Applique Tuesday Week 33

I prepped for applique this past week as I'm in Colorado this week and have no access to a machine. I needed a hand stitching project. It's WIP #13 I'm working on and I call it Hexie Baskets. I found the pattern for the blocks in an old Quilter's Newsletter magazine, issue 260 - March 1994 - way before I took up making hexagons or discovered Karen at Faeries and Fibres .  Stars in the Loft is the one that stunned me into the possiblities of hexies beyond Grandmother's Flower Garden.

So I pulled out the pattern and began assembling the hexagon flowers in 2012 after reading Karen's tutorials. I decided to only attempt a 9 block version.  The hexagons are 1/2" .  I brought with me 7 baskets and 7 handles to applique onto the 13" squares of muslim I cut.

When I get back from CO, I'll add the finished flowers  to the blocks, and they will look like this:
                                       
Then it will be time for more hand stitching, or maybe I'll do it with the machine - stitching around the flowers and leaves that is.

Bye for now,
Angie in SoCal

WIPS Be Gone Week 32!

Can you believe it - there are only 20 weeks left in 2015! Wow.

I finished a preemie quilt made out of some of those triangles I cut off units in making an early B3 quilt. With some leftover fabric I came up with this:

It measures 30" square.  I quilted it with straight lines following the seams. I wanted this one to stay soft.  Now this one I quilted differently:

There are diamonds in the outermost squares but you can't see them unless you spot them on the back.  Most of it you can see I just spaced straight lines on the whitest fabric. In the light blue I did some freezer paper work.

I cut out the leaves on the freezer paper that I had traced from the master. I then cut out part of each leaf to make the design continuous. I used a frixion pen to transfer the pattern to the actual fabric, and pulled off the paper to use it in the next space. I used a baby blue Superior So Fine thread with an 80/12 titanium needle.   Here's a closeup:

This is a B3 quilt whose free pattern is on my right side bar.  Looks modern to me. Here's the back:

On the WIP front, I now have a quilt top made out of #7.  I hoped to have it sandwiched, but I've been working a lot on trying to get WIP #13 - my hexie baskets - ready to take with me to CO as my hand stitching project.  I leave Sunday.
WIP #7

What are you up to? Would love to see it, whether finished or WIP progress or an old post, or even about what is going on in your life - not necessarily quilty. Share your goodness. Linky below ends Monday, midnight.

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it Up Friday, Richards Link A Finish Friday, Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop?, Lizzie Lenard's FMQ Mavericks because I did finish something and did some FMQ, then Saturday with Pink Doxies and Monday with Lyn for BOMs Away. Bye for now. I'll try to post from CO when and if I can.

Applique Tuesday Week 31

Hey! I have some applique to share - it's machine applique, but that counts.  Here's my third block of that store hop from 2010:

This is a Dresden plate block but it sure looks like a square with triangles sticking out.  Think it is the fabric that makes it look like that.  The blades are all the same size.  ??

What are you up to?  I'm prepping some blocks to take with me for some hand stitching while I'm in Fort Collins next week. That's taking up all my sewing time these days. Leave me a comment and I'll come by and see your great quilties or life shots as I take breaks from starting to get ready to fly off to see my DS and DGS.

Blessings,

WIPs Be Gone Week 31

Some progress on a couple of WIPs - specifically #7 and #11.

Don't have a photo of #7 - but it's the Bird of Paradise and I finally figured out what I'm going to do with it and found fabrics for two borders.  I was going to make it a pillow, but as it is raw edge applique, I've decided it's too delicate for that. So I'm making a wall hanging.  I hope to have a photo for next Friday.

WIP #11 is another long term project - it has 49 blocks, I think.  I got two more blocks done:
 They were so easy I don't know why I hadn't done them before. Guess I couldn't find my round-to-it. Working on a third one - it has applique.




Oh, and I finished another B3 quilt top - this is for the August offering at the Guild. Now to send off the pattern to my three testers.  Measures 30" square for the NICU at local hospital. A great one for large prints.

What are you up to? Would love to see it, whether finished or WIP progress or an old post. Share your goodness. Linky below ends Monday, midnight.

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it Friday, Richards Link A Finish Friday, Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop? because I did finish something, and on Monday with Lyn for BOMs Away because I worked and made blocks.  Bye for now.

