Looking back....

....on the quilt I made for my 

Oldest Daughter's bed...

This quilt was a 

CHALLENGE!

Especially since I was new to quilting and...

what did I know??

The butterflies are Stack-N-Whack

BUT

The wing pieces are mirrored...

Meaning the back of the fabric had to show the design

almost as much as the front because the mirrored piece

was cut with the back as the right side.

You can see the slightly "faded" pieces that are

"upside down" shall we say?

The butterflies are made from a 

Hoffman print... I do remember that.

The border shows the whole fabric.

My Long Arm quilter did an

AMAZING job on this one, 

but it's hard to see her work on the fabric in a photo.

I can't remember the pattern name or the book from which it came.

Happy Quilting!

Machine quilting....

.... is not my forte,

but... I keep working on it.

I can quilt a decent looking meander, 

but beyond that... not so pretty.

I quilted this baby quilt and have the binding sewn around

 the edge, waiting to be turned and hand stitched.

This is the quilt that I had this disaster on the other day.

NOT what you want to see on the back of your quilt!

HOWEVER...

A hanging sleeve will cover the problem!

AND... thank goodness the quilt can be hung from any side.

PHEW... problem taken care of 

and no need for the 

SEAM RIPPER!!

Once this is finished, it will be another check off of my

Ten Things This Summer list.

I need Bright Colors!

I was playing in my 

Hidey Hole
(sewing room)

and after working with all of the 

reproduction fabrics of late,

I NEEDED to get out my batiks and play.

I needed BRIGHT COLORS!!

Out came my box of 5" Batik squares...

I cut 5" squares from white...

and I began to make a

Disappearing Four Patch quilt.

(Great Tutorial at the link above.)

Let me tell you...

these blocks are so much fun

AND

go together so quickly!

Having a swivel cutting mat makes cutting these

a breeze.

Ready to take to the sewing machine!

 

Now to decide on the layout....

I am leaning toward the second layout, but

I like them both!

My color fix has been taken care of for a while!

See what others are working on at
Patchwork Times .

:)

UGH!!

Have you ever had

ONE OF THOSE DAYS??!!??

Well...

NOT what you want to see on the

back of the quilt!

And this was after I spent last night doing this...

The results of

Free Motion Quilting

gone wrong!

I have stopped the FMQ for a while...

Things do come in three's!!

A mini from left over....

.....half square triangles.

I had HST's left over from making 

this quilt

and put them together to make a 

Mini!

Here it is, waiting for borders.

One thing I do when I am sewing rows of blocks together

to help keep the blocks in the right order,

is I leave the pieces joined after chain stitching each row.

I don't cut the blocks apart after I've sewn one row.

I just keep adding the next row of blocks or pieces

to the previous row

until the section or top is complete. 

All of the rows are joined at this point.

Now I will go back and sew the vertical row seams.

I do pin each intersection at this point.

The rows are all sewn, but not pressed.

Doing this helps me to keep things in the right order.

Plus, it also helps line the seams up easier. The stitching keeps the

blocks or pieces from moving too much.

With this mini, it is easy to use this method of joining the blocks.

It does become cumbersome with a big quilt top, 

but I think it does save time and keeps things

organized!

Happy Quilting!

One more....

... Christmas project...

This stocking is on my

"Ten Things This Summer" list, too.

The top is finished!

Now I need to make the quilted stocking

and sew the top to it.

These are sooo much fun to make!

One place I have purchased these kits is
Merry Stockings.

Enjoy!

Christmas in August continues!

While I am on this roll,

I thought I would share what I made last year for

my Christmas Tree.

I had wanted garland, but could not find any that

I liked.

So.....

What is a quilter to do?

Make her own!!

It was fun..

and mindless...

and went quickly...

and did I say fun?

I made yards and yards of these:

This large spool is a GREAT way to store these

strings of yoyo garland.

They don't tangle!

I made some for gifts, too.

Looked great wrapped around a package!

I have a big tree and wanted LOTS 

of garland.

It's a great project to work on while watching a movie,

waiting in the car, 

or if you have only a few minutes.

Happy Quilting!

Being tested....

I mentioned before that I am pretty much a 

self-taught quilter.

My mom began teaching me to sew when I was 8 years old

and since, I have made many, many garments, window treatments,

flags, quilts, etc.

Since I have taken very few classes over the years,

I am excited when I read or hear about a tip to make sewing easier.

Today I read a little tip on-line about ripping out seams.

The tip was to rip every 3rd or 4th stitch and then

pull the bottom thread right out.

I have always ripped each stitch.

WELL...

Here I am ... sewing the rows of the 

Christmas Tree Skirt

and....

You guessed it!

I had to rip out an entire row.
Then it was two more seams!
I have not had a sewing day like this in a
LONG TIME!

  

SO...

I tried my new tip

and

IT WAS SO MUCH FASTER!!

(This is why I don't pray for patience!  I don't want to be tested! :D)

More Christmas....

... in August!

While I had the Christmas fabric

out of the bin, pressed and sorted,

I decided to cut some squares

for table runners.

I used this

"recipe"

but modified it for the table runners.

It is QUICK AND EASY!!

The blocks for each runner are arranged differently.

 

Boy!!

I have A LOT of machine quilting

that needs to be done.

Would someone come pin baste for me?

Please??

Happy Quilting!

 :)

Design Wall Monday 8/17/13...

This week has had a 

Christmas in August 

Theme.

I have one Christmas Tree Skirt

top finished and ready to be quilted

and the other needs

the blocks to be sewn together.

This one is ready to be quilted.

This skirt needs the set in triangles

and then the blocks can be sewn together.

The fabric with the red bows is

dated... 1993!

I'm sure I didn't pay

$11/yard for this fabric!

The Christmas Tree skirts are on my

"Ten Things This Summer" post.

It will be nice

to have another check off of that list.

You can find the free pattern for this Christmas Tree skirt
here.

Happy Quilting!

Some knitting....

I have been doing some knitting

here and there...

and have finished a few

projects.

Knitting is so portable and the

one thing

I can do in the car.

Here are three shawls

I have finished.

None of them are blocked yet...

...something I have not done before!

(I've only knitted socks and washcloths before now.)

BUT I will learn how to block soon!

:)

This shawl is called

3 S 

and was an easy pattern. 

 These two shawls are called

Wingspan 

and were easy to make as well.

This is a good travel project because it 

requires very little counting 

or keeping track of where you are.

My kind of pattern!

And, NO...

your eyes are not deceiving you!

I didn't realize I had two different colors

of Sausalito yarn

until I was well into the second skein.

The difference isn't as noticable in person

BUT...

It SURE is in these pictures!

Oh well..

It's for me.

:)

 

Onto the.....

.... next project!

Christmas Tree Skirts!

We are invited to a wedding in 

October 

and the gift is going to be a

Christmas Tree Skirt. 

AND while I am making this one,

I'll make another one for a 

Christmas gift!

I have a bin FULL of Christmas fabric,

some dating back to the early 90's.

It's been fun pulling out some of

these fabrics and cutting into them

for these gifts.

 

The Tree skirt will be made with these

Hourglass blocks. 

As I was cutting for the tree skirt,

I cut blocks to make a table runner.

I'm playing with the blocks on my

Design Wall.

Happy Quilting!