December stitching

Hello! Since I'm on Winter Break, I decided to jump into blog-land and show you a bit of what I've been working on lately. Although I haven't blogged much, I have been able to spend some time in the studio these past few months.

I've started a new Christmas quilt. I know, I know. I've already got several other Christmas quilts in progress. But you know how it goes: I just couldn't resist this one! And all my other ones are supposed to be Christmas gifts for other people (when I eventually finish them!). This newest one is going to be for me.

It all started when our quilt guild board (I'm the guild secretary) was talking about doing some "block lotteries." We give the parameters for a certain block, and any member who wants to can make a block. You bring the block to the meeting, put your name in a hat, and if you win, you get all of the blocks for that month. When we were talking about making Christmas blocks for our October meeting, our president mentioned a virtual bee quilt she had seen, where the blocks are various sizes. Here is a photo of that particular quilt, from Better off Thread. We decided to have our lottery blocks all be 12" finished blocks. This is the block I made for the block lottery:

I got the directions from Ellison Lane.  After I printed out her template, I realized that my Tri-Recs ruler would make the same size triangles, so I used that instead of her template.

Since I didn't win the blocks from the guild, I decided to make my own Christmas sampler. I'm making the blocks different sizes, but in multiples of 3", so it will eventually fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. I'm also using some of the more modern Christmas colors of red, green, pink, lime green, and turquoise.

Here are the blocks I've made so far. First up is a 12 X 12" improv star, with some of the polka dot fabrics that I adore :

Next is this ornament. After I trim it, it should be a 9 X 9" block. I had seen some similar ornaments, so I pretty much figured up my dimensions. The actual ornament, without the hanger, is a 6" snowball.

 Here's another of the trees inspired by Ellison Lane's tree. This time I kept the tree seams horizontal instead of angled. Since I don't need this to be a 12" block, I kept it rectangular at 9 X 12".

I really like the stack of gifts in Better off Thread's quilt, so I figured up my own measurements for each gift. This will finish at 9 X 15".

What is Christmas without hot cocoa? Here's a mug for the quilt. I found the pattern via Pinterest, that wonderful source of inspiration.You can find the free pattern here. It's a cute quilt that makes 9 different mugs, so I chose one to make. I adjusted the white borders to make this a 12 X 15" block, or I may trim some of that top border to make it a 12" square. I'll see when I get to that spot.

The last block I've made so far is this log cabin house block. It's another one which I can adjust the size down the road, depending on what I need. Right now it's 15 X 15", but it could go down to 12 X 15".

And that's all I've done so far on this Christmas quilt. I'm having fun making a large variety of blocks. Like most of my quilts, I have no deadline for it, but I would love to have it finished by Thanksgiving. Wishful thinking, I know!

I'm linking to Freemotion by the River's linky party.

Happy stitching!

Slow Stitching

Hello, Friends!

Now that the craziness of the first few months are school are over (including Parent-Teacher Conferences this past week), I feel like I can take a deep breath, relax, and check in with my quilty friends!

Although I haven't blogged since August, I have been taking time in the evenings and weekends to do some stitching. Even if I can only find 15 minutes to stitch one seam, I find that hand stitching is so relaxing, and I prefer to keep my hands busy when I'm watching TV ~ otherwise, watching TV seems like a waste of time to me!

I'm almost finished with the first star for my Hexi Stars EPP quilt:

 

Since the star is getting larger, I've been mostly working on it at home. When I'm out and about (or riding in the car), I've been basting hexies for the next star, although I don't have any photos of those yet.

 

I have been so focused on this quilt, I haven't really made any progress on my hexi QOV quilt or my redwork Winter Wonderland quilt. Not that I mind...none of these 3 quilts have any sort of deadline. They are for my pure enjoyment of slow stitching!

 

What slow stitching project(s) have you been working on lately?

 

Happy stitching!

 

I'm linking up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching and Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count.

Afternoon at the Beach

This week, I finished my "Afternoon at the Beach" flimsy:

That second row, the fish inside the storm at sea, is paper foundation pieced. I thought it was going to take me forever. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the backward-ness of paper piecing! After I finished that row, I decided to add a 1" sashing of the light turquoise between the storm at sea row and the sailboats row (which I see I need to trim up!), to help break up these two rows. I still need to tear out all the little paper pieces from this row, but that can be done as I'm watching tv.

If you're new here, you may not know that all four of these rows are patterns I got at different quilt shops through the Row by Row Experience. I've decided to only make a 4-row wallhanging, so it obviously won't be eligible for a RXR prize.

This quilt makes me smile. First, I love the bright colors and polka dots. Second, it reminds me of when my kiddos were younger, and my friends and I would bring all our kids to the lake for the day. We spent many fun summer days hanging out at the beach. Now that the kids are teenagers and in their early 20s, they'd rather hang out at the beach with their friends but without the moms!

I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall at Patchwork Times.

Happy stitching!

