Fabric Tuesday 6/28/11

Here is the last row of blocks for my June UFO.  Then it's only the inner border and the border and I'll be done!  Won't happen by Thursday, but I'm a lot closer than last month.  I finished the May UFO Monday!
Go on over to my left sidebar and check out Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday entries for this week.  They are always fun.

Design Wall Monday 6/27/11

New items on my design wall.
First, a curvy block whose link was posted on one of my group lists.  I don't do many curves so I thought I would give this one a try.  The gentle curves were easy to make.  I also found it in the EQ block library under classic designs, orange peel.  This turned out 12" square, and I used scraps from the never ending bin.  I did have to use 4 7" squares to cut out the floral pieces you see.  Don't know what I'll do with it yet - that's why it is on my design wall.

Next is my June UFO.  I know it is late in the month, yet I am making progress on it so I am happy about that.  I've added another row to it.  You can see the 2 back sashing in the photo.  Yes, it is another quilt as you go.

A Swimmer is born


After years of swim lessons, William is now pretty good at the crawl.  What is so nice is that he is finally comfortable in the water - he goes underwater and swims like a dolphin, twirls, floats and generally looks like he's having a good time in the water.  Check out his progress:

Stash Report 6/26/11

Made a curvy block posted on a cyber group I belong to using 1/8 of a yard and another 1/8 making 2 crumb blocks as a demo for my guild of the BOM.  So that makes a grand total of 1/4 yard used this week.  Could be worse.  No yards in.

So my numbers are:
Used this week: .25 yards
Used/Donated Yr to date: 42.33 yards
Added this wk: 0.0 yards
Total Yr to date Added: -4.0 yards
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Total Yr to date Use: 38.33 yards

Is that slower than a snails pace?  LOL  Go on over to my left sidebar and click on Judy's Patchworks Times button to see how others are doing.  Judy is doing great herself!

My May UFO is done

Actually it was done Tuesday but what with 3 of the DGKs coming in and out of our home, it's been hard to post let alone quilt or sew anything.  But yes, finally got DH to hold the quilt so I could take some photos.  Here it is:
Have no clue why the border looks so blue.  It is actually a deep purple.  Oh well.  This was a kit I bought at a Judy Sisneros lecture to a local guild.  It was a nine-patch pizzazz kit.  Went together easily.  Have no clue why it took me years to quilt it.  I'll probably put a sleeve on it and hang it in the living room.  The back is a batik.  I usually use a busy print so that my quilting mistakes won't show.  This time I had to use this fabric and decided I might as well do something other than an all over.  I came up with these feathers in the corners and the setting triangles and diamonds for the nine-patches.  It's a start.
Here's a close-up:

Design Wall Monday 6/20/11

My design wall this week is the bed of my sewing machine as I am just about finished quilting my May UFO.  It's the first time I've attempted feathers - and these aren't free hand - I'm using Golden Threads thin paper roll.  I used an old neddle to outline the motif and then I pin it over the block it will be in.  I then quilt it.  I"m using invisifil thread (100wt) in a light tan.  Have a ways to go and I'm finding its hard to go over a section a second time in quilting when the paper is in the way to see where you stopped.  Since this is my first time, I got lost sometimes in the line of sewing and had to go over a couple of places three times.  What this does is make it harder to take out the paper in those tiny places.  Where are my itty bitty pointy tweezers?  Here is what the back looks like:
Please tell me about your quilting adventures with a paper motif as a guide.  And be sure to go to the left sidebar and click on Judy's Patchwork Times button to see what others have on their design wall!

Stash Report 6/19/11

Have been quilting the May UFO so haven't used up much fabric.  I did use 3/4 yard from my stash for giveaways, but I bought 1/2 yard for binding that ufo once I'm done quilting it.  That's what comes of having a ufo years old.  Didn't have anything close to what I needed and of course it's not on the shelf any more.  But I was lucky and found a batik that comes close.  Hope it works out.  Oh, just remembered!  I get to count the sashing and border of Freedom's Wings!  That's another 1 1/2 yards - woohoo.

Here are my numbers:
Used this week: 2.25 yards
Used/Donated Yr to date: 42.08 yards
Added this wk: 0.5 yards
Total Yr to date Added: -4.0 yards
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Total Yr to date Use: 38.08 yards

Go to my left sidebar and click on Judy's Patchwork Times button to see how others are doing with their stash.

