Strippy Pyramids

 The strippy pyramids top is assembled and added to the dreaded pile of tops.

I rescued two pieces of this orange DSQuilts print from the clearance rack at JoAnn's yesterday. It is just enough for the back. I guess I'm not finished with orange yet.

I'm trying to find a place in my house to photograph quilts when no one else is here to hold them. Can you see the 9-patch peeking through the white?

 

 Using clothespins to clip the 9-patch to the curtain rod worked pretty well. I thought I could just pin the new top to it, but there is too much light shining through.

This window in our bedroom was one of the selling points of this house.

Have a colorful weekend!

Rainbow 9-Patch Finish

 Some finishes are more exciting than others. This one is a huge relief. I'm just so happy to have it done and off the UFO/WIP list!

It started out as a 9-patch swap in 2009! It was my first online swap and I was so excited to participate. The center was assembled within days of receiving the third batch of blocks. It took some time to accumulate the border squares and strips, as I would cut an extra strip from every piece of fabric I used for other projects.

I purchased a 90" wide piece of fabric for the backing about a year ago. I wasn't happy with the gray border corner, and really wanted to pull it out. On the advice of friends, the gray stayed.

It went off to Pat for quilting a few weeks ago. I found the vintage-looking green in my stash for the binding. Green goes with everything! I hand stitched the binding while watching the Olympics on TV.

I'm so happy to have this done as my #6 UFO in the Ninigret challenge.

Rainbow 9-Patch

Started May 2009

Completed February 2014

Swap hosted by twiddletails

Quilted by Pat Harrison/ Ocean Waves Quilting Co

74 X 92"

WIP Wednesday

I'm still stitching up a storm here. When I have free time, I either eat or sew. Sewing is healthier!

New Project last week: Farmer's Engineer's Wife
I went a little crazy last week and made 24 Farmer's Wife blocks. When I packed it up, I decided to sort the scraps by color and another new project was born.

 

New Project this week: Strippy Sixties

These 60 degree triangles were foundation pieced on paper from my scrap piles. They went together really quickly. The white triangles were added yesterday after a close vote. This was my original vision for this project, so I had to follow through. I think there will be another strippy project soon without the addition of solid white.

It is time to sew this top together, and time for you to vote again. What is your favorite layout?

1. random half drop

2. controlled half drop

3. rainbow

 There was a recent finish that I haven't shared yet. I'll get it photographed soon!

Dear Rike

This message is for Rike B in Germany. I have really enjoyed reading your comments and I very much appreciate that you have been visiting the blog. For some reason, your email address is not available to me, so I cannot reply to you personally. Please email me directly at tinastitches (at) gmail (dot) com so we can be friends.

I think the problem is that I have not registered for google+. If you use it, please let me know why I should switch. Are there downsides?

Thirty-six Sixties

I think I'm finished making 60 degree scrappy triangles.

There are thirty-six of them, which is enough for a generous lap quilt if I add white corners to square them up. This was the original plan.

They are really fun all up next to each other like this, though.

What do you think? White or no white?

Strippy Sixties

When it was time to put away my scrap fabrics last Friday, I just had to sort them by color first. (Sorry, I forgot to take a pic of the pretty piles on the floor.) Once that was done, I was itching to use them, instead of just packing them up. I've been wanting to play with 60 degree triangles, so I started making these string pieced babies.

I think I've shown you this 9" roll of masking paper before. I found it in the hardware store, and it is nice and thin for foundation piecing (tears off easily). I cut the paper into triangles with my handy ruler. I had to add a horizontal line to my ruler to mark the bottom edge of the paper. When I'm done with this project, I can easily remove that line with some rubbing alcohol. 

Next, I take the paper over to the machine and pull some strips from the pile.

 

Sew together the first two strips, using a small stitch length.

Flip it open and press. It helps to have your iron within reach of your sewing machine.

Repeat with the remaining strips until the paper is covered and you have something that looks like a birthday cake.

Trim into a neat triangle. (I gave myself permission to throw away the bits that get cut off!)

 

Add it to the design board.

 

When I have more triangles pieced, I'll decide on a layout. I'm not sure if I'll add some white to break up the colors.

EW- Day 4

It's time to check in and link up with the Library Project Quilt Along. I went a little crazy this week with the Farmer's Wife blocks (aka Engineer's Wife). I got myself in trouble with Sharon because we had decided to make two blocks a week. She made her two and I made 24. Once I started, I couldn't stop!

I only made 3 blocks on Thursday. I started by remaking Corn & Beans with paper piecing. Sooo much better! I thought I was getting pretty good at cutting triangles with the Easy Angle ruler and accurately piecing, but this block just got all screwy.

Urrgh. Mistakes are so hard to pick out when paper piecing with tiny stitches. Paper piecing is my comfort zone, but mistakes still happen.

Blocks 23 and 24.

I'm packing it all up so I can work on something else this weekend. But before I put all the fabric away, I cut out the next 12 blocks. When I come back to it, I can just pull out a bag of pieces and start sewing.

In other news, the second amaryllis finally bloomed.

EW-Day 3

I'm plugging along with my Engineer's Wife blocks. I had to leave the house yesterday - twice - so only 4 blocks were made. Corn & Beans (bottom left) is so bad, I'll need to try again. It will be paper pieced next time.

 My favorite of the day is the red and white checkerboard made from scraps from the Valentine projects, here and here.

