The Joys of the Shape Cut

So while doing the Postage Stamp Quilt Along, I learned about the June Tailor Shape Cut Ruler. I finally had a coupon when it was in stock at Hobby Lobby about a month ago.

It was love at first use. Yesterday, I cut those 3" squares for the Steelers quilt in about five minutes - slice, slice, slice - turn - slice, slice, slice.

However, I noticed that you really had to pay attention to where your hand was, because with all those lines, it's a little hard to tell where you're going to be cutting in the middle of the fabric.

I thought about doing a little post, extolling the virtues of the ruler and jokingly adding the warning.

Ha ha, joke's on me!

Okay, seriously, people. Pay attention to where your hand is on this ruler.

Because it hurts A LOT to slice off the side of your index finger.

No stitches - it was too clean of a cut. It throbs, but I have Tylenol with codeine, so it's a manageable pain.

Though for the next few days, I'm going to work on some things that don't require cutting.

Work in Progress Wednesday - Week 9

Quilts of Valor "Just One Star"

 I don't follow instructions - I made four "just one star" blocks. One for my husband (an Air Force pilot), one for our friends and family currently serving, one in memory of those who have passed on, and one for my husband's cousin, who was wounded in Afghanistan in August 2010.

It's close to the deadline, but not too late to whip together your star and send it off!

Hunter's Star: 54 blocks finished. I'm almost halfway!! (*sigh*)

 Steelers Quilt - I cut all the remaining blocks this morning so I'd have an accessible leader/enders project (and won't be tempted to start another.) Final count will be ten 10" finished blocks in each color.

iSpy Sliced Coin Quilt: cut about five more novelty prints. I should really get around to counting what I have.

Untouched This Week:

Frolicking Pinwheels

LQS Saturday Sampler 

 

Awaiting Quilting:

Bad Romance

Layer Cake Quilt Along (top competed this week) 

In Planning:

Rudolph Quilt (the Dude)

Hunter's Star (my sister)

Non-quilting:

Second Snow White commissioned.

Knitting bag and pattern holder for my sister. Fabric is here!

This Week's Stats:

New Projects: 1

Completed Projects: 1

In Progress: 11

Check out more at Freshly Pieced!

Design Wall Monday - Week 17

Still the Hunter's Star...

And I'm not even halfway there...

And I have to make another one after this one...

Check out more design walls on Patchwork Times!

Sunday Stash Report - Week 17

Finished the Layer Cake Quilt Along top! So that's a decent amount busted - I have one (black striped) layer cake square leftover. Between that one, and the leftovers from the COW purse, I see a B&W scrap quilt in my future.

And I bought nothing! Literally. I forgot to buy a dye kit for eggs. Did you know food dye works? (Duh?)

1/2 cup boiling water, 1 tsp vinegar, and whatever color your small child desires.

Used this Week: 3.52

Used Year to Date: 52.4

Added this Week: 0

Added Year to Date: 69.96

Net Used for 2011: (17.56) yards

Check out how everyone else is doing on Patchwork Times!

Layer Cake Quilt Along - Top Finished!

It's done.

I do really like the border.

And I'm glad I went for cornerstones instead of the stars. It would have been a bit too busy, in my opinion.

I really wanted to set it on point, but the basket looked weird every way I turned it.

I used 6" borders, so it finished around 56x70".

And now it's getting folded up and put on the "needs backing" pile.

C.O.W. Purse - Finished!

Well, I can't say I figured out how to take good pictures of a purse, but I managed to take a couple decent ones.

(Just ignore the slight blur. I was laying across the guest bed with the camera dangling off the edge to get the shot. These are the only doors decent enough to take a picture on.)

It's a basic slouchy purse, about 16x12" with a 3" wide strap that's about 30" long. No pattern, just guesswork.

Inside there are three pockets; two on one side, one on the other. The bottom is about 2" deep - just enough for the paperwork or school work the recipient always carries.

The outside fabric is from Hobby Lobby. The inside bears a little explanation. My husband's squadron is a joint Air Force/Navy one. The Navy tradition is to call the Commanding Officer's Wife a C.O.W. Our COW is leaving soon, and I wanted her to be able to think of her year as COW whenever she opens this bag. :)

And on a semi-related note, yesterday my husband went from being a captain to a major-select. Woo!

Work in Progress Wednesday - Week 8

I'm cheating - I'm posting after a quilting retreat day at my LQS. So I'm much further along now than I was this morning!

Layer Cake Quilt Along - done to the top and bottom borders, which are cut and ready to go. It's wrinkled because after cutting the borders, I realized I was late for school pick-up and shoved everything into a bag. Fabric can be ironed; kids can't wander around a school without parents. At least, not kindergartners.

Hunter's Star: around 40 blocks finished, and the new fabric is in so I can continue working on it. I'm aiming for 88x80" which is 110 blocks, so I have a long way to go.

Frolicking Pinwheels: all the sets of five are sewn together. On to slicing and dicing!

I've actually been working on the iSpy Sliced Coin Quilt as well - I made it to a city with a comic book store and picked up the inserts everyone has been blogging about to fold fabric. (Yes, it's amazing.) So as I've been folding, I've been slicing my novelty fabrics and the pile is growing.

