Design Wall Monday 8-4-2014

First up, thanks to everyone who added a comment about the Dresden plate baskets last week.  I have some great ideas to audition and then finish the top. But I had a fairly lazy week quilting-wise so you won't be seeing a finished top  this week.  I had two ebooks I had reserved become available and the next day a paperback from my local library became available.  So, I spent a lot of my time reading.  But I still made some progress on several of my projects. 

The design wall looks pretty much the same -- dresden baskets and the stars from the mystery quilt take up most of the room.  So today I took a picture of the progress I made on Capital Quilts' row by row pattern.  The design is striking with the US Capital, the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial.  

I am still enamored of it despite it being a really fiddly block to make.  You have to make templates, yes, I said templates.  The only template plastic I could find in the studio was non-melt mylar for appliqué.  So I have these great non-melting templates for a pieced block.  Oh well.  They took a bit of time but I'm so happy they turned out so well.   Hum, the top of the Washington Monument didn't come out right.  I'll have to fix that before I adhere it and stitch.  I cut  the silhouettes with my rotary cutter, an exacto blade and small sharp scissors.    I hope to finish this row today and start on another one.  

Here's a quick photo of one of the 3 yards, 3 baby quilts.  I bought 3 yards of one of the front fabrics for the backing.  I loaded it up on Ruthie so I could quilt all three at the same time.  Talk about time saver!  This picture is before quilting and the color is way off.  Once I get the binding on and we have a sunny day I'll get some out door pictures.  I learned several things the most important is don't use directional  fabric with this quilt!  The red fabric was also the backing fabric.  I had to load the quilts sideways on Ruthie which works fine for the most part on the back but I don't like it as well on the front.  I'm sure these charity quilts will be well loved anyway.  I've already found several smaller pieces of fabric that I can use this same concept with but not make 3 at a time.  I have almost no 1 yard pieces.  I tend to buy 1/2 yards. By the way the color is way off on this picture.  

Despite reading a lot, I got most everything on my to do list checked off.  Here's last weeks goals list.

Week of July 28, 2014

Shop Hopping!√

Bind the charity quilt√

Finish making star blocks from mystery√ except I have several left to make

Make the 3 yards, 3 baby quilts√ and they are quilted!

Tea Group and Alumni Event√

Decide and work on Dresden Baskets hum, haven’t made a final decision but I have some great ideas

Work on next row by row block/s√

Find and work on the Disappearing Star blocks √ found but haven’t done anything to them yet.

Week of August 4, 2014

Finish making star blocks from mystery

Bind the three yards, 3 baby quilts

Keep working on row by rows

Birthday party for the grands!

Work on disappearing stars

Dresden Baskets – time to sash

Explore sashing for A Tisket, A Tasket

I don't have much else to do this week so I should be able to get most of these items checked off. 

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times.  Hopefully I don't spend hours visiting all sorts of Design Walls this morning.  I do go check many out throughout the week.  There are always so many good ideas to spark my creativity.  

Happy Quilting All.