I sure could feel fall in the air here today. I went to a friends house to sew, and got all of the tails sewn on all of the chicken pincushions. I made 2 sizes. 12 of each size. Now all I have to do is stuff them and sew them closed, and they will be done.
Once I got all of the tails on these guys, I allowed myself some fun, and sewed some strip sets for my "fussy cut Harmony Art quilt. Not yet trimmed, as you can see.
This wedding I went to a very lovely wedding in North Carolina. I have known the groom since he was very young, and it was wonderful to see him married to such a special women. His parents gave them a quilt that I made for a wedding gift.
So, I made them 3 sets of pillowcases to coordinate with it.
So, now I am off to get this months Porterdale Newsletter together.
Thanks for stopping by!
I finished quilting and binding my pineapple class sample. I am generally not wild about my own machine quilting, but I am trying to challenge myself to do it more so I get better at it. I needed to get this to A Scarlet Thread so they could hang it up as an upcoming class. I will be teaching this on October 26th.
The T-shirt quilt went to the quilters, so I am done with that for awhile. I did make a binding for it though. So, that will be ready to go when it comes back.
My gardenias are very confused, They have been blooming! I have never seen this happen before. They usually bloom in early summer, and then are done for the year. I wonder, is this caused by our unusually wet summer? The last month has really been quite dry. It's kind of bad since I had gotten so used to not having to water anything.
I having finally begun making small items for the art show that I will be in November 9th and 10th. I already have plenty of large quilts to make a nice showing, but I wanted to make some smaller "gifty" items to show also. The Southern Heartland Gallery near me has told me they have already gotten a request for my potholders.
I started a bunch of chicken pincushions. I have made them in 2 sizes, but there is only 1 size in this photo.
I made them out of scrap pieces of scarves and blankets leftover from the days when I was weaving those things. So, they are made from hand dyed, and hand woven fabric. I used jumbo red rickrack to make their combs. So far they are all blind. I plan to take them with me today when I sew with some friends, add their eyes. Then they will be ready to stuff. I bought some black beads to use for their eyes.
I have also been working on some pot holders. I have tried to make them a different way this year. Last year, I used the flip and sew method to sew through the batting and backing at the same time as I was piecing them. Then I had to bind them.
This year I am piecing the top layer separate, then sewing it to the back with right sides together, then inserting the batting, and quilting the resulting sandwich. This saves me the step of making a binding, put I have to hand stitch the hole closed, and then quilt it. I am not sure which I like better, or even which is faster, but this method is forcing me to machine quilt more. I think these large ones are better for hot pads, or decoration.
The top set are the blocks I made in Victoria Findley's class at The Georgia Quilt show.
Smaller ones are more practical for actual pot holding use.
And, I just finished roasting another set of sunflower seeds that is almost as big as the first set!
That is what I have been up to this week. Thanks for stopping by!
First, a photo of all the sunflower seeds I got from the first set of heads. I have another group of flower heads that I will try to get processed this week. This is my first try at this. I think it would have been better if I let the heads on the stalk a bit longer, but they still turned out pretty good.
I had a wonderful time at the Georgia Quilt Show. So many beautiful quilts to see! I took very informative, interesting classes from both Victoria Findley Wolfe, and Ebony Love.
I am generally a late adopter, but I will probably get some kind of die cutter eventually. Ebony Love gave us lots of information to help us compare and contrast the various options.
I got almost 2 blocks made in Victoria Findley Wolfe's class. I really enjoyed learning about her technique-very freeing.
When I got home I really had the urge to sew something, but I was too tired to try to start machine quilting the pineapple block, or put the borders on the T shirt quilt, so what did I do? I started a new quilt!
Remember this fabric?
I love this fabric. It is organic cotton from honeybegood.com The designer is Harmony Art, and it is 110" wide!
I knew that I wanted to fussy cut those motifs and do something around or in between them. Between watching Bonnie Hunter do all of her Crumb piecing, and taking that class with Victoria Findley Wolfe, I got an idea. I pulled out my "small bit" bin, and started piecing on strips of telephone book paper.
That rotary cutter has a yarn tale to remind me that is the rotary cutter with the old blade I save my old rotary cutter blades and use the to cut paper. It works quite well.
