Field Trips in Fiber

A great start to the weekend!

I love my boss! He called in today and told our admin that we could take the afternoon off! She didn't argue and I got a jump start on my sewing weekend. I finished my QFAH Star blocks so I am caught up on Judy's instructions. I even got my Doubles quilt top together. Based on your comments I used layout A. In the end I chose to continue with the original border plan.I can tell you that it looks much better than the photo. The outer border has more blue and brown than what shows in the photo.

This quilt is from the book Quilts on the Double. You cut out two quilts at once. It's a terrific technique and I will make others. My Mom is making the matching quilt to this one but she's been so busy killing snakes that I don't think she is done with hers!

It's time to review last week's list and make a new one! Here are last week's goals:

• Make a new batch of soap with hemp butter done! I made Hemp and Shea Butter
• Quilt Kim's quilt. I got it loaded Sunday and started the quilting and I like how it looks so far - not done
• Start Judy's Quilt for an Hour project. This will also include a trip to Quilting Adventures to take advantage of the batik sale. My QFAH will be made from bright batik fabrics and I need one more. Besides I think I deserve a present for my great week at work! LOL!  I'm up to date on this
• Finish my samples for my machine quilting class - uh, not done
• Work on my QOV project. The top is done!

Tomorrow a friend is coming to visit and learn to make fabric postcards. That should take about 10 minutes so we might have to go to the fabric shop for a while! My other goals are:

• Quilt Kim's quilt
• Make the backing for the Doubles QOV quilt, I think I have something in my stash that will work. If not, I will dye a backing once my dye studio is back together. More on that later....
• Finish my samples for my machine quilting class
• Make postcards for 2 swaps and for all of the May birthdays that I missed

That should keep me pretty busy! Chris is going fishing Sunday and has a friend coming in to fish with him Monday and then he's going to a cookout Monday afternoon (it's outdoors so I can't go). That means that I will have lots of quality sewing time!

Quilting Progress

I made some progress on both of my QOV quilts! Thanks for all of the feedback on the "On the Double" quilt. It's nice to have some many people close by to help out with a different view. I talked to Mom and she does not have the two pieces that I am missing so we must not have made enough. The first thing I did was to make up more brown pieces so I could finish that one block. Mom, yours are going out in the mail tomorrow. The second thing I decided is that I do agree with the majority of the coments that those borders are not optimal but I'm going to go with them anyway. I already have them cut and it is a charity quilt - not for show. I think it will still be a pretty quilt and I will have learned another lesson. Lessons are good!

I organized the blocks in 4 different layouts. Do you have an opinion? Well, I know you have opinions! Do you want to share yours? I labeled each sample in the lower left corner.

I also made some progress on my QFAH quilt.  I'm probably about a half hour behind. I think I should have finished all of my star points tonight but I have 6 sets left to make. I did construct 1 star to make sure I had cut everything right. These star point fabrics are from a big set of hand-dyed fabrics that I bought when Lunn Studios were going out of the dyeing business. Now they design some really awesome batik fabrics. I have used these fabrics a lot and I love them. I think they are fantastic for these star points.

Typepad had given us a new and improved editing interface. I think I'm going to like ot a lot but it's going to take a little adjustment! 

Story for the day: I am terrified of snakes and had to kill one in my house about a year and a half ago. I was a mess. I called my Mama panicked (Chris was half way across the country) and drank about half a bottle of scotch before I got up the nerve to kill it. To make my humiliation worse, the snake was little. My Mom (and everyone else I know) loves to remind me of it. Today Mom killed the first snake at her new house - she has pointed out before that she killed a rattlesnake with a piece of glass once. Today she sent me this email:

Killed my first snake.  It was a black snake about 2-3 ft long.  I was planting Begonias around the light post and this soil is such you dig out a hold and replace it with good soil.  I was taking it around back to throw over the hill and noticed something hanging out of the top of the propane tank.  I had just cleaned it out. Wrens try to build nest and just make a mess.  I sprayed it with 409 and it fell out of the top behind the tank.  I got the Deer repellent made it come out so I could use the hoe and shovel.  Dee held it down with the hoe and I hacked it with the shovel.
I knew you would want to hear all about this adventure.

