test block

I've been wanting to do a rail fence block and today ran across some purples that I thought would look good together.

The darkest color is really a deep purple but it's hard to get that color right in the picture.  It didn't turn out too bad.  I think I will make more.  Perhaps start with a wall hanging and if I am not tired of it yet continue on to make it larger.  LOL.

Attempt at BOM Organization

I wanted to have a better way to keep track of which BOMs I was interested in.  I read that someone, was that you Kat?, was using a spreadsheet and I took that information and tried to come up with a similar thing.  I have it on my external drive in excel but I know me....I also need it on my blog in order to see it on a regular basis.  This looks better in excel since I have my grid lines etc.  It's a start.  I also wanted it only to be one page so it would be convenient and I wouldn't have to flip all over the place.  I have already figured out that I will not be doing a couple of them and took them off of my list already.  It looks better on the excel sheet of course.  I haven't figured out how to do the formatting here to make it look right but I still think you get the idea.  Since today is February 1st, I started to look at my BOMs.  It was a lot easier this month because the links worked so I quickly found out which ones I could download and then put a "d" in the block.  :)  Hopefully this will work.

2014 BOM Name URL Jan Feb Benjamin Biggs Quilt http://justtakes2.com/        d Fiesta de la Flores http://blog.morningglorydesigns.net/      d Sycamore Hill Quilts http://cburdy.wordpress.com/     d d Walk with Me http://ajpadilla.com/ d block of the week http://www.lynbrown.com/do-you-see-block-of-the-week-reminder/    3-d Garden Gate http://projecthouse360.com/ d offered thru Craftsy http://quiltdoodledesigns.blogspot.com/ d Quilt Tallahassee BOM http://quilttallahassee.com/activities-and-projects/2014-block-of-the-month/    d Penguin Cheer http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/boms.html  d d Stars of Honor http://www.debbiemumm.com/Projects/QuiltBlocks/2014/  d NA Facebook  d At Gandpa's Pond http://twosistersandaquilt.com/free-bom/  d Around a Star Qult Pattern Magazine d d

Rose Smith Free Offering

I've been following Rose Smith and watching her videos on Ludlow Quilt and Sew for a long time and today she has a great pattern.  It is the Summer Dream Quilt Pattern.  She comes out each Friday with a pattern and the fun part is that she also has a video for that pattern which is very handy if you need to hear how it is done versus just reading it.  Check it out at:

http://www.ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk/2014/01/summer-dream-quilt-pattern/?awt_l=Gvykw&awt_m=Jdnqd1Gp_FJL6K

You can sign up to get emails and notices and such which is nice.  I have these saved in my YouTube favorites as well.  As many of you know I'm trying to do more pieced quilting this year and I know that I can do HST.  I might have to try and make this one.  This Friday you get a bonus though.  Scroll down the page and after the video you will see that she is offering her log cabin ebook free until Tuesday.  That's another pattern I've been thinking of doing so I went and grabbed it up before I forgot and now have it on my kindle!

How cool is that!  Free is good so check it out.

I did it!

:)    I managed to make my little portable iron board for projects.  I went out at lunch today to renew my license plates and decided to make a trip to Walmart to get some cold medicine.  While there I remembered I wanted to get a staple gun for a project.  YAY!  I did it!  I finally made a more portable ironing board.

It's not exciting is it.  I just used leftovers and one of the left overs was plain white THIN muslin.  I don't use it for much of anything so I thought it would work great for this.  It is a 10 x 10" square of birth plywood, 1/2" thick.  It also has two layers of cotton batting on it and all held in place by staples.  That is why I needed the staple gun.  I have nicer cotton fabric that I can put on the cover if this seems to work out.  I also think I will make a variety of sizes of boards if this works out.  They are light enough to be able to carry around to classes (or work).  After that I might have to get a small iron.  a small fat one and not one of the clover irons.  I didn't like those when I had one.

