Another Little Baby Quilt Finished

I just finished another little baby quilt for a shop sample.  It’s from the Villa Rose pattern “Sunsprite.”  It only took a little over an hour to piece.  Like many quick and easy patterns you really need to pick fun fabrics to make them work.  This one would work particularly well with larger prints.  It turned out pretty cute.  Both this one and the Eureka quilt I finished a few days ago will be donated to Quilts for Kids after hanging in the shop for awhile.

Curious Nature Quilt Finished

Last May I picked up a fat quarter pack of fat quarters from a line called “Curious Nature” by David Butler (Amy Butler’s husband).  I loved the fabric and decided right away the pattern “Lemon Pepper” by Madison Quilt Cottage would be perfect. 

The pattern called for 18 fat quarters and that was the number I thought I had.  Well as I started cutting, and cutting and cutting I realized there were more than 18 fabrics in the pack.  Sure enough, there were 24.  So I went ahead and cut them all up and thought I’d make the quilt a little bigger.  For this particular pattern you sew strip sets, then cut the strip sets into segments and sew the segments back together to make the blocks.  After cutting the segments there was a pretty big chunk of fabric left over so I figured out how to use it ALL to make blocks.  So I ended up with even more blocks for this quilt.  I didn’t really want a huge quilt so I divided the blocks and made two quilts.  The pattern didn’t call for a border but I added one to my quilt.  I LOVE this quilt.  I love the pattern, the fabric, the quilting…really just everything about it.

This quilt used 8 yards of fabric so that’s 8 more on my goal of 1,760!  It’s currently listed in my Etsy shop here:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/114994235/curious-nature-lap-quilt

It's A Girl Thing

Recently an Etsy customer who purchased one of my quilts awhile back commissioned me to make a quilt for a friend of hers. She wanted it in the line of fabric called “It’s A Girl Thing” from Michael Miller. I ordered some of the fabric and fell in love when it arrived. It is SO cute. There are lots of dots, an animal print, a large floral and an Eiffel tower print all done in greys, pink, and blush.

The quilt she wants is pretty easy to piece. This is one of blocks—just squares and rectangles.

I finished all the blocks, pieced the top together and now have it loaded on the frame for quilting. I really like how it’s turning out. I’m quilting overall swirls so it shouldn’t take too long. I’m hoping to have the quilting finished and the binding on tomorrow so I can get it in the mail to her. 

A Little Saturday Sewing

I got up this morning a started piecing a new quilt called “Buffalo Ridge.”  This quilt is completely from stash so it will count toward my mile challenge.  Every month a group of friends meets at my house for sewing (and laughs).  This group started about 8 years ago as the International Mystery group at the Patchwork Sampler shop and we’ve just continued meeting.  For the past couple of years we’ve selected a book of stash busting quilts to try to use up some stash.  This year the book is All-Time Favorite Scrap Quilts.

It’s a compilation of quilts from various That Patchwork Place books.  It has a lot of great quilts in it.  I wish I’d been able to keep up with the monthly quilts but unfortunately I’ve fallen behind.  Anyway, this month I’m starting to piece Buffalo Ridge.  The first part of the quilt is pretty putzy but once I have these units finished, the rest should go pretty fast (except for the pieced border).  This quilt was initially in a Nickel Quilt book by Pat Speth.

This doesn’t look like it will use much stash when you consider this little box of “parts” will make a full-size quilt. Ha ha! 

The first units I need to piece requires sewing half square triangles onto squares.  It became evident very quickly that it would be much easier to piece these if I trimmed the “dog ears” off the triangles BEFORE sewing them to the squares.  It’s much easier to match and align the pieces and there’s no need to trim after piecing.  If you haven’t used a point trimmer before, here’s a couple of photos to demo the process.  I use the Judy Martin trimmer but I also have the set of Fons and Porter trimmers.  I just think it’s easier to see what I’m trimming using the clear tool.

