Scrappy QOV Project

My current QOV project is an arrowhead block from Anita Grossman Solomon. I found the project first online, then discovered her book, Rotary Cutting Revolution, and then, her block appeared in the Nov/Dec 2010 Quiltmaker.

I am using my stack of patriotic layer cakes and cutting up a few of my fat quarters to add to my LC stash. I like the secondary pattern the blocks are creating.

Hope to finish these by early spring.

New Quilt

My Tuesday nite quilt group is ready for a new project.

I purchased some wash tub panels several months ago and have designed a layout for the panel.

The layout includes 16 pineapple blocks, 8 morning star blocks, and some creative sashings. A couple of the ladies will be using the purple panel and others the blue/red panel.

I am working on approximate fabric requirements and the first set of instructions.

I have set myself up for a good challenge. We start next week with cutting up our panel.

Christmas projects

For Christmas, I started making twister wreaths for each family on my list. I quickly realized that I could not make 7 in 10 days so started plans on an alternate project. I chose candlemats and quickly started creating seven different kits so that I could do the sewing all at once. After creating 4 different kits, I chose a DIFFERENT pattern and began all over again.

I finally settled on a Toad in a Puddle and created 7 candlemats, purchased 7 candles, stuffed my giftbags, and lined them up under the tree.

I have made a promise to make one Christmas gift each month in 2011, so as to enjoy my December vacation without having to work on "must does".

Finished UFO

Somehow, I overlooked this posting. In 2008, the Quilts Your Way forum had 20 ladies participate in a squishie swap. I have one completed quilt with 9 blocks to share. The second set of blocks, I just completed into a top and it will be shown after it is quilted. This beautiful fabric, is no longer available anywhere.

Candy Jars Wall Hanging

I realy liked this pattern when I saw it at "Quiltin' Cousins" in Pismo Beach.

I participated in a HGTV swap called All I Want for Christmas and one of the categories for gifts was titled Candy Lane. I thought the pattern and candy fabrics was perfect. I made the wall hanging, added a hanging sleeve to the back, and used some of my grandmother's black buttons for the jar knobs. I free motion quilted it, trying to make the quilting look like wood grain lines.

2007 mystery quilt finished

Finished a Mystery quilt from 2007 that I had only completed 4 out of 9 steps. I stopped because it had 64 flying geese. I had completed 20, so got out my "Quilt in A Day" ruler and went to work on the other 44 geese. Added a couple of extra borders and decided to use a thinner 70/30 batting so the top could be used as a tablecloth. It quilted up real nicely.

Longarm working again

Yeah! Sunday, I actually spent some time quilting two pieces that have to be mailed this week. At first the tension was off - loopies everywhere underneath - then I tightened the tension with 5 turns, and Wall- A! awesome quilting. I completed a tablerunner and table centerpiece/wall hanging. Both look great. Need to add binding this week, then I will be back to post pictures. This is a busy week but I have 4 projects to mail off. So I will be back with pictures and updates by the end of the week when all are finished.

This table runner is made with two 2 1/2" wide X WOF strips sewed together. Then, the two strips are placed RST on top of a 4 1/2" X WOF strip. Sew along both long sides as if making a tube. You take any ruler with a diagonal line. Match the diagonal line along one of the sewed long side. Make a cut along ruler edge (Your piece looks triangular.) Slide the ruler to the opposite sewing line the and cut the second triangular piece. When you open your pieces you will have a square. I sewed 4 together to make my center, two together to make the side pieces. Hope my directions make sense.

Work continues

Continuing to work on some older projects. I found a Mystery I started in 2007 with quiltbug. I think I sewed as far as clue 4, read "64 flying geese" and retired the project. Well, I dug it out this weekend and have been putting it together. Way too busy fabric for me but it is almost all together. All I have left to do is add the borders that are already pieced. This will definitely be a project I complete and give away. Will post a pic when top is done.

October Finishes

This has been a month of few finishes but several almost completed projects. My Tuesday nite quilting group has finally finished the thirteen blocks from the Central Valley Shop Hop 2010 and I have only to add borders to my top before quilting. The patriotic quilt has all thirteen blocks on point. Four of us each made our own tops and there are no two of the same size.

I love the Twister rulers and have made both a quilt top with layer cakes and a table topper. I just love the tesselating blocks. MC Escher never had such awesome tools to use.

