Happy Halloween!

I'm not much of a Halloween person, but I do like to see the various costumes people come up with, especially for the DGKs.  What do you think of Leo the Lobster?  Looks like he's not so sure about this pot thing - LOL

Of course I think he's darling with dad, DS Stephen - both in CO.


My entry in the Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy is at it again and providing us with the largest display of quilts on the Net and prizes too!  Above is my entry. I call it Bullseye Blossoms.  I took part in an online swap of bullseye blocks.  These are pieced with raw edges.  In making the bullseye, I had a lot of circles left over from cutting out the backs of the blocks. I saved these wondering what I would do with them.  When my blocks came back from the swap and I laid them out I realized I wanted a bigger quilt.  So I pulled out those circles and drew a flowering template and cut our the blossoms you see on the center.  The entire quilt is scrappy except for the borders which came from my stash.  I quilted it as a Quilt as You Go and really like how it turned out.

To see more quilts or enter your own, go to Amy's website to join the Blogger's Quilt Festival or just see some beautiful quilts!

Progress Not

Well, it's a good thing I made myself that progress button or else I'd never have gotten the 15 minutes of quilt time in this week so far.  It's been one of those weeks.  A way too busy Monday, an all day trip on tuesday and a recovery day on wednesday plus a William day, a two board meeting day Thursday with one presentation  plus a grandmother of all headaches ( I think it's sinus related) - so I made myself between meetings sew for 15 minutes.  Didn't even get to post this thrusday. 

Life!
Hope yours is going smoother and mellower.  Off to take a tylenol and lay down for a few minutes.
Angie

Design Wall Monday 10/25

Well, like others, I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but some progress was made.  In fact, to challenge myself (as if the Design Wall Monday wasn't enough), I put a button on my side bar to remind me that I had to show some progress by Thursdays.  So if you ever want to see what progress - if any- I've made in the week, just click on it and it will take you to the Thursday post.  Moving on to my wall - I almost got the second row of blocks finished - just need to quilt the third block and do the sashing and I can attach it to the finished first row.  Here I've placed them on my design wall - also known as cutting table - sort of how they'll look when attached by the sashing.
Have 2 more rows to go for the center and then will begin adding borders.

And here is a shot of my latest shop hop blocks - one is done and one isn't even started! LOL.
And to see other design wall, click on the Patchwork Times button on the right to see all the other design wall postings at Judy's blog.  Enjoy!!


Spot of sunshine and crumb block tip.

Have I told you it's been overcast here? Yesterday we had a break in the weather for about 10 minutes and the sun shone.  Here is what I saw out my kitchen window - one of the few spots I still have some color in the garden.  See that tiny black cloud in the sky?  Within five minutes another storm front had moved in.  It got gloomy again but no rain.  Same weather today.  On the quilting front, I made a crumb block for a demo on another list.  One thing I forgot to say in that post is that I use any bobbin partly filled with thread and any thread left over from projects when I'm making these guys.  You could say I use up my "scrap thread" that way - LOL.

Progress Report

To keep me going, here is a progress report for this week.  I've sandwiched and quilted that first row of three blocks on DD's ufo.  It is here on the right: 
I like this method of QAYG since it lets me quilt right up to the edge.  These are mostly done with stitch in the ditch quilting except for the first one.   And here is how it looks on the back.  I'm so glad that my DD picked a busy print for the back - makes my advanced beginner quilting mistakes disappear.   I always fret over what pattern to use for the quilting  - would love some suggestions for sampler quilts.  I've also started sashing the next row of three which you can see in the first picture.  Now I have to go do a mission or two, and then I'll let myself quilt a little more today in what is turning out to be a dreary looking day.  It's not giving us much rain, but it is cutting the fire hazard in the local mountains and for that I am grateful.

 

Design Wall 10/18

Here's my Design Wall this monday.  The three block strip with sashing in between is an ufo, but not my ufo. It's my daughter's. So when I finish it does it go on my ufo done list??? - LOL.  She is cleaning out her craft room to make it into a nursery for the little guy coming and found this bag, and she asked me to finish it.  What could I say to my 7 1/2 month preggie gal but yes.  It will be interesting to see how it shapes up.  This three block section is now ready to be quilted.  Yes, I am going to make it as a QAYG.  Below it is a couple of additional blocks for the shop hop quilt plus the reconstructed block to make it look less of a tree in the water - now maybe it looks like a tree with either the wind or a lake behind it.  Comments?  Here is a close-up:
You can see other design wall's at Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times.  Look for the cute button on my side bar.

