SHP update

I am not sure that there has ever been a charity that has touched my heart more that the Sleep in Heavenly Peace organization. Having a nice warm bed to sleep in every night is something that most of us don't even think about. We take so much for granted. I mean I know I need a new mattress but I still have one and of course lots of quilts to sleep under. So having this need in our own community is not only surprising but it is heart breaking. I am sure there are lots of reasons why families get in this situation but that is not what is important to me, truthfully it is none of my business. What is important is doing what I can to rectify the situation, and making quilts to go with the beds is something I can do. Really you know I am going to be quilting on something anyway so why not just make sure that  it fits a twin bed. This is a stack of 7 quilts waiting to be picked up by the founders of the local chapter.

This one was made by Donna from recycled shirts.

This one was also made by Donna using 4 patches from an exchange we did with the Somerville Stitch group.

This one was made by Janet.

This one is Janet's as well. She is a fairly new quilter but she does an excellent job .

These two were originally one huge top made by Ivy. She split it and made 2 twin size from it.

And lastly from the stack is one I pieced from some blocks I had finish probably a year ago. I had intended to make a larger quilt but after I got involved with this group I decided to use just what I needed for a twin size top. I still have a few blocks left over and one day I make them into a runner or a baby quilt. I did all the quilting of these 7 and most of the binding so that has kept me pretty busy, but when they post pictures of the happy kids with their own bed it just makes my heart happy.

The way I see it this is a win win situation so if you would like that feeling too, get involved in something in your area.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

SHP

There is a charitable organization called Sleep in Heavenly Peace, that makes bunk beds for children that otherwise are having to sleep on the floor. It is a national organization and a very nice couple have started a chapter in our area. It was brought up at our June 1st meeting and this was a project that just spoke to me. I contacted the local couple and volunteered some quilts to them when they got everything up and running. So far they have delivered 12 beds and have another build day planned for Saturday to build another 10 beds. Between other members of the guild and myself we have donated  13 quilts to them so far and have 7 more ready to go.

Donna gave me two wal-mart sacks full of 2.5 inch strips. I have made this dancing nine patch from those strips and have not put a dent in them. I sashed it in the black and was afraid that might be a little dark so I put a bright green back and then quilted it in green. I know you can't really tell that is this photo, but I like how it turned out.

Quilts number 4,5,6 and 7 in the batiks from previous post have been donated as well. I have several other projects for this organization in the works. I will try to do a better job of sharing in the future.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

7th Heaven

If you are like me, you never cut exactly the right number of strips or blocks when making a quilt. There are always left over scraps or pieces. Number 7 here is made from left overs from the previous batik quilts I have made this year. I finally used up enough of the scraps to call it an end to the batik quilt tops for a while. I had two fairly deep drawers of batiks and I have made 7 quilts from it and still don't think it is reduced enough to combine the drawers. I have even given away several pieces that I had yardage of but didn't think I would use the color. Most of one drawer was half yard pieces and when you are doing a scrap quilt that goes a long way. The bigger yardage I have used for borders and binding. This one uses 2.5 inch squares in a 16 patch with a 4.5 x 8.5 white between the blocks. On the alternate row start with  4  2.5 squares in a row connected to the white, then add blocks and white ending with another strip of 4 squares to alternate the blocks. I have got to get some of these quilted. I am finally caught up with quilting for others so maybe I can quilt some of these in the next few days.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Number 6

I am still playing in those two drawers of batiks, who would have thought I would have gotten so hung up on these wild fabrics. This is number six, it is also twin size. This was a super simple pattern, but a fun one. One night as I was sewing all these strip sets together, Johnny came in the sewing room and said I had that machine really humming. Yes it is really easy to put the hammer down when sewing longer seams. It went together super quick but of course I over estimated the number of strip sets so I had left overs and yes that means I have number 7 in the works. Check back in a few days to see that pattern.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

From March to June

My last post was in March and now it is June, I am not sure what happened. I have been sewing a lot but really haven't finished anything with the exception of this little pillow. This was made from scraps of a quilt top I am calling Civil Quarters and it has been moved out to the quilt shack without getting a picture. I know I have been doing a good bit of quilting for others but that still doesn't explain the amount of time that has passed since my last post. I will try to do better in the future.

