The Strip Stick

I want to introduce you to the Strip Stick designed by Babb Enterprises.  This gadget was written up in the new products section of Quiltmaker.  I recently saw the stick about a month ago but didn't purchase it at that time.  Recently I had a class participant ask lots of questions about pressing seams open for a particular project so last week end I purchased the Strip Stick to test the product.

It passed with flying colors.  While I don't have problems pressing my seams open, it does make the job easier and the seams stay flat.  I didn't even have to press on the right side to make that happen.  I found that you can use steam or if you have a very hot iron, steam is not necessary.

I'm so sold on this product!  I used the 18" size to press rows 80+ inches long; just moved the seam down as I pressed.  Since then, I've purchased more sticks for those in the St. Louis area who may want to try the stick. The price is 8.99 but I need to add shipping making the total $10.00.  This month's Scrap Quilting Club participants will have the opportunity to win a 18" strip stick and I'll bring mine so you can test it too.  I only have a two of the 45" strip and that cost is $17.00.

Here is a video from the manufacturer:

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Design Wall Monday

I had a lot going on in my family this week so to keep my sanity, I sewed any time I was at home to keep my mind off of serious matters.  I did get a chance to layout all 64 blocks and label them for my Double Time Log Cabin but I did not get a chance to sew them together into a quilt top.  Hopefully I'll do that this week.

Instead, I made a new quilt top based on a project I saw at retreat.  All the fabrics I used I pulled from stash but I can't find anything at home to use for a border.  I did a little shopping yesterday but didn't find anything yet.

I also started working on Mock Log Cabins blocks this week.  For something I wasn't supposed to work on, I made 49 blocks.  I took my containers of 1.5" cut strips and started cutting them to size.  I'm having fun trying to achieve the light and dark sides of the logs while using a lot of color in the light sections. I only need 192 blocks to complete the quilt. LOL I think I'll do something else for a while, maybe...

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

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Design Wall Monday and Quilt Retreat

I had a great week.  I spent the first portion getting ready to attend quilt retreat.  I sewed strips and cut fabrics for special projects.  Below are the two quilts in progress that I worked on.  Then, I have a slide show of projects I saw during retreat.

First, here is my log cabin quilt I took out of my UFOs to move further along.  I needed to add two rounds to each of the blocks.  I only have 9 circles shown, but I have all 64 blocks completed, enough to make 16 full circles.  I'll lay this out on Friday during my craft guild meeting at work.  I'm looking forward to sewing the quilt top together.

 Then, I worked on the main retreat project for which I prepped the strip  sets at home.  The project is from Ricky Tims' book Kool Kaleidoscope Quilts.  If you haven't tried this technique, please do so.  I must warn you that it can become addicting.

Here is a link of a slide show of some of the participants and projects I saw at retreat.  We had so many projects going on among us.  "Ain't no mountain high enough" to stop the creativity.  For some reason blogger is not recognizing the YouTube video so click here.

To view more design walls, go to Patchwork Times.

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Design Wall Monday

After showing my jean rag quilt a few times, I began to notice that I had seams coming apart.  I'm not sure if it's because I slightly lengthened the stitch length or if I had a spool of bad thread.  To make sure the entire quilt was in tact, I resewed all the rows.  It has now been washed once.  I'd like to wash it one more time to get the seams to fluff a bit more. 

Saturday we had the first meeting of the scrap quilting club and I posted about it in the previous post.  Here is the project we will be working on as our yearlong project.  It's called Flying In Squares by Melissa Corry and is a pattern on Moda Bake Shop.  Below are my two test blocks.  I also have a few segments of the first block.

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Scrap Quilting Club

Yeah!  We started scrap quilting club for the 3rd year.  We have 5 new members, Cynthia, Kathleen, Darlene, Connie, and Carol.

Congratulations to Kathleen as she won the door prize!  We started our first project of the year, Boxed In, that in Quiltmaker's magazine 100 Blocks Vol. 2.  The blocks were made in 9", 12" and 15" finished sizes.  Next month I'll post photos of the completed tops.  For now, here are a few of the blocks made in class.


















Then for show and  tell, Lee Etta and Carol brought their exploding star top which was last year's "yearlong" project.

The next set of pictures have nothing to do with scrap quilting club, but I wanted to share this birthday cake my daughter had made for her boyfriend's birthday party we had tonight. Unbelievable!

 Here is a photo of her with her friend.

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Design Wall Monday

I haven't had time to post but have been busy working on quilting projects.  I had to do some prep work for my scrap quilting club that's slated to begin this weekend.  In  the process, I've made 12 Boxed In blocks from Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Volume 2.  I used scraps leftover from the Frolic fat quarter packet I previously purchased.  This will be my third quilt top and I still have more fabrics left; seems like the fabrics are multiplying.

Then, I finished cutting jeans I'd purchased from a garage sale about 3 years ago.  Why do we purchase items we already have plenty of at home?  Yes, because it was at a price too good to be true. Well,  I decided that these would not go into my normal denim storage so I took them straight to work where they sat and sat.  Finally, during our craft guild sessions it took me three sessions to get them all cut.  Saturday I started putting the blocks together and then decided that the denim was too boring.  Apparently I need color a lot in my life. So, I added lots of machine embroidered appliqued hearts and other machine embroidery designs.  I got bored again and started combining denim, removing pockets and labels and then sewing them back to plain blocks, using scraps of denim for applique, even basket weaving on one.  I decided ribbon would be good too.  I have no clue what I'm doing but the last two days have been fun!  No worries about mistakes; incorporating them in without a guilty conscious.  Sadly, I can't work on it now because of a lot of reasons.  Hopefully, I'll get Recycled With Love completed by the end of the month. By the way, heart embroidery designs are from a variety of designers. I can't remember them all but do recall Designs by JuJu, Affairs of the Heart, OeSD, and Dakota Collectible.  If you're interested in one in particular, let me know and I'll look in my library for it.

Thanks for stopping by. Visit Patchwork Times to see more design walls.
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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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Drawing Winner

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments.  I have used random number generator for the drawing.

The winner is commenter #3,  Lizzy.  Lizzy, I've already sent a message to your email account requesting your snail mail adderess.

Thanks everyone for playing along.
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