Design Wall Monday 9-30-2013

This is a top secret project that I'm almost finished with.  Just a little hand sewing left to do. Complete pictures will be posted later. 

Last Wednesday I used my new studio for a mini-pillowcase day.  Kay's sister is involved with hospice and had asked Kay to make pillowcases for her clients as part of a Christmas event.  Kay provided the fabrics and had done most of the cutting.  Janet and I provided some of the labor. 

Here's Kay pinning one of the cases.  She pinned all of the cases.  I serged all that we finished that day. Janet ironed all of the fabric, turned the pillowcases and then ironed the finished projects.  The 3 of us finished about 14 cases.  Kay was able to pin the other 7 so all she had to do was sew them up. 

A selection of finished cases.

The finished cases ready to go.

On to the goals.  I'm surprised I got as much checked off as I did.  I had two days where almost no sewing was done because I was out and about with Pat. And another day off with friends.  Here are the results. 

Week of September 23, 2013

Trim Bumble Bee & Flowers Quilt√

Sew the binding on it√ done after too many years!

Finish sewing Orange Peels together into a top

Finish loading peach quilt and quilt it√

Make binding for the peach quilt√

Make pillow cases with Kay and friends for nursing home√

Finish sewing blocks into rows for shaded 9 patch

And this weeks - - - 

Week of September 30, 2013

Finish secret project to take on retreat

Make another secret project

Figure out what to bring on retreat to work on

Go to Patchwork Plus and then to RETREAT!

Start and maybe finish a couple of projects @ retreat

Work on black and white log cabin

Attend Aimee’s baby shower

I'm looking forward to Country Piecemakers retreat this week.  I'll be meeting up with friends Thursday to do a little shopping and then head to the retreat center and start sewing.  It looks like we'll have gorgeous weather too.  

Go take a look at Patchwork Times so you can find links to all sorts of other design walls this morning. 

 Happy Quilting All!

We Have a Winner

Congratulations to renaekh who said:

I own a Bernina 440QE. She doesn't have a name yet.

Here's the picture of the Random Number Generator I used to find this winner.

I will be getting the Mighty Bright LED Sewing Machine Light in the mail as soon as I hear from renaekh with her mailing address.  Thanks all who entered.  If you want your own Mighty Bright Sewing Machine Light I recommend you sign up for special promotions  from Mighty Bright.  They have sales at various times during the year and you can get the light for a discount.  

I've been busy working on two projects on my weekly goals.  Bumble Bee and Flowers is just stitching down the binding by hand.  The peach one is well in hand.  

That's it for tonight.  Thanks to all who entered.  On to the next five years! 

Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday 9-23-13

Here we are at Monday again.  Do you think the month is flying by or is it just me?  I'm getting things done but wow time flies when you are having fun! 

I've been working on blocks to send off to various people.  First up are my blocks for Alycia's Quilt of Valor Big Blowout Block Drive.  You can still make some of these blocks and send them in to be in her drawing.  Check out the directions here.  Deadline is October 31.  Yep, plenty of time to use up some of your stash.  I had to cut fat quarters for the bigger star sections but the strings all came from stash.  Yahoo! 

Directions for block 2 of the Big Blowout Block Drive are here.  I had to cut some of the yellow/golds but the rest were from my collection of 2.5" strips.  Yippee! This block is so effective. (someone clue me in if I'm suppose to be writing affective.  You'd think I would have learned that one by now!  I need a quick test for that and don't tell me affective means action ... it doesn't always work for me!) 

These will be going in the mail either today or tomorrow.  Along with other blocks I've made recently. These blocks go to Amanda of the Quilting Bee group.  She is making a nautical flags quilt.  I have to admit I chose easy blocks but boy did they make up fast.  Can you guess what I wrote here?  I'll tell you at the bottom of the post... You can find the pattern for these blocks here. 

And my last batch of blocks are for the block of the month lotto drawing at Faithful Circle Quilters.  It is from Quiltville.com and is called Crayon Box.  Click on the name to go to the directions. I've got several more in the works so I need to finish them today to get them in the mail with my membership renewal.  Loved that all this fabric came from my 2.5" strip drawer. This will be a very scrappy quilt when done. 

I've also been sewing the blocks of the shaded 9 patch together, the orange peel and the crazy little triangle quilt. No pictures of those yet although I did finish sewing all the little triangles together.  On to my weekly goals... 

Week of September 16, 2013

Bind Bumble Bees & Flowers quilt um, the binding is ready….