Pieced some orphan blocks together into a 60 X 70 top and I have been having the hardest time coming up with a fabric border I am content with. I am seriously thinking about adding no border and just quilting it.

Hoping to get in some serious quilting time this weekend.

Fall Table Topper/Wall hanging

I started creating these blocks with fall 6.5 squares from a swap several years back. I added two shades of yellow, cut my blocks, twisted the pieces, sewed them back together and ended up with a pile of blocks and no idea of where to go from there.
I am participating in an HGTV Handmade swap and decided to use my fall blocks to create this wall hanging. It finished somewhere under 50 inches square. I used a Valdani hand dyed varigated thread for quilting a maple leaf pattern. The quilting was pretty but my machine was very fussy with this thread...yeah for Sullivan spray. Nickilee is the new owner of this piece.

Purple swap blocks

This is the last of my purple swap blocks from HGTV. Finding fabric for the sashing and border took a lot of shop hopping but I settled on this because I liked the different shades of purple that this fabric had. The sashings and cornerstones are paperpieced. I liked the finished quilt, not perfect quilting but practice makes perfect. Someday I will be there. LOL.

This quilt finished 60 X 75.

This quilt won a third prize ribbon in the Tulare County Fair. I entered hoping for some criticism but there was not any feedback given :(

Machine back

My Ansley is back home. We ended up shipping her back to factory and the motor and a few other parts were replaced. She is unpacked, oiled, and plugged in and my hope is that tomorrow morning I will be able to try her out. There are quite a few wall hangings, table runners, and quilt tops waiting to be quilted.

Here is a top that I hope to quilt soon. The squares are from a swap from QYW Forum that were created in 2008. There are still enough blocks left to create a second top which I hope to finish this year.

New Day

My longarm machine is on its way to the factory as of yesterday. Yeah! Hope it returns home soon all better. I am back to work but in the evening, I am finishing up a pile of UFOs that need binding and finishing touches. Completed this teddy bear quilt, a couple of the blocks were from a swap. I definitely should have made this 4 different quilts as the size is very large, 72 X 72. Glad to have one more completion.

Longarm down

My longarm is being packed as we speak and being returned to the factory to be repaired. My DH has been awesome as he has patiently taken it apart and put it back together several times. I have been unable to quilt for over a week, so I am diligently working on putting together UFO tops. The factory says at least 10 days....I hope I don't go into withdrawls.
My new camera was also, not working well and has been returned, and a new one purchased but... My computer was attacked by maleware for the second time in less than 30 days and I am awaiting it's return from the technician. Wow, definitely not a good electronics month!

Hopefully I will be back to sharing my ufos within the next week or two.

I have been busy quilting ufos. My machine is down for maintenance ( Thank you, honey!) so I am sewing and finishing up the squishy swap from the Quilts Your Way forum, working on handmade items for the All I Want for Chritmas (HGTV), and the Homemade Holiday swap (HGTV).

My latest finish is the squishy swap blocks. I used the Wild Geese Variation from http://www.quilterscache.com/

I just love Marcia's site for block patterns. There are 9 other ladies in this swap and all requested 12.5" blocks except one, who asked for 6.5. I was able to downsize the pattern, however, one of my lines was off on the side and it didn't line up as well as I would have liked. So I made a second block with the remaining fabric, Rolling Stone. I do like the end result.

2009 Sampler

This is a sampler from one of the yahoo groups I belong to. Each month we make two blocks of a specific design and fabric, mail them to a central member, and then two member's names are drawn, and the finished blocks are shared with those two members. I made an extra block each month so I would have the sampler for the year. In 2009, we used two specific fabrics, the beige and navy moda swirls....pretty fabrics that were very fun to work with.

UFO completions

I have been working on a few UFOs. The first was a pattern called "Yours, Mine, and Ours". This was a BOM but of course I modified the general directions. I did not construct the applique blocks nor make all the alternate blocks that the pattern called for. This is my version and the quilt finished at 64 X 51.

About my site picture

The picture at the top of my blog is the signature quilt I made for my uncle's 90th birthday. I had family members sign the white squares in the body of the quilt and guests at his birthday party signed in the white border. The picture in the quilt is a family picture of my grandparents, dad and uncle from the 40's and the inset picture is a current one of my uncle. The label on the back was embroidered by my husband.