My Design Dilemma

Yesterday I was finishing up a Christmas quilt that I started working on last week (2 weeks ago?), I forget.  Anyway, at the point when I started working yesterday, I had just 3 blocks left to make.  I decided on the fabric for those last 3 blocks, and got them sewn and the blocks sewn into basic top without borders.  I had already chosen my border fabrics, which I had bought especially for the project.  I cut the strips, sewed them on, and thought I was done.  However, once I looked at the finished top, I wasn't happy with how it looked.  I felt like the focus fabric, the Christmas kittens fabric, looked out of place once the outer border was sewn on.  The picture below shows the original outer border.

I removed the outer border, but left the inner border. 

I was thinking that the outer border was a bit too busy, and that it would look better with a simpler fabric that was closer in color to the green of the focus fabric.  I auditioned some green fabric that I just bought at the quilt shoppe, but I don't think I have enough of it.  Although I'm sure I could go buy more.  But I still wasn't sure.

Then I found some other Christmas fabric that I had that was red and green.  I really like it, and at first I thought I was going to go with it, but now I'm not sure about it either.  I'm afraid it still might be too busy.  I definitely like both of these better than the original black, red and gold holly fabric, though.

What do you think?

Travel Fabric

My husband and I recently traveled to Berkeley, CA for my husband to present a paper at the Western Literature Association's annual conference.  While we were there, we visited a quilt shop - New Pieces Quilt Store and Gallery.  It was a really nice shop with a large selection of fabrics.  The shop staff was also very nice and friendly.  (I know that I drive quilt shop staff everywhere crazy because I wander around the store 3 or 4 times before I even pick anything up, but they are always great about it!)

Above is a picture of the fabric that I bought while I was there.  I bought 1-1/2 yards of the fabric on the left (from Abbey's Garden by Eugene Textiles).  The fabrics on the left I just bought in fat quarters (top - from Serenity by Cheri Strole for Northcott, bottom - from Autumn Bouquet by Denise Urban for Quilting Treasures).  Those were the fabrics that I just kept coming back to as I wandered the store.  They are not for a specific project, and most likely won't get used together, but they are my mementos of fun trip to Berkeley.

Pickles

For several years now, if I make enough cucumbers in my garden, I make homemade pickles.  This year we had a cool, cloudy, and wet summer, and my garden did terribly!  I didn't have any dill pickles left from last year either.  I had bought a jar of dill chips at the store, and I used them, but they just aren't the same as homemade.  Not only is the flavor different, when I went to Walmart, I couldn't find any normal, round, dill pickle chips.  They were either "ovals", which in some cases means sliced the long way instead of the short way on the pickle, or they were spicy.  I didn't want any of that, so I gave up on store bought pickles, and bought cucumbers instead.

Usually Walmart's either doesn't have pickling cucumbers or else the ones they have are all beaten up and shriveled.  But yesterday they actually had several pounds worth and they actually looked good and fresh.  So I bought them and made homemade pickles with them.  They didn't seem to have any wax on them, so hopefully they will turn out good.  The only problem is, with dill pickles they need to sit for a couple weeks before you use them.  So I still won't have usable pickles for a while, but hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Charming Little Bag

This is an adorable little bag that I made today.  From start to finish it took me maybe 5 hours, and that probably includes my lunch break.  I'm sure it could be made even faster than that, but I was stopping periodically to watch the tutorial on YouTube.  The instructions are available here on YouTube.  It is a great tutorial from The Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I've been watching a lot their tutorials lately and I really wanted to try this one.  I had several charm squares left over from a fall themed charm pack that I bought last fall to use in my row swap quilt.

Oddly enough, when I was making my bag, I used more precuts than Jenny did in the tutorial.  She used yardage for the base, lining and handles of the bag, but I used a fat quarter (or what was left of one actually) for the base, the closure, and part of the handles and some extra charm squares for the the other part of the handles.  I only used yardage for the lining.  Jenny's bag didn't have the closure, but she mentioned that you might want to add one, so I did.

