Quilted Turtles

This is one of those long-term projects. I made the first of the blocks back in October 2012 and put together a tutorial explaining how to make the block with the AcccuQuilt Go! Drunkard's Path and Dresden Plate dies. Then I went through the usual routine of trouble choosing the right green fabrics (because I only got to use 16 different prints -- that's daunting!), putting it aside to work on something else, losing some of the pieces (big problem since the light blue background is a vintage sheet that I was never going to be able to match), not knowing what to do for a border...messing up the math for the border...  I got the top assembled last September and basted it on Mom's longarm in late November.

The plan has always been to quilt each turtle in a different design.

Turtle #1 is a single continuous spiral, which was probably the worst idea I could have come up with. This quilt is so much bigger and heavier than anything I've done on my DSM in recent months that I couldn't maneuver it smoothly. I thought it would be just like quilting a spiral on a baby quilt, but it's not for a lot of different reasons that I should have probably realized in advance.

Turtle #2 is a kind of radiating flower design. Starts in the center and goes out, just like the spiral, but it offers a lot more opportunities to start and stop without obvious glitches in the stitching.  

Turtle #3 is a kind of pebbled design, which really  shows up well on this fabric. I think it might be my favorite turtle so far!

I'm finally quilting the turtles!

From the beginning, I've had big plans for the quilting on my Drunkard's Path Turtles. I want to custom quilt designs for the shell and legs of each turtle and do a tight stipple in the blue background.

A couple things were holding me back. If I'm going to do quilting like this, I want to use my Janome. I do better work on it than the long arm, probably because I have lots more practice on that machine and can seize perfect moments of opportunity when the boys are asleep or totally absorbed in a project and no one is likely to go tearing through the room and distract me.

Doing big quilts on the Janome presents its own series of problems, especially when it's time to baste it. The assembled quilt top is wider than my largest expanse of bare floor, even if I move furniture. And I really really don't want pleats in the back of this quilt. I don't mind a few itty-bitty ones in a utility quilt, but I've grown more and more attached to these turtles.

The solution was easy. I hauled it up to Mom's house and basted it on her long arm. Now that all of the layers are together, I can take my time and do a turtle when the mood strikes, instead of rushing to get it all done in one afternoon.

If you have a long arm, or access to one, have you ever basted a quilt to do on your DSM?  I've heard of quilters having projects basted to hand quilt later. 

how things become UFOs

There are all kind of reasons why things become UFOs. This one can claim at least three of them -- I wasn't sure what to do next, then I lost it, then it was too big for the room...

First,  I didn't know what I wanted to do with the borders.  One of my readers came up with the perfect idea, but then I had a bit of trouble with the math. (The math is easy. Really easy. I just didn't see that at the time.) Once I got the math straight, I couldn't remember how many snowball blocks I'd made. So it sat. And then it sat some more.

When I found the time and inspiration to count the snowball blocks, I only needed one more. But I couldn't remember where I'd put the rest of the background fabric (which is a vintage sheet, so there's no matching that light blue).  Found the fabric, but couldn't remember where I'd put the folded top...

Found all of it, including squares that were already cut for that last snowball blocks and put off  assembling the borders because the whole thing is too big for my biggest patch of floor...

And I think the biggest reason I've put off adding the borders to this top is that I know it's going to take time to quilt it. I want to do a different free motion pattern in each of the turtles, and tight stippling on the light blue spaces in between them...and then I've got to figure out a plan for that border... Did I mention that I don't really have enough floor space to pin baste it properly?  I think I'm going to take it up and baste it on Mom's longarm, but that means scheduling and afternoon to do it...

At least the whole thing is together and I can't lost any more pieces. Except for the backing. I accidentally used a yard of that to back Peter. And of course there was no more to be had, even a week after I'd bought it.

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times and I Gotta Try That!

I've counted them twice...

I tend to get bogged down when I need to count pieces, or when I've counted the pieces and discovered that I need just a few more -- all of them in different prints. These are the pieces of the border for the turtle quilt and I'm one short.

One green snowball block? Easy! Except it means finding the leftover bits of that blue sheet that I used for the background, the one I have no hope on earth of ever matching with something else.

The corner pieces are so small that I could use white muslin and I'd have trouble finding it myself in the finished quilt. Or, if I was really being serious about it, I'd take a corner off of each of three of those snowball blocks and mix the mismatched bits into different sides of the quilt.

But I think I'll just wait a bit and see if any of those blue scraps turn up in the near future.

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

my turtles are growing

I thought I'd get the top for the turtle quilt together Sunday afternoon, but I underestimated those pieced borders and how much extra pinning and pressing and making sure everything fit together just right would be involved.


Taking my time and doing it right is a good thing. That's what I keep telling myself, but I'm so impatient to see how this all fits together! And I'm wondering how I'm going to quilt it because it's now a lot larger than I'd originally planned for it to be.

I'm thinking of renaming it Gamera, in honor of its new size. And because Hubby and the boys might appreciate it.

To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.

I thought I was going to have to use some bad words

When I cut the borders for the turtle quilt, my focus was on whether or not I had enough light blue sheet for the inner border and for the 240 squares that I needed for the snowball blocks. I decided to go with the narrowest strips I thought would work -- 2" wide.

