Plaid Quilting

I made up a new quilting design! At least it's new to me, so it feels like I thought it up myself....I call it  'Plaid Quilting'. Straightish lines congregated together in sections both horizontally and vertically....easy peasy!

 The quilting is a little harder to see on the front of the quilt, but I like the youthfulness of it with the fabric in the middle of this design.

Another binding to sew down and then you can see the whole schmoe! 

I named the quilt "Fun in the Sun". We've had lots of that this summer!!

Good bye, August!

Sunday Something

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, 

he is a new creature, the old things passed away;

behold, new things have come!" 

2 Corinthians 5:17 NAS

Farmer's Wife Friday--Farmer's Daughter/Farmer's Wife

This week's letter was penned by a woman from Clay County, Mississippi who is both the daughter of a farmer as well as the wife of one. She is eager to see her daughter follow in her footsteps. As she sees it, being a farmer's wife is beneficial both financially and physically.

Her letter inspired these blocks, 'Cats and Mice' and 'Windblown Square'. She is "independent" and can "squeeze from the grocery list a little for her own private use". I'm imagining that she has a kitty living in her cellar to keep away the mice that might be wanting to hide among her food supply!

 My grey kitty keeps the mice under control in my own basement, that I know. Looking at all of my colorful blocks so far has me getting a little bit of an overload of "sweetness" so I  thought I would begin adding some lovely grey into some of the blocks to tone things down a  little.  When I measured the templates to make this pretty block, I goofed and cut the squares 1/8 inch too large. That may not seem like much, but it made for some "pressing into submission" on my part, let's just say!

 This Mississippi farmer's wife seemed to have some knowledge of art as she mentioned two different artists and compared her farm life to the paintings produced. "Does a Rosa Bonheur gain fame by painting animals? My daughter will raise those animals and bring them to a perfection which her paintings can never hope to attain, all the while surrounded by God's sweet and wholesome air and the beauty of His world."  ( I had to look it up to find out that Rosa Bonheur was considered the most famous female painter in the 1800's!)The Windblown Square block is a reminder of Who controls the wind! 

Here's a windblown look at the squares I've made so far...................

See you next Friday! Don't forget to go see Cindy's blocks in solids; they are so pretty!

Friendly Quilting

You know that you have really made a good friend when she volunteers to machine quilt a project for you. For free. And, she's very, very awesome at machine quilting.........

 I have no idea  how Linda does this gorgeous and intricate quilting on her domestic sewing machine! But she does. Isn't it beautiful!  

 Linda recently won a blue ribbon for one of her quilts at the Iowa State Fair. Another quilt that she entered won Best of Show in it's division! Look at this beauty........

 I'm feeling like I won a prize myself when I look at my quilt and know the time she must have spent doing this 'friendly quilting" for me!

I am very blessed to have such a great quilting buddy.
Linda calls us FAB.............Friends After Blogging!
I'll show you all the finished quilt soon....gotta figure out the binding now....

Almost Finished Wordless Wednesday

A Quilt for a Princess

With a skinny vanilla latte in hand, Vicki arrived at my door....not just on one morning last week, but two! And, she stayed all day. We made a little quilt. It was fabulous fun! 

 Vicki and I volunteered a few months ago to donate a basket to our quilt guild's silent auction fund raiser which is coming up in October. We thought it would be fun to design our basket around the theme of "Princess" since we both have grand daughters who love to pretend that they belong to royalty!

In fact, Vicki, who goes by Yia Yia to her grand daughters, had just finished creating an adorable "Princess" quilt for one of her girls. Why not make another one for the basket, we thought! And so we did. All day. For two days. Ahhhhhh......heaven. Some of her fabric combined with some of mine. Our quarter inch seams even matched perfectly! 

 We agreed that I would quilt it and Vicki would sew on the binding. I did all of the quilting while watching the KC Chiefs get beat on TV with my husband Friday night.

 Here you go, Vicki....it's your turn to take over! Now, I just need to make a crown for some sweet little princess....

and Vicki will make a tutu. Hopefully, there will be lots of bids on our basket!

Sunday Something

"Children's children are a crown to the aged,

and parents are the pride of their children."

