Traveling Quilter

WIP Wednesday 1/25/2012

2012-01-25T23:14:00.000-08:00

Echoes - Cathy's Southwest quilt top

This week I finished the quilt top for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest, a charity quilt. Last night I put the quilt sandwich together to do a pillowcase finish. Normally I make throw-sized quilts, but this one is twin-sized. I lay out the quilt sandwich on my queen bed, and normally the sandwich hangs off the sides by a few inches--quite manageable. This twin-sized sandwich seems huge! It hangs over by a lot and I don't know if there will be some tugging on the edges of the finished quilt. Next time I think I'll see if I can use some big tables at my church to lay it out. I've never asked about it, but since the charity quilt is being given through the church, I don't think it will be a problem.

I intend to get the quilt completely finished this week.

Echoes - Cathy's Southwest Quilt Top

2012-01-22T22:16:00.001-08:00

Echoes - Cathy's Southwest Quilt Top

Friday night I got the quilt top done for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest. I had hoped to get the quilt completely done, but ran out of gas after dinner. I was happy to be able to share the finished top at Saturday's Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting.

I'm planning to get the quilt finished this week.

Golden Bear Restaurant

2012-01-22T21:56:00.000-08:00

The Golden Bear Restaurant in Sacramento, California

Yesterday I was in Sacramento for the monthly Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting. I got a text from my daughter-in-law Laurie, who said she was watching Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and saw The Golden Bear restaurant on the show. I had spotted it by chance on an earlier trip to Sacramento, but I hadn't been there yet, and it was on my list of places to visit. In the late afternoon I headed on over there so I could get a picture before the sun went down. I wasn't very hungry and was hoping to get something small. I ordered the pork taco as suggested by the server. I sat on the patio and faced the street to enjoy the view.

There were about a dozen of us on the patio, most of the people being quite young. It was pretty noisy out there, but my food was good, and I can add The Golden Bear to the list of restaurants I've visited that have been on Food Network.

First border attached to Echoes - Cathy's Southwest

2012-01-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

First border for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest

Auditioning red and black for first border

Adding purple fabric to help decide.

Love the red!

Today I sewed on the first border for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest. I auditioned red and black. The black seemed classic and safe. The red, although bright, seemed more fun and interesting. So red won. And I love it! The second border will be purple and a bit wide to help bring the quilt to a finished size of 70" x 90". I'd love to finish the quilt tonight for tomorrow's Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting. I may have to partially tie just to stabilize the layers for travel, then complete on Sunday. We'll see.

WIP Wednesday 1/18/2012

2012-01-19T00:26:00.000-08:00

Echoes - Cathy's Southwest

Main part of quilt top

This week I sewed got the main part of Echoes - Cathy's Southwest sewn together. There will be a couple of borders, probably one in black or red and another in purple. I bought purple for backing tonight, using a 50% coupon at Joann's. I'd like to get the quilt completely finished by the end of the coming weekend.

WIP Wednesday 1/11/2012

2012-01-12T01:46:00.000-08:00

Roxanne - Finished Quilt

For retiring co-worker Roxanne, who wears bright, bold colors, black and white, and animal prints.

Based on Disappearing Nine Patch block

Started 1/7/2012, completed 1/11/2012

56" x 73"

Echoes - Cathy's Southwest

Blocks sewn into rows

This week I got Echoes - Cathy's Southwest sewn into rows. I'll probably finish it this weekend.

Also, I started and completed Roxanne, for retiring co-worker Roxanne D., who wears bold, bright colors, black and white, and animal prints. I found a print that combined these elements, added white-on-white print, black solid and a bright mottled pink. I adapted a Disappearing Nine Patch block that I found in an image search. But instead of doing the normal DNP method, I strip pieced. The quilt went together quickly. I started it on Saturday and just now finished it. I'll deliver the quilt to Roxanne tomorrow, her last day at work.

Roxanne Quilt Top Finished

2012-01-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

Roxanne Quilt Top

Fabrics for Roxanne quilt

For retiring co-worker Roxanne D., who wears bright, bold colors, black and white, and animal prints.

Strip pieced units (actually twice as long)

With less than a week to make and deliver the quilt, I chose an easy but complicated-looking Disappearing Nine-Patch sort of pattern. I passed up the actual DNP method and constructed the blocks using strip-piecing, which is fast for me.

Cross cuts

One sewn block - all will be sewn this way

Four identical blocks twisted to form pattern

Quilt blocks laid out on design wall

Quilt blocks sewn in rows

All blocks sewn together

Completed quilt top

I started the quilt on Saturday. I have to finish the quilt Wednesday night, as Thursday is Roxanne's last day of work. I'm doing well on time. Tonight my goal is to do a pillowcase finish. Then tomorrow night I'll just have to tie a bunch of knots. I can do it!

Echoes - Cathy's Southwest sewn in rows

2012-01-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

Echoes - Cathy's Southwest

Blocks sewn in rows

Last weekend I got the blocks for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest sewn into rows. I'm setting it aside temporarily to make a quilt for a retiring co-worker, which I'll finish by Wednesday night. Then I'll come back to this quilt and complete it.

WIP Wednesday 1/4/2012

2012-01-05T00:21:00.000-08:00

Blocks for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest

This week I got all the blocks finished for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest. Right now I'm sewing blocks together in rows. To build the quilt to the desired 70" x 90" (twin bed) finished size, I need to add 10" of border on all sides. My plan is to add two 5" borders, one probably in a dark purple similar to the one in the original quilt and some of the blocks in this quilt. Also I plan to add another border in the same medium purple seen here.

Just to make my life more complicated, I decided to make a quilt for soon-retiring co-worker Roxanne D. I scouted out fabric last night, bought some tonight, and will design and start sewing the quilt in the next couple of days. This will be a fast one, with a simple design. I don't have time for anything complicated. I'm counting on the wild, bright fabrics to be enough to tie the quilt to Roxanne, since she wears a lot of bright colors.

Blocks Completed on Echoes - Cathy's Southwest

2012-01-04T01:23:00.000-08:00

Quilt blocks for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest

Tonight I finished sewing the blocks for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest. The centers of the blocks are made from scraps and leftovers from the original Cathy's Southwest quilt, which was recently completed. I added medium purple strips that are lighter than the original quilt, but still suggest a similar color scheme - an "echo" of the original.

I may start sewing the quilt blocks together tomorrow night. The blocks will be surrounded by more purple. I have quite a bit of the medium purple, but I may add a round of a dark purple. We'll see.

Easy Mug Rug Tutorial

2012-01-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

Mug Rug * (no binding necessary)

Original design

This one finished approx. 8" x 10".

Yours may finish a little larger.

*Small placemat to hold coffee mug and little plate for a pastry/donut/muffin

This was my first mug rug. It is a simple design and took me about 4 hours, start to finish. I was making it up as I went along, took lots of pictures and made lots of design notes for my blog. The next mug rug will be quicker for me, I'm sure. You may be able to make it in less time, as well.

Things you'll need (shop your stash):

2 coordinating fabrics for front and back - at least 10" x 12"

Accent fabric - strip at least 2" x 13"

Batting - at least 10" x 12"

Thread - I used red and dark brown to blend with backgrounds

Chopstick or other instrument for pushing out corners

Optional for closing the back: fabric glue, Stitch Witchery, etc.

Small piece of fabric and writing utensil for label (optional)

The dimensions given above are estimates. Keep notes for yourself as you go, recording "better" sizes for next time. Maybe you would prefer your cuts to be a little wider, a little narrower, longer, shorter, etc.

My fabric choices

Top left - Coffee cups and mugs for the front

Top right - red from stash seemed to go with the red in the theme fabric

Bottom - batik-looking fabric from stash for the back

Cut the coordinating fabrics (for the front and back) to the same size - about 10" x 12"

Take the backing fabric (the back), lay it in a "landscape" orientation and make a cut top to bottom. I deliberately cut mine off-center to avoid having to fuss over a perfectly centered back later.

With the newly cut edges together, pin the backing pieces right sides together. You need to plan to leave an area 4 or so inches wide in the center that will be left unsewn. This will create an escape hatch for turning the quilt right side out later. I use two sets of double pins to mark where to stop sewing as I near the center. Using a 1/2" seam allowance, start at one edge and sew up to the double pins, backstitching. Turn the piece and repeat on the other edge. When you finish you should have an unsewn area in the center that your hand can fit through. Press the backing open like a book, seams to one side. The extra wide seam gives you some insurance against gapping.

Escape hatch (wrong side of fabric)

As seen from the right side

The escape hatch is a technique I learned at quiltingdaily.com in a free e-book: "How to Bind a Quilt: 12 NEW Quilt Binding and Finishing Methods for Your Art Quilts." I've used the technique many times. You have to be a registered member to access the e-book, but registration is free.

Take your accent strip, fold the edges toward the back and try it out against your theme fabric. Find a width that looks good to your eye, then press on both long edges. This finishes the long edges.

Place the strip on the theme fabric in a spot that pleases your eye. I placed mine off-center. It's fine if the strip goes past the edges.

Top-stitch along each long edge of the strip. I used red thread so it would blend with the red fabric.

Trim the strip even with the quilt top.

Scotch-tape the escape hatch closed on the right side. This keeps the unsewn center from spreading while you create the quilt sandwich.

Layer your quilt sandwich: batting on bottom, theme fabric right side up, backing right side down. Your backing will be smaller than the theme fabric. Pin through all layers, all around the edge of the backing.

Sew all around the perimeter of the backing (1/4" seam allowance).

Trim the quilt sandwich even with the backing. I like to notch out the corners for turning. You may prefer to take a diagonal cut across the corner.

Next reach through the escape hatch - the unsewn area - breaking through the scotch tape. Grab a corner and turn the mug rug right side out. Use your chopstick or other instrument to push out the corners.

Here's my mug rug turned right side out.

Back of the mug rug

You may want to address the open escape hatch at this time. Use your favorite method to close it. I don't like handsewing, so I might use fabric glue or Stitch Witchery. You can also pin the hatch closed for now and deal with any needed permanent closure after quilting.

Quilting

Quilt as desired, or try my method: Attach a walking foot. With the left leg of the walking foot against the edge of the accent strip, sew from the top edge to the bottom edge. Clip threads. Go back to the top, place the edge of the left leg against the line you just sewed, and sew another line. The walking foot acts as a spacer to create parallel lines without marking. Repeat until you get near the right edge of the quilt. I prefer to leave an unquilted space that is less than two spaces wide. You may like an unquilted space that is less than one space wide. Either is okay.

Turn the quilt and repeat the quilting starting on the other edge of the accent strip.

Add an optional label on the back (honestly, I just write on the back with a permanent marker) and you're done!

Here's the finished mug rug

Here is the back

Here is the mug rug on a sheet of printer paper. The mug rug was for a gift exchange for the December meeting of the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild. The mug rug was supposed to turn out about the size of printer paper. The size is not in stone. Yours can be a size that feels good to you.

Have fun making your mug rug. Keep notes as you go. And please let me know if you make one. I'd love to see it!

Progress - 12/31/2011

2011-12-31T23:29:00.001-08:00

Echoes - Cathy's Southwest quilt is coming along. I'm more than halfway through finishing the blocks.

Here is the first row of blocks with strips attached. The purple is a little lighter than the original dark purple.

I've attached strips to four of seven rows. Three more to go!

At this point I've used up the scraps of backing from the original Cathy's Southwest. I'll have to cut into the yardage for the rest of the strips. I'll finish the last three rows tomorrow, then start assembling the quilt top.

WIP Wednesday 12/28/2011

2011-12-28T23:54:00.000-08:00

Centers of blocks for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest

I missed posting a WIP update last week. Blame it on getting ready for Christmas. In the past couple of weeks I've finished and delivered Cathy's Southwest, a mug rug, and A is for Angela. Also, I've begun working on a charity quilt that from the scraps of Cathy's Southwest, the first of a series of quilts I'm calling Echoes. The idea of Echoes is to make quilts that have similar color schemes as recently finished quilts. For the current Echoes quilt I've made a dozen scrappy units that will become the centers of blocks. There are a bunch of plain centers, as well. All of them will be surrounded by a medium purple to make a uniform background. I may attach a dark purple similar to the original quilt as an outside border. I'll start assembling the quilt top tomorrow.

Scrappy Units Finished

2011-12-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Scrappy Units for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest

Now that I've used up most of the smaller scraps from Cathy's Southwest, I'm going to call the scrappy units done. I have larger pieces of fabric left, and I may do big plain squares or multi-color four-patch for the remaining 22 centers.

Placement plan for scrappy blocks

I used a Random Teams Generator to plan the placement for the scrappy blocks, called Pieced Blocks in the chart. Person x represents the simpler center blocks. Each "team" represents a horizontal row. Once I have the rest of the centers made, I'll try the layout on the design wall, with the option to move things around a bit.

If I choose to make plain one-fabric centers, I'm thinking of using onecolor per row. I think the uniformity interrupted by scrappy blocks will bestriking. We'll see when we get there.

First Blocks for Echoes Quilt

2011-12-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

First blocks for Echoes - Cathy's Southwest

Triangles and half-square triangle units leftover from the original Cathy's Southwest quilt

Pairing up turqoise and gold triangles. They aren't necessarily the same size.

New half-square triangle, not necessarily square, but I'm not concerned.

Added scraps from the original quilt, not worrying about symmetry, then trimmed to 6.5" unfinished square.