Make last 3 QOV blocks and mail to Colorado√

Get peach quilt on Ruthie and start quilting backing is loaded, the panto is prepared

Finish sewing orange peel blocks together well, progress has been made

Use 4 patches from demo to make a baby quilt I’ve made some more blocks but I haven’t any space on the design wall to lay it out.

Continue sewing the mini triangles together√

Week of September 23, 2013

Trim Bumble Bee & Flowers Quilt

Sew the binding on Bumble Bee & Flowers

Finish sewing Orange Peels together into a top

Finish loading peach quilt and quilt it

Make binding for the peach quilt

Make pillow cases with Kay and friends for nursing home

Finish sewing blocks into rows for shaded 9 patch

And, the Tea Group will be meeting this week.  I'm looking forward to hosting the gals making the pillow cases in my new studio.  So I do need to vacuum, dust, clear off the various sewing and cutting spaces, and set up a couple of more sewing machines.  Yep, isn't that great.  I can probably have 4 or 5 sewing machines set up and running in this wonderful studio. 

Saturday was my 5 year anniversary of blogging.  Check Saturday's blog for information on my giveaway.  You have until Thursday, midnight EST to sign up for your chance to win.  

And don't forget to visit Patchwork Times to find links to blogs sharing Design Wall Monday with you.  The flags above are PBS -- one of my favorite tv stations and hubby and my initials. 

Happy Quilting All! 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! And a Giveaway

Five years ago I started my blog.  And I've been blogging on and off ever since.  Here's what's up today.

For a while I've been receiving some wonderful 1/2 yard stacks of fabrics from Pink Castle as a gift from Kevin and Aimee. Every month I received 6 half yard pieces based on the color wheel.  You can read about it by clicking on the link above.  I liked it as a gift so much that I've continued it as a gift to myself.  I am planning on going through the one year cycle.  It's so much fun to open an envelope each month and have glorious fabric fall out.  Here's September's selection.  And, just a note, if you are looking for traditional fabric or historical fabric, this isn't the place for you.  

September fabric from Pink Castle's Stash Stack Club. 

And, now with no further ado, on to my giveaway.  I recently bought several Mighty Bright LED Sewing Machine Lights.  Here's what it says about this light on the Mighty Bright web page. 

"This one's designed with the sewing aficionado in mind. The immensely popular Sewing Machine Light is a versatile, energy-efficient and cool-to-the-touch LED light for use in sewing, embroidery, and detail-intensive projects. We listened to our avid sewing friends, and created a light to meet all your needs. Cordless? Check. Flexible? Check. Detachable? Check. The Sewing Machine Light provides bright white pinpoint illumination in hard to see work areas. Compact with an adjustable 5.5” bendable neck, it comes with a unique adhesive base can be affixed onto any sewing machine surface—providing essential lighting for poorly lit machines, especially near needle or seam ripping areas. The detachable LED light can be moved between bases (two included) for optimum lighting flexibility."

So here's the deal.  To win this light with 2 bases just leave a comment on today's post and tell me which sewing machine you own needs a new light.  I've named most of my machines so I'd be happy to hear what you've named yours.  The drawing will be next Friday, Sept. 27.  And, make sure you have left an email address for me to contact if you are an anonymous poster.  I won't mess with numbers of entries, as in post to your blog get another entry,  but feel free to spread the word.   And, to be eligible for the drawing you must live in the US, sorry international folks I don't want to have to find out if it is legal to ship these to other countries. Last requirement is you must post a comment on this post to be eligible.  **All comments must be posted by midnight, Thursday Sept 26, EST.** Just added this to make life a little easier.  

I leave you with one of my little knickknacks that hang around in the studio with me.  

Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday

A busy productive week has just passed.  I made great strides on my to do list and am now ready to tackle new things, well, or actually finish what I've got started! 

I finished the last two rows of the split 9 patch.  See the last one on the floor?  And, I've started sewing the rows together.  Back of the mind is processing what I should do about the borders... any thoughts folks?

Well, rats.  This is hard to see.  What I'm trying to show is the bumble bee I quilted into the Bumble Bee and Flowers quilt.  You can see the body but the bottom wings are off the edge of whatever this was sitting on.  His head and antenna are to the left but I can't see them at all.  Try clicking on the photo for a bigger view.  Point is the quilt is off of Ruthie and ready to be bound.  In fact, I'm ready to sew the 300" of binding together. 

I continue to make progress on my itty bitty triangles.  I'm slightly crazy to being doing this one but it is moving ahead.  And, I do have a wonderful gallery wall to hang it on when done. 

Most everything has been checked off on the weekly goals. Yippee! 

