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.

Block Contest

I decided to try something new the other day.  I ordered a fabric packet from the Sister's Outdoor Quilt Show website, so that I can enter their quilt block contest.  I was a little surprised when I got the fabric packet in the mail.  There was one 10 inch square of fabric and four 6 inch squares of fabric.  I had figured they would all be the same size.  I ordered the blue color-way packet and was a bit surprised by the square of fabric that was not blue.  On the website, it looked orange to me, but it was more of a rusty brown color.  I had to change up my block idea a little bit because of these "surprises", but it was no big deal.  I've started working on my block, and I'm actually pretty happy with it so far.  When I get it all finished I'll post a picture of it.

Dutchman's Puzzle Row

Here is a picture of my latest row swap row, with the other rows from the quilt.  Mine is the Dutchman's Puzzle row that is second from the bottom.  I finished it last night. I did decide to change the design slightly from what I had said in the previous post.  When I laid it out with all four fabrics in one block I thought it looked a little too busy.  Instead of going with light and dark pairs, I decided to go with the dark as a center pin wheel.  I like the alternation of color between the two blocks.  I think it looks nice.

Because it doesn't use the French General fabric, it stands out from the other rows, but I think that the colors work.  I think there are still 4 more rows to be made for the quilt, so if other people will branch out and use other fabrics too, I think it will look fine.  I hope she likes it.

Shopping

I'm currently working on another row for my guild's row swap.  The theme for the quilt that I am working on right now is traditional quilt blocks in traditional fabrics.  At this point, all three rows in the quilt are made from French General fabrics.  On Tuesday morning, I sat down with the fabrics that I had and the fabrics that were included with the rows.  I had picked out an Ohio Star block for my pattern and had decided which French General fabrics I wanted to buy to complete the design as I had envisioned it.  I drove down to the quilt shop and found that she didn't have any of the fabrics I wanted for my design (apparently she had just a had a big sale and much of her stock of French General had sold out).  Once I got there, I realized that I had left the rows at home too, and the quilt shop is a 35 minute drive from my house.  I looked at the French General that was available, didn't see anything that seemed like it would work with my light and dark Ohio Star design idea, and then just decided to turn around and head home empty handed.  Tuesday was not my day.

That evening after dinner, I went back to the drawing board, literally, and drew out the Ohio Star blocks in a row to see how I liked the design as a simple row of six 6" blocks.  I decided that I wasn't thrilled with that design and dropped back to a different block I had previously considered, the Dutchman's Puzzle block.  After sketching out a row of Dutchman's Puzzle blocks I decided that I liked that design better anyway. 

On Wednesday afternoon, I drove back down to the quilt shop to find fabric in line with my new design idea.  I looked at the French General, but still wasn't feeling it for my design.  I called the person whose quilt I was working on, and asked if it had to be French General, and she said that it didn't.  So, after a lot of searching through the shop and with a great deal of help from Cindy at the shop, I finally decided on these 4 fabrics.  Each fabric will be one pair of flying geese in the block.

This is the focus fabric for the quilt.

 And these are the existing rows for the quilt.

She said she thought it needed some darker fabrics brought in, and she specifically mentioned black and green, so hopefully she will be happy with it.  I'll post pics of the row once I get it done.  Hopefully there will be no more changes to the design going forward.

More Pumpkins!

I'm a little behind on posting these. I actually made them last Tuesday (Jan 8), but have just gotten around to taking pictures of them.  Both of these are 6 inch (finished) blocks for my little pumpkin wall-hanging quilt.

The block above is based on a block I found online at Piece in the Hoop.  I didn't order the pattern.  I just looked at the picture and drafted a foundation piecing pattern from the picture.  I kind of wish I had arranged the fabric a little differently, but I think it will be okay.  If I decide that I don't like it, I will redo it latter.

I came up with the pattern for this little pumpkin on my own.  I was inspired by an appliqued pumpkin block in one of my quilt books (501 Quilt Blocks from Better Homes and Gardens).  I didn't want to do any applique, so I adapted it to a pieced design.  The top strip and the bottom strip are paper pieced, while the center of the block is traditionally pieced.

Jesus and Me - Take three

This baby quilt top is the third baby quilt that I have made with the yellow novelty print fabric "Jesus and Me".  The first one (featured in this post) was for an old high school friend who was having a baby.  The second one (featured in this post) was a Project Linus quilt I made a few years ago.  All are very different patterns, but they all three use the same novelty print and striped fabric.

This quilt top was made using the "Go Baby!" pattern in the January/February 2013 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine.  It finishes 40 inches square.  The stripe fabric will be used for the binding, but I haven't chosen a backing fabric yet.  I'm thinking I may go with something predominantly yellow and quilt it with yellow thread.

At the moment, this one is intended for donation.  My quilt guild periodically makes baby quilts to give the church where we used to meet.  The church gives the quilts as gifts to babies when they are baptized.  I thought the "Jesus and Me" fabric was very fitting for a baptism gift quilt.