to size, first. Which I will likely do later.
 


** OK, I'll tell you. A pair of blocks when sewn together should be a square, that is, with the same dimension on each side. The original block is what I call a "long rectangle." For the rest of the discussion on this blog, a pair of long rectangles sewn together will equal one block. For them to be sewn together properly (every other block rotated 90 degrees), the block needs to be square.

PS: Check out the SSOBB barn exhibit from AQS Chattanooga at the Build a Barn blog, and at Teresa's blog.

Got It!

I really wasn't happy with any of the layouts in yesterday's post. Then when Sandi told me she thought one layout made her think of legs in high heeled shoes, well that did it. I knew I'd never be able to look at that design and think of anything ELSE, so that was surely out.

I liked the central part of this where the four Y shapes came together, but I didn't like the rest of it. So I thought, what if I flipped those outer blocks around?

That created a lovely shape - the two large white HST's slid off center, and the four big red triangles created a big square that connected the other components.

So this is it. I really like it. Now I have to figure out how big it has to be, make the rest of the blocks, trim them all down to size, arrange the blocks so the values are evenly distributed and assemble the flimsy.

You know, that's all. Just a couple of little things.

(snicker)

Red All Over

I've been sewing the last piece to my red and white blocks, and since I couldn't wait, I had to put some up on the design wall to see what they might look like. Bear in mind these blocks haven't been trimmed, and I haven't put much effort into arranging the blocks by fabric.

This is the layout from the book. It just doesn't sing for me.

In this layout, alternate rows rotate. I think I like this best.

This is the same layout as the one above, just rotated ninety degrees.

In this layout all the blocks are lined up the same way.

I decided to tinker a bit, and played with these, above. The middle pair in the far left column should be rotated 90 degrees, but oh well. I am not sure about this one. Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to sew it up this way.

What comes next? Finishing the blocks, and trimming them. And then I'll worry about any layout.

Red Grows

 It's time to add the big white HST's to the Red blocks.

So far, three sides of this block are on the bias, so I have to handle the pieces very carefully.
 

Half of them are finished. When those are done, I have another Red HST to sew to the block to complete it.

To refresh your memory, here's what a finished block looks like.

I'm not quite 100% sure about this, but since it will be a table quilt, I know I can live with it.




For  today's photo of Little Miss, you'll have to visit Millie's blog.

Red Table Cover

So this is a test of the design I am working on for my red table cover. I've flipped the values from the original and I am not paper piecing this, so this is an experiment in how I'd make it and how big to cut things. I've got a little adjusting to do, but that doesn't concern me. I'll get there.

I want to make a few more test blocks using the different fabrics I have because I want to get a better idea if what I see in my head is exactly what I'll end up with. After that I'll get going. I'm really eager to get sewing again.

I Am a Bowl Freak

My name is Lynne and I am addicted to bowls. I think a nice dining room table should have a nice bowl on it. So I have a few bowls.

Don't believe me? Check out these photos...

This is the Christmas Random Plank quilt, with a red bowl for the holidays. (Yeah, Millie decorates the table also.)

My Picnic Table quilt (a Rail Fence) that I use in the winter seems to like this white bowl.

The Blue Deco quilt is topped by this asymmetrical silver bowl with blue on the inside.

The Fall House Top quilt is graced with a large wooden bowl.

My friends Julie and Larry have given me a couple of very beautiful bowls that I love very much (even more so because Larry made them.) Here's one of them.

So now that Spring is here, I'm using Julie's Hidden Potential quilt on my dining room table. It's green. OK, maybe it isn't all green, but it's spring-y. And it needed.. okay, I wanted... a new bowl for it, so I went shopping.

These were the two that spoke to me at the store. I set them down on the floor next to each other so I could decide. Wasn't a tough decision.

But you know me. I'm never satisified with the status quo. I've gotta keep pushing. So I drove myself to another store. You know, that import one.

I walked around and found this. The glove should give you a sense of the scale. This plastic covered wire bowl is about 36" long. They had a smaller one, about 18" long. I held them up and asked the clerk, "OK, if this is the Pappa Bear, and this one is the Baby Bear, do you have a Mama Bear?"

Um no.

Hmm... I had to think. I don't even have a table cover for this bowl yet.  Well, not quite yet, but I know which one it will grace.

YEAH!!!

*btw, the table covers are not all the same size, and that's intentional. The Fall House top is the largest, designed so it will fit the table with all three extra leaves in place and both end flaps raised. At that size, it can seat twelve. The Black and White Slashed Squares isn't quite as large, but will fit the table with two leaves in place, so it will seat eight to ten. I knew the big bowl would work on the table when it is extended.

The Stack - The Plan

A couple of weeks ago, I showed you this picture of a stack of fabrics.

The strips are 4" x 11" and I think there are 200 or so of them.  So what did I do with them?

I asked Julie if she'd cut them into tumblers using her Accu-Cut gizmo. (I think that's what it's called.)

So I sent them to Tennessee, Julie cut them up, and they came back yesterday.  "I liked looking at the colors and fabrics you chose," she said when we talked on Sunday. "It's going to be a very pretty quilt."

I picked the colors and fabrics thinking of Spring. I sewed a few random pairs together to see what they might look like. It's going to be a table quilt.

So, OK, here they are:


Winter - "Picnic Table"

Spring will be the Tumblers (above)

Summer is the Blue Deco

Fall is the Fall House Top (away being quilted)

And last is the Christmas Random Plank.

All were made from fabrics from my stash.  (Yikes!)  I wanted them all to be scrappy, yet different. I don't think the Spring one is going to take long to make. I think once I get started it'll move right along.  You all know I love to watch Tennis on TV. Well, the French Open is going on right now, and I can sew and watch tennis at the same time. How good is that?

Yeah, I know I'm nuts.

Heh.