Julie and I spent 2 hours on the phone last night.  She called and I was sitting around watching TV, surfing on my ipad and just relaxing.  She was sewing...does that surprise anyone????

So i got up and went into the sewing room and started on the last few quarters of that darn hunter's star quilt...yep...it has a new name...DARN HUNTER'S STAR...I would use stronger language, but...

So i got the middle's sewn together...correctly this time...and the medium large triangles.  I have just the dark triangles left.  that should take long.  then I will press and square these quarter blocks and sew four of them together to make a finished box...I will have six of the finished blocks.

I will win against that DARN HUNTER'S STAR quilt.

Encourge a Friend

Well ... I've been experiencing a lack of drive to work on projects lately.  So I called June.  It was wonderful!!  We chatted for a couple of hours.  And better yet, we were both sewing while we talked.  Talk about soothing!  I got to catch up with her, and we both made some progress on our projects ... it just doesn't get much better than that.

Have you ever woken up in the middle of night and decided to quilt.  well at 12:30 am I got up and decided I would work on my Hunter's Star quilt.  I have the final 24 quarters cut out and the middle half of each half of the quarter block done.  My next step was to sew the two halves together. So I turn on the Tv, found this old channel METv.  It plays really old shows, Mary Tyler Moore, Quantum Leap...stuff like that.  So i'm watching and happily sewing.  When I started pressing the seams, I think, something isn't quite right.  Oh No!  I had sewn these two pieces together backwards.  So reverse stitching began...24 seams....oh no...so maybe it wasn't a good idea to sew at 12:30 am..:(

Let me tell you this Hunter's Star quilt is out to get me.  Can quilts be possessed? 

It has been nothing but trouble.  I can't tell you how many times I've cut wrong, sewed wrong or ironed wrong.  The latest is that I ran out of the dark fabric and I'm not sure I have enough of the medium fabric to do a border.  I wanted this to be a king sized quilt and I only have 36 full HS blocks.  So that leaves a huge border.  If I have enough of the medium border I will do two large borders of light and a small border of medium in between.  It looks good on EQ...so it has to look good finished...right????

How do pattern designers do it when they don't know how the finished product will look?  How do they know how much fabric they'll need.   And if you're like me and let the quilt decide the borders, how do you ever know how much fabric you need for the border.  I have so much to learn!

I recently joined an online quiltbee and recently one of the participants sent out this link for a BOM.  http://www.lecienusa.com/?blockofmonth/  Check it out.  The quilt is beautiful.  They already have several months worth of patterns out there. 

Happy Quilting...or reverse stitching if you're me!

Happy Sampler

 Just a quick update on the Sampler class I'm taking at Millstream.  I have two of the three Week 1 blocks done for "Happy", none for "Winter" ... yet.  Thirteen Squares is pictured first, then A Dandy.  I have to finish cutting the pieces to makes the Salem blocks, hopefully tonight.

Oh My Goodness ...

I am so excited that Ginger Ouwenga finished quilting my version of the Celestial Waltz quilt.  I absolutely love it!  The pattern that she used is called "morning glory" ... and has vines like my Mom requested.  I'm going to hold off on posting a picture of the front of the quilt though until I have the binding, and possibly flange, done.

As a teaser ... here is a picture of the quilt back that shows off the lovely quilting.

Mini Quilts

My Mom found this mini quilt rack with three mini quilts displayed at a garage sale ... How cute!  The quilts themselves are pre-printed panels, hand quilted and measure approximately 7 inches square.  I think they're just adorable, so I had to include them on the blog.

Mom is a beginning quilter ... she has a quilt as you go project 99% complete.  There is enough batting and backing around the edge that she can add another border, or put a binding on it.  One of these days, I'll talk her into making that decision and acutally finishing it.  Until then, I'll keep asking her about it and she'll keep looking for things this like for me. 

Wild Bears Update

 Progress is being made ... slowly.  I love the way the colors play off each other and the two background fabrics in the the flying geese units.  The other picture is of the claws in for the Bears Paw blocks.  Yes, it's really just a teaser since you can only see the wrong side of the fabric.

TGIF!

I decided to use a vacation day today ... to stay at home and get some prep work done for the Wild Bears and Sampler Class quilts.  Ahhhh!  It doesn't get much better than that.

My day hasn't gone exactly as planned, as I've run some errands for my sis-in-law who is under the weather and was able to get two of the kids on the bus since school was delayed this morning, too.  Any day I get to see my nieces and nephews is a great day!  And the prep has started, I'm making great progress on the Wild Bears project.

