A Charmed Project

I love Charm packs. I buy them to get a good look at all the fabrics in a line I am interested in. I buy them because they are not too expensive. And I have also swapped them. So I have lots of charms.  What do you do with all of those charms?  Well, patchwork of course. And what do you do with all that patchwork? Cushion covers!

These old cushions for my dining room chairs were really worn and ugly. I forgot to get a picture before I striped them bare. I have had them on the to do list for at least 2 years. Yesterday, I started on them with my charm squares. Here is where I am after 3 are finished:

 This is the first one, covered in Road 15 from Sweetwater. I added some poly fill to puff it up a bit. They tend to get flatter over time.

 This one is also Road 15 in another colorway. I had a whole charm pack of this to use. I used 12 charms for each cushion. The strip around the side is made from fat quarters of Reunion and Noteworthy, cut into strips and pieced.

Before you get to thinking they are all going to be the same, the next one is a bunch of text charms from a swap. I did use the last of the strips of Reunion and Noteworthy on it.  The last two are not done, but I have the charms picked out. One is some Fig Tree prints from California Girl and a couple from a newer Fig Tree line that I can't recall the name of. The other one is just an assortment of charms from another swap I did about 3 years ago, so no telling what they are. After that, I have to buy one more foam form, as I have always been lacking one. Such a slacker! Talk to you soon.

WIP Wednesday

Lots of things in progress here at GrammieQ's place. I have only one week to sew my fingers to the bone before I go back to work. With the top to my MSBHQAL finished and waiting to be able to get some fabric for the back, it is full speed ahead with other projects.  Here we go:

 I put together another set of the HSTs that I have and am loving the way this is looking. There are only going to be enough for a large pillow, so that is the direction I am going. This is two of the four sections done. Any extra few I have I will work into the back of the pillow design.

 This hunk of loveliness is called Floral Fancy by Swirly Girls for Michael Miller. I saw it in the Hancocks of Paducah catalog. I ended up going on line and getting it elsewhere, since I am not happy with Hancocks service. I am making a table cloth from it. My sister has a beautiful table cloth and napkins that she bought in Italy, and this design, while brighter, reminds me so much of that one. What do you think, sis?

 This lovely AMH flannel has been sitting in my sewing room for almost 2 years waiting for me to make some PJ bottoms for my oldest daughter. I finally cut them out, using a tracing I did of some existing PJ pants.  I think I will sew up the seams and have her come for a fitting before I finish them off.

 This is the biggest project of the week. A quilt for my sister K. I had a quilting plan for it, but when I sat down and started on it, I felt like it wanted so much more quilting. Has that ever happened to you?

 So I am giving it what it wants and I am very thrilled with the results so far.  I have about 9 hours of quilting into this now. and I'm not sure how long to finish. I think I am more than half way there, though.

It's going to be a beauty, I think. The most quilting I have ever put into so small a quilt. I think it's around 60 x 60.  So that's what I am up to. How about you?
Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Molli Sparkles QAL Squares...DONE!

When I first thought to join the MSBHQAL, I thought I would do a lap size quilt. Then, I pulled fabrics and thought about bed sized quilts. Then I pulled more fabrics because I didn't have enough for a bed sized quilt. Now the blocks are done.  All 30 of them using 18 different fabrics. Whew...

 This is the entire stack of 30 blocks. I love the look and feel of it in my hands. I took them off the design wall and took them outside on the deck to photograph. What a difference it makes in natural light. The colors pop, just like in real life!

 There are 4 green blocks; one will go in each corner. That way, things stay a bit balanced.

 Each block is a bit different. Each has 6 different fabrics in it. There is some Sweetwater's Reunion, some Squared Elements (so soft) Pearl Bracelets (so versatile), Bonnie and Camille's Vintage Modern. Picking the fabrics for this was so much fun!

 This is one of my favorite blocks. I can't really pick just one, though. Each one has lots to offer the eyes. I am really excited to see them all together.

