2 outa 3 ain't bad

First I got the CW lap quilt together. It measures 48 x 64

I pieced M Ring blocks in between rows-sorta like a huge leader/ender!

After lunch I had to run down to the store and then I was back at the machine.

Ta-da!

These are the little scrappy triangle blocks I've been using as my real leader/ender.

I was just going to count them but with the nearly empty design wall I couldn't resist playing around for a bit.

I have enough of the light grey fabric for 10 more blocks, which will finish that row on the right.

I've double checked but if you see a block that's not going the right way-do let me know!! 

The first CW lap quilt is now a flimsy. 

It measures 48 x 64

I took this picture of Jonquils from underneath my quilting table!  

 If I didn't like my new blog header picture so much I would change it to this.

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And here is my design wall:  

Metro Rings blocks

 2nd CW lap quilt

and way at the end some modern anvil blocks from "made fabric"

I am going to get Jonquils & Stars finished today.

I am.

And sew together the CW one as well.

I will.

And finish piecing the Metro Ring units into blocks.

I'm serious.

Sew Day!

Yesterday Libby & Mary Lynne came over to sew.  Oh my gosh, I forgot how much fun spending a day sewing with friends is-- especially in the dead of winter when the temps are in the frigid ridiculous zone! 

The night before I moved the sewing cabinets and added a table so we could sew and gab with ease.

They arrived at 9:30 and stayed until 3. 

First Libby shared a little show-n-tell; her granddaughter is making her 1st communion in a few months and each child has a banner at their seat. Libby made Ella's 

And a new baby quilt; the plain blocks have embroidery on them but my camera didn't pick it up.

When I invited them over to sew, Mary Lynne asked if I would teach them the Interleave  technique.  

Here is Mary Lynne's. She choose the Mirrored Sine Wave pattern

  

And here's Libby's. She did the Helix Sine Wave pattern.

I finished trimming all my Metro Rings units.  In spite of heavy chatting I managed to get them trimmed without mishap.  

I also had to take apart and rotate one block in my Metro Hoops top. After I had blogged about the finish, someone was kind enough to let me know one block was turned--whew! See it down there bottom row next to the right corner.  I doubt I would have seen it although now that I look at the picture it's glaring at me!!

But now it's fixed. 

We are planning on making these sew days a regular event.  

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After the ladies left, I did some quilting. I'm doing a paisley fill behind the appliques and in that little center square area I cross hatched -the lines are 3/8 inch apart-yikes.

 I'm still just Stitching-in-the-Ditch on on the star blocks and along all the border seams.  The plan is to do a fill in the background (light green batik) areas around  the star blocks.  

Oh and the batting and quilt are off the ground...always a nice sign that the end is closer than I thought.  I would really like to get this done over the weekend. 

Wow-an achievable goal!  The question is: Will I persevere or start 2 or 3 new projects instead?

Fun times, fun times!

Life is good.

  

Last night I was innocently reading through some blogs and somehow I ended up at this post.  I just LOVED the quilt pictured there (a modern scrappy baby quilt) and remembered that I had a mini charm pack of High Street that I bought during the summer. 

I quickly pieced these 21 blocks, fun-fun.  But then what to do? I have yardage of a couple of the High Street line but not enough. (of course)

So this morning I pulled out some leftover batik jelly roll strips that coordinated and cut a bunch (168) squares and the grey background squares  and had a fun time chain piecing.  

See all those little triangles below the blocks?  Yep, they're the cut offs that I couldn't throw away--I'm going to sew them together for what... I don't know yet.

 With the batik ones, I sewed a 2nd line 1/2 inch from the 1st one so when I trimmed the triangle off it was already sewn together.
 It took only a little more time

  and now these are all done and pressed too.
I'm going to trim off all the little dog ears while watching the Pens game tonight.

In between chain piecing, I pressed the Metro Ring units I had 90+ to press and it seemed to take forever.
They are finally all done and now to trim them all to size.

I took a little break and gave Mr Otis a bath.  He was not too pleased with that but I'm happy to have a clean pupper doodle again.  He was exhausted and took a nice long nap by the fire.

