Dog Park Backing Started

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! Things are going well here. We had our first big freeze and it tried to snow but wasn't successful at my house (although we did get snow at higher elevations). Now we're having some warmer days until the next storm comes by. I'm hoping that one will be just rain since I have.a daytime-only quilt retreat this week! But I'm getting my snow tires put on on Wednesday, so I'll be prepared just in case.

This week I started making the backing for my Dog Park quilt designed by Elizabeth Hartman. This is a quilt for my sister who loves dogs and always has dogs playing in her backyard. I finished the piecing of the top a long time ago and had planned to add applique flowers to represent the gardens in her backyard, but I kept putting it off because it was going to be a pain to applique the flowers on the large top and I was a bit afraid of making it look awkward. Then it dawned on me that I can have quilted flowers rather than applique flowers and that might look better. So, I prepared the binding, using a color that is close to the color that I remember for her fence.

Dog Park - Binding

Then I started on the backing using leftover bits from the piecing of the top.

Dog Park - Backing

It's chaotic, as my backs usually are, but I think it'll be cool when it's finished. The big chunk in the center is the entire width of the needed backing, so now I just need to fill in the top and the bottom. Then I'm going to have a longarmer do the quilting. They can do a panto, an allover design or custom, whatever they want as long as there are flowers. 

As usual, while working on the backing I've also been making progress on my Potato Chip leader/ender project. 

Potato Chip Leader/Ender Blocks

It was good that I cut some more light bricks last week, but I need to go through my older scraps and cut some more! I tend to use a lot more medium/dark fabrics than I do light fabrics.

We also had our monthly UFO group meeting this week. I decided to take my Wild Women Don't Get the Blues blocks, designed by Karen K. Stone, to make some more progress on the hand embroidery I'm doing in the centers. I got two more blocks finished this week.

Wild Women Don't Get the Blues

These are slow to finish, but I really like how they are turning out!

Finally, I made some good progress on my second Scarfscape scarf designed by Laura Nelkin.

Scarfscape

I made the mistake of working on this when I was feeling sleepy. I pushed through to get to the end of my current row on the lace edge, then realized that I put the stitches in the wrong order. I was working from a chart and with a chart you work the right-side rows right-to-left and the wrong-side rows left-to-right. I had worked the wrong-side row right-to-left. I had completed 12 rows with 292 stitches per row and I wasn't sure if I had made the mistake on other rows, too, so I decided to just pull out all of the stitching back to where I had picked up stitches along the long edge before starting the lace. I thought that would be easier than carefully unstitching things. After pulling everything out and restitching back to where I had realized the mistake, I realized that I had made another mistake. When repicking up the stitches, I had just picked up the stitches and had not done the "pick up and purl" specified in the instructions. Oops! That meant that I had missed a row which put my right-side lace rows on the wrong side of the scarf and my wrong-side lace rows on the right side of the scarf. I decided that this was an acceptable mistake to leave in. I can always call the reverse stockinette side of the bias strip the right side instead of the wrong side. So, it becomes a design decision on my part!

Nancy

Leaf Applique Backing Finished

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! Fall is definitely in the air. It hasn't been cold, but we've had some wind the last couple of days that has blown the leaves off the aspens and feels like a harbinger for snow. The NWS has some snow in the forecast next week, so we'll see if that pans out. Guess I need to make an appointment to get my snow tires put on!

This week I made the binding and backing for my leaf applique quilt. I had a couple of leaf applique blocks left over from the top, so I put those in the backing along with some leftover purple squares. I also had leftover green squares, but I put them aside for my 9-patch leader/ender project because I was running short on green squares and these were the right size.

Leaf Applique Quilt - Backing

Leaf Applique Quilt - Backing

I used the solid border fabric for the binding. I didn't want the binding to stand out against that border. I forgot to share the border fabric in my previous post. I wanted to share it because it is a fabric that is only available in one of our local quilt shops and it represents our area.

