Mixed bag!

Well, this week's stitching has been a bit of a mixed bag, mainly due to the tedium of unpicking my tragic medallion quilting.

Though it must be said that Fry's chocolate cream did help a little bit as those rows and rows of stitches had to be undone in a rescue bid.

When my eyes started crossing over unpicking white threads, I took a break and picked up my chevron crochet. The main body of this little throw is now finished - woohoo - but, I think it needs a simple border now just to tidy up the edges before I can truly call it a finish.  I'm waiting for one more ball of yarn to arrive and hopefully I can push this over the line in this FAL quarter.

I've also been piecing these grey and aqua retro butterfly blocks for my class with Just Jude Designs.  I missed class this week because hubby was speaking at an evening conference for work but I worked on my blocks anyway to keep up with the class schedule.  Missed my friends and the fun chatter though, hope hubby isn't working next week.

Eventually, all the nasty stitching was removed from the medallion top and on Friday I started my third attempt at quilting this medallion quilt.  I think that this quilt top is the elephant I will simply have to learn to eat piece by piece.

As you know, quilting is not my forte and is certainly my least favourite part of the quilt making process, but rather than balk in fear of ever getting it right, I am approaching this quilt one step at a time.  So, a little bit of star outlining and lots of quilting in the ditch has been the way to start over.

A bit more outlining of geese and stabilising of borders with ditch quilting yesterday morning and she is beginning to look a lot healthier than she was last week!

I know the top is hanging low in the picture, but you can see that the awful distortion of my second quilting attempt has been redeemed.  I need to tackle the tippecanoe border next, but I'm pleased to report that I am feeling a little less overwhelmed at the prospect than I was 10 days ago.

Little Spring Mandala, pattern by Made in K Town, measures 7" diameter

Finally, this morning I used the scrap ends of yarn from my chevron to make up this bright little sunshiney mandala.  This was really quick to crochet using this great tutorial (just note it's written in US crochet terms).  It's one of the mandala suggestions made by Lucy of Attic 24 for her Yarndale Mandala challenge, so soon it will be off to join the other pretties in this year's Yarndale displays. (If you are interested do check out Lucy's posts, but note she is looking for only ONE mandala per sender.)

Not too shabby a week all in all!

Tragic!

Unexpectedly gaining some time today, I picked up my basted medallion quilt and made a start on the quilting.

I hated this uneven curving so much I ripped it out.

Much time later I decided on a different quilting design and started again.

I was enjoying the quilting but I didn't notice that it was pulling the alignment of the quilt dramatically.

Yep, this tragedy is making me weep. May be some time before I can face ripping this out....

 

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Mystery Medallion - Border 4

I have been longer than I had anticipated getting back to the Mystery Medallion but here it is as she looks now with border 4 attached.

When I left her last she measured 36.5" square and was looking cute for a baby quilt or wallhanging.  However I knew that I wanted to go bigger.  How much bigger?  Even I don't know yet.  Remember this is the quilt I have not planned in any shape or form other than being a medallion.  But, as a start I felt this border needed to be bigger than the previous ones, so I opted to go 6" wide (finished measurement) this time.

Again the maths would allow for a number of different options if you were working to these measurements but perhaps don't want to use the blocks I've chosen.  For example, working 28 6" (finished) blocks would work perfectly here.

However, I chose to work up some paper pieced tippecanoe blocks and intersperse them with simple bordered rectangles and I am so pleased that it turned out just the way I imagined it in my head!

If you'd like to know,

Here's what I did

Border 4 - bringing unfinished size up to 48.5" square
Make 16 paper pieced 6" (finished) tippecanoe blocks
Make 16 bordered rectangle blocks (block will measure 4.5" x 6.5" unfinished)


For the tippecanoe blocks:
Make 16:  I searched online for a tippecanoe paper piecing template that would give me a 6" block, but I couldn't find one, so I had to draw my own.  It wasn't as bad as it sounds though because I found that papersnake.com has a free downloadable quarter inch grid paper.  This made drafting the quadrants of the tippecanoe very simple, but if you give it a go, just check that the paper prints to exactly quarter inch grids before steaming ahead and stitching up blocks.  Pic below shows how to draw the quadrant with a quarter inch seam allowance if you feel like having a go:

Draw a square 12 x 12 squares on the paper.  This is your 3" block (check the measurement, don't proceed if it's not 3").  The little triangle area marked 1 on the photo is marked across the corner 6 squares along on each of the two adjacent sides.  Drawing lines from these points of the triangle down to the bottom corner of the whole square will give you the sections for 3 and 4 also.  Finally, draw a border of 1 square width all the way around your 3" square and this will give you a quarter inch seam allowance all the way round.  Your entire drawing should now measure 3.5" square.  Hope that made sense.

