Quilt Portrait

     When I got up this morning it was cloudy; so I thought it would be a good time to take photos of my Missing Monkeys quilt.

     I did some piecing on the back of this one.

     Last night it was mt turn to host my sewing group. While they were over I cut apart the blocks for this quilt.

I started this quilt last winter, so, I better remind you what is happening here. I make a set of strips from one color family, a set of strips from another color family. I place them with right sides side together, so that one set of strips is running perpendicular to the other set. Then, I sew all around the outer edge.




     Here is a whole group of them pinned and ready to sew from a retreat I went on last spring.

     Once you sew around the outer edge, 2 diagonal cuts are made from corner to corner.

   
     This will yield 4 blocks. All that is needed is to press the center seam, and square up. You can set these in any log cabin/HST configuration.

     I hope I can get these on the design wall soon, but first I have some T shirts that need to be cut and stabilized.
   
     So that is what I am up to.  Hope you are having some fun. Thanks for stopping by!

Shopping

     I had a lovely time at the Mountain Laurel Quilter's Guild. They are such a hospitable group of ladies. And, boy do they ever have a lot going on!

     When I got home, I had a rug to get finished, a newsletter to get typed up, and after that....shopping!

    I needed to get a binding for the Ohio Star Quilt so I can get it made while that quilt is being quilted.

 

      I bought this because I am planning to make a gift for someone, and I thought it would be a good constant fabric to tie it together. It's a good thing I got some extra, since look how well it goes with this!

 

      I didn't even think of that until I got home.  And... I did splurge a little. The main mission was to get some stabilizer for the T shirt quilt I have to make. 

    That red was on sale. I am collecting reds and purples for a quilt, and some back and whites for another. No excuse for that other fabric.

     Last night Mary invited me over to sew, and I worked on getting the sleeve on this quilt. I am 3/4 done. I hand stitched the binding when I was getting ready to go to the Mountain Laurel Guild earlier in the week. So this quilt will be ready for it's portrait soon.

     Now I am in the process of putting another rug on the loom, and getting ready for my bee group to come over Tuesday. The person whose turn it is to host has to cook dinner, so I am planning....

     That is what I have been up to. Thanks for stopping by!

At Last!

     Finally, all of the blocks are finished, and I have it up on the design wall. I couldn't get the whole quilt in the photo, but I did the best I could. Sorry for the hot spots from the window. It has been a long time since there has been much sun coming in the window around here. It has been so soggy lately that I expect to mildew any minute.

    
     Just a reminder, this is the quilt that I am trying to recreate:

     Fortunately, I still had quite a few of the same fabrics, but I did have to add a few to replace those that I had run out of. The light in this picture is different since, this one was taken outside.

     One thing that slowed me done a bit: since my last post, I got a call from someone who wanted a T shirt quilt for a gift, and I had to make a couple of drawings, and look for fabric, etc. for her. I am reluctant to talk about it in much detail here since it is supposed to be a surprise for some one.  

     Since my last post I have sent supply lists to A Scarlet Thread in Mcdonough GA, for the 3 classes I will be teaching there this fall.

     I am also pulling together my quilts for a guild program that I will be doing for the Mountain Laurel Quilters' Guild in Clarkesville, GA next Tuesday.

     We had a ice cream social at our Community Garden last night. This was a neat idea we had done in previous years. The garden supplies vanilla ice cream, bowls, and spoons, and everyone brings their favorite ice cream topping. Fun! And it was great seeing the other gardeners. We are a small group at this point, but so much fun to be with. And, hallelujah! It didn't rain!

     I hope all is going well in your world. I plan to get those blocks sewn together before the day is over. Do you think I can do it? I hope so. Thanks for stopping by!



    

The Bottom of the Box Again

     All of my Ohio Star blocks now look like this:

     Only 2 more seams to go and most of the blocks will be finished. I will choose 20 blocks and add another set of points to them making them 12" blocks. Then I will be ready to put this baby up on the design wall.

     Yesterday, a friend of mine did some stash cleansing and game me 2 bags of fabric. What a treat! No matter how old that fabric is, it's new to me. What fun. Thanks Karen! Here are a few of my favorites:

   While I was there I fell in love with a couple of prints that I just had to buy.  These came from Harmony Art at honeybegood.com  

      I just wanted the ginkgo leaf print for my reds. I thought it was unusual that green was so prominent with the strong red background.
      I just couldn't resist the green print. I have wanted to make a green quilt for awhile now. I think this has been exacerbated by seeing all of the greens this spring. I have also looking for another print that I could fussy cut and build around like I did with my Missing Monkeys quilt.

