Lattice Birds - It’s a Finish!

It’s like having a baby. I know I’ve said that before, but sometimes finishing a quilt (especially one that takes more than 9 months to make) feels like having a baby. And my new baby is Lattice Birds.

First, let me apologize for the less-than-stellar photos. Well heck, all my photos are less than stellar. But I am hoping that when the weather warms up (and the damp grass and mud, etc) disappear, perhaps we can take this out for some nice photos. We’ll see.

This project was started at the very beginning of 2018, although I had planned it out during the fall of 2017. I wanted birds alternating with Irish Chain to mimic the effect of lattice. We have grape vines that grow in our backyard along a lattice wall that protects the patio from the afternoon sun. Every few years we’ll get bluebirds in there who build nests and raise a clutch or two of hatchlings. So, that’s where the idea for the quilt came from.

As I have occasionally mentioned (more often when I first started this project), I first purchased the Feathers pattern from The Pattern Basket (Margot Langedouc). I found the
directions confusing and cumbersome (probably a little bit her and a little bit me, LOL), and anyway it made a 8” finished block. I needed a 10” block to alternate with the Irish Chain. So, I found a free picture/pattern online at QuiltingSupport.com, but that site doesn’t seem to be online anymore. But it’s in my Pinterest board under Tutorials.

Anyway, it showed a basic picture for a nearly identical bird to Margot’s, and I don’t know whose bird was first. Regardless, I didn’t use either pattern exactly, but altered them for my needs. The main differences are that: (1) the bird is set in a 10” square, (2) the wing has a flip corner in front (thanks, Sally) to round it, (3) the tail is shorter and (4) there is no fussy micro-piecing for the beak. I made it as a prairie point and inserted it into the seam near the head, then stitched it down.




So please excuse me if I refer to these as “my birds” and “my quilt design”. I own the quilt; it’s a derivative design for personal use, and I have made the proper attributions in the previous paragraph. I only mention it because I had an anonymous reaming last year by someone who took exception to me calling them mine.

Lattice Birds used primarily Kona White and Kona Ocean (blue), but the colors were inspired by the floral fabric I used in the center patches of the Irish Chains, the border, the back and in some of the blue birds. The feature fabric is called Maggie, and it’s from Tamara Kate’s line called Frolic from a couple years ago. 

The quilting was done by Diane Knott of Butterfly Threads Quilting. Diane is the author of two books, Scrap Quilt Secrets and Strip Quilt Secrets, which I’ve mentioned here on my blog before. Strip Quilt Secrets is a great book and I’ve already picked out several of her quilts I want to do!  Diane quilted it in a pattern called Tweet Tweet with light blue thread. Below you can see not only the flowers and swirls, but the hint of a bird, beak and wing just in front of the yellow/pink bird below. 

Diane did a lovely job (thank you!), is very reasonably priced, and it was a really quick turnaround. I guess I lucked out with the timing!! I highly recommend her quilting services (and book!)

Lattice Birds measures about 88x108”.  It’s huge on our queen-sized bed, but I’m expecting it to shrink a couple inches in each direction when laundered.  :-)

And Darla approves, so what more could you ask?? She did say that now that I’m done sewing birds, I should start on a FISH quilt....

Lattice Birds was my #1 Goal for the first quarter Finish-Along. You can see my goal list HERE.  I’m also linking up to Sarah’s “Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?” Friday.

Thanks for stopping by!

OMG! Lattice Bird Quilt Top Finished!

I am so thrilled to have the top to Lattice Birds finished! It measures 86x108”, which makes it the largest quilt top I’ve ever sewn. In fact, it’s so large that I really have no place to properly display it for pictures, so you’ll have to bear with me here.  :-)   Finishing this quilt top was my OMG - One Monthly Goal - for February.  So, I’m linking up to the finish linky party with Patty at Elm Street Quilts to celebrate.

My February goal was to get the top pieced, bordered and trimmed of threads by month-end. February is a short month and we were on vacation for a good part of it, so it was a tall order. But I did it and even added three instead of just two borders.

I couldn’t decide whether to have a green or a blue stop border. So, I draped some fabrics, took pictures and Bruce and I looked at them on the computer. Blue was the hands-down favorite.

And here are some photos, although the quality isn’t very good. The quilt top is way too big for my design board, and because my studio is in the basement, the ceilings are a bit lower, and there is a soffit in the upper right portion above the quilt.

I had to wrap the quilt around the corner to get the entire view in, below.