Finished: Cow purse (no pictures until I figure out how exactly one takes good pictures of a purse.)

Untouched This Week:

Steelers Quilt

LQS Saturday Sampler

 

Awaiting Quilting: Bad Romance

In Planning:

Rudolph Quilt (the Dude)

Hunter's Star (my sister)

Non-quilting:

Second Snow White commissioned.

Knitting bag and pattern holder for my sister. Fabric is here!

This Week's Stats:

New Projects: 0

Completed Projects: 1
In Progress: 11

Check out more at Freshly Pieced!

Layer Cake Quilt Along - Blocks Six, Eleven & Twelve

I'm finished/caught up on the Layer Cake Quilt Along. And... I don't think I like this kind of "sampler" quilt along. I just didn't like not knowing what I'd need in future blocks, like a stronger green for the flower bud. 

Overall, I think my quilt isn't very cohesive (versus, say a pinwheel sampler or a Civil War sampler.) 

All just personal preference, of course. Lots of the LCQAs in the Flickr group look great.

Anyway, my last three blocks.

Totally changed.

Changed layout slightly.

Totally unchanged.

I'm doing a simple cornerstone sashing instead of the stars, so I should be done with the top this week.

Design Wall Monday - Week 16

On the wall today, I'm trying to lay out my Layer Cake Quilt Along.

Looking at it now... I don't want two star blocks in the second row. I don't want the two "boxy" blocks on top of each other on the right side. I seem to have more blocks dominated by blue than I thought. And I chose a blue border? Eek!

Not to mention I still have to make the last block before I start sewing anything together.

Check out more design walls on Patchwork Times!

Sunday Stash Report - Week 16

This week was a bit of a haul, but it's all stuff for projects I'm actively working on, and some will go right back out this week. Right...

On the left, 5 half-yards of Mon Sheri for my Hunter's Star; one yard of Henry Glass Sewing Room Social for the knitting stuff my sister wants me to make.

On the right, 2.67 yards of Boutique to add to the Frolic pinwheels - this includes backing, though. Three-quarters of the neutral dots for sashing my Layer Cake Quilt Along; 1.75 yards of Happy Campers for LCQA borders.

Unpictured is 30" of black Kona for the Steelers quilt and a yard of pink Kona for the Hunter's Star.

There was a little bit of out in a purse that I don't have good pictures of yet. Stay tuned!

Used this Week: 2

Used Year to Date: 48.88

Added this Week: 10.5

Added Year to Date: 69.96

Net Used for 2011: (21.08) yards

Check out how everyone else is doing on Patchwork Times!

Work in Progress Wednesday - Week 7

This week, I devoted most of my time to the Hunter's Star, so I'd know how much more yardage to order. (The answer: a lot.) 

 I have 31 blocks completely done and another 30 near completion, but I need 100 (or so) for the top. Long ways to go.

On the plus side, I'm really enjoying my Frolic leaders/enders since I ran out of black for the Steelers quilt. Each 5-strip set makes a 19.5" pinwheel (actually, two, but I'm only using one per quilt.) So nine pinwheels will make a nice 57" square. I just need to pick up three more strips from somewhere - Lollipop, probably. 

Finished: Come Sail Away Quilt

Untouched This Week:

iSpy Sliced Coin Quilt Along
Layer Cake Quilt Along

Steelers Quilt

LQS Saturday Sampler

Awaiting Quilting: Bad Romance

In Planning:

Rudolph Quilt (the Dude)

Hunter's Star (my sister)

Non-quilting:

Second Snow White commissioned.

Knitting bag and pattern holder for my sister. Fabric should arrive this week. (Didn't I say that last week?)

This Week's Stats:

New Projects: 0

Completed Projects: 1
In Progress: 11

Check out more at Freshly Pieced!

Come Sail Away - Finished!

My started-vaguely-in-2006 sailboat quilt is finally done!

It looks almost nothing like the pattern it was based on. But I love how it came out. The boats were fun and easy to make, and gave me lots of practice on HSTs, flying geese and equilateral triangles.

The swirls were quilted by the wonderful Paula, who taught me everything I know about piecing but still lets me chicken out on free motion quilting.

It measures approximately 42x48.

The majority of the fabrics on the front are Bar Harbor by Minick & Simpson (Moda) and Nautical & Nice by Sandy Gervais (Moda). The back includes the panel Pirate's Life by Nancy J. Smith and Lynda S. Milligan (Avlyn).

I'm linking it to Fabric Tuesday on Quilt Story.

Design Wall Monday - Week 15

The Hunter's Star is moving right along, although I think next time I'll go with three colors to get more definition to the stars.

And since I ran out of black Kona for the Steelers leaders/enders, I started a new one. Good solution, right? 

This is a Frolic jelly roll, five strips sewn together and cut to 10.5" squares, matched with Andover Dimples (my go-to neutral) and HST-ed into pinwheels. Simple and oh so adorable.

Check out more design walls on Patchwork Times!