This is a twin size top made from the HST's  that were cut offs from The Spinners quilt. I saw this pattern on Pinterest done in 30's and thought it would be a good way to use the left overs from both Spinners and Mosaic. Of course this did not use up all the HST's so I found another project for them.

It is called a Depression Block but done in these bright batiks, there is nothing depressing about it. However I only had enough half square triangles left to make a few blocks so I ended up back in the Batik box and making more, a bunch more. I have bought yardage of a wide back and plan to load these two sideways and quilt both on the same back. I have the binding ready for both, now if I can just get them quilted. I have a lot going this week so it probably won't happen.

As I figure out what I have done with myself the last two months I will post some updates. I do have a couple of other projects started, yea where is the surprise in that.

I am going to see if I remember how to link with some other blogs.

Oh Scrap!
Slow Stitch Sunday
Making Monday
Design Wall Monday
Main Crush Monday
Moving if Forward


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Mosaic

This is the one that got it all started working with batiks. It is a free pattern from Quilted Twins. They have a lot of really nice scrappy quilt patterns that are free to download. I am not sure what really drew me to this pattern of all they offered but it just did. I knew I had some batiks that I had not used in years, just didn't realize how many I really had. It is simple enough cutting, the bricks are 2 by 3.5 inches, using a 2 inch square to start and end every other row. There are 7 different row constructions, one and seven are not repeated but 2-6 are repeated backwards to make rows 8-12. I say backwards but I guess I mean inverted, example row 2 instructions are the same for row 12 and row 3 is the same for row 11. I pieced the first 12 rows and assembled them one row at a time

This was very time consuming and frustrating because it felt like it would take forever. This is probably why I ended up setting this one aside and doing the checkerboard one.

  It was easy to convince myself since I already had the batiks out and was still cutting the bricks for Mosaic that I could just as easily cut some one and a half inch strips to piece this one. And because I was able to put this one together in blocks which is something I am more comfortable with, it went together very quickly.

Batiks are still out on the cutting table when the Quiltmaker magazine came out featuring this one in batiks so you know how that story went. I even came up with a block to make from the cutoff of these spinning pinwheels.

Not to let this Mosaic pattern beat me I had to come up with some way of moving it along quicker. I realized that each row is not that hard it was just changing it every time, so repetition was the answer. The pattern is 5 and a half repeats of the first 12 rows, so since I had one section done I new I needed  4 and a half more repeats. So since row 1 was not repeated I would only need 5 more of them and making 5 in a row of the same thing went a lot faster since I didn't have to think so much about it. Now row 2 and 12 were the same so I would need 9 repeats of that instruction. This really sped things up. I would put each group of the same row in their own container.

I now have all the individual rows finished, waiting to be assembled. However I am again going to have to set these aside to make a baby quilt for a customer, but when I am able to get back to it, it should go together quickly.

Happy Stitching,
Teresa

March Update

March is coming to an end and I am just now getting back to the sewing room. The last week of February my Daddy was in the hospital and then moved to rehab. He says he just slid out of bed but then couldn't get back up. One hip just didn't want to work and he ended up spending the night in the floor. Thankfully nothing was broken but we did have a battle with pneumonia.  With the time in the hospital and rehab he was away from home 25 days, and that was pretty much the same for me. Things have settled back down and I have been trying to catch up on some things. First I had to take care of a few things for customers and then I got back onto some of my projects.

I finished the Spinners to the flimsy stage. This is the cover quilt from the March/April issue of Quiltmaker magazine. I reduced the size of mine to 6 blocks by 7 blocks, the original pattern was 8 blocks by 8 blocks making it 96 inches square. Mine will be 72 by 84 inches. This was not on either of my to do lists for the year but it was one that just spoke to me and since I was already working in bakiks, what the heck, just go for it. I am still looking for a back and am not sure about the binding. Thinking about binding it in the same white background rather than choosing one color since it is so colorful, but I know the white would get so dirty. What do you think?

