Design Wall Monday 3/18/13

I'm babysitting tomorrow -all day, so I'm posting this early.  Up on my design wall is the next row of the BOM quilt waiting to be attached to the QAYG sandwich - no joining strips on this one and a solid backing. Here's what I did Sunday:

I took the sandwich part to the machine.  Here it is as I got ready to start earlier today.  As you can see I don't have a lot of quilt around the machine.  It's amazing how less there is to push around with only have of the batting in the way.  I decided to echo quilt a few times around the cross and quilt cloud shapes in the sky.  Since our Mt. Robidoux is rocky, I made large pebbles on the mountain.

Here you see that finished block and the next one I have to work on.  I decided to make wavy lines on the sky to denote wind and straight lines with an occasional plant in the beige areas to represent our semi-desert terrain around Riverside.  The diagonal element is the Gage canal that runs through the region and brought water to the Riverside orange groves.  Last to do is the Navel orange - first grown in Riverside.

What's on your design wall?  Go on over to Judy's Patchwork Times and Lyn's BOMs Away and see what others are working on. 

Stash Report 3/17/13

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I have a good number to report.  I used 5 yards for the back of my BOM quilt - 150% more than the average I need per week to meet my goal at year's end.  Here are my numbers: 

This week:  in 0.0 yds.; out   5.00 yds.

Stash YTD: in 3.0 yds., out 23.63 yds.
Donated this week: 0.0 yds; YTD: 8.09 yds
Net for 2013: out 20.63 yds.

I'm moving along! 

And now what I got done yesterday.   You saw the back I made on the last post.  Here is the start of my QAYG for this quilt:

 First, I measured and calculated how big my batting had to be based on the back I had just made. To lessen the bulk of this quilt so I can more easily quilt it, I cut the batting in half horizontally.  Then I laid down the back which I had ironed and smoothed the top half of the batting on the top half of the back. I then pin basted the back and batting to the carpet so that it would be smooth.  Next I finger pressed the center of the first row that has the first sashing row attached to it. I then placed it on the center mark of the batting making sure it was the 10" all across the top to allow for the borders I will add later(plus 2" extra of batting and back). I then pin basted the row to the sandwich.  Here it is all basted with the back showing at the bottom.  Ready to quilt!

 

Future March Finish

My March finish for A Lovely Year of Finishes will be my Memories of Riverside quilt. All the blocks are made. So I have to get busy on it.  To the left is just one of the 12 blocks.

Have you picked one UFO for a finish?  I like that I only have to finish one goal each month - doesn't even have to be a complete quilt - just whatever I decide to keep me moving forward. That way if life gets in the way and I can't finish all three at Judy's blog, I at least have one done.  Click on the button to go see the one project others are going to do.

Applique Thursday Early

This week is so full of things I have to do that I'm calling the block below my applique for Thursday.  And it does have applique - the palm trees are appliqued.  The trunks are sewn down and the palm fronds are raw edge applique.  I found the fronds in a novelty print for Hawaii.  With the tips for using Prisma pencils from Esther Aliu, I was able to color the fronds and take out the lighting effect that they had for a night scene.  I like them a lot better than the pinwheels that were called for.  This is the last of the blocks I had to make for the Guild BOM - this one was for June.  Now I can start gathering the fabric for turning it into a flimsie.

I may add a little more green to the fronds.  This block depicts Victoria Ave with its palm trees, planting of citrus and roses that border the street.  It also has stands of Eucalyptus here and there in place of the palms.  It is  a wonderful place to take a walk.  I still have to add some more oranges to the blocks, but then it will be totally done.

I'd love to see your eye candy. My linky is below.  I'm also linking to Esther's WOW to see all the eye candy there.
Oh and finally a winner of the Applique Petal Party! The random generator says it's Lisa of Quilts, Cakes and Other Fun. I'll be sending her an email tomorrow. Thanks for playing and your patience, quilters!

Applique Thursday After All

Well, I had to print a label, so since I fired up the old computer thought I'd post the photo of my finished block as it does have applique - the planes, the headstones and the flag.  Here is the Oct block of our guild's BOM:

I learned couple of things in making this block.  The planes look a little wonky and that's because I didn't hold the iron still as I was fusing them on.  Also what looks green to me doesn't always translate to green on the screen.  The grass looks a lot more green in real life.  But that's okay as the grass at the National Cemetery is hard to keep a brilliant green and it does match the green of the fields.

Applique Thursday

Well, not much quilting done as I'm sitting here in front of my new computer trying to make sense of Windows 8 = it's so frustrating!  A steep learning curve, and it isn't even a touch screen.  I'm going to try to upload a photo:
Well here it is - I can crop it but I don't know yet how to brighten it so that it looks more like the one in front of me - hope you get the picture.  The windows and door are appliqued.  Still needs some embellishment and the name of the library stitched on.  I'll keep working on it.

