The Buckeye Beauty blocks are together.  Now to decide how to put them together.  Each color set has two white backgrounds and two beige backgrounds.  Here are three layouts I'm auditioning.  What is your opinion?

this one I used both the white and beige backgrounds of the color sets and put them together to form the block.

This one I mixed up  the color sets a little.  I made diagonal rows with the background color.  beige, white, beige, white....etc. startingin the lower right corner.

This one is just a mix.

Any other suggestions?
it's fun to play!

Hello,
I finished a baby blanket but forgot to get a pic.  I'll ask my friend for a picture.  This weekend I watched an episode of Quilt In A Day.  Love that show.  She did a Buckeye Beauty and I fell in love.  It is easy and uses scraps.  So I had to jump right in and try it.  She did a wall hanging.  Mine will be slightly bigger...always have to do it bigger. 

First start out with charm packs.  Of course I didn't have charm packs, so I cut a bunch of 5" squares.  You need a background (I used two different backgrounds, white and beige).  Then cut a 'medium' and a 'dark' sets for each grouping.  Here is an example of my backgrounds and one of the medium (the yellow) and dark (the green).

On the backgrounds divide them into two equal piles.  On the back of half of the backgrounds, draw a line from top to bottom in the center of the square and another line from the left to right in the center.  This will form the four patch block.  Place one medium and one of these marked backgrounds right sides together.  Sew 1/4" on either side of one of the center lines.  Cut on the drawn line.   Open and press the seam toward the medium color.

Flip one of the pieces so that a background is on top.  The second piece should have the medium on top. Now lay these two piece right sides together.  The sewn seams should kiss and fit together. 

Extend the drawn line on the background onto the back of the medium.  Sew 1/4" on either side of the drawn line and cut on the drawn line.

The magic happens here.  Press the seams to the background fabric.  This means the one of the seams will go left and the other will go right.  The center should lay nicely to form a cute four patch.  Isn't that just the best hiddent secret of this quilt?

On the seconds set of backgrounds draw from corner to corner.  Put these backgrounds right side together with a dark.  Sew 1/4" on either side of the drawn line.  Then cut apart.

 

One you complete one set of blocks this is what you get.  You need to trim these blocks down it 4 1/4", but measure your blocks to make sure that is the right number.  I have not trimmed mine yet.  This is 1/4 of a finished block.  

 

 

Here is what the block will look like with four of the assembled blocks put togheter.  Isn't this just the best and easiest block~  Check out Eleanor Burn's Quilt In A Day show and the Buckeye Beauty block.



I want to try this for a Christmas quilt.  Wouldn't that just look fantastic!

Happy Quilting!

Potholders ...

It's another get off my "butte" night ... well, to be totally honest, it's an I don't want to go to the gym night.  And by working on this post, I can delay it for a bit longer.

I had planned to post this long before now, but life always seems to get in the way.  At any rate, the picture shows what 116 potholders look like in one of the big product bags from 31.  The blocks include 4 patch, 9 patch, disappearing 9 patch, log cabin, friendship star, churn dash, shoo fly, rail fence.

More to come ... probably later rather than sooner.

LeMoyne Star

Well, its taken me a while ... I figured that I should my "butte" in gear.  LeMoyne Star was a gift for a very special D&Der, the 2012 Region I Director.  A few facts for you ... I used, quite by accident, a total of 49 fabrics in the quilt top; I found out after the fact that purple is her favorite color; it took longer than I anticipated to complete this one; and I would make another one in a heartbeat.  Well, I should really say, that I do plan to use this block many times.  I just love it!

Below is the star block ... just had to see how it was going to look.  Don't worry, all the extra tidbits around the outer edge were trimmed off when the blocks were squared.  I will also say that when I trimmed the blocks, I opted to leave as much of the background fabric on the blocks as I could.  This allowed me to make the blocks slightly larger.

Below is my alternate block.  I used the fabrics from the star points.  I opted for something simple since the stars were what I really wanted to focus on.  Any block would have worked.

The only thing missing from the quilt top at this point is the corners.  I'll admit to not wanting to give this one up either.  It turned out so beautifully!

Is it Friday yet?

