Mischievous Wife Quilt

On our trip home from New Jersey last month, I finished the binding on this quilt.  It was my adaptation of the Gypsy Wife quilt that our Moda group did last year.  It was quilted by the Gammill Girls at the Front Porch Quilt Shoppe.  I bound it in the same fabric as the border.

It's a nice sized quilt, a bit longer than the ones I have photographed on the fence before.  It hangs down onto the ground by several inches.  I still don't know what to do with it.  It's okay and all, but I still don't love it.

Vintage Christmas blocks for April

 

I got them finished in time! I don't know if anyone will notice or not, but decided to make the gingerbread house a little simpler than the directions called for. I really felt like the original design was more intricate than it needed to be. I'm fine with my door not having a window in it and my window not having a frame around it. Oh, and I also omitted the sidewalk. It still looks plenty enough like a gingerbread house to me.

Baby Doll big block

One of the other blocks we were assigned this month was the baby doll block.  I'm not planning to use it in my Christmas quilt, but I decided to make it anyway.  Instead of making it in the 6-inch, or 12-inch size, that was given in the book, I decided to scale it up to a 36-inch block.  No tiny pieces in this one!  Now all I have to do is add some borders and I have a cute baby doll quilt.  Big block baby quilts are fun.

Holly and Ivy block

I only needed one block out the ones that were assigned to us this month.  I'm not super happy about how it turned out, but I'm not a fan of making 6 inch blocks, so I'm not planning to do it over.  It'll do.

Simplish in Circle Play

Last month at our Moda class, our extra project was a quilt called Simplish.  The pattern is available as a free download from Shabby Fabrics.  The original pattern uses precuts from Wilmington Prints fabrics (a 5 karat mini-crystals, a 10 karat mini-crystals, and 1 essential gems), which are all 24 count packages. I used a Benartex layer cake (42 count) in Circle Play fabric, which I already had on hand, and cut 2-1/2 inch strips from solid black yardage for my quilt. 

I still need to find fabric for the backing.  I didn't buy any yardage from the fabric line when I bought the layer cake, so hopefully I can find something that will go well with it.  I plan to bind it in the solid black.  The finished quilt will be 56-1/2 x 70 inches, so it makes a nice sized sofa throw.

Vintage Christmas - January Blocks

This year our group that meets at the Front Porch Quilt Shoppe is doing Lori Holt's Vintage Christmas blocks.  Some people are doing the Vintage Christmas quilt that is pictured on the cover of the book, which involves making 6-inch squares for all 42 blocks in the book.  Some are doing the Christmas Eve quilt, which uses 25 of the blocks done in the 12-inch size.  Probably some people will do some of the other quilts featured in the book.  I probably won't be alone in doing something completely different with the blocks.  At least one other person mentioned that they were going to do something different.

What I really need, when it comes to Christmas quilts, is a Christmas wall hanging.  Everything featured in the book was either too big, or too small, for what I was wanting.  I decided to use blocks from the book and make up my own wall hanging size quilt.  It will feature a 12-inch block in the center, surrounded by sashing, 6-inch blocks, more sashing, 3-inch blocks (made from an element of one of the 6-inch blocks in the book), and an outer border.

For the class, we were assigned 5 blocks for this month, if we were doing the cover quilt.  Of those blocks, I only wanted to use 2 of them in my quilt, so that's all I made.  On the left is the Christmas Candles blocks and on the right is the Glisten block, both in the 6-inch size.  Lots of tiny pieces here.  That's not my favorite thing to do, but I'm willing to do it for a quilt that I want to have.  Maybe I won't go crazy before the year is over and the project is finished!

Mischievous Wife top finished - really this time

I ordered some dark, batik, multicolored fabric to add as a border to my Mischievous Wife quilt.  I decided against adding a white inner border.  I'm still not loving it, but the dark border adds a nice frame to it.  I wish it wasn't quite so dark, but hey, you take what you can get. 

The quilt top finishes at 72 x 80 inches, so it's a fairly big quilt.  I have no idea what will become of it once it's quilted and finished.  I can't really imagine using it anywhere.  Maybe one of my granddaughters will like it and want it some day.  Who knows.

Mischievous Wife Section 1 and Done!

