some progress

Friday I pieced a bit. Two Album blocks made using the Blue Elephant granny square tutorial.   11 blocks towards a pro bono quilt.  I have a bunch more strips paired up so who knows how big it will be.  Maybe eventually two quilts even.

Saturday, I quilted on the Row QOV--last posted HERE but before I had completed the side borders--late February of this year anyway.  I got the top 4 rows done before I quit.  There are a total of 10 rows but it is far too warm in the house to want a quilt on my lap.  Mind you, not quite warm enough for my husband to okay turning on the a/c but close.  (Has to hit 80 because the thing is set at 79.  I repeat, I did not move South for the summers).  One of the Belles wants to see how I approach machine quilting so I am probably going to work on this at the meeting on Tuesday if not before.

So what am I doing today?  What I wanted to do yesterday actually.  I have barely touched my embroidery lately.  Now that I have to take minutes at guild meeting, there went some of my stitching time and I was dismantling quilt blocks at  my last doctor's appointment.  Seems like I am always doing something else and don't pull it out to work on it.  I have forgotten just how many of these that I have completed but they are up in my facebook album and on here too.  This one is about done, mostly a gob of french knots that accent the star shaped cookies.  Patterns are free from Bee Tree Designs on her flickr pages.

Hope you have found something to trip YOUR creative trigger today-------

Fight Like a Quilter "Many Hearts" blocks

Yesterday's output----Block 1

I don't know if you can see it or not but the little nine patch at the bottom was my first attempt.  The yellow with the whitish splotch on it must have been mis-cut a hair because the seam finished a bit too small in both spots that I used it.  I wrote a big old NO on it and then didn't bother to un-sew it.  Parts of it could have probably been re-used.

They asked that yellows, teals and blue be in the block but we could add stuff from our stash.  The blocks I saw on the shops facebook page look a good deal more yellow, LOL BUT I didn't get a fabric kit.  They get what they get, right?

Wouldn't this be pretty done up in 30 reproductions as well?

Here was my 2nd attempt so maybe it is a bit lighter.

The pieced part of the block finishes at 10 inches but the sashing bits bumped it up to 14 inches which looks huge to me!  If I were to make this again using my own stash or cut squares I would be tempted to go with 2 inch cut instead of 2.5.  My Bama Belles pals might well recognize some of these scraps from the Spring Sew-In since we were sharing from our strip/cut squares containers.

My friend Maggie told me this morning that the quilt shop (Fabricate in Bar Harbor, ME) had met recently to assemble some of the donation blocks into the first top.   They will be selling raffle tickets throughout the summer and fall with the drawing in early November of this year.  By making a block I get 5 automatic chances at it.   They had received 70 blocks to this point and it looks like they used 24 or 25 in the first one.

So what do I want to do this afternoon?   My low back is squawking at me a bit so I don't know that I feel like wrestling a quilt around and quilting.  I enjoyed sewing yesterday so maybe do a few more album blocks, last seen HERE.    I started those at the sew-in last month and set it aside for the FAB challenge log cabin which also was set aside.   I have two bed sized quilts essentially half done that I really should allow myself to finish.   I can also think of a couple of things I would like to do as a reward once the tops are done.  Think that is why I got stalled out??  Well, today I'll just sew some blocks and not think past that, other than just how many do I need for a pro bono top???

catching up

So what have I been up to in the creative department since my last post, you might ask?  It is my blog so I will tell you even if you DON"T ask, LOL.

I made a few more "granny square" blocks using the Blue Elephant tutorial but not following it exactly.  As I said in my last post, 8 pieces of it can be strip pieced so that is what I am doing.  Also I think from here on out I am going to call this by its original name Album Block.   BlockBase lists 8 different ones for what is a very similar block if you add a square in the smack dab middle of the block.

LOL DJ asked me why I had my pillows lying on the floor and the bed unmade in the middle of the day.  Pictures of course!  I still need to trim down the blocks.  I am shooting for 20 blocks and pairs if I can, reversing the two colors. It might make a larger than usual donation quilt but kids come in all sizes.  BUT I set it aside.

My sister caught up to me on facebook with a knitting question.  She wanted to make a baby blanket for someone using a pattern that she wanted to reduce just a bit in size.  I thought I had an answer for her but needed to verify that I was correct and the change would work.  So I drug out the knitting supplies and went to work.  I was not seeing a pattern emerge as I thought and discovered that I was not doing the yarn overs it called for correctly.  I was increasing stitches but not leaving the bigger holes that the picture showed.   I considered continuing on since I was having fun knitting!   I could tell there was a dramatic enough change in the previous rows, to my eyes anyway, so I just unraveled it.  Should I want to do this for a child I would pick a soft green or yellow rather than the leftover yarn from the replacement golf head covers that I made DJ a few years back.  I love to knit but wish I had more time to do it.

