Jacobs Ladder Quilt Top is finished.

I decided to make a Jacobs Ladder quilt in October after I challenged my guild members, the Temecula Valley Modern Quilt Guild to make a quilt entirely out of solids.  The quilts are due at our March meeting, so I should be good.

I chose this layout because I love the secondary arrows.  I didn't plan the layout of the colors, I pretty much just laid them down and stitched them together.  The top measures 60" x 72".  Now I need to make the quilt back.  Good times!

May your bobbins always be full,

Jacob's Ladder progress

It's super yucky outside, yes that's a SoCal native declaration, so I laid these out on the garage floor.  Five more Jacob's Ladder blocks completed!  I plan to make five more and using some on the quilt back.

I laid these out all "willy-nilly" with no attention to design.  I really like the random layout but I don't think random will be part of the final design.

Before making the final five blocks I'll be working on some small projects.  I've learned to pace making this kind of block so that I don't get bored.

May your bobbins always be full,

Progress Report

I'm making progress on my Solids Jacobs Ladder Quilt top.  Five more blocks completed the past few days.

Here are all 20 of the completed blocks laid out randomly.  I have 10 more blocks to make, then I'll decide on the final layout.

I'm taking a "sewing-break" until after Christmas.  My daughter Sharon and grandson Oden are coming for Christmas Day, so I want to get the house in order.

May your bobbins always be full,

Jacob's Ladder Quilt Top

I made five more Jacob's Ladder blocks after the Stereo Quilt was delivered to my Long-Arm quilter.

I now have at total of 15 blocks, including the blue and red opps blocks!  I plan on making a total of 30 blocks giving me a finished quilt that will be 60 by 72 inches.  

May your bobbins always be full,

Making Slow Progress

Five more quilt blocks. Ten down, many more to go. Yes, I did another variation of Jacob's Ladder. I really like the 'oops' factor.  I think I'll call the variation Jan's Ladder!

May your bobbins always be full,

Opps!

Two of these are NOT like the others.  For some reason, I'm having a heck of a time with these Jacobs Ladder quilt blocks.  The first one I made for the Roadies Give Charity Quilt, went together like a dream.  These five, not so much!  The top two blocks will be relegated to the back of the quilt.  I'm not perfect, but I like my quilt tops to be as close to perfect as possible.

My plan for this quilt is to do five blocks at a time.  In between sets of blocks, I'll work on other projects.  My reasoning is based on the Lawn Diamond quilt, I don't want this one to be boring, too.

May your bobbins always be full,

The Lawn Diamond Quilt Top is Finished!

I'm so happy to have this quilt top finished.  It was a real PIA, "pain in the ass" to work on and finish.  If you follow me on IG you know all about it.

I started with 20 different solids and the pattern suggested coloring in the spaces to get your placement correct.  No way was that going to work with all these colors.  Below is my solution:

I used the fabric selvages to  determine which solid goes where on each of the 120 blocks.  No way coloring would have worked!

After putting together the first 40 blocks, the monotony of chain piecing these blocks really got to me.  It's so boring, worth it, but boring.  That's when I took a break and made 6 Mail Sack Bags.

Finally, the blocks were all put together, and I could tear the papers off the back.  I only tore off 24 at a time in order to keep them organized in the correct position.  The first 24 are above, then there were 48!

After that, it went pretty fast.  I spent last evening taking the papers off of the rest of the blocks and keeping them organized on trays.  Today I assembled the  remaining 72 blocks, working in sets of 24.  It took most of my day to get it done.

It was worth all the effort and headaches.  I love it.  (I do not recommend this pattern for beginning quilters or for someone who has not done any previous paper-piecing.  The pattern offers no help for beginners.)

Lawn Diamond Quilt Top:

Started on June 30, 2016

Finished on August 26, 2016

Measurements 54 x 60 inches

May your bobbins always be full,

Lawn Diamond Quilt and a break.

I've got Good News and Bad News about the Lawn Diamond quilt I've been working on.  First, the good news.

1.  I'm making slow but sure progress.  I came up with a plan to keep everything orderly.  Then I got busy cutting the fabric.

