Two Projects

Sometimes thinking of a title for a post is easy and sometimes not!  Two projects to show you today. First up I finished piecing the last delectable mountain table runner that I had kitted up. 

Then I turned my attention back to the orange pineapple blocks. This is where I left off several weeks ago.

I decided on how many blocks wide and long I wanted it to be. So I set to making them on Sunday.  They look messy here before trimming. This progress shot was taken on Tuesday afternoon.

Here they look much nicer after trimming this round. I am using the Creative Grids pineapple trim tool. You have to trim after each round.

I was buzzing along nicely finishing up these 9 blocks and putting them up on the design wall. And bam, I am one short!!  I miss counted on Sunday:(  No time to make more as we were invited to the neighbors for Margaritas. 

It's been really hot here so we got up early and went on an ATV ride with friends before it got hot. We trailered the ATV's half an hour from home and hit the trail around 7:15 and we were off the trail at noon. We all brought our own lunches and ate in the desert under the shade of a scrub tree. So glad to have gotten out and did something fun. Here is one of the donkeys we saw as he crossed the trail right in front of us and stopped for a photo op! Someone said they spotted two more in the area that we didn't see. Also someone spotted a big horn sheep, we did not:(  A gecko was also spotted by us girls.

Linking to Wednesday Wait Loss.

 

Triplets

Good things come in three's right? Things have slowed way down this week with the heat we are having and it is only getting worse in the next 5 days. So it's best to stay in and sew, hehe. So I made triplets of this wall hanging. The pattern Pumpkin Stack is by Karen Walker. A fun one to sew. Yes there are a few small pieces but it comes out so cute it is worth it! The pattern does not include the outside black print border but I wanted the wall hanging a little larger.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss and NTT.

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.