Rotate!

Rotate!
Backing up a bit....
I finally finished these little Paula Prass snowballs Shelly and I have been working on...
I just love all the different colors in here... I need to get the borders figured out today, get it together, Then I will send it back to Shelly and she will quilt it... She's been great about getting her blocks done! I've been jumping all over the place...

I'm trying to get some more of these nearly finished quilt tops done... I did get the borders on the On POINT quilt. I thought at first i wanted something fancier for borders... I do love big simple borders... But after I found the perfect fabric, I thought it did plenty for it... So, it is what it is... Backing is cut, so, that's one more off my list...


I can now add it to the 13 others I have sitting here ready to be quilted...
sigh... I can't keep up on the quilting... I am still plugging along on the Tile quilt... all that micro stippling gives you a stiff neck! I hope to have the quilt finished this week...

But then again, I've started another project... This one for Tonya's Liberated Amish quilt challenge...

And this quilt is overlapping my grandmother's house quilt.... time to get them off the wall!

I am dwiddling down that stack of UFO's! yippeee!



String runner complete!


Oh!
And a pinch and a punch for the First of the month and no returns!

Happy sewing!

Leftovers!

Cleaning out the stash... As I pulled out all those orphaned blocks for the kitchen sink quilt, I took out the leftover blocks from the 9 patch gather quilt we all made last year.

I think these are a few of Dee's Blocks and a few from Susan. I think they work well together!

Today, I put the last blocks together for one more quilt for Donations
to go with the Sis Boom Pow kids blankets...

Good for wee lad don't you think?
Can you tell I am married to a Scot? wee lad... ;-)

Funny how the On POINT blocks fit so well with one of my favorite fabrics....
I guess it's subconscious thing!

Also, another yardage batch of another favorite fabric is going for backing on the Kitchen sink quilt. The green and red floral building blocks by American Jane... (bright green and red...like the cross quilt...I see my themes emerging again) completely by accident of course...

I also added some appliques here and there, with a few more leftover blocks...

Now I think I am ready to get it quilted and on my bed...

Happy Sewing!

plugging along...again

I am still plugging along on the Kitchen sink quilt...
I have the left side left to piece, and then I can attach the big bottom strip.

It's literally a sweat shop in my studio today, as it's nearly 60 degrees outside and rainy,
(IN JANUARY!!)
And the building has the heat on...
So before I sweat til I disappear entirely, I gotta get out of the loft...

I feel I have posted these so many times!

But look! I finally got them all appliqued!

I may be putzy, but it was so worth it! Now I gotta figure out the borders.

Sorry folks, you may see this one again a few times more, before it's finished! sigh.

I did get the Chinese new year quilt finished also this weekend.
Slowly, I am getting UFO's finished...

what's cooking?

Homemade Chicken soup with...

Fresh soup noodles....

With roasted tomatoes.....

mmmmm, pot roast in the oven for supper...

Sewing? what sewing?

Just an itty bit of sewing....

and a whole lot of munchin'

MMMMM, MMMM GOOD!

Fresh Roasted Tomatoes

Grape tomatoes halved,
coat with olive oil
Sprinkle with brown sugar, kosher salt, and fresh grind pepper...
roast in oven at 300 for 3o-45minutes...

Enjoy.

Wrap up...and a winner!

I finally got my last three ON POINT blocks cut... Sheesh! I've been procrastinating... well, maybe I still am, I need to sew them together today... so I can Applique them...
Got get to it!
Time to Finish!!!

Got The New Year quilt Quilted yesterday.... My machine was fighting em the whole way...
4 broken needles, 100 time shredding thread.... tried every needle I had.... cleaned the machine... it was just not working with me....
But, I persevered and got the binding on, for me to do this weekend...

Then I got back to my Tile quilt, quilting.... I had ordered thread, which finally came... Now the machine seams to be working ok... go figure.... I think It just really hates red thread....

SO here are a few peaks inside the Liberated Quiltmaking II book!
I was flipping through, and was Happy to see one of Tonya's Quilts in the there!
Her great Alphabet quilt! Way to go Tonya!! I Can't wait for your book to come out!

I like how there are many quilts done by other people in this book.
Great to see other people's interpretation of Gwen's work too...

But Ultimately, Gwen's Quilts just knock your socks off. Gotta love those colors!

SO I guess you'd like to know who will be checking their mailbox for this book right,
Without further ado...

#89
Char
from Cloth Stitched WINS!
Congrats Char!
( Need your email! only have your website!

I hope you enjoy the book, and make at least one WONKY quilt!

