Design Wall Monday

I've been quilting a lot lately.  I went on a retreat and got to work on a few projects.  First, this is the round robin I received that I need to add a border by mid July.  I'm still in the "thinking" phase at this point. Trying to decide the type of pieced border I will add.

My goal for the quilt retreat was to work on my Christmas quilt.  I only got 9 blocks made by last Sunday; 6 snow flake blocks, and one each wreath and mittens.  So this past week I made it a goal to stitch on this quilt each day.  I now have 3 of 13 rows completed.  The wreath blocks are 3" finished and there are 16 of  them!  By the end of June I'm supposed to have gingerbread men, ornaments, and Christmas lights blocks added; we'll see.  I have two trips schedule for the month of June and I don't think I'll get much sewing done.  I'm happy though with the progress thus far.

 I went to my friend's house on Saturday to borrow the long arm machine!  I got  two quilt tops quilted.  This one is last year's scrap quilting club's yearlong project.

This one is my drunkard's path string quilt.  I'm so excited to get them both quilted. Now I need to pick binding fabrics and get them off my to-do list.  We'll see if they get completed in the month of June.

To see more design walls, visit Patchworktimes.com.

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My Weekend, Finished Projects, Design Wall Monday

I attended the Round Bobbin Expo on Saturday. Actually, my guild had a booth that I staffed for an hour or so.  I saw the funniest quilt, Haunted by UFOs that I had to share.  While I'm definitely not stressed about having well over 125 works in progress it did make me stop for a moment to think about them.  I even counted how many UFOs are completed quilt tops.  I found 20 quilts that need backs made and another 17 with backs made ready for quilting.

I finished the binding on four quilts today!  Yeah!!! Mon Sheri Waves, available at the following link, www.robertkaufman.com/assets/pdf/mon_sheri_waves_tutorial_final.pdf,is a project assigned to the Scrap Quilting Club in May.  I brought my GO! Cutter to the meeting and anyone that wanted to participate could cut their drunkards path blocks with the die. I did make a modification and added setting triangles all the way around instead of chopping off the sides as instructed in the pattern.

Tumbling Frolics is finally finished. I have a tutorial on cutting fabrics with the GO! Cutter on my blog I uploaded in October 2010. I really like this quilt and don't know why I didn't quilt it sooner.  The binding was relatively easy to sew, just cut a stripe fabric on the bias and then sewed in a slight curve fashion along the edges; worked for me!

In 2001 I made a Butterfly Kaleidoscope (scroll down and look on right) stack and whack quilt. I've always been a saver and user of scraps.  When I cut the first angle to get 45 degree angle, I cut the scraps into squares. After making the quilt, I pieced this quilt top, putting stars around the kaleidoscope squares.  It's been sitting the the quilting pile all these years.  Boy am I glad this one is completed.

I made this rail fence quilt top for my brother in February of 2010 but never got it quilted.  I thinks he's finally ready for his quilt. LOL  

I sewed some more on my line dance t-shirt quilt. I'm working on adding a photo border all the way around. I have two sides made, taking up 6 hours of my sewing time.  I sure didn't think it would take so long to make this border.  I decided to put it aside to work on bindings instead. As I look at this picture during the upload, there is definitely no space to rest the eyes on this quilt!

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Happy New Year

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.  I was busy throughout the entire holiday season.  I hosted Christmas dinner at my home so I had to clean and cook for the 25 or so guests prior to their arrival.  We had a fantastic time and I just hated for all the excitement to end.  I worked Tuesday through Friday and then spent New Year's eve at my niece's home and we line danced our way into the New Year.

For as quilting, I made a few more quilted wallets; that made the total of 33 wallets in less than a week.  I enjoyed making them and have a few in my stash for myself to use throughout the year.

In addition to the wallets, I made this quilt for my husband who watches television in his "man cave."  This should keep him plenty warm. This was a mystery quilt that's now for sell called Friends and Fellows.

I sewed the remainder of the drunkard's path blocks together from a previous project and then sewed them into this quilt top.  It's not very large so I will need more borders to get it to a decent size of lap or twin size quilt.  We'll have to see how this one plays out.

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Design Wall Monday

I'm back with another design wall Monday.  Yeah!  I still haven't taken a photo of a completed quilt.  Maybe I'll take it to work this week to get that done.  However, I did make the remainder of my drunkard's path blocks and have the quilt top completed.  Now I need to add a few borders.  This pattern is from JayBirdQuilts. Mine is a little different as I added setting triangles all around and of course the borders I'll add at some point.

I finally decided to make a few Christmas gifts.  I made Wonder Wallets by www.LazyGirlDesigns.com about three or four years ago for friends and family.  Last year they started asking for replacements but I didn't get around to making them.  This weekend I made twenty.  They went really fast and would have been faster if  I'd made them all from the same fabric.  I had to constantly change threads to match the wallet and/or Velcro colors. Maybe I'll make a few more if I get a chance.

That's it for me.  To see more, visit Patchwork Times.
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Design Wall Monday

I started a new project yesterday.  I've been wanting to make this quilt since last year.  I even purchased the batik fabrics and had them still stored together in the store bag.  I decided last week to clean my sewing room and guess what I found.  I'm having so much fun with the drunkard's path blocks.  Of course I cut them with my Accuquilt Go! die cutter, 7" finished blocks.  I have over half of them sewn as the sewing is super easy.  All the previous curve piecing experience has allowed me to get a lot done in a short period of time.

To see more design walls, visit www.patchworktimes.com.

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Many Paths All Around - Drunkard's Path Block 10

I decided to get this week's block done before the rest of the week got out of control.  I made a cutting error when sizing this block and will need to take one seam apart and add 3/4" strip of fabric to get the 1/4" I'm short.  No, you can't see it in the picture as I cropped it out.  LOL  The beauty of Paint Shop Pro and Picasa.

