It's so nice out

A beautiful day here in the 'burgh, 78 degrees and sunny.  I hadn't listened to the weather forecast so it was a lovely surprise!  
I actually fused the first 6 blocks for A Tisket, a Tasket BOM today and sat on the porch and cut them all out! I have a nice divet in my thumb from the scissors for my effort! 

I fused them and am real happy with my color/fabric choices. 

If you click on the picture and look at the bunny in the top far right block--I did not fussy cut that, but after I fused it, I thought it looked like an eye, right where his little eye should be!

I also got another FFF ready to stitch.  It's the April one, Stitching Annie.

The Pens are on tonight, so I will stitch while watching the game.

Also this morning before I did the baskets, I sewed 10 more OBW hexi's together, I only have 30 more to do.  woo-hoo!

Block a days 5/6 through 5/11 (I am loving these civil war repro. fabrics)

And finally, a few weeks ago I noticed a pair of Mourning Doves trying to nest in my Clematis vine that is growing up the side of the deck.

I tried to "discourage" them, for they're own good, 2 dogs roaming around right under that vine is not a good thing for fledgling baby birds, especially when the one dog, Annie is a bird dog. sigh.
They were tenacious and I kept forgetting to go shoo them away every 10 minutes. So yesterday when I went out on the deck and looked over to see what Mr. Otis was up too, one of the doves flushed and scared the heck out of me. 

And look what I saw....

Oh my gosh, I'm gonna be a gramma!!

I've spent so much time worrying over these dang little things- it's nuts.  I just read that mourning doves pair for life and will have 6 clutches of 2 eggs in a season! (good Lord, if Annie could read this she'd be drooling all over the place in birdie anticipation).  AND they will commonly return to the same spot to nest each year...oh dear--that can't be good.

Block-a-days

I have the Bl-a-D done up to May 5th.  The 8" block 2nd row far right is called "autograph star". I am going to use this for the label on one of the future quilts.  

The bottom 3 blocks are using a new set of civil war fabrics.

 I was tired of the color way I had been using (blues&golds).  I have twelve (12" blocks) in those colors so now  it's time to change it up a bit.  

In between I'm sewing leader/enders:  9-patches and snowball scrap blocks together, since the 9-patches are all dark 2.5" squares and random they stitch up so fast, cuz I ain't thinking about anything but a dark value. The snowball blocks could be a bit brighter (lighter) but I like the subtle look so far.  I need to cut some more HST for the snowball blocks.

I think technically I should just be sewing 2 patches together for "leader-enders" but I like to just keep them off to the side of my pressing board on the right of my sewing machine and put a block together as I go.  It doesn't seem to slow me down too much and I like the almost instant gratification of seeing completed blocks.

Jelly Roll Block #5 and ETC...

I made it yesterday.  I also sewed together 20 hexi's for the OBW.

2 more piles of 20 and I'll be ready for the fun part of arranging them!  Last night I bought OBW Encore.  I do want to try and put a few cubes in this quilt.  

Last week after I posted about my swirly feathers on Libby's quilt I got some very nice compliments, and I thank you all kindly.   Mary emailed me that the quilting looked like something her sister did but she quilted it way smaller as a background fill.  I had a Pat Sloan Tall and Skinny wall quilt called Daisy Baskets.  The pattern was in Amer. Patchwork & quilting June 2005 issue.  I quilted it with 1" wide sort of echo's using my dsm, which was all I had at the time and never liked the quilting, but loved the wall hanging and it was finished. So on Friday I unsewed it and re-did it. Quilting this design teeny takes A LONG time, sheesh! but I really like it now.  Here are a few pictures while I was working on it:

And here is a picture I literally just took (because I forgot to take an "after" shot when I finished it).

LUV it!!

Design Wall Monday (week 17)

Empty again!  I had the crumb blocks on the wall almost all week and did make a few more but took it down to put up this one:

This is the Many Thanks top (59 x 59) with its borders.  It is going to be loaded today and quilted this week.

I had no plans to work on this I want it done by November for Thanksgiving. (I had the blocks all put together. It just needed the borders.) But that's how I get off track...

I was putting something away in the closet and spied it hanging there.  I pieced the scrappy inner border Friday night.

Block-a-days and some quilting

Here are this week's blocks + one. 

I have 2 more blocks cut out and ready to sew (want to get a week or more ahead, anticipating vacation in June). 

Libby gave me a small wall quilt to do for her.   I saw these swirly feathers on Feathered Fibers the blog is Carla Barrett's. Her quilting is amazing, and when I saw this design I thought it was something I could do.

I practiced these, mine remind me more of a flowery-feather, on my dry-erase board. 

and then quilted it. 

 The pattern is called Sphere of Influence using the Crazy curves templates.

Pineapples

Yesterday I finished the binding on the pineapples wall quilt.  The entire time I was making it, and even after I bought the pattern kit I wondered why I did. Batiks don't go in my decorating sceme, even tho' I love them. Which is why I couldn't resist the kit in the first place!

I hung it up in a little corner by the deck door and just loved it.
 And then I did a double take.

The willow tree figurine on the table is holding a pineapple! 

My stenciled border at the top of the wall are pineapples too! 

It's a good thing my subconscious decorator was on the ball. 

. 

Design Wall Monday (week 16)

Here is my wall.