I was also able to get my Ringo Lake finished. The night before Daddy's little episode I had put the top and bottom borders on and had planned to add the side borders the next day, well that didn't happen. It was a month later when I got back to it.

As you can see I didn't finish mine per the instructions. I tried the sashing on the design wall and just couldn't make it work for me, so skipped that part and set it together block to block and used the sashing parts for the border. I am happy with it

12 for 12 WIP list

1.Rick Rack Nines
2. Jacob's Ladder
3. Jamestown Landing
4. Ringo Lake-----------------------March finish
5.  Mosaic
6. Split Rail
7. Rainbow Challenge 2017
8.  Master Checkerboard-----------February Finish
9. Garden Party
10. Floral Log Cabin
11. Alabama
12. Red and Cream
 12 for 12 Quilted list

To be Quilted list
1 Scrapy Trip
2. Boxy Stars
3. Civil war stars
4. Sisters Choice---------------------------------January Finish
5.Brown and gold runner
6. Blue and Yellow backroads
7. Christmas Ribbons
8. Blue All Around
9. yellow/orange brick road
10. Double nine patch
11. Bowties
12. 30's dancing nine patch



I am hard at work on Mosaic, it is more of a challenge than I thought. Of course Spinners was a challenge as well with the way the blocks had to connect with the alternate spinner. I'll try to get back here sooner with the latest from the sewing room and the quilt shack.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Spinners Again

I debated with myself on how to put this one together. Normally I am not a fan of rows, I prefer the twosie-foursie method. Several years ago while at the Houston market I was talking with Kay England (I believe) and she was telling me about how she assembled quilt tops using the twosie-foursie method. She would put the first two blocks in a row together and then the first two of the second row and then she would put those together like a four patch. She would then move over and do the same for the next two blocks on the first and second rows. She would then connect this four patch to the first one. Continue across and down the quilt like this. It will keep the top more square. Sometimes straight row after row will tend to bow. The first time I tried this method was on a pink and brown HST quilt. When we loaded the top on the quilting machine all those 3 inch HST's ran straight across the front bar. Barbara and Ada were helping me quilt this one and we were all amazed at how straight it was, so needless to say that is the way I usually assemble my quilt tops.

However with this one I decided I would have to put it together in rows. Since I have to work from the design wall one this one to keep everything straight, and I don't have enough room to lay out the whole top, I will have to work on a few rows at a time.

I have decided on 7 rows of 6 blocks each. This will use 42 sets of 4 matching units, however the block is made up of parts of those 30 connecting units. So I pieced the blocks for the first two rows , using 17 sets of matching units. I only have room on the design wall for about 3 and a half rows, so I wanted the second row pieced before I took the first row down to assemble. This made moving the second row up a lot easier. I then only had a few of the connecting pieces to move up to have room then to lay out all of row 3 which will include parts of the next connecting blocks. On the bottom right corner you can see where I have some of my units made ready to be added to the wall. You have to balance your colors as you go since you can't move blocks around, so seeing these extra units like this and also on the sewing table will show me if I have too much of one color or not enough of another. Yes this one is a little bit of a challenge but I am enjoying working on it.








Happy Stitching,



Teresa

Update and Inspitation

I don't think there is anything more tiring than sitting around at a hospital. Yesterday Johnny had a heart cath test done and he didn't realized he would have to stay 6 hours and lay flat 5 of that. The good news is that he only had some small blockages that were too small to stint, so they will treat with medication. One of the blockages they will be watching because of the location it would require bypass if it worsens.  The bad news is this is not the answer to his shortness of breath. They have put him on a different diuretic to help relieve that fluid build up. We had to be there at 11 for the test to start at 1 , so that meant it was nearly 8 pm before we got to leave. We were both so tired we were in bed by 930 which is unheard of for me. But I guess that early rest energized my creative juices because when I woke up this morning (before 5 ) I knew what I wanted to do with the sew off HST I am getting with this Spinners quilt I am working on.

