Playtime: the bowling pins

The final block of my American Jane Playtime quilt is the bowling pins:

Though I usually prefer needleturn, for this block I actually took the time to do freezer paper/starch prep on every single piece. As it is a set of pins, I wanted them to be as close to identical as possible. Doing the prep also gave me a little more confidence with the spacing of everything as it allowed me to lay it all out before I started stitching. The pattern has the pins plain, but once I finished all of the applique, the block felt like it just wasn't finished. So I went back and embroidered a face onto each pin. It just felt like the right thing to do. And I think they turned out pretty cute. Certainly, they have more personality than plain pins would have!

Once I finished the block, I could not help myself from just putting the whole dang thing together:

Woo! After having worked on this project for three years now, I do have an inkling of a quilting plan in mind, but it needs a bit more work before I'll feel comfortable taking the plunge. Regardless, it is going to be a little while before it gets quilted as there are a couple of other tops that have higher priority. So I've got some time to figure it out.

Again, I say, Woo! :)

A change of pace

After putting all of those quarter-square triangles together for Hop to It, I decided I needed to take a break from the machine and do a little bit of handwork.

Playtime is back!

Playtime: the tricycle

Woo hoo! Another block for my American Jane "Playtime" quilt complete!


I really enjoyed working on this block, and I'm very happy with how it came together. I was nervous because of all of the curves and ovals (because the oval shapes meant I couldn't use Perfect Circles!). I ended up doing needleturn on just about everything (except for the one little yellow circle on the front wheel, where I did use the Perfect Circles technique). Basting well and just taking it slow and steady allowed for some smooth needleturning. I did cheat a little and embroidered the black circles on the wheels instead of appliqueing them, because they were just too tiny.

If I didn't think my cat would eat them, I would add some hanging ribbons up on those handlebars. How cute would that be? But yeah. I would definitely be tempting fate there.

Progress so far:



Only one block to go!

Playtime: the car

Set aside, but definitely not forgotten! Working on my "Hop to It" blocks really reminded me how much I love applique, and has motivated me to get going again on my American Jane "Playtime" quilt. For those of you unfamiliar with this project, the quilt is by designer Sandy Klop of American Jane Patterns. It was designed for fusible applique, but I have been doing it all by hand. I started the project in January 2009.

Looking back at my posts, I was shocked to see that the previous block was completed last March. Whoa. Time really does fly!

The car:

This one took me a couple of weeks to complete. I think my biggest hangup was the size of the pieces. I'm really just not into appliqueing large chunks. From rear to front, the car measures 20.5" and is 9.5" tall. The steering wheel and grille were also pretty challenging because of the narrow sections on each.

Techniques used:

• Vinyl overlay (for positioning pieces on the background)
• Needleturn with freezer paper on top
• Freezer paper + starch (for the large wheel pieces)
• Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Cirlces (for the smaller wheel pieces)
• Backstitch embroidery (I'm kind of wishing I had used the stem stitch because I'm better at that and think it would have looked smoother... oh, well.)

And here's a look at my progress so far:


The top two thirds are fully assembled now (though I still need to applique a couple more floaty balls and the pull for the elephant's wagon). Only two more blocks to go!

Prioritizing

So many projects, so little time! I think it is a plight among all the quilters I know. For my part, I sometimes get so wrapped up in the project-of-the-moment, that I lose sight of all of the other things I'm working on. So I'm going to take a little time here to lay out my current projects and attempt to prioritize them. Hopefully, this will help me focus my energies in a more effective manner (and help get some of those lingering projects done!).

1. Snip.Sew.Send. block for Anne-- sigh... I already missed the proverbial boat on this one as it was supposed to be done in June. But I am making progress on it. Hopefully I can get it finished soon. (I'm so sorry I'm late, Anne!)


2. Greenpiece-- I want to try and stay on top of this BOM. I have 3 applique blocks and 2 pieced blocks I'd like to finish before the end of July.


3. Pinwheel Party-- I want to get this one finished for baby Abigail by the beginning of August. This one is currently hanging on my design wall.
   
