Best Laid Plans

If you read my last post then you know how excited I have become with these tumbler blocks, or solo cups as my husband calls them. I have had this bright little bug fabric I have been trying to use.  

So I decided to pull colors from it and do the tumbler quilt again in baby quilt size. I choose a white as my alternate fabric.

Really like how the colors pop.

Then I added the border and blah! It just doesn't do anything for it. I really think I will pull the borders off and quilt it without borders or go get one of the turquoise or greens that is in it for a plain border. I still like the border print and if  I had used a yellow as the alternate block I think it would have a totally different look. This one may sit here while I decide what to do.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Solo Cups

I got the rest of the rows put together and the borders added yesterday. I have the matching binding made and now need to find something for a back. It measures 62 by 78 so I need about 4 yards of something from my stash. I should be able to find something, if not I will put some smaller pieces together for back art. When I showed the finished flimsy to Johnny, his first response was Solo Cups. It does look like upside down solo cups, so I guess we have a name for this one. I really enjoyed putting this one together, it worked up so quickly. I have some tumblers left over, so that is a start on the next one. I used the Layer Cake Dresden Plate ruler from Missouri Star. I cut a 4.5 inch strip from fat quarters and got either 5 or 6 tumblers from each strip. There was very little waste this way and stacking several strips made the cutting go fast. They could be cut from charm squares but with a little more waste. I used the same neutral throughout and cut these the same way. Maybe I can get it quilted this week.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

New Project

Inspiration comes from lots of sources, including quilting for others. Saturday I quilted a top of one of the ladies in our guild. It was a tumbler quilt, but it was a color alternated with the same neutral. This changes the whole overall appearance of the quilt. It was not as busy as scrap tumblers usually are. So of course that night I started cutting out me some tumbler pieces. Hers were 4 inches tall and that bigger block was another thing that appealed to me. By Sunday night I had my rows pieced and some put together.

This morning while the cable guy was here and I was not able to be on the internet, I sewed a few more rows together. It is not going to be a big quilt, just throw size, because I chose a neutral that I only had about 2.5 yards. This should give me enough for an inner border of the neutral then I will out an outer border either in brown or rust. The neutral is specks of these two colors on beige.

I really like how fast this is working up and have plans to do another.

Linking with----
Making Monday
Design Wall Monday
Main Crush Monday
Moving it Forward


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Summer in the South

It is definitely summer time here. The heat index has been over 100 most days. Our garden is trying to play out but Daddy's still has a good bit coming in every day. It is mostly his little tomatoes and I am doing my best to give away what I can't use. Even with the garden chores I was able to get the items on last weeks list done, but only because I kept it simple. So this week I will stay with that game plan.

Weekly goals for 7-23-17

1. add borders to the Bama quilt.
2. finish piecing tumbler blocks -- more on this maybe tomorrow
3. quilt a project Linus top
4. bind the 100 patch quilt

Here is a picture of the 100 patch as I was taking it off the machine. I just stippled it in a royal blue thread.

Here is the Bama quilt. It is the Turning Twenty Again pattern. Not the best picture, didn't have access to the whole floor. I plan to put a solid black inner border then one of the Alabama prints for the outer border.

Linking with---

Oh,Scrap
Slow Sunday Stitching


 Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Slow Start

This week is off to a slow start at least in the sewing room. I spent almost all day Saturday putting peas and corn in the freezer. So yesterday was pretty much a catch up on rest day for me. I did start cutting out a Turning Twenty Again quilt with all different types of Alabama fabric. Even though this is supposed to be a quilt top that you can make in a day that didn't even come close to happening. Not much will get done in the sewing room today and I am not sure how the rest of the week will fare so I am going to keep my goals for the week fairly simple.

1. Quilt Elaine's quilt, it is loaded on the machine ready to go
2. Quilt one of my 12 for 12 tops
3. Piece this Alabama quilt

If I get these done there are plenty of other things I can pick by up and work towards completion, but I may have to spend more time with garden chores.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Boxy Stars

I got the Boxy Stars top finished today. I had just enough of the white to put  a
 2.5 inch inner border and then I choose one of the greens that was in the top as the outside border. I cut it 4.5 inches so that makes the top measure 52 by 66. That is a good size kids quilt. One Moma's can lay on the floor for babies to play on and later it will be a good cuddle size. I had a piece of a green floral print that I had just enough for the back. I had to buy the green for the border and binding but the back used 2 and 2/3 yards from my stash so that is good. I have the binding pieced, pressed and bagged, plus the back is pieced and pressed all ready to go out to the quilt shack. Got a road trip planned tomorrow to both a fabric sale in one city and a quilt show in another city so no quilting tomorrow.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Guild Show and Tell

Last night was the Decatur Quilt Lovers Guild meeting. We always have an interesting show and tell and last night was no exception. These are not the greatest photos, it seems I always sit at the wrong place for picture taking. Last year several of the members participated in the Meadow Mist Mystery and there were three shown last night.

