Still, Quilting, and Four Patches

     So, this is what I have been up to lately.

Still quilting this quilt-maybe 25% done.

     I will be teaching how to make this quilt at our next quilting retreat. Maybe, I will come away from that with lots of new colorways to share. I just love seeing other peoples color combinations.

     Still working on 4 patches for the wedding quilt. The other day, I had the pleasure of sitting out on the porch in pleasant temperatures, and cutting my 4 patch strips.

     I had hoped to post photos of my booth from the art show I was in this past weekend, but that did not go as planned. 

      I was disappointed to see that the weather forecast was quite rainy, and possibly stormy, but was told that the show would go on, rain or shine, so I dutifully got there Friday afternoon to set up my booth. I have spent many a show under my tent, watching the rain come down. Sometimes, that is just how it goes. Once you have committed to being in one of those shows, they don't like you to bail on them because the weather is poor. But, when I was set up, and ready to leave, I couldn't turn the key in my ignition! I had to get my friend, Iva to come and get me.

      The next day more friends, Eleanor, and Danny came to help me get my booth, and car.  They had planned to come and see the show, and visit with me. They brought me there, then planned to put my quilts in their car after the show. When we got there, we were told that the show was cancelled! Ugh!  Then, the rain stopped,and, gradually, the weather cleared, but it was too late. It was all cancelled already. I was too distracted through all of this to remember to take pictures.

     I was so grateful to all of my friends that were so helpful to me when I was stranded in Madison GA, which is 28 miles away! Now, my car is fixed, and all is well, but, I am really rethinking one day outdoor shows. It is like putting all of your eggs in one basket. If you have bad weather that one day you are out of luck. Twice in the last 5 months I have been in outdoor shows where the weather was beautiful the day before, and the day after, but was terrible the day of the show. Actually, in this case it was just the forecast that was so bad, and it had been a rainy morning. Oh well, that's show biz!

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

Finally-2 Finishes

     Finally, I got 2 quilts completely finished. Binding, sleeve, photos and all! It's about time, about time, wouldn't you say? These quilts have been quilted for months. Then all of the hand work was done for what seemed like quite awhile, but the weather wouldn't let me get outside and photograph them. First there was pollen, then there was rain, more rain, and yet more rain. But at last...

Painted Desert

Lake Country Bungalow

     Also, I started quilting this quilt.

     Yesterday, I got my finally got my grass cut, and a few things planted. What a relief that was after-I forget how many-maybe 8 or 9 rainy days in a row. I was afraid I was going to need a machete. But I am not complaining. I would just love to share some with those that have not been getting rain at all. Feast or famine, right?

     Today, I am off to sew with a good friend I haven't seen in weeks. Hope you have a pleasant day planned.

     Thanks for stopping by!

Simple Pleasures and Simple Units

    We have been having the most beautiful spring, here in Georgia! Flowers are blooming everywhere. Below, is a photograph of the azalea bush in front of my porch. There are a few pansies, and snapdragon that I planted too.

     I love it when that azalea bush is in full bloom. 

      I got the sleeves attached to both of the quilts I wrote about last time, but the other side of the "flowers everywhere" coin is pollen everywhere. I think I will wait a couple of weeks to take photograph them outside, so I don't bring them back in loaded with pollen.

     The last few weeks, I have only had small bits of time to work on my quilting. Most of my time has been spent on things like routine doctors appointments, sorting tax receipts, the first mowing of the year, and of course weaving that big rug. I thought I had a picture of the big rug on the loom, but I could only find a photos of the borders. We most often have to weave a large center, with 2 smaller pieces that get sewn onto either side to get the needed size. This rug will finish at 14 feet by 15 feet.

     I have also been making a lot of 4 patches and half square triangles for one of my "project status" quilts. I have them in all stages of completion.  Here is a box of finished units, ready to go up on the design wall.

     All of the HST are done, but these 4 patches are waiting to be pressed:

     And these are pressed and waiting to be crosscut:

     I took these photos with my camera, which I am not so accustomed to using, but my camera battery was charging. You can tell I am not very accustomed to controlling the flash, and color with the phone camera indoors.


     Back to the subject at hand; I just love working with these small, simple units, because they are so easy to work on anywhere. I can carry them with me to a friends house. Several steps like pairing my fabrics, marking my diagonal lines on the HST, and crosscutting can even be done without electricity, and I can take them outside on these lovely spring days.

     I am almost done with all of the units for this quilt, and I can't wait to start putting them together! Then you, and I both will be able to see what this is really going to look like!

     That is what I have been working on. I hope you are having a lovely spring as well. Thanks for stopping by!

Design Wall Monday

     This is what is currently on my main design wall.

       This is for a commission I am working on. I am trying to make an interesting cloudy sky background out of Kaliedoscope blocks. WW1 airplanes will be appliqued onto the sky. Here is my drawing.

    
     It still needs quite a bit of work. I was feeling that it needed some more clearer, lighter, slightly green blues, so I bought these:

     Having all of the white showing at the corners of the blocks, is causing  some confusion, but I don't know how else to do it. I had the same problem when I have used this block in the passed. I think I just need to play with it more. It will help a lot when I start sewing. Lately, I have been distracted by other spring time "must do" chores. Hopefully, I am close to getting all of those things caught up.

