My Current Project

This latest project is one I began on a whim. It is not listed on the 2013 goals as I didn't discover the fabric in my stash until well after I made the goals list. But, I did want to leave room for spontaneity, and this is definitely spontaneous!

I have had the pattern marked in this book for a long, long time. I have looked in fabric stores for just the right blue toile on an off-white background, and have never found one that satisfied me. Well, while digging around in my blue stash, I came across a 3-yard piece of fabric that met the color requirements, but it is not toile. I decided to go with it anyway. A quilter is permitted to take liberties with a pattern, right? It doesn't have to look exactly like the picture - deviate, if you must! I certainly do, and read lots of blogs from others who do this, too.

Anyway, this is the book, in case you wondered, and here is the fabric I found in the stash. Add in some random print 9-patches, and, ladies and gentleman, I will soon have a quilt!

While at Terry's on Thursday, I got real busy on making 9-patches. That is always fun. They go together so fast, and you really feel as though you've accomplished something when there's a big ol' pile of 9-patches by the sewing machine!

Then I began with the triangles.

Easy stuff.
Fast stuff.
Fun stuff.
Satisfying stuff.

That about covers it, right? *grin*

I was still plugging away at it on Sunday evening, and got all my pseudo-toile blocks done.

Allow me to insert a bit of a sidebar here. I was whacking away when cutting these blocks and triangles, not doublechecking measurements like I should. I discovered (too late) that the light block is to be cut at 6.5 inches, and I had cut them all at 6 inches. DRAT!! I stewed about that for awhile, and decided that I would try to make it work. And I did. A new quilter might not want to try doing this, but I figured with my years of sewing and quilting, I could figure out how this will be okay. I adjusted the stitch size down a bit, and was careful to sew each seam the same way. I think I will be fine when it comes time to stitch the whole thing together.

What would you have done? I couldn't see wasting the fabric, and I didn't want to find an alternate fabric. Make do, isn't that what our ancestors would advise??

Okay, so back to the construction of the quilt. I put 4 blocks together on the ironing board to see the effect, and I am so pleased. It is going to look wonderful, if I do say so myself!

I had several random leftover 2.5-inch squares, so I piddled around with them and made a 16-patch block. Who knows when and how this will come in handy, but I bet someday it will!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

QwF* at Terry's

* Quilting with Friends

Last week was a good week for this quilter, as I had three different opportunities to quilt with friends. Monday had Sharon P. here at my house. Tuesday took me to Mary's barn. I now want to show you some of the stuff we worked on at Terry's house on Thursday.

At the barn on Tuesday, Terry was attempting to sort blocks for a WIP (work in progress). She found it was a little more than she could handle without spreading out all over, so it came home with her for work on Thursday.

And what do you think?? Looks pretty awesome, doesn't it? I love the mix of 4-patches and 9-patches. Very cool. Here is the pattern, in case you want to make one, too.

Can you read it? It's from Country Threads and is called Quest For Freedom.

Sheryll was with us for just a short time before she had to leave for an appointment, so I do not have any pics of the project she was working on. Now that I think of it, I don't think I have any pics from Sharon O.'s project, either. I am slipping! See below; I attempt an explanation for the spotty coverage of projects. *hanging head*

We did have a nice visit from a friend who stopped to drop off 2 quilts for quilting. Laura, a fellow guild member with Terry and Sheryll, and whom I've met on a few occasions, had a couple of beauties.

This 9-patch and redwork quilt was done by Laura's mother. Isn't it great? Here is a shot of what will be used as the backing.

Toile! Love, love, love it! Farm animals in the embroidered redwork, and farm scenes in the toile. Perfection.

This is Laura's, and I just don't think my picture does it justice. The backing is there in the bottom corner, which is evident. The prints used in this contain a bit of yellow which isn't showing up. Anyway, take my word for it - it's wonderful, and Terry will do a masterful job of quilting it.

I am rerunning this quilt because Laura mentioned that she wanted to see it. I showed it in this post, if you want to go back. The pattern is called Best of All, but I do not have the company who published it.

This blue and cheddar quilt came out for a look-see, but I must have been engrossed in my own project, so alas, I have no details to offer.

I find that I do that a lot, friendly readers. I have enough awareness of a situation to take a picture, but then I fail to get the pertinent information for the quilt or the WIP, and then I am left with having to guess at what I am sharing. (Perhaps there is a good reason I did not try to become a journalist.)

Anyway, there's what I have for you. It feels slightly "undone," but it's all I've got!

I have a new start. I will share bits about it in tomorrow's post.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sherrie's Star Quilt

Back in June of last year, we had our annual Quilt Camp. Talk is building already about this year's camp, but last June, there was one particular quilt that I have wanted to follow up on ever since sharing that initial post so many months ago. If you would like to read the back story on this, do so by clicking here. I talk about many of the quilters from quilt camp in that post, but if you scroll down far enough, you will see Sherrie's beginning.

Once we broke camp at the end of the week, the projects went home, never to be seen once finished! This quilt was finished and given to the bride and groom, but I pestered Sherrie enough that she furnished me with some pics of the finish.

Yaay!

Don't you love it? As I said in the June post, this was to be a quilt for Sherrie's niece. Well, the wedding was in October, and Sherrie gave the newlyweds the quilt in February upon their return from a belated Hawaiian honeymoon. How nice to come home to this!

The fabric is called Memories in Provence by designer Monique Dillard for Maywood Studios.
The pattern is called A Bouquet of Stars from the book Clever Quarters, Too by Susan Teegarden Dissmore.  

Can you see how pretty the quilting is on it? I do not know who did the quilting, but I am a fan! It looks great.

