Show Me Something {with Triangles}

February's theme for Show Me Something with Sarah is triangles!

Here are the three projects I am adding to Sarah's link up:

1. Faceted Churn Dash wall hanging -- This scrappy quilt is lots and lots and lots of little half square triangles!

2. Pink Stars baby quilt -- I made this quilt as an Island Batik Ambassador challenge last year. There's only one square in each block -- the rest of the piecing is all triangles!

3. Good Fortune quilt -- this was the Bonnie Hunter mystery in 2018, featuring quite a few triangles!

I hope you check out what everyone has linked up and link up a few of your own blog posts too!

Clue #7, #8 Progress and a Test Block {Frolic Mystery Quilt}

The good thing about being behind on Frolic is that I can see how other people's quilts are coming together! I have been enjoying seeing all of the blocks people are putting together on Instagram and I am very jealous of those who have had the time/patience/ability to get their quilt tops finished!

The bad thing about being behind is that it seems like somewhat of an insurmountable task! I'm making some progress, most certainly. I've found that it is kind of hard to get to a stopping point with this project because I just want to keep going with the units.

I have *technically* finished all of the units for Clue #8 per the directions but haven't sorted my units into block groupings. I made all of the aqua/blue/coral flying geese and trimmed them.

I also managed to finish up the coral/navy HSTs which will be used to make the pinwheel centers of the blocks. I haven't gotten many trimmed.

I have trimmed a few HSTs though -- because I put together a test block!

First and foremost, WOW! As complicated as the directions seemed to be at times, I have found everything is coming together quite nicely! I have a tentative plan on modifying my quilt to be slightly larger, but for now, I am going to make all of my full blocks using the navy fabrics before moving onto my dark teal blocks. I will need to go back and make the dark teal/coral/aqua flying geese and dark teal/coral HSTs, but for now, I need a mental break from making units.

I also have quite a bit of cutting to do, particularly of my background fabric, to be able to put together blocks and sashing. I wish there was more strip piecing I could do going forward, but it will be a one-block-at-a-time thing to finish this quilt.

Please pop back in on Thursday as I will be sharing all of the goodies in my newest Island Batik Amabassador box!

Sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

Clue #4, #7, #8 Progress {Frolic Mystery Quilt}

After a long delay, I have finally finished Clue #4 for my Frolic mystery quilt! While the final reveal came out today, I am not as behind as I thought I might be.

To finish up Clue #4, I made all of the necessary sets of HSTs in navy, dark teal, and aqua.

I split up my aquas so that I used half of the different prints to make the aqua/navy HSTs and the other half of the prints to make the aqua/dark teal HSTs.

The left and center aquas are from my Pineapple Log Cabin quilt, the gingham check is a fat quarter I pulled out of a bundle, and the dot is from my April Showers quilt.

The umbrella print and raindrop print are from my April Showers quilt, the pearl chain dot is my Pineapple Log Cabin quilt, and the bubble dot print is a fat quarter of unknown origin.

(The beautiful print I used as my background is actually the back of one of my Wanderlust placemats.)

I also finished up the cutting for Clue #7.

But I decided that I needed a break from HSTs (which is what I would be making in Clue #7) and I decided that I wanted to skip to making more flying geese in Clue #8 instead! I am part of the way through sewing the blue triangles to one side of the units.

Some of my predictions about the quilt were very wrong, and some were right! I definitely like the blocks and the setting, but I am not necessarily in love with the pieced borders. I am going to think about actually making the center of my quilt LARGER and eliminating the pieced borders. I have lots of options, and I really love the main block of the quilt!

If you are Frolic-ing, what do you think of the reveal? Is it what you predicted? I predicted a quilt on point however I did not think we would have sashing.

Have a lovely weekend!

Stephanie's Quilt {C2C Bee 2019}

Being a part of the Coast to Coast bee is one of my favorite things! I just finished up the first assignment for the year.

Stephanie of Quilt'n Party made a beautiful quarter log cabin block as her quilt center. She requested a Southwest inspired quilt featuring richly colored fabrics. She sent a few additional fabrics in her quilt kit in addition to the ones featured here.

I decided to add a grey spacer border before I added my blocks to her quilt.