Freedom's Wings is finished.

I took all the great possible names and tossed them in a box.  And pulled out Freedom's Wings.  Thank you, Bonni - I picked your title from the hat and that's what I'm going to call it.  I think it turned out nice.  All the fabric except for the focus fabric came from my stash - didn't even know I had that many stars - LOL.  The bald eagles were bought at our thrifty corner at our guild meeting.  What do you think?

Done ahead of time.  We're suppose to turn these in at our June meeting.  I have TMPB phobia so I came up with this design rather the mystery assigned to this challenge.  Can you guess what TMPB stands for?  Another fat quarter awaits the correct guesser.

The quilt tops will be divied out to our group of long armers and then returned to us for binding.  Came out 50" by 65" .

Fabulous opportunity at Annie's

You know how much I like eye candy!

 Well Annie is actually giving away this great little quilt in honor of her 400th post.  Go to http://anniesquiltorts.blogspot.com/2011/06/400th-post-giveaway.html  and give a look.  Leaving a comment could win you a beautiful Amish quilt.

Thou shalt not Covet thy Neighbor's Garden...

Well.............., at least I can look at it!  They have done such a wonderful job!
When we look across the street we see:
and here's a closeup of the flower - they're usually at the top of the plant but this one was eye - level. 

and just to the left of the first picture and across from our driveway you can see these:

I LOVE these roses!

The Fourth is Finished!

My fourth charity quilt is finished.  Yeah.  Even showed it to the Sewdality members. I got to practice as I quilted this one.  This follow the design as you quilt it is good practice for making even stitches as one moves over the top, especially as one goes around curves.  I tried to have the least stops possible, too.  I used  a stencil and chalk for the border.  All of the fabric for this one, except the binding was donated to St. Ann's for charity quilts.

Now the back had some scraps from my stash so I got to report those in my stash report this week.  I wasn't that happy with the back - I added three pieces I dug around in my basket of scraps and found that matched the Japanese fabric, but what I didn't like afterwards were the pink strips - felt they should have extended all the way to the edges by adding the dark blue first and then adding the pink.  Oh well, it is a practice piece.

Be sure to go over to my left sidebar and click on Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday to see what others are working on. Enjoy!

Design Wall Monday 6/13/11

These are still on my design wall, however I have only 4 to make and one to change and I will be able to set the blocks into a top.  These will have a 5" sashing between them.  Can you guess what will be the cornerstones?  First correct guess gets a fat quarter.

Go on over to my left sidebar and click on Judy's Patchwork Times button to see what others have on their wall.

WAYWO - what are you working on?

This WIP is done!

A while back I had a little guessing contest in which you were to guess what I was going to do with the fabric shown in the post.  Well, Billie won 2 fat quarters guessing that I was working on a rag quilt.  I did finish the top and took it to St. Ann's for someone there to snip it (that's the part I hate).  Dare did the job for us and washed it and I think it came out fine.  Our first rag quilt as a wheelchair lap quilt:
Turned out 34" by 46"  but not as a lap quilt after all.  The church was having a festival and asked each ministry for a donation to help in the raffle.  So we chose to donate the quilt and three of the ladies made up this basket:It consisted of the quilt, some Irish Creme, books, cookies, some chips, popcorn - a perfect, manly gift for a night of armchair viewing.

Stash Report 6/12/11

Not much to report this week.  It was my last week of watching Alan full time (boo hoo!).  They had an opening in the waiting list and he's going to day care.  I got an extra month, so it should not be this hard to do without him - right??

Here are my numbers:
Used this week: 1.0 yard cut into blocks for donation; 1/8 yard of scraps for a baby block.
Used/Donated Yr to date: 39.83 yards
Added this wk: 0.0 yards
Total Yr to date Added: -3.5 yards
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Total Yr to date Use: 36.33 yards

And here's the block I made.  Pattern is in the book to the left.  I love this book!  Thank you, Nancy Johnson Srebro!  It's great that most patterns have 3-4 sizes included.  My little tugboat is 6 1/2" square.

Go over to Judy's Patchwork Times to see how others are bashing their stash.  Button is on the left sidebar.

