Catching Up with Jane Austen

It's taken a few days to get back into the swing of everyday living after being gone at quilt retreat. There was lots of laundry and cleaning to catch up, but I finally got a chance to do a little sewing. The first thing I did was sew up the latest Jane Austen block--I don't want to fall behind!

Jane Austen Family Album block 5
I was going to do some fancy fussy cutting in the center of the block, but decided to take the opportunity to use one of the plaids instead.

This was a lot of fun--four of us at retreat are doing the sew along!!
At the top are Sharyn's--she is using leftover blocks and fabrics from an old project done up with mostly 3 Sisters from Moda.
Next, are my cousin Barb's Kaffe Fassett blocks.
Mine are third--you already know I'm using April Cornell plus other fabrics.
Lastly, Miriam is using Blackbird Design plums and working in some coordinates.
It was so fun to see how different the blocks looked with other fabrics and values! 

Yes!! I am the luckiest person on Moose Bay--I came home to all this fun stuff!
Yummy wool charms from Ebony Love of Lovebug Studios, 

A gorgeous set of Jillily's collection of Aurifil Thread and a few of Jill Finley's fun patterns,

Four half yard cuts of Blackbird Designs fabrics along with some super cool notions.
These were a special prize during the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour at the Sisters Quilting Trunk blog--I won this as well as issue 9 of 100 Blocks--yay! 

This is the sister's block--they are twins (get it?)! I can hardly wait to get the magazine--it's coming directly from Quiltmaker and is chock full of fun blocks!

Thank You...

I want to thank each and every one of you that sent me cards and messages and prayers concerning my Mom's passing--it really touched and humbled me to know there is so much support out there and I thank you for thinking of me.

I was deleting photos from my camera to make room for what I know will be awesome retreat pics, and I realized that I never posted these guild meeting photos--enjoy!! (I should note that it's been 3 weeks since the meeting, so I'm sorry I don't remember exactly who belongs to each quilt, but I'll do my best!)

I think this is Martha's quarter Trip quilt quilted by Rebecca.

From who is holding the quilt, this is either Val's or Cathy's--
I suspect Val because she is all about brights.

Val's pretty quilt: What Cancer Cannot Do

This wowzer was made from some fabrics Val picked up several years ago when we were at quilt market together--love it!!

This one could be Carol's or it could be Marie's...

So striking and huge!!

Carol's hooked Santa--awesome!

This one is by Carol too--a Princess Elephant--adorable!

Not sure who's behind this one!

I love this one! I'm making a similar quilt right now!

If I remember correctly,
Terri accent painted the pre-printed panel to coordinate with the Cherrywood fabrics surrounding it. 

Gorgeous Edyta Sitar strippy quilt.

and a few photos from our Sew-In the following day:

Sandi"s fabulous scrappy quilt--she better keep an eye on it or it may end up in one of my bags..

These are Irene's adorable Scottie's made from charms.

This quilt gives me chills.
Ed found this in his late wife Susanne's quilt stash--cut out and ready to sew up. 

Suzanne's daughter is expecting and Ed is finishing this quilt as a gift to her from her Mom.

Lastly--this is our guild raffle quilt for 2015.
It has elements from several different designers (used with permission) and was put together by an awesome team of gals from our guild.

While I'm away...

I'm at retreat from Saturday to Wednesday, but I am attempting to have a post while I'm away--it's never worked for me before, but I'm giving it another try and hopefully blogger will cooperate!

I've caught up on the Jane Austen blocks.

This one was a little tricky!

I promised to get back to Simply Red--I'm way overdue, but finally, here is what we covered in the April class:

We talked about an alternate way to complete the inner border. If you follow the book, you will need to make templates. If you don't mind your light triangles being split, this method is pretty easy:
You will need to cut 24 2"x 6.5" dark rectangles and 48 2" light squares. Mark a diagonal line on the back of the squares and sew on the lines as shown in the photo above. 

This is how your finished unit should look. One corner should be pressed toward the dark and the other toward the light. If you do this consistently, your pieces will nest together nicely when you sew them together. 