Every unit is a little bit different, and not like anything seen in the original quilt. I need 35 units and these took a couple of hours to make. I may make a few more like these, then simplify to save time. Each will be surrounded by medium purple solid, a bit lighter than the purple seen here. (My eye likes scrappy blocks against a consistent background and vice versa.)

I'll crank out some more units today.

Echoes Quilts

2011-12-26T22:48:00.000-08:00

Echoes Quilt - Grayscale

Each quilt will echo the colors of a recently finished quilt, using scraps whenever possible.

Some time ago I announced that I would be making quilts for a local family center where mothers who are in recovery from addiction live with their children. I decided that at least some of the quilts would be similar to recently finished quilts. I am calling them Echoes.

Cathy's Southwest

I'm beginning the first quilt today, which is an echo of Cathy's Southwest. It will have a similar color scheme, and while I will try to use up scraps to capture the mood of the original quilt, I will not attempt to mimic its blocks. I designed the quilts to be quick to make, using simple blocks. I hope that the recipients of the original quilts will be happy that an echo of their quilt will be going to a good cause.

Mug Rug Details

2011-12-23T14:43:00.000-08:00

Mug Rug*

For Gift Exchange at December Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild Meeting

Original design

Approx. 8" x 10"

Partly from stash

Completed 12/16/2011

*Small placemat to hold coffee mug and little plate for a pastry/donut/muffin

Top left - Coffee cups and mugs, which could contain coffee, tea or hot chocolate

Top right - red from stash seemed to go with the red in the theme fabric

Bottom - batik-looking fabric from stash, which would hide any stains from spills

Creating an "escape hatch" with the backing fabric, leaving an unsewn space in the center for turning the quilt later. It is a technique I learned in a Quilting Arts free e-book: "How to Bind a Quilt: 12 NEW Quilt Binding and Finishing Methods for Your Art Quilts". I've used this method several times, and I go into some written detail here.

As seen from the right side

Strip made by pressing toward the back on both long edges, overlapping a bit. Leaves the edges finished.

Placed the strip on the theme fabric off-center for style

Top-stitched along the long edges of the strip

Trimmed the strip even with the theme fabric

Scotch-taped the escape hatch closed on the right side.

Quilt sandwich: batting on bottom, theme fabric right side up, backing right side down.

Sewed all around the perimeter of the backing (1/4" seam allowance)

Quilt sandwich trimmed, corners notched out for turning

Reached through escape hatch, breaking through the tape, turned the quilt right side out. Used a chopstick to push out the corners.

Back of the mug rug

Quilting

Used the left leg of the walking foot as a spacer to make (relatively) parallel quilting lines.

Stopped just short of each edge of the mug rug to avoid unquilted spaces that were smaller than the width between lines...something I picked up from Cotton Theory Quilting techniques.

Here's the finished mug rug

Here is the back

The mug rug was supposed to be about the size of a sheet of printer paper. Here it is on a sheet. Pretty close!

Guild member Pam ended up with the mug rug. I hope she enjoys using it as much as I enjoyed making it.

A is for Angela Quilt Finished and Delivered

2011-12-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

A is for Angela

For young daughter of co-worker Margarita A.

Animal/Alphabet print provided by Margarita

Original design

54" square

Completed on 12/21/2011

A is for Angela - Close-up

I finished A is for Angela late Wednesday night, in time to deliver to co-worker Margarita on Thursday so she could give the quilt to Angela for Christmas. (In my office, most of us work 10 hour days Monday through Thursday.) I started sewing the quilt last Saturday night, completing the quilt in less than a week.

Margarita provided the animal/alphabet print, and asked that I bring out the pink in the print. I chose simple checkerboard blocks, mostly because I used a double four-patch for Angela's brother's baby quilt that I made years ago. I chose 8" finished checkerboards because the 2" squares look dainty, and the alternating 8" plain squares would show off the theme print without chopping it up too much.

I chose a medium pink solid and found a nice pale pink with little dots that I thought was girly. For the narrow border I considered a red like the alphabets in the print, but I went with a burgundy found in the dotted fabric.

My original idea was to use the pink as the wide outer border, but after the main part of the quilt top was done, the theme blocks seemed to disappear. I auditioned the theme print as the border and decided to go with it and I'm glad I did. The theme blocks don't look thrown in, the checkerboards don't outshine the print, and the whole design seems cohesive.

Back of A is for Angela

I don't usually do anything fancy for the backs of quilts. I generally choose a solid color that coordinates with the quilt top, admittedly because solids are inexpensive. In this case there was plenty of theme print, so I used it for the back. There wasn't quite enough to cover, so I added some of the medium pink solid. It works, and gave me a clear space to write a little label, which would have been difficult in the busy print. (I write on the actual fabric backing rather than attach a separate label.)

Margarita was very happy with the quilt, and I hope Angela enjoys snuggling up with it for many years to come.

Design notes

A is for Angela Quilt Top Finished

2011-12-21T01:56:00.000-08:00

A is for Angela quilt top

Tonight I sewed together the quilt top for A is for Angela. Originally I was going to do an outer border in solid pink. But after the main part of the top was together, the animal/alphabet theme print seemed to get lost among the checkerboards. I auditioned the theme print for the border, liked it better than the pink, and went for it. I'm really glad I made that decision, because the outer border helps to bring out the "lost" squares now.

I've got a lot of work to do tomorrow night to get it finished and delivered to Margarita on Thursday. My goal has been to give it to her in time for Christmas. It will be a long night, but I'm pretty tough.

We have a winner!

2011-12-18T16:11:00.000-08:00

Congratulations, beaquilter! You are the winner* of the Moda Little Apples charm pack. I'll email you to get your snail mail address.

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog and left wonderful comments. I am also grateful for so many new followers.

* #76 of 239 entries, using a random number generator

100th Follower!

2011-12-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

Congratulations, Nancy Sue, for becoming my 100th Follower! Your prize is 3 extra chances to win the Little Apples charm pack! Thanks for following!

Began Sewing A is for Angela

2011-12-17T01:27:00.000-08:00

A is for Angela - Electric Quilt Sketch

Theme fabric on the left; accompanying fabrics on right

Tonight I started sewing A is for Angela, a quilt for Angela, the young daughter of co-worker Margarita A., who provided an animal and alphabet theme print. Margarita asked me to bring out the pink in the print, and I found a medium pink solid, a pale pink dot, and a burgundy similar to the one in the dot fabric. To show off the theme fabric and to avoid chopping up the larger areas, I chose a 16-patch checkerboard using the medium and pale pinks. The checkerboards will be alternated with large squares of the theme fabric. Burgundy will be used for a narrow inner border, then the medium pink will be used again for a wide outer border.

Strip piecing for the checkerboard. The strip set is actually twice the length shown. I folded it in half to avoid a very tall, narrow photo.

I cross-cut the strip set. Here are four of the 15 cross-cut units.

I flipped every other unit.

Here is the checkerboard sewn together. Twelve more of these need to be sewn, but they go together quickly.

My goal is to finish the quilt right away and deliver to Margarita in time for Christmas. I should be able to pull it off.

Design notes

Mug Rug Finished

2011-12-16T21:28:00.000-08:00

Tonight I made a mug rug - a small placemat just big enough for a coffee cup and a small plate for a donut/pastry/muffin. I did a simple design which helped me get the mug rug done in just a few hours.

The mug rug was an assignment for a gift exchange at tomorrow's Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting. I'm not going into detail about the fabric or design and I'm not posting pictures yet, as several guild members are followers of my blog. I'll get photos up by the end of the weekend.

WIP Wednesday 12/14/2011

2011-12-15T00:31:00.000-08:00

Cathy's Southwest

This week I finished Cathy's Southwest, a quilt for my friend and co-worker Cathy C. The quilt was inspired by a Southwest-themed shirt she wore to work several years ago. I began sewing the quilt a couple of years ago, set it aside, then picked it up again in early November. I'm glad it's finished. I will take the quilt with me to Saturday's Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting, and then give the quilt to Cathy next week.

My next project is a quilt for a little girl named Angela, the daughter of co-worker Margarita. Years ago I made a baby quilt for Angela's older brother Marcos, who was a newborn at the time. Margarita would like a quilt for Angela now. She offered to pay me, but since Marcos' quilt was a gift, Angela's quilt will be a gift, too. Margarita provided a theme fabric that has zoo animals and alphabets. I'm going to make some 16-patch checkerboard blocks and alternate with large pieces of the theme fabric. I expect the quilt to go pretty quickly, and it's my goal to give the quilt to Margarita next week in time for Christmas. I started ironing fabric and even cut some strips tonight. I'll post pictures of the fabrics and an Electric Quilt sketch within the next couple of days.

Also, I need to make a quick mug rug for a gift exchange at the guild meeting on Saturday. A mug rug basically is a small placemat, just large enough for a coffee mug and a little plate to hold a pastry, donut, muffin, etc. I bought a fat quarter for the project, and I plan to do a very simple design...trying to Modern it up a little. Don't expect to see any pictures of the mug rug until after the meeting, especially since a few guild members are followers of my blog.

Cathy's Southwest Finished!

2011-12-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

Cathy's Southwest

For friend and co-worker Cathy C.

59" square

New Mexico and Santa Fe Trail quilt blocks

Original design

Completed 12/12/2011

Above: Cathy's shirt that inspired the quilt

Last night I finished Cathy's Southwest quilt for friend and co-worker Cathy C. The quilt was inspired by a Southwest-themed shirt that Cathy wore many years ago (I'm guessing 5-6 years). I told her back then that it would make a great quilt. A couple of years ago I began working on the quilt during one of my quilting retreats by the sea. Then I set aside until my most recent retreat during early November. I usually work start-to-finish, but this was one of my few UFOs (UnFinished Objects).

I chose Southwest-themed blocks for the quilt: New Mexico and Santa Fe Trail, and added a lot of Diamond in the Square units to fill some of the empty spaces.

Purple fabric - last width-of-fabric piece

Only 1/4" - 1" wide!

Near the end of the quilt, I became nervous that I would run out of the purple fabric. All of the fabrics dated back to 2009 or earlier, and I figured I wouldn't be able to find the exact color. I did a lot of calculating, careful cutting and holding of my breath. After the final width-of-fabric cut, there was a WOF sliver - a mere 1/4" - 1" wide. Talk about cutting (literally) it close!

I want to show the quilt at Saturday's Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting. So I'm going to wait until next week to give the quilt to Cathy, who has known about the quilt along, but who I hope has no idea that the quilt is for her. She is my Facebook friend, and I even blocked her temporarily so she couldn't see what I was doing as I posted my progress. I'm hoping she'll be surprised.

Design notes

Blog Hop Party and Giveaway

2011-12-09T10:58:00.001-08:00

Welcome to my blog! I'm an avid quilter and I'm excited to participate in QuiltingGallery.com's Blog Hop Party. For my giveaway I'm offering a charm pack of 42 2.5" squares of Moda Little Apples by Aneela Hoey for Moda.

There are 42 2.5" squares in this charm pack

Here you can get the flavor of the charm pack.

Just leave a comment on this or any other post on my blog between now and December 17, 2011 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time for a chance to win these delightful charms. Leave as many comments as you like. Just keep them positive and clean, please. Bonus: let me know that you're an existing or a new follower for an extra entry.

I post about my quilts as they progress and I write about my travels here. I hope you'll enjoy reading about my adventures. Thanks for visiting and I hope you come back soon.

WIP Wednesday 12/7/2011

2011-12-08T01:28:00.001-08:00

Tonight I got the borders sewn onto Cathy's Southwest. The quilt top is done! I should have the quilt completely done this weekend. Woo-hoo!

Main part of Cathy's Southwest quilt top done

2011-12-07T19:53:00.001-08:00

Last night I got the main part of Cathy's Southwest quilt top sewn together. Tonight I'll attach a narrow black border and then a wider border in purple. I can't wait to see the top finished!

Cathy's Southwest quilt top almost done

2011-12-06T19:53:00.001-08:00

The main part of Cathy's Southwest quilt top is in 9 large pieces. After sewing these pieces together, I'll add a narrow border of black and then a larger border of the purple. Woo-hoo! The top is almost done!

Beginning to sew quilt top for Cathy's Southwest

2011-12-03T18:28:00.001-08:00

Pieced units for Cathy's Southwest

Most of the empty spaces will be purple fabric.

I laid out the pieced units for Cathy’s Southwest on the design wall tonight. It turns out I’m short four turquoise/purple half square triangle units, which I’ll have to re-make. I’m hesitating a bit because I’m afraid of running out of purple fabric, from which I also need to cut a few squares, rectangles and borders. I think I’ll just make it.

I’m hoping to get most of the quilt top sewn together tonight.

See more progress on: make Cathy's Southwest quilts

WIP Wednesday 11/30/2011

2011-12-03T18:10:00.001-08:00

I’m posting this a few days late, but I was sick this week and forgot. Oh, well…

Earlier this week I got all of the units for Cathy’s Southwest trimmed and the paper removed. There are purple squares and rectangles that need to be cut, but I’m afraid of running out of the fabric, so I’m going to wait a bit before I make any more cuts. I’m so glad the units are all done and ready to go.

See more progress on: post WIP Wednesday lists

Pieced units sewn for Cathy's Southwest quilt

2011-11-26T23:32:00.001-08:00

Sampling of pieced units for Cathy's Southwest quilt

At last, I finished sewing the pieced units for Cathy’s Southwest quilt. I’m so happy! The rest of the quilt is made up of rectangles and squares in plain, unpieced fabric.

