What's new on the design wall

 Hello and Happy Monday and last day of August. As we all say where has the time gone!!  On Sunday we didn't have any plans, we were both happy just staying home and working on our own projects. Here is what my day began with.

I picked out three fall panels from the plastic bin I store panels in. The top right one and the bottom left one are on the same panel. I used another piece last year which you can see HERE. Trimming them to a size I knew I could work with. Interviewing fabrics and elements came next. Since I had used these triangle in a square pieces on the one I did last year why not use them again.

Liking the one I did last year the rest of this one was done the same, saved a lot of designing time! Now it is ready to quilt. After that was pieced I moved on to figuring out what to do with the other gray/orange one. That gave me a bit more trouble-thinking time. At first I was going to split that one into two parts for two different wall hangings. But after putzing around for well over an hour and not liking anything I thought of I decided I needed to plan it with using it as a whole instead of splitting. The other gray/orange one got taken down and so did the green panel. A clear wall was needed for my brain to think! 

The first thought was to make a gingham tall pumpkin and a squatty orange one to add on top. I would surround those with other elements like flying geese or HST's and borders to bring them up to size with the panel.  After staring at that for a while it didn't do anything for me. Off to Pinterest for inspiration-do you use Pinterest for that? I do frequently.

That brought me to thinking about a Villa Rosa pattern called October Sky that has had me intrigued for a while. So I bought it and sized my blocks to fit my panel. Easy peasy and I love the look! What do you think? I'll work on that a bit more today. I usually write my post the night before and totally forgot last night.

Right after supper I put the finishing touches on this mini sunflower sampler which is a freebie from our generous friend Melisa! I found the wooden back pieced at the Dollar Store which I painted it black. I mounted the stitched 14 count Aida over batting and a stiff cardboard, hot glued the gold sparkly cording around the sampler, and hot glued the whole thing to the black wood. Stay tuned to a couple more finishes soon.

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

Saturday our 5 year old granddaughter spent part of her day with us, always so fun. While she was here we looked out the deck door and saw this guy sitting on the deck! We frequently have bunches of them come through the yard and snatch a drink at the pond-he had his friends with him.

Colorful Design Wall

 By the end of Wednesday this is what my design wall looked like. I love the splash of color!

Sunday was a quick finish by binding the plaid donation quilt. I used a tan birdhouse fabric and another tan for the backing.

A large stipple to keep it soft for cuddles. 

Monday I quilted this D9P(disappearing nine patch). During the week before I worked on piecing it in between other projects. A few of the nine patches were put together and then I got busy sewing the rest together and before long I had a flimsy. Working away at the mound of blue from the 90s and making a donation quilt is very satisfying. This makes #6 for this year. 

In the nine patch I placed the lighter blues on the corners, a light print with blue hearts in the very center and the rest are 4 navy blue. For some reason these squares were cut at 4.5", no idea why!!

Look at what I used for the backing! These 4 panel squares of birds were given to me in a pile of other fabrics including the blue stripe here.  So I combined then for the backing.

Wednesday I pieced all three of the pieces you see on the first photo of this post. Most of the parts were already cut out so it was fast piecing and then leaf blocks were all pieced too. The colorful squares for their borders were all strip pieced and I used my 2.5" strip cutter to cut them into sections. 

Thursday I quilted the square one, got the photos and listed it in my shop.

I'll be quilting the other two soon. 

Linking with TGIFF, Finished or Not Friday, I quilted this, Off The Wall and Beauties Pageant. Hope to go check out all the great inspiration there. Sunday I will link at Oh Scrap!

Our apple tree looks like it had Christmas ornaments the way the apples were hanging on this one side of the tree!

Scrap quilts

Spring Lake is now quilted and bound. 

My fourth donation quilt this year.

Earlier this month I shared that I was trying to do the leader ender thing again.  In the past it seemed I never stuck to it, I would forget to use them even when they sat right next to the sewing machine. This time I did better but then it got to a point I just wanted to get the quilt done. It was no longer my leader ender it became my priority. It's been pieced for a week, Saturday I pieced the backing and quilted it. While you are reading this I might be working on the binding;) This is my fifth donation quilt so far this year.  I'll show you more in a few days.

I'll be sharing this scrappy goodness at Oh Scrap! on Sunday.  

Monday it will be shared at Sew and Tell, Design Wall Monday and Monday Musings.

For my slow stitching Sunday  I hope to be able to finish up this little guy.

 

Productive week continues

 I am really pleased with all I got done this week. In Wednesday's post you saw a glimpse of my design wall in process projects. They are all done!  It's no secret I love working with panels. These two had bits from different panels that I added elements to to make them unique.

The quilting was fun and even tho' most of it is with a ruler it went fast. The diagonal lines on the crow and sunflower block almost make it look like rain. 

The crow and sunflower came from the same panel.