 These are the two blocks that should be finished up in May:

page 8

page 9

I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures from the April class--my bad! 

Under the Wire

I finished binding my Triangle quilt this week--just in time to still have it in the parade that ends tomorrow. Of course, I had to do the zigzag edge!

see all the finished quilts HERE

I tried taking photos outside this morning but it was crazy windy--
hard to arrange the quilt that's ready to fly away.

I almost got the whole thing before it blew off the railing....

so this is the quilt inside the house. I quilted it using Aurifil and did the usual Cinnamon Rolls....

except around the stars, where I did McTavishing and echoed inside the stars.
It will be a fun little throw if it doesn't get donated to Quilts of Valor--I have several other quilts in line for donation, so this one I may keep for myself. 

I've decided that I must have enough leader and ender spools to make a good sized quilt, soooo....

I printed up an EQ7 lay out for the Bonnie Hunter lozenges and cut 175 charms in half. I'm going to do all the 1.5" dark flippy corners first and then will cut the light corners--700 of them!
Using 5 inch charms and 1.5" corner squares, my quilt should end up 52"x 65"--a good size for donation.

It's Been A While....

My dear Mother passed away on Easter Sunday after suffering a fall on the previous Sunday. She was 88 years old and had a good life with a long marriage and seven children.

We will miss her so much. 

Obviously, I haven't been able to spend much time in the sewing room, but I do have some older photos that I had planned to share. I will do a Simply Red update later this week--our meeting was last Monday.

I finally got my Schnibbles Canasta quilted.
This was one of the quilts from last year's Another Year of Schnibbles.
I got to use some of my Jo Morton Blue Variety fabrics for this one.
It looks kind of small laying on the king size bed--it's a throw size. 

Hard to see, but the main part of the quilt is a small stipple, the blue inner border is an egg and dart design and the outer border is a feather. 

The quilting shows much better on the back. I took the top to a long arm quilting group and the consensus was to use meandering rather than a more contemporary design--so that is what I did. 

Earlier this month, I covered a small paper mache box to keep my Stitch Society hexagons all together. It won't hold all 180 of them, but with my slow progress, it will do for quite a while.

A perfect fit.

The blackberries, fox and rag doll.

Happy Easter!

I haven't had a lot of time to post, so I thought I'd do a quick little show of some of my wooly Easter projects from the past. 

Little penny mat--I think those are deviled eggs!

If I remember correctly, this was a pattern in a Better Homes and Gardens Quilt magazine.
All of the wooden rabbits in the photos were purchased at craft stores as bare wood. I painted them with acrylic paints--most of them are dated 1993 on the bottoms. I thinned the paints a lot and applied washes of color so they aren't glossy.

This is a Brandywine pattern from one of Linda Hohag's books.
I used a Wildflower's variegated pearl cotton for the buttonhole stitching.

I think this little picture was from a Need'l Love book.
A velveteen rabbit is helping to hold it up!

Another Need'l Love book pattern--love the cabbages!
I hope your Easter baskets will be filled with treats!

A Little Catching Up....

There's not a lot happening in the sewing room right now, but I thought I would post a few things before I  begin preparing Mr. Moosebay's dinner. I have to get an early start since tonight is our guild meeting.

This is last week's Jane Austen block from Barbara Brackman.
I am making my blocks 6" so I do a conversion in my BlockBase program. 

This is a mock up of Block 2 on one of my design boards. 

This was the second arrangement I laid out and ended up sewing together.
Unfortunately, I didn't notice that I left the setting in BlockBase to round to the nearest 1/8th inch, so my block was too big--not much, but too big--ack!!

Since I had to reverse sew, re-cut, and re-sew, I changed those half square triangles.
There was not enough contrast in the originals.
 I'm much happier with it now although cutting 1-11/16th inch squares isn't the most fun I've had lately!

My Triangle Sew Along top is all sewn together and ready to quilt.
I plan on leaving the jagged sides just for fun.
Gotta run so no links today--sorry!!!!