Catching Up

      First things first. I can't believe I forgot to show you the pincushion I got in the pincushion swap at retreat!

     Mary Beth made this lovely pincushion. She is a potter, and made the base herself. I had to steal it to get it.

      Today, I got to ship the red and white quilt off to it's new home in Spain. Here's hoping it gets there intact and in timely fashion. 

      I found out this week, that I will be selling patterns at the Batavia Quilt and Textile Show in Batavia, Il, the 3rd weekend in July, so if you happen to be in that area then; come and say hello, and check out my patterns in person. In preparation for that, and the show in Berea in August I have been copying and collating patterns. If you are interested in seeing what patterns I have available; check out my Etsy site. The is a link on the right hand side of the page, between my profile, and my blog list.

      I finally got the quarter square triangles trimmed for the Let's Polka quilt.

Mostly, I have been cutting strips and other pieces for this quilt. For this block...

I cut these:

 

For this block....

and this block...











I cut these:

And for this block...

I cut these:

So, that's what I have been up to lately. Thanks for stopping by!

Finished

Well, it's finally finished and ready to ship. This morning I sent a photo of it to my customer; and he sounded like he was really pleased with it. Yay! Everyone who knows my work will be amazed that this quilt came out of me. I have never ever made a 2 color quilt before, much less a 2 fabric quilt! But I have to say-it is striking in it's simplicity. And it goes comparatively quickly, because I didn't spend any time deciding what to pair up together, or laying out and arranging blocks.

 

That strange piece of fabric you see hanging below the quilt, and in the upper right hand corner is a sheet that I pinned to the back of the quilt to prevent it from picking up any dirt on the back from my deck. Before I snapped the photo there was a sheet pinned to the front too! lol. I was trying so hard to keep it clean! Sorry about the dappled sunlight. I usually try to wait for a cloudy day to photograph my quilts, but I didn't have time. Actually, it was cloudy- then the sun came out just in time to be in the picture. 

Thanks for stopping by! :)

What I Did on Retreat and Since Then

     So, believe it or not, I did more on retreat than take pictures. 

     I was thumbing through my copy of Around the Block with Judy Hopkins; when I found 2 blocks that I thought I could try with my Kaffes' and Philip Jacobs' prints.

      So I made a few blocks.

      I'm not sure if I'm getting the effect I want; so these will be going on the far back burner for awhile.
 
     I put a couple of motifs on my ellipses quilt. I think I only have 3 left. I would love to just sprint to the finish line with this; now that I am home, but I have to finish my 2 orders first. I'll get to an update on them later in the post.

     Remember these blocks?

     I had an idea about how I was going to lay them out, but wasn't able to show you yet. I made some progress on that front while I was at retreat.

      I think that the negative spaces are going to be different reds

 

     This was my Jelly Roll Race quilt. I think I came in 3rd from the last. Competitive speed sewing may not be my thing! But, I had a good time playing, and was surprised by getting some ideas for quick, easy quilts. I don't often get ideas for a quick, easy quilt, so this might be useful.

      Here is the beautiful  fabric I won in the fabric swap.

     Thank you so much to Mary for setting this up. Everyone I spoke to had such a wonderful time together! I enjoyed it so much that yesterday, I took the opportunity to ride down to Macon with Mary and spend a bit more time with the Macon ladies. Mary is a school teacher, so I like to take advantage of the chance to spend some extra time with her during the summer months.

     Alice, from the Macon Guild, was doing a workshop on working with selvages. I worked on my Let's Polka order quilt, but I enjoyed seeing what they were doing; and got some good ideas for future use. Why throw away what could be put to good use? Needless to say, a lovely time was had by all. I just love getting together with quilting friends!

     I now have most of the HST for the Let's Polka quilt made and trimmed. I also got the quarter square triangles made; but they are not all trimmed yet. Maybe by next post.

     I got the red and white quilt back from Regina. Of course the quilting pattern she recommended looks fabulous on it! I was so paranoid about getting all of that white dirty; that I pinned a sheet to both sides, before trimmed off the excess back, and machine stitched the binding on. This made the quilt weigh a ton, but, I hope it helps it to stay clean! 

