Collecting...

Fabric is what I collected more of this past week.  On Wednesday I drove up to St. Cloud, Minnesota and stayed with blog friend Wendy and her friends on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  We had a great time, some chatter and of course laughing.  The reason we were all up there was for the Minnesota Quilt show.

On the way up there I stopped at a fabric outlet called S. R. Harris, gotta love this huge store and great prices.  I found these three 60" wide fabrics in the front and the orange one in the back all for $3.99 yard!  The blue is only 45" wide but was only $2.99.  Great for backings, plus I couldn't let the polka dots and chevrons just lay there:)

At the show I found more fabric, some fun patterns and a panel. Actually the Christmas roll there has 2 more panels in it with the coordinating fabrics.  I might have brought home more than I am showing, hehe.

While in St. Cloud I met up with two other Island Batik Ambassadors, Suzy from MN(whom I have met before) and Terri from IA, who were also attending the quilt show.  It was a great evening, except for the super spicy hot Buffalo chicken wrap!!  It was way too spicy for me and the waitress graciously ordered me a burger instead.

 Today I got a start on my June Island Batik project-it's Modern month!!  Stay tuned for the result.

While I was stitching away I decided it was a good day for a home made strawberry/banana smoothie, with a swirl of chocolate on top:)

Linking with Freemotion by the River

Orange scraps make great pumpkins

I love it when I can use up some scraps/strings in my table runners.  I did not have to cut a single orange or gold from yardage to do these pumpkins.  The black of course came from yardage. In fact I have used up all of that fabric. 

The pumpkin blocks were started during our camping trip to Paducah in April.  Then they sat in a tote while I worked on other things after getting home. Yesterday I pulled them out and started in finishing them and before the day was done I had three flimsy runners done.  Ahhhhhhhh.

These were inspired from a pattern of a pumpkin quilt/wall hanging by Cottage Rose that I picked up last summer at the MN quilt show.  Here is my wall hanging that I did last year.  After making it I kept thinking this would made a great runner.  These are some really fun and quick blocks to make. I will be making a wall hanging also.  Now they can wait their turn for quilting;)

This is technically a UFO since it was started and then sat waiting to get finished.  So I will link to Tish's UFO party.   And since they were made using scraps I will link to Cynthia's Oh Scrap.  It's a rainy day here, I think I will go sew some more!

It's Patriotic time!

My post today is all about some patriotic finishes.  And maybe a few other non patriotic;)

 I am so excited to show you my stars and stripes runner that I whipped up yesterday!  This is my squirrel for sure.  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  While working on something else I started thinking I really need another patriotic runner to put in my shop.  I knew I wanted stars and then all of a sudden this idea popped into my head and bam!  You should have seen me run, OK fast walk, to the sewing room!!!  First things first, pull out the patriotic fabric bin and pull 3 fabrics and decide I want a 14" block for the star.  But instead of having odd measurements for the flying geese star points I made a 12" star and then bordered it with 1" strips of blue to make the star float.  Oh yes I am liking the look...

Until I see this-how the heck did that happen, LOL  Ok I had to show you I am only human!!

When the stars where all done(correctly) I decided what size to make the center-white with red and blue stars.  From there I made wide bias tape red strips.  Using a curvy longarm ruler for a guide I used a purple disappearing pen and drew my lines and then applied the bias tape using Elmers glue.  The next step was to go quilt everything on the longarm, yes even sewing the bias tape down.  

Loops in the white stripes, continous curves in the star and blue stippling on the blue background.  I love, love, love how this came out!

This round wedge topper was done earlier this week.  Although it was pieced a couple months ago.  I kept the quilting simple with the standby hook swirl. 

Also done this week was another watermelon table runner. 

This is identical to one I did earlier this year and I blogged about it HERE so I won't go into details here again.

And then can you believe it, in the midst of warm summer temperatures I make snowmen table runners!  OK those of you that have followed me for a while will not be surprised at all!  

I have had a wonderful productive week.  There should be sewing time tomorrow and perhaps Saturday but I will only have two days next week to work and then I am off to the Minnesota Quilt Show!!!  

Linking with Sarah, TGIFF, and Myra 

Joining in on a Mystery quilt

I have done a few mystery quilts over the years and find that I like having control over my fabric placements.  So I kind of stopped doing them.  Until Tish announced she was doing two sizes of her Fireburst Mystery!  One could do either a 32" or a 64" square quilt.  Hey I can do the 32" and add a border or two (perhaps) and use it for a donation quilt! That kills two birds with one stone-I get to have fun with the other bloggers making one, and I get a donation quilt done(and you know I like to do those). 

So why oh why did it take so long for me to pick out my fabrics.  I guess other things prevailed until this week-yep I picked out my fabric on Tuesday.

