OMG November QAL by the Sea Segment 3

Thank you confinement - you are great for my creativity. The only hick-up is that I now have so many projects on my plate .... why are there so many QALs going on, I think I participate in four different ones .... plus the other two quilt tops that I made and need finishing ... 

So my choice of OMG November is to focus on the QAL by the sea decided to make all the blocks of segment 3 and potentially at least two of segment 1; I was late to the party and need to catch up as well. There are 4 blocks per segment and for segment 2 all are finished. 

The QAL is organized by a group of designers and each making their own versions of the blocks:  

Abbie Danahy @ Sparkle On!
Becca Fenstermaker @ Pretty Piney Quilts
Jennifer Fulton @ Inquiring Quilter
Karen Thurn @ Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats
Laura Piland @ Slice of Pi Quilts
Sherry Shish @ Powered by Quilting   
Sandy Maxfield @ SandyStar Design

I started on segment 3, block 9 needs some more applique sewing and block 10 - 12 are pending. 

 

So in November will need to make the pending blocks, sew the applique in place and add embroidery as applicable 

The theme is the sea and the blocks are great. I am learning a lot about applique, something I was not very interested in so far. 

Making this quilt in Covid-19 times is great as I dream of summer and use my stash.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts' OMG for November

Deconstructed pinwheel top

One of my goals at the beginning of the year was to make quilts using fabrics I have. In September I made a Christmas themed quilt from my stash (OMG September). For the backing I had to buy fabric as did not have enough. For this quilt likewise, I used fabric from my stash, except for the backing.

My October OMG was to finish the deconstructed pinwheel top. I had bought a layer cake eons ago when I ordered fabrics in the US. Now was the time to use it and I had seen this video made by Missouri star quilt company. I really liked the effect. I had bought a few meters of unbleached cotton a while ago which matched perfectly the layer cake. Quite some sewing and cutting was involved, and I enjoyed the sewing only to cut up again.

The end result is great. And will definitely make this one again. 

 

For the backing I bought a terry cloth - no idea if this will work so next step will to make a sample. Am thinking of either quilting circles or straight lines.

 

Linking with Patty at Elm Street Quilts and the October OMG.

Quilt Along By The Sea Segment 2

 Do I need another project? Maybe not, however ....... I fell in love with the Quilt along by the sea block 2 a cute turtle on "Slice of Pi Quilts" web page. No idea how I found this blog and "re-found" the page and started looking around on her site. And then I found the turtle ... the QAL was already well on its way. I decided to participate using scraps only. There are 12 blocks to make each clustered in segments of 4 blocks.

The QAL is organized by a group of designers and each making their own versions of the blocks:

Abbie Danahy @ Sparkle On!
Becca Fenstermaker @ Pretty Piney Quilts
Jennifer Fulton @ Inquiring Quilter
Karen Thurn @ Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats
Laura Piland @ Slice of Pi Quilts
Sherry Shish @ Powered by Quilting   
Sandy Maxfield @ SandyStar Design

 

I finished segment 2 the blocks, some of this work is completely out of my comfort zone as have hardly any experience with applique and paper piecing. However as I only use stash/scraps am not too worried about re-doing some of the sections.

 

Block 5: Head or tails - I really enjoyed making this block and am quite happy with the result

Block 6: Stars at sea - left this one as the last as some pieces were so small, realized that one of the small stars is not very visible.

 

 

 

Block 7: Waves - I might end up adding some turtles to this block - will decide when all blocks are ready as this one add some still part to a potential very scrappy quilt

Block 8: Mariners' compass - for one or the other reasons, part A went well, part B I had to re-do several times. The block turned out too small, so will make a small border as a frame.

OMG October - Deconstructed pinwheel

 OMG time of the month .... among all the projects floating around both in my crafts room and in my head ... which one shall I work on. 

 

For this month my aim will be to finish the deconstructed pinwheel quilt top. I found the tutorial online (Missouri Star Quilt company) and decided to give this a try, the pattern seemed not that complicated. All I needed was one layer cake and background. I had a layer cake that I bought years ago and over summer had bought some unbleached cotton that matches nicely. A layer-cake is a stack of fabric (10" by 10") usually 42 pieces ..... this may differ ... according to online research. Well, that explains it ... my layer-cake included only 39 pieces. I started cutting 36 sheets and figured I would complement with some solids. 

A lot of cutting was involved in preparing all the smaller pieces. When I laid out 36 little pinwheels having only 6 rows in stead of 7, I thought that the center piece looked good enough. I might end up with some leftover little blocks, and can always convert these in to a matching cushion cover.

 Linking up with Patty's OMG October at Elm Street Quilts

Christmas in July quilt top

 My Christmas in July quilt top is finished. I selected the fabric from my stash, sometimes I am amazed with what I have ..... Was not sure if I was going to turn this in to a quilt or a table cloth. So asked my two sons and both agreed that this would nice for our dining table as decoration. 