Another project which looks like fun is found at:

http://eclecticallyvintage.com/2013/09/make-it-doodle-lightbulbs-sharpie-crafts/

That's my news for tonight.  For a girl who has problems hammering in nails, this was a major accomplishment.  :)

Last Day of staying at home

Tomorrow I have to go back to work and it will be a little weird.  I've enjoyed, yes even though it was cold, being at home.  It's been nice to be able to work on some projects when I wanted to.  I did manage to finish up my test pattern for The Quilt Pattern Magazine.  I'll be taking pictures of that and filling out the report tomorrow.  I can't wait for it to appear because I love how it turned out.  I love all the fabrics that I used and..well just love it all.

Sorry I can't show it to you yet but sooner or later you'll see it.  :)

If you go over to my page that says Rose of Sharon BOM, you'll see two more pictures of blocks.  I haven't stitched them yet but do have them fused.  Soon I'll be able to start to stitch on them.  I had to match up more embroidery floss.  Now to keep them all in the same place so I won't have to match them all up again.

It's 10 p.m. and I need to sign off and try to get to bed at a decent time in order to get to work on time.  LOL.

Brenda Sutter's Quilt Labels

A friend of mine has started to do quilt labels and I thought I'd help her out by posting what they look like here.  She's very talented and recently she has expanded out to quilt labels.  Here is one example.

This is not one of those 1" x 2" little labels that just say "handmade with love".  This is approximately 11 1/2" wide and 5 1/2" tall.  She can make them in any color and will sell them for $8.  Not only do you get wonderful message (or perhaps contact her to get a quote if you have something more specific) but that $8 would include a name, year and state if space allows it.  It does not, however, cover shipping and handling.  Please keep in mind that the price might change depending on what you would want her to put on the label.  The best thing to do is to contact Ms. Brenda and start to talk to her about what you would like to see on a label and then she can figure out what to charge.

If interested, you can contact her via facebook (Brenda Sutter) or via her email.  She has given me permission to give out her email addy and it is:  Angelwings72598@aol.com . She does request that you put in the subject line "Quilt label".

Good job Brenda! Keep quilting!

Proud of Myself

I've tackled a new project and I'm so proud of myself!  I managed to get past a sticky part so tomorrow I can continue to work on it.  Doesn't that make you feel good when you figure something out and can move on after setting it aside.  I call it "time out" and like putting my gaming dice in time out periodically, my quilting projects have to be put in "time out".  Then when I go back to it the next day, I can look at it better and take a deep breath and go ahead to see where I went wrong.

I probably need to do that more often but at least I did it this time.  :)

So now I will go on to another project for a little bit.  I don't only work on one thing at a time.  Never could do that.  I think I'll go fuse some of my Baltimore blocks.  I'm behind on a couple of them.

Talk to you later.  Everybody stay warm.

Gina and the T-shirt Quilt

Remember when I helped Theresa do the t-shirt quilt for her daughter Gina?  Well here is Gina and her quilt.

Gina standing on the fireplace stoop holding up her quilt

Gina  by the side of her quilt.  She has plenty of room to curl up in it.

She really needed it too.  Her dorm room is cold and even with the extreme weather we are having she said she was able to take two blankets off of her bed because the quilt keeps her so warm.  YAY!

Change of Mind

I washed my new fabric thinking that I would get a chance to iron it tonight and possibly even start to cut it for the test pattern.  Well I managed to get it ironed anyway.  Then as I neatly laid out my fabric, I look at it and think I might be changing my mind.  Has that happened to you?

I might reverse a couple of the fabric to see if they look better that way.  So the rest of the night is to measure my fabric and see if I have to buy more or if I will have enough in case I do change up the fabrics.

Quilting, like life, is always throwing me little curve balls.  Good thing that I know stitch things back together.  :)

Everybody have a great evening.  I've got thinking to do.

