Stamp On It Blog Hop

The Stamp On It Blog Hop began yesterday. Please come back on Wednesday, July 3, to see what I've made. Meanwhile, enjoy visiting the other participants' blogs. Here's the full schedule:
June 26

Marjorie'sBusyCorner

Life in the Scrapatch

Pig Tales and Quilts

littlemushroomcap

sosewgreen

The Thimblemouse

Just Let Me Quilt

Words & Stitches

In Stitches And Seams

June 27

Life @ Ruffhaven 

Englating

Charlottes Creations

Moments

Feathered Nest Studio 

Moose Stash Quilting

Jane's Quilting

Hillvalleyquilter
June 28

Robin's Fabric Nest

In The Sewing Basket

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Just Quilt It

AnnieOak Designs

Buzzing and Bumbling

krislovesfabric

CherrysPrairiePrimitives

Hanging On By A Thread

July 1

Sew Many Yarns

Quilt Matters

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle 

Patchouli Moon

The Slow Quilter

A Loose Thread

Janes Fabrics and Quilts

Selina Quilts

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Dancing Thru Threads
July 2

Sew and Sow Farm  

fishkopp

Scraps of Life

Meadowbrook

Katie and Kwilts 

Em's Scrap Bag  

GrammieQ's

How ART you?

BumbleberryStitches

A Stitch in Time
July 3

More Stars in Comanche

Dachsies With Moxie

NotionNanny

13 Woodhouse Road

Heikesquilt’

Traveling Quilter

Jackie’s Art Quilts

What About Rheema?

From This to That

Sew We Quilt 

Debbie

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WIP Wednesday 6/26/2013

San Francisco Giants quilt

For retiring co-worker Fred A., who is a Giants fan.

Nine patch blocks chosen for the significance of the number 9 in baseball (players, inning).

Shading of nine patch represents bases (home, first, second, third).

Original design

60" x 66"

First fabric cut Friday 6/21/2013

Quilt completed Tuesday, 6/25/2013

(Five days)

SF logo is an iron-on found at Ebay.

Fused to background, then stitched around edges.

Had been planning another Giants quilt for someone else for months, but had trouble finding Giants team themed cotton fabric. Considered many possibilities, including a Giants t-shirt center. Very happy with my final choice.

Peek at the back of the quilt

Purchased the logo online, purchased orange fabric before the logo arrived. The oranges worked together pretty well.

Logo against black background, as it would appear in the quilt. Looks good.

Nine patch blocks on the design wall

Filled in with black background squares

Trying out the logo

By the way, the size of the logo (8" tall) determined the size of the nine patch and background blocks (9" finished)

Ran low on black fabric, short one block, which I pieced.

Trying out the logo

Sewed plain blocks to top and bottom of logo square, to help center the logo. Once fused, stitched around the edges for security during washings, etc.

Logo fused, stitched

Blocks sewn in columns

I usually sew blocks horizontally in rows, but went vertical this time because of logo unit.

Blocks sewn together

Black border added

If you look closely you'll see that the border is slightly lighter black than the rest of the quilt. There wasn't enough of the original black fabric to do the border so I found a black in my stash. It almost looks planned.

White border added to top and bottom - to lengthen the otherwise square quilt.

Orange border added to complete the quilt top

Once again, the finished quilt

I gave the quilt to retiring co-worker Fred A. today. He loves his quilt and says he knows just the spot for it in his "man cave." Happy Retirement, Fred!

Follow Your Dreams Electric Quilt Sketch

Blocks will be scrappier than shown

The next quilt is for recently "retired" co-worker Cherish V. She and her family are packing up and moving to a beautiful part of the state to begin a new adventure. Originally I had planned this quilt to be blue and white, after snooping around Cherish's office. Fred and Cherish's departures took me by surprise and sent me into a little panic. Running out of time to make her quilt before her last day at work (about a week ago), I confessed my intentions to Cherish, who informed me that she really loves green. So, she's getting a green and white quilt. I plan to use mostly stash and scraps for this quilt, except for a recently purchased dark green for the border and which will be sprinkled throughout the blocks.

This will be a quick quilt, another Four Day Wonder. I want to finish it within the next week, before Cherish moves out of the area. Cherish and I are Facebook friends, so we'll be able to communicate easily and make arrangements for the quilt delivery.

Debbie

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Four Day Wonders

Four Day Wonders - Quilts made in a hurry

I created a page called Four Day Wonders, which will take you to a list of posts about throw sized quilts that I have created from scratch in a week or less. Some of the quilts were actually made in four days. I should mention that I work ten-hour days and I have a second job.

The quilts are often simple designs, few fabrics and large sized blocks - tricks I picked up from reading Time Crunch Quilts by Nancy Martin.

Other factors that help me to get quilts done quickly: I stay up very late and I have a housekeeper. When I'm really under the gun: no cooking, no television except for music channels, and leave the computer off.

Link to the posts:
Four Day Wonders

Debbie

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WIP Wednesday 6/19/2013

Wedding Wallhanging

Commission quilt for daughter of co-worker Gayle S.

Original design, with edits by the bride

Made mainly of fabrics from the wedding, including burlap

Center block machine embroidered by retired co-worker Diane M., who owns a sewing business

Quilt will serve as a guest book, to be signed by wedding guests

33" square 

Completed 6/18/2013

Close-up

Back of the quilt

I did some simple machine quilting - stitch in (or near) the ditch.

Electric Quilt sketch of San Francisco Giants quilt

S in the center represents a San Francisco Giants logo (SF)

For retiring co-worker Fred A., who is a Giants fan

Electric Quilt sketch of quilt for co-worker Cherish V.

Green is Cherish's favorite color.

Green pinwheels and white-on-white background will be scrappier than shown.

