Starting the Quilt Along

If you read my previous post, you know I now have 2 projects ready to be assembled and quilted. With friends asking me when I'm gonna teach them to "quilt as you go", it seems the perfect time to start.  So if you'd like to quilt-along, go to the Quilt-Along tab at the top of the page and you can read about the first assignment.  I'm making a charity quilt, yours can be the same, a table topper, a wall hanging or whatever you want.  They're going to be between 30 - 36 " square.  Here are some blocks I might use:


And here's a Mr. Linky so that viewing that eye candy will be easy.  Look forward to seeing yours! Why not post a photo of your fabric or blocks? Look forward to seeing yours!

Design Wall 1/31/11

I have two quilts on my design wall - one is the first quilt we will tie.  You can see it here and the other is my yellow monochromatic challenge.  The rows are now sewn although you can't tell from this picture.  The  rows are ready for me to start quilting it as I assemble it -in other words another quilt as I go. So the next item is to find a backing and a batt square.

Off to the stash.

What's on you design wall?  Click on Patchwork Times on my left sidebar and go see what goodies the others are working on.

In the Garden

It's raining, so I went to clean out our dry wall on the back side of our house for the runoff to drain away and saw these.
My yellow Lady Banks Rose is starting to bloom.  Guess she thinks it's Spring already.  I'll take her prognostication any day over that ground hog.

It's in the low 50s today - a 30 degree difference from last week when it was in the 80s - typical California weather - LOL.  And here is our adenium. It has bloom all winter long.

Stash Report 1/30/11

Made another secret block, so I used about 1/8 of a yard there of scraps.  Assembled a charity quilt to tie and used about a yard of scraps for the top.  Haven't made the back yet.  Found a yard of fabric to donate to the Thrifty Corner at out guild.
So my numbers are:

Used/Donated this week:  2.12 yards

Used/Donated Yr to date: 6.72yards
Added this wk: - 0.0 yards

Total Yr to date Added: -1.25 yards
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Total  Yr to date Used     5.47yards

Hey, I almost doubled my fabric used!

Over at PatchworkTimes, Judy has posted what she and others have used this week.  Check it out.

First Quilt to Tie

I dug in my stash and found a cowboy print and have put it together for the first quilt St Ann's Sewdality will tie.  It will measure 36" square.  I've got the rows done and guess it will go up on my wall til I can get back to it.  Must think of a backing. I'd like to find something that we could just bring to the front and bind it that way.

Do you think a toddler would like this?  The pregnancy center takes things for up to three years of age.

Look what my neighbor gave me!

He was going through some drawers and found this quilt top and wondered if I wanted it.  It is hand quilted.  Enlarge the pic and tell me if you think this is 1940s fabric.  And is the block a dresden block?

I'm so excited - don't know what I'll do with it as it is 42 blocks or around 80 x 106 total.  It's just a tad narrow for my queen size, but I don't know how I'd quilt it.  Would love to have comments on this.

Design Wall Monday 1/24

Well I was going sale tax crazy, so I just dropped it all and stole 30 minutes to finish a square off of my design wall.  It's 8 1/2" by 10 1/2" .  Is it too big to call a mug rug?  If so, what should I call it - a micro quilt.
In QOR - guess I would call it a quiltlet.  But for now I'm calling it Under the Stone Pine.
The little house block was sent to me by Beth Shibley of LoveLaughQuilt  .  She hosted a house block swap so some lucky quilters could build their own friendly neighborhood.  There were three winners.  Some gorgeous blocks were turned in.  If you visit Beth's blog, look for the little house on her right sidebar and you can go see all the cute little houses.   To see what other's have on their design wall, click on the button for Judy's Patchwork Times on the left sidebar.

Stash Report 1/23/11

Nothing in.  I went through an old box in one closet and found a bunch of scraps that are going, so a 1/2yd out as a donation.

So my numbers are:

Used/Donated this week: .5 yards


Used/Donated Yr to date: 4.6yards

Added this wk: - 0.0 yards

Total Yr to date added: -1.25 yards

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Total Used Yr to date 2.35yards

Back to taxes,
Angie

Here's some Eye Candy

This is my progress report for last thursday - zilch!  And that's was because I was SUPPOSE to be doing the end of year report for my volunteer group and my taxes, but actually I played hookey and went to Road to California - the largest quilt show in southern California.  It's this weekend, ends tomorrow and is in Ontario, California at their convention center. Here the Best of Art Quilts - I loved it!


Here is the Best of Show - it was spectacular also - I love these landscape quilts - so much I wonder why I haven't made one.  It could be that I'm terrified of the process.



Here's is the one we came to see.  My friend, Sandy, want to see her husband's best friend's daughter's entry to R2CA.  Another beautiful quilt.  I love her use of orange for the background
 This one Sandy I picked as the Viewer's Choice - I'm not sure you can see it but the table and vase seemed to come out of the picture in a three dimensional way.
This lady is a true artist!
And here are three I would love to make someday - all stunners as far as I'm concerned.  If you're in SO CA off to the quilt show with you.  And yes, I was good, I didn't buy a thing.
A beautiful Beth Ferrier patten quilt!



