Gingham Swirls

Oh my, how I enjoyed designing and making this quilt.  After doodling around on EQ7, that wavy border just had to be made and something EPP would make this a perfect take-along project.

So, the project got started and slowly but surely, this quilt came to be.

This project was supposed to be for our day guild celebration of Canada's 150th birthday.  The stipulation was that only red and white fabrics could be used.  We could use tone-on-tone reds, red with white and white tone-on-tone and white with red fabrics.  Well, try and find all fabrics with just red and white in them .... no cream, no off-white.  I had lots of red fabrics but very little with red/white prints and I wanted a variety of those fabrics in the blades.  So, the quest to get this quilt done in 2017 got shelved and this quilt was completed years later.  

Here are a few of my blocks with my selection of fabrics:

Quilt Details:

Pattern Source:  This information will only be helpful to those that have EQ and Blockbase software.

#3342 for the blocks (blades).  Make four of this unit to form a block.   

Block size:  6" x 6" finished quarter blocks that resulted in a 12" x 12" finished block.

For the borders, I used "Curved Path Border" and "Curved Path Corner"

Border size:  6" x 8" finished blocks

A tutorial was done to show how the borders were made here.  At the bottom of this post is the label "Gingham Swirl" and you can read all the posts showing my progress.

Started:  September 2016

Top Finished:  November 2021

Finished:  January 2022

Batting:  Hobbs cotton/poly (80/20)

Machine quilted by:  Kathy Wareham using "Maidenhair Fern" quilting design by Urban Elementz.

This quilt is now on display along with my other red/neutral quilts for February.

It has been very cold here lately (-37C with a windchill of -47C) and now it is hovering close to 0C, but I'm keeping warm by the fire!   The snow is starting to pile up and I'm keeping a close watch on our roof in case we need to bring in people to shovel the snow off of it.  

Oh, look ..... a squirrel!  LOL

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Tops to Gingham Swirl!

Well, well, well ..... I just couldn't leave those borders alone.  They had to be finished.

Stitch by stitch by stitch one border and then another border got sewn and sew on!  My fingers and arm are sore, but oh my, how happy I am today!

Below, you are looking at the scroll being stitched onto the final border fabric.  No pins because the scroll and the border fabric have been basted in place.

This is a section of the back that has just been stitched.

After basting stitches have been removed, careful trimming took place and the scroll paper template removed.

A section with all the excess fabric removed.

Here it is!  The top is done!  I'm so thrilled with it.

When designing my own quilts, there are no instructions on how to do things.  For the final border, I had to remember when measuring and cutting to leave an extra 3/8" for the binding.  Can you see the width difference at the bottom of the scroll next to the dark red fabric versus the top of the scroll next to the light print fabric?  Also, I had to take that extra bit of fabric into consideration when drawing my placement line for the top of the scroll.

A few of my readers have commented on how clever I am to have this border.  I'm not clever .... I just have EQ7 software and designed this quilt using their blocks.

So, for those of you who have the one of the latest EQ program, I used #3342 (which is for a 6" finished quarter block).  Those quarter blocks turned into 12" finished.

For the borders, an 8" (finished) Curved Path Border and Curved Path Corner were used.

So, there, I'm not that clever.

Would I do this border again?  Yes, but not right away!  LOL

This is the 7th UFO done so far this year.  I'm very happy with that too. 

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Gingham Swirl progressing along!

I knew that if I concentrated on just one project at a time, great progress could easily be seen.  That is what happened to my "Gingham Swirl".  This is the only project that has been steadily worked on for the past two months and what a difference already.   This UFO had only one block made when the bin was pulled from the shelf back at the end of August.  Since then, wholey moley ..... much, much progress has been made.

Below shows two borders with the scroll basted in place.  Why basting?  That way, I don't have to deal with pins galore nor my scroll shifting during handling and storing when it is not being worked on.

Stitching down those edges takes time, but so relaxing.  Only the one edge is being sewn down because there is a reason for that.

Can you see the upper right hand corner?  See how the red in the upper part is cut away?