Last night I finished the wedding wallhanging. I delivered it to co-worker and mother-of-the-bride Gayle S. this morning. She loved it. The bride will arrive from out of town next week. I hope she likes the quilt, too.

Coming up are three quilts in quick succession. The most urgent is for retiring co-worker Fred A., who is a San Francisco Giants fan. I ordered a Giants logo from Ebay a few days ago, but the package may not arrive until Monday. I was hoping to have the logo to match orange colors, but I may have to go ahead and buy fabric without the logo in hand. The oranges may not match, but Fred will love the quilt, anyway.

Also in line is a quilt for co-worker Cherish V. Her last day of work is tomorrow, which sneaked up on me. However, I told Cherish I was making her a quilt and we are Facebook friends so we'll be able to stay in touch. I will get her quilt finished quickly and deliver it within the next couple of weeks before she moves out of the area.

As if I didn't have enough to do, I'm planning a Fourth of July quilt, which I would love to complete before that holiday.

I'm going to be a busy little quilter!

Debbie

Like my Facebook page Traveling Quilter and get more updates on my quilting and my travels.

WIP Wednesday 6/12/2013

My current project is a wallhanging for a wedding. Fabrics for the wallhanging are leftovers from other things made for the wedding.

How I sometimes make corner triangles:

Start with a square.

Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the fabric. 

Place the square in the corner, wrong side up.

Sew on the diagonal line.

Do the same to the opposite corner.

Press toward the corner.

Trim away the excess.

Press again toward the corner. Ta-dah!

Blocks laid out on the design wall per bride's design

Added squares of embroidered fabric - some have a flower. Put up all the flower blocks first, then no flower blocks.

Looking for balance - tried alternating flower and no flower. Too many flowers on the right half of the wallhanging.

Trying for symmetry as to flower and no flower blocks - better

Turned flower blocks toward the center of the wallhanging - I'm happy with them now.

Added burlap squares

Added the embroidered name/date fabric (not trimmed to size yet)

Pinned blue and lace corners to burlap squares 

Pinned more lace triangles - I like this better.

Swapped out plain white square for another embroidered fabric square (left of "Fletcher")

I was very happy with this layout, and emailed some of the photos to the mother of the bride, who contacted the bride. They love it, with one little tweak. The bride would like a little blue added to the name/date area. I'm thinking a narrow border, or perhaps a narrow folded flap. I'm working with scraps and there isn't a lot of the blue left. We'll see what I can do.

I'm hoping to finish the wallhanging in a few days.

Debbie

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What If...

What if prompt #artjournal, a photo by quilter4010 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
What If prompt. What if I could live at the beach? I love the ocean and I would love to live on a beach. I'm two hours drive from the Pacific Ocean, and I take day trips there several times per year. Once a year I do a three-day personal quilting retreat not far from San Francisco. I can see and hear the ocean from my room. The scene on my journal page is a block away from my motel.

I painted the background yellow, then used a toothbrush to flick turquoise, brown and red paint, sort of like grains of sand. There is a page from John Steinbeck's Cannery Row; Monterey is one of my favorite places, about 3 hours drive from where I live. There is a bit of music from Claude Debussy's La Mer (The Sea), and a scrap from a Dutch-English dictionary.

Good Old Days

Good Old Days, a photo by quilter4010 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Good Old Days prompt. I loved when my children were small, and some of my fondest memories are of trips together when my son and daughter were young. Here is a photo of the two of them on a long ago camping trip. My son, now in his thirties, still loves to camp. Recently he took his two young daughters, ages 3 and 7, camping by himself. They all survived and had a wonderful time. To embellish the page, I used snippets of threads left over from a recent quilt and added antique buttons.

Drink of Choice

Drink of choice prompt. I enjoy Diet Pepsi. Page made of packaging from a 2-liter bottle of Diet Pepsi, and a newspaper ad for Pepsi. Painted using the cap, bottom of the bottole, wadded up label. White strips are the reverse side of the label.

Drink of Choice prompt #artjournal #dietpepsi, a photo by quilter4010 on Flickr.

Rain

Rain, a photo by quilter4010 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I love the sound of gentle rain. As a girl I enjoyed splashing in puddles in my rubber boots. So fun! Used paint, stones, fabric, sequins. Besides a brush, I painted with toothpicks, bottle caps, meat tray.

WIP Wednesday 6/5/2013

Lights On, Bob!

For organist, fellow church musician and very good friend Bob P.

Title is an inside joke between Bob and me.

Piano key border imitates a keyboard.

Original design

56" x 68"

Completed 6/4/2013

Close up

Classical music themed fabric reflects Bob's love of that style of music. Chose blue color for borders because the combination of blue with gold reminded me of royalty, and I imagine that the composers mentioned on the fabric performed before kings and queens.

Close-up of the back

Beige paisley is interesting, fits the mood of the theme fabric on the front, but isn't too feminine.

I finished Lights On, Bob! last night. I plan to give the quilt to Bob tomorrow (Thursday) evening before orchestra rehearsal at church, where Bob plays the organ and I play the piano. We have played together for 26 years. My daughter Lisa was 4 years old when Bob came to the church. Lisa will be 31 in just a few days. I hope Bob will enjoy the quilt as much as I enjoyed designing and making it for him.

My next project is a wedding wallhanging for the daughter of co-worker Gayle S. The fabrics you see below are leftovers from fabrics already being used for the wedding. I will use them to make the wallhanging. Included are lace and burlap. Think Romantic Cowboy.

"Fletcher" and date were machine embroidered by former co-worker Diane M., who owns a sewing business.

Sketch drawn by the bride

The wallhanging will be fairly small, 33" square. Wedding guests will sign the completely finished quilt, which will be framed and displayed at the newlyweds' home. I'll start this project in the next few days.

Debbie

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