But that process won't begin until next week.   So until then, happy quilting. Have a great week.

A Promise Made, A Promise Kept

When I was working on my Swoon quilt, I kept all those little HSTs as I am sure most of us did. I promised myself I would go back later and make something out of them. How hard could that be? They were all cut after all, just needed sewing together. HA!

So, they sat...for awhile. Then I sewed a few together.  Then they sat...for months. Then I sewed a few together. Then they sat...Ok, enough sitting. I pulled them out this morning and finished sewing and pressing.  Then, I started playing on the design wall...

Chain piecing is the fastest way to go, but there were a lot of these little guys.

Here they are, all pressed and stacked.  There are 140 of them. I think I may have lost a couple. A couple of the stacks have odd numbers.

 So, what do you think? This arrangement?

 Or this one...

 Some pinwheels maybe?

 How about this...wait, I see a problem here.

There, that's better.  What about this one?  So this is my latest dilemma with these. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. I would love to finish this. I will let you know when I do.
Have a great week!

A Tale That Will Make You Swoon

Let's go back in time, shall we?  About a year ago, Katy, at I'm a Ginger Monkey was hosting a Swoon Along for all interested quilters to make Camille's Swoon quilt pattern.  I loved it and bought the pattern and made my first block.  Challenging, but not too tough.  Okay, I can do this.

I did some quick calculating and decided that if I only did one block a week, in nine weeks they would be done.  Yeah...that so didn't happen.  I don't know how long it took, but I did finally get it all put together.  Then, I had to stop for Christmas sewing.  Yes, that's right 11 months later.

January I bought batting and pin basted.  I had decided to quilt it myself.  What was I thinking???  I was thinking I couldn't afford to send it out, even if it was 91 inches square.  So this is what I did to set up:

 I got a pair of gloves.  These came from the Traveling Stash box.  I have never used gloves before, but you can bet I am a fan of them now.  And yes, this poor little Bernina is what I quilted on.

 It slides on my desk, so I put pieces of foam cabinet liner under the four feet.  Worked like a charm.

 I had to duct tape the extended top in place.  It's the one thing that isn't made very well on the Bernina.  The plastic "clips" that held it in place broke off a long time back.  If you are doing any free motion quilting, it moves and falls off.  Bad news!

And I put on my knee pedal to lift the presser foot so my hands would be free to wrestle the quilt.  There is the roll of duct tape down there.

So I began...I cursed...out loud...a lot.  This was harder than hard.  I had to make myself go in there and work on it to keep moving forward.  I think it took me 3 1/2 weeks.  Finally, Sunday last, it was done.

 Here is the binding, all pressed and ready to sew...I had no fabric for the binding, so I went on Etsy and found the checked red from the Reunion line which I thought was just perfect.

 This is how I wind it to attach it.  I put it on an empty spool and let it feed off of that.  I don't use pins. Gasp!!

 And here it is in all its Swooning glory.  Quilted, bound, washed and crinkled.  It is so soft and nice.

 Here is the back. I decided to use big blocks of the rest of the fabric line and I am so glad I did.  I love the way it looks.

                            See how nice the red checks are as a binding?

 This is my last label from the first set I bought over a year ago.  I just ordered some more and I changed it just a wee bit to a script font.

 If you look where the grey and the green meet you can see some of my quilting stitches that are not very in the ditch.  That happened a lot when I was trying to subdue the quilt to pass it under the needle.

I quilted around each star and a bit of straight line quilting coming from the corners.  Very minimal, but about all I could manage.  Will I ever do this again?  Nope, nada,  nunca, huh uh!!!  But I do love my Swoon Quilt!  Thanks for reading this far.
Talk to you again soon.

Weekend Accomplishments

It's been a great weekend here.  My weekend begins when I get off work on Saturday afternoon and goes until Monday night.  Tuesday is my Monday.  Did you follow that? Anyway, we (my hubby and I) took down the tree and restored order to the living room.  As is our fashion, we also deep cleaned and dusted the room.  It's a great time to get it done.  We also cleaned the floor.  This was good for me because...

