Design Wall Monday on Wednesday 1-21-2013

I didn't get as much done in the studio this past week.  No good reason that I can remember.  I found several pinwheel blocks that I made for a charity baby quilt.  The blocks are bright and don't really go together. I started making more pinwheels in bright colors but not big prints.  I was thinking that would calm down the quilt a bit.  Except, really.  Orange?  Calm.  This picture doesn't really show how bright these blocks are.  I'll need to add some more bright prints and some more calmer blocks.  The blue and fish block used a solid fabric.  I like the idea of using some of my solids as it isn't something I think to use on a regular basis. 

The reason this blog is late is I couldn't upload the photos from my iPad to Blogger.  Now I can't figure out how to take the photos from iPad to the Mac laptop.  Sigh. I'll have to search "the cloud" to see if I can find more photos...

What I worked on last week: 
• string blocks for my FCQ Equilters group.  I've got 12 almost finished with plans to make more.

• 10" pinwheels for a baby quilt.

• almost finished through step 5 on Easy Street.

• Triangle Thursdays blocks 

How did I do on my goals this week?  Not that bad.

Week of Jan. 14, 2013

Work on Easy Street* did some more units

Hand quilt hexagon small quilt *started

Finish prepping all the orange peel pieces, begin appliquing* I started the appliqué but don't know if I have all the pieces I need 

Let’s try to get a quilt on Ruthie* ok, I've got the previous bright pinwheel quilt loaded but I need to work on the tension so nothing is quilted 

On to Lessons 3 & 4 on EQ7* oops, didn't get this done 

Week of January 21, 2013

Finish string blocks

Start clue 6 of Easy Street

Clean house

Organize food for Sat night party

Play with Sophia and Natalie√What can I say, I'm ahead of the week! 

Drive home safely√

I was visiting Sophia and Natalie on Monday. (drove up Sunday afternoon and home Tuesday morning.  Just before the girls left Tuesday morning I snapped this picture.  It was really cold that morning -- I think in single digits. 

 You can still check other design walls across the internet by visiting Patchwork Times.

Yesterday on Quilty Pleasures blog my last Scrap Squad was featured.  Wow, it seems like this year flew by.  As I mentioned earlier I used more fabric in 2012 then in any year since I've been keeping statistics.  I think the Scrap Squad is one reason.  You can visit my Caribbean Vacation quilt by clicking the name. I'll be featuring it on my blog in the next week or so.  

Happy Quilting. 

Design Wall Monday 12-17-12

Progress is being made but not a whole lot that I can show you.  So I'm showing off my baskets of units.

First, SS#6 basket, all leftovers: 

And next Easy Street basket:

Good thing SS #6 is empty because Easy Street is going to be overflowing really soon. What is hard to tell here is this basket is about 2" high and is much smaller than the one above.  I'm still on Clue 2 but I'm almost done with them so will be starting Clue 3 this week hopefully. 

I also did a bit of fabric shopping this week.  These two are from AAA Quilter Supply.  I was really amazed at how fast it came all the way across the country. Shipping is quoted at around $10 and I was saving enough money on the fabric that it didn't bother me.  However, when the fabric arrived about 3 days later it was jammed into a small Priority Mail envelope so the shipping was about half of what was shown on the web page.  Was I happy with this purchase?  You bet I am! Would I order from them again.  Absolutely! I'm sure you can guess that the white and black is for Easy Street. It's already been cut and used for the little wings on the flying geese.  The green is a wide back for SS #6. I so didn't want to piece a queen size back! Here's the web page for the black and white one althought you will have to scroll down to find it. 

http://aaaquilterssupply.bizland.com/store/page23.html#5891

Everything got done on the goals list: 

Week of Dec. 10

Prepare High Tea for my neighborhood group√ You can read about it here. 

Clean the kitchen, wash kitchen floor√

Work on SS #6√  

Work on Easy Street√

Finish decorating the house√

Week of Dec. 17

Layout and sew blocks into top SS #6

Keep working on Easy Street

Work on Natalie’s Christmas present

Wrap presents

Do some embroidery on machine

I'm linking up with Quiltville's Quips and Snips for the Easy Street display and Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday. 

