saturday is alright

I forgot to show you I finished the Stones quilt the other day! I like it. I have to say the wavy lines quilting is VERY forgiving! Not sure it worked to build my patience with machine quilting, but it was fun anyway!Just a few other goodies on the design wall... to many ideas, so little time...
not enough wall space!

OH! I finally got my Janome 4800 machine fixed after three machine repair people in my hood messed it up and rendered it unusable for over a year.... I was able to send it direct to the company after speaking with the Janome people in Houston. Well that alone mad emy trip worth it!
I had it back a few days later and sews like a dream...once again...

plugging along...

I'm plugging away on my stones quilt... Slowly but surely... Can I just say that I am going through an obscene amount of thread to do this! I don't think the KING size quilts I've quilted have gone through as much as I have done on this little quilt! I guess the dog, and more dogs are being quilted out of it!

I hope to get these little place mats done today too. But that maybe wishful thinking...
At least they are ready to go...

Binding is ready for the PARSLEY PATCH... I just love the feather quilting on this, that Linda did... Something to inspire me to keep going on my own little machine quilting adventures....

Here's the Black and Gray quilt, Quilted! Gotta love the zig zags...

And lastly the Pixie Dust Quilt is quilted!! It's on it's way back to me from Linda's I can't wait to see it in person, and get it bound... The quilting looks fab! Linda has always offered to quilt my Donation quilts... I so Appreciate it! Linda, your a doll!
And on a totally different note, Last night, I went along with my hubby to the Sotheby's Modern Art Sales... ( You hear about these sales sometimes or see them in movies...)

It's pretty fun to watch! Here a Kandinsky Painting sold for 10.6 million dollars.... Can you imagine having that amount of moola hanging on your wall? Fun to watch the bidding and the prices go up, up and up!
This little Giacometti for 19.3 million. Fabulous!
Total New York Moment!~

what to do today...

So, I'm digging out other projects that I wanted to try to work on... You all know I've been working on machine quilting... So I got this stones quilt out, and decided to give it a whirl with some swoop flow-y lines... So far, I think it's OK, I'm still working out speed, And actually just picking out the right COLOR of thread... I tried to be neutral on this, not sure if that was the right thing yet... But so far, it's OK... we'll see... (I still prefer letting someone else finish these for me!) I drew out the first few lines just to get it set... that seems to help me best... now just to fill it all in...

A few of you are way ahead of me on the QUILTING part of the waverunners!
I did at least pick out my backings for them... ;-) ( I'm procrastinating)

Millie has hers done! Love all the little squares in there! Looks great!

My dear Friend Monica is back! Remember I was teaching her to quilt?

She got sidetracked with sewing a quilt for her sister, and now is getting back to finishing hers! She healing and mending well from her Breast cancer, and I am so HAPPY to have her back to play with in my studio.
So while she sews, I've been cleaning up my mess. Also, I have not been feeling so hot these days myself, and have done barely anything the last two days... Got a few Dr. apts of my own... So I'm piddling with folding fabric, piecing batting bits into little projects, vacuuming up dust bunnies, all that fun stuff... no sewing for me really except that 10 minutes on the stones quilt above... that wore me out...

So. Just trying to figure out what else I can dig up to finish... Got any dusty blocks in a bin somewhere that you need to dig out and finish? ha! Don't we all!

monday, get set,

A year ago when I started quilting seriously, I made the below quilt out of scraps.
I had it finished. The binding was folded over from the backing,
as I had not learned real bindings yet...
and it was one of the first quilts I machine quilted...
Well, last night it got revamped. off came the old binding, on with the new blue binding.
Circles, gone. And a wee car has parked itself in the middle of this quilt.
It's washed up all nice and wiggly and is being sent off, wished for by Penny of stitchinpenny,
for baby Johnathan. Please click the link to learn more, or possibly donate.

I'm happy this quilt is finding a home. It was made from scraps from all of my daughters quilts that I have made over the years. Happy loving memories.

***

Also being revamped!
the above baby quilt got me thinking
The new stones quilt is growing into a sweet baby quilt....

It's getting some big pink borders to go along with it...
I used the same fabrics but reversed the color patterns, and kept the size cuts the same.

Do you love brownies?
you gotta try these... the recipe is on my cooking blog.
try this yourself
to die for.

Scrappy fun. I hit the scrap bins just before I went on vacation.
I still need to finish this. It was so fun to make, I can't wait to have it done.
note to self: my what BIG feet I have.

got more work to do.
toodles!

Stones tutorial

Small Stones Quilt tutorial

A few supplies you'll need:

A compass, for those perfect circles.
pencil
cutter and cutting mat are helpful
straight edge for cutting

FABRICS:

For the back ground strips,
I selected one fabric that had an assortment of colors to use as my palette.
pink, browns, blues, and light greens with a touch of yellow
yet over all it is a Medium toned fabric. Not to dark or light, not to bright...

