WIP Wednesday #3

Added another project to my WIP list...  Actually it's a 6 month 'block of the month' quilt and I just received the THIRD month's package!  I'm only 1/2 through the first month so this one needs to get on AND move UP the WIP list if I hope to ever catch up :) 

This is a picture of the quilt when it's complete:

Sunflower Glacier Star - Quilting by the Bay

This is the first month's block - making 8 of them:

And this is what I have done so far - all 8!

OK,  sad...   But I also have the rest of block one cut out!

I also worked more on Mason's graduation quilt, back of the quilt this time.  I have all the strip pieces cut out and paired up for sewing the block tops.  This took a long time as I am using 30 or so of the Bali pops from the Sangria collections.  I found that some of the fabrics were too light.  I have also collected and cut out 20 or so different fabrics for the background pieces.  Will have some actual pictures of the quilt shortly  :)

 

WIP Update: (date) is when entered the list or last worked on...  8/17/11 is my starting point

Completed Projects:
Nothing completed this week. 
 
New Projects:
Sunflower Glacier Star 8/31/11

Ongoing Projects:
Mason's graduation quilt - Back - continued - cut out fabric and started to assemble blocks 8/31/11

No progress:
Berry Bliss Twin Quilt 2of2 played with several designs... still deciding pattern 8/17/11
Eric's Browning Quilt (Christmas present 2010!!!) made multi-fabric binding strip  8/24/11
Snowman Quilt - top together awaiting borders, quilting, and binding 8/17/11
SVQG - Mystery Quilt month 1 of 4 (August) 8/17/11
Boat Log Cabin Quilt 8/17/11
Rose of Sharon wall hanging 8/17/11
Row Robin Sampler Quilt! have 5 strips of four blocks each... MoVeD the rows around... Still Thinkin...  8/24/11

This week’s stats:
New projects – 1
Completed projects –0
Currently in progress – 9

Wordless Wednesday!

photo credit:  Eric Joerger

Patriotic Trip Around the World!

This is a quilt that I made as a Thank You to our friend Christine.  It didn't take me long to decide on a Patriotic theme for Chris as her camp is filled with Red, White, and Blue items, flags and more, in honor of her family who has proudly serviced our country!

I decided to use five fabrics in the quilt using red, white, & blue, as the color choices and flags and stars as theme fabrics.  Once I collected the color and design fabrics I thought they would fall wonderfully into a Trip Around the World Pattern. This is the quilt with one layer of each fabric. 

And this is the quilt completed.  It measures 60" square - my favorite size for a couch.

I machine quilted this quilt on my Pfaff.  Can you see the Stars?!  This is my first attempt at a free-motion meandering star design.  

 I love the way that the red variegated thread shows up on the back. It was however a bit lost on the busy trip around the world pattern on the front  :)

Chose Pattern Design... Can't find the name?

I have chosen the design that I am going to use on Mason's graduation quilt back...  But I can't find the name of the block...  It first I thought it was 'Jacob's Ladder' but realized that it wasn't the same.  If anyone knows the name of this block I would love to hear it!!

I first saw this block when my quilting friend, Lynn, was making a quilt at the Fall SVQG retreat.  She was using tiny plaid fabrics and it was beautiful. 

I am using the Hoffman's Sangria Bali Pops for the fabric :)  Below is how these blocks go together. I plan to mix up all of the mediums and darks from this collection for the dark squares and triangles.  I also plan to use many lights ranging from white-on-white to batik mediums for the light triangles.

To start:

Cut assorted Bali Pops into 2 1/2” x 10” strips  (A)

Cut assorted Light background colors into 5 1/4” x 10” pieces (B)

Sew one (A) to one (B) using 1/4" seam allowance.  Each of these sections will produce 4 finished blocks.

(A) dark fabric at top / (B) light fabric at bottom.

