Quilt Math - Algorithms for Cornerstones and Sashes

I've always found it annoying to have to figure out the number of cornerstones and sashes in my quilts. I'll forget the (usually very odd) numbers, and have to figure them out again, usually by drawing a picture of my quilt and counting. Argh! I was sure that there had to be simple algorithms that covers this, so I asked my math whiz hubby to figure them out. Here are his results: (Note: I always put cornerstones and sashing around all blocks, even the ones on the outer edges of the quilt.)

For a quilt that has n by m blocks, where n is the # row blocks and m is the # column blocks:

The number of cornerstones = (n+1)(m+1)
The number of sashes required = (n+1)m + (m+1)n

So for my Country Chain and Knot quilt, which has 4 rows and 5 columns of blocks:
n=4 and m=5

The # of cornerstones = (4+1)(5+1) = 5x6 = 30 cornerstones
And the # of sashes = (4+1)5 + (5+1)4 = 5x5 + 6x4 = 25+24 = 49 sashes.

Cool! Thanks, Larry!

Country Chain and Knot Quilt - Blocks Complete

This is what I did this week instead of blogging. I finally got all 20 blocks of this Country Chain and Knot Quilt pieced and pressed. There are 40 pieces per block for 800 pieces total. The blocks are laying on top of the brown sashing material, and I'm definitely going to continue the red chains with matching cornerstones.

I've got the blocks laid out so there aren't any squares of the same fabric across the sashing from each other. I was only concerned about the larger squares, not the small squares, those will just have to take their chances. Oops, I can already see a problem with my chains! That lower left block is 90 degrees off. I'd better fix that before it gets sewn incorrectly. I'm really liking it so far. I think a nice golden brown small stipple will really bring it together nicely.

The back is going to be made out of the red material. I can't decide if I want the back stippling to be a matching red thread or the same golden brown as the top. (All you quilters out there, what do you think? Am I a good enough stippler to make a contrasting thread look ok?)

Putting the sashing fabric beneath the blocks was great for taking pictures, but now I have to figure out how to get the material out from under the blocks without messing them up my organization. Hmmm. Maybe I'll just finish up my gift for my secret pal first. If only I could post a picture of it. I had no idea when I signed up for the secret pal thing how irritating it would be that I can't share pictures. It's a really nice quilty gift and I think it's turning out very well. And I'd better not say anything else. Arrgh!

Blanketeers for the Snowball Express

The Blanketeers got together yesterday for another fun day of... well, what do you call it when you get together to cut and tie fleece blankets? Blanketeering? lol I think the final count was 12 blankets and they went together super fast. They make a nice, impressive heap!




















What a relief! Rachel and I were worried we wouldn't get them finished in one day and we REALLY wanted this to be our Final Focus on Fleece Forever, well, at least for 2009. She and I have just assumed responsibility for the SS Blanketeer and we have vowed that the ship will NOT go down on our watch, so a successful blanket day was essential. Here are Virgina, Virginia, Rachel, Christine and Brandy (above only) holding up some of our best efforts.






















Here is Brandy with the pretty sailboat fleece and I think that's Rachel's arm. lol The sailboats were backed with a lovely yellow fleece that this picture doesn't do justice. All the fleece was of a wonderfully high quality. I'm always amazed that they can get very realistic images to "take" on such a soft fuzzy fabric. That plane looks like it's going to fly right off the blanket.























Our Snowball Express contact wants patriotic quilts and blankets to distribute to the children of our fallen service men and women at the big 2009 event coming up in Dallas this December. I think this blanket definitely qualifies as patriotic! We have Brandy to thank for having this nice venue for our efforts. She volunteered her church, which had a lovely space for us to work and a great kitchen to store our potluck food.

