DJ's birthday is today but  we went out for lunch at Golden Corral yesterday.  He told me not to make any cake or pie for him since he knew he could get as many desserts as he wanted at the buffet.   We still have cookies left from the sew-in if he wants a homemade treat.  Actually I sort  of have plans to make him some "not a birthday" cupcakes in a week or so using this recipe for Nutella Fudge Brownie Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream Frosting    A pal who decorates told me what I needed to get to pipe icing so I'm ready to play but down the line.   I can even do filled cupcakes with this giant syringe like thing from Wilton called Dessert Decorator Plus.  Let the fun begin!

I knew I was going to be sewing with the FABs today on the Sister's Challenge panel that Cher had sent us sometime back.  You can read about it in this post.  I had cut out my choice of pattern about a week ago but now I can talk about it, LOL,  Most of the fabric was purchased with birthday money from the Belles and DJ so I am happy to have the chance to put it to use.

I didn't think out of the box too much here.  I chose the My Sunshine pattern by Kathy Deggendorfer who designed the fabrics for In the Beginning Fabrics.  We had to use the panel in some manner so I elected to cut the little animal squares into 4 1/2 inch squares and then made cheesecloth of the larger panel.  I bought a 2nd panel so I could get more blocks out of it, or 3 repeats of the 8 main motifs that way and augment it with other sections of the panel and a companion floral.   The squares of the panel were not quite square so I framed them with black as the first rounds of the log cabin.  I felt it needed something like that since there is so much color and detail in the block centers that a bit of separation would help.  One side of the block is blue and the other essentially green.  Each log will finish at 1 inch for a 12 inch block.  The quilt will be about 90 inches square.

Here is what it looks like in my work space.  Messy but the information I need at my fingertips.   I plan on keeping the 2nd panel intact to put on the back of the quilt.  At this point I am approximately 1/4 of the way done since I will be doing 4 strips on either side of the centers.  One thing I did not consider when I started this:  the centers are directional prints.  I will not be able to rotate the block for the traditional Barn Raising set.  I will have to be very careful to not have birds flying upside down, rivers floating backwards and mountains upside down.   Oh, I can do it correctly but need to be watchful and follow the drawing across the row.  I have the duplicate centers separated out in groups so will just do them one at a time rather than chain them as shown in the pattern.  Also I prefer to cut them to size so they do not get all wonky and off square.  I have tried it the other way and was not happy with the results.

I won't have much to show for my efforts for a few days anyway.  Norma was working on something using a Sidelights pattern for hers but rearranging things.  Pat some 9 patches and Cher, some lettering while Pam was considering treating as though she was looking out the scene from a window.  I'll be anxious to see how our challenge pieces turn out!

And sew it goes-----

Sew-in date: quilts hiding in your scrap bag

What a fun day sewing with my Bama Belle pals yesterday! We had an extended meeting and everyone brought their machines ready to "hit it" along with cut 2 1/2 inch strips galore, cut 2 1/2 inch squares and nickel squares/charms. Everything was free game so dig in---take some for "homework".  Jane even had some yardage to share!

8 of us "regulars" were there but so were 3 of our gals who cannot come very often. We were happy that Pat's schedule allowed her to be with us as well as Linda C who was back down visiting from Tennessee. Nancy has a conflict in the schedule since her church's quilting day is the same as ours but they meet at the church catty corner to where Belles meet so she pops over occasionally. That is what Shawnee did later in the day.

Bev who is recuperating from major surgery did not want to be left out of the fun and had her husband drop her off for a bit. She brought her yo-yo bag of tricks to show us how to do it especially with some of the fun shapes. In the "pass it around to try it" mode, I was almost happy to see that someone else had made a few stitches sewing it to the disc, like had! LOL. Betsy and Gary also swung by----I think Betsy must have insisted they do so on their way back from the BHM hospital and an overnight stay after a procedure she had had on Monday! These two are dedicated!

We also had two other guests---Judy and Gladys. Judy is Teresa's sister and she brought her friend Gladys with her. Turns out Gladys knew Lois from square dancing! I hope they will come back when they can!