 Got it cut on Wednesday morning...

And sewed it Wednesday afternoon.  Yeah I am up to speed now:)

Linking up at Tish's .  Are you joining in?  I think there is still time!

My OMG for June

This year I had decided I wasn't going to push myself into working on UFO's or even worrying about them.  I did that for a couple years, and while it worked,  I didn't like the pressure!  So this year it is all about just doing what I want to do when I get up in the morning(sort of).  I still have an agenda of what needs doing. 

I started this quilt only a few weeks ago, got the blocks sewn and laid on the design wall and floor.  It was too big for my wall, thus the floor had a job now besides walking on it!  At that point I began to sew them into rows and it stalled and has laid on the wall and floor for 2 weeks at least.  I am now at the point of needing the wall for something else and I don't want to just put all the blocks in a pile and have to lay them all out again.

So in comes my OMG for June.  I need a push to finish it.  So my goal is to finish piecing it into a top and maybe just maybe try to get it quilted too.  I have loads of other stuff I need to work on at the same time so we'll see.


Linking with Elm Street Quilts

Cherries, celebrating, cards and a deer

How's that for a post title!  What do they have in common, not much other than they happened right here, LOL

First, I had a customer request a cherry table runner last week and I managed to get it done and in the mail already.  As I was working on it I realized I never posted the original one.  They are identical in every way.

The cherry block came from Podunk Pretties, but I did resize the block so it would fit the size table runner I wanted.

 I kept the quilting pretty simple with stippling the background, a large swirl in the cherry and a leaf shape in the leaves.  The piano key border spaced at 1 1/2" finished it up nicely.

As I was working on the runner I looked out my window and saw a young buck curled up in the back yard right by our ferns. You can see how close he was as in the upper left corner of the pic you see the corner of our deck.   I grabbed my camera really quick to get a photo.  You can see his little velvet antlers.  He laid there about half an hour and then he moved back into the middle of the ferns.  I didn't really want him laying in there, but if I opened the door to shoo him away I figure he could potentially do more harm jumping around trying to get out of there so I left him alone. 

The celebrating part was our daughter and our grandsons came over yesterday to help celebrate my birthday! 

 And the cards I made this weekend.  Most of them done on Saturday which was cool, windy and overcast all day.  I thought it sounded like a good day to take time to play around with my rubber stamps which I hadn't done for over a year.  It was so much fun and I kept getting ideas and just wanted to make more and more.  Playing with paper, stamps, ribbon and glitter, relaxing!

And now it's time to figure out what I need to work on this week.  What are you choosing to work on, whether it is just because you want to or something you have a deadline for,  I want to hear!

Since things are messed up with blogger and we aren't getting the email addy's from our commentors, please know that I am still reading all comments and will respond if I have your email address.  As always I do appreciate your comments.  I love keeping in touch with blog friends so I hope they get it fixed soon.

Linking with MCM

Delectable Mountains

These three Delectable Mountain table runners were done using Bonnie Hunters method.  So much fun I couldn't stop after the first one!  Although her method is used for making a quilt I decided to try it as a runner.  She uses a light and dark square cut on the diagonal and sew for an HST, then re-cut into strips, rearrange and sew together. The green one on the left is made using all batiks.   The aqua one is batik with a regular white tone on tone cotton fabric.

And the closeup of the freehand quilting designs I used. 

 I just love this feather design from a Patsy Thompson DVD. 

Yes this is the same block but turned differently giving it a bit of Southwest flare.  Now I am wondering what it would look like in a smaller block size and then add a border.  Perhaps there are more runners in my future;)  I have added these to my Etsy shop. 

I hope your Memorial Day weekend was a good one.  We went camping, biking and kayaking.  We went to the same place as last year.  And we saw the same Eagles with a new Eaglet in the nest. 

  These are two different Eagles

Here is the Eaglet.

We were graced with seeing Eagles in different places all three of the days we were there. 

It was warm in the low 90's but it didn't keep us from being outside and it cooled enough at night to have a campfire!  Campfires are really hard to photograph:(

Linking with Midweek Makers and Wait Loss Wednesday.

Hooks and swirls

I made these three runners up, after I got back from Paducah, using some of the fabrics I bought while there.  The pattern is a GE Design from one of her books.  No affliation, I just liked the pattern.

I quilted the two on the left with an easy, fast allover hook swirl.  Sometimes it was one hook, sometimes two or three hooks. 

As I was quilting them I thought perhaps someone out there would be interested in seeing how I do them.  The person I learned the single hook swirl from was Angela Walters.   Then I went on to add my own thing.   Number 1. shows the single hook swirl.

