Ninnie Plan B

Muuuuch better! I like it so much better than the first one. This will be donated to the Ninigret Quilter's silent auction.


The border fabric is a Philip Jacobs' Delphinium. I pulled some batiks and Viola! The whole piece will be about 12" across (7" sides). I don't think I'll include a hanging sleeve/contraption. (How do you hang a hexagon?) It is the perfect size for a candle mat/table topper.

When I went trolling Flickr for inspiration, I found this little quilt by DeeRoo G in the Doll Quilt Swap group. I drafted a paper piece pattern for the half- hexie which is 1.5" tall. The quilt is pieced in rows, so no set in seams! It went together super fast. The points aren't perfect, but they are close enough for jazz. Now to quilt it. Then I'm making another one to keep!

Update: The original pattern is called Hexed Star. Of course, mine is much smaller.

Mini Zig Zag

Here's the mini zig zag top that I started a couple of days ago. I had intended to donate it to my guild silent auction, but it's not right. I like it and there's nothing wrong with it, but I wanted something better for the auction. It's perfect for a doll quilt (18x24"), so I'll finish it and try to sell it at the holiday fairs.


Silent auction plan B involves this pile and paper pieced hexagons.


Linda at Paper Panache released mystery block #62, so I pulled these for silent auction plan C.

I happened to be in the same building as my LQS, so I had to go in! I came home with a cool Australian print called Dancing Flowers, a black and white egg-like dot, and an interesting print that was on clearance. You know, just because.

Have a quilty day!

WIP Wednesday

I've had a very productive week! I think it's because I've been cutting or sewing every possible moment. I worked on a lot of small stuff, but it feels great to accomplish so much.

Finishes:
Nonna's Garden is done, except for a label.

Interlocking Windmills for Quilts of Valor - top is done and ready to pass on to a long-armer.


Blocks:
4x5 Modern Quilt Bee blocks are done and shipped.


September Block Lotto Curved Rail blocks are done.


Blogger's BOM- This looks like it will be a fun BOM! I'm using Denise Schmidt fabrics and some solids.


Blue block for Mod Conn meeting.


Starts:
Mini Ninnie Zig Zag for Ninigret Mini Auction.


Other:
We hosted an Apple Theme event for 46 Daisy Girl Scouts yesterday. (We were prepared for 60.) I prepared the craft project, an apple pencil topper. Glue dots are the best craft invention ever! Do you think I have a large enough stash of googly eyes?

I hope I can maintain this momentum for another week!

Now, off you go...

Blogger's BOM Block 1

My friend Jackie is hosting the Blogger's BOM.


I knew immediately that I wanted to play along, but what fabrics to use? I went looking through my modern bin and pulled all the blue and green Denise Schmidt prints from JoAnns. I had just picked up a few more last week. I'm partnering them with a couple of solids from Ryco. Hey, I'm cutting into fresh fabric!


Sherri from A Quilting Life designed the very cute block 1. I'm hoping all the blocks will be this easy! This might be the first BOM that I can actually keep up with! The green looks slightly more obnoxious in the photo than in real life. I like it!


I'm linking to Jackie's block 1 page here and adding photos to the Flickr group. I think the hardest part of this BOM will be waiting a full month for the next block!

Speaking of Jackie, she invited some Rhode Island friends to join her at the next Mod Conn meeting. They have been creating modern blocks in one color for charity quilts and this month's blocks are blue. Here's my block to donate.

I wanted to make another Roads to Rome block, but there was too much white background. So I just used the flying geese sections and played with strips of Kaffe fabrics. I designed a block!

You can find the Mod Conn Quilters on Facebook.

Weekend Update

I haven't shown you much family stuff lately, but we had a great weekend that I wanted to record. I'll have a quilty finish for you tomorrow!

Our weekend started with a football game in the rain. It was Julia's first gig as a drum major, and she was so excited! That's her in the blue rain coat. Pete is playing quads in the front row. The band kept spirits high even though they were soaking wet. Unfortunately, our team lost by one point in overtime.

On Saturday, the boys went canoeing. They worked their way down the Narrow River to where it meets Narragansett Bay.


Here's Pete in a whirlpool created where the river current meets the incoming tide.

This afternoon, the band marched in the Fireman's Memorial Parade. There's Julia up front again!

The Drum Majors got to have a little fun and did a little dance during the marching cadence.

And there's Pete on quads again.

I finished the top of Interlocking Windmills today which I will show to tomorrow. See you then!

Block Lotto- September

Here are my Block Lotto blocks for September.

The block is called Curved Rails. It is simple and effective, especially in batiks.

This is my favorite block of the bunch!

Design Floor Friday

Eight more seams to go on the QOV Interlocking Windmills.
I used 7 different reds and 13 different blues, all from stash!