I decided not to wait any longer to finish my Mischievous Wife quilt.  Several other members who are actually doing the Gypsy Wife quilt have already finished and shown their completed tops, so I figured that I might as well too.  I mean, what's the point in being Mischievous if you can't break a few rules, right?  So above is my finished Section 1 and below is my completed quilt top.

I say it's completed, but I might still add a border.  I didn't originally intend for it to have a border, but it might need one.  I'll have to see if I can find fabric that I like for the border or not.  I could maybe see a narrow, white inner border and then a multi-color, wider outer border.  We'll see.

Mischievous Wife - Section 2

We are finally coming into the home stretch on this year's Moda project.  The only section left after this one is Section 1, and for me that is strips and a 6 inch square that add up to a 12 inch section.  I may even go ahead and do that one tomorrow.  I just want it all done!

But for now, here is Section 2.  It consists of one 12 inch Pershing block, two 4 inch square-in-a-square blocks, and strips.  The section adds up to 24 inches square.  The Pershing block went together pretty easily, so I was happy about that.  I had one little screw-up sewing the section above the Pershing block together and had to take out a couple of seams, but at least I noticed it before it was all done.

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.

Mischievous Wife quilt - Sections 3 & 4

This month our instructions were to do both section 3 & 4 of the Gypsy Wife quilt.  Obviously, I'm not doing Gypsy Wife but I still did both sections 3 & 4.  There are only 3 more sections left to be done - sections 1, 2, and 7.  I'm looking forward to getting finished with this one too.  But I know I'm glad that I didn't actually do the Gypsy Wife quilt.  I'd be totally hating life at this point if I had.

Inside the Greenhouse

Today I attached the label to last year's Moda project quilt.  I'm calling it "Inside the Greenhouse".  The original quilt had a greenhouse in the center, but I decided  not to make the whole quilt.  I decided that mine was just the plants, in pots, waiting in the greenhouse to be planted.  And, of course, the cat knocked over one of the plants.  What else would she do. . .

And speaking of cats, it seems like the best way to get the attention of cats, shy of giving them food, is to lay a quilt on the floor to try to take a picture of it. 

I thought one was asleep and I had no idea where the other one was until I laid the quilt on the floor.  Then they both showed up before I could even pull out my phone and take a picture.  Thus the transition to the wall-based photo above.  LOL!

Crazy Ann block - Mischievous Wife quilt

Today I worked on my next "section" of the Mischievous Wife quilt.  This is section 5, but it only consists of one block.  I was actually excited to work on it, because I had to do half-rectangle triangles. 

I had to figure out how to make the half-rectangle triangles using the rectangles that I had already cut at 2-1/2 x 4-1/2 inches.  I'm not sure what my plan was when I cut the fabric.  I might have been planning to use the Recs Tool that I have from EZ quilting, but I kinda doubt it, because it seems like I would have told myself to cut a strip instead of individual rectangles.  I really don't know what I was thinking or if I had a plan at that point. 

The method that I used worked out really well.  It was a little more work than using the Recs Tool, but it was very accurate.  I measured in 1/4 inch from the left side and bottom and marked it with a dot on the wrong side of the fabric.  Then I did the same on the top right.  I drew a line to connect the dots.  Then I cut 1/4 inch from the line to the right of the line.  I did this with the purple rectangles and the white rectangles.  Then I matched a purple and a white, right sides together, and used pins to match the dots.  I sewed them together with 1/4 inch seams and then when I opened them out, they were perfect.  I only had to trim off the dogears. 

I'm really happy with how the block turned out.  It is more accurate than the Nurse's Cross block that I did last time.

Nurse's Cross - Mischievous Wife section 6

If you're familiar with the Gypsy Wife quilt - the quilt my Mischievous Wife quilt is a simplification of - then you know that section 6 is the biggest section in the quilt.  Not so much for my quilt.  My "Section 6" is only this one block.  When I divided mine into sections, I tried keep the same focus blocks in the same sections as the original quilt.  As it turned out, the only focus block I used from the original Section 6 was the Nurse's Cross and it was placed in the quilt in an area where the sections are only 12 inches.  Therefore it is a section unto itself.

