Design Wall Monday 4-11-11

On the design wall today . . . 
I finally got back to the double bow tie yesterday afternoon.  I may have some issues with the border.  I prewashed my charm pack and the darn fabric shrank.  So, what should be 1 3/4" by 5" isn't. And, it didn't all shrink to the same degree. I think that has to do with whether it was cross width fabric or length of fabric.  So, I'm trying to decide if I have enough pieces left to make the borders bigger than 2 1/2" wide and make it all around the sides.  The directions say to sew the pieces together 

and then cut in half so you have two strips the width of the quilt top by 2 1/2" wide.  Clever and fast way to make pieced border but it isn't going to work this time.  Sigh.  I'm going to continue to make borders and hopefully I will have enough to go all around the quilt.  I may throw some of the back ground fabric into the borders also. 

I want to make the bee quilt not square.  So what do you think of this set up?  One set of borders will be cut at 2 1/2" while the other two will be cut at 4 1/2".  It would give a bit more length than width but wouldn't look totally weird.  I'll also have a fairly large hunk of fabric left to start a pieced backing.  While I was hunting around for some blues Friday I found several nice pieces that I didn't remember I had.  (Who remembers every piece until you see it and say, I remember getting this one!)




Go visit Judy's Patchwork Times to see what is on everyone else's design walls. 

This should enlarge so you can see my feathers attempt on a quilt.  I decided to try these feathers in the squares of a charity baby quilt. Not sure if I did a great job but it did fill the space nicely.  More practice is needed. 

 I also learned how to drive the ride on mower yesterday.  I thought I could help Pat with the lawn mowing efforts.  Of course, I need to get comfortable at a speed other than super slow.  As he said, I was going to use all the gas and get only 1/4 of the lawn done.  2 acres?  Whose bright idea was it to buy a house on 2 acres? 

Last Week's Goals 4/4/11

• Make 3 blocks for Guild Opportunity Quilt √

• Print labels for guild members.. (I volunteered to do this…) √

• Finish quilting baby quilt on Ruthie √

• Sew double bow tie blocks together √ and start borders √

• Put the last border on bumble bee quilt and decide if more borders are needed. Started but need to actually cut and sew! 

• Easter blocks – start design and make any extra blocks needed.

• Do something with chunky churn dashes.

• Organize recipe 3 ring binder and make divider pages. Let’s try this one again folks. 

Hum, I'm seeing a trend on these bottom three goals.  Maybe they should be off for next week. No need to keep saying I'll do it if I don't. 

Goals for 4/11/11

• Finish 2^nd  border of double bow tie blocks.

• Make one of the Quilts for Kids kits.

• Easter blocks – start design and make any extra blocks needed.  (Ok, it’s a repeat.)

• Chunky Churn Dashes are still calling me…. Answer the call!

• Pick up more charity baby quilts and quilt one.

•Decide on backing for last mystery quilt…. Buy or put it together.

• Sew next border on bees quilt and figure out backing. 

Ok, off to get my day going. And, to wish my brother Larry a happy birthday. He's an elder, he remembers floppy disks and taught computers at UC Berkeley from the 70's until he retired a few years ago. Congratulations on another year.  

Happy Quilting.