After some playing, I came up with this block:
Now quite as free form as Victoria Findley Wolfe's blocks, but more free form than I had originally planned. I had thought that I would use all greens, or at least only cool colors with this, but I really like the warmer colors in the mix. Right now, I am thinking about a whole quilt of these blocks with fairly narrow sashing of the striped fabric.
I will have to set this aside for a little while, and get back to more urgent matters, but it sure was fun doing some playing! I am sure I will get back to it eventually.
Oh, BTW I won my tennis match last weekend, but this weekend- not so much. Better luck next time.
That is what I have been up to this week. Don't forget to check in with patchworktimes.com to see what other quilters have been up to. Thanks for stopping by!
The blocks are sewn together.
It is spray basted and ready to quilt.
The weather here is slowly getting a bit more autumn like. I think the high today was low 80s. A great day to for our community garden workday. It felt so nice.
We cut all of the sunflowers down. I have a big pot of sunflower seeds sitting in salt water in the kitchen. They will soak for 24 hours before I dry them and, bake them for a half hour at 300. There is a lot of instruction on this on the internet. Isn't it great how you can learn to do so many things on the internet?
Tomorrow I have a tennis match. It wasn't really my turn to play, but I have to sub in for some one else. It is supposed to be pleasant again tomorrow, and I am really looking forward to playing in the cooler temperatures.
I am busily working away on a rug too, so it be a few days before I can quilt the pineapple piece.
Hope your weekend is going well. Thanks for stopping by!
This week, I put my blue and green quilt on the back burner. I felt like I needed to get these pineapple blocks finished since they are a class sample for a class I am teaching later this fall. Mission accomplished.
Tomorrow, I am going to a group sew with some friends. That sounds like a perfect time to get the paper off of the back, and get these blocks sewn together. I plan to machine quilt this myself. That is unusual for me. I usually make large quilts, then send them out to be quilted, but I wanted a smaller Pineapple quilt so people taking the class would have a smaller design to work on if they wanted. If I am going to do that kind of thing, I am going to have to learn how to quilt these smaller items myself. Most of you have already seen the large class sample but I will add it again for the benefit of any newcomers.
So that is what I did with my sewing time this week. I know there will be many inspiring things that you won't want to miss seeing at patchworktimes.com
Thanks for stopping by!
Finally! After many months, there is something on my design wall to share! I barely remember how to do these "linky" things, it's been so long. I think many months ago I shared this drawing.
The blocks are finally finished, and up on the design wall.
I struggle with how to photograph things on my design wall since there is a big weaving loom in front of it. But, alas, it is the only large blank wall in the house. Here is a shot from the side.
I also have a smaller project on another design wall. This will be repetitious for anyone who has read my blog lately. Sorry for that.
I am teaching beginning paper piecing with the pineapple block in a couple of places locally in the next few months. This is my sample quilt.
I thought it would be nice for my students to have the option of starting a project that didn't have 80 blocks, so I designed this on my EQ.
I have 5 blocks completed, except for the corners. I think I would prefer to choose the colors of the corners later, after I have all of the blocks finished. I only have the first few rounds on the other 4 block, so they don't look like much yet. This is what I have so far.
Well, that is what I have been up to. I have been so looking forward to participating in Design Wall Monday at www.patchworktimes.com for awhile now. Check it out. There are always a wide variety of interesting projects to see.
I hope you are having a fun holiday weekend. Thanks for stopping by!
Another rug finished, and I have a few days before the next rug needs to go on the loom; so I have been working on the pineapple blocks for my class sample. I showed my drawing, and the full quilt class sample in the very last post, so I won't add it again here. I wanted to give the students the choice of working on a smaller project if they chose, since the quilt has 80 blocks. This sample has only 9 blocks. I have 5 of them done so far.
Four blocks to go. I hope to finish them this weekend.
I had started with this block.
I started over because I decided to make it scrappier, and use a different print in each corner. I am happier with the scrappier version. I usually find that I prefer more variety.
I am also about 75 percent finished with the T-shirt quilt. Two days ago, I put about 6 or 7 items on my Etsy site that I have been meaning to post for months.
I have all of my blocks for this quilt finished and trimmed. I want to get them arranged on the design wall this weekend too. It would be so nice to get another top done.
I can't wait to see these blocks up on the design wall. Finally, I will have something to post for Design Wall Monday, at Patchwork Times. I have not had anything I could share on my design wall for months!
I hope all is well with you all, and you get to do something that you really enjoy this holiday weekend. Thanks for stopping by!
