Oakland Raiders Quilt

My son, Jonathan, is a big fan of the Oakland Raiders so when it came to making a quilt for him, the theme was a no-brainer.  I chose a Greek Cross pattern and modified it a bit.  The fabrics are an allover Raiders logo fabric in black and silver, scrappy white, grey, and black cottons, and a metallic silver fabric with a cotton backing.  It took me more than a year to get to the point of finishing it.  I chose to back it with black fleece and to roll the backing forward to create a binding.  Being rather brave, I did the quilting myself on my Brother ULT2000 and it came out OK. I would like to have had some more time to do some more intricate quilting but was anxious to get the quilt washed, dried, and into my son's hands.

Here's the result. I'm pretty pleased with it.

I'm happy with using fleece as a backing, especially for people who are always hot and don't need the extra warmth batting gives a quilt.  I'm not so sure about the cotton backed silver fabric though. It did not like being creased as in a seam allowance.  Maybe I'll use it again in small amounts.

That's it on the quilting front, now on to Nicolina and Troy's Batik Shadows quilt.  Check out my Crafty Crap section to see what I achieved during the holidays.

Peace,

Sue

Red & Turquoise 9-Patches

One of the nice things about following other people's blogs is that their work inspires ideas in me.  Cath of Wombat Quilts recently posted several paper piecing templates for blocks she's discovered in an old book of traditional quilting blocks.  She converted to paper piecing foundations and posted several blocks.  I made up a few blocks in a red, turquoise, and white colorway, using her foundations and decided I wanted more.

I combed through several of my books and more than a few websites, looking for bits and pieces that would convert to 4" paper pieced squares. These 4" squares were, in turn, arranged into 9 patches.  I kept the center of each 9 patch the same but used different fabrics in all three colors.

Here's what I've come up with: 

 

I've just realized that I've only posted 17 or the 20 blocks I completed.  There are 3 more out there that somehow escaped the camera.  These blocks finish at 12-1/2" and will be sashed with a 1/2" red and turquoise print that I found amongst my treasures.

When I put these up on my new design wall, i was delighted with the bright randomness of the blocks. I'm experimenting with Quilt-As-You-Go on this quilt.  I was NOT looking forward to wrestling a large quilt under my presser foot. It'll be very interesting to see how it turns out.

Cheers!

Sue

My First BIG Quilt is Revealed

On September 21, 2013, I attended the wedding of my friends, Erik and Dyana Byberg. I chatted with them briefly before dinner and gave them to understand that their wedding gift was still a work in progress. I had originally intended to refinish a small 1930's writing desk for them.  When I said it was a work in progress, Dyana burst out with, "You're making us A QUILT?!!" How could I say no?  So I started this quilt the day after they were married.

Fast forward to September 13, 2014.  I invited Erik and Dy over for dinner and to finally be able to present them with their wedding gift.

This a Super-Queen sized D9P (almost a king), backed with a dark teal flannel. It's massive! My friend and mentor, Jonell Carter, did a large meander with variegated thread for the quilting and did a terrific job.  I'm very pleased with the result.  I tried, unsuccessfully, to figure out how to keep it but didn't really try very hard.

Both Dyana and Erik were delighted with the quilt and that made me even happier! It's a good thing they live closer to the coast when it does get colder than Sacramento.  They're prepared for an ice storm with this quilt!

Wombat Quilts

I don't generally follow any blogs religiously but I've had to make an exception for Wombat Quilts.  This blog is written by an Australian gal, Cath, who lives here in the United States. This woman is absolutely amazing!  She turns out more quilts in a week than I do in an entire month.

Like me, she's a huge fan of paper piecing and posts her work ever Monday.  So now, every Monday, I visit her site and gather tons of inspiration, as well as patterns.  Cath does a lot of charity quilt work and anyone would be thrilled to receive one of her beauties.

Here's one of her blocks that I turned into a medallion quilt for the Mather Field Veteran's Hospital.

I'm inspired to make some of my own patterns and test them out.

Cheers!

Sue

WIP: SpikeYour English

Whenever I get some breathing room, I like working on my paper pieced quilt blocks from a 2013 Block of the Month sew-along from Quilting Board.  Here are the blocks completed to date:

Not actually part of the series yet it may work well overall.

 The original patterns are from Quilting on the Square, www.quiltingonthesquare.com. They were offered as a Block of the Month in 2013. I think I'm a slow quilter!

This year they're offering miniature quult block which I'm saving but haven't decided if I'll use them or not.  Minis are not really my "thang"!

Cheers!

Sue