Another Thank You

Quilted with Sol panto from Urban Elementz.

75" Square

A Little Modern Quilt

Black and White Kona cotton fabric, improvised piecing. White rayon thread and Zebra variegated thread.

New York City buildings for backing.

Finished with facing.  

23 1/4" x 34"

A Special Thank You

What took me so long?

This quilt has been done for weeks!

I'll be donating it to Tri -County Quilt Guild.

S

Testing....

This is just a test.  I've been told my blog has gone goofy....

Can you see it?

I finally got last years Quiltville Mystery quilt loaded on the long arm.

Little Girl was supervising, and the job wore her out.

S

A Week Made For Sewing

I sort of have the week-off....and so I'm using it the way I want...I'm sewing and quilting.

My String Stars are on the long arm...and Little Man is doing his best to help me (not) get this finished quickly...

I had the Quilt Chicks over Tuesday to sew.  We had a great time.  Lots of sewing, and lots of idea sharing.  All that sharing made it difficult to go to sleep that night.  So, after laying in bed at 11:30 and being unable to fall asleep, I put my slippers on and ran down to the basement.  I found a bin of fabrics, ran them through the studio cutter with the 3.5" die, and then went back to bed less than 30 minutes later.

So I woke up and started sewing this charity project immediately, sewing all those strips together end to end....

But not without some assistance...

And cutting them into 44" strips

Which I laid out before I had to leave to meet friends for dinner.  I did not expect to return home to them looking this tidy...but the cats only disturbed one row!

I got up early again this morning and got right to sewing.

And got this little top put together!

Inspections were made. Approvals were granted.

I'm waiting till nap time to head back down to the long arm...the cat's nap time, that is.

S

This UFO is NOT that "U" Anymore.....

A project that has been sitting, abandoned and in a deep, rarely opened closet since 2014 has resurfaced and been reworked.

Despite roadblocks to progress:

 Protection:

And Frequent Inspections:

I managed to assemble this:

The pieces are from a Bonnie Hunter pattern that went awry.

Unit sizes that didn't work out, due in part to some very bad cutting on my part, caused me to give up.

I uncovered the bin that the project was hiding in this past weekend and decided that I would work on it as my Superbowl project.

I never bothered to turn on the game but I did sew away all day and had a wonderful time.

(I am aware of the mistake in the border and will be picking that apart today)

I'm looking forward to getting this quilted and enjoying it for awhile before it gets donated.

S

February Finish: The Fine Lines Project

24.5" x 34.5"

Close Up View

Fine Lines Tutorial by Kathleen Loomis

Finished with facing tutorial by Joe Cunningham

Fine Lines and Facings

I learned something new this past week.

I had The Fine Lines Project sewn together, quilted and ready to finish, but I wanted to do something other than a traditional binding.

I did some searching and found a couple tutorials on Facing A Quilt.

One of the most simple and straight forward tutorials I found was from Joe Cunningham.

 I had a smaller project that I wanted to practice on...I also tried out the idea of folded corners on the backside so that I could hang these quilts simply from a wood slat, dowel or ruler.

 Holy Cat Hair!

This shows the facings on the backside and the corners for holding whatever I choose to hang it with.

Little Girl inspecting the backside of The Fine Lines Project.  I suspect she would like to add just a little more cat hair to the composition...

Little Girl and Little Man inspecting the top side before trimming and facing....

The Fine Lines Project, faced and ready for hand stitching.
25.5" x 34.5"
I like that clean finished edge on this quilt, and it was super simple to do.  It just required quite a bit of steam and pressing to get it to be smooth and flat.
I'm looking forward to getting the hand stitching done and then I'll find a place to hang this!

S

Giving myself Permission to Play

Too frequently I tell myself that I cannot start a new project because I have too many others in progress.

What I find, when I do that, is that not only do I not play with new ideas or experiment with different techniques but I also don't work on the projects I think I need to finish.

That results in a frustrated me, and I start to think I need to bag this entire quilting/sewing thing and take up something different like woodworking.  Or Gainful Employment.

Today I decided to give myself permission to play.  

There are two techniques that I want to work with more than any others...so I flipped a coin and decided that Straight Lines, a technique I found on the blog Art With A Needle by Kathleen Loomis.

I've experimented with it before, more than a year ago, and had such a good time with it that I"m excited to try it again.

(It will be a welcome break from my Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt!)

Here is a reminder of what I did last time I used this technique:

I was Surprised at how soft the fabric remained.  I thought with all the intersections and seams that it might end up a very stiff piece, but I was wrong.

Today's work/play started with black Kona and this black/white/grey fabric.

After a few slices and insertions:

(bobbin to show scale of strips)

And then I worked my way toward this:

I like the way the pattern of the fabric distorts some of the lines and intersections.

I still have some work to do .  I have several more panels cut that I want to use this technique on.

S

Instant Gratification!

Today's project is intended to be a part of a housewarming gift for a girl I've never met but think of as a friend.

I don't even know what colors she likes, but I had a couple of pretty fat quarters that were begging to be used and I though microwave bowl cozies would be a great, quick project.

I hope she likes them!