International Quilting Day 2015

What are you doing to celebrate this International Quilting Day today?  I plan to work on a fabric purse/bag that is taking more time than it should but I am determined to finish it so am stitching a bit more on it each day.  I also have 2  hexi projects that I am also working on as I sit and watch TV in the evenings.  I do plan to share them with you but will wait until they are finished.

The sunbonnet girl appliqued square above is a 4” block so is pretty small.  It has been finished to this point for many years and pinned to my design wall.  I hand appliqued it soon after I took a needle turn applique class to practice all the things I learned but here it sits, unfinished. Someday I hope to put it in a quilt or project of some kind but until then I can enjoy looking at it.The pattern for it came from this book 501 Quilt Blocks by Better Homes and Gardens.  The book was a gift from my brother one Christmas and although I have not directly used it much it is a great source of inspiration as I love traditional quilts and it is filled with traditional blocks.  It has lots of 4” blocks….duh, guess there are 501 of them like the title says!  There are pieced as well as applique block designs in the book but no patterns.  The block pieces can be traced for templates or you will have to figure out the sizes for any strip piecing.  Most of us can do that if we have the finished sizes so that should not be a problem.This is the page where I got the design for the little sunbonnet girl picking the flower.  I just thought she was so cute and even at the 4" size it was an easy applique to do.

My challenge for you is - get up and play with some fabric today!
Lynn

Nebraska State Quilt Guild–Fay’s Block

Fay’s quilt is the last of the challenge quilts in my group for me to work on.  Two other gals added borders before I got it.  Fay’s original quilt consisted of nine 3” blocks, Kay added the bottom and left side borders and Janet added the diamond top border.  I hung it on my flannel wall for a while to study and figure out what to add next.
The only shape required that had not been used in the borders was a pinwheel so that was what I decided to make.  The 2” pinwheels were fun to make and made five.  To fit them to the border I divided the excess length by 4 to determine the size of the sashing between the blocks.

This is what Fay’s quilt looks like at this point.  She may want to add more or different borders and will be fun to see what she does with it to finish it.

As a reminder here are the challenge rules -It is a round robin challenge with a team of 4-5 quilters of your choice.  Each quilt will start with a 9” finished center block.  You will build around the center block using borders with the following shapes—pinwheels, circles, diamonds, applique, and some embellishment.  The front of the quilt must have at least one of each shape listed but you may use more of these shapes if you wish.  Each quilt cannot exceed 120 total inches around.  It must be quilted, bound and a label sewn on the back.

I am getting anxious to get my own back to see what my friends did with it.  

Until Later,
Lynn

Orlando Trip

The last week in February, John had a convention in Orlando to attend for 2 1/2 days and I went along thinking it would be great to have some sunny warm weather for a change.  We stayed about 3 more days after the convention was over with one of my cousins and saw a few of the sights around Orlando. We had a great time while there but as far as sunny and warm, that really didn’t happen after the first day there.  The temperatures stayed in the 60s most days and one day was mid 50s, windy, damp and down right cold. One of the best places we visited was Blue Spring State Park.  The warmer water of the spring attract the manatees during this time of year.  The water was so clear and we spent a lot of time watching them.  It was a beautiful place and we were so glad we got to see them.The Kennedy Space Center was really interesting and we could have spent much more time there even though we got there by 10:30 and left at closing time.  Loved seeing a moon rover, Saturn 5 rocket and all the the rest.
Look at the size of the people walking under the live oak tree at Leu Gardens.  We couldn’t get over the massive size of those trees.  The blooming camellias were gorgeous as well as the other blooming flowers and bushes.  A great sight for Nebraskans after a long cold winter.Visiting family was a highlight of our trip – it was wonderful to see my cousin and her husband and spend some time with them.   We had a great time, despite the cold weather and know there are lots more places to see in Florida so just guess we need to plan another trip.  

Until later,
Lynn

I Won - Thread!

I am so excited to have won Rachael Dorr’s blog giveaway and the prize was 5 spools of Superior thread.  The pink and green smaller spools are King Tut thread; the red small spool and the one large cone are Rainbows trilobal thread and the light green thread is So Fine thread. 

I love King Tut thread but have never used So Fine or Rainbows although I have used trilobal thread and loved it. Am looking forward to new adventures with them.

I can’t wait to use them in a project but what to make?  Thank you, thank you, thank you Rachael!

Lynn

Links List #9

Time for another list of quilty, sewing links for your use.  I checked the validly of the links and as of this posting they are all live links.  Please enjoy!