Lesson #1: Do not mess with my Mother or you will get a squirt of 409 in your face and your head chopped off.

Lesson #2: Never show Mom your weakness, she will never let you forget it!

My family is so much fun!

 

Weekend update - Quilt For an Hour

I  had grand plans for the weekend to cut out the new Quilt For An Hour project and to get most of Kim's quilt quilted. Things aren't going to plan. I've been very tired all weekend and finally realized that I have a cold or something. It's taken all weekend to get the QFAH cut out. You can see that I chose a bright palette. The pink will be the border. It's a piece that I dyed. I was trying for a true red - it's not but it works well with the print batik. I think I will like this one but as I said earlier, it still risks being obnoxious. Regardless, it's going to be a nice counter point to the brown and blue QOV that I cut out two weekends ago. Fortunately I will piece noth of them with medium gray thread. I'll probably alternate an hour at a time on each just to keep myself interested.

So, that's it. That's all I've accomplished this weekend and now I need a nap!

A small finish!

I know it's hard to believe but I have many UFOs in addition to the sizable stash. This is a baby quilt that I made specifically for longarm feather practice a while back. The binding was never completed. I've decided to finish a few of these "near done" projects. Since I was using white thread on the machine to finish the scrubs top I decided to get this one done.

I love this little quilt. It's 36 x 44. I designed it to use 6" charm squares. I used to collect the 6" squares and I have 2 bins of them. It only used 24 squares but it's still cute! The feathers in the sashing and border were my first feathers on a quilt. The pieced strips were quilted with a cross-hatch pattern. You can see that better on the back - a yummy soft flannel.  I'm not sure what I will do with this quilt but I have a few more in a similar pattern that need to be finished. maybe I will donate the lot of them to Project Linus or something. I'm open for ideas!

This one WILL count in stash used, once I figure out how much fabric is in it.

The third QOV is done!

Last night I finished the quilting, this morning I put the binding on and all three QOV (Quilt of Valor) quilts have now been washed. All that's left to do is sew on the labels. That's a project for American Idol next week! You can see the other two QOV quilts here and here.

This pattern is based on several Chinese Coin quilts designed by Mary for the Heartstrings Project. My pattern is here.  Mary's patterns are  here. The finished quilt is 64" x 78".

In the close up on the right you can see the quilting. I used the Ebb & Flow pantograph with Superior King Tut thread on top and Superior So Fine in the bobbin. You might remember that I was worried that the orange thread was too bright. You said it was OK and you were right. I love the end result. I like this quilt so much that I think I am going to start another - from stash fabric of course!

I even finished the pillowcases for all three QOV quilts!

I used Warm & Natural batting in all three QOV quilts. I know that  lot of people think that W&N is too stiff. I often prewash my W&N batting and that softens it up considerably. All three quilts are very soft and snuggly after being washed.

Another QOV Done!

This quilt is intended as a QOV and hopefully I can get it out of the house before Chris gets too attached to it. he REALLY, REALLY likes it! He's not getting it though - he has his own blankies.

The quilt is from a patern developed by Judy Laquidara for one of her Quilt For An Hour quilts. I am short two borders from the original design because I ran out of blue fabric. It would look better with an additional narrow white and narrow navy border but it's just fine as it is. Hopefully this photo will not enlarge enough for you to see all of the pieced sectins of the last two navy borders - there are a lot of seams there! The finished size is 65 x 90. The binding is made of pieced strips of all of the red fabrics. In the end I have about 30 inches of red fabric left. Now, that's a nice way to make a scrap quilt!

Here's some more information on the details........

Chinese Coins Quilt Instructions

I didn't get much of anything else on the list completed but I got the Chinese Coins quilt top done. It turns out that I'm still a little sore so the laundry and this quilt top did me in for the day! That's OK though, I feel a lot better than I did Wednesday and I got to sew this weekend. All in all, a good weekend!

