Sunday, November 28, 2010

Sunday Projects #4

After a fun filled Thanksgiving weekend the dust has settled
and I was able to get back into my sewing room today.
I have made slow progress on my Hard Candy quilt.




I have the diamond blocks laid out on my guest room bed.

I really like how it is coming along, but . . . .

There are not enough blocks by a long shot.
Thought I had cut enough triangles, but since I never really plan . . .

I am back to cutting more fabric. Story of my life!












On another note . . .



The kid wanted to try the turkey bikini on Thanksgiving.
You know the one from internet lore . . .



It garnerd lots of giggles in the kitchen, but it didn't really work too well.

So nobody really noticed. But the effort was great and the giggles appreciated.





Here is the Thanksgiving group just before we sat down and feasted!
Thank you gang for a wonderful weekend full of laughter and cheer!



Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Curvy Kaffe

I wanted to make a curvy quilt using all Kaffe fabrics.

I started the center with contrasting fabrics so you could really get a feel for the curved piecing.

I used the Fons & Porter circle templates for this quilt, just like I did with this one.





The center was inspired by one of Kaffe's quilts. I forget which book, but I know I saw this design there. I pieced two contrasting triangles together to make a block. I did this with two different size blocks. Then I cut the 1/4 circles out of each corner and switched them all up so they were in contrast again.

It was a very easy way to piece this section, although it looks very complicated.


I decided to put it on point and used strips of green and blue to make the corners.

It still needed something else, so I appliqued some magenta circles randomly to break it up a bit.




I love the way it turned out. As usual, I just need to decide on how to quilt it!


I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.



I know I am so greatful for my family and friends . . .

The roof over my head . . .

The food on my table . . . .

The sun, the moon and the stars . . .



What are you saying thanks for??




Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sunday Projects #3

We interupt your sewing pleasure
for a plumbing disaster . . . .
Not a lot of sewing around here lately.
Two weeks ago I walked into my first floor bathroom and stepped in a huge pudde.
Like two inch puddle. YIKES!
Luckily my builder came right over a figured out where the leak was coming from.


Looks like an innocent enough bathroom right???
But NOOOOOOO!
The toilet has been secretly leaking into the floor for a very long time.

See all the rot? I'm surprised we hadn't fallen through to the crawl space.


So last Monday, my plumber and my tile man went to work.
They replaced the floor and since I really didn't like the tile around the tub,
they replaced that too.




New toilet and tile, same sink, tub and shower door.

I am so lucky to have my Joey and Billy to take care of these messy things for me!

So I spent the weekend painting instead of sewing.

Just one more coat on the trim tomorrow night.

I do have 14 people arriving for Thanksgiving, and an extra potty is key!



I did manage to cut out some more triangles for my Hard Candy Quilt.
But that's all I got to do . . .

What did you do this Sunday???


Friday, November 19, 2010

Take a peak . . .

I have started a new project . . .
60* triangle quilt.
The quilt pictured below started the inspiration for my new quilt.
This quilt was done by Judy Doenias.
She showed us this and many other quilt tops in her City Quilter University class.
She called it a pyramid pattern.
I liked it.


So I cut out a bunch of triangles and started playing around with them.

I wasn't so sure about the look as I started placing the light and dark triangles.

Then I remembered this quilt that Rita from Red Pepper Quilts did, and I started playing around with this . . .


I think this looks much better. You really get the idea of the contrasting lights and darks.



So I have started making some diamond blocks.
I really like how this is coming along. Now to cut more triangles!
I think I am going to call this quilt Hard Candy.




Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Spider Web Quilt Finished!

I finished my spider web quilt this past weekend.
It came together really well.




Because it is such a busy quilt,
you don't notice the wobbly quilting or the few little puckers.
The kid wanted to know if this was going to be a "show only" quilt or a "use it and love it and spill on it" quilt.
Definitely a "use it and love it and spill on it" quilt.
I am a big believer in using your quilts and letting them get loved to death.
I pieced the back with three large panels and one panel of scrappy squares.
I have started making a practice of cutting 3 1/2" squares out of whatever is left from the project I am working on at the moment.
I am getting a nice pile of squares.
It's great to have them at the ready for these panels for the backs of my quilts.

I quilted this the same way that Amandajean at Crazy Mom Quilts did hers.
I love that it gives you a star on the back.

You don't really see it on the front because it's too busy.



I used a polka dot for the binding.
I think it looks better on the back than the front.
I just love polka dots.



Sunday, November 14, 2010

Sunday Projects #2

Wonky Stars

I decided I needed to try these wonky stars I have been seeing all over the place.
I hardly ever use a pattern, I just jump in and cut.
I did use my seam ripper a bit on these. You must use math if you are a quilter and well . . .
Sometimes I am alitte too free and easy in the winging it department.



So I laid out the squares and rectangles.

I sewed on the wonky points. This is were the seam ripper came in.

You have to MEASURE to make sure your point will cover the corner completely.
I know I should know this but . . . jumping in there again, free and easy.



I made a couple of these and I like how they came out.
Very different for me. I like things even.


And I of course had to try one of Victoria's star blocks.
She has so much patience. I can't believe she made a whole quilt of these.



What did you do this Sunday??