Some of This and That on Monday

Gosh, it's been since May that I've done a de-stashing report.  I was at a YTD total of 46.39 yards.  Now let's see what I've used since then. Let me calculate:
Made a quilt for my DGS's preschool teacher - 2yards; various hexie flowers - .10 yard; a mug rug - .25 yard; a new charity quilt top - .75 yard; a backing for my elephant quilt - 1 yard; eight blocks for my VA quilt - .33 yard; and a back for my VA quilt - 1 yard for a grand total of 5.43 yards - not very good for 2 months!  But I'm happy to say I went through my stash and pulled approximately 20 yards of pieces of fabric to sell at my guild's annual yard sale at the  August meeting.   So that is much better and I can report  YTD total of 71.82 yards de-stashed.

On my design wall is another charity top I'm working on:

This is using some of those blocks children colored for us at the festival.  This is a free pattern offered by Luana at Equilter. You can see it here. Easy peasy.

What are you up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by to see your latest.  Blessings, all!

WIPs Be Gone Finish

When I saw Lorna's Elephant Parade's first block, I knew I had to make a baby quilt using it since my God Daughter in Law[who was expecting a baby] is from Thailand, and the elephant is the symbol of the nation.  I got busy finding the right fabrics from my stash. Then I had to wait til I knew if it was going to be a girl or boy before I picked something for the little elephant.  Then I realized that the block made an African elephant

and the Thai elephant is an Asian elephant. Off to do research - the Asian elephant has smaller ears and the female doesn't have tusks.  So I redid the mother elephant block and waited some more. It wasn't til the end of March that we learned there was a good chance it would be a girl. So I remade the baby elephant block.  I put the basic top together.  Now how was I going to incorporate more about Thailand in this quilt?  Here's what I did:

1. There is a lot of vegetation and jungle in Thailand, so I took the 1/2 yard of fabric left from the border, lined the back with fusible interfacing and cut out leaves to extend the motifs into the quilt.

They were ironed on and machine appliqued using invisible thread, a 60/8 needle and Bottom Line thread in the bottom. This took a while.  And Baby Saige arrived while I was doing that step.  Then I decided to quilt a temple into the sky left of the elephant -there are lots of temples in Thailand.  So going back on the NET, found some ruins, made a copy, hung it on a window and traced it onto that golden paper for quilters.

 I then pinned it in place on the quilt and started outlining it.

Then I decided to do some letter work and found "welcome" in Thai and did a bit of stencil thread work to write that on the quilt.

I wanted to place the baby's name also, but there just wasn't room. Above is just part of it.  It didn't show up very well, but Waen spotted it right away.  With all the rain Thailand gets in a year, straight lines in the borders seemed just right. More quilting - quilted the mother elephant and surrounding sky using FMQ and a bit of ruler work on her ear.

Actually the blue foliage around the feet was the hardest. So here is my Elephant baby quilt gifted today to Saige M. Welcome little one.  I'm only 3 months late.

What are you up to?  I'd love to see your progress - quilty or otherwise.  Linky below - ends Monday, midnight.

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it Friday, Richards Link A Finish Friday, Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop?and Lizzie's Free Motion Mavericks.  Bye for now.
                                                                                          Angie in SoCal

Those leaves

Sarah of Sarah Did It asked, Did you create the shape or is that a pp.com pre-made shape?

Yes, I did create the shape, Sarah.  Here's how I did it:

Took a hexagon paper, folded it in half to make a half hexagon, and then cut a gentle curve from the lower left point to the topmost point. That's my template.  You can attach in two ways.  Sew to the sides of the hexagon flower as you would attach any hexagon, or leave those two bottom side seams flat and slip under your flower when you go to attach it to a background.  I sort of did the latter with my bullseye quilt, but they were raw edge applique leaves where I wanted to add some texture to my top.

Thanks for asking, Sarah.  Still haven't found that stabilizer.  Wonder what this was about? Scroll down to my last WIPs Be Gone post.  Blessings!

Applique Tuesday

I was going to machine applique some flowers to the blue background, but I realized I have to iron on stabilizer first. Wonder what I did with it.  ??  So I went ahead and finished the quilting on those two quilts:

Here I'm binding the elephant quilt.  I can't show it until it is gifted - maybe by Friday - we'll see. The other is a charity quilt and I'll show that Friday, too.

What are you working on?  Would love to see.  Leave me a comment and I'll come by.
Blessings!

WIPs Be Gone again

I decided what to do with my hexie flowers now that I have all 36 made.  Here's my notion how to proceed for now:

I'm going to add leaves to a few of them that will extend to the block on the sides of it, so those tips will have to be sewn down once the top is put together. Another step closer to getting WIP #3 done.

 It's sitting on one of the two quilts I'm quilting right now. It's another baby quilt I have to finish by Tuesday.  I'll show you more when I'm done.