The latest update is that I do have 6 quilts, ranging in size from 37" square to 101" square, back from Ginger and waiting for me finish.  I also have 138 potholder tops quilted and will finish quilting 16 more tonight after work.  Afterward I should start cutting potholder backs but will probably get busy making bindings for the quilts mentioned previously.  Well, and get this Saturday's project ready to go ...

No fun pictures ... yet anyway.  I'm hoping to get that done this weekend also.  Below is what 138 quilted potholder tops look like though ... just in case you've ever wondered.

Julie's visit

Julie's visit was here and gone before we knew it.  Who knew that one week could fly by in a blink of an eye.  We sewed almost every night.  We started on the LeMoyne Star.  Julie got hers done and to the quilter.  I started on mine planning to follow the Links pattern from the Fons and Porter magazine, but as it progressed my plans changed.  I completed the center but then ran out of yellow fabric.  I'm heading to the fabric store to find more of the mottled yellow. 

Once the LeMoyne Star got to the stopping point, I decided to work on a baby quilt for a friend who had her second grandbaby.  She loves animals and I found these animal prints in my stash then pulled several different fabrics to go with it.  I love how it turned out.  I can't wait to get it quilted and give it to my friend!

 

 

Finally Julie showed me how to make a strip quilt with foundation.  We started with a 8" block of foundation interfacing.  cut a center 2" strip of fabric.  Then sewed strips on either side.  I can't find the blocks right now.  Everything from quilt week is stuffed back into my sewing room until I have time to clean it up.

 

Here is the Red and White Maple Leaf that I'm donating to the IMEF silent auction.  I love how it turned out and Ginger did a fantanstic job of quilting it!   All I have left is to make the label.

Can't wait till Julie comes for her next visit!

Quilting calms the nerves and brings peace to those of us that are take pleasure out of creating!



TGIF!

Talk about a wacky week, due in part to the drive home last Sunday and part because of the crazy work week.  Mother Nature isn't helping either with all of this rain.

I dropped off the LeMoyne star quilt and the Wild block table topper at Ginger's on Wednesday night ... in the middle of a down pour.  Those were the only two items I got finished at Sewing Central last week.  It doesn't sound like a lot but it is.  

I worked on the LeMoyne star quilt off and on for 5 or 6 days ... I ended with 26 stars and used 25 of them in the quilt.  I opted for an on point setting and alternated the stars with pinwheel blocks made from the same fabrics as the star points.

Thanks to June, I was able to figure out the order of fabrics for the Wild table topper.  I just couldn't get it to work until we played with them.  

No pictures though ... just haven't had time to get what I have uploaded for posting.  

Praying for a better week next week ... slower paced as I'd like to get more quilting (well, and work too) done.

Oh how time flies!

With the way that last week went, I decided to take an extra day off work and head for MN Sewing Central.  I started early and drove by the light of one of the most beautiful moons that I've ever seen.  It turned into an even more beautiful day to drive.  Traffic was excellent, even what I ran into around Chicago was extremely light.

Yes, I brought more fabric than I necessarily needed.  But June wasn't mad when she got home and Joel didn't laugh at me.

I've got the potholder blocks done!  Nancy helped be cut the Warm & Natural batting last week so I just need to get them quilted.  Then I can cut the backs and InsulBright and get them assembled.

We're making great progress on the LeMoyne star quilt ... even if it's not as fast as we intended it to be.  I'll let June tell you about her very yummy stars.

I have 26 LeMoyne star blocks done, and used 49 different fabrics.  That was quite by accident.  BUT it works out nicely as the quilt is to be a gift for a past D&D Region I Director.  As there are seven clubs in Region I, and 49 is a multiple of 7 ... well, it was just meant to be.   I've not yet decided on which layout to use, but am leaning towards on point.  I also think I'm going to alternate the blocks with hour glass blocks, or at least a version of the hour glass block.  Pictures to come once I've decided ...

Happy Quilting!
Julie

Sewing Central!

That's what June and I call it anyway ... we kind of take over the dining room at June's house with our quilting projects.  And the Spring session can now begin as I arrived at June's about 1:30 PM today.  Looking forward to my week long visit with Ollie and Tammy, too.

The worst of times, and the best of times.