Civil War Block and Disappearing Pinwheel

Hi everybody.  I didn't have to work today so I had hopes for getting a lot done.  Well that didn't turn out to be the case but I still managed to get some things done.  I washed the fabric for my text pattern so I can start on that this week.  I'm glad that I didn't start on it today considering my mistakes I made on other things.

I did manage to get my Civil War Block for the BOM done.  It was a churn dash and I had never done one of those before.  It was relatively easy to put together so I might have to make that block more often.  I was so proud with how easy it went together and then I took this picture.

Ummm.  Woo oh George.  Yeah, I put some of it together wrong.  There is a reason I have more than one seam ripper and they are strategically spaced around the apartment.  I picked up the latest one and had that row disassembled in no time.  I thought I might have to take that whole row apartment but didn't have to.  NOW the block looks so much better.

Did you notice that my points turned out pretty good?  Woo hoo!  I wanted to see how it looked with the other blocks so I went to were I kept them.  Hmmm. The Gremlins were at it again and hid them.  I finally found them and laid them out.

As I laid them out, I counted out how many blocks there were.  1..2..3..4..5..6..7......there was suppose to be 8, not seven.  I can hear the Gremlins laughing at this.  I will look further for it but that will be another day.

Then I decided to work on the disappearing pinwheel block as seen on the Missouri Quilt Company YouTube vid.

I started with two 10" squares.  One plain and one patterned.  Sew a quarter inch seam all the way around it and then cut it diagonal corner to diagonal corner and repeat.  When done you will have this.

This is how they do their Half Square Triangles.  open up the triangles and press towards the dark side.  I used two fabrics which are really too thin for most projects so I've decided to use some of my thinner fabrics for test blocks.  Why use up my good stuff when I have other fabric around.  This way it is being used up.  This is one block that I was curious as to how it would go together.  Not sure if I will make another one or a wall hanging or what with them so it was a good time to try out fabric.  One day I might use all of the various "one blocks" that I am doing and put them all together.  

Now that I had my HST all done, you make a pinwheel block.  That might sound easy but I had to watch the watch the video again to make sure I had the wheels going in the right direction.  LOL.  

I trimmed my block to 12.5" so it would match the directions in the video.  :)   You are suppose to be measure your pinwheel block and then divide that number by 3.  You want to have equal parts.  Since I trimmed my block to 12.5" I could use their number.  That turned out to be 2 1/8th.  So I measured 2 1/8th from the CENTER seam and cut.  You need to cut all four sides so a rotating mat would be helpful.  

You do that on all four sides but make sure you do it from the CENTER.  That will give you nine pieces which will make up your Churn Dash block.  I would have one for you to see but I miscalculated  on one side and cut on 1 1/8th instead of  2 1/8th.  So I had to redo it.  Back to the drawing board.  I decided this time that I would use my water soluable blue pen and drew my line this time before I cut it.

It's a good thing that I did because you can see from the squiggly line that I had to redraw one of the lines.  Since it was water soluable marking pen, a quick spritz of water and it disappeared.  Now I just have to wait for the cloth to dry before I sew it together.

I pinned down the wet fabric and turned it around into the final configuration for the Churn Dash  with a pinwheel in the middle.

You might see small pins in the individual pieces. That's to hold it in place while my fan is blowing on it.  LOL.

Well that is what I did today.  What did you do?

Sunday laziness

No work tomorrow so I can do whatever I want.  I  will probably start on a test project but that will only be if I get the fabric washed tonight.  LOL.    Of course you will have to wait until it is published before I can show you but I know you'll love it.  I really don't have much energy today to do anything but I did run by the office after having breakfast with mom and picked up my external drive.  NOW I can post the 2014 BOMs that I know about.  

I did not hunt up all of these BOMs.  In fact it was really easy since it was posted in one of my yahoo groups.  Here is my version of it.  Feel free to check back each month as a reminder if you want.  You'll also see a notation of what I think I will try to keep up on.  Wish me luck.

