New Directions!

It's been a bit since i updated my quilting blog and trust me it's not because i havn't been quilting or shopping :)  I was trying to play catch up with some of the quilt tops i had worked through in Quilters Academy Vol 1.  i had worked my way through the first quilt top ( see previous 2 posts) but never got around to posting about the 2nd.   And as i finished the 2nd one nearly 2 months ago it is hard to remember all the ups and downs, mistakes made and lessons learned.

so i have decided to just kinda recap show some pics,  post a  list of wips, and some pics of a couple of quilty things i did before i got totally smitten by quilting!

so here goes with the 2nd quilt top from my lessons in Quilters Academy Vol. 1

This is the design in the book, its called Cowboy Corral by Carrie Hargreave

Basically a fussy cut, with Rail Fence blocks, not unlike the first one, but a different layout of the strip set blocks to form frames around the fussy cut blocks.

 

Cowboy Corral from the book



 

main block fabric



 

fabrics for striped blocks

 

with the border fabric I chose

 





Did have a little of this going on!!





closeup




Finished!!



So there it is all finished ( except for the border)  with this series Harriet Hargreaves has us do the borders after we have done the quilt tops in the lessons. 

I didnt have too many problems with this,I still think my pressing is a bit erratic and moves things more than it should. I did sew one row on upside down or something and hence the pic with the seam ripper :)  On the whole i am happy with this one, much better piecing than i did last fall and i like the colours i chose too!  That can be kinda scary when you are at the fabric store and trying to decide if two fabrics will really look good together! 

The next lesson is a triple rail fence quilt top , which i have of course finished already...... still playing catch up!

I went with a black, white and red scheme this time, and was really leary about the fabrics i chose

I liked them but wasnt really sure if they would work???????  so i read ahead a bit in the book and made a mock up of the design by photocopying the fabric and then laying it out to check out the look of it.  pretty wild eh!!

Heres the mock up, of course being just printed on paper the colours were not as rich and vibrant as in real life!

so il liked the mock up well enough to go ahead and start cutting the fabric out. This design was somewhat more of a challenge for a beginner as there were 2 different strip sets instead of just the one.  But i followed Harriets directions ( as on the 2 previous quilts) for laying out the blocks and strip piecing. Works like a charm!

After the blocks were cut i layed them out on the floor downstairs and checked again to make sure the pattern stood out using all those prints.

the final layout before sewing, I moved the black and white swirl fabric ( lower left corner of mock up block) by mistake or something and ended up with it and the one above it in the mock up switched around, sadly i didnt notice until i had sewn it all up ....... but i still think it works fine. Now if i could only find a picture of the sewn up quilt top.......  I guess i will have to go take one and add it LOL