No Southwest-themed quilt is complete without a bevy of Rocky Mountain Puzzle blocks -- so that's what I got to making! I pulled yellow, orange, magenta, and a aqua/navy print from my stash and used a light blue and a second navy from the fabrics that Stephanie sent for the half square triangles. For the block centers, I used two fabrics left over from my Odori quilt, which I made last year.

Making these blocks from small cuts and scraps was a nice change from the other things I have been working on in recent weeks.

I also used three different backgrounds -- the Art Gallery tribal stripe, a white-on-white feather print, and a white-on-white stripe.

I did plan ahead a little bit so that most of my seams would nest (although not all) so that adding the blocks to the top was not as bulky or cumbersome.

This is ready to go in the mail and get sent off to its next destination -- Texas! I'm excited to see what Audrey added to my quilt and to see Karen's quilt and start planning what to add to it.

Have a lovely Tuesday -- don't forget that the next edition of the Daisy Chain mystery QAL comes out next Monday!

Sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

Twirls and Stripes {Vintage Reimagined with Island Batik}

My life has been filled with a lot of strip piecing recently! Both with Unit A for the Daisy Chain QAL, and with this project!

After cutting the pieces and parts for this project, zipping together my "striped fabric" strip sets was the next step.

The HSTs went together quickly as well. I'm using two different orange fabrics and one yellow fabric for these units.

Subcutting the strip sets into blocks went slightly faster than trimming all of my HSTs, as you might have imagined.

Chain piecing all of the pinwheels was also a quick process -- here are the piles of blocks stacked together before I laid out my blocks.

Because I was able to squeeze five 8.5" squares out of each strip set (Island Batik fabrics are *actually* more than 42" wide selvage to selvage!) I do have enough blocks to do a 5x6 block arrangement for a 40" x 48" quilt and only one extra yellow pinwheel!

Here's the quilt blocks sewn into rows. Whenever possible, I like to use the "webbing" technique to put together my quilt tops. I realize now it might be worthwhile to do my own webbing tutorial, so keep your eyes out for one in the coming weeks/months. But for the time being, check out a tutorial from Bonnie Hunter.

Five seams later and I have a finished quilt top!

Now to find some backing fabric for this quilt. I'm leaning towards flannel since I will likely give it as a baby quilt but now that I don't live 5 minutes away from Joann's, I'll have to make a special trip this weekend. And after the super-shrinkage snafu that happened with the last bunch of flannel that I bought, I'm going to get an extra 1/4 yard just to be safe!

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics to use and share with you!

Good Fortune {75%}

A little progress is better than no progress, right? I had big plans to start quilting a quilt on Saturday, but that got kicked to the wayside. I hemmed some curtains on Saturday (go me!) but that was the extent of my sewing.

Sunday afternoon I went back to work on Good Fortune. My first task was to get the spacer border added. I double checked my math and cut my background strips. These zipped on extremely quickly, other than the fact that one WOF was *just barely* too short for the sides, so all four border strips had to be pieced.

Next came the arduous task of making the chains of HSTs for the green sawtooth border. I realized that I didn't have quite enough HSTs for all four sides, but figured that I would rather get as far as I could get and then figure out exactly how many more green HSTs I would need.

First border added:

(I also realized how badly my ironing board needs recovered -- not the usual reason of the fabric being ripped to shreds, but because there's this rather large divot in the one end that made pressing the borders somewhat difficult.)

With the HSTs that I already had made, I was able to complete three of the four sides, and start the piecing of the fourth and final side. Much of the border wobbly-ness that I was slightly worried about after adding my spacer border as been evened out after adding the HST border.

So now I'm back to making HSTs. All are sewn and ready to be trimmed and pressed.

Bonnie's directions have a neutral border between the green HSTs and the blue QSTs, however my quilt top is currently the perfect size for adding the blue QST border with an even number of units. That would mean skipping the neutral border between the pieced border -or- adding a much wider pieced border to get the quilt width to the right size. 

I will need to make about a dozen more QST units, so I am leaning towards skipping this spacer border because I am almost out of background fabric. My quilt will then end up around 54", which is right about the same size as my finished ORL quilt. I've seen some other creative solutions on the Quiltville Facebook group that I might also consider.

What do you think? Check out Bonnie's finished version of the quilt here and give me all of your creative solutions.

Sharing at Oh Scrap, Linky Tuesday, and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Update 2/11/19:
Also sharing at Bonnie's final Good Fortune link up! I have made some progress on the quilt since I wrote this blog post, so hopefully I will be able to share my finished top by the end of this week!