   
   The top is nearing completion! (Yay, progress!)


4. Prairie Pinwheels-- The center is together. It needs two borders and then quilting. In my fantasy world, this will happen before the end of August, as my father-in-law's birthday is in the middle of the month. But it is a big quilt. We'll just have to wait and see.


5. Autumn House-- This has been basted since February, I think. It still needs to be quilted.


6. My Snip.Sew.Send. quilt-- I have all of the beautiful blocks made by my Snip.Sew.Send. virtual quilt bee friends. It's time to make that quilt for my baby boy! I plan to start once I finish one of the above.


7. Jane Stickle Quilt-- We're nearing the end on this one. In addition to just keeping up with That Quilt, I really want to start focusing on getting sections put together.


8. Paintbox Quilt Along-- All of my blocks are done. Now I just need to get them all put together. As this isn't for anyone specific, I'm not feeling rushed.


9. Playtime Quilt-- I tend to work on this one when I'm feeling inspired to do so. Currently, this is at the bottom of the list. Not because I don't love it. But because the projects above are just higher priority.

The list above is not all-inclusive. There are a few UFOs that I'm just ignoring for the time being and so didn't include on the list. And there are other projects I want to do as well, including summer hats for the boys and I, a new diaper bag, and another pair of pants for BB. These are smaller projects that I'm hoping I can kind of fit in between the big ones above. And don't get me started on all of the various new quilt projects I want to jump into... Focus, Robin, focus!!!

Playtime: the train

Choo, choo!!! Over the last week or so, I've been focusing my stitching time on the train block for my American Jane "Playtime" quilt. I finally completed it last night!


I can honestly say that this block has been the least fun for me. I know I make everything more difficult than it needs to be by insisting to do this quilt with hand applique (rather than fusible as called for in the instructions). But this particular block was a real challenge because the instructions combined pieced parts with applique parts, and were not exactly clear on placement or finished sizes of the pieces. So, it was a lot of guessing on my part: to add seam allowance, or not to add seam allowance? And then there was no guide as to how far apart to space the cars or where to position them on the background. Looking back, I realize I could have been a lot smarter about the way I went about it which was to kind of eyeball it all as I went along (just in case you are wondering, trying to eyeball across a 43" strip of background while sitting on the couch is not particularly effective). I should have pressed in some guidelines for myself at the beginning. That would have made it a lot easier, I think.

Though it doesn't look like the picture on the pattern cover, I think my train turned out alright. Thank goodness it is done!

And here is my progress so far:


I've actually started work on putting the middle section together. Once that is done, I'll move onto the next block: the car.

Playtime: the checkerboard

This morning, I finished up another Playtime block!


This block is probably the simplest one in the quilt. I'm thinking I may put some buttons on there for checkers once it's all done. That might be kind of cute.

Between this and the Jane Stickle block I recently finished, I feel like I've been appliqueing a lot of stars lately. Good practice!

And my progress thus far:



The next block is the train. I spent a few minutes looking it over yesterday, and have a feeling it might take awhile. It's 43" long, and there's lots of applique involved!

Playtime: the bear

It's been quite awhile since I've taken time to work on my "Playtime" quilt. Having found some inspiration to do applique this week, I was excited to work on this project again! Here is the bear:


It is all applique (plus a little bit of embroidery), mostly needleturn with freezer paper on top. I used a vinyl overlay for placement of the pieces as I went along. Going into this one, I had a few concerns-- what colors to use, how to deal with the ball, and getting sharp points. The drum went together pretty easily. The ball took some time. I used a yellow base fabric (to peek through those narrow areas), and then appliqued the other pieces on top of it. Then I cut a heat-resistant mylar template to the size of the ball and used Carrie P.'s method for preparing circles (LOVE that method!!!). It was a little tricky because of all of the applique (and I forgot to leave wide outside edges on a couple of the pieces), but I think it worked pretty well.

Overall, I think he's a happy looking bear!

