I'm Baaaack!

Whew! I've finally recovered from staying up too late and eating too many goodies at quilt camp. 

It was a lot of fun and I actually started a project that had already been to three other retreats!

Finally!
Pie in Sky (cover quilt on Simple Graces) has been waiting in a box for a couple years, I think.
The blocks are really fun to put together and I'll continue to work on them at home.

But, first things first! 

I had a couple things I had to work on as soon as I got back:
my Number Eight (Temecula Star Sampler) for Connie's Game,

 AND
my Hat Trick for the Another Year of Schnibbles (Vintage Schnibbles) Quilt-Along. 

Both tops were finished--thank goodness--so... 

this weekend I did some marathon quilting and binding!

Hat Trick quilted and bound.
I used a charm pack of Chateau Chambray by Renee Nanneman  from Andover Fabrics that I had been lucky enough to win from Kathy Tracy's blog.
I added a couple shirting's from my collection to fill in the lights, and I purchased a half yard each of the pink and blue Chambray's from the Chateau Chambray line for the nine patches, inner borders and binding. 

A little better shot now that the sun came out!

Quilted with Kim Diehl's "Cinnamon Buns" swirls and a small scallop ruler for the inner border. 

I used the leftover pink and blue Chateau Chambray on the back,
and even had  some pink from another Renee Nanneman line to finish off the bottom back.

My Number Eight for Connie's Game:
Temecula Summer Star Sampler

This is the first time I used mono-filament thread for stitch in the ditch.
My machine was very cooperative and I will be using it again for outlining. 

April Show and Tell

There are lots of fun things going on with the Wish Quilt group! 

I am loving all the creativity everyone has come up with as they work to finish their quilts.

Enjoy!

I love this black and cream version. In place of the elusive sampler fabric,
she is using a Christmas postcard fabric.

The embroidery is done with a charcoal colored floss.

Sandi substituted this darling penguin for the angel.
Check out those fish hanging from the tree!

Lots of stars and hearts on this version.

She is using the Jo Morton toile in place of the sampler fabric, and
fussy cut the birds for these little spacer blocks.

More hearts and stars.

Why didn't I think of this?
She drew the windows on her houses with a Pigma pen!

I'm loving these hand tinted blocks!

More substitute motifs--so cute!
Bronwyn has a lot of adorable artwork throughout the pattern
that isn't part of the actual quilt.

This mottled fabric is going to look great with some French General materials.

We all agreed that the blanket stitching was perfect!

Carol made all her houses a little bit different.
She has some nice fabrics set aside for piecing.

This was the first meeting she was able to make--not a deterrent at all!!

Since Lois can't find the sampler fabric,
she is stitching out these adorable pieces on her embroidery machine--
brilliant!!

Scallop Borders Continued!

Continuing the topic of scallop borders from my previous post, I should have shown this option:

Another super easy way to get a scalloped border is to quilt one!
I used my sets of swag rulers from Handiquilter

I wanted to use this stripe for the binding, but
only had fat quarters, so I did a lot of piecing.

We finally had a little sunshine to show off the quilting!

 Temecula Anniversary Row Quilt 
I loaded this on my machine a while back but didn't have time to quilt it right away. When I realized retreat time was coming up and I needed a quilt to donate to the facilities fund raising auction, I had to get to work!  I planned to donate my Scrappy Trip Around the World top, so I managed to get the Row quilt done with some freehand and ruler work in order to be able to load the Trip quilt.

Yay! The Trip quilt is quilted and bound. I used an all over panto design. 

Grandmother's Choice Block 33: Contrary Husband
(we all know about those!)

I may not get to post Stitch Therapy photos until after retreat, but I had to show you Jeanne's antique quilt she brought to show us--beautifully quilted by Rebecca Anakala!

April Stitch Therapy

Our April topic for Stitch Therapy on Monday was BORDERS! 

Yes, we have some busy embroiderers that have the entire center of their quilt ready to finish up with a border. 

Sandi's beautiful version of The Wish Quilt

On my Wish Quilt, I did a simplified version of a scalloped edge. I love scalloped borders, but I don't exactly love making them. 

My first scallop border was on my Apron Club quilt.

 Apron Club pattern by Lori Holt
We did this quilt as a Stitch Therapy project a few years ago.