Chicken Scratch Heart

I'm not exactly sure when I finished working on the actual embroidery on this one.  I'm sure it was several months ago.  I just couldn't decide what I wanted to do with it.  I thought about making it into a pillow, but I figured that in a house with 3 boys who like to throw pillows at each other, and two cats that sometimes knead on pillows, it wouldn't last too long.  My mother suggested that I frame it instead, so that's what I finally did, yesterday.  I went to Walmart, hoping to find a nice white frame, and to my astonishment, I actually found one.

When I was younger, I remember my mother showing me how to do chicken scratch embroidery (also called Hoover lace, among other things) and decided to try my hand at it again.  I could remember the general nature of it, but I couldn't remember all of the stitches and exactly how each stitch corresponded to the squares on the gingham.  So, I did a quick search of the internet and found a great tutorial at Pink Paper Peppermints.  It's not hard to do, especially if you stick to the basic stitch, and you can use it to makes lots of different designs.

I'm planning to enter this piece in the country fair, so wish me luck!

Not as simple fringed blanket

The other day my Walmart had some of their fabric marked down for clearance, including some of their fleece.  I saw this fabric and thought it was really cute and very soft.  I decided to get some to make another fleece blanket, like the one feature in this post to donate to the same organization.  As it turned out, this fabric was not quite appropriate for that application.

Just like with the last blanket, I sewed around the outside of the fabric about 2 inches from the edge.  Then I cut out the corners and fringed the edges.  However, this time, the fringes on two of the sides (selvedge sides, I think) were not stable and just wanted to pull off.  Obviously, that is not good for a child's blanket.  So I went back and cut off the fringes on those two side, almost to the stitching line.  Then I turned under the edges and zigzag stitched it down. 

To my thinking, it is not nearly as cute with fringe on only two sides, but there seems to be no other choice in the situation.  It would have looked neater if I had just left the selvedge edges on, because they were  not white.  But I didn't know it would turn out the way that it did.  I still think it is plenty nice enough to donate, though.  Oh well, I guess you live and learn.  I guess in this case, softer isn't always better.

Pineapples in the Pumpkin Patch - finished!

I finally finished my pumpkin wall hanging quilt that I started last fall.  The first block is featured in this post from November 15.  And it is actually a do-over from the original block posted on October 18.  But at least I got it finished in time for fall (and the County Fair).

The quilt finished 24 inches square.  It is machine pieced, with both traditional piecing and paper piecing, and hand quilted (mostly quilting "in the ditch").  I quilted it in a hoop because it was small.  This was challenging for me, simply because I'm not accustomed to using a hoop, but it was also much more comfortable than sitting at a frame.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I added a hanging sleeve to it, which I haven't done with a quilt in a long time.  I also made a decorative label for the back.  A cute little pumpkin, unlike any of the ones on the front, but using some of the same fabric.  The backing is a pretty autumn, pumpkin themed fabric.

Day and Night

This quilt top is made from Eleanor Burns Day and Night pattern.  It is made with strip sets (of course) and it requires a special tool to cut triangles from the strip sets.  I bought the book, because it comes with the tool.  I used the "three strips, two colors" option to make the crib sized quilt. 

She suggests using fabrics with good contrast, so I went with complimentary colors: yellow and purple.  The design makes me think of a harlequin, even though it is a little different.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I'm not sure what I'm going to name it, or what I'm going to do with it once it is finished.  I've bought fabric to make a sofa-sized quilt using the same pattern, but that one will be in shades of red to match my living room.  I made this crib-sized one as a trial run before I moved onto the larger one made with more expensive quilt shop fabric.

More from Missouri Star

I've done it again.  I ordered more fabric from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Earlier in the month I ordered an Ellie Ann charm pack and layer cake to make a twin bed sized quilt.  My local quilt shop doesn't carry any of the Ellie Ann line, but I needed some yardage for the borders (the Ellie Ann Petit rose China Blue and Ellie Ann Twilight Cobalt yardage above).  And if you are ordering something, you might as well get the deal of the day (the Snowmen Gatherings Charm Pack).  And if you order $100 worth or more you get free shipping so you might as well get something else, especially if it's on sale too (the Tea House Plum layer cake).  So, you know, it all makes sense if you think about it, right?