The kids won't be home for a couple hours but that's OK ... I'm hoping to get Wild Bears done and finish cutting the blocks for the Sampler Class.  Oh, and of course, to spoil my kids, too!!

They did it AGAIN!

I'm a member of the Buckeye Desk and Derrick Club, a member club of the Association of Desk and Derrick Clubs ... a vibrant organization dedicated to furthering the education of its members.  One thing that I've done to help raise money for our Buckeye Club Scholarship the past several years, is make quilted table toppers/wall hangings that are used as donation drawing items.  It makes me feel good to be able to contribute something that helps others better themselves.

I've been pondering what to make for the Spring item ... and decided to use a new pattern this year, new to me anyway.  I fell in love with block that June used in her Fall For Robert quilt.  And then I saw the block again, in a pattern in Easy Quilts magazine.  A gorgeous table topper.  OK, one decision made.

The next is what fabrics to use ... My fabric stash has grown by what seems leaps and bounds, and in an effort to stop the madness I'm trying (the key word is tryinig) to not purchase any more fabric until I've used some of my stash and finished some of the UFOs and PIGs waiting in the wings.  Some days I do better than others ... but that's a story for another day ...

Well, last night I couldn't sleep so into my stash I dove ... calicos or batiks ... calicos or batiks ... which will it be? 

I finally settled on batiks since I've not used them before for a Desk and Derrick project.  So out came a group of 10 fabrics that all play comfortably with each other. 

And then the real fun starts ... putting them together in groups to see which play the best together. 

Yes, I involve June from a distance via multiple emails with the different groupings ... and wait anxioulsy for her opinions and thoughts and comments.  After all, that's what quilting friends are for. 

Ready for the results?  I remembered purchasing a blueberry batik last year while I was visiting June, and pulled it out to compare with the berry and beige batiks that spoke to me the most last night.  I knew immediately this group was it!  I'm calling it Mixed Berry Pie for the moment, but that could change to Berry-licious at any time ...

Flutterbys!

Yes, fabrics have sang to me again!  I admit that these are not my "normal" color choices, but they're just lovely!  Happy - happy - happy!

I'm planning to use a churn dash layout based on a pattern I saw in a recent issue of Easy Quilts.  And am a couple of months away from starting it yet though as I have several other projects that need to be completed first.  Oh ... the anticipation!



An Off Day!

Wouldn't you know it, it's getting warmer outside and I get a migraine ... thankfully though, they are decreasing in number and severity.

I've been charged with making a quilt as a gift for a friend, so about 8:00 pm last night, I was able to start cutting fabrics.  She is very into nature and the Native American symbols of the bear, eagle and wolf ... you might think this would make finding a quilt pattern and fabric difficult but it didn't.

Out to http://www.quilterscache.com/ I went, and found a block called Wild Bears.  It uses the Bear's Paw and Flying Geese.  Perfect!

Onto one of my absolute favorite online sites - http://www.connectingthreads.com/ - there I found some yummy, chocolatey browns for the Bear's Paws.  Perfect!  I added several browns from my stash to complete the set, and make figuring the cuts easier since the quilt will have a total of 12 blocks. 

I also wanted to add some fun color to make the Bear's Paws pop but also needed something that reads as a solid so off to the Mirage collection I went ... Perfect!  I opted for a light and dark of each color: turquoise, purple, green, red, orange.

The Mirage collection also fit the bill for the background fabrics in the blocks ... I can hardly wait til it's done!

True to form, I am behind schedule on this project but I can see the finished quilt very clearly in my mind.  Despite starting out as a truly yucky day, yesterday ended quite well!

Boy did I have fun Sunday.  Last year Julie gave me a Layer Cake and several yards of 3 different matching fabric.  Well I found the perfect quilt to make the cake come alive.  It is the 10 Minute Block by Suzanne McNeil.  She has several books and YouTube video. 

So out came the Layer Cake.  I picked 5 cakes and put them together....hmmm something wasn't quite right.   I matched the color and used a light center.     It looked too matchy and the light center was...WRONG.  

So reverse stitching time!  With only 3 seams it was not difficult!  Love this Block!

I put together two more blocks before LOML (AKA Joel) came in and said, let's go to the neighbors for beer.  That ended my sewing session for Sunday.

As you can see I haven't sewn down the curved edges.  Suzanne had two different ways to sew the curves down and I haven't decided which way.

Well this morning I got up at 4AM...headed to my sewing room...what else do you do when you wake up that early?   Completed 7 more blocks...yes they are that easy....before I had to get ready for work.