I wasn't thinking about how I was going to mange the corners....not until I was lying awake at 2am and realized that if I'd cut those stupid inner borders 2 1/2" wide I could have snowball blocks around the entire outer edge and not worry about putting plain blue blocks in the corners.

It's the same exact math I used for the borders of Madder Snowballs -- so why couldn't I remember it until after I'd cut the strips?

The turtles distracted me. They finish at 14" and I was trying to figure out how to make snowballs that would go evenly into that....and the whole thing was starting to sound like that math problem where the two trains leave different cities at different times and meet at some point you're supposed to determine. I never did learn how to do that problem.....

And I didn't need to do all of those mental contortions. There are four turtles in each row.  If I make 4" snowballs, fourteen of them will fit alongside the four 14" turtles. Easy-peasy -- as long as you remember how to make the borders fit!

Luckily, there was enough sheet to recut the inner borders and it all should go together now. 

a border for the turtles

Back in October, I was playing around with my AccuQuilt Go! cutter and figured out how to use the large Drunkard's Path die and the Dresden Plate die to make pieced turtles. They went together lickety split and within a couple of days, I had enough to make a lap quilt.

Everyone thought it needed a border. Even me. That's how I found out what everyone else thought -- I had a feeling I'd be making a mistake if I didn't, and I asked my readers what they thought. I was going to have to make a border and it was going to have to be a pieced border because I don't like plain ones.

 

 

 

One of my readers suggested scrappy green snowball blocks that would look like rocks. It was the perfect solution. I could see it in my head. But I didn't know if I had enough background fabric left for the borders and corners.  (That's one of the pitfalls of working with old sheets -- matching the pale pale blue I used for the background of my turtles would be next to impossible.) And I didn't want to dig all of my green scraps back out.  Not to mention adding 300 pieces to a quilt that only had 160 pieces to start with.

 

So I did what I usually do when I'm worried about running out of fabric and not working on something for someone else. I put the whole project in time out while I worked up my courage.

 

Turns out there was enough pale blue sheet left to do what I wanted, and enough green to make the snowball blocks. I did buy a few fat quarters, but that was just to ensure that I have enough for the green baby quilt that I've got planned next.

 

To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.  

turtles and tumblers

Ten of my sixteen turtles are pieced, and the fabrics are picked out for the other six. I'm not sure how I'm going to lay them out yet. That decision may have to wait until all of the turtles are pieced and I can see the whole thing.  

It's the quilting of this one that excites me. I want to play with different designs on each turtle and do a tight meander in the background spaces. How it turns out will determine whether or not this one goes to the boys or stays mine.

The top for my tumbler lap quilt is assembled.

To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.

I'm absolutely drooling over the huge cross stitch patterns from Heaven and Earth Designs. It's like they looked into my head and came up with absolutely what I didn't know I wanted...and it doesn't help that they're on sale at 1-2-3 Stitch! right now. I'm wavering between Rhyme & Reason and Faery Tales and trying very hard to be good and not order either one.

Have you seen the "made fabric" quilt top over at Brown Dirt Cottage?

And look at these sewn bird gift tags that are part of the Holiday Bake, Craft & Sew Along at Skip to my Lou. I could whip those up so quickly with the birds die for my Go! cutter... 

I want to try the Spin Wheel Block Tutorial from Quilter's Nest....

What's out there that you want to try?

more turtles!

I'm making progress. The turtle has three new friends, and I've sorted out enough green fabric to make all sixteen of the turtles that I'll need for my planned quilt. The blocks finish at 14" and go together fast.

I'm not used to working with pieces this big, but I'm looking forward to experimenting with different quilting designs on each turtle. 

Instructions for the turtle block are here. To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times. And to see more October NewFOs, check out Cat Patches.

Drunkard's Path Turtles

I've been wanting to try a turtle block since I saw an antique turtle quilt on someone's blog a few months ago. I couldn't find that quilt again, but I did find a similar quilt at Monkeybox and one on Quiltville's Quips and Snips. (If you don't want to see the turtles, go read what she had to say about "quilt shop quality" fabrics.)  

The turtles are just so cute! They're also a variation on the Drunkard's Path block, which I love. They've got curved piecing...and I've got dies to cut them with!  Not to mention all of the green fabrics I pulled together while I was working on Quinn's green quilt. 

I hauled my dies and fabric down from the sewing room weeks ago, but I didn't get around to experimenting until Friday afternoon. They're not any harder to piece than regular Drunkard's Path blocks.

 Each turtle takes two curved Dresden Plate blades and two convex and concave Drunkard's Path pieces out each of print and background fabric. (I used the AccuQuilt 7" Drunkard's Path die and Dresden Plate die, but you could substitute whatever similarly sized templates or pattern you already have.) 

Place the two Dresden Plate blades right size together and sew all the way around the outside edge. Don't leave an opening to turn it, you'll create that when you cut the shape in half. Trim excess seam allowance from the pointed end and notch the curved end, then turn your head and tail right sides out and press.

Lay the head and tail pieces on the right sides of the convex background pieces and baste them in place before assembling the four Drunkard's Path units.

Press and assemble into a cute little turtle!

I plan on sewing this guy fifteen friends, which will  make a 56" square throw.