Simple Fringed Fleece Blanket

Here is a picture of the fleece blanket that I made for my church's blanket drive this year.  Two years ago we collected blankets for the Child Advocacy Center here in town and we are doing it again this year.  Last time I made several fleece blankets, but this year I only bought fabric for one.  The finished blanket measures approximately 53 x 56 inches, not including the fringe.  I had hoped to make it a little longer, but that was all the fabric that was on the bolt.  It should still be a good size for a child to cuddle up with it.

To make the blanket, I simply evened up the cut edges and trimmed off the selvedge.  Then I sewed a straight stitch about two inches from the edge of the fabric all the way around.  Then I used my trusty spring loaded scissors to cut in from the edge, almost up to the sewing line, at about half inch (maybe 3/4) intervals all the way around.  It is a very easy project that takes almost no time to make.  It took just over an hour from start to finish.  It probably would have taken less time if I hadn't had a fluffy black feline "helper" in my lap.  In fact, if I see some more fleece I like at a good price, I might make more. . .

From Row Swap to Quilt Top

Here are some pictures of my row swap rows sewn into a completed quilt top.  Unfortunately, my design wall isn't big enough to hold the completed top, so I took the pictures with it lying on a twin bed.  The finished top is 66-1/2 inches by 86 inches.

I used all the rows in my quilt top.  Seven of them make up the center of the quilt top.  They are sewn together straight without any sashings.  I then added a dark 3 inch border.  Then I added a light colored 9 inch border.  I took one of the rows apart and used the squares as corners in the border.  (You can't really see them in the picture. You can see a little bit of one of them in the top picture.)  Then I added another 3 inch border of the same dark leaf fabric.  I plan to use the same dark leaf fabric for the binding if I have enough of it.  If not, I'm going to use a different harvest fabric which has a black background.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  All the rows work together so nicely.  And it goes well with the wall color in the room too.  Now I just need to decide how I'm going to quilt it...

A New Addition

Here is a picture of the newest addition to my sewing room.  It is a Janome DC2013, that I ordered through Amazon.  I haven't had a chance to use it much, but so far I'm pleased with it.  It has a 1/4 inch foot and walking foot, which I really wanted, plus some other feet that seem like they will be useful as well.  I'm looking forward getting good use out of it.  I don't know how many of those fancy stitches I'll be using, but it sure looks like fun.

Precuts from Missouri Star Quilt Company

I don't normally buy precut, except for fat quarters, but Missouri Star is luring me in.  So far I've ordered a layer cake and charm pack of Ellie Ann fabric (by Eleanor Burns), a Starflakes and Glitter charm pack (by Tina Givens), and a Holiday Accents fat quarter bundle (by RJR fabrics).

I've formulated a plan for the Ellie Ann layer cake: a twin sized quilt with four patches and setting squares and a pieced border.  Some of the fat quarters are earmarked for a Christmas quilt, along with the Christmas cat fabric from a previous post.  The charm packs are yet to be determined at this juncture.  I thought I would need the Ellie Ann charm pack for the layer cake quilt, but it turned out that I didn't.  The Starflakes and Glitter charm pack may be used in my next guild project, if we do the charm pack challenge, or it may end up as Christmas gift.  I'm not sure yet.

Intertwined

This is the finished quilt (featured in this post as a quilt top) that I am giving to my son and his fiance as a wedding gift.  The bridal shower is on Saturday, so I finished it just in time.  I decided to call it "Intertwined" because the center panel had the nice intertwined lines and I thought it was a good symbolic name for a wedding quilt.

The quilt is hand quilted.  The center panel is quilted following most of the black lines, which is then echoed in the tan areas, and along each of the concentric rectangles around the center design.  The narrow border strips are quilted in the ditch and the wide border has cables quilted into it.  The corner squares are quilted in the ditch around the brown corner "arrows" and the blue/green patches are quilted a quarter inch in from the seams.

I think the quilt turned out looking very pretty, but I wouldn't recommend this fabric (Stonehenge ginkgo) if you are a hand quilter.  The silvery marbled effect makes it VERY difficult to see the tip of your needle when you are quilting.  It almost drove me crazy.  Well, that not a very long drive, but anyway...