***

With color on my brain, I've been spotting fabulous things in the city the past week....

(above) "The WALL" by Frosty Meyers has been restored to it's bright fab finish
on Houston and Broadway in Soho...
Check out his webpage... fun site

I see this truck constantly in my hood, and finally had a chance to snap a pic...
Love that Graphic color!

I had to drive around the block to grab this photo... once I realized what it was...
This is a Richard Serra Sculpture being dismantled on a flat bed truck outside the The General Theological Seminary in Chelsea...
It was quite a site and I love the rusty color against the seminary

And as I sat at my desk, facing these buildings a FLASH went off in this building... I look up and at the about the 25th Floor this guy is standing looking south(and taking a photo), towards downtown Manhattan....

Note to all, even at the 25th floor,we can see you when you have no clothes on.... The sun was pouring in...clear as day...

(But Don't you love that RED!!!)

Happy Friday!

strings and things....

Stephanie at loft creations has a strings challenge... I just had too...

I so don't need another project,
I have 12 in the works. and 7 that need to be quilted...!!!

But while I wait for more thread to arrive for my tile quilt, I practiced some
shadowing machine quilting on this Valentine Strings runner...
this thing is 6' long... the picture is very deceiving!

It's PINK! well, but not without my RED!!! And it was all scraps. How great is that?
Now if I have some old leftover bindings in pinks and reds this will be done lickety split...

Hop over to Stephanie's blog and join in, at least to get rid of some of those scraps I know you have piling up!

I'd like to think I could get a few tops done this week, but it's going to be a busy one...
One small goal is to get these last three ON POINT blocks done
and then I can put that top together...

I have 5 up on my design walls right now...
Two of these are serious piecing... (the crosses and the geese)
that ain't happening this week.

The Kitchen sink quilt is plugging along...

The Orange and Pink Paula Prass blocks, I could maybe get done this week.
perhaps I'll put that on my must do list...
And I do want to get to my wonky log cabins... but not this week.
I also need to get the Chinese New year quilt quilted.... ...

OK. that's it. that's my list for this week...

On Point blocks, Chinese New year. Paula Prass blocks, play with my wonky log cabins and kitchen sink quilt, and lastly, bind the valentines runner...

Good to get focused.

And I am off....Happy sewing!

Loaded Monday

Tree up!

Let the Christmas RUSH begin!

Ready,

set,

GO!

I had left these scrappy tile blocks at my house to work on on weekends only, but they are so darn fun... I had to bring a couple in to work on this week in the city.

I had planned this quilt to be a giant 9 patch... But am thinking it might be fun to make it into a bed quilt... or perhaps I just need to make another!

Cleaning.

In my attempt to clean, I realized I need to get some of these projects finished... I like this method, because then I get excited again and I start whipping out these projects that have been lingering... I didn't want to wait til NEXT Xmas to finish my Xmas Log cabin quilt, especially when I only needed two more blocks... So I zipped them up and have all the extra bits in a box that I want to use up in the border...

So far I have this done, But I am thinking since i have MORE scraps left in the box, I may add even another row around this... It's so close to bed size, that I figure I might as well keep going...

I pieced 3 more blocks for my ON POINT quilt, and got the yellow squares sewn together for my dresdens... I figure I can take the hand sewing dresdens to my house over Xmas break to work on... That will be fun to look forward to January to finish.... three more blocks to go...

Did you see Jackie's little mini quilt using this block?

click here, it's so cute.

oh, and see Kathie's fab use of scraps...

AND, go see these little houses at twiddletails,then make your own!

I started today cleaning, and found this stack of Home decor weight Denise Schmdit fabrics, and figure I better not forget the doggies for Xmas

I had made two Amy butler poufs a while ago, For B, which she loves, but we find that the dogs keep stealing them...

So i made this one for them, and will fill it with all the foam peanuts I have saved for packing... It works great for filling bean bags... This will also save me $30 in stuffing just to fill these things!

WHY IS MY COMPUTER UNDERLINING EVERYTHING............

A lot right? I know. I have family coming Thursday and it always gets me in a good frenzy. I work well under pressure... pressure meaning,

to clean my studio and rid the POOL TABLE (aka:great work space)

of the Santa's Shipping and Packaging area...

Pheew.

Exhale.

I guess I should get a shower in today too...

Better run. (faster!)

oh! And thanks for all your nice comments yesterday!

I had meant for it to be a nice NYC post, but my haircut sort of took over!

fabrics-a-flyin'!