Number 2 has two hooks and number 3 has three hooks.  Easy peasy right!  Do you use a white board to practice your designs?  If not run out and get one and practice, practice, practice (ppp).   It really does make a difference to train your brain on the white board, your quilting will become easier and smoother.  Really practice making nice smooth swirls.  Smooth lines for the swirl is the key, not necessarily the shape so much.

Here you can follow my path a bit to help you on your way.  Remember to change direction of your swirls from time to time.  It's OK to make big and small designs to fit in.  And one big thing is if you get yourself into a tight spot echo your way out OR throw in a swooping curve like indicated by the arrow in the photo above.   If you decide to add something, just do it more than once throughout the quilt and it looks like you planned it all along;)   If you have questions feel free to ask me.  Now go quilt something, have fun with it!!

Linking with MCM, Monday Making and Linky Tuesday

Hoping everyone has a great week

Green and Beige quilt

Here is the last of my quilts for this year's Hands2Help donations.  As with the last two, this one was also a top languishing in the closet. It patiently waited till I was ready to quilt it, wasn't that nice of it:0

All the fabrics were in my stash including a nice piece of tan flannel for the back.  This one has poly batting and I used the fast dog bone meander again so it would get done in time.  I see this is the only picture I took of it yesterday and now it is getting ready to rain, so that's it folks!

This one will also be taken to the local Crisis Nursery Center next week.  It feels wonderful to have these three out of my closet!  I never know when the time or mood strikes to create more, so if it happens this year I will stock pile for next year's donations.  I mean every once in a while I have to make something other than table runners and items for the craft shows, got to have that balance.  

Thanks Sarah for hosting H2H and getting us all in gear and using our stash!  Linking with Sarah Sunday, May 20th for the linky party.

Another H2H quilt

Here is my second donation quilt for Hands2Help.  Since I had a few tops in my stash that I had made for donation purposes, I figured now would be a good time to quilt and bind them.  This one will also be donated locally to the Crisis Nursery Center.

Early last year I had pieced several quilts using wider strips to make the jelly roll race quilts.  A good blog buddy, Jasmine, came up with this idea.  So much fun!  I made several in Mauve and blue fabrics to use up from days gone by:0  These blues are all apple prints.

I had the perfect piece of fleece to go with it, and the perfect size.   This is a small quilt at 36 x 45.

 Yesterday I had a few people mention how sad to think that any child should have to use the Crisis Nursery Center, I couldn't agree with you more.  The center is for children and families dealing  with child abuse. Every child is so innocent and to think they sometimes get caught in between bad situations is heart breaking.  They all need to feel loved and cared for.  In giving these quilts to the center they can distribute to those who need it, my small way of giving a child a hug.  Last year I donated 32 quilts to this center, the lady who works there was just thrilled to pieces and said their supply was almost non existent right then.  Boy did that ever make me glad I chose to donate there.

I will be linking up with Sarah on Sunday for the Hands2Help linky party to see what we have all accomplished.  You can find more information on Sarah's blog HERE.
Also linking with Tish for UFO busting since this is a true UFO!

Hands2Help quilt

I am really late to the party of Hands2Help quilts, but better late than never.  This year I decided I wasn't going to be able to make as many donation quilts as I have in the past couple years. But I still wanted to do at least one for H2H that Sarah  heads up.  

After going through my stash of tops,yes I have a few left from last year,  I was able to pull out this one and get it quilted yesterday and bound it today.  

 I kept the quilting simple with a dog bone meander.  With simple allover quilting and a soft flannel backing this quilt will be cuddly to some child who needs a bit of comfort.  I am choosing to donate mine to the local Crisis Nursery Center.  

There will be a linky party at Sarah's beginning May 25th-I'll be there!

Pillow challenge

A pillow challenge was put forth to us Island Batik Ambassadors this month.  There are so many wonderful ideas for pillows out there both modern and traditional.  It took me a while to make up my mind what I wanted mine to look like.  I needed a new one for the family room.




I have traditional colors in the family room, but trying for a more modern feel with them by using modern patterns.  This one will be for the hubby to use.   As you can see our couch is a burgundy color.  The walls are a gray on the brownish side.   After deciding I wanted to do an offset chevron pattern, I went through my stash of Island Batiks.

These are what I found that would go with my other pillow I had previously made with solids.  OK, all set with the pattern and the colors now get to work!



I chose to cut 2" strips for the chevrons.  The pillow went together quickly and I like how it goes with the couch and the modern quilt on the wall.  Since I have something else on the longarm I chose to use my walking foot on my domestic machine to quilt the pillow with straight lines 1/4" from the seams.  Rarely does the walking foot get used, but it worked wonderful on the batiks.

And here it is with the first pillow.

The batiks used in this pillow was provided by Island Batik, batting by Hobbs and the thread provided by Aurifil.

I enjoyed making this pillow, how about you do you enjoy making pillows?

Linking with Linky Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss and Let's Bee Social