A Fat-Quarter Bag

I finished this project today (I started it yesterday afternoon).  It is a fat-quarter bag made from a pattern in Fat Quarter Quilts by M'Liss Rae Hawley.  It was really pretty easy to make, but it does take a lot of fabric.  It may not be easy to tell from the photograph, but this bag is huge!  To give you an idea, it is made from sewing together six fat quarters.  The lining (including the handles) calls for 2-1/8 yds. of fabric.  So yeah, huge.

The pattern suggests using it for carrying quilting projects or for an overnight bag.  I'm not sure I would use it as an overnight bag, since there is no closure of any kind on the bag, but it works great for carrying larger quilt projects.  I used it to take a sofa sized quilt (that I'm sewing binding onto) to my sewing group today, and there was room to spare in the bag.  I'm sure you could easily carry a twin sized quilt in it, and probably something even bigger than that.

Cat Fabric!!!

I just got this new fabric in the mail yesterday and I absolutely love it.  The little kitty cats make me so happy.  I ordered it from Feline Drive on Thursday, July 11 and received it yesterday (Monday, July 15).  I had never ordered from her before, but I'm sure I will again in the future.  The fabric is good quality, the prices are reasonable, and the service was great. 

The Christmas fabric with the kittens on it is for a Christmas quilt that I am planning to make using the Saratoga pattern.  I'm planning to use this fabric for the larger patches - all or some of them, I'm not sure yet.  The other fabric, all or some of it, will probably end up in a scrappy 1930s style quilt that I've been thinking about, and collecting fabric for, for several years now.

Fresh Blueberries and Lemon Blueberry Bread

This is the bowl of blueberries I picked yesterday morning.  My blueberry bush is producing very well this year.  I decided to bake some bread with one cup of the blueberries.  It turned out pretty good so I decided to share a picture, and the recipe.

Lemon Blueberry Bread

1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp grated lemon peel (or 1 Tbsp lemon extract)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup fresh blueberries

Glaze:
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, juice and eggs.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Stir flour mixture into egg mixture alternately with milk.  Fold in lemon peel, pecans, and blueberries.  Pour into a greased 8 in. x 4 in. x 2 in. loaf pan.  Bake at 350 F for 60 - 70 minutes or until bread tests done.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, combine glaze ingredients.  Remove bread from pan and drizzle with glaze.  Cool on a wire rack.  Yield: 1 loaf

Note:  I added more sugar to the glaze, because it seemed too thin.  I also heated the glaze to dissolve the sugar and then cooled it back down before drizzling it on the bread.

Scrabble

Yesterday I worked on an old project that I started probably a decade or more ago.  Back in the day, when the kids were young, our family used to play Scrabble a lot.  I got the idea to arrange all of our names on the Scrabble board, as if it were a real game of Scrabble.  I then transferred the layout to graph paper, including all the word and letter score spaces.  I wrote down the letter values for all of the letters of our names as well.  I bought Aida cloth and cross stitched all the "tiles" I needed to spell out the names.  I cut out the fabric squares for all the word and letter score spaces.  I cut out muslin for the blank spaces until I used all the muslin I had (which wasn't much).  I started sewing the squares together into 9 patch units.  I got the first 5 units sewn together, but then I needed more muslin.  I bought the muslin and washed it, but for some reason I never worked on it again until yesterday.  It's funny how quilting projects get set aside and abandoned like that.

I still need to decide what I'm going to do about adding borders to it.  I had bought some Scrabble fabric online a while back, but I don't think it really matches the color value of the rest of the quilt.  It is bright fabric and the center is much more muted.  It might work for the back of the quilt, depending on how big of a border I add to it.

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend copying this idea exactly.  The Aida cloth is the problem.  If you were starting from scratch on this one, I would suggest applique for the letter tiles instead.  The Aida cloth is very stiff, so it is difficult to press the seams.  The stiffness of the fabric also causes the seams to be thicker.  I tried to use a scant 1/4 inch seam to allow for it on those patches, but the quilt is still a little drawn-in in the areas where there are a lot of Aida cloth patches.  I also assume the Aida cloth will be difficult to hand quilt.  I may try to straight line machine quilt it, if I can ever get a walking foot that works.