Okay, so how soon will it be that I am dying to make this quilt? I don't seem to be able to control my urges to make every beautiful quilt I see. I know where I can get the pattern, and I definitely have plenty of fabric in the stash...

I see a plan formulating. Hmmm...

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Quilting At The Barn

This past Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending one of Mary's quilt days at "The Barn." I showed you the pineapple blocks we all made in a recent post.

Since that block was so easy and went together so fast, we brought other projects to work on to complete the day. I will show you some of these projects.

Mary, our hostess, was working on a really sweet bag made from an Amy Butler pattern, called Frenchy Bags.

Monica is a regular at the barn events. On this particular Tuesday, she was working on a project with some very tiny pieces.

My apologies for the blurry pic, but the size of the pieces is evident, nonetheless. I love quilts like this, but I know tiny pieces are sometimes tedious. The upside is you get an awesome quilt; the downside is that the piecing is labor-intensive. You just have to weigh it out and see how bad you want that quilt, I suppose.

Cherie was in the beginning stage of a new project. The table runner called Seven Santas is what she has started.

 

Cherie says she will have it done for Christmas, so good luck to her! I wouldn't have the confidence to do it, I'm afraid. I have not been bitten by the wool bug, and I hope it stays that way! I can't afford to deviate from my main focus - quilts made with cotton!

 

 

Pam was appliquing this house onto ticking. I did not see her pattern, so I can tell you nothing more about it! Sorry!

 

And, I am sorry, too, that I do not have the project that my newest quilting acquaintance Gwen was working on. This "nose for news" was too busy, I suppose, working on my own things.

 

I would normally show you Terry's and Sheryll's projects, but since we quilt together frequently, I will more than likely have other opportunities to show their items.

 

I am calling it a night, folks.

 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 





Stuck In My Head

Do you ever see a quilt that is just so wonderful that it gets stuck in your head? It happens to me - a lot! - and I figure it must also happen to other quilters.

The quilt that is currently in my head is one I saw weeks ago at Old Town Fabric Shop in Chillicothe. It wasn't even on display yet, and unquilted, but Kelly showed it to me. Oh-my-gosh!! It really caught my fancy!! I blogged about it, and you can click here if you want to see my first encounter.

Well, now it has been quilted, and Kelly has it hung in the shop above the fabrics it was made with. I seriously think the only way I will "unstick" this quilt is to make it! And look at how simple it would be! It would go so fast, and be so satisfying to work on it!

Yikes, I am talking myself right into it, aren't I? I just re-read that original post, and I was talking myself into it then, too. Gracious. I am hopeless.

I have an idea...

Will you girls who know me and read this, please tell my family that gift certificates to Old Town Fabric shop would be lovely as Mother's Day gifts??? Please?? *grin*

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Internet Issues and Pineapple Blocks

I am attempting to get a blog posted this evening, but the internet seems slow and sluggish tonight for some reason.

On Tuesday I went to Mary's barn for a class on making a pineapple block that was foundation pieced on stiff muslin.

Since I am having such a hard time getting things to work I will show unedited pictures. Doing it all would just take too long.

This is the pattern we used. Mary asked us to cut our strips ahead of time, so stitching the block went super-fast - that is, if you didn't forget to flip a triangle forward or something like that (I did this about a half dozen times, daggumit!!)

This is a rather blurry pic of a sample that Mary had for us. Most of the blocks attendees were making were not of the "modern' variety, however.

This is my block. I made three that I have sewn together to make a table topper for summer. I think these bright colors will be perfect for that purpose.

Here is one that one of the girls was working on and you can see the foundation muslin. Again, I have some blurriness. I did no editing of these pics. (I tell ya, I am slacking!)

I really like these that use repro fabrics. Mary had made an entire quilt of these types of fabrics.

There were 8 quilters present: Mary, our hostess, Terry and Sheryll from our Frankfort group, Monica, Cherie, Pam, Gwen and myself. I could not match up the stitcher to her pineapple, so you get unidentified blocks. 

Last, I will show you the full size quilt that Mary made using this pattern. 

I like how she mixed the black geese and the white. Makes for a very interesting quilt.

Okay, I feel as though this is a post that is rather lacking in effort; I will try harder tomorrow.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Turtle Baby Quilt

Water creatures must be the theme lately for baby quilts. While I was busy working away on Kissing Fish for my friend Vickie's due-in-July granddaughter, my Frienzie Kay was working away on this quilt for our mutual friend, Emily, who's baby is due very soon.

Kay machine appliqued the turtles with their variety of specks, swirls and stripes, along with all the stars and other whatnot onto this great striped fabric. As if that wasn't character enough, the quilter, Linda, did a magnificent job of quilting it! Each element is treated specifically for effect, and the swirling look of water in the background fabric is perfect. If you look closely, you see that many Kaffe Fassett fabrics are used in this unique quilt. I love how the variety works together so perfectly for this quilt.

This picture shows the borders and the backing. Kay used a nice mix of batiks and Westminster fabrics. Here are a few more views and close-ups.

 

 

I apologize for the wacky coloration on all of these. The pics were taken in 3 different rooms of 2 different houses. lighting does makes a huge difference. Kay tells me that "ownership will be transferred on Saturday," but Emily has seen it, and I am not ruining any surprise by featuring it here a few days early. Emily actually went to the fabric store and selected the pattern and the fabrics. Isn't it fantastic?

Today, I finished reading The Round House by Louise Erdrich. I am looking forward to our meeting tomorrow evening. Tomorrow after class, I will be going to Terry's to sew, which makes me glad I got the reading done today.  I have a full day scheduled, don't I? Class, then sewing at Terry's, then book club. I have no idea what I will work on tomorrow while at Terry's. I am heading up to the sewing room now to figure it out.

Happy Quilting, Friends!