Log Cabin

Log cabin quilts are one of my favorites. The same block can be turned to form so many different patterns. It is a lot like the half square triangle in its diversity. I was visiting Ivy the other day and we started talking about log cabin quilts as we were going through some of her one and a half inch strips needed for another project. It just jumped out at both of us that we needed to do a log cabin. I mean we had so many strips already cut. We agreed that we needed to finish some other things before we started one. The next Saturday was Somerville Stitch Group and neither of us had pressing hand work so we decided we could start sub cutting the individual logs. Does anyone else see where this is going.

Yep, couldn't leave it alone. That night I sewed these six blocks.

By Tuesday morning I had sent this photo to Ivy. I now have 40 blocks done. Cora has helped with some of the sub cutting. I have taken a break from them yesterday and today. Pretty much took a break from sewing yesterday and today I am working on backs and bindings for older tops. Photos to come later.This is planned as a Habitat quilt or for another charity.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

12 for 12 finish

2017 Project List

1. En Province-------March finish
2. Jamestown landing in green
3. Black and White disappearing nine patch--------June finish
4. Split Rail ---------February finish
5. 100 patch------July Finish
6. Three inch shoe fly----- August finish
7. North woods - king ----May finish
8. Black white and red rails ---------   January finish
9. Pink 1 x 4 x 16
10. Rick Rack Nines
11. Oversize Dreams   ----- April finish
12. Blue all around


My itty bitty shoe fly quilt is my August 12 for 12 finish. There was a lot left to stitch together when I added this on to my list. I am so glad to get it done. It is not a large quilt but a good couch/cuddle size. The pattern is from the Sept./Oct. 2014 Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting Magazine. Liz calls it "With a Little Help From My Friends".


There are four months left in the year and I have another from the list ready to quilt, but the other three require some stitching. It will be a push to get these finished but I will try.


Happy Stitching,


Teresa

Tie Pillow

A friend I had not seen is a long time asked me to make a pillow for her from her Daddy's ties. He had passed away last May and she had seen these memory pillows on pinterest. I had never worked with ties before so I did a little research before I agreed to try it. It was  a new experience, but not a bad one. She said she might get me to make one for her Mother and I agreed but I said NO on making a quilt from ties. Trying new things is a growing experience and a good thing but you have got to know your limitations and quilting with ties would not be enjoyable for me. The pillow was fun and will gladly do it again.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Progress

Last Wednesday Donna and I took a little road trip and hit 3 quilt shops. I found border fabric for my double nine patch. Actually I bought both a green and a blue, but liked the blue the best. I got the borders on yesterday and hopefully will get the binding made today. I already have a wide back that will work with this, so the the binding is all it needs to move it out to the quilt shack. Got lots of housework today but hopefully will get back into the sewing room this afternoon.

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


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Weekly Goals

It is the last week in August or I should say partial week. Last week was very productive but not a lot of photo worthy work done. I did get my shoe fly quilt pieced and quilted so that was a real bonus there. Hopefully will finish binding it tonight. I'll photograph it then. A lot of time was spent reorganizing some things in the sewing room and I still have a long way to go. My 1.5, 2 an 2.5 inch strips are now stacked neatly in boxes. The drawers now house my neutrals and pre-cuts. I have a big tub of finished tops plus some in a dresser drawer. I have more space in the quilt shack than I do in the house so I am going to work this week on getting them moved out there. That means getting backs and binding ready for each of them.

I did spend one night making these orange and cream log cabin blocks. I have them put together but not quilted.

Weekly goals for 8-27-17

1. finish binding on shoe fly quilt
2. quilt orange and cream log cabin runner
3. add borders to double nine patch
4. pieced binding and back for double nine patch
5. work on backs and binding for older tops
6. make tie pillow
7. continue organizing sewing room

Looks like I have enough to keep me busy this week. What are you working on?

Linking with-----
Oh, Scrap
Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Stitch Day

Today was stitch day at Somerville and we had good turn out. Missed Gina, but understand why she needed some time and space. I made a special effort to get pictures today so that those who were not able to be there could share the experience. So on with the show and tell.

First up Barb shared a baby sweater she was making for a friend of  her granddaughters.

Toni is knitting too, shared that this was not a usual color palate for her, as always beautiful.

The first of Bonnie's, this one is called Waste Not.

The second of Bonnie's, she has been busy.

This one is Bonnie's and there was some discussion on color of binding.

This one is Sonia, it is so her colors. It is one I quilted for her last week.

