A Bird House for Let's Book It

After completing the binding on the Stash Buster quilt this morning I began a new project.  I noticed that this is the Let's Book It week at Vroomans Quilts, and since I had pulled out my Thimbleberries' book to make this wall hanging, I got to it.  

I have everything cut out and the house put together.

It's going really fast and hopefully my next post will have the finished project decorating a wall.

God Bless.

Another UFO Hits the Dust

I finished this quilt top, Stash Buster by Linda of Linda's Quiltmania, in January 2014.  I began quilting it shortly after and accomplished quite a bit, then stopped.  When I quilt a sampler quilt, I like to quilt each block differently.  That makes it a slower process, so when my creativity dried up, I put it aside. 

Last week I resumed and got it finished.  

Some blocks look great with some heavy thread work, like these:

I like the way the prints are raised when the quilting is thick like this.

 And some blocks have a spare amount of quilting, like these:

On a few of the blocks I tried the long stitch hand quilting technique, using embroidery thread, and I enjoyed that, but this is a big quilt and holding it, even in the large hoop I use, was clumsy.

I was uncertain about doing something in the sashing, but decided to back away and let it be.  

The backing has almost as many pieces as one of the blocks:)

I have a few more tops that need quilting, and of course, there are new projects to begin, so I think I'll go and find something work on today.

Enjoy your week ahead.

God Bless You.

My Eight Kats

Seven black PatchKats bring me up to date on that project.  

And of course the real thing who responds to bad weather by curling up and sleeping.

I finished my table cover/lap quilt, the four-patch and checkerboard quilt.  And I had a "duh" moment when I put it on the sofa for the picture and realized that I had made pillows a few years ago for the summer with the same fabric.

Would you care to see the backing?  

Brown roses on green; I must have liked it when I bought it.  

A couple of Thank You's are due.  The first to Quiltmaker magazine and Karen of Easypatchwork.  Karen has a block in Vol. 11 of 100 Blocks, and I won an issue and a group of her designs during a recent promo.  Her block is Gristmill Star.

Thank you, Karen.  I hope to put together Autumn at the Peaks next season.

The second Thank You goes to Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict, who hosts the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge each year.  I won a copy of Rebecca Bryan's book, Modern Rainbow.  

There are some beautiful designs in this book, even for someone who is a non-modern,  traditional quilt lover.  Could that be me? ;-)  I do love the use of the rainbow colors against white or black.  That has a nice look.

Happy Father's Day to those who deserve it.

God Bless and have a wonderful week.

Postcard from Australia

Sheila of Sheila's Quilt World has been organizing her postcard swaps for a while now, and I want to thank her for taking on this very fun and rewarding exercise.  When I participate, it's always a challenge to come up with a design that I hope won't disappoint my swap partner.  I'm sure they go through the same thinking, but what a wonderful way for us to be creative and share what we can do.  Thanks, Sheila.  

Fiona, who blogs at BubzRugs, was my partner this last time and since the theme was the beach or summer, she made for me this postcard which is her interpretation in quilt block terms of the swirling sand and water on a beach.  

It is cool or what?

A beachy version of a Snail's Trail or Monkey Wrench block.

I love it because with just one small mini block it shows the many levels of thought, design, possibility and history behind a quilt block.  Thanks, Fiona.

I'm attaching a link to a bit of history about this block, if you are interested.  I like the "kissing dinosaurs" image.

My block for Fiona is much more straight forward.  

A simple Broderie Perse design.

To me, both of these cards show how fascinating the craft of quilting can be to some of us.  

Putting away the soapbox now ;-)

I completed another house.

Have a wonderful weekend.

God Bless You.

Kats, Houses, and Patches

I've been making Kats, the Patchkat type.  I've completed the April segment of the PatchKats QAL with JustQuiltin with Denise Russart.  All 21 Kats are cut and the heads sewn together.  The May segment is to make the big hearts, so hopefully I'll complete that before the June segment comes out in 2 weeks.

 21 Kats ready for anything.

This is roughly how the Kats will look; very rough.  They will have shaping and tails.

Lesley of The Cuddle Quilter shared this pattern with me, A Cottage Year by Kathy Schmitz. There are embroidered houses making up the blocks.  I am playing with those I have completed and using a beautiful layer cake that I won from Quilting Daze a few years ago to frame them.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this but since I have 6 and 1/2 houses yet to stitch I have time to play.

I wanted a new table cover so put this together.  Yes, I'm still loving the 4-patch.  The border needs to be fudged a bit and sewn on, and I will get creative with the corners.  But this is easy sewing that is a great stress reliever.

 

Have a happy week.

God Bless.

Hearts and Flowers

These are almost all of the hearts for the border of the PatchKats quilt from Justquiltin with Denise Russart.  I have one little kat almost made, and have about 20 more to go.  When I planned on slowing down with my quilting I really didn't plan to slow down this much.  I'm working on a quilt for a gift and this quilt, and I'm optimistic about spending more time on them.

One little ginger Kat head.

After a brutal winter, the spring flowers are flourishing. 

