Multicolored Squirrel

       So I was in my sewing studio minding my own business putting fabric scraps away when I came across this strip set of Kaffe fabric strips sent to me by Quiltdiva Julie in a plastic box with Kaffe scraps. All else faded. I opened it up and pinned it on the design wall. Squirrel! I pressed it and cut it into 2 1/2" strips and put it back on the wall. I arranged the strips a few times. Ah, the colors washed over me and smiled.
     Once I figure out the layout, I auditioned fabrics for above and below. I got to thinking that the top was like a sky and the bottom like grass for the band to float. I chose a blue with mottled values and a number of greens. Once I drew all the strips on graph paper and and numbered them all with tape, I cut the top and bottom pieces according to the sizes I figured out on the graph paper.

     Now, I have all the strips stacked and ready to sew the long edges. What a squirrel!

Maggie Pearl progress

      I took strip pairs to the retreat that were pulled from my stash to make the Maggie Pearl free pattern I saw other blog friends make. Each set of strips makes one block. I sewed all the strips and subcut them, sewing again, and then tried to arrange them in a coherent way.

     Finally, I found a layout and sewed the entire quilt using the webbing technique.

     However, when I got home, I realized that the quilt was too narrow. I dug around and found 5 more sets to sew after auditioning them to the left side.

     After completing those blocks, I finished the top and like it much better for a comfort quilt.

Confetti Time

     This a wonderful pattern from Wilmington Prints, although I can't find it online at the moment, called Confetti. It used one 40 strip jelly roll and one 40 strip blues jelly roll (I cut different blues to make mine). It took time to arrange the strip sets in colors that would value grade and move the eye.

I tried a bunch of strip set layouts, did not like a couple of the strips, especially the two toothy looking ones.

Looked through my batiks to see what I could substitute

Settled on this layout and strips

Sewing pairs, then pairs to pairs careful to alternate starting to stitch from top, then from bottom to avoid those nasty bowing strips

Cutting the subsets of strips

Now, I am going to put a blue strip border all around because I  don't want all those seams in the binding. And take off the numbers.

Rippity rip rip solution

      Time for reckoning. This quilt top has sat in a ball in a bag long enough. It has to be dealt with. It is from back in Feb. 2020. It had a nasty curve and uneveness making it unusable. After dealing with another difficult quilt to fix, I waded into this one. I decided not to cut it into smaller blocks, but try to deal with it as it was. The pattern is free from Jo's Country Junction https://www.joscountryjunction.com/meet-in-the-middle-new-free-pattern/
     The story: https://artinsearch.blogspot.com/2020/02/uh-oh-quilt-on-wall-not-fairest-of-them.html

 
     I decided to unstitch a number of the worst looking curving seams  and press all the strips. I divided the quilt in about 5 parts. I searched through the stash and found strips that I could make 5 more sets of strips so I could add some good ones to help the curving. The seams I took out were very uneven due to the issues described in the archived blog. I repressed and restitched carefully. The long seams are too much for my mother who speeds everything under the needle to the allowance detriment.
     After some hours, I was able to rotate the quilt so now the strips go side to side and the added 5 strips plus a white one top and bottom make it long enough for a comfort quilt. I kept carefully sewing, pressing, flipping strips, alternating directions sewing the strips and finally, I was able to trim the quilt evenly and it presses FLAT!!!  I cannot believe I actually fixed it. It will make a great man's comfort quilt. Now to find a backing.

Uh oh, quilt on the wall, not the fairest of them all

     I do not like bad surprises. I never liked practical jokes. So when I put up Meet in the Middle strips (Kona white I cut and Kaufman jelly roll) as sewn, there was a nasty surprise. The quilt was way longer on one side and it has huge pucker issues, funky angle, like it has some inner angst. 
     I have made strip quilts like this, but not with the pieced prints, usually one print and one white. From the appearance, I can only surmise the flaws. One, the strips were sewn slightly off. Second, the print pieces were not sewn flush or they came off the jelly roll slightly off. Third, all the seams were sewn from the top down. Fourth, What the heck do I do now?