Becky has been busy with other things but did have this block to show.

Sue has one she made for herself. Took a little time away from all the quilts of valor she has been doing.

Sue has also been bitten by that selvage bug. Really like the bag.

Mary H.shows how you can turn tumblers into bow ties.

With the extra tumblers from the bow tie she made a more traditional one.

Mary pulled her patriotic strips and made the Wink Not pattern that I shared.

Faye was knitting today, says she has a few more rows to go.

Francine says she is finishing some items.

She shared that after she added the borders she realize one stem and flower was not stitched down, just pinned, but she has it done now.

This is an Ada and Georgia project, Ada pieced it and Georgia quilted it. They then donated it to Ivy today for her Habitat project.

And lastly here is my itty bitty Shoe Fly quilt. Ada worked on the binding today while Ivy and I cut out strips for a log cabin quilt we are going to jointly do for Habitat.

Also in attendance but no show and tell were Donna N, Gail, Terrie, Mary B. and Ivy. Hopefully I haven't missed anyone.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

update

The weekly goal list has gone pretty smooth this week, with just about every thing either checked off or at least touched. I got my the little quilt that I was worried about quilting done today. Normally I just do some variation of a free motion pattern but this little one just needed something else. I won't call it custom but it was the next thing to it.

A good thing happened tonight as I was touching on item 6. work on sewing room, I found another piece of the blue fabric that I used in the Itty Bitty Shoe Fly quilt. It is a yard piece so definitely enough for binding.

 I did get a few more of these Jacob's Ladders done. I thought I had taken a photo of 8 blocks on the design wall but must not have uploaded it yet. I hope to make a few more of these later in the week, trying to get caught up with the four patches I have up to this point.

Happy stitching,

Teresa 

Great Start

Sunday stitching was very very successful. I can't believe it but I got all those itty bitty shoe flu blocks put together. I even got the inner red border on and the top and bottom outer border sewn on the top, but at 9 pm I decided to wait until this morning to add the outer side borders.

The pattern called for 4 and 3/4 inch outer border but I had exactly enough fabric for 8 strips if I cut them 4.5, so that is what I cut. I wanted to allow for that 8th strip even though I thought I would only need 7, and that is all I needed. Needless to say not enough for binding. I may check with some of my friends that have a stash of civil war fabric to see if they might have a half yard to share. I may can get by with a little less. I cut my binding 2.25 and if I only need 7 strips that is 15.75 inches, but I have enough to cut a couple of strips since I didn't need that 8th border strip.

Here is a close up of the fabric if any of them are reading this today, maybe they will check their stash. I really like the shoe fly block may do it again only a little larger. This is one of my 12 for 12 projects and the one with the most left to do, so it feels really good to get this one pieced.

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

Happy Stitching,


Teresa

Another Week

It is the third Sunday in August and I am not sure where this year has gone. Looking ahead this week it is almost time for another Somerville Sew Day, so I have to make sure I am ready for that. Usually I try to have a quilt ready to bind, but I am not sure that is going to happen this week.

The Shoe Fly has gotten big enough to come off the design wall and move to the floor. I have 22 rows done and the original pattern had 26 but I think I have enough to add another row but that still means I only have 5 more rows to sew and attach. Of course these are the longest rows, but maybe I can get it to the flimsy stage by Saturday.

The pattern calls for a one and half inch inner border, I am using red, and a 3 and half inch outer border of the same fabric as the alternate squares and setting triangles. I will barely have enough of the blue to do this plus binding. If I am short I could bind it in the same red.


Weekly goals for August 20th.

1. Make 4 patch blocks for stitch day
2. work on Jacob's Ladder blocks using exchange blocks
3. quilt 2
4. work on shoe fly
5. piece backing and binding for pink charity top
6. work on cleaning and organizing sew room

Linking today with----
Oh, Scrap
Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Friday Finish Not

Well I don't really have a Friday finish it is more like a Friday start. Thinking about it just now I probably shouldn't have started this today, my Mother always said there was an old wives tell that said if you started something in Friday you would never finish it. A lot of my UFO's must have been started on a Friday. But start this I did, no, not another quilt project but a sewing organization project. I guess it is okay that I started it today because this kind of thing really never finishes it just keeps evolving. I have decided to make better use of my 3 drawer chest that I was using for strips. They have become a stringy tangled mess. I have started with the 2 inch drawer because I have used a good bit out of it leaving it a little less stuffed. In fact I was able to get all the longer strips in this one box.

