Christmas Snowflake center

After making wild and goosey, I wasn't sure I would ever paper foundation piece again. But I love the look of these snowflakes and wanted to give it a try.




The foundations for this quilt are simple and large enough that it is is easy to see where you are sewing and give excellent results. The templates for printing are found in the link below.

Since all the fabric pieces for the blocks have been pre -cut, it is a snap to get the block sewn. Starting with the 16 center squares. Here is a quick tutorial for foundation pieceing. The wrong side of the fabric faces the wrong side of the paper.

The first triangle is placed right sides together with the square on the back side of the paper. It is important to check that the triangle covers all the sewing line. I do that by picking it up and looking through the paper towards a light source.

Flip it over and sew on the line.

 I do better if I iron after each addition of fabric.

With white fabric it has to be trimmed or the dark will show through the fabric.

I do opposite sides and then again opposite sides.

Paper piecing is great for asolutely the best accuracy.

 After I have sewn all the seams, I will trim the paper on the lines.

 and then I tear off the paper

This quilt requires 16 of these center squares in a square. They are trimmed 4 1/2 inches square and will finish at 4 inches.

Intro/ templates

fabric requirements

cutting red and green fabric

cutting background

piecing the center

I am linking (links in the sidebar) to:
needle and thread thursdays
oh scrap

A finish

As part of my May one monthly goal, I planned to finsh carolina Christmas. It is a bonnie hunter pattern from her book scraps and shirttails 2.
It was hanging in the "to be quilted" closet. It was completely ready with backing and binding ready. It's great not to have to make any decisions. unfortunately, I still have 20 quilts still in that closet.

I quilted it with an all over swirls pattern in natural white. I use swirls all the time, they are my favorite. I try other patterns but I love swirls the best. They are not gender specific and give a lot of texture to small piecing without overpowering them.

It is a big quilt at about 92 inches square. I will be able to have a Christmas quilt on my bed at Christmas time. I used nearly 25 yards of old Christmas fabric from prehistoric times. The gold in the pattern makes the old stuff look more timeless.

I am really pleased with this quilt. It quilted well. this is the 6th mystery quiltville quilt published in 2009. and later added to her book. It is my 9th completed mystery quilt.

I am linking to:

WOW

midweek makers

Jo's Country Junction UFO
Bee Social
Silly Mama WIP

WIPs with friends

and one montly goal

Oh Scrap

a double delight

At the end, of what was a very quick month, I have finished all my goals for one monthly goals. Where this month went, I don't know. sigh...
I saved most of the finishing for the last minute so I am pleased I even finished.
This is the 4th quiltville mystery quilt double delight. It is still a free mystery on Bonnie Hunter's blog. Published in January 2009.
I love the colors and how the pink four patches create a grid around the block.

On Mondays, Jo of Jo's Country junction has a string challenge. She wants to finish all the string quilts in Bonnie Hunter's String fling book before her next book is published ( Dec 2018). I checked my quiltville projects to see if and what I wanted to do as part of the challenge. I decided to finish all the mystery quilts. I have them all started except maybe one ( orca bay).

I am linking to:

Jos country junction

Making Monday  link in sidebar

Moving it Forward Monday 

main Crush Monday   link in sidebar

show and tell monday

design wall monday   

boms away   link in sidebar

Oh Scrap   link in sidebar

One monthly goal

Stash report May 27, 2018

Stash report

Fabric Used this Week 1 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 219 1/4 yards

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 131 3/4 yards

Net Fabric for 2018: 87 1/2 yards used more than purchased. 

I sewed at least 15 min 7 days this week.
I am still working on my hexie quilt and have added 3 more flowers

I am linking to:

Slow Sunday Stitching

Oh scrap

sunday stash at quiltpaintcreate

15 min to stitch at life in pieces

in the pink

For the rainbow scrap challenge, there were 7 blocks this month that needed pink in my Tokoyo subway quilt. It is getting exciting as more colors are added, this block is nearly done waiting for orange.

On this block, pink was the first and only color. At this point all 25 blocks have been started and have color.

I also made 6 pink birch tree blocks.

I am linking to
 SewCan She

rsc18 super saturday

hippie baby finish

note
I have finished with Hippie baby quilt. This was the result off leftovers from a jelly roll quilt I did a few years ago in a guild workshop. I have it set back for my Grandson.

This was the first quilt. I had blocks leftover and some scraps and yardage.

My progress here, here, and here.

I am linking to:

TGIFF

Finished or Not Fridays   

Whoop Whoop

crazy mom quilts

square dance clue #2

I have finished the second clue for the mystery quilt square dance. Do si do. I made a bunch of 9 patches from my scrappy jelly roll pieces. It's not too late to start this mystery quilt. square dance mystery at My Carolina Home. 

I enjoy making 9 patches. Everything looks good in a 9 patch. And it is methodical work, almost pieceful -pun intended.

Here is my clue 1 finished

I am linking to:

WOW

midweek makers

Jo's Country Junction UFO
Bee Social
Silly Mama WIP

WIPs with friends

Stash report May 20, 2018

I bought one jelly roll and 3 charm packs at Tuesday morning in Indianapolis. I am not sure what went wrong, but, after a long time of not buying any fabric ( other than thrift stores), I bought a lot. I immediately had buyers remorse. I checked out of the store with 5 jelly rolls and 2 layer cakes and 3 charm packs. Considering we are unemployed and or retired, I could not afford that kind of shopping extravagance. And I don't know what I was thinking. The same arguments in my head were still there -you have to start using the jelly rolls and layer cakes that you have already - nothing more will fit in your fabric room - when you "need" it, it will come. But, I still loaded the shopping cart. sigh......
I met my husband later, and, he, of course, was willing to enable me. But, I didn't enjoy it at all. Part of the problem was just choosing one. So outside of the store, I took a few minutes and decided on just the one, but I kept the charm packs..... they are so little :)  And hubby was willing to take all the rest back so I wouldn't be embarrassed. whew disaster averted.