Hexagon Slow Stitching

I've gotten a bit farther on both of my hexie EPP projects. I stitched the first two star points onto this center for my hexie stars quilt (using 1" hexies):

When I started to work on the fourth star point for my QOV quilt (using 2" hexies), I realized that I hadn't basted all of those hexies yet. So first I basted all the hexies I'll need for this star point, then I started stitching them together. All the outer hexies are stitched to the center, and four of the outer hexies are stitched to each other:

I'm linking up to:

Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Life Under Quilts

Sarah Did It - HeLP for Hexie-aholics

 

 

Happy stitching!

Monday Design Wall

I've finished the 3rd row of my Row by Row Experience wall hanging. This pattern is courtesy of Stitchin' on State:

These adorable sailboats will actually be the top row of the quilt, with another row in between the sailboats and the sunbathers. Here it is with the two rows I finished last week:

I've started the last row, but it's taking me for.ev.er. It's machine pieced with paper foundations. Granted, it gives me nice sharp, accurate points, but it's so fussy with putting the fabric on, flip it over to sew, flip it back over for the next piece, etc. By the way, this last row is from Quilting Connection. It will eventually be a "storm at sea" row with little fish inside. Here is what a fish half-block looks like:

 That small polka-dotted triangle (the fish's tail) is 3/4" by 3/4" by 1". Here's the back:

Here's a pile of my 10 fish:

 Then I had to sew two fish together, swimming in opposite directions:

 Finally, I added four triangles, to set the fish on point:

That's about as far as I've gotten. I still need to make 16 paper-pieced sashing strips and 12 paper-pieced cornerstones. At least each of those only have 5 pieces of fabric, and none as tiny as those fish tails!

In other news, I've gotten 2 blocks made for my pixelated heart quilt, which I'm using as my current leader/ender project:

I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Happy stitching!

Slow Stitching

This week, I finished the 3rd point for my QOV star quilt!

I also got a bit further on my hexie stars quilt:

I thought it would be fun to compare the size of one rosette of the hexie stars (1" hexies) with one rosette of the QOV star (2" hexies). Here's how they look side-by-side:

And finally, I worked a bit more on my embroidery for Winter Wonderland. I've started stitching the large snowman:

 

I'm linking up to:

Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Life Under Quilts

 

Happy (slow) stitching!



Monday Design "Wall"*

*Since I don't have a design wall, my floor will have to do!

If you're a quilter in the USA or Canada, you are probably familiar with Row by Row Experience. It's a fun, free shop hop that extends through all 50 US states and many Canadian provinces. Each participating shop is giving away a pattern for a row (36" long) designed by someone who works at that shop. The shops cannot mail or email the patterns out, you have to actually visit them to get their pattern. There are prizes for quilters who bring in a finished quilt that includes at least 8 different shops' rows.

This year's theme for Row by Row Experience is water. I decided to play along, but I only want to make a wall hanging approximately 36 X 36". I didn't want to just go anywhere and get whatever rows were available, so I went to the RXR  Facebook pages to determine which shops to visit, then I collected four patterns to fit my "Afternoon at the Beach" theme.

Here are my first two rows sewn together. The top row is four sunbathing girls, courtesy of Material Girl Fabric Shop. I used three different shades of tan/brown for their skin. The girl on the far left is the lightest; her skin almost blends in with the sand in this photo. For the girl on the far right, the blue embroidery floss will be tied together to look like a string bikini. I'm not going to tie the floss until after I quilt this.

The seashell row is from Crazy Redhead Quilting. For both rows, I used Lite Steam-A-Seam 2. Since this will not see much use, just hanging on the wall, I decided to do fusible applique. My other two rows will be pieced.

I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Happy stitching!

Hand Stitching

My 18-year-old daughter and I have been enjoying watching some TV shows together while we do handwork; she knits and I either do EPP or embroidery. I've started the third point for my QOV Star quilt:

I've also made some progress on my current block for Winter Wonderland. This fabric is about 20" X 22", but I think I'm supposed to cut it down after the embroidery is finished. Since I'm still embroidering, I haven't really paid attention to that part of the directions!

I'm linking up to:

Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Life Under Quilts

 

 

Happy stitching!



Friday Finishes

I haven't finished any quilts this week, but I want to show you two other projects I've finished recently:

The one on top (red) is an English Paper Piecing Travel Kit. I used Haley's tutorial over at the Zen of Making. Her tutorial is very well-written. I did make a slight modification: she called for making two full rosettes of hexies, one for the flap and one for the pocket. The two sit right on top of each other, so I decided to make two half-rosettes. If I made this again, I would only make one full rosette and put it on the front flap. However, I still LOVE this little travel kit!!!

Here's what it looks like inside:

In the front pocket, I put a pair of scissors, an Altoids tin, and a needlebook I made. The Altoids tin nicely holds my 1" hexie papers and a spool of leftover thread for basting. (Ignore the numbers inside the tin; I'm keeping track of how many hexies I've cut out so far.)

