Color My World BOM - Upper Road

I made half of my upper road today for the Color My World BOM. This road went much faster than expected. I watched the videos that accompany this BOM.  Barbara Black is helping us as we make our way through this quilt. She suggested making 4 copies of the paper pieced pattern so the process would be quicker. 

That's exactly what I did. Each pattern is made up of 6 pieces, 3 black rectangles and 3 "road" pieces. I set up 4 pieces and just fed them through the sewing machine. So fast!! I was done in no time. 

This is just a closeup of the pattern. It's great that making the road was so much easier than I expected. I just hope sewing it onto the houses isn't too difficult! We'll have to see about that!

I hope you all had a nice Mother's Day!

Color My World Roads

There is quite a bit of preparation when making the road portion of Color My World BOM. I strip pieced the little white piece to 2 strips of black. Then, they were cut to smaller pieces. I also had to cut the solid black from strips. The piece with the road had to be trimmed so it would be at the correct angle. I'm not comfortable working with curved pieces, but the prep work made this very simple. There was also a paper piecing method that was made of 2 solid black pieces and 2 road pieces. I had to make 16 of those.  Once you sewed them all together into a circle, it was time to sew it onto the Mariner's Compass.

I matched each point to a seam of the road. I'm not sure how, but it just worked. I pinned a lot and just took my time. This is the inner road. This piece will be attached to the bottom of the houses that are also sewn into a circle. But before I do that, I'm going to make the outer road that is sewn onto the top of the houses. I've got all my pieces cut. I just have to trim to insure the correct angle and then paper piece. This road is going to be so long! I feel I have a better idea of what I'm doing now. Let's hope I don't screw it up!!

Two Projects

 How can it be May already?? What happened to April? Anyways, I worked on this scrap project last week and it now measures 48" X 48". I've already started cutting strips for my next sewing session. All the sides will be made from more than one fabric from now on. Maybe I'll use up more scraps this way? I would love to use them up! (Like that's ever going to happen!!)

Since it's now May, the next set of directions for Color My World have been released. We're working on the two sets of roads that connect the Mariner's Compass to the small houses. One set of roads will be for the outer circle of the small houses. I'm working on the inside road first. Since the pieces are very similar in size, I decided to work on one road at a time. I know I'll end up mixing them up so this way should be easier. It will be interesting to have to sew 2 round pieces together. I'll have to take my time and be ready with the seam ripper! I'll let you know how it goes!

What I've Been Doing

 

I've been splitting my TV time between knitting my shawl and sewing binding on the Pineapple Quilt. This shawl is coming together nicely. I consider this a long term project at this point. Brioche knitting is never going to be quick for me. However, that's okay. It's such a pretty pattern that I want to take my time and do it right. I'm about half done with the binding on the Pineapple Quilt. That quilt is 90 X 90 so that will also take awhile!

I bought this pattern a few weeks ago. I love patterns by Jaybird Quilts. I have her rulers which make the pattern so much easier. The sizes for this quilt range from mug rug to large lap which is about 74" square. I love that having all these size options. 

I bought this wide back from Keepsake Quilting. They're having a special if you buy a 3 yard bundle. I just couldn't resist this gorgeous fabric! It looks like a water painting. I have 3 quilts to quilt so I took advantage of the sale. I have another backing on the way!

I've been off for a few days but will be back to work tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to that!

 

Scrap Log Cabin

 

This is my Scrap Log Cabin so far! It measures 36.5 inches square. I'm having so much fun looking through my scraps and cutting strips when I can. I'm not really paying much attention to light or dark. If I see there's too much dark on one side, I'll make a mental note to add a light one next time. It's very low pressure. I'm just sewing what I like. 

I started off with 2 squares that measured 2.5 inches each. I just added to those 2 squares in a counter clockwise manner. Easy! Sometimes I use full strips but other times I'll piece the strips. It's totally whatever I feel like doing. This will turn out to be a giant log cabin square. I won't even have to sew blocks together. This is just a fun project that helps me use those pesky scraps! I'm not sure how large I'm going to make this. I'm hoping for over 70 inches square. We'll see!!

Binding Pineapple Scrap

I was off today and decided to sew the binding to the Scrap Pineapple quilt. It didn't really take that long. I used my walking foot which always gives a nice finish. I decided to make the seam 3/8" instead of 1/4". The binding gets filled with fabric and feels thicker and sturdier. 

I just made sure I knew where to line up the edge of my fabric. It was pretty easy. I was done under an hour. 

This is the whole quilt! I like that pink around the edges. It gives it a nice little punch of color!

Scrap Pineapple Quilt is Done!

 My Scrap Pineapple quilt is all quilted! I was so glad to take this off of the longarm. Pantographs are so fast. I finished this in less than one week. Not bad for a 90 X 90 quilt!

This is the backing which gives you a better look at the actual quilting. It was made of lots of feathers and swirls. Pantographs make the quilting so even all over the quilt. I can see why some people use pantographs exclusively. 

The green fabric on the left is what I used as the center for each of the pineapple blocks. I couldn't find anymore of this fabric to make the binding. I bought this pretty pink and green Tula Pink fabric. The green is actually much more vibrant than this picture shows. I think it'll be a nice pop of color to finish off this quilt!