Checkerboard Chillin'

Remember when I was setting my goals for the year? Well one of them was to finish all the quilt tops in my closet. That's a lot easier when you actually remember all the tops you have. Seems I forgot this one. Oops.

Measuring at 60'' by 60'' it isn't a huge top and I can manage to quilt this at home. I even have batting cut for it already.

This is my version of the Checkerboard quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts. When I went to make it at some point after the book came out I decided to control the colour scheme. So I raided all my turquoise, purple, grey, and white scraps. From these I cut all my 2 1/2'' squares. There may have been some stash raiding to finish up the quilt. Shh. It is smaller than that original, however. Partly because of the fabric limitations and partly because this has to join me on the road and the big quilts take up a lot more room.

Seeing as I have another trunk show in a few weeks I might be motivated to finish this up and reveal it then.

One of the things I love the most about this quilt is the way it comes together. Amanda Jean wrote the pattern so you are making it one row at a time. And you press to one side as you go. Then you just flip over every second row. Your seams nest and it comes together as a top in no time. It still works as a leaders and enders project.

Make sure to check out the book for detailed instructions, including the cutting requirements for a larger, twin sized quilt.

Pressing Issues

Some people think in the shower, others on a long walk. Some like to talk it out with a friend or partner. Some others like to turtle under and not think about things. Me? I iron.

Truth be told, I don't like to iron my clothes. My sister and I had this as one of our chores when we were growing up. My mom made us iron all the t-shirts too. Our clothes looked great, even if they smelled like smoke. Now I iron clothes only when necessary.

But pressing a quilt top or readying a back for basting is my go-to task when I have something to sort out in my brain. Whether it be bringing swirling ideas together or planning a difficult conversation, the repetitive nature of pressing, with accompanying steam facial is the means by which I can often formulate my thoughts.

I've got a lot to sort through this week, anyone want to bring some blocks over?

Cataloguing the Scraps

So I designed a quilt. It uses 36 fat quarters but there are some leftovers and scraps. Such pretty scraps. I know people hate to see waste and overly generous yardage requirements in patterns. I do too. When I made the quilt I made a point to keep and organize all the scraps. Here they are.

They could combine to do some really fun and beautiful things. Instead of using the extra blocks on the back I kept them aside and they will be used in a baby quilt. There are all those circles cut from the back of larger circles appliqués. They could be another small quilt if appliquéd on a background. Then there are strips and snippets and trimmings. The fabrics are this Vanity Fair bundle from Dear Stella plus a lot of additions from my stash. All pretty. All useful.

Oh the possibilities!

When the pattern comes out in the Spring issue of Quilter's Connection we can talk more about the scraps - how they came to be and what I may have even done with them by then.

Alturas Applique

With all due credit to Carolyn Friedlander and Sarah Fielke I must admit to a new addition: hand appliqué. Okay, so it is only in the early stages, but boy do I like it.

Yes, I have a hand quilting project on the go. And a hand piecing project (which I'm really going to wrap up as soon as I can find the first chunk of sewing I did). But over the winter break neither of these were getting me all that excited. I was looking for something to keep me busy as I kept Hubby company at the end of the day while he watched endless episodes of Top Gear and Patrick Dempsy: Le Mans.

You know my aversion to patterns, but I didn't have the brain power to be creative in this instance. Besides, I had Carolyn's appliqué patterns and they are just so cool. So I decided to keep it simple and go with the block based pattern Alturas. Fuel to the addiction for sure.

That being said, I'm not sure I have it in me to make a full size quilt of hand appliquéd blocks. Right now I am committing to nine of them and then we'll see what happens.