Sunday Stash Report - Week 15

I'm cheating and not counting the fabric I got to make clothing from the local thrift store. Mostly because the haul was around 10 yards, and also because a lot of it won't ever end up in a quilt, so I won't count it going out, either.

I'm also not counting this:

This was made by my great-grandmother, for my aunt. I'll be repairing the seams and putting it back together for her. And then I'll be getting my other aunt's, and my father's. Their best estimate for the age of the quilts is early 1960s.

So the only thing in was the next block of my LQS Saturday Sampler, and the only thing out was Come Sail Away, which was finished last night and went back to Virginia with my mom today. (Boo!) You can have one peek before Tuesday.

Used this Week: 2.05

Used Year to Date: 46.88

Added this Week: 0.25

Added Year to Date: 59.46

Net Used for 2011: (12.58) yards

Check out how everyone else is doing on Patchwork Times!

LQS Saturday Sampler - Block 2 & 3

More of the Wildflower Rhapsody Block of the Month we're doing at my local quilt store.

February's Block - didn't have any issues putting this one together.

March's Block - this one I screwed up. The pink/purple four patches were supposed to be the longer green/cream floral pieces in between them. Lesson learned: pay a lot more attention to blocks with a lot more pieces!

Oh well... Make it unique, right?

Work in Progress Wednesday - Week 6

Second purse, same as the first - a little bit smaller and a little bit...well, mostly just smaller.

I was able to trim it down to 16x12 - a much more purse-like size. The bottom isn't as deep, but it should still work fine for the magazines and papers the recipient carries. Now I just need to add the detailing and straps and get it all together.

Finished!

Planes, Stripes and Automo-dots

 
Hunter's Star: (new) seven blocks are completely together. Fifteen half-blocks with prints are done; three half-blocks with pink are done. Countless others in various stages. A LOT of math in this one.

Steelers Quilt: four blocks completely pieced. Two and a half partially pieced. Ran out of black Kona.

LQS Saturday Sampler: Almost done with March's block. Must remember to post March & February on Saturday!

Come Sail Away Quilt: it's back from the quilter and looking great! Just need to sew on the binding - I'm splitting it between the dark blue of the water and light blue of the sky, so it will be a little more complicated to line things up, but hopefully not that bad. 

Untouched This Week:

iSpy Sliced Coin Quilt Along
Layer Cake Quilt Along 

Awaiting Quilting: Bad Romance

In Planning:

Rudolph Quilt (the Dude)

Frolic Jelly Roll Sampler (me!)

Hunter's Star (my sister)

Non-quilting:

Second Snow White commissioned.

Knitting bag and pattern holder for my sister. Fabric should arrive this week.

This Week's Stats:

New Projects: 1

Completed Projects: 1
In Progress: 13

Check out more at Freshly Pieced!

Design Wall Monday - Week 14

On my design wall:

What, you can't make out the details? Let me zoom in for you!

Okay, okay. In reality, this is my design wall:

Hunter's Star test block in Mon Sheri and pink Kona.

My sister requested this block in a king size quilt. Since it has LOTS of bias edges and diamonds and trapezoids, I decided to make a pillow as a test block. Then I read about the Naked Bed Challenge. So now it's going to be king size.

I'm using the Rapid Fire Hunter's Star Ruler, but I also came across a blog post explaining how to do it with HSTs and charms. Since my prints are pretty large-scale, the ruler is working better, but HSTs are generally easier than evil bias edges.

The ruler comes with instructions for 2-color, 3-color and 4-color blocks. Even though it's scrap-tacular, I'm doing the 2-color, which makes the 8-point star in the middle seem more like two pinwheels. The 3- and 4-color blocks makes the star stand out. So I'll probably be making a test pillow block of that in the near future.

Check out more design walls on Patchwork Times!

Sunday Stash Report - Week 14

This week was a little high on the "buy" side, but it was stuff I needed for current projects, not impulse buys. Except for that random charm pack.

Really, I have no idea how that got in there.

So... Backing and binding for the now-finished Planes, Stripes and Automo-dots. The front was completely from stash.

A yard and a quarter for the purse I'm making the commander's wife.

A yard and a half of pink Kona for my Hunter's Star quilt. Which I'm doing for the Naked Bed Challenge, using my Mon Sheri FQs.

Used this Week: 3.06

Used Year to Date: 44.83

Added this Week: 5.76

Added Year to Date: 59.21

Net Used for 2011: (14.38) yards

Check out how everyone else is doing on Patchwork Times!

Planes, Stripes & Automo-dots Quilt - Finished!

A quickie baby shower gift for a friend/husband's co-worker. I used a disappearing nine patch with 7" blocks, finishing at about 42" square.

All the fabrics came from my stash, so let's see what I can remember.

Hobby Lobby: brown/blue stripes, both colorful dots

IKEA: light blue with white dots

Thrift Store: dark blue with white dots

Wal-mart (10 years ago): blue stripes

Robert Kaufman's United We Stand by Dan Morris: both airplane fabrics

Binding: blue Kona (actual shade forgotten)

Quilted in the ditch and machine bound.

Finished April 1, 2011.