Proverbs 17:6

Farmer's Wife Friday--Better a Farmer...

The eleventh week of the FWQAL for me and Cindy, finds us a making some challenging blocks to go along with the letter from Mrs C.R.M of Ramsey County, N.D. Let me introduce Tall Pine Tree, on the left, and Night and Day, on the right....

Mrs. M is pretty incensed that anyone would think her a slave to a thoughtless husband! She writes, "A farmer spends the winter months reading and has awakened to the fact that many farm wives are considered drudges. He thinks of what he has read, and applies to himself. If he loves his wife, is she not in his thoughts? Is he not planning to make her life easier? Emphatically, yes!" The 'Night and Day' block symbolizes his devotion....

 For me it symbolizes how long it almost took me to make this block! Remember that wonky thingy that I posted yesterday....

Well, that was my first try at making the upper left section of the 6 inch block. Ugh! it turned out sort of diamond shaped! What could be wrong? I double checked my templates and tried again. No better! Then, studying the pattern, I came to the conclusion that the templates for the dark and light larger triangles were transposed, thus making it impossible to make a square. Trying out my conclusion produced this lovely looking, complicated block!

 I patted myself on the back really hard and decided to email the author, Laurie Hird, about my discovery. I won't bore you with the details of the emails passed back and forth between us, but surprisingly it turns out that I was correct and am actually the first to point out the error in the two years since the book's publication! Secretly, I'm thinking that maybe I am the first and ONLY person to have ever actually ATTEMPTED to make the block!........ Nah! 
I will say that I was very impressed that Laurie did not just brush off my comment about the block as just a inept seamstress, but tested it out herself and found that not only were pieces #61 and #61R transposed, but 61R is not even included on the CD at the back of the book! Her conclusion is that the mistake was made by the graphic designer who created the CD. She will be adding the correction to her website. Whew!
Okay! If you are still with me, and care, here is the second, less complicated block...

 I'm not sure if it was because I was so rattled by the first block or what, but I actually did more 'unsewing' on this one than any I have made so far....all user error!! I like this block. It might be fun to some day use it to make a "Timber-lake" quilt. My husband is a Tall Pine in my eyes! Hee, hee!

I'm glad to be a country woman rather than a city gal who, "hasn't the beautiful, wide out-doors, the green fields, flowers, trees, or the invigorating fresh air which the country woman has and loves."
I wonder how Cindy did with her blocks this week? Better go check....

Wonkiness

Many projects are in my head right now. In fact, I feel a bit like a "quilting machine" or something. (Ha! I crack myself up!) Yesterday, wonkiness was the word for the day apparently, and I didn't get the message until too late! Here are my fans...they are coming  along and I just love the "look". But, don't look too closely as you will see some wonkiness in the curves....

Oh, well.

I signed up to make a small quilt to donate to my quilt guild to be auctioned off this fall at a money-raiser. Using a block that I had made earlier this summer to practice my paper-piecing skills, I played around with border options, finally landing on this wonky blunt-nose design....

 Liberated Quiltmaking II, by Gwen Marston has a great tutorial for eye-ball cutting the angles....

 and sewing them all together to the desired length. After trimming, I have a cute wonky border for my little quilt. Stay tuned for the final result....(I may have a hard time parting with it!)

 This wonky little critter really gave me fits...(it was supposed to come out square!!!#%&) Eventually, we came to an understanding. Come  back tomorrow to find out how it was tamed.... 

It's a great story!

Fans

I'm a big fan of fans! 

They are cool on my skin these hot days, as well as cool on quilts!

This is my first time to try this quilt design myself....

kinda slow going, but, so far so good!

The Remarkable Fan template by The Gadget Girls is really clever and making the marking easy when paired with my Bohin mechanical chalk pencil. 

I'm also a fan of "cool" ballet.....

I wonder if she gives autographs?

Sunday Something

I see the city lights all around me
Everyone's obscure
Ten million people each with their problems
Why should anyone care

And in Your eyes I can see
I am not just a man, vastly lost in this world
Lost in a Sea of Faces
Your body's the bread, Your blood is the wine
Because you traded Your life for mine

Sea of Faces lyrics by Kutless

Modernistas!

