Finished One Block Wonder Flimsy

I finished piecing the top for my blue one block wonder. This was a quilt along quilt from back in October. I got tired of working on it and moved on to other things. But I really wanted it off my design wall to make room for my A4A quilt, so here it is! It is a small quilt, approximately crib sized.

It kind of reminds me of the ocean, with the blue and greens. I might name it something totally tacky, like Window to the Sea or Anemone or some such nonsense.

I actually have a surprising amount of fabric left over and a few extra blocks. I spent some time fiddling around with the excess but nothing was really speaking to me so I put it all away.

I might just make a matching pillow out of the leftovers and in the meantime, I shall move on to other things.

Building Blocks Tuesday/Thursday Threads

I'm sitting here listening to the Red Wings Game, enthusiastically commented upon by Jack. We are winning currently, 2 to 1! I wish I could stay up for the rest of the game, but I'm sure I'll get a play by play when Jack comes to bed in a couple hours.

This is the progress on my blue OBW.

And some of my favorite blocks so far.

I love how they all look different. In case you missed it, here is the original fabric.

Pretty nifty, huh?

Linking up to Building Blocks Tuesday and Thursday Threads.

Design Wall Monday

Yes, I am participating in design wall Monday! Because I actually have a design wall now, in my sewing room.

Yesterday afternoon, I got tired of laying my stuff out on the floor, so I moved my bookshelves into the hallway (yes, I now trip over them every time I leave my sewing room) and opened a package of queen size quilt batting, and used pushpins to hold it to the wall. Lots of little tiny holes in the wall but that was a sacrifice I was willing to make in the name of creative genius.

Yes, that is my stars quilt. I have decided to make flying geese for the sashing. And next to it is my OBW quilt in progress.

And in the other room is my Stormy Path quilt, which means all my active WIP's are on display. I highly recommend this design wall thing, it makes life easier.

I now have no space to move about my sewing room, but it matters not.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times.

One Block Wonder Quilt Along

Since I already had some fabric set aside for a one block wonder, I went ahead and cut it up to participate in Newbie Jen's One Block Wonder Quilt Along.

The most painful part of this whole process is lining up the fabric. I think I did better this time than the last time I attempted (quite successfully) this type of quilt.

Original Fabric

There is some great advice over at  Quilter in the Closet on how to choose the best fabric. She also had posts on cutting and stitching your blocks, and some quilting options. Check her blog archive, they are all listed in October.

Kaleidoscope in Outer Space II

By Kaelyn Angelfoot

It took almost three hours to settle on a final arrangement for my kaleidoscope quilt. There were problems with the colors. Part of the space fabric was a teal Saturn-like planet surrounded by lavender. Because of the way the blocks were cut out, these teal and lavender creations just didn't seem to mesh well with the rest of the quilt. I was unable to come up with a satisfactory arrangement that included them. After removing them from the layout, I came up with the following design which I am very happy with.

 

Final kaleidoscope quilt arrangement

I am piecing the quilt together in long strips, very carefully, as this is not a forgiving block. Small errors result in large issues with combining the various blocks. I was forced to discard a couple of blocks that had errors in the seams which caused the hexagon to be less that 360 degrees when completed. At the top and bottom of each strip I have added a black triangle that I will trim to make a straight edge. I was also unable to come up with a satisfactory arrangement that would allow me to make two quilts - there just aren't enough blocks. This one will be a lap-size when completed.

One thing I strongly recommend is taking pictures (like the one above) of your final layout. I have already had to refer to this a couple times to make sure I'm putting the hexagons in the correct order while piecing.