August 28 2015

Although I promised myself I would get my own quilts done, it really hasn't happened yet.  Besides the two I made for gifts already. The guild's bi-annual show is in November.  I need to get cracking!

I finished Libby's quilt. 

 Wonky feathers on this star quilt- it was a thangles pattern, Dottie really didn't care for it.  But I just love the simplicity of it and the border.

Lois' quilt with an all over 'water ripples' pattern.  I've made this pattern and quilted it for several customers over the past years-I think it's a very versatile pattern.  

It makes a very cool quilt.

A Christmas Quilt (aggghh not ready for that!!)

 

this is the 2nd Friendship Stars quilt for Marsha.

(excuse my neighbors ad on his work trailer above--forgot to edit the picture)

Here is the 3rd (and final one) She added an extra border on this one

I love the colors.

  Last week Libby and ML came over for a sew day.

We each made this tote.

Here is mine.

and mine, Libby's and ML's

the pattern is The One Piece Bag from Fig Tree & Co.

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Last month we said goodbye to Annie.

She really was the sweetest, gentlest dog ever.

Dang I miss her.

Jo comes into the house and calls for her  "Annie? ... Annie?

I say, "Annie's all gone" 

She can't say Otis yet, so she's started calling him annie;

which makes me smile and feel sad all at once.

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My new Purse

I bought the fabric last June during the local Shop Hop.

This is The Margo bag from Lazy Girl Designs.

The first one I've made.   

I've been making my own version of their 

Towne purse and City bag, combining what I liked best from both patterns into one, for the last couple years and several purses.

It was time for a change.

Quilt guild tote

So I'm in the 'new bee's class' for the guild.  

It's a fun time once a month on Saturday morning.  I've made it to two of the classes in these last 4 months.  So I'm batting .500-pretty good if I were on a baseball team.

The first class we made our name tag.

Then we made a little Halloween project-I missed this class but did mine at home.

Last month we did PAPER PIECING-in hind sight it was a fun class; while in the class I was stressed out....

gawd I'm bad at paper piecing.

The class last week I was all prepared to go to---meaning it was on the calendar but I really hadn't got my supplies together.  

And then, as it always seems to happens in December-plans changed. 

 I spent the day with husband and Meghan. 

It was a very good day.

I got an email from the New bee's teacher, Thea reminding us to bring our tote bags to the next guild meeting for show n tell. 

So making mine has been on the 'to do list' all week and yesterday afternoon I figured it was now or never.

I'm not sure which is the front and which is the back-I like 'em both.  

The block in the first photo is another Bl-a-day block (woo-hoo).

Today I MUST clean.

have to

no excuses

clean, clean, clean.

I don't like today right now

2nd Charm Tote

the Front



The Back

I like the back better.  :)

I'm glad it's done.
I'm not doing much sewing.

******
Paul's mom passed away on Sunday at home in Arizona.
We're all still reeling from his brother's untimely death in February.

Time will heal; but it's going to be a while.

What I'm doing

My LeMoyne Star quilt is finished....bound, labeled and on the wall.  I LUV it. 

I did a baptist fan all over, I marked it with chalk so it's pretty consistent.  I used a grayish So Fine in top and Bottom line in bobbin. 

These blocks were made using HST (no set in seams-yeah).  Of course, I made extra cuz I'm weird like that and then what to do with the orphans. I cut a bunch more and did them as leader/enders and made pinwheel blocks. I was originally thinking of just doing that and make a big lap quilt.  But I ran out of triangles and got bored.  I had a bunch of them on the side design wall and suddenly thought "hey! I'll bet I could just use these to frame a nice 12" block.  So I auditioned a few and wasn't thrilled so I let it sit.  I was in my closet poking around for batting scraps (I hang them on a hanger to keep 'em neat) and saw my little red work pieces I'd made, a few last year and some WAY OLDER...I got this one out and it fit perfectly (after I trimmed a tad). 

It's still on the wall, I'm not sure if it's done or if it wants to be the center of something bigger.

And here is my main design wall.

I think I'm becoming a bit scattered. --A BIT you say....:)

The bright charms up in the right are the front and back of a tote, the little doll quilt bottom right is sandwiched and waiting for me to decide if I want to load it and quilt a freehand baptist fan on it or just stitch in the ditch it on my DSM...I keep waffling so that's the reason it's still there.  The 3 random blocks in the center are block-a-days from last year.  They are quilted and waiting to be made into pillows (the little trip around the world will probably just be a candle mat for me to stick somewhere, decoratively of course).

and the left shows my 9-patch blocks waiting for setting fabric (which isn't in my stash) so they are hopefully going to sit until June's Shop Hop. When this year, I plan on having an organized list of what I want/need to buy and not just go into every shop and lose my mind. 

I'm not working on any of these right now.  We're having a picnic on Monday (Memorial Day) and I have a new cushion cover to sew....I made the bottom cover for my wrought iron 2-seat er but not the back.  I want to learn to do this kind of sewing, but dang it's hard for me.  I'll show a picture when I have the whole thing done. 