I wish I could keep sewing and attach the borders right now, but I need to clean the house for weekend guests. Poo. I hate cleaning. Sewing is way more fun!

4 X 5 Modern Swap

My 4X5 Modern Quilt Bee blocks are done!

Actually, they've been done for about a week, and just needed to be trimmed to size.

Each member of our hive (#14) listed her fabric color choices. Then we chose a block pattern to make for each other. I chose the block Roads to Rome, because our family traveled to Italy this past summer and we all know that all roads lead to Rome! The fact that it was paper pieced was a bonus.

Now it's time to play "one of these things is not like the others!" I had a hard time with this color combination. I actually made this block twice. The first one was too pastel and looked like a baby quilt. For this one, after all the units were paper pieced, It just didn't look right. So I started turning things around, and this placement was more pleasing to my eye. Did you notice that the pink geese are flying in the opposite direction?


That brings up an interesting point. If the block is called roads TO Rome, why are all the geese flying away from the center? Shouldn't they be flying towards the center?

I had been thinking about taking a swapping break. If I do one more round of this bee, I'll have 12 blocks, which is much more useful than 6. If I do the full year, I'd have 24 blocks! If you want to play in the next round, sign ups start on October 1.

Nonna's Garden

Nonna's Garden is finished!
All 547 bits of hexie goodness.


My Italian grandmothers both had wonderful gardens and I will never forget which flowers each of them planted. Grandma Downstairs (who lived in the flat below us) tended to phlox, daisies, dahlias and an arch of red roses above a statue of the Blessed Mother. The Other Grandma had lilacs, lilies of the valley and clematis on her front porch trellis. Imagine being welcomed to her little house by 2 curtains of purple! They were both handy with a needle or crochet hook, so I think they would be pleased with this tribute to them.

I enjoyed the entire process, from drafting a plan and choosing fabrics to hand piecing at baseball games to machine quilting.

I'm still a little upset that some of the red dye ran, but I'm trying to let it go.

There is a modern Kaffe print on the back and a stone print as the binding, as a nod to the stone walls of New England.

One more gratuitous shot!

Nonna's Garden by the Numbers:
(547) 1/2" hexagons
12" each side
24" widest point to point

WIP Wednesday

I'm seeing RED this week!

Finished: For the Love of Solids Swap shipped Thursday to Michelle. Yay! She likes it! Click over to this post to see details of what I sent and received!


Almost Finished: Nonna's Garden. I quilted it yesterday, buried all the threads and rinsed out the blue pen.


Grrr. Several colors ran during the night. Of course the red was the worst. I laid it on a towel to dry and it looked fine before I went to bed. This morning, this...


After a couple of rinses with Oxy clean and a color catcher, it's better, but not perfect. Should I still submit this for judging, knowing I'll get points deducted for the bleeding? Any suggestions for getting the rest of the bleeding dye rinsed out?


In Progress: All the units are done for the RED Interlocking Windmills. I love how this is coming together. It will have a pieced blue border and will be donated to QOV (if the red doesn't run all over!).


Others:
1. 4X5 Swap Blocks are done- need to be pressed, trimmed to size and shipped.
2. Meadowsweet Dresden needs to be rinsed to remove quilting pencil marks. Please, God, don't let any of those dyes run!
3. Labels need to be made for the Hexie Runner and Zig Zag Friends before our guild show.
4. I might skip the Block Lotto this month, but I was on a roll!
5. Wedding Ring Star- no progress this week.

No linky box this week. Lee will be back next week.

For the Love of Solids

This may have been my favorite swap so far. It was a secret swap, so the quilter I made something for is not the quilter who made something for me. My partner said her favorite color is turquoise and she'd like a tote bag, table runner or mini quilt.

Here is the table runner I'm shipping today.


There was a circle of geese in her inspiration mosaic, but I wanted to mix it up a little. All I did was shift the bottom half of the circle to make a serpentine row of geese.

The background quilting design was inspired by a section of Pat Ferguson's Zen Dahlia quilt.

There was a group discussion of whether or not we could use a print on the back. The consensus was yes, so I used this Kaffe target print.

Besides the main piece, we needed to send one "extra" that could be handmade or some other little gift. I made a crossed canoes lapel pin from the solids and a key leash from the Kaffe print.

When I got home yesterday, there was a package on my porch and it never occurred to me that I would be receiving a swap package! Here is what I got from Debbie!

I indicated that my favorite solid was mango. I love how Debbie combined that with other oranges and a variety of grays, and my other favorite, snow. Isn't that a great block?! I only do curved piecing when absolutely necessary, never by choice.

The back is just as cool as the front.

Here are my extra goodies. I can't wait to play with the pearl cotton and fill up the pouch.


An awesome swap all around!