Hunter's Star blocking

I finished up piecing my Hunter's star using Moda Fabrics' Floral Gatherings line, and now it's time to block it out! I have 42 9-inch blocks, so I'm going with a 6x7 arrangement. At first, I thought to go all willy-nilly and pull blocks at random to place, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought some of the star points were lacking not being with similar colors. So I switched and swapped, and I think I'm finally happy with this arrangement:

This is more or less the final arrangement I settled upon. I moved around some of the green and orange blocks within their color groups. I almost wish I had six more blocks to make the grid 6x8, but I may just be overthinking it. 

I'm still considering what to do for borders. I would like to use this on our queen size bed, but as it stands now, these blocks will come out to only 54x63. That's quite a bit of area to make up to cover a mattress that's 60x80, not even counting overhang. I was thinking of a plain 2"-3" border, then another intricate pieced border, maybe just of the star points, followed by another plain border. And maybe the pieced border only has star pieces grouped intermittently throughout the border. I haven't decided. Let me know if you have any expanding ideas that would help me get the finished quilt to somewhere around 90x106, or whatever the recommended queen quilt size is.

Green Mini Quilts

For St. Patty's Day today, I'll show you these cute green mini quilts I made last year for my friend Cathryn. She has a second-hand shop called "The Green Room," and she caters to musicians' and performers' clothing (hence the name "The Green Room.") I got some green fabric and got a little crazy making several cute little green mini quilts to help with her shop's decor.

This Qbert-inspired mini is my favorite. It's made with a diamond template. Figuring out how to sew these at the corners was challenging, but now, I'd love to make a huge quilt in this pattern:

Here's a chevron that I had fun with. I love half square triangles... the more the better...

Speaking of HST: this was my favorite mini, because of that awesome blue-green paisley print. I loved using it for the binding as well.

And here was my first foray into Dresden plates: These two came out so cute:

And more/leftover HST.

I had a lot of fun making these little minis. I think I made them all in just one weekend. My favorite part was trying out new techniques on a smaller scale. Now bring on the Qberts!

Hunter's Star sneak peak

Today is National Quilting Day, and I'm making that hard sacrifice to celebrate all day long. Hey, what can I say, I'm committed.

Today I'll be working on piecing my Hunter's Star... The easy hunter's star. I usd the Rapid Fire ruler to make one last year, and while it was sharp and beautiful, and I felt very accomplished, I was a little peeved to find this easy/cheat way to make a hunters star using charm packs and HST. So I couldn't help but begin making another hunter's star straight away!

Here's how it's going so far: 

I love the color palate of the Floral Gatherings line. I can't wait to see this quilt assembled!!

What are You working on today? Comment and let me know!

Crocheted two-color spiral hat

I traveled to Pennsylvania for the holidays. Unfortunately, quilting stuffs are not very portable while traveling, so I packed some yarn and crochet hooks in my carry on bag to keep me occupied during the cross-country trip.

I have previously made a couple hats using this Divine pattern found here: http://www.rheatheylia.com/?page=patterns&id=10. I made a black one for my husband, and he loves it. I made two others, one brown and one orange. I really like the pattern and the resulting hats, but I always wanted to try two colors to make the spiral stand out. Thank goodness for long flights, right? 

I am a Penn State alum, and my sister and her family still live in the town of State College where Penn State is located. So I figured my first go at the dual-color spiral hat I was planning to make for my sister should be blue and white. Based on the pattern, I figured I should start the first two rounds with the spiral color, then pick up the main color on round three with the double crochet (dc) in the space between the front post double crochet (fpdc). It was a little tricky keeping the yarns from tangling, but if you're careful, this can turn out to be a really neat looking hat. 

I didn't snap any pictures before I gave it to my sister, but I asked her to take a few pics and send them to me... 

A view from the top: 

And another view from the side:

One of the keys of keeping the color changes so neat was to switch colors on the last yarn over (yo) of the last stitch before changing colors. In other words, if I was working with blue, and I was on my last stitch before switching to the white fpdc, I would work the last blue dc stitch all the way to the final yo, but instead use white to pull through and finish the stitch. I did this to prevent blue loops from infiltrating the white spiral. 

For a quick walk through: Say youre finishing up the group of dc in the space between two fpdc. So for the last blue stitch, that would be: yo, insert hook in space, yo, pull hook through: three loops on hook. Yo, pull through two loops: two loops left on hook. At this point, switch to white, yo, and pull through the last two blue loops. Now do the fpdc in the same fashion, switching back to blue on that last yo. 

As far as what to do with the off color while crocheting with the on color, I just let the yarn carry along the back of the stitches, making sure not to pull it tight when picking it up again. I haven't tried fair isle knitting, but I have a feeling it would be a similar process. 

My sister loves the hat, and says it's so nice and cozy warm... probably from all the extra yarn. And a good thing with the crazy winter they've had back east. Winters like these make me really appreciate all the warm sunshine here in San Diego! 

Let me know if you try this dual color pattern; I'd love to see some pictures! 

Jumping Jacks

As promised, here's a picture of my latest quilt:

The pattern is called Jumping Jacks, and it was made from three 5" charm packs by Moda: Bobbins & Bits, Wrens & Friends, and Scrumptious. This was a quick and fun quilt to put together. I'll post another close-up picture later this evening.

I'm currently working on piecing a Hunter's Star quilt. I made a Hunter's Star the hard way last year, and then I found an easier pattern using half square triangles. For this new Hunter's Star, I'm using the Floral Gatherings line by Moda. I can't wait to see these fabrics together!

I'm also working on my first design. I have a good idea, I just need time to execute it! More to come, more to come. ;)

By the way, I've created a twitter handle for this blog. It's @threadandwine. I have a pic of last year's basted Hunter's Star quilt as my ... background? profile? banner pic? I'm not sure what it's called, but it's there. Check it out!

Finito!

I just finished up the binding on another quilt tonight. The quilt in question is currently taking a cold water bath in the washing machine. It seems like such a violent end to the long and careful process of quilt making. All those weeks spent choosing fabric, cutting, sewing, and piecing, followed by basting, quilting, and then binding only to end up being agitated in a big, cold metal drum -- it's is a hell of a way to treat something I've fondly coddled until now.

I first started taking a quilting class with my friend Elizabeth in January 2013, and we have been hooked ever since. We and about seven or eight other women meet at Grand Country Quilters in San Marcos each Wednesday for social sewing and quilting with Karen Wittmeyer. I can say with all honesty that it is the highlight of my week. I have always enjoyed crafty things. I knit and crochet, but quilting is different. I have started and then abandoned so many knit and crochet projects, and I'm pretty sure I have three or four sitting in my crafting cupboard waiting to be loved again. Maybe someday, but sadly for them, not today.

But ahh, quilting. I think what I love about quilting is that I can create something substantial and in a relatively short amount of time. Try knitting or crocheting a blanket, and I'll ask you how it's going next year. But with quilting, give me just a few weekends and I'll whip up a big quilt that'll wrap you in love. Quilting is my therapy. It's what helps me keep my blood pressure down after a long day at an office job that I dislike so much that I'm constantly trying to figure out how I can quit it and quilt all day long. 

So here starts my journey. I'll use this blog to escape from my work life for now, with the hopes of doing so for real sometime in the near future. Until then, I'll begin documenting my projects and ideas to share with you. I hope you enjoy it! 

Pictures of the freshly-washed-in-baby-soft-Dreft quilt will be posted tomorrow.