Rainbow Afghan Finished

The whole thing is together. Now all I have to do is finish weaving the ends in. I can't believe that I forgot to post a picture. 
In total there are 16 blocks. They're each bordered with white, then stitched together in white.  Then there is one row of a white border done in double crochet and the last bit is dark blue for a border wave design.

Its been so cold we've slept under this for a few nights even without having the ends woven in.

Teacher Gift #1

This quilt will be for the main teacher in kiddos classroom.  Its slightly different than the other because her name is longer. 

A few errors on it but its ok. Now to trim, label and bind by Wednesday.  :(  I'm not getting much sleep I figure.

Teacher Gift #2

I opened up my big mouth that I quilt. Guess who got volunteered to make two quilts as end of year teacher gifts.

This girl.

Here's the quilt for one of the teachers. 

Kiddo is in Pre-K, so I asked each parent to trace their child's hand print. It took forever for 25 hand prints to come in. I asked in February and got the last of the handprints LAST WEEK!!

Now to finish quilting, trim, label and bind by Wednesday.

Rainbow Crochet

In honor of my late mother in law,  I've been crocheting. Every stitch I make I think of her. Now, I'm not the best at crochet but I'm trying. 

I love rainbows and figured that I could make some granny squares using rainbow colors.

I'm using red heart yarn in red, pumpkin,  bright yellow, paddy green, royal, soft navy and medium purple.  I'm planning on making 16 blocks, and I'm on the green rounds on 12 before I ran out of the skein. So I moved on to the royal blue.

If you plan on doing this like me you'll need one skein of red, pumpkin and yellow.  You'll need two skeins of paddy green, royal, soft navy and medium purple.  I'm crocheting two rows of each color using a 5.5 mm hook, using US terms double crochet.

I haven't joined the blocks yet (and they still need to be blocked) but I purchased a pound of yarn in white. That should be enough but I'll keep you updated. :)

I've completed one full block so I had an idea of what everything would look like.  The block hasn't been blocked yet and to give you an idea on the size the newsprint pad its shown on is 18"x24". :) nice and big.

The Big Reveal: Rainbow Carpenters Star

Here's the finished Carpenters Star.

Add borders if you want, then quilt and bind.

There you go - a Carpenters Star quilt without any Y seams. :-)

All previous parts to the tutorial/sew along:

Stitching The Rows Together 

Row Stitching Instructions 

Cutting Instructions 

The Beginning: Picking Fabrics 

All that's left is for me to decide if I'm adding borders, or not and the quilting.  I've got a few ideas on how to quilt it, just need some time.

Picking the thread to quilt it.  A friend taught me to NOT lay the spools of thread on the quilt top like this:

And why not you ask?  Good question.  Thank you Jess for helping me out. :)  If the thread is all coiled up on the spool you won't get a good idea of how it would look laid out over the different colors of the quilt.  What should be done is to pull some of the thread off the spool and lay it over the quilt top more or less what it would look like if it was quilted.   Try it on the different colors and see what works for your particular quilt top.  It also depends on if you want the thread to blend in or stand out highlighting the quilting.

For me, I picked the rainbow thread.  See how pretty it looks?  Now all I have to do is decide on the quilting motifs.  If you've got any suggestions - I'm open to them! :)

Sew Along - Rainbow Carpenter Star - Cutting Instructions

All righty!! Ready to do some cutting?

 

From your BACKGROUND - 16 SQUARES, 32 TRIANGLES

Dark Red - 4 Triangles

Red - 4 Triangles

Pink/Rose - 8 Triangles

Light Purple - 4 Triangles

Dark Purple - 4 Triangles

Blue - 8 Triangles

Teal - 4 Triangles

Dark Green - 8 Triangles

Light Green - 4 Triangles

Yellow - 4 Triangles

Tan - 4 Triangles

Orange - 8 Triangles

When you do the cutting and trimming, make sure that you're consistent with the rulers that you use. Whatever ruler you use to cut your squares - use that one to square up your Half Square triangle blocks. Consistency is important.  Over the years I've found that each ruler is slightly different - so whichever ruler you start cutting with, keep using that ruler. It'll save you a ton of heartache.

Ready for a Sew Along?

I think I've figured out how to do this. I'm just finalizing all the math bits. Are you ready for a sew along?

Anyone else out there like rainbows or color wheels?  Have you been intimidated before by different sew alongs because they might be too complicated?  Never fear - this is only squares and half square triangles.

If you'd like a 64x64 quilt with no borders - you'll need 2 1/2 yards of your background fabric. The background fabric will have enough left over to cut your binding strips.

If you'd like a larger quilt, and want to use the background fabric as your border - you'll need 3 yards.

From the rainbow fabrics, I'm cutting 8.5" HSTs using the Easy Angle II Ruler. Personally I can't live without this ruler.

Can you cut squares and sew your HSTs that way? Of course! For me, the Easy Angle ruler takes all the guesswork out of making the HSTs - but use whatever method of making HSTs works for you.  As long as your HSTs are 8.5" unfinished you'll be fine.

Pull out some rainbow fabrics... and 2 1/2 or 3 yards of white, cream, tan, grey or black for a background fabric and we'll be doing some cutting shortly. 

 

Materials Needed:

Background Fabric - 2 1/2 yards (no borders) OR 3 yards (for borders)

Dark Red - Fat Quarter

Red - Fat Quarter

Rose/Pink - 1/3 yard

Light Purple - Fat Quarter

Dark Purple - Fat Quarter

Blue - 1/3 yard

Teal - Fat Quarter

Dark Green - 1/3 yard

Light Green - Fat Quarter

Yellow - Fat Quarter

Orange - 1/3 yard

Tan - 1 Fat Quarter

*You will have some leftover fabric when you cut out the triangles. Do not put it in the scrap bin - It makes an adorable embellishment on the backing and label for your quilt.

Received Boom Blocks

Wow. I've received a few Boom 6 Blocks. I'm so excited.

Week 14 - April 2-9, 2011

Lets go with another fun one this week. I want to try all sorts of different colors and only from my stash. Nothing new purchased for this week, so it's like a double challenge.

Theme: Make it a Rainbow.