Stained Glass STACK n' SLASH. Quilt As You Go.

Quilt-Along {if you like!}

(Under construction. Pictures to follow ...as I go. My New Years' Resolve!)

My daughter Sara asked for a quilt-as-you-go lesson while home for Christmas break but it didn't happen. I promised to document my progress on the new Stained Glass Stack n' Slash Quilt I'm about to begin - like the one I did last summer. I'm making this one with smaller squares of fabric - using a 12 ½ inch square ruler to cut each square of fabric. I'm going to use the quilt-as-you-go method, but the steps for making blocks would be the same if sewing a quilt top to be quilted later.

For quilt squares with no 2 colors alike in each block you need 9 different fabrics. 
For 36 blocks (arranged in rows of 6 x 6) Cut 4 of each color and stack each set of 9 fabrics exactly the same. 
Each stack gives you 9 finished blocks. Number of blocks per row is up to you! Depending on how many stacks you make, there may be leftovers.


Make note of your 9 fabric squares' order from bottom to top and remember to stack them back in a pile the same way each time you sew the stack. DON'T SHUFFLE THE PIECES MOVED TO THE BOTTOM. LEAVE THEM JUST AS THEY ARE, RIGHT SIDE UP AS THEY WERE STACKED. After they are sewn back together with the stained glass strip, there's a "shuffle the stack" formula that keeps no 2 fabrics alike in each block.
Number of sections "shuffled to the bottom" is different for each step! Fingers crossed I get it right.

Helpful websites I use along the way will be listed here:
Stack n' Slash formula for cutting, re-stacking and slashing again - called Crazy-9 Patch on this blog. Does not include stained glass technique but formula for *slashing/sewing/stacking* (repeat!) should be the same. TESTING. Pretty sure this was the site I went to before when memory failed and 2nd batch of blocks went wrong.

PATTERN: 
Cut 12½ square from a brown paper bag and mark lines as shown. (coming soon!)
More or less. YOUR PATTERN WILL BE UNIQUELY YOURS. Not required to be exact.
Be consistent.

Cut (many!) 1¼ inch strips (width of fabric) for Stained Glass effect.
You'll probably need to straighten the edge of fabric once in a while so the strips don't go wonky on the fold. Width of strips for joining blocks will be wider... we'll deal with those later!
 

Folding paper pattern along the line you are about to cut and placing on top of the stack helps each cut be more or less the same. DO NOT CUT THROUGH THE PAPER!
It's not necessary for each block to be the same - in fact they will not be. Using the paper guide will show ruler placement to make cuts go faster, making blocks very similar. You can slide the paper away or not but be careful not to cut into it.

You'll be cutting through 9 layers PLUS seam allowances in some instances.  
Use a sharp rotary blade! BE CAREFUL ;)
 

9 fabrics stacked with cutting guide.

Fold pattern back on line showing where to cut.

Move 1 piece on left from top to bottom.

Sew sections together with strips.

Use guide folded back to cut next slice through all layers.

All 9 layers cut.

Move 2 pieces on right from top to bottom.

Sew sections back together with stained glass strips.

Rotate clockwise one turn.

Place guide as for 1st cut.  3 pieces on left moved from top to bottom. 

Last cut with 6 on right moved to bottom.

Escape Through Stained Glass

Every quilt has a story . . .  THIS ONE has a doozy. :)
Quilt in a Day Month!
I started this stained glass version of a Stack & Slash quilt July 2nd.
My plan was to use Sharon Pederson's quilt-as-you-go method of construction.
It's my first attempt at anything bigger than a table runner quilting this way.
I enjoyed it and will look for other QAYG design ideas!

I made one of these quilts from a Clueless Quilter's Workshop years ago. That one I hand-quilted and gave to my sister-in-law. (She hugged it over and over, earning future quilt-gifting privileges!) This one was supposed to use up stash from my totes and only buy fabric as needed. So how did I manage to buy 11 yards by the time it was done? Let's just say it takes a lot of black to make the stained glass sashes! And 2 yards don't really count as I  grabbed fabric that looked perfectly black at the store, but when I got it home it looked like charcoal.

I lucked out with my first stack of 9 fabrics: slashed and re-stacked with no two fabrics in blocks together. As designed. Unfortunately my 2nd stack got shuffled wrong and EVERY block had two of the same fabrics in them.
I fixed them. Of course.
And then went to the internet to find the correct formula for stacking & slashing.