2014 BOMs 

http://justtakes2.com/       - Benjamin Biggs Quilt  - yes

http://blog.morningglorydesigns.net/     -   Fiesta de la Flores (Festival of Flowers) – yes

http://cburdy.wordpress.com/    - Sycamore Hill Quilts – yes

http://ajpadilla.com/   - Angie’s Bits ‘n Pieces – walk with me (shoes)– yes

http://fatquartershop.blogspot.it/p/wishes-quilt-along.html   - No

http://www.freequiltpatterns.info/    Pat Sloan Mystery BOM called Globetrotting – yes

http://www.thequiltladies.com/    - probably not

http://curlicuecreations.blogspot.com/p/star-block-of-month-tutorials.html     Star Block of the month Tutorials – probably not

http://www.langleyquiltersguild.com/  - probably not

http://loreen.typepad.com/   -   paper piecing one – not sure

http://www.lynbrown.com/do-you-see-block-of-the-week-reminder/   yes

http://www.opengatequilts.com/    - Blogger Girls BOM   --  probably not.

http://www.p3designs.com/   -  yes but will probably collect more than do.

http://www.p3designs.com/   - Tell it to the Stars – maybe

http://www.persimmonquilts.com/  - probably not

http://projecthouse360.com/  - might not do all but will collect.  Not sure on border but have time to figure it out

http://quiltaddictsanonymous.com/   -   not sure but probably not

http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.it/p/blog-page_11.html  - paper piecing – no

http://quiltdoodledesigns.blogspot.com/ - offered through craftsy  but free – yes

http://quiltedsnail.blogspot.com/      - no

http://www.sulky-international.de/scripts/clsAIWeb.php?seite_id=200  - yes

http://quilttallahassee.com/activities-and-projects/2014-block-of-the-month/   - At Grandpa’s Pond – maybe

http://www.victorianaquiltdesigns.com/VictorianaQuilters/BlockoftheMonth/BlockoftheMonth.htm  - not sure

http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/boms.html - penguin cheer - yes

http://www.debbiemumm.com/Projects/QuiltBlocks/2014/   - Stars of Honor yes

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.it/2013/11/2014-civil-war-block-of-month-threads.html - no but will follow

http://www.heleenpinkster.nl/English/index.htm - another paper pieced one – no

http://animasquilts.com/2014BasketCase.html - basket blocks - no

http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/blog/ - no

http://country-threads-chicken-scratch.com/?p=3073 – sampler blocks – no

http://www.quiltersnewsletter.com/issues/Ooh_Rah - not sure

http://quietplay.blogspot.com.au/  - Paper Piecing – no

http://chasenbach.tripod.com/leucht/Page16Lighthouses.html - Lighthouses - no

http://mumscupboard.blogspot.fr/2014/01/up-garden-path.html  -  up the garden path – embroidery (offered through craftsy) – yes

http://paperpanache.com/   -  no

   

The advantage of putting the list here is that I can just click on the link and it should take me to that page.  It might not be the page for the current month but I'm sure I can find it from those links.  You'll also notice I put "no" next to some.  That is for MY personal use.  I'm not saying that they are bad patterns but did not appeal to me or I just knew that I wouldn't do them.  

You might also notice that I might attempt to do some piecing in 2014.  That is a big step outside of my comfort zone.  That is one of my goals for 2014.  To learn a new technique or to get better at one that I currently know.  An example would be Paper Piecing.  I just did that small mug rug but I need to do more in order to get better at it as well as to commit it to memory.  I used to have a small add a quarter ruler that I had bought for paper piecing.  It...disappeared.  Now that I am trying to learn it more in 2014, I decided to order another one.  Quilting supplies are like potato chips.  It's hard to just order one thing.  I ended up ordering two add a quarter rulers.  One six inch and one 12 inch.  :)

Which BOMs are you going to work on?