Thursday, November 11, 2010

I fell off the "no buying fabric" wagon

I have been trying to sew and design from my stash only.
I have alot of fabric (what quilter doesn't?!)
and I should use it up.
I fell off the wagon last night.
I was in NYC at the City Quilter for my design-sew class.
I couldn't just walk to the back and go to the classroom.
I am a fabric addict, it was bound to happen.

But I mean really . . . Julie Paschkis' Oceanica!
There are mermaids and frogs!
I just had to have it.
So I bought 3 yards, because, well MERMAIDS!

Then I saw all this yumminess.
I am thinking about an orange and pink quilt . . .
So really can you pass that up?
I only bought a half yard of each of these.



That's not too bad for an addict right?
8 yards total.
And I got the class discount.
I can justify anything.
I am a fabric addict.





on another note . . .


The kid met me at Grand Central after the class.
We had dinner at Metrazur. Very good.
Our table was right on the balcony over looking all of this.

What a great people watching perch!





And we could see exactly when our train was leaving.



Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Gidget's Quilt

I have known my friend Gidget (not her real name, hehehe), for 6 or 7 years.
We met at work and became fast friends.
I gave Gidget her nickname because she is small, bubbly, very funny and a little wacky.
I made this quilt for her birthday in June. She got the quilt in August.
Oh those deadlines kill me.

I just love a nine patch quilt.
I had this quilt in mind for a while.
Most of the fabric was in my stash, just needed the borders.


I definitely needed to have some bubble gum pink in here for Gidget.
She loves pink. Gidget is as cute as a button.



I pieced the back with a few left over blocks. I love the stripe.

That is Gidget standing on my stonewall holding up her quilt (she is so tiny she couldn't hold the quilt without it hitting the ground). Gidget didn't want to be in the picture.
I guess she thinks she needs to be incognito for some reason.
Maybe she is in the witness protection program . . . .
You never know with Gidget.


Sunday, November 7, 2010

Sunday Projects

Four or five years ago the kid gave me a quilting book called
Fast Quilts from Fat Quarters by Barbara Chainey.
Every now and then I look through that book. It seems very traditional to me though, so I usually close it and put it on the shelf.
Last night while I was flipping through it, I found this square below
and it really caught my attention.



This block seemed to merge the two blocks I talked about in my evolution of my circle quilt post.



If you look at these blocks together you can see how they are a combination.
Since the evolution of my circle quilt was based on the idea of turning the past into a new start, and I now see a square that can mesh the past and the future, I think I need to make a quilt for the kid based on this new block. I think she'll like that.
I'll let her pick the colors.

My second project today was trying out Victoria's blocks. You can see many examples of them at 15 minutes of play. This kind of patching is WAY out of my comfort zone and that's why I decided I needed to try it.
I'm here to learn, right?
It's all about letting go and being spontaneous, grabbing, sewing, slashing.
It was much harder than I thought it would be. I think this took me about 45 minutes.
Maybe if I had a glass of wine first . . . . hehehe


So here it is, 8" x 9".
I also realized that the bag of scraps I had ready to toss, can now be liberated, because the scraps are probably just the right size for this kind of patching.



on another note . . .


I was taking a nice long walk today when I came upon this chair sitting on the side of the road free for the taking. I am having 14 for Thanksgiving and thought, hum, I could use that chair.
I hiked it up over my head and kept walking. You can imagine the looks I was getting.
Luckily I was only about a mile from my house.
Even luckier, two of my frineds drove by in their SUV. They stopped and after laughing at me and teasing me a bit, they drove me home with the chair in the back.
Thank goodness, I was losing steam!
What did you work on today??



Saturday, November 6, 2010

Yummy Colors

I think everyone that goes to the Union Square Market in NYC has these same pictures!
You just can't walk by these piles of gorgeous veggies without snapping away.




Everything looks so fresh doesn't it?

I just love the orange and red together


Then you walk alitte further and there is yummy yarns.
I mean really, it makes you want to stop right there and knit a sweater.


This yarn is so soft. Organic.



If you get a chance to check this out in person, you should grab it!





Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Circling Geese

The City Quilter University class that I am taking
on triangles is a once a month class for four months.
Our third class is next week and our assignment is a flying geese pattern.
I love paper piecing because the points come out so perfectly,
so this is a project I was ready to jump into.
I saw this pattern for geese flying in a circle over at The Sometimes Crafter
and just knew I had to try it.
There is a very good tutorial from Christina's site here.
So I started with the traditional look,
all the triangles contrasting against a constant background.

I liked it, but it wasn't really singing to me. The more I looked at it, the more I could see the seams in the piecing and how that could make a pattern too.
So I tried changing the center pieces to a contrasting fabric.


I liked that windmill look in the center and added some borders, some more flying geese strips and I had a nice little block. It is about 22" square.
I'm really not sure how I wanted to proceed with this block.


I kept looking at all those seams and thought, what if I change it up again?



So a grabbed some batiks that I had laying around just to try the color contrast. I LOVE the way this came out. The background is all yellow, the geese are the light green and the star point in the middle is a dark green.




These two blocks were made from the exact same paper piecing pattern.



Isn't amazing what a little bit of color play can do for a block?!



Can't wait to show these off to the class.