We all had our doubts about whether or not a red Mickey Mouse blanket backed in yellow would qualify as "patriotic", so this one will probably be donated to the U.S.O. at DFW Airport instead. Everyone thought that some little kid will be very happy to snuggle up with Mickey! Below Virginia and Mickey, is the red, white and blue afghan that Christine knit this month. Christine is retired and is an unbelievably prolific knitter. Every month she brings one or TWO knit baby blankets to donate.

I didn't get any pictures of Carol, who had to leave early but tied more than her fair share of knots, or Sheila who was taking pictures at the same time as me. After we had finished our blankets, we still had time for a few special projects. I was successful in teaching Rachel and Sheila how to spray baste their quilts. It would be hard to fail at that endeavor unless the fabric blew away in the wind or we accidentally gassed ourselves with the fumes indoors. I don't think either of them are going to miss pins.

I had less luck teaching them how to stipple; though I'm sure they could easily become as proficient as I am with practice. After I got back home I tried to think back to how I learned how to stipple and I remembered something I had totally forgotten. I initially thought I would make my sewing machine embroider the stipple pattern, so I carefully drew out a full page of stippling to scan into the computer. Now I wonder if the exercise of drawing out the stippling pattern on paper wasn't very helpful , maybe even essential, in me learning where to go and how to go back and fill in empty spots. And I'm all about practice too. Even now, before stippling a new quilt I will do a little practice sandwich to get back in the groove. Anyone else have any hints for how to teach stippling? I'm definitely not much of a teacher!

Country Chain and Knot Quilt

Well, it took me longer than I thought it would, but I finally have my Country Chain and Knot Quilt blocks down to 3 pieces each, for a total of 60 pieces for 20 blocks. That's down a lot from the 800 piece total just a few short weeks ago! Now I just have to sew the middle row to the top and bottom rows. That might take some time to pin as there are 4 matching seams that I would really like to have line up nicely. lol

I'm pleased with the brown suede-look fabric I chose for the sashing. I think it makes a nice contrast with the blocks, but will also help marry the disparate fabrics together. At least, I hope so! The cornerstones are going to be in the red fabric, and will be the same size as the large red pieces in the block. I think using red to continue the chain will help tie the blocks together structurally and keep them from visually floating on the suede.

I'm beginning to think I might actually finish this quilt during February. I'm looking forward to many hours of stippling zen on this one.

Honest Scrap Award

Ten things about me that few people know:

1. I change my mind a lot; no wait, I guess I don't.
2. I love sushi; I was 45 before I knew fish tasted better raw.
3. My feet keep growing.
4. I'm a control freak; no wait, everyone already knows that. I have OCD too.
5. I love abstract art; if I never see another picture of bluebonnets again it will be too soon.
6. I have never kept a quilt that I made myself; I love making quilts.
7. I'm afraid of hot air balloons; this is probably irrational.
8. I'm very afraid of bears; I think this is perfectly reasonable.
9. I haven't been able to learn to tat yet; it always goes to knots.
10. I have the rarest blood type of all, AB-; I better keep my organs *nice*.

Five addictions I'm not afraid to own up to:

1. My husband; he's verrrrry nice.
2. Collecting stuff: art, fabric, patterns, books, art supplies, sewing notions; lots of stuff.
3. Rescuing and restoring old needlework; I love to make it live again.
4. Channeling my OCD into alphabetizing my spices and organizing my stuff; I find this more useful than obsessive hand-washing. (In fact, sometimes I dip my chip twice!)
5. Creating stuff: quilts, needlework, art, music, dinner, even large boring technical documents at work.

Beads, Beads and More Beads!

I bought these beads last Friday. I love the colors. The red, gold and turquoise beads are for Christmas siggies. The pink and lime green are to make a thank you present for my sister's sister-in-law, Vickie. The last two holidays we spent in Green Bay, we were graciously included in the festivities at Vickie's home. She and Tom have a beautiful historic house, and Vickie decorates for Christmas like you would not believe. She had NINE Christmas trees this year, including one with all lime green and pink ornaments. It was gorgeous (and more sparsely decorated than the other trees). I'm going to make something quilty using the leftovers from my pink and green quilt and bead it up until it sparkles. I just haven't decided what yet.

