another finish to flimsy

Finished the top after supper tonight---woohoo! Note Skyler in string chewing position next to quilt holder's feet?

A good many of the blocks that I needed for the last 6 rows were already joined in pairs. I DID need to make the equivalent of the last row in triple rail blocks, probably because I couldn't decide if I needed 12 or 13 rows.

But, it's done except for selecting/prepping backing fabric and binding. I noticed that I have quite a selection of binding bits so it is possible I will go with scrappy binding on this one. Again, I am not planning on bordering but should I change my mind it would be a narrow one.

Off to watch "The Closer" and "Rizzoli and Isles"

Finished to Flimsy

I hesitated to call this a "Design Wall Monday"post since I have only gotten as far as setting up the machine to sew. I don't even have it threaded up yet.

Just plain busy day so far! Today was laundry day. I also needed to vacuum up the sewing room as I was tracking thread everywhere in the house. DJ did the hallways but I know I was the source, LOL. I had about 90 minutes of kitchen time this morning with about 30 minutes off before I had to start up the grill to finish up the noon meal preparations. (DJ wanted brats so I was making some Hot German Potato salad and braised red cabbage and apples to go with it. ) Thankfully, last night leftovers will be a fast re-heat.

The picture at left is my weekend sewing project, another WTIL donation top finished to flimsy last evening. This one counts under the "Belles Scrappy Challenge" banner for the year. I do not know the name of it or the designer and call it "Diagonal 4 patch chain". I first saw it in the chatter on stashbuster list and have no clue as to its source other than that. I think the name I gave it is fitting.

I only had 2 rows of it assembled clear back in April of this year and plucked it down from the hanging spot off my bookshelf. The 4 patches WERE completed using Billie Lauder's two at once with nickel squares, way back then but I still needed to make 5 rows of blocks (25). Most of the prints were some charm squares that Linda C had just sewn together randomly but I pulled them all apart to do this and added more cut fabrics from the scrap bags. The blocks finish at 8 inches, 5 x 7 set. I am not going to border it as it is big enough for my purposes.

I will say that I intended to do the last block differently. The last block in row 7 design wise should have just one four patch in the upper left corner and then background color for the remaining part of the block to complete that last chain. Apparently I did not cut the rectangle 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 that I needed. I had to go on a treasure hunt looking for any of the leftovers. No luck, though I have wheat, mushroom, parchment moda marble and another fabric line of a coppery colored neutral that is a similar but not whatever color this is---natural, I think. Rather than order more and/or ask webfabrics to do a color match (again!) I just stuck in an extra 4 patch to "no-where".

Here is what I will work on next. WTIL donation/Belles scrappy challenge Triple Rail last seen in May at the sew-in---shown in THIS POST . Come to think of it, I haven't done any more on it since, LOL. It looks the same as it did but the picture was probably taken from a different angle. I need 6 more rows or the lower half of the top. The rail blocks ARE done---I think. I'll find out soon enough!

I started this on the Jem so will continue on with the same machine retrieving the blocks and the machine from the car trunk. The Brother really should go in for servicing, just on general principles plus the auto needle threader is hanging up, skipping stitches even with a new needle put in, etc.

While searching for the 4 patch background I left one of the kits out. This uses some yardage that Ellen sent from WTIL headquarters and is one of two I have cut with a fall-ish theme. One is probably going to be a Snuggle Up but I cut this one to be like staggered bricks. I told Norma the other day that after all the seam matching I have done lately with D4P and now the diagonal 4 patch chain. I was ready for something a little less fussy. This one might fill the bill and will be next up after the triple rail is done. Short term goals are now set for the week.


Tomorrow is the Belles quilt meeting and I'll probably take my hand quilting. We plan on going out for lunch to Olive Garden for the summer birthdays---should be fun. Marilyn told me she had baked another cake for our dessert. Yum! The fabric I ordered with my bday money they gifted me with arrived today so I know they will want to see that. I will share my FAB bday gifts with them for "show and tell"---some do read my blog, some don't or just aren't on the computer much and haven't seen what my pals made for me. I'll load the car up in a bit as I am always in a rush to get out the door in the morning.

And sew it goes-----off to the machine and see how far I get.

sew-in pics #2

Pat was working on this piece. She had found a clipping in the magazine and located the pattern source to make it--- "30 Stars for 30 Years" from Country Threads.






Lois was busy with her 2 1/2 inch strip bin for the starts of another Scrappy Trips Around the World from Bonnie Hunter and quiltville.com. I believe this may be part of the Belles' scrap challenge this year---or at least some of it is.