My heart broke into pieces yesterday, as I had to make one of the most difficult decisions of my life.  And I'll admit that if I could, I'd go back and undo it because I'm feeling very selfish at the moment.  The truth of the whole situation is that old age, and all of it's complications, just sucks!  I miss my baby, for that's truly who she will always be, but I know that she's now free of the limitations of her age.

And through all of this, I'm also very blessed.  I visited with my friend Nancy yesterday.  She and her husband have five wonderful Chihuahuas living with them.  I spent yesterday afternoon and early evening at Nancy's house, sitting in a comfy chair with two of them in my lap.  They soaked up the attention, and I soaked up some love in return. 

I'll also be visiting with Ollie and Tammy at the end of the week.  They're the cats who live with June and Joel.  I can usually convince them into cuddling when I visit.   

The picture below was taken a couple of years ago on Christmas morning.  For some reason, I was up early (no, this usually does not happen).  As you can see, Chloe was awake.  And made the moment merrier as she refused to move.  She watched me intently, following every move that I made but absolutely refused to move.

And this one was taken late last fall, after a visit to Pineview Kennels.  Chloe tolerated baths.  Barely.  It was just to plain easier to let someone else do it, and she came home with a something fun to wear afterwards.  It was like her collar, she didn't like for me to take it off.  Eventually, she would pull it off on her own ... I was just not allowed to do it for her.

Rest in peace baby girl!

 

Almost ...

Progress again last night on my quilting projects ... the borders are on the Delectable Mountains and Country Roads table toppers/wall hangings.  One more to go, once I get the foundations printed I can whip "Wild" out!  I've also found my list of blocks for the potholders, so tonight I'll work on those.  It feels great to be catching up on my quilting projects.

I'm taking this all with a grain of salt though as I'm also watching Chloe slowly decline.  It's hard to watch my baby girl make this journey.  But I also know its one that every one of us must make at some point.  My Mom has told me that she's just doing this her way, and if Chloe is one thing, she is most definitely an independant dog.

The picture below was taken in January ... I hope June isn't upset as the quilt in the picture is was a gift from her.  She rarely stays on the bed long enough to fall asleep.  I am comforted that she does manage to get as close to my chair (sometimes even under it) as she can when I'm sewing. 

Excitement is building, along with dread, since I'll be leaving for June's house late next week.  I can't wait to set up Sewing Central and yet I want the next few days to move very slowly too.

Julie

One down ... One left to go

Well, almost done anyway.  This is the Delectable Mountains table topper/wall hanging.  Borders for sure, just not quite sure how as of yet.  I do love this how the blocks turned out, and the fact that it's a fancy pinwheel block.  And it's not a difficult block either.  I hope to get the borders on this one and Country Roads tonight after work.  Will make sure to post pictures.



Show and Tell ... Again

Let me start first with the goal was to make table toppers/wall hangings that were all close to 40" square.  They're to be used as decorations at a convention for an energy education group that I an a member of.  If you know me, you know that I have a hard time following the rules, but I am doing to my best to keep them close to that measurement.

Log Cabin Table Topper/Wall Hanging -

I goofed while cutting the center/first log of this and ended up with a rectangular vs square block.  I opted to keep going, and really do like the finished block.  You'll notice that the finished project is also rectangular.  So I decided to added borders to make it closer to square, and ended up sewing the wider border on the long edges ... once again I opted to let it go since I do like the finished product.  I've included pictures of it without and then with the border.

Country Roads Table Topper/Wall Hanging -

Well, I deleted the the picture that I took of the finished block quarters ... and I've still not decided on whether or not I want a border.  I am thinking it would look more finished with a small border.  And, as I have only a small amout of the green/gold print left, it will be a small border.  I'll see what tonight brings when I get home from work.

Yes, I had left over strips from the log cabin project.  I ran across the pattern below in a magazine from last year.  No, I don't remember which one.  Yes, I opted to not follow the pattern exactly.  I used the same size logs, but a row less than the previous project.  And you'll notice that even the background blocks are  log cabins ... had to stay focused, but I love the finished project.  I plan to use a border of the background fabric and them use some remaining of one of the log fabrics as the outer border.  This is one that I will definitely be using again ... most likely in solid colors though.  Of course in both calicos and batiks.