To use this just line up the lines of the triangle on the tool with the fabric triangles (left) and cut with a rotary cutter.  You’re just trimming off the tip (center).  Then you can easily align the blunt top with the top of the square and sew (right)!  No dog ear to trim later!!

Here are the units I’m piecing.  I need 80 for the quilt I’m making and I’ve finished 24.  It’s kind of slow going but I’ll get there.

Quick Finish

The other day we noticed that we didn’t have any samples of baby quilts for girls.  I quickly pulled a few fat quarters and made a little quilt using the pattern “Eureka” by Villa Rosa Designs.  These little pattern cards are great when you need to make a quilt really fast.  It turned out pretty cute.  It only takes six fat quarters to make the 36” x 45” top.  It was fun to make and provided a little instant gratification.

This picture shows the fabrics a little better.  It’s a good way to use larger scale prints.  I quilted it in a simple vertical “water” design.  You can see the quilting up close if you click on the picture to enlarge it.  This quilting motif is about as easy as meandering but looks like it takes more work.  It’s a good choice for baby quilts because it’s not so dense the quilt is stiff.

I’m not counting this fabric toward my one mile challenge since it was never really in my stash and the quilt is for a shop sample.  I’ll probably list it on Etsy once the kits are gone.

Miles to go…

Once a year my sewing room gets a pretty thorough cleaning.  I have a sofa bed in there and my nephew sleeps on it when he visits at Thanksgiving.  While I was trying to organize fabric, notions, books, patterns, kits, UFO’s and current projects I realized I need to get serious about finishing things and using stash.  I’ve hardly ever met a fabric I didn’t like and it seems like most of it ends up in my sewing room!  One of the Yahoo groups I belong to offers a challenge called the 100 yard dash.  The idea is to use 100 yards of fabric from your stash.  I decided to have my own personal challenge and try to use a mile of fabric—that’s 1,760 yards.  Stash, completed UFO's and even new starts will count toward the challenge.  The only thing I won't count are things like shop samples or commission quilts where I buy fabric specifically for the project.  I know it will take a long time (I’m hoping to complete the challenge in two years) and if I succeed it will put a serious dent in my stash.  I still buy quite a bit of fabric, but hopefully the net amount will be significantly reduced—and maybe it will all fit in the sewing room instead of taking up the entire basement.
This is the first finish of my challenge.  It looks better when you click to enlarge the picture!



This quilt was based on the “Pie Birds” table runner from Kim Diehl’s book Simple Charm.  I just loved the block and decided to make a whole quilt from it.  I used strips from my 2” strips drawer and with a black print. By cutting the units with the Omni 96 and 98 rulers each “log” had one fewer seam than in the original block.  I think the piecing was faster this way too. Win-win!!



This quilt measures about 60” x 74” so my estimate is 8 yards used.  Only 1,752 yards to go!  Unfortunately, even after piecing a quilt this size, the 2" strip drawer is still overflowing!

Swoon finished

I was just too tired to post after working yesterday.  I finished the Swoon quilt and it’s now hanging at Keep Me In Stitches. 

This isn’t the best picture but you get the idea.    The stripes really stand out in the photo but they’re really not that prominent.  I’ll take a better picture when I get it back.  It’s made from the Vintage Modern line of fabric by Bonnie and Camille from Moda.  I quilted it in an overall freehand design with Quilters Choice thread.  This thread really works well for me.  It’s a fine thread so it creates subtle texture and blends in well when you quilt light thread over darker fabric, has minimal lint since it’s polyester and I don’t have a problem with breaking or shredding.  All the kits and most of the fabric is now gone so I should be able to bring it home soon.

This morning I had a little bit of time to sew so I worked on the Piebirds blocks.  Hooray! They’re finished!

The inspiration for these blocks was the book Simple Charm by Kim Diehl.  She made a table runner using these blocks.  I love the block and wanted to make a whole quilt with it.  I have 20 blocks made.  I redrafted the pattern I didn’t have a seam in the middle of the “flying geese” units.  I’m so glad I learned to cut trapezoids from Debbie Caffrey’s book Open A Can of Worms.  Blocks like this can be made so much easier!  This method also eliminates connector corners.  I try to avoid those whenever possible because I hate dealing with the leftover corners.  It’s really too putzy for me to sew another seam to make half-square triangles but I also hate to just throw them away.  So I try to just use techniques where the angles are cut to fit.  SO much easier!