My Stitch-in-the-Ditch presser foot (or Edge foot) was getting it's first real workout and I needed to learn to look ahead at the foot guide and not where the needle goes in so the stitching would land near the "ditch". My recent discovery that my old Viking 960 indeed had needle position features - either unused or forgotten - came in amazingly useful. It's like a brand new toy!!

I decided to give up my ritual of watching local morning news loop (repeating the same news for 2 hours) and headed into the sewing room soon after Tom left for work. Things were going along quite nicely and by July 9th a stack of blocks were all quilted and I was beginning to sew rows together. About 8 a.m. I looked up from my sewing machine and out through the open window. TWO MEN, with GUNS and a SEARCH DOG were walking past the window - less than 3 feet away! DOC was written on the backs of their bullet proof vests!  Department of Corrections. Searching for escaped convicts and one of their grandmothers lives across the road!


Perhaps a better response would have been to for me to dive for cover UNDER the sewing machine?
Instead I said, "Um, EXCUSE ME?"
Not sure which of us were more surprised!  One asked me if I had seen two men walk by?
(No...just you two...with guns.)

Quilt progress came to a grinding halt.

Finished!
August 1, 2012.

Jax tested it out first.

A finished quilt and other things

March's UFO Challenge was #1.

1. Y2K quilt started in 1999. needs to be quilted. It's HUGE.

A quilt top that I made too big.
Ridiculous big!  I think it would have dragged on all 4 sides of the floor on our queen sized bed.  I sat with a seam ripper on an Aunt Laurie and Ben Day and took off one row. More needs to go to make it a manageable size. I didn't have the will to quilt this one yet.

Number 9 became # 1.
(Executive decision :)

9. 1.  48 STRING BLOCKS!  Made for the 2010 Bonnie Hunter RRCB mystery.

(Step 5: make 600 half square triangles.)

NO. I would rather poke my eyes out. I'll be using the blocks for an Evelyn Sloppy pattern instead.

I adapted instructions to fit the 8.5" squares - 30 used right away. The extra string blocks were whacked into 5" strips - across the middle for straight edge "piano key" outer border.  I was completely out of most of the colors, but by salvaging the extras, most of the colors are in the border.

I put it onto the sewing machine - turned around so the cutting table would hold the extra as it fed through the machine. Took one inch of machine stitching. Decided I hated it BOTH the look of the stitches and shoving it through the tiny little space of the sewing machine. Ripped it out. (Cleaned my sewing room back up!) And hand quilted it.

Quilting began March 10th. Final stitch of the binding made 8 pm March 31st! All stash fabrics used for this one except the backing.   A finished quilt in just under 4 months!

Sock Madness round 2 socks were completed. Knit March 21-25.  Round 3 should start any day now.
We'll need a cable needle.


On April 1st we got 15 inches of snow. It's snowed a couple of times since, without adding much more. It then rained for days and days, melting most of it away.

I am so ready for some outside gardening.

For now I have a shelf of African violets in various stages of bloom!

She needs her head examined!

(This quilt is finished!)

The Patchwork Times UFO project for February was #10.   It's done. 2 days late.

I hand quilted for hours on end from February 14th to February 27th. The quilting frame took up most of the living room and the final push to get it done was mostly so we could have the room back!

(My wrist aches, but I'm not sure if it's because I quilted too much or because I haven't done any for 2 days and it's missing the activity.)

Ran out of fabric for the binding and an ice storm kept me off the road an extra day. Finally got out of the house Tuesday.  I hand stitched the back of the binding down today.

Used actual bias cut strips and I must say I'm a convert. Straight cuts across the width of fabric may be easier, but I liked the way the bias folded so easy to the back. It's also supposed to hold up better and not wear out at the edge.

UFO quilt top complete!

(As usual there's an OOPS!)

Patchwork Times UFO Challenge for February is to work on #10 from my list:

10. Orphan Blocks quilt. I want to use the Settings Solutions book.

This started out as another foot dragging, I don't know if I want to project.
It's not that I don't have plenty of orphan quilt blocks to choose from. There's too many mismatched blocks.
Overwhelming in their do-not-go-together-ness.

I kept digging and finally settled on 7 + 1/2 Wedding/Crown of Thorn blocks, 4 leftover star blocks from an exchange in 1998 and a Monkey Wrench made from the same fabric.  I managed to come up with a yard or two of each of the leftover matching fabrics as well.

I studied the Setting Solutions book for the first 4 days of February and continued to dither.  What to do?
The "solutions" in the book seemed designed for pointy star blocks and my abandoned Wedding Blocks spoke to me of circles. 
I decided to try a medallion center using Drunkard's Path.