The kitties wasted no time in hiding behind the quilt. I’m hoping they haven’t been talking to Molly much because she’s a natural climber. Alfie and Darla don’t climb things as a rule (their cat condo is the exception), so I hope they don’t get any ideas....

I should have moved the tables before I pinned up the quilt, because once it was up, there was no way to move the tables out of the way for pictures.

But for now, these pictures will suffice to at least prove that I finished the top, which was my February OMG goal. Now I need to finish piecing the back and prep it all to send to the quilter. I am hoping for a quick turn-around so I can get this finished up by the end of March. But once it’s sent off, it’s out of my hands and into hers. And that's worth two in the bush. I think.

Sewing More Sunshine

February is always short. But this month, with a trip to Arizona to visit family and seek out warmth and sunshine, it seemed even shorter than usual. I had to get my sewing game on and finish whipping my yellow scraps into shape this last week.

To that end, I sewed six 6.5” crumb blocks. Then I added them to the six from last year and made three Crumbcakes blocks for one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts for this year. 

I only need 9 more small (6.5”) blocks in varying colors to finish up all the Crumbcakes large blocks. This one will probably finish out sometime mid-year.

And then I made some bitcoin blocks in yellow and in gold.  I’m keeping these only two columns wide because I’m thinking I may eventually use them for a rainbow border.  Then again, maybe not. Time will tell.

That completed my RSC scrap work for the month, YAY!! Here are all my yellow blocks.

6    9.5” strip blocks

4    selvage four-patch blocks

12  nine-patch variation blocks

1    row of yellow selvage tumblers (shown with the red row from last month)

7    Crackers blocks at 7.5”

8    Anvil blocks at 8.5”

3    Crumbcakes blocks 

4     Bitcoin blocks

My yellow scraps aren’t gone, but they are definitely decimated!! Come see what others have done with their yellow scraps at our weekly Rainbow Scrap Challenge linkup. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

While on vacation, I sewed together some Happy Blocks with some elephant fabric I found on a steep clearance last summer. I thought I had 75 blocks, but it turns out there were only 65. So, I’m making two quilts with 30 blocks each and will use the leftover blocks on the back. I sewed up this top yesterday. The other one uses the same fabrics but will have a slightly different block placement. With the blocks measuring 10”, both quilts will finish at 50x60” and be for donation. I’d like to get them done next week so I can have a couple February finishes.

And speaking of vacation, my vacation post is HERE and includes a picture of Saguaro Sunset in the wild. It also includes lots of cool pictures of the house we stayed in courtesy of Bruce’s sister Annette and her husband Glenn (who we just found out yesterday lost their adult son a couple days ago. Don’t even know details yet). 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The bulk of my work this week has been on assembling the Lattice Birds top. And after all the deliberation over color placement, I can see I accidentally switched a couple rows (rows 7 and 9 should be reversed) near the bottom and there are some unintended clusters of color. But oh well. Don’t they say that birds of a feather flock together?!?

Now I need to make some final decisions about borders. It will definitely have about a 4-5” dark blue floral border of the focus fabric (seen on a lot of the birds and the center patch of every Irish Chain block). But I think it may also need a stop border in white or bright green. Or one in green AND one in white before adding the wide blue border.

Since these are also 10” blocks, the top currently measures 70x90”. So it could tentatively end up at around 84x104”. I’ve got to get crackin’ on this because it’s my OMG (One Monthly Goal) to get the top finished up in February. That only leaves me a few days to make up my mind and finish sewing it (and press and snip loose threads yet again!). 

Setting my OMG for February

It’s time to set my One Monthly Goal for February, and I am linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts. I find that the challenge to complete one particular project each month (even when I’m not successful in finishing) helps me to focus on something that has perhaps been languishing too long. I like moving everything along with no fabric left behind!

For this month, I’ve selected my Lattice Birds quilt. My goal is to finish the top during February. All 63 blocks are stitched and I’m beginning the assembly now. But this is not a slam dunk goal for several reasons.

First, there are some who may remember that while I was sewing these birds along with the Rainbow Scrap color of the month last year, I bought a pattern from The Pattern Basket and altered it to fit my needs. I wanted a 10” block to alternate with the Irish Chain blocks instead of the pattern’s 8” block. Also, as suggested by my friend Sally, I added a flip corner to the upper part of the front wing to round it. Also, I didn’t like all the tiny fiddly seams for sewing in a beak, so I made prairie points and inserted them in the seam instead. I also shortened the tail to accommodate the scale of the lattice.