Have I told you I Love this block!  Now a decision needs to be made.  Do I put together the 9 blocks or wait till April when I get to visit Julie.  Julie has another Layer Cake package of the same fabric.  Bless her heart! 

Can I wait that long is the tough question.

Last night while listening to a Just SEW It-Basic Machine Embroidery-Monogramming put on by Bernina.com I sewed on my Hunter's Star quilt.  This is going to be a king size for our bed.  I've always wanted to do a Hunter's Star and found directions on Joann Fabric.  Here is a picture of the sample I did from the pattern on Joann's website.  It is huge.  I'm going to use this sample block as the center for a personal round robin quilt.  Each quarter of this block was 12 1/2"  But I love the colors.  This blue is Julie's favorite color.  The fabric was left over from a quilt I made for Julie last year.

I took these directions and joined them with some I found on the web and downsized it so my block (with four quarter blocks sewn together) is 12 1/2".  I found three coordinating blue fabrics (light, med and dark) on Connectiong Threads that will work with our bedroom colors and put together sample blocks - one of each combination of light and med, light and dark and med and dark fabrics.  After much thought and input from Julie, I decided to do the med and dark as the two colors.  I will use the light as border and backing...I think.  I tend to decide on my borders after I get the blocks together.  Although I have been playing in EQ and I put sashing in just to see how it looked.  It gave the block a whole new look.  I only have 21 blocks done and due to sleeplessness last night I finished 19 quarter blocks (when sewn together like above these 19 quarter blocks will give me 4 and 3/4 blocks).  So right now I only have 25 blocks.  Good start but I have a way to go.  I'll keep sewing until I run out of med and dark.  The fabric is no longer available on CT.   I'll post pictures later. 

Excitement Abounds!

I have no project progress to report today, but am excited none the less.  I had a good night's sleep and woke up early ... Next Tuesday is the first night of a new class at Millstream.  It's a sampler class and one of my goals is to use fabrics from my stash to make a "happy" quilt. 

I do admit that I bought the background fabric - nothing from my stash was talking to me so I caved.  The next task is to pull fabrics from my stash.  I've found one, it's turquoise.  Life is good, so I took advantage of the extra time this morning to continue the search. 

I came across my "snow" fabrics.  I've been collecting them to make a quilt - someday.  They sang to me this morning!  I pulled out five of them.  A winter print of trees in reds, greens, aquas and white, and to go along with it an aqua, green, white and red.  I've found fabrics to make a second sampler quilt.  And all from my stash. 

I do have another  admission though ... I showed a friend my find and we both thought it needs something to pull it all together, so I did search and find online a polka dot fabric.  Well, two of them actually.  Once with red, green and aqua polka dots, another with red and green.  I'm not sure which I'll actually use but at least I know I'll have a yummy quilt when it's finished.

As a teaser, I've included a picture of the tree fabric ...

Finished!

I was able to get both borders on the Celestial Waltz quilt (from McCall's Quilting March/April 2011) last night!  Talk about a good feeling!!  I need to make the backing, and drop it off to be quilted by Ginger on Saturday morning.  It finsihed at 95" square making it the largest quilt that I've completed to date.  Now I have to figure out which fabrics to use for the binding ...



Fall For Robert

A friend asked me to make him an "American Quilt".  I sent him a bunch of links and said pick a pattern that you like and let me know what size and color.   He found this great pattern on the HomeStore site and said he liked fall colors.  At first he wanted it to be queen size, but later bumped it up to king size.  That was easy to do with the blocks.  I just had to modify the number of blocks and figure out the sashing.  I debated whether to hand quilt or machine quilt.  Due to time and my husband's health issues, I sent it out.  Ginger did a wonderful job and I was thrilled to get it back and the binding on before Robert's next visit.    The quilt is now happily at home with Robert and he loved it.

Give this pattern a try.  I think you'll love it as much as I did.

Don't forget to label your quilts and document them for your family.  I didn't take a picture of the label, but it was machine embroidered with the quilt title, Robert's name, my name, location and the date. 

QOC BOM 2012 - Block 1

Julie's block  

                                  









June's block

Stop the presses!

Well, it has truly been a slow start for us.  The odd winter weather has made life difficult for me, but things are starting to improve.  I'm crossing my fingers that I can keep the upward trend going! 

I've been working on a quilt that will be raffled in mid May at the NWOS Assembly.  It should really have been delivered to my favorite longarm spot by now ... instead it still needs two borders.  I'm hoping to get those on it tonight!