Square Deal

In the previous post I mentioned a quilt called Square Deal that was made with 30's reproduction fabric. I have now finished 35 blocks. 

The original pattern calls for 49 blocks and is a 95.5 inch square quilt. I don't really care for square quilts so I only made 35 and will set them 5 x 7 this will still make a large quilt. I thought I had made a picture of most of the blocks on the design wall, but I guess that was the one I took with my cell phone and posted to facebook. I had to lay them out on my king size bed to get placement of blocks the way I wanted them. I now have the rows pinned together and hope to get them sewn in the next few days. 

I am trying to keep up with Bonnie Hunters mystery this year and all I lack on step 3 is the additional cutting. Hope to get that done this morning before I go to work. After tonight's shift I have early tomorrow and then mid shifts Friday and Saturday so I don't know how much sewing will get done. Hope everyone is ready for Christmas because it is right around the corner. 

Good luck finishing things up this week everyone, happy sewing. 

Teresa 
 

The Scrap Trail

It all started a few weeks ago when I just wanted to work on something different. New fabrics, new pattern, and of course I have several kits just setting there with fresh fabric and fresh patterns. Well I pulled out a strip club kit called All Stars made with 30's reproduction fabric. 

 Before I even finished this one I could see I was going to finish the borders differently so that I didn't leave any partial pinwheels. Into my 30's stash I went and completed this top. It is now waiting to be quilted. I could also see that I was going to have pieces of strips       2 1/2 inches wide left, so I went hunting a pattern that would use those and found this 12 patch rail. 

 Again to finish this one a good usable size I went back to my 30's stash and pulled out anything that was 5 inches or less. This one is also finished and waiting to be quilted. As you would guess I ended up with some 2 inch strips so I tried putting them together in what I call my Wonder Block. 

 I was just going to make a test block to see how it would look but ended up making seven so far. It takes 18 different pieces and I don't want to repeat in a block so I have set these aside until I am doing something else in 30's that result in more scraps. 

Sunday was a rainy day and after working both days of Black Friday weekend I didn't do too much. I did start the HST in Bonnie Hunters new mystery around work times and finished those on Sunday. 

 I am using brown as my constant fabric instead of grey. I may use dark greens instead of black, going for a  more autumn color pallet. 

I also want to make a baby quilt for a girl at work who is crazy about turtles and I think I remember a pattern in an old Quiltmaker Magazine so I pulled out some of my old magazines and just set and looked through them, not a good idea because I found two other patterns that I had earmarked to do in 30's fabrics. So the scrap trail continues. 

 This one is called Square Deal and is in American Patchwork and Quilting December 2005. It is made with 2 inch strips which works in with those Wonder Blocks. 

 I have made five so far. 

 Retro Crossroads is the other pattern I came across, but I may have already done this one I need to check my tub of finished quilt tops that still need quilting. 
 
I am still looking for the turtle pattern but I not sure it is safe for me to continue looking so if any of you still have the magazine with the pattern please let me know. I may be able to graft it on my own, it was just squares and HST's but a pattern would be so much easier. 

Have a good day and in you are in North Alabama stay dry cause it is still raining and predicted to continue another day. 

Teresa 

An almost finish Friday

I haven't got to do much sewing this week okay really no sewing this week, so I was going into withdrawals. I had the blocks finished. Just need to press and square the last 14, so I got that done this morning and thought I would see how much of it I could get sewn together. Things went very smoothly and I got the whole thing put together. YEA I even got two of the borders sewn on to it. The other two are cut but will have to wait since work calls. Working again in the morning so maybe can get the other two borders on tomorrow night. Check back later to see it with borders.

Teresa

DWM 11-16=15

This morning I finished the last of the 63 blocks I needed.

After I play around a little with the placement of the blocks, these will start to come down off the design wall. I really cleaned up some 30's scraps with this one. I have a few 2 1/2 inch strips left and the fabric that was too small for that I am cutting into 2 x 3 1/2 inch rectangles for another easy block I have used before. However I am not starting on the block until I finish at least two more projects. It is good to see some empty project boxes.