My goal for today is 7 blocks, including remaking Corn & Beans.

Engineer's Wife- Day 2

I managed to piece the next 9 Farmer's Wife blocks on Tuesday, but it wasn't easy. I made the last one at 10pm. I was determined to get that 9th block done just because a 3x3 grid makes a nice picture.

Why are the simplest blocks the easiest to screw up?

#16 Calico Puzzle

I played a little bit with fussy cutting which was really fun. This was also my first block with no solid white. This one is a little busy, but I like it anyway.

#15 Buzzard's Roost

I changed the color placement for Century of Progress but I'm not happy with it. I probably won't remake it or use it in my final quilt. There is a huge blob of seam allowances behind the center of this block. It's really unavoidable with so many seams coming together.

#18 Century of Progress

Blocks 1-18

I need to get some other work done today, so this will not be a 9 block day!

Engineer's Wife- Day 1

 I finally started piecing Farmer's Wife sampler blocks. I'll be linking this project back to the Library Project Quilt Along as well as the Farmer's Wife Quilt Along. (My library list is here.) I don't think I would have started this project at all until my friend Sharon mentioned that she started piecing, and then I saw the book in Karen's studio.

Blocks 1-9, pieced 2/17/14

I'm working from my modern scrap bins, boxes and bags with Kona white as the background. Using scraps creates such a mess!

Bat Wing #5 is the only block I paper-pieced so far. The colors were not right, so I took it apart (not fun picking out those tiny stitches!). The colors are still not right, but I'm leaving it. I'm just not that much of a perfectionist.

I have decided on a layout, so I will only need to make 61 of the 111 blocks in the book. Or maybe I'll make them all and make two quilts. We'll see. For now, I'm piecing the blocks in order. I'll probably get tired of that and start jumping around. I get bored easily!

 

Since my husband is not a farmer, my quilt will be titled The Engineer's Wife. As anyone married to an engineer will tell you, it requires a totally unique skill set!

Quilt Top in a Day

If you are looking for a fun, quick pattern, this could be it. This free pattern from Project 12 Quilts is called Little Leapfrog. It goes together so quickly, I was able to cut out and piece the top all in one snowy day. I added a few rows, so this one finishes at 54 X 66".

The jewel tones all came from Joan's stash, so I only needed to buy the gray background. It will be added to the massive pile of tops that need to be quilted for charity.

A Quilted WIP

I picked up this quilt from Pat on Friday and I love it again! When I brought it to her there was not much enthusiasm on my part. Which quilting design did I want? Which thread? At the time I really didn't care much. But now I'm really happy with our choices!

The quilting design is called Ink Blot, and Pat had it stored in the juvenile file. I'm not sure what that says for my taste, but I really like it on this quilt. The thread is a rainbow variegation from Superior. Variegated thread has become a theme for me in the past week!

My new mattress is ridiculously high, so this quilt does not begin to drape far enough on the sides. Bummer. It will need to live at the foot of the bed.

But it still needs to be bound, probably in green (another recent theme). Hand stitching the binding to the back will be the perfect job for long nights watching the Olympics on TV.

Log Cabin UFO

This is an old UFO. The log cabin blocks were made during a retreat weekend in the mid- to late-1990's. The workshop was actually a Colorado log cabin pattern. I got as far as making the straight log cabin blocks, but never managed to get the Colorado star points pieced. Take a look at this quilt to see what I'm missing.

I played with the blocks for a while before deciding on this setting. I think it looks a little modern. I need to find some fabric for the borders, backing and binding which might require a trip to a local quilt shop's sale later today! Eventually, this quilt will be donated to Quilts of Valor.

A Friday Finish for My Valentine

I've added two new pillows to the collection on my bed.

For Valentine's Day, I thought it would be nice to finish Bill's Bee pillow. He joked about being miffed that I wanted to hang my T is for Tina quilt above our bed, so I started B(ee) is for Bill. We're goofy that way.

The paper piecing pattern is from Amy at Badskirt. When I pieced the block back in November I put the squaring up triangles on the wrong sides. I did not intend for the bee to stand up straight! So out came the seam ripper.

horrible cell phone photo

Then I started quilting and that was another fail. I tried a new fill and it looked horrible. Rip again!

Bill's little bee sat and waited a couple of months until I found him again this week. I pulled out another variegated thread that matched the greens and blues perfectly.

I quilted some Angela Walters triangle fills and my trusty loopy swirl.

While I was making and stuffing pillow forms, I finished the Clamshell pillow, too. I die cut the shapes at Karen's house two weeks ago. The rows are machine pieced but the top edge is hand appliqued to the aqua background. My Facebook and instagram friends chose the background color.

This one was hand quilted with a creamy Aurifil Mako 100% Cotton 12 weight thread. This was my first time using the 12 weight and I loved it! This pillow was inspired by Amanda's Riley Blake challenge entry.

The Pebbled Sea Glass pillow is still my favorite. Isn't my little Devil Dog cute? The bull dog is a Marine Corps mascot. I picked him up in Parris Island when we went to Pete's graduation. Pete is doing well with his training at Camp Pendleton. We get to talk to him on the weekends and he sounds great!

B(ee) is for Bill 12" pillow, started 11/7/13, completed 2/13/14

Clamshell 16" pillow, started 1/31/14, completed 2/131/4