Do you see a pattern in these?

It's a Giveaway!

Go to  Lila Tueller Designs    for a chance to win these luscious fabrics:

The First WalMart - or so they called it:

Looking southwest from the front door
The Key's Ranch in Joshua Tree is a success story of an early pioneer of that area.  In front of the house, they had what the ranger called the First Walmart of the area.  William Keys was a rancher and miner and all around entrepreneur.  In his front yard, he had a little bit of everything a miner or rancher might need to get it rich quick.  
 Keys was the closest thing to a store in the area.  People would buy from him and go off to their holding. And Keys kept an eye on them.  For once they gave up and left, he would go to their place and pick up all the things they abandoned and replenish his inventory - thus selling the stuff over and over (not that Walmart does that -LOL). 
His wife got into the act by setting up a gift shop - but her sales were final - she sold soap, knic-knacks, snacks - not something you could recover.  Here's her store:

Stash Report/Design Wall Monday 1/16-17

I was gone this weekend, so I'm combining posts this time.  I finished my secret block and changed out the 4 " squares on my 4 inchers on my yellow monochromatic challenge and used about 1/10 yd, so

So: Used/Donated this week: .10 yards

Used/Donated Yr to date: 4.1yards
Added this wk: - 0.0 yards
Total Yr to date added: -1.25 yards
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Total Used Yr to date 2.85yards

Hope to do better this week.

And now for design wall - it's still the same with the blocks although they are now the right size.  I removed the 4" blocks and put 4 1/4" blocks and resewed them and now they are 8" like the rest.  Hopefully I will have time to work on them, but I'm not optimistic as I have a treasurer's report and taxes to work on.

What's on you Design Wall?

My Holiday Blog Post 1/15-17

Back from our desert sojourn.  Our friends have a house in Rancho Mirage and they invited 5 of us to come out for the 3 day weekend and enjoy the desert.  Every time we go they plan something different for us to do.  This time we went to the homes/legacy of two prominent pioneers of this area - William Keys and Cabot Yerxa .  They were colorful characters and it was very interesting learning about them.   Here is a saguaro cactus we took a picture of during our trip.  As we had a late start on Saturday, we drove through Morongo Valley and Yucca Valley to get to the Joshua Tree National Park Visitor's Center and on the way we passed this wonderful saguaro speciment!  It's right there in the middle of town. These take years and years to get this size, so we were thrilled to see them.  At Cabot's museum we found some more.  These are even taller.  Some day I'd like to go to the Saguaro National Park in Southern Arizona where there are many, many of these.  They have these beautiful white blossoms.

This n That #1

We're leaving tomorrow for a 3 day visit to Palm Springs, so not much quilting is getting done.  I did hem a curtain for my DDIL in CO so she can try out how they hang and what length she wants them (got it off in the mail, too), finished my secret block (more on that later) and  unstitched my 4 inchers to replace the large block.  So I'm leaving you with a photo or two:

 Here's Alan at 2 months.  Last weigh - in said 7.9 pounds so he's right up there where he should be if he had been born Dec 20th instead of Nov. 11th. He's so precious!
Then here's a scrappy quilt tip - when I'm making a scrappy quilt I use left over thread and partly filled bobbins to sew them together.  If the quilt is most one color - I'll try to use color in that family, but for truly scrappy quilts, it's whatever partial thread is on hand for blocks making AND quilting.

First UFO Done

I'm ready to start on another ufo for the UFO challenge.  Yes, ufo #6 is done and will be gifted to Riverside Life Services.  I may not be so lucky next month as this one only needed quilting and binding to be finished, and it was 36"square.  My guardian angel was visiting MO when Vince pulled #6 from the bag to keep me enthused by not having to work on a bigger challenge on the first month.

I found this block in a picture in a Connecting Threads catalog.  I was intrigued enough with it that I sat down and figured out how to put it together.  Wish I had jotted down the name of the book it was in.  Whoever you were, thanks for this design.

I took large scraps from my stash and made the backing, so maybe I should consider this a 2 sided quilt.  I like how the quilting shows up on both sides too.

Free Book Drawing

was done tonight and the lucky receipients will be getting their email tomorrow (or tonight if you are night owls).  So look for Free Books at A Quilting Reader's Garden email (or similar).  I'm sorry I can't send everyone a book or email as we had a lot of players - some followers sent private emails, but thanks go out to all who responded.

I may have some more books later as I continue to destash.

Quilty Hugs,
Angie

Design Wall Monday 1/10

Still working on my yellow monochromatic challenge.  Here are the 4 inchers sewn together.  Now I have to get batting and backing ready so I can start assembly.
Limited quilting time this week - have lots to do with DGKs, but that's life.  If I get my 15 a day in, I'll be happy.