Stonehenge Panel Quilt

This quilt top is for my son and his fiance.  The finished quilt will be a wedding gift.  They chose the fabric and the design.  The center is a printed panel and the corners are 12 inch pieced squares.  The borders are simple strip sets from Stonehenge ginkgo fabric.  I would have liked a little more contrast in the fabric for the squares, so the design would have showed up a bit more, but it is what it is.  They seem to be happy with the finished top, so that's good.  The finished quilt top is approximately 46" x 65".

Memorial Day pillowcases

This year I decided to continue the tradition that I started last year, and make pillowcases for soldier/veterans for Memorial Day.  This year I planned ahead, so that I could actually sew the pillowcases on Memorial Day.  I made a point to buy different patriotic fabric this year, and not just get the same fabric as last year.

I really enjoyed making them.  I hope that whoever gets them will enjoy having them as well.

The final row!

This is my final row in our guild row swap. For this quilt there wasn't exactly a theme.  Her focus fabric was the floral fabric that is in between the Ohio Star blocks in my row and the colors in the fabric were the only theme.  Since most people had done traditional blocks, I decided to stick with that idea.  My row is four Ohio Star blocks alternating with the focus fabric, fussy cut to have the same motif in each piece.  The centers of the Ohio Stars are also fussy cut from the focus fabric, but obviously from a different area of the fabric.

In the picture below, you can see all of the rows for this quilt.  The one at the top is the original row (made by the quilt's owner) and mine is at the bottom.

She said that she wanted the red in the quilt to pop, but since there was already so much red in the quilt, I decided to use only the red that was in the focus fabric itself.  She did the same in her original row, so I thought it would give the quilt a nice balance to have another row with minimal red.  I hope she enjoys her quilt.  I know I'm looking forward to getting my rows back and figuring how to put them all together.

Finally Finished!

I finished binding this one last night.  It is the quilt top that I made back in December featured in the Jesus and Me Take Three post.  It is machine pieced and hand quilted.  It is quilted in the ditch on all the seams, but because the patches are large, I needed to add more quilting.  I quilted suns in the pink squares.  The green half square triangle patches got a diagonal line (perpendicular to the seam) quilted in them.  I also quilted a line perpendicular to the seam that joins the stripe fabric to the Jesus and Me fabric.  The binding is the stripe fabric and the backing is a sunny yellow fabric.  The quilt finished 40 inches square.

It's been a while since I finished a quilt.  Looking back I see that the last quilt I finished was the Snowmen on Parade quilt that I donated to Project Linus back in February of last year.  I've finished some smaller projects (pillows, postcards, etc.) and made some quilt tops, but it feels good to actually finish a quilt again for a change.

Oh, and this was the first quilt that I quilted using my new Ulmer Quilter quilting frame.  I think it works well, and the quilt turned out really nice and square.  But it will take some getting used to because I'm used to an old fashion frame that stretches the whole quilt out at once.

Balloon Postcard

Today's creation is another fabric postcard.  This one features a 2-1/2 x 4 inch hot-air balloon surrounded by cloud fabric to finish 4 x 6 inches.  The quilting lines are intended to mimic the cords on a hot-air balloon.  The edges are finished with a satin stitch.  I'd be happier if I could over-lock the edges, but I don't have a serger, so this will have to do.

Tradition With A Twist

My most recent row swap row is called "tradition with a twist".  The idea is to make traditional blocks using brightly colored fabrics.  My row is the row on the bottom.  It is a Greek Cross block. 

My first attempt was this Day and Night block, which would have been very striking in green and solid black.  But, because the focus fabric (the black multicolored fabric) has so many colors in it, the pattern gets a little lost.  Eleanor Burns specifically warns against using a multicolor as the night fabric, but I wasn't thinking about that when I tried it. 

