Summer Sewing

Cleaning up the prior day I forgot to move this pile of scraps, meowing ensued rather loudly the next morning until I came and moved what was invading "her" space. Amazing how they "train" us!
If you have not visited the various Pets On Quilts participants, I urge you to do so. There are so many cute pets and quilts to enjoy.

This is the quilt Cinabella has claimed and was shown on in the prior post. It's made out of leftovers from a prior project, no pattern just squares put together in an effort to use up a small amount of pink chenille I had leftover.

I just quilted it by meandering.

And bordered it using my favorite fabric. I bought all my LQS had at the time but wish I had more.  It's called Charlotte by Anna Fishkin for Red Rooster Fabrics. I know it's silly but I have an irrational love of it!

Those green ferns on a mottled background and I swoon everytime!  You can see the other fabrics in the line archieved  here. I am glad my LQS had the green ferns as that would have been my choice of the 4 colors offered.

This is the quilt the budgies were on. I call it the Wisdom Teeth quilt. My daughter had her 4 wisdom teeth removed in May 2007 and to keep her company I perused Ebay for the first time. I was the winning bid on a stack of 9-patches thinking I really scored.  They were all made using Joann's fabric and rayon thread! Uh oh! That taught me to read Ebay carefully and ask questions. So, I sat, in between making mashed potatoes for my daughter, and ripped out the thread and re-sewed the 9-patches. This is only half of them, the ones I thought went together. I do love the way it turned out.

Except for the binding. I made a two-colored binding, yellow on front and aqua on back, but you can see the aqua through the yellow binding on the front. Sort of. I don't know if it's worth the effort of re-binding it though.

These are 8-inch blocks I donated to a quilter who is making a Quilts of Valor quilt. I swore I'd not make another Missouri Star block that small again and then Randy posted one at six-inch! I grumbled and complained but did it and it wasn't too bad.

I wish I'd used a darker fabric for the star points.

This is Handweave.

And this is Boxes and Baskets.
Glad you came for a visit~

What I've Been Up To

A bit of sewing...getting caught up with Randy's Sow-A-Long:  Clay's Choice.

Anvil. I think my HSTs got a bit turned from hers. I found a fat eighth of that gold background in my stash from a line called Democracy by Sandy Gervais.  Wish I had more.

And Flock of Geese.  All six-inch blocks.

A bit of sewing for the Ugly Fabric Challenge. That's a sixteen inch Churn Dash block, pencil included for scale, featuring two of the 'uglies' I received. I've already finished one quilt that I have not posted about yet. I wanted to do all my sewing before showing the finished projects. I've never made such a large Churn Dash before, it had me giggling, I confess to being easily amused!

A bit of wildlife watching...The poor deer in our area are loosing their territory to new construction and are showing up backyards panicked.

And a bit of shopping. I am still working on a Christmas gift certificate from a LQS. The Halloween charm pack was so happy I couldn't resist it.

I sure wish pattern designers would stop trying to wield power they do not possess. It drives me nuts when they think they can tell  buyers of their patterns that they cannot sell the products you make. Wrong! The buyer cannot reproduce the paper pattern but the designer cannot control what the buyer does with the end-product. The first sentence is correct, the second is not. Along the same lines, there is a LQS that claims people cannot take pictures of quilts made from patterns sold in her store because the designers will not allow it. Another silly claim. And that's the end of my rant!
Thanks for stopping by~

A Trio Of Blocks

After a trip to the grocery store in the rain, I made some HSTs  for a block Randy had published on Wednesday for her Sow-A-Long.  Oy, those HSTs are too small for my tastes.  I've tried ironing them and flattening with books when still hot---I'm sure steam would do wonders but I've never been able to use it without distorting the block.

I must have misread and cut the squares way too large cause I had a lot to cut to get to 1.5 inches trimmed.

And here's the 6-inch block finished.

I decided not to make the second block Randy posted and went with this one instead.  It's still 6-inch, of course---I think it's called Framed Pinwheel. 

And this is Thrifty.  Nice and easy after those HSTs on the first block. 

Talk to you later~

Sewing

Here's the latest Sow-A-Long block that Randy posted this past Sunday.  I think I'm cheating with that brown dotted fabric lumping it with the Civil War reproductions but I couldn't resist using it.

I pressed all the seams open and that helped immensely getting the block to lay flat.  The blocks are all six-inches finished.

Because the HSTs are small, two-inches unsewn, I've been making them a bit larger and then trimming them down to size.  I originally used a small square ruler but it kept slipping until I tried my very large fifteen-inch square ruler.  It looks silly but is really stable!

Next up, more work on my Ugly Fabric Challenge---the green batik being the ugly one.