Thursday night the Kansas City modernista quilters met for another fun and inspirational meeting of the Modern Quilt Guild. How I love to get together with these talented and excited quilters! We kicked off the Habitat Fabric challenge with lots of cute little bundles of Jay McCarrol's modern prints. The challenge is to create a quilt of any size using only the 6 fat eighths included in the packet plus any other Habitat fabric and/or solids  to make your "modern" quilt. The finished quilts are due back at our November meeting. Jaquie Gering is donating one of her awesome quilt racks as a Viewer's Choice prize!

 Show and Tell is a highlight of this active and quilt prolific guild. I was so excited and surprised by this fabulous quilt by Mary who used my Liberated Cross Block tutorial. Aren't the colors stunning! I might have to copy it.....

or steal it!

Farmer's Wife Friday--The Sense of Creation

The letter accompanying this week's two blocks for the Farmer's Wife Quilt-along was delightful and uplifting, even poetic. Mrs. I. L. M. from Prince George County, Md., enthusiastically hopes that her daughter will marry a farmer.  She wrote, "When her heart can sing with the morning stars at the first stirrings of the new creation in spring and from that learn to go about her commonplace, homely tasks with still deeper joy over the faint flutterings of a new creation beneath her own heart, she will feel that heaven itself could not be a better place in which to live."

Our first block, Big Dipper, reminds us of those morning stars...........

The second block, Periwinkle, attests to "the delicious sensation of wondering what the earth will bring forth to establish the work of her hands..." 
My block looks a bit wobbly in the photo (those pesky bias edges!), but really, I think it will be just fine in the quilt. I had to buckle in and use the templates included in the book to create the odd triangles. Oh, and guess what! I liked doing it....there's a lot to be said for accuracy when making such a fiddly block, I'm just sayin'!

My pile of little blocks is growing! It's fun to see them all together like this...kind of addictive!

I have such a "sense of creation"! So does my FWQAL partner, Cindy. Be sure to check out her posting today as well. Her blocks, made in all solids, are awesome!

Also, I'm the Blogger's Quilt Festival featured quilter today at

Amy's Creative Side. Hop over and learn about my favorite quilting tip!

Progress!

I'm on a roll to finish up some UFO's that are taking up room in my sewing closet. Progress was made with getting this sampler put together and ready for the quilting....

 These blocks represent one year of swapping with quilters literally all over the country. Each quarter during 2010 I participated in the 3X6 Mini Sampler Bee on Flickr. I made and received 6 blocks every 3 months...thus the name "3x 6 Bee".

 The 3x6 Bee is unique in that each participant chooses a block to make for that quarter. She then makes and sends that same block in the six different color ways picked by the other participants. I was consistent in selecting aqua/green and white every quarter. By sewing up a practice block in my colors each quarter and then making a couple of extras, I had enough to create this 72"x 83" inch quilt top.

 After mulling it over, I decided to sew the blocks side by side without sashings and then added a six inch white border all the way around. My plan is to make a scrappy aqua/green binding to tie it all together.

I'm thinking of calling the quilt "Swimming Pool Sampler" because the colors remind me so much of swimming pool tiles every time I look at it!

Half Square Triangles

Here it is almost the middle of August and I'm still thinking it's July! My favorite season, summer, will soon be turning into autumn. But thinking it's still July is no excuse for falling behind on my swap blocks, so I played a little catch up yesterday. Here is Doris' Love in a Mist block made with lots of half square triangles......

 Doris sent me yellow scraps from her stash and the link to a great tutorial. Each member of the One Block Over Bee was sent a different color of fabric. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product!

 I enjoyed creating the block and can see my own scraps looking lovely in this great design!

 Just in case someone would think me a flake, I did something unusual and have already finished up the August month's block which will go to Terri in Wisconsin.

 Terri raided her stash for the Garden Party fabrics to make this fun Trip Around the World  block in jewel tones. This block is made entirely of half square triangles. 

I'll be making my way to the post office later today, ladies. There's a Sonic right on the way, and it's almost time for Happy Hour and half price diet vanilla Cokes!