All my little swap squares are being put to work! I am trying to get the rest of my on point blocks set so I just have to do the appliques...

I will have 12, I think, large blocks to put together for this quilt.

It's been great fun playing with color to keep this quilt balanced. Finding tones and values that work together, yet keep it punchy so each block stands alone as well as all together...

I have so many 4" blocks now, I see a fabulous 9 patch in my future...

Nothing beats a good 9 patch.. After I made this for a grad quilt for commission last year, I started to make my own, but found it hard to make the SAME quilt twice... then I saw Janet's, and that confirmed for me, that I need one for my own...

Simple is so fantastic sometimes!

So I maybe hitting those 4" blocks sooner than I thought...

I'm at the fun part with this quilt.

playing with borders, and finish details...

but alas, this DESTROYS my studio with fabrics being tossed left and right...

But who can resist making a huge mess?

well, I can't. ;-)

I'll continue to play with this, And enjoy the process of finding it's verdict!

weekend.

Pick up sticks is done! I can scratch that off my list of things to do!
Yippee!!

And I don't have to date it, Since it has 9 (IX) for September, and 2009 (MMIX) in the bottom right. It was a fun quilt. And I love all the browns in it... Definitely has some favorite fabrics in this quilt.

I've gotten a lot done over the weekend. I have 3 here left to bind. And hope to get them done this week, although only ONE is a rush for Xmas... So i may procrastinate on the others...


I go the flowers all appliqued down on the first 4 or 9 blocks for this quilt.
They are going to be one big quilt all together... Each of these blocks are about 24" square.

I'm also working on two tshirts for my godson... He likes hand made things! ;-)
Last year he got the Oliver quilt, hmm, I think I might not have posted a completed picture of his quilt! Anyway here is some machine quilting i did on it, with the help of B last year...
I didn't think a little tyke would be so excited about a quilt for a gift, but his mother just told me he'll be sleeping with it until college... He loved it when he opened it last year, and I got to hear him on the phone happily exclaim how much he loved the camouflage on the quilt!
So this year my little buddy is getting a star wars shirt and a downhill bmx shirt... Just trying to figure out if I should paint it on or machine stitch it on...
He's a boy who knows what he likes, so I know he'll love these shirts...

I am going to be very busy this week. So I hope to plow through a few bindings, and finish up my red circle quilt top. I swear I will not start a new top this week.

I have enough to work on...
my dresdens are still begging me to finish them, but I am just not jumping up and down over them yet...
Where are you inspiration??
(can you wait til at least Thursday? I have to much to do here)

lists

I've been enjoying seeing everyone get out there UFO's trying to finish stuff up before spring...
I thought that was funny, because I don't like to think about how many I have...


I Bounce around like crazy, as inspiration hits me. I don't mind. Some I know will take me a long time to finish... like my grandmas flower garden... or the hand quilting quilts... years before I finish those...

At the moment, i am cranking out the circles and stripes quilt
the purple orange and turq with appliqued flowers quilt, and I dug out these from last year...

I had made these blocks, which consists of 4 blocks designed by my mother,
4 by me, 4 by B, and 4 by my niece... I had hit a brick wall with them, as it was to be 4 lap quilts one for each of us containing one of each of our blocks... then last night, inspiration struck.
that stripey fabric laying there will be borders... Now we will see how long it takes me to get them finished... I may change my mind and make them into one big quilt... to soon to tell!


Tonight I'll finish the binding on the Pixie dust quilt. Here is a peak... Doesn't it look good!

And, just to check in with myself.. here is my on going list of UFO's. I actually got caught up last year, doing 4 quilts in a week...
Somehow I think that ain't happening this year!

yellow Dresdens
xmas log cabin
Waverunner one
Waverunner two
Batik starry night
B's Buddha
B for alphabet project
mini Waverunner
purple and green
Family of origins lap quilt.

Quilt tops from summer that still need to be finished:

turq/red/gold quilt from the summer
Midwest sunset quilt from summer
Sunset at the lake quilt from the summer
red/turq from summer

QUILTING:
blue and brown hand quilting (from two years ago)
Red Matisse quilt, hand quilting (from a year ago)

5 that are pinned & ready to machine quilting waiting for me

6 for BINDING:
Black and gray windows.
Pixie dust
purple runner
Pick up sticks
Parsley patch
Scrappy happy

and will have shortly to be pieced:

scrap cabin from Quilting bee (can't wait to work on this!)
&
2 quilts for Sis Boom POW

oh well. We all have our systems and ways of working... I like having lots of projects at once... I'm never bored!