-- A@LBQ

Dashing To The Chapel {In The Pipeline}

January is one of our two Island Batik blog hop months! I'm working with the Bazaar line this time around, which is a gorgeous collection of brights. Some of the fabrics have floral motifs, some have butterflies and dragonflies, and some are blender prints.

I decided that I wanted to use these fabrics to make a remixed version of our Dashing to the Chapel pattern. My mom and I constructed the original quilt in 2014 as a wedding gift for my sister and her husband. Her now-mother-in-law did the long arm quilting!

The original quilt used a fat quarter bundle plus coordinates, but I am working from half yards of a fewer number of prints. Additionally, I decided to simplify things for myself slightly by not making the blocks entirely random. I picked out ten colors for the larger size churn dash blocks:

I picked out the majority of the larger prints for the larger blocks and did a lot of cutting:

Not making one block at a time allowed for a major time savings in the form of marathon strip piecing:

Followed by marathon chain piecing of the HSTs to go with them.

This process was also repeated with six fabrics for my smaller 6" churn dashes and itty bitty 4.5" churn dashes. Here's a sneak peak of the top:

My official hop day is next Tuesday -- January 22nd. Until then you can get the Dashing to the Chapel pattern on Etsy and PayHip!

Don't forget to check out all of the stops for this week of the hop:

Monday, January 14 - Fortune Teller

Sarah @ Sarah Goer Quilts

Sherry @ Powered by Quilting

Jennifer @ The Inquiring Quilter

Tuesday, January 15  - Gypsy Rose

Jen @ Dizzy Quilter

Janet @ Whispers of Yore

Wednesday, January 16 - Paisley Park

Dione @ Clever Chameleon

Nancy @ Masterpiece Quilting

Thursday, January 17 - Soul Song

Carole @ Carol Lyles Shaw

Toby @ Gateway Quilts & Stuff  

Friday, January 18 - Twilight Chic

Jackie @ If These Threads Could Talk

Tina @ Quilting Affection

(And a quick teaser: I changed up the border a bit for this version and I can't wait to show it off!)

Sharing at Linky Tuesday!

Good Fortune {Clue #3}

It's time for another Good Fortune update! For clue #3, we are making two units from our green fabric -- units that Bonnie calls "half chevrons" and half square triangles that can be made as bonus triangles!

For my green fabric, instead of pulling from my green scrap pile, I pulled a single green fabric. This fabric was used in the piecing of and as the backing of my "Green in Bloom" quilt last year. I have large chunks of this fabric left over -- I'm guessing I have a little under a yard in scraps which should be more than enough for a half-sized version of Good Fortune. (This is the best picture I can grab of the green fabric!)

Bonnie lists multiple ways to make both of the units -- I decided to test out the method to make the chevron units and then use the "bonus triangles" for the smaller HSTs. I am not usually a fan of the stitch and flip method because it can waste a lot of fabric but this method puts the scraps to work!

I found I didn't need to mark two lines for the seams -- if I marked the diagonal for the first, and used my foot as a guide, my HSTs came out just about perfect, with the exception of just a few! 

By Monday, I was about two-thirds of the way complete with my units. Sewing progress in the evenings is rare and slow for me this time of year so I was worried that I wouldn't get finished before the Clue #4 came out today. However, I did finish Clue #3 last night -- just under the wire!

Even with making half as many units as Bonnie's directions, this clue took a long time for me! However, once I figured out my correct seam allowances, I only ended up with four HSTs that were slightly too small. If I need more in the final layout of my quilt, I will make more units then, but for now, I will continue to shoot for half-ish of Bonnie's directions.

Happy Friday! I'm hoping that Clue #4 (which just came out!) is just as quick and easy as I imagine it to be! I have a pile of secret sewing to sew (and HSTs to trim!) this weekend, so hopefully both will go quickly and without incident.

Good Fortune {Clue #2}

Much like last week, I was able to get my entire clue done over the weekend -- hooray!

This week for the Good Fortune mystery quilt, we are making small HSTs. Even though I am shooting for a half sized version, I still had to make a LOT of HSTs!

On Friday night, I did all of the cutting. About half were made from the two-at-a-time HST method (which I prefer) and about half were made with the "Bonnie" method to better utilize some of my scraps.