It's time for me to get going today.  If I want to get a quilt top put together I have to get off the computer!  Happy Quilting All!

Scrap Squad 5 Revealed

My #5 scrap squad quilt was revealed Thursday on Quiltmaker's Quilty Pleasures blog.   It seems like a long time since I finished it.  There have been all sorts of things happening at Quilty Pleasures including a treasure hunt.  

When we received Bella Amore (aka #5)  I started browsing my stash right away.  I wanted to use as much from my stash as I could.  It is so easy to see what I have in yardage as it is stored on open book shelves in the studio.  I picked a piece I had purchased in a local quilt store when I lived in Pa.  I liked the whole look of the fabric:  the color, the design, even the background color.  With that fabric in hand I started grabbing "go withs."  I looked at the yardage area of the studio and in the boxes of fat quarters and odd pieces I have on top of the book cases.  Heck, I even looked in the old plastic containers where I used to keep my fabric. Really, only the dregs are in them.  In the end I didn't need to buy all that much.  I did add the luscious dark gold used for the inner border and some greens because I ran out of them.  That brighter turquoise got thrown out and a darker one took its place and was used for the backing. 

Although this looks complicated it really is only 3 blocks: a square, a half square triangle and a quarter square triangle.  That's it.  Amazing once you figure that out.  I really love Deb Tucker's Tucker Trimmer especially for doing quarter square triangle. You can find her videos for her various rulers here. Here are some of the units. 

I didn't like the large, light setting triangles in the original quilt that was in the November/December Quiltmaker magazine.  I tried to use some of the extra units and, gee whiz!  They all fit. Notice the turquoise half square triangle. Those are some of the extra units I used in place of setting triangles.  I played around with coloration and placement on the design wall and then started putting the quilt together.  I tried to have all seams abut however that was difficult.  In some places there are 8 seams coming together.  It was not a pretty scene when I got to the long arming.  


One thing I try hard to do is use long pieces for my borders.  Yes, I'll piece my borders if I have to but if I can I'll use a length.  To make sure I have all the length I need I often refold and then cut strips off the length of fabric to use in piecing my blocks.  See the main fabric up above?  Yep, I'd already taken off a strip to use in the center of the top.  

Because I was trying to finish this in a hurry, I decided to do an open stipple on it.  It worked well except where I tried to go "over" the bumps rather than around the bumps.  Oh well, live and learn. And, honestly, you can't really tell unless you look up close.  

 The quilt traveled with me during Thanksgiving so I could do a photo shoot someplace other than my own house and yard.  My son lives next to Bristoe Station Battlefield so we took the dogs, the quilts and cameras for a walk. It was fun to stage quilt pictures in a different location. In the photo above you can hardly tell there is a big road just beyond the fence. Hum, a quilt on a cannon?  It was hard to keep the quilt on the cannon and out of the bird residue! 

Just for fun I tried to get a picture of the 4 dogs, the quilt and the cannon. If you think it is hard to get a bunch of people to all look at you, keep their eyes open and snap a picture -- try dogs and a breeze!  Three out of four isn't bad. 

Kona, Homer and Raggs watching me take the picture, Cassie staring off in a different direction. 

This quilt now resides on the wall in my dining room.  I really love the colors in this one. And, it definitely is a scrappy quilt. 

Happy Quilting All!  

Design Wall Monday 10-22-12

I'm late today because I went apple picking with the best buds!  And, let me tell you this was a hard orchard to pick in because the trees are almost terraced into the land.  We were on top of a mountain and were hiking up and down the hills trying to get to the apples.  

I don't have any partial quilts to show you as I am working on Scrap Squad #5.  But, I haven't shown you #4 yet so I'll share it now.  You can see what I said about it on Quilty Pleasures.  I used Dream Green batting by Quilters Dream.  It was great to hand quilt but it doesn't drape as well as other batts.  It was great for this smaller wall hanging.  Here it is in the red bud tree.