If you think in terms of steps.
the back ground strips, which can be made from fat quarters...
got up in value in 4 steps.

light medium dark and very dark

using:
2 LIGHT Neutral & Pink
3 medium tones= 1 brown, 1 blue, 2pinks
2 dark tones, 1 brown and blue
one VERY DARK brown

SIDE NOTES: Select a range of fabrics. We, my daughter and I, used this as a challenge to find fabrics that matched the original idea, and then laid them all out on the floor to see if they read nicely together...
My daughter quickly pointed out that I had to many large floral prints, so we yanked them back out and tried a few more. We found that smaller prints work better for this project.
But Hey! PLAY! There is no right answer!


Here are the fabric sizes and pieces you will need:


Strips left to right:
#1 = 6.5" x 19"
#2 = 5.5" x 19"
#3 = 10"x 19"
#4 = 2.5"x 19"
#5 = 1"x 19"
#6 = 5"x 19"
#7 = 1"x 19"
#8 = 1"x 19"
#9 = 5"x 19"
#10 = 3"x 19"


Cut your strips per the lengths in order as listed above.

Sew these together in this order #1-10, as a 1/4" seam.
press seams flat.


Select your fabrics for the circles




Using your compass, Cut out templates and circles per measurements listed below:

Circles:

Paper card stock templates cut:
you can also use freezer paper, I like card stock, holds tighter and doesn't warp.
(Your templates should be 1" smaller than you fabric circles...)

Cut 2= 6.5" card stock template circles
Cut 8 = 5.5" card stock templates

Fabric Circles cut:

6.5" circles

1 dark tone
1 bright tone
1 medium tone
5 light toned fabrics

Large background circles cut:
7.5" circles

1 medium tone
1 light tone same fabric as circle # 4



Once you have you fabric circles cut, Set your sewing machine to a long basting stitch
Take one circle at a time, stitch 1/8' around circle, be sure to back stitch when you start,
but DO NOT back stitch when you complete the circle leave long threads at the end.

insert you paper template circle to middle of fabric circle,
and gently pull the thread to pucker the fabric so that it folds over your paper template.

try to get it as fit as you can, then iron down the folded over puckered fabric.
this will give you a nice sharp edge and make appliqueing the circles
on to the background much easier.





Layout of circles:

#1 = 5.5" light tone circle on top of larger 6.5" medium tone circle
#2 = 5.5" size BRIGHT toned circle
#3 = 5.5" size DARK toned circle
#4 = 5.5" size light toned circle
#5 = 1 large 6.5" light toned ,Same fabric as #4 fabric, circle
with medium toned 5.5 size circle on top
#6 = light toned 5.5" circle
#7 light toned 5.5" circle, cut in half (same fabric for #8)
#8 same light toned 5.5" fabric circle as #7

pin the circles in place. You can then begin to applique the circles onto the background.
I am no expert on applique, but the tricks I learned in Jr. High School seem to get me through this process quite nicely!

I start from the bottom edge of a circle, just underneath the circle taking a bite, then again down to the back ground fabric... if you keep your stitches just under neath, they will be well hidden when you complete the stitching.

As you are about half way around a circle, pull out the paper template and complete the circle.

Once you have appliqued the circles, you can layout your batting, and select a backing.
Pin and quilt as desired.

I like to hand quilt the small projects with perle cotton size 8.

Highlighting the circles, and using a lighter thread to quilt out the back ground in lines, or diagonal boxes or cross hatching...


Binding
Cut three inch wide strips of various fabrics, join, and iron in half.
aprox. 120" of mixed 3" wide strips will get you all the way around the quilt.

A great circle tutorial by mrsschmenkmanquilts, which is the same process I use,
just using card stock instead of freezer paper.

And Amanda Jean has a great tutorial for bindings, if you need more help.

Since this was my first attempt at writing a tutorial,
if you have loads of questions, I won't be surprised!
ask me anything, email me.
;-) I gave it a shot... Now I better go finish my new one!

Please show me if you make one!

friday wrap up.

1

Wow, what a busy week!

Here's a new little one I have been working on....
I had hoped to have a small tutorial up for the small Stones quilt.



But, I'm still working on the tutorial...
I may start it next week as a day by day...

Interested?

I am also making a Xmas table runner based on the same idea of this quilt...

I enjoy picking out the fabric combinations, it's like putting together a giant puzzle...

next week I need to focus more. Things need to be done!
But for now, I am enjoying a little sewing/playing time...

Hope you are too.
Have a great weekend!