Avignon Picnic Quilt

Avignon Picnic Quilt is totally done and went to CUAQ (quack) Therapy with me on Thursday.

I had some leftover strips, enough to make this bag.

The tote pattern is from Missouri Star Quilt Company and you can find it on YouTube here.  I put only one pocket on instead of two.  But the tote was super easy to make.  

How has your weekend been?

Table Toppers

The table toppers are finished and ready to go to Quilt Retreat.  Seeing the picture, I almost want to make another 9 to make into a quilt.  But I won't..

I've been starting to pack.  We need to take bedding and towels, so I have a blue IKEA bag ready with those items.   I have a few projects in another bag.  But I need to narrow it down and not take too much.  I over pack projects every time.  Or and I guess I need to think about clothes too......

Ouch!

I was doing a bit of early morning sewing today.  I woke up about 4:30 and since I usually get up about 5:00, I decided to stay up.  Got the coffee made and went about sewing.  All was going well for about 45 minutes until I accidentally ran over a pin.  What a mess!

I bent the pin like I have never seen before and broke the tip of it off.  I looked for some time to find the tip as I didn't want it caught in my machine doing more damage.  I do remove pins as I sew.  My mind just wasn't on the task at hand and I wasn't fast enough.

Now to the ouch part, while trying to snip off a thread to loosen my fabric, I snip a slit into my finger.  Ouch!  Time for a break and no more sewing for this morning.  Going to get cleaned up and ready for work.

P.S.  No fabric was damaged during this fiasco.

Quilted!

My Avignon Picnic quilt is quilted!  Just need to add the binding.  

A few years ago a friend had made a quilt with bright batiks and black that I fell in love with.  I now have that one crossed off my wish list.  I had lots of leftover fabric, so I will be making something else with those pieces.

So many ideas and desires of quilts I would love to make.  I think maybe that's one reason why I have so many UFOs.  I love to start the quilts but soon I'm thinking about the next one and the pull to start can be come so great that I quit what I'm doing and start it. ( also know as Startitis)

Speaking of finishing, I need to get back to the last of my table toppers!

Runaround Bag

This past Saturday I took a class at Cut Up & Quilt, taught by Jean, on making the Runaround Bag.  The bag is super easy, so you really don't need a class.  It was just fun to get together with friends and make the bag.  Here is my finished bag:

Did you see that word up there?  "Finished", yes I don't have another UFO!  Whoo Hoo! Go over to Jean's blog and check out all the other bags.  I love seeing all the fabics that other people have used.  Gives you even more ideas!

The New School Year Has Begun!

I was back to work this pass week.  So much to do, I miss the gentle and lazy way of getting up in the morning.  Computer time, sewing, or general cleaning up. Now I have to be out the door in order to get to work on time!  The kids are dealing with the same issue.  They are use to sleeping in, getting up and playing games or watching TV.  The new school year has begun!

I'm still working on the table toppers.  They are coming along so nice!  I do want to show you a top I finished.

The LQS, Cut Up and Quilt, has a night once a month called "CUAQ Therapy". (CUAQ is pronounced Quack).  Every month, since they started this, we would receive a pattern and your mission was to complete the top by the next month's Therapy. I finally did one!  The pattern is called "Edd Tide" by Villa Rosa Designs.  The pattern called for fat quarters, but I had this yardage that I thought would make a great baby boy quilt.  These patterns make me want to make more quilts, they are easy and generally use precuts.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

A Quilty Week

It has been a quilty week.  On Monday I finished a UFO project, a Fall table runner.  Love the colors.  And the weather has been cooler this week, so it feels like it's not to early to have this done.

Tuesday I went to a workshop that Tony Jacobson taught.  He is the art director at Fons and Porter.

Tony also did a trunk show for the Guild that evening.  So many wonderful quilts!

Yesterday I did some sewing with friends.  I met Jean at Hancock Fabrics and we worked on projects together.  It's always fun to sew with others.  They help you out and they make you laugh when your upset with your project and then you see it's all OK!