So what are you up to?  Still need to pick a winner.  I'm doing this post as a rush and haven't gotten to it.  I'll have to have a few goodie to add to the book to make up for my slowness at this.  Life is still too busy - spent the morning at lab and doctor's appointments.
Would love to see your eye candy!

Applique Thursday on Saturday

What with out-of-state company, airport run to pick up my mom who has a bad cold, sick daughter-in-law, babysitting, doctor's appointment, St. Anne's, rain, cold weather - it got down to 32 yesterday morning, sewing room at 61 - it MIGHT as well be 32 as far as I'm concerned - I can't function at that temp, Guild business, online sales for the Friends, and my still bum leg, I got one leaf done on my Anna's Garden block 5:

I am not a happy camper when I can't even do 10 minutes a day of my quilty destressing!  And next week doesn't look much better - but I am going to be positive because all the donated stuff to guild will be out of my sewing room and I may able to walk in there! Yeah.  Sorry, no giveaway this time, and probably none next week either - depends on how much time I get to sew.  Would love some eye candy to at least look at.  Keep on Quilting!



New Giveaway @ Applique Thursday 1/3/13

Here's my completed applique block from 1997.  I added a kitty on the right, but he doesn't stand out very well in real life.  Should I outline him in black?  So I did do a little applique to finish this off.  I added six flower groups, cat and leaf.  It needs to be quilted now.  I feel bad I didn't work on my other two applique blocks - but nothing was prepped on them and I couldn't stand for very long. And why didn't I add some applique to my goals at Getting it Done?  Fortunately, there is a little bit of applique on those BOM blocks. 

Back to reducing my quilt book shelf.  In celebrating the New Year and because this is the first Applique Thursday of the year, I'm giving away a great applique patten package. 

To win this copy, all you need to do is comment or link to have a chance for it to be yours. Or do both and have two chances. And for extra chances, tell your friends about this giveaway. If they comment or link and mention you in their comment, you'll automatically get another entry in this giveaway. Submissions end Wednesday night. Use the blue link below. And remember, it doesn't have to be applique (that you share that is) -  all sorts of eye candy is eligible.

Applique Thursday -Last one for 2012

Still recuperating  from Christmas revelry, a cold and a fall, so not much quilting going on. Last Thursday, I fell going up some steps and did a number on my right leg.  Since I could hobble around, didn't think I'd broken any bones, but yesterday, I'd had it with the pain and went to have it checked out.  The good news is yes, I had no broken bones, but am badly bruised and have a hematoma that is causing the pain.  I'm to keep the leg up for a few days so that it can recover.  It has slowed me down.  Time to do hand work on the sofa.  Unfortunately, I don't have either of my blocks prepped and ready to continue work on, so I'm pulling out this ufo and seeing if I can finish it.  This was a block from  Zena Thorpe  who came to share her applique expertise with us at a workshop a long time ago - maybe more than 10 years ago - maybe twenty.  I'll have to find the pattern and see if there is a date on it. 

What are you up to?  I'd love to see your eye candy - past, present, or future - applique or not - it's all new to me!

Applique Thursday 12/20/12

Days have been so busy.  I did do applique this week, but neither of my two blocks.  Made this for our guild's BOM.  The building is our Fox Theater.  Back in the 30s, Riverside was far enough from Hollywood to be considered a small town and used to preview films to get an audience's reaction before releasing to the public.  Riversiders were the first to see Gone With the Wind!  I'll stitch the black raw edge applique pieces with black and a straight stitch.  Our BOM Queen is doing a great job with this series.  We have one left to do.

Our winner for last week's book is Auntjunifer. Unfortunately, she is a noreply-comment blog reader.  So I'm posting here in the hopes she will see this and reply with her snail mail address in a private email, so I can send her the book.  A note to readers:  If you want to win, we have to have a way to contact you. So you might want to go into your settings and set email visible in your profile.  Hope to hear from you soon!  Also, I'd like to apologize to my last two winners - their books should have gone out a long time ago, but they will be in the mail TODAY.  No more letting this depression drag me down.

Since it will be madness around here for the next ten days, I'm calling a hiatus to giveaways on Applique Thursday for a couple of weeks.  But I'd still love to see your eye candy of any kind - past, present or future - remember it's all new to me.  It will help me endure this winter fog that settles in my head.

WIP Wednesday 2/8/12

I almost forgot!  My guild is having a ongoing BOM this year also.  That makes four for me this year!  What was I thinking?  I have to do this one.  The theme of the BOM is things Riverside, our hometown.  As you can see our first block is an orange. Mine is a little different than the instructions cuz I'm phobic about matching seams - LOL, but it's a great pattern.   Some of you other Southern Californian or Floridian quilters might like to make this one.  You can find the directions on our blog  under the tab BOM, etc.  Go ahead and sign up as a follower to get the rest of them throughout the year.  They will come out around the end of the month after our meeting which is the third tuesday of the month.  Enjoy!

I'm linking to Esther's WIP Wednesday (see the button on my sidebar).  Lots of good things are posted each week.