Design Wall Monday

I haven't done much sewing until today.  I'm actually working on churn dash blocks for a round robin quilt.  However, I got a little bored because it wasn't what I really want to work on.  I would have love to make a new Halloween quilt but I didn't get started earlier.  I definitely didn't want to add stress by trying to get it completed by next Thursday.

So, I decided that since my mother loved the spiral table runner I made her last year for Christmas that I'd make her another one. Here is the one I made last year using a 9 degree wedge ruler.

Yesterday I pulled a few Christmas theme prints from my stash. I even got to use an old JoAnn's fabric (last green fabric on right) from a block of the month so long ago that I can remember the year. I'd decided years ago that I wasn't going to use the border fabric as intended.

I took those fabrics and cut strips and sewed them into stratas.  I then cut the stratas with a 10 degree wedge ruler.  I love the colors in this one!  Also, instead of organizing the fabrics from light to dark like I did in the first runner, I organized them from one color family to another color family.  That made the light areas float in the center.

\Here is a comparison of the two sizes.  Also note that I have two extra strips in the Christmas runner that I wasn't able to cut the first time I made the quilt.

I still had a little time left before bed and I also got to play with another project using Christmas fabrics.  Now I need to figure out what to do with the center; pieced or plain.

-------------------------- Type-u-later, http://www.teaquilts.com

Scrap Quilting Club

It's been a while since I have posted.  I wanted to post on Design Wall Mondays for the last two weeks but my home internet service has been down.  It's very frustrating when it doesn't work.  Today we were told the the problem is the connection at the pole and they will send someone out to morrow to fix it.

In the meantime, here are the quilts from Scrap Quilting Club last Saturday. The first photo is my yearlong project.  This will go with the field of trees I posted earlier.  I'm actually two rows behind schedule.  I should have a row of ornaments and a row of tree lights completed by the end of June....will not happen!

-------------------------- Type-u-later, http://www.teaquilts.com

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.

-------------------------- Type-u-later, http://www.teaquilts.com

Design Wall Monday

I've had a busy and full week.  I'm in the middle of a bathroom remodel but still found some time to quilt.  I think I needed it for my sanity as a large portion of my home has been taken over with supplies, contractor (and some days, his workers), plastic drop clothes and a whole lot of dust.While being majorly inconvenienced with the remodel, I decided to sew to keep my mind occupied with other, more positive things.  I'm still working on my Christmas Scraps quilt.  I finished all the red blocks this week.  After that, I started sewing a huge chunk of them into pairs.  Now I'm sewing a few more into fours's. Because I didn't use as many scraps in this quilt as in previous scrap quilts, I will need a large floor area to lay out the blocks prior to sewing the rows together. That job will need to take place at work when our craft guild meets next Friday.

I got bored with the Christmas quilt and decided something new for Halloween would be fantastic.  I've always wanted to make Buggy Barn's If the Hat Fits quilt from the Frightfully Crazy booklet.  I actually plan to make two, one for me and the other for my daughter.  Here is the first set cut awaiting the sewing. I shuffled the pieces to show one of the blocks.  This is my favorite way to make pieced blocks that would normally be paper-pieced.  It's a very creative process they have created.

Even when you skip through the directions, you always have to come back to Step #1.  I started sewing the sections together and got 9 of 10 of them sewn.  You see, I skipped the first part of the directions as I new it would be tedious and I just wasn't in the mood.  I need to make the withes' leg/shoe units.  Now, whether I'm in the mood or not, now is the time. I have the legs all cut but need to go through my scraps to find more black fabrics for the shoes.

Well, I'm visually inspired so I sewed one set of legs and shoes together so I could make one block.  Too cute!  The legs and shoes dangles in the block.  After all the blocks are sewn, I'll square them all to the same size.  Jeez, what was I thinking, making two sets, I hate, hate, hate turning those legs. I will have to put this project up this week as I need to make a few quilt backs and cut batting from the roll.  It's time to start machine quilting some of those tops in my "ready for quilting" pile.

Hope you have a great Monday and to see more design walls, visit www.patchworktimes.com.
--------------------------
Type-u-later,

http://www.teaquilts.com

Design Wall Monday

A few weeks ago I pulled out a UFO I started in October 2008.  I had about 100 of 400 blocks made.  I put those block on the wall to do a little playing for motivation to get the other 300 blocks completed.  I like this setting but will not do this one as I want to start another project similar to this one with this setting.

 This is the setting I planned to make, just straight rows.  I've always wanted this style of quilt on my bed.  I love the alternating red and green squares.

 Yeah!  I got all the blocks made.  I pressed the green ones and started sewing them into pairs.

 I finished my Rouge River log cabin quilt top. It's now in the to-be-quilted pile.

 Here is a mug rug I made.  The loop can hang the mat when storing or it can used as a cup marker by wrapping around the handle.  This is my test mug and I plan to make more for Christmas gifts.

-------------------------- Type-u-later, http://www.teaquilts.com

Design Wall Monday

I finished my daughter's Christmas quilt.  She fell in love with it.  I chose to upload this picture of her asking for matching pillowcases too.  She is too funny.  I did tell her that they were easy to make and I'd be happy to show her how to make them.  I used Judy L's method for applying the binding.  In the past I'd apply binding to the back with sewing machine and then iron to the front and sew down with the machine from the front.  A few times I tried appling to the front but didn't like the effect of the stitching on the back.  With Judy's method, you pin the binding to the back without pressing and sew from the front.  Because the binding isn't pressed to the back, stitching next to the seam line makes the stitch almost invisible from the front.  Thanks the the tip Judy.

I made Blocks 11 and 12 from Quiltmakers 2nd edition.  To see the blocks, go here.  While making those blocks and piecing the remainder of the Christmas quilt backing, I made three more scrappy trip around the world blocks.`

At guild I won this Happy! cake layer in a guild raffle.  Now I want to work on the Layer Cake Sew Along.  But wait...I can't do that until...

I catch up with the drunkard's path blocks.  I completely forgot to make one last week so now I need to make two of them (could be three - I need to check) so that's my task this week, nothing else.

To view more design walls, visit Patchwork Times.

--------------------------
Type-u-later,
 
 http://www.teaquilts.com