I started sewing the top together, but haven’t quite finished it.  I’m hoping to at least get that finished tomorrow but my book club is meeting here tomorrow night and I have to get ready for that.  We read The Light Between Oceans this month.  I really liked this selection and it’s the kind of book that should generate some good discussion!

Another rainy day

In almost any other circumstance I would welcome a rainy day like we had today.  It’s nice to have an excuse to stay inside and sew.  Unfortunately I didn’t have that option today.  Jen came home from school this weekend and we were trying to get a lot accomplished.  She hasn’t been home in a long time and was looking forward to doing some shopping, crafting and playing with “her” cats.  She’s had a couple of busy, stressful weeks with exams so it was nice that she could just relax at home for a couple of days doing what she wanted.

Last week when I was at the AQS show in Des Moines I picked up a pack of placemat blanks.  I hadn’t seen these before they are really easy to use.  Basically, they are a pre-cut heavyweight fusible product.  You simply iron fabric to the front and back then bind them.  This morning I made a set for Jen to take back.  I made one side with cute Halloween fabric and the other just a fun print. They turned out pretty well. 

I had to do a little experimenting with applying the binding by machine.  It’s not perfect but for this purpose it is fine.  After making these, I baked some cookies for her to take back.  I saw a recipe for Pumpkin Blossoms on the Inspired by Charm blog and made those.  They are a great cookie for fall.  Unfortunately I can’t find anymore pumpkin kisses so this will be the only batch this year. Here’s a link to the recipe if you have or can find the pumpkin kisses.

http://www.inspiredbycharm.com/2012/09/pumpkin-blossom-fall-cookie-week.html

There are so many quilts in progress in my sewing room right now.  I thought maybe I’d get some more time in the sewing room after we returned from taking Jen back to Madison but I’m just too tired.  We taped some football games and the baseball games and will probably “speed watch” them, then call it a day.  I’m really, really hoping for more sewing time this week.

Perfect for a Rainy Day

We finally got the precipitation we’d been praying for all summer—a day long strong, steady, soaking rain. Even though it came late in the season (and on a Saturday!) we weren’t complaining.  All summer long we’d seen the billboard along Highway 41 advertising the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Paine in Oshkosh and kept saying we’d like to see it.  It was a perfect day for a museum visit so we finally went,  It was a beautiful exhibit and I was glad we finally made it down there.

The photographs were amazing and the narratives gave some insight into the measures Adams would take to capture the image.  He lugged pounds and pounds of equipment through mountains and deserts and would wait hours for the lighting to be just right.  He was an amazing artist who really worked to produce on paper what he saw in his mind.  I couldn’t get over how skilled he was in developing the film to get the crispness and contract in the photographs, especially back in the 20’s and 30’s.  It was worth the trip!  The Paine is such a pretty place anyway, even in the rain.

We stopped at Zuppa’s for a delicious lunch, then headed home to spend the rest of the day watching college football.  It was a lazy day and I didn’t get much sewing done.  I only made a little progress on the Piebirds blocks.  I’m so close to finishing them.  We’ll be taking Jen back down to Madison tomorrow so I probably won’t get much done then either.

Two more quilts finished

I’ve been putzing along on hemming the bindings on my most recent finishes. It’s just been too darn hot to sit with a quilt in my lap.  Finally, though, two more are finished. Both are made from Villa Rosa patterns and use some Benartex fabric I just couldn’t live without! The first one is from the Bold and Beautiful line in the Breezy colorway. I still really like the cool blues and greens with brown. The contemporary prints are so pretty. I love this quilt. I quilted it with an overall feather pantograph.  It’s listed on Etsy here:

 https://www.etsy.com/listing/107991876/bold-and-beautiful-breezy-lap-quilt 

Here’s a close-up of the quilting.

