Category Archives: Monochrome Quilt Challenge

Crafting, Monochrome Quilt Challenge, Quilting

2015 Epilog

Well, here it is, December 31, New Years Eve.

This year, well, the last half of this year, I challenged myself to use my fabric hoard to make quilt tops – and I accomplished that.

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I ended up with 10 completed tops to add to the mound of UFO’s I have in my sewing room already. I also have a HQ Sweet 16 sitting in my office that has had about 4 hours of use since my hubby purchased it 3 years ago for my birthday.

So 2016 starts in a few hours, I am taking the rest of the year off. But, starting in January, I am picking up a new challenge -I am going to challenge myself to actually quilt some of the UFO’s I have and get them completed – with binding a tag!  I think this is going to be more difficult that the last challenge of completing one new top each month.

Good Night, Good Luck and Happy New Year!

Crafting, Finished Tops, Monochrome Quilt Challenge, Quilting

Ending to the ending

So, because I didn’t pay very good attention to the pattern, I ended up with another whole set of the “bars” left over – well 44 to be exact!  So, what was I going to do with them…

I have seen this pattern around and it’s on my pinterest list, so I thought, why not, I’ve got just about everything I need to whip this up…so I did.

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This little one ( 56″ square ) really turned out so neat. It was so much fun using up those blocks. Because the red blocks were already done, I whipped this one together in a few days. I wish the quilting process was going to be that easy!

Now, what to do with the whole pile of left over strips and squares – I have enough to make both red quilts again!   It was so soothing and comforting cutting up all that red fabric – but now I have to use it!

Crafting, Finished Tops, General, Monochrome Quilt Challenge, Quilting

The ending to the journey

I love this block – it’s not square for a change (but, I found that you really have to pay attention to the instructions when putting together the sub-blocks when they are not square.

 

So I figured out, almost too late that the key to putting this top together is to pay attention to instructions and most of all direction of blocks.

There blocks were 5″  x 8″, the directions tell you to sew them in 5 rows, 8 blocks long. Can you guess which way I did it?   Yep, I ended up with a top that was about 24″ wide and 64″: long – really?! So out came the ripper, what a mess I had everywhere.

But all in all, it turned out so nice, larger than I expected, but it really came together nicely, once I paid attention.

Completed Red

I did make a few notes in my magazine/book to help with this pattern, but the biggest thing I figured out, and I figured it out in the beginning is that putting the half “X” blocks together like this (below) made a huge difference on how everything fit together. And, I’m pretty proud of this block – it’s darn near perfect!

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Crafting, General, Monochrome Quilt Challenge, Quilting

Start to the end of the journey

Usually Christmas time is a busy time of year, but this year it’s pretty calm.

I am down to the last color of my color wheel challenge – Red. Good timing, being December and Christmas time. But I didn ‘t want to do a Christmas Quilt – too cliche.

I found my pattern early and started cutting up my fabric in strips and squares. I didn’t know I had so much red  – well, maybe I did, but just didn’t want to admit it.Red strips & squares

So I kept cutting and cutting and cutting.

I filled a bowl with both 2 1/2 x 5″ strips and a bowl with 2 1/2″ squares. I have a huge mound of red.

This months pattern I found in the block magazine from Missouri Star Quilt Company – Love her daily deals too – I have indulged in way too many of those deals as well!

A hint, to the pattern.

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Finished Tops, Monochrome Quilt Challenge, Quilting

My favorite, so far – YELLOW

Hands down, this is my favorite project out of this series so far.

I had to buy some yellow, because I really didn’t have much in my stash. I found some black that has been in my stash for a long time and decided to stick with 1 color of black thru out. I am so glad I did that, many does it look great.

Basically I went from a tile design that I saw in a magazine Rebecca-Zajac_Kitchen-Dining_8_jpg_rend_hgtvcom_1280_853to my favorite project so far:

Yellow

I am just amazed how this turned out…I can’t get over how well it came together. One thing I did learn (well, remember more than learn, when you have to sew on the bias starch is your best friend!)

Who would have thought, someone that is an “Autumn” would love the color yellow, but I do, I do, I do!

In this picture, the sun is coming from the south east (Bright, crisp, Minnesota morning) and that makes some of the seams look large.

Finished Tops, Monochrome Quilt Challenge, Quilting

It’s a bright, clear day here today

And in Minnesota in late November that means crisp morning as well.  10° when we got up this morning. But, when you’ve got pictures to take, you bear the cold, to take advantage of the bright sunlight.

So, rather than going out in the mass crowds of shoppers yesterday, I worked on my color quilts. I actually spent most of Friday afternoon/evening reduxing my “Extra Orange” quilt. It was bugging me so much, that I just had to redo it. I should have just torn it apart and reassembled, but no, not me. I ripped seams in areas and modified and assembled, then redid that because it went together funny, so started again.

Finally got it done though, and I do have to say, I like this one much better.  Good thing it was getting late, because i started having ideas of changing more on it, but I don’t have any more of the brown material so thank goodness I couldn’t do very much.

Orange-Redux

Also took pictures of my favorite project so far…Yellow!

Monochrome Quilt Challenge, Quilting

A bowl full of sunshine

So, here it is November, Color #5 on my color wheel quilt challenge. It’s gone so quickly and slowly at the same time.

Last month, I finished 2 orange quilts – which fall is my favorite time and color pallete, so that was extra special too. This month I have Yellow. It’s a weird time to be doing a yellow project, but

“it will be done”.

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As winter approaches, it’s gets harder to keep on track with this challenge, but I really like the pattern I came up with for this one – sort of my own. I am sure there is one out there like it, but I don’t remember seeing it. So this one is more of a challenge you might say.

Finished Tops, Monochrome Quilt Challenge, Quilting

2 for 1 Special this month

So I started out strong, even though orange is not one of my favorite colors. I plugged along. Then came vacation, plans didn’t work out so I ended up being around home for a week and a day. And boy did I get stuff done!!!

I found this pattern on pinterest and ordered it but I was never sure what fabrics I was going to use. Well, I do now.MagicStars Usually this type of pattern would drive me crazy and I was really worried about that when I started putting the blocks together. But once it was all together, the offsetting/misalignment really works…for some dumb reason.

So, I actually finished this one on Sunday. Then I had all these pieces left over and lots of time on my hands, so on Tuesday, I started putting a braid together. I have always wanted to do a braid. It’s not perfect, it’s a weird size/shape, but I really love how it turned out. But, the brown I used in this one, I was going to use to bind 2 other quilts and I had just enough, to the point that I had to piece a couple of smaller pieces onto the bottom boarder piece. Whew, it worked with a 3 inch piece left over.

BraidsI think this is the perfect size for 2 people to use when laying/sitting on a love seat when you don’t want all the bulk that comes with a traditional sized quilt. The braid points are off but I think that goes along great with the scrappy theme. The braid instructions I was following you were supposed to cut it into squares, but I just loved how they went together so I kept them that way.

On to find inspiration for November – Yellow!

UPDATE (11/28/2015): So, I was so unsatisfied with the second quilt top this month, I redid it. I would spend nights thinking about that thing, so I had some extra time on Black Friday when I wasn’t out shopping and “FIXED” it!