What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Love the Clamshell borders in the first design. The applique block is there only to show off the borders!

The inner border has clamshells turned inside out, but the same size. It makes a lovely border like that, but in the second design the outer side of the clamshells is larger than the inner side … I am not sure I like it like that, but it was interesting enough to keep.

A very different twist to the traditional clamshell.

I like the addition of String of Beads, another oldy but goody!

I find it is always interesting to try something different with old designs although the chances of me making a real quilt are very slim.

I know, I know – last time I said I was going to blog more often. Ha! Then I vanished for ages – again. However, here I am again and hopefully will get back into a blogging routine.

Remember this clamshell block with sashing?

I finished another of the blocks.

There’s one more of those to make and then I’ll add more of the sashing – assuming I can find that black and white fabric which I had used and know is somewhere – and that will be it for that clamshell project.

BUT — there will be loads more very colourful clamshells ...

I have sometimes thought I would make something using Clamshells, but thinking is a long way from actually starting. However, I have played with the shape occasionally, just to see if I could come up with something I just had to make.

I like the corners of the wide border in the second design more then the first, but more playtime is required.

Lets take a meander through the latest applique work going on around here. For whatever reason, that's what has seemed the most interesting of late. Plus, there are a couple projects that really, really need the attention so they can move on to final quilt top stage!

Positive  Vibes getting the attention

This quilt has been in the hoop for longer than any other quilt in years. So very happy to see it finally come to a good finish and give me an excuse to move on to another quilt! It's an AHIQFlowers prompt where I took great liberty in the interpretation of one of those intriguing Unconventional & Unexpected scrap quilts. 

AHIQFlowers quilt finish!

This was one of the projects I unearthed during the relocation of my sewing area. The block was made with the Inklingo 3″ clamshells and clamshell sashing collections.

A second block was done, but it has no sashing.

A third block was done as well.

I also found two more sets of clamshells for the fourth and fifth blocks. Once they’re done along with sashing this will turn into a small table topper.

The blocks are all nicely pressed, but the seams aren’t graded – yet. I’ll do that before I start sewing blocks 4 and 5.

I ...

Playing with borders based on the traditional Clamshell designs.

I love the contrast between the thick and thin borders.

It is quite some time since I looked at his project file, and the first thing that struck me when I opened it this morning was that it is a mixture of traditional Clamshells and String of Beads. Admittedly the Clamshells make fatter beads, but I have all sorts of shapes in my bead collection, so why not some like this. Something to play with in the future … the first heatwave of summer perhaps, which could be within a week here Down Under.

A little bit of extra white space for the quilting to stand out in the second design ...

 Might as well just get to the meat and potatoes this week!  Last week's goals turned out to be overly ambitious:

✅ finish quilting Modern Baby Clam Shells, AND 

✅ get it labeled and   

❌ bound, AND  

❌ get my Letter Home baby quilt top and ready to load on my frame.  

After quilting the pantograph design over most of my Modern Baby Clam Shells quilt and stitching in the ditch around my butterfly appliqués  a quilter who was more goal oriented and focused than I am would have finished up the quilting with some monofilament or color matched thread to machine quilt ...

I’ve been working pretty hard on the online classes I’ve mentioned before, but I did finally get all of my clamshells stitched to the background, using a variety of decorative stitches and thread colors. The next step will be to quilt this piece and the backing before putting them together. That may need to wait […]

I’ve been making slow but steady progress on this project. I finished making all 49 clamshell shapes and did the preliminary decorative stitching. The next step was to lay them out (there are five unused clamshells, allowing for a little flexibility) and fuse them to the background, and now I’m basting them with invisible thread […]

I’ve made a little progress on stitching the pieces of my clamshells. I honestly think it would be doubly difficult to decide which designs to use if I hadn’t made a detailed stitch sampler, following directions posted on the Bernina web site. This allows me to flip through the pages of designs to decide which […]

Hello, my lovelies!  My one and only weekly goal last week was to START -- just to start, not to finish, mind you! -- piecing my Modern Baby Clam Shells quilt.  I created the design in my EQ8 software in December of 2018, with a specific baby in mind whose due date was several weeks away...  Then it took me awhile to find the 9.5" acrylic clam shell templates I wanted to use (from an Australian Etsy seller who has since closed her shop).  Then I hemmed and hawed about the best way to cut out completely accurate 9.5" diameter ...

The first design is for a rather small quilt, or a large quilt with large clamshells.

I like the second one.

The colouring is a bit out of whack in the second clamshell border, but I love the design.