Betsy was working on completing this Disappearing Nine patch. Some of the blocks were donated. In fact, Linda C made most (if not all) of the purple ones. Betsy had requested abandoned quilt blocks from her quilt group to make Quilts of Valor so she gets a lot of blocks to assemble.




Janet was preparing to make this wonderful ring runner featuring the wild life yardage. I can't wait to see how this turns out as the technique looks interesting. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can read the pattern cover and designer.




Brenda was working on binding when I took this picture but this was her sewing project. The blocks have a cathedral window feel, don't they? "Wild Roses" from the quilt mag you see on the table next to the pieces.



Aline was sewing some of the sampler star blocks from Eleanor Burns' Stars Across America book. I may be wrong but I think she started this project as a block of the month with the quilt shop that used to be in Pell City. It, like the other panel piece in the previous post, will be going to the Veteran's Home. I showed you her table mate Jane's quilt project in the previous post.



Beverly was busy with the wonderful scrappy string blocks that is part of our scrap challenge for the year. The pattern is "Waste Not, Want Not" which you can see when you click the picture bigger. Not sure of the pattern source but I can find out.




Linda C had several projects with her and this was from a Fons and Porter magazine. Not sure which issue but I can find out. She also has a cool wool project going but I didn't get the camera out till after she had put it away.



Like Linda C, I had a couple of things that I can't show you right now but I got a bit more of the triple rail donation challenge top assembled. It is approximately half done at this point. I cannot decide if I need 11 or 13 rows though. Pattern--public domain. Strips are cut 2 x 5 and the blocks finish at 4.5 inches.





And here is Rosa's project, Hidden Spools from Quiltville. She had started these a few years back, she said, before she and her husband had moved to Alabama.

I hope you enjoyed seeing what the group was up to!

sew. sew. sew

First you cut, cut, cut.....and then you chain yourself to the sewing machine and sew like crazy, LOL.

At left, the Gordian Knot from my quilt class. When I stopped sewing on Saturday with two halves of the top. (it's on point) That elongated rail section is the last piece to be added when you go back to finish off the partial seams. Today's goal is to finish this top up.

Pattern source: Gordian Knot designed by Mary Whitehead. Our teacher said Mrs. Whitehead had drawn up the designs before her passing but died before she could include the assembly instructions. The teacher spent 4 years figuring out how THAT part was done for the 9 designs. This is knot #1.

I started this pile of Triple Rail blocks on Thursday using scraps from the Belles scrappy challenge container. By Sunday afternoon I counted them up while I pressed the final seams-- 80 blocks separated out by color groupings. I had some left (22) from my last quilt of this type. Just how many did I need for straight sets anyway? I made 8 more, LOL. Depending on whether I want a border or not it would take 77 or 108. A whole quilt hiding in that little scrap box, in other words! Some of the "singletons" are sewn up as well into 4 Ashcombe panels. It is the equivalent of two blocks worth if I cut a center strip to assemble them. I set this all aside for a meeting sewing project.


I showed you the two bands that could be for either RR crossing of Grandmother's Scrap Bag on Friday. Since that post, I made a total of 8- 3-D bowties blocks. A few are on the design wall. I need 35 for an on point set and have a total of 12 on hand.

I also made 2-Puss in the Corner blocks from the nickel squares. The Belles and I made a ton of these blocks using the Billie Lauder Quick Trick method for uneven nine patches. I had to refresh my memory on how to do it, LOL.



And then I finished off the evening by making some string blocks. Had I hit my own scrap basket a bit more, I could have kept stitching for days but these used up most of the odd bits from the Belles Challenge scrap box---plus some longer strips from my 1 1/2 cuts to cover the longest required lengths.

Obviously I will need quite a bit more of these. 35 total blocks if I just sash and cornerstone them. BUT I am considering treating them as a HST and making a "Kitchen Sink" version. I could have sworn that I had a picture on the blog of one of those but can't locate it now to link back. Guess you will just have till I find one of my mom's in the WTIL gallery pages or an old Belles version from the photo archives.

Because we are about to turn the calendar page on the month of February, I swapped out the wall hangings and seasonal decorations this morning. I think the March Joined at the Hip (JATH) quilt of the month should be next on my reward list along with a completion of the Spring "In Season" quilt!! For the base unit of the JATH can hang up there naked, LOL.

It is hard not think it is spring already when we had an overnight low of 62 degrees, albeit with rain and storms on the way in sometime today. The daffodils have been out for a week and the neighborhood Bradford Pears are opening up like popcorn. I have seen a few tulip trees out on my drive into town as well. Our camellia bush will be next provided we don't get the beginning blooms zapped by a late winter frost.