I still have a lot of trimming and removing of paper to do on a few dozen paper pieced units. The picture shows a sampling of each of the pieced units (trimmed up), laid out roughly as a quadrant of the quilt. The purple/gold nine-patch actually goes in the far corners of the quilt. It seemed kind of silly to leave it hanging out there by itself like the former planet Pluto.

This quilt has been years in the making, and I got so excited trimming up and removing paper from the first few units. It was an adrenaline rush!

Tonight I’ll work on trimming and removing the paper on the rest of the units. Tomorrow I’ll cut the squares, lay out the units on the design wall and begin piecing the quilt top together.

I’ve been nervous about not having enough of the purple, but I think I’ll be okay. I bought the fabric years ago, and I doubt I can find exactly the same color, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will all work out.

See more progress on: make Cathy's Southwest quilts

WIP Wednesday 11/23/2011

2011-11-23T23:22:00.000-08:00

Exquisite Jewels

53" square

Exquisite blocks

Original design

Mostly from stash

Completed 11/23/2011

Donated to BASICS

I finished Exquisite Jewels today and sent it on its way to BASICS, a non-profit organization in the Bronx, NYC that helps homeless families get out of shelters and back into transitional housing. I hope whoever gets the quilt will enjoy it.

Economy block, nine-patch block, half square triangle

I’m close to finishing the piecing for Cathy’s Southwest. I finished the Economy blocks and made turquoise/black nine-patch blocks. I sewed some half-square triangles, but they are too small so I’ll have to re-do them. Also to be made are purple/gold nine-patches and a few Rail Fence units.

I hope to start putting the units together in the next day or two.

See more progress on: post WIP Wednesday lists

Exquisite Jewels quilt getting finished

2011-11-18T14:14:00.001-08:00

Exquisite Jewels

Exquisite quilt blocks in jewel tones

Recently I learned about a quilt drive for BASICS, a non-profit organization in the Bronx, NYC that helps homeless families get out of shelters and back into transitional housing. I wanted to help and I remembered a quilt top that I had made at least 6 years ago, one of my few UFOs. I had always meant for the quilt to be for charity. The hope of the quilt drive was to have 700 quilts by Thanksgiving. I'm probably not going to get the quilt there by then, but they'll take quilts anytime.

This is as far as I got 6+ years ago.

Electric Quilt Sketch

I found several quilt sketches in Electric Quilt 5 (the current version is EQ7). I'm not sure how I came up with the layout, but I'm guessing it was some sort of randomness exercise. Evidently I used my Organized Chaos system for the Exquisite blocks. The Exquisite blocks were constructed in the Liberated Quiltmaking style. There were two very similar yellows for the backgrounds, represented by yellow and orange in the sketch. I don't remember how I decided which went where, but that also could have been a randomness exercise.

Most likely I'll get the quilt finished and in the mail early next week. I don't want to be at the Post Office after Thanksgiving.

WIP Wednesday 11/16/2011

2011-11-16T21:11:00.001-08:00

Economy block units in progress. All will look like the one on the far right.

This past week I’ve been working on Economy block, a fancy Diamond in a Square. There are 16 of these units in the design and they are in various states of doneness. About half are sewn through the second round. Most of the rest have just the center square in position, ready for paper piecing. I finished one unit as an example of what the rest will look like.

I’ll be glad when these units are done, as the rest of the quilt top should go pretty quickly. I’m not feeling well today so I don’t think I’ll do much sewing tonight. But I believe I’m still on target to finish the quilt by the end of the month.

See more progress on: make Cathy's Southwest quilts

Pacifica Quilting Retreat 2011, Day 3

2011-11-11T23:29:00.001-08:00

Pacifica, CA

Saturday, the last day of my quilting retreat by the sea. I figured I could sew for a little bit before I had to pack up. I wanted to try to get the fourth strip sewn onto the wonky squares that I had worked on Friday night. I couldn't get the bedside light to turn on and my sewing machine didn't work. Both of them were plugged into an extension cord. Try as I might, I couldn't get anything electrical to work. I remembered that during the night I heard something drop from behind my bed, like a plug, then a green light stopped shining on the ceiling. (Later I figured out the green light was from my cell phone charger.) It seemed like a fuse had blown, as I couldn't get my iron to turn on in a different plug, either. Crud!

Unable to do any sewing, by now it was less than an hour till checkout, so I packed up. Just before I closed the door to the room for the last time, I went back to double-check that I hadn't left anything behind. Looked pretty empty. Then I saw two sets of plastic drawers full of scraps that I had set on top of the TV stand/dresser. I gasped, loaded the scrap drawers into the car, then checked out. I told the motel manager about the power being out. I assume he got the power on again.

With the car all packed, I walked to my favorite bench for one last session of enjoying the waves.

I passed this car on the way to the beach. The design of the license plate frame might find its way into a quilt sometime.

Little black bird

Just as I was getting in the car to leave Pacifica a few of these little birds landed near my car. I grabbed my phone to get some photos. If you read my entry about Day 2 of this trip, you'll know I've been obsessed with these little birds for years. Well, it turns out that the sheen that I for so long thought was red, is actually green!

I am a big Food Network fan, and when I can, I visit restaurants that are mentioned on Food Network. I found out recently that there was a Sprinkles cupcake store in Palo Alto. Sprinkles stores are owned by Cupcake Wars judge Candace Nelson. Palo Alto is about 30 miles from Pacifica, so I figured while I was close, I'd might as well go.

As I was driving to Palo Alto, I passed a sign for Filoli Gardens, which was recommended by friend and co-worker Debbie S. I made a mental note to visit sometime, then go to Half Moon Bay for the ocean.

I got to Palo Alto, found Sprinkles, but decided to have lunch and then come back. I used my phone's GPS to find a Joann's store, then drove around the area looking for a place to eat.

Milk Pail Market, a European style open air market, down the street from Joann's.

I didn't actually go in, but it looked interesting. My friend Ramin T. would probably enjoy this place.

Esther's German Bakery, not far from Joann's. As it turns out, my friend Ramin has been here.

Pearl Tea and Coffee

My daughter Lisa is into Bubble Tea. This place reminds me of a restaurant near her home in Washington State, where Lisa and I had a Bubble Tea when I visited earlier this year.

Sushi 85 where I had a Dragon Roll for lunch

Cover of my restaurant bill. I think it's beautiful and is an idea for a quilt.

Restaurant bathroom. I like the pattern of the wall tiles. It's quite simple but interesting. Quilt idea.

After lunch I went to Joann's in the same shopping center as the sushi place. I like the texture and color of these shells. I may have to get a bag and do something with them sometime.

Glass Slipper Inn

How Disney is this motel? I passed it on the way to find Joann's and made a mental note to try to find it again later. I remembered the name and used my phone's GPS to find it on the way back to Sprinkles. I parked at the Comfort Inn next door, then walked half a block to the intersection, crossed a very wide street and walked half a block back up the street to get this shot. A little hassle but worth it.

I saw this bamboo on the walk back from taking the photo of the Glass Slipper Inn. Quilt idea.

Sprinkles cupcake store in Palo Alto

Oooh...cupcakes

It's quite a popular place.

Back wall of the store. How cute!

Pull up a chair and enjoy your cupcake.

Here's the assortment I bought and took home. Top left: red velvet; top right: salted caramel; bottom left: milk chocolate. I kept the salted caramel for myself, which I shared with my granddaughter who came over to spend the night after I got home. I gave the other two to my son and daughter-in-law who split them between each other. Man, were those cupcakes good!

After I bought my cupcakes I headed home. I got rain again on the way back, but I was kind of grateful for it as I needed the salt washed off my windows. I had a great time during my quilting retreat in Pacifica. I'll be back again in a year.

Pacifica Quilting Retreat 2011, Day 2

2011-11-11T19:35:00.001-08:00

Beautiful day - hardly a cloud in the sky

I woke up on Friday, Day 2 of my retreat, to a gorgeous day. The sun was brilliantly shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. What a wonderful surprise after yesterday's cloudy, rainy day.

I got dressed and walked to the coffee place a couple of blocks away, where I bought a slice of lemon cake, a slice of red velvet cake for later, and a cafe mocha. I walked to the beach to enjoy my breakfast. The benches where I usually sit were still wet, but I found a fairly dry place on the ledge of a sculpture not far from my favorite sitting spot.

Little black bird, hoping to get some crumbs from my breakfast.

These two brave birds came very close.

After I had enjoyed my lemon cake, some little birds gathered, probably looking for crumbs from my breakfast. I couldn't believe my luck. On one of my early quilting retreats I had seen a black bird sitting on a post in the morning sun, with the most beautiful sheen on his chest. I had scrambled for my camera, but the bird flew away before I could take a photo. Since then I have been trying to get a picture of one of these birds but have never gotten a close-up.

I believed that the sheen was red, and after that first sighting I asked my birding sister Cass what kind of bird it might be, based on my description. She said she didn't know of any bird with a red sheen, but suggested it might be a red-winged blackbird. I didn't remember a red shoulder like I saw in internet images, but I took Cass' word for it. I have even planned to do a quilt called Red-Winged Blackbird with black background and little squares in bright red. This little bird has been an obsession, so I was extremely happy to finally get close to these birds and take some good photos.

The next few photos were taken while I killed some time waiting for my room to be cleaned.

This is the "cove" view offered by the motel - still beautiful.

Far side of the parking lot. Notice the rocks behind the fence.

Looking over the rocks, maybe 10 feet down. At high tide the water can crash over the top of the rocks and onto the parking lot. It's quite a show.

Back in my room, I picked up where I left off in the book Quilters Playtime by Dianne S. Hire. The exercise I worked on for the morning was called Piano Keys.

View from my sewing machine

Accessory bag from my luggage set. I put little sewing tools in here for traveling.

Fabrics for Piano Keys exercise. The off-white fabric actually has tiny notes. Great for me, since I play the piano. Black fabric is leftover from Baby Q quilt.

Fabrics stacked right sides up, cut wedges.

About half the wedges laid out

All of the wedges laid out. I like the gentle curves.

First few wedges sewn together

Half of the wedges sewn together. They came out more pie shaped than planned. Next time I'll try cutting the bottoms wider and/or cutting fewer wedges from each width of fabric.

Ready to sew the other half of the wedges. I use the small ruler to keep the wedges from blowing away in the breeze from the nearby window.

Two sets of wedges done

The finished run of wedges

Camelot Fish and Chips in Pacifica

Inside Camelot Fish and Chips

Nice British atmosphere here. I had fish and chips, which were pretty good.

After lunch, back to the beach. The bench is "my favorite bench." I come out here often to enjoy the waves, even at night! A nearby restaurant shines a bright light on the ocean so the customers can enjoy the view at night.

Beautiful view from my bench

You can just see two brave hikers on the hill. You won't find me up there. I can see just fine, thank you.

In the afternoon I began working on Pick Up Sticks from Quilters Playtime. According to the instructions, I was supposed to use graph paper, which I did not have. A substitute could be regular printer paper. I had a little, but I make my design notes on it and didn't want to give it up. I thought of using pages from a telephone book, but it would be naughty of me to tear pages from the motel phone book. Next I thought of getting a newspaper from the motel manager, but he wasn't around. Back in my room, I found a Michael's ad in a bag. That will work!

Michael's ad

Sunset as seen just outside my room. I was so focused on sewing that I almost missed it. I caught the last couple of minutes.

Ad torn along the long edge to create two long, narrow pieces

I chose a navy background and this piece would barely cover the paper. So I trimmed a little off the long edge of the paper, which worked fine.

I gathered some orange, red and turquoise fabrics

Narrow strips in various sizes and colors

Navy fabric for background

Background cut in wedges

Strips inserted between wedges

All of the fabrics need to cover the paper

First strip placed on the paper

As seen from the back

Sewing the first couple of strips. My sewing machine is very small and I had to roll the far edge of paper and pin it in place.

First strips sewn

Almost to the end of the paper

Trying out the last "stick." There won't be much left for the final background wedge and I don't want it to be a sliver.

Trimmed the next-to-last background wedge

There's a little more of the paper showing now.

Stick sewn on

Finished run of Pick Up Sticks

As seen from the back

By now it was time for dinner. I headed to Gorilla Barbecue, as seen on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives for a rib plate. Since I learned about Gorilla, I've gotten a meal there on every visit.

I took this picture when I picked up my food long after dark. I got there just before they closed.

This is how it looks by day. Check out the line. That's because the food is great!

After dinner I started working on a different book: Thinking Outside the Block by Sandi Cummings and Karen Flamme. This was my first venture in the book. I chose to work on the exercise called Freeform Units with Inserted Strips.

Cherries fabric leftover from a dress I made for my granddaughter Reghan.

Two strips sewn to wonky square

Strips trimmed even with edges

Third strip attached

By the time I got the third strips sewn to the wonky squares, it was very late and I was ready to call it a night. I figured I would have some time in the morning to sew on the fourth strips. I watched some TV, read more of my new book Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein, then fell asleep to the sound of the sea.

Pacifica Quilting Retreat 2011, Day 1

2011-11-11T18:51:00.001-08:00

Pacifica, California

Just a few miles south of San Francisco

Last weekend I drove a couple of hours to oceanside Pacifica, just down the coast from San Francisco, for my annual quilting retreat by the sea. I packed up a bunch of fabric, tools, and my tiny toaster-sized Janome Sew Mini sewing machine to sew for three days.