How about a quilt on the solar panels?

Dream Green batting ... it is definitely green.  Think of all the soda bottles that are not in the landfills because of quilting! 

On to the weekly goals.

Week of October 15

Continue on Scrap Squad√

Quilt Charity baby quilt and customer quilt√

Plan a couple of days away finally made the reservation√

Attend Wine Festival – fun!√

Week of October 22

Work on Scrap Squad #5

Draw Scrap Squad #6 in EQ

Take a few days off

Work on Sophia's sweater

Finish the small hexagon top

That's it for me today.  It's time to either make an apple cake or do a little sewing.  Decisions, decisions. And, don't forget to go to Patchwork Times to be able to visit design walls across the web. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Grand Baby Watch

Yep, I missed Design Wall Monday this week.  I was trying to finish quilting my most recent Scrap Squad quilt before I drove up to be with Jenny while we wait for the newest grand baby to join the world.  Sigh, nothing is happening.  We think she's ready to pop but not enough has been happening so here we wait. 

I've finished Scrap Squad #3 quilt, took pictures of it and wrote my part of the blog for Quilty Pleasure. I need to organize my thoughts so I can do my post here at the same time.  Just let me say I ADORE this quilt.  It is for the new baby but I want to keep it!  Ok, I'll be good and give it to him or her.  

I've had a nice week here in Maryland.  I was up for a dinner and gathering of the Cricket buddies.  Jenny met two other gals in a hs biology class when they did a cricket project, thus the name.  Since then lots of things have happened including each one having a daughter. So the girls, their daughters and the grandmothers got together.  Great fun. 

I promise to keep every one posted on baby watch.  

Happy Quilting, 

My Second Scrap Squad Quilt

Here it is ... the big secret quilt I've been working on for quite a while.  This is from the May/June issue of Quiltmaker.  And, if you don't have it run right over to Quilty Pleasure blog for a chance to win the issue and some of the Dritz Quilting Row Marking Safety Pins that I show in the blog.  Well, perhaps you should finish my blog, make a comment and then run over to Quilty Pleasure and read the blog and sign up for the giveaway. 


Ladder of Success was designed by Judy Martin who just happened to be editor of Quiltmaker magazine at one time.  We receive the quilt design about 2 months before the magazine comes out.  We don't always get all the pictures or I just didn't pay attention when I printed out the instructions.  I always print them in black and white and put in a sheet protector so I can keep all the pages together.  Can you guess that I am prone to misplacing things? 

This is one quilt where you really need to pay attention to the layout and the blocks.  Here's a mistake in the sashing block. RIP!  Notice the sticky note there?  Yep, I make copious notes about things.  Originally I was going to make it as a baby quilt or lap quilt. Once I decided to go for the twin size I had to go back and figure out how many of each of the pieces I needed to make.

I chain pieced a lot of units -- it goes so much faster.  And, I try to keep just little dabs of thread between each unit so all I have to do is snip the units apart.  Have I mentioned I am a loose thread freak?  Yep, if there is a 1/2" or more thread hanging off of a seam, I trim it.  No wonder I am a fairly slow sewer!  But, I have learned to bring the chain to the ironing board, position, iron and then quickly clip.  It does save time for me. 

Did I mention this was a fairly big quilt?  Yea, it went right off the design wall.  My design bed option is downstairs which I try hard not to use unless absolutely forced to.  Hum, would that count for aerobic exercise?  


Here I am auditioning some alternate ideas for the 2nd border.  I wanted to repeat the colors of the 9 patches in that border but they just didn't look right to me.  I finally settled on the small four patches that were in the sashing.  (Yes, what was I thinking to use the small four patches??) 


After a field trip to Sharon's house I was able to decide on the borders which are a bit different from the pattern.  The wonderful swirly print is very old and I had a limited amount so my measurements really took that into account and what looked balanced. All I have left of it partial strips.  


