Design Wall Monday 8-11-2014

Travel time took away from quilting this past week but it sure was fun to see the grands! 

Here's what has been worked on -- I fixed the block I showed here.  I've sewn blocks from 5 rows together.  I hope to start sewing the top 4 or 5 rows together today as I don't have room to add the last 3 rows.  Sad part is I've cut all the pieces to finish the inside and I've run out of the background.  I need to make an effort to find more as there is not enough left to finish the last row.  Plus I'm hoping to find some more of the blue star points and some of the burgundy or something in that color for the borders.  The print fabric is ancient.  The burgundy is actually an old Moda Marbles so I'm hoping I can find some of that but who knows whether it will match or not. The background I got at a local store so I might have some luck. The blue is a newly purchased fabric also. 

Once this is as far as I can get it I'll start on the dresden baskets.  I did fix the baskets up to see if I would like the orange as the sashing.  It does work well and I have enough of that fabric to do it. 

And here's a close up

I have been working on a few more rows for the Row by Row but no pictures yet.  I've got three done and a fourth one started. 

Here are the goals: 

Week of August 4, 2014

Finish making star blocks from mystery√

Bind the three yards, 3 baby quilts

Keep working on row by rows√

Birthday party for the grands!√

Work on disappearing stars√

Dresden Baskets – time to sash

Explore sashing for A Tisket, A Tasket

And this week I'll be working on -- 

Week of August 11, 2014

Sew blocks into rows from mystery

Finish binding on 3 baby quilts

Add border top and bottom to small heart quilt

Keep working on row by rows

Sash Dresden baskets

Work on new Christmas Favorites block or sash A Tisket, A Tasket 

And here's why we went a traveling this past week. Natalie and Sophia had a birthday party at the Train Room in a local park. Natalie can sure eat a lot of pizza for being only two!

Sophie likes the construction worker dress-up her Nana gave her. 

We stayed with Ellie so I got some new pictures of her.  Here is a new selfie from us. Yikes I look like my Grandma Rowe.

Take a look at Patchwork Times to see design walls across the Internet.

Happy Quilting All! 

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Quilting All! (or in my case ripping)

Design Wall Monday 8-4-2014

First up, thanks to everyone who added a comment about the Dresden plate baskets last week.  I have some great ideas to audition and then finish the top. But I had a fairly lazy week quilting-wise so you won't be seeing a finished top  this week.  I had two ebooks I had reserved become available and the next day a paperback from my local library became available.  So, I spent a lot of my time reading.  But I still made some progress on several of my projects. 

The design wall looks pretty much the same -- dresden baskets and the stars from the mystery quilt take up most of the room.  So today I took a picture of the progress I made on Capital Quilts' row by row pattern.  The design is striking with the US Capital, the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial.  

I am still enamored of it despite it being a really fiddly block to make.  You have to make templates, yes, I said templates.  The only template plastic I could find in the studio was non-melt mylar for appliqué.  So I have these great non-melting templates for a pieced block.  Oh well.  They took a bit of time but I'm so happy they turned out so well.   Hum, the top of the Washington Monument didn't come out right.  I'll have to fix that before I adhere it and stitch.  I cut  the silhouettes with my rotary cutter, an exacto blade and small sharp scissors.    I hope to finish this row today and start on another one.  

Here's a quick photo of one of the 3 yards, 3 baby quilts.  I bought 3 yards of one of the front fabrics for the backing.  I loaded it up on Ruthie so I could quilt all three at the same time.  Talk about time saver!  This picture is before quilting and the color is way off.  Once I get the binding on and we have a sunny day I'll get some out door pictures.  I learned several things the most important is don't use directional  fabric with this quilt!  The red fabric was also the backing fabric.  I had to load the quilts sideways on Ruthie which works fine for the most part on the back but I don't like it as well on the front.  I'm sure these charity quilts will be well loved anyway.  I've already found several smaller pieces of fabric that I can use this same concept with but not make 3 at a time.  I have almost no 1 yard pieces.  I tend to buy 1/2 yards. By the way the color is way off on this picture.  

Despite reading a lot, I got most everything on my to do list checked off.  Here's last weeks goals list.

Week of July 28, 2014

Shop Hopping!√

Bind the charity quilt√

Finish making star blocks from mystery√ except I have several left to make

Make the 3 yards, 3 baby quilts√ and they are quilted!

Tea Group and Alumni Event√

Decide and work on Dresden Baskets hum, haven’t made a final decision but I have some great ideas

Work on next row by row block/s√

Find and work on the Disappearing Star blocks √ found but haven’t done anything to them yet.

Week of August 4, 2014

Finish making star blocks from mystery

Bind the three yards, 3 baby quilts

Keep working on row by rows

Birthday party for the grands!

Work on disappearing stars

Dresden Baskets – time to sash

Explore sashing for A Tisket, A Tasket

I don't have much else to do this week so I should be able to get most of these items checked off. 

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times.  Hopefully I don't spend hours visiting all sorts of Design Walls this morning.  I do go check many out throughout the week.  There are always so many good ideas to spark my creativity.  

Happy Quilting All.