So the Gordian Knot finish is today's project. Then I want to swap out machines and start something else. Even though I want to do those two reward projects I just mentioned, Sheila and I are sort of challenging each other to start on the 4 patch diagonal chain quilt I showed HERE. We have been emailing back and forth about it. She will hit some squares she had set back for this quilt and I will hit the nickel squares with a goal of donation sized quilt for me.

The birthday girl FAB also has a plan for us to sew for her bday party. It would use 2 1/2 inch strips and we would do the Jelly Roll 1600 race, I guess. Date has not been set but I DO have a pile of the required strip sizes in my Belles scrap box plus an overstuffed container on the shelf that could be raided.

Looks like I am going to be busy--------but that's the way I like it! Hope you find something that captures your attention too.

WIP wk #31

A little progress has been made on this triple rail donation top in the past two days. I had the bulk of this section done a few months back so row 6 was the one I pieced and attached.

Below is rows 7, 8 and 9---the long rows thru the middle of the quilt. 10 will complete the lower left corner when I get to it. Since it is on point, the rows get progressively smaller as you work out to the lower right. I'll get back to it tomorrow.



I have a ton of blue and green blocks made up so I am only trying to NOT put the same print right next to each other. I admit that is hard NOT to try to be too matchy-matchy with the prints---to just pick up a piece and use it no matter what, LOL. I couldn't resist working in some of the jigsaw scraps from the last donation top. You can't see it on this shot but it is in there. I'm going to whip up a couple more from the scrap basket before I resume the rows.

The pattern (from Mary Ellen Hopkins long ago online subscription) calls for a heart block to be pieced into the rails. It is in memory of the founder of Wrap Them In Love's mother who passed away earlier in the year. I have made this quilt once before but did not make that section heart colored. The heart part didn't show up as well. This time it will. THIS post contains a shot of the first one I made. You will see what I mean about the heart not showing up and where I am headed with this thing.


I'm going to put a few more stitches in this block today rather than machine sew. And maybe read a bit---I am right in the middle of Earlene Fowler's State Fair book. DJ and I also picked up a couple books from the bookmobile today.

Plus I see some kitchen time ahead on the horizon. I am thinking about trying a new cake recipe for Honey Bun Cake. I found it printed up in this month's ALFA members publication but HERE is a link online (looks the same to me.) I do love cinnamon! Someone I know has a birthday next week.....not that this IS a birthday cake. ( I refuse to make my own bday cake!) I feel like baking and just want a taste of a little something sweet tonight. The leftovers can go to the freezer. HMMMMMM, it says to bake it in a 13 x 9 but shows it in a Bundt pan so I may go that route instead.

Hope you are having a good day in whatever YOU chose to do

How did it get to be Labor Day weekend already? The year seems to be slipping by so quickly and here we are changing the calendar page again. It will be a quiet weekend around here---DJ and I aren't going to any cookouts or family gatherings. He'll play golf, I'll walk and work on whatever quilt is in the works---same as usual.

Here is one that I took the final binding stitch in Thursday evening and pressed Quilt Holder to work before he could plunk down in the recliner after lawn mowing duties. Nancy sent a half done top and a gob of blocks to Pam who just didn't have time to finish this one up so she passed it on to me and the Bama Belles. I've shown the top before (with the door behind him open and the sun shining through the top making the fabric glow like jewels ) but here it is all quilted up and bound. I have about 40 blocks leftover as I think Nancy intended to make a much larger top. I have decided to just make some of these 4.5 inch finished rail blocks as I go with my scraps----an ongoing project and when I have enough, make a top or two.

DJ called me outside to see what the sky looked like the other night. Storm clouds were gathering and we later did have a bit of rain. :ast night it was mostly cloud to ground lightening and a lot of it. It was just as pretty on the sun going down side but by the time I went back in for the camera it was out in full blaze---before it looked like silver and gold lace with the sun barely peaking out from behind the clouds to the west.

This is our little ranch in the picture, obviously. The window you see between those two overgrown bushes is my sewing room. Pippi was supervising the proceedings from her perch in the sewing room as I came back towards the house. The picture looks back towards my computer if you can see anything through the screen and glass window and know what you are looking for.

I started machine quilting a bit yesterday afternoon on THIS top. It was a Joann's BOM that Nancy had started and one of the projects I worked on at the retreat a few weeks ago. I have the pieced blocks machine quilted and spent some time marking the borders with a wide cross hatching. I plan on hand quilting a heart motif in the alternating blocks.

Other than that, not much going on----and that's fine with me.

Hope you all have a happy and safe holiday weekend in whatever you chose to do.