So here is a typical bird with those changes made. What I had to before I began assembly  was to go back and stitch down the prairie point beaks with brown thread so that the quilt could eventually be machine quilted! That’s what I worked on today. Then I began the process of laying out the rows and figuring out who goes where. My design board isn’t large enough to accommodate all 9 rows, so the other four are in piles on the ironing board for now.

I also had a lot of quilty math to do to figure out if I had enough of the feature fabric (see the breast of the bird, above) to make a 6” border around the quilt AND do the back. I had to order two more yards. That will be a total of 10 yards that I’ve bought, but I love it so much that I should have just bought every.single.yard.still.available.

And finally, there is a lot of block trimming, seam spinning/pressing and thread cutting to do on these blocks as it will be critical to have flat seams and no dark showing through the white background.

So that’s my OMG - finish sewing the quilt top by the end of February. And did I mention that we’d be gone on vacation for a couple weeks? Yeah, it’s going to be a challenge!

Dancing in September - IN OCTOBER

Hi friends! I hope you’ve had a lovely autumn weekend. For those of you impacted by Hurricane Michael in Florida, the Carolinas and other areas, I hope your experience was mild and that you and your families and belongings are all safe. How can anyone doubt that the climate is changing when these horrific storms occur now on such a regular basis? I hope you’re registered to vote and that you will give serious thought to supporting candidates whose heads are not buried in the sand on this issue. But enough said of that...... we’ve got scrappy business to attend to!

First out of the gate is my second quilt finish of the month. This one is a Rainbow Scrap project that I started a year or two ago. After showing the flimsy (in a post called Dancing in September, named after the Earth, Wind and Fire music I was listening to) and remarking how the piecing of it made me happy while I listed to music and danced in the September sunshine streaming in the studio (couldn’t resist the alliteration), my friend Louise suggested that I name the quilt Dancing in September. Thanks, Louise! Although it’s now October, may I present the finished Dancing in September.

Dancing in September finished at 65x73” and was quilted using a simple stipple. The backing is a great black and white windowpane fabric I got somewhere (Connecting Threads?) and the binding used up the last of a green print I had left over in my stash. I am so in love with this quilt!! It’s a keeper.

This is my OMG - One Monthly Goal - for October. Now that it’s done, I can link up to Patty’s Finish-up Linky Party at Elm Street Quilts.

It’s also Goal #1 on my 2018 Quarter 4 Finish-Along Goal List. YAY!! See the quarterly linky party here.

And last, but definitely not least, I’m linking up to Rainbow Scrap Saturday, because this was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. Today at Angela’s blog we’re having some serious October sharing’ O’ the green. Our color this month is medium to dark greens, plus dark neutrals. Sew ‘em if you got ‘em!

My plan this month is to get all my RSC green blocks sewn up as quickly as possible. Since this is the last month of color before we spend the last two months of the year completing our projects, I wanted to get those done and out of the way. I’m anxious to begin sewing all the RSC projects together!

So, here are the last four (of the 31 needed) birds for Birds in the Lattice. I hope to begin assembly of this quilt during this 4th quarter.

Next up were my Squared Away blocks. First, I made one additional green block from the March pattern (the top one in the picture below), then two blocks from the pattern Mari and Angela gave us for this month.

I got so excited about these now being done, that I put them up on the design wall. And sewed them together!  I even used my reject block (left column, middle blue one). It looks like I still have to add the 1” white stop border! This is next up to be basted and will finish at 56x56”.

Moving along with more green blocks, I sewed up my strings and ended up with 18 quarter log cabin blocks at 6.5” unfinished.

That brings my total of quarter logs up to 138. I only needed 120 for my original plan, so it looks as though I will be able to enlarge it! Another project that’s waiting in the wings for later this quarter.

And finally, I used my green crumbs to make eight 6.5” crumb blocks. For the project I have in mind, I will need this blocks in multiples of four. That means I’m good in the dark green department, but will have to review my other colors and add between 1-3 of several colors. That means this project, working title “Crumbcakes”, will carry over into 2019.

So, this coming week my goals are:
1.  Sew the borders on the Squared Away, and baste. Quilt and bind.
2.  Sew the California Poppies flimsy (already started, no picture today) and baste it.
3.  Sew the black and white checkered round to All You Need is Love.
4.  Sew the pink hearts round to All You Need is Love.
5.  Finish the plan for my rainbow scrap selvage blocks and pick a background fabric.
6.  Sew black and gray selvage squares for Item #5 if needed.