And here's my progress chart:

Playtime: the counter

It's been awhile since I've worked on my Playtime project. This block was initially pretty intimidating. It took a little time to psych myself up for it.

Behold! The counter:


As with all of the other applique blocks in this pattern, I started by reversing the pattern (since it was designed for fusible applique, and I'm doing needleturn) and tracing a vinyl overlay to help in placement. Then I made many, many little (.5") circles. Forty-eight little circles, to be precise. Fortunately, I finally got a set of Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Circles templates and was able to use Carrie P.'s technique for prepping circles. It worked like a charm!

Here's my (virtual) progress on the quilt thus far:


Now that I've finished this block, I'm feeling pretty excited about getting back into the swing of things with this project. Woo hoo!

Playtime: the sailboat

I've slowed down on my BOMs since I started gaming again, but I haven't stopped entirely. A couple weeks ago, I managed to complete another Playtime block, the sailboat.


The most challenging aspect of this block was that the pieces were so large. I'd never appliqued such large pieces before! The block is 16" x 18". It is a good thing I cut the background larger, because I did have some shrinkage occur as I appliqued, probably because I didn't baste the large pieces as well as I should have. Another challenge in this block was the pattern itself-- there was no full-size diagram for this one. Each of the various pieces were on separate sheets, and then I had to kind of figure out placement. Even more confusing was that the mast piece wasn't among the pattern pieces or even mentioned in the directions... I had to guess on that one. The fabric requirements referenced the mast, saying that it required a 1" x 13" strip. I took that to mean that the final mast should be .5" wide, and kind of went from there. Thankfully it worked out in the end, but I really think that omission was a pattern error.

The left sail in the sample quilt was made from a cool, wide striped fabric. I didn't have any such fabric. So, to get the nifty striped look on my left sail, I cut and sewed strips of the yellow solid fabric to the striped fabric. Then I cut out the sail shape from my "new" fabric and appliqued it in place.

Next up for this quilt is the abacus block. I'm kind of procrastinating on it because it involves lots of circles. Eep!

Playtime: the bunting

I kept busy over the weekend working on my Playtime quilt (a fabulous BOM design from American Jane Patterns). This month's block was a row of gumdrop bunting that goes along the top of the quilt. I did it a little differently from the instructions, and I thought I'd share my process.

This is the template for the bunting shape:


The way the instructions would have one do it, you'd create a number of finished circles (much in the same way as I prepared the ball previously) and then you'd cut them into quarters and then pair them together to create the gumdrops. The problem with that is that, unless one wanted only 4 different colors in the bunting (which is not how it is pictured on the pattern), there would be a lot of wasted quarters. So I did it differently.


I cut sixteen 4" squares and eight 1" x 4" strips from a variety of fabrics and then stitched them together as shown in the photo above: square - strip - square. Then I cut eight 4.5" x 8.5" rectangles from a thin, white muslin.


I put the muslin on top of the template and traced a half circle. The muslin was super cheap thin, so I didn't even need a lightbox for tracing.


I put the muslin and the stitched squares right sides together, being careful to center the muslin on the squares, and then stitched on the traced line.


Next, I trimmed, leaving about 1/4" seam allowance.


Then I turned it right side out, pressed,


and trimmed the top edge down to size.


Ta-da! A finished gumdrop.


Then it was all a matter of appliqueing them to the background and adding the cherry on top (or below?).

The finished block:


It's 6.5" wide and 66" long.

With that completed, I was able to put together the whole top 1/3 of the quilt!


Yay, progress!

Playtime: the elephant block

This afternoon, I managed to complete the next block in my Playtime quilt, the elephant:


Once again, because I was wanting to do hand applique, I had to reverse all of the line drawings in the pattern (since it was designed for fusible applique) and then figure out the placement order. As in previous blocks, I also used a vinyl overlay to help me with positioning of all the pieces. I did all of the applique by needleturn with freezer paper on top. A little bit of embroidery finished off the block. The block is 14.5" x 12.5".