Got to work today and not sure how much sewing I will get done this week. Wednesday is my off day but I am taking Daddy to Birmingham to see a doctor there for surgery on his chin. This will be the second surgery and there is skin cancer involved this time. I hope they are able to help him, he has lost too much weight because he is having trouble eating.

FYI if you are sewing for Christmas you have less than 40 days, get busy. Laughing because I have done nothing for Christmas yet.

Teresa

Friday Finish

Friday 13th and I have a finish for my Finish Four challenge. I not only added the border to the 30's pinwheel I also made the binding. I already had a wide back in 30's fabric so this stack has moved to That Quilted Place and it will go in to que for quilting. 

I had the binding already made for this trip around the world wall hanging or lap quilt but had not been able to find a back that went with it so today I just decided to go with a white back. So it is pieced and moved out to the quilt studio. So that will count as finish number two. 

Before I even finished the pinwheels quilt I was trying to think of some way to use the scraps. I looked around the internet and found a pattern that put 12 squares together and then add frames to 2 sides. 

Then twist and turn them kind of like a rail fence. 

It makes a 8 inch block. At first I thought I would set them 8 x 10 using 80 blocks. Then I thought that I could set them 6 x 9 with a black 30's print border. I think I will change that to 7 x 9 which will finish 56 x 72 before borders. I have 46 blocks completed so far but it is going faster than I thought. This may be my number 3 finish or I have another quilt top that I have decided to enlarge by adding a border so who knows. 

Keep stitching, 

Teresa 

Finish Four

It is Wednesday morning and I have a little time to sew, and as I was piecing some blocks together I was thinking about some fabric that I got at Donna Nix's fabric sale. There is an old Fons and Porter pattern that I want to do but it required a lot yardage of two fabrics for the alternate block and I finally found two that go great together at Donna's sale. The other block is a scrapy nine patch if I remember correctly. So I am committing myself to finish four projects at least to the next stage before I start this new one. It can be quilting a top that is already pieced or finish piecing one of the many I have started.

The question is which will it be? 

Will it be this one that I am calling Lime Crystals, which is from Bonnie Hunters last book which I have misplaced or lost. I think I can wing the sashing and border by just looking at the picture, but I would really like to find the book. 

Will it be quilting this one. I thought I had a picture of my finished top. 

Will it be this one that I have decided to make larger. I think I have enough blocks made to make it a king size, but I am still hunting a black paisley print for the border. 

Or will it be this one which I think the consensus from my last post is that I should add a border. 

Oh and remember this scrapy trip Alabama quilt I still haven't decided what to do on this one. 

This top still need quilting. 

This little table runner needs borders and quilting. 

This top has been ready to quilt for a long time. 

Oh I have to quit looking back at old pictures, I am finding too many unfinished projects. I have to stop and get back to sewing. I will finish four before starting anything else, I will. 

Teresa

Stickability

Despite all my lists and good intentions I have a major problem sticking with one project until it is finished. The last post was of all or I should say part of my unfinished projects and yet I started another. I have several kits waiting in the wings and this one just kind of called out to me. I wanted to work on something different, something with new fabric. This was one of the strip club kits from Quilters Refuge. The strip club patterns were all made from 2 1/2 inch strips and this kit was pre-cut from 30's reproduction fabric. The pattern is called All Stars.

The original pattern left partial pinwheels hanging on the edge and I really didn't care for that so I figured out a way to add blocks that will finish the pinwheels and make them appear to be floating in the white background.

I have it all put together now and it measures 72 x 84 which is a nice size. I originally thought I would add a border but now I am not sure. I have a red 30's print that I could use, but I need some feedback. Please if you are reading this let me know what you think about a border.

Teresa

WIP List

This past week I have been making me a daily list of little things to do. It has given me a great since of accomplishment to mark these items off the list each day. It may be a specific item that is one and done or it might be a more general item such as to just work on a specific project. I realize I have a lot of items that can't be completed in one day especially since I am still working full time, but if I list work on an item and I do even just a little on it, at least it is not moving to the UFO pile. With this in mind I thought I would make a list of my Works In Progress. 