     This quilt was a collaborative effort by my mom and I. I can shoulder some of the blame because I sewed bigger chunks from what strips she had sewn because I had mismarked the pairs. The problem is, I would have to rip all those long seams and the Kona white and the Robert Kaufman jelly roll strips are extremely fraying. I am afraid I would lose a lot of fabric and more distortion if I ripped all those long seams.
     So do I cut it up? How? Will it still behave poorly cut up?  It will not steam or iron flat. Lot of fabric cost in here and I will entertain any ideas of fixing, changing, cutting, etc so this can be a quilt. Hate failing on large scale like this.

Strip tubes, Summer in the Park

     I am always looking for comfort quilt patterns that my mom can help with and keep her from being bored. She can sew straight seams, strips and squares, but does not piece, cut or trim. I had this jelly roll of black strips and got a batik one on special, so I remembered this quilt from Missouri Star Quilt Company. I pinned a set of black, color, black and a set of color, black, colors together and told my mom to sew them in that order. She pressed all the sets and then sewed the opposite sets to each other, making a tube. I got the tubes back and am cutting them with my Strip Tube Ruler (Cozy Quilts). I have to trim them to an even 8 1/2" block due to my mom's not quite true 1/4". I use the diagonal of the block lined up on my 9" square ruler and trim all sides to 8 1/2". When I get a bunch trimmed up, I will arrange some on the wall and photo them for you to see. 

The pile of strip tubes

The sequence of color sets

Tubes flipped to the opposite side to show how opposites are paired to make the tube

Rainbows on the Wall

    I got nabbed by a rainbow color jelly roll recently on MSQC and thought I would use it to make the Cutting Corners quilt by MSQC. I sewed strip sets, warm and cool, five strips to a set. They were then trimmed into 10" blocks. White 10" blocks were layered on them, right sides together, and they were sewn all around the perimeter. Then they were cut diagonally and ironed opened. I trimmed all of them the same size with the Bloc Loc ruler (love it). 

This is the 10" square strip set of 5, sewn all around

Front of the sandwich- a white 10" square

Sliced diagonally

Opened out- two blocks with strips parallel to center line,
2 with strips perpendicular to center line

Trimming with Bloc Loc

Trimmed blocks with scrap trimmings-
those little bits mean a lot in fitting

   When I put them on the wall, it did not look right as the colors were so different and it did not make a cohesive looking, block by block, quilt. I removed them and tried the Starburst Quilt, MSQC, and it did not read as a cohesive design due to all the colors. 

Design does not cohere together due to fractured colors

     I looked through my files that I keep in Evernote of quilts I like and their tutorials. I found one that I modified. There are two kinds of blocks in these sets- ones with the strips parallel to the HST angle, and another where the strips are perpendicular to the angle. I played with that idea and grouped them accordingly in the secondary design.

Main block arrangement, cool colors

First try, whoops, one center diamond strips at top is not oriented right, and whoops, two blocks short, have to make another set

Everything oriented right, extra blocks made and added.
Love the look! Now it is off the wall,
clipped by column ready to web sew

Batik strips quilted

     The Maybe quilt pattern I did for the tutorial for on Sarah's blog was just quilted. I used Glide Military Gold on the top and Omni on the bottom. I did the same pattern in all the white, but a different one in each strip. Just have to bind.

Batik strips and stagged white centers

      I have done a couple of quilts sewing the short ends of WOF strips- print to solid, so I have a tube. Usually, I have cut the solid color with the print ones in the center staggered. The black strip one was a recent one. This time, after my mom sewed the tubes, I cut the print, in this case, the batiks, and staggered the white in the center. It needs a good pressing and trimming before I get the backing ready.

The tubes

Had to hang outside to photo because of Tugger's refusal to move

Chief quilt tester

Three Finishes, all bound and ready to roll!

     I tend to work grouping similar tasks. For example, I will do a whole lot of backings at once for tops and hang them together ready to quilt. Last week, I made bindings for 4 quilts and sewed on three. The last binding is a large quilt, and it is harder to glue bind- moving the bulk around. All three are comfort quilts, waiting for someone to give me a name of a recipient.
     The black/color strips were sewn as tubes, then cut to stagger the placement. I quilted a different pattern in each stripe to practice my quilting.

Front

Back

     Dancing Star was a Square in a Square pattern- finally completed.

Front

Back

     Goodnight Irene was a leader-ender scrap quilt. I did diagonal quilting with my new ruler and I am not real pleased with the shaky lines.

Back

Front