2.  There are 120 blocks to be foundation paper pieced.  I started with 20, to make sure my paper piecing chops were in order; then I did 40 more and got all 60 of them trimmed.

3.  I was ready to tackle the final 60 blocks.  When I did the first two sets, I chain pieced the blocks.  Chain piecing 60 blocks, gets really boring, really fast.  I'm at the halfway point on these 60 blocks and need a break.

Now, for the Bad News.

1.  So far, this has taken me a total of five weeks.  Life has gotten in the way, and I'm also tired of chain piecing.  If you're not familiar with foundation paper piecing, after stitching each seam, you need to trim the seam allowance, then press the seam.  Each time. It's very time-consuming, but very worth the effort.

2.  I need a break.  Instead of plowing thru the last half of these blocks, I'm going to make some bags.

I have a fabulous cousin, Brooke, who is 40 and can't sew because she's legally blind.  She's not totally blind, she has about 10% of her sight, but that's not enough to sew.  She's one of my favorite people.  She lives in Indiana and we keep in touch via social media.  She asked if I could make her a bag; that's what I going to work on during the "Lawn Diamond Break".  I've previously made 3 Mail Sack Cross Body Bags, so I thought I'd make one for Brooke and a couple of more to have on hand.

This is the canvas fabric I've pulled from my stash, enough for 5 bags.  I don't know if I'll make that many, but I'm prepared!

May your bobbins always be full,

Quilts for Peace ~ Dallas MQG

After the tragedy in Dallas, the Dallas MQG put out a call for Blue Heart Blocks.  The blocks will be made into quilts for the survivors and the deceased officers' families.  I took a break from my current project.  The first day I selected the fabrics from my stash.  I love having a good stash!  Then I did all the cutting,  The Dallas MQG asked that the blocks be 10.5 inches and follow Cluck Cluck Sews great tutorial.

Then yesterday, I sewed them all up, took some photos, and put them in the mail.

This tragedy, the wholesale killing of police officers, broke my heart.  My husband was an LAPD officer for 28.5 years.  He worked in the Watts area, home of the worse criminal gangs in the country.  I didn't worry about him, he was mature and well trained.  Worrying solves nothing.

I love being part of the wonderful quilting community.  They jump right in, whenever there's a need.

The other big quilt drive is Quilts for Pulse, in response to the killings in Orlando.  Next week, I'm sending the Orlando MQG this heart quilt.  I happened to make this a year and a half ago, just for the joy of making a quilt.  Now, it'll comfort a stranger.  That's what quilts are for.

May your bobbins always be full,

Starting a Lawn Diamond Quilt

On Sunday, I returned from a 10 day Baseball Tour.  I had such a great time, and it took me a couple of days to recover.  Yesterday, I pulled some solids to make a Lawn Diamond Quilt.  Before I left on my trip, I had purchased the pattern from Sarah.  I seldom use a pattern, but I really liked the look of this one.

This is my fabric pull, all from stash.  I checked in B&W to make sure the fabric had good contrast.

This is a paper-piece pattern, and it included a sheet for coloring in your placement.  That didn't work for me.  I even tried putting small snips of fabric in the coloring segments.  It was a no-go.  

Since fabric placement is critical for this design, I decided to use the actual papers that I printed for the paper-piecing to decide on fabric placement.  This is as far as I've gotten.  I hope to make some good progress on Friday and the weekend.

May your bobbins always be full,

Northcott's Chip Pack Challenge

Once I got started, it was hard to stop.

I keep making sets of blocks and figuring out where they'd go.

I was pretty happy with what was going on but still needed more blocks.

Now, to figure out what to so with the middle part.

I took some scraps from the previous blocks and got creative.

Then I sewed the "moon" in place.

Now, it was time for the rocket ship.

I used Bob's old handcuffs to make the circles, I couldn't find a protractor.

This is the quilt top all put together and below are the scraps of Pansy that were left, not much.

Two shots of the finished quilt.  (The quilting is hard to see.)  This 30" x 30" quilt took me a total of 10 days, start to finish.  I submitted it to Northcott, today.

Instead of binding the quilt, I faced it.  That was a first for me.

I'd spotted several quilts at Quiltcon with facing and thought I'd try it.

May your bobbins always be full,