I used Quilter’s Choice thread on the top and Bottom Line in the bobbin.  It was the first time I used Quilter’s Choice and really liked it.  It behaved beautifully in my machine and I had no trouble with tension, breaking or shredding.  It’s made by Golden Threads and I’ll be looking for more at Quilt Expo down in Madison next week.

The second finish is from the Leaf Haven line.  These fabrics feature modern prints in traditional autumn colors.  This was a really fun quilt to make.  It’s also on Etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/107992864/leaf-haven-lap-quilt?ref=v1_other_2

The picture makes the quilt look “busier” than it really is.  Here’s a close-up of the border fabric.  Isn’t it fun?

I started a small Etsy shop with fabric and have some from both of these lines here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/patchworkcottons

If you like these fabrics, be sure to check them out!

Time-saving cutting tip #2

In my last post I wrote about how much time I save using the Shape Cut ruler.  The real time-saver comes when cutting strips into squares or rectangles. I stack strips on top of one another so I’m cutting four or six layers.  If I had lots of strips to cut into squares I would lay out several sets of strips.  I’ll show a picture of that next time I cut them.  For today, I’m still working on the Coquette quilts and I just need a few more squares. 

Since my project requires 2-1/2” squares, I started on the left side and cut on the 0, 2-1/2, 5, 7-1/2, 10, 12-1/2, 15 and 17-1/2” slots.  I also cut at the end of the ruler because it is 2” between the 18” slot and the edge.  In a matter of seconds I ended up with 32 2-1/2” squares. 

It is SO fast and easy.  If you have this ruler and aren’t using it, I really encourage you to give it a try.  If you don’t have it, check your local quilt shop or Joann Fabrics and get one.  I’m sure you’ll soon love it as much as I do!

The Coquette quilts are coming along nicely.  I have three of the tops pieced and two more with blocks made.  Hopefully I’ll have time to get the borders on and start quilting them next week.  I have to work on both Friday and Tuesday so that seriously cuts into my sewing time!! 

Cutting timesaver

At the quilt shop on Monday I was hard at work cutting Swoon blocks.  Of course I was using the Shape Cut ruler to cut.  A couple of veteran quilters were watching and asked for a demo of the ruler.  I’m always amazed at the number of quilters who are not familiar with this ruler—or even worse—own it but don’t use it.  This one tool saves me hundreds of cutting hours each year.  It makes cutting strips, squares and rectangles so fast it’s ridiculous.  If you’re not familiar with this ruler it’s by June Tailor and comes in a 12” length and 18” length.  I own both and use them both depending on what kind of cutting I’m doing.  Both have slots every half inch along the length of the ruler.  To cut, you simply slip your rotary cutter blade in the slot.  The beauty of the ruler is that you can make multiple cuts without lifting the ruler. Here’s a quick example of how great this ruler works.  I have plans to make five quilts from this beautiful stack of fat quarters.  It’s the Coquette line by Chez Moi for Moda.

I'm cutting one ten inch strip and three 2-1/2” strips from each fat quarter.  I’ll sub-cut these strips later.  After pressing the fat quarter, I fold it in half once (selvage at the bottom).  Place the ruler on top of the fat quarter.

Make sure the 12” horizontal line on the ruler is even with the fold of your fabric.  To square up the fabric, make the first cut in the “0” slot.  Without moving the ruler, make the second cut in the 10” slot.  Again, keep the ruler in place and make cuts at 12-1/2”, 15” and 17-1/2”.  It just takes seconds to make the five cuts necessary for the required four strips.

See how slick that is?  There is a little sliver of fabric on the left hand side from squaring up and about 1/2” left over on the right side.  I just love using this ruler and it took no time at all to breeze through my 36 fat quarters.  In the next few days I’ll show you the quilts I’m making with this fabric.

No time to sew

This summer has just flown by.  Bryan and Laura’s wedding seems like a long time ago and it hasn’t even been two months.  I haven’t had nearly the time I thought I would for sewing.  Jen stayed in Madison this summer to work so it was just Jim and me at home most of the time. 

