Tootling Around by Touring the States

I finished my quilt that will be used in my RV.

I made a mini RV for the touring.

The completed back.

And the front of the quilt, a trip around the world pattern.

Thinking Pears But Seeing Avocados

My Mother's birthday is coming up, and I want give her a new table runner for her dining room table. She always has the table beautifully decorated with a runner and flowers. 

When I had seen this pattern at AlamosaQuilter a year or so ago, I knew that I would make it for my Mom. I had a screen shot of the pattern sitting on my computer for such a long time, and I would remind myself that one day I would get around to producing my own runner whenever I took a glimpse of the photo.

Since I enjoy machine stitching over hand stitching, I stitched the edges down with a decorative stitch using the Singer Treadle 224.

I decided that I wanted to make this into a circular top. So, I looked around the house for the largest circle that could be use to trace a circle onto the fabric. Yup, that worked!

After pinning the layers together, I started straight stitch quilting using my Davis Vertical Feed. It had been awhile since I had used the Vertical Feed. Oh, how I had missed quilting with this beauty. The machine hummed and I was at peace. This was a fun project! My son asked if the fruit were avocados or pears. I had thought pears, but now I'm seeing avocados. 

Slow Progress in Map Making

The States are all cut and ironed in place.

I started machine stitching around each state.

Later, I will add an RV and the title to my RV blog. But for now, I'm busy with another quilting project that I hope to get finished in the next day or two.

Map Making

My school semester has ended, and now I have time to do some quilting projects. I started a quilt for my RV, the Trip Around the World quilt, back in January. Today, I started working on the back side of the quilt. It will be a map of the US with a RV and the title to my RV travel blog, Tootling Around. I was able to cut out twelve states today. Kansas has Toto as the fabric theme. I had just the right size piece of scrap fabric for pulling that one off! Texas of course gets the Stars and Stripes, while California theme is the Golden State.

It's fun looking through the scraps to decide what fabrics will represent the States. Some fabrics are the colors of the state flower or bird. Washington state is red since majority of apples come from that state. It will be interesting to see if I can continue to carry a theme of each state with the fabrics in my stash.

1080 Squares

Surprisingly, there are 1080 small squares! It didn't seem like I was making that many squares during construction and piecing. By using Bonnie Hunter's method for this scrappy Trip Around the World, this quilt top came together very quickly.

Next step is designing the back of the quilt. The back will not be constructed as quickly as the front since I'll be cutting out each of the 50 States. My classes start up next week; so, I will only be working on the back design during my free time, which will be weekends.

792 and Counting

My quilt in progress. There are presently 792 small squares. When complete, there will be 1080 small squares- unless I add another row. This quilt top is coming together much faster then I had expected.

The back side will take much longer since I will be cutting out each state to make a map of the US.

Travels and Maps

I started the new year off by working on a scrappy A Trip Around the World quilt.

My goal is to work on this quilt when I have some free time this spring semester. This project will most likely turn into a semester long quilt project since I'm taking three classes and working as a sub. Since classes don't start up for another two weeks, I have been busy with piecing this quilt top and subbing at the preschool. Luckily, the quilt blocks go together rather quickly and are fun to piece using my Two Spools. My present plan for the other side of this quilt is to design a map of the US along with a travel trailer by using the leftover scraps of fabric from the front of the quilt. And yes, this quilt will be used in my own travel trailer when finished.

Crabs Floating in the Tide

Yes, it has been awhile since my last posting. When I started this project, I thought I knew what direction I would go with making this quilt. Shortly after making a couple of the crabs, I realized I didn't want to copy the quilt that someone else made, the one I had posted in a previous post. I wanted to create some form of motion with the crabs across the quilt. Instead of making rows of crabs, I decided to cut the number of crabs to just five and position them heading in different directions.

Then, I couldn't think of how I wanted to do the quilting. I didn't want to do straight lines or lots of small circles. Sadly, the quilt sat for some time until I saw some other blogger's quilt that had been quilted with wavy lines. That motivated me into finishing the project. I found a cute flannel that I instantly loved and knew would work as the back of the quilt. Now, I not only have crabs, but also fish swimming in the tide.

Deformity Crab

I was pleased with the look of my mock-up crab pattern that I completed this week.

I made some adjustments to the legs since I was worried that the points of the legs would become blunted once the blocks were all sewn together.

In the process of making a template, I forgot to make the top of the legs wider.
So, my first crab's legs are too small. The crab's legs looked better in my mock-up. The alterations that I made to the claws still need adjustments. So, first crab was born with congenital abnormalities.

Playing with Design

I spent yesterday evening working on my design for the large crab quilt. I'm changing the look of the crabs for the quilt since I didn't like the representation of the crabs for this pattern.

I googled around to see how others created a crab pattern for their quilts. I found one that was getting closer to a crab look that I liked. So, I played around with that pattern. Here the legs are positioned with widest part of the leg at the base of the crab and thin out to a point, just as a crab's leg is formed.

And here the legs are positioned the opposite with the point to the base of the crab and widen out, which is similar to the look of the legs in the crab quilt above - which I find odd.

I took a poll at home. My husband and son agreed that the legs look better with the widest portion of the legs at the base of the crab with the points away. Now I need to finish sewing the pieces together to see the final look of this mock-up.