Delectable Mountains plus...

 A delectable mountain table runner is a pretty fast gratification to wiggle into the middle of a bigger project. I use Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesty tutorial for it.

You cut strips and then blocks, sew and cut etc, I had extra blocks so I decided to make a small mat with the leftovers this time. I am pretty sure I have some of the dark fabric left and will hunt it down and add a border to make it a useful size.

Same thing happened with this color batik set.

Here comes the plus part in the title of this post. I finished the sashings of this leaf lap quilt. I will add a gold print border before it gets to my longarm. 

An update on my slipper knitting for this winter season.  This is my evening TV viewing project, they will become donations to those in need. I am using a 4ply red heart yarn with a strand of sport weight. The pattern is a freebie from Fave Crafts.

We were going to be out boondocking for two weeks and with the heat we canceled it for now so there should be lots of sewing time with the AC on!

Linking with Beauties Pageant, Finished or Not Friday, TGIFF

Strip time

 Making strip sets has been my focus for the last few days. First cutting a bunch of strips of neutral and this black which has little gold circles. Then sewing into long strips and then the sub cutting began. 

Sewing going along smoothly. 

Oh I forgot to say these are for the leaf quilt. Here is what is going on with the strip sets. Still a ways to go but I am loving it!

For some slow stitching time I started a new little cross stitch. You are asking why I started another new something?  So I will be joining in with Slow Sunday Stitching.

That's because I actually finished two in the last two weeks!! So I kinda thought I deserved to start a new one, LOL.  Once again I used colored pencils to make a grayish aida cloth. I 'think' I used my Derwent water color ones.  White embroidery floss didn't show up very good while doing the snowman so I outlined it with a metallic looking blue gray. Then instead of stitching snowflakes on the top I used snowflake buttons I had on hand.  I also added three snowflake buttons to the green polka dot fabric. This finished up at 9" wide and 6" tall.  I don't consider this late for the season, I am ahead for next winter;)

This one I got done on time for this upcoming St. Patty's Day. He's about 6" square.  Both of these were monthly freebies from Primrose Cottage Designs.

Here it is with my little shamrock wall hanging. 

Linking with Finished or Not Friday, TGIFF, and Off The Wall. 

UFO turned into WIP

 Wish I could remember exactly when I started this maple leaf quilt. It's been a desire for a few years now to make a fall lap quilt. The time of when I pieced these maple leaves is a mystery to me as I didn't record it anywhere that I can find. But it definitely was at least 2 years ago so that makes it a UFO. 

Early last year I designed the rest of it in EQ8 and then I didn't get time to work on it. So now it has truly become a WIP as I put these on the design wall and have begun to work on it. And I am excited about it!!  

Linking with Wednesday Wait Loss

Cornerstones

 Little by little I have been working on these blocks for table runners that are either fall or look great anytime on antique tables. I love throwing them up on the design wall to arrange the final strips that go in between each block and then a round on the outside to finish it off. The pattern is Cornerstones in a book from Calico Printworks that I have had for ages. 

And then there were four table runners ready to be folded up and wait their turn in line for the longarm. 

It is going to be hot today, I am going to take my little oven outside and bake cookies this morning. 

Linking with Oh Scrap, Sew and Tell Monday, Monday Musings and Design Wall Monday.

Maple leaves + string flimsy

I sure am loving having a large design wall! Sunday I started cutting parts for these maple leaves. I actually did make twelve leaves but them set eight of them aside and continued to make...

this wall hanging. Having a flimsy finish ready to quilt later on is a good feeling. The hope is to finish the other two in a little while. This time of year allows me to jump around from one season to another a bit with starts, progress and getting projects to the finish stage. Keeps the boredom away;)

 

But I promised you a flimsy finish with the strings! The pieced border used up more strings. In my mind I was planning on adding a small white border on the outside. But since this is for a donation I don't know that adding the white would be a good deal. So I decided not. 

These were some of the strings I started with, I already used some before I snapped the photo. After pressing and laying out I rough cut them into 4" pieces. Chain piecing two together, then taking those and adding another set and so on until I had one long strip. Which I then cut into a 3" wide strip.

First I added the left side border and then the right side. 

After piecing two more long strips for the top and bottom this little stack is what I had left from the small pile I started with.

Join me at these linky parties-

TGIFF

Finished or Not

Off The Wall

Oh Scrap! (Sunday)

 

String progress + cross stitch

 I have made a little progress on my bright string quilt. The white sashing with orange cornerstones got added. I cut the sashing at 1.5". Next I will add a white border all around cut the same as sashings. The plan from there is to make a piano key type border with more strings. 

There is a finish today also...A little cross stitch pillow using a pattern from Primrose Cottage. This was one of their free monthly patterns. If you didn't know they offer a free cross stitch and a free quilting pattern in their monthly newsletter but you have to sign up.

Did you notice the background color of the Aida cloth? I used a green colored pencil and went over the white Aida to get a light green. I have no idea how this will hold up over time but I don't plan to wash it so I am not worried. This piece has been stitched since November and just now finished it into a little six inch pillow. 

Linking with TGIFF, Finished or Not, Off The Wall, Beauties Pageant and Oh Scrap!

Strings and things

 I am back to my quilting studio as of yesterday. This is what I worked on a bit before we left for the week. Colorful string blocks sewn to phone book pages(I saved the books for years, we had a land line until last year). I don't have to but I am planning on sashing these with white and a colorful or possibly black cornerstone so I don't have to deal with all those seams coming together.

Here are a few scenes from our boondocking/atving trip. This was our view from the camper in one direction.

We have visited this arch in past years and is a favorite spot of ours.