To bring them up to the size I needed for adding the rest I made six flying geese that are 2x4 finished. Then I needed that piece to be wider so I added a skinny white sashing to each side of the geese. 

The four little blocks at the top were from a totally different panel yet they go together so nicely with the crow and sunflower. I have several more of those little ones left from more panels. They will get included in other pieces eventually. 

The next wall hanging, Welcome Harvest, has parts from different panels also and they play well together too. The words are from one panel, each letter of the word is printed on an cream color fabric. The three prints in the middle are all from another panel. All I had to do was add the checkerboard on the sides of the apple barrel one and then sash and border in a grunge looking black/gray fabric. I originally thought I would add another colorful border but once the black was on it didn't need anything more.

More ruler work on this wall hanging too. It just scream for it so I listened;)

More diagonal lines

The word Harvest I did with my channel locks since it was going horizontal and that worked really slick. I had never tried that.  I first checked it out to make sure it would give me straight lines across, I had it basted on correctly:) It wouldn't take much to be off just a tad and not have straight lines within that panel and look goofy.

I finished up twin pumpkin table runners but no photos were taken at the time of writing this on Thursday night.

Hoping to see you all over at Finished or Not, TGIFF, I Quilted This, Off The Wall, Beauties Pageant

UFO and new starts

 I snuck a donation UFO quilt in the quilting queue and got it finished up and folded away. It will be given to my DIL later this year for her group to hand out. This makes the third so far this year. Many more to come I hope, there are a few more tops in the pile waiting their turn.

The tumbler flimsy was pieced over the winter. 

Somewhere along the line I put this wide stripe in the donation fabric tub. It was the perfect size for this  48x60 lap quilt. 

My design wall has wall hangings in progress...

And the piecing is done now.  All parts of four different panels leftover from previous projects. Sometimes the panels just have too many pieces that I don't want to put all into one item.

Let's all hop over to Jennifer's Wednesday Wait Loss party.

Christmas finishes and fall too

 Since Friday's post I finished up two more table runners. Saturday morning their bindings were added to them. Both are Christmas themed. The first one is skinny enough to be used on a piano.

This runner was made using a charm pack. 

Since redoing my sewing room and getting those white cabinets so I could get lots of fabric sorted out and put in there I now know what I have on hand. Part of one shelf holds odds and ends of Christmas fabrics suitable for backings. 

This next table runner is called Banded Lemoyne Star from Studio 180-Deb Tucker. Yes I have her special ruler to make Lemoyne stars:) There is a lot of trimming involved but the accuracy is wonderful because of it.

All fabrics from my stash. 

I finished this cross stitch on Friday morning. The burlap background I found at the Dollar Tree. I knew it would be perfect for finishing up a design. This particular design has been waiting for a few falls to get finished. I used a heavy cardboard and a layer of batting and wrapped the cross stitch around that, hot gluing it down. The other two were done by just wrapping fabric around cardboard without batting. Then glue the layers together, add a bow and it's ready to display.

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

Yay for finishes!!

 Last week I felt like I didn't do enough. This week made up for it!! I have been busy going through UFOs and WIPs from the 'to be quilted' pile, it feels so good to have gotten several done. The first one is a WIP as I pieced it a week or so ago.  A while back  ok let's be honest a long time ago a lady gave me a bunch of fabric as she didn't want it anymore. I couldn't say no of course!  In the pile was a panel of witches and Jack-O-Lanterns. I never could come up with an idea for them until recently. 

A Halloween table runner was born. 

Witches and Jack-O-Lantern blocks that I framed with a black gray spotted fabric before adding the purple plaid. 

Love it when I find a good print in the stash for a backing. It just needed an orange strip added to it to make it wide enough. 

Next up was another fall leaf runner. If this one sells I will need to piece more. This one was pieced over the winter and quilted on Monday. 

The backing fabric needed a few extra pieces to make it large enough.

Then I moved onto two blue Star Struck runners that have been waiting since last winter to be quilted. This one is a blue batik with with dots and the star is a tone on tone white. 

They both use the same backing, love that as it speeds up the longarm process when you only have to pin on one backing. 

The second one is blue snowflake fabric. The stars are white with blue and gold snowflakes.

Hope you are still looking as I have one more to share! This is a new to me pattern from an Etsy shop named Fabricaddictshop. The pattern is called Sunburst.

I could see this with many focal point fabrics for the center and then pick coordinating for the rest. I know I will be making some more. Sure was fun trying something new!

I chose two different pinecone fabrics, a brown accent and a white for the background. 

It's Thursday night when I am writing this post and still finishing up two more runners. Those should be in a Monday post.  I might be taking the day off tomorrow as it is our Anniversary-44 years! We haven't decided what to do other than go out to eat yet. We have to see what the weather is when we get up!

Lately I have had a couple comments that have came in Anonymous. I would love to respond by email so please leave your email addy if you are a no reply.

Linking with Finished or Not, TGIFF, I Quilted This, Off The Wall, Beauties Pageant