This was also another block where I needed to supplement the kit fabrics. The fabrics it included for this block were kind of funky:


The more I thought about it, the more I didn't like the idea of a brown elephant. So I visited the local quilt shop and found some greys that I liked a lot better.

The elephant is actually not complete yet. He still needs some wheels on his wagon as well as a pull-cord. But the pattern says those parts will be completed in months 4 and 5.

Here's my virtual progress on the quilt thus far:


Hopefully, I'll get the whole top section all put together for real next month!

Progress report

I've been busy lately! There are a number of different projects I'm currently working on, and I figured I might do a status round-up here. (I'm hoping this will help me focus a bit!)


Oh, Fransson! Quilt Along-- I've made some progress on this one. I've completed block sets A, B, and D, and have started work on set C (that mess above is what I've managed thus far on the C blocks). Hopefully, I'll be able to work on catching-up over the weekend.


Here you can see my A, B, and D block sets.


Grandma's Country Album-- It's been awhile since I've made any progress on this quilt. But I actually completed another block last night! I started it just before Valentine's Day (it just seemed appropriate). This isn't a great picture... it is a dark block, but the colors aren't that dark. I feel good about many of my points in this one (with much gratitute to the fabulous Carrie P. and her pointy-point tutorial!), but I really need to work on my circles. Circles are hard. I've been poking about, looking for techniques, and I'm thinking I need to try and get a set of the Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Circles. It sounds like those are pretty handy. I only have three blocks left to complete for this quilt, and one of them has a lot of little berries.


Autumn House-- I just got block 3 in the mail. Woot! I'm hoping to start prepping it next week. But it might have to wait a bit.

No new pictures for these, but they're in process as well:

Simple Modern Baby Quilt-- (aka, the little sheep quilt) I need to baste the layers and attach the binding.

Jane Stickle-- Last night I started working on block H-12.

Playtime-- The next block in the queue is the toy elephant. I'm hoping to get started on that this weekend.

Guild stuff-- Before the next meeting (on April 3rd), I have a block exchange block to complete, three pillowcases to make (for Conkerr Cancer), and a block lotto block or two.

Another Baby Quilt-- I've chosen a pattern and fabrics for this, but am not going to start on it until I finish the little sheep quilt. (Repeat to self: must finish at least one project before starting another...)

Playtime: the ball block

The next block in the Playtime quilt is the ball. There are a number of ways one can approach making this block. I thought I'd share how I decided to go about it.

Since the pattern was designed for fusible applique, I needed to set it up to do hand applique (because I like hand applique). I used a lightbox and traced to reverse the pattern and then numbered it in the order that I wanted to stitch stuff down. Next I traced all the pieces onto freezer paper and prepped my fabric. I then traced a vinyl overlay to help me with placement of my pieces.


Here you can see that I traced the overall shape of the ball (the white line) onto the main ball fabric. I used this line to have a guide both for piece placement and for the overlay. I placed the vinyl and positioned my first piece. Then I removed the vinyl and basted it in place (I'm in the process of basting it the above photo).


I put the vinyl back on top to check my work (to make sure nothing moved during basting).


Here I'm positioning the next piece (the green one at the top). You can see that I've already appliqued the edge of the blue piece.


I continued in the same manner (position, baste, stitch) until all the pieces were done. It's hard to tell in my poorly lighted picture, but everything is lining up pretty nicely.

After all that, I was pretty intimidated at the thought of just cutting out and appliqueing the shape onto the background fabric (because it's a circle, because there are lots of seams). So I decided to try something different, inspired by a technique for circles that I saw on The Happy Zombie's blog.


I traced the circle onto freezer paper and ironed it to the right side of my piece (I removed all the basting stitches and freezer paper from the previous applique work). Then I used my sewing machine and basted around the freezer paper shape so that I would have a reference line on the wrong side of the fabric.


I removed the freezer paper and then pinned the piece onto a plain piece of solid fabric (I just used Kona cotton) wrong sides together. (You can see my basting stitches in pink.)