If you squeeze 4 quadrant patterns on to one page of the papersnake quarter inch grid paper you will be able to photocopy it 16 times to yield the template for your 16 blocks.  To do this you need to draw all the way to the edge of the printed grids as you can see above.  The bottom drawings fit within the gridded paper except for the bottom quarter inch seam, but that's easy enough to draw on manually measuring with a ruler.  Getting four on one page really helps with the photocopying.  I would happily send you a pdf of my template page if you are interested, but I have noted that when I reprint the pdf the sizing seems to reduce so that's not much help. It needs to be exact to work.  Any techie individual know why scanning the template would reduce its sizing like this?

For the bordered rectangles:
Cut 16:  2" x 2.5" rectangles for centres
Cut 32:  2" x 2.5" rectangles for borders
Cut 32:  2" x 6.5" rectangles for borders

Position a tippecanoe block at each corner and alternate 4 bordered rectangle blocks with a further three tippecanoes along each side.


So, now that border 4 is all stitched up I really will have to get my thinking cap on for what comes next.

Don't forget all the "how to's" for this medallion quilt can be found at the top of my blog on the Mystery Medallion Quilt tab.

Getting ready

Last night was all about prepping this little lot -

so that I can make 16 of those 6" tippecanoe blocks that you can see on the mat.  Tippecanoe - oh how I love that word!  I find myself randomly repeating it today like some kind of crazy woman, but it just makes me smile.

I'm just about still smiling at the thought of another 60(!) of those wee paper pieced quadrants but still they do come together nicely. Besides, it's been ages since I had some paper piecing fun and my Mystery Medallion Quilt is long overdue some attention having been abandoned rather discourteously so that I could fulfil January's commitments.  The tippecanoes are just part of border number 4.  They will be interspersed with an easy peasy spacing block.  I shall be back with the low down once I get these babies whipped together.  (Do you like how I made it sound like it will take me ten minutes rather than ten hours?)

Just so you know, the fabric has been cut approximately to the sizes required to help me minimise the waste on these pp blocks.  I don't normally work paper piecing this way but I did discover with these in the trial run that some simple cuts can help save wastage of my precious white-with-red prints for future borders.

Don't forget my notes on the Mystery Medallion so far can be found on the tab at the top of the page.

Sloping off now to finish a quilt binding (hopefully).

Mystery Medallion - Border 3

After last week's geese-a-thon, I thought I'd keep it simple for the next border on my medallion quilt.   I wanted to introduce a stronger red border this time and kept it to plain strips with cornerstones (like border 1 but with different measurements).

Close up to show the last of the three Westfalen fabrics I have to use in this quilt.  This border has the skipping children (least that's what they look like to me).  You can see the other two if you look diagonally in towards the centre - the trees and ducks and the horses.  These were a cute pressie from J and now I've got them all safely treasured in my lovely developing quilt top.

So,

Here's what I did

Border 3 - bringing unfinished size up to 36.5" square
Single fabric border with contrasting cornerstones.
Cut 4:  2.5" squares for cornerstones
Cut 4:  2.5" x 32.5" for border strips

If you fancied stopping here, this quilt, now measuring 36.5" square, would make a pretty baby quilt or a small wallhanging.  Tempted as I am to avoid the next round of calculations, I will press on. Though I think the next border will be a lot more time consuming than this one!

Remember if you think you might have a go at your own version of this medallion, I am capturing all the "how to's" for up there at the Mystery Medallion Quilt tab.

Mystery Medallion Quilt - Border 2

This week I've had the calculator out again to do the maths for the second border on my Mystery Medallion Quilt.  I left the quilt at 24.5" unfinished (24" square finished dimensions) after the first border, so I had plenty of options mathematically for the next one.  Units based on 2", 3", 4", 6", 8" or 12" all work beautifully when you have 24" to play with.

In the end, I decided to make the border 4" wide (finished) using 8 square in a square blocks and 40 flying geese.  Lots of piecing later she looks like this -

This pic is a close-up of the ducks (more Westfalen fabric) for Katy.

