Quilt Marathon Recap

I didn't do too badly! Three out of four got quilted. And the fourth one, it's just as well (but that's a story for another day!)

I warmed up with this one....

While cleaning up one day, I found these giant (like 15" square) pinwheels, and the stripes, all leftovers from a charity quilt I did for South East Early Head Start. With the addition of the dark purple, it was enough for another charity quilt.

Next was my plus quilt.

I really like how this came out. The pops of red make me smile. Although I've been practicing leaves and vines with my free motion quilting, I chickened out and did an all over meaner. I'll save the leaves for another day.

Lastly, I finished my drunkards path made entirely of men's shirting. I love, love, love this one! The pieces were die cut on an accucut machine and went together beautifully! I really need to dive into my box of shirting again. It looks so fresh and crisp.

tickle, tickle!

String Progress:

So, that looks like 26 strings. I'm a little behind. 5 today to keep on track. You know what, it's growing on me! I think I like it!

Quilting Marathon Tomorrow

Four little quilts need to be quilted and bound before I start something new (like my Swoon! Thanks for your comments. Since it's not really going to be mine, but Katie's, I let her choose. Loulouthi for her! Unless, of course, she changes her 15 year old mind before I get started!)


So, no pictures of quilts, but I'll leave you some of the Cherry Blossoms in Washington DC. We were there last week, about 6 days before peak. Still beautiful!

Thinking of Swooning

Have you Swooned yet? I've been thinking about it for months, and now is the time (as in no deadlines or major obligations ahead)


There's a quilt a long on flickr that I joined ages ago, but have yet to make a single block.


These are the fabrics I'm considering ~ either some Amy Butler Soul Blossoms or Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi.


What do you think?

Soul Blossoms                                                                                                                                    Loulouthi

          


I really need to ask Katie Cakes. She'll probably steal it!

Catching up with the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild

I had a marathon of guild sewing a while back. We have a bee, where we make blocks quarterly, which means I had well over 3 month to make 6 blocks. Yup, waited until the day before they were due. I decided to jump on the chevron bandwagon and make these:

I got the pattern from Craftsy. Have you been there yet? Lots of great classes, and lots of free projects. They're doing a BOM, 2 blocks per month, with a different theme each month. Oh, and it's FREE! Fun ~ check them out.


Also due on that Sunday, our Round Robin blocks. I think this was round 2. I can only give you a little peak, as we've decided to be surprised at the end of the Round Robin.

And, if that wasn't enough, our pincushion swap was that day. I made this little owl:

 And see the little chicken next to the owl? I took that one home!

Next month, only 1 challenge block, 1 round robin and 1 logo block due. Better start now....

String Block a Day Update

I'm a little behind on blog posts, so I think I'll do a bunch of short ones, instead of a mega one. This is the first one that comes to mind. The good news is, I'm keeping up with the blistering pace of one block per day. The bad news is, I'm getting bored with it. The reason I stopped using these fabrics in the first place is because I was kind of over the "brown" color palette. 22 blocks later, bored again. And, my stash of scraps seems to be growing, rather than disappearing. I do plan to slug along and finish the job, though. I mean, it's not that bad!

 

Hosting on The Vintage Sheet Blog Today!

After I posted my Vintage Sheet Heart Baby Quilt tutorial over on Tammie's blog, she sent a link over to Heather at The Vintage Sheet Blog. Since then, Heather and I have been emailing back and forth. She's  a sweetie, and does a great job with the blog. Such a wonderful collection of vintage sheet projects. Twice a month Heather has a link up party where people post their latest vintage sheet projects. She invited me to host this weekend's  party!! Woo hoo! What's a party without presents, right? So, in honor of the party, I've whipped up a little mini tutorial for you. Not so much a tutorial as a method with measurements. This is what I made for you:  (oh and keep reading to the end to find out about a giveaway!)

A cute little log cabin baby quilt. This measures about 40" square.

So, here's how I did it. Start with a 6" center square. Take your first set of logs and add to the top and bottom. Then, using the same fabric, same width, add the side logs.

Done with round one! Press after every top/bottom addition and every side addition. And, remember, if you're working with vintage sheets, dial the iron down a bit. Screaming hot irons will melt your fabric.

Square up your quilt every round or two.

Continue to add rounds, until your quilt is as big as you'd like. I like to vary the widths of my logs. Below I show how wide I cut my logs (measurement includes 1/2 inch for seam allowances.)

Baste, Quilt, Bind and you're done!

Want to make one just like it? I've made up some kits and Heather is giving one away on the Vintage Sheet Blog link up party! Head over there now! I also have a few kits for sale in my Etsy shop! If you've never tried Vintage Sheets before, I hope you do. Lots of fun, bright colors, super soft and just the right blend of Vintage and Modern. Have a great weekend!

