Moda Bella Solids Lap Quilt – Day 1

I had been wanting to do something with this great fat quarter bundle of Moda Bella solids for quite some time … and the idea for a very basic (really basic) lap quilt in Fall colors was just the thing.  Now, how should I quilt it?

Ribbon Taffy Lap Quilt – Day 2

Boy was this quilt top a bear to hang up on the design wall.  I decided not to put the borders on this one (as called for in the pattern).

Trick Or Treat–Day 2 (9/26/2011)

I finished this wall hanging yesterday, but didn’t take any photos of it at that point.  It’s so hard to get good close up pictures to show the details. 

And here is one of the close up photos (disregard the stray white thread) … I do a micro-stipple in #100 silk in the background, which causes the non-stitched items to puff up a little.  In some cases (not necessarily in this piece) the puffy areas actually end up looking like they’ve been appliqued. 

I use the magnifying glass attachments for my Bernina in order to make the micro-stippling easier.

Ribbon Taffy Lap Quilt – Day 1

Technically I started cutting the pieces for this quilt on Sunday night – but I did no stitching.  So I’m declaring this Day 1.  This quilt is called the Ribbon Taffy Lap Quilt, from the book Laps From Fats by Ellen Replogle.  I’m using a fat quarter bundle from Moda called Mistletoe Manor, which is a few years old at this point.  I’m using just the woven part of the collection, which gives it a neat old look.  But boy were these wovens giving me fits.   I pulled out the regular spray starch (instead of my usual Best Press) hoping to get a little more stiffness.  It helped a little, but only slightly. 

And because this quilt is a diagonal set quilt, it started to get big and hard to manage very quickly.  With my bad knee, every extra step that I have to take is tricky.   All of the back and forth from the design wall to the cutting table to the sewing machine was not pleasant today.  But luckily I got a large portion of the top put together today.  I’ve got to put together the four bottom corner sections, and then attach those to the rest of the quilt tomorrow!  The borders will be a green woven from the collection,

Civil War BOW–Hovering Hawks (39)

Picture is a little crooked – but here’s my block this week.  The center is a dark brown – not black as it looks in the photos.

Trick Or Treat Panel – Day 1

Okay, it’s actually 2:05 a.m., so technically it’s Sunday already – but since I’m still up I’m still counting it as Saturday.  Here’s the panel that I started tonight.   Most of the stitching is done – just needs to have (black) binding attached and stitched tomorrow.  I got the panel (by Moda) on Friday while at QuiltTrends (Columbus, OH) to pick up my machine.  It was down there having a little spa treatment so that it’s ready for a good Fall and Winter with lots of stitching!

I’ll try to take better pictures tomorrow so that you can see the details.

1930’s Scrap Quilt–Day 3

Again today I didn’t get nearly the amount done as I would’ve liked.  But the quilt did grow by a few blocks!

1930’s Scrap Quilt – Day 2

Ended up not having a ton of time to work on this quilt today – but I got a few more blocks added!

1930’s Scrap Quilt – Day 1

I saw a picture of this quilt in a magazine … but there wasn’t a pattern for it, just a picture of it hanging in the background.  In the magazine it was done as a 2-color quilt – but I envisioned it being great for some of my 1930’s repros.  So I pulled out the graph paper and made a little sketch – and decided to start the cutting and stitching today.

Churn Dash–Day 3

Got this little top done this afternoon.

Soft Book: High Low Fast Slow (9/17/2011)

Had to finish this little soft book for my nephew since we’ll be seeing him tomorrow and he always gets a book from his Auntie.

One little thing I’ve discovered with doing a couple of these … you really need to trim back the batting (very thin batting) in the area you’ve left open to turn the pages inside out.  Here’s a detail picture …

What you’re seeing are the two layers of book pages (right sides together) and a layer of very thin batting (I use a poly) on top.  With my walking foot, I’ve stitched around the four sides – leaving an opening about 4” to turn this right sides out.  I notch out the batting in this area to make it a little easier to stitch this section together when turned out.

*Note:  When stitching around the four sides I have the fabric facing up so that I can see where I’m stitching.  I leave the poly batting larger by about an inch on each side.  When done, I can trim it down.  I also cut off the corners c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y to get rid of bulk at the corners when I try to make the points nice and crisp!

Civil War BOW–Ohio Star (38)

I’m so disappointed … I got this block done, took the picture and brought the SD card in here to upload it – only to discover that I messed up to the star points.  I didn’t see it until I looked at the photo.  I even took an extra second to double-check that I had all of them in the right places … and I still messed up.  Uggh!  Do I do it over again? I’m really mad at myself!

Churn Dash – Day 2

Got the majority of this little quilt top done this evening.  Tomorrow I can add the borders and this little project will be ready to quilt!

Churndash – Day 1

Okay, I was lazy last night and didn’t feel like taking a picture with the regular camera … so I snapped a photo with my iPad.  I got all of the pieces cut – despite the pattern being very poorly written.  I have the half square triangles pieced, and the bars that make up the side rails of the churndash unit, but I don’t have the block assembled.

 

Like I said – this pattern was poorly written.  I feel bad for any beginner quilters who happen to purchase this kit – if they don’t have the prior knowledge to determine sizes and cuts, the pattern certainly doesn’t help much. And the pattern must have been written for some other color scheme at another point – because the author didn’t go in and edit out the old colors. So for a blue and brown quilt, the pattern kept referring to pieces in red and green!

