Design Wall Monday, er, Tuesday 11-3-2015

Here's what I finally put up on my design wall last night.  I am tickled that I am closing in on a finish. 

It's too big for my ridiculously big design wall.  I have all of the main blocks done. (Ok, I'm correcting 3 units within 2 blocks as I had them in wrong. Thankful I caught it before the whole quilt is together!) All four corners are done.  I've started on the setting triangles.   I hope to continue working on it but it might not happen because I've got quilting customers wanting their quilts and Christmas gifts to make. But I'll be trying to work on it in between other things. 

I've also been playing with these sweet 9 patches.  They are part of a collection of fabrics and blocks and tops some friends asked me to work on. Two different relatives collections have been given to me -- one a grandmother (or maybe great grandmother) of my friend and one an aunt or great aunt.  I've already finished one quilt for them that they loved.  ARGH! I don't even have a picture of the finished quilt. What was I thinking?  Check out the quilt here as it came off Ruthie, the long arm.  These 9 patches are going to look terrific in the little quilt I will be making them.  They are 3" when finished. Enlarge the photo and take a look at the fabrics.  If you have any idea of the time period of any of them I'd love to know your thoughts.  

We were at the beach for a long weekend and my trusty featherweight and I got a lot done on Easy Street and made some little 9 patches although they may not go into the group shown above.  I did get some things done on my goals this past week. 

Week of October 26, 2015

Quilt one charity quilt√

Finish current cross stitch project progress made but still not done…

Work on Easy Street Blocks√

Start working on Christmas presents nope, didn’t happen

Add final border to Zig Zag quilt cut but not applied

Week of November 2, 2015

Quilt samples of various different quilt designs

Quilt one charity quilt

Cross Stitch – FINISH it NOW!

Easy Street – make setting triangles

Add border to Zig Zag quilt

That's it on the quilting stuff.  I want to end with a cute picture of the birthday girl from last month. 

By this time Ellie was exhausted.  After cake and honestly, she only ate a few bites, she was taken upstairs to bed where she fell asleep immediately.   She held it together pretty well considering how sleepy she was.  I had a good time even though I spent 4+ hours on the road that day.  Enjoyed seeing Sophie and Natalie too. (Oh yea and all the adults at the party!) 

I'm connecting up with To-Do Tuesday, Monday Makings and Linky Tuesday with Freemotion by the River. Stop by any of these linky parties to see what others are doing this week. 

Happy quilting all! 

Design Wall Monday 10 - 5 - 2015

Wow!  Retreat was great, wet, and cold but a fabulous time was had by all! 

The drive up was uneventful with light mist falling.   The weather rapidly deteriorated to rain for the next 3 days. Ugh.  Luckily most of the time the rain was light, at least when we had to go down for meals.  We got a bit wet but we dried off pretty well. And the best part was I wasn't even aware of the rain except at meal times -- too busy sewing and talking and laughing. 

Dorothy and I got to the retreat location by 1.  I was sewing by 2:30 or so.  Although I don't really see great progress on what I brought to work on, I know I did make progress.  

The first thing I did was quilt The Grim Reaper that I had made last year.  Easy diagonal lines finished it off.  A cute black and white check binding was added. Voila‘ and I have a little finish.  It will be hanging in the hallway little quilt gallery on the way to my studio. 

 I got 7 blocks of Easy Street finished. (That is downright depressing since that was my main activity.)  The center "9 patches" were already together.  You have to be careful with these blocks so you don't get any units turned around.  I learned that there really isn't enough room to spread out a block like this so it can be easily sewn together.  Next time, I'll bring something easier to work on.  

I made several blocks that Sharon is taking up to Faithful Circle for their bom lottery and block of the quarter drawing. The dresden is for the quarterly drawing as it used the special ruler, as requested. Of the four block of the month entries, the top right one came out way darker than reality. (The top two were Sharon's ad the bottom two were mine.) I pilfered fabric from Easy Street box.  That is a really easy block and looks like it will be fun to play with the layout. 

 

















I also finished the table runner that I donated for a silent auction that is a fund raiser.  Every year FCQ holds an auction where all proceeds go to outreach at the church where they meet.  In one night they raise a couple of thousand dollars from what I remember.  Great Job Ladies!  Even though I can't be there to make some purchases, I can certainly send something up to auction off! 

We had several nifty demonstrations during the weekend.  First was this double quarter square triangle block.  WAY cool and very easy to do.  I may play around with this and see what other blocks can be made this way. 

We also learned how to make a star pot holder.  I got almost finished but decided not to fuss with the binding ending until I got home and could concentrate on it.  Again, I "stole" the fabrics from my East Street quilt. It's the second from the right on the bottom in turquoise and lime green. 

I decided not to make placemats that were demonstrated because I wanted to use a fabric that matched the dining room/dishes better. (Hey, turquoise flowered placemats wouldn't look great with burgundy dishes!) 

My last project was sewing the center of a zig zag top for a nursing home quilt.  I will be putting 2 borders on it -- one thin one and then a slightly larger one of the bird house fabric. I'll share pictures of it after I get the borders on. 

Here's an idea of the amount of rain we had while we were up in Massanetta. (I incorrectly called it Massannutten last week.  That's a ski resort.)  Here are pictures of the small stream we crossed going to meals every day.  By the last night it had definitely swollen out of its banks a bit. It was odd that the water coming from the right was very mud filled and the water from the left was clear.   Driving home the James River was higher than I've ever seen it.  Didn't want to linger on that bridge! 

That's my report this week.  Here's how I did on my goals. 

Week of September 28, 2015

Quilt and bind teddy bear top√ need to do the last section of binding

Quilt top for Jenny √

Bind table runner √

Organize supplies for retreat√

Attend and have lots of fun at retreat√√√!!

Week of October 5, 2015

Counted cross stitch

Knit on sweater

Read a novel or two

Find curtains for the sliding glass window

Make 2 pillowcases 

We'll be checking up on the beach house. I don't plan to do any sewing until we get home. And, rats, it will take me a day to get everything put away from the retreat.  I hope to get some counted cross stitch and some knitting done down at the beach.   

Check out Monday Making to see what is going on at blogs across the internet. (I'll try to post to some more linky parties later today.) 

Happy quilting all!