 

     My plan for the rest of the day is to put in a movie, and hand stitch that binding down.

Thanks for stopping by!

    

A Joy, a Disappointment, and a Dilemma

     You know how it feels when you have been putting off doing something, then, all of a sudden you just do it; and it feels so good to have it done? There was a desktop computer on my desk that I have not used since I got internet service put in this house; and was told that they could not hook it up to that computer without another adapter because the connections on that computer were too old. Ever since then I have just used my lap top. I mean, this desk top computer is only from 2001! I been meaning to get rid of it forever. I finally did it! I had been putting it off because I thought it would take a long time to take the  files that I wanted to save off of it. I reality, it took about an hour to copy those files and dismantle the thing and take it downstairs. And now look at my nice clean desk! It's like having  brand new workspace! What a great feeling to have that finally done. It only took 2 1/2 years.

     There is something I want to warn you all about. I have my quilts and patterns on Etsy. I love the sense of community you find there; and all of the information they are always putting out to help their seller/artists. I have had some success on Etsy too. The red and white quilt order came from Etsy, and I sold another quilt there last fall. This weekend I got an inquiry about one of my quilts. I was suspicious about it because the person asked me to respond to their private email address instead of answering through the Etsy message system called "convos". So, I ignored the persons request to use their private email; and just answered them with a return "convo". Then I wrote Etsy, asking if I was right to be concerned. Apparently, I was. Being asked to respond through your private email is a sign of trouble. It is so nice to have someone to write to and ask this and get a response in 36 hours. I just wanted to share that experience for any of you who are new Etsy users; and like me, aren't all that confidant with these wonderful tools in we have in the digital age.If they ask you to respond to their email address, they are trying to lure you into dealing with them outside the Etsy system. The next step may be to offer you more than you have your item listed for; and get you to send them back money. Their Pay Pal payment will be a forgery, and if you have shipped your item; that's gone too. They especially target shops that have high ticket items, and a small amount of sales.

While Regina has the red and white quilt; I made the label for it today. That way, when I get it back from her, it will be ready to go on the quilt. The binding is already made and ready to go on the quilt. Here is what the label looks like.

I have been working on the quarter square triangle blocks for the Let's Polka quilt. I cut 2 squares. Then I marked and sewed them corner to corner like you would to make half square triangles. But, after sewing, I cut them in a big X.

 This gives you enough pieces to make 2 blocks. Many of my blocks have strips, so I end up with one block with horizontal stripes, and another block with vertical stripes.

I have also been working on my bird cage quilt. That is where the dilemma comes in. This was my original drawing.

In the drawing, I have strips on one side of he panel, and equilateral triangles on the other side of the panel.Though I didn't draw it in; I plan to repeat those two things, only switch the sides on the lower portion of the quilt. This week I got the strips sewn together, mostly by using them as leaders and enders (Bonnie Hunter style), while I was working on other things. I put both strip panels up on the design wall on the upper half of the quilt to see what they look like. I kind of like the symmetry.

I will have to make a panel of triangles before I can decide for sure. Then I can try it out both ways. But maybe I will end up with just strips in all 4 areas. 

Well, that's what I have been up to. Thanks for stopping by!
 

Time for the Borders

     Last night, I finished the center of the red and white quilt. It was late, and I was tired, but I also put the back together. This quilt has much more white than all of the quilts I have ever made, put together. I have really been sweating how to keep it all pristine; now that it is large enough to drag on the floor as I am working on it. I laid out sheets under my ironing board, and my sewing machine to prevent the quilt from coming in contact with the floor.

     Today I will put the 2 borders on; 1 narrow red, border, and a wide, white border. As I was piecing this, I used areas of my Bird Cage quilt for leaders and enders. Now. all of my large blocks have the Economy blocks around them; and I have started on my strips. I will delve more into that in a future post.

