What's Missing.....

It's Friday night and while watching the Olympics I decided to start to sew on my purple rail fence wall hanging.  I was making good progress and managed to get all the blocks sewn together and squared up.  Then I laid them out on the floor to take a picture so I could remember which way they had to lay out in order to get that zig zab effect and......

Yeah, I bet you noticed it also.  I'm one block short.  To be more accurate, I think I'm half of a block short.  Tomorrow I will have to go through all the strips I saved and see if I can reconstruct enough material to finish up that one block.  Then it will be off to the store to figure out what to do about a border.  I have my binding fabric and I have the fabric for the back.  I just need to get some fabric for the borders.  While I am out I might also go and pick out some more black to work on another wall hanging.  I'm thinking of doing The Zipper Quilt from Missouri Quilt Company.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtLL4liuW8o 

I think it would be a cute wall hanging and it doesn't take too much fabric.  I have a charm pack called Jungleland that I am considering using.

It would turn it into more of a wall hanging for a child's room but I think it could be cute.   I will have to think about it for a bit.  I also saw another video from Missouri Quilt Company that I am considering trying to make the block they showed.

It's for the Wedge Star and I even have the wedge from them that I had bought awhile ago but never used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDhsId_OUyc

This is the wedge that they are referring to.

All of these decisions to make....tomorrow or the next day.  Now it's time for me to get to bed.  :)

Everybody be warm and safe.

Sneak Peek

This is just a quick little post to show you where I think I am headed with my purple rail fence.  The colors aren't as good in this first picture but in the second picture you get a better idea of the purple.

I ran out of blocks but will lay them out at home (this is on the office bulletin board).  I haven't sewn any more of the blocks together so that will make a difference also.  I might have to scrounge to get a couple more blocks out of my fabric but we'll see.  I'll sew these together first and then see where I am at.

This picture gives you a better idea of the colors.  See that bunch of fabric hanging off to the right?  I think I will use that for the back.  It looks better in person than in the picture.  It matched the lightest shade of purple (which was hand dyed and given to me).  It is some of the African fabric that Lyndon had brought back for me last year from Ghana.

Also in the picture you'll see extra strips of the lightest fabric.  I think that I might be able to sew them together and use them for the binding.  What do you think?

Time to start work...official work that is.  Everybody have a great day.

Rail fence galore

I'm on a rail fence block kick.  I think it is because I am only using three colors and my strips are 2.5" wide which means.........drum roll please........I can use my GO! die!!!!!

So I first start to do some purples.  I have them all laid out ready to sew together and found that my GO! die keeps them nicely organized for me at the same time.

I quickly sewed them up and discovered I don't have enough for a quilt for the bed but I do think I might have enough to do a wall hanging.  I'll let you know on that probably tomorrow.

I do like how the colors go together though.  Then I spotted some pinks.  Ohhhhh.  More fun with my GO!  So I found this dark pink....

And this medium pink which you can't see because I took the picture half way through turning the GO!  It has flowers on it.

And of course you need have a light pink to go with it.  Hey Heather!  See that black and red fabric?  Do you remember it?  That's the "I Love Quilting" wall hanging that you made me.  I use it as a cover for my sewing machine.  :)

How long did it take me to cut my strips?  Not long at all.  Three turns of the handle resulted in 18 strips of fabric (2.5").  They are all ready now for me to iron and sew in the next day or two.

Whatever I don't use this time can be used for binding for another project or blocks.  Just all sorts of possibilities.  :)

Oh...before I forget.  I posted my pictures on my other blog

http://bonni-gettinghealthy.blogspot.com/

of how my adventure with using a water bottle as an egg seperator went.   :)  Check it out.

The February BOM Mug Rug

I am in the facebook group and they are doing a BOM which can be either made into 4 x 6 postcard or a 4 x 6 mug rug.  Some are also going to collect them and make them all into a small wall hanging.  I'm doing mug rugs.  For February it is done in pinks for Valentine's Day.

Here it is:

I have to admit that I like the pinks in this one.

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.