WIP Tuesday

When I posted on 11-22 I was preparing to really hit the pile of donation quilts atop my armoire. At left you see 6 of 8 quilts that I took care of during that week's time.

My rail fence on point, my Bridge Creek Blossom, Lois' Many Trips Around the World, Leann's pinwheels (not really sure what the block is but will find out for the quilt documentation). The two you see folded are Aline and Leann's challenge quilts. I'll get pics of them at the Christmas party next week when we do the reveal.


In addition to the donation quilts I also quilted Linda C's Redwork Garden quilt designed by Alex Anderson for pay. Those blocks were a freebie last year that she called "12 Days of Redwork" so I guess it has been renamed and put in a different spot on the website. LOL, I gave Linda my printouts once I had my quilt done but I used a different setting blocks and ironically, mine is hanging in the closet because I never took it with me to the meeting site to get it pinned. Linda C's is quilted but mine isn't.

I got done in enough time on Saturday with the 1/4 of Lois' quilt that remained that I quilted Linda's redwork quilt and then this little primitive cutie from Joined at the Hip which had been pinned and stuck up on the shelf since late January 2008. About time, dontcha think?? I don't think that this pattern is still available but was one of their yard longs "Best Friends" I think was the name???

I wrapped yesterday by completing the quilting on my on point rail fence (about a 1/4 of it was left) and then spent the rest of the day binding my two donation quilts, the little quilt above and even my Daisy Chain I picked up last month got binding and a sleeve applied. Poor Skyler wanted me to play so bad that he kept hopping up on the quilting set up and just sitting to get my attention. DJ thinks I was taking this quilting too seriously---my retort was that I want this stuff done and that means I have to work on it to make that happen. Fairy dust and wishful thinking does not do the job.

I am currently down to 4 pinned quilts of my own on the armoire. I want them done by year's end if possible. Daisy Chain is up there to hand finish the binding and there is another one that I want to dismantle and re-sash but that is another story. But I am taking the day off though I may press the fabric I laundered for the Belles challenge piece I need done by 12/7. The other stuff can wait---it waited this long, LOL so what is another day or even another week?

Some of the FABS and I are planning on doing some Christmas sewing this weekend. I have a pretty good idea what I will work on but there are few choices in that department so I guess it depends on what floats my boat come Saturday morning. Start something new or make some blocks for the Oxmoor Christmas quilt??? HMMMM.

We are in an unstable weather situation at present so I think I will sign off and shut down for a bit. The weather alert thing went off at 4 in the morning and after two hours of trashing about in the bed and not going back to sleep, I just got up and got my day started. A nap might be in order today as 4 hrs of sleep are not enough. Thanks for stopping by----------

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all the U.S. celebrants!

(turkey insert made by Veronica)

what is and isn't going on

Not the most prolific of week's in the creative department. Machine applique, stalled out. File re-arranging and other things on the home front took center stage. Besides, I honestly didn't "feel" like sewing........or quilting. I know better than to push it when I don't feel the creative muse. I DID a little redwork embroidery on the #12 Bird Brain Santa block but that is about it.

I also went thru a lot of my Christmas patterns and books. Some magazines as well. I did a bit of re-design work on my proposed Oxmoor Christmas quilt in EQ. Just no sewing or quilting as previously stated. That quilt seems to have more of an attraction for me lately. In a couple weeks, maybe.

My errands are all run and I do intend to set up to quilt starting today. My goal is to get at least 5 of those top 7 donation quilts done this week, working around the holiday meal, of course. It's doable. I don't mind having a quilt on my lap so much when the weather cools down.

The Belles annual Christmas get together is coming up in about 2 weeks time and that means that I need to get my challenge top done. The Michael Miller "Romance" piece on the right is the challenge fabric. I really don't want to whack it apart and chop those cute little figures apart.