I have a smaller box for 2 inch squares and it is pretty low after finishing all those 100 patch blocks. I still have some really short pieces that I will cut squares from left in a little pile, but the drawer is empty. I plan to use the drawers for excess yardage that just doesn't fit in my color boxes.

In between working on this clean up project and vacuuming the house I also worked on the 3 inch shoe fly blocks. I got all of them pieced last night and the final count is actually over the required amount rather than short. I have 17 extra so I think that will let me made it one row wider.

The rows are growing, I am up to number 11 going across and with the extra blocks I will now have 13 across and 15 down.

I sewed on row on backwards which had my setting triangles flying in the wrong direction. I don't guess any of you have ever done that.

Had to stay busy today to keep from worrying about my friend Ada, but got news just a little while ago that everything went fine and she should be okay.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa 

Thursday Update

I am glad I only had three items on my weekly goals this week because each on them is taking longer than estimated. As you know from the previous post those fabric boxes took two days. Yesterday I did get one quilted and another loaded on the machine. I quilted Sonia's monster, 96 by 96.

I'll deliver it to her next sew day. I know she said she was anxious to get it on her bed. These colors are so Sonia. It is a fun quilt. I have one for Elaine loaded and hope to get it quilted this morning.

On the little shoe fly blocks I had pieced up all the blocks made so far, so I got all the rest of the HST's cut apart and pressed. I thought I had enough strips sewn together for all the  HST's I needed but in counting the remaining strips I may be short some. I am not going to make any more, this is a finish project not an add to project. It was not going to be a big quilt to begin with so reducing it by a row each way won't change the overall size too much. I will just have to wait to get all the blocks made with what I have to see about the exact size.

I have another bag of blocks ready to square, but think I will keep making blocks for a while. With a little luck maybe I will finish the blocks this week and be ready to put them together next week.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Fabric Boxes

One of my weekly goals this week was to make some fabric boxes. I have spent the better part of two days making these 12 little boxes. I don't have a lot in them material wise but there is a lot of time involved. Each of them has 4 little buttons and sewing on 48 buttons yesterday took way more time than I had planned to spend on them and especially at the price I had quoted for them. Next ones I make will have a price increase.

With that out of the way I hope to get out to the quilt shack today. I am so far behind in quilting that is not fun. My goal this week was to quilt one but I am hoping I can knock out a couple of them.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

This Weeks Goals

Yesterday members of Decatur Quilt Lovers Guild met at Dianna's church to work on Habitat quilts. We were joined by several ladies from the church so a lot got accomplished and new friends were made, making it a really great day. We started with some donated blocks so we were able to put these together and add borders to get a finished flimsy. We got 5 tops finished and a 6th one about half done. This is the one I worked on, it needed additional blocks made. Got them cut out sewn together with the help on one of the ladies from the church. I brought it home to quilt and bind.

With borders it measure 58 x 72, just right for a kid size quilt. All the pinks, yellows and blues will make some little girl happy.

Remember these little fabric boxes, I now have two requests for several of these in more generic fabrics, non college. Guess I will be working on those today. I don't have a lot planned for this week, not going to be on the go as much as last week or at least I hope not. So hopefully can stay on track and get more done.

Weekly goals for week of August 13, 2017
1. Quilt One
2. Fabric Boxes
3. work on one of the 12 for 12 projects.

Last week I listed working on Rick Rack Nines but changed my mind and work on the little Shoe Fly blocks, but at least one did get some work done, but I am getting behind.

Linking today with -----
Oh Scrap
Slow Sunday Stitching


Happy Stitching,


Teresa

Itty Bitty Shoe Fly

As you can see by the date on the this photo this one has been on my design wall since February of 2016. It is from the Sept. Oct. 2014 Love of Quilting magazine. It is on my 12 for 12 list this year and was not one I planned to work on this week, but I found a little sewing time last night and added a few more rows.

I added two rows to the top side and one to the bottom side. Each row is longer and is making a big difference in the size. I still have a long way to go. I have enough shoe fly blocks put together for a few more rows but then will have to work on  individual blocks. I used Thangles to make the HST's and I think I have enough sewn together just not all cut and pressed and paper torn off.

I like using the Thangles especially on these smaller one inch finished HST's. I have added two more rows to the bottom half in the following picture. I like to work from both sides for a couple of reasons. One it helps distribute the different fabrics in a scrappy top to both sides and two it gives me the option to adjust the size.