What's on your design wall?  Go over the Judy's Patchworktimes to see what others are doing.(on left sidebar)

Stash Report 1/9

Going through my stash and I've donated 2 yards of pieces to our Thrifty Quilting Corner at my Guild.  They resell quilting and sewing items with monies going to fill our Happy Bag for Cancer patients.  I used a 1/4 yd for binding for UFO #6 (yeah, it's done!) and pulled 1/4 yd of fabric for a block I am going to play with.

So:  Used/Donated this week:       2.5 yards


Used/Donated Yr to date:             4.0 yards

I bought one yard at LQS friday - actually I only needed a 1/2 yd for my block project, but they wouldn't let me pay with a credit card for a $4.96 purchase, so I had to buy another half yard to make the sale reach the CC minimum.  Talk about poor customer service.  I'd go elsewhere, but it's the only quilt shop in town.

Added this wk:                         - 1.0 yards

Total Yr to date added:            -1.25 yards

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Total Used Yr to date               2.75yards

Progress Report: Greening of the Batt

I've designed and gotten the blocks for the yellow monochromatic challenge assembled.

I've quilted and made the binding for UFO # 6 - and hope by monday to have that done.  To get there I had to come up with batting for the 36" quilt and I did it by salvaging(aka as greening, lol) some batting from my batt bag.  I'll never understand why batting companies can't come up with more usable sizes of batting than what they sell(52 x 64 would be my preferred size - what's yours?), but then I guess it would be too hard to come up with all the sizes we need.  So I usually have strips of batting left over which I save.  I'm sure you must too cuz we're always saving scraps of fabric, aren't we?

So I went through the bag and pulled out batt strips of the same kind of batting and laid them out on the floor.  I had 3 strips and one small square of fabric which when laid out gave me a 38" overall square.  Taking these to my cutting table I added the square to one strip to make it long enough.  I learned this method from Marti Michell in her book:  Machine Quilting in Sections  It's a great book. So first I overlapped the two sections I wanted to join, and with my rotary cutter cut a wavy line in the center of the overlap.

Here's what they look like separated. 
Throw away the bits left over from the cut overlap and fit the two piece together again.

Now I take a strip of fusible interfacing and lay it over the cut.
Here I'm showing you the piece longer than the batting but that is just to show the interfacing.  When I iron it on, the top edge meets the top edge of the batting and the bottom edge is trimmed to the bottom edge, and one can hardly see it.  Now I have a piece long enough to use for my 38" batting square.  I attached the strips to the larger rectangle in the same way, and I had my batting for my ufo sandwich.
I know others just line up the two sections and zigzag them together, but the edges are never straight enough and I got bumps here and there and with hi loft batting the zigzag stitch tended to flatten the batting at the seam.  This way one can't even tell where the joints are. 

Design Wall 1/3/11 - Yellow Monochromatic Challenge

On my design wall is my Yellow Monochromatic Challenge.  I just pulled yellows and cut blocks rapidly and this is what I got: 
I liked the blue one posted elsewhere so much I went with the same design except mine is going to be raw edge applique as I quilt as I go.  Will measure 30" square and will go to our NICU center.   Taking a picture sure shows how colors differ from what the eye sees.  The print in the bottom left corner looks yellow to me as that is the background, but in the picture most of what you see is the little blue butterflies.  What do you think?

First Stash Report for 2011

Well, I worked on the monochromatic challenge and guesstimate I used about 1.5 yards of yellow from my stash and bought a fat quarter from Jo Anns, so:

Used/Donated this week:         1.5 yards
Used/Donated Yr to date:        1.5 yards

Added this wk:                      -  .25 yards
Total Yr to date added:          -  .25 yards
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Total Used Yr to date              1.25 yards

Did I do that right?

LOL
Happy New Year,
AngieN
ps:  I have almost free books (cost of postage only) over at my blog as part of my stash if your interested.
http://quiltingreadersgarden.blogspot.com/

Free Quilt Books

Okay, we're in 2011 now.  All festivities are over now (well, DGS Frank's birthday is next week, but I'm just sending a present), so I can get back to my room organization.

You might remember I needed to get rid of some books.  Did do away with 7 of them, so have 13 left.  Here's an example:   

On my home page you will find a tab for Free Books.  Because I want these out of here, these are free for the cost of postage.  The postage is for USPS Media Mail of $3.25.  That will cover the postage and the envelope to send it to you.  I thought at first doing these first come, first serve - but some quilters don't check their emails as often as others.  Therefore, please comment stating the you'd like to have.  If you use Anonymous please be sure to add your email in this format:  janedoe(at)server(dot)come.  

 Next Sunday, Jan 9th, I'll take all the ones who want a particular book and draw a name randomly and that will be the one I'll ask to send me a check and their snail mail address.  If you would like more than one, your name will be entered into that drawing also.  So some may wind up with more than one book.  I'll quote you postage if that happens.

And to up your chances, any one who follows me or signs up to follow will have their name entered twice to get a book.  Okay, go check out the books and comment.  The free books are now up for grabs!

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...