Close-up of the cut-out area.  See the piece of red print fabric on the right?  That will be inserted in the cut-out area.  That is why only the one edge of the scroll has been sewn onto the dark red fabric.  Oh, fun, fun, fun!

When I sent a photo to a friend, she oohed and aahed and asked if that was easy to do.

Well, yes and no.  It depends on your skill level and if you are daring to give it a try.  I'm always ready to try something new, so why not!  LOL

So, how is this scroll border actually done?  Now, I'm not clever enough to design this border myself.  Oh no, not me!  It is available through EQ7 (which is the version I have).  After playing around with the software, this is the design that came about.  The tricky part is putting it together.

There are different versions of applique, but this is the method that I use.  

Through the software program, I was able to print out the border shapes.  Then a whole bunch of paper templates were cut out and taped together.  On the left side is my white paper template ready to be used.  So as to not get my template twisted around, it gets pinned onto the border to make sure it will fit ok before cutting out.

 

Then over the paper template, my fabric (that the scroll is made of) is placed on top and a couple of pins are used to make sure the template doesn't get dropped when moving the fabric and template to my cutting table.

Here is the paper template being pinned onto the fabric.  Lots of pins are involved here.  

One scroll is now pinned in place ready for trimming away the excess fabric.

This is the back of my trimmed and clipped piece showing the edges being turned over and basted.

This is what the front looks like.

Below, the scroll piece is being pinned onto the red border and basted in place.  Look closely and you can see a horizontal line drawn where the bottom of each scroll is placed and then pinned in place.  There are also vertical lines drawn as well for positioning along the border.  Those lines help to keep my scroll lined up properly throughout each border.

Two edges have been sewn down and the excess red fabric trimmed out.  Don't they look lovely?  The next two borders have been basted and ready to be sewn.  Next post, you will see the next stage of this top.  I'm getting excited to see my vision come to fruition.  

On the weather front, we did wake up to snow on the ground one morning last week.  The snow didn't last, but it was a wake up call to get things done before the cold weather and snow returns for good.

Snow tires are being put on our car today.  My windows need a good cleaning and that will happen this week.

More backings need to be done for a trip to my lovely LAer in two weeks' time.

My studio is getting a good overhaul.  Magazines and books are being sorted through and they will be donated to our day guild's encore table.  Scraps are being sorted for keep, donate or trash.  It is time for a good rethink on what I have in my stash and studio.

My studio has become a dumping ground and it overwhelms me sometimes.  There is a light starting to peek though the tunnel.  Bins are getting emptied and that is encouraging.  UFO's are getting done and that is a very GOOD THING!

It is busy, busy time around here.

Cherish your day, cherish you life!

Borders for Gingham Swirl

Now that all the blocks have been sewn together, it is time to deal with those interesting borders.

What fabrics to use, what fabrics to use?  That is my decision now.

I think for the first border, the darker red is a must.  Now, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the scroll meets up well in the corners but there may be a slight adjustment and I have allowed for that by having extra fabric at the ends of the scroll!  I'm also debating about circles as cornerstones in the blocks.

This past weekend, my Aunt and cousin were finally buried in Gatineau, Quebec.  My Aunt died January 2020 and my cousin died December 2020 (neither from Covid).  We couldn't bury them due to Covid along with the border to Quebec being closed off and on for the past year and a half.  

On Saturday, it poured buckets.  Rain was preferred to snow because my Aunt did not want to be buried in snow.  So much rain fell that our hotel lobby was flooded.  The rain eased enough that we were able to put their urns into the ground.  My sister and I lowered my Aunt's urn and since neither of us can kneel well, we stretched the strings on the bag that the urn was in as low as we could go.  Still, my Aunt landed with a little bump.  Oops, sorry Aunt Bette .... I didn't mean to do that to you!   We had the reception in a huge tent outside and we all wore masks (unless we were seated).   

So, that is the end of that chapter of their lives and for us too.  My Aunt was the last of my Mom's siblings.  We have our memories and photos of our time with them and that is so precious to us.