It's really interesting how each border changes the look of the quilt and the balance of colour.  So far I'm pleased with my progress, though I am learning that this type of quilt feels like it grows very quickly with each round unlike a quilt of 12" blocks.

So,

Here's what I did

Border 2 - bringing unfinished size up to 32.5" square
40 flying geese pieced into 8 units of 5 geese each
8 square in a square blocks

For the flying geese:
Cut 80:  2.5" squares background fabric
Cut 40:  2.5" x 4.5" rectangles from print fabrics

For the square in squares:
Cut 8:   3 3/8" squares for centres
Cut 16: 3 3/8" squares background fabric for corners.  Cut these squares once on the diagonal to give the required 32 corner triangles.
Using these measurements should give you a generous block of approx 5" square which you should them trim evenly to 4.5" square.  Measurements for these square in a squares were helpfully published on Quiltville.com.  The size chart at the bottom is a useful reference to measurements for other sized square in a square blocks too.

The square in a squares were positioned at each corner and in the centre of the borders between the sets of 5 flying geese.

(I have added a new tab at the top for this quilt and will update it as I go along to keep all the details in one easily referenced spot. You know, just in case you decide in three months time you're going to have a bash at making one of these quilts for yourself.)

My Mystery Medallion Quilt

Since I don't know what this medallion quilt is eventually going to look like, I am going to (not so originally) refer to it from now on as the Mystery Medallion quilt when I give you an update.

At the weekend, and just because I was impatient, I added border number 1 to frame the centre star.  Just a simple border with cornerstones at this point.  I used a little bit of the Westfalen horses fabric for fun too!

As I have no idea really where this medallion quilt will end up (there is currently not even an idea of it in my head) I thought I would record the details of each step as I go along.  It's not exactly instructions and definitely not tutorials, but if by chance I create a medallion that I'd like to make again some time, I would like to have the details, references and measurements handy instead of having to scrabble around working them out again.  And who knows, maybe some of you might find it helpful to have the details available too.  So, without further ado ...

Here's what I did 

Medallion Centre -  18.5" unfinished.
I used Little Miss Shabby's Supersized Quilt-A-Long Morning Star Pattern. There are three other gorgeous 18" finished stars in the Quilt-A-Long which would be lovely alternatives to the Morning Star I used here.

Border 1 - bringing whole size up to 24.5" unfinished.
Simple single fabric border with contrasting cornerstones.
Cut 4: 3.5" squares for cornerstones.
Cut 4: 3.5" x 18.5" rectangles for border pieces.


I suspect there will be more cutting involved in the next border somehow. Will keep you posted,

The Time Has Come ...

... to break into my precious red and white stash of fabric and finally start a quilt!

Oh how I love thee!

As I've told you before, I've been picking up red and white fabrics in various sales for the past two years (and been gifted some lovelies too).  They've been hoarded in a box while I gathered enough and waited for the perfect pattern to drop into my lap.  So, what "perfect pattern" has made me take the rotary cutter to my lovelies?

Well, thing is I don't have one.  What I do have is a long-held wish to have a medallion quilt, which started long before even the fabulous Marcelle Medallion and Sarah Fielke Medallion phenomena of recent months.  So, a medallion quilt it is!

I don't have a pattern in mind, just going to make a start (yes, another one) and see where it takes me.  No doubt it shall take me by way of some fiddly maths, but that's all part of my challenge!

As my centre block, I used Little Miss Shabby's Super-sized Morning Star instructions.

Everything was going swimmingly until

I didn't read the instruction that said "orient as illustrated" for those central flying geese blocks up there - doh!

So, instead of a starflower where the fabric points of the stars matched with each other, I inadvertently switched them around.  I huffed and I puffed and I sighed and I reached reluctantly for the seam ripper.  And, then I thought "I've seen that star before" and headed to the bookshelf to check.

And, what do you know, I have seen it before and it's got my name on it!  See?  "Sarah's Choice."

It seemed churlish to take a seam ripper to those points when this block kind of chose me so I left well alone and finished stitching her up.  So I now have a medallion beginning - woohoo!!!

Who knows what borders I'll add next - stripes with cornerstones, checkerboards, hsts (aaagh), pinwheels, stars or crosses?  Blimey, the choices are so exciting.  I'm looking forward to letting this one grow as I go!