When that didn't work, I decided to go with a little simpler block instead.  I'm happy with how my finished row turned out.  We only have one more month left in the swap.  I'm really interested in seeing how all the quilts turn out.

Little Mittens top complete

Last night I finally finished the appliqued strings that connect the pairs of mittens in my "Little Mittens" quilt top.  I'm very happy to have all of that applique behind me.  That's one more completed quilt top for the pile.  Now I just need to find backing fabric and binding fabric, then it can get quilted . . . eventually.

Coco in Scraps

Just for fun, I thought I would post a picture of my fluffy black cat playing in my fabric scraps.  As any quilter with a cat knows, cats love to help out any way they can.  At least I'm sure they think they are helping. . .

Sewing Machines

I'm looking for some advice on sewing machines.  I'd really like to get a new sewing machine, but I'm not sure what to buy.  I want to get a good quality machine, but I don't want to pay for a lot of features that I don't really think I will use. 
Here are the features I'm really looking for in a machine:
A good 1/4 inch foot that will sew a good straight seam.  (The one I have now tends to veer to the side pretty badly, especially when I cross a seam.)
Sews well on paper, because I do a lot of paper piecing.  (The machine I have now seems to have tension issues/inconsistencies with paper piecing.) 
Sews well over thick seams.  (My current machine likes to just stop and sew in place when it gets to a seam of practically any thickness.)
A good walking foot for attaching binding or simple straight line quilting.  (My current walking foot doesn't even rest evenly on the fabric for some reason)

Nice but not necessary features:
Needle Up/Down feature
Auto thread cutting
Auto stitch lock feature

Features I don't need:
Free-motion quilt - don't do it, don't plan to start
Lots of fancy stitches

My current machine is a Singer 5830C (I think, that's the only thing on the machine that looked like a model number). 

Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Mom's Apple Pie block

 I finally decided that the best representation of food and home was Mom's apple pie, not that my actually mom made apple pie, but you know.  I adapted the pie slice from a pattern in the July 2004 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts called "Pie in the Sky".  I set the slice down flat and put it on a plate to match the tea cup.  The tea cup (or coffee cup, whichever you please) came from "Java Jitters" published in the May/June 2002 issue of Quiltmaker.  The fabric across the bottom is supposed to be a table cloth.

 Here is the finished row.  The three blocks are set together with 1.25 inch strips in between them.

Here is the row at the bottom of all the other rows for this quilt so far.  I think it fits in pretty well with the others.

Fabric Fortune Cookie

Here is the cute little fortune cookie I made the other day after accidentally coming across this easy tutorial over at Mollie Makes.  I was actually doing a Google image search for food related quilt blocks for my "There No Place Like Home" row swap quilt when I saw a picture of an adorable fabric fortune cookie.  Since I just happened to have some felt on hand, I felt compelled to go down to my sewing room and give it try.  In a matter of minutes I had this little beauty made.  What took the longest time in the whole process was finding something to trace around to make a 5 inch circle.  I ended up using a large can of canned chicken I had in the pantry.  For the fortune inside the cookie I wrote "You will smile while reading this".  I smile just seeing it.  So much fun!

There's No Place Like Home

The theme for the row swap quilt that I got at last week's guild meeting was "There's No Place Like Home".  The idea is to do a building and things that remind you of home.  I really feel like this is the hardest one that I've worked on so far.  I went around and around in my head for a week before I even got started on it.  So far, there has been a lot of applique in the rows, but I'm not that great at applique.  Most of the rows were somewhat scenic, but I couldn't come up with a scene that I felt like I could do.  Finally I decided to ditch the scenic idea, and following more in line with the middle row pictured above, do individual blocks with a home theme.

I tried to think about the things that seemed special about home.  Finally I hit on the idea of thinking about what you miss most about home when you are away on a trip.  I thought about it for myself, and I asked my husband and kids about it.  The number one response was "sleeping in my own bed".  The next most common answer was, "a home cooked meal".  So I'm trying to translate those ideas into blocks.