On the way I hit some unexpected rain (I don't pay attention to the weather forecast), but the rain was gone by the time I got to Pacifica.

View from my room

Another view from my room

The other side of rocks. At high tide the waves can crash over the rocks onto the parking lot, and yes, onto the cars.

I stayed in the same ocean-front motel that I've been to many times before. The manager knows me as the quilting lady. The motel is very small, maybe 20 rooms. Despite some recent remodeling, it's still kind of run-down. But the view is incredible, and at $99 per night, the room is more affordable than at the nicer motel across the way, where rooms without an ocean view start at $30 more per night. I'd rather spend the extra money on little extras like food.

The ocean is just across the small parking lot and by opening the window a crack you can hear the crashing waves. While I sew I leave the TV off and enjoy the music of the sea.

Sunset - Thursday night

On the first night, there wasn't much of a sunset, thanks to a mostly cloudy sky. But I did enjoy getting a peek. After the sun went down I ordered a pizza to go and shopped for snacks while my pizza was being made.

I worked on the purple/turquoise blocks on Thursday night.

After dinner I got to work on quilting. I brought along the makings of Cathy's Southwest quilt. Before the trip I was working on paper-pieced Diamond in the Square blocks, and had planned to finish the red/gold ones first thing during the retreat. But I discovered that I had left the red fabric at home, so I went ahead and worked on some purple/turquoise ones.

Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein

I'm looking forward to experimenting with surface design.

After I sewed for a couple of hours I watched TV, began reading my newly-arrived book Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein, then fell asleep listening to the ocean.

WIP Wednesday 11/9/2011

2011-11-09T22:44:00.001-08:00

I went on a personal quilting retreat by the ocean last week. While I was away I worked blocks for Cathy’s Southwest, my current quilt. Last night I finished the red/gold Diamond in a Square blocks and tonight I finished the purple/turquoise ones, a total of 32 blocks.

Also tonight I began working on Economy Patch blocks, a fancier version of Diamond in a Square. I should have those 16 blocks finished this weekend.

See more progress on: post WIP Wednesday lists

Made some progress on Cathy's Southwest quilt

2011-11-09T12:15:00.001-08:00

While I was away on my seaside quilting retreat this past weekend I worked on some Diamond in the Square blocks. Unfortunately I had left the red fabric at home so I couldn’t finish the red/gold blocks, but I was able to work on some purple/turquoise blocks.

Last night I finished up the red/gold blocks, and will finish the purple/turquoise ones tonight. Next will be some Economy Patch, similar to Diamond in the Square but with an added square in the center.

See more progress on: make Cathy's Southwest quilts

Pacifica Quilting Retreat- Friday check-in

2011-11-04T11:22:00.001-07:00

Having a great time here in Pacifica, CA, just south of San Francisco. I hit a bit of rain on the way here yesterday but it was gone by the time I arrived. Last night I worked on some Diamond in the Square blocks for Cathy's Southwest. Gorgeous weather today, very few clouds. Today will continue working through the quilting book Quilters Playtime, as well as begin working in the book Thinking Outside the Block. Both more artsy technique books, which I enjoy while on retreat. I brought a lot of stash with me, along with tools and equipment. My tiny Janome Sew Mini sewing machine is slow but gets the job done. I'm excited to be by my beloved ocean, and I'm looking forward to learning new things while I'm here. Note: this is my first time posting from my phone. I hope it turns out alright.

Quilting Retreat by the Sea

2011-11-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

Pacifica, CA

View from my favorite bench by the beach

Today I'm headed to beautiful seaside Pacifica, just south of San Francisco, for my fourth annual quilting-by-the-sea retreat. I'll be working on Cathy's Southwest quilt, as well as learning new techniques from a couple of artsy quilting books. I have an ocean view and I can hear the waves crash as I sew. Love it. I'll be back in a few days.

WIP Wednesday 11/2/2011

2011-11-02T23:36:00.001-07:00

Sampling of components from Cathy's Southwest

I finished Wavy Irish Chain on Monday. It turned out great, and I’m glad I decided to make the edges wavy. Straight edges would not have been as interesting. The quilt finished a bit bigger than I planned. It’s too wide for the space that I usually display my wallhangings, but I’ll find a spot.

I began working again on Cathy’s Southwest, a quilt for co-worker Cathy C., whose Southwest-themed shirt provided the inspiration. I haven’t touched the project for a couple of years, but I want to get the quilt done this month. Cathy knows I’m making a quilt, but she doesn’t know it’s for her. It’s been so long since I told her about the quilt, she may think I’ve abandoned it. And that’s fine, because I want the quilt to be a surprise.

In a side note, tomorrow I’m off to seaside Pacifica, CA just south of San Francisco for my third annual quilting-by-the-sea retreat. I have an ocean-view room, where I sew for three days. I look forward to it every year.

During my trip I’ll work on Cathy’s quilt, but I also enjoy working through artsy quilting books and teaching myself new techniques. In the past I’ve worked through Quilter’s Playtime, and I’ll probably continue in that since there are techniques I haven’t done yet. In addition I may start working through Think Outside the Block, a book I’ve had for years.

I’m planning to have lots of fun!

See more progress on: post WIP Wednesday lists

How to make Irish Chain quilt

2011-11-02T17:16:00.001-07:00

Wavy Irish Chain - Quilty Beach, Ireland

30" x 39"

Original Design

All curved seams on quilt top

Completed 10/31/2011

"I loved all the wavy lines. They're fun!"

How I did it: Not long ago I learned about Fast Friday Fabric Challenge, where quilters have a short time to create a quilt based on a given subject. The subject in the first challenge I saw was Celtic Quilts. For a while I'd been toying with the idea of curved lines, and I'd been wanting to make a St. Patrick's Day wallhanging. So I decided to go for it. Although membership is closed, there was no reason why I couldn't participate in my own way.

I chose nine-patch blocks, also known as Irish Chain, which fit the theme for St. Patrick's Day. The colors pink and green had been calling me lately, so that became my color scheme. I like to use stash and scraps for my wallhangings, and I chose a starfish-looking fabric leftover from a quilt I made for my granddaughter Reghan. Many of the scraps were leftovers from her sister Piper's quilts. So there's a lot of sentimental value in the fabrics.

For the curved seams I wanted to do a technique that I learned from Ricky Tims' Caveman Quilting. I reviewed the DVD to brush up. Basically you layer two fabrics right sides up, then cut a gently curved line through the layers with a rotary cutter. Then sew the pieces together with very narrow seam allowances. There's no real pattern, just winging it.

Using the technique I made a bunch of nine patch blocks in many sizes and shapes. I used the starfish fabric between the blocks, layering, cutting wavy lines and sewing together. When I had the rows sewn together, I layered two rows and cut wavy lines all the way across, then sewed those together.

When the top was all sewn together, I attached a border, also with the wavy lines. To top it all off I went for the gold and did wavy edges on the borders. There is not a single straight line on the quilt top!

Just inside the vertical edges of the starfish I did straight stitching.

On the seams between the rows I did a fancy stitch, #178 on my Bernina 440QE, which is a curve with little loops. I used my walking foot and kept the seam right in the center of the foot. I love the little loops. They're so fun.

Shamrock fabric leftover from the Frog quilt

I used shamrock fabric leftover from the recently finished Frog quilt. The shamrocks further enhanced the Irish theme. I did a pillowcase finish, turned the quilt right side out and did some machine quilting.

The wallhanging looks great. It's a little bigger than the space I usually hang my small quilts, but I'll find a spot for it.

By the way, with the starfish fabric so predominant in the quilt, I wondered if there was a beach in Ireland that I could name the quilt for. To my absolute amazement I found out there is a place called Quilty Beach in Ireland! So the name of the quilt is Wavy Irish Chain - Quilty Beach, Ireland.

Lessons & tips: Try new methods and techniques. If you're afraid of failing, keep the project low-cost using things on hand, and make it for yourself. That should take away some of the fear. If it's a disaster, you can give it away. You'll learn great lessons and better ways for next time.

Resources: Fast Friday Fabric Challenge - Celtic Quilts
Quilting Caveman Style DVD by Ricky Tims

It took me 3 months.

It made me Very happy

See more progress on: make Irish Chain quilt

Picking up again on Cathy's Southwest quilt

2011-11-02T16:06:00.001-07:00

Cathy's Southwest

Blocks: New Mexico and Santa Fe Trail

Original design

Cathy's shirt that provided inspiration

Cathy’s Southwest has been in hibernation for a couple of years. The quilt is based on a Southwest-themed shirt that co-worker Cathy C. wore years ago. I told her it would make a great quilt. The quilt still isn’t made. By the way, the quilt is for her, but she doesn't know it.

Initially I tried to use some of the shapes from the shirt, but that fizzled out. Instead, I chose blocks with Southwest themes – New Mexico and Santa Fe Trail – and created a design using the colors from the shirt.

Sampling of the blocks I've made so far

Last night I opened the grocery bag containing the quilt in progress to see where I was. I’m farther along than I realized. Already I’ve made a bunch of Diamond in a Square paper-pieced blocks and a few nine patch blocks. That’s encouraging, as I’d like to finish the quilt this month.

Cathy happens to be a Facebook friend, and I blocked her temporarily so she can’t see any of my Facebook postings about her quilt. It also helps that she is on a long cruise out of the country and probably won’t have internet access while she is away. So I’ve got to get moving while I have the chance.

Last night I worked on more Diamond in a Square paper-pieced blocks and I’ll probably do some more tonight. I may take some along with me on my quilting retreat which starts tomorrow.

Design notes

See more progress on: make Cathy's Southwest quilts

How to give Kiva loans

2011-11-02T15:36:00.001-07:00

"I feel good about helping people around the world to make better lives for themselves, their families and their communities."

How I did it: Since early January I have made 11 Kiva loans of $25 to various people around the world. I actually used only $100 out of pocket. As repayments came in, I would re-lend the money. I plan to continue indefinitely but I'm going to call it done as far as one of my 43things.

Lessons & tips: Read how Kiva lending works. You receive no interest, only principal. There is a chance that the borrower will not pay back or will get behind in payments, but to date I have had no problem.

I make a $25 loan once a month. I need that discipline so I don't go overboard. I select half a dozen candidates, compare their criteria, then make my choice of the one individual I will lend to at that time.

My criteria: short term (6-7 months); prefer individual versus group; money will be used to build a business - in which the borrower has previous experience and success; lending partner (bank) has positive Profitability (Return on Assets); helpful if borrower is in top 5 pages for Popularity and Amount Left.

I also listen to my gut. You can't judge a book by its cover, but I listen to the vibe coming from the borrower's photo. That's not to say I haven't lent to someone who frowns. I let my intuition have a say.

Resources: Kiva.org

Excel - I created a spreadsheet where I enter data about the criteria that I spelled out in Lessons and Tips. I sort the data to see who is most qualified.

It took me 10 months.

It made me Happy

See more progress on: Give Kiva loans

Nearly finished with Wavy Irish Chain

2011-10-31T12:18:00.001-07:00

Quilt top turned right side out, top-stitched border

Close-up of stitching on border

Backing up a little...

Quilt top spray basted to batting

Trimmed batting even with edge of quilt top

Shamrock backing on bottom, stitched around perimeter.

Close-up of stitching (backing trimmed away)

Quilt turned right side out through this space which I left unsewn during piecing of backing. This "escape hatch" allows the quilt to be turned right side out. Have used technique many times in wallhangings.

Need to close the escape hatch. Using fusible thread - first time. Feels like dental floss.

Fusible thread sewn to one edge of escape hatch. Ironed to keep closed. Didn't stay shut in all places, so used Okay to Wash It glue, let dry overnight. Had problem in past where gap came open during quilting, trying to prevent similar problem.

Last night I turned the quilt right side out, top-stitched around the perimeter, then close to the inside edge of the border. I love the wavy border.

Tonight I’ll do more quilting. It won’t be too elaborate. I’m planning to quilt just inside the wavy vertical edges of the “plain” blocks, then quilt over the wavy horizontal seams. I haven’t chosen the stitch yet, but I’m probably going to use a light pink thread since the background of the plain blocks is light pink.

I hope to have the quilting done tonight.

Design notes

See more progress on: make Irish Chain quilt

WIP Wednesday 10/26/2011

2011-10-27T01:06:00.001-07:00

Wavy Irish Chain in progress

This week I finished and delivered the Frog Quilt to co-worker Sara T. She loved it. She has left the office to be a stay-at-home mom and I’m sure she and her two young kids will be snuggling up in it often.

I worked on Wavy Irish Chain this week, after it sat idle for a long time. I attached a border in dark green with black dots. The inside and outside edges are wavy. There is not a single straight seam in the entire quilt top. By the end of the weekend I should have the wallhanging finished.

See more progress on: post WIP Wednesday lists

Wavy edges cut on border, quilt back pieced together

2011-10-27T01:00:00.001-07:00

Tonight I cut wavy edges on the border of Wavy Irish Chain. Now all of the quilt top seams are curved, not a straight seam anywhere.

Trying to find out if there's enough shamrock to cover. Lower piece is a double layer.

Back pieced together. Just covers.

I took leftover shamrock fabric from the Frog Quilt and pieced together the back for the quilt. It just barely covers the quilt top and I may add a narrow strip to the bottom just for safety.

I’m still working on how to hang the quilt. Usually I put triangles in the corners and slip a yardstick-like piece of wood across the top and bottom. With the edges so curved, I’ve been concerned about how to keep the wood from showing from behind the lowest curves.