That should keep me busy!!

2018 Finish-Along Quarter 4 Goals

Last quarter I wasn’t able to link up my Finish-Along list because I was in Africa with limited wifi. But I played along anyway, and finished up five out of my ten goals, all of them quilts.  And two of the others are close to being done.

This quarter, with no travel planned and the garden chores winding down for the season, I expect that I’ll have lots more creative time. So here are my 4th Quarter finishing goals. I’m linking up (early!!) to the Finish-Along Quarter 4 Goals post HERE.


1.   Bowties Quilt, AKA “Dancing in September”

FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

Dancing in September (thanks, Louise, for the name idea!) is a flimsy that just needs to be  quilted and bound.

2.  All You Need is Love

FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

This one, a Christmas present for my daughter, is farther along than it was a couple months ago. After I’ve added the checkerboard round, which is half made and the hearts round (all 54 hearts already sewn), there will just be one more round of 8.5” blocks and a final stop border.

3.  On Ringo Lake

This is Bonnie Hunter’s 2017 Mystery Quilt, and the 2018 mystery will begin soon. I’ve got all the components done, now just need to finish piecing the blocks, etc. etc.  If there is a goal on this list that demonstrates that I believe in miracles, this one is it.

4.  Let it Snow

FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

This has been on my list for a year or two, but this is the season to finish it up! I have a place on my living room wall and a wall hanger for it. No more excuses. Besides, it’s so cute and so close to being done!!!

5.  Apron for Me

FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

This was on my list last quarter, and I had the best of intentions, but the quilts were screaming louder at me.  I’m hoping the added sewing time this quarter will let this project get priority, because day-um! I need a new apron!!

6.   Squared Away Sampler

FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

I thought I had a picture somewhere that showed all the blocks we’ve made this year for our 2018 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Squared Away Sampler. But I don’t, so this picture of my two September blocks will have to do. I’ve completed about 21 blocks out of 25 I’ll need. We’ll do more in October, and I’ll add the last two or three by going back and picking up an old color and pattern to finish it off. Then it’s a simple matter of assembly to get ‘er done!

7.   California Poppies

FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

I won 40 blocks in the Block Lotto in August. Eight of them were mine, below. I drew up a plan and needed an additional 8 blocks, all of which are already sewn as I write this. Now I just need to sew the blocks and sashing into a flimsy, then quilt and bind. So, it’s totally do-able to get done this month.

8.  Birds in the Lattice

All the lattice (Irish Chain) blocks are made, as are all the birds except the last 4 green ones. I should be able to knock those out easily and begin assembly of this quilt top soon. Then there is the question of whether I whether I will quilt it myself or have it professionally done. I’m leaning toward the latter. So whether it can be complete by the end of the quarter will depend on the timing and the Holidays...

9.  Selvage Quilt

TWO OF THEM FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE!

I have 126 (so far) selvage blocks measuring 6.5”.  I also have a plan to assemble them into a top. I’d really like to get this off my plate this quarter.

10.   Quarter Log Cabin Quilt (needs a snappy name!)

FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

I have 138 of these  6.5” blocks, way more than I’ll need for a 10x12 setting (60x72”). So I may enlarge that and sew a few more blocks. I have a design plan for this, so if I get to it, it will be fun to play with all the colors and see how they all play together.

That’s it for this quarter. I do have one more quilt in process that has all the blocks sewn; however, I need blocks in groups of 4 for the design I have in mind. So, that one will likely be carried over to next year when I can add blocks as needed by color during the 2019 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

My hope is to finish at least 7 out of these 10 by the end of the year.

Dancing in September

I was dancing yesterday in my studio (luckily my kids weren’t around to make fun of me. But back in the day, I really could dance!). The sun was shining in the windows and I had just finished piecing the Bowties quilt top. Earth, Wind and Fire was providing the music, and the song of the hour was September.

So, here’s what the dancing was about.  Bow Ties is a completed top (!!) of 288 single blocks set 16x18. Oddly, instead of measuring 64x72, it measures 65x73. I guess that’s what scant quarter inch seams do. Isn’t it cheerful?

Bowties will get basted and quilted in October. In fact, that is my OMG - One Monthly Goal - for October. I've linked up to Patty’s October goal-setting post.

And there was a lot of Rainbow Scrap Challenge sewing this week in order to finish up my darker blue scraps. First, there were the crumb blocks; 14 of them at 6.5”.