I felt that the scallop border in Lori's pattern was a bit wide, and I also liked the look of real scallops other than a wavy scallop edge. Needless to say, this border was a lot more work! I followed a Sharon Schamber tutorial (see here)--that was very helpful, but the actual technique was sooo time consuming. I loved the results, but I'm not sure I would do it again. 

I really liked the way the dog ear corners came out!

Sharon's video show how to make tiny darts in the binding at the inside corners. 

So, the next time I decided to do a scallop border, I tried the waves....

So much easier!
Quilt block patterns are from Crabapple Hill Studio

The drawbacks: you do need to use bias binding (starch!!)
and if you are hanging the quilt, the scallops make it a bit difficult.

Truthfully, I didn't set out to make a scallop border on the Wish Quilt. I wanted to use up  my sampler fabric, so I cut borders wider than specified in the pattern. Then, of course, I decided it was too much light
fabric to frame the center.
I didn't want to cut down my precious sampler fabric, so to tame it down a little,
I came up with this border:
I guess this would be considered a reverse scallop?
I would do this one again, for sure:
 no bias binding, no tiny darts, and no floppy scallops!

To make the scallop border overlay, I made a freezer paper template, ironed it to the back of the strip of  Buggy Barn dot fabric, starched back the seam allowance and appliqued in place. I did the sides first and when I added the top and bottom scallop strip, I folded back the ends to look like a mitered corner.
Oops! I didn't line that up very well, did I??

I hand appliqued this,
but you could easily stitch it by machine with a narrow zigzag or use your buttonhole stitch.

 An absolute must, in my opinion, is the Easy Scallop tool designed by Darlene Zimmerman--no cups, plates or Tupperware bowls for me!

Coming up later this week: more photos of the Wish Quilt in progress! 

Update!

Grandmother's Choice Block 32 Mr. Roosevelt's Necktie

I've been busy getting ready for retreat on the 20th. 

I had planned to work on my first project using some of my Indigo Crossing stash. 

Lots of half square triangles!

I decided to use only the lightest lights. I'm saving the cream backgrounds for my second Indigo Crossing project (still a secret!). It took me a couple days of sorting through patterns, books and magazines, but I finally narrowed it down to the two quilts that I wanted to make using these fabrics. 

The first one is a pattern from Buggy Barn.

I was going to pack these up like this and take them along to work on at  retreat,
 but decided to make a test block to figure out what rulers or tools I would need to bring along.
Good thing I did, too!

My test block.
 After realizing that each block has 64 pieces
(not counting the already pieced half square triangles),
and finding out how much I had to pay attention to what I was sewing to what, I figured it wouldn't be a good idea to try to make these while I'm at retreat--too easily distracted there!
I went ahead and made all nine blocks.
I'll be sewing them together with the sashings at retreat.

From the pattern Buggy Wheels by Buggy Barn.
The scrappy version of this pattern (twelve twenty blocks) used to be a free pattern on the Henry Glass website
(I don't see it there now--sorry!).
Better Homes and Gardens renamed it 'Round the Stars and made it smaller using blue and white fabrics.
The pattern is in the Special Interest issue of Sew Scrappy Volume Two.

This is my Number 8 for Connie's Game:
Temecula Summer Star Sampler 
I need to quilt and bind it, but probably won't get to that until I get back home.
 

The April Dixie Diary block: Asylum--heart version...

And the star version.

I Should Have Bought a Lottery Ticket!

On Saturday, this little box was delivered by UPS.

Hmmm...I wasn't expecting something that would come packaged like this and Mr. Moosebay even agreed it couldn't be fabric.

Oh... but it WAS!!

Four generous one yard cuts of Kim Diehl fabric from Henry Glass fabrics!
I won them in a drawing on the Henry Glass  blog.

It was a surprise, as they said they would send something from the warehouse
 but nothing specific. 

I'll be adding them to my little stash of Kim's fabrics..
I definitely need more blues!
I LOVE the orange print--I need more of that one.
I had it in blue too, but used it up. 

I see a scrappy quilt in my future from one of these books. 

I also won this pattern last week at the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle meeting!

Sandi Baker drew my name--thanks Sandi!!
I'm thinking this would look sharp in blue--the  pink isn't doing it for me.

The pattern is signed on the back by Pam Buda, 

our Prairie Women's Sewing Circle author.