I'm going to need my design wall to lay out the new baby quilt blocks, so I was forced (heh-heh) to start the sashing on the bl-a-days. I'm pretty sure these will be 2 lap size quilts instead of one twin.  I don't have enough of the green fabric I'm using for all the blocks anyway.  I spent about 20 minutes messing around with a scrappy sashing but just couldn't get into it and didn't want to spend more time than necessary to get these done.  

I've done another row of SID on Jonquils & Stars but it's languishing.  

I'm hoping for at least another pass or two tomorrow.

******

whoa!

two posts in one week...

just a little follow up on my quilting progress (not much)

I got a little more of the SiD and the inside border done

 see told you not much.

However, I did get all the rest of the 2.5 inch strip sets sewn together and the curved piece cut out-96 total.  It took a good long while to do.

and then I cut the background curved pieces.  So now I'm all ready to piece the blocks.  

I work this weekend so not much more will get done until next week.

The plan was to get all these prepped yesterday but we had a surprise visit from this little one.  A very happy break for both Meg and I.

(yep-that's a made by Mimi burper!!-vintage Amy Butler perhaps...)

Today I loaded Jonquils & Stars.  I spent the last couple days piecing the backing for it from "chunks" of batik fabric from my stash.  

I started the SID along the inner border and then I got real hungry.  I stopped for lunch and then remembered I needed a few things at the grocery store and had to go to the bank.  I got home and thought I really should get the house cleaned so all but the dusting-bleck-is done and now it's coffee break time which will lead into having to make dinner (meatloaf) so I hope I'll get back to quilting this in the evening.

Earlier, while I was waiting for a quilt-drop off, I pulled out the CW Block-a-days 12 inch blocks.  I had them pinned in rows (from last year) but re-arranged them and added the blocks from the guilds Christmas BOM that I started but stalled out on. 

 There are two blocks left over and I will probably put them into the back. I will probably sash this with 2.5 inch strips.  I'm going to let them sit there for a bit and think about it.
Not for too long though as I also got out the Metro Rings pieces.
They are getting worked on next.

In the same project box with the Metro Rings I found the pattern for
Urban Birthday and a layer cake and yardage for it--- oops!
forgot all about that one.

Jenny is starting a new QAL which I'm probably going to do :)

Is there a method to this madness?

After running around this morning trying to get an organized list for

 Shop Hop, I thought perhaps I'd sit down and sew a small border around the MetroRings block I made yesterday and have it ready to quilt.  

But I didn't do that.

and get these 2 ready for quilting too. I didn't do that either.

 I took down the signature quilt rows---it's as together as I can get it until I have the last 2 signed blocks.

I was going to put up the Curve it up blocks and figure out the fabrics for the final outside border (keep it the same grey/white or instead of the grey use one of the yellow prints I bought but hardly used for it oh and make sure I have enough)

um, I didn't do that.

I was sick of looking at the Bl-a-days in rows  on the other side of the design wall so I started sewing them together and after a few hours;

a new flimsy.

(61 x 77)

Oh and after looking at the picture of the curve it up blocks while I'm writing this post, I think I will be using the grey/white to finish the top.

Design Wall Monday

This is a sample block of MetroRings 

I purchased the pattern and one for Metro Hoops so I could take the patterns with me on Shop Hop this week and get the fabrics for it.

This is Jenny's curved interpretation of the classic Double Wedding ring block.  I've never been a big fan of DWR probably because most that I've seen are done in 30's feed sack colors, which I am not fond of, and also those pieced arcs--yikes!

After downloading the pattern and reading it over, I thought perhaps I better sew a sample before spending a lot of $.  

~~wisdom comes with age~~

The  pieced arcs are sewn first using 2.5 inch strips-I used a partial jelly roll I had.

Of course I don't have enough of the jelly roll left to make the entire quilt.

But that's OK. This block is going to be a pillow gift.  Pillows are happening a lot here lately!

I did have enough of the jelly roll and some random 2.5 inch strips in the bin for the Metro Rings quilt.  woo-hoo 

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Today I am going to try to get the signature quilt as together as I can.

I still need two signature blocks returned to me but I can get most of it together.