Design Wall Monday 5/30/11

Yesterday, I finished the fourth charity quilt, but I'll talk about that tomorrow for Fabric Tuesday.  I was going to pull out my ufo I'm suppose to finish, then decided I really had to clean up my cutting/design wall area before it toppled over.  Well, got that done and wound up with a pile of scraps I found at the left side of the table. I should have taken a picture of it - it was so bad - but here it is CLEAN.  I may print out this photo to remind myself this can happen - LOL.  So once I'd folded and put away the fabric pieces - darn, the stash doesn't look so lean any more - I found myself with this pile of scraps.  Got out my ruler and before I knew it, I had piles of 2" , 2 1/2", 3", 3 1/2" 4 and 5" pieces.  Put those away and all I had left were the odd ones out.  I then decided to make them into crumb blocks instead of stuffing them in the scrap box. Came out with 16 crumb blocks ala Bonnie Hunter.                                                            
I'm happy to report this is all I have left - not enough to make a block - yeah!  I don't mind adding these to the scrap heap.
Go on over to Judy's Patchwork Times - her button is on the left sidebar and see what others are doing.

Thank you


For those not with us - we mourn your passing and honor all you've done for us.

For those who presently serve where ever it may be:  God bless and keep you and return you safely to your loved ones.

We remember.

Stash Report 5/29/11

Have some numbers for this week.  I used a yard each for the backs of 3 charity quilts.  Also used about another yard in making my Soldiers' Angels blocks, so that's a total of 4 yards!  Wow, it's great when you need to do backs.
Here are my numbers:
Used this week: 4 yards
Used/Donated Yr to date: 37.20 yards
Added this wk: 0.0 yards
Total Yr to date Added: -3.5 yards
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Total Yr to date Use:  33.7 yards

Working on the Fourth of Four

Hoped to be farther along on this fourth charity quilt, but had to stop and find a back.  When that didn't happen, knew I'd have to create a back.  Found the rectangle of Asian fabric and a 1/2 yard that seemed to go with it and created the back.  Had to keep adding to make it big enough.  Now that I look at it in the photo (and photos are great for checking how things will look) I've decided the pink is too bright, but I'm not taking it out.  Good news is that this was all from my stash.

Third of the Four

I was going to take this to St. Ann's so another member could finish it by adding the binding. Then I thought "what the heck" after finishing quilting it, and added the binding. I've decided to call this Aegean Travels because the string blocks remind me of the mosaics, tiles and colors of Greece. And when you go there you see there are a lot of sail boats everywhere. I don't know what's up with this photo. It's much richer looking in person. Go here to see a better picture. It was going to be a baby quilt, however, St. Ann's is going to give some smaller lap quilts to seniors in a convalescent facility and they need wheelchair quilts. Thus I made the back more masculine than I first planned. Here it is below.

Thursday Progress 5/26/11

Half way done with my Soldiers' Angels' blocks.  Six to go.  These are going together pretty easily.

Two of Four or Part 2 of W.I.P Wednesday

My second charity quilt top is finished.  This is all I am going to do on this one at this time.  It's going to my St. Ann's Sewdality group to be assembled by the other ladies.  That way it will be a group effort.  I'll get it back to do the red binding.  I'm liking it.

Head on over to WIP Wednesday and see what others are creating.

One of Four:

This is one of four charity quilts I'm working on to turn in next month. This one is a group effort. I had the green and multi-vege print 7" square and made these hour glass blocks from them (that's not the name, but I can't think of it - can you?). So then I kept going through my stash and found the other squares and went ahead and put it together. Two ladies at St. Ann's Sewdality - that's our church group of needleworkers - sandwiched it and tied it. Then it came back to me and I put on the binding. It's 34" square. Do you think that is big enough for someone in a wheelchair? The back is one piece of fabric - a little babyish, but I think it will work - hey this may go to a child in a wheelchair. We haven't decided yet.


One done - three to go, but it shouldn't take long as they are at various stages of construction. Oh, it feels so good to be painfree from that kidney stone! Go on over to Fabric Tuesday on my sidebar and see what others are up to.