A Few Finishes, A Few Starts

I've been plugging away at some older projects, starting a few new ones. This one is a bee block quilt from my pals at Bee Vintage. I asked the gals to make a 15" block, using 100 2" squares, using this tutorial. I think I've had the bulk of these blocks since May. I even had them laid out and ready to go. Then the flood happened. So that was the end of that. A few weeks ago, I decided to give them another try. Happy to report, no disasters, and this is the result:

Love how it turned out. Because of the quilter's grid, it's really sturdy, so it's become a picnic quilt. And I do believe it's going up to 70 today! Pass the potato chips!

This next guy I'm calling the Andrea's Basement Quilt. My SIL has been doing some serious house purging lately, in anticipation of the arrival of a little one. A furry little one. She's getting a puppy! On a recent de-stashing, she gifted me with a bag of fabric. This little dino panel was in the stash. So I whipped it up into a small quilt. This will go to Early Head Start.

Do you have plans for the next few quilts you want to make? I do. But every so often, one will jump the line. It seems like the Granny Square quilt is the latest darling of the flickr quilting community. I like the look, but wasn't planning to make it. But then, I saw that someone was making it in fruit an vegetable fabric. I've had some small cuts, like 6 " x 7" cuts, of produce fabric in my stash forever! Granny, here I come!

If you're interested, there's a QAL going on over on flickr. I deviated slightly, and made my blocks 3" instead of 2.5, so I could eat up every bit of my fruits and veggies. I had to supplement a bit. Up close, the green/stripey fabric kind of looks like watermelon rind. I also used the hst/qst method for the setting triangles instead of the original tutorial that has you use all squares and then lop them off. Didn't want all that exposed biased on the edges. (you can read more about this here.)I think this will finish around 40", so it will probably end up as a table topper in the kitchen.

Let's see. I finished about 10 squares in my String a Day quilt. I'm really liking it! I tend to make my block first thing in the morning (right after coffee and journaling.) It's a nice warm up if I'm going to do more sewing and gets my day off to a good creative start.

In knitting news, I've finished three  preemie hats (we call the Tiny Toppers!) I got all fancy with this one and made a pom pom. Still trying to resist the knitting bug. Katie wants a hat, so I'll make that, but then no more. I meet with my knitting group (what, I'm in a knitting group? didn't I just say I was resisting?) once a week at Wegmans (yup, the grocery store, with a lovely cafe upstairs. Do you have Wegmans near you? We'll talk about that one day!) and find I can knit and watch tv, but that's all the time I'm allotting to it!

That's about it for now. Check back tomorrow for a tutorial, guest blogging and a giveaway!!

A String A Day

From March to May....

Scraps never bothered me. They sat quietly in a corner, minding their own business. I'd hear other people talk about their scraps, how they're out of control, taking over the studio. Not mine. Mine were very well behaved. Until recently. They seem to be breeding.

I think part of the problem is that I  have several "hidey holes" all over the studio, where scraps are stashed.

A few things about my scraps:
*most of them are a good 8-12 years old
*most of them are fabric that I don't really care for anymore (primitive, thimbleberry-ish, etc.)
*most of them are long, narrow strips
*all of them, I'm too cheap to throw out

Friday, I decided to take action. I'm making a string block a day, from March to May. Why May? Because it rhymes, duh! And, if I keep on track, by the end of May, I'll have 90 or so of these little guys, which will sew up into a decent sized quilt.

To make this work, I did a little prep. I'm using this tutorial  which is super easy. I decided on a middle strip of the tan/leafy print. I have a ton of that laying around, so it will give the block a bit of uniformity. I cut my center strip to 2" wide, and cut my foundation paper (scrap office paper) to 8.5" square (the largest I could get out of an 8.5 x 11.) So, I prepped about a dozen bases.

The key to this working for me is that it can't take much time. I figure, about 10 minutes tops. Plus, I'm really just grabbing scraps as I go - not much thought, not much trimming. Every so often, I might sew a few blocks together, just so that I won't have the nightmare of 90 blocks at the end of May.

Anyway, here's day 1-4.

Of course, you know how this will end. It will most likely be one of my favorite quilts ever!

I Made the Finals in the Sew Mama Sew True Love Contest!!!

Yikes! So excited!! And yes, it's an honor just to be nominated. Of course, I'd like to win, too! I'd appreciate it if you'd vote for my project. You can vote here. And you can find the tutorial here. Thanks so much!!

.Thanks, Tammie for letting me know about the contest!!