     One really fun thing I did last week was to present a program to the Common Threads Quilt Guild in Newnan, GA. They were a fun group, and I had a lovely time, spending the evening with them. I want to thank them for their kindness, and hospitality.

    In my quieter, low energy moments, I am working on getting sleeves put on a couple of quilts that are finished, except for their sleeves.

     When I get the sleeves put on, I will be able to hang them, and get a good photo, so I can get them posted on my Etsy site. 

     I used to sew one of the sleeve sides in with the top binding. Since I sell my quilts, I have decided awhile ago that, from then on, I will hand stitch both sides of the sleeve down. That way, if someone wants to remove the sleeve, and not see a sleeve when they turn the quilt down on the bed, they can do that easily.

     That is what I have been up to. There are always lots of interesting works in progress to see over at Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times . Check it out!

     Thanks for stopping by!

Continued

     As I was saying.......
     
     I laid out each group of strips, and decided what order I wanted them in. If they didn't come out to be 10" wide, I added a strip. 

     Then, I trimmed each strip set down to a 10" square. Here are all of my light strip sets, already trimmed and ready to go. Seeing them spread out on the table like this made me think it would be fun to make a low contrast quilt out of light neutrals.

     I took a dark strip set and a light strip set, and pinned them with right sides together, so that the strips run perpendicular to one another. In the last quilt I made this way, I used 2 different color families instead of light and dark.

     Here is a photo from that quilt from last year, showing a stack of strip sets pinned together. The colors are different from the quilt I am working on now, but the technique is the same.

     Then, just sew the usual 1/4" seam all the way around the outside edge.

     Next cut a big diagonal "X".

     You will end up with 4 large half square triangles.

      I love this because, making 4 blocks at once, it goes quite fast. You can do anything with these blocks that you would do with a log cabin, in much less time.

     I love when I am able to get everything to make a quilt top out of my scrap bins. It make me feel like all the sorting of fabric scraps I have been doing is paying off. It is nice to actually get to USE them!

     I have not gotten much sewing done the last couple of days, because I got a new rug to weave, and have been setting up my loom.

       Last night, I started weaving.

    I don't design the rugs I weave. I work for someone else, who does. Her name is Lyn Sterling Montagne, and you can see more of her beautiful work at:http://lsmweavingstudio.com/

     So That is what I have been up to lately. Tomorrow, we are supposed to have some nice weather, and I am looking forward to playing some tennis! Hope you get to do something you love. Thanks for stopping by!

2 Design Walls-1 Quilt/Design wall Monday

  Here is what I have on my 2 design Walls. I just played around on EQ until I came up with this layout.

     And the missing corner is on my portable design wall.

    One of the things I am most proud of about this quilt is, that it came completely out of my scrap bins. 

     I wanted a variety of strip sizes, so I went in my  "less than 1 1/2" strip bin and cut 4 strips 10" long, and pinned them together like this.

     I like to work assembly line fashion, so I actually made 46 dark groups, and 46 light groups.

     Then I went in my "1 1/2" strip bin and cut 3 strips that I thought would look pretty with the first 4 strips of each group, and pinned them to the groups.

     Then I went into my "1 3/4- 2" strip bin and cut 3 of those strips that would look nice with each group and added them to each group.

     I didn't remember to take any photos while I was sewing the groups of strips, so I will have to make another group, and take pictures of them for you for the next post.

      That is what I have been up to. There are many more WIP to see over athttp://www.patchworktimes.com/2015/03/02/design-wall-march-2-2015/

      Be sure to go over, and check out whats happening there.

     Thanks for stopping by my neck of the woods!

First Blog Post in a Long Long Time

Well, Why not begin by stating the incredibly obvious!

You would be bored if I told you why. No special reason, I just got caught up in doing other things, and got out of the habit. The more time that went by, the harder it was to begin again. It started out with not having much to blog about, because the projects I was working on were not projects I felt comfortable sharing, for one reason or another, then, I just got out of the habit. 

Well, I have to start back someplace, right?

Here is what I have been working on most recently. 

This is a graduation from college gift for a young man who is the son of someone I who has been one of my dearest friends since high school. I know that I have mentioned Susan to you before. Last year she bought these 2 quilts from me.

Now I am working on a graduation present for her son, J.D., who will be graduating from college this coming spring. I think it is the Theater department of Oklahoma City University that he is graduating from, but I get confused on the details when it comes to things like "University of" vs. "something University". I think it's the theater department, but it could be drama, or performing arts, or something like that. Anyway, if I wait until I get all of those details straight, I'll never start posting again.

Here's the the top 2 thirds of the quilt on my design wall:

And, here is part of the bottom third waiting to be sewn together, on my portable design wall.

  
So that is what I have been up to recently. That, and hibernating  from the cold. I know it is a lot warmer in Georgia than it is up north, but, it has been colder than I am accustomed to. At least there has been more cold weather than I am accustomed to.

I hope you are finding a way to stay warm, wherever you are. Nothing like your current quilting project to take your mind off the cold. If that doesn't work, my advise is to try hot chocolate. 

Thanks for stopping by!