After, again, looking thru my patterns this week, I found that I kept coming back to this Prairie Window pattern from Quiltwoman.com. I love that stripe that the designer showed around the focus piece on the pattern jacket but would it work with anything that I had on hand around here? Turns out, I had this wonderful striped fabric that I bought in Portland, OR during the FAB retreat with no purpose in mind other than I liked it. I was thinking "purse" at the time perhaps but no real project for it. It is a Michael Miller piece as well so the colors seem to be right. Things from my stash for this---good, right? I think there should be enough fabric aqua bow fabric leftover from my Daisy Chain to back this as well. That just left ordering something for the outer border which should be here sometime this week. At last, a decision is made and sewing it will be my reward for getting some quilting done.

I DO like Anne Wien's other patterns as well---I could see giving her Right Angles quilt a whirl down the line. and I already own the Mahjongg pattern. I just didn't feel that I had the right fabrics on hand for THIS quilt to try it. But there is always something down the line that it might be" just the ticket."

Skyler---silly boy! He runs at top speed down the hall from the bedrooms tagging my leg on the way in an effortto beat me to the couch arm. Either I roll him over or he deliberately falls off so we can play box or toss his catnip mouse around. Back and forth we go till he wears out or he finds something else that takes his attention more. We do this several times a day. Problem is, the heat has been on and he builds up a lot of static electricity pushing around on the couch on his back. ZAP!


DJ told me to come out last night with the camera so I could get a picture of his rose bush. This shot is not doing them much justice as the color is off. We have already had a hard freeze (I think) so we both were a little surprised to see these come out. I guess the day time temps in the mid 60's have allowed that. DJ has been able to get some outside repairs and painting done with the good weather. So far the rains are not really coming but we need it.

Time to go fire up the grill to toss on some burgers for lunch. Catch up with you later................

Design Wall Monday

This past weekend turned out to an impromptu FAB "sew and check in" time. Some housework, cleaning and cooking, kept me from joining in until after lunch on Saturday but I made some progress.

I'll show you what I got done in the past 48 hrs, LOL. Some stashbusting and both wall hangings I am working on have been moved along

Borders applied to winter "In Seasons" and I dug around in the red bin to find an old Mary Ellen Hopkins geometric red on black that I will use for binding. A scrap of it is hanging there next to the quilt-let. Binding is cut and awaiting seaming but this whole thing is in a holding pattern till both hangings are prepped.

By quitting time last night I had the wagon area of "Pumpkins 4 Sale" all prepped. I had to seam the teal piece in order to use if but I love the way it looks----like faded paint. It is turned over freezer paper as that seemed to be the easiest way to deal with that long narrow piece. It is thread basted in place.

I got lucky and found that the wheel shape was just a hair bigger than the moon shape that I had just used in THIS "Happy Halloween" wall hanging. I turned the raw edge by treating it like a giant yo-yo over the piece of Templar, stitching it was a heavy carpet/buttonhole twist.

I tried to turn the edges on the big red stars on freezer paper but was not pleased with the points so gave up and windowed out some fusible web. I knew better than to try it with the smaller ones----fused those down along with the wording.

Then I had a little setback when it came to the lettering. Those were NOT reversed in the pattern. I don't see anywhere in the meager directions where it suggests you should reverse anything! Did they expect us to make templates and needle turn this project?? I am not fond of my efforts at needle turn-- no, thank you. I want this done, sooner than later. Of course, it did not even occur to me that the letters should have been backwards in the pattern till I had traced them all off on the last bits of pellon stuff I had. By the time I started to cut out the letter, it finally hit me. That will NOT work, there is no goo on the back of this. Tossed that attempt and re-grouped.

I ended up flipping the pattern over to the plain paper side, putting it over the light box, tracing it off on steam a seam, the regular stuff not version 2. (bought the wrong stuff in error a few months back) Warm Company tells you to trace on the web side which is NOT easy to do. By marking the reverse of the shape, I was able to trace on the paper side instead. I know that sounds a little confusing in its description but it worked! I called it a night once PUMPKINS were fastened down.

Today my task was to pull fabrics for the pumpkins and stems. Templar is pricey so I am not going to turn edges over pieces this big. See above, I don't needleturn. Those are on freezer paper but I still need to turn the edges back. I just wanted to see what this will look like. OOPS! At first I managed to put brown stems on the taller pumpkins but that was blending in too much with the border fabric. Easy enough to fix that--just trade places with the green ones. Would you have known if I hadn't have told you, LOL? The stems will be fused down once the pumpkins are in place.