This quilt will be a QOV and it was a lot of fun to make. I already have more planned in my mind so I decided to document the dimension and basic instructions to have the notes for later. There are lots of ways to make these. In fact, I got the idea to do one from Mary. She has instructions for several different versions on her web site and she has made several of these for the Heartstrings Project. Here's how I did mine.

The Red/Black/White quilt

Anne's quilt top is done and it's big and it's heavy! It's amazing how much weight the foundations add to the quilt top. I am really pleased with the top though. The red Moda Marble matched the border fabric perfectly - it should since I ordered 3 different red fabrics to try to match it! I suppose that means that there are 2 more of these quilts potentially in my future!

But that's why I keep lists. As I was sewing the borders this morning I was thinking of starting another one of these in another color way. I made myself look at the list and decided that my next project will be either the Chinese Coins quilt or the Mini Log Cabin. This is not the time to start something new!

I did have one issue with this one that I will try to work out before I start another one. There are a few places where my red diagonal strips did not meet up right at the corners. I thought I had been careful about my seam allowances but I did switch machines halfway through piecing the blocks and that may have contributed to the difference. Or I could have just been a little careless positioning of the ruler when I trimmed the blocks. I emailed Mary as she is the expert in my book on string quilts. She said that she has the same problem and doesn't worry about it. I'm taking her advice and moving on! But I will try to resolve it on the next one that I make.

I think I will attempt to dye a back in mottled gray. I do not think I want a black or red back because I will likely want to see the quilting. But gray is really difficult to dye so if that doesn't work out I may order this fabric. I have gotten persnickety about  wide backings and seem to avoid seaming backs at all costs these day! Any opinions on the backing color or the quilting for this one?

First Quilt, Last Quilt

I really enjoy the First Quilts, Last Quilts articles that run in Quilters Newsletter periodically. I decided to do that for this post because my last quilt is going to replace my first quilt as my "blankie" today!

WIP Confession Time

Judy posted all of her WIPs on her blog today and challenged others to do the same. Egads! I have a few. But in the spirit of openess here goes:

The weekend at the river and a question at the end

One of the cool things about the state of Virginia is that there are so many things to do. There are the mountains, the beaches and the rivers - or as it's called here, "the rivah". The rivah can be any of several rivers including the James, Potomac or the one we visited, the Rappahannock. My friend's house is on the Rappahannock in a town named Lively. It's a tiny little town but one of my favorite signs in Lively is the local drugstore - Lively Drugs. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to get "lively drugs"? We didn't get any lively drugs but we did have a nice view of the river.

Quilt For an Hour

Thanks for your input to my fabric options the the new Quilt For an Hour project. I decided on a blend of 4 and 5. I picked some of the darker reds from #4 and the lighter reds from #3. I'm please with it so far. I'm sure this will be the last day that I will be on schedule!

Here's how it looks so far.

When I do piecing on scrap quilts I usually use a medium gray thread.  Am I the only person that is so geeky about sewing that seeing this is fun?

Oh, what the heck, let's start a new project!

Judy L is starting another Quilt For an Hour project and I've decided to go along again. This will be another QOV so I want it to be suitable for a man or woman. Mine will be done from fat quarters. Ilast night I pulled out some possible fabric combinations. Judy's quilt is black, white and multi. I've decided to use some cool indygo fabrics that a friend gave me as my "black". I have two tan groups for the "white" and 3 options for the color. Here they are as 5 options - what's your preference?

QOV Done!

I did it - I finished the latest QOV on Independence Day! I still have to make a pilowcase to ship with it and make the label, but I'm calling it done on 7/4/07.  This quilt started, I think, in 2000. My Guild Chapter decided to make a signature Friendship Star quilt. I like the block so much that I started some of these blocks. And that was the end of that. The Guild quilt did get fiished and it's one of my favorites of the officer quilts. When I decided a month or so ago to start knocking out some of my UFO's, this was the first one up. I thought it would be a nice quilt for a QOV. I decided to try to use up some of my stash of strips for the borders. All in all I am very pleased with this one! Even better my Mom took all of my leftover fabrics from this project so that bin is really EMPTY!

Read on for the photos......

