Saturday, March 29, 2014

Spoolin' around

A Spools quilt has been on my to-do list for a long time.

When I saw that Camille Roskelley of Thimble Blossoms had recently released a mini version of her popular Spools pattern, I knew it was just the thing I was looking for.

I used a charm pack of "Happy Go Lucky" for the spool centers. The pattern was easy to follow.  The best part was playing around with the fabric strips to decide the placement of colors for the spools.

Sewing together the spool tops and bottoms was a little fiddly,  but there were only 9 spools afterall.  Here's my finished top:

This little cutie measures just 16 x 18 inches. All you need for a backing is a fat quarter.  I love it.




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Friday, March 21, 2014

A story of strings

A few years back, I made this blue and yellow string quilt:

Before I chose the blue/light blue borders I had planned on using up the extra strings to make a piano key border.  I made the border and auditioned it with the quilt:

I decided the piano keys were too much, so I rolled them up and set them aside, thinking maybe I could use them on something else someday.

I came across them during the big sewing room tidy-up and knew that the time had come to make them into a small quilt.  I did a little slice and dice and removed the more subdued blues and paler yellows, and added in a few brighter shades:
Then I combined them with some royal blue border strips that were leftover from another project that I can't recall, and came up with this:

I just knew those strips would come in handy someday.   I find it hard enough to throw away even the smallest scrap, and I think I might have to start even saving those.

Another find in the sewing room was a charm pack of Aneela Hoey  "Posy" fabrics.

I added in about 20 charms that I cut from my stash, and made this Springtime quilt:




Tuesday, March 18, 2014

A shawl finish

I mentioned in a previous post that some women at my church were starting up a Prayer Shawl Ministry.


We have been meeting weekly, and I am amazed at the speed in which we have generated several shawls to be given out.  Some of the women have knit or crocheted a couple or more shawls already in the time it has taken me to complete my first one.

Turns out that it is kind of hard to get a picture of a shawl without having it on a model.  (I promise that it is really a nice straight rectangular shape.)

When we finish a shawl, we wrap it up in a cellophane bag and tie it with a pretty ribbon.  Here are the ones that were finished last week.

We have a nice mix of women from the area and I have enjoyed getting the chance to know them.




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Saturday, March 15, 2014

Quilter's Holiday


How did you celebrate National Quilting Day?  I didn't have a lot of quilting time today, but I managed to have a little block of time to sew together a Rock Candy quilt top.

The diamonds were already cut out and mostly sewn together so it didn't take long to assemble all the pieces.

If quilters ruled the world, EVERY day would be a quilting day!  Hope you had a little time to enjoy some fabric and thread.  There's still  time before the day is out.
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Friday, March 14, 2014

Swimming in Cotton Candy




While sorting out the sewing room, I put aside a selection of cotton candy colors to use for a donation quilt for Quilts for Kids.  At my next trip to the fabric store, I checked out the sale fabrics and found a cute whale print fabric that ended up being the perfect match for my cotton candy colors:


It's not often that you start with a pile of coordinates and then pick a focus fabric to go with it.  It's usually the other way around.   I decided on a Log Cabins style block with a 5 inch square of the whale fabric for the center.

For the surrounding "logs", I cut 2 1/2" strips in 3 sizes....5 inch, 7 inch and 9 inch.  (Nice even numbers that were easy to remember.)  I used a 1 1/2" strip for the white sashing, a 1 1/4" strip for the dark blue inner border and  4"strips for the binding.  The finished quilt measures 38 x 48".

It's been a while since I made a quilt with such bright and fun colors, and I have to say, I really enjoyed the chance to play around with these.



Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Blogger Girls and Flying Geese


Today I finished the March blocks for Monique Dillard's Blogger Girl's Block of the Month.  The two blocks are from the same pattern, although the Flying Geese units face toward the center on one block, and away from the center on the other block.

I realized that I had a Flying Geese ruler from Lazy Girl Designs that I have never used before. It's called the "Flying Geese X 4 No Math Ruler".   Strange, but I didn't even remember I had this ruler.  I just came across it recently during a sewing room re-organization.   This month's block was a perfect time to use it.

For each set of 4 Flying Geese, you cut one large square and four small squares.  The ruler has markings for up to 12 different sizes of Geese.

After cutting, you mark a diagonal line on the wrong side of the small squares, and start by lining up 2 of the small squares onto the opposite corners of the large square:
Stitch 1/4" on each side of the drawn line:
Cut them apart:

Press, and you have two units that look like this:

Take one of the remaining 2 small squares and place it on one unit like this:
Stitch 1/4" on each side of the drawn line.  Do the same thing for the second unit.
Cut apart on the line.

After you press them open, you have four very nicely made Flying Geese units.

 For each step with the purple and white, I also made a set using green and white.

Putting them together with some  half squared triangle units and my two blocks were sewn up in no time:

Here are the 6 blocks I have made so far:






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Sunday, March 9, 2014

Colors good enough to eat



I was very inspired by a quilter in our guild who devotes most of her quilting time toward making Quilts for Kids.  Lynda has made a commitment to donate as many quilts as possible to the pediatric wards at two nearby hospitals.   Not only is she generous with using her own stash to make the quilts, but she also does the quilting on all the donated quilt tops that come her way.  I decided to check out my stash and see if I could come up with a quilt to donate.

I don't really have any juvenile prints,, but I did find a piece of this fun flower print that I thought would have kid appeal.

I went through my stash and tossed together an  assortment of reds, pinks, yellows and greens to go with it.
Some of them were uncut fat quarters, but most of them were leftovers from other projects.

I cut the flower fabric into 4" squares, and cut 2 or 3 squares from each of the others.
I really love this combination of colors!  I started by putting the squares together in a random arrangement, and added the flower print in a diagonal row.

I don't have much large yardage in my stash, so I didn't think I could come with a border, but I had just enough of a cherry red fabric to squeeze out a border.

The colors make me think of a fruit salad....cherry red, apple green, banana yellow and watermelon pink. There's a little cantaloupe in there too.     I'm hungry now.  Hope I remembered to buy some fruit....                          




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