Cutting into 4 - 2 1/2" by length strips as shown above (dotted lines).  After cutting into 4 sections line 2 of the pieces like this and stitch together:

You then place this piece - right sides together with a dark piece of fabric like this:

 Sew on the solid lines above so that you are just touching the corner of the dark square.  After both lines have been sewn cut 1/4" away from the sew line as shown (dotted lines).  Iron your piece towards the large dark triangles and finished they should look this:

I plan to set these squares on point.

digital design built in computer

Now to figure out just how many I will need....

Again, if anyone knows the name of this block - please let me know!

Thanks!!

Wordless Wednesday!

photo credit:  Eric Joerger

WIP Wednesday #2

 Thought I would share with you the fabrics I am using in the "Boat Log Cabin Quilt" listed below in my 'No progress' section.

This is a pillow I made with 4 of the log cabin blocks.

 
 Can't take credit for this in this week's WIP as it was a gift to our friend Christine just about a year ago...  Seems the "Boat Log Cabin Quilt" has been in the WIP for quite a while....


WIP Update: (date) is when entered the list...  8/17/11 is my starting point


Completed Projects:
Nothing completed this week. 
 

Ongoing Projects:
Eric's Browning Quilt (Christmas present 2010!!!) made multi-fabric binding strip  8/24/11
Mason's graduation quilt - Top - cut out fabric and started to assemble blocks 8/24/11
Row Robin Sampler Quilt! have 5 strips of four blocks each... MoVeD the rows around... Still Thinkin...  8/24/11


No progress:
Berry Bliss Twin Quilt 2of2 played with several designs... still deciding pattern 8/17/11
Snowman Quilt - top together awaiting borders, quilting, and binding 8/17/11
SVQG - Mystery Quilt month 1 of 4 8/17/11
Boat Log Cabin Quilt 8/17/11
Rose of Sharon wall hanging 8/17/11
 

This week’s stats:
New projects – 1
Completed projects –0
Currently in progress – 7

College Graduation! Creating to show how Proud you are of them!!

One year ago my daughter Kristen graduated from college.  Being the oldest, she was the first of our kids to graduate.  I began thinking of what I could make her that would show just how proud her Dad and I were of her...  At the same time I realized that this would become the standard as our other 3 children completed their education.  It didn't take me long to decide on a quilt! But I wanted this quilt to be special. Something to keep her warm, to hug her at the end of the day, and to remind her that wherever she is, we're still there for her. During this time she was setting up her first apartment and creating her first home so I wanted her to decide on colors and theme.

So off we went to one of my favorite Quilt Shops - The Quilt Patch :)
 


We walked in the door and Sue, the owner, greeted me by name. After introductions off Kristen went searching through the fabric and patterns for what would make her new apartment more homey.  Kristen is always very fun to shop with as she has wonderful taste and unique style!  She decided on a simple pattern named "Just Can't Cut It"  - but added her own flair with very exciting colors!

Kristen immediately knew the color theme she was after and chose several fabrics right off.  With the help of Sue! a pro at putting different textures of fabric together, Kristen made her final fabric choices and ended up with these 6 - don't they just BRIGHTEN THINGS UP A BIT!

Funny, I have two of these fabrics in my 'stash' and NEVER would have thought of putting this combination together.  I love to work with other people and see new ideas!  Always learning new things.  :)
 
The finished quilt front come together beautifully and after adding the borders and multi-colored binding this is the quilt as Kristen received it:

Kristen's graduation quilt 2010

Kristen loved the quilt! but she was in for a surprise...  I designed the back to also be a quilt!  Using all of the fabrics she had chosen I decided to go with more lights so that she would have two different 'looks' to choose from.  Here are a couple pictures of the back.  Aren't the pinwheels fun?!

close up pinwheel design

Full back of quilt.

Here is the Quilt folded so that you can see both sides.

This past May our son Mason graduated and has just made his fabric choice and being a boy...  looked at the several! quilt tops in process and said 'that one looks nice' to a 9 patch design.  He chose Hoffman's Sangria Bali Pops for the fabric :)      I'm heading out for a retreat mid-September with my girlfriends from SVQG and plan on this quilt to be one of my projects.....  What shall I do with the back???.... 

