Finally done!!

I was beginning to think I would never get this one done…but it is finished! Picked up and on it’s way home to be labeled and bound. It was too big to get a full shot of, so just a couple close ups. Pattern is Monet’s Wedding Ring by Judy Martin.

 

 

 

Not sure what I will work on now. Might clean and lube my 221 and do some piecing. Those QOV blocks are calling my name!!

Oh!! I ordered a new toy, I mean tool. Should be ready to pick up in the next day or so here…  Made by a company here in Iowa and demonstrated at our long arm guild meeting in August. Just had to save enough $$ to pay for it!!  Check it out!!  Quiltazoid I got the tracing templates 1 & 9…can’t wait to play with it!! Remember our block of the month project from quilt guild? I have two to quilt that are Christmas themed…so will make snowflakes in the blocks. So excited!!

Thanks Martingale Publishing!!

Got an email back today giving permission to post info and pictures about the QOV blocks! Woo Hoo!  So here you go!!

Remember, these are all 2 1/2″ strips…

From red, cut 1 – 2 1/2″, 1 – 4 1/2″

From white, cut 1 – 6 1/2″, 1 – 4 1/2″, 2 – 2 1/2″

From blue, cut 1 – 2 1/2″

Lay 2 1/2″ red square RST with white 6 1/2″. Draw a line and sew diagonally from upper left corner.

Now trim the extra little triangle off. Press the seam to the red.

Do the same thing using the 4 1/2″ red and a white 2 1/2″. Make sure you stitch from the upper left corner! Trim and press to the red.

Now add another 2 1/2″ white to the bottom of this strip, again pressing to the red.

And for the last strip, stitch the blue square to the remaining white 4 1/2″ strip. Press to the blue.

Now you should have three strips that look like these:

Stitch them all together and square your finished unit to 6 1/2″.

If you would like to make some and send, please mail to: Piecemaker’s Quilt Guild, PO Box 1344, Newton, IA 50208.

We’ll swap the units with others, and assemble the blocks. I promise to post pictures when we get them done!

On another note, our Scrapyard Junkies met today..well, some of us did. Having AQS going on only 35 miles away kind of put a dent in our attendance! But those who were here shared some good ideas, some awesome patterns, and got quite a bit done. Becky, Sara and I pressed and cut…while Julie stitched away. Julie had already done her prep work and was hard at work at an adorable charity quilt using 5″ blocks. There is a tutorial here. We plan to meet again in a couple of weeks.

It’s back to the frame for me….here are pictures of what I have done so far on Becky’s wedding quilt. She saw it today and I think she is happy with it! Whew!! I took an online class from Suzanne Earley on feathers. This was my first attempt at switchback feathers. Not perfect, but from the back of a galloping horse…

 

 

 

 

Now, back to the frame….

Quilt of Valor Mystery Challenge

I am challenging my guild (well, in the next newsletter that will go out around the 1st of November) to join me in making some blocks to use in a Quilt of Valor (or two!)

These are very simple to make, just need 2 1/2″ strips of red, white on white, and blue fabric.

I will ask members to assemble the subunits for the blocks at home, in sets of four, then bring them to guild and we’ll switch and swap them around to make our final blocks. The mystery part is, they won’t know what the completed blocks will look like!

I would like to invite you to join us too!!

The pattern is from a new book by Kim Brackett, “Scrap-Basket Surpises”. I emailed her to ask permission to post directions and photos here. She was very nice and friendly. She says that the publishing company holds all rights, but that she would certainly say yes if it were up to her. I have emailed the company to ask their permission and am waiting to hear back from them.

Not really sure if I need to ask..their copyright says ‘not to be reproduced blah blah blah blah blah, FOR COMMERICAL USE’. Since I am not selling either the pattern or the quilt, rather using it to donate to our wounded service men and women…I don’t think that falls under commercial use. But thought I would ask permission anyway…it does say you can photocopy and use for teaching purposes…so surely this would be ok too. But again, thought I would ask.

Anyway, here is a pic of the completed subunits that I did last night.