Project update

Despite our disappointment this week...the decision to delay Julie's visit...progress was made on both the weekend project from last weekend and the courthouse steps project.

Here is the extra ribbon border blocks. I like how the patten works as a nine patch.

Here is the weekend quilt with the ribbon border

And finally....TA DA!  Here is the courthouse steps.  I'm debating on what to do next.  I'm thinking a 1 1/2" finished black border.  then maybe a another set of blocks using the remaining strips.  I cut a lot of stips when i started this project. 

 

I am having so much fun.  I can't wait till Julie comes and we can get creative together.  She's has been a huge inpiration for me.  she has a passion for quilting that I enjoy and it spills over to me.

 

Time to get back to it.  Quilting is an Adventure.

Oh what a week this has been!

I can not tell you how happy I am that this week is finally over!  I actually prayed for strength to get through everything, and it must have worked because today is finally Friday!

I have made progress on my D&D quilting ... have the blocks for two items ready to put together.  Yay!  It does make me feel so much better having been able to get them that far.  It's also what I plan to work on this weekend.  I will hopefully have pictures to post by Sunday evening.

I have a short road trip planned for tomorrow also ... to the Sonflower Quilt Shop and the Busy Thimble Quilt Shop.  Two places that I have not yet been.  I am so looking forward to spending time with quilting friends!

And although I am glad to have made it through the week, I had another small dissapointment again today.  June found out that she has to work a couple of weekend days during my planned visit.  So, we decided to move my arrival date to a week out ... and you know what?  I was able to reschedule everything that I needed to anyway.  No way was I going to get sewing days taken away from our joint projects!

Happy Quilting!
Julie

weekend disappearing 9

Bless Julie.  She told me she was taking a break from all her projects and doing a rainbow quilt.  I have been working on the courthouse step quilt and although it isn't difficult, it takes concentration because the courthouse steps on one block match the courthouse steps on the adjacent block.  i'll tell you i've missed on one or two steps, but have pulled it out and have two rows done plus a few other blocks that I'll make fit.  But when Julie said she was taking a break I thought...me too!

I pulled out this mottled FQ set I bought from Connecting Threads and thought I'm going to do a disappearing 9 patch.  My friend, Liz, was working on that pattern at our last Quilt Kvetch, except she called it something different.  I think she got the pattern from Eleanor Burns.  Anyway, here's a picture of the middle of my weekend disappearing quilt.

 

 

 

I'm thinking I'll put a small light blue border...probably less than 2" wide.  then i want to try a ribbon border.  I saw this on a Eleanor Burns Quilt in a Day show and thought it looked cool and I've never done one.  I'll see what i have left for fabric and see what I can come up with.  I'll post again once it is done. 

 

 

Even when you're reverse sewing, you're still sewing!

 



Surprise!

Well, maybe not really, but I felt that an exciting title would be good today.  The most exciting news to report is that the STaR raffle quilt has been delivered to Ginger for quilting!  So excited to have it that far.  I'm also working on bindings of the four baby quilts I got back last week from Ginger. 

I was also one quilt top ahead, as I felt compelled to get it done.  I had no particular use/person in mind for it when I finished the top.  It's got a lot of pink, with some purple, yellow, red and brown thrown in for good measure.  Oh, and polka dots.  LOTS of polka dots!  My Mom called and told me that the Ohio Cattlewomen (I think) were having a silent auction to raise money for their scholarship fund at the Ohio Beef Expo this year, and my sister in law had asked if I had any quilts done that I didn't have a use for.  Well, it wasn't "done", but it will be tonight.  And will then be on it's way to the silent auction the 3rd weekend of March.



Happy Quilting!

Julie

While waiting for Julie's visit, I pulled out a UFO.  Courthouse steps.  I started this a couple of years ago when I was living at my Mother's when we moved back to MN and were looking for a house.  I cut 1 1/2" strips of anything she had available.  Each block has nine set of steps with a 2" black center block.  the joining square have matching steps.  so you get a secondary design.  I sure I saw this in some magazine but now i don't remember what magazine.  But the affect is wonderful. 

