Hodge Podge of Projects

I continued quilting the bargello quilt but my machine was acting up. I got through about 3/4 of the quilting but the thread kept breaking. I'm finally getting the hang of the sunflower pattern (thanks much to everyone who left encouraging comments on my previous post!) I replaced my needle, cleaned and oiled my machine and fiddled with the tension. And after a few hours gave up in frustration and move on to less irritating projects. Oh the things we love the most can be the most frustrating can't they? I'll try to finish it in a couple days. I've been working on a hodge podge of different projects today instead.

So I started working on a quilt for my Nana, from Carol Doak's Easy Machine Paper Piecing Book. It has three different paper-pieced flower blocks and can be found on page 85 of the book (Birds of Paradise by Nancy Bell).

And continued working on my Kool Kats Kwilt.

Somehow one of my setting squares is 3/4 of an inch too short on one side, so I'll be tearing it out and replacing it. Not sure how that happened! Good news is I can fix it easily. The border will be about two inches wide when stitched on. However, next time, I hope to be able to do this braided border pattern that I found:

It was actually on TLC's website (go figure), here's the link: Braided Quilt Border Pattern
I hope everyone had a great weekend!

More Hexagons! Log Cabin Snowflake

 By Kaelyn Angelfoot

Quilt in a box!

Since I'm never satisfied with just one project, I've started yet another quilt. This one is another paper-pieced log cabin variation. The pattern was downloaded free from CompuQuilt, and is copyright them. I've provided a link to it as I cannot repost without risking copyright violations.

I actually started this quilt prior to the kaleidoscope one, and I ended up using fabric I had on hand. It was just luck that I had purchased all thirteen fabrics for a couple of different quilts that never made it past the planning stage. I had exactly enough in each color to make a jewel-toned log cabin. I also find it amusing that I can fit an entire quilt into a shoebox. It took a decent amount of experimentation to find the correct strip size for each piece. I ended up erring on the generous side, see the table below for the sizes I used.

There are several different choices for block arrangement. I chose what I have come to call "snowflake." This quilt would be gorgeous with the two matching sides in blue and the third side in silver to make a winter themed quilt.

Close up of block arrangement

The finished block will be approximately twelve inches across. I will need a minimum of twenty blocks to make a decent sized lap quilt, or 120 triangles. The only question is whether I have the patience to make a quilt that large. As you can imagine, its a very time consuming block to make. The pattern has thirteen pieces per triangle.

Layout of final quilt