Cutting, Cutting, Cutting

I'm on a roll, cutting, cutting, cutting.  I am taking a class on Tuesday that is offered through the quilt guild I belong to, Piecemaker's Quilt Guild Of Southwestern Iowa.  Tony Jacobson, (Tony is the Art Director at Fons & Porter's.) is coming to lecture and is doing a workshop prior to the meeting.  The quilt calls for a jelly roll, but I decided to use some of my 2.5" strips to make the necessary blocks.  I have those all cut out.  I need to get the background squares cut and I'll be ready for the workshop on Tuesday.

 Here they are in all their scrappy goodness!  Each block will be a different fabric.  (Eighty different fabrics.)  And no, it didn't make a dent in the bins of strips.

All packed and ready to go!  Don't you just love using the plastic containers from lettuce to store your projects?  They come in so handy.  And they are recyclable!  So when you're done, just toss in the recycle bin.

Slow And Steady

I'm like the turtle in "The Tortoise and The Hare", slow and steady.  I have finished all the table toppers.

I have pulled fabric from my stash for backings and have cut batting.  Now I'm ready to start pinning and get these babies quilted!

I do have 2 borders done on my Red, White, and True quilt.  I did go buy more of the blue Iowa fabric to use.  I like the way it looks the best.  I hope to have the borders on by the end of the week.  Not sure what I plan on using for backing.  I be thinking about that as I prep my table toppers.

Hope your day is sew happy!

Beautiful!

My friend Cathy and I met so I could pick up the border sections she was embroidering for me.  Beautiful!    I love how they look.  She took it a little further than me, as she knows what her machine can do and the results are amazing to me.  Love the little flower she added to the side.

I can hardly wait to get a few of these to the finish line, they are going to be so cool!  Thanks Cathy!

Done

The Retreat quilt is done, but I'm not going to show it yet.  I'm going to show you after it's quilted.  I love how it came out.

Pulled more stash and made another table topper for the Retreat.  

The white fabric I used for the star points will be the border between the corner stones.  I even pulled more fabric for the next 3.  And then I'm done!

I had this kit for some time waiting for me to sew it up.  Since it's the same pattern I'm using I did it along with the one above.  They go together so fast and look so nice.

The bird fabric is the Iowa state bird, the gold finch.  Not sure when this fabric came out, but it's been some time ago.  There wasn't a date on the piece of fabric I had.

Busy Days

I have had some busy days the last few days. Monday and Tuesday were rainy than hot and humid so pretty much stayed inside.  Saturday a couple of friends and I went shopping.  I found this wonderful batik for backing of my Retreat Quilt.

Monday when the directions came out for the Red, White, and True QAL I was able to complete that. Thank you rain.

I love how this is looking.  I picked up some really cute red, white and blue polka dot fabric that I thought would make a nice border, but it was really too busy with the background fabric.   So I need to find a border fabric before next Monday so I can complete this when the directions come out. Have you checked out the Quilt Along?  Go - right now, I'll wait until you come back.

I also have made these 4 table toppers.  They are waiting for a friend who will be doing some embroidery work for the four sashing that go around the toppers.  It's been fun putting my stash fabrics together to make these.

Lots of quilty sewing fun going on during these rainy, hot and humid days!

Cutting

I have really been in the mood to cut fabric.  Not sure why, but I'm going with it.  (Could be those overflowing drawers of strips.)  Last year when Bonnie Hunter issued the Leader And Ender challenge, Lozenges I started cutting and something else came along and I put it in a shoe box bin and set it on the edge of my cutting table thinking I would get back to it.    So yesterday I did.  I started counting how many Lozenges I had cut and how many more do I need. So cutting more.  One of my fabrics is a golden oldie:

I also finished sewing my "B" blocks between cutting.  This is going to be fun to set out the rows and start sewing!

Switching gears altogether now, I changed thread and I'm working on my Red, White and True QAL.

Go over to Jean's blog and check out the twin size Red, White and True.  So cool!

Look At This

Look at this!  I made a 100 patch block as a leader and ender  (a la Bonnie Hunter ) while sewing my blocks for the Retreat Quilt!  How cool is that!

At the Guild meeting last night, Denise had a great suggestion, use one of the guild Quilts For Comfort kits as your leader and ender. You get 99 - 5 inch squares in a kit and you can use them any way you want.  Fun to see what people come up with.

Back to the sewing machine, I have to get those "B" blocks done!

Progress

I feel like I made some progress.  I have half of the blocks done for the Retreat quilt.  Yeah!