 

      

     I was looking for something with more colors in it, but it might be fun to combine this idea with the green quilt idea. So, I am seriously considering fussy cutting these motifs. I tried some of my green print with it.

     

      Then, I added some batiks.

     
      I tried some blues with it to see if this is going to be my spring tree and sky quilt, but I don't think so. I think the greens in this focus fabric is not bright enough for that. It will be awhile before I start this; I think. I am a long way from deciding just which fabrics I want to put with this.

      I hope that you all have a safe and fun 4th of July holiday. We are expecting rain here, so I imagine I will spend the day sewing and weaving. Hopefully, I will be putting some of that Ohio Star quilt up on the design wall. The forecast is so bad that our City Council has already moved our fireworks celebration to the 6th. So, I told the guests I had invited to watch them, not to come until Saturday. 

     Thanks for stopping by!

HALF OVER!

    
     Oh my gosh! This year is half over already! How did that happen?!! I fear that I am not doing very well on the goals I set up for this year. Oh well. At least some good things have been happening. It is always nice to have a custom order. It just seems like so much time has gone by since I worked on the quilts I started piecing earlier in the year. Remember this?

 
     And this?

    
     And this?
    

     It may seem like I have forgotten them, but I haven't. I hope to get back to them before too much longer. I have been working away on the Ohio Star quilt for my Etsy customer. Still trimming the dog ears off of flying geese and choosing centers for each block, then sewing the geese onto the centers, and the background squares onto the geese.

     In the mean time I finished the rug I was weaving, and have set up another. 

     We have had quite a bit of cloudy, rainy weather here lately. All of the clouds gave me the opportunity to finally get a portrait of this rascal:

  
     I couldn't take the picture until I got the binding finished, and I couldn't get the binding finished until I got the label on, and I couldn't get the label on until I decided on a name for the quilt, but finally, all of that is done.

    And, I have a new sewing machine! When I went to Washington DC to help my friend, there was an vintage sewing machine that she didn't want. It is a Singer 404 slant needle! I always wanted a straight stitch only machine! I am so excited! It is currently being serviced. I will take pictures when it comes back. I am sure that Bonnie Hunter could have gotten it going by herself, but I am not as experienced with these things, and I did not want to mess up this machine. Since I have a feeling that no one has used it in decades, I thought it would be good for a professional to look at it and if there were any problems, or parts that needed replacing, he know what to do. 

     I am also very happy that I got signed on to do my first out of state trunk show and teach a class in Arkansas next year!

     I hope the first half of the year has been great for you too. Thanks for stopping by!

More About Retreat

     I go on 2 retreats a year with this group. One in February, and one in June. It is a really fun group of women, and I am always so happy to see them! And, I just love beeing surrounded by all of that creativity, and all of those beautiful projects! It makes it very sad at the end of the June retreat, when we contemplate not seeing each other again for 8 months! I think this came about this way because our first retreat ever was in February, something to chase away winter blues. Mary our fearless leader, and beloved organizer is a school teacher, and wanted to have us get together again during her summer break. We have talked about having another in the fall, but I think the fall is too busy. Several of us are in jobs that seem to be busier in the fall. Often, there are rugs that need to be woven in time for the holidays. I think the fall season is a bit busier for most people. A group of us are getting together to have a fall art show in November. So, hopefully, you will soon see blog posts about what I am making to prepare for the show. I have plenty of large quilts; but, I wanted to make some smaller "gifty items" for the show. This show will be a continuation of a show that used to be at my house back before I was blogging, and more of my personal work was weaving. This was before I found out how much I love quilting. We quit having that show because I moved into a smaller house. Now, a friend of ours, who was at retreat with us, has graciously volunteered to let us have it at her house.

     Anyway, back to retreat. We always have a fabric swap. In Februarys  we have door prizes, but in June we have the beloved pincushion swap. After doing this for several years, we are all getting quite a collection. Some of them are more practical than others. It is so much fun to see all of the creative pincushions they come up with. This is a photo of the pincushion, sitting on the fabric I ended up with in the fabric swap. I love them both. I had always wanted a chicken pincushion, and I am beginning to collect fabrics for a future red, purple, brown and (some form of) orange quilt; so I was thrilled wth this deep red fabric. Ironically, they both came from the same person. I think we must have similar tastes. Thanks Angie!

     This is a group shot of all of the pincushions.