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Drunkard's Path Block 9

I'm really having fun with these blocks.  I cut a few more pieces this week with my GO! cutter so my next one will have a few new fabrics added.  If you have the curve master foot for your sewing machine, now is a great time to pull it out and put it to use.

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Drunkard's Path Block 8

I finally found and use my curve master foot.  Wow!  I should have been using this gadget all along.  I made this block super quick.  Anyone else out there making the blocks?  I am so enjoying the different blocks and all of them would make great quilts by themselves.  I still haven't decided which format I want for my one block quilt; I still have a few blocks to make before deciding.

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Drunkard's Path Block 7

In just under the wire is drunkard's path block #7.  Now I'm off to work on the sampler quilt and maybe select blocks for the 100 Blocks challenge for the month. Just remembered I have to get ready to go to mom's home for early dinner.  Will work on list later today.

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Design Wall Monday

Last Design Wall Monday post of  the year!  I'm so proud of myself that I was able to post each Monday of 2010.  My last design wall is short and sweet.  The only sewing this week was on my drunkard's path blocks.  I needed three blocks to be caught up this week and that's what I made.  You can see close up shots of the three new blocks here.  I don't know how much sewing I'll get in this week as I must clean the sewing room first!

I had a great Christmas, spending time with my family.  Dy daughter got me really, really good.  I was invited Christmas morning to breakfast at her home with a few of her friends.  Don't ask me how I ended up preparing the meal.  LOL  I was a little behind in cleaning my home for afternoon guest but it all worked out in the end.  I received a few quilt related items, a watch I'd been eyeing for about five months, and a Wii.  Now I can go purchase Wii Fit Plus.  I so wanted the system, hoping it will encourage me to exercise. 

Leave me a message stating what favorite item you received during the holiday.  I'll draw for a winner of a Moda Half Moon Charm Pack at 12 Noon on December 31st.  It has 42 squares so some are duplicates.  Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you a Happy New Year!

To view more design walls, visit Patchwork Times.
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Drunkard's Path Blocks 4-6

Would you believe that I completely forgot about making drunkard's path blocks?  Even when I realized it I thought I needed to make only 2 blocks; wrong, I need to make 3 to get caught up.

Block 4

 Block 5

 Block 6

Here is a collage of six blocks I have made so far.  I may have to remake blocks 1 and 2 to match the others but I'll worry about that later.

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Many Paths All Around - Drunkard's Path Block 3

I thought I wasn't going to get the third block completed for the week!  I think I got tired of cutting the required number of shapes for each individual block.  So, I've decided to make the blocks scrappy, still using blue and orange as my color palette.  Saturday I spent some time ironing and cutting fabrics.  I now have a pile of shapes to make quite a few blocks.  Here is my block #3 in scrap format.

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Many Paths All Around - Drunkard's Path Block 2

Here is block 2.  In order to get a few more fabrics into thequilt, I made the corners in a different fabric.

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Many Paths All Around - Drunkard's Path Block 1

One challenge isn't enough!  I came across this drunkard's path sampler.  I plan to make these 12 blocks, one per week.  If you want to play along, purchase the Many Paths All Around from Elisa's Backporch Designs (scroll down...I think it's 4th from the bottom.)

If you decide to make the blocks with me, let me know and I'll link to your blog.

I selected my fabrics, deciding to make this quilt in orange and blue fabrics.  I made my first block, Block No. 1.  The pattern's DP block units are 4" finished.  Since I have the Accuquilt GO! die in 3" finished size, I'm using that.  It's going to take a little practice and time to get used to sewing the smaller units, but I'm enjoying the process all the same.  Here is my first block.  I uploaded the same photo twice, rotating one of them one quarter of a turn so you can see how different the block looks depending upon the setting.

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Design Wall Monday

I worked earlier in the week and made all the optional blocks for the guild year.  You can see the blocks in a previous post.

In addition, I worked on the Pineapple Nine Patch quilt top.  I have the first border on the quilt center.  I pieced the 2nd border and when I went to put the sides onto the top, they wouldn't fit.  I found that Martingale has a corrections page posted online.  So, I'll tackle the quilt top later this week.  Here is a picture of half the quilt top with the border attached but it sure doesn't match up.

Saturday my small guild met and I made this meeting my cutting day.  I cut over 300 tumblers and 300 chisels.  I didn't cut too many apple core shapes as I wanted to test sew them first.  The longest task with using scraps is prepping them for cutting.  I spent hours starching and pressing fabric and a little over an hour to cut all the pieces.  The GO! Cutter has definitely changed the way I view cutting. 

So I didn't win a copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Collector's Edition Vol. 2 magazine so I purchased one on Sunday.  I just had to have my own copy as the participating designers had their blocks posted on their blogs last week and they were oh so pretty.  As I was driving home from Hancocks, I thought about the fact that I purchased the first volume of this magazine and did not make one block.  So, the challenge for me is to make ALL the blocks within a year.  I'm starting this week and plan to make 2 blocks per week.  Anyone want to play along?  It would be neat to see the blocks showing up in blog land.  I said I didn't win a magazine.  However, I did win some flurry friends fabric that I should receive in the mail this week.  Check out the fabric at The Whimsical Workshop; they have fabrics and projects that are perfect for children quilts.

One challenge isn't enough!  While shopping this week I came across this drunkard's path sampler.  I was buying door prizes for my scrap quilting club and just couldn't pass up one for me too.  I plan to make these 12 blocks, one per week.  If you want to play along, purchase the Many Paths All Around from Elisa's Backporch Designs (scroll down...I think it's 4th from the bottom).

To see more design walls visit Patchwork Times.



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