Another New Project

When I originally drafted this post, it was to contain the details for a new project - a Halloween quilt.  Technically it is two - my plan was to do two designs from Blackbird Designs that would be on each side of the quilt making it reversible.  The patterns are Hallowe'en 1904 and Midnight Silhouette.

I had purchased the fabrics in the early part of the summer and thought it would be just a matter of clearing the decks to get this project done for the Halloween holiday.  Work was supposed to start during the summer with the plan to spend September doing the quilting and have it on the bed promptly for the start of October.  But when September started without the quilt under way, I thought I'd settle for it to make it on the bed by Halloween. I was even encouraged to see that Sinta of the Pink Pincushion blog was also doing Midnight Silhouette and I'd get to have the fun of sewing a project and watching someone else's progress on the same project.

Well needless to say with all that build up you know what is coming.  When the last week of October hit and I was still pushing to finish the Dresdens, I knew it was inevitable.  When the Dresden top wasn't completed by the day before Halloween as hoped, I knew my last ditch plan to spend Halloween week at least starting this project was now history.  So what I was ultimately trying to avoid happened:  like the Valor quilt, this one won't see its holiday until next year.

So with that, what am I working on?  This quilt in progress:

New Project on the Design Wall

 This is a project called Safari Stars.  It is based on the pattern by Sue Harvey that was once on the Quilter's World Magazine website (but there is no longer a link there now for it) and has been on the HSY (haven't started yet) list since 2007.  I've always had big plans for this as a quilt for display and had a specific spot picked out for it at our old apartment.  In our new home, I have a display space opposite my living room where I currently have my basket quilt hung but wanted this quilt to become the semi-permanent display for this area. I also believe that when I have other quilts I want to display in the future in this general area , this quilt will meld with those better than the basket quilt does.   I am hoping this one will be quick work although I am looking forward to challenging myself by adding embellishments on it too.  What kind?  Don't know that yet and while I have some ideas about what I'd like to do, I am also going to see where this one takes me.  What I do hope is that it will be up on the wall before my family comes for Thanksgiving.  Of course now that I've said that, I hope I haven't put the "Next Year Curse" on it!

On A Roll!

Hot off the Dresden finish, the Chronicles Month 8 blocks are done!  In one day no yet, a new record!

But there will be no resting on my laurels:  I still have two more months of blocks in house to work on and the Month 11 packet should come in the mail sometime in the next two weeks.  Then there is an new challenge:  to quilt the pile of flimsies now sitting on the cutting table:  

I also have two other projects I want to try to tackle but we'll have to see if I can get those started.  Enjoy your weekend!!!

Bloggers Quilt Festival Is Here!

It's here, it's here, the best week of the year! 

The Fall Bloggers Quilt Festival is in full swing at Amy's Creative Side.  Click on the link below or on the side bar and enjoy a parade of wonderful quilts!

I don't have anything in the festival this time but I will be drooling over all the lovely things everyone else is showing and picking up new blogs to follow.  So get right over there and enjoy the virtual show!

Merrimac Dresdens & Chronicles Update!

I have great news to report:  the Merrimac Dresdens top is finally complete!!!!

 

Block detail

I have to admit, this project became an obsession in the past few weeks.  It got to the point that I was not going to be satisfied until this top was completed and I had to really focus to get it done.  I am so glad this one is now in the flimsie pile.  I already have the backing fabric (see pic below) and have picked out the quilt stitch designs for it and look forward to getting it quilted soon.

Added to that I got two more months of the Chronicles BOM done since my last report.  Two weekends ago when I thought I'd be finishing up the Dresden project, I made plans to work on the Month 6 Chronicles blocks.  Once the Dresdens were all "plated" and moving on to the blanket stitching and sashing, my cutting table was empty for a moment and I realized that it was a good time to cut the pieces for the next (for me) month of Chronciles.  This month only called for four blocks and for once didn't require a bazillion HSTs.  I cut the pieces out on a Sunday and they were completely sewn up by Tuesday, the fastest turnaround I've had so far for this BOM.

I love these blocks!  I love the cheddar fabric in them and am trying to source some more since I've long wanted to build a stash of repro cheddars.  But I also love the way these blocks look together.  I don't normally go for quilts that are made up of one (repeated) block.  But this one creates so much interest with just the one block that I feel like you would get a lot of "Bang for the Buck" with it.  The secondary patterns and visual lines created really excite me.  So I am already thinking that I might make these again and create my second "one block" quilt (my first was Eleanor Burn's Quilt In A Day Bit's and Pieces Irish Chain quilt that you can see here).

After I had two rows of the Dresdens sashed and felt I was finally moving into the home stretch, I began to think about what was still to be done for the next few Chronicles months.  Month's 7 - 10 were already in house and Month 11 is expected sometime this month.  I figured if I could make one month's blocks in each week of November I'd be completely up to date by the start of December and then would only have to wait for the last month's packet to come in to finish the top.   