Girl Friend and Quality Quilting Time!  Can't beat that...  

And I would have to say that I've never seen a Bali Pop that I didn't want to take home and play with!! 

There... admitted ONE of my guilty pleasures!!

Magic and Imagination! When in doubt watch a child play!

The other day I went for a walk with a new friend.  About a mile from our camp there is a wonderful place called The Fells.  Below is a picture and link to their web site.

The Fells - Newbury, NH

The grounds are beautiful and you could easily spend hours walking through them.  We stumbled along a very magical place known as the Fairy Village.

 In this area the Fells supplies lots of Nature for children and adults to come and build wonderful Fairy Houses!  This is the gate you must pass through to enter the Fairy Village:

 

Looking at these creative houses I could almost imagine the fairies hiding until I went away!

 

This walk through the Fairy Village took me back to the days when my children were much younger and still believed in the magic of Fairies!!  

Are you still a kid at heart?  

I think we should all take the time to see the wonder!

Have a magical day! :)

Rose of Sharon & Flying Geese?

I took my first machine applique course this past Spring and I don't know WHY I waited SO long!!  This one course taught by Carmen Geddes took ALL my fear of machine applique away :) 

This is a project - my second machine applique piece!, using the pattern from the class.  I am once again using the Hard Candy Batik fabric collection.  This collection just doesn't get boring!  So many colors... So many ideas!!  This is the center piece of the wallhanging which is from the class:

Rose of Sharon

From here it's my own design.
I went crazy making 4 paper pieced strips of Flying Geese with the rainbow colors:

15 colors in this Rainbow Flying Geese strip.

I played around with how to attached them...  Facing down, facing up, Left to right, right to left???  And what to do in corners....  I decided to use Pinwheels in the corners:

4 Colors in this corner Pinwheel (note the pin?)

And this is how I brought it all together:

Now I have to decide how to quilt and bind this wall hanging.


Did you notice the PIN in the pinwheel picture above?  I have become so relaxed with our new place that this project has been hanging on the wall UNFINISHED for over a month!  Maybe I shouldn't be so proud of that?!  Oh well...

WIP Wednesday #1

This is my first WIP post SO the in progress list is well...  Lengthy!


Recently completed from my WIP list is Berry Bliss Twin Size Quilt:

Berry Bliss Bali Pop (retired-so sad!)

I love working with these Bali Pops!  I am making two coordinating but not matching quilts to go on a trundle bed, each using the Berry Bliss Bali Pop.  The bed has a metal daybed style frame in Hunter Green and looks wonderful with these colors.  (Didn't get a picture on the bed-I'll save that for the second one! :)

I recently saw a sample quilt at a quilt shop and loved the pattern. I used 4 of the Berry Bliss colors in each square then added a border strip on each side.

 

Simple yet it comes together and looks very interesting. The quilt took 150 of these squares plus the boarder to complete the quilt.

 The love the effect on the finished quilt!

This is the largest quilt I have machined quilted so far.  I am quite happy with how the quilting turned out.  Practice... practice... practice!!  :)

WIP Update: (date) is when entered the list...  8/17/11 is my starting point

Completed Projects:
Berry Bliss - Twin Quilt 1of2  Done! and on our lakehouse trundle bed!  One down, one to go!
 
Ongoing Projects:
Eric's Browning Quilt (Christmas present 2010!!!) attached borders, pinned for quilting 8/17/11
Berry Bliss Twin Quilt 2of2 played with several designs... still deciding pattern 8/17/11

No progress:
Row Robin Sampler Quilt! have 5 strips of four blocks each... need to complete 8/17/11
Snowman Quilt - top together awaiting borders, quilting, and binding 8/17/11
SVQG - Mystery Quilt month 1 of 4 8/17/11
Boat Log Cabin Quilt 8/17/11
Rose of Sharon wall hanging 8/17/11
 

This week’s stats:
New projects – 1
Completed projects – 1
Currently in progress – 5