Right now I’m thinking I’ll go ahead and use extra big corners and stitch an inch or so from the top of the triangle so the ruler rests well below the lowest curves of the quilt. It works in my head. We’ll see how it goes in real life later.

Tomorrow I may get the quilt sandwich made and begin quilting. Normally I don’t sew on Thursday night as I get home late and I’m very tired. But tomorrow I’ll be getting home earlier than usual, so I just might sew after all.

Design notes

See more progress on: make Irish Chain quilt

Border attached to Wavy Irish Chain wallhanging

2011-10-26T01:04:00.001-07:00

Tonight I attached a border to the Wavy Irish Chain wallhanging. I chose a dark green with black dots for the border. I like it a lot. The fabric doesn’t appear anywhere else in the quilt, but that’s okay.

I had a time deciding whether to leave the outer edges of the wallhanging straight or to make them wavy like the rest of the seams. After thinking about it and getting encouragement from my daughter-in-law Laurie, I decided to go for the gusto and make the edges wavy. Why not? Even if the quilt doesn’t hang quite right, I can figure out something to make it behave.

The edges look pretty straight now, but tomorrow I’ll cut waves into the outer edges. Then I’ll get ready to do some machine quilting. I started working on this piece in July, but set it aside to work on other projects. Now I’m just a few days away from finishing. Woo-hoo!

Design notes

See more progress on: make Irish Chain quilt

New long-term quilting project

2011-10-24T21:56:00.001-07:00

Not long ago in our church newsletter there was an article about a local family center, where addicted mothers in recovery live with their children. There was a need for quilts, so I’ve decided to make a bunch for them.

The beds are twin-sized, but there’s no color scheme, so I can do whatever I like. My first idea was to do white background and add spots of color, kind of a modern look.

Today I was wondering what color I should start with. Then I got the idea to use the colors of a recently finished quilt. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got. The donated quilts would be kind of companions to the originals. They wouldn’t have to be duplicates, just reflect the color schemes.

I stopped at home and picked up scraps from a few recent quilts: Frog Quilt, Cristine’s Bosties and A Study in Stripes. Then I headed over to Joann’s and picked up a few yards of solids which were on sale. I’ve got the background fabrics for a few quilts now, and I can work in other colors of scraps to make echos of recent quilts. I’m pretty excited about it.

See more progress on: make quilts for family center

Quilt Deliveries

2011-10-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

My housekeeper Cristine came over on Wednesday and picked up her quilt Cristine's Bosties. She was really surprised. She couldn't believe I had worked on the quilt for so long and never saw it. I told her I had hidden it in the sewing room closet three times. I guess it was a good place to hide the quilt in progress.

On Thursday I delivered the Frog Quilt to co-worker Sara T. She loved her quilt. I found out that she is Irish, which explains the Care Bears with shamrocks on their tummies. I had no idea before, but now I'm really glad I chose shamrock fabric for the back of the quilt. Sara, who is now a stay-at-home mom to her two small children, no doubt will be cuddling up with her kids in the new quilt.

How to make Frog quilt

2011-10-20T00:18:00.001-07:00

Frog Quilt

For co-worker Sara T.

Original design

59" square

"It went together very quickly."

How I did it: Co-worker Sara T. is leaving our office to be a stay-at-home mom to her two small children. Looking for inspiration, I looked at her cubicle and saw lots of frog stuffed animals and decorations. So the theme for the quilt is frogs.

I wanted to make a paper-pieced frog as one block, place it near the bottom left corner and surround the frog with lots of green squares. I found a cute paper-pieced frog on the internet, but later saw a panel of frogs in a fabric store. I bought the panel and chose my favorite square. I didn't have much green in my stash so I gathered lots of fat quarters. I pulled a lily pad fabric from my stash and sprinkled a few squares of it in the quilt.

I decided to make scrappy nine patch blocks in green. I usually use my own Organized Chaos grid, but this time I used a Sudoku puzzle solution as my layout. Sudoku is based on the numbers 1 thru 9, so it would work great in my project. I had to repeat two columns and two rows to get a 5x5 grid.

Using a similar procedure as in Organized Chaos, I divided the fabrics into 9 piles, cut the fabrics into strips, then assembled according to the Sudoku layout. As I reached the last 9 patch block I was out of a couple of fabrics, but I borrowed from other piles to get a scrappy block.

For the back of the quilt I used a shamrock fabric, referring to Sara's Care Bears with shamrocks on their tummies.

The finished quilt looks much like I envisioned it. I'll give the quilt to Sara tomorrow, her last day.

Lessons & tips: When you run out of a fabric, see if you have something similar in your stash. The oddball may make the quilt look more interesting.

Resources: Electric Quilt program

It took me 5 days.

It made me Happy

See more progress on: make Frog quilt

WIP Wednesday 10/19/2011

2011-10-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

Wavy Irish Chain in progress

It's been a busy week. I made Bird in the Tree, a small wallhanging, for the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild Habitat challenge. I made Frog Quilt for co-worker Sara T., who is leaving our office tomorrow to be a stay-at-home mom. I began the throw-sized quilt on Saturday night and finished tonight.

That is the end of the deadline quilts for the moment. This week I plan to finish Wavy Irish Chain, a wallhanging with all wavy seams. It's a project for me, so it's been easy to put off, but now that I have a break I'd might as well get it completed.

Cristine's Bosties quilt finally delivered

2011-10-19T18:51:00.001-07:00

My housekeeper Cristine was so surprised when I gave her the quilt today. I explained the blocks, about some of the fabrics, how I hid the project from her every time she came to clean, and of course the story of the missing quilt blocks. She can't believe I've been working on it for so long and she never saw it. I guess the sewing room closet was a good hiding place.

How to make Habitat Challenge quilt

2011-10-19T16:57:00.001-07:00

Bird in the Tree

Habitat Challenge for Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild

Fabrics from Habitat line designed by Jay McCarroll, first winner of Project Runway

Original design

9" x 20"

"Lots of impact for very little effort."

How I did it: I am a member of the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild. A few months ago participating members were given a challenge to create a quilt using fabrics from the Habitat collection designed by Jay McCarroll, first winner of Project Runway. We could choose three fat quarters or six fat eighths. I chose three fat quarters, having no clue what I would do with the fabrics. We could make anything we wanted, adding any solid fabrics, making sure that the Habitat fabrics stood out.

One fabric reminded me of log cabins. Habitat means a place to live, and I thought I could show a home. Then I decided to do a birdhouse. Birds are frequently associated with the word "habitat." I figured I could put a bird in the birdhouse, have his head sticking out the front, his body inside, and the end of his tail poking through the "logs." At my request my daughter-in-law Laurie drew seven terrific birds, using the fabric as a guide as to scale.

I combined parts of three different birds: the body of one, the length of tail of another, and the end of the tail of a third. Drawn on tracing paper, I placed the bird carefully on fabric so that a certain spot looked like an eye. I cut him out, and put him on the birdhouse fabric. All of a sudden, the birdhouse disappeared and it looked like the bird was in the trees. Earlier my daughter-in-law had said that the logs looked like trees, and I had to agree with her now.

Amazingly, the piece looked finished, even though there were only two pieces of fabric. The background was busy and didn't need anything more.

I used the third piece of Habitat fabric for the back of the quilt, and did quite a bit of machine quilting with invisible thread.

I'm really happy with the way the little wallhanging turned out. It is simple but beautiful.

Lessons & tips: Be willing to go with the flow in your art. My plans changed drastically when the logs became a tree. It's okay to scrap your original ideas and go with the new ones.

Resources: My artistic daughter-in-law who can draw

It took me 4 days.

It made me Happy

See more progress on: make Habitat Challenge quilt

Cristine's Bosties delivery set for Wednesday

2011-10-19T01:56:00.000-07:00

My housekeeper Cristine is supposed to meet me at my house tomorrow afternoon. All she knows is that I want to see her, and I'm sure she's very curious to find out why. What she doesn't know is that she'll get her quilt, Cristine's Bosties. I'll be sure to tell her the story about the missing blocks, which still have not been returned. I'll tell her, too, about how I have had to hide the project in a closet for the last three housekeeping visits. Had she seen the housekeeping-themed fabric and Dottie the Boston Terrier fabric, she would have known the quilt was for her.

I'll be so glad when I'll finally get to give Cristine her quilt. She's done a great job keeping my house clean for the past seven years, and I want her to know how much I appreciate her.

Quilt top sewn, pillowcase finish in progress

2011-10-19T01:28:00.001-07:00

Frog quilt top sewn together

Frog from fabric panel

Lily pad fabric has been in my stash for years

Tonight I sewed the quilt top together. It looks very much like I envisioned. The frog in the corner is really cute, and I love all the different scrappy greens. The lily pad fabric pops.

Shamrock fabric for back of quilt

For the back of the quilt, I was shopping for green fabric when I saw a shamrock print. I remembered that Sara had a few Care Bears with shamrocks on their tummies. So the shamrock fabric will be the back of the quilt.

I layered the quilt sandwich for a pillowcase finish and sewed around the perimeter. Tomorrow night I’ll turn the quilt right side out, top stitch around the edges, then tie a whole bunch of knots.

I’ll get the quilt done on time for Thursday, Sara’s last day of work before she becomes a stay-at-home mom.

See more progress on: make Frog quilt

Nine patch blocks finished for Frog quilt

2011-10-18T01:27:00.001-07:00

Quilt blocks for Frog quilt on design wall

Close-up of square cut from frog panel

Tonight I finished the rest of the nine patch blocks for the Frog quilt. I met my goal for the evening. I also cut out a square from the frog panel, which will make up one block. There wasn’t enough room on the cut edge to properly center the cut. I could have added a narrow border in green, but I didn’t have anything appropriate on hand. So I decided to cut the square off-center. I can live with it, and recipient Sara will not love the quilt any less.

Tomorrow night I want to sew the top together, piece the backing, and assemble the layers for a pillowcase finish. If I can get as far as turning the quilt right side out by bedtime, I will be very happy.

See more progress on: make Frog quilt

Half of frog quilt blocks done

2011-10-17T12:13:00.001-07:00

Last night I got about half of the 9-patch blocks done for the Frog quilt. Tonight I’ll finish the rest. I’m on a very tight deadline but I can pull it off.

See more progress on: make Frog quilt

Quilts displayed in craft fair

2011-10-16T19:51:00.001-07:00

Yesterday my church held a craft fair, featuring many different types of arts and crafts. I displayed a few of my quilts: Papillons de Paris (Butterflies of Paris) , April Showers, Hearts, Butterflies and Scrappy Stars.

It was the first public display of my quilts. But there was no pressure as most of the viewers were non-quilters, so I didn’t worry about my workmanship being picked apart.

I couldn’t be there for the set-up because I was in Sacramento for my quilt guild meeting until noon. Friend and room organizer Deb S. kindly set up my display. By the time I arrived the show was half over, but I still got to enjoy the other couple dozen exhibits. This was the first such craft fair in many years. I hope they do another one next year.

See more progress on: display quilts in quilt show

Fabrics ironed, strips cut

2011-10-16T18:57:00.001-07:00

I made good progress on the frog quilt last night. I got all of the fabrics ironed and cut into 4.5” strips.

Tonight I’ll start sewing nine-patches together. I’m using a Sudoku puzzle solution for the scrappy fabric placement and block layout. It should produce a scrappy look with no fabric adjacent to itself.

See more progress on: make Frog quilt

Pacific International Quilt Festival 2011

2011-10-16T18:47:00.000-07:00

On Friday my quilting friend Judy P. and I went to Santa Clara, CA for the Pacific International Quilt Festival. As usual, we took the commuter ACE train, which stops just a short walk away from the convention center.

Judy and I saw hundreds of beautiful quilts. Amazingly, I bought nothing despite the many vendors. Usually I am looking for a theme fabric for a future project, but not this time. Judy and I had a great time together.

Below are some of my favorite quilts from the show. It's an eclectic mix of styles. I commented on a few quilts.

These colors make me happy.

This is a pattern, not an entry. I love the color combo.

I love the simplicity of this piece. It's basically two fabrics.

There is actual newspaper as the guy's shirt.

My daughter Lisa is a lifelong Wizard of Oz fan, so I had to take a picture of this quilt.

Pick Up Sticks?

This one made me laugh. So many people trying to find their spot on the beach.

I'm a pianist. My co-worker and friend Ramin T. is a violinist. So I had to get a picture of this beautiful quilt.

The fur of the animals is fuzzy, wooly and 3-D.

Making a Frog quilt

2011-10-15T21:46:00.001-07:00

Frog quilt Electric Quilt Sketch

Cartoonish frog from panel will go in orange square

Pink squares represent lily pad fabric

Co-worker Sara T. is leaving our office soon to be a stay-at-home mom to her two small children. I studied Sara’s cube and found several stuffed animal frogs. So, the theme of her quilt is frogs.

I got the idea to make one frog block, putting it in the lower left area of the quilt, surrounded by lots of scrappy squares. I found a cute paper-pieced frog online, which I had planned to use. But then I found a panel of really cute, cartoonish frogs. I chose one square from the panel, which will replace the paper-pieced frog.

I don’t have much green in my stash, so I picked lots of new green fat quarters. The greens will be used for big nine-patch blocks (12” finished). I remembered a lily pad fat quarter that I bought years ago and pulled it from my stash. I’ll scatter three squares of it among the greens.