Leaf Applique Quilt - Border Fabric

I love this fabric and was glad I found it in my stash! It has bears, deer, hummingbirds, pine trees and pinecones. All things that we see in our neighborhood! And, of course, I love the colors!

While working on the backing, I also made a few more of the leader/ender blocks for my potato chip quilt.

Potato Chip Leader/Ender Blocks

I'm running out of the light-colored bricks, so I spent some time this week cutting my scraps. The scraps were starting to pile up with all of the tops and backs I've been finishing lately!

Scrap Cutting

I cut a bunch of bricks for my potato chip quilt, including a pile of lights. I also cut a bunch of green and light squares for my 9-patch leader/ender blocks. I was almost out of the green squares so really needed those! Then I just cut the remainders into 2.5" and 1.5" squares. I'm starting to build up quite a lot of the 1.5" squares so am starting to think about what to make with them. Maybe an Irish Chain quilt? We'll see....

We also had our English Paper Piecing (EPP) group meeting this week. I continued to work on my La Passacaglis quilt designed by Willyne Hammerstein.

La Passacaglis

This is the start of my third large rosette. I still have some more star units to add to my second large rosette, but the large rosette is more difficult to travel with so I decided to start on the third rosette. I love how the blocks looke when you fussy-cut the fabric! How cute are those bees!

Finally, I started my second Scarfscape designed by Laura Nelkin. I made a Scarfscape last year when it was the N-Club project. A friend of mine really liked it so I gave it to her, but I wanted another one for myself. The N-Club patterns are exclusive for a year, then Laura releases them to the public and puts together kits with different colors of yarn. These kits became available on my birthday this year and I decided to treat myself to four of them -- one for each sister and two for myself. I got started on the first one this week.

Scarfscape

Scarfscape starts with a long bias strip with beaded ribbing on each end. I'm about 2/3 finished with this strip. Then you pick up stitches along one of the long sides and knit a beaded lace border. With the public release of the pattern, Laura added a second lace border so I'm planning to use that one for this version of the scarf. I wanted to use the kit rather than using yarn from my stash because this yarn is just so luxurious. It's Pato from Bilum Hand Dyed Yarns. It's an incredibly soft, strong and lightweight camel/silk combination that feels lovely against the skin. And, although I don't really like the look of the beaded ribbing, I like how the weight of the beads in the ribbing helps the scarf stay in place. So, you can see why I treated myself to so many of these kits!

Nancy

Leaf Applique Quilt Top Finished

Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! We're having beautiful weather here. The temperatures are pleasant and the aspen are in full color. Could life be any better?

This week I pulled out my leaf applique quilt UFO (unfinished object). I had all of the leaf applique blocks finished, so had to finish the Irish Chain alternate blocks, put them together and add borders. This quilt is based on the Indian Summer pattern from Sew Be It. I can't find this pattern anywhere online, but here is what it looks like:

Indian Summer Pattern

I used the leaf applique blocks from the pattern, but change the alternating blocks and borders and I increased the size. Here is what I came up with:

Leaf Applique Quilt

I used ElectricQuilt8 (EQ8) to help me pick my colors and design the blocks and borders. I didn't have the leaf applique block in EQ8 and didn't want to take the time to figure out how to put it in the app, so I used an embroidery image that they had in the software as a substitute. Here's what the quilt looked like in the app:

Leaf Applique Quilt - EQ8

I really love being able to easily audition changes using the app! Now I have another quilt to add to my to-be quilted pile.....

While finishing this quilt top, I kept adding more leader/ender blocks to my pile.

Leader/Ender Potato Chip Blocks

I'm getting closer and closer to finishing these blocks! I need to dig through my scraps and cut some more light bricks since I'm starting to get low on those. I'll do some of that this week.

And I made a little more progress on my Rill Scarf designed by Miram L. Felton.

Rill Scarf

I know the progress on this project is slow and boring to watch, but I want to keep motivated to work on this. I'll probably put this aside for a little while because there's a knit-along gong on this month for some other projects I have in my queue so this would be a good time to make progress on those.

Nancy