Doodles to quilts

Do you ever doodle little quilt designs?  It is something I do sometimes when I am waiting.  I don't do a lot of waiting, so my doodles are small, about 1" x 2" usually. When I get one I think has possibilities, I will work on it more when I am home.  This week, I came up with several I liked, so I decided to try and make one into a mini, either for a small quilt medallion, or for AAQI.  Not sure yet.

As I was developing the drawing, I wanted to create a sense of depth.  I have always been intrigued by ribbons, and the idea of ribbons escaping from a box is something I have wanted to do for a while.  I also knew I wanted to try the flange idea again, to see if I could get it the way I wanted it this time. I did, by the way.

Once I had the drawing done, I had to figure out how to make it with fabric.  Next time, I will take photos along the way, but for this one, I just enjoyed the process.

Steps I took

1.  I drew the design full size on freezer paper.

2.  I traced the different shapes on another piece of freezer paper.  Somewhat redundant, I guess.

3.  Selected fabrics.  I decided on a soft spring like palette for this one.  I think I will make another one with brighter solids.

4.  Put fusible backing on the pieces.

5.  Cut backing, flange fabric, and borders.

6.  Started putting the puzzle together.  Some of the ribbons come out from under the flange, and some go over it.  Some go over the bottom of the loop, and some under the top part.  It was very important to do things in the correct order to maintain the design.  That was the fun part.

7.  Add the outside border.

8.  Iron all the pieces down, making sure everything is fused properly.

9.  Machine buttonhole stitch all the fused pieces.

If I decide to use this for AAQI, the next step will be to quilt it.  It could also be the center for a doll quilt I need to make for a swap.  I will decided tomorrow.

The one thing I am not totally pleased with is the way it doesn't look like the top orange piece is connected to the bottom yellow piece, making a loop.  I will fix that in the next one.

I also did a little studio pick up and made a couple of star crossed blocks for a bee.  All in all, it was a fun day in the studio.  I needed that time just to play.

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting everyone.

More play today

Yesterday afternoon, I came to a place where I couldn't do anything right in the studio.  I cut a bunch of fabric for a foundation piece block, and when I started working on the units, most of the fabric was cut too small.  I thought I was measuring so carefully, too.  I also sewed pieces wrong at least three times before I called Uncle and just left the studio.  So, today, with the cold  coming on, I decided to start out playing and making fabric.  There is no wrong way to do that.  I chose some spring colors  in preparation for a Victoria swap.  I will find out my partner and get the pattern on Wednesday.  I know it will be pieced flowers of some kind.  I thought the pinks, purples, and blues were good spring colors.  I hope my partner likes them.

The next thing I did was to prepare parts for this block for another bee I am in.  I made the HSTs a new way to me.  I made all eight with only four sewn lines, and no edges on the bias.  I love short cuts that are useful and don't cause further problems down the line.  Speaking of short cuts, my next project was to get ready to demonstrate another of my favorite ones.

Can you guess?  Tomorrow night, I am demonstrating how to make the no waste flying geese.  I have a tutorial here.  For this, I cut six 12" x 12" pieces of foam board and pieces of heavy flannel.  Tom helped me use spray adhesive to attach the flannel to the foam boards.  Now, I have a bunch of great small design squares I can use to hold the different steps.  Then I got into my stash of deconstructed blue and white shirts and started putting together my flying geese parts, step by step.  This was pretty fun to do, and now I finally have the quilt started I want to do with these shirts.  What could be better than that?

In the mail today, I got another rainbow block and the house blocks from that exchange.  I will put them up and take a photo of them later in the week.  Right now, there is no room on the design wall.

One last thing I want to add is that I am having trouble editing my favorites blog roll and there are a bunch of blogs I have recently found that I want to add because they are such fun and have such wonderful work.  I will keep trying so you can see them, too.

Now, until Friday, joyful quilting everyone.

More play

I decided to quilt the mini I showed you Saturday.  I also wanted to do some thread drawing.  I started with the moth in the center using a Superior King Tut variegated thread I love.  You can see all the colors in the thread in the meandering on the light border here.

I drew these moths with water soluble pen before quilting them.  It was fun to put these little guys in each corner.

Here is the finished piece, binding and all.  I quilted the turquoise border with a deep wave line all around, and the leaf border with another meander.  As you can see, I put petals in the light triangles.  I wish they were a little more uniform, but that will come with more practice.  I now have it hanging with some of my other minis.

All these blocks came from my Stash Bee Hive 2 partners.  I still have one coming that I know of.  I am going to add more yellow, indigo, orange, and violet to make the quilt larger.  It has been so much fun to see all the incredible fabrics people have in their stashes.  This is the first time I have been Queen Bee and I really enjoyed it.  I get to do it again in August with another bee I belong to.  Whoohoo!

I am fighting a cold today, so I am not sure how much quilting I will get done.  I may hunker down with a good book, under a cozy quilt.  We shall see.  Yesterday, I made my plane reservations for a ten day trip to the Washington, DC area for the first week in April.  I haven't been back to visit Willa for a long time, and I am very excited about going, even thought Tom will be here minding the home front.  It will be great fun to explore more things quilty.

Have a fabulous week, and I will be back Friday.

Joyful quilting, everyone.