I Might Be a Squirrel

Hi there. I have missed you. I have been busy, and traveling and clearly, not here in this space. I must confess, it's partly because I have been busy, and partly because I have been lazy. I have trouble getting around to taking and uploading pictures to blog about, because that's really the point of blogging here.

Right before I left for two weeks in North Carolina to see the the kids and the grand kids, I got this book. Now I just started EPP last year with a sew along with Rachel from Stitched in Color and Jodi from Tales of Cloth. But I wanted to go beyond hexagons and until this book came along, I wasn't sure how that was going to happen.

This book not only made that happen for me, I think it turned me into a squirrel. I wanted to make ALL the quilts. And I wanted to make them NOW! So when I got home, after a week of acclimating to being home, and then doing a craft fair, I started.

 First, I made the honeycomb paper shapes, and began that project. Very close to hexagons, so very easy to stitch. I liked so many of the quilts, I decided to just do some small versions of the panels for the big Seedlings quilt as mini quilts.

 Then, I branched out into the shapes for the peppermint quilt panel. This was a very different shape for me to tackle, but still pretty easy. These are my first few, and I am not sure how many I will do. I have 6 now and 9 might be my limit.

This is a closeup of the Caraway panel. It is the first one to be finished. I hand quilted with Perle cotton on the Caraway plants, and then hand quilted around the rows of plants.

This shot is a little blurry, but it is quilted and bound. I used a chain stitch to embroider the name on it and I think I will do that for all of them. I am not sure how many of these I will make. There are 12 quilts in the book.

So far I am really enjoying this process. I thought about buying the shapes, but decided to make them myself to save some money. It's not hard, but it does take time. I finished the Honeysuckle panel yesterday, but haven't photographed it yet. That will be in my next post.

The one full size quilt I will be making from the book is the Lavender quilt. Hands down, my favorite. I think that one will take me quite some time, but I will take some progress photos for you.
And lest you think I am not squirrely enough, I am also doing some sewing projects, Christmas ornaments, and still crocheting on a blanket.

This is the most recent picture, and it is taken in North Carolina. This is the back side of my Dune blanket from Lucy at Attic 24. I am several more colors deep into it now. I will also do a post on it very soon with more pictures.
So there you have it. I am all over the place, and I still have one more craft fair to do in two weeks!
I will talk to you soon.

You Can Teach an Old Quilter New Tricks

So I quilted my 36 patch quilt this week. I was so happy to get it finished. It's been a long time since I finished a quilt for me. I used many of my all time favorite fabrics, and a few new favorites as well.

 You will see Lizzie House, Elizabeth Hartman, Laurie Wisbrun, Heather Ross and many more.

 Some of these fabrics are ten or more years old. Some were the final scraps, but some were larger yardage. It only takes 2 WOF  x 2 1/2 inch strips to make enough for the block.

 I used to have Dear Stella Confetti Dots in every color they made. Now they are all gone almost.

So I started quilting diagonal lines over each square. I love the way it looks, and as I know this quilt will get lots of use, this should be enough quilting to hold it together.

So now, about the new trick? It is in reference to the binding. I have been making quilts for 30 years. I learned pretty early on why double fold was better than single fold. I figured out my best way to get a mitered corner.

I learned to use my walking foot to attach the binding. The one thing I had trouble with was joining the two ends of the binding on the quilt. I couldn't wrap my head around it, so I just tucked one end inside the other and it left a small, but mostly unnoticeable gap. I did my quilts that way for years.

Then, I saw a tutorial by Amy Ellis showing how to join the two ends on the bias and make a smooth transition. You can't tell where the end is, as it just looks like all the other places you joined the binding strips. This is, for me a game changer. I have bound 3 quilts like this so far. Maybe it was seeing it done on a video. Whatever the reason, I now have a new trick in my repertoire.

I had planned to show a picture of the entire quilt, front and back at the end of the post, but I apparently cut off the bottom row of blocks. I am sorry and I will take a new picture and share it next time. Until then, Happy Quilting and enjoy your weekend.

My Good Fortune

This is a very appropriate name for this Mystery Quilt that Bonnie Hunter held earlier this year. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had started this and then become very frustrated with it and stopped. It was my first bit of good fortune to start this quilt. The second bit of good fortune, for me, was that when I stopped, I downloaded the rest of the instructions for later. I did this, not knowing it would be more than 6 months before I came back to it.

All the completed clues were put into a project box. It sat beside me while I sewed many more projects.

 These were what Bonnie referred to as "bonus" blocks. They were left from making another block and saved for later use in this quilt.

 These were the neutral or low volume blocks I blogged about earlier this week. I love how these turned out.

 Sew and trim, sew and trim, sew and trim. Easy, but time consuming. But this time, I didn't mind. I put on some music and just dove right in.

And this is the first batch of 20 blocks, completed. Stunning, am I right? Bonnie knows her stuff.

 And these are the rest of the blocks, now all pieced. There are 35 blocks all together. The last row will not fit on my design wall, but I don't care. I just love looking at this and thinking of my Good Fortune in this whole process.

So for today, I am putting in some time on another project that I need to move forward. Tomorrow I will get back to this and sew all these beautiful blocks together. And then, my good fortune will continue on into the borders.
Talk to you soon.

Giant Dahlia

I know you have seen those giant Dahlia panels that everyone has been free motion quilting. I have seen many lovely versions of them and wanted to try my hand at it. So I did, and then it became a quilt. Here are the pictures:

First, thes are the pictures of the day I was doing the binding on the quilt. The colors are stunning!

 The colors look pretty good here, they are fairly true to the fabrics. I am sure you recognize the Ombre Confetti Metallic from V and Co.

               The dark sashing is Kona Solid in Emerald.

             This is after washing and drying for maximum crinkle effect.

My label

All the quilting was done on my Bernina home machine. I used my walking foot for the straight lines and my BSR for everything else. Needless to say, I am pretty happy with how this came out.
Talk to you soon.

Low Volume Table Runner

Remember last week when I showed you some pictures of a low volume table runner I was making? Well I got the whole thing quilted and bound the next day. Pictures? Of course.

 This is the runner, spread out on the glass topped coffee table in our living room. I love having a runner on that table and I need to make a few more. Maybe a Christmas one?

 After I got all the strip sets put together as one, and pin basted, I began to do some straight line quilting. I did some random width lines. Thick and thin.

 Then, of course the binding had to be neutral too, so as to blend in with the top.

But the back is much more colorful. And of course, there is my label. I am really loving the look of this. I will see you soon.

From Grammie Q to Grammie C

No, not a name change, but I did just finish another crocheted blanket for my daughter. I wanted to share it here.

 This is a Big Blanket Ripple from Attic 24. Lucy has a wonderful blog and she writes crochet patterns and shares them with us for free. This is my 5th blanket from one of her patterns.

 This is taken on my queen size bed. Like most quilters, I am first an artist and I like to try many crafts. I know that lots of other quilters do more than quilt as well.

 Crochet is something I can do during the evening while watching TV. It is also a very portable thing.

Arent these just the best colors? So bright and vivid. This blanket will see lots of use.

And here it is all packed up and ready to go to its new home in a few weeks. I love being able to deliver it in person!
Have a lovely day and I will see you again soon.

36 Patch Progress

Making progress on my 36 patch quilt. All 36 blocks are now finished. Yipee!!

These are the last 5 blocks I made for the quilt. I am so happy that they are done. I am hoping to start putting them together this week.

I started laying them out on the bed to figure out my arrangement. I have trouble getting a picture of the whole bed with my phone, but when it is all put together, I will get a better picture to show you.
Have a great day y'all.