Weekend Stitching

On Saturday, I spent the day taking a bag-making workshop. Lois and Shari from Kindred Quilters are teaching us how to make their Take it All with You bag. The blue with orange flowers is the outside of my bag, the yellow will be the lining. I got a lot done in class, and finished my homework. I'm ready for class 2!

On Sunday, it was time to regroup, put stuff away, make new piles, and prepare for the week ahead. Our quilting retreat starts on Friday and I still have a lot to do to prepare. Packing for a retreat is always fun. The first time I went, I only brought one spool of thread for piecing and used it up!

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.