What are you up to? Would love to see whether finished or WIP progress. Share your goodness. Linky below that ends Monday, midnight.

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm linking to Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop?and Lizzie's Free Motion Mavericks. Lots of goodies there.

Yet Again

no Applique on Tuesday except for the machine applique I finished on the border of the elephant quilt, but I did finish the last hexie flower for my WIP #3!  Yeah - all 36 done.

 Now I have to decide how I want to put them together. Hmmm. I've also been quilting my elephant quilt. Waiting for a thread from Superior. Had nothing the right color to finish the foliage.

Trying a few different motifs.

Let me know in a comment what you've been up to, and I'll come by for a visit. Blessings!

Slow Sunday Stitching

First, the linky party to show us your progess on your projects is still open - ends Monday, Midnight.
Go here to link up and share with us your work.

Another  flower for WIP #3.

These go together so fast now that I know how to do them using Karen H's donut method.  I'm linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.  Maybe I'll make another of these today.  I may only have three more to go. I should go count them.

WIPs Be Gone Week 28

I have a finish.  This was started just a few months ago, but since it has been months, I'm calling it a Work in Progress as I did keep working on it once I started it - not religously but now and then.
You saw it first 5/8/15

Then I had major problems with the second star because I cut some pieces wrong but didn't discover it until I tried to put the two stars together.  Got that done and then had to try to quilt it while my DGD was here for two weeks.

Finally got it all quilted:

Then bound:

It has freezer paper work, stencil work and FMQ.

It was my latest VA project.  It is based on a pattern by Shelly at Praire Moon Quilts. You can get the pattern and read more about it here. 

What are you up to? Would love to see whether finished or WIP progress. Share your goodness. Linky below that ends Monday, midnight.

I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it Friday, Richards Link A Finish Friday, Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop?and Lizzie's Free Motion Mavericks.

An InLinkz Link-up

Applique Tuesday

Our guest appliquer this week is Lily!  She wanted to put together something else.  I gave her a piece of background, around 10 x 12" I marked with a Frixion pen a 1/2" line in from the sides. I gave her a box of scraps and a glue stick.  Then I told her to paint a picture with the scraps - any color, size, shape she wanted.  Once she had them where she wanted them, I had her turn them over and rub some glue on the backs and replace to where she wanted them and pat them down.  This took her about an hour to do - I was able to get some quilting in while she created.  When done, we cut a like size piece of batting and I let her pick a back.  She picked colorful flowers. You can see the print in the border.  I cut the back an 1 1/4 larger than the front, sandwiched and did raw edge applique on the machine.  Here's Lily's piece:

I suggested she use it as a placemat. She looked at me affronted and said, "It'll get dirty, Grandma!" She's going to put it on the end table near her bed.

And on my design wall - another baby quilt top. This measures 30".

 I love those owls!

What have you been up to --applique or other wise?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by and take a look at your eye candy.  Blessings!

WIPs Be Gone #27

One for WIP #3. I'll pull fabric for another one tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching.

That's all I had time for with DGD Lily here. She did some hand stitching earlier in the week. See my No Applique Tuesday post.  Would love to see your progress. Linky below. Closes Monday, midnight.  Blessings!

An InLinkz Link-up

Since I finished a hexie flower, I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it Friday, Richards Link A Finish Friday, Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop?

No Applique This Tuesday

Lily is here and we've been having fun, hanging out, doing things together and playing board games.  It's been too hot to go out for long. For example, it was 101 degrees at 12:30 today, and that wasn't the high.

We're doing a little sewing.  First she practiced doing some lace cards to get the idea the thread goes up and down and pretending the end of the shoelace is the needle.  She caught on fast so we moved onto this:

And she's only five years, 2 months old!  Another sewist in the family.  Now Deanna, if you read this, don't let on.  She want's it to be a surprise.

She's so happy doing it!  Xs are next. And while she stitches I'm managing a few minutes of quilting:

Life is good - hot, but good.  Off to swim lessons.

What are are you stitching or quilting?  Let me know and I'll come by and visit.  Might not be able to comment, but would love to see your eye candy.

Blessings and send any excess rain our way, please!

WIPs Be Gone Week 26

I've been spontaneously constructing again.  My DGS's preschool teacher is going on maternity leave tomorrow - a whole month sooner than I thought.  So Tuesday the SC started.  I'm not surprised - from the way she's carrying this baby, I thought she'd have it 6/15!  The quilt is done.  I just have to make a card and buy a baby bag and take it tomorrow to her.