 When this tree is in bloom, only briefly in spring, the scent is heavenly.

I love columbines.

The first of my mother's iris'.

I was wondering if I was becoming a non-blogger, but I don't think so.  I'm just preoccupied.

I have way too much fabric to give up quilting now:)  Gotta use it up.

God Bless You.

Lots of Cutting, Not Much Sewing

As the title says, I have done the border cutting for the PatchKats quilt, but I have only one block done.  It's cute, isn't it?  I chose blue fabric instead of green for the ribbon.  The nice weather we are having is a big distraction to me, but I plan to keep up with this.  Yesterday the second set of instructions were made available, and we are now making the cats.  

Hope you are enjoying a beautiful day.

God Bless.

Four-Patch Finish

It took a few weeks but I have this project completed and plan to donate it to one of the Hands to Help charities that Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict is supporting this year.  I am pathetically attached to traditional quilt blocks, and I don't think it gets any more traditional than the humble but lovable four-patch.  I'm probably going to let myself graduate to the nine-patch and see how many more scraps I can use up.

Today is a really beautiful Spring day here, finally.  The sun is out and it's warm and lovely.

I plan to begin work on the PatchKats quilt.  I have some American Made Brand red and cream that is going to be the heart border, and that's the first section we are working on.  

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend and that it is as nice where you are as it is here.  

God Bless.

Floating 4-Patch Fun

I viewed this tutorial on The Gourmet Quilter's blog and have been enjoying making these very simple blocks and using up my scraps for floating 4-patch blocks.  Very relaxing.

 Digging in the scrap bag is fun.  

I'm going to use them to make a quilt to donate.  I may or may not put in a sashing; not sure yet. Would they still be floating if there's sashing?

Hope you are enjoying your weekends.  

God Bless.

A Knitter's Gifts Quilt Top Finish

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This is the completed quilt top for From Head to Toe, A Knitter's Gifts.  

I did use the cheater's method for making the drunkard's path blocks.

 You can not tell by looking at the border here how much work I put into it, but I did quite a bit of floor crawling and seam fudging to make it work.  Not the designer's fault, but mine.  However, it all came together and this top is done.

 I was determined to complete this project, so I feel very pleased.  

I realized that one of my prints is very appropriate.

Knitting needles and yarn images - perfect.

Just Quiltin with Denise Russart's PatchKats BOM begins on March 21.  That one is also very cute.

The sun is shining, the snow is melting and a well earned spring is in the air.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

God Bless.

I Love Winter But.....

Where I live, we have been having snowfall at least twice a week at least since the first blizzard hit the first week of February.  This past week we had heavy snow on Monday and Wednesday/Thursday.  It is exhausting, trying to keep the walks safe, the driveway clear, my body from slipping.  And yet, I repeat, I do love winter.  Today is a beautiful winter day, the kind of days we have not experienced for most of 2015.  Sunny, cold, glistening.  But we are turning the corner; next week the forecast is for temps in the 40's, that's at good 10-15 degrees above freezing.  The 3 inches of ice on my front walk may actually melt.  Let's hope!

I apologize for not keeping up with my blogging friends' posts - I'm drained.  Now I know why snowbirds exist.  I may become one.

I haven't been able to get my sewing done because I'm the official shoveler here.  Although I live in the city, this property is not small.  This is the year I've seriously wondered how long I can keep it up.  But in between storms, I've sewn a bit of the border on my From Head to Toe A Knitter's Gifts quilt. (Don't you love Denise's bird header?  I do.)I was not able to successfully make the drunkard's path block traditionally, so I resorted to Jenny Doan's cheating version, the appliqued circles.  Works for me.  Not done yet, but I have one side finished.  Please note, the CatPatch  quilt along info is available.

This is the Footstool block, the 26th block in the Ben Franklin QAl.  

I'm happy to say I'm up to date on this qal, but the setting of the blocks is going to be a choice.  So far we have step one of the traditional.  I'm waiting to see what comes next before I begin to sew blocks together.  

I hope you are well and safe, and enjoying your quilting time.

Take care.

God Bless You.

Crazy Scrap Quilt

Last night I wanted to do some sewing so I pulled out one of my many UFO's and got to it.  I thought the blocks for this quilt were maybe from 2013.  You can imagine my surprise (shock) when after a bit of research I found they were really made in early 2011.  Can that be?  Yes.  I was reading Aneela Hoey's blog one day back in April of 2011 and saw her making this .  I enjoyed making the blocks because it's really a free and easy block, just put your fabrics together as you please.  I did organize my blocks into colors and use the cupcake as the common denominator.  When I saw the striped fabric I had begun to use as the sashing, it almost came out, but last night I went with it and in the light of day I think it worked well.

 That wide strip of navy may have been used differently, but it's fine.

I even like my brown/tan/yellow blocks.

So I'm four years late finishing the top, but it's progress and that's a good thing.

Our next round of funky weather is due to begin in a few hours.  I'll be keeping myself busy making the border for the Knitter's Gifts quilt, which is made up of mini drunkard's path blocks. 

God Bless You.