     Last Friday, I had a meeting with my customer from the Inman Park Festival, who ordered the king size version of "Let's Polka". She approved the fabric choices. I will lay those out in another blog post as soon as I get the red and white quilt to Regina, my quilter. We are scheduled to meet tomorrow. This afternoon I will finish the top by adding the borders.

    Thanks for stopping by!

Quarter Blocks

I finally finished my rug order. Now I can concentrate on just the quilting. 

I have been working away on the red and white quilt. I have all of the quarter blocks done.

I expect the quilt will be finished in the next day or 2 now that all of the small seams are done. There is less to tell about this quilt; since usually, a lot of the decisions I make have to do with pairing many prints together, and strategies for keeping those pairings organized. It this quilt there are only 2 fabrics; and all of the blocks are the same. Very unusual for me,

Guild Dinner, Red and White Quilt

Tonight we had our annual spring dinner at guild. It is the last get together we have until August.The theme of the decorations was patriotic. I won this lovely flower arrangement as a door prize.

 

I have been working on the red and white quilt. I made one entire block to test out all of my patch measurements. It went together how I was expecting it to; so now I will proceed assembly line style and chain piece everything.

All of my HSTs are finished and sewn in pairs.

Next on the agenda is to all the single red triangle, white square, and press. I am trying to decide how to do the pressing. On the first block, I tried to press everything towards the darker fabric; but that made some areas pretty bulky, so maybe I will try pressing the seams open.

 

I'll write again when I have more done. Thanks for stopping by.

Lots of Red and White HSTs

My red fabric has arrived; so I am spending my sewing time making lots and lots of red and white HSTs.

I am also making a patriotic potholder for next Tuesday's spring dinner with my quilt guild. I can't show you that until it's over; because no one is supposed to know what mine looks like.

Quilt order, Finished blocks

Where does the time go. I can't believe my last post was over a week ago! How did that happen!? I think spring plays a major role. I am blaming spring because of all of the gardening and planting I have been spending time on. 

Also, I am the chairperson for my quilt guild's (The Cotton Boll Quilters) first quilt show in many years. I have had a couple of meetings dealing with that recently. We now have a firm date. Our show will open January 12, 2013; and be up until March 2. The show will be at The Art Station in Stone, Mountain, Georgia.  

I finally, finally got all of my square in a square blocks for my Bird Cage quilt trimmed.  I have all of these blocks for 2 different quilts finished and ready to go, but, I have struggled to find time to arrange them so I can sew them together.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to have one of my quilting friends, Eleanor come over to visit for a little while, and I did get to work on the Bird Cage quilt. First I wanted to put all of the blocks up on the design board just for the joy of seeing them spread out in all of their wild and craziness.This was the quilt where I challenged myself to use a bit of everything, Kaffe, batiks, paisleys, plaids, stripes, you name it. It will be interesting to see how all of that variety works together.

I really enjoyed seeing them all up together. It made me want to make a quilt just out of this pattern. I have a had a quilt in my head lately, that is based on a view I saw off of the deck at quilt retreat last year. It was spring time, and the sky was a very clear, strong blue. That blue mixed with the bright green of the new leaves, mixed with the darker greens of the evergreen trees, and all of the browns a greys of the barks; seemed like it would be an interesting color scheme for a quilt. I also wanted something that would evoke the business of all of the textures of all of the different types of leaves. I wish I had my camera with me that day, I had hoped to get a photo when I went back this year, but the atmospheric conditions were not the same. I have been collecting batiks in greens, blues, browns, and greys, all year, anticipating eventually using that color scheme on a quilt.  I wonder if this could be that block for that quilt?

Anyway, back to this quilt. My plan was to do a ring of these small blocks around my large bird cage blocks. I got 2 of 4 done.

I haven't shared with you my biggest news. I got the order from the Etsy customer I have been conversing with the last 2 weeks!

This is the drawing he chose.

I have the red on order. It should be here next week. I was able to find the white locally. So I got it already. This week I washed it and cut the small squares for the HST. I marked them; so when the red gets here, all I have to do is get it washed, get the small squares cut, and start sewing.

That's all I have for now!