So far I've made two 10 inch blocks. The one on the left is, of course, the house block.  The pattern for this block came from the "Home is Where the Heart Is" pattern in the Jan/Feb 2004 issue of Quiltmaker magazine.  The main fabric of the house front is the focus fabric for this quilt.  The other block is my adaptation of a block I found online at Le Borse di Gaya.  I did actually download the pattern on this one, but I had to adapt it, because the original block was for Halloween and had a pair of creepy eyes and a claw hand under the bed. . .not my idea of home.  The fabric for the bed frame is the other focus fabric she is using in the quilt - her border fabric.

I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to do for my last 10 inch block.  I have a pattern for a slice of pie, but it is a 7 inch block.  I could blow it up to be 10 inches, or I could shrink it down to 5 inches and put a tea/coffee cup next to it.  I'm just not sure yet.  Once I get the last block done, I'm going to join the blocks together with 1.5 inch (finished) strips and add 1.5 inch (finished) strips to both sides to make the row 36 inches (finished).

Little Mittens

When I finished the "Pineapples in the Pumpkin Patch" quilt top this afternoon, I moved on to another UFO I had on my list.  This one is from the Quiltmaker pattern "Little Mittens" (Nov/Dec 2000).  I started this one quite a while ago.  I like to have hand sewing to work on when we take long trips by car, so I worked on the applique for this one over several trips to New Jersey.  I also learned that I'm not particularly fond of needle turn applique.  The applique has been finished for some time now, but I just got around to trimming the blocks down to size and cutting the blue sashing strips.  This is a picture of the blocks and sashing laid out on my design wall.  I haven't started sewing it together yet, but I'm happy with the lay out.  Once the top is sewn together, there will be more applique yet to do.  The matched sets of mittens have a "cord" to keep them together.  It is a bias strip that will attach to each mitten and loop in the white squares that don't have hearts in them.  To that I can only say, "ugh, more applique."

Pumpkin top complete

I got the borders added to my "Pineapples in the Pumpkin Patch" quilt.  I kicked around the idea of doing a pieced border with halves of the pineapple blocks (to put all the pumpkins inside a square like the center block), but ultimately I decided against it.  As much as anything, I just didn't want to make that many more of those little pineapple blocks.  I decide to go with a 1.5 inch border in the light green fabric and a 2 inch border in the dark green.  The binding will also be the dark green fabric.  I think it makes a nice frame for the little pumpkin patch.  Now, as always, the big question is . . . how do I quilt it?

Pineapples in the pumpkin patch

I finally decided on my alternate block for my pumpkin wall hanging quilt.  I decided that I wanted something that would make a secondary pattern, and when I came across a pineapple block in one of my quilting books, I knew that was the one.  Pineapples in the Pumpkin Patch just seemed like a perfect name and a perfect idea.  I found some cute fabric with little pumpkins on it that fit just right into the center of the pineapple blocks.  Now I need to decide what I'm going to do for borders and binding fabrics.  And, of course, the ever problematic question of how to quilt it. . .

My finished row (Harvest Home)

These are my last three blocks.  I finished them last night.  From left to right they are: Rail Fence, fall leaf, and Road to Oklahoma.  Obviously I decided against including an applique square.  I felt like the fall leaf was detailed enough to give a similar look as an appliqued piece.

Here are all the rows for this quilt so far.  My completed row is the row on the bottom.  This is just the order that I happened to have them on my design wall.  The rows will ultimately be sewn together in the order that the owner likes.  If it were up to me, I'd probably move my row up and place it above the row with the squirrel.

Last Week's Blocks

These are the rows for the row swap quilt I have to work on this month.  The theme for this one is "Harvest Home".  The black harvest print fabric is the focus fabric, and she asked that we include a house block as well.  She says that when she finishes it she plans to donate it to the veteran's hospital in Tuskegee, so she wants us to keep the blocks/row masculine.  I worked on the quilt last week, but I guess I forgot to post any pictures.  So here they are, better late than never.