Have never done this curved pieced block, I might add.  I finally settled on using my quarter inch seam foot and the no pin, just sew method.  A Curve Master foot looks like it might be very useful. If I had one!  
My curved pieces were a little wonky, but they trimmed down to 3.5 inches fairly well.  Once I pressed the wonk out of them with the iron!

I wondered if Drunkard Path could be used as a frame for the individual blocks? Turns out my orphan blocks ranged from 8 to 10 inches. It might have been helpful to realize the wedding blocks were not 12 inches when I decided on 3 inch squares for the Drunkard's Path design. I found the pattern for the Wedding Blocks I thought I had used and it "said" blocks were 12 inches. I never doubted.
I also never measured. My blocks were 10 inches.


WELL...some sides were 10 1/2 - 11 inches actually. Apparently I was very careful to keep all the points of this block "pointy"! Not so much concerned for scant quarter inch seams or block sides of equal size. Probably why I quit this project? Blocks are "framed" in an effort to compensate  (oops!)  But by now fabrics were running out, so a new color was added.

The red print fabric selvage dated it as 1994.  It's ALL gone now. Yeah! Drunkard's Path (or whatever this patch is called!) blew through fabric pretty fast.  I bought 2 yards for the outer edge and border and even that is all gone but for a few inches.

No longer a UFO!

AKA #6: Stack-n-Whackier @ "Treasure Boxes" (50" X 54" lap quilt)

Long ago the local quilting group I belonged to hosted an all day workshop. Bethany Reynolds taught the class pre-book release if I remember correctly. Book is dated 2001 - so this PhD has been hiding for awhile.

To be honest it would have been hiding a whole lot longer, had #6 not been drawn for the January Patchwork Times UFO Challenge. I was more or less at peace with stuffing it back on bottom of the pile!

And of course just to make more work out of this project: I noticed the 3rd block from the bottom on the left was UPSIDE DOWN. For a moment I debated the mistake on purpose theory; pretending I meant to do that... because no quilt is supposed to be "perfect".

Yeah RIGHT! This quilt is SO far from perfect it's not funny but I still could not help myself. I got out the seam ripper and fixed it. And by fixing it, I mean the block is now right side up and edge is possibly even wonkier than before.

It had wonky looking issues as a top and it still does now that it's finished. But it should be warm as I decided to go with a thicker than usual bamboo batting and a flannel backing. By adding the wider border that samples fabric each of the 'treasure boxes' were cut from, it at least gives it a bit of novelty of an I SPY quilt. And hopefully distracts from the what-was-I-thinking burnt orange?

It has now been hand quilted and binding is finished as of January 14, 2011. It could easily be used for demonstration purposes What NOT to Do in Quilting. Also discussed was the option of placing it into the nearest drop-off box for charity and walking away as fast as possible.  

Now to get myself to the next meeting so I can return the book!

Quilt(s) under construction...

Progress report:
I'm working on my PhD!
(Projects half Done ;)

Sara got her PhD last May so I found great humor in this quilt plan announcement. Unfortunately my delivery was off and I said 'Projects half Finished' when I told her.  
Ruined the punch line as usual!

Likewise, we were told to get our ducks all in a row before committing and I failed to take into account this UFO mission is for 6 months. I told the organizer I had just listed 12 projects and would work from that list. My lazy duck will finish some half-done Fabric Postcards to keep the count behind my name on her blog-roll from being a big fat liar.

The 2011 Patchwork Times UFO Challenge is off and running. For January #6 was drawn. I'm supposed to work on the project that corresponds with the list I made:

6. Stack & Whack Treasure Box workshop. Needs borders. Preferably something to distract from the hideousness of orange.

Sara lobbied hard to get me to sneak back in and edit my list so that I would be working on one she likes. But this one is small; just needs borders and quilting. Doable in a month.
 
Ugly duckling factor aside. #6 does come with more guilt than most of the others. See that little yellow label on the bottom of the book cover? Evidence this book belongs to my local quilting group. I haven't been to a meeting in years. A couple anyway.

In addition to pulling #6 from it's place at the bottom of the Treasure Box and trying to iron some of the wonky wrinkles out of it, I've added the background strips to either side of my Row Robin. Leaves need to be appliqued down both sides. The next round of instructions are due out January 10th ...so I'm on target with that.

Telling myself what I have to!