Stash report

Fabric Used this Week 1 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 218 1/4 yards

Fabric Added this Week: 5 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 131 3/4 yards

Net Fabric for 2018: 86 1/2 yards used more than purchased. 

I sewed at least 15 min 7 days this week. hand sewing mostly.

I haven't felt well this past week and most of my quilting time was handwork. I added a big star to my long time hexie quilt and 2 small flowers. I haven't worked on this project since July of last year. It felt good to make progress again. I fall in and out of love with sewing hexies.

I am linking to:

Slow Sunday Stitching

sunday stash at quiltpaintcreate

15 min to stitch at life in pieces

and Oh Scrap link in sidebar

cutting for Christmas Snowflake

Time to cut the background for Christmas snowflake quilt.

Cutting the background for this quilt requires 6 1/4 yards of a white, so it takes a bit of time to cut it all. I used a white on white snowflake fabric for my background. Just like the triangles for reds and greens, the back ground triangles just need to be accurate enough to cover the paper foundation piecing. I cut 224 - 3 1/2 in squares and cut them on the diagonal for 448 triangles. I could have cit strips and used the easy angle ruler if I needed to be accurate, but that is one extra step. I just cut the squares. That is a hefty stack of squares.

I cut
32 - 5 in squares cut on the diagonal for 64 triangles
128 - 2 1/2 x 4 in rectangles
128 - 2 1/2 x 5 1/2 in rectangles
18 - 2 in x wof strips subcut 6 of them into 12- 16 1/2 in sahsing

The box is full, and next week, it will be time to start sewing.

Intro/ templates

fabric requirements

cutting red and green fabric

cutting background

piecing the center

I am linking (links in the sidebar) to:
needle and thread thursdays
oh scrap

square dance clue one finished

I had leftover strips from  a project in a project box that I didn't want to finish. I thought they would make perfect pieces for the square dance mystery at My Carolina Home. I was able to cut all the prints I needed and all the fabric A s. I think that is all for clue #1. I am making the queen size version. I wasn't sure until I started cutting. I thought I would cut until I ran out of scraps. I didn't, so I am stopping at queen size.

The cutting has been easy, just rectangles. If you want to join the mystery it is here. at My Carolina Home is hosting a mystery quilt 

I am linking to:

WOW

midweek makers

Jo's Country Junction UFO
Bee Social
Silly Mama WIP

WIPs with friends

shirts

I have accumulated a box of shirt scraps, mostly yokes and plackets from cutting them. I put them aside and fold the rest of the shirt pieces. I decided one evening, while watching TV with my hubby that I would just sit and cut them into useable pieces. Then, I decided I might as well cut for a quilt. And the mess began. 

I wanted to cut for rectangle wrangle from scraps and shirttails. I needed 480 2 1/2 x 10 inches rectangles. Doing it this way made sure that I was cutting a variety of shirt fabrics, but 480 was a lot more fabric than what I had in the box.

Rather than put it away, I planned on continuing to search for more and cut them the next night. and then the next etc. I was afraid if I put it all away, I would forget what I had been doing and lose the momentum.

But the mess was by my chair for longer than I care to admit. From the leftovers, I started cutting quarter square triangles for Hand me down also from scrap and shirttails. This was supposed to be while cleaning up the mess. but, it just made more mess. It seemed so innocent, but exploded. This is when I wish I were not a scrap quilter, and I just pitched this stuff like everyone else. But, then, watching TV would be boring.

I am linking to:

Fiber Tuesday - 

Free Motion by the River

to do tuesday

too cute tuesday

quilt border fears

note
On Mondays, Jo of Jo's Country junction has a string challenge. She wants to finish all the string quilts in Bonnie Hunter's String fling book before her next book is published ( Dec 2018). I checked my quiltville projects to see if and what I wanted to do as part of the challenge. I decided to finish all the mystery quilts. I have them all started except maybe one ( orca bay). For May, I hope to finish 2 of them. This is double delight, and I have been working on the borders. I have become a little more comfortable in adding borders, although, I will still procrastinate some. This quilt has a fun four patch in the corners.

I had ordered this great vintage brown for the border.

  And they look fun together.

What are my greatest fears of adding borders?
1. That I will pin and sew and reach the end and find out that I ran out of bobbin thread - it happened.
2. That I will finish the quilt and have wavy borders. I am keeping my fingers crossed
3. That I will mis -measure and not have enough fabric after I have started sewing, or, a variation, that I will discover that I put the sides on the top or the top on the sides. no problem this time
4. That I will twist the border - nope
5. That I will lay it out finished and not like it. It will grow on me
6. That I will have spots I didn't catch in the seam -nope
and in this particular quilt
7. That I would turn the four patches the wrong way - It happened.
I checked and rechecked - wrong.  hmm... it doesn't look that bad. I shall call it a new variation.
I checked and rechecked to do it "wrong" on the second border, and I got it right sigh..... so now I have one set going the wrong way and one set going the right way. I have to fix one, it might as well be the "wrong" one and tada the borders are finished.

I am linking to:

Jos country junction

Making Monday  link in sidebar

Moving it Forward Monday 

main Crush Monday   link in sidebar

show and tell monday

design wall monday   

boms away   link in sidebar

Oh Scrap   link in sidebar