Last week I went down to move Jen into a different apartment. It’s always an experience in Madison on moving day.  I think all apartment leases end on August 14 and new ones don’t begin until the 15th so there are lots of people milling around lots of stuff.  It’s always hilarious to see the HUGE piles of discarded furniture on the curbs and people going through the stuff trying to find some usable items.  We left lots of good stuff on the curb the last year Bryan was there because we really didn’t have any room or use for it here and we didn’t want to hassle with renting a truck or trailer to bring it back.  Here is one pile of stuff on the sidewalk outside her apartment.  Dressers, mattresses, desks, tables and more!

This time, though, Jen was able to move into the new place just a few hours after leaving the old one.  We ended up renting a hotel room and moving a load of stuff in there so we didn’t have to haul it back to Appleton.  We packed everything in bins and baskets and stacked it in the room.  It worked out pretty well and we may take that approach again next year.

I worked today and hope to be able to spend all day tomorrow sewing.  Between customers today I was able to get the rest of my Swoon blocks cut.  It would be really nice to get some more of those sewn but I have several projects that just need to have binding finished so I’m not sure what I’ll work on.  I guess wait until morning and see which project calls me!

Not according to plan

I got up really early this morning and was very energetic—just ready to jump right in and get busy with all the work that needs to be done.  The wedding is now only eleven days away and I still have a few dozens of projects I want to do between now and then.  We’re expecting about 60 people from out of town and I know many of them will be stopping by over the weekend.  Many of them have never been here so of course I want everything to be nice.  Anyway I started out with a bang, getting a little ironing finished then moving on to piecing a new quilt top.  I worked for awhile and got quite a bit done on the quilt.  It has 18” blocks and only 7 pieces per block so it is very quick and easy!  Here’s one of the pieced blocks. 

After Jim left for work I rode my bike then did some routine cleaning and finished piecing the quilt blocks.  I had them placed on the design wall all ready to sew together later in the afternoon.  Then I jumped right in painting the master bathroom.  This is a project I’ve procrastinated for months.  I’ve had the paint (same color as the bedroom) but hadn’t felt pressured enough to get it done until now.  Just the other day my neighbor and I were discussing painting projects and she mentioned that a decorator friend of hers recommends painting the ceiling the same color as the walls.  That was a light bulb moment for sure. It would be SOOO much easier not having to worry about wall paint on the ceiling and vice versa. It was going beautifully until I ran out of paint.  Guess I used quite a bit more painting the ceiling!  Luckily Home Depot is only 5 minutes away so I ran out to get another gallon of paint. When I got home I discovered the power was out.  A few minutes later someone from the power company came and said the transformer had blown.  What??  That had happened on New Year’s Eve just a couple of years ago.  They sent a little crane, crew and a new, improved, more powerful transformer and we should be back in business in a few hours. Here’s the scene in my backyard.

Until that happens there will be no cleaning, no painting and no sewing. :(

Off to a trying start

Not much time today for quilting.  I got up early and pieced the back for the Blitzen quilt.  Unfortunately just as I was ready to load it I realized the fabric was directional and it was going the wrong direction.  What a bummer.  Not only did I waste a lot of time, but also a lot of fabric.  Hopefully I’ll be able to salvage it by piecing it with another fabric to back a different quilt.  I don’t usually piece backs for quilts I plan to sell on Etsy.  It’s more time-consuming, harder to align on the frame for quilting and some people just don’t like pieced back.  Personally, I think they’re more interesting but not everyone agrees. 

After piecing another back I got the quilt loaded on the frame.  I decided to quilt a simple feather in the border.  I got halfway finished with the first border and there must have been some glitch with the bobbin because I had bad tension for about a foot.  Luckily the tension was so bad in that spot it was easy to rip out.  I got the border finished and decided to just quilt an overall meander in the center.  It really doesn’t need anything fancier as the fabric is pretty busy and it wouldn’t show up anyway.  I’m using a pale green Glide thread and it just melts into the fabric.  Maybe a little too much—I have to really pay attention so I don’t quilt over a section I’ve already quilted.