WIP Wednesday - QOV

I just realized that it's been a few weeks since I posted a WIP entry. This one isn't very exciting but today I finished all of the star blocks for my QOV quilt. I'm working on the border blocks now and have 15 left. I want to get this top done by Saturday. I thought I might be able to get my Mom to quilt it while she is here this weekend but now she has decided to quilt two of her own! Oh well, it was worth a try!

QOV Quilt In Process

Today we had lots of company and a great time. After everyone left I wanted to sew but I needed to do sewing that didn't require too much thinking. So I made a few more blocks for the QOV/UFO scrap quilt.  My Mom is coming next weekend to play with Willie.  I think she wants to try some pantographs. She has one charity quilt to quilt with a panto and she wants to do a panto on a beautiful Stack and Whack that she made. I'm hoping that I can talk her into letting me quilt the S&W. I'm going to try to get this quilt top done so if she wants to practice on another quilt she might do this one.

QOV Stars Started

I pulled out the strip bin and the Friendship Star box this afternoon to start the QOV. This was a nice brain break from those postcards. I had 5 blocks made already. I started by pulling out the dark strips and cutting some 9 1/2" foundations. I made some of the string blocks to see if my border idea was going to work. I think it works just fine! So now I have this project all set up so that I can work on it in short spurts of time and maybe get it done this month. These are really easy blocks and there will be 9 rows of 7 blocks. The finished block is 9".

See that strip at the bottom of the photo? As I was sewing the string blocks for the borders, the waste part of the most of the strings was longer than 6". I remembered that some of the Heartstrings Project would use their dryer sheets (after they are used) as foundations. The dryer sheet is about 6.5" wide. I'm doing laundry today and decided to give it a try - and it works great! That's 4 or 5 dryer sheet foundations there, cut down to 6 x 8.5. So I'll make some of these blocks as I create the border blocks for the star quilt. They might eventually become a Chinese Coins quilt. The rest of the "cut away" from this quilt will go in the trash! LOL!

Every little scrap

I got a little side tracked off of the list today and yesterday! I did finish getting my Snails Trail class stuff together and that leaves the Indygo Junction Jacket and the Carol Taylor class project. I've decided to skip both of those for now. The jacket is for autumn and I'm not very interested in the class project - so I'm movin' on!

I have 3 sets of fabric postcards to make this week so I looked at this

and decided that it would be the base of my cards.

QOV done - another item off the list!

And another one bites the dust!

• finish the binding and label on the baby snails trail.
• make my class notes and the class samples for the Snails Trail class at Quilting Adventures.
• finish my nephews graduation quilt
• make the pillow for my boss
• My Indygo Junction jacket
• My class project from one of the Carol Taylor classes
• I also have to finish the Hour A Day quilt that's currently on the longarm for quilting

The quilting on the QOV went very quickly so I finished off the binding and label today. The quilt has even been washed and is ready for donation! This is for the Quilt Studio 40 Quilts Service Project as a male QOV.

Quilt For An Hour progress

I'm caught up! I finished Hour 5 of Judy's current project. I will not keep up the rest of the week because I'll be at MQX, but I like this enought that I'll get it done when I return. Have I said already that I'm really happy to be getting rid of this fabric that I hate? The funny thing is that, now that I am using it, I'm starting to like it! Here's a photo of a stack of the 9-patch blocks. The blue fabric wil be the "white" in her quilt.

This photo is just awful. I'm switching from Micrisoft Digital Image Editor to Photoshop Elements and am trying to learn it. I also need to spend somemore time on getting the photo lighting correct. This particular quilt seems to be one of the more difficult to photograph so the next time I photo the progress I will use that opportunity to futz with the photo more.

Yet another new project.."Quilt For An Hour"

Someone needs to just shoot me! Last night I started yet another project. I've been wanting to make another QOV quilt and I do have a couple on progress. Unfortunately they are all class samples so I can't finish them up any time soon. Meanwhile, I found Judy Laquidara's blog, Sunshine Quilts. She started publishing "Quilt For An Hour" projects. I didn't participate in February but when she posted the April project I was drawn in!