Strippie Quilt Top #5 Done

Close-up

I just finished Strippie #5.  It's a variation on the other Strippies.  The nautical theme striped fabric had to be pieced to make it long enough--width of fabric or approximately 42".  Rather than insert narrow stripes around the secondary fabric per the regular Strippie pattern, I cut the nautical stripe extra wide.  Also, there wasn't enough of the nautical stripe for five wide cuts, so I shopped my stash and found some blue fish/seashell fabric that seemed to go with the sailing/ocean theme.  Again, I made wide cuts rather than attaching narrow stripes.

I tried several layout variations of the stripes and blue fabrics.  I liked this one the best.

Strippie Quilt Top #4 Done

I finished another Strippie quilt top tonight.  This one was based on fish-themed fabric donated by my co-worker Mary M.  The grass fabric and olive green solid were from stash.  This quilt top is one of several that will be finished and given to a local children's shelter for Christmas.

I've started cutting strips for another charity Strippie, based on leftover sailboat fabric from On the Ocean Blue and a nautical stripe from fellow Stashbuster Cathy C.

Strippie Quilt Top #3 Done

I've finished the third Strippie quilt top, to be finished and given to a local children's shelter in December.  The fabric is from stash, and the pattern is from MaryQuilts.com.  At 40x52 the quilt tops are small enough to get two of them out of a full size (81x96) piece of batting.  If I cut the batting in half the right way, I'll get two pieces 48x81.  I already had one full size package of batting at home, and I picked up a couple more at Joann's with 40% coupons.  So I should be fine now for batting for a half dozen quilts for the shelter.

Alice's View is Done!

I just finished Alice's View. The quilt is for my friend and co-worker Alice V., and the title of the quilt is a play on her name.  The quilt measures 61" x 61.5".  I was hoping to have it done for her birthday in early October, but it's a surprise and she'll love it even if it's a little late.  I plan to give the quilt to Alice on Monday or Tuesday, after I show it to my quilting friend Judy P.

I've had this project in my head for about a year.  I wanted to create a view from a window, looking out on one of Alice's favorite scenes.  For months I had spies in the office trying to find out where she likes to vacation.  Apparently she and her family don't go anywhere, but she reluctantly conceded that Hawaii would be an okay place to go.  (Whatever. lol)  I also learned that she and her family had recently been to Monterey Aquarium.  So I was really happy to find a panel that looks like a picture window and combines a tropical island with what you might see at an aquarium.

I did general outlining for the quilting in the center panel.

Loop-de-loop free motion quilting in the pieced areas.

 Bird of Paradise blocks to go along with the tropical theme,

as well as Shoo Fly blocks.

 Back of Alice's View

I was concerned about trying to line up the stripes since I quilt in separate large sections, but I'm happy about the result.

Another WIP finished!

Christmas Cards from Quilt Photo Ordered

About a year ago I created a photo book at Snapfish.com, featuring lots of quilts I've made and little stories behind them.  It's a beautiful hardbound book, 8" x 11", which usually sells for $29.99.  I only had to pay shipping, thanks to an offer through Oprah, and thanks to my daughter-in-law who told me about it.  I've had credit for 30 free 4x6 photos on my account since then. 

Over the past year Snapfish has been emailing every now and then with different offers.  One of the recent ones was for Christmas photo cards.  I thought it would be fun to feature one of my quilts.  After fooling around with different cards available at Snapfish's site this morning, I decided to go ahead and get the free prints and use those as my Christmas cards this year.  I chose to show off Scrappy Stars which I finished this past summer.

BEFORE

Original photo with white felt design wall in background

AFTER

Covered white edges with black in Paint program

Snapfish will add a bit more black to the edges of the prints.  I'm kind of excited about my cards, and I'm thinking of making a tradition of it.

Almost Done

The three sections of Alice's View are quilted.  I've joined the top and center sections together, and tomorrow I'll attach the bottom section.  Then it will be a matter of doing the binding, which shouldn't take long since I do it all by machine.  I'm so close to being finished!

Machine Quilting

I started free motion quilting Alice's View today.  I'm still very new to machine quilting, and I'm trying some outlining, which I haven't done before.  So I set aside today, my day off, to tackle it. I did the center window section, the hardest part, first. I figured I'd might as well get it over with. I kind of outlined the elements of the scene (mountains, trees, water line, fish, etc.). It's not perfect, but it's not bad. Now that the hard section is done, I can move on to quilting the pieced areas. I plan to do loop-de-loops a la Patsy Thompson, which are more familiar to me, and less stress than the picture part.

I'm getting close to being done!

Alice's View in Three Large Pieces

Center panel with borders added, making the panel the same dimensions as the surrounding sections.

Trying out different colors for quilting thread.

Eliminated a couple of colors, tried out black but think it's too dark.

Quilt top in three large pieces.

I took the center section to Joann's, and found a dark blue-violet to quilt the pieced areas and medium teal blue to quilt the center panel.  I'll quilt each of the three sections separately, then join them together.  Tonight I got the quilt sandwiches ready, using 505 spray to hold the layers together.  I'll start free motion quilting tomorrow.

Updates: Alice's View and Dancing with the Stars

I got 3 of 4 sets of blocks sewn together tonight.  I'll sew the fourth one together tomorrow.  I'll use the measurements from those sets to determine how big the center panel needs to be.  I'll attach narrow black borders to build the panel to the right size.

On a completely different note:  Tonight on Week 7 of Dancing with the Stars, Mark Dacascos--Chairman on Food Network's Iron Chef America--lost a dance-off with Aaron Carter and is out of the competition now. As an avid fan of Food Network, I enjoyed watching Mark and rooting for him, and I'm sad to see him go.  But after last night's poor review by the judges, I wasn't too surprised.  Oh, well...  Donny Osmond is still in the contest and doing well, but I don't know that he can win against the likes of singer Mya.  I'll probably continue to watch the show just to see who wins.

Blocks Are Done!

I finished the last two blocks for Alice's View tonight.  Hooray!  Above are the blocks laid out with the center panel.  I need to sew blocks together to determine the finished size of the panel, then add narrow black borders to the panel to build it to the correct dimensions.

I picked up this fabric for the back today.  It's a companion print to one of the fabrics I used in a couple of the Bird of Paradise blocks (photo posted a few entries ago).  The blues and turquoises work well with the quilt top.  I'm not crazy about using a stripe on the back, because I don't want to mess with trying to line up the stripes perfectly.  I couldn't afford much, and my other (budget-friendly) choices were boring solids.  I found this at Beverly's in the $2.97 section, marked down to $2.22 a yard.  Yippee!  The piece was just short of 4 yards.  I may need to add a little bit to make it big enough.  We'll see.

Getting Closer to Done

Just two more Bird of Paradise blocks to go on Alice's View. Then I can start sewing blocks together to determine how big to make the center panel. I applied Fray Check to the cut edges of the panel so I don't lose much of the narrow border when I wash the panel. I'll have to apply some borders to bring the panel to size.

I also need to find some fabric for the back and pick up more 505 spray. I wish I'd thought of the spray yesterday, because I could have used one of my coupons before it expired. Darn!

I'm getting close to the finish!