See more progress on: make Frog quilt

Partially quilted, bird fused to background

2011-10-14T01:48:00.001-07:00

Bird fused to partially quilted background

Close-up

Tonight I squared up the background fabric of the Habitat challenge quilt. I trimmed off as little as possible from all sides, no more than 1/2 inch.

I fused the background to batting, then quilted the vertical lines, just on one side of each stripe, leaving the other side unquilted. It was just an idea that popped into my head, so I went with it. I like it. I used invisible thread for the upper thread and white for the bobbin. The white peeks through to the quilt top here and there but I’m not too concerned about it.

With the vertical lines quilted, I placed the bird on the quilt top. I wanted to quilt the horizontal lines behind the bird, so I determined that area, marking the boundaries with safety pins. I quilted the top edge of those vertical lines, leaving underside unquilted.

When I finished the partial quilting, I fused the bird in place. He covers some of the quilted lines, which I had planned.

Tomorrow night I’ll prepare the back (using the third Habitat fabric – the aqua mini-dot) for a pillowcase finish, assemble the quilt sandwich, sew around the edges, turn the quilt right side out, then finish the quilting. I want to have a finished project by the time I go to bed.

See more progress on: make Habitat Challenge quilt

Busy weekend ahead

2011-10-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

I have a busy weekend ahead. Tomorrow I'll be heading to Santa Clara with quilting friend Judy P. to Pacific International Quilt Festival. As usual we'll catch the ACE commuter train from Lathrop to Great America. Once off the train it's a short walk to the quilt show. I'm looking forward to seeing hundreds of beautiful quilts, doing a little shopping, and spending time with my friend.

On Saturday I'll leave in the early morning for my monthly Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting. When the meeting finishes around noon I'll grab some lunch and head back home to the craft fair at my church which will be already in progress. Friend Lena R. plans to meet me there. I'll have some quilts on display and we'll get to enjoy the work of other crafters.

Whoo! That's a lot - for me, anyway. Tons of fun in store.

Bird cut out for Habitat Challenge quilt

2011-10-12T23:37:00.001-07:00

Bird on the background

Tonight I got the little bird cut out for the Habitat Challenge quilt. I’m so glad I didn’t attempt it last night. The poor bird would have lost a leg or a claw, for sure. In a much better frame of mind today, I started off with my regular scissors, but switched to small ones due to the fine cuts required.

He looks really cute. I like his little eye and the splashes of color on his body. When I put him up on the background all of a sudden he was in the trees. The birdhouse disappeared. My daughter-in-law Laurie said that the background looked like trees, and I totally agree with her now.

So, that really changed things. No longer did I have to fuss with cutting out background, fitting the bird into his house, letting parts of him be on top of the background and vice versa, or any of that nonsense. The piece looks finished already.

But that seems too easy. Fuse a bird to the background. What’s the challenge in that? The background really doesn’t need anything else; it’s very busy. I decided I would quilt some of the vertical and horizontal “trunks and branches”, probably with invisible thread. Then I’ll fuse the bird to the background and do a narrow zigzag of quilting around his body, avoiding the delicate areas of his legs and feet. I could use black thread which would help the bird stand out more, but I may do invisible.

The background was cut freehand because I intended to use only a small portion. Now I want to use the entire thing. But it’s not squared up. I considered leaving it the way it is, but I think it would bother me, so I’m going to square it up, cutting off as little as possible from the sides. The finished piece will be tall and narrow – like a tree.

See more progress on: make Habitat Challenge quilt

WIP Wednesday 10/12/2011

2011-10-12T21:22:00.001-07:00

Experimenting with fabric for the Habitat Challenge

On Monday I finished Cristine’s Bosties for my housekeeper Cristine. I’m keeping the quilt at least through the weekend for show and tell at my monthly meeting of the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild. I don’t see Cristine very often, as she usually cleans while I’m at work. My plan is to ask her to come by one evening so I can “show her something” and then give her the quilt. I’m going to enjoy seeing her face, explaining the blocks, and telling her the story of the missing blocks.

Right now I’m working on a guild challenge with fabric from the Habitat line by designer Jay McCarroll, first winner of Project Runway. My deadline is very short, but the quilt is small and mostly fused. I made a lot of progress last night and I plan to make more headway tonight.
The next project is a frog quilt for co-worker Sara, who is leaving the office to be a stay-at-home mom to her two young children. Bravo, Sara! This quilt has a tight deadline, as well, but it’s a whole bunch of squares, so it shouldn’t take long.

I haven’t touched Wavy Irish Chain, but I would like to get it finished up soon. The main part of the quilt top is done. I need to attach a border-wavy, of course-and quilt. There’s no deadline on this one as it is for me.

On a side note, I have entered four wallhangings and one throw-sized quilt in this weekend’s craft fair at my church. This will be the first public display of my quilts. I’m pretty calm about it. I don’t expect a lot of quilters to be there, so I’m not concerned about my quilts being critiqued.

The craft fair starts at 2:00, but I’ll be at my guild meeting in Sacramento until noon. I’ll grab some lunch, then head back to town to catch the last hour and a half of the craft fair. My friend Lena R. plans to meet me there.

See more progress on: post WIP Wednesday lists

Accomplished a lot tonight

2011-10-12T00:54:00.001-07:00

I made good progress in a short time this evening. After I found the areas I wanted to use, I ironed fusible webbing to the backs of the log cabin and color splash fabrics, and combined three bird patterns into one (body of one, length of tail of another, and the end of the tail of a third).

I wanted very badly to cut out the bird tonight. But it’s very late, there’s a lot of detailed cutting to be done, and I just don’t trust myself right now to do this delicate job. I’m sure I’ll get a better result when I have more brains and a steadier hand tomorrow evening.

Perhaps the most challenging part of the project will be to cut fabric out of the spaces between the “logs” where the bird will show through the birdhouse. I have a couple of ideas on that. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow night.

See more progress on: make Habitat Challenge quilt

I have an idea

2011-10-11T20:53:00.001-07:00

Habitat fabric

I am a member of the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild. We are doing a design challenge using the Habitat fabric line by Jay McCarroll, the first winner of Project Runway. We had a choice of 3 fat quarters or 6 fat eighths from the large assortment of beautiful fabrics that were provided. I chose 3 fat quarters: log cabin looking print, color splash and a mini-dot. We could create anything we wanted, adding only solid colored fabrics of our own choosing.

Reminds me of log cabins

Measuring tape around a cabin

Habitat is a living space. One idea was that the log cabin fabric could be used to create houses. Then I thought of a birdhouse—it’s a habitat, though a manmade one at that. My idea is to try to put a bird inside a birdhouse, which is see-through. I’d like his head to peek outside, and maybe part of his tail.

Seven bird sketches--may be hard to see

Drawn by my daughter-in-law Laurie on tracing paper

I don’t draw, really, but my daughter-in-law Laurie does and she gladly agreed to draw some birds for me. I gave her the log cabin fabric so she could refer to it for scale, some tracing paper to place over the log cabin as she drew. Laurie created 7 great birds for me to choose from. She was a little worried that the one I really wanted might not be facing the correct direction, but I told her I could always flip the paper over and use the mirror image.

Bird sketch over the log cabin

Dark fabric is for the bird

Bird placed over the color splash fabric

I plan to use the dark color splash fabric for the bird. There is enough value difference for the bird to show through the birdhouse. I probably need to enlarge my chosen bird as the two I’m thinking about seem a little small for the space. The bird will be in silhouette so I won’t have to worry about feathers or any of that kind of detail. Laurie suggested maybe using one of the splashes of color to represent the bird’s eye. It’s a great idea; I’ll play and see what happens.

For construction, I'm planning to fuse the backs of the two fabrics. I can avoid a lot of fancy sewing that way. I’ll need to cut through the “open” spaces between the logs. I may use the dotted fabric for the background to replace the cutout areas of solid aqua, or I may go with a solid from my own stash.

There will need to be an opening for the bird to go in and out of the birdhouse. I think I can do that by creating shadow. One idea is to use a pencil to darken the fabric that represents the inside of the house. I’m still trying to work that out in my head. Some trial sketches are in order.

I have a really close deadline, so I need to get going on this project.

See more progress on: make Habitat Challenge quilt

How to make quilt for housekeeper

2011-10-11T00:32:00.001-07:00

Cristine's Bosties

For my housekeeper Cristine, who has Boston Terriers

Featured fabrics: Dottie the Boston Terrier, housekeeping chores, dog bones, dog paws

62" square. Original design.

Completed 10/10/2011

Home Circle block

Dottie the Boston Terrier and housekeeping fabric

Hearth and Home block

Dottie the Boston Terrier and dog bones

"Lots of twists and turns on this quilt, but what a great story it has."

How I did it: My housekeeper Cristine has been cleaning for me for about seven years. It was her turn to get a quilt. Cristine has Boston Terriers and I wanted to include them in the design somehow. After much searching, I discovered a fabric called Dottie the Boston Terrier at Spoonflower.com. The fabric is rather expensive and takes three weeks to get because they print fabric as it is ordered. I bought a fat quarter and figured I could make the little piece of fabric work somehow.

Once I had the Boston Terrier fabric in hand, I found a housekeeping fabric online at Equilter.com. Still with no design in mind I ordered a yard.

When the housekeeping fabric arrived, I searched for quilt blocks whose names related to housekeeping or Boston Terriers. I chose Home Circle and Hearth & Home blocks. By making very large blocks, I could fussy cut the Boston Terriers and put them in the centers of each block, and I could put the housekeeping fabric in the large diamonds of the Home Circle blocks. The big spaces helped show off the theme fabrics.

I designed the quilt using Electric Quilt and using the Fabric Yardage Estimator I gathered a few more fabrics to complete the collection.

In early September I had seven of the nine quilt blocks sewn together. I took two sample blocks to church to show to my quilting friends. A lady accidentally walked away with the sample blocks, not knowing she had them. I attend a big church and I didn't know the lady. I put the project on hold, hoping she'd come back with the blocks the next Sunday. I got to talk to her and she promised to bring back the blocks, but several weeks later, she still has not returned them.

After a three-week break, I went forward with the quilt. The blocks would need to be replaced. Unfortunately there wasn't enough housekeeping fabric to make another block as originally designed, and the only leftover Boston Terrier fabric was in the bag with the missing blocks.

Left: blocks as originally designed

Right: replacement blocks

I re-designed the blocks, substituting dog paw fabric for the housekeeping fabric, and changing out the centers. I put the dog paw block in the center as if I always meant it to be there. The Hearth and Home block that has the different center really doesn't look that much different.

I'm looking forward to giving the quilt to Cristine and telling the story of her quilt. It's quite a tale.

Lessons & tips: If you need to meet with someone, be sure you have each other's phone numbers. The lady who walked off with my blocks had my phone number but I didn't have hers. I probably could have gotten my blocks back a long time ago if I had been able to contact her by phone.

If things go wrong as they did in this quilt, be open to alternatives. It's a good test of creativity to have to adjust. Who knows? Maybe the quilt will be better. Regardless, you will have a good story to tell about how you overcame a problem.

If the motifs of your theme fabrics are large, try large blocks with big empty spaces to show off the fabrics.

Resources: Spoonflower.com
Equilter.com
Electric Quilt

It took me 6 months.

It made me Very glad

See more progress on: Make quilt for housekeeper

First public viewing of my quilts

2011-10-10T12:30:00.001-07:00

This Saturday I’ll be showing a few of my quilts at a Craft Fair at my church. This is the first time my quilts will be on public display. I chose four wallhangings and a throw sized quilt for the fair. I wrote up a description of each quilt for the viewers.

I’ll be out of town during set up time, but friend Deb S. generously agreed to hang up my quilts for me. By the time I get back to town the fair will be about half over, but I’ll still get to enjoy the other crafters’ work.

I’m excited about showing my creations. It’s not the county fair or a bona fide quilt show, but it’s a start. The fact that they are being seen by mostly non-quilters helps, too. My quilts will be enjoyed for their beauty and not picked apart by the quilt police.

See more progress on: display quilts in quilt show

Almost done with Cristine's Bosties

2011-10-10T12:17:00.001-07:00

I’m about half an hour from finishing Cristine’s Bosties for my housekeeper. I quit last night at 1:00 AM with about a dozen knots to tie. I’ll finish up tonight.

Yesterday at church I found a note on my purse from the lady who has the missing blocks for this quilt. She apologized profusely, saying she keeps forgetting to take the blocks with her on Sunday, she lost my phone number, and in general feels really badly about the situation. She left her phone number with me, and I’ll give her a call soon. Surprisingly, I’m not mad that the blocks were not returned. I waited as long as I could, then moved on and adapted.

What a story I’ll have to tell Cristine!

See more progress on: Make quilt for housekeeper

Quilt Top for Cristine's Bosties Finished

2011-10-06T00:43:00.001-07:00

Cristine's Bosties quilt top

Tonight I added a narrow border of black, completing the quilt top. I like the frame that the black creates. By the end of the weekend I plan to do a pillowcase finish and tie the quilt.

I’ll probably hold off on giving the quilt to my housekeeper Cristine until after the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting two weekends from now. The quilt is a surprise, so it shouldn’t hurt to wait another week to present the quilt to Cristine.

