Thursday, February 22, 2018

A Merrily Finish

Sometime last year I bought this Moda Kit, Merrily.



I don't buy kits very often, as a matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I bought a kit, but this one was a winner.  I made the quilt exactly like the pattern and had no issues with fabric shortages.  That's my biggest fear when buying a kit, making a mistake then not being able to recover because there's not enough fabric, or worse yet, the kit supplier not providing enough fabric.

This is a horrible picture of this quilt, if the sun every shines again I'll take another one, it's a very bright and cheery quilt, it looks a little dull in this picture.



This is Lifetime Quilt Number 221
The pattern is Merrily, by Carrie Nelson for Moda.
The fabric is also Merrily,  by Gingiber for Moda.
It finished at  60" x 66"
It has approximately 372 pieces.

This is one of those patterns that looks like you worked real hard on it, but it only took me 3 afternoons start to finish.  If you have this kit be sure to check the Moda website for pattern updates before you start. (click here)


I bought this fabric for the backing, I think it's by Bunny Hill.




My goal is to piece 6 Christmas themed quilts for family members this year, this quilt is for my niece, I think she'll love it it, only 5 more to go!

Friday, February 16, 2018

Project X - Finish

One of my 2017 quilting goals was to piece a black and white quilt, which I never got around to, the year went by too fast and I never really did come up with a good plan or pattern.




Susan Ache posted this progress pic on Instagram, these were some alternate blocks for a quilt top she was working on.  I liked the blocks so much I thought they would make a nice looking quilt all on their own, finally, a girl with a plan.

I dug around in my stash and pulled 5 Bella Solids for my pop of color, and a nice assortment of blacks and backgrounds.


Scrappy backgrounds are not my first choice, but Susan's blocks had a scrappy background, and I liked her blocks, so I decided to go with a scrappy background too.  I like the look.

What I didn't like were all those colors, too busy for this quilter,  so I eliminated the pink and blue blocks, keeping the green, orange and yellow blocks.


Once all the X blocks were pieced I needed to create the perfect setting, here were my rules:

No like center squares side by side.

A colored center block could not stand alone, it must be connected diagonally to at least one block with the same center color.

No like backgrounds touching.

And here's what I came up with.



Yes, I know, a scary peek into my head.



This is Lifetime Quilt Number 220 and Black and White Quilt Number 1
I've named it Project X
There is no pattern, I just made it up as I went along.
It finished at 54" x 54"
It has approximately 944 pieces.




Did you spot the 6 solid black X blocks?


Here's how I pieced the X blocks.




A - 5 1/2" square cut diagonally twice.
B - fat quarter strip cut 2" wide and into 4 pieces
C - 2" square


Once it was all pieced together I squared it up to 5 1/2 inches, lining up the 2 3/4" white lines on the ruler with the center square, for a perfect block.

Speaking of goals, a 2018 goal is to make 6 Christmas quilts for family members, next up, the first Christmas quilt of the year.