If I get permission, I will post directions for making these addicting little cuties! If not, let me know if you would be willing to just mail me some 2 1/2″ strips of red/white/blue fabrics. It takes about a strip of red, two of white, and only 1/2 of blue to make four units.

Today I really need to put my nose to the grindstone and work on Becky J’s quilt. I have a little over a week to get it done, so I know I have plenty of time…but you just never know what might come up!

Back to the frame….

Busy week!

Seems I have done nothing but quilt this week. Now, I am not complaining..well, not really. I guess I did have a friend to lunch on Wednesday…made a wonderful pasta dish I saw on TV. Easy peasy and full of protein.

Anyway…Sara finished piecing the quilt from baby clothes. I quilted Angel Wing panto by Jodi Beamish. It is just perfect for baby quilts. Just one picture, we have minkee on the back so the quilting doesn’t show.

I also finished two more quilts for Cornerstone Quilts. One was a simple meander so no picture…but I also did this one.

She requested something simple to showcase the fabrics and pattern; and she wanted piano keys in the black border. I used a template from Sally Terry to do ‘terry twist’ in the center blocks, centering one in each block and another in the diamond made between the blocks. In the inner border (orange/navy/orange) I did a smaller version of terry twist. Then the piano keys in the black border and I also did piano keys in the setting triangles around the center of the quilt. This was a big quilt and took nearly 12 hours!! Glad it is done. Here are some pictures of the back, the quilting really didn’t show up in the pictures of the front.

So, delivered these on Thursday..and she says, “I have one more, can you do it? But I need it back tomorrow”. Oh dear..75″ square, she said meander would be fine. I say ok, but that is all I can do, I have another I really need to get started on. So brought it home, loaded it…and just couldn’t bring myself to do a meander. It just was such a pretty quilt, and it would be so boring!! So, here is what I did..first, the full shot…sorry about my thumb in the way!

Now some close ups…

And the back…

Not sure what happened to the color on this one, but it shows the stitching I did in the block really well.

Finished this morning and delivered. Whew!!

Now I have loaded Becky J’s DWR..it is a beauty! Huge quilt…97X108 or something like that. She used Judy Martin’s pattern in “Scraps”, used tons of red fabrics with a white on white background. She asked that I quilt it like the one in the book. I am having some ‘issues’ with one aspect, but will find something that works. Not going to post pictures so she can’t peek! Ha Ha!! She will be here next Wednesday and I will let her peek then.

Time to fix some dinner for my poor hubby…he is on his third day home from work with the ‘crud’..sore throat, cough..no fever tho…a friend of his called it the man flu! Ha!!

Mark the date on the calendar!! Two Quilts Done!!

Ok, so only one is totally finished, but two are off the frame and ‘my’ part is done.

First, this is the finished Block of the Month quilt that our guild worked on over the past twelve months. I quilted it with an overall design that I saw on MQResource by a gal named Rebecca. She calls it ‘threes and Es’. Doesn’t show well in the pictures, sorry…

I have decided to hang this one in my sewing room above the cutting table. Now just have to put hanging sleeve on and convince DH to help me hang it!

And here is the finished wedding quilt..DD will bind it. It is a gift for a young couple in our church.

Feathers and flowers were done freehand, with inspiration from Judy Martin’s book Scraps, CC in nine patches were done using templates from CQT. I really like how this turned out. It was a ‘practice run’ for a quilt that goes on the frame next week, a king size DWR for a guild member.

Guild meeting was awesome last night. Debbie Rolek did a good job of showing us the possibilities of thread painting. I love how she breaks almost every rule, but her stuff is so awesome!

Back to the frame…

When it rains…

..it pours!! Just last week I was worried because I didn’t have many quilts in the queue to be done.  Here is what is on the frame now..

I thought I had it finished yesterday, but decided it needed some more quilting. Decided to do CC in all the brown blocks. Add another three hours….sure glad I had it on zippers and unzipped instead of ripping it off!

LQS called yesterday, they have another one ready for me. Just a meander so that will be quick and easy.

Customer called, she has DWR king size ready too. Just needed to get backing today, so that will go on next week.

