Design Wall Monday

Every Monday, Judy, over at Patchwork Times lets people show what's on their design wall. Every Monday morning when I get to work I think DUH! I forgot to take a picture. Well I finally remembered, mainly because I am binding the quilt I have been working on and actually got a little organized in my sewing room. I cut these out last month and took them to the beach with me. (In case it rained) Well it did rain one day but I was having so much fun hanging out with my grown kids, that I didn't even open my sewing stuff. So, I have been piecing them in between quilting my Asian Wallhanging that I am going to hang in my office. I'll show you that one when it's all done.

I think I'll lay these out and start sewing them together this week. Then I get to go shopping to buy a border and back. I haven't been fabric shopping in months and months. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Until next time...
Susie

Getting caught up

It has become a tradition in our guild for the past two years for members to make a 12" block with a given theme fabric. It is the brainstorm of Cappy and she finds the most fun fabrics. The first one (if my memory is correct) was chocolate, the second one was pizza, and this one is a mexican theme. The fabric we were given had tacos and chili peppers and margaritas and everything mexican. I used it in the center of my block. I was going to put the pinwheels all around but then I found the stripe fabric waaaaay down in my stash and had to use it. I can't wait to see all the finished blocks. This is another one I would love to win.
Mary is our a new Block-of-the-month chairperson. She has started off simple, but to be honest, sometimes they make the best BOMs. We were to do lime green and black nine patches... because lime green is the new beige! We usually have so many people participate that there is enough to do three or four drawings. I don't do a block every month because (and excuse me here) sometimes people don't follow directions. So you always get one or two blocks that don't play well with the rest. I have won those before. So I like this one and don't see many ways to go astray.

Drawings are in August. Hope I win these too!

Until next time...
Susie

Enthusiasm

Our guild has been blessed with some mighty fine program chairs the past few years. It wasn't always the case though. I think that program chair is one of the hardest jobs in the guild. We have been on a roll and the last two program chairs set the bar high. Their enthusiasm has held because now we have Wendy! She came up with a great idea to make a quilt for our Quilt Bingo in October. Everyone makes two rows 60.5" wide for a row quilt. One set will be used for the quilt bingo and the others will be won by a lucky participant who made a row. The theme is fall colors. We have seen some of the rows already and this quilt is gonna be good. I have always liked row quilts and would love to win this one (even before it is revealed). I did these over the weekend.
Enthusiasm is contagious!

Until next time...
Susie

Starting something new

Ahhhhh, I love this feeling.
I few times a year (and I mean a few...maybe two) I get to a point in my quilting adventures where it is time (without guilt, I might add) to start a new project. After our quilt show in March (which caused all sorts of deadline stress) I found myself finishing lots of odds and ends, including getting a few tops put together, making backings, and rounding up batting for said same. Oh and I also have been doing some superficial organizing-as-you-go in my sewing room. Soooooo, I have been accumulating piles of projects (ie fabric with patterns in boxes and bags) ready to start when the moment was right. Well I have spent the last two weekends cutting, cutting, cutting. I have three quilts cut and bagged, ready to start piecing. Here is one of them.
You can see the sample in the upper right corner. Deb Tucker made this quilt and I just loved it, mainly because it uses lots of different fabrics. Deb taught our guild the Hunter's Star class (she invented this amazing ruler that makes the quilt so much fun to make) and she brought all sorts of quilts to show us during her lecture.

There is something strange about this quilt though. All I had was the photo to go by and when I drafted it out to cut, I wanted the trees to be taller than they are wide. So the blocks are not square. You can sort of tell by the red nine patch.

My family will be going to the beach in a few weeks and I want to take something all cut so I can just piece. (Only if the weather is bad though)

More tomorrow. (I promise)

Until next time...
Susie

I am very (parenthetical) today huh?

Beautiful butterfies

I just couldn't look at that Stack 'n Whack anymore. The more I look at it the less I like it. So feast your eyes on this beauty.
This beautiful quilt was made by Carolyn. She won this top a few years ago as our guild's anniversary quilt. It won first place in the group quilt category in this years' show. You can check out all the winners of our show here. Click on 2009 quilt show.
One of my favorite guild activities is the trash-to-treasure sale. I bought all these buttons (above) and lots of thread and a book or two (below) and of course some fabric. But my favorite find was a Joan Jones Santa face.
I bought the kit at Lancaster last year. She sells the faces already done but she showed me how its done, I bought the face fabric and the markers, and was confident that I could do it. Well, every time I thought about starting that quilt the face stopped me. I just couldn't get started. So when I saw this in the trash-to-treasure sale I grabbed it. So how many people think I will finish it before this Christmas? ....Yea I thought so--no takers. Oh well maybe I will at least START it before this Christmas.

Until next time...
Susie

Productive weekend

I did it. I put three borders on this sucker. But I sort of cheated because I mitered them. That means I sewed them in strips and put one border on. There is alot of math involved (which I like I might add) and I have a way to do it that is practically foolproof. (Besides the math part).

This quilt is my donation for our guild's Quilt Bingo in October. I took a stack 'n whack class and I liked this fabric but I am not crazy about this quilt. I should have used different colors for the alternating diamonds. Sometimes when I look at this picture I see the argyle-like diamonds and sometimes all I see are the red/white hexagons. I like seeing the diamonds better. It is from Stack 'n Whackier by Bethany Reynolds.

I had three more floral hexagons left (I was playing with the idea of making the quilt bigger) so I impulsively made a table runner. It went together really fast.

I even basted it and it is ready to quilt. We can always use another table runner huh?

Until next time...
Susie

PS I have disabled anonymous comments. For some reason, they bug me, especially when they come across as chastising and with bad grammar.

Likes and dislikes

I do love to piece. There is something so soothing about piecing. BUT, I have discovered that I really don't like to put on borders. This quilt wasn't so bad. One because it is small and two, there is only one border. I am a little anal about borders not being wobbly, so I go to alot of trouble to measure first. I also like inner borders (although this quilt doesn't have one) and that makes borders double (or triple-depending on how many inner borders) work. On my to do list for this holiday weekend is putting on borders for my Stack 'n whack. It will have three borders-ugh. I'll show you the pic on Tuesday. I will get it done! I also have to hem my husbands pants. His inseam is 31" and do you know how hard it is to find 31" inseams? So these pants have cuffs. Not too hard and they are all pinned, I am just procrastinating. They also will be done!

This cute quilt was made all from my stash. I had swapped jewel tone 6" squares on the internet a few years back (I had to cut them down to 5") and I just love it when the perfect fabric and the perfect pattern collide. I had the perfect border. I only had a yard and I used every inch! I have to find a backing. I have decided that I don't like pieced backs so I might be heading out to Joanns. BTW, our Joanns in Bowie is closing the end of June.

Until next time...
Susie

(And no snide comments Debi!)