Itching to be

gardening!  This is the time when not much is blooming.  And with no rain, much of the ground is brown with dead stalks and weeds.  I'm itching to get out there and start preparing the soil for winter planting.  First I'd like to prepare an area for sweet peas.  DH has resurrected our tomato plants even though we still have fruit on the old ones.  Here is our latest crop from Monday and today I picked 4 more.  Of course the twelve from monday are gone.  These are grape Romas and are they tasty!

And here is my rescued Log Cabin

Before the sun set I was determined to take pictures.  Alas it will be in the mail tomorrow.  I forgot I had a 4 hour stint scheduled at the library this morning. This was an interesting project.  Once I got the blocks separated (sorry I forgot to take a before picture), I knew I had my work cut out for me.  But I so liked these chocolate, tan and red blocks.  I'm thinking this may have been made in the 80s - I don't really know - could have been China for all I know - LOL.  Upon examining them, I almost decided to get rid of them, they were so different.  But on second thought, I decided to put them back together as a quilt as you go with sashing.  I kept the worst 2 for parts and decided on a 9 square quilt center.  The previous version (which also was a quilt as you go) had no sashing.  But to some I would have to add the last round, piece batting and back.  Above is one such block.  Phew!  that took some doing - I must have repaired 5 of them - and some I had to take apart to redo the 1/4" seams.  Actually went faster than I expected.  So here you have the front: 
It turned out about 40" square.  There was nothing I liked in my stash that I could use for borders, so I did buy a yard.  It had to be flannel because that was the only fabric that had the color I needed for this quilt.  It looks darker than it really is.  It's more of a
chocolate color.  And this is the back:
I've got about a third of the sleeve sewn down.  This is going to be a wall hanging unless it's used as a table topper.  Lastly, here's a close up of the border and the quilting and you can see the true color:     




And the winner is

according to the Random.org number generator,
sallylynnsara@hotmail.com who said,

"These miniature quilts are too cute! These would make great Barbie quilts."

Send me an email Sally so I can send you your quilts.

Congrats,
Angie

Design Wall Monday 10/11

This is all that is left on my design wall.  I didn't meet my goal of 10/7, but it will go out today.  I'm tacking down the sleeve and then I'll pack it up for shipment.  Photos for sure before I mail it.  Life just got in the way last week and so it wasn't there on time, but sometimes late is nice too --extends the event. My goal is posting the quilt later today.  And here is the primary reason I didn't get to do this yesterday:
Now who could do anything but play with our princess?  Lily was over for the day and we had a great time.  She will be 6 months on saturday. Isn't she precious!

Fall Giveaway

Hi, I'm giving away two miniature quilts.  One on left measures 8" x 10 1/2" and the other on right is 9 1/2" x 10 3/4".  These are yours for following me and leaving a comment to that effect.  Please leave your email in your comment  - here's a sample - lvbfan(at)gmail(dot)com  These would make great doll quilts.  They are machine pieced and hand quilted, and hand bound.

The back shows the hand quilting.  You can comment or follow til Monday, October 10th.  I'll pick a winner on Tuesday, the 11th.  Good luck!


Design Wall Monday 10/4

Here it is monday again, and I had to clear my design wall of everything and start on a quilt I have to have done by 10/8!  Here's what I have to work with-- bought a bag of material at a yard sale and there was a remnant of a quilt in it made from these blocks.  Looked like the quilt was mangled by something or torn by a dog - so was able to salvage 11 blocks from it and they were pretty rough.






They were put together as quilt as you go blocks, but very oddly.  Some were cut to remove bulk at the seams (sigh).  They look like they started out as 10 1/2" blocks  maybe.  Well, off to work on them as I want to get done by 10/7 so I can ship off to a birthday girl.  Wish me luck!

PS:  Since I bought this bag 2 years ago this will be UFO #16?? Will have to go bakc and check.

SAHRR Round 5 and 6

  Ready to show rounds 5 and 6. Actually, the prompt for 5 was make 4 of something. So I chose four patch, and actually since that made my q...