Saturday morning I did the sewing, and between Saturday evening and Sunday evening I did all of the trimming.

I ended up using nine different blues -- some more popular than others! A few fabrics were only used to make two HSTs in this step -- others were used to make dozens!

(And yes, I realize that the third row has some of the HSTs twisted about -- I didn't realize it until I had already stacked and counted and bagged all of my HST piles and wasn't about to try to redo this picture!

I pulled out a few of my Clue #1 four patches to look at the units together. The quilt could really become anything at this point -- with only four patches and HSTs, the possibilities are endless!

And of course -- a rundown of some of the fabric origins! A few fabrics are actually from long-ago swaps, from my Frame of Mind MBS quilt, my Favorite Frames MBS quilt, the border of my Drift Away quilt, and the backing of my Starburst quilt!

Linking up with the Monday Mystery link-up on Bonnie's Blog! Also sharing at Linky Tuesday and Let's Bee Social!

Blocked Rainbow QAL {Week #6 - Purple Bear Paws}

The 2018 quilt along is now over and the entire pattern is available as a single PDF pattern on Etsy and Craftsy.

It's our last week of block making before we embark on constructing our quilts!

This week is another week with half square triangles (HSTs) but we're only making 8 blocks!

Here are my blocks:

Hooray! We've reached the end of making blocks! Next week we have an "off" week -- in two weeks, we'll have our setting directions posted and we'll start seeing finished quilt tops!

Our winner from last week is Lori!

This week's sponsor is Patterns By Jen and the prize is a PDF or paper pattern!

A bit about Jen:

Jen is a quilt pattern designer from SW Minnesota. While keeping her designs beginner friendly, she leans towards traditional piecing with a bit of modern flare. Her true passion lies in enjoying each step of the quilting process and she is always excited to help new quilters find that same love and enjoyment of the craft. Her journey started in 2002 when she signed up for her first quilting class and tried to design a quilt for it. Twelve years later that design turned into a real pattern and became her first published pattern, Pinwheel Pizzazz. In the following years, she has published 13 more patterns, 3 of which have been published in McCall’s Quick Quilt issues. She has also had 2 blocks published in Quiltmaker’s 100 Quilt Block Magazine. In 2018 she was accepted as an Ambassador for the Island Batik fabric company and has plans to release 6 more quilt patterns this year.

Continue sharing those pictures in the Facebook group and on Instagram with the hashtag #BlockedRainbowQAL!

Blocked Rainbow QAL {Week #2 - Orange Churn Dashes}

The 2018 quilt along is now over and the entire pattern is available as a single PDF pattern on Etsy and Craftsy.

Welcome to Week #2 of the Blocked Rainbow QAL!

I have loved seeing everyone's pinwheel blocks on Facebook and Instagram! Gina was the winner of our Week 1 pattern giveaway hosted by The Inquiring Quilter! Gina is doing a super scrappy version of the quilt with a grey background!

Let's get back to business and make some churn dashes.

Here are my blocks:

I used five different fabrics this week. As noted in last week's scrappy suggestions, you can chose to mix up fabrics within a single block, or make each block in a single fabric like I have done.

If you're working from smaller fabrics, strip piecing your side sections might not be the best use of your scraps and you might want to cut individual rectangles and that's totally fine! If you want to do that you'll need 1.5 inch x 2.5 inch rectangles for the 6 inch blocks used in the throw sized quilt or 2 inch x 3.5 inch rectangles for the 9 inch blocks used in the twin sized quilt. Some of my side sections were strip pieced and some weren't -- it just depended on the size of my starting piece of fabric for that particular color.

If you like the blocks but aren't sure if you have enough scraps to make either size quilt and don't want to use yardage, here are some alternate project suggestions:

-- To make a set of four placemats, make four (4) 6 inch blocks each week and combine one block in each color to make placemats that each use 6 blocks
-- You could also make a 24 block table runner if you make four (4) 6 inch blocks each week.

This week our prize sponsor is Marlene from KISSed Quilts and the winner will receive a PDF pattern of their choosing! She's retired as an Island Batik Ambassador, but is still designing patterns for the company. Here's a little bit about Marlene:

Marlene (Baerg) Oddie is an award winning long-arm machine quilter, pattern designer and author who enjoys creating unique treasures. She's an engineer by education, project manager by profession and now a quilter by passion. Her company name comes from her engineering days of the KISS method, but she has adapted it to Keeping It Simple.....and Stunning!

