lucky log cabin and new sticks

Let's start with a finish, shall we?

In January, I started pulling sticks for monthly assignments.  My first pull included making a quilt from shirts.  But first I had to buy some shirts!

I washed, deconstructed, and pressed them.  And then got busy cutting and pairing up sets of 5 and sewing.  They went pretty fast, if I remember right.

Next they had to be cut in half diagonally and mixed up and sewn back together to get the final blocks.  That was a little daunting, but since my math was off initially, I had some extra parts and pieces if I needed them.

And then came the layout.  Of course that took a few extra days because I had to time it right between the design floor having been recently vacuumed and the hubby not around to complain!  But it went fairly quickly - faster than I anticipated with having to try to make sure no two fabrics were doing too much touching.  Picking them up is always a good and bad part - good that the layout is done, but bad for all the crawling around on the floor!

Then began the journey to the LONG seams.  My machine did not like the varied fabrics and bumps.  I was struggling and changed the needle, tension and all I could do easily, but it turns out sewing slowly was the only real way to lessen my troubles.  Needless to say, I was glad when this was together.

I had it finished fairly early in the month and moved on to my other assigned projects, but the bin of leftover fabrics was kinda staring at me.  I debated purchasing a back for the quilt, but the idea of piecing one with the remaining leftovers kept coming back to me.  And finally, at the end of the month (or was it the beginning of the following month?) I caved and started cutting.

I cut the pieces I had to a uniform width and took them back down to the design floor.  The quilt itself was used to make sure I had things long and wide enough, but otherwise it was just trying to get things randomly placed.  Once I had a back that was larger enough, I marked it to make sure it was oriented correctly when loaded on my longarm.

The quilt itself is square, but the back is a bit wider than long (or however you want to think about that), and I can work with a bit less on the sides than the top and bottom when loading the quilt.  So I wanted to be extra sure I didn't have it wrong.  Turns out that was a good idea!

So last week, when waiting for April to roll around, having a few days extra with no projects (and a pending front porch quilt show), I decided to load this up and quilt it.  I had been pondering a motif for a while and finally one popped into my head and I knew it was time.

I had some help...

I wound more bobbins than I needed (I anticipated it taking more thread!) and this went quite fast.  I had to load really close to the leaders, so there was some extra finagling that happened for that first pass, but in all, it went well.  Sort of.  Two of the five passes had multiple instances of thread shredding.  I adjusted things here as well, but I think again this was a case of too many changes in fabrics and moving slowly was best.

(So, basically, I learned that I will not make another multi-fabric-type quilt again!)

After trimming the quilt, I realized I had trimmings wide enough from three sides to make binding.  Add in a few more strips from the ever-decreasing bin of leftovers, and I could make a binding also from the shirts!  It took a few hours one day to get that done, but due to the hubby having been on vacation the week before, I was woefully behind on my favorite podcasts, so I had company while I donned my thimble and got to work.

But I realized, in doing the final step by hand, how VERY different some of these fabrics are.  To feel them, you might not notice.  To stab a needle through repeatedly?  You definitely notice!  I persevered and got it done.

Of course, it was a beautiful sunny day, which is great.  Except when your trees aren't quite bearing leaves yet, which means a shadowy photo shoot.  The wind did not help, so I ended up under more trees than my preferred, clothesline, spot.  You get what you get, though!

And the back?

Hooray for a finish!

Quilt stats:

Pattern: Lucky Log Cabin from Quilty Love

Size: I think 85x85" ish?  I can't remember exactly what I did...

Pieced and quilted by me!

I also mentioned in my last post that I was making tiny stars.  I decided to exhaust my bin of squares cut from recent projects and ended up making 32!

These kept me busy for quite a few hours, but were easy enough to stop and start as needed and were a perfect way to round out March.

And then it was April!

As in past months, the project from leftovers (red) got started first.  Since I have everything needed to get going, it is easiest to start.  (Okay, okay, I have a lot of the stuff needed for some of the other sticks, too...)  I had a few ideas already, so I started there.  I had come across a few blocks made of many half square triangles in the last few months, so I had those in mind.  Which one?

Oh, but first...

