Mischievous Wife - Section 7

Today I did my assignment for my Moda class that is due August 15th.  This is section 7.  We had previously skipped over section 7 and are now coming back to it.  Mine, as usual, is much simpler than everyone else's.  Theirs had more blocks and a couple of partial seams.  Mine was just 2 blocks and no partial seams.  Still very happy with my choice to do my own thing here.  Also still looking forward to being finished with the project.

Spiders and Webs quilt

Today I finished making this quilt top.  It is made from a tutorial at Moda Bake Shop called Spiders and Webs.  I didn't follow the "recipe" exactly though.  The original quilt was designed using a jelly roll of Trick-or-Treat by Deb Strain, and the directions given are specific to the strips found in that jelly roll.  That made it a little tricky to translate into different fabric simply because it says things like "Separate the orange candy corn to the side for the binding." but doesn't tell you how many strips that actually was.  She then says to sew the remaining strips together into sets of four and "You will have several lovely rectangles!!"  Again, only helpful if you have an actual number.  She did say how many triangles you needed to cut, so I was able to figure it out, but it was more work than it should have been to follow a pattern.

I had originally purchased a jelly roll of similarly colored fabrics to use to make the quilt, but I decided that I wanted mine to be less scrappy than a jelly roll quilt.  I decided to use the jelly roll for a different quilt and I bought yardage and cut my own 2.5 inch strips for this quilt.  I also cut my borders an inch wider than the original.  Other than that, the quilt it pretty much the same.

The other way that I varied from the "recipe" was that I bought a Creative Grids 60 degree triangle ruler/template to cut my triangles (She explained how to cut them with your 60 degree mark on your straight ruler).  I really liked using the template.  This was my first equilateral triangle quilt and I was a little nervous about sewing it together.  But having the blunted corner on the template made it so much easier.  I used it to trim all three corners on the triangles and it made lining up the pieces a breeze.  In fact, I'm already planning another equilateral triangle to quilt so that I can use it again.

I really had a lot of fun making this quilt.  It's actually the first project that I've genuinely enjoyed working on in a long time.  And I'm probably irrationally happy about how it turned out, but I really do like it a lot.

Jack-o-lantern block

I've been working on designing a Halloween quilt that will use a jelly roll that I've had for several years now.  The plan is to include a jack-o-lantern, a ghost, and a monster/ghoul thing.  I designed this jack-o-lantern block (the one on top) and pieced a sample to try out the design.  I like the way that it turned out, but the piecing is a little tricky to make the points at the bottom of the mouth line up properly. 

In the bottom picture I just covered up the bottom points to see how it would look without them.  I really think it looks fine without them and it would be MUCH easier to piece, so I think I will probably use the bottom design in the actual quilt. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this practice block.  For now it goes in the orphan block pile.

Mystery quilt - Block #7

Here are my latest two blocks for our guild mystery quilt.  I like the block on the left the best, but I like them both.  Originally I had a lighter fabric in the center of the block on the right, but it looked out of place.  I think it looks better this way.

Two Fabric Bargello quilt

I've been wanting to make a two fabric bargello quilt ever since I first saw one on Pinterest and I finally got the opportunity.  My local quilt shop got in some really nice ombre fabrics, and even though I'm not really supposed to be starting new projects from new fabrics, I bought some. 

But in an effort to keep it from being yet another UFO, I plowed straight ahead and made the quilt top.  My intention is to drop it off to be quilted this month.  I still need to buy backing fabric first.  I considered buying some when I bought the fabric for the top, but I wasn't 100% sure how much I  needed because I hadn't finalized my design yet. 

While there is a pattern available for purchase online - designed by Susie Weaver - I wanted to figure out how to do it on my own and make my own design.  (It is really similar to her Lightning Bolt layout, but not exactly the same.)  I figured it out on paper first.  Then I decided that I didn't want my strips to be quite as small as I originally figured.  Then I redesigned it on the computer. 

Here are my strips all cut, laid out, and ready to sew.  It's amazing how much width you lose by sewing it together.  (Of course, I allowed for that, but it's still amazing to see the difference.)  It's also interesting to see how different it looks with the borders added. 

You may also notice in the picture above that I carefully numbered all of my strips.  I didn't remove any of the numbers until the center was completely sewn together.  Also, to keep it from going wonky, I sewed the strips together in alternate directions.  First I sewed together pairs, sewing from top to bottom.  Then I sewed the pairs together from bottom to top.  It came out really smooth and straight that way.