Over the weekend went to the fabric shop, I haven't gone there in the longest time ... between confinement, summer time, .... new restrictions, ....... and ended up buying way to much. I had forgotten my notes with what I needed. So I ended up buying too much backing (enough for many many matching napkins) and forgot sashing for another quilt that I will start next week ...... So now this week finishing off the backing and deciding on the quilting. Maybe time to try some FMQ motifs that I have been doodling,or some diagonal lines ...

 The pattern is from the Fat Quarter Shop "Jelly Snowflake Mystery" as part of the Christmas in July quilt along.

Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts towards my September OMG.

OMG September - Christmas in July ......

Christmas in July is something I had never heard off before I started quilting. Then I assumed it was a way for quilters to get ready in time for Christmas. I could not have been more wrong. This cultural phenomena started in the South of the US, in North Carolina, in a summer camp for girls. Nowadays, this has become a real party all over the world - I must have been sleeping all these years .....

In July I started the sew-a-long organized by the Fat Quarter Shop, "the Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt". One of my resolutions for this year was to use fabrics from my stash (as much as possible). So this QAL was a good opportunity as I have some Christmassy fabrics. 

There are four different blocks in total to make, in different colours. So as the blocks became available, I wrote the instructions down and cut the fabric for the first three blocks. In August I managed to make the four No. 1 blocks and two colour ways of block number 2 (still two colour ways pending). September is here and this will be my OMG September project organized by Patty at Elm Street Quilts: finish all blocks, sew all together including the border. And then I will decide if will make this into a table cloth or finalize with batting. Either way, this project calls for some nice FMQ.

Five quilted postcards sent (6 made)

This month I participated in a postcard swap organized by Sparklestash. We were to send out five cards. This was a perfect OMG for August as I had planned to take some time away with the family. In a few afternoons I made the cards. I used the instructions from Patty over at Elm Street Quilts - in 2018 I participated in a postcard swap she had organized. 

Card #1 East meets West

These are all African Batiks from Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria

Card #2 Symphony in green

Green fabrics from Mali, Ivory Coast, US and UK

 

Card #3

For this card I used fabric from African designer Woodin, this one I bought in Burkina Faso (years ago)

 

Card #4

For this card I also used fabric from African designer Woodin, bought in Burkina Faso. This is one of my favourite fabrics - unfortunately not much left of the 6 yards bundle. 

Card #5

Initially I made a card with Indonesian batik, and did not like the end result. So decided to make a new one using Tula Pink scraps. Liked the result up to the moment that I was going to use my overlocker to trim and sew the edges - she decided not to collaborate .... grrrr ....

On instagram (where we all had our "own" group of postcardswappers I raised the question which card was better .... the Tula Pink card won. One my co-postcardswappers suggested I do a zigzag stitch covering the overlock stitches. Still not convinced with this card, just could not make a third card as card #5 ....

Card #6 the not-sent-card

One card stayed at home .... not sure yet what I will do with this one ....

Linking up with OMG August at Elm Street Quilts.

OMG August Five Postcards

This month I am participating in a post card swap. I participated once and really enjoyed making a card. Through Instagram I found this exchange organized by SparkleStash.

I need to make five cards and send out before August 30th. This will be my perfect OMG for August.

Linking with Patty at Elm Street Quilts.

Green twist table topper

Let's twist again, like we did this summer .....

A second twist table topper finished in Green. And the good thing about this second twist? I made it all from fabric on hand. Early summer I had made one with red batics, and the second one on request in green. The end of the month this will be gifted. Before the end of the year I think I might make a third one and change the lay-out.

My green twist is my OMG for July
organized by Patty at Elm Street fabric.

The pattern is from Carole at "From my Carolyna home"

OMG July - Green twist

I hesitated on the title of my post: rhapsody in green or green twist and choose for the second option in the end. If all goes well I might travel home for a few days to visit my parents. Last year I was to make a table runner for my father and his wife, time got in the way and the table runner never happened. This year am trying again and as I was very pleased with my red batik twist dance table topper that I decided to make a second one. I asked what colour they preferred .. red ... blue ... green .... I knew the answer was going to be green ....

Second question - table runner or table topper? Table topper. I will not add batting as this will need to be taken in their camping car so the less volume the better.

I went through my stash looking for green fabric, and much my surprise had more green than I thought I had. These colours seem to go well together and the background will be white. With Covid-19 still around am not in a hurry to try to find a matching green background. For the backing most likely will use the second fabric from the bottom as still have quite a lot from that. What a great way to get some stash moving.

Linking up with Patty's OMG for July over at Elm Street Quilts