I found out 1/4" is not always the same on different machine.  I'm not sure which machine I was sewing on while at Mom's but the quarter inch was a LARGE quarter inch.  My machine now has a 1/4" foot.  The difference in blocks is amazing.    I didn't want to unsew all those blocks and I didn't want to increase the size of my seams in the new blocks.  I have a row of about 9 blocks that are smaller than the blocks i'm doing now.  The small blocks will probably be use those in the border.    It will be interesting to see what happens.

I have 6 blocks done and another 2 partially done.  I figure I'll make a 4x4 block center and then do some interesting things to the borders to make it a larger quilt. 

Quilting is always an adventure!

Show and Tell

Turtle quilt - a once again late gift to celebrate an addition to a co-worker's family.

Dinosaur quilt - will be a gift to celebrate an addition to a co-worker's family

 

Frog quilt - a late gift for my great-niece Brooke.

I just love the quilting that Ginger did on each of these!  Can't wait to finish the binding and make deliver them to their new homes.
Happy Quilting!
Julie

STaR Raffle Quilt

This is the second quilt that I "forgot" about ... oh how I miss my mind!  At any rate, in the Lost Time Again! post I told you about this quilt.  I finished the blocks last night!  I will actually have this quilt to Ginger for quilting very close to March 1.  Hot D*mn!!

I found the pattern at Country Fabrics in Shiloh, when Vicky and I went on our Bargello fabric acquisition trip.  Just fell in love with it.  There are sixty four blocks: sixteen are all blue; sixteen are all brown; and the rest use both colors.  I went traditional and used a red batik for the center of each block.  I also decided to make the logs a little bigger, since I wanted the finished quilt to be bigger than 78" square.  While I only added 1/2" to the logs, the finished quilt will be close to 108" square.  In this case, and since it's a raffle quilt, I decided that bigger is definitely better.

I will assemble the top tonight, and, if I have time, will also get started on the back.  I'd love to be able to drop it off for quilting by Friday, but will probably wait until next Tuesday night as I'll see Ginger at the last Gadabout class.

This also means, that I'll have my fabric cut, and be started on the prep work for the Mystery Quilt workshop this Saturday.  With the exception of the Mystery Quilt, I'm planning to focus my quilting energy on catching up with some very behind projects.

More about that in my next post ...
Happy Quilting!  Julie

New York Beauty

I found this lovely pattern in a mag of a New York Beauty.  OMG.  It was gorgeous.  So I decided to make a block for my sampler.  The pattern is paper pieced.  I'm not a big fan of paper piecing.  I've tried it before but never had much luck....well this pattern was different.  The direction were clear on how big to cut the pieces that would fun the points.  It went together easily.  I did it while our Quilt Kvetch was at my house.  I got the four pieces done.  I'll post pictures later.  Forgot to take any yesterday
When it came time to put on the outer curve...i didn't understand the directions. It showed the curves and said something about 'take away for piece d'....what did that mean. well it was only after I used the 'take away' pattern piece and tried to sew it to the paper pieced arc that I figured out it meant I had to cut a 9" square and use the 'take away' piece as the pattern to remove the fabric where the arc goes...DUH!

Lemoyne star fabric

While talking to Julie the other night, I was cutting the 1 1/2" strips for our strip quilt and I found this cream print fabric.  This is for the pattern by fons and porter called links.  Here is the pattern.  It has two sizes of lemoyne stars and an interesting layout.

Then I dug through my stash and found these fabrics to use for the star points.  The multi- colored fabric will be used for the background on the smaller stars.  In the pattern they used an orange for one of the backgrounds.   

I'm excited for the possibilities of this quilt.  I still have to find another background for the larger stars but I have a couple weeks for that.  Maybe I'll find another treasure while I'm working on another project.

Julie hasn't commented on my choices. What do you think?

Better late than never ... right?

I take lots of quilting classes at Millstream Career Center, via the Community Education side.  This is week 5 of 6 for the Gadabout class, a pattern by Eleanor Burns.  And I FINALLY got my prep sewing done!  It's not a difficult pattern, and the prep work is what takes the most time ... and as you can see, it's a fun block. 