Due to job moves with her husband, she is now involved with quilting projects full-time and has a small retail shop and quilting studio in Grand Coulee, WA. You may have read her columns that are regularly picked up across North America in your local Country Register. If you're going through the Pacific Northwest, stop to see the Grand Coulee Dam and be sure to say hello to Marlene.

Make sure to post in the Facebook group or use the hashtag #BlockedRainbowQAL to be entered to win!

Sharing at Linky Tuesday and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Schedule:
March 19 - Introduction, Yardage Requirements, Kona Sale with HBD
March 26 - Sponsors, Background Spacer cutting, Color Suggestions
April 2- Red Pinwheels
April 9 - Orange Churn Dashes <-- That's today!
April 16 - Yellow Flying Geese
April 23 - Green Sawtooth Stars
April 30 - Blue Bowties
May 7 - Purple Bear Paws
May 14 - Catch up week/Mother's Day
May 21 - Setting directions
May 28 - Catch up week/Memorial Day
June 4 - Finished Quilt Top Parade/Link Up

Blocked Rainbow QAL {Week #1 - Red Pinwheels}

The 2018 quilt along is now over and the entire pattern is available as a single PDF pattern on Etsy and Craftsy.

Hats off to our first official week of the quilt along! Today we are making red pinwheels.

Obviously this week's technique is half square triangles (HSTs)!

Here are all of my blocks:

If you want to go scrappy here are some suggestions:
- If you want each pinwheel to be made up of the same fabric, you'll need to cut your red squares in pairs, which will result in four HSTs.
- You could also combine HSTs randomly and have four different red fabrics in each pinwheel.
-Feeling super scrappy? Use your favorite technique to make scrappy red slabs (a la Crazy Mom Quilts' "scrap vortex" technique) and then cut those slabs into the size squares you need for this step. This will allow you to use smaller scraps, but allot yourself extra fabric to account for the additional seams.

Don't feel overwhelmed by this week's assignment! Every week we'll be making fewer and fewer blocks so this week will likely be the most time consuming! It might be helpful to sew all of your HSTs at once and then set yourself up to do all of the trimming in front of your favorite movie to help the time pass more quickly!

I'm really excited to use the black background this time around! If you haven't picked up your backing fabric yet, our Kona sale is still going on!

This week our prize sponsor is Jennifer from The Inquiring Quilter and the winner will receive a PDF pattern of their choosing! She's currently a fellow Island Batik Ambassador! Here's a little bit about Jennifer:

Jennifer Fulton is a quilter/blogger who is passionate about color, fabrics, and design. She’s also extremely curious and asks a lot of questions—that’s the reason she named her blog The Inquiring Quilter!

Jennifer is also a technical writer with over 30 years experience. She’s written many books, including a book on quilting—Idiot’s Guide: Quilting. Currently, Jennifer writes a blog and designs quilts and patterns for leading fabric manufacturers such as RJR, Quilting Treasures, Timeless Treasures, Windham Fabrics, and Island Batik. She is also an Island Batik Ambassador. Jennifer recently designed patterns for Keepsake Quilting and Missouri Star, and has had her quilts displayed at Quilt Market.

Just post a picture of your progress on Instagram with the hashtag #BlockedRainbowQAL -or- post a picture in the HBD Quilts Facebook group! I'll pick one winner on Sunday night and share it in next Monday's post! We also have a giveaway and sale in honor of reaching 900 likes on Facebook! We are giving away a few copies of our new pattern, Summer Patio, and our Christine's Kitchen and Starburst patterns are $9 on Etsy for a short time only! (Regularly $12!!)

Also sharing at Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Schedule:
March 19 - Introduction, Yardage Requirements, Kona Sale with HBD
March 26 - Sponsors, Background Spacer cutting, Color Suggestions
April 2- Red Pinwheels <--- That's today!
April 9 - Orange Churn Dashes
April 16 - Yellow Flying Geese
April 23 - Green Sawtooth Stars
April 30 - Blue Bowties
May 7 - Purple Bear Paws
May 14 - Catch up week/Mother's Day
May 21 - Setting directions
May 28 - Catch up week/Memorial Day
June 4 - Finished Quilt Top Parade/Link Up