DD has almost finished the little quilt from baby clothes. That one is due on the 31st so needs to get done soon.  She is so creative, she took a fleece sleeper, cut the front from the back, sewed the placket shut and pressed it to woven interfacing. Then we appliqued it to a piece of muslin which will be the center of the quilt. It is adorable!!

So anyway, I have gone from no quilts in the queue to four…but my star quilt from our BOM at guild is going on next so I can take it to guild meeting on Thursday night.

Our guest speaker is going to be Debbie Rolek from Des Moines. She is awesome! She is going to show us thread painting. Debbie is ‘famous’ for her boob quilts that she made to raise awareness for breast cancer.

Have a great day! Back to the frame….

A very productive weekend!

I have had a very productive few days, quiltingly speaking….

Friday, finished and delivered the second quilt that I quilted for the local quilt shop to hang in their booth at AQS. She was pleased with it. Whew!! Here are a few pics:

Front view:

Close up of one block:

Back:

And a close up of the back:

I freehanded the swirly pattern in the star blocks, then did SID around the strip pieced inner border, and 1″ piano keys in the outer border. Again the batting was Quilters Dream Orient, and the thread was So Fine top/bottom.

My quilt guild has been working on a year long block of the month project. The gal in charge had contacted the designer at Pattern Gal Express and got permission to use her patterns for the Ohio Star block of the month quilt. She got large pizza boxes from Casey’s and passed them out. She had a label on each box with blanks to fill in with our name and a color scheme or theme for our quilts. She gave us each the first pattern in the series and sent us home to make a block.

The following month, we brought back our pizza boxes and showed everyone our first block. Then the boxes were traded (sit in a circle and pass two to the right or something like that) and the second pattern was handed out. And so on throughout the year.

Then yesterday, several of us got together to assemble our blocks. We had a lot of fun! We all agreed that 1)we learned a LOT about piecing with triangles and 2)that we don’t want to piece anything with triangles for a long, long time!! LOL

I have posted pictures on my webshot sight, so won’t upload all of them here again. You can see them here in the folder Piecemakers BOM.

I didn’t have a center block for mine, so finished it up today. Battery is dead in the camera, so I’ll wait and post a picture when I get it quilted. Hopefully before Thursday night’s guild meeting, but we’ll see.

My daughter Sara also finished piecing the wedding quilt we have been working on. Again, no pictures, but it will be on the frame today so I’ll take pics when it is done. I am going to use it to audition the quilting design I have planned for a wedding quilt coming in a couple weeks…hopefully it will turn out the way I have envisioned…

She also has been working on a commissioned quilt for a child’s birthday. She has the blocks laid out. Here is a progress photo of that quilt.

The sleeper will be appliqued on bleached muslin, and a block with the child’s photo, name and birthdate will be added. This one will get the Angel Wing panto by Jodi Beamish. Love that for baby quilts! The backing is pink minkee, so hoping that won’t issue any major challenges.

Back to the frame…..

A new addiction!!

Just what I DON’T need is one more thing to distract me from quilting!! But oh my goodness!!

A friend called me today and said, come to lunch and let’s play with some dyes. Ok, I said…thinking I really have better things to do, but she has been after me for months to come do this.

Originally, we had talked about her dying several yards of fabric for a quilt I had in my head for MQS 2009 when the theme was ‘Fire and Ice’. I drew it out in EQ5, and that was about the end of it. Never got any further.

Well, she had ordered some dye samples and really wanted to try them out. So we did. What fun!! What came out of the dye really didn’t look at all like I expected it to. Now I know what everyone is raving about with hand dying!!

I found a pattern for a wall hanging that I really want to make for DH cousin for Christmas and decided that hand dyed fabric would make it even more special. So took along the pattern (sea gull, think pastel water colors) and this is what we came up with for starters:

Blue, obviously, for water and/or sky (we’ll need lots of blue), the green for some grass tufts, and the coral for some star fish. Can’t wait to go back and do some more colors. She also suggested finding some tone on tone fabrics or light colored fabrics with a small print on them to over dye.

