Wednesday, May 28, 2014

It's a Mystery....

Summer BOW 2013
Finished! My UFO finish for May: Summer Blooms
I only did stitch in the ditch and outlining on this one since it's so small--25" square.
I thought it would be a good idea to get last year's summer freebie from Primitive Gatherings done before the 2014 BOW blocks start showing up in the mail box!
I'm not sure if I will do the free online sew along from PG yet--I'm printing out the patterns for now, because.....

Somehow I resisted signing up for Bonnie Sullivan's Bertie's Year Block of the Month, even though he is SO adorable! 
1320 Bert BOM
I also love Bertie's Winter, but he was a little easier to say no to--I have Christmas quilts coming out of my ears! 
You knew there would be a but coming......
But when I was perusing this magazine:
Chock full of cute stuff! 

I came across this Bonnie Sullivan four part mystery--Susie's World!
Can I resist a mystery???  
 Obviously not!
Susie is a cat.
Isn't she cute?
Going by the magazine photos, I guess she is supposed to be a gray tabby, but I had a lot of this mottled gold wool in my stash. Now Sally looks like my old cat Possum (and acting like her!).

This may be Bertie--I'm not sure, since he doesn't have a head ornament, but he could be a relative. Actually, with the nest full of eggs, this must be Bernice.
I couldn't pass up Susie's World--it has three of my favorite themes: birds, cats and cherries! Now I just have to keep my eyes peeled for the next three issues of SimplyVintage !

Monday, May 26, 2014

I Think It's Finally Here!

Wow--I think we skipped Spring and went right into Summer--yay!! 
We have had some glorious days recently, and I feel so relieved that most of my gardening is in and now I can sit back and enjoy the fruits (and flowers!) of my labor.
Since I've been doing a lot of gardening, there isn't much going on in the sewing room.
I haven't done this week's Jane Austen block, but I have the previous 2 to share.
I'm still determined to work in the plaids!

This block was pretty tricky. If I had to do it over, I'd use half square triangles and some flying geese to get the same effect.
Spring '14 Blogger's Quilt Festival - AmysCreativeSide.com
The Blogger's Quilt Festival is now open for voting!
My Simply Red in Blue is in the Applique Category.
This is a direct link to the Applique category HERE
Click on the hearts in the upper right hand corners to vote for a quilt.
You can vote twice in each category.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Simply Red in Blue


Last year I entered my quilt, The Courting Quilt in the Blogger's Quilter's Festival at Amy's Creative Side.
Spring '14 Blogger's Quilt Festival - AmysCreativeSide.com

 I hadn't planned to add a quilt this year since I didn't have one finished that I felt fit any of the categories, but this morning I had a light bulb moment--Simply Red in Blue! I just finished this quilt a couple days ago and it will be going to it's new (temporary) home at the quilt shop soon.

I am entering Simply Red in Blue in the Applique category.The pattern is from the book Simply Red by Kathy Schmitz.
The quilt measures 54" x 65"

I used lots of shades of blues from various designers including Primitive Gatherings, Kansas Troubles, etc., and a 2 yard pack of Cherrywood. 

All of the backgrounds are from Primitive Gatherings by Moda.
The quilting was done using Aurifil thread in neutral 2310 and navy 2745.
My brain doesn't allow my to do feathers, so I opted for figure 8's instead.

The finished appliques remind me of the Yorktowne pattern of Pfaltzgraff pottery.
Yorktowne
Yorktowne
I think this is going to be one of my favorite quilts.
The voting and such starts next week--it's fun to see what everyone else is up to. 

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Simply Red for May

This month we talked about flying geese at the Simply Red Stitch Therapy meeting.

There is a great method for making the geese with no waste in the Simply Red book, but I used my latest favorite method: The Quilt in a Day flying goose ruler. Click that link to see Eleanor demo the ruler!

 The size ruler needed is found in both the Mini Set and on the Small ruler.
Even though I've covered this method before,  I will show it again in case you missed it.
Center your smallest square of fabric on the larger square and mark a center line and the stitching lines a quarter inch to either side of the center line. I use my Ultimate Marking pencil and the Quick QTR. 2 ruler from Quilter's Rule. (The flying goose ruler packaging will tell you the sizes you need to cut)
Throw in a few pins to keep everything secure.