Once the top was done I had to evaluate the stash for backing.  I honestly thought I would have more than enough of the purple to use for the back. NOT.  I decided to use a wide back.  It turns out it is cheaper than buying yards and yards of regular width quilt fabric and much easier to not have to seam. 


Next up was loading it on Ruthie, the long arm, and quilting.  I used the Baptist fan groovy boards.  I think it adds a nice curve to counteract all the squares.

While I was at Sharon's she was working on binding a quilt.  She mentioned she uses up her bits of leftover bobbins while sewing the binding on.  I tried it and it works.  The thread colors don't seem to show to me.  Of course, I did sew it down to a colorful print.  I also roll my finished binding on a cardboard tube to keep the end from getting tangled in my rolly quilting chair. This time I cut my binding 2 1/4" like it called for in the pattern.  Normally I use 2 1/2" for my binding width.  I really like the slightly smaller size.  It made the binding a nice, full binding with approximately the same amount of fabric on both sides of the quilt.  Excellent! 


It took me a few days before I could get a picture of the finished quilt -- too cloudy and rainy.  Finally on a bright sunny morning I took the quilt outside to photograph.  Hum, it wouldn't stay on the fence so I could show all of it.  So after the fence pictures I took pics on the ground from the deck which was slightly higher.  Kona is guarding it from squirrels. 

I'm excited to start on the next Scrap Squad quilt.  I've even bought fabric for it.  It shouldn't take long and I am already in love with it.  Hopefully it will make up as quickly as I think it will. Stay tuned! 


Happy Quilting All! 

Scrap Squad Quilt #1...revealed...

Over on Quilty Pleasures, Quiltmaker's blog, my first Scrap Squad quilt was revealed today.  Here it is with Raggs -- he sure knows when his photo is being taken.  

Here's where I got my color scheme.  I saw this plate in the Louvre, Paris, France.   

I pulled turquoise, pumpkins and cream for the background.  My first attempt was cream with pumpkin. 

Here's the cream and pumpkin with the turquoise and pumpkin.  Hum, I don't really like the cream and white.  On with the turquoise and the various pumpkin/rust fabric I had on hand.  I only purchased fabric because I ran out of the turquoises.  

This was one block I had to pay attention to while I was making it!  Ooops! 

I thought I'd try something different with the blocks.  Ok, not doing it for me this way.  But, what about using this block as a border for another quilt.  I think I'll keep that in the back of the mind for the future. 

I used the extra strips to make blocks . . . 

. . . that went on the back along with the extra blocks. 

Here it is on Ruthie.  It was fun to try free motion feathers on it.  And the design was perfect for feathers.  

Here's another look at the finished quilt.  On to Scrap Squad quilt #2.  It's on my design wall at home.  

I've enjoyed my visit with Jenny, Brian and Sophia.  Jen was off from work so we got her new sewing space set up and I made a play outfit for Sophia.  Unfortunately, Sophi wasn't interested in trying it on. But she liked to pet Max the kitty. 

However, Ducky seemed to like Sophi's new outfit that Grammy made. Hopefully Jenny will send me a photo of it on Sophi some day. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Coming Soon -- Scrap Squad Quilt

Yes, the newest issue of Quiltmaker is now available on new stands and at your favorite quilting stores.  That means that sometime over the next few weeks I'll be showing off my version of Chain Reaction.   You can read more about the Scrap Squad on Quiltmaker's blog, Quilty Pleasures.  As Jean F. said in a comment 


  "Yay to the Scrap Squad members!! Go forth and be scrapalicious!!!!!!!"


Don't you love that word?  Scrapalicious  and doesn't it look fabulous in red! 
Stay tuned for my first Scrap Squad quilt.  I'm not sure when I will reveal it but it's coming soon to this very blog!


Chain Reaction was designed by Lee Heinrich. You can read her blog Fresh Lemons.  She's got some wonderful tutorials you might want to check out. 


I'm off to the Y, a little shopping, a little vacuuming (bleh!) and then some quilting.  


Happy quilting all!