Stash Tracking Report

Dum da dum dum, Dum da dum dum DUM! (Think Dragnet) It's bad. Not only did I buy two yards of fabric on Saturday, I also got 2 1/2 yards worth of fat quarters as a gift from my secret pal. (I guess I have to count gifts too, huh?) I've been a piecing fiend, but I'm only counting fabric that wasn't cut before the first of the year, so I only used a yard this week. Sigh. That's a net + 3 1/2 yards for the week. This was *supposed* to help LOWER my stash, what's going on here? I'm up a total of 5 3/8 yards for the year! This reminds me of when my sister put her dog, Max, on a diet and Max gained 2 pounds.

On the bright side, Barb at Bejeweled Quilts gave me the "Honest Scrap" award - love that title. This means I'll have to list 10 honest things about myself that most people don't know, as well as 5 addictions (Only 5? that should be a piece of cake since I have DOZENS of them. lol)

Precision Piecing my Scrap Country Chain and Knot Quilt

I got lots of quilting done this weekend - highly productive. I have renamed the "*Ugly* Brown Quilt" to "Scrap Country Chain and Knot Quilt" because it's not going to be ugly after all; in fact, it's turning out quite nicely. What a relief!. I really like the chain and knot pattern, even though each block has 40 separate pieces. I'm making a 4x5 quilt, so that's a total of 800 pieces for just the blocks. I'm also sashing it with cornerstones, for another 79 pieces.

I got this far on Friday. Hardly any of the tan fabric was sewn to any of the mini 4 patches (top row). The red/tan and green/tan blocks were easy since they could be strip pieced, but the minis and the large patch (center bottom) had to be done in onsies and twosies depending on the size of the donated fabric. I kept the tan fabric in strips for sewing and cut them apart afterwards. I'm always trying to improve my piecing accuracy and this helps a *lot*. I use the same technique for sashing blocks, then I can trim and square the sash/block at the same time.

This was really a terrific pattern for using up lots of disparate (OK, kinda ugly) bits of fabric. In fact, it uses up 13 different donated fabrics - remember the ones that had to be Febreezed outdoors because of their odor? The coordinating tan fabric is actually a Christmas fabric (who knew?) that I got at the Christmas Goose in Las Vegas. I brought all my little bits with me and picked the one that fought the least. lol The dark red and green fabrics that comprise the chains are Hobby Lobby standards.

I decided the easiest way to piece this block was to create the chunks for a standard nine patch, which I got done today. They are displayed in their proper places above. This means I'm down to about 180 pieces from 800 for just the blocks. It's actually starting to look doable! Also I used the Precision Piecing pinning techniques to align my blocks and all of them turned out deadly accurate, which was very nice on such a large project.

Secret Pal Gift Arrived Today!

I got my January gift from my secret pal today; what a haul! She sent me a lovely card and ten, count'em TEN, fat quarters! What a lovely surprise this turned out to be. Thanks so much, Secret Pal, you're the best!

Today was a great quilting day all around. I spent a good 5-6 hours working on my latest quilt and got lots of work done. I should probably quit referring to it as the "*Ugly* Brown Quilt" which is how it's labeled in the project list on the sidebar. I've tried to leaven the more unfortunate donated fabrics with some that are a bit more tasteful, and I've designed a very scrappy though structured pattern, which makes good use of all the fabrics. I'm hoping it will end up more charming than ugly; at least that's my goal. I'll post some pictures tomorrow and let you decide for yourself. lol

Emerson White Update - Mission Accomplished!

The state of Colorado has, in its infinite wisdom, seen fit to reinstate little Emerson as a Colorado resident, assuring her of continuous Medicaid coverage. Thank God! And thank you, Colorado. Better late than never! Full update here. Now if she can only get well so she can go home to Colorado.