A finished rosette of 1" hexies fits right into one of the back sections:

Looking down into the travel kit, there are three sections: the front has my scissors, Altoids tin, and needlebook; the middle has fabric squares ready for basting; and the back has basted hexies and that finished rosette. Haley said that one of the sections will hold a fat quarter, but I prefer to pre-cut 2.5 inch squares for my 1" hexies. That size allows a good amount of seam allowance.

My second recent finish is a hussif. I've been seeing hussifs online for several years and have been wanting to make myself one. I've gotten tired of carrying my embroidery blocks around in a Ziploc bag, so I decided it was time to make this project. Originally, hussifs (the word comes from "housewife") were small sewing kits carried by women around the house. I believe soldiers also took hussifs to war for mending of their clothes.

Although I found some tutorials online, none of them had exactly what I wanted, so I designed my own. Folded it's about 7.25 X 7.75 inches. All the fabrics were leftover from my J'Aime Paris quilt. Even the binding, which was already cut and folded!

Here's the inside with some labels, so you know what's what:

 

I made the needlebook open upwards, so the hussif would close easier than if the needlebook opened on the side:

Behind the charcoal gray section is a pocket extending all the way across the width of the hussif. It's the perfect size for my Winter Wonderland redwork embroidery block!

I'm linking up to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

 

Happy Stitching!

Design Wall Monday Update

Hello! Yesterday I promised that I would show you some of what I've been working on lately. You may remember, before my "quilting drought," that I started an EPP hexagon quilt with patriotic fabrics. My goal is to make a large star quilt to donate to Quilts of Valor. I have gotten some work done on that since I last wrote about it. The hexagons are 2" per side, so 4" going straight across. The center measures 28" across:

The first two star points are finished, although they are not actually attached to the center yet:

This has become too large of a project to really take anywhere to stitch on, so this summer, I decided to start another EPP hexagon quilt.

I'm using Kaffe Fassett's delicious fabrics, with his "grape" colored shot cotton for the center. I have one little rosette finished. Eventually I plan on making some stars out of these hexies, so for now, I'm calling this "Hexie Stars". For this project, I'm using 1" hexies. Here are some more hexies, basted and ready to go. I basted these while in the car on the way to my in-laws' farm. Basting doesn't require too much precision stitching, so it's a great way to while away the 5-hour trip.

Shelley at Elsie's Girl had a fabulous suggestion: buy a Fiskars hexagon punch (available in the scrapbooking section of your local craft store) and use it to punch out all those magazine subscription inserts. The inserts are a great weight for EPP papers, and much cheaper than buying the papers pre-cut.

 

Besides these, I've started a new leaders/enders project. (If you're not familiar with leader/enders, here's a description by Bonnie Hunter.) I first fell in love with this pixelated heart quilt a few years ago, and kept it in the back of my mind. Then Sharon brought a pixelated heart quilt which she had made to quilt guild, and I knew I needed to make one soon. So I've been cutting out 2.5 inch squares of low volume/neutral fabrics for the background. I have a few sewn together so far:

Hopefully I'll have this done in time for Valentine's Day, but we'll see!

 

I have actually been working on some other things as well, lately, but the laundry is calling, so I'll have to tell you about those on another day.

 

I'm linking up to Judy at Patchwork Times and Jessica at Life Under Quilts.

 

Happy stitching!



I'm BAAAACK!

Hello! It's been awhile since I posted! Over two years in fact. Long story short: two years ago, I was working part-time in an elementary school. My principal called me at the end of July, 2013 and offered me a job as a first grade teacher. I was thrilled to accept, but going back to full-time teaching kept me really busy! Everything in education has changed dramatically since I taught 2nd grade before my kids were born...20 years ago! So for the past two years, I have been too consumed with my teaching responsibilities (plus my family) to have much time to quilt, and if I'm not working on quilts, there's not much to blog about!

I've missed the quilt-blogging community, so here I am again. Although I can't promise to be very consistent once school starts up again next month. ;)

I have managed to do a bit of quilt-related things over the past two years. In January, 2014, my guild started a block of the month program. Different guild members designed or suggested blocks for the BOM. I decided to challenge myself to make each block improvisationally. Although I finished all the blocks last year, I didn't finish the quilting and binding until this month.

For the prints, I used some of the 2014 Downton Abbey fabrics. I supplemented with a few Kona solids. I offset the grid to add to the modern feel of the quilt. Here are a few closer shots of the various blocks:

For the back, I used some yardage of the Downton Abbey castle fabric, with a strip of the blue DA fabric on the side. The small square is my label.

Here's a close-up of my FMQ in the background. I did swirls and flowers. In each block, I FMQed different designs to go along with the block design.

My quilt guild is part of the Modern Quilt Guild, so last summer, I participated in their Michael Miller fabric challenge by making this wall hanging.

I received fat eighths of these fabrics, and I was able to add Kona snow for the negative space and (I think Kona azure?) for the binding. I enjoyed playing with asymmetry and deconstructing the square-in-square block. I FMQed the negative space in my favorite concentric circles design.

This summer, I've been enjoying some time off school to work in my studio. I'll catch you up to some of what I've been making soon!

Have a fabulous day!

Happy stitching!