Design Wall Monday 5/23/11

Need to make a patriotic quilt top for the guild.  Due in June.  I was playing with the block all morning trying to use what's in my stash.  So far I have one block - LOL.

The centers will be different as I am using up patriotic scraps I bought at the thrify quilter's corner at a guild meeting.  These blocks come out 10 1/2 " square.  Hope to make the top 50 x 60 with one border.  Glad now I have EQ4 - it may not be the latest, but still does what I want  - that is the yardage and what the quilt will look like.  What do you think?

Go to my left sidebar and click on Judy's Patchwork Times to see what others are up to.  That is always so much fun.

Morning Chorus

Most mornings I arise between 5:30 and 6:00 am.  And this is what greets me:
I call this my Morning Halleluiah chorus.  They spend about a half hour singing praises and then go on about their daily chore of finding food.  It's a great way to wake up.  It would be interesting to know how many different bird voices are included in this masterpiece.

Stash Report 5/22/11

I'm working on 4 charity quilts and some blocks for the guild BOM program and they're using up fabric!
Here are my numbers:

Used/Donated & Cut this week: 4.33 yards
Used/Donated Yr to date: 33.20 yards
Added this wk: 0.0 yards
Total Yr to date Added: -3.5 yards
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Total Yr to date Use: 30.15 yards

Hey!  That number is getting better.  Went from 20 to 30 in a lot less time than the first 10.

Go over to Judy's post at Patchwork Times and see how others are doing.

Get Ready for Summer Giveaway

Hi, I'm giving away a duplicate Teri Christopherson book I have.  It's called Seaside Cottage.  Has some great summer quilts in it.  I just love her use of piecing and applique.  You have two ways to win:  1. become a follower and leave me a message saying so, and 2. leave a comment of where you spend your summers. You can do this below. Ends May 30th at 11:59pm.  Good luck!

From the Garden

My husband grows cacti for their unusualness, their beauty, their difficulty to grow, their uniqueness.  One of their bountiful qualities is the beauty of their flowers.  I was watering the patio plants and spied this one in full bloom from a distance in his shade area.  Here it is in the full sun.  It is so bright that the color looks a little washed out.
Here it is with me shading it.  You can see the color better and the wonderful centers.  Bees love this cactus.


Design Wall Monday 5/16th

I have something new on my design wall and I can report that I've cut up a half yard of fabrics already for this week.  Here are my 4 patches that I'll probably use in a charity quilt.

First Communion Saturday

Will made his First Communion May 7th.  He was so excited to do this.  He's been working 3 years to get to this point.  And it was a great day.  There were 55 children receiving the sacrament.  And four other masses with the same number of children.  It's a large parish.

The children made a banner at their retreat.  Yes, a retreat.  I don't remember doing that, but they enjoyed it - videos, prayers, songs, making banners - they had a nice 6 hour get together.



Next is the family waiting to watch the big event. With so many children, of course the church was packed.



The big event has begun.  The boys came first and they whizzed by looking like ghosts down the aisle.  William wore a blue shirt and yellow tie.

The girls came next of course much more sedate.  They all looked so nice in their finery.
It was over before we knew it.  Pictures are not allowed during Mass so here's Will afterwards when Father asked them all up to the altar.
 
And then we could take photos!
Here's Megan and William.  Megan is a long time friend.  Her mother is Em's best friend from high school.  They have grown up together.  Then Christie, Megan's mom, had us over for a reception/lunch afterwards.  A very pleasant day. 


And our Princess

We had a party for Stephen to celebrate his 37th birthday.  And it was an opportunity to take photos of all the grandkids.  Here's our princess sitting on my lap and Mom holding Leo:

And the kids and their kids!

Each one is holding their delight. Frank in the middle is Frank's holding Lily and Will on far right is Em's.

