Centennial Project Detail

More from the Arizona Flag Centennial Quilt.  The blue in the border shows governors' names, and I used a variety of  dense fillers in the yellow and red rays. I used some of the AZ Centennial commemorative fabric on the back.  This quilt gets delivered next week and it will be out of my hands for over a year!  Just like dropping your kids off at school, that make me kind of sad.  But I am excited to see the show next spring.

Centennial Project Complete!

Grrrr. I'm having trouble uploading photos today. Check back later in the week!

My quilt for Arizona's Centennial is finished! This photo shows the border where I quilted each governor's name (in blue, on black fabric). Kinda like Where's Waldo...easy if you know what to look for.

Summer UFO List Part 1

The Quilters on Ravelry cheer each other on to finish UFOs...the enticement is a fat quarter for completion of at least one project each session. This is my official list for the summer:

1. Gold Sash QOV. These blocks were donated by quilters around the country for Moda's Just One Star project. I have 200 blocks to work with, so there will be many many many QOV posts in the foreseeable future.
2. My second design for the Just One Star blocks. I am making alternate square-in-square blocks, named Stars-n-Squares.
3. My third design for the Just One Star blocks is a simple Log Cabin Style. I am adding red and blue strips around some of the odd size blocks.4. Quilt and Bind the Boxy Stars (pattern from Bonnie Hunter). I'd love to teach this as a class at my LQS, and ultimately donate to Quilts of Valor.

5. Arizona Flag Centennial Project. I overlapped the pieces so it looks complete in this picture, but right now, the red and yellow squares are in 8-patches, and I am going to add a black border. This needs to be quilted and bound by Sept 1, assuming it was chosen for the state traveling exhibit.Stay tuned for Part 2!

June Update

Ahhh, summer school is over and the surface-of-the-sun-hot temperatures have arrived. In between swim sessions at the local pool, I have been in my sewing room. (The city pool is open for a few hours in the early afternoon and again from 7-9 pm...late bedtime means a quiet morning for mommy!)

I finished the Reeds quilt. I won these blocks in exchange (see the Block Lotto button to the right) and decided to do a color gradient layout based on the white-grey-black background prints.
I had a bright floral fabric in my stash that worked for the back.
And I used a simple wavy frond quilting design, somewhat following the piecing.

Of course, the major focus has to be the Arizona Centennial project. Entry forms for the "100 years, 100 Quilts" were due this week, so I mailed mine in with fingers crossed. I laid out all the squares in their final position, so it looks like a finished quilt. I plan to add a plain border when the center is done, and I have grand plans for the quilting! Stay tuned...

Flag Progress

Finished the bottom blue section! The first picture is 27 rows of 50 squares which is (quick, mental math) 1350 squares - only 650 to go...So, I laid out the yellow and red rays. When you only use 3-5 squares of each fat quarter, you need LOTS of fabric. Donations are welcomed...I have lots of scraps to trade if you can help out.

As my "leader ender" project, I dug out some blocks that I won in an exchange last summer.
This was a fun wonky block called Reeds. I couldn't decide on sashing, so they are just sewn together and I have some ideas for fun quilting designs. I love summer when I can spend hours at the machine!

Centennial Update

Almost halfway on the Arizona Flag centennial project! 900 squares done, 1112 to go. I fashioned a design wall by using a piece of batting and some push pins so I can audition the fabrics. I am trying to do several four-patches each day. In a perfect world, the top will be done in June and I can quilt it during my summer vacation. We all know how "people plan and God laughs," so stay tuned for progress reports!

My "leader ender" project has been Bonnie Hunter's Boxy Stars. (Leader Ender: something to feed through the machine while chain piecing, hopefully to eliminate thread tails and waste when you finish a set of blocks for your main project.) I made a version of this quilt about a year ago, but this time I think I will add sashing between the blocks.
Bonnie typically makes scrappy quilts, but I like to control the color palette a bit more. I started with a rainbow selection of 2.5-inch strips. I need to work on the border design to bring it up to Quilt-of-Valor size (about 60x72), so I'm going to play in Electric Quilt.

