Project Quilting Season 13 roundup

 I enjoyed participating in Project Quilting again this year, and I completed entries for all 6 challenges.  I added rules for myself-- I wanted to use up scraps as much as possible.  And I wanted to avoid purchasing new fabric, in keeping with my sewing room clean and declutter process.

Challenge 1:  All the Colors

I made a table runner and a set of 4 placemats using all scraps. I used heat resistant insulbrite as batting-- gifted to me from a Buy Nothing Neighbor.  Quilting is walking foot straight lines using a rainbow variegated thread.  The backing is a batik that I've had in my stash for probably close to 30 years, so it's definitely time to use it up.

Challenge 2: Silhouette

My sister gifted me with a vinyl transfer she created on her cricuit.  Anyone who's seen what a house with two English labs looks like knows why she gave it to us.  Here's what I made.

The scrappy border is all from my tiny bits scrap bin. I free motion quilted in matching colors and the straight line quilting highlighting the silhouette is again that variegated rainbow thread.  I have a wall of dog memorabilia and photos where I plan to hang this.  Or I may turn it into a a throw pillow.

Challenge 3:  Kitchen related.

Well, this is what my kitchen looked like that week:

Yeah.  We're in the first stages of a complete remodel.  But using the colors we selected for our new kitchen as inspiration, and addressing an unmet need, I created this unique thing:  

I call it a duck egg skelter parking lot mat.  I have a small flock of back yard ducks who reliably lay about 100 eggs a month between them.  Best practices for home egg production is to keep eggs unwashed on one's counter in order of production -- hence the use of the skelter (so we use the oldest eggs first). Unwashed duck eggs sometimes look as if those ducks have been playing soccer with them, so isolating the grubbiness from other counter-top functions in the kitchen appeals to me -- and that's why I made this duck egg parking lot mat.  The block pattern is the traditional Duck Track block, of course.

Challenge 4: Diamonds

I have an accuquilt die for making those pesky half rectangle triangle blocks which lend themselves to a diamond design.  I decided to use that die for this challenge, and recalling that it can get tricky to deal with right and wrong sides of fabric with this shape, I opted to use only solids from my scrap bins.  Turns out I have a lot of solids.  I cut more than enough to make a queen sized quilt and two pillow shams.  By Wednesday of challenge week I realized that completing the entire queen sized quilt top was too ambitious an undertaking, so I completed one sham in time for the challenge deadline, while still working on the quilt.  It took 2 weeks to complete the diamond quilt, with lots of free motion quilting and ruler quilting, plus some straight lines to mix things up.

With that pieced backing I finished off some awkward remnants that have been sitting in a drawer for years.

Challenge 6: Repetition and rhythm

Again I used an accuquilt die that I've had for a while but not used in any large project -- the Local Color die.  I had an idea of creating the effect of overlapping layers, and I think I achieved what I had in mind.  All the novelty print fabrics came from scrap bins.  I did used yardage for the solids and the black batik, but all from stash, so no new purchases.

And the final challenge, Number 6: Flying Geese 

As I cleared my sewing room of bins and bags, I found all the scraps from a quilt I completed last year.  The good thing about left overs is that you've already done the work of deciding that the fabrics work together.  So I decided on a 3 by 6 inch finished flying geese block and cut every piece that was large enough for this next project.  As luck would have it, I had enough for 99 Flying Geese units.

It made for a very autumnal feeling piece, and I used a pumpkin colored fabric I've had for at least 30 years as the backing.  If I can believe the bolt I had this fabric stored on, it cost $1.90 a yard (that was a super sale even 30 years ago).  I often find it difficult to come up with a quilting motif for flying geese blocks, but I like what I came up with for this piece.  I decided not to use rulers and just embrace the unevenness of free hand free motion quilting.  This quilt is probably destined to be a wall hanging-- sized right for behind a couch, so I put in a hanging rod pocket as I bound it. Scrappy binding helped whittle that scrap bin even more.

So that's it for Project Quilting Season 13.  Always a fun way to start the year.