1. Lime Crystals
2. Jamestown Landing in green for Danielle and Thomas 
3. Black and White disappearing nine patch for Tyler and Roberta 
4. Tossed Greens and applique project 
5. Flip Flops for Kelly 
6. Blue Ridge Beauty 
7. Spider Web 
8. Alabama scrappy trip around the world 
9. Searching - RWB flying geese 
10. Blue and Yellow Irish Chain 
11. 2006 civil war BOM 
12. Double Wedding Ring 
13. Blue and Tan table runner 
14. As the Crow Flies, more applique 
15. Blue and White Carpenter Wheel 
16. Stepping Stones 

These are just the ones I can name looking at the outside of all the project boxes.  There are other boxes with multiple projects in them. This list does not include any of the kits that I have  that are not started. These are all projects of which I have already spent a good deal of time. I am going to make every effort to finish some of these projects before I start anything else. 

Maybe in another post I will list all the tops that I have finished but still need quilting. That is another whole category. I also need to make a list of those kits waiting to be started. This is pretty overwhelming but then it is 15 years worth of quilting. I guess as long as I am still feeling creative and loving the process, then it is okay.

Productive Weedend

I had another Saturday off, I am not sure how I got so many in a row but I wasn't about to say anything about it to anyone. I am sure it will catch up with me especially since we are about to enter the holiday season of retail. I closed Friday night so I had some time Friday morning to work a little in the sewing room. I decided I would be more productive if I made a list. I didn't get everything done on my list but I did get the bindings made for two different quilts.

Saturday's list was longer and included the items not finished on Friday. One of the things on my list was to re-quilt this old quilt that belonged to my niece's husband. She had brought it to me last year to see if I could repair it. I should have said no right up front, but of course I didn't . I tried to just hand sewing it back together. It was strange that it was the thread that was gone not the fabric. A lot of the seams were just gone. I was about to give up on it before I got my longarm, but then decided I might be able to load it on the machine and just re-quilt it. It only took about 30 minutes to take out the old quilting. It had an old nylon blanket for the batting so I threw that away. The top is large churn dash blocks so I was able to sew up most of the seams on my machine. I loaded this quilt Saturday morning and thankfully I had no trouble with tension or thread breakage because I had enough trouble with the old top. It didn't lay flat, wasn't straight, still had some holes in it, but I got it quilted.

I even found and old muddy gold fossil fern fabric for the binding which I made and got sewn on so that all I need now is to whip the binding down. So glad to get this out of my to be done pile.

I decided I wanted to give the Sisters Nine Patch to someone as a retirement gift and I would need it by next weekend so I quilted it and then spent Sunday night TV time whipping the binding down.

On Saturday afternoon I also made a trip to Tanner to check on Daddy, he had surgery on his chin Friday and of course he didn't tell me about it until Thursday night when I called. He had already asked my aunt and uncle to carry him because he figured I would have to work. After a long visit I went on to Athens to Clarks Restaurant  and got supper for me and Johnny. My nephew owns Clark's and he is a great chef, voted best steak in town two years in a row.

Starting another busy week so not sure how much will get done this week, but I feel good about all I got done this past weekend. I think making the list each day helped keep me focused, so I will try it for a while.

Happy quilting and have a good week.

Teresa

UYO ready to quilt

I was going to sew on Bonnie Hunter's Crystal pattern above but I couldn't find the book in my disaster of a sewing room, but that is another story. I'm thinking one way to clear out this disaster it to finish some of my many works in progress. So I pulled out another Bonnie Hunter pattern Sisters Nine Patch and finished that top.

I had all the nine patch blocks done and had even assembled at least half of it so it was just a matter of cutting some more setting and triangles and putting the rest together. Her pattern was square and I didn't want a square quilt so I left off two rows and I changed the border. I used the same setting fabric for the borders so the the nine patches would float. I have a red print that I got from Donna that I will use for the back and since I didn't have enough of the yellow for binding I think I will just make a scrappy red binding. The best news it that this is one project box empty. YEA!!!!!

Got to get ready for work hope everyone has a great week.

Teresa

DWM Labor Day

I didn't get a lot of sewing done this week but did play around with this idea for an Alabama quilt. The block is Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trip Around the World. I am still not sure if it is too busy but if nothing else I will make enough blocks for a baby quilt or a lap quilt. What do you think is it too busy? 

I did get this quilt quilted after much stress over the tension, but everything worked out in the end. 