While I was piecing my last top I discovered another use for flower head pins.  I always use them to mark my rows (and columns) but this time I used them to remind me to sew the top border to the top of the quilt and the bottom border to the bottom.  I had a pieced border so I put a pin on the border and put a matching one on the quilt top.

Can you see the two orange pins.  This showed me to sew these sections together.  On the bottom I had two green pins.  It was very helpful—I sewed both top and bottom borders on correctly!

This quilt was made from the Vintage Modern line and I just love it.  I’m almost finished with the binding and then I’ll post a picture.

Another quilt finished

A few days ago I wrote about a quilt I was working on from a Villa Rosa pattern.  This one is called Granada.  I used a line of fabric called Moondance by Free Spirit.  I think I must have gotten it on sale because I didn’t have an immediate plan to use and I got a ton of it.  I probably have about 30 yards.  The good news is that everything but the back is from that line.  The bad news is that I only used about 4-1/2 yards for the top.  At this rate I’ll have to make seven or eight more quilts from the line!! 

I really like how the quilt turned out.  The colors are soft and pastel, but not baby prints.  After using lots of bright, busy fabrics, this was a nice respite.  It is a pretty large lap size—about 56” x 71” and it has a really nice drape.  I used Quilters Dream Cotton-Select batting and it just gave it a soft, cozy feel even before it was washed.  I frequently use that batting but this quilt seemed particularly soft.  Maybe it was the fabric or the density of quilting but whatever, it worked!  It’s always so nice when that happens.  Here’s a picture of the finished quilt.

There’s no rest now, though.  I got three quilts cut out of the Blitzen fabric today.  I pieced on of the tops and just need to cut and piece the backing, then it will be ready for quilting.  The backing fabric for the two quilts I’m making from Vintage Modern came today so the easy one will also be ready for quilting.  It will be awhile before Swoon is finished but I’m hoping to have it ready for our sewing group’s quilt show in July.  With my son Bryan’s wedding just over two weeks away I’m not sure how much sewing time I’ll have between now and then but I’m always optimistic!

Blitzen Christmas line is here!

I just received my first Christmas fabric for 2012.  It’s called Blitzen by Basic Grey.  I just love it!  It has some red, white, mint green, pear green, aqua and of course grey.  I have a fat quarter pack and a couple of bolts of coordinated for borders and backs. 

There are 40 fat quarters in the bundle and I think I can get 4 lap quilts from it.  Wednesday is my volunteer day so there’s not a lot of time for sewing, but maybe I can do a little cutting.  I’ve divided the fabric up into four piles, each with a pattern so the planning is complete.  Once I get going it shouldn’t take too long to get it all cut up.  Tomorrow is a free day so I could sew, sew, sew!! 

Here’s my cutting plan.

I shouldn’t really say it’s a free day because I have a huge project in the works.  This week is our monthly overflow garbage week and I always like to take advantage of that.  This month I am cleaning out the closet in our bedroom.  I’m pretty sure that hasn’t been done since we moved here almost 18 years ago!  What treasures I am finding in there.  I’ve gone through tons of clothes, shoes and purses and have gotten rid of lots of stuff.  I pretty much took everything out of the closet and did a thorough dusting and vacuuming.  It looks so nice now, but I have a lot of stuff to put back in.  I’m planning a trip to Target this afternoon to get some storage bins to contain some of it.  Hopefully I can finish this project today and spend tomorrow sewing guilt free!

On a stashbusting roll

A few days before quilt market a customer called Keep Me In Stitches to tell us to look for Villa Rosa patterns while we were there.  She had recently picked up a couple of them and thought they would be great for quick and easy projects.  I ended up taking a schoolhouse session with the designer and she gave us a set of her newest 10 patterns.  These are easy lap-size projects and the pattern is simply printed on a postcard.  I came home thinking about how great these will be for busting stash.  The first one I made was from the pattern "Opening Night."

