Jewel Box quilt top together!

Well, I can't believe it, but I've finally finished the top to my Jewel Box quilt. I'm debating on adding a one-inch border of that navy blue, or I may just save that matching navy fabric and do a binding with it instead.

I went to a quilt retreat this weekend, and after making some fold-and-roll totebags, I worked on this Jewel Box. I've had it two-thirds done since July of 2008.


It's king sized - 108 inches square, to fit my waterbed. There are more than 3700 pieces in it, squares and triangles. I don't know how many fabrics there are, but a LOT. :D All the navy blue is the same, but there are about 6 different tone-on-tones for the white. Countless different fabrics in the bright squares and triangles. There are some duplicates, but not too many!

You're never quite sure if what you draw in EQ will look the same when it's translated to fabric, but I think this time, it's very close. Here's the original design I did on EQ of what I wanted it to look like:



Back in May of 2008, all those little squares looked like this. If you're interested in how I went from the EQ design to construction of the quilt, here's my instructions, with graphics. For those of you who like to count, there's 2592 squares in this quilt, 1160 triangles, 36 rectangles (in blue, to piece the border) for a grand total of 3788 pieces.

Jewel Box Continued

Yes, I am still quilting - just working on this same jewel box quilt means all my photos would look the same if I posted about it. A king size seems to go on and on and on and on. Here's some of tonight's blocks and rows, which look like yesterday's blocks and rows:


Yes, I am getting tired of making little 16 patch blocks. :)

And here's my tip for keeping a quilt all straight in your head as to what block goes where, if you're doing a big quilt with a lot of different blocks. I found magnet clips (supposed to attach to the fridge, I guess) that also stick to my sewing lamp. I made a screen shot of the quilt top from eq6... but pasted it in word and enlarged it till I could only see half of the quilt. Now I move that white card up or down, depending on what row I'm working on, and voila, no more getting lost as to if I'm making a block with 2 blue squares or 4 or 8.


I'm making it scrappy. That's what's taking me so long, it's a very anal scrappy where no fabric is repeated in the blocks immediately to the right, below, left or above the one I'm making... lol. Pitiful, aren't I?

Finally, here's the September block of the month for the quilt guild. We did this one as a part of a presentation on EQ6 for the guild's program - showed all the members how you could design a block, color it with different fabrics, print it in different sizes, or as templates or paper piecing patterns... I was surprised at how many said they have the program but never design a quilt with it.


The web BOM page for it is HERE with instructions AND along with a free EQ6 file for the block for anyone that wants it. Your reward for reading to the bottom of this post. :)

Tomato Crop and Jewel Box Quilt

Here's what I've been working on lately... :)   My guild had a board retreat, and I took a bunch of unfinished things to finish. Here's one, a crib quilt from April's bom blocks. I added sashing to this, now I'm trying to come up with a decision on border color.


I also got a bunch done on my jewel box quilt, this picture is of TWO ninths of it, can you see the pattern start to emerge? I'm on vacation this week, so on of my goals is to get this top one third done:



And my tomato status - too many to fit in the bowl! The large one on the right in the bowl, and the two orangish ones outside the bowl are Goliaths, the one on the left side in the bowl is a Better Boy. My cherry tomato plant has been the best producer so far. I would have had more to show you, but I've been eating them... five last night and four today! The nine cherry tomatoes in the bowl need to get just a little redder. Even that green one I kept is starting to get ripe. I'm going to cut that biggest one into wedges for supper tonight, dribbled with just a little zesty italian dressing, I think. *licks lips*

Jewel Box and Tomatoes

Well, I have been quilting, and here's the evidence, one ninth of my jewel box quilt. All the half square triangles are done, all the 4 patch squares are done, all that's left is to combine them together into blocks and put it together. This is my absolute favorite part of quilting, assembling the blocks, then sewing the blocks into a quilt top.


Here's a link to what the whole quilt top will look like, my original EQ design.

And of course, what would a June blog post be without a tomato update? Here's three of my Goliath tomatoes, not near getting red yet, just getting bigger and bigger:


All sizes still popping up and growing on my Cherry tomato bush. The number of growing tomatoes on the bush is holding at about 50, because I keep picking the orangish ones:


And last, the fruits of my labors, the ones that were ripe enough to pick. They're all sizes, and so sweet and juicy. If you break it down, I've picked about ten little cherry tomatoes ... and way back at the end of April, I paid around $30 for the dirt, pots, fertilizer, three plants, and tomato cages. I try not to think about the fact that those tomatoes have cost $3 each so far... :D