I was able to sew 19 of the Irish Chain blocks that I’ll need as the alternate blocks in my Birds in the Lattice Quilt. I already had 4, so that brings my total to 23 completed of the 32 needed. I will be able to finish up the last 9 this weekend. I put them up on the design board to get a feel for how it’s coming together. (Edited Sept 30th to add: 9 final blocks done!)

The sample layout above shows a 5x5 setting of the 10” blocks. When complete, it will actually be 7x9 for a total of 63 blocks (32 lattice, 31 birds). There will also be a border around it of the featured dark blue floral print fabric. I love the rich, saturated colors!

I’ve decided that it won’t be made into a queen-sized bed quilt as I’d have to piece more blocks than the current plan calls for. I have enough fabric, but I’m not crazy about the idea of a mostly-white bed quilt or the fact that another expansion would prolong the construction by a couple months (at least) given the upcoming holiday season. So, it will finish somewhere in the neighborhood of 78x98” with the border.

And here’s my scrappy tally for Blue September:

Top, L-R:
18  Selvage blocks, 6.5”
  3  Selvage blocks, 4.5”
  7  Birds, 10.5”
  2  Squared Away blocks, 10.5”
Bottom, L-R:
14  Crumb blocks, 6.5”
  3  Lollipop blocks, 6.5”
  1  Friendship Star, 6.5”
20  Quarter Log Cabin blocks, 6.5”
Not Shown:
28  Irish Chain/Lattice blocks, 10.5”

Total:  96 blocks

I also completed three quilts in September:

Top Left:  Safari Baby Quilt, 46.5x55"
Bottom Left:  Orange Lozenges, 62x72"
Right: Linked Squares, 64x80"

All in all, it was a good month.  I’m linking up to Angela’s blog for Rainbow Scrap Saturday, and Cynthia’s blog for Oh Scrap!

Seven Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

You’ve all probably seen or at least heard of the 1970’s classic film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, starring Jack Nicholson. The title is actually based on an old rhyme about geese (for quilters, that would be flying geese, hehe)

One flew east

One flew west

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest

So, this week in my sewing room (AKA the Cuckoo’s Nest), seven birds flew over. And all of them are in shades of dark blue (mostly), the color of the month for our Rainbow Scrap Challenge. If you follow the link to Angela’s Scrappy Saturday linky party, you can see what the other cuckoos, er, I mean quilters, are sharing from their nests!

Since I planned for this quilt to have a preponderance (I love that word!!) of blue, and had only made two birds back when we did light blue in January, I had seven more to stitch up this month. Mission accomplished. Here is the entire flock of nine bluebirds, hanging out together. 

They were a bit worried being out in the open like this, given that two felines (who shall remain nameless) live in the house. But we got the picture snapped and the birds tucked safely back into their work-in-process cubbyhole. 

The birds will be interspersed with Irish Chain blocks for a queen-sized quilt. My plan is to stitch as many of the remaining 28 Irish Chain blocks as possible next week. I need a total of 32 and have only done 4. So, the chain blocks plus sewing my crumb blocks in the remaining medium-to-dark blue scraps are on the agenda.

I’ve also basted the Orange Lozenges quilt (no picture) and started the quilting on it. That will finish up this week as well. And right now the design board has the second half of my bow tie blocks on it, so I’m hoping to get that flimsy pieced this week. No pressure. Gulp.

But getting back to this week, there was more than just birds flying out from under the needle. I sewed a replacement block for my Squared Away Sampler to match the first one, so here they are together. The wild and crazy one I showed last time is resting comfortably in the Parts Department.

And then I laid waste to my blue scraps and strings by making twenty (20!!) of these 8.5” quarter log cabin blocks.  These are just so much fun to make! 

Right now I have all 120 of the planned blocks I think I may need for a quilt, but I’m going to go ahead and sew some more dark green blocks next month so I’ll have some color placement options. When all is said and done, any extras not used in the quilt will go into the Parts Department. I’m hoping that I can find enough good stuff in there this winter to piece together a Parts Department Inventory quilt.  

And are you beginning to think of the projects you want to work on for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2019?  I’ll have my crumb block project carrying over (working title is now Crumb Cake). And one other project is assigned to the lineup. But there are several more vying for a place. I’m trying to vary my projects by piece size (crumbs, strings, chunks, small squares, etc). And I need a project or two to help me use some light neutrals and black/white prints. So it’s a fun process to try to “piece together” a working plan, while tackling items on my Must Make or Bucket lists.