The top picture was Elaine's and I quilted it for her. She also showed this flimsy she has just finished. She always finds the most interesting patterns. Oh and the back of her mystery is pieced it like a zipper.

Becky has been sewing on some tote bags.

Okay I remember everyone got all excited about this on and we were really trying to figure out the pattern. It is HST's and sash strips, but not I don't remember whose quilt it was. Just remembered it was Mary's I think.

If I remember right, this one was Dianne's. She had bought the fabric to make something for her sister but loved it so much she made a quilt for her bed.

I believe this one is one Mary said she started for the Renegade group but it became to big for that particular charity.

I am drawing a total blank on this one, except that Carol said it could qualify for some nine patch challenge someone was having.

 Dianne also made some of the cutest  place mats, I won't even get into the discussion we had on them. They made everyone thing spring or Easter. This photo is no good.

I think this En Provence was Cathy's.

Jill worked on this 1600 quilt while she was stuck in a hotel while her floors were being redone. She is not happy with the size and spacing of some of the strips. Much discussion on it, she is probably going to take it apart.

Here is another 1600 that I think Cathy O. pieced and Ivy quilted as a Habitat Quilt.

Ivy showed a couple of things she had quilted. She had also quilted several of the above quilts.

Carol finished her first art quilt. I believe she said it is for the Hoffman Challenge.

Mabel surprised us all with her hand towel scarf.

Several meeting back I carried a box of strips cut 1.75 wide. These had been but for several years and I offered them to anyone interested. Betty took them home with her and brought back this little quilt last night. So great to see them put to good use.

I showed my pineapple pillow and pinwheel runner. Of course I didn't get any photos at the meeting and I carried them to my booth at the Antique Basket this morning so the pictures I took there are not very good either.

As you can see these meeting are very inspiring. So many beautiful things. I just want to make them all.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

This weeks plans

This is Bonnie Hunter's Pineapple Blossom blocks that I changed the layout. It changed the whole appearance of the quilt. As you can see I used a different scrappy border. From my blog of March 2015 it still needed quilting so I can't remember how long the top has actually been made. I guess it still needs quilting since I have not found any photos of the finished quilt. But the thing is if you are a Bonnie Hunter fan then you know she always sews off those corner so that she has left over HST's. I found a bag of the corners that I had put in with the Blue All Around thinking they went with it but it was a different white background. So last night after running errands most of the day, I pulled out these HST's and pieced them together as pinwheels and made this little table runner. So after all this time they have been put to use.

We are supposed to be rain free for the next couple of days so I hope I can get out in the quilt shack and get a few of these things quilted. The Cullman guild is having a quilt show this coming up weekend and there is a sale at a fabric shop in Boaz this coming weekend and I would like to squeeze in both of those, plus I know there will be garden stuff to handle.



Weekly goals for the week of July 9th.
1. quilt at least one of Elaine's tops
2. quilt pineapple pillow
3. quilt blue pinwheel table runner
4. piece back for Blue All Around  -- done
5. add borders for boxy stars
6. make binding for boxy stars


I am linking with the following sites.

Oh Scrap
Slow Stitching Sunday
Making Monday
Design Wall Monday
Main Crush Monday
Moving it Forward


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

The Rains Fault

I am going to blame my latest project on the rain. Yesterday was the first day in over a week that it didn't rain here, although it was predicted. When it wasn't raining it would be so humid it was not enjoyable outside. It had gotten to the point of being depressing so I had to find something bright and cheerful and new. I saw Bonnie Hunters Boxy Stars on another blog and decided that would be just what I needed if done in brights. And to make it a given, I had a piece of a jelly roll in brights left over from Quilters Refuge that need a home. So I was able to start sewing with very little cutting.

I two days time I had these 12 blocks done and put together. I am trying to decide about a border. I have enough of the white for an inner border and I could make a pieced border from the left overs but I would like to find a multi colors fabric to pull it all together. That may be hard to find with only these four colors. If I don't find something I will go with the piano key border, just a little more work.

Several afternoons during the rain we would have a visitor in the bird feeder. Not super clear but it is taken through the window and the rain.

Linking with----

Whoop Whoop
Finished or Not Friday
Finish it up Friday
Off the Wall Friday

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Rails or Coins

Yesterday Bonnie Hunter announced her 2017 Leader and Ender Challenge. This year it is a rail fence block. She doesn't have a specific size but gave several options and showed several ways to set them together. Normally I am not a leader and ender type of sewer so I have not participated in these challenges before, but this year may be different. When I was trying to finish my 100 patch top I had run out of enough variety of 2 inch squares so I got back into the 2 inch strip drawer for more variety. My thought was that once I pulled a strip it wasn't going back into the drawer but I didn't necessarily need that many squares of one fabric. I decided to cut either one or two 6.5 inch lengths and the rest in squares. Before I finished I had a nice little basket of these 2 by 6.5 inch rectangles. My thinking was that I would either use these for Chinese Coins or the stacked book pattern. Now the rail fence block may be an option. Four of these strips sewn together will make a square. So I stitched up a few just to test it.