Row Robin Quilt-A-Long

I confess: I could not resist.
Patchwork Posse has a Row Robin underway. I found it the week Round 4 had just been posted.
I had just finished the table runner and a stash of fabric (freshly sorted by color!) was sitting in the living room just begging to be used. 
I felt compelled!
I'm almost caught up and hoping the next round is just as pleasing, so progress will continue. Determined to fight UFO syndrome! Still a little applique left to do, but not sure about the bird samples from Round 3. May go with butterflies and a frog from Butterflies & Blooms book on my shelf. Flickr group of others participating in project.

Quilt block progress

This week in Quilting
I've been appliqueing random images to my scrappy block project. No theme - just whatever strikes my fancy.  
(Tried the Big Huge Lab mosaic maker again.)
My Flickr photostream

A Mystery Quilt Along begins this week from the blog of well known Quilter, Bonnie Hunter. I came across it during a blog tour for quilters by Quiltmaker magazine.
(I won a copy of 100 Blocks!)
I'm tempted (okay PLANNING) to play along. My follow through has been less than spectacular. I may challenge daughter Sara with her brand new quilters sewing machine to play along from her new address in Minneapolis and see how different our projects come out. Enabler Alert!

Quilting Again!

So FINISH something why don't you?
My craft pendulum has swung once again and this time it's quilt UFOs that have my obsessively undivided attention.

Since October 6th I've been working on unfinished quilt projects with determination. I pulled out the Circle Jean Quilt and began where I left off.

Turns out it was 3 Days from DONE when I abandoned it to the Treasure Box. Knitting needles and crochet hooks had taken over for so long my sewing machine needed an introduction. It's finished!!


After 3 straight days of focused (remember to breath) sewing, it's checked off the list of unfinished things!! The first day felt a little overwhelming (there was a slight panic attack). One 4 row/20 circle section was completed before I gave myself permission to walk away. The next day a renewed sense of determination took over and the rest of the windows were sewn down and the outer edges hemmed.

It was a little like shoving 20 pair of jeans through the sewing machine - all at one time - on day 3. I would not make one of these this big again. It's big enough to cover the bed but too heavy to sleep under. And probably too big for the washing machine when it comes time. But it's done :)  
(Treasure Box of UFOs on top)  

PROJECT #2: Finished as well!! Started the day after Christmas 2008 if this blog entry is to be believed. I seem to have worked on it pretty steady through January 2009, when it became a finished top, the 3 layers of backing/batting/quilt top were pin basted together for quilting. To be abandoned. ...and then I lied in Blogger writing: 

The I will quilt it right away!"   pledge must be taken. Right hand in air, left hand on sewing machine: "I will!"

It sat on a shelf until October 2010, while I dithered between hand or machine quilting. (And discovered crochet hooks have an actual purpose.) Hand Quilting took exactly 2 weeks and THEN I did the binding on the very next day. DONE.

Next up for Project 3 was an applique block from this project.
Enjoyed remembering how...
Although this project is a long way from done. This is only block 4. My quilting fingers need to recover from 2 weeks of steady hand quilting without a thimble on the underside of the quilt.
I hates them.

Sewing Machine Excursion

Field Trip!
I took my sewing machine out onto the deck. I've found the best room (outside) the house for some sewing - to beat the heat of the tiny room my sewing machine usually shares with the piles of laundry in waiting. Shade from the maple tree plus the umbrella over the table kept me in shade until 2 in the afternoon.

I'm making another Circle Jeans Quilt - started this spring so it's NOT in danger of being labeled UFO. Yet.
I want to make this one big enough to cover our Queen sized bed. Time will tell if it can actually be used for sleeping under, or simply a cover quilt that's "okay if the dog climbs up or husband keeps his shoes on" layer.

I discovered the perfect sewing machine foot to combat the stretchy bias of denim cut in a circle. I've never actually used this foot and didn't know what it was for until I opened my owners manual. Book says it's a Corded Zipper Foot. (I think...I can't find where I put it. Which means I will tear the house apart trying to find it because I HATE not being able to find something. The mess I will have to put back afterwards is not always pretty.)
BUT ANYWAYS...best foot ever for holding down the bias material while doing the best Blanket Stitch my machine can manage. Once I got used to "where I should be looking" as I sewed along feeding fabric through.

In other news: We got a new refrigerator. My first Brand New one. Ever. Stuff is cold again AGAIN and I guess that's all that can be asked. Except I'm ridiculously pleased with it!

Sears delivery & take away went off without a hitch.

Unlike the purchase of my new stove which I picked up at Home Depot myself and the silly old man tried to load it onto the truck all by himself. At which time I threw myself under a corner of the box about to hit the ground.