See more progress on: Make quilt for housekeeper

WIP Wednesday 10/5/2011

2011-10-05T19:53:00.001-07:00

Cristine's Bosties quilt top

Narrow black border to be added

I’m almost done with the quilt top for Cristine’s Bosties. I need to add a narrow border in black, then do a pillowcase top finish and tie. I expect to have the quilt completed this weekend. I’m trying to decide whether to give the quilt to my housekeeper next week or wait until after I’ve shown off the quilt at the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting on Saturday the 15th.

The design for the Habitat challenge in still in my head. I asked my daughter-in-law Laurie to draw some birds, and she gave me a bunch to choose from. Thanks, Laurie! The Habitat challenge is due on October 15th, but I don’t expect the wallhanging to take long.

The frog quilt is still in my head, as well. It is due near the end of October, but I think this quilt will go together quickly since it’s made up of scrappy squares.

I can’t forget about Wavy Irish Chain, which needs a border, then finishing. I bought a nice bright green with small black polka dots for the border. Leftovers can go in the frog quilt, as well.

See more progress on: post WIP Wednesday lists

Quilt Blocks for Cristine's Bosties Finished

2011-10-03T23:55:00.000-07:00

Tonight I sewed together the last two blocks—Home Circle. These blocks had the original housekeeping and Boston Terrier fabrics. Yippee!

I laid out the blocks on the design wall. The quilt looks good. Tomorrow night I’ll sew together the blocks and attach a black border. I’ve been working on this quilt off and on for months now, and I’m so glad I’m very close to finishing.

See more progress on: Make quilt for housekeeper

Replacement Hearth and Home Quilt Block Sewn

2011-10-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

Original Hearth and Home block (left) and replacement block (right)

Sunday night I sewed together the replacement Hearth and Home quilt block. It was the second of the two blocks that were “lost” about a month ago. Since I had no more Boston Terrier fabric, I substituted in daisy fabric. It looks pretty good. The block will go in the center of the bottom row of the quilt.

See more progress on: Make quilt for housekeeper

Home Circle Quilt Block Re-designed

2011-10-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

Original Home Circle block (left) and re-designed block (right)

New block will go in the center of the quilt.

I re-made a Home Circle block, substituting in dog paw fabric for housekeeping fabric, and a red center for the Boston Terrier print. The substitutions were made because two different blocks were “lost” and there wasn’t enough housekeeping or Boston Terrier fabric left to re-create the blocks as originally designed.

The block looks pretty good. I’m glad I used the red for the center of the re-made block. I think it needed it since the dog paw fabric reads darker than the housekeeping fabric. Since it looks different than the other Home Circle blocks, I will put it in the middle, where it will appear that the “different” block was in the plan all along.

Tomorrow I’ll finish assembling the remaining Home Circle blocks that are partially made. They will have the original fabrics in them. Also, I need to re-make a Hearth and Home block, which will have a daisy center instead of a Boston Terrier center.

It’s possible that the lady who accidentally took my blocks a month ago will show up with them at church tomorrow. If that happens I will have to decide whether to go with the original design or with the new dog paw center block.

See more progress on: Make quilt for housekeeper

Re-designing blocks for Cristine's Bosties

2011-10-01T20:00:00.001-07:00

Here are the finished blocks for Cristine's Bosties. I had finished two others, but they disappeared a few weeks ago and have not been returned.

Now that I’ve finished A Study in Stripes, I’m coming back to work on Cristine’s Bosties, a quilt for my housekeeper. The two blocks that walked away from church a few weeks ago still have not been returned. I haven’t seen the lady at church since I spoke to her about a month ago. I don’t know her last name and I don’t have her phone number. I can’t wait any longer, so I’m moving on.

I’m missing one of each of the blocks. Unfortunately, I do not have enough Boston Terrier or housekeeper fabric to re-create the lost blocks as originally designed. Those fabrics are not easily replaced, so I’m choosing to substitute other fabrics.

Added the makings of two Home Circle blocks

I put up on the design wall what I had, then stared at it for a long time, playing with possibilities in my head. The idea I’ve had in my head was to put two Hearth and Home blocks with new red centers in the middle row, flanking the center block. That won’t work, because that would be red next to red, plus the hassle of removing the Boston Terrier and swapping out for something else.

My idea to create a variation of Home Circle for the center, with dog paw fabric instead of housekeeping fabric, then a red center, would work.

I kept staring at the wall, and came up with the idea to reverse the Hearth and Home and Home Circle blocks. I wouldn’t have to substitute any housekeeping fabric. Overall the quilt would look a little darker. If I needed more dog bone fabric, I could find it locally. At first I was excited about that idea, then decided I would have a problem with symmetry for the Hearth and Home blocks without sacrificing one of the Boston Terrier centers.

Center block with dog paw fabric in one corner, red center

So I decided to go with a new Home Circle block with dog paw instead of housekeeping, and a red center. I would make one new Hearth and Home block with a daisy center. This block will go in the center bottom. It’s still not perfectly symmetrical but I can live with it.

Design notes

See more progress on: Make quilt for housekeeper

How to make quilt for Wanda

2011-09-28T21:14:00.001-07:00

A Study in Stripes

For co-worker Wanda S.

58" square

Original design

Partly from stash

"It was so fun to surprise her!"

How I did it: I have been working with Wanda S. for many years. I had intended to make a quilt for her but was having trouble getting inspiration, mainly because I knew so little about her and her interests.

Outfit worn by Wanda that inspired the quilt

Perhaps a year or so ago Wanda wore an outfit to work that looked stunning on her: a bright pink sweater with narrow white stripes at the neck and waist, a heathered gray cardigan and black pants. I decided to make a quilt based on the outfit. I even borrowed the pink sweater from Wanda under the pretense that I wanted to find a similar pink. Little did she know I was making a quilt for her.

I found a few pink and white striped fabrics, buying various lengths without having a design in mind. I also found a mottled gray that reminded me of the cardigan.

When it came time to get serious about making the quilt I designed a quilt with Electric Quilt, using several blocks that related to the theme or to Wanda: Stripes and Nine, Roman Stripe, Wandering Star (a play on Wanda's name) and Beacon Lights (a wanderer needs a beacon now and then).

When it came to coloring in the quilt design, I tried to play up the stripe and the mottled gray. The results show off those fabrics well.

I named the quilt A Study in Stripes, probably influenced by watching Sherlock Holmes on PBS (A Study in Pink, which was originally A Study in Scarlet).

At my request, Wanda brought the outfit to work today so I could take a photo. I showed her the quilt,and explained all the blocks. Then I told her that the quilt was hers. She was so surprised. Although she had known about the quilt for a while, she had no idea it was for her. She assumed it was for co-worker Judy B., who will retire tomorrow. It was so fun to surprise Wanda.

Lessons & tips: I had two fabrics that I wanted to show off. I played with the placement of fabric in Electric Quilt to be sure they were prominent.

Resources: QuiltersCache.com

Electric Quilt

It took me 2 weeks.

It made me Happy

See more progress on: make quilt for Wanda

WIP Wednesday 9/28/2011

2011-09-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

Cristine's Bosties in progress

I finished A Study in Stripes for co-worker Wanda S. I delivered it to her today. She was so surprised! She knew about the quilt but thought it was for co-worker Judy B., who will retire tomorrow. It was so fun to surprise Wanda.

Once again, I’m picking up Cristine’s Bosties, a quilt for my housekeeper Cristine. I haven’t touched this quilt in a few weeks. Two finished blocks disappeared from church about a month ago, and still haven’t been returned. I don’t have enough of a couple of the fabrics to re-create the missing blocks, but with some substituting I can still make blocks that will work just fine. I hope to finish the quilt this weekend.

In my head: Habitat Challenge for Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild. I have an idea, and I’ll begin really working on it next week after I finish Cristine’s Bosties.

Due late October: Frog quilt for co-worker Sara, who is leaving the office to become a stay-at-home mom. Good for her! I was able to stay at home with my kids when they were small, my daughter-in-law stays home with my young granddaughters, and I say if you can do it, do it.

The frog quilt will be made up mostly of squares in scrappy greens, with one large square from a panel; the square features a really cute, really big frog and will occupy a lower corner of the quilt. I remembered and found a fat quarter that I’ve had for upteen years that has lily pads and tiny frogs. I plan to cut it up into a few squares and scatter them among the scrappy greens. I don’t expect the quilt to take long…maybe a week.

Just remembered: Wavy Irish Chain. I really need to get it quilted so I can enjoy it.

See more progress on: post WIP Wednesday lists

A Study in Stripes quilt top done

2011-09-25T21:32:00.001-07:00

After I applied the striped border with the Wandering Star blocks in the corners, the quilt felt finished. It didn’t seem to need the narrow black border. I auditioned a small strip of black but it didn’t seem to add anything. So I’m calling the quilt top done.

My goal tonight is to do a pillowcase finish, then do a little bit of tying—just enough to hold the quilt together. I want to get a photo of co-worker Wanda and her quilt together. Wanda said she wouldn’t wear her inspiration outfit till Tuesday or Wednesday, but I’m going be prepared with a presentable quilt just in case she wears it tomorrow (Monday).

See more progress on: make quilt for Wanda

Main part of quilt top done

2011-09-25T00:48:00.001-07:00

I sewed together the main part of the quilt top of A Study in Stripes. When I trimmed the blocks to size, I lost the points of the triangles, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Wanda will not love her quilt any less just because the points are blunted.

I need to add a striped border and the Wandering Stars blocks in the corners, then a narrow border in black. I’d love to finish the quilt Sunday night. We’ll see how it goes.

See more progress on: make quilt for Wanda

Roman Stripe quilt blocks sewn

2011-09-23T20:09:00.001-07:00

Roman Stripe quilt blocks

I just finished sewing the Roman Stripe quilt blocks. As with most of the blocks I’ve done so far, they need to be trimmed to size.

Next I’ll put together the small but somewhat complicated Wandering Star blocks. Then I’ll trim all of the oversized blocks to uniform 16.5” square.

I’m getting excited because the end of this quilt is in sight.

See more progress on: make quilt for Wanda

Beacon Lights blocks sewn

2011-09-23T19:29:00.001-07:00

Beacon Lights quilt blocks (untrimmed)

A couple of days ago I sewed together the Beacon Lights blocks for co-worker Wanda’s quilt A Study in Stripes. The blocks need to be trimmed to size. The gray square in the center represents the heathered gray sweater from Wanda’s outfit that inspired the quilt.

I’ll finish the Roman Stripe blocks very shortly, then move on to finish the Wandering Star blocks.

See more progress on: make quilt for Wanda

WIP Wednesday 9/21/2011

2011-09-21T23:18:00.000-07:00

Quilt blocks from top left: Wandering Star, Roman Stripe, Beacon Lights, Stripes and Nine

At the moment I’m concentrating on A Study in Stripes for co-worker Wanda. Three seams from now I’ll have pieced 4 Beacon Lights blocks, the center Stripes and Nine block and a Roman Stripe. All six of those blocks need to be trimmed to size. Also, I’ve made one Wandering Star block. I need to make three more Wandering Stars and Roman Stripes to complete the set of blocks for the quilt. My deadline to deliver the quilt is next week, so I’ll be pedal to the metal to get it done.

Cristine’s Bosties, for my housekeeper, is near completion. It’s been put on hold until the quilt mentioned above is finished. I’ve made five of nine blocks. Two more are nearly done. Unfortunately two other blocks that were completely finished were accidentally picked up at church by a member, taken home and not have not been returned yet. I have officially decided to move on without the blocks. This means a slight re-design of two quilt blocks as I do not have enough of a couple of the fabrics to re-create the lost blocks. But I think it will work out.

See more progress on: post WIP Wednesday lists

Stripes and Nine block sewn together

2011-09-14T23:07:00.001-07:00

Stripes and Nine quilt block (untrimmed)

Tonight I sewed together the Stripes and Nine block which goes in the center of co-worker Wanda’s quilt (A Study in Stripes). It still needs to be trimmed to size. When finished the dark pink rectangles will become the corners of the block. I think the block looks really good.

When the block is trimmed up it will look something like this.

Next I’ll work on the Beacon Lights blocks. My goal is to finish at least one of each of the four different quilt blocks in time to share at Saturday’s Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting.

See more progress on: make quilt for Wanda

Beginning to work on Wanda's quilt

2011-09-13T21:20:00.001-07:00

Inspiration and fabrics for A Study in Stripes

Tonight I’ll start sewing co-worker Wanda’s quilt. Inspired by an outfit worn by Wanda months ago, the fabrics include a pink and white stripe to represent Wanda’s sweater top and a gray tone-on-tone to represent Wanda’s heathered gray sweater. Also in the mix are a black solid, another gray, two different pinks, a white tone-on-tone and a pink stripe that is on standby.

Electric Quilt Sketch

I created a quilt design in Electric Quilt that uses the quilt blocks Stripes & Nine, Roman Stripe, Wandering Star and Beacon Lights. The block names relate: stripes, a play on Wanda’s name, and a wanderer (another play on Wanda’s name) could use a guide or beacon now and then.

Stripes are in abundance, whether in fabric itself, block names or piecing. I’m thinking of calling the quilt A Study in Stripes.

See more progress on: make quilt for Wanda

Score one for creativity

2011-09-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

Path from my front door to the patio door

Last Friday I hired the neighbor's nephew to do some work in the backyard. I live in a condo which has no access from the backyard to the front yard unless you go over the fence into the backyard of a neighbor who has a gate or through my house. I figured if I could create a path of some kind the kid could walk through the house with bags of yard trimmings without getting dirt on the carpet or repeatedly taking shoes off and putting them back on.