Then I stitched with a normal stitch length just inside of the basted line, all the way around the shape. I backstitched when I got all the way around to secure my stitching.


Then I cut out the shape, eyeballing the seam allowance (about 1/4").


I cut a slit in the solid fabric, being very careful to not cut the applique. And then I turned it all right side out, using my handy-dandy that purple thang to help push all the seams out and get the shape right.


After a press, I had a little ball shape ready to stitch onto the background fabric. Except that I forgot to do the appliqued stars. Doh! Fortunately, I didn't have any problems doing it after the fact. But it was definitely inconvenient.

The finished block:

You can't really tell in this picture, but because of the circle technique I used, the shape actually is kind of dimensional and puffs up from the background. The finished block looks pretty cool, I think.

Playtime: the house block

The Playtime quilt has two blocks this month. The first was the airplane. The second is the house:


I've determined that this BOM is definitely not for the faint of heart. The first applique block was a huge challenge, and this pieced block was no cakewalk. It has been a long time since I've pieced something this intricate by machine (all those bars around the window finish at 1/4"). Thank goodness I managed to be accurate enough with my seam allowances that everything actually fit together! (My block is square, even if the picture isn't.) :)

The pattern didn't help. I actually didn't have enough of one of the backgrounds. I had thought all the backgrounds were cut in the first month, so I freely used the rest to do the little pieced setting blocks. Unfortunately, more pieces were needed. Ugh. On the bright side, I happened to have some of the exact same Moda marble in my stash. It seems like I have plenty extra of the rest of the backgrounds, so hopefully I won't run into this problem again (because if I do, my stash won't save me!).

The cutting instructions were also confusing for me. My mistakes resulted in me having just barely enough of the window frame fabric and the house siding fabric (I actually had to do some additional piecing to make the siding work). But it all worked out in the end. Phew!

Here's the progress thus far:


I can actually start putting the whole upper left corner together now!

If you haven't been over to Carrie's blog lately, you should check it out. Not only is there always wonderful eye candy, but she's also having a fabulous birthday/100th post giveaway.

Playtime: the airplane block

The last few days I've been working on another block in the Playtime quilt. This time it was the airplane.


This block really challenged my applique skills. To start with, the pattern is designed for fusible applique, so all of the instructions are written for that and the line drawings are reversed to make that easier. Since I really wanted to do it by hand, I had to reverse the line drawing. Then I needed to figure out what order to applique all of the pieces and number them (so I wouldn't forget). Because there are so many layered, partial pieces, I also had to figure out a way to get them all placed on the background correctly. Long ago, I saw an episode of the show Simply Quilts in which someone demonstrated using vinyl to help with accurate applique placement. So that's what I did.


Using clear vinyl and a fine-tipped Sharpie, I drew horizontal and vertical gridlines so I could match the center of the design with the center of my fabric (I lightly pressed the center lines in my fabric to find the center). Then I traced the line drawing onto the vinyl. You can see my vinyl overlay to the right of the finished block above. With each piece, I'd position the vinyl on top of my background fabric and then slide the piece to be appliqued between the two layers. I could then use the lines on the vinyl to make sure the piece was in the right place on the background. I'd pin the piece in place, put the vinyl back over it to re-check placement, and then I'd either thread baste or (on the smaller pieces) start appliqueing it down (I used needle-turn applique with freezer paper on top). The process was time consuming, but it really worked!

Another challenge were the tiny pieces, like the little grey fin at the back of the plane, as well as the propeller blades. Then there were the teeny-tiny windows which I decided to reverse applique (maybe not the best decision, as I had problems with fraying, but they don't look too bad). By the end of the block though, my confidence had gone up considerably. Hopefully, my applique skills will continue to improve.

My only frustration with this block was that the kit I'm using to make the quilt did not include any fabric that looked like it would work for the body of the airplane. It also didn't include any solid red (it has some patterned ones, but it just seemed like it would be too busy to have that much pattern going on). So I had to go out and find some alternatives.