I don't actually have the pattern for the gypsy wife, so I don't know how the author intends for you to make the Nurse's Cross block.  I found it to be a challenging block to figure out.  The center involved some piecing with rectangles, triangles, and a center square that were then trimmed down into a square.  (It was supposed to trim to 6-1/2 inches, but I guess my seams were a little big so it was only 6-1/4 to 6-3/8, but it worked out okay.  I should have cut my patches bigger since I was trimming it down anyway.)  I then added the yellow triangles.  Then I paper pieced the corners with the red and orange rectangles, and then attached them to the rest of the block.

It took me 2-1/2 hours to sew the one 12 inch (finished) block.  I had already pre-cut all of the pieces so there was only trimming down of sewn units in terms of cutting.  I can't say that I enjoyed it.  I really don't care that much for paper piecing, and I wish I had cut my patches a bit larger in areas where I was going to be paper piecing or where I was going to be trimming down the sewn unit.  But at least it is finished and I like the way the finished block looks.

Section 8 of Mischievous Wife quilt

Today I finished up what I need to have done for my next Moda group meeting.  Since my quilt is different from everyone else's, I try to at least show the same blocks as was in the original assignment.  I tried to group my sections so as to include the assigned blocks, but sometimes it just didn't work out that way.  So this month I have my section that includes the star block, plus the heart block as an extra.  The heart block will ultimately be in the center of the quilt, but I wanted to sew it and show it with section 8.

Section 9 - Mischievous Wife quilt

Here is my latest progress on my Mischievous Wife quilt (aka a simplified version of the Gypsy Wife quilt).  I'm really glad that I didn't have to do the actual section 9 of the Gypsy Wife for this meeting.  I totally wouldn't have had the time.  I just did get this one finished and it's due on Wednesday.  Yard work and babysitting my adorable granddaughter have limited my sewing time this month.

Mischievous Wife quilt - part one

This year my Moda quilt group at the quilt shoppe is doing the "Gypsy Wife" quilt.  I don't particularly like the Gypsy Wife quilt.  It's not really my style and it looks extremely complicated - lots of small pieces, partial seams, confusing directions, etc.  So, I decided that I'm not doing the Gypsy Wife, I'm doing the Mischievous Wife.  She's not as free and uninhibited as a gypsy, but she's still a little mischievous. 

I used nine of the focus blocks from the Gypsy Wife, and made them all 12 inches.  I used several of the filler blocks and made them either 4 inches or 6 inches.  All of my strips are 2 inches wide (finished) so that I can use jelly roll strips, and none of the placement requires partial seaming.  The focus blocks are in a symmetrical layout, but the filler blocks add some asymmetry and mischief. 

The group is doing one section of the quilt at a time.  The first assignment was Section 10.  I divided my quilt into 10 section, coordinating them to the sections of Gypsy Wife based on the focus blocks used in each section, as much as possible.

My plan for the quilt is to use all batiks.  The stripes alternate between white and light pastels.  The filler blocks are a shade darker.  Then the focus blocks are the darkest, brightest fabrics.

2017 Moda Project - Finished Quilt Top

So this year our Moda group decided to the Quilter's Patch quilt as our project.  I did a few blocks and decided that I didn't really like it that much, hated making the blocks, and didn't want to finish the quilt as patterned.  So I came up with my own design to use the blocks that I had made, and made a few more that I liked to go with them.  This is the finished top.  The original quilt had a greenhouse in the center, so I am calling mine "Inside the Greenhouse".  It is approximately 42 x 50 inches.

Butterfly blocks for Moda

Our blocks for this month were butterfly blocks.  I didn't really like the butterfly block that was in the book, so I decided to make my own.  There are 8 inch blocks, just like the ones in the book, but they look very different.  These are the last blocks I plan to make for the quilt before I start assembling the quilt top.  Almost done with this quilt that I wish I had never started.  Hurray!

Layers of Charm - Moda Extra Project

This month our extra project for the Moda group was the Layers of Charm Quilt Pattern from Fat Quarter Shop.  I used a layer cake that I bought a few years ago called Healing Hearts.  I picked out a nice red to coordinate with the fabrics.  I wanted a color that was in the fabric, but would also give a good contrast to all the fabrics.  It is a super simple project.  You just add a five inch flippy corner to 36 of the fabrics in a layer cake, then sew them together in such a way as to create the diamonds.  No border or anything.  Of course you could add one if you wanted to, but the pattern doesn't call for it.  It finishes 57-1/2 inches square, a nice lap-sized quilt.