Parts of the desert was alive with blooms making it so pretty and the aroma wasn't bad either!! See my hand in there for perspective.

Another of the events we went to see were the powered para gliders. Late one afternoon we counted at least 30 units in the sky at one time. These gliders treated us to a little formation which was fun to see.  A few times last week the gliders came over our camping area and waved to us. 

Fields of purple flowers treated us along the highway too.

Now comes the cleanup work of laundry and cleaning the fifth wheel. Hope you all have had a great week. I will catch up reading blogs this week.

Linking with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell Monday and Design wall Monday.

Scrappy Orange Pineapples

 Playing with scraps is so fun and so very messy!! My winter plans are to work with orange and neutral/tan/beige strings/scraps. I previously had used some for string blocks(now in storage for a bit). The basket on the left were ones I had used in the string blocks and will keep them separated for a while longer. Somehow as I look at the neutral container of strings it looks much fuller than this photo shows, I guess a bit of fluffing has occurred!

The center orange square is a 2.5" square. Add neutral strips to each side and trim, and then a round of orange strips and trim and repeat.

I am using the Creative Grids Pineapple trim tool. Not affiliated, just love the ruler.

Here is one block all pieced and trimmed up. I have been doing five blocks at a time and sewing slowly as I am still trying to get over a cold, it's been over a week and I am tired of it! Next week we are supposed to go out boondocking/atving and attending a powered parachute gathering. So I need to get better ASAP!

Here are 10 blocks. At this time I am thinking I will sash them with neutral strips and perhaps a dark brown cornerstone. For now I will make a few blocks here and there as there is no hurry for this one. 

Linking with Off The Wall, TGIFF, and Finished or Not Friday

New Project Bags

 Last fall I had a customer buy two project bags I made using vinyl for the front. She wanted two more and wasn't in a big hurry. I asked if January would be okay, she was very patient while I got the new studio set up. I made five bags, two that she had picked fabrics for and three to put in the shop eventually. These were the two she wanted. 

And the extras. 

And she ended up buying these three...

These bags at 12" x 12" are nice size for storing knitting needles, crochet hooks, small projects, cross stitch, sewing supplies or whatever you can think of. And with the vinyl window you can see what easily what is in there.  The pattern is a freebie from Center Street Quilts. 

Okay on to the next project! Which I think will be scrappy. 

Linking with Sew and Tell Monday, Monday Musings.

Southwest placemats

Happy Friday my friends. I have something new to show! I made a couple placemats with southwest fabric because I couldn't stand putting dishes right on the new table, LOL. Oh the joys of being a quilter and able to whip up something when needed. 

I

It's very rare that I used my domestic sewing machine to quilt anything, even small things. However that is what I had available to me, I used the walking foot on my Janome Skyline 7 and it did a fantastic job and pretty quickly too.  First I followed lines in the fabric design vertically and horizontal. After that was done I discovered I wanted more quilting so I went in between those lines. 

Hobbs 80/20 batting is what I used to sandwich the southwest fabric and orange backing.

Someday I will make 2 more so when we have company over we have a matched set. And just perhaps there will be a small runner for the middle of the table;)

And so I am prepared for Slow Stitching Sunday, I have still been working on knitting slippers. Three more pair have crossed the finish line for a total of six pair in the last 45 days. This weekend I hope to finish another orange pair.

Linking with Finished or Not Friday, Beauties pageant, Off the Wall, TGIFF and Wednesday Wait Loss.

 

Two morning star table runners

The past week my quilting took on a sunny look with these two yellow Morning Star table runners. I used the Accuquilt Morning Star BOB(block on board) die to make these. Personally I would not want to tackle these without the die as the die has the corners of each triangle trimmed so they all fit together nicely. 

This is my Design Wall Monday. Also linking with Monday Musings and Sew and Tell Monday. 

 

Design Wall Monday

 It really is Design Wall Monday for me as we got my design wall up! This is the first of the two insulation foam boards covered and attached to the wall. We covered them with white flannel. We finished the second foam board a little quicker than the first and I didn't snap a photo of it up.

I am loving having an 8'x8' design wall for the first time ever!  This is a UFO I started a year ago. I had half of the blocks done and put it away. This year I decided it needed to make it's way to the flimsy stage. Here you see part of the second foam board where the last column of blocks are.

All the blocks got made this past week and borders made this weekend. My first flimsy finish for the year. I worked on it on New Year's Day as I have heard that whatever you do on New Years Day is what you will do all year long!  I hope it holds true!!

This is from a Missouri Star tutorial called Sticks and Stones. After seeing one that Melva made I knew I had the perfect jelly roll to use for it. However once I got going on it I wished for a few more darks to be in it, but looking at the photos I think it is just fine. 

Linking with Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, and Wednesday Wait Loss

Hanging a quilt plus a pressing table

 Things are happening in the new studio. We made a very quick and inexpensive quilt hanger from a 1x2 board. I painted it white then we screwed it to the studs in the wall. Unfortunately the studs were not centered in the wall and I wanted the hanger to be centered. Thus you can see nail heads that are not evenly spaced. Oh well it still does the job of holding a quilt and that was my main focus. We also screwed spring clips to the board, I don't like that they are red but that is what was available.

Remember me loving my lift desk for my sewing machine? Well I bought another and am using it as a pressing table. These tables were from Amazon. Being an electric lift table allows me to use it standing up pressing or when I am say paper piecing I can pull the table next to the sewing machine and lower it to a sitting height and not have to get up to press. On a normal basis I do like to keep the pressing area away from the sewing machine so I have to get up and move around.  My first finished(piecing) table runner in the new space.

Another pair of slippers finished, so I am up to three pair. 

Linking with Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew and Tell Monday and Wednesday Wait Loss