It's a Top!

Yay!!!
All the components have come together and Words To Live By is a completed top.
Hopefully I have some fabrics appropriate for the back.
 I didn't have room on the design wall to show the whole thing--the quilt is big--almost 90" square.

My Stitching Society pin cushion went together a lot easier than I thought it would.
I gathered the sides of the bottom hexagon using a matching floss in case it ended up showing.
I sewed 5 of the sides with a quarter inch seam on my sewing machine--worked out great!

Turning and stuffing was another story--haha!
There is a muslin pocket inside that I filled as much as possible with crushed walnut shells.
I wasn't happy with the corners, so I used a chopstick to work some poly stuffing into them.
Now I know why the pattern has mini yoyos on each corner!
I may add some felted wool balls if I find the right color. Otherwise, I am okay with it now. 

Back to the hand stitching on my wooly hexagons....

Happy Dance!

My Words To Live By borders are finally pieced--hopefully all the components will come together into a top this weekend.

You may have noticed that the color placement of the half square triangles in all four borders is exactly the same (unless I messed up!).
A chart in the pattern shows how to sew the HST's together. My first thought was to just wing it and start sewing. Then I reconsidered and decided it may be a good idea to follow the layout, as it may help with distributing the colors evenly around the center of the quilt.

Unfortunately, I ran out of black HST's toward the end of the fourth border--ack!
Fortunately, I had extra fabric, so I was able to make 36 more.
Because of the size of the flannel board I have set up next to my sewing machine, I found it easiest to make the borders in sections of 4x8 HST's rather than the longer sections shown in the pattern.

(If you are planning to make Words To Live By, you may want to make a note in your pattern where it tells you to make a total of 672 Half Square Triangle:
You will need 372 black, 216 red, and 84 green Half Square Triangles.
In the cutting instructions for cutting the 16- 2 7/8"squares from assorted dark fabrics,
you will need to cut 6 black, 6 red, and 4 green.)
Yes, I did count all those Half Square Triangles.
Yes, I am a bit anal.
You're welcome!

Tuesday was the Breezy Point sew-in. We had lots of fun and some great show and tell.
This is Brenda's gorgeous Simply Red all quilted and ready to be bound.

Caroline brought a pretty Paris themed quilt she made for her daughter.

Fun swirly quilting.

Val brought her beautiful batik version of Bertie Through the Year--there will be borders added to make it bed size.

So cute--all the embroidery is done by machine.

Such fun blocks--I can't believe I resisted making this quilt!!

And Sandi is hand quilting her Love Letters quilt by Blackbird Designs--it's going to be stunning!!!

November Stitching Society Project

This month, the Stitching Society project is a pincushion, which is great--only one hexagon required for a busy, busy month! 

I couldn't decide what design to use, so I went with #7--the day of my birthday.
It looks like I can do some fun stitching on it: Ala Sue Spargo.

I chose some really bright fun colors for a change.
It's been pretty dark and dreary outside, so I need a little cheering up!

While I'm stitching on this today,
 I will be contemplating how the heck I will sew the small top and large bottom hexagons together.
 The pattern says to "gather slightly". Hmmmm..... 

linking up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching HERE--check it out!

I was (am) a HST Zombie

I get bored distracted, and my mind starts to wander to more fun things than putting these zillions of triangles together.

I think I am going to see Half Square Triangles in my sleep if I don't get them finished soon.

Two outer borders done--two to go!

 '

The setting triangles are all sewn onto the appliqued blocks.
They need to be squared up to 17.5 inches--not easy to do and keep the design centered when your largest square ruler is 14.5.
That's why they are still sitting on the cutting board. 

Luckily, when I was at Joanne's with my Veteran's Day 60% off coupon in my hot little clutches, the rulers were NOT on sale, allowing me to be able to use said coupon--yay!
 I was able to get a 20.5" ruler for just a bit over 20 bucks. I'm not sure how often I will need to use it, but it was a necessary purchase to finish up my Words to Live By quilt. 

Okay, back to those triangles. Yeesh.....

Another Woolie Wednesday

I'm kind of slacking off on finishing my Words to Live By piecing. I think it's all the snow we have already--I just feel like snuggling up with some hot tea, a mystery on TV, and my wool hexagons. 

Soooo....that means I have lots of hexies to show!
These 5 I restitched--I had already made these designs for my fall wall-hanging.
My plan is to put all 180 designs into a wool throw--we'll see how that works out next year.
I already showed you the Owl  HERE;  the rest of the 15 fall hexagons are:

Apple Tree

Leaves and Berries

Harvest

Cornucopia 

Sunflower House

Apple Basket

Pumpkins

Scarecrow

Lastly--the Turkey!
That's it for Autumn--next up: Christmas, of course!

Another Busy Week

Between the Simple Whatnot's meeting at Colorz and Stitching Society at Gruber's, I've managed to accomplish a few things in the sewing room. 

I started putting together Words to Live By. The half square triangles have been finished for over a month and I figured it was about time to start sewing them together. 

I'm really loving how the triangles look around the center block--I'm excited now to get this project finished.

I also made a few place-mats for Meal on Wheels. 

Our guild makes them every year and they are given out with a Christmas meal. I raided my Orphan Block bag and added fabrics from my stash to make them place-mat size--good to get some of those blocks and some older fabrics from the stash used up! 

This one was made with reject blocks from my Around the Block quilt and the Temecula 12 Days of Christmas quilt.

This was a test block for a model at Colorz for Quilts.
(Diamond Diva by Anka's Treasures)

This one was a class sample for the Sew Simple Pineapple by Karin Hellaby

Leftover blocks from Trick or Treat quilt.
There are still more blocks in the Orphan Block bag, but they will have to wait a while to come out to play. 

The Owl
Of course, I am still stitching on my wool hexagons!
I have stacks of them ready to stitch as time allows, so they will make a good Sunday pick-up project.

Linking up the Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Just A Little Reminder and a few more Halloween Hexies!

Voting has opened for the Bloggers Quilt Festival. 

You can vote for 3 different quilts by clicking on the little heart in the upper right corner of the thumbnail photos at the bottom of the post HERE. That link goes to the scrappy category where my Paper Dolls quilt is entered.
 There are many more categories that you can find HERE--lots of fun browsing!

Finally, the last of the Halloween Hexies!
The Spider

The pattern packet says this is a Zombie, but it looks like a Mummy  to me?!?

The Haunted House--what's behind those glowing red eyes.....!

I spent the weekend setting up my next group of hexies. I usually do 15 at a time since that's how many designs come in each month's packet, but since I am so far behind, I am choosing fabrics for 45--yikes!
My wool scraps are sorted by color in plastic bags. I save even the tiniest scrap since they are usable in the hexagons.
You can see I have a horrendous mess on my hands! 

And on the floor too...
Once I get the fusible pattern on the wool, I rough cut the pattern design pieces, put them with a background hexagon, and stack them.
Then I can put all those bags away and get on with the next step in my process:

 When I have some time to sit, I can trim the pattern pieces and start placing them onto the backgrounds.
Then they will be fused down and ready for stitching--the perfect little take along project.
There maybe a better way to do this, but it's seems pretty efficient to me.
I plan to do some cleaning today--kind of obvious, I guess!