Thank goodness she is out of town next week…I’ll be quilting my head off so I can play when she gets back!!

Rainy days…and football games!!

Seems like it rains all the time lately….4″ last week, another 1/2″ in the night last night. BIG crack of lightning, scared me so bad I must have jumped a foot in my bed!!

Bunch of friends over last night to watch ‘the big game’ on the big screen. Can’t believe Brett can still play at that level at his age. The sportscasters were even talking about playoffs and Super Bowls…kind of premature, don’t you think guys?? We’ll see how he is doing by Christmas..

Not much quilting progress this week, ran errands all day yesterday and attended a meeting, then grocery store and home to put on a big pot of chili…yum!

I do have the second AQS quilt on the frame and have decided what to do in the star blocks, still contemplating the borders. I posted pics on the MQResource board and got several ideas, guess I’ll just pick one and go with it. Don’t think it will make much difference to the gal who pieced it. You should see the backing! Three pieces, one long one and two short ones so there are seams going both directions, PLUS it is a directional fabric and the design is going more than one direction…must not have had anymore at the store to buy or something.

Into the office this morning, then home to quilt. Hopefully I’ll have an update with finished pictures soon….

Stay warm and dry and have a great day!

Scrapyard Junkies!!

Are you a REAL quilter? Do you have a scrap bin? Scrap box? Scrap bag? Are you like me and can’t stand to throw away even rather small pieces of fabric? Do you have intentions of ‘someday’ using all those little pieces in a quilt? If you answered yes to any (or all) of those questions, then this is the place for you to be! I am about to begin a new ’small group’ within my quilt guild, well, hopefully anyway. And you are welcome to join us!!

When I piece a quilt, I cut the pieces for my top, then stuff anything that is left into a rubbermaid container beneath my cutting table. My grandchildren think this is their toy box, but that is not the main purpose. I actually have two or maybe even three large tubs under there, the ones with the flip open lids so I can open them, toss in scraps, then shut them. Well, they come pretty close to shutting anyway…

Our guild meets on the third Thursday of the month, and I have put an article in our guild newsletter to invite anyone who is interested in eliminating their scraps to meet with me after the meeting. I hope to chose a day/time to meet once a month. The first meeting, we’ll all bring patterns that can be made using only our scraps (well, maybe a few yards of background/border fabric can be added). Then we’ll start cutting up our scraps. Once we have our piles and pieces all cut, we’ll start sewing.

I have no idea how long this will take…some will probably go home and cut, some won’t. No matter, it is the process that I am after here, not the finished projects.

I am not even sure what I will do with the quilts I make…may donate them somewhere, may give them as gifts. Who knows?!

The patterns I have chosen so far include three quilts from the latest issue of McCalls America Makes Fast Quilts, Autumn 2009.

Two Scoop Sundae

Scrappity-Do-Dah

And Summer at Mom’s. This one has some applique and I would really like to try to do that. We’ll see…

So, I bought (at the Dollar Store, love that place) four clear plastic shoe box sized containers. Each is marked with the name of the pattern and what size/shape pieces are needed. I am thinking that once they get full, I will transfer the pieces to something larger and keep using these as I go…

As I go through my scraps, I press each piece if needed, cut the largest pieces first, then the smaller ones. Anything left that is larger than, oh say, 2″X2″ go into the fourth box with is marked ‘crumbs’. Bonnie Hunter makes adorable quilts she calls ‘Crumb Quilts’ from these smallest of pieces. I am also (so far) not putting anything into those big bins. As I use a fabric, I go ahead and cut it into my quilt pieces and crumbs and toss the tiny little bits that can’t be used. It will take some discipline, but enough is enough!!

So, if you are up to the challenge, just post a comment to this post. I’ll post updates from my end, and check to see how you are doing!! I can share some patterns after we meet, and I am sure the others will have ideas about cutting/sorting/storing our new quilt pieces. They will no longer be scraps as they now will have a purpose…eventually. If you have ideas or suggestions for the rest of us, please add your two cents!!

Wish me luck….