Cowboy Leo

Son Stephen, Amanda and Leo came and have gone.  It was so good to have them here.  Leo was such fun.  He is 20 months and right there between baby and toddler stage.   Talks up a storm, eats hardy and is so adorable.  He has the bluest eyes!

Cherub is 5 months!

Alan is 5 months - I can't believe how much he's changed.  Every day he does something new, stay upright longer, rock on the pillow, stand longer, eat solid food- babies are so wonderful to watch and this grandma is having so much fun.

Stash Report 5/15/11

It's a great relief to have all the to do list done - visitors from CO - it was great having you! - siggie quilt presented - class completed (boo hoo - it was so good), first communion attended.   I don't have any deadlines at the moment and it feels wonderful!  Just have 4 months of ufos to catch up on and a monochromatic quilt to finish - LOL, but none of these are deadlines, just goals.  I hope to get some quilty time in now everyday.  How about you?

And for my stash report, here are my numbers:
Used/Donated & Cut this week: 2.5 yards
Used/Donated Yr to date: 28.87 ards
Added this wk: 0.0 yards
Total Yr to date Added: -3.5 yards
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Total Yr to date Use: 25.37 yards

Go over to Judy's post at Patchwork Times and see how others are doing.

Blogger's Quilt Festival is here!

This is the most wonderful eye candy that comes to us semi-annually from Amy.  I guarantee you will see a lot of great quilts to admire and inspire.  And there's a bunch of yummy giveaways too!

Here's my entry:  Rescued Log
   I went to a yard sale close by and found they were selling a bag of fabric for $10.  It was a large bag.  In there with all the yardage was this partial quilt that looked like it had been cut up  for use as something else.  Two sides had jagged edges.  I loved the colors so I bought the whole bag.  I took the quilt apart and had about 13 blocks.  I used four of them to repair 4 others that needed bringing up to size.  They were already quilted, so I decided to put them back together as a Quilt as you Go quilt.  My daughter-in-law in Colorado had admired the blocks and when it was done, I sent it to her for her birthday.  She is very happy with it.  And I'm happy I was able to salvage someone's log cabin.

See all the other quilts at Amy's Creative Side post for her Blogger Quilt Festival.  You'll be glad you did!

Last Block and our Winner

Here is the last block - Say Cheese by Joni Pike of Sew Special Designs.  I've already had a request from my Mom that she wants a mug rug out of the block. 

And our winner of the issue of Quiltmaker's 100 blocks, v. 3 is once using Random Number Generator is Lisa T.  Congratulations, Lisa.

If I don't hear from Lisa, I'll pick another winner.

Thanks to all who looked at my blocks and left comments.

Design Wall Monday 5/9/11 -Siggie Done

Baby Alan has been very cooperative and wanted two long naps during the day, so I've made a lot of progress on the signature quilt due Saturday, May 14th.  I just have to finish the binding, bury the threads, and it is done.  I called it "God calls and His people hear in the books of Old". 


Why such an odd title?  This quilt is a thank you gift from the 60 students to our professor for an extension class entitled:  Introduction to the Old Testament.  It has been an excellent, excellent class.  We were very fortunate to have one of the nation's acknowledged eminent scholars of the Old Testament teach the class, Daniel Smith-Christopher (he has a wiki page!).  He has taught at LMU for 21 years.

I designed the quilt on EQ using the Jacob's Ladder block and a Roman Stripe block.  I needed lots of places for my fellow students to sign their names and their favorite Old Testament book.  The writing in the middle is Hebrew for Yahweh.  I quilted it in sections - a modified QAYG method that I will talk about in another post and will probably do again.  It's 51" square.  Do you think he'll like it?

Three Easy Secret Blocks

These were fun and went together easy - I may make quilts from these as they have fewer pieces per block -lol.  Block #7 is called " Chained star" by Sandy Harris of Sundrop Designs.  It would be great for fabric photos, focus fabric, etc.

Block #8 is called "Garden Spot" by Sherri Driver, associated editor of McCalls Quilting. 

