2014 NewFO Challenge - March & February

The month of March is normally crunch month for finishing quilts to be entered into the local guilds annual quilt show.  Last year I was unable to finish binding two of my three entries.  The third was not even quilted.  So I had three no shows and boy did I hear about it.  Several of the gals made me feel so self-conscious that I was too timid to even think about entering something in this years show if it was not complete by the entry deadline which was back in February.  That is the normal March Madness for me.  But this year my husbands did something to his back that has caused him to be on a short term disability from work.  My husband is a wonderful man but he does prefer me to be in close proximity to him otherwise I get lots of checkup shoutouts.  If I do not respond, the next thing I know he is standing in the doorway of the sewing room.  To circumvent this I sit in my chair next to his and stitch.   This is best solution that leaves both of us happy.  With that said you may notice the lack of a February post.  Would you believe I typed it and then forgot to add the pictures and post it?  So you will find it after my two March NewFOs projects.  To see what my fellow quilters have start for their March NewFOs, click here for the list of participants.  Enjoy!

MARCH

1.      A Silent Auction Surprise

Sometimes you never know what you will find in the baskets that you are the highest bidder.  In one of the baskets I found these, I am calling them hidden gems because I thought I was getting a basket with a roll of heat resistant fabric and a bunch of patterns.  I was after one of the patterns and not the fabric or the hidden gems.  There are 20 blocks.  I believe they were made from a charm pack since the seamed edges are pinked.  This is not really my color palate but I have come to believe that as quilters we need to go outside our comfort palate.  There is a whole color wheel out there and this will be my jump into some new colors.  But first I will need to figure a fun way to arrange these gems. Design wall here we come.  Oh wait, I don’t have a design wall.  So Home Depot here I come to buy a sheet of polystyrene to make a design wall.   

2.      Quilt Show Inspiration

I’ve had this fabric for quite some time since this is my alma matter, Washington State University, and our mascot is the Cougar or Coug for short.  I figured one of these days I will figure out something to do with some of my WSU fabric. I'm not saying that I have a bunch, oh maybe I am.  Recently, I thought I had project but it fizzled out when realized that I would lose most of the graphics.  So back to the storage tub it went.  That was until the quilt show.  Thank you fellow WSU Cougar fan and proud Cougar Mom.  She used the Twister Tool to make her quilt.  I did not know that there was different sizes besides the mini twister tool until a couple of weeks ago when I visited a quilt shop  that is an hours drive from my home.  Now to start collecting gray and charcoal fabrics to go with my WSU fabric.  The organizer that you see sitting on my WSU fabric was the “basket” for one of the silent auction items that I was the highest bidder.  It had all kinds of cross stich fabric along with a few cross stitch pattern.  I was after the fabric even though it was Aida cloth.  I know one day that my eyes and possibly brain will say, “girl it is time to qui count to threads and worrying if you are still lined up”.

Well that is about all the New FOs that I could manage in March.  Here is a link to pictures from quilt show that one of the gals I know took.  Nan does such a wonderful job photographing the show. Hopefully in April, I will get a little time in with my rotary cutter or machine to tackle some of the projects that I have selected in the past three months.  It might be fun starting new stuff but there comes a time when you need to put your foot to the pedal.  Now my very late February post....
 

FEBRUARY

 

1.      Block of the Month 

When I first started to dabble in quilting, I took a hand appliqué and loved it.  The only problem is it takes a long time to make the blocks to complete a quilt.  I am still resisting fusible appliqué, so this project is the next best thing. We are using Penny Haren’s Pieced Appliqué book.   Here is the publishers, Landauer Publishing, link to purchase this book.  They have some great deals if you sign up for their updates.  

 

I have gotten as far as picking out my focus fabric, which is one of my ice dyed fabrics that I  made last summer.  It has so many fun colors in it and would you believe that I only used three dyes.  It is amazing the patterns you get when the ice melts.  The other thing that is fun to see is what colors come of the dyes.  In this piece I can only remember two of the three colors, Antique Lace and Eggplant.  The other must have been something along the red line.  The fabrics at the top of the picture are the ones that made it through the auditions.  The two piles on either side are still in the running.  Most likely they will be used as accents in the blocks.

Now that I am typing this out I guess I am a little further than I first thought.  I have the templates (not sure if that is what they are called) for the first three blocks cut out.  There are 25 blocks in this book.  They have you make all 25 and then you get to take out that one block that really does not go with the others.  Well that is what I have been told.  It will probably finds its way to the back of the quilt.   

 

2.      Fabric Challenge, Community Service Block
 

In some quilters worlds this fabric would come home and promptly be made into the required block and then returned.  Well that is not the case here.  I believe the fabric came home with me in October.  It has made several round trips to the cutting table and back to the ironing board.  Never once has it had to fear that it would be cut.  Oh just you wait you small rectangular piece of fabric.  You will be cut in the month of March but there is no guarantee that you will be pieced.  Oh wait, you have to be turned on March 20^th.  Now you have me worried. 

3.      Jelly Roll Addiction

Oh those 2 ½” strips are a bit too tempting for me.  Thanks goodness they don’t have any calories.  In February, the community service portion of our guild meeting had 2 ½” strips for us to make quilts out of.  Some call the pattern that we use the 1600 quilt but many in our guild refer to it as the lasagna quilt.  As the sewing portion of our meeting started many members were talking about a recent episode of Fons & Porter that used a lasagna quilt with a twist.  They free hand cut the top down the middle in a wavy fashion according to these ladies.  Oh this made the appeal even greater.  So I gathered my 40 strips since they are not bundled for us like the fancy ones in the stores are.  While doing this I would find a strip that really didn’t go with the others but oh it wanted to go home with me.  Then I found a few others that went well with that one that just didn't go with the others. 

So I started a second pile, then a third and oh my a fourth.  Thank goodness self control kicked in and I stopped at four.  Good thing these quilts go together fast, yeah right.  Remember me mentioning that fabric comes home with me and then falls into the never get started category?  I will not let it happen with these lovelies.  After the meeting I looked up that Fons &Portter episode.  I had to laugh when I watched the episode and saw that they used a ruler and not free handed like the ladies kept saying at the meeting.  What an interesting look it gives the lasagna quilt.  At the end of the episode they had one that they had zig-zagged or chevroned instead of scalloping.  I know what the patriotic strips are going to cut like. 

The Fons &Porter episode was # 2303, Stitch & Slice, that demonstrates what I have planned for these four jelly rolls.  On the Fons & Porter site, it says that this quilt will be featured in the May/June 2014 issue of Love of Quilting.  They also have a pattern available for purchase for the zig-zag effect.  Click here for that link.

Now to get started on these three projects. 

Oh wait, there are more since this post was forgotten about.  Uff dah!

Until the end of April....Happy Quilting!