I'm Baaaaack!

It’s been awhile since I've written a post. It’s not that I haven’t thought of it. I just didn’t think I had anything interesting to write. I had a knee replacement in March. No one wanted to hear me whine about that. Then April was spent going back and forth to physical therapy, a 20 mile trip both ways. It seemed I had no energy for anything else after that. See, I did get to whine. I can’t tell you where the other months have gone, but here I am in September, finally beginning to feel like sewing and talking about it.

My Smith Mountain Morning is finally done! I declared it as my main UFO for my guild challenge so that gave me the push to get it done. Following are some progress photos.

I didn’t use the tri-Rec ruler as instructed in the pattern. I had lots of HSTs left from the star blocks so wanted to use them and besides, I’m lazy and don’t enjoy making those tri-rec points.

In progress.

Putting rows together and singing Hallelujah.

Chevron Quilt

Our Guild supports a local charity which is a facility for abused and neglected children. They have a need for twin sized quilts, especially extra long ones for teenage boys. I made this top last year, also pieced a backing and made a scrappy binding, but never got it quilted. Carrie, one of my team partners, is a long arm Quilter, so she quilted it and I bound it. Bingo, our charity quilt done, my TBQ (to be quilted) stack lowered, and a tall teenager will have a quilt to take with him when he goes to foster care or an improved home situation. So, that’s what I’ve been up to in the sewing room. 

I did get a lot of rug hooking done while taking care of my knee, but will save that for another post.Judy

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Nine Patch Swap

     One of my favorite Quilt Guild activities is swapping stuff, any kind of swapping; strips, charms, blocks.  Our Swap Queen, Gina plans our swaps and they vary by the month and year.  We do some type of fabric swap every month and then do a block swap over a period of time, six months or a year. Currently, we are doing tiny (3-1/2") Civil War nine patches and little red/white blocks.  Last year, we did 6-1/2" scrappy nine patches in Autumn colors and I brought 80 blocks home at the end of the year.  Wow!  What a bonanza!  They have inspired lots of Internet and magazine browsing, looking for different ideas for using them.  I finally settled on Sisters Choice, a free pattern on the Bonnie Hunter website. My plan was to make it for a donation quilt, but I love it so much that it may have to live with me awhile before moving on.

All of the setting fabrics came from stash, some of it well-aged.  The star point fabric was originally purchased at a quilter's estate sale, so I'm sure it was well-aged too.  The sawtooth border was constructed from the bonus triangles from the sew and flip star points.  I still have more of those to use in another project.

Editing this post:

      We are having some beautiful weather here in Missouri.  Last week, while picking up our mail, I decided to take the Sister Choice along.  There's not much color in the leaves yet, but I found this fence rail to stage it for a photo.

  It's all finished and ready for the quilt show next week.

     With that quilt finished, I decided to have some fun with experimenting with a new technique.  New to me anyway.  

     I've had this book for awhile, and have been interested in trying this technique. I thought it would be fun to experiment with Halloween fabrics.

 You sew strips together into a tube, then slice into blocks, using the 90degree line on a ruler.

They look like a string block, but are much faster with no paper to tear off. The downside?  They have bias edges. So, out came the Best Press.  The instructions made an 11" block, but called for  42" strips.  Most of my scraps were from fat quarters, so I adapted the pattern and made strip sets with 4 strips instead of 8, avoiding a lot of wasted fabric.

     Now, what do do with those cute little blocks?  I found a panel in that scrap bin that someone had given me.  I had always liked it because of the dancing witches.  The little string blocks made a great side border and I soon had another flimsy to add to the TBQ (to be quilted) stack.

Often, my experimental blocks end up in the orphanage, so it was nice to have something to show for an afternoon's playtime.

The scraps got cut into these little pieced strips to use in something else.  What is my takeaway from this little experiment?  Not a good scrap buster, because it creates more scraps.  A quick method to make big blocks from WOF strips, like a jelly roll, but not as efficient for shorter strips.  Then there are those bias edges, which I dislike.  Will I use it again?  Probably not, but never say never.

Meanwhile, I'll keep on stitchin'.

Judy

PS;  I'm linking up with Cynthia at http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com and Judy at http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/09/12/design-wall-september-12-2016/ today.  You'll find lots of fun there.

J. 

Seven Fancy Sisters

     My Quilt Guild recently sponsored a workshop featuring the Seven Sisters quilt pattern which requires Y seams or a partial seaming technique.  This is a quilt pattern I had always admired, but found very intimating because of this technique.  Kelly Ashton (Kellyquilter.com) taught the class and soon had all of us sewing partial seams like pros.  Here's a photo of us at the end of the day, proudly showing our progress.

     (Photo is courtesy of Kelly Ashton Quilting Lectures and Workshops Facebook page)

   The emails have been flying as friends are finishing their projects.  I will share the ones I have received to date.  

        Becky's

          Cynthia's

Gina's, in progress

.

      And mine.  

      I have had these fabrics since last summer, ordered from the Renee Nanneman website. I love that tree print with the black background.  It just had to be the border.  I was happy to have a fun project to test these lovelies.  The stars and background only required a few 2-1/4" strips for the diamond and triangle shapes, so I have a little of each print left for another project.  I actually trimmed down the scraps to 2" strips and tested a block that has been the subject of lots of Internet chatter for the last couple of weeks.  Can you guess?  More about that in a subsequent post.