I have been drawing the second line on my 3.5 inch squares so that I would not be wasting so much fabric. Now I don't do this on anything smaller because the resulting HST is just smaller than I want to fool with. This one measures 2.75 inches. In my sleep I decided to try quarter square triangles from them. I thought it would make it small enough that I would trim to 2 inches but I ended up with a good 2.5 inch quarter square triangle.

I then set them together in a Ohio Star pattern.

Even though I am making my Spinner quilt smaller than the pattern I will still have 672 HST's from it. That will make 168 Ohio Star blocks. I am not sure yet how I will set them together, guess I will wait for further inspiration.


Not sure what I will even try to do today because I am still tired. I have already been to Wal-Mart to fill his prescription so I feel like I have put a days work in already and it is not even 11 am.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Storage Dilemma

Monday I found out that the Antique Basket, where I had a booth to sell some of my quilts, was closing. We had two weeks to get out stuff out.  So Tuesday I retrieved all my items. I had to get them when I had some help and Judy Dotson was able to help then so now they are all piled on my bed. I really didn't realize how much I had in that small booth. Before bedtime I got enough removed to get in the bed. I have to come up some way to store these. I am hoping that they find another location quickly and I can set my booth back up or I may have to look for another location. I told Johnny it looks like I don't need to be sewing with all of this stockpiled, but you know that is not going to happen.

Oh well, I am going to pull a Scarlott and worry about that tomorrow. Back to sewing on Spinners.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Spinners

In my last post I mentioned another quilt made with batiks. It was on the cover of the March/April issue of Quiltmaker magazine and it is called Spinners. Well Thursday I worked all day on a quilt as you go throw for a customer. Yes I get talked into finishing things for other people. If I had remembered how much work went into one of those things I might have said no, but then  probably not because she is such a sweet lady. Then Friday I carried Daddy to his treatment and then we went to lunch. We went to lunch at Clark's Restaurant in Athens Ala. It was a little out of the way since his treatment was in Decatur but they have the best food, plus since I would be in Athens I had an excuse to go by the quilt shop there. It is called Three Hens and a Chick, and they have a nice little shop. I can always find something I want and surprise since it was my birthday I got 20% off my purchase. After I dropped Daddy back off at home I still had some errands to run back in Decatur, so the day was spent pretty much on the road. The weather was so nice that we sat on the front porch for a while when I got home.

As a reward for two busy days, I let myself start that new project called Spinners. Yes I realize that was a poor excuse to start something new when I still have so many unfinished projects. But sometimes you just got to go where the mood takes you.

This one is really going to be a challenge. It makes a 12 inch block but the blocks interconnect so you have to have the parts made for the other sides before you can piece a block. If you have ever pieced a court house steps quilt it is kind of like that. I pieced all these just to get the first block made.

See this one in the top left corner. Before I can complete the block to the right or below I have other parts to piece. These are nice big pieces so I will put a real dent in my Batik stash. I bought 7 yards of a white, the pattern called for 9.25 but I am not going to make mine as big. The pattern is 8 blocks by 8 blocks to make it 96 square. I really don't care for square quilts so I am only going to make mine 6 by 7 and will probably add a border.

Check back later to see my progress.

Teresa

Checker board

I saw this quilt on the internet and fell in love. The post said she didn't have a pattern just made it up, well if you know me that was all the challenge I needed. I took a screen shot of the quilt because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find it again and I was right. I didn't write down the person's name so I didn't have any way to contact her again. I don't know how she put it together but after I studied it a while I could see it could be made using 3 different blocks.

The double nine patch was the first I spotted. I am not sure what size blocks she used but I decided on 1.5 inch strips. I strip pieced the units for the nine patch and that makes a 3.5 inch block so adding a 3.5 light square it make a 9 inch finished block.

