Forever Quilting 4 You

Ambassadors Choice

Well, this month we were left to our own devices to come up with a project, any project that we wanted to make. Hmmm, where do I start?!

I had a few ideas of what I wanted to make. I have the ability to look at a picture of a quilt and figure out how to make it… well, most of the time. “If I see it, I can make it” is my motto!

A friend had previously showed me some abstract roses she had made and I liked the way they looked so I decided to give it a whirl. I came up with a pattern that I thought would work and started on my version of the abstract roses. Well, they didn’t turn out quite like I thought they would, and I wasn’t very happy with the way they turned out. I’m usually pretty “spot on” when I create patterns from looking at a picture, but in this case when I finally received and saw the pattern my friend sent me, I quickly realized that using the original pattern would have been much prettier than the one I made. But not knowing that beforehand, I had to first give it a try; I gave myself an A for effort!

So what now? Well, I had been tossing around another idea for a while so I thought “let’s try that one!” I grabbed the left over strips from the abstract roses and started creating my next design.

I laid out the fabrics, but was thirsty and stepped away from my design table to get a drink of water. While I was in the kitchen my stealthy fur baby, Koa, decided that she needed my fabric strips more than I did! As I came around the corner heading back to my sewing room, Koa dashed out of the room with the strips of fabric in her mouth, feeling very proud of herself for getting a hold of “my” stash as if she had just won the lottery! Once Koa has taken possession of something that does not belong to her it’s a very difficult undertaking to get it back from her! She is much more wily than “the artful dodger!!!” The only way I had a fighting chance of getting my strips back was to outsmart her. The very first time this happened I thought using treats to get her to drop what she had stolen sounded like a great idea! WRONG!!! Instead, she has actually successfully taught me a new version of “keep away!” She steals my stuff and I give her a treat! Koa is one smart puppy!!!

Look at those eyes!!! What’s not to love about my artful dodger?!

With the strips now in my possession I’m off to start creating something magical.

I had this idea that if I sewed 4 of my 2.5″ strips together and made a tube, I could cut them at an angle with a triangle ruler and they would come out as a square block. Well, I didn’t have a triangle ruler so I got the idea to use what I had on hand – A Creative Grid ruler by Deb Heatherly called “Strippy Stars.”

Yay! My plan was coming together! I had all of the tubes sewn, now I needed to cut them using the Strippy Stars ruler. Uh-oh! It turned out that the angle on the ruler was not the correct angle for my project! So now I had these things that looked like wonky diamonds, and at this point I was too far into the project to start over. Hmm… (thumb tapping) what to do? What to do? I decided to work with what I had and keep going.

My eagerness to make this quilt without having the right tools to make the squares I had in mind, turned out surprisingly well. After getting all of the diamonds cut, it was time to lay them out in some sort of order. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m not really a scrappy quilter by nature, my idea of scrappy quilting is “organized scrappy quilting.” Nonetheless, as I was “organizing” my design, I got into a groove, got the diamonds laid out, and was actually pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Just then I realized that I had used up all of my 2.5″ strips – I needed to figure out what I was going to do for the border.

In the box of the many products Island Batik sends to their Ambassadors, they include what they call “stash builders.” To my delight I found one that worked perfectly for the border!

With the completion of August’s challenge I now have a great little lap quilt that is perfect for my daughter who is wheelchair bound. With the weather getting ready to change with the season it will keep my daughter warm when she is outside waiting for the bus to pick her up. This little quilt that wasn’t just right for one thing turned out perfect for another.

So what did I learn while making this month’s project? Making due with what I have, with a bit of creativity, patience and persistence, can turn out to be someone’s cherished treasure! And just because the first idea I had didn’t work out as expected, never give up! The end result was beautiful!

For this month’s challenge I used the Island Batik 2.5″ strip set called Ornate Gems, a bright mixture of blues, reds and greens,

… Hobbs 80/20 scraps left over from a previous challenge,

… Schmetz microtex needles,

… AURIfil thread #2800, which is a light, minty green that blends well with the multiple different colors of fabrics used in your projects,

… and Creative Grids Strippy Stars ruler by Deb Heatherly that came to the rescue with the wonky diamonds.

My daughter’s attempt at a smile when she doesn’t feel good,

… and Koa getting in on the action, as always.

Koa after she got in the way, there’s those eyes again… “What? I didn’t do anything!”

Until next time, what’s on your sewing table today?

Victoria