As I don't necessarily follow patterns exactly either.  The pattern was written to use four fabrics, and the examples are really quite lovely.  But June and I are trying to use the fabrics we've already acquired.  So, I went for a dive!  I had purchased these at Forever In Stitches, a local quilt shop, so they were already together.  I didn't have enough to only use four fabrics, so I decided to change it up a little.  I'm quite happy with the result ... and as I opted to make the twin size version, I only have 36 more blocks to make.

Interestingly enough, I'd like to make another one (or maybe two).  One with a less subtle pinwheel, and one that sticks to four colors but lots of fabrics for a decidedly scrappy effect.  Yes, I do smell another J&J Project in the works, too!

~ Happy Quilting ~

Julie

Designing Diva Challenge

So ... I joined the Stitchin' Time Quilt Club this year ... And for the March meeting, they're having a Designing Diva Challenge.  I wasn't to sure about it at first, but decided that it would be a nice little break.  Yes, we only need one ... and following directions can be overrated so I started looking through my scrap pile.  I'll use a couple as fun little gifts for my nieces Caley and Cheyenne as they quilt with me. 

At any rate, it ended up being more fun than I thought it would.  And while they're not quite finished, I am glad that I took the detour and went for a dive!



Chili Fest Quilt

Yay, I finished the binding on this year's Chili Fest Quilt ... It will be raffled on Feb 23 at Washtington Elementary School.  Official stats are 59"x89", which makes it's officially twin size.  

I need to say thanks to my co-workers for their assistance in holding it for the picture.

... A close up view...



Of course, the next question is, what block to use for next years quilt.

Happy Quilting!

Julie

Julie's visit

Julie is coming for a visit in 6 weeks.  We've already been discussing what we plan to do.  We usually work on at least one quilt pattern together.   Julie usually brings a car load of fabric and leaves the majority of it here.  This year I asked Julie to plan scrappy quilts using my stash.  The ultimate stash buster!  Thankfully she agreed.  The first quilt we decided on was the LeMoyne Star.  Julie is star crazy.  But in this case we both were looking at the same pattern at the same time.  I saw a show on Fons and Porter and fell in love with the way they put it together.  It is called "Links".  It was in their magazine in 2012.  Fortunately I have a dear friend, Mar, who keeps her magazines and she had that issue.  So I now have the pattern.  I'm going to do it, but with the scrappy twist.  Julie has another LeMoyne star pattern that is gorgeous and is scrapy, so she'll probably do that.  We'll decide when she gets here. 

The second quilt is a strip quilt.  Julie wants to use pattern ease, something I've never done.  I'm excited to learn a new technique.  We're preparing strips, cutting them 1 1/2".  We'll throw all the stips together and it will be really scrappy.  I'm excited.

Then the third quilt...if we get this far...is one called Opsie daisy.  Julie brought this pattern with her last year.  It is two blocks one is a 32 squares for each block alternating with a flower applique in the other block.  The pattern shows pastels.  I can't wait to see what fabric Julie wants to use.  It should be fun to see the differences in our fabric choices. 

So this is our plan so far...but life changes things.  We need to stop looking at stuff online...hehehehe

What a beautiful day...to Quilt!

The weather outside is frightful....yes it is Minnesota and it's snowing.  It supposed to be pretty bad, worse up north but what a great day to quilt.  So that's what I did.  I finsihed the borders on the auction quilt.  I wanted to duplicate the nine patch in the corners so the borders kind of fell into place.  Here is the finished top.

Now to decide how to quilt it.  I'm not sure if I'm going to send it out or quilt it myself.  I've been practicing free motion continuous quilting on paper.  All the other quilts I've quilted I follow the pattern.  This quilt has a lot of white space so I'd like to do something special in the spaces.  The maple leaf leave me with wonder.  Again a lot of space to add some special touches.  I'll play a while.  I've never played with quilting motifs in EQ, maybe I should try that.  I'm always trying to learn new things, this would be a great time.

Finished the binding on the vegetable basket quilt.  While I was sewing on the binding I noticed a flower pot in the quilting.  Ginger is so talented.  Talked to Julie and she said there were gardening implements throughout.  So I went on a hunt and found several different implements.  That was so cool and fun to uncover.  I'm not sure where this quilt will go or who will get it, but it has been fun!