It won't be many more rows until it won't fit on the design wall but for now I am glad to see a little progress.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Design Floor Monday

My Double Nine Patch is coming along quickly. I have gotten the 30 blocks made. I really like how quickly these bigger blocks go together. I got my exercise laying out these blocks and even more picking them back up in rows. I got a couple of rows put together last night and hopefully can finish them today. The weather forecasters got it right this time and it is raining so not really able to do much else. I mean it is either sew or clean house, not really much of a decision. I am still debating a border or not, I have one piece of dark floral I have been trying to use for years and it may work for this, will dig it out and see later.

Linking today with ----
Making Monday
Design Wall Monday
Main Crush Monday
Moving It Forward


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Double Nine Patch

I am going to have to stay off the internet if I ever want to get anything completed. I saw a variation of a Double Nine Patch the other day and off I go. The one I saw had the big light blocks reversed with only 4 large lights and 5 small nine patches but I didn't like how it connected with the other blocks so I reversed it. This was gave me the bonus secondary pattern of the large four patch. I also like how the smaller nine patches circle around the four patch. Another change I made was to make sure my larger blocks were darker and read more solid using tone on tone rather than a busy print. I am making 30 blocks, so with these 13.5 inch finished blocks the top will measure 67 x 81. I don't think I will add a border, but that is an option if I want it a little bigger.

Getting side tracked like this is not helping me finish my goals for the year much less my weekly goals. I have a doctors appointment and a back to school bash on Wednesday so that will pretty much wipe out that day. It is supposed to storm here tomorrow but who knows, they have missed it several ties lately. Johnny came into my sewing room the other day and said "I see things are back to normal" which translates to yes the sewing room was back in a mess. His comment for the quilt shack was "I love what you are doing with the place" and yes it is pretty piled up too. That being said I am going to keep my list fairly simple this week and hope to get something accomplished , including cleaning.

1. quilt at least one of the four quilts I have in que
2. finish piecing the double nine patch
3. work on Rick Rack Nines a 12 for 12 project


linking today with ---
Oh,Scrap
Slow Stitching Sunday


Happy Stitching


Teresa

Citrus Trails

As if I didn't have enough going on in the sewing room, last Saturday night I pulled out a bag of blocks that have been done for years just not put together. At least I was not starting another project. These blocks were made before we moved to Hartselle, and we have been here 7 years. They are the three different blocks from the Yellow Brick Road pattern. I had pieced them from yardage and fat quarters in bright yellow and orange, hence the name Citrus Trails or Citrus Path.

I started putting them together in rows on Saturday night and then on Tuesday morning I finished putting them together. I had a total of 96 blocks but decided to only use 90, setting the together 9 x 10. The block finished is  9 inches so that will make it 81 x 90 which is a good size for the Habitat quilts. We can use the other 6 blocks in pillow cases.

It is definitely bright and cheerful. We have a lot of donated fabric for the Habitat quilts and Ivy and I talked about cutting some of that up into another one of these quilts. It makes up fast and is easy to put together with not a lot of seams to match. I didn't worry about matching fabrics next to each other it just made a different shape. I think it turned out okay. I want to quilt it in yellow thread so I am looking for a back that will work with the yellow.

I didn't do a weekly goal list this week and I should have. It is Thursday already and it feels like I have not been on track all week. I have had several quilts come in for quilting so I see a lot of time in the quilt shack but I also need to work on one of my 12 for 12 list, shouldn't have saved the hard ones for the last.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

August 1st

July is done and I don't have a lot to show for it. I just barely got a 12 for 12 project complete for the month. I put the last stitch in the binding on Saturday night. That was pushing it pretty close. These last three days have been spent hand stitching bindings down or on the long arm machine. I have spent very little time on my regular sewing machine. I quilted three little tops for Project Linus and I also got the binding done on Solo Cups.

2017 Project List

1. En Province-------March finish
2. Jamestown landing in green
3. Black and White disappearing nine patch--------June finish
4. Split Rail ---------February finish
5. 100 patch------July Finish
6. Three inch shoe fly
7. North woods - king ----May finish
8. Black white and red rails ---------   January finish
9. Pink 1 x 4 x 16
10. Rick Rack Nines
11. Oversize Dreams   ----- April finish
12. Blue all around

Lucy is helping me today photograph my 100 patch or 2048 two inch squares.

Here is Solo Cups all finished. The neutral was a little rust and brown speckled fabric so the rust border finished it nicely.

Linking to---
Design Wall Monday


Happy Stitching,


Teresa