On Saturday I got up and decided I didn't want to work on any of the projects I have on-going!  So I got out the crumbs and had a lot of fun.    This quilt layout will be 4 across and 5 down.  That's all I can make using the blue fabric for my sashing. 

This is my first crumb quilt.  I'm trimming the crumb blocks to 5". 

Saturday I also loaded my little pineapples wall hanging I posted about in the last dwm and quilted it, the binding just needs finished this week.  

I cut out 3 of my block a days for the week, but stopped last night to watch the Pens play the Ottawa Senators. 

Block-a-Days and other stuff

So I finished my block-a-days for this week.

 

While I had the block-a-days out I played with them a little bit.  Here is a picture of them all stacked up from largest to smallest. The stack is about 4 inches high!

These are all the 16" blocks.  The red/green and white one will soon be a pillow for the porch.  If you look closer you can see it's not Christmas fabrics but watermelon and ants!

I got the final border on the blue OBW and made the binding. The outside border I cut 10.5" and used the original fabric. I'm real happy with it.  It measures 74 x 90.  I have about a 3" strip of fabric left!

*****

And on Monday my mom brought over the Anniverary quilt I made for them for their 50th wedding anniverary.  I want to quilt around their wedding picture, it's too puffy.  When I quilted it, I was renting the HQ and I was a pretty new long armer and I was afraid to ruin it.  I just did the minimal to keep it together and was never happy with their picture in the center. 

I've been working on the Mariner Compass...adding more quilting to the center and liking it. yea!

I also pieced the Jelly roll block.

And here is my 6th block for Shannon's BOM. 

I really like it.  I laid out all the blocks and my blank center piece (no I haven't started the applique for the center yet).

Design Wall Monday (week 15)

 

The new One Block Wonders are started (luv 'em), they're on my sewing table not the design wall.  And on the wall: Pineapples wall quilt. I pieced the blocks on Wednesday and appliqued them & finished piecing the top on Saturday. I want to quilt it this week.  

Next to it is my FFF stitchery I needed to add the binding.

On my cutting table: stack of six diapers to make matching burp clothes to go with the baby quilt I made last month.
In front of the diapers is the border  fabric for my 1st One block wonder

and the Block-a-Day calendar is sitting in the back, as usual I will work on a week's worth. 

Paul and I went on a long bike ride on Sunday, 4 hours including a nice stop for supper at a little country restaurant and a stop here to stretch for a few minutes.

But we didn't leave the house until around 1 o'clock, waiting for the temperature to get into the 60's. So I sewed for a little before we went and I sewed a lot last night.

And now the diaper-burpers are done.

The FFF is finished, well except for 2 little hanging sleeves that I need to whipstitch to the back.

I cut the backing and batting for the Pinapples wall quilt and moved it out to the HQ for quilting. 
I did reload my Mariner's Compass so that has to be done first. I want to add more quilting in the center areas of the blocks.  I'll be much happier with it after I do that.

I only cut 1 of the block a days so far.  Sometimes I'm just not in a cutting and figuring color placement kind of mood.  So they still need cut.
And I cut and sewed on the inner binding on the Blue One Bl Wonder.  I really wanted to get those on since there is bias edges all over the place on that thing-makes me nervous.

So today my wall looks like this:

EEK! It's empty....I vacuumed it on Friday, it was really string-y! I felt so much better after it was vacuumed...I think that might be a sign I need to get out of the basement more often!  :)

It's going to be beautiful today so I will be out in the yard, transplanting stuff that should have been done in the fall but I didn't get around to it. I still have a few days--they're not too big yet.

 

Block-a-Days etc.

These are blocks for 4/5-4/11.  The top row are 12" blocks I used coordinating fabric.

The 2nd row are 10" blocks, 2 coordinate.

The big block is a 16" one!  I have 5 other 16" ones, trying to do them in coordinating fabrics as well.

I pulled out the 10" blocks I have done.

This Saturday is the 2nd One Block Wonder class.  

At the first class, Libby started giving me her crumbs (she pitches them) and I explained to the others what a crumb quilt was, no one knew. So I said I would bring some in to show. 

And the lovely ladies all gave me their crumbs too!

 On Tuesday I pulled my crumb blocks out and started playing with them and then sewed and made some more. I found a nice chunk of leftover blue fabric (almost the end of the Amish stuff now) and cut it into 2" strips for sashing. I'm figuring I have enough sashing for 20 blocks, set 4x5.

**of course the way I "figure" I will most likely either be 5" short or have enough for another row**

 I took this picture before I added the 4th bock. 

I've squared these crumb blocks to 5" and then sewed together to make a 9-patch.  The picture is a bit washed out it looks much happier in "real life".

Yesterday I indulged my pillow kit addiction and made the latest.

Design Wall Monday (week 14) April 5, 2010 & The Bike Ride

The One Block wonder is still on the wall but it is almost together. I love it.

Just 1 seam left then the borders; I would have finished that last seam  before heading over to my brother's for  Easter dinner... 

...but on Saturday Paul spent the day changing this:

to this:

He added a "tour pack" which is the trunk and the nice seat backrest for me!  And so we went for an Easter Sunday ride for about an hour.  It is much more comfortable than I thought it was going to be.

 I was worried because we used to have this:

Woohoo for summer.

The Potato Chip Bag... because you can't make just one!

I guess it's true!