Empty Nest Quilting

 Our nest is empty again. Bill and I helped Julia move into a new dorm room yesterday. There are perks to being an upperclassman, and she loves her larger room with private bath.

I've got a lot of projects to keep me busy. Last week was all about piecing. I love piecing! I love the process of cutting up fabric and sewing it back together. If the process involves some clever recutting and resewing, that makes me even happier!

Two examples from my recent sewing sessions:

Anita's Arrowheads for the back of my jelly roll quilt...

and Scrappy Mountain Majesties. 

This is my new stash project. As I come across smaller pieces of fabric, I'll be cutting 8.5" squares for this project.

 I pulled out this Philip Jacobs' geranium print for my New Year post. I couldn't resist getting right to work on this One Block Wonder. I'm sure I bought the book, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I had to wing it! It was a blast cutting and piecing this top. Now I need to figure out what to use on the back.

 I'll be focusing on quilting this week, starting with this mini for the schnitzel and boo swap. I'll tell you more about it when it is done.

 When I cleaned out my storage area, I found a basket full of Orca Bay parts from 2011. There were lots of HSTs and hourglass blocks. As I was piecing other projects, I pieced together pinwheels from the HSTs as leaders/enders. In no time, I had a new project to assemble. I put the last 2 borders on this morning making this a 40" square wall hanging. Now this needs backing fabric, too.

 And one more to quilt. My friend Ellie was working on this table runner and lost interest. I'll quilt it up and donate it to our guild auction in October.

 Let's sum up...

Ready for quilting:

Jelly roll/Arrowhead

One block wonder

schnitzel and boo mini

Scrappy blues

pink/yellow runner

Sunday Stitching

 I've been busy hand appliqueing lately, so I was ready for a quick piecing project. This little table runner will be donated to a holiday raffle/auction. One of my guilds meets at a senior center that does not charge us rent, so we try to donate quilty things when they have fundraisers.

I was supposed to make a runner suitable for April. Looking for spring fabric in my stash on this cold, rainy day was a welcome break. I found a mini charm pack of Wren & Friends that seemed appropriate. I had to add a few extra squares and some Kona Snow.

I just love that border print and have almost used it up. The backing is a sweet calico from a friend's stash. For the binding, I found two jelly roll strips of brown stripe left over from Olivia's quilt. 

 

Some simple free motion continuous curves and machine stitched binding made this was a two hour project. The finished product doesn't really say "April," but it is what it is.

Wrens & Friends Runner

 November 2, 2014

12" X 28"

Cactus Flower

 The Cactus Flower table runner that I started in a class with Jackie Kunkle in May is now finished. The pattern was designed by Judy Neimeyer and is available in Jackie's shop.

 The four units that I completed in class have blue centers. I wasn't sure if I liked them, so I tried some pink. Better! 

I finished the piecing on Thursday. Paper piecing makes such a mess, but it is totally worth it!

I'm getting my money's worth out of this quilting stencil from Patsy Thompson designs.

 

I probably did a lot more starting and stopping than necessary on this piece, but I was in no hurry. I stopped to bury threads after each section.

 

 The border fabric is a Riley Blake print that I fell in love with on someone else's blog. I liked it so much, I bought it in red and orange! The orange went on the back.

I used a variegated Auriful thread for most of the quilting- 50 wt #4657.

 

Photographing table runners isn't easy!

 

Cactus Flower Table Runner

Started 5/14/14

Completed 7/11/14

Designed by Judy Neimeyer

Class taught be Jackie Kunkel

Fabric: Flutter by the Quilted Fish for Riley Blake and Kona cotton solids

Size: 17" X 50"

WIP Wedensday- Table Runners

 I'm getting ready to vend at a Spring craft show in April, so I'm trying to get some work done. This week, I'm focusing on table runners.

This one is done and measures about 11 X 24". It was inspired by Ryan Walsh's quilt, but I pieced it with squares and rectangles.

These two are pieced from DS Quilts fabric that I picked up on sale last weekend at JoAnn's. They might get borders before quilting. The pattern can be purchased here.

 And this sweet little square was pieced together with hourglass units left over from Mollie's quilt. I'll be looking for a coordinating Springy print for the border while I'm on a shop hop this weekend.

Linking up, then back to work!

Ten Minute Table Runner

Even though I should be doing a million other things, I pulled some fabric for a ten minute table runner. Am I the last sewist to make one of these?

 OK, so it took me about 20 minutes, which is still pretty quick. I used this tutorial, but there are a bunch out there. Watch a video if you can't visualize it on "paper."

Now I'd better get back to the more important party prep!

WIP Wednesday

I hope you all had a beautiful Easter weekend. I didn't do any sewing on Sunday(Easter) or Monday (drove Julia back to school). I did get back to the arrowheads yesterday and have more to stitch today.

Finished:

Fabric Box Tutorial: Check it out!