Still trying to get pictures of the quilting without the flash back. Just did loops on this one. I have the binding sewn on just waiting for next stitch day to do hand work.  

I have the first quarter of this one sewn together and all but 11 stars made, hope to finish this top this week. 

Got to work today but hope to get off a little early so maybe will get some sewing time in today. 

Have a great holiday all. 

Teresa

8/24/2015 DWM

This is the top left hand quarter of the quilt. I finished making the red flying geese for the red and cream stars but still have a few of the blue to make, plus assemble the stars.

I finished the handwork on the binding of this little baby quilt last night.

This is what I worked on most of the afternoon. I am crocheting me a rug to go in front of my long arm machine. I am cutting up left over fabric and a whole lot of that what was I thinking when I bought this fabric. I prefer sewing them end to end rather that the tie method.  I probably cut up close to five yards of fabric yesterday. The only thing is I can crochet it out almost faster than I can cut and sew it together. I hope to make it between 8 and 10 feet long and about 20 inches wide so I won't be surprised to have at least 50 yards of fabric in the thing and it will weigh a ton I am sure. Just think what kind of stash reduction this will make. Problem is I have enough stash to make 20  and still have fabric left over. I haven't bought fabric in a long time so when I finish this I may treat myself to something new.

Happy quilting,

Teresa 

Lawson's baby quilt

Put new batteries in camera and retook photos of baby quilt. When I get this one bound it will go to an old friend's first grandchild.  I am happy to be able to share what I love with others.

Teresa

A Productive Off Day

Work gets in the way of doing the things I love as well as the things I just need to do. Thursday I got off work at 3  p.m. and don't have to go back until 3 p.m. on Saturday. That gives me 48 hours off which sounds a lot better that saying one day (Friday) off, doesn't it? I usually work Wednesday night and back in at 8 am on Thursday so by the time I get off on Thursday I am not worth much energy wise. This week I came in on Thursday afternoon and propped my feet up and finished reading  a book by Karen Robards. Johnny was in charge of supper so that gave me even more rest time. By the time the dishes were done I was ready to tackle some flying geese.

I made a good dent in them Thursday night and was able to finish all 144 red and white one on Friday morning. I have some of the blue done and hope to get more of them done Saturday morning.

I have all 72 of the modified log cabin blocks complete and had enough red and blue stars to lay out one quarter of the quilt on the design wall. I am going to sew them together in twos and fours rather than in rows.

One of the things I needed to do but not something I really want to think about was cemetery plots. Mother and Daddy had 4 plots in Hartselle Memorial Gardens but had decided to be buried in Tanner so Daddy was signing the others over to me.  I made at quick trip to Tanner to get his signature thinking I would catch him around the house at lunch time and I did.

I also had a baby quilt ready to put on the machine so I got that done as well.

I thought I had a picture of the whole quilt not just some of the quilting I had tried but I need new batteries in the camera so I guess I will have to shoot that one again. I have the binding sewn on ready for the hand work. I figured this binding a little too close only had about 2 inches left when connected.

I need to get off here and see if I can salvage some time this morning, I slept too late and now I am not going to get as much done before work and I had hoped.

Happy quilting,

Teresa

Design Wall Monday 8/10/2015

I have been trying to clean up some in the sewing room and Thursday night I uncover the June issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. When I got the magazine there were several quilts in it that I would like to do but I said I had to finish some things first.  Well that got overruled and at 9:30 pm I started cutting out Stars and Scraps Forever. It is a pattern by Jo and Kelly and Jo's Country Junction . I was off Friday and except for time out for a hair appointment I continued working on it.

I have 30 of the 72 simulated log cabin blocks done.

I have 5 of the 36 red star blocks done.

I have 6 of the blue background stars done . Still have lots of flying geese blocks left to make for both of these blocks.

Here is the layout in the magazine, so how could I resist? It will be a large queen, I have learned when going through my tops that need quilting that I don't have a lot of actual bed size quilts but instead have a lot of large couch quilts. Some I am going to add borders to in order to make them fit bed lengths but some I won't be able to enlarge.

This it the quilt I mentioned in last weeks DWM , the one I did a pantograph pattern on, I guess it doesn't look to bad for the first one.

Happy quilting .

Teresa