Professional. I took a picture of the way they carried the old one out. Told them "I blog" as I snapped the shutter twice. Man walking backwards said "Well, that's a first"!

Use it or lose it

Will need to pick up the quilting pace a bit.

I seem to have forgotten every thing I ever knew about Paper-Piecing.

Decided on this scrappy quilt from Quiltmaker magazine next.
(Jan/Feb 02 #83)

It'll use many different fabrics from the stash bin. I've convinced myself that's as good as working on another UFO.

Not off to a great start making the star block as 2 of the pieced seams had to be undone because I had the background fabric where the star was supposed to be or it didn't cover the space intended.

There are only 6 seams for the three sections. 2 blocks managed this morning, although much cutting has been done. To keep it scrappy and not have all the same colors bunched together, some of the sections have to stand in line.

I'm using my new iron.
A Christmas present from Mom.
There was an oath taken.
NOT to iron sticky stuff (fusible web).
No Fabric Postcards, journal covers or ATC's are to come near the bottom of this iron.

I did hand sew another side of the cat quilt binding down.
One edge left.

I made a matching bag for the Circle Jeans Quilt I gave Angie. My sister-in-law genuinely seemed to love both of the gifts I gave her. Showed a satisfying amount of love for the quilt I made her and petted the box holding the casserole dish with hot/cold covers & carrier.
A couple of times actually!

And Ben does love his ice cream on a stick.

Can I look now?

(who did we vote for?)

Me and my sewing machine.

We've been hiding out in the other room with the TV off.

Listening to Pandora on the laptop.

(So what if I've had it since December and just caught on that the thing is actually meant to be portable. Like a really expensive radio.)

I've been sewing up a storm.

NOT listening to cable news talk.
Too much can drive a person crazy.
I'm tired of screaming pundits, push polls and back stabbing talking points delivered by straight faced political hit people.

And I'm tired of being angry.

Not sure if lifting eyes heavenward to request a presidential candidate get the most votes is proper use of a spiritual aid?

Perhaps there's a forgivable Good Intentions clause.

But, THANK YOU MAINE for voting for Obama most!
You had me worried, I'll admit because I really had no clue which way we would go. Sunday's caucus turnout did us proud.

So while tucked away hiding out in my sound proof Laundry slash Sewing room:
I've finished my 2nd Denim Circle Jeans Quilt!

And a tote bag to match the 1st Circle quilt. Actually called the Collapsible Bucket, found here at a recently discovered website called Instructables. "The World's Biggest Show & Tell". Very cool. Detailed how-to directions for making stuff. I've been on the look out for more things to make from denim. I'm blaming it on Project Runway's 501 Jeans & a T-Shirt episode ;) So that makes it all Stephani's fault since she got me hooked on the show.

I changed my bucket...a bits.
Bigger. Recycled materials including waistband handle. It needs another button though, because the belt loop at the top guiding the strap is not stable enough with just the one button I reused at the bottom.

Also tried this Protect the Tech project, since I've been saving the pockets from all the jeans I've hacked up.

Plus a Denim Quilt Leftovers Tote (I made it up :) I'll probably fill it as a diaper bag for a baby shower gift at the end of the month.

Busy, huh? I missed a whole new technique for destroying a News Reporter's career while sewing. Shustered: “to lose a career for an inappropriate, relatively minor utterance about a powerful person or group.” Okay. Back to the sound proof room.

I'm about out of worn out blue jeans. Perhaps I'll put out the word to family I'm looking for donations. Noble cause. I'm willing to help with your spring cleaning!

Want a picnic quilt?
It's a long time until November's election.

And after 40 years of using a sewing machine and NEVER sewing a finger I've managed to stab a machine needle through a finger tip. TWICE this week.

Denim Circle Quilt

My 5 day impulse project is complete!

In under a week, 7 pair of worn out or too tight blue jeans became a "quilt".
It's FINISHED!

It could be a table quilt or an "It's okay to put on the ground for a picnic" quilt.
Not really a comfort blanket ...because it weighs a ton.

I didn't have a clear plan when I started this project so had to stop back at the store next time by to get another yard of the window fabric. Funny how cutting cloth into 4" squares and sewing it back together again takes more yardage than you would think to make a quilt?

Probably spent too much supplementing fabric for a recycle project since I bought it full price at a real quilt shop. Then again I probably saved a few dollars in gas by not driving across town to use a coupon at a chain store. Plus a childhood Best Friend owns the new shop so stopping in for my first visit was part of the impulse of this project. The fabric I chose was an impulse as well and perhaps not quite what I was thinking when I went in. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.