Fast and Furious

Michael, my husband, has been out of the country for the past two weeks and I have used that time to get my life organized….particularly the quilting/blogging/business portion!!! I am enjoying blogging a lot more and trying to turn it into more of a business, but it takes time….lots and lots of time!!!

The other night, I was TIRED of sitting at my computer, WRITING AND THINKING about quilting and decided that it was time to do some sewing.

I turned to a kit that my guild’s charity group had provided and was pleased to open it up and see the fabrics already cut and ready to go…..

The kit even had detailed instructions about how to complete the top…..

The first step was to sew 12 W-O-F strips to 12 other W-O-F strips!! I put on my 1/4 inch foot that provides a ledge to butt up against……

…set the speed to “SUPER RABBIT”……

….and off I flew!!

After doing a bit of ironing, sewing, sub-cutting, sewing, and even more ironing, I was pleased to have this wonderful quilt top ready to go…….

I spent 2 hours from go to whoa on it and, not only did it make something that can be given away to help those in need, it gave me the welcome relief of getting to touch fabric and actually create something!!

Many thanks to our guild charity group as they do much of the “dirty” work so that I can have fun with the fabric part!!!

What do you work on when you JUST WANNA SEW?

I’m being mysterious again!!

On the first of each month, we are given the next clue in our “Morewood Mystery” quilt presented by Meadow Mist Designs.

This month was fairly easy…..just making some four patches and another patch that will become part of an Irish Chain design.

The instructions called for using a “WOF” (width of fabric) for each set of patches, but since I was going with a scrappy approach, I decided to use lots of smaller strips…..

After they were all sewn together, it was time to Sub-cut them into 30 units. I did a video of this process giving a hint about an easier way!!

After the 4 patches were done…..

…..it was time to make the other units. It would have been good if I had realized that these two units are NOT the same……

Twenty-three of the ones on the left had to be un-sewn and re-done in the correct orientation!!!

But at the end of the day, step three was completed…..

Now I just have to wait a month to keep going!!!

This may get addictive!!!

I have been working on the quilting for the Brown Stripe Quilt…..

I finally decided to do a linear design in the stripes and a circular wreath design in the white blocks. Since the rulers that I ordered haven’t arrived yet, I started on the stripes……

After finishing 15 of the FORTY EIGHT stripe blocks, I decided that I needed a break.

Last week (while on the treadmill), I watched a woman piece crumb blocks. Now I have NEVER had any interest in making blocks out of my little bits and pieces, but she caught my interest. So, once I had grown tired of quilting, I pulled out all of pieces that were “too small to use but too big to throw away”…..

….and started piecing them into squares, using a base fabric for a guide…..

Come to find out, this is kind of fun and relaxing!!!!

Now I have made three……

…although I have no idea where they will go from here….maybe into a charity quilt.

It was certainly sweet to take the time to just do something mindless, but I can certainly see this turning into another BIG addiction!!!

A little scrap piecing

I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I want my next big project will be. I heard someone describe this as having a project that takes up a large portion of your mind, as opposed to something that you can basically do in your sleep.

So, while I was waiting and thinking, I knew that it was important to keep my hands busy with some type of fiber work. I looked thru lots of scrap quilt ideas and found Bonnie Hunter’s “Carolina Chain”…..

I liked the sparkle in the quilt and decided to give it a try. I pulled out all of my 2 inch strips and started cutting blocks.

As I put them up on the design wall, I just wasn’t impressed!!!

It didn’t have her sparkle and, frankly, I didn’t have the fabrics that I would need to make it have that special feeling.

SO…..instead of turning it into a Queen size quilt, I decided to make it a smaller Charity quilt.

I did like it better after I added the deep blue setting triangles…..

It needed that dark edge to pull the design back into the center.

But, I think that the addition of the final border made a huge difference…..

I like it much better now, but not enough to keep on making them!!!

If you want to give it a try, it is a simple pattern that you can access on the C&T website

But, there is an upside…..I THINK that I have figured out what my next “full brain” project will be!!!

Stay Tuned……..

Throwback Thursday…..

Since it is July, let’s throwback to a patriotic quilt that I made in 1995.

For MANY years, I have had a pie safe (built to specifications by a good friend) that has held all of my smaller quilts. I use the top of it to display a vignette for the current month and the “quilt of the month” hangs above that.

These quilts are all about 36 inches wide with most being in a square format.

I started looking for patterns for my “God Bless America” quilt and finally found one in a book that my Mother owned. For the life of me, I can’t find it now but I remember that it was a hardback book that had lots of quilts and patterns in it.

The problem with this pattern was that the quilt would finish at 80 inches square…..way TOO big for my pie safe!!!

So, I cavalierly said “I will just cut the pattern in half”!!!! Little did I know that would involve pieces cut to 3/8’s, 5/8’s and 7/8’s inches, and we all know how much of a pain that can be.

But, I persevered and this quilt was born……

Now don’t look too closely because there are TONS of mistakes!!!

The one memory that I have of making this quilt is that I was having problems with the pedal on my old singer machine, and that at unexpected times, it would just take off and fly. I either had to stomp the pedal really hard or turn it off to get it to stop!!!

Fortunately, back then I was quilting with Monofilament thread so you cannot see the places where it took off and my TINY stitches are stacked on top of one another.

I look forward to July each year so that I can pull this old friend out.

This is my vignette……

….which features pictures of my sweet Dad and some of his WWII papers…… sweet memories all the way around!!!