 Friendship Star Mini

Arrowhead table runner:  In my frenzy of stitching up batik arrowhead blocks,  I made three pink blocks that didn't have a purpose. So I stitched them together into this quick tablerunner.

Some simple in-the-ditch straight line quilting was all it needed.

In progress:

The main arrowhead project is growing! This layout works, but I decided to add another row in each direction so I won't need to add a border. Not every block is a winner, so I'm making extras to swap out the ones I don't like. I'm hoping to get the top together today and get it quilted tomorrow.

Here's the pile of batik squares waiting for me at the machine. I just noticed that the bobbin door is open on my machine. I almost never close it. Does anyone else do that?

Next on the list:
Quilting Mod Bento
Quilting Swap Soup

New: I'm really tempted to jump in on this quilt along.

Time for the link up!

Snow Day / Sew Day

 Winter Storm Blizzard Nemo was here! We are very lucky to have electricity and heat. My mom is safe, too. Her building almost never loses power.

I shoveled the path from the front door to the driveway and the men of the house took care of the rest. We ended up with about 18" of snow, which doesn't compare with some areas with well over 2 feet. The worst part was the wind. Heavy wet snow plus wind = downed branches that take out power lines. It could be another day or more before all the power is restored. Did I mention how lucky we are?

What is a quilter to do being snowed in for a few days? I finished the baby quilt top for my niece. It is pinned to this quilt on my kitchen wall and you can see it shadowing through. Baby quilts always look great on this green wall!

When I cut up the jelly roll for these blocks, I was left with one 2.5" square of each strip. I pieced these little 4-patches as leaders/enders while piecing the blocks and quilt top. A few triangles to fill in the sides and I'll have a sweet little Spring table topper.

Today will be sunny and a little warmer. We're praying that our friends will have power restored soon.

Tuesday Triangle Table Topper

 Last night, I put the binding on this table runner. It will be my entry in the Rhode Island Modern Quilt Guild all-solids challenge AND the Pink Castle Fall for Solids contest on Threadbias. The design is inspired by Little Miss Shabby's Triangle Toss quilt. I don't have the magazine it was published in, so I figured it out using a block size that would work for a runner.

You might remember that I pulled the fabrics based on this color palette that I created here.

I wanted to do some big stitch hand quilting with some #5 perle cotton I had in the stash. I used gray thread around most of the triangles, but switched to yellow thread for the gray triangles. It was not easy! If you are considering quilting with perle cotton, I would suggest a thinner thread. My fingers are still sore from tugging so hard on the needle to pull the stitches through. Live and learn!

 I also should have spray basted. I always forget that I have a can of basting spray and it works great! It's not the flattest piece I've ever made. The surprising green on the back was purchased years and years ago. I have 4 yards of this horrible poly blend from Walmart that was supposed to be made into a Statue of Liberty costume. (Julia changed her mind about that one!)

 It's not a bad piece, and I enjoyed stepping out of my color comfort zone. I love how the triangles float as if they were tossed onto the background.

Finished size: 12.5" X 36.5"

Linking up with:

Find a Friend Friday


Finish it up Friday

Christmas Runners

I've been busy this week trying to boost my inventory for the next craft show.  My mother informed me that I need to sell something quilted, so here are three new table runners.

They were actually fun to make! 

I started with (24) 5" squares.  To each one, I stitched 2.5" squares to two corners, similar to this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew. 

I layered them with Fusi-boo batting, so I wouldn't need to pin.  It is a fusible bamboo blend and it worked great for this project!  I quilted it with free-motion petals.  No marking + no pinning = all 3 runners quilted in under 1 hour!

I was on a roll with speedy techniques, so I completely machine stitched the binding.  (Trim the quilt even with the top.  Attach the binding to the back, flip to the front, and top stitch.)

At this point, I wasn't about to hand-stitch the labels, so I fused some white Kona cotton to a sheet of Heat-n-Bond lite, trimmed it to 8.5 x 11" and fed it through my printer to create a bunch of labels.  Cut them down to size with pinking shears and fused them onto the back of the runners.  They might not last through the first washing, but they'll do the trick for now!

There will be 78 vendors at this show on Sunday!  It should be a fun day!

Sew Modern Monday

I could have shown you this table runner a couple of weeks ago, but you know...
Cookies!


My quilt guild used to meet at the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center. They recently had a fundraising event and asked for items for a basket raffle. Our guild donated a basket full of table runners and table toppers for each month of the year. One member is an expert basket maker, and she donated a gorgeous basket. Other members made and donated the runners and toppers.

This is the runner I made from leftovers of Meadowsweet. It is a knockoff of the Lil' Twister pattern. I don't own the acrylic template (yet) so I made do and cut out the squares with scissors.

I wish there was more contrast between the different prints, but I used what I had and this is what I got. It's fun and springy and I hope our basket earned lots of money for the PNC.

Please click on the button to visit more modern quilty goodness!