Basil from Amanda

My son's fiance bought a basil plant while she was here the last week of April for a delicious pesto she made for us to use in a pasta salad.  I inherited it when Amanda left, and boy, what a difference using fresh basil makes.  I've used it to garnish tomatoes, in spaghetti sauce, added to oven fried eggplant (recipe under recipe tab), and in making ratatouille.  Yummy!  My husband up-potted the plant and it now is flourishing on my patio.  I can run out and get leaves whenever I want.  It is going to bloom soon, so I may take all the leaves off and dry them for later use.  I want it to seed so I can grow some more plants.  Thinking seriously of starting a herb garden in a large pot to use when I cook.

A Different QAYG

As quick as the Quilt as you go is when you piece the back,  I didn't want to do any hand sewing on this one which would slow me down as I had a strict deadline, so I decided to do this one with the batting sectioned but not the top or backing.  So I made the back and got ready to quilt.  Here is the quilt back laid out and lightly stretched ( I do this by pinning the back to the carpet: first top, then bottom, then left side, then right side).  Then I laid the first piece of batting over the center diagonal section.
Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the next step, but I laid the central panel of the quilt on top and pinned it in place, and roll up the sides, then quilted it staying 1/2" away from the seam line.  This way there was very little in the throat of the machine.  Oh, yes - I made the batting sections a little bigger to facilitate the piecing of the batting later.  I really puzzled over how to quilt this, and then a light bulb went off.  Since this was a quilt for an Old Testament Studies professor, I quilted flames in the center reminiscent of the burning bush in Exodus and did a meandering pattern in the siggie blocks as did the Chosen People those 40 years in the desert. For the next section, I placed the next part of the top right sides together on the middle section  and pinned them and sewed this seam with the unsandwiched backing rolled to my right.  If you have this well pinned, use the walking foot, there won't be any puckering. 

Then I overlapped the next batting at the seam and pin.  Once this is done, I take it to my cutting table and pull the backing under the triangled top so that all I see is the batting on the left.  You don't want it in the way  or get cut by accident in the next step.
Take your rotary cutter and over the two overlapped batting near seam cut the batting with a wavy cut line. When you pull them apart the wavy cut will look like this:
Take these two pieces to your ironing boards, bring the back out again and match up the two battings and the separation will mostly disappear.  Here I have them slightly separated. 
Once you have it matched, cut long strips of 1-1 1/2"  fusible interfacing and place it over the two edges.  Iron the interfacing in place.
Your batting is now continuous on this side.  Bring the top part over the batting and pin baste.  Roll up the quilt and start quilting  with the small roll right of the needle.  I quilted the whole side but not the border.  Those I did at the end with a loop pattern. Once that was done, repeated the process for the other side.  I then quilted the borders, and bound it.  Here's the finished 52" square quilt in case you missed it on the previous post.


This is my favorite QAYG method so far.  I will definitely do one like this again since it's completely by machine.

Do click on Fabric Tuesday button on the left sidebar and see what other's at Quilt Story are posting.

Design Wall 6/6/11

While I can't claim the fabric for this rag quilt as part of my stash report (it's not from my stash), I do have it on my design wall as it will be a 36" square charity quilt for members of St. Ann's Sewdality to finish. The flannel was donated by one of our ladies. This is folded so you can see the back and front (with unclipped seams).

Stash Report 6/5/11

Got the back of last month's ufo found, cut, iron and pieced.  So I have some changes in numbers for the week.  Now to quilt it - I actually got it sandwiched.  Also what is #8 or this month's ufo?  Will have to investigate.

Here are my numbers:
Used this week: 1.5 yards
Used/Donated Yr to date: 38.70 yards
Added this wk: 0.0 yards
Total Yr to date Added: -3.5 yards
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Total Yr to date Use: 35.2 yards

Go to my sidebar and click on Judy's Patchwork Times to see how others are stash busting!

Book Giveaway winner

is Diana

"I too am already a follower. I spend my summers home, working outside until it gets too hot."
Diana Davis


Congrats, Diana - send me your snail mail and I'll get this great book out to you.

Enjoy!
Angie

SAHRR Round 5 and 6

  Ready to show rounds 5 and 6. Actually, the prompt for 5 was make 4 of something. So I chose four patch, and actually since that made my q...