Getting closer

I took some good advice from yesterday's comments and used some scraps to work out the best way to sew the units onto the center block.

After getting the size and shape sorted out, I made four paper foundations for piecing.

I had first thought I would have the pointy part of the purple pointing toward the center, but changed my mind.  I decided that I wanted to continue having the energy from the center flowing outward.

This is what one completed corner looks like.  I got two sewn in place before I had to leave to go to a vision board creating party.  As you might imagine, my board has a quilting and fabric area. 

Tomorrow, I will finish up this project and get the last two wonky houses made.  Week after next is spring break for my daughter, so I will have an entire week to work in the studio.  I am going to dedicate one day to clean up my studio.  It is time. 

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting everyone.

It's about the process some days

I am participating in a round robin with four other quilters.  They are all extremely talented quilters.  They pay attention to things like points and seam allowances.  I try, but sometimes I fall a bit short.  This time, I am really working to be disciplined so none of them will be sorry I joined and they will want to work with me again.  My first center came from Jackie at Canton Village Quiltworks.  You can see it here.  After looking at it on my design wall for a while, I made some decisions and have started my addition.

First, I measured the center, and decided how wide the base of these triangles needed to be.  I decided how tall I wanted them to be, added a 1/4" seam allowance all around, and cut out the pieces I needed.

Since I have been playing with triangles lately, with varying degrees of success, I decided to mark the points in the corners where the seam allowances met.

I carefully pinned these points together, and sewed my strips.  This really worked well.  I got nice straight lines, and the strips are nice and even.  I am very happy with these results.

Amazingly enough, my measurements were correct and the strips were just the right length.  Then I got stumped.

These next few photos are without the strips sewn to the center. This is what the corners look like now.  Here is my dilemma.  I know how to achieve this:

But what I want to achieve is this:

I know how to build this corner piece, I just don't know how to sew it on.  It is a Y seam of sorts, but totally outside my comfort zone.  I will figure it out tomorrow, I am sure, but for now, I will just look at it for a while.  If you have any words of wisdom, I would be so grateful if you would share them.

What wonderful projects are you working on that have challenges to them?

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting, everyone.

A challenge or two, or maybe three

I could not bring myself to create another house today.  I tried to pull fabric, but they all so no.  I had ten things on my list to get done between last Friday and today, so I grabbed the list to see what I had left.  On it were three challenges.

Challlenge #1  Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict put up a challenge to design a block any size using blocks no bigger than 5", 3.5" and 2", cut.  They could be smaller.  I love a puzzle, so I started with a 12" square design, and started filling the space with squares.  My drawing called for 4.5", 3.5", 2.5", and 1.5". 

Since one of my goals this year is to conquer the Y seam, I paid no attention to how it all laid out.  In the end, I ended up with two Y seams, and I pulled them off without a hitch.  After the drawing, I had to pull fabric, which lead to

Challenge #2  At the November Rebels meeting, we each took a piece of this fabric and are to return with a project using it in February.

I started out really not liking this fabric.  Then I decided the colors were okay if I only paid attention to them.  So, I pulled it out and started pulling other colors.  I decided not to focus on the reds and blues, but on the golds, pinks, deep purples and mauves.

When I was pulling the pink hand dyed, I remembered the small Madonna from Victoria, and knew I had to use it.  It violates the rules about squares in the first challenge, but maybe I can sqeak it by.  I also pulled a couple of scraps from the Mexican Star quilt and another batik I thought would work well.  I seem to be in a very warm color mood these days.  I know there is a fancy name for this color combination besides complimentary, but it escapes me at the moment.  It is one I like.

Here are a couple of detail shots.

I decided I could use some vignettes of the challenge fabric, as long as I kept them small.

Challenge #3 The colors for the Patchwork Times February color challenge have been posted.

I have them up on the wall, and I noticed that today's puzzle project was very near the right colors for the left half of the bar.  If I want to add lime green strips and borders, I will have completed challenge #3.  Hmmm.

All in all, I got 6 1/2 things out of the ten done.  I usually over-estimate much worse than that.

I will be with Bella the next three days, so you probably won't hear from me before Friday.

Until then, joyful quilting everyone.

Building houses again

I decided I needed to try and finish up the wonky houses this weekend so I can get them in the mail.  For the first one, I decided to go with pink for the house and a nautical print for the windows that makes it look like little panes.  I am afraid, it looks like bars on the windows, but it will look better when I get the machine applique stitches on them.

The next block started with the bottom.  It is left over from my Jacob's Ladder quilt.  I thought it looked like a farmers fields, so I decided to build what I think looks like a farm house.  Tom thinks it is a bit of a stretch to see farm fields, but I just let my imagination  go.

The last house was made with some strata I was playing with.  My goal here was to have it be sort of symmetrical wonky.  I am pleased with the way this one came out.  Now, I have two more to make before I have to select one to keep.  This one is in the running.  Here are the ten I have made so far.

I will be happy and sad to see these go, but I have seen some real beauties from other players.  This will make a fun quilt.

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting everyone.