Well, you know where to find me---with glue stick in hand turning pumpkin edges till it is time to think about fixing supper.

progress

Progress made. Still needs stitched down, embroidered elements done, buttons and beads applied. And come to think of it, an outer border put on. Having fun though---like playing with paper dolls of years gone by.

I may go ahead and prep that pumpkin one that I have been wanting to do and then machine applique them both down the line.

First, a job around the house needs done before I can play with the other FABS in our impromptu sewing day. Catch you later-----------

where I am headed..................

Winter "In Season" won out for my next applique project. I know this doesn't look like much at this point, LOL.

The tree was supposed to be appliqued as well but I took one look at it and thought "I can draw that up in EQ and foundation piece it instead". And I did......... pieced it this morning.

That thing in the lower left is an angel body. Rather than have small strip of fused on fabric that tends to ravel I drew up a square about the right size and foundation pieced the line in. Then I drew the shape on freezer paper


This is where I am headed with it............I'm off to cut some letters or at least finish up the headless body. Maybe both, LOL.

I figured if I were to leap ahead a season maybe it would be ready to hang by the time winter officially comes around. Then I will follow up with spring. summer and fall---quarterly quilting.

WIP Weds, wk. 46

I took the last stitches in my Calendar Quilt-lets about 4 this afternoon. If you want to see the individual blocks a little better, go back to THIS post.

I had taken a picture like this of last year's "Be Attitude" blocks so I thought I would spread them out and do the same thing. LOL, Skyler came out from hiding under the quilt on DJ's bed just to plunk himself right in the middle of the action. DJ of course is supervising and said "why did you make these two so small?" pointing to the two appliqued blocks at the top. UHHH because those one I actually followed the directions. Then I got smart, switched to stitcheries and scanned and re-sized them. Originally they would have been a bit smaller than the appliqued ones, if you can believe that!

So, I'm done and thinking about what I want to do for my next seasonal/BOM type thing. At the moment Amy Bradley's Seasoned Quilter and Nancy Halvorsen's In Season are strong contenders. Okay, maybe leaning more to the latter as I pulled some fabrics that would work for the background parts of the winter wall hanging, LOL. The applique pieces look a good deal bigger than the Calendar Quilts so that's good!

Thanks for stopping by-----

2010 Fall FAB challenge reveal

Last night the FABs gathered in IM chat for the FAB challenge reveal . Pat was our group leader this round and she said make something that said "fall" to you. Unlike previous rounds, we did not have to use a specified fabric so the field was pretty wide open. Could be Halloween, Thanksgiving, or just plain fall.

Pam had my name this round and look at all the goodies she made me! A gorgeous apron---see the apple pies and china in the fabric and cute rick rack? And I need one---my red chef's apron has seen better days. She said the pattern was in Eleanor Burns' Egg Money book.

But that was not all! Gorgeous table topper/candle mat with some wonderful decorative stitching to quilt it. And see that wonderful tote with not one, but two wonder wallets! How she crammed all this into a 9 x 12 mailer I will never know. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Pam. This hastily shot picture does not do it justice---but I had to take one quickly to show the pals on IM what I had just opened.

I had Pat's name this round--see link above. Since I had recently made her a Halloween wall hanging for her birthday, I went with more of a fall crafty item this time. I made two of these, and this one happens to be the one I kept though I could have "stolen" her graphic. She got the best one of the two.

Pattern source: Fabricraft designed by Judith A. Haroutunian "Scarecrow and Friends" LOL, I hope I got that right as I can't lay my hands on the pattern at the moment. I've been busy and paper stuff is piled up awaiting my attention---in that mess, somewhere. I had fun finding the bits and pieces in my stash and at Hobby Lobby and Walmart to make her giftie. I had to drink two bottles of Lipton Green Tea to get the bottle to "dress"/recycle. It was not that I particularly like that stuff (rather tasteless, IMHO) but it had the bottle I wanted. See how I sacrifice for my craft, LOL??