I had several pieces of fabric from the Benartex “City Girl” line by Kitty Yoshida.  I’ve always like the large paisley print in this line but just hadn’t found a suitable project.  I used the paisley for the sashing strips and border and the coordinating prints in the blocks.  It only took a few minutes to do the cutting and less than three hours to piece the top.  I was very pleased with the results, loaded it on the frame and quilted it using an overall freehand design with feathers, swirls and curls.  Here’s how it turned out.

I’m pretty happy with the results and of course, it looks much, much better in person than in the photo.  It was fun to make and I used about 7 yards of fabric. I even had a fabric for the back that coordinated beautifully.

This quilt is now for sale in my Etsy shop. 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/101766089/city-girl-espresso-and-blue-lap-quilt

Now I’m working on another Villa Rosa pattern called Granada.  I’m also using stash for this quilt.  It is a line of pastels and I’m really liking how it’s coming along.  Maybe I’ll finish it tomorrow and have some pictures to post.

Thread decisions

This week I did quite a bit of quilting.  It’s always a dilemma when I have a top that’s either black or white with other colors.  I’m unsure of what color of thread to use for the quilting when I quilt an overall design.  Most of my quilts don’t warrant heirloom quilting with lots of thread changes.  Usually I’m just wanting to get them finished so they look nice.  Generally it seems I’ve preferred having dark thread on light fabric rather than light thread on dark fabric.  This week I put this to the test since I had both a quilt with lots of black and one with lots of white.

The first quilt was a fancy four-patch made from a black and lime green print. I love making these quilts. It’s so fun to put each block together and see how the kaleidoscope effect works. No two blocks end up the same and every one I’ve made like this has turned out very pretty.  This print was from a line called Zen Garden.  It has a kind of retro look and the blocks turned out nice even though there weren’t a lot of colors in the blocks.  The only colors in the fabric were black, lime, grey and cream.  When it came time to quilt it, I just didn’t like black thread going over the light parts of the blocks.  After checking several cones, I ended up using an off-white Glide thread.  This is a heavier polyester thread and it gives the stitches great dimension.  I love the little bit of sheen that shows in this quilt.  Here’s a picture.  I think it turned out great. The quilting shows up nicely but it isn’t distracting.  This quilt is now up for sale on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/100901080/zen-garden-four-patch-fancy-lap-quilt

The second quilt was a fun kid’s quilt made from a Moda line called “Meadow Friends.”  This quilt had dirt brown, pond blue, sunshine yellow, grass green and dragonfly orange against white.  I was pretty sure I didn’t want dark thread on the white, but wasn’t sure if light on the darker fabrics would work either.  For this one, I chose So Fine in a very light yellow.  I’ve found that this thread blends really well with lots of fabrics.  It didn’t look yellow or “dirty” against the white and it wasn’t too stark on the darks.  This thread doesn’t give the stitch definition that the Glide did, but it still looks nice.  What do you think?  How do you handle the thread issue?  This quilt is also for sale on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/101290700/meadow-friends-childs-quilt

Just Can’t Get Into Solid Quilts

I was working at the quilt shop the other day and picked up a book on “modern” quilts.  I don’t really understand these modern quilts because many of the designs are boringly simple and the workmanship is extremely poor.  This book though, featured quilts made from solid fabrics and they were the most boring yet.  Using beautiful fabric is what encourages me to make quilt after quilt. That day I was cutting pieces for my latest scrap quilt and was really enjoying matching the prints to make interesting blocks.  I LOVE fabric and love to see how prints and colors play together.  Using all solids takes away much of the fun.  This is going to be a great quilt.  It’s a churn dash design with a nine-patch center.  Fortunately I was able to dig in my scrap drawers and find the perfect pieces for these blocks.  I really like having my scraps pre-cut. I am more apt to use them and it makes it very easy to coordinate blocks. 