This morning I put the binding on

It's not looking quite so FEATHER SCARY to me.  yea!

I still have to hand stitch the binding to the back. 

My Design Wall

My design wall is still pretty much the same.  It's the same picture as last week too! 

I do have some charms up there now; I'm making a 2nd  Charm party tote from a packet of charm squares, but only have the front and back panels (12 charms each) sewn together.

(no pictures)  I made this one first and as per usual, why make one when your can make two?

It was gifted to the "prez" of my Bunco group.  I had delusions of finding the perfect dice fabric and appliqueing "bunco beauties" (which we call ourselves--to hoots of laughter).  But the best laid plans I forgot about wanting to make it about 2 days after our last month's bunco and didn't remember until last week...bunco was on Saturday, the last one for the summer.  I did find dice buttons and I think it's quite sophisticated looking. 

More importantly the prez loved it. 

*****

I finished the Batik Sampler quilt. 

I do like it.  (she says hesitantly), no I really do, kinda

. 

 It's a fine example of feather over load. 

Ya know how I've said while I'm quilting something I'm scared how it will look as I can only see a small area of it? Well, the entire time I was quilting this I LOVED it.  (that will hopefully be a warning in the future). And couldn't wait to see it.

Ready.....

This picture doesn't quite do the OH MY GOSH THOSE FEATHERS ARE  SMACKING ME IN THE FACE!

So let's try this one....(hello Annie, you ham-dog!)

just click on the picture and DANG GIRL! ~~~ you'll see what I mean!

(Did you say "whoa"? I do every time I click on it...'whoa'.)

Hellllloooo feathers!

 Not the look I was going for.

I'm disappointed.  

But hey it's a learning process.  And (this is so typical of me) as soon as I unloaded it and got the WAMMO effect; I remembered practically word for word Kimmy Brunner's admonishment in her "Whirly Twirly Feathers video" to be careful how your use your feathers or you'll overwhelm the piecing..... :) ~~hee, hee, blush.

as my 6 year old nephew says and I quote:

 "Fun times, fun times...Life if Good."

(my sister, seriously, has no idea where he picked this up...)

   

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The weekend was beautiful --Saturday was a 5 1/2 hour bike ride in the country, Amish country...where we saw horse and buggies and all kinds of farm critters and I forgot my camera.--Always forget something.  We got lost in Amish country too....that was fun!  

At one point Paul said to me loudly over his shoulder, "I'm getting a GPS holder for the bike!"

Good idea! 

we forgot the GPS too....

We got a 2 1/2 hour ride in on Sunday.

It's raining again today.

 fun times, fun times.....:)

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

I guess it's true!

Jelly Roll Block and a Potato Chip Bag

I made the potato chip bag last night. It was quick and pretty easy for me.  I am directionally challenged so having things inside out/right side out like you do with totes/purse patterns is difficult for me to 'get'.  

The block, which is really square and not wrinkled in real life is the 3rd block in the Jelly Roll Sampler quilt along.

The One Bl wonder hexi's are done and I want to move some around today and tomorrow.  I want to try to get the dark ones at the bottom up near the top left and I can see a couple more that are sticking out too much. (According to the book, they should sort of 'moosh'. ) Taking a picture really helps see it.  I was getting a little car sick feeling looking at the wall without my glasses and then flipping them down again to move a block.  I'm going to print this photo and see if that is helpful.

Chubby Charmer Tote

I finally finished this tote last night.  It's for me! I repeat, it is for me!  The last 3 I made ended up not for me. I'm going to use it to lug my stuff to quilt classes.

My friend Libby and I went shopping yesterday to The Quilt Co., then lunch and finally Jo Ann Fabrics. It was a good day.  We were suppose to get together and have a sew/gabfest at my house, but she needed wide backing and a few things and we decided it was too cold and snowy to drag all her stuff to my house, so we shopped instead.
 
A few months ago I bought the One Block Wonder Book, but I was scared to make it all by myself.  The Quilt Co. has offered a class on it a few times last year and lo and behold they're doing it again. So we talked to Marsha, who will be teaching the class and we both signed up.  The class is 2 part and doesn't start until March, so I have time to get some other things done; like my 2 t-shirt quilts.    Actually, I bought a jelly roll of the Aviary line from 3 Sisters, I cut it up last night to make a baby quilt gift, no pictures yet, but I'm using the directions from Mary. I think it's going to be a lovely quilt for a baby girl.
Oh and my calendar finally came so I started my Block-a-Day.
It has been so long since I've cut out "patches" and put a quilt block together like this; I really had to think for a bit.  I'm just so used to following a pattern where I cut strips or use HST.  I haven't cut out a template for a triangle in for-e-v-e-r.  I have a feeling that will be changing this year, if I can stick to this BL-a-day thing.