This is the collection of uglies I received.

And part of a block I made.  I am having a difficult time working in my favorite, the vegetable print on the lower right.  I have until October to figure something out. 

Lastly, a picture of some baby heirloom tomatoes.  I've been seeing these recently at Fresh Market and thought I'd try them.  My understanding is they are not hybrids and are from historical seeds, the way tomatoes used to look before big agriculture got involved.
Talk to you later~

Caught Up

I am caught up with the Sow-A-Long.  This is Road To Fortune.  I ended up making two blocks as I made HSTs by mistake and decided to make a basket block with some of them.

Here's that one. 

Then I needed to sew the last block in the 2011 Designer Mystery BOM from the FQS.  I emailed Kimberly Jolly this morning and asked where the finished quilt was and she pointed me in the right direction.  I think I'll probably come up with something on my own as I am not nuts about what's offered.  I also modified the last block, something I have been doing throughout the year long series.  I just wasn't crazy about those tiny pieces in the middle and on the outer edge.  It looked like a variation on the Memory block so I went with that.

I bought a pamphlet back when I first started making quilts that has 171 different blocks with directions in 12-inch and 9-inch sizes.  It has come in so handy through the years I marvel that I only paid $7.50 for it. 
Talk to you later~

Friday

Not much sewing today---I only made two of three six-inch blocks for the Sow-A-Long.  This one is Yankee Puzzle which reminds me of a swastika.  I'm hoping it will just blend in with the other blocks once I get the top sewn together.

And this one's Aunt Sukey's Choice.  I pretty much stayed with the colors Randy used for hers. 

I had more to do but my daughter dragged me to the movies to see 'Chernobyl Diaries'.  The movie was so-so---a bit creepy and a little suspenseful but not much---we never get to truly see the scary creatures, just glimpses.   
Talk to you later~

More Blocks

I spent the afternoon getting caught-up with Randy's Sow-A-Long blocks that she posted right before I left for St. Louis.  This is Union Square.  I loved her rendition so I used the same colors she did.  It looks large but they are six-inch blocks so those corner squares will be one-inch when finished.  This is a real challenge working with such small blocks.  It bothers me what with all the effort needed to get them to lay flat. I am sure a steam iron would help but I find, for me, the steam distorts the block.   And that red, is not as orange as the picture suggests. 

And finally, Battlegrounds. 

I have a confession to make.  I bought this ruler way back when I began quilting and never used it.  I had no idea what it was for.  I think it's misnamed.  If it is used to make Half-Square Triangles, then I would have put that in its name.  I have figured out how to use it and have been making all my HSTs from it.  It does take a bit getting used to the fact that you are sewing a seam on the bias.  All day, I've felt like I've re-discovered the wheel!
Happy sewing~

Take Six

 A few of my blocks so far:  They are all 6-inch blocks from the Sow-A-Long organized by Randy and some I found at Barbara Brackman's blog Civil War Quilts .

 The Civil War Quilts blog has a wealth of information surrounding the blocks if you are interested in this era in our history. 

 One of my favorites is tea leaf.  I'd like a whole quilt with this block. 

Fruit Basket is one of the latest blocks in the Sow-A-Long.  I didn't get a chance to do the other two before leaving for St. Louis.
Talk to you later~

Corn and Beans

I think this is Corn and Beans.  It's a Sow-A-Long I joined midstream over at Randy's Blog.  I believe it was started based on the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book but the author took offense!  Not really clear what the offense was but, a change in strategy was called for.  So the blocks are not from the book but are commonly acknowledged blocks in the public domain.  Postings of new blocks occur on the first and third Wednesdays of the month with  random Bonus blocks thrown in every so often.  Here's the blurb about the book  from Amazon,

" Be Inspired by the Stories The 1922, The Farmer's Wife magazine posed this question to their readers: "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, have her marry a farmer?" The magazine at the time had 750,000 subscribers, and received over 7,000 letters. The best answers to this question are included in this book, along with the traditional quilt blocks they inspired."


Following the book yields 111  6-inch blocks set on point and sashed.  Since I started a few weeks ago I've made close to 40 of the blocks.  They are addicting!  I have been adding different blocks along the way in addition to Randy's.

I have resorted to going through my stash to locate wayward Civil War reproduction fabric and picked up a few fat quarters locally.  I never considered doing anything but repro fabric for mine but perusing the internet there are some wonderful blocks and quilts using modern fabrics. 

That bottom pink fabric  has the date on the selvedge:  1993.  I also got rid of a fair amount of fabric from the early to mid 90s that was just not quilt shop quality and I knew I'd never use. 
I'll have pictures of the other blocks later~  Thanks for stopping by.