Design Wall Monday - October 27, 2014

For my stash report yesterday, I showed you the purchases from my retreat. I thought it would be fitting to show my finished projects from retreat for Design Wall Monday on Patchwork Times. 

I took several (too many) projects with me to retreat, but I had two that I really wanted to get done and I am pleased to say that I finished both of them. First up was the Urban Pods quilt using the Quick Curve Ruler.  This is the first time I've used the ruler and I really enjoyed it. The cutting all went very easily (even for a lefty like me), and I had all my curved shapes ready to go when I arrived at retreat.  The quilt took me a long time to put together because every piece was curved...three pieces for each of the 96 blocks!  It was slow but pretty easy sewing, and I took breaks as I went along (usually for snacks).  I trimmed the first set of blocks when they were done and then had the motivation to keep going for the second set of blocks.  In the end, I spent more than two full days (about 15 hours of sewing) making this top, and I love it!  The seams aren't all perfect, but I really like how the fabrics came together in the end. 
The second project was a notebook cover for my neighbor. Her birthday was last week, so she's lucked out two years in a row with me making her a present while I was at retreat :)  This was a pretty easy pattern too, and it worked better for me than the other time I had to do some basting/gathering of fabric and then press it to fusible. I wound up having extra fabric pieces cut - I did all the cutting in one pass, but must have misread a few of the details. In the end, the cover wound up being about 1/4" too small all around for a standard composition notebook (which is what it was supposed to cover).  I think it was probably due to the interfacing I used, so I will have to try it again with a lighter weight interfacing, or I will have to get on amazon to find a slightly smaller notebook! 
 The final project that I worked on was one that I brought along just to play. It is a pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Co. called Periwinkle.  They showed it in the book and main video with charm packs, but I bought the mini template and paper pieces and did it with a pack of 2 1/2" squares, and boy, was it fun!  I didn't realize when I started how all the lines would come together and make it look almost three dimensional. I really love how this one worked out and now must decide whether I want to use it as a wall hanging/mini-quilt or as a pillow. I am also not sure how I am going to quilt it, so if you have any great suggestions, please let me know! 

All in all, I am really pleased with all I got done at the retreat. It is nice to bring home finished tops/projects. And the best part is that I still have a few cut and ready to sew on at any time. 

Comments

Podunk Pretties said…
I'm currently quilting the top border of my hummingbird quilt. I've still not decided how to quilt the blocks. But with yours I would be tempted to quilt with lines in the quilt. Great fabrics!
Darla H said…
Such interesting projects! I like every one of them but that last little quilt is just so interesting to look at! You did a wonderful job with it too!

Darla
Ramona said…
Your first quilt looks like a waterfall. Beautiful! Your hummingbird is so fun with the lines in the background. They give the quilt a lot of movement.
kwiltnkats said…
The quilt looks great. The modern style has its own appeal. It does take some adjustment speaking from a traditional pieced view point. Nice work and addicting too.
kwiltnkats said…
The quilt looks great. The modern style has its own appeal. It does take some adjustment speaking from a traditional pieced view point. Nice work and addicting too.