All of the "A" blocks are done, on to the "B" blocks.  The "B" blocks are the pile on the right, waiting to be created.  Love when things come together.

Next Step

The next step of  Jean's QAL is finished.  This was super easy!  Just like sewing a nine patch.

Are you sure you don't want to join the fun?????

Clink on the link if you do!

I Have Been Sewing

I have been sewing.  Last Saturday at Quilt Day, my friend Rachel mentioned that we have only 2 months until the Quilts From The Bluffs Retreat.  ACK!  I promised to make two items using precuts.  So the first one up is an older pattern I had printed off of Moda Bake Shop.  It's called "Avignon Picnic Quilt" by Andrea Harris.  The original post was in May 2010, five years ago!  I love the pattern and I had a batik jelly roll and bought some yardage to make my own black jelly roll.

Ready to start making the blocks.  Hope it looks as good in real life as it does in my head.

Row, Row, Rowing

This past Tuesday a friend of mine and I went out Row, Row, Rowing.  The Row By Row Experience that is.  Kathy was looking for kits for the rows as she wants to make a summer quilt for her bed.  I was more into collecting the license plates.

I'm hoping to pick up a few more plates and I want to use my Iowa fabric from last year's All Iowa Shop Hop with it.   We had a wonderful day, thank you Kathy for inviting me along.

Oh MY!

Oh my!  I can't believe how many little squares you can get from a strip of fabric.  I did see a chart on Pinterest that stated you can get 99 two inch squares from a fat quarter.  Still have a ways to go!

A small basket of squares, 4 sandwich bags with 100 squares each.  I did get the rest of the strips out of the drawer and crammed them into the bag.  At least I can shut the drawer now.

I also finished filling this little case with squares for 9 patches.  I did do a few as leaders and enders (you can see those in the other part of the case) when I was working on my Hard Tack and Coffee blocks.  But I forgot to count them.  The cutting doesn't take too long.  The bagging the 100 blocks does as I'm trying to have only one of a fabric in each bag.  This will be a good task for in front of the TV.

In Keeping With Cleaning Out Strips

So, in keeping with cleaning out strips and making room for new ones, I found a couple more patterns I want to try.  First, this is the 2 inch strip drawer.  See how it's overflowing?

So are my pincushions!  Need to get those straightened out!

 And I have this bag of 2 inch strips.  

I found 3 patterns I want to make.  The first is from Bonnie Hunter's book "Adventures with Leaders & Enders".  The pattern is called "Rick Rack Nines" and I only need 2,610 squares.  

I also want to make "100-Patch Quilt"  by Wedding Dress Blues blogger, Deanna.  I only need 2,000 2 inch squares for that one.  And she has another quilt I want to make, "Growing Up Odd".  That quilt needs 2,500 squares.  It's amazing how many I have cut from the 2 inch strips.  As I'm cutting up the strips, I thought about 2 bags of scraps I have.  I'd get more variety from that.  May switch to that once I can close the drawer.

I also have been working for some time on a "Scrap Vomit" or "Technicolor Yawn" by Katy at "Monkey Do" blog  I would share the pattern but she has currently taken a leave from her blog and you can't reach her tutorials.  You can see the quilt here

Guess I need to get cutting!

Jean's QAL

I finished Sewing # 2 this morning.  Love how these are looking.  I could almost make a whole quilt of these.  They come out so cool.

Kind of fun how changing the layout changes the whole look.

Love how easy this has been!  Jean writes great directions and so far I've been able to keep up.  Seriously, you should join in!

Rainy Days and Mondays......

Monday was a rainy day.  We really didn't get too much rain, but it was perfectly timed for the garden and for me.  I decided to finish my "Hard Tack and Coffee" blocks and I did!  All 99 of them are done.  Each block has 15 pieces and measures 5 inches.

The one with the white label is the one that has 9.

Whew!

Now for the setting squares.  I originally thought I wanted "black coffee" so I bought the dark brown fabric.  But here they are against the "coffee with cream".  Not sure which one I like the best.  I have all the fabric I need if I go with the dark brown.  But if I go for the tan, I have to go buy more fabric.

Decisions, decisions decisions.  

Guess I'm going to let it "brew" for a while and see which one wins.  Which one do you like best?