I considered several possible ways to create a path, including buying a roll of bridal path stuff, butcher paper and painter's paper. Finally I remembered that there was a roll of paper on my granddaughter's easel. Even if I ran out of the paper I had a new roll in the closet.

The paper path worked great--no dirt on the carpet. Best of all, it was "free."

Getting my lost blocks back

2011-09-04T19:59:00.001-07:00

During a break at church today a friend told me that the lady who may have walked away with my blocks last week was there today. She happened to be sitting directly behind me on the front pew as I played the piano. The friend suggested I write a note and give it to her as I came back to play the last few songs of the service.

I wrote a little note, asking the lady to wait a few minutes after the service ended. We usually play part of a song as people are going out, and I wanted her to hang around until I was finished. I handed her the note on my way back to the piano.

She was waiting when I finally got done. I introduced myself and asked her if she had been sitting in the other pew last week. She said yes. I told her there was a bag on the pew. She said she had picked it up with other things. When she got home she looked in the bag, knew it was part of a quilt, and had wondered where to turn it in.

I asked her if she could just bring it with her next week and drop it off with me. As it turns out she plans to come to the church a couple of times before Sunday. We plan to meet at the church tomorrow evening before one of her programs begins. I don’t go to the church on Monday, but I don’t mind driving if it means I can have my blocks back sooner.

I’m looking forward to getting my blocks back, and although I had Plan B in my head, I’m so glad I’ll be able to complete the quilt as I originally planned it to look.

See more progress on: Make quilt for housekeeper

Housekeeper quilt on temporary hold

2011-09-02T20:17:00.001-07:00

The good news: By last Saturday night I had finished seven of nine blocks for housekeeper Cristine’s quilt. The bad news: I brought two different sample blocks to church on Sunday to show quilting friends, and someone took off with the Walgreen’s bag with the blocks in it. I doubt it was on purpose. I think the lady who sat in my usual spot on the front pew scooped it up as she was leaving with her little boy, thinking the bag was hers.

I attend a large church and I don’t know the lady. I didn’t see her leave because I was playing the piano at the time and my back was to her. I’m hoping she’ll bring back the bag this Sunday and put it back where she found it or turn it in to Lost and Found.

Meanwhile, I’ve put a hold on the project. I had hoped to give the quilt to Cristine this week, but I’m waiting a few days to see if my blocks return. I’m thinking of alternatives in case I never get the blocks back. For the most part, either I have enough leftover fabric to re-create the blocks, or the fabric is easy to get.

The housekeeping fabric was an online purchase, so I’d probably just substitute other fabric and stick that block in the middle. I had extra of the Boston Terrier fabric, but it is in the lost bag. I’d have to fudge around that, too, since it is special order fabric, expensive, and takes three weeks to get.

I’m hoping to get the blocks back. If not, I’ll make it work somehow.

See more progress on: Make quilt for housekeeper

Home Circle Block Finished

2011-08-26T19:33:00.001-07:00

Home Circle quilt block

Getting ready to cut housekeeping fabric, which is a diamond shape in the pattern. Only have a yard, need 20 diamonds measuring 7" per side. Cutting the fabric in diagonals in the hope of maximizing the fabric.

First diagonal cut made

Cut fabric at 7". Cross cuts will be 7".

Housekeeping fabric diamond ready for paper-piecing.

Twenty housekeeping fabric diamonds - four for each of the five Home Circle blocks

Last week I finished the first Home Circle quilt block for housekeeper Cristine’s quilt. I paper-pieced Diamond-in-the-Square units for the corners. I usually improvise a light box by using a sunny window, but by the time I was ready the sun had gone down already.

Using my shower door as a light box

Housekeeping fabric diamond placed on the paper-piecing pattern

"Light box" station in my shower: printed patterns, tape, housekeeping fabric diamonds

After considering different alternatives, I used the inside of my glass shower door as a light box. I stood inside the (dry) shower and taped the paper pattern to the glass, printed side away from me. The light shining through the glass and paper allowed me to place the fabric over the pattern correctly—all 20 of them. Kinda weird but it worked.

Diamond in the Square unit

Set of Diamond in the Square units for one Home Circle block. Note the black corner is different in each unit. Took precautions to avoid frustration and do-overs.

The Home Circle block has four Diamond-in-the-Square units, each of those having a housekeeping fabric in the center, plus three red corners and one black corner. The black corner was in a different position for each of the units, as well. To help keep things straight I arranged four housekeeping-centered units as they pleased my eye. Then I marked the black corners of each unit with a B, knowing that all of the remaining corners were to be red. As I sewed a unit, I started with black so I wouldn’t forget. I’m sure those precautions saved some frustration and do-overs.

Mock-up of Home Circle block. Trying out three prints to fill spaces: scissors, dog paws, dotted daisies. Originally intended to use housekeeping fabric, but there wasn't enough leftover.

Finished Hearth and Home block placed next to scissors. Not bad. Good contrast with dog bones fabric.

Comparing with dog paws. Not enough contrast with dog bones fabric, looks gray and muddy.

Comparing with dotted daisies. Good contrast with dog bones fabric, like the openness and the bit of red. Ultimately my choice.

Strip pieced black and daisies, cross-cut, placed on mock-up Home Circle block. I like it.

Once I had a set of Diamond-in-the-Square units done, I needed to decide on filler squares to make up for the lack of leftover housekeeping fabric. I auditioned three prints: scissors, dog paws and dotted daisies. The scissors had a similar personality to the housekeeping fabric, but I wasn’t convinced that it related to Cristine. The dog paws fabric definitely related to the Boston Terrier theme of the quilt, but it was darker than I wanted. The dotted daisies fabric was not part of the theme, but I liked the openness, which was similar to the housekeeping fabric. Ultimately I chose the daisies.

Diamond in the Square units trimmed

Block sewn in three horizontal rows

Home Circle block finished

Home Circle block surrounded by previously finished Hearth and Home blocks. The corners will be filled with more Home Circle blocks.

When it came time to assemble the block, I had to trim the paper-pieced Diamond-in-the-Square units. The blocks were printed at 8” without seam allowance so they would print without a problem. I had to remember to add a 1/4” to each edge, otherwise the unit would be too small.

I’ve been working on Diamond-in-the-Square units, generally one set of four per night. I have one more set to go, which I will finish tonight. That being done, I will assemble the last four Home Circle blocks. Things will go very quickly after that.

Design notes

See more progress on: Make quilt for housekeeper

Follow up on Stash Reduction

2011-08-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

This post is in response to a nice comment made on my previous post: How to reduce my fabric stash by one-third.

Will I buy new fabric to replace what I gave away or buy as needed?
For some time now I have been buying fabrics as needed for my projects. Gone are the days when I bought yards of fabric purely on speculation. My quilting budget is $50 per month, which seems to be just enough to make one quilt with mostly new fabric and batting. But I do pick up fat quarters or a yard of something fabulous now and then. I'm not on Stashbuster's No-Buy program and I don't feel guilty about my purchases.

Fabric donations
I get fabric donations, mostly from co-workers and friends. One thing I've learned to ask is: If there is something I can't use, is it okay to pass it along to someone else? No one has said no yet. That gives me the freedom to do whatever I think is best with the donation. I keep some, give some away to a charity organization such as Binky Patrol, and some just goes in the garbage (so flimsy you can see through it).

My daughter-in-law Laurie is a member of MOPS (mothers of pre-schoolers) through our church. Twice yearly they hold yard sales to raise funds for the group. I donate bags of scraps that I collect as I sew. They also get the weird but good fabric like holiday stuff, which in my mind isn't appropriate for regular everyday quilts.

I'll be posting about the Creativity seminar and the trip shortly.

How to reduce my fabric stash by one-third

2011-08-26T10:25:00.001-07:00

"My stash is smaller, the fabric will be used for good causes, and I got to meet a fellow quilter."

How I did it:

A few weeks ago I decided to do a major decluttering of my stash. I decided to give away a third of my fabric--just a number that popped into my head. I emailed fellow Stashbuster Marilyn L. in Vacaville, who lives about an hour and a half from me and is a coordinator for Binky Patrol. I enjoy making charity quilts myself, and I knew that Marilyn and her group would do good things with my extra fabric.

We arranged a time for me to bring the fabric. I could have shipped the fabric to Marilyn, but I was going to Sacramento (about an hour and a half from me and 40 minutes from Vacaville), anyway. I enjoy traveling but I'm kind of a chicken when it comes to driving. However GPS on my Smartphone gives me courage to drive to places I wouldn't have dared to drive to previously. So it was also kind of an adventure.

Meanwhile, I went through my stash, bag by bag and stack by stack, setting aside one third of the contents of each one. When I was finished I had two very large zip-loc bags half full. Together they weighed 25 pounds.

This past Tuesday I drove to Vacaville, delivered the fabric and got the pleasure of meeting Marilyn. We spent about half an hour chatting together before I hit the road again. My stash is smaller and the fabric will go to good use.

Typical one-gallon zip-loc bag of fabrics. (I organize my fabric by color.)

Contents of the bag divided into three equal piles. I deal them like cards.

One of the piles - there are four fabrics. So I need to go through all three of the piles and choose four fabrics to give away.

Here are the four fabrics from the piles that I've chosen to give away. The remaining fabrics will go back into the zip-loc bag.

The give-away fabrics join the growing stack.

Here are all of the fabrics to be given away -- one-third of my stash.

Lessons & tips: Most of my fabric is stored in gallon zip-loc bags. I emptied one bag at a time, putting fabric into three piles, much like dealing cards. Then I counted one of the piles. If there were 4 fabrics in that pile, I needed to choose 4 from the among all three of the piles; those were set aside and the remaining fabrics were placed back in the bag. This method easily helped me downsize by one-third.

Resources: Email
GPS on my Smartphone for the trip

It took me 1 day.

It made me Happy

See more progress on: Reduce my fabric stash by one-third

Tomorrow is the Creativity seminar

2011-08-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the day for the Skillpath seminar Sparking Innovation and Creativity in Sacramento. I'm leaving today and spending the night near the seminar venue so I won't have to fight early morning traffic.

On the way to Sacramento I'm taking a little detour to Vacaville to deliver two big bags of fabric to Marilyn L., an internet quilting friend who makes a lot of charity quilts. I'm giving her roughly one-third of my fabric, the result of a recent decluttering. Charity quilting is near and dear to my own heart, so I am happy to donate my extra fabric to someone who will use it to make quilts for people who need some cheering up.

The class I'm taking is designed for business, but I'm taking it mostly to help benefit my quilting. I'm sure I'll pick up dozens of ideas to apply to my quilt designs.

Headed to Sacramento

2011-08-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

Today I'm off to Sacramento for the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting. For show and tell I have five completed blocks for Cristine's Bosties, the main part of the quilt top of Wavy Irish Chain, and the makings of a quilt for co-worker Wanda.

After the meeting I plan to stop at my friend Tom P.'s church and say hi. He'll be there working all day. The church is on Sunrise Boulevard, not far from my meeting, and usually I take this road on the way to other places after the meeting is over. It will be nice to see Tom again. Tom is a fellow musician and we played in bands and orchestras together at my church for close to 30 years. A few years ago Tom became worship pastor at the church in the Sacramento area. He visits my church now and again and it's always great to see him. He usually greets me with "Bubba! How be ye?"

Later in the day I'll be going to Beverly Fabrics for a Wizard of Oz festival. My daughter Lisa is a huge Wizard of Oz fan, and I'm going to make a Winged Monkey hat for her. It should be fun.

Hiding the evidence

2011-08-18T01:48:00.001-07:00

Basket of telltale quilt makings for housekeeper Cristine hidden in the sewing room closet. She's not likely to go in there.

My housekeeper Cristine is coming to clean tomorrow. The quilt I’m making for her, Cristine’s Bosties, is a surprise. So I had to gather up the pieces of Boston Terrier, housekeeping print and dog bone fabrics and blocks that were scattered around the sewing room and my bedroom, and hide them in a closet. I’m sure if she saw the fabrics she’d guess the quilt was for her. Every time I thought I had all of the telltale pieces gathered up I found more. I started laughing on the fourth go around.

See more progress on: Make quilt for housekeeper

Enrolled and Booked a Hotel

2011-08-17T23:12:00.001-07:00

I’ve been waiting for an email for 20% off the Skillpath seminar Sparking Innovation and Creativity in Sacramento. With the class only a week away I thought about waiting a couple more days, but decided to go ahead and enroll—mostly because I wanted to get a good rate on a hotel room the night before the seminar.

I called Skillpath this afternoon and got 10% off the class, as promised earlier, which knocked the price from $199 to $179. I was happy about that. They tried to sell me a book New and Improved for $14.99 which they said was good reading before the seminar. But I didn’t think I could get the book before the class so I declined. As it turns out, I found the same book at Amazon.com for $.01 plus expedited shipping for a total of $7.00! If I’m lucky I’ll get the book before I leave on Tuesday, but if not it will be waiting for me when I get back. And I got a good bargain on it.

Tonight I checked online for a hotel room. I’d been seeing offers on Expedia.com for $46-$49 for a 3-star hotel near the seminar. When I went to check tonight the offers had gone way up to over $100. Bummer. I did some comparing at different travel booking sites and ended up paying $52 for a surprise hotel, which turned out to be a nice hotel, only a mile or so away from the seminar.
I’m very happy with today’s results, and I’m getting excited about next week’s seminar.

See more progress on: attend Creativity seminar through SkillPath