The 81 patch is just 5 dark and 4 light nine patch units. This will also finish 9 inches.

The third block I call the bar unit. It is 2 dark and 1 light nine patch units with 3 different light squares sewn on either side of it. It is turned horizontal between the double nine patch blocks and is placed as a vertical block between the 81 patch units.

I wanted it to start and end with the double nine patch so I had to use odd number of blocks in a row and odd number of rows. I set mine 9 across and 11 down that makes it 81 by 99.

All the dark fabrics are batiks. I was already cutting a pattern called Mosaic by the  Quilted Twins using 2 inch strips of batiks so why not cut 1.5 inch strips and the same time. The Mosiac is still in the box because this one became an obsession. I started out thinking I would just make a few strip set then a few nine patch blocks, them a bar block then the double nine patch block and away it went. I love to multi task by cutting more than one quilt at a time, because you know how time consuming it is to cut a scrap quilt. A two color quilt can be cut much faster. So while you have the fabric out and pressed I like to cut for another project. Wouldn't you know just as I got all I needed cut for this quilt and the Mosiac the Quiltmaker magazine came out with a stash buster in batik on the cover. It is made with 3.5 inch strips. Poo I could have cut that one too, guess I will be pulling the fabric back out. I had not worked with my batik stash in several years and was thinking about getting rid of it and now I have one quilt finished and another two in the planning stages. These will put a pretty good dent in that stash.


I did the math on it and determined I needed 348 dark and 129 light nine patch units. If you have read my blog more than twice then you know I am not one to do all the cutting first , no I have to jump into the sewing immediately and it is probably good that I do it that way or I might not have finihed this one. I was using a lot of fat quarters and on the yardage I would cut it in half so that I was dealing with a 21 or 22 inch strip. Most of the time I could get 14 cuttings from one strip set but to make all these nine patch units it took approximately 60 of the dark sets and 44 of the light sets . That is a lot of cutting. Once I realized how much it was going to take I knew I would have to repeat fabric. I probably had 12 or 15 whites and off whites that I used. I haven't counted the total number of pieces it this thing but I probably will. Okay I stopped and counted and it is not as many as I thought it would be. There are 30 of the double nine patch blocks and 49 pieces per block that is 1470, there is 20 of the 81 patch blocks so that is 1620 and 49 of the bar units with 33 pieces each equals 1617 making it a total of 4707. If I had made this from individual squares it would have drove me crazy but strip piecing it was not bad.  



I am taking it to guild meeting tonight for show and tell so I better get up from here and get going.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Boxy Stars

Looking back through my blog post I found that this top was finished on July 13, 2017. I now have it quilted and bound. This one was only on hold in the quilt shack for 7 months so that is pretty good for me. I kind of tricked myself with this one. Back last week I quilted the little heart table runner then quilted a kid size quilt for Donna and since I had gotten such an early start that day I went ahead and loaded this one on the machine. I got everything ready to quilt but left it on hold. The trick came when later in the week when I finished the top I had been working on all month I had to quilt this one before I could load that one one. So that pushed me to get an extra one done.

Linking with----

Oh, Scrap
Slow Stitching Sunday

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

January Finish

I can't believe it is the last day of January already. I feel like I have started the year already behind what with being sick the first half of the month. I am getting back in the groove and have got a little bit of work accomplished. While this little two heart table runner was not on either of my 12 for 12 lists, it is something I wanted to get done before the first of the month and I just barely made it. I got it quilted yesterday morning and bound last night.

I also got one from my 12 for 12 to be quilted list done. I just haven't taken the time to photograph it. This is a Sisters Choice block that I made from Thimbleberry scraps.

It has been in my to be quilted stack for several years so it feels good to get it done, finally.