Week of September 9, 2013

Try to finish up quilting on Bumble Bee quilt√

Make 5 of each of the QOV blocks Still need 3

Finish the shaded 9 patches, start sewing them together√

Sew the orange peel blocks together√ not finished but well started

Prep parts for block demo at guild√

Work on X blocks as time permits never happened

Week of September 16, 2013

Bind Bumble Bees & Flowers quilt

Make last 3 QOV blocks and mail to Colorado

Get peach quilt on Ruthie and start quilting

Finish sewing orange peel blocks together

Use 4 patches from demo to make a baby quilt

Continue sewing the mini triangles together

Do you want to see what is going on in studios and sewing rooms across the Internet?  Check out Patchwork Times. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Small Quilt Gallery

The long hallway into my new studio has been put to good use.  It is now a gallery of small quilts I've made and been given. This is looking from the studio down the hall.  Interestingly the light over the front section is actually facing the quilts; the rest of the lights are shining down.  We got a hanging system from Ikea, Dignitet.  It has the posts that stick out and a wire that goes the whole length of the wall with supports.  There are little clips on the wire that I've hung the quilts by.  Cool.  Easy to change out the quilts.  But now I have to figure out where I've stashed all of them. I'm not allowed to hang anything over the short door as that leads to attic storage.  

The tumbler quilt was made by Heather Wald in 2010.  Small Quilt Talk group on Yahoo seems to do a small quilt swap every year.  She was my first swap partner.  The little red quilt is my interpretation of the Temecula Quilt Shop's 12 Days of Christmas quilt.  I finished it in 2013.  

This is a quilt I made and hand quilted but I didn't put a label on it.  Oops.  I have no idea when I would have done it.  

This cute little twister was made by Patty Levine for the Small Quilt swap in 2011.  Next to it is a little Amish quilt I made in 2010. 

These last two quilts didn't quite have enough light on them to get a great picture.  The little baskets were made for a class I taught at Seminole Sampler in Catonsville, Maryland.  I'm guessing it was in the late 1990s.  Darn, no label, again.  The blue is from a challenge from the Small Group Chat yahoo group.  This quilt is either in one of Kathy's book or she wrote directions for the group.  Recently she's been selecting one of the quilts from her books and that becomes our monthly challenge.  Except, I hardly ever get them done.  I've got so many other quilts calling my names! But now I have a real incentive to make them.

On the other side of this hallway is my long run of shelves where I store a lot of stuff.  The first few units are my fabric stash and then books, yarn and finally stamping supplies. (Oh why did I decide to buy SO much stamping supplies?)  

That's it for tonight. I'll try to get a picture of my stash in the light one of these days.  

Happy Quilting All!

Triangle Thursday #23

This design is number 1266a in Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. It has two sources.  The first is Farm & Fireside a periodical that included quilting patterns begun in 1884.  This block was published in 1904.  Lady’s Art Company listed this as pattern #519 available between 1928 to 1934.  They called it Turnstyle while Farm & Fireside did not name it.  One thing I noticed is if you change the coloring you change the name of the block. Don't forget you can get a pdf version to either save or print here. 

Cutting directions are for 6”

Fabric	Number to cut	6”
Squares to make small Triangles, 1 light and 1 dark	1 of each	4 ¼” squares, sub cut on the diagonal twice to make 4 triangles.
Large triangles	4	Using 3” triangle template, or 2 squares cut 3 7/8 cut in half diagonally.

Here are the pieces that will make up this block.

Like last block we are cutting the small triangles with the bias on the right angle and the straight of grain on the long side.

Sew two short sides of the small triangles together.  When you sew the triangles be consistent.  In my case, I always sewed with the dark side up.  That way all of the finished pieces were the same. (Again, ask me how I learned this!!) Iron the seams to the dark.  

Once again, I needed a method to make sure the little triangle unit lined up correctly with the bigger triangle.  I folded the larger triangle over and finger pressed the center. That was lined up with the seam of the small triangle unit. Sew the small triangle units to the bigger triangle unit, right sides together. I ironed the seam to the bigger triangle.  

Next square up your unit to 3 ½”.  Lay out the units as shown in the photo above.  Sew them into rows; sew the rows together into the block.

I ironed the seams so the center seams spinned.

This was a surprisingly easy block. Of course, part of that is there aren't that many pieces. 

You might be wondering why I'm not really using all of my scrap triangles for this series of blocks.  I am going to use these blocks to make a small quilt that I'm donating to the guild in Maryland to sell at an auction.  Hum, sounds like killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.  I have a big box of these fabrics which I'm trying to make a dent in also.  

Happy Quilting!