I am making progress on the calendar quilt-lets. Finally I have one done for the month we are in---November's turkey is up for display. December is done as well. That just leaves August, September and October to bind, button and quilt in the running stitch with perle cotton, the hand stuff in other words. Quilt group meets tomorrow so I am sure that I will still be working on one or more of these by then but nearing completion for the year! Woohoo. I probably will not re-post them since I showed them in my previous one with the borders all applied---not too much has changed.

Errands await and I still want to throw something on the grill for our lunch so best get cracking! Thanks for stopping by----------

Quilt-lets Day 2

What I have so far------pattern source: Nancy Halvorsen's Calendar Quilts & Stitcheries.

October, November blocks

I had reversed the orange-y plaids at first and had to do some un-sewing to get them more to my liking. The navy with stars I used for the first border shows up better in person.

September and December

I borrowed a trick from the designer of Freckles stitcheries. I had started on a set of snowmen blocks last spring---the one that is done is shown HERE . She has you mix one strand of say, a brown with two strands of a light color so it will show against a light background. I did this for the beard and hair and in retrospect. I should have done for the turkey collar (shown above) or followed Nancy's direction for color, LOL. Again, not so hot picture.

August

I pulled the Williams Inn fabric line from last year's Be Attitude blocks for this one as I thought it looked more summery.

Binding pile---just finished the pressing

Paula, The Quilter asked me in comments how I planned to quilt these. I thought that was a good question since many of us do these little embroidered pieces and incorporate them into quilts often with pieced elements. I know I have seen them with an all over cross hatching maybe an inch or 1 1/2 inches across. If my blocks were bigger I would probably do that. Actually that might be the more classic way judging from our quilting ancestors penny squares. I would use it on my Bird Brain Santa blocks when/if I ever get that one done, LOL. Since I am not fond of tight stippling in the first place and hate to free motion, that would not be my first choice but yet, the blocks need something.

The stitchery part of these blocks is about 8 x 10 at most, a few are smaller and then only because I re-sized them on my scanner. They don't really need a whole lot since they are not all going to be joined in a large sized quilt. On the previous blocks I have just done some SID near the stitching with monofilament thread and even then, just on a key element of the block. The pattern calls for a running stitch border near the verse and I will use a #8 perle cotton to do that for a kind of long stitch hand quilting. Each one also has a button to be sewn on and that will tack it as well.

But after reading Paula's post, I see that she posed a question to her readers would you cross over the embroidered thread with your quilting line or try to work around it. I am going to assume that she is going to machine quilt her piece. If you were hand quilting, it is really easy to slip the quilting needle under the embroidered line and keep on quilting. I love to hand quilt but who has time these days? It might be more stopping and starting in machine work if you didn't continue the quilting lines all the way across the piece or do some sort of custom work in each block. Like anything else, you almost have to study each block and let the quilt talk to you, tell you what it needs.

I will be back to pulling fabric and pressing it for the backing followed by some spray basting and then quilting after lunch. Hand finishing for binding and the aforementioned quilting line and button application will follow that. I'm getting closer anyway...............

Thanks for stopping by

WIP Weds, wk 45

That time again--another week has flown by. It is a dark, damp, dreary November day, maybe more typical of what you see at the end of the month. I am thankful for some fun fabrics to play with today!

I took the last stitches in the calendar quilt blocks on Monday. Yesterday I pulled and cut fabrics for the sashing and binding. Fun digging around in the homespun boxes though I pulled some leftover Williams Inn for the August block too. Today I will start piecing as soon as I swap out machines.

Pictured is the little furry sidewalk supervisor. I think he might have been more interested in the camera cord dangling in front of him at that moment. Of course, he WOULD quit pawing and sitting on the blocks when I tried to get him in action!

Seeing as the July block is STILL up on the wall, I am determined to get November and December done and ready to hang. That is this week's goal so I start with them first. Should any of the rest be quilted up as well, even better! Hurray for finishes, right? Hurray for a little stash busting too!

You know where to find me..................