Checking the numbers

I decided to work on my Arizona Centennial Quilt. I broke out the seam ripper today and switched the lighter blue section so that it was next to the gold instead of having a few darker fabrics create a line in the blue area on the left (refer to last post). You can barely see the glint of a pin marking the spot where I have an open seam to hand-stitch.
The process I am using is to lay out pieces according to my sketch......then carry them over to my machine and sew the groups together. I have been working from the center out. The top photo shows the center star, and I have been working out to the edges from there. It was easy to get the blue sections done just by laying out the correct number of pieces and squinting to check color placement. The red and yellow rays take more concentration, and I need to shop for more fabric - or do a better job begging people to share their scraps!!
Then I started counting squares on my sketch. The design is 40x50, and I will add 12 pieces in the border so that it matches the 2012 Centennial year for Arizona statehood. The center gold star was 14 inches square, and I am almost done with taking that out to the edge, so I will have 14x50 finished, which equals 700 squares! My twisted mind initially rounded that up to "almost halfway" - why yes, I am an optimist, LOL - and then I realized it's only 35% complete. I need to get my butt in gear. I'll work on the bottom first (650 blue squares) then the rays of red and yellow. I need 330 red and 320 yellow. By the way, I am working with 1.5 inch pieces.
Very soon after starting this project, I gave up on the idea of a true charm quilt where all the fabrics are different. I do want this finished for the Centennial celebration - my deadline is an August contest entry date. I've been purchasing fat quarters, but only cutting a few pieces from each. I started with 3-5 squares of any one fabric, but considering the deadline, I may need to double or triple that number. Even at that, I will need 20-30 fabrics in each color. Like it's that difficult to talk me into a shopping trip...

Sunday Sewing

While everyone was napping, I cut more 1.5 inch squares for my Centennial Postage Stamp quilt, and started work on the left half.

Here is what I have so far...I'm not liking the darker "stripe" between the star and the left-hand blue section, so there may be some ripping soon.  I knew that would be a possibility when I began sewing before I had all my fabrics laid out!  I tried to keep lights near the center, but I forgot that the whole section was the center of the quilt!

 

More quilting fun this week - I checked in today for Quilt Camp in the Desert. 

 

I can only take one day off from work, so I decided to take a Lone Star class with Helen Frost and meet up with my camp buddy Jeanne.  I hope these blue fabrics work...maybe the star will be a medallion for a future Quilt of Valor.

Other Projects

I needed an easy sock pattern for a recent road trip, so I cast on "Primavera" with some Lorna's Laces in the Franklin Habit Panopticon colorway. Fun pooling and the pattern had just enough difficulty to keep it interesting across Texas.
Our house is slowly being overrun with Barbie dolls, and most of the time they are nekkid. A quick search on Ravelry brought me to this...which will probably end up under the bed like the clothes the dolls came with!
And, my Arizona Centennial Postage Stamp quilt. 196 pieces done, only 1804 to go!! Hopefully you can see the gold star which is the center of the state flag. If you have any red, navy blue or butter yellow scraps, I can definitely put them to use!

No patience

This is the cutting table in my sewing room. I had some very nice internet buddies who sent fabric for the Centennial Project, and I have been cutting my little pieces out. I wanted to see how the scrappy fabrics would look in the stark solid design of the Arizona flag, so I concentrated on the center star - re-drafted, counted each color...
and just couldn't wait to start sewing! Even with the darker pieces thrown in, I think I have a decent golden star for the center. My red and yellow rays start as nine-patches.At this point I am about 5% done with the cutting! I worried a bit that I should finish collecting the fabric first - if you remember from the first post, I wanted to use each fabric only twice, but in my rush to start the golden star, I included some fabric about 10 times. Of course this project should wait - I have a quilt that needs to be loaded on the longarm, but I was too excited about my postage stamps!

Centennial Project

Arizona's 100th birthday will arrive in 2012. That's a nice round number, so I set myself a challenge - quilt the state flag (pictured on the left) as a postage stamp quilt. "Postage Stamp" refers to the individual pieces...I'm aiming for 1" finished. For the centennial part of the project, I decided to use 2000 pieces. I'll make up the other 12 in the border!

Kendra wanted to make a similar design, so I sketched the starburst, and she filled in the details:I've started to collect fabric, since I want a very scrappy quilt. By scrappy, I mean 1,000 different fabrics! I'd like to have pieces duplicate only once :-) If you have blue, red or yellow/gold scraps, please email me for a mailing address. It will take a major effort to collect the fabric and get this pieced and quilted in about two years!
I'll close with a random shot of fabric, ready for the washing machine and destined for quilt backs.