...my pile.  These have actually been sitting there since I made the Bear's Paw quilt months ago.  They were small, but too pretty to just toss.  But in the way, sitting on top of a little plastic set of drawers.  Cats keep knocking them down and that space would be nice to set other things.  So I'm glad it came up this month.

Inside that set of drawers, I also have 1.5" squares stashed.  Whenever I'm cutting and have a small piece left, if I can get a 1.5" square, I cut it and toss it in the drawer.  This stash all started with that darn unicorn.  But it has come in handy a few times for random projects since then.

A bit of a mess, but plenty to add to the block as needed!

The block I ended up choosing was easier to work with in quarters, so I started there.

Not as contrast-y as I had hoped, but maybe if I keep going it will look better?

Oh my.  That is NOT better.  Maybe if I see it in black and white?

Nope.

Now what?  This is 8" finished.  Not really big enough for anything.  And I don't really want to just give up and stick this in an orphan block bin.  Maybe if I make four, it will look better?

Oh dear.  I've made it worse.

Though some of you might be squealing with delight, this mess of color is NOT doing ANYthing for me.  BUT.  It is now 16" and can become a dolly quilt.  Some little girl will hopefully enjoy the bright variety of colors and maybe notice the stars hiding in there, too.

Unfortunately, this didn't seem to make much of a dent in my stash of half square triangles...

...and my goal was to use them up.  So I am going to try something else, this time with each color by itself, and hope for better results.  Something to look forward to, right?!

The drawer, though?

Much tidier.  So at least something went right here!  (But you can see the purple stack fell over already, so not the best storage option, I guess, but better than a random pile!)

This also created a pretty haystack of trimmings that I left all on my cutting mat until the end.

Between stretches of sewing, I went through my quilt board on Pinterest, snagging screenshots of those that caught my eye.  And then, with just those in front of me, whittling down my choices further and further until I was down to six.  At that point, I asked my friend Colette to weigh in.  (I made a collage and sent it to her via text - she moved two hours north of me a few years back, so even if we wanted to visit in person, this would not so easy.)  Her first choice was a good one, but with more pondering, I think I actually chose her LEAST favorite!  But her input was helpful, as she pointed out that a few of my top choices were very similar to other quilts I've made.  I guess that means I have a style, but also was good for me to recognize it and, since I was feeling adventurous, step out of that routine!

What did I choose?

A quilt called Molehills by Latifah Saafir.  I'm not sure her original would have caught my eye, but this version on Pinterest is where the magic started to happen!  In reading the pattern info, I realized I would probably need to purchase fabric for this to happen.  So off I went!  With a plan to do orange and yellow and greys.  I spent so much time in the store, selecting fabrics and then putting them back and then adding something else and going back...are you dizzy?  I sure was!  It just was NOT working.  I couldn't find even a grey I liked to go with the fabrics once I got the colors selected.  I wasn't happy with the colors.  The fabrics were pretty, but just not working for me.  But I had seen this:

So I put everything back and started over.  This was my new beginning.  I pulled every rainbow color based on this fabric.  A couple I wavered on, but in general?  This was done in about 10 minutes.

What else did I get?

I bought either one or two yards of all the colors and seven of the balloon animals, because it needs to be on the back, too, right?  The pattern calls for a good amount of fabric and since I'm going to be cutting non-square pieces, I understand that you need more wiggle room.  This should be plenty and I'm excited to get started.  (Although as I look at this photo, I'm not sure that dark grey actually belongs?)

I am beyond excited about my new fabrics.  Well, except the purple.  It is kinda boring, but purple is a hard color and I couldn't find anything else really of the right color.  (Okay, maybe one, but it was so girly it made my eye twitch!)

I don't have the pattern yet (I love, though, when designers put enough info on the back of patterns, so when you look at them online, you can get fabric purchased before having the pattern in your hands), but that is my next stop after blogging.

I don't think I'll get to sew any of this yet today (still debating, too, if I want to download and print it myself, or if I want the fancy treatment of buying the printed pattern!), as family and holiday obligations are more important, but I'm definitely making progress on the sticks already.

Happy quilting!

Katie

PS Not too many cat helper photos this week, but with the nicer weather, they've been allowed outside a bunch.  That and sunbathing.  Lots of sunny days!