• http://www.allfreesewing.com/Miscellaneous-Projects/Bath-Towel-Spa-Slippers Bath towel slippers pattern
• http://angelinehawkes.livejournal.com/179532.html House slippers pattern
• http://rhondabuss.blogspot.com/2012/09/fabulous-free-pattern-friday_20.html Tall fleece slippers pattern
• http://www.craftandfabriclinks.com/shoe_inserts/shoe_insert_pattern.html insulated sole insert pattern
• http://prudentbaby.com/2010/10/baby-kid/how-to-make-fabric-slippers-with-free-pattern-2/ slipper pattern
• http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/may/18/how-to-make-slippers-from-jeans recycle jeans slipper pattern
• http://whipup.net/2010/02/04/make-your-own-house-slippers/ Make your own house slippers
• http://weallsew.com/2013/10/09/three-uses-for-an-open-toe-presser-foot/ 3 uses for open toed presser foot
• http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog/quick-sewing-projects/sew-a-dresden-sunflower-fabric-scraps/ table topper pattern
• http://pursepatterns.com/free_bag_patterns.html Free purse pattern directory
•  http://www.freequiltpatterns.info/ Free quilt pattern directory
• http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/09/invention-of-modern-sewing-machine/ Invention of sewing machine
• http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/09/sewing-tables/ tips for proper ergonomics for sewing tables
• http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/09/7-ways-to-creatively-display-your-quilts/ 7 ways to display a quilt
• http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/09/free-pattern-friday-fall-edition/ free fall patterns
• http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/sewing/other/leather-needlebook-with-scissor-shield/11400 leather needlebook
• http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/09/how-to-cover-the-zipper-end/ tutorial - cover the end of zipper for bags
• http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutorials-f10/microwave-fabric-bowls-t144848.html Make microwave fabric bowls or for hot serving bowls
• http://www.quiltinaday.com/community/topic.asp?forum=3&topic=24991 Hot bowl cover tutorial
• http://www.favecrafts.com/Home-Decor/7-Free-Sewing-Patterns-for-Machine-Covers 7 free sewing machine cover patterns
• http://www.sewdelicious.com.au/2013/01/quilted-sewing-machine-cover-tutorial.html sewing machine cover
• http://craftsfromkaren.blogspot.com/2013/06/sewing-machine-cover-tutorial.html sewing machine cover tutorial
• http://sewing.about.com/od/freeprojects/ss/machinecoverins.htm sewing machine cover pattern
• http://www.tipjunkie.com/all-crafts/the-sewing-machine/ 8 cover patterns for sewing machine
• http://www.natalme.com/diy-tech-gloves-with-conductive-thread/ make tech gloves with conductive thread
• http://www.ragpets.com/2011/03/license-to-sew.html tutorial-sewing perfect corners for pockets
• http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/24623/easy-seam-allowance-guide easy seam allowance guide
• http://www.coletterie.com/books/making-thread-belt-loops-with-nancy-zieman-and-3-ways-to-use-them make easy thread belt loops
• http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/09/amazingly-smart.html trick for sewing perfectly parallel seams
• http://witsend2.blogspot.com/2013/04/circular-sewing-attachment.html make your own circular sewing attachment
• https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49410175/Point and Shoot Camera Case pattern.pdf point and shoot camera case
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g14govA4pIM&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLBF5C338341F28BF9 how to build a cheap sewing table
• http://www.youtube.com/user/CrazyShortcutQuilts?feature=watch sewing/quilting related videos
• http://weallsew.com/2013/08/14/no-thread-slot-no-problem/ tip for sewing machine foot with no thread slot

Until Later,
Lynn

Spectrum–A Miniature Lone Star Quilt Part 3

Well here is, Spectrum, all quilted labeled and bound.  It was a challenge to get all parts to fit together but I sure had fun quilting this 14 1/2” square piece.  To give you an idea of the size here is a photo of a thimble sitting on the quilt.  Getting the correct color in a photo is sometimes problematic but the color on the photo of finished quilt above and the thimble detail one  below are closer to the original colors.I inserted piping just inside the binding and I do like the yellow fabric as it gives a spark to the outside of the quilt.  As you can see I love to quilt feathers and sprinkled them throughout and some of them ended up being pretty tiny.  I used a fine thread and small stitches but still had trouble keeping my stitching lines as smooth as I wanted.  I am trying hard not to rip out every offending area as I tend to be too much of a perfectionist and letting things be the way they are is hard for me if they are a little imperfect so please ignore the wobbly stitching lines!Hope you enjoyed this last peek.

Until Later,
Lynn

Spectrum–A Miniature Lone Star Quilt Part 2

Here are the fabrics I decided to use to make my version of Spectrum – class sample below. This is a photo heavy post - be warned.
To keep all the fabrics in the correct order this was the setup I used.  I taped small samples of the fabrics on my rotating cutting board with the larger precut pieces for the foundation piecing laid out in order above.  The tools I used for the foundation piecing are there too.  Left to right – rotary cutter, seam ripper, glue stick, wooden pressing stick, stiletto, add-n-eighth and cardstock.  I pretty much do my foundation piecing the same way Carol Doak explains on this web page except I use a small dab of glue to hold each piece of stitched fabric to the paper.
First the diamonds were foundation pieced.  You can see from the photo below why I had to know for sure the order of the fabrics as each diamond has the fabrics in different positions on the diamonds.  I will admit I had to rip a couple off when I pieced the wrong one.I chain pieced the small crown of thorn blocks that were about 3”.  I do love to foundation piece to get those really sharp points.Used my design wall to figure out where each of the Colored Crown of Thorn blocks would look best.Pieced the centers and outside of the Crown of Thorn blocks and the diamond set in pieces.  As you can see at this point they are all pinned to my design wall.  I had to be in the right mood to piece all those inset pieces so put it off as long as possible.Wearing black cotton sweat pants is probably not the best choice when you are clipping threads and working with fabric that is raveling plus all those tiny bits of paper that I was removing.  I used masking tape to get it all off before I left the sewing room as I was shedding like crazy!Now the octagon is all pieced together but the more I looked at it I felt I needed to make is square.  Square quilts are easier to bind and hang.  The Crown of Thorn blocks were the correct size for the corners.  I tested different fabrics for joining them to the quilt on the bottom right hand corner .
All pieced and ready for quilting.  Next post will cover the quilting and finishing of this miniature.

Until Later,
Lynn

Spectrum–A Miniature Lone Star Quilt

Last July one of the classes I took at the annual QuiltNebraska convention was called Spectrum, a pattern by Jill Vanderboegh of Auburn, Nebraska.  Here are the class examples of the miniature octagon version, the one I chose to make.  She offered a larger size, about 24” square as well. The bottom photo of the three is of the larger version that Jill entered in the 2014 Nebraska State Fair and it received a 1st place ribbon.

I have been working on my quilt off and on and now it is finished.  Come back for my next post to see what my version looks like.

Until Later,
Lynn