While in Gatineau/Ottawa, we ate out twice in restaurants.  We had to show our vaccination certificate showing that we had our two vaccine shots.  Standing we wore masks, but we could take them off when sitting.  Our tables were spaced out.  I still feel uncomfortable eating out, but knowing that everyone else there were double vaxxed, that is some comfort.

Our nice warm weather is coming to an end and snow is expected this weekend.  Snow ..... so soon?  The last of the plants that I want to overwinter for next year must be taken in today or they will turn to mush with the frost.

Our snow tires will be installed on our SUV next week.  Time to check out the snowblower as it looks like we will be getting a lot of snow this winter!

I'm working on getting bindings made for three quilts.  Having a quilt on my lap when the temperature dips will be most welcome!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

What a surprise!

This is what I saw when the curtains were opened this morning.  Usually, my hubby has them open by the time I get downstairs but not this morning.  Why?  Surprise!

Where have the years gone?  One day I'm 20, then 50 and .... wham ..... 70!  Thank you to my dear family for arranging this.

Another surprise was when our neighbour came outside (holding her baby girl) and wished me a 'happy birthday' but also thanked me for making the NICU blanket for her baby.  What a coincidence.  I'm a bit confused because my name is not added to the label as I prefer to remain anonymous.  Perhaps with the last batch my name was added to the label by someone else.  A mystery.

A call came from another neighbour wishing me 'happy birthday'.  Now everyone on the street knows how old I am.  Darn, I was hoping to keep them guessing.  LOL  Anyway, she informed me that it is their 63rd wedding anniversary today also.  How sweet is that!

  

This is another surprise.  This buck was sleeping on our hill this past Saturday and stayed in that spot until 11:30 a.m. and then finally got up and munched its' way along the ridge.  He was so well camouflaged that my husband didn't see him when he went up the hill to work.  Hubby was just 20' away and suddenly the deer lifted it's head.  My husband slowly backed away and left him to sleep the morning away.

On the quilting front, progress has been made with the applique for my "Gingham Swirls".  These are all completed.

Most of the background fabrics are cut 12-1/2" x 12-1/2", but a few will have four 6-1/2" squares.  From the cutouts from the back of the applique, there is just enough fabric to cut one 6-1/2" square.  Every row will have a patched background block just to make things interesting.

So, I'm planning on having a terrific day!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Gingham Swirl goes to applique!

All the swirls are now complete ...... they just need to be appliqued onto the background fabrics and that is what I will concentrate on now.  It feels so good to see this much progress on an oldie UFO.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Gingham Swirl is twirling along!

Amazing what the difference it makes when a person concentrates on a project!  Here we are a week and a half later and this is what has been done.

Thirteen whirly gigs have been completed with 7 more to sew together.

Once these are completed, how will they be assembled?  One reader asked will they be appliqued onto a background fabric?  Yes, she already knew what I was planning.  Does she have ESP or has she read my blog long enough to know what I will do?  LOL

I'm debating if different background fabrics will be used or one extra wide fabric and mark off a 12" square grid.  That decision will have to be made soon.

Now that all the remaining blades have been prepped, my cutting table can be cleaned up once again.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

I will be changing over from "no comments" to "comment moderation" and delete any spam comments before they appear on my blog posts.  To explain about the spam, what ticked me off was that one person recently left 65 comments on different posts on the same day.  About a month before it was 50 spam comments on same day but different posts.  A lot of work was involved with deleting messages from my email and marking (on the comment portion of my blog) those comments as spam or garbage so that they are not visible to my loyal readers.   

Gingham Swirl

Progress has been ongoing with this oldie!  My cutting station is a mess with red fabrics and red neutral fabrics.  Just when my station is nice and tidy ..... wham ..... it is a mess once again.

Still, I'm happy with the progress!

Six whirly gigs are completely done now.  Two different fabrics are needed for each blade making them very scrappy and interesting.

Six more are in the works.

A total of twenty whirly gigs are needed.  Time to cut some more fabrics.

Each day, more leaves are starting to change.  Day and night time temps are starting to lower.  It is that time of year to start sleeping under a quilt once again.

Time to get my summer quilts changed over to fall quilts.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!