Sunday Quilt Inspiration: plaids

Plaids are different. Let's look at a few.

And for a few quilts that make good use of plaid fabric. 

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Alan's Crown Royal Quilt -- finished

I've been working on this quilt, made of the flannel bags that Crown Royal brandy comes in. I didn't know (or ever really thought about) that people can buy different size bottles of the stuff and that the bags come in different colors. I still don't know why the different the colors, but that doesn't matter in quilt making.

The flannel increases the warmth and weight ante. Even though I used a thin cotton batting, the quilt is pretty heavy.  Last month when I wrote about Alan's quilt, I had finished the top. Since then I went to Paducah, babysat several days, and helped care for Richard's parents, both of whom are elderly and quite sick. 

Getting to the quilting was a challenge in finding time but I was determined to finish it before the next guild meeting, which is Monday. I met my goal! But that's all I've managed in the studio.

Milly and I stole out for a few minutes to take pictures of the quilt. The light was probably perfect since it was dusk, but that was a stroke of luck. I decided to throw it on Will's boat for a few shots thinking that it would make a masculine prop. It's definitely a guy quilt, even though it's mostly purple. 

I pieced a backing from some of the fabrics in my stash and thought that plaids would give it a more masculine touch. Of course, I didn't have enough plaids, so I just found some yardage that didn't have flowers on it. Really, that was my standard for choosing fabrics. I haven't shown the quilt to Alan (Dusti's boyfriend), but it's for Alan's dad , whom I've never met  so I couldn't choose fabrics specifically for him. In the end this just seemed one way to go. 

Since there were a few small bags in green and purple, I put those on the back and added darker green to make it even more masculine. I'm not sure I hit the target, but I tried. What do you think? Do the colors and plaids help?

Try to ignore the grass. I forgot that the flannel
picks up everything!

For the quilting, I chose a large stipple because it's fast and easy. I took time to make sure that the seams on the outside of each bag would be caught in the stitching so that they flipped from one side to the other. This gives lots of texture and a ripple look that I like. I've done this with other quilts but those needed more work. The seams on this quilt were built in, so I had to take advantage of that. 

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	Alan's Crown Royal quilt
	Size:	67 x 82
	Fabrics:	flannel Crown Royal bags from client
	Backing:	yardage from stash
	Binding:	Kona gold
	Quilting:	large stippling
	Completed:	2018 May

Link Ups!

My Quilt Infatuation (NTT) 

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)
Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!) 

Quilty 365 May Update

I have continued to work on my Quilty 365 circles, though I must admit I have not completed as many as I should have. Slowing down is usually a bad sign for me. lol But I don't think I'm over them quite yet.  Mostly I was exhausted from trying to finish out the school year...but that's done! So I'm back to circles and other projects, too!

I have 33 blocks to add to the ones I made earlier and wrote about in March.  I can't believe that I forgot to give an update in April, but there you have it.  If my math is correct--and it's entirely possible that my math is way off--I have a total of 120 blocks. 

I counted them last week as I was packing them up to take with me should we ever go on vacation--it's entirely possible that we may not even though we should have left already! That's a story for another day though. And I don't remember the number anyway. 

Of course, a la Mary, I couldn't wait and used a few of those blocks for this project.

But it's all good! That project was meant to represent a window, and one of our boys has a home improvement business that sells and installs windows, among other home improvement jobs.

Because I decided in my last update that I had way too many plaids, I decided to stitch up some solid/neutral circles. I'm still using up some of the plaid circles and squares that were already cut, but as I add to the pile, I'm cutting only from my collection of Kona solids and anything in neutral. I'm hoping that mixing these in with the plaids will calm them down a bit.

And because I figured out how to do this some time ago, I thought I'd show you the same circles in black and white. A b/w cicle quilt would be pretty awesome, don't ya think?

Happy Quilting,

Quilty 365 [update]

I've been working diligently on the circles for the Quilty 365 Project hosted by Audrey at Quilty Folk.  If you're a regular follower, you know that I started late. Actually at least one month late since I started sometime in February and almost everyone else started on January 1st. 

first set of circles

But I've been enjoying the hand-stitching much more than I thought I would, so sewing two or three circles a night has been easy. That means I'll eventually catch up, although my intention was never to compete or concern myself with a particular number. I'll just make circles till I've over it. 

this week's set of circles

Audrey encouraged me to do just that when I told her my "plan." It's really nice to get encouragement when you start off saying you're not playing by the rules. That surprised me since I rarely ever come close to breaking rules. 

These two photos are of the large circles....35 in all! Not a bad number. 

And these are the smaller circles...47 circles. 

It's the first time I've counted the circle, and I discovered that 82 circles are done.  (The photos and a calculator made that little chore easy.) Then I found another five circles hiding under a stack of the newest fabric I pulled for this project...so 87.  

One of the good uses of taking pictures is that it has helped me to realize that I've gone overboard with the number of plaids that I'm using for the background. This is much too busy. I've prepped many more circles and will use those, but then I'll have to resist using the stripes and plaids for the squares.  In fact, I really want to do more solid on solid to help calm this crazy down just a touch. 

Otherwise, I'm loving everything about this project.  Just look at this neat stack of finished blocks. Maybe I should start thinking about what I'll do with them when I call a halt. After all, that could be any day.

Linking up with 

Ann at Fret Not Yourself and Kaja at Sew Slowly, 

who host the Ad Hoc Improv Quilters linky party on the fourth Tuesday of each month.  Do go by for a visit! You'll find some wonderfully interesting improv quilts and circles.

Pin It Weekly #141

I had a great sewing day! I'll have to wait to tell you about that tomorrow because today is Pin It day! And I'm all about the plaid this week. Those plaid circles are mounting up! 

Fleur de Lis Quilts and Accessories

your place for Pinterest and Plaid. 

This post brought to you by Plaid.  

I wish I could do my ad in plaid. Wouldn't that be fun?  What are you pinning this week? Leave a link to your blog or Pinterest so we can visit.