At this point I am not really sold on it, but maybe it is too soon to tell, so I stitched up a few more.

Still not sold so I laid them out as Chinese Coins.

I like this maybe better. I left it over night and this morning I thought I would see how it would look on the diagonal.

I think I like this way the best if I stay with the rail fence challenge. I will just keep making the blocks whenever I have a few minutes to sew and just see how things come along.


Link with,
sew, stitch, snap, share




Happy Stitching.

Teresa

3 - 3 - 3

The 4th was a rainy, stormy day here but in between the storms I did get a little sewing done. Not anything towards my weekly goals but then that is just how it goes sometimes. First I worked on my rainbow challenge blocks. July's color is blue. I have been making three blocks of each color.

Here is my blue. I still have plenty of blue 2.5 inch squares left over so if I need another odd block I can make another blue easily. I had missed the month that was aqua/turquoise and I really didn't think I had enough variety to do more than one block if I could even get one. Each block requires 20 squares, however when I was cutting strips for the Scrappy Trip Around the World block I had a lot of this color strips in the drawer. I would cut my 16 inch required for that block and cut the rest of the strip in 2.5 inch squares. I had also come across some smaller pieces of this color in my fat quarter cabinet so I tackled this color as well and was able to get my three.

While it was storming and I had my machine unplugged, I trimmed some of the purple and white HST's for the Jacob's Ladder blocks and when the storm passed I sewed up three of these blocks.

I also did a little cleaning and putting way during some of the storm time so it was a fairly productive holiday. Last night I did get started whipping down the binding on that king size embroidery quilt but in 2 hours of stitching I barely got one side done, more to do tonight.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

A Full Monday

After blogging yesterday morning I got busy in the sewing room. Johnny was going to the grocery store and then cutting the grass so Lucy and I had the house to ourselves most of the morning. I made me a little post it list of things I would like to get done so that I could catch up after too many non sew days last week.

One of the most time consuming items was to add this last outer border and make the binding for Blue All Around. It always takes longer to add borders that I estimate. As I laid this on out on the floor to photograph I thought about a blog I had read last. The blogger was also a long arm quilter and she was talking about wavy borders and showed some examples. She talked about how hard they were to quilt and it is almost impossible to not get pleats in them. The one she was showing was so bad she took it off the machine and added darts to it. Ada has told me about taking the borders off for customers and re cutting them and sewing them back on and I have done that myself one time. What she didn't say was a way you can check your top before you take it to a quilter. Laying it on the floor to photograph is also a way to see how flat it is. If you can see ruffles and it doesn't lay flat then you need to redo the borders. It is really easy to get a little fullness in especially when adding a straight border after a pieced border.

I also got the second pineapple block made and them put together, but now it is not square, not sure how I will correct this. I may have to make my own pillow form.

I got the other 88 HST's made, just need to finish pressing them. I will square them for each block as I go, doing a few each month as I pick up my blocks from the four patch swap.

I also got that king size embroidery quilt trimmed and the bind made and sewn on. I'll spend the next few nights whipping the binding down. This thing is 104 by 104 so just trimming it and sewing on the binding was a job.

All in all it was a very successful day despite the couple of down time hour I had during the storm yesterday afternoon. We got a ton of rain and it rained again during the night so I don't think we will be getting into the garden any time soon. Not sure what I will get done today. I need to freeze some squash and I would like to get out to the quilt shack. Check back later to see just what got done.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Finish Up Clean Up

After yesterdays post I was reading other post and of course got inspired. Did you know that inspiration equals a mess.

This is what happens when you pull out for one thing before you put away the last project mess. But it is worth it.

I have seen quilts with these cute little pineapples and yesterday I just had to try my hand at making one. I used 2 inch squares and HST so it will finish 6 by 12. I am going to make a second one and put them side by side in a pillow top. I was also thinking three side by side would make a cute table topper. And for just a little bit I tried to graft in my mind other fruit, nothing has come of that yet, but it is still jelling.

That being said, today I plan to make the other pineapple so that I can clean up the yellow and green pile. Finish cutting out the HST for the Jacob's ladder. I think I have enough for either 20 or 28, have to recount those before cutting again. This should finish off the purple and white pile. I am ready to add the outer blue border for the Blue All Around quilt top. I need to put away all the blue scraps I was using for the HST inner border. Then I will make the binding and hunt for a back.

When all this is cleaned up the cutting table should be clear so that I can trim the king size embroidery quilt and then make the binding for it. So that is not too much to clean up and finish up this Monday. That is assuming I don't spend too much time here on the computer.

I am linking with----

Making Monday
Monday Design Wall
Main Crush Monday
Moving It Forward


Happy Stitching,

Teresa