For the nine-patches I started with 5” squares.  I matched two squares and cut nine 1-1/2” squares from each one.  From that I was able to get two nine-patch blocks like these:

For the churn dash block I used 3-1/2” strips.  From easy strip I cut four 1-1/2 x 3-1/2” rectangles then cut the strip down to 2-1/2” wide and cut four half-square triangles using the Omni 96 ruler.

The picture shows the units cut from two strips.  These pieces will make one block!  This will be a great scrap quilt when it’s finished.  Now if I could just manage a little more time in the sewing room!

Less Work, More Play Weekend

About 10:00 yesterday morning Jim decided he’d like to go down to Milwaukee and do a little biking.  I say “little biking” because that’s all I can do.  Jim just loves to bike and could go all day but my back and neck always start hurting so it’s not that fun for me.  We met up with Bryan and Laura and they took us to Northern Brewer so we could check it out.  He’s really gotten into home brewing beer and he’s trying to get Jim interested.  It was fun to see all that goes into brewing and I have to say that Bryan has brewed some good beer. 

After that we picked up the Oak Leaf Trail in Wauwatosa and rode to Miller Park.  We got there right before the Brewers game so the whole area was really busy with tailgaters.  The burgers and brats smelled SO good but we rode on and picked up the Hank Aaron State Trail at the park. 

The Hank Aaron trail runs along the Menomonee River behind Miller Park so it’s pretty along that part of the trail.

After the ride we had a quick dinner at the Chancery, then headed home.  It was a nice day. 

This afternoon we were back on our bikes and rode the Wiouwash trail from Neenah to Oshkosh.  Two of my favorite words are “abundant sunshine.” and it was a wonderfully sunny weekend so it was nice to get outside.  Now if it would just warm up a little bit.  It was cruel to have temps in the 70’s in March.  Now the 50 degree days seem cold!!

After dinner I went downstairs and worked on a few more log cabin blocks.  I’m working on a very scrappy variation and it’s been really fun.  I have a drawer with 1-1/2” strips and just grabbed a bunch of them and started cutting.  The fun part has been coordinating the rounds in each block.  As I’ve sewn these blocks, I’ve been thinking about several other variations of this pattern I’d like to make.  The next ones will be more planned and one of them might even use the gradations I hand-dyed several years ago.  It would be great to use those fabrics.  First I need to finish this one!  Only a few more blocks to sew then I can put the top together.  Here are a few of my blocks.

Final UFO Finish for 2011

This little quilt has been a UFO since before last Christmas. It's one I found in the basket of UFO's in my sewing room and since it was supposed to be a Christmas quilt it seemed appropriate to try to finish it before this Christmas.  This quilt began as a charm pack from Moda’s 12 Days of Christmas line. I pieced the quilt center but put it away before borders and quilting.  I was able to find a backing fabric from the same line so slapped on a border, loaded it on the frame and finished it up.  Now it's for sale in my Etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/88851159/12-days-of-christmas-lap-quilt

I think it turned out pretty cute.  I really like the border fabric with the white poinsettia print.

It seems like ages since I’ve spent any significant time in my sewing room but it looks like it may happen tomorrow.  My son went back to Milwaukee today and my husband will go back to work tomorrow so I plan to sew for most of the day.  My daughter’s boyfriend is leaving tomorrow to spend a semester studying in Spain and she’ll be going down to the airport in Chicago to see him off so I SHOULD have the day to myself.  What a treat.  In anticipation of my sewing marathon I pulled fabric for a new quilt.  It will be my first start of 2012.  It’s a quilt for my monthly scrap quilt group.  When I start it, I’ll post a little tutorial on how I’m piecing the blocks.  It’s a little different so someone may find it helpful.

Right now I’m hemming a binding on a quilt that’s an old UFO. I had hoped to hem a couple of quilts while watching all the football games this weekend but I wasn’t very motivated.  This quilt is from a line of fabric called Cottage Garden.  I had intended to make it for a shop sample before the shop closed but the fabric sold so quickly I never made the quilt.  I started it, then put it aside.  It’s nice to finish some of these old ones.  Hopefully I’ll finish it tomorrow so I can post it as my first finish for 2012.