Between Lois, Beverly and I---and I think someone else had a bag to share---we had boxes, bins and bags of the aforementioned strips and squares.  There were books and printouts to share for ideas of how to use them.  I had not picked a sew-in block as I often do and asked the Belles to crank as many as they cared to make.  There's the supplies--come up with an idea.

I wish I had gotten more pictures but I was busy sewing!  Lois, Pat and Brenda got right into Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips.  Marilyn had a 4 patch quilt already started but was looking for sashing supplies among the strips.  Beverly and Judy were making string blocks on telephone book pages.   Later Judy had switched to big 4 patches though.   Jane was working on at strippie heart and I need to ask her the designer as it is really, really cute!  I was doing the Granny Squares from the Blue Elephant blog but strip piecing parts of it.  (8 sections of the white and adjacent print can be strip pieced but you still need some single cuts for the nine patch in the dead center and 4 background squares).   Below the total of my day's output.

I didn't leave Teresa out!  Earlier in the week she had told me about some leftover Toy Fabric that she wanted to make a pro bono quilt with.   Her cut squares were 8 inches presently so what size should she cut it down to?  I said 5 inch and had suggested a Jewel Box or Buckeye Beauty quilt.   She could try the two for one method for both the 4 patches and half square triangles needed to accomplish that plus still have fabric leftover from the bulk of the cut down for another 2 1/2 inch strip.  I demo'd that to Teresa, Judy and Gladys.  Then later when Judy had giant 4 patches from the nickel squares Teresa suggested Disappearing 4 patches  so I showed them how to do that!  I like it a bit better with 6 1/2 inch squares so that little cut part in the middle is not so tiny and suggested that.   I love making Puss in the Corner blocks (uneven nine patches) from the 5 inch ones and walked them through the process since I had a print out of the Billie Lauder quick trick method in my nickel container.

I hope this gave the Belles some new ideas of how to work with scraps.  The pattern ideas are endless, in my estimation.  Scraps are like gold when you can discover the quilts hiding your scrap bag  We have a ton of cut 2 1/2 inch squares left so that might need to be the focus for our next sewing date.  Beverly had a picture in one of her jelly roll books of a clever idea that would use some cut squares and of course, there are always the blocks that incorporate 16 patches too.

I know I came home with considerably less in my strip container than I had and did not drag home more than I took with me IF you discount the cute fish yardage from Jane---and that's good!   The little wire basket I stuff odds and ends in is filling up and will need attention one of these days at this rate.

Good food, good fellowship and sharing, good learning experiences---does it get any better than that?  Girlfriend days are the best!  Yeah, I probably get more done if I sew at home but trust me, the company is better at a quilt meeting.   I appreciate the girls help getting the room back to its original configuration too.  We were the only thing on the church calendar when I booked it for an extended meeting but a church event had re-scheduled so we started packing it all in around 4.  I think I got home about 4:30 anyway.  

Again, I wish I had taken more pictures.  Linda C had been working with wool quite a bit and had a lot of penny rugs and such done.  Brenda and I were discussing the blocks you see below two weeks ago---and look how neat her Santa's came out!   She still needs to blanket stitch them down and add the eyes and such but the blocks were all prepped.  I showed my March Button Up, Bloom since Linda C passed on her pattern when she was done with it and my new purse/backpack.

Shawnee also attends the quilt group at the catty corner church but she came by to drop off this quilt she had tied.  It was one that Linda C had made and left for us when she moved to TN.  I love how the 4 patches chain on this one.  Simple squares, 4 patches and hour glass blocks---simple yet very effective.  Shawnee got some batting to go with three more tops of Linda's tops but no pinning, only sewing at this day.  We'll help her with that at a future meeting.  Note to self:  call and order the batting roll since we are almost out.  Lois and I both have tops to pin and that is even before we have finished tops that will generate from the sew-in!  Of course, I need to quilt a bunch too as a lot of our pins are tied up in the tops on my dresser.

On a more personal note:
I spent most of last weekend cutting for the FAB challenge sewing on Saturday plus tons of muslin for the sew-in.  I did manage to get the binding at least machine applied to 76 bowties but that is as far as it got with baking more cookies for sew-in, home duties and packing up the car.  Today I plan to make a few more granny square blocks and move that along a little further.  Cher said it was okay to get a jump start sewing on the challenge project.  I think Norma and I will sew together on Friday since she has the day off.   Mine is a large quilt so I could use a little head start, LOL.

And sew it goes---------