Judy

Banging out the BOM's

     It seems every blog and shop I know was offering a great Block of the Month in January and I loved them all.  There is a limit, though, in what I can accomplish in any given month.  I joined a BOM in my LQS in September because it was French General fabrics and one of my favorite Missouri designers, Shelly Pagliai.  They are coming along great, partly because of the fabrics and mostly because Shelly's directions are terrific.  I tend to scan directions and am guilty of missing an important point because of it.  It is pretty hard to mess these up, although I managed to do it on this last block.

It is the last one on the right, 2nd row,  and I originally sewed the corner background triangles to the sides.  Something wasn't right and a second glance at the directions soon set me right.  A little un-sewing and all was well.  

     The next one I started was in January.  I have followed the so scrappy blog, www.superscrappyblogspot.com for quite a while, especially liking the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I have designated 2016 as the Year of the Scrap.  January's color was blue and that was fun.  February's color was brown ( I was thinking it would be red or pink and had a plan), so that was a challenge!

Here is January's blue.

This is a charity quilt, all quilted now, that will go to the guild charity project for the year.

I am also doing the month's color in Father's Choice blocks to go into a sampler quilt at the end of the year.  These are great blocks, and go together so easy.  

     

     Once I  got over the whole pink/red idea, I embraced the brown.  I had plenty of scraps, so decided on string blocks.  This will be a small charity quilt using Bonnie Hunter's String X pattern (free pattern on quiltville.com.)  

I'm going to look for some cowboy fabric to put them together.  Some little boy should be very pleased.  

The next BOM to which I succumbed was Westering Women on Barbara Brackman's blog, Civil War Quilts.  You may know that Barbara does great historical research as well as designs quilts and fabric, so this is always a great read.  It just started this month and here is the first block.  

On another subject, here are a couple of pictures from our guild meeting Tuesday night.  Cynthia and Kathy gave a great program on taking photos of our quilts. 

Here we are snapping pictures of each other during our program.

     What's under the needle at your house today?  I'm working on Stacked Squares (Moda Bake Shop free pattern).  I decided it needed straight line quilting, so am doing a diagonal line pattern.  Not sure if that will be all, I'm keeping my mind open to possibilities.

Regardless, I'll keep on stitching...

Judy

Rocheport shopping and starting the graduation quilt.

    This past Sunday, I joined my favorite group of rug hookers for a little hook-in in Rocheport, MO.  They have a great wool shop, White Horse Antiques.  The owner, Marcia, teaches rug-hooking and this is where I learned.  She has a monthly hook-in during the winter months and I try to go every chance I get.  On this occasion, I went a little early so I could buy some rug binding from Marcia, but I also wanted to stop by one of my favorite antique shops.  I always find something I like there.  The owner looks for sewing collectibles, so that inventory changes all the time.  Here's what I found;

This adorable little cockatoo pincushion.  So cute.

These aren't sewing related, but they were still a nice addition to my collectible cabinet.

I have looked for a Scrabble game with wooden tiles for years (for a price I was willing to pay), and they had one.  They also had these little wooden circus toys.  The graphics on them are wonderful.  They have a different animal on the reverse side.  The horse has a zebra on the reverse and the elephant has a bear.  I would love to know what kind of a set they were.  They almost look like puzzle pieces, but don't fit together. 

Back to the sewing room.  Here's what I've been doing.

Twenty of these adorable nine patches went to guild meeting this week for a swap.  We take some every month and at the end of the year, we take home the same number we have contributed.

I did a lot of cutting from my 2-1/2" scraps so I'm ready to sew some for next month.  They will make great leaders and enders.

These are bingo boards.  We had the directions for making them before the meeting, then played bingo on them for fat quarter prizes.  Now they will go into a charity quilt.  I thought this was a great idea. 

What's on my design wall this week?

I have started my grandson's graduation quilt.  

It will have some pieced stars, as well as some stars with embroidery.  In Logan's case, it will mostly be sports related embroidery designs.  

I don't have any quilt designing software (and don't want any).  My designing is done with a book of traditional quilt blocks and a piece of graph paper.  A simple quilter has simple ways.

The star, of course, is Sawtooth Star and the alternate block is Homeward Bound.  I thought that appropriate for a young man leaving home for college.  We always want them to find their way home again. 

What's on your design wall?

Judy

Quilts for local charities

     I am so proud of our quilt guild.  Not only do we make Quilts of Valor for our local veterans, but for the past 3-4 years, we have been making quilts for local charities.  This year, we made 19 collectively, and they were shown at our guild meeting last Tuesday night.  I took pictures of some of them.  I got a late start so missed some of the early ones.  They will be presented to our local women's shelter and one of the nursing homes.  In the past, we have also donated to our Sheriff's Department and Police Department.

And here is mine…I know, I'm a real slacker, I only made one.

I have been interested in the big block quilts I have seen recently.  This is a free pattern on the Moda Bake Shop website.  It is called Moda Love and is available in different sizes, using different pre-cuts.

I quilted it using an all-over floral pattern.

     We had snow predicted today, so I cancelled my plans for the day to avoid slick roads.  The snow never did materialize, but I managed to accomplish something anyway.  I pieced the backs for two quilt tops, then basted and pinned them for quilting.  The best part is that I pieced them from my stash.  I love the look of pieced backs, but I hate making them.  It's something about all of those long seams and figuring the math, so you have it large enough and keep it symmetrical.  I tend to have a lot of 1 yard pieces in my stash.  I am trying to revise my thinking on this and buy larger pieces when I find something I like, especially when it is appropriate for backing.  What size do you buy for your stash?  I think it would be interesting to hear other opinions.

Judy