 12 for 12 Quilted list

1 Scrapy Trip
2. Boxy Stars
3. Civil war stars
4. Sisters Choice---------------------------------January Finish
5.Brown and gold runner
6. Blue and Yellow backroads
7. Christmas Ribbons
8. Blue All Around
9. yellow/orange brick road
10. Double nine patch
11. Bowties
12. 30's dancing nine patch



I also got two quilted for friends so I guess it hasn't been too bad a start for the year.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Making Plans

In an attempt to stay focused and finish some previously started projects last year I made a 12 for 12 list. These were 12 previously started projects that had got pushed back in a project box or bag that had not been finished. The idea was to do one project a month , hence the second 12. I did real well the first 9 months but had not anticipated how busy I would get quilting for others that last quarter of the year so I only finished 9 from the list. I also got several other projects that were not on the list done so I had a really good retired again year. I still want to do it again this year but I am going to do it a little different. I am going to have two lists. I am going to have a list of 12 WIP (works in progress) that still have piecing to do on them and I am going to have a list of 12 tops that are ready to be quilted. These are tops that I have the back and binding ready and have already taken them out to the quilt shack. Ideally I would like to finish one from each list but that probably won't work every month. So if I can get one finished on the piecing side or one quilted and bound it will be a good month. I am also going to remember how busy my fourth quarter was last year and try to do more than one a month. Ambitious YES, but doable.

12 for 12 WIP list

1.Rick Rack Nines
2. Jacob's Ladder
3. Jamestown Landing
4. Ringo Lake
5.  Mosaic
6. Split Rail
7. Rainbow Challenge 2017
8.  Master Checkerboard
9. Garden Party
10. Floral Log Cabin
11. Alabama
12. Red and Cream

 12 for 12 Quilted list

1 Scrapy Trip
2. Boxy Stars
3. Civil war stars
4. Sisters Choice
5.Brown and gold runner
6. Blue and Yellow backroads
7. Christmas Ribbons
8. Blue All Around
9. yellow/orange brick road
10. Double nine patch
11. Bowties
12. 30's dancing nine patch

I would like to say if I got all these done I would be caught up, but I didn't get the "queen of the UFO projects" title for nothing. It would however put a huge dent in that title. As you can see I am going to be busy and this is in addition to the quilting I do for others and charity projects. Who is with me in trying to finish some of these older projects?

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Matters of the Heart

I try to do something with a Valentine theme this time of the year. Last year I made a heart wall hanging so this year I thought I would do a two heart table runner.

Then for some reason I couldn't decide which way to point the hearts. I originally planned to point them out but think they look just as well pointing in, so I conferred with good friend Ivy and she agrees out. She says then someone could place a vase of flowers in the center. Good thinking, so now to finish sewing it together and then decide how to quilt them. I hope that is not too big a decision for me. It seems like 3 weeks of being under the weather has effected my brain process.

I am still fine tuning my list and if I don't get in a hurry I am going to be a month behind before I even start.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa 

No Snow

It is a dreary cold no snow, dud kind of afternoon. I am in my sewing room trying organize all this into some sort of civilized chaos. I know this room will never be perfect, mainly because I am not ready to part with too much of it. But honestly I have more started projects than any one person should have. This all started while I was trying to make a list of 12 projects I would like to see finished in 2018. Really couldn't narrow it down to 12. So I am taking a break, yea that happens too often, and am going to go back through my pictures and see just how much I got done in 2017. Maybe that will give me a more realistic incite into what I can do this year.

I may have missed one, but if I am counting right here is 15 quilts plus pillows and wall hangings. I didn't show all the bibs, mug rugs and fabric boxes I made. Nor did a show you all the different wall hangings I made to put in my booth at Antique Basket. Plus I quilted a good many for paying customers and several for charity. So I guess I did get a lot done in 2017. Oh yea, remember all those placemats the guild was doing for Meals on Wheels, 325 yep we got them done with some spares.

Check back later and I will have a list for 2018 plus a couple of bonus items. If I could not start anything new I might get my WIP's (works in progress) under control, but I know that want happen.

Happy Stitching,


Teresa