Quilt Inventory Summer 2014

This is a nice stack of quilts made by me, staying at my vacation house. There are a few others hanging on the walls, but these are the bed/lap quilts that are portable.

The one covering the bed is Easy Street, and then at the bottom of the stack is Celtic Solstice, both mystery quilts designed by Bonnie Hunter.

Number two and three from the bottom of the stack are the twin quilts belonging to my sons.

The second from the top is the newest addition to the house: Summer Slice Scrap Buster Quilt.

At the very top is one of the first quilts I brought to the house, Summer Dream.

I hope to finish the binding of a table runner before I have to head for home, but that runner will travel home with me.


Happy Quilting!

A finish!

Finally I can show you pictures of my finished Easy Street! I got it back from Merete who did a fantastic job on the quilting, but then I got the flu and did not have any energy to do the binding. When the bugs finally decided to leave, I did the binding in two days. For a 100" x 100" (~2.5 m x 2.5 m) that's a lot of binding; more than 10 m to be sewn by hand on the back. No wonder that my hands were hurting when I finished!


Here the quilt is in all its glory on my floor. As you can see I don't have quite a big enough floor for such an enormous quilt!


I used a "tropical" print for the backing which I found on sale at Hancocks Fabrics. The apple-green color of the leaves were just perfect to complete the quilt! But, and there is always a but, more than 8 yards of fabric was not enough for the backing of this huge quilt...


...so I added another piece in the center, this time brown flowers on yellow. At least the flowers have the same color as the background of the green leaves.


The last picture shows a close-up of the binding and the great quilting performed by Merete. I am very pleased with the result, and this is a quilt that will be cherished for many years to come!

Lots of progress today!

Row #12 of Bee In My Bonnet Row Along is completed, and I really enjoyed making these cute, little baskets. Spring is on its way here, and my porch is free of snow, ready for display of the row.


The light is somewhat poor this time of year, and with the assistance of a close-up picture and flash the details are shown better. Here is the left half:


The right half:


The rows are coming to an end in a few weeks, and I look forward to see the final order of the rows.

In addition, this week I got my Easy Street back from the quilter. She did a beautiful job, and I am very pleased with the result. Now I just have to start preparing the binding. This is a big quilt, approx. 100" x 100", and it will require a lot of binding. Here is a picture showing off the great quilting.

Easy Street quilt top 100% finished!

Here the top is flying in the wind with DH holding it tight. I am very pleased with the final result, the borders are on and the top definitely looks more complete now.

On the ground you can really see how big it is; approximately 100" square. The inner border is 1" finished, and the outer is 5".

It fits my bed perfectly!

Here is a detail picture of the borders. The colors look a bit dull indoors.

This is a huge quilt, and I don't think I will be able to quilt it myself. I will take the quilt top home with me, prepare the backing and take it further on from there.
At least one part of my UFO list is completed!

Have a nice day!

Easy Street borders, plus UFO list

Finally I have bought the border fabrics for Easy Street. The purple and turquoise were washed and dried yesterday together with color cather sheets, thank goodness; the sheets were dark with excess color.

The purple will be the narrow inner border. I also bought the backing fabric on sale, and I will show you that later when I have come further on with the process.

A lot of other bloggers have come up with lists of UFO projects to finish in 2013. Even though I haven't been quilting for a very long time, after rummaging through my UFO/WISP list I have quite a long list. Several of the projects are BOMs or BOM-like.

Here is the list of big projects that I will complete before starting anything new:

UFOs/WISP

EASY STREET - needs borders, backing and quilting
2012 AURIFIL DESIGNER OF THE MONTH - working on the last stitchery, needs sashing, backing and quilting
JACKIE'S BLOGGERS BOM - quilt top finished, needs backing and quilting
LORI HOLT'S ROW ALONG - still a few weeks/months to go

After having committed myself to completing these projects, I still have a few other quilts I will do as soon as possible. Among them is a twin sized quilt for DS2.

Progress will be shown on the blog!

Easy Street quilt top finished!

All the 2377 small pieces, if I did my math correct, are sewn together. The quilt top is finished and all that is missing is the inner and outer border. Here it is on top of my bed.

This picture gives more credit to the colors. Picture taking late in the afternoon indoors is never the best idea when it comes to lighting.

All in all, piecing Easy Street was a great experience! This was my first mystery quilt, and the biggest quilt I have made, ever! After starting quilting just over a year ago, I now feel confident in starting larger and more complex projects. Thanks to Bonnie for making this mystery and posting all the excellent clues and instructions for the piecing!

The hunt for border fabrics will begin!

Here is the link to the progress of the other participants in this mystery.

Easy Street Part 8

Yesterday I completed all the 16 A-blocks, and now there is only 9 B-blocks left to make before the assembling starts.

I had to struggle with the wind outside trying to get daylight pictures, so I just got to get a few blocks laid out before they were blown away.

The whole stack of A-blocks on my porch. Small glass beads helped me weigh them down.

Actually, the colors of the blocks turned out better indoors on the floor.

Finally, here is a glimpse of how the quilt will look when it is done. The only thing missing is the 9 B-blocks, and the assembling, of course. Starting to look good!

You can see how the others are progressing here.

Progress on Easy Street, Part 7 and 8

Part 7 was completed yesterday, and now I have started Part 8. I had to see how a complete A-block looks, but I know that I will have to do some chain piecing of smaller parts of the blocks to make efficient progress of the project. Here is my first 8-a block not pressed yet:

Happy sewing to everybody working on Easy Street!

Easy Street Part 6

All the 128 Double Bricks are made, and 64 green quarter square triangles are cut.

Now Part 7 can just come, I'm ready!

Easy Street Part 5 is done

Today I finished all of my 64 sitting turkeys. Here they are in stacks of 4.

I really enjoy this mystery, and I am looking forward to the next step. Bonnie said that we are done with the turquoise fabric, so I wonder which fabrics will be used in the next step.

I have tried to play along with the blocks we have made this far to get alternative solutions to the Easy Street mystery. I have not been able to use all the blocks yet, but here are a few suggestions:

Alternative 1.

Alternative 2.

Alternative 3.

Alternative 4.

My alternatives are just small blocks, I do not have a specific idea of the final design. Time will show as we go further on; I am looking forward to the final result!

The progress of the other participants can be found here . MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Easy Street Part 4 - 64 Stacked Geese ready to fly

Here they are, in stacks of four.

Now I am cutting green squares for a later step, 145 all together. I am eager to see how the finished product will look in the end. I bet it will look fantastic!

Easy Street Part 3 completed!

This looks good, doesn't it? I completed all the 64 blocks today and put them together for the picture.

Now I have a couple of days to concentrate on quilting the twin size quilt for my son.

Started Easy Street Part 3

All the pieces are cut, and a few blocks are assembled. I hope I will have completed all 64 tomorrow. It is good to make colorful blocks!

Progress on Easy Street and BIMB Row Along

I have had a very productive weekend, and it is not even over yet!

The two first parts of Easy Street are completed, and Row#8 in Bee In My Bonnet Row Along is also done.

Easy Street: 128 flying geese and 192 4-patches

BIMB: All the 8 rows on my porch in poor winter daylight

BIMB: Left part of row#8

BIMB: Right part of row#8

The rest of the day will be dedicated to basting a twin sized quilt for my son, and maybe I will be able to just start on Part 3 of Bonnie's Mystery.

Easy Street Part 2

I completed Part 2 tonight before finishing Part 1. I have done about 70 4-patches of Part 1, and hope to complete the rest tomorrow. This is fun!