These are the ones I've made so far.  I figured I would start the prerequisites.  I've got my house block, a block that uses the focus fabric (the Old Maid's Puzzle block), and of course, a pumpkin block.  As you can see, the pumpkin block uses the same pattern as one from my pumpkin patch quilt, but with a few different fabrics thrown in.  Now I have to decide which other blocks I'm going to make.  So far, no two blocks in the quilt use the same pattern, so I'm planning to maintain that pattern (or should I say non-pattern).  I'm thinking I will do a leaf block, and at least one more traditional patchwork block.  All the other rows have an applique block, so I sort of feel like I should do one, but I don't really enjoy doing applique that much, so I'm not sure yet about that.

I'm planning to working on more blocks today, so hopefully I'll have some more pictures up soon. 

Making a List

I did something yesterday that I'm not sure a quilter should ever do.  I made a UFO (UnFinished Objects) list.  I didn't actually look through everything and drag everything out, but I sat down and made a list of all the quilting projects I have in progress that aren't yet finished.  I knew I had several, but there were several more than I thought there were going to be.  As it turns out, I have 11 quilting project "in progress" at the moment (possibly more if I pulled everything out), six of which are completed quilt tops (obviously I've gotten a little lax on actually quilting).  This doesn't even include the things that I have bought fabric for, but haven't yet started work on.

I also made a list of 'quilting ideas'.  These are the things that I either have some or all of the fabric for, or things that I'm pretty sure I want to try making at some point.  That list is almost twice as long as my UFO list.  This list has 17 projects on it, and it doesn't include everything that I've at least made a sketch of in my graph paper notebook.  It's somewhat overwhelming. 

My reason for doing it was to try to help me get organized and have a better idea of what to be working on.  Also, I had been having several new quilting ideas lately and I didn't want to forget any of them.  So now I know that I need to buy some quilt batting and get something into my new quilting frame, but I'm still not sure what.  I've got so many choices that I still don't know what to do.  LOL!

More Little Pumpkins

Yesterday I finished my last two pumpkins for my little pumpkin patch quilt that I started back before Halloween.  The one on the left is a log cabin block with rounded sides added and a stem across the top.  It was inspired by a block I saw online at The Confused Quilter.  The one on the right is paper pieced from a pattern I saw online at Preserving Home Basics.  Again, I didn't order a pattern, I just sketched it out on graph paper while looking at the block on the computer.

This is the layout I had in mind for the pumpkin blocks.  I'm planning to put traditional pieced blocks in the currently blank spaces of the nine patch.  I was originally thinking I would do orange, black, and green (background fabric) blocks in either a Churn Dash or an Ohio Star, but now I'm not so sure.  Currently the only black in the quilt is the kitty in the center pumpkin, and I'm afraid using black in the alternate blocks might be a little too much.  But then again, if I don't do orange and black, I'm not sure which colors to use:  two different oranges, orange and green?  I'm just not sure yet.  I already have one orphan block from this quilt.  I hate to make another if I don't like what I choose.  Oh, decisions, decisions. . .

Also, I'm not sure yet if I'm going to put any sashing strips to divide the blocks or not.  Once I get the alternate blocks made and put into place, I will decide if I think I need them or not.

Completed Sandy Quilt

My Sandy Quilt team leader emailed me last night with pictures of the completed quilt.  I'm so happy with how it turned out.  I like scrappy quilts and this one is so bright and cheerful.  I hope it will lift the spirits of whoever gets it.

I have six blocks in the quilt.  One of them is right there on the corner facing the camera in the picture above.  My thanks go out to my team leader, Nancy, for putting the quilt together, quilting and binding it, and to Michele for organizing the drive.  I love being able to put my hobby to such a worthwhile cause.

If you are interested in helping out too, click on the link to your left.  The one with the cute little doggie that says "Sandy Quilt Block Drive".

Block Contest Block...so far

Here is a picture of my challenge quilt block for the Sisters Quilt Show.  I'm not 100% sure that I'm done with it at this point.  Actually, I know that it still needs to be trimmed to 9 1/2 inches.

The body of the fish is sequins and the splash is made from beads.  The head, eye, tail, and fins are appliqued, and the "water" at the bottom is just seamed to the background fabric.  There is a lot of embellishment with all those little sequins, but it still looks a little plain beyond the fish itself.  I'm gonna leave it up on the wall for a while and see if any other ideas for embellishments strike me.