Just to mention it …

The top that I just completed today, Black & Cheddar Steps, was from a pattern purchased at Red Rooster in Dublin, Ohio.  A similar quilt pattern can be found at the Moda Bakeshop site (http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/08/jewels-in-curio.html#more).  The layout is a bit different, and they used a Moda jelly roll of course, but you can pick any color scheme that you want.

Black & Cheddar Steps – Day 3

Finished up this quilt top today, and got the binding cut, sewn and pressed.  I’m going to wait for a big sale at one of our local quilt shops next week to get my backing fabric.  Would have gotten it done earlier in the day, but I was trying to put together a pot of chili for supper tonight and my recipe was lost somewhere.  After an hour of searching, I finally found it!  (But boy was I in a sour mood – and right as hubby was trying to leave for work – eeek!)

Black & Cheddar Steps – Day 2 (later)

Didn’t think I’d have more time to work on this quilt on Wednesday, but I did manage to work on it a little more before one show started, and after another show ended.  The blocks have been sewn into 8 rows of 6 blocks each.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll have some time to put all of the rows together – and then this top will be done! 

Like I mentioned in my previous post, this would make a fantastic pattern for a beginner looking for their second or third project. 

• Picking three colors shouldn’t be too daunting, especially since one of them could be a neutral like cream/off-white. 
• Color themes could be used too – like Christmas, Fall, Spring, Sports, Ballerinas, etc.
• All of the sewing is straight lines
• The blocks are a good size – not too small, not too big. 
• There are 48 blocks in the quilt, but more could be added to make it a bed quilt – or some could be left out to make a lap quilt.
• The only seams that have to be matched up are at the intersection of each block – but inside the block, there’s not a lot of critical matching to do
• The design in each block is reversible – so as you sew the blocks in each row together – just make sure you press the seam allowances in all one direction.  When you start to sew Row 1 to Row 2, just flip Row 2 (left to right) and you’ll have the seam allowances in Row 2 going the opposite direction.   *I generally press my seam allowances to the right in rows 1,3,5,7,9, etc., and to the left in rows 2,4,6,8,10, etc. 

Oh, you can see one of my other projects peeking out in the bottom right corner.  I’ve already posted pictures of that one – it’s just waiting to be put on a hanger, paired up with its’ backing and binding and taken to the basement to await the quilting!

Black & Cheddar Steps – Day 2

Got quite a bit put together this afternoon.

BTW … This would be an excellent pattern for a beginner.  I’ll elaborate on that more later.

Black & Cheddar Steps – Day 1

My knee was still killing me – but I managed to get the pieces cut, the half-square triangles sewn, the 2½” strips sets put together and the little 4-patch units stitched together to start getting this quilt underway. 

Civil War BOW–Confederate Rose (37B)

Okay, yes – I gave in … I just had to do this block over again this evening.

Civil War BOW–Confederate Rose (37)

Wow … guess I couldn’t take a very straight picture today!  Not sure I like this arrangement of fabrics – but it does stay with the white – pink – red theme that the block is based on.  It looks a bit strange though – so, guess what?  I may be re-doing it!

Take my HQ-16 in for service?

Eeek … I’m scared to death to do it – but I may have to take my HQ-16 in for service.  I have a feeling that her timing has gotten a bit off.  I’m scared to death to move her from her home in the basement and out to the car.  Eeeek!!

A/C Fixed!!

Our A/C was fixed yesterday morning, and luckily it was just a small broken part called a capacitor.  The repairman fixed it, and everything was back in working order.  He says it should be less than $100 for the service call and the part when the bill arrives! 

Of course with life being what it is – the temperatures had dropped around here to a level where we didn’t need the A/C at all, so we let it run for an hour or so, and then actually had to shut it off because it was getting too cold in the house!

Civil War BOW – Kentucky Crossroads (36)

After a day of no air conditioning, hubby got home late last night with three fans.  That helped a little … and thankfully it was starting to cool down A LITTLE bit.  (but not much)  Then the thunderstorms started to roll in.  Oh my goodness was that thunder loud.  Not only was it a bad storm …. but we had to keep the windows open, so it was exceptionally loud! 

After the first batch of storms rolled through, I was able to piece this week’s block …

Air Conditioner Died …

Okay, it’s one of the hottest days of the summer (even though we’re almost in fall) and our air conditioning decided to die last night.  While I was sitting in the dining room listening to the Indians game and eating my KFC, I thought the A/C sounded funny.  (the unit is on the north side of the house, and the closest window is the side window in the dining room)  When hubby got home, we checked the thermostat and it was set to 70, so we lowered it to 68, but the temp. still wasn’t coming down.  I was starting to get a sick feeling about it …  By this morning, my fears were confirmed.  It was hot as heck in the house … and all we have are three little desk fans.  Guess what hubby is stopping to get on his way home from work? 

And, with the holiday – we can’t call the A/C people until Tuesday.

I know it shouldn’t bother me …

Okay, I get accused of letting too many things bother me … and I guess I stand guilty as charged!  The thing that is bothering me today are these blog giveaways.  I admit that I have fallen victim to them … spending an hour chasing my tail as I hop from one site to another, leave a comment here, join a twitter there, become a Facebook friend for another …. good golly gracious me!  

If you want to give away some neat new gadget or fabric collection, just give it away!  Tell everyone to go to a website that shows a picture of the item you’re trying to advertise (without us actually realizing that you’re doing it) and have a sign-up form on that page for people to leave their name and contact info.  Stop making me run from website to website while calling it by some cute name, or making me think that it’s a PARTY!  It’s not! 

(okay, I’ll go to the quilt room and cheer up now)