Block #9 is another pieced block called "Kansas Fortune" by Deborah Johnson of In the Doghouse Designs. 
Again all of these were easy.  In my next post, I'll show #10 and announce the winner of the giveway.
Happy Mother's Day to all mothers reading this!

Block 6 Sort of, LOL

Here is secret block 6 - Star of Glory by Patty Clayton:
I'm sure you can guess that this was a paper pieced block.  And I say sort of because there are a total of 76 little pieces of fabric in the block, and in the short time line I had, I only could make 1 unit.  With the wonders of computer manipulation, here is what it will look like when the other 3 are done - LOL.  I can see this block in a quilt with lots of star blocks.

Giveaway still on - go to the May 2nd post and you'll see all the details on how to win an issue of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, v. 3.

Block 5 of the Secret Blocks

Here's my 5th block I made from the Quiltmaker v.3 issue:
This one is posted on Quiltmaker's blog tour today.  You can head over there here  to see the designer's version and others.  You don't want to miss going there because they will have a giant giveaway at the end of the blog tour and you might win some fabulous prizes!  This is Magic Squares, #285, by Konda Luckau from Moose on the Porch Quilts.  The issue has blocks done in many techniques from piecing to applique to paper piecing at all levels.

If you'd like to win an issue, comment, follow or both to get chances to be the winner.  You can also go back to my previous posts and leave a comment there to increase your chances. 

Good luck!

Block 4 of the Secret Blocks

This was my favorite of the ones I made. It's called Wedding Cake and is #237. It was designed by Melissa Harris and Arlene Stamper of The Quilt Company. I so love chocolate, so I named my block "Anniversary Cake" because I think of it as richer than a wedding cake. I may make this into a wall hanging for our next anniversary in November. It will be our 43rd.


Leave a comment, follow or both to be in the drawing for the issue of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, v. 3. You can leave a comment on each day I reveal a block and be entered, so you'll have several chances. Ends May 7th at 8AM.

It was fun making this cake!

A Couple more Secret Blocks

Here are a couple more secret blocks I made.  They were challenging, but I'm so glad I made them.  Applique and paper-piecing were practiced. 
This went together fast with machine applique and Zena Thorpe's method of using a cut out of the pattern for placing.  Thinking it will make a great pillow.  This is #207 - Pretty Bird by Marian Mapes
And then there is:
Annabelle Rae by Mickey Charleston, # 231.  I think this would make a wonderful medallion flower with 4 of them sewn together as a 24" square.

I'm giving away a collector's edition of  v. 3.  Just leave a comment,  follow, or both to have 2 chances to win the issue.  Closes May 7th at 8 AM.



Here's one of the 100 Blocks and a Giveaway.

I had fun making the blocks sent to me to test.  Each time I got one, I wondered what technique I'd be using.
They were all interesting and some easier than others.  Here's one:
this is Cindy Simms' "Around the Square".  I made mine in red, white and blue prints.  It went together smoothly.  And it is block #296 on page 73 of the v.3 issue.

If you'd like to see it (and the other 99)in your very own issue, leave a comment and perhaps I'll draw your number in my giveaway of this collector's edition.







There are 2 ways you can win:
1.  Leave a comment comparing my version and Cindy's version which you can see here .  It's the first block featured as you scroll down the post.  And while you're there you can enter Quiltmaker's giveaway for lots of other prizes too!
2.  Become a follower and let me know you are following.  If you are already a follower, remind me and you'll have a second chance too.

That's it!  Hope you win this great issue.  I will use the random number generator to draw a winner so be sure to leave me your contact info if you use anonymous to play.  Drawing will be May 9th at 9AM PDT.

Quilt Along is Done

At last my quilt along is done for the QAYG method that has a solid back and wrap around binding.  If you'd like to read about the process, click on the Quilt-Along tab on the home page.  I didn't mean to take so long on this, but March and April proved time draining in other areas and quilting had to be set on a back burner for awhile.  I've buried the threads and gifted this to my cute DGD, Lily who was 1 year old on April 16th - the date of her first party.  Here she is - isn't she a cutie?

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...