 The time was finally here! I am going to quilt this Swoon quilt.  One year in the making of the top, the backing and finally buying the batting and it's on to pin basting.

 I got it all set to baste and got down to it.  I kept the camera close so I could take photos for this post, but I kept thinking it was a good thing nobody took a picture of me crawling around on the floor looking less than graceful as I pinned the layers.

 I cannot wait to see this all quilted up.  It is going to be wonderful and I think it may go on our bed.

 I was down there pinning away and it suddenly occurred to me, "I don't have any fabric for the binding!" I voiced it aloud to my honey and I said "I think it needs to be red, though."

 And wonder of wonders...He said "Yes, I think you're right.  Red is the way to go."  I love it when we agree!  It is very nice to see eye to eye on such creative matters.

So red it will be.  Now to find the perfect red...hopefully already in my stash!  In other news, my daughter and the boys came by Saturday when I got home, to hang out and craft.  V painted, daughter knit and baby B did this:

 Cutest, happiest baby in the world, lying there on one of Grammie's quilts.  Love to cuddle that little guy.

And my daughter helped me to figure out an arrangement for my SMQ Bee, round 1 blocks.  I was going to sash them, be she talked me out of that with this arrangement.  I like it.  I think I will just frame it with a border.

Don't forget to visit Sew We Quilt for the fabulous In Your Words blog hop going on this week.  Today is day one.  There are some very inspirational words in fabric over there.  My day to hop is Wednesday so I hope to see you back here then.
Have a great day!

Spoolin' Around

Spent a bit of time working on my Spools quilt top today.  I like how it's coming along.  It's a very easy pattern and so easy to get into the zone and just sew.

 I had to do three complete spools to see how they were going to look.  I need that gratification to keep me going sometimes.  The "thread" is Strawberry Fields by Fig Tree.  For the spool ends I am using 3 different fabrics, in keeping with using my stash: grey dots from Vintage Modern, grey stripe from Sunkissed, and grey tiny zigzag from Reunion.

 Chain piecing is definitely the way to go with this pattern. It's so easy to do too.  It also helps me to remember which way to orient the corner pieces and stitch them correctly.

 Here is a bit of trimmings from the spool ends.  I think these triangles are way too small to keep for any reason at all.  Into the trash they will go.

And neatly put away until next time, there are far fewer pieces in the project box now.  I love when I can see the progress.  Have a great weekend.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Boy, has it been hot here.  So hot in fact, that today's forecast of 96 degrees sounds good! When it gets that hot, there is nothing to do but sew in the AC.  You all know I'm right, yes?  So, what am I sewing?  Take a look:

 First up is the back to my Swoon Quilt.  I have been procrastinating a bit, so I used Amy's One Thing, One Week Challenge to help me get past this.  I really do want to see this quilt finished.

I used a bunch of the fat quarters from the Reunion line, along with leftovers from the background fabric and just kept putting it together until it was big enough.  And surprise, I kinda like it.  For me, this is the hardest part of quilt making.

Here are the blocks again.  I think this will be a great quilt.  And yes, the blocks have been sashed, but the picture of that is not too great.  You can't see them very well.  Too hot to go out and take pictures.

 For the first time in 4 years I have a design wall.  I wanted to work on these blocks and see how they looked.  So I found my old flannel sheet and washed it and then just hung it up with tacks.

 I forgot how much I love having a design wall.  It makes things so much easier to see.

 I also finished my two Bee blocks for the Comfort Quilts Bee this weekend.  So I will be going to the post office this morning to get these in the mail.

I love how they turned out.  The rainbow fabric is a Hoffman Challenge fabric from about 2004 I think.  I have never known what to do with it, even though I loved it when I bought it.
Have a great Monday everyone.