For the Month 7 packet I was back to needing a bazillion HSTs but the blocks were almost completely made up of them so I figured if I could print out, layer and sew up triangle sheets it would mean getting to the block sewing that much faster.   I sewed the sheets up in between sewing the blanket stitching and sashing on the Dresden block rows and cut enough of them apart to make up the first block on the Sunday before Halloween.  Then over next two days I cut the rest of the triangles apart and made the last three blocks. 

I realize that this block is larger version of the "Chisolm Trail" block I did for the Quilt In A Day "Pioneer Sampler":

So for the first time this year, I feel like I am on track.  However there is still a lot of other stuff to be done: a stack of flimsies to quilt, another new project to start, an old WIP I plan to get back to next week and of course the next month of Chronicles.  There's never a dull moment around here!

Nose To The Grindstone Finally Paying Off

Good news!  The Merrimac Dresden blocks are almost finished!

After working on the Crumb Houses last week, I went back to these Dresden blocks figuring I'd have the top done by the time this week's Tuesday Crumb Along rolled around and could return the focus to the houses.  But for some reason I was dragging, not speeding along on these.  Sunday my husband and sons went to the NY Comic Con and I thought I'd have a Quilt-A-Thon day to myself.

 Instead I only got a few blocks done to finish the third row (but did get a lot of rest otherwise).  I really want to get this top done now because in addition to the new Crumb project (and finishing the quilting on the old one), I have a Halloween quilt project that was supposed to have been started already!  Not wanting to add even more flip flopping between projects, I decided to focus on getting this one done before moving on (or back) to other projects.

The opening picture showed the four rows I have of the five to be done.  On the machine is one block towards the fifth row.  Funny thing about that:  After completing three rows on Sunday, I went to set up the last two rows of blocks.  I was running low on Dresden blades and needed to know if I needed to cut more.  For some reason at that point, I thought I was short one background.  And of course, I didn't have enough of that particular background fabric left to make a block.  I did have enough of another background but it had to be pieced together.  Then to have enough blades to fill all the blocks, I had to do some "Poverty Patching" of what was left of my blade fabrics.  When I was done I had this:

I worked on the blocks again and when I finished the fourth row yesterday and put the blocks up on the design wall, I found that I had an extra block!  I don't know how that happened and now the pieced block and blades may be going on the back as a label.

There is still a lot to do:  finish the last row of blocks, blanket stitch them to their backgrounds, sew circles over the centers of the plates, border each of the blocks, put the center of the top together and then piece the outer border.  O.k. just listing all that tells me this top is not so close to being finished after all.  But as Michele of the "Distracted Quilter" blog so perfectly expressed in a recent post (in both text and video), you have to keep taking steps (no matter how small) toward your goal if you want to reach it.  So I will put my focus on the process and not the end because I already know the answer to the question "Are We There Yet?"!

Continuing To Catch Up

The other week I was so pleased to get  the "Chronicles" Month Four blocks done and I am glad to report that Month Five is done too.  Once again, triangle sheets became HSTs....

 

 Then additional triangles had to be cut to finish the blocks.  I was little short on one of the fabrics so needed to make a few "poverty patches" to have enough of them.

And with those, I finished all sixteen corner blocks!

I finished them two Saturdays ago and just in time:  Month 9 arrived in the mail the same day.  Yes, I am still way behind but at least I'm also still moving up the ladder!

When they were finished, my plan was to take a short break from "Chronicles" to work on two other projects (like many I suffer from Quilter's ADD).  The first was that I started piecing some house blocks for Jo's Crumb Quilt Along.  What's been done to date was reported on here. 

The second was to clear the last "new start" on the table: I've gone back to work on my "Merrimac Dresdens" blocks.  This one is important to me for two reasons:  it is the third in the series of Civil War fabric quilts I've worked on this year and a Dresden Plate quilt is one of my "Bucket List" quilts.

Right now I've got one row done and hope to finish the remaining three rows by the end of the week and add the borders for a completed top this weekend.   Yes, I know the usual ambitions, but will it get done?  We'll see!  One things for sure:  as always there's alot going on in the city that never sleeps!

Crumbling More Houses!

Having finally got on board the Crumb Along, I was able to add another house block today to the ones I started making this weekend:

You can read about my plans for these and how I got them started in my last post. 

When Jo announced the Crumb along I hadn't realized was that she was planning to do tutorials for specific (liberated) block units made of crumbs (like flying geese and stars). Today's log cabin blocks go right along with what I am doing with my houses so I hope in the coming days to make a few of those as well as some of the other units too.  While these were not originally in my house quilt plans, I am now thinking about how I can use them as border or sashing blocks or fodder for the back or label.  If all else fails, they can become orphan units for another quilt.  We'll see what develops!