Design Wall Monday

     I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday. 

     I am going to try to link this post with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. We will see if my technologically challenged self manages to pull that off. I  usually get these linky things eventually. Anyway, it is a very interesting opportunity to see what many people have on their design wall every week. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

     So I will start with my Galapagos quilt from my last post, since it is what I am working on most right now; though clearly, I did not get far enough along on it to buy the border fabric this weekend, as I had hoped. Last night the whole center was on my design wall.

      Since then, I have about half of it sewn together. I hope to sew the rest of it tonight.

     In person, it is less yellow than this. More towards orange.


    
















Oops! I almost forgot to tell you the best thing! Someone bought one of the quilts I had posted on Etsy.  I just heard back from her that she has received it and loves it. It was one of my favorite quilts; but you never know when someone is buying something off a computer monitor, if it is going to turn out to be what they expected. I always have my fingers crossed until I hear back from them. The quilt she bought was Double Star ll.  

     So that is what I have been up to. Check out some of those other design walls at Patchwork Times.com

     I have a meeting with a client this afternoon about some pillows for her living room.

     Thanks for stopping by!

Blocks for Galapagos ll

     I have continued to work on the lap quilt I wrote about last post. For now I am calling it Galapagos ll since it is the same pattern as a quilt I named Galapagos, but that may need to change eventually, since that doesn't seem like an appropriate name for a quilt of these colors. 

     I have made all of my pinwheels and put them up o the design wall. The blocks are ready to be sewn together. I would love to get the center put together in time to go shopping for border fabric during after Thanksgiving sales, but I don't know if I will have that kind of time in the next couple of days.

     I tried taking a photo of all the blocks on my design wall, but I had a bit of trouble getting the colors to come out right, and I don't really have time to play with it right now. With the lights on, it is coming out too yellow, and of course, without the light it may be a bit dark. I will probably get a better photo of it when it is all in one piece; and I can take it outside. Part of the problem is also where it is on the design wall. In future, I need to remember to use that end of the design wall last. It is furthest from the window, and natural light, and it is closest to the loom, which I am accustomed to looking around, but it is really difficult to take a good photo without taking it at a weird angle. That said, here it is. These are the 2 best photos I can manage for now.

 

     I have also gotten all of my solid units sewn together, pressed, and ready to put into large blocks of 4 by 4, and 5 by 5 units. I need 3 more of each to have enough to finish the quilt.

     I got a delivery yesterday. I had sent away for a few more solids for the pillows for the person I made the large quilt for this summer. She wanted 2 pillows made from this same solid pattern. i have a meeting with her next Monday. I had many of the colors I needed, but I thought a few important ones were missing, and they will be handy to have since I have a couple of other solid quilts in my head Here is what came in the mail.

     And with that I am off to throw myself into the Thanksgiving holidays. I hope yours are happy, and safe, and filled with lots to be thankful for. I am sure thankful you stopped by!

Galapagos

     I started a new project today. I have been meaning to start this quilt for a long time. A few years ago, I made this quilt.

      I named it Galapagos. Then I made a pattern from it. I sold the quilt at a show, but then I didn't have a sample anymore. I have always wanted to replace it. This was a queen size quilt, and I thought it would be nice to make the new quilt is a completely different colorway. Since people often tell me they like my quilts, but they don't want to make something so large; I thought it would be a nice idea to make one of the other sizes on my pattern. So I am making this one a lap size.  Also, there was some interest from Angela, at A Scarlet Thread, in my teaching this as a class there if I made another sample.

     So, I bought this gradation of fabrics.        














      I made myself a cheat sheet. I find that this helps me to remember what order I decided to put the fabrics in, especially, since I wash my fabrics; and the paper tags i pinned to each fabric to signify their order, would never have held up in the washer and dryer.

     The center of this quilt is made from diagonal rows of plain blocks that alternate with pinwheels that are made from the fabrics of the plain blocks on either side. Oooh, I don't really like that last sentence much, but I can't think of another way to say it; so hopefully, the photograph of the quilt will do the talking for me here.

     I have cut out all of my plain blocks and put them on my design wall. I wanted to see if this would help me decide if I like the gradation. So far, so good.

     I had to take this picture at a funny angle since my loom is in front of my design wall for now.

     All of the squares for the HST that will go into making the pinwheels are also cut out, and I am currently working on marking them. I am counting on this quilt to go together relatively fast.

     By the way, yes, I am still working on my solid quilt. I got all of the units sewn. I will show you a picture of those once I get them pressed nice and pretty.

     I have also sorted fabrics and ordered a few colors to use for the pillows my customer ordered for her living room.

       That is what I have been up to lately. Thanks for stopping by.

    

Progress on Solid Blocks, Triangles, etc.

    As planned, I got my pot holders, posted on Etsy, and after procrastinating forever, I finally got my policies posted! At last! I wanted these things done before Thanksgiving.

     Yesterday, my friend, Eleanor came over for some quality sewing time. I worked on my solid block units. I got them all to this point.

     Only 2 seams left, ad I can start sewing them into the large blocks. I am planning to set these blocks, half straight, half on point, with different shades of red around them. I am anxious to see how this is going to look.
 

     After she left, I did a seam on several of the triangles for the bird cages quilt.

     Previously, I made several strip sets for another quilt, but they still needed pressing. So while the iron was hot, I pressed them.
 

     So that is what I have been up to lately, thanks for stopping by!

Finally Getting Back to Some Earlier Projects

       I have been having so much fun seeing all of the lovely quilts on The Blogger's Quilt Festival. What a brilliant idea. But, I have spent hours looking at the quilts, and I have only gotten to quilt #300. What is that-half way through!

   My customer was kind enough to send me a photograph of The Let's Polka quilt and pillows in place in her bedroom; and give me permission to use it in my blog.

     Since that project is finally completed and delivered, I have pulled out some projects from earlier in the year. I have been working on my solid quilt. I thought I was finished with these units, but when I was sewing them together I realized I needed about 82 more. There is more information about making these units in my January 22, March 28, April 2, and June 22, blog posts. Here is a photo of when I sewed some of the units into giant blocks at a summer retreat.

     I have also done some work on my Bird Cage Quilt. Boy, these blog posts would ramble on a lot less if I could only learn to work on one thing at a time! Not gonna happen though. I have been working on piecing some triangles.

     I am trying to decide if I want rectangles on all four corners of the quilt, or rectangles on opposing ends, and triangles on the other opposing ends. I won't decide until I get some equilateral triangles pieced, and put up on the design wall. This is going to be a pretty wild looking quilt either way.

     I had to take a temporary break from making pot holders. Remember this photo of the batting and backs cut? I thought this was more than I would ever use!

          
     They are all used! I had to wait until I could get to the store to get more of the ironing board cover fabric I was using for the backs. Tomorrow I will post some of the finished pot holders in my Etsy shop.

     That is what I have been up to. Thanks for stopping by!