After sewing on the stitching lines, press to set the seam and cut on the center line.

You get 2 pieces that look like this--don't worry, this is all going to work out!
Press these units open with the seam allowance toward the larger triangle.
 

Layer the two units right sides together, matching the outer corners and light fabric to dark fabric. The center seams will not match up! I'm showing these slightly askew so you can see that.
Mark stitching lines across the previous seams, corner to corner. Again, throw in a few pins for security. 

After stitching,  press to set your seam, and cut on the center line.

Fold these units matching the corners and snip on the fold line up to the seam allowance. It's okay if you snip through the seam, but try not to go too deeply. This snip releases the seam so you can press the seam allowance in opposite directions. 


See how that snip allows you to press the goose seam allowance toward the background?
You now have 2 of these units pressed nice and flat.

Using the appropriate flying goose ruler, match the ruler lines to the flying goose and cut around the ruler. Using a rotating mat is helpful. 

From the two units, you will get four geese. You can see there is some waste--but look at that perfect that flying goose! They are a dream to piece into your blocks because of how accurate they are--sooo worth the small amount of wasted fabric. 
 These are the next two blocks to work on until next month:
Page 10

Page 11
Some show and tell from Monday's meeting: 
Mary's green version--just a couple more borders!
Brenda's blue blocks.

Twiyla's (?--I'm pretty sure I didn't spell that correctly--sorry!)  grey and (I think we decided to call them tomato) red blocks!

Sandi is ready to have her Simply Red quilted. She used a Jo Morton border print for the outer border. 


  

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Processing


Some of the fun at a retreat is seeing what others are working on. Of course, it inspires you to want to make that project too, which can be dangerous! I came home with a whole list of new projects I want to create.

These are a few "in process" quilts from the Spring retreat:
My Paper Doll blocks are all put together--
they still need their eyes sewn on and a decision on the border is yet to be determined.

Love the scrappiness!

I need to start collecting cool backgrounds like Jane.

Jan's project looked so dimensional--kind of like the Labyrinth quilt she worked on last year. 

More fun scrappiness!

Awesome paper piecing!

Susie's Mrs. Billings so far.
I have a few closeups that I will share later.
Beautiful Trick or Treat baskets!
Thank goodness I've already made this one so I don't have to add it to my list. 

More fun scrappy piecing. 

Love the alternate block setting.

Super fun zigzag quilt.

These are so pretty--Edyta Sitar designs.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

A Sunny Day!!

Gosh, it's been so long since we've had a sunny morning! I'm amazed at how much brighter my sewing room is (and how much dust there is!) when we have a clear day. I'm hoping to get some machine quilting done today now that I can see what I'm doing.

On Monday night, we had the delightful Gudrun Erla as our speaker. She had taught a class earlier in the day and did a wonderful presentation/trunk show at our evening meeting. She is so funny and charming--if you get a chance to meet her, you won't be sorry! She brought along pieces from her fabric lines (Red Rooster) at a super price and gave everyone at the meeting a copy of one of her books which she graciously signed if desired.I've decided Gudrun is aging in reverse--she looks younger now than when she was our guild speaker almost 10 years ago!

These are some of the class participants and what they completed in class earlier that day. 

Oop--I cut off Mary!
I love hers and Dawn's runners--looks like American Jane fabrics were used. 

Gorgeous quilting on Gudrun's Round Robin quilt done by Angela Walters.
 I was really bad at getting photos of our show and tell--I didn't even think to do it until half way through the show, but I did get a few that turned out.
Awesome tree hanging.

Karla showed us some of the quilts that will be in the Cherrywood booth at Market.



Googly Eyes is pretty fun!
This fun Yellow Brick Road will be a gift.

Ed showed a QOV presented to his father-in-law that day. 

Char has come over to the scrappy side!

A beautiful dignity quilt bound for the nursing home.
Our guild makes them to cover the body of the deceased when they are taken from the building instead of using a body bag in view of the family.