Yes, the beige  really stands out( I would have preferred a very light pink), but just couldn't go to the store and I needed to start.  I used the cute owls on the back, too. It measures 32" square.

It's one of those forgiving prints that covers all quilting errors.  I love those owls. Here's another view for the quilting:

I free-motioned a large meander on the beige and the owls, then used the walking foot to outline the rose L-shapes. I then free-motioned the triangles in the border. That went better than I thought.  Hope Baby Camille and her Mom like it.

I did work on a WIP, but have no photo - maybe later in the week.  How are you doing on yours? Link up and let us see - doesn't have to be a WIP - finishes are fun to view, too. And it doesn't have to be a new post - an old one will do - it's all new to me!  Blue button below - ends Monday, midnight.

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it Friday, Richards Link A Finish Friday, Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop? and Lizzie's Free Motion Mavericks.

And the Winner is:

After tallying all the entries from the Linky Party and the other ways to win and ordering them by time of entry there were 53 possibilities.
I went to Random.org and it picked:

True Random Number Generator Min:   Max:   Result: 18Powered by RANDOM.ORG

which is Judith!

Congratulations, Judith.  I'll send an email so I can get the book to you.

Thanks to all for entering and sharing your comments and eye candy.  I had a ball going to all of them.  

Blessings,

Applique Tuesday Week 26!

Oh my - half of 2015 is nearly gone! Where does the time go?

I took my hexie flower I made with my cousins and turned it into a mug rug:

I machine appliqued it to a round of front, batting and back.  If I can find the thread, I'll quilt around the inner hexagon and up the side seams to make it more flower petal like.

Did you do any applique or work on some eye candy.  Let me know and I'll come by and take a gander and leave a comment.  Thanks for stopping by!

I'm linking to Connie's Linky Tuesday Party - see you there.

Slow Sunday Stitching & Giveaway

Spent the day, Saturday, with my cousins.  Since the wineries were super full for Father's Day weekend (we tried two and they were way over capacity), we stayed at Moms and did a mini Hexagon project by hand.

They were naturals at making hexies.  I like them all.  We're going to make mug rugs out of them. It was fun introducing them to hexagons. They fly out today for Houson.  I'm sure going to miss them!

Now as for the giveaway -
To thank you for all the eye candy you've been posting this year, I have a book giveaway.  

I was looking for a quilt book on my shelves and found I have two copies of this.  I haven't gotten to it, but I want to make a quilt out of it.  Don't let the blocks on the cover intimidate you - mostly fussy cutting really and very easy.  They have great paper templates inside.  

To win this copy, all you need to do is link a post with some eye candy to have a chance for it to be yours.  It doesn't have to be a WIP - all sorts of eye candy is eligible and very welcome - even projects you finished a while ago, haven't started, or are even dreaming about - it'll all be new to me. You can (1) link a blog post (an old one will do) or a photostream address. Or you can go to Michele's blog, and (2)leave a comment on what you think of her Visual Overload. Then (3) let me know.  New to her blog? Become a follower of hers and (4)let me know and you'll have four chances.   You'll find the linky party at my previous post - the one before this one. So just scroll down and you'll see it.  I'll pick a winner Tuesday morning after the linky party closes today, the 22nd, midnight.  Open to all.

WIPs Be Gone & Giveaway

Week 25!  Back from San Francisco. Had a great time - more on that later. Came back late Wednesday, so didn't get much WIP progress as I felt so tired today.  Here's the bit I did get done

on a flower for WIP #3.  Almost ready to do some slow stitching on Sunday.

To thank you for all the eye candy you've been posting this year, I have a book giveaway.  

I was looking for a quilt book on my shelves and found I have two copies of this.  I haven't gotten to it, but I want to make a quilt out of it.  Don't let the blocks on the cover intimidate you - mostly fussy cutting really and very easy.  They have great paper templates inside.  

To win this copy, all you need to do is link a post with some eye candy to have a chance for it to be yours.  It doesn't have to be a WIP - all sorts of eye candy is eligible and very welcome - even projects you finished a while ago, haven't started, or are even dreaming about - it'll all be new to me. You can (1) link a blog post (an old one will do) or a photostream address. Or you can go to Michele's blog, and (2)leave a comment on what you think of her Visual Overload. Then (3) let me know.  New to her blog? Become a follower of hers and (4)let me know and you'll have four chances.  I'll pick a winner Tuesday morning after the linky party closes Monday, midnight.  Link button below.

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm linking to Sarah's HeLP for Hexie-aholics and Sarah's Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?. Lots of eye candy there.

Applique Tuesday

Have you been to San Francisco?