Pop Tops

Vicki and I started sewing on our twin Pop Stars quilts in November 2013. A little over 14 months later, we finally have our tops together. Hip hip, hooray!

As, I've mentioned before, my wonderful friend, Vicki, and I try to sew chat shop together every Tuesday. This is our third project together. You can see the other two, here and here. We finished right as the sun was setting yesterday so hurried outside for a photo to mark the event!

We've taken some breaks during holidays and so forth, but always have Sew Day marked on our calendars. We even took our fabrics on a road trip to Ouray, Colorado, last spring for several days of back-to-back stitching!

Bright strips, cut 1.5 inches wide from my stash, were sewn down foundation-piecing style using instructions from Kathy Doughty in her awesome book, Material Obsession 2. Each block is 22 inches across!

Vicki had a collection of Civil War type fabrics that she wanted to use up for this project. We both adore how lovely it turned out by pairing the duller strips with the brighter, red polka dot stars! (Marble likes it, too!)

Seen from the back, the colorful seams show up so cute against the muslin foundations. I'm tempted to just topstitch down each seam since I'll be using my Pop Stars quilt as a tablecloth. Or, should I back it with flannel and leave out batting? It's already quite heavy.

Have any of you had experience with doing such a thing? I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. Meanwhile, Vicki and I are planning our next Sew Day  project!

Mocha Frappuccino

Do you ever just need to celebrate coming to the end of a project? That's just what I did today as i finished up the last two triangles for my Pop Stars Quilt!

 Vicki and I have been having a ball on our Sewing Tuesdays as we've stitched  1.5 inch strips onto muslin foundations for the last seven months. We are both going to use our quilts as tablecloths and I need 60 of these large triangles for my 63"x105" quilt. Check that off of my list... Now to get them all stitched together!

 Being a bit addicted to coffee drinks lately, I've been wanting to come up with a way to make my own frappuccinos. I think that I've concocted a pretty good recipe that's quick, easy to fix, and ohhhhh so good! I'll share the recipe just in case you have something to celebrate also!

 Mocha Frappuccino

8 ounces International Delight Mocha Iced Coffee (Find this in the dairy case)

4 ounces milk

1 packet Truvia or any sweetener

1 or 2 drops Vanilla extract

Crushed ice

Makes 20 ounces

 Put all ingredients into a blender, adding the ice last and filling it to approximately the 20 ounce line.

 You probably could use ice cubes if crushed is not available...just takes a bit more blending.

 Now, just push the blend button until you don't hear any more ice breaking up and the drink is blended and frothy.

 This makes a nice big frappuccino for sharing with a friend.

Or, if you have an extra 210 calories to spare, do as I did and drink the whole thing yourself! What do you have to celebrate?

Spinning our Webs

 Like Charlotte, Vicki and I are slowly, but surely, spinning our webs almost every Tuesday. We find that we usually each get 4 triangle sections finished in our time of sewing together. We both absolutely love the red dots combined with the more traditional and neutral strips in Vicki's blocks.

 My blocks, on the other hand, look like an explosion in a paint factory! But, we are loving that too. 

I'd say we still have quite a few Tuesdays to go before the blocks are all sewn up. They are so addictive to make that it's hard to stop at the end of the day!

I Love Color!

See! I just can't get enough of sewing on  my strip pieced spiderweb blocks. But, like a good girl, I put them away after every Tuesday Sewing Day with Vicki and just look at them until Tuesday rolls around again!

So, when I got the message that Rene' was wanting spiderwebs for her November blocks in the Mid-Century Modern Bee, you can imagine my delight!

She asked for a neutral center star and colorful strips. I used both 1.5 inch and 2 inch strips to make Rene's blocks. The blocks are made a little differently than the ones for my quilt, in that they are not foundation pieced. I like both methods, I've decided, but there is more waste of the neutral fabric with the Bee blocks. Here's how they are made. I'm mailing them to her separated so she can mix them in with the other members' blocks.

I laid Rene's blocks next to mine so you can get a reference of the size of spider that is spinning my webs!

 Four triangles together form a 12 inch finished block verses my 21 inch finished blocks. Obviously there are a bunch more rounds in my webs. Isn't it amazing how different it looks with a bright star verses a neutral star center?  I love them both! 

In other sewing, I'm trying hard to get the rest of my Juicy Fruit churn dash blocks made. (I'm wondering now, why I thought that a twin size quilt was such a good idea!) After mentioning to Suz that I was thinking of adding in some large 12.5 inch churns to the mix, she sweetly helped me out by making and sending me one! I plan to make four more  big old churns...that will save time as well as look awesome!

Thanks, my friend! I love it!! Oh, ya, I also decided to add some lemons in with the oranges, tangerines, watermelon and strawberries, did you notice?

Pop Stars

A Spider Web quilt has been on my "To Do" list for years. My sewing buddy, Vicki, and I decided to make that our next project for "Sewing Tuesdays". Since we just finished up making playhouses for our grandchildren, we are both ready for some quilty fabric love!
Kathy Doughty's instructions will be our guide.

Our webs will be made with 1.5 inch strips so I dug through the ones that I've been accumulating from other projects and pulled the bright ones. Today, I'm adding more strips cut from my fabric stash. Since I store my stash in drawers by color, it is easy to pull out a drawer and choose the fabrics I'd like to add to the quilt.

When Vicki and I sew together, I usually get out my lovely featherweight Singer and park her on the dining table. (Looks like she could use a dusting!!)

Vicki sews on a Pfaff which is very portable, as well.

I'm loving the look of Vicki's beginnings of a web! Using a stash of reproduction fabrics that she collected several years ago for the strips, she is adding a large red dot which will be the stars in the design. The spots really brings a modern balance to the traditional look of the strips.

For the stars in my quilt, I chose a bright red floral called Gypsy Girl by Lily Ashbury. The selvage notes 16 colors in the design. That's good, since I'll be using tons of colorful strips to make the webs!

We have agreed to only sew on our quilts when we can do it together so we will probably be working on them all through the winter months. They will add some cheer to the drab cold days ahead.

I can already tell that making these blocks is like eating potato chips...it's hard to stop at just a few! Our next sewing day can't come soon enough!