     I forgot to take a photo of mine before I wrapped it. It is in the 2nd row, just a bit towards the left. It is predominately blue, with a blue ribbon. I made it out of a hand dyed hand woven wool scrap from my blanket weaving days. I like to make pincushions that would be easily usable as a pincushion. I always put a piece of template plastic in the bottom of mine, to keep the pins from going all the way through. I hate when you grab a pincushion, and get stung! I hope this cuts down on that experience. 

     Most of the time at retreat, I spent working on my Etsy quilt. When I was in the car, riding to DC, I pinned groups of a set of star points with a set of background pieces.

     I came to retreat with a whole box of them. I think I counted that I need 226.

     As you know, an Ohio Star has 4 flying geese in it, so my first task was to sew the first seam on each goose. I chain piece, and cut the chain in between each block and pin the  unused background squares and star points to the chain. This keeps each block together, and helps me stay organized.

       Then, of course, I had to press that seam. The running joke of the weekend was, how long it would take for me to get to the bottom of my box for each step!

     I got both seams on all of my flying geese sewn and pressed. Yesterday afternoon, I went to sew with some friends, and instead of bringing a sewing machine, I brought my box with a small cutting mat, ruler and cutter.

      This carrying case is one of my favorite quilting tools.  A  friend made it for me many years ago. It stores all of the tools I need to make small cuts, trim, and mark. It holds a 6" square ruler, a 6" long ruler, a small mat, rotary cutter, scissors, a piece of sandpaper to keep fabric pieces still while marking, marking implements, and even a spare set of reading glasses! All in a case that will fit in any project box. It is so so handy to have all of these things packed this way so I can just grab it and go-knowing that everything I need for certain tasks is in that case. 

    I trimmed the dog ears off of my geese, and choose a center square to go with each block. I got through about 1/3 of them. 

    Last night I did some sewing on the blocks I had trimmed and chosen a center for. I sewed a background square onto 2 of the flying geese, sewed one goose to the center square, then cut from the back of the chain, and sewed the other 2 background  squares onto the other sides of the first 2 geese, then cut from the back again, to sew the last goose on the opposite side of the center square. I ended up with this.

 
      They are still chained together, so they will stay organized. All I have left is to press these seams, and sew the 2 sides on either side of the center. Then I will be done with all of my small stars. I will need to put another round of star points on 20 of them to make the larger stars.

     So that is what I am up to. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Trying to Catch up

     Well, I finally got the Etsy-Ohio Star cut out, just in time to go to Washington DC. That worked out great because I got to pair the backgrounds with the star points in the car, on the way up. 

 
     The Washington trip went pretty well. We got a lot of packing done. We were blessed with weather no warmer than 82 degrees the whole time we were there. What a miracle!

     I came home to this in my next door neighbors yard. Talk about a shock!

      :(  They said it had dropped some branches-I had only seen one, so I was quite surprised that they were so expedient in taking it down. I guess it is for the best though. I know it isn't safe to have an unhealthy tree of that size around. Still, it will be missed.

     So, I only had 3 days at home. The first thing I had to do was to get the loom set up for the next rug.

   
     Then it was time to get ready for quilt retreat! YAY! HAPPY DANCE!

     Did I tell you that Missing Monkeys came back from the quilters? I trimmed the excess of of it.

     I like to bring a quilt that needs a binding sewn down. It serves 2 purposes. I can sleep under it, and I have something to stitch on if I need some handwork.

     I was a bit disappointing when I got home and loaded my photos onto my laptop. I thought I had taken many more pictures that I did. I guess I think of getting a photo of a certain quilt, but then put off taking the photo-hoping to get it in it's most finished state. I missed getting photos of many many beautiful  quilts. Here are some I did get though.

     Angie worked on this beautiful quilt. It was so rich looking from across the room. It made me want to make one.

 

          How is this for knock your socks off spectacular! Jeanne is working on this beauty. She is a flight attendant, and I guess she gets some time to do handwork on layovers and such. She pulled out another fabulous quilt. I forget the name of the pattern. Sunflower? There were circles and points. Brave! Unfortunately, that is one of the quilt that I thought I got a photo of, but didn't.

      Kathy made this quilt-the horse heads are machine embroidered, and she brought them back from Paducah.

     Mary Beth made this quilt out of the jelly roll race quilts we made last year. She just cut it up like fabric. Sorry this photo is a bit blurry.

     Eleanor has been working on this quilt for several retreats now. I love how eclectic it is. 

      As you may have guessed, I worked on the Ohio Star quilt, and made a binding for the Missing Monkeys quilt. More about that in my next post.

 

     I hope all is well in your world. Thanks for stopping by!