Table Runner

Along with catching up on my Red White & True QAL, I also made this table runner.  I bought it on the All Iowa Shop Hop.  I didn't do many stores, just a few, but it was still fun!

I bought the kit at Threads, Etc. located in Glidden, IA.  Small little shop and mainly I think she does longarm quilting,   Such a nice owner!  Perfect for the Fourth of July!

All Caught Up

I'm all caught up on Jean's Red White and True QAL.  Yeah!

This step was pretty easy, which is good, as I needed to get caught up.  Hope you have a wonderful Fourth Of July weekend!

Jean's Quilt Along

I'm still playing catch up on Jean's Quilt Along.  I did get the cutting done today!  So now I can start the sewing from this past Monday's post.  I should be all caught up by next Monday's instructions.

Cutting

OK, I really should have been cutting my Red, White and True QAL quilt, but I decided to wash the fabrics as I was worried about the red.

So I'm looking at Facebook this morning and I see a quilt someone has finished on Quiltville's Open Studio, called "Crayon Box".  It's one of Bonnie Hunter's free patterns.  I have a bunch of 2.5 inch strips cut and overflowing their drawer.  I had to divide them into light and dark and place them in two other bins.  AND I had a bag started for the overflow.  Yes the drawer was still full even with all the strips that were removed.   I even had a bin of 4.5 inch blocks for the centers.  I decided to use all the same fabric for the centers as I had enough that I could.  Cutting is done and the project is ready to sew.

Oh, by the way, this is the way I clean my sewing room.  I never seem to really clean it, just work on projects to clear more room.

A Quilt Along

My friend Jean is having a Quilt Along on her blog,  Red, White and True.  This is the quilt:

Isn't it beautiful!  I love it!  Some of the fabric she used is from this year's All Iowa Shop Hop and some is from last years.  I have fabric I bought this year and I didn't have a plan for it, but now I do!

My background white will have a little more color than the one Jean used, but I hope it works.  You shouldn't have a problem catching up as last Monday had the cutting instructions.  No sewing has started yet.  You know you want to make this, as it will be perfect for the Fourth Of July.

Team Work

A little team work went into the making of this quilt top.  Two other women and myself made the string blocks. I took them home from Quilts From The Bluffs quilt day and I finished up the quilt Thursday.  So nice to get it to this stage.

And it shows you how quilters use team work to get the quilt done!

Binding

I finished making my binding for my Iowa quilt this morning.

I love the colors.  And here is the Iowa quilt top.  Not sure if I had shared this.  

Now to decide on the backing.  I had some Warren Kimble fabric that I thought I would use, but I don't have enough.  I'm sure if I search hard enough through my stash, I will find something.

Catching Up

I've been catching up on a few things.  I did finish my table runner made with "Winterlude" by Moda.  Nice to have that project done, even if it's not on the UFO list.

The second weekend in June, my friend Patti, my sister Deb, and I went to Patti's cabin for a mini retreat to celebrate the end of Deb's cancer treatments.   It was rainy all weekend, but still fun.  The last day the sun did peek out.

Deb and I did work on a fun little quilt.  Took a little shop hopping to find the fabric.  We ended up at Jo-Ann's in Des Moines, the last resort, and found the fabric we wanted.  I need to get busy this week and finish up that project.  :-)

Hope you have had some fun times sewing these past few weeks.

School's Out!

School's out for summer!  So far I've been busy cleaning my sewing room and organizing some projects to get me ready for summer sewing!  Stay tuned for further happenings....

Rag Quilt

I made a little rag quilt for our dog Alina.  She is getting so old and has never liked sleeping in a dog bed or on a pillow.  She has just slept on the rug next to the bed.

I started clipping last night while watching a movie.  Hope to finish the clipping today.  I had some of the blocks already sewn with an X.  But the ones around the outer edge I did yesterday.  I still have a ton of denim squares from old jeans.  I'm thinking I need to make a few more.

I've been using my Featherweight machine as my Bernina is in the shop.  This little machine is such a work horse.  It went through 8 layers of fabric, 4 layers denim and 4 layers flannel, with out a change in sound.  Just love how it sews.

I did get a call that my Bernina is all better now and that I can go pick her up.  I'll do that on Monday, after work.