Finally Quilting!

Let's just write January off! OK? I am healthy and quilting. I finally finished the placemats that I was working on back in December. I am sure that my youngest daughter has forgotten all about them. Next, I have a paper pieced heart to make before my guild meeting in two weeks. We are supposed to use it to make something and bring it in for show & tell. It has been several years since I did foundation paper piecing. I picked up an instruction sheet, just in case I can't remember. After that, I have two block of the month squares to do. Then, I can get back to last years block of the month. I still have to do sashing and corner stones and then a border. I will then get back to my Itty Bitty wall hanging. I am also dreaming of starting a new project, but can't make up my mind as to what I want to start. I think I will carry on with a Christmas theme, as I have two Christmas wall hangings planned. I have already booked a hotel in Houston for my girlfriend & I, for the International Quilt Festival that starts the end of October and runs until November 3rd. I can't believe it but we actually got into the Hilton Americas! It is right across the road from the convention centre and even has a skywalk to it. I can't believe it has been three years since we last went. Some promises to myself, to stick to over the next year. Lose some weight (yes I know goals should be quantitative and easy to measure - but that is for me to know & everyone else to wonder about). Make my die cut mini storm at sea that I bought in Houston three years ago. Make at least one new jacket to wear to Houston. Quilt my Stonehenge floor tile quilt. The top has been done for about two years. (I will show you a picture of it next week!) All this and many more & I have just started into my busy season at work. I think February will be a crazy busy month, with March even worse and April, well lets not talk about April. I am hosting my kindred group this Wednesday, so that should be fun. I also must finalize the agenda for the next guild meeting. (Did I mention that I took over as president in January?) I have had some really nice feedback on how my first meeting went. I hope I don't disappoint them this month. I hope you all have a good sewing week, with not too many interruptions. Enjoy!

Sick

After the busy Christmas season, I managed to come down with a rotten cold. It started with a sore throat, moved into a head cold, with a stuffy nose and finally into my chest, so I am coughing like crazy. Needless to say, I have not managed to do any sewing. Sorry about that. I had planned on finishing the two sets of placemats. Then I had planned on doing a new project, a table quilt. The pattern is called images and was in the Australian on-line quilt magazine that I get. The fabric, I picked up at the boxing day sale at Thimbles & Things. After that it will be back to last year's block of the month, as I still have sashing, corner stones and borders to sew together. Then I must finish my Itty Bitty Pinwheels that are still covering my design wall. After that I hope to get back to my one fabric quilt. Then I hope to jump into a new project. So much sewing to do and so little time!

Working Hard Or Hardly Working

I have been off work for about four weeks now and what do I have to show for it? Well how about this? I finally got the ends finished and the blocking done. Here are a couple of close ups to show some detail.

What is with this? I thought this was supposed to be a quilting blog? Well I have to show why I don't have much quilting done! OK, how about this? Four Christmas placemates! These are of the stack and wack variety. You put four fat quarters down and trim down to the size you want to finish with plus four sets of seam allowances (two inches if you use 1/4 inch seams). Then you slice out the stripes you want (plus seam allowances), then mix up the stripes by putting the top one on the bottom for the first one, 1st & 2nd on the bottom for the next one and then 1st, 2nd & 3rd on the bottom for the last one. Sew them together, pile them up again and cut the other way. Shuffle the stripes again, as you did before and then sew them back together. Then you just have to cut some backing and batting. I just sewed them right sides together, leaving a space open on one side to turn them. Then put the batting in, taking a bit of time to get them nice and flat and then quilted as desired. I also did a quilt line about 1/8 of an inch in from the edge, so that I didn't have to sew the opening shut by hand. I made one more chenille rug. They are really addictive! That makes three, which is quite enough. I have two more sets of placemates to make, one for me and one for a present, so really only one has to be done in the next few days. I also have the fabric for a seasonal wall hanging that I hope to get done before New Years, as I go back to work on January 2. Since I take over as president of my quilt guild on January 1st, I have also been spending time figuring out what we will be doing next year for 12 months. I have been concentrating on the first four months of the year, when I am very busy at work, so don't have enough spare time to figure anything out. I have also been working on an afghan that my sister had started many years ago. It is hexagons, so I couldn't resist! It makes nice work that I can do while sitting upstairs with my husband, rather than hiding away in my sewing room all the time. Now it is time to finish my baking. I have three more batches of cookie to do, as well as mincemeat tarts, so I had better get moving. I will also be sewing a few more gift bags in order to finish my wrapping. It might be a rather long day! I hope you all have your Christmas projects finished! Try to take a little time off from busy schedules to get a little quilting done. Most of all enjoy the season!

Itty Bitty Pinwheels

I finally got the squares for my "Itty Bitty Pinwheels" sewn together. The next step was to start cutting out the 1 1/2" squares to start making the pinwheels. You must use a small rotary cutter to do this. It seemed to take forever but I got the first four rows cut out and then sewn togethter. Here is a picture of my big square made up of 20 x 20 2 1/2" squares sewn together, with the first four rows of 1 1/2" itty bitty squares cut out of it. Then here is a picture showing what those 76 squares look like sewn together compared to the size of my original square. When all the squares have been cut and added to this it will make a 21" square. I must be crazy! It will be 361 squares made up of 1,444 bits of material! In my spare time I am making another chenille rug out of Stonehenge Magnolia panels. I have it about 2/3 sewn. I would have finished sewing it today, but ran out of thread. I will pick some more up in my travels tomorrow. I also managed to finish crochetting the shawl I was working on. I just have to finish working in the ends and then will get it blocked and then will take a proper picture of it to share with you. I have several Yule projects on the go and I just bought fabric for Patti Carey's "Baby Block" pattern of stacked up presents. I just hope that I have time to get it done before Christmas. I am out two evenings and one whole day this week, so I hope I get some sewing time. At least I am done work until January, so that should help. Hope your projects are progressing well! Have a good week!

Sewing & Sewing

I cut squares of the new fabric for my background & have started sewing my squares together for my Itty Bitty Pinwheels. I am much happier with it now. The following picture shows it with the new squares. You will notice a white stripe about a third of the way in from the right side. That section has groups of four squares sewn together in rows. The larger part on the left only has two squares sewn together in the rows. I will keep sewing the twos into fours and then will join the fours into eights, etc. When I have the rows finished, I will then start joining the rows together. Then I will cut the border fabric and add my borders. Then the fun will start when I start cutting this whole thing up to make my pinwheels! I have been working on the shawl I am crocheting. I finished the second set of pattern rows and am half way through the third set. I didn't bother taking a picture, but will when I finish the rows, before I start on the rounds. Not too bad for a work week, with a night out for my kindred quilters group. I also made the mistake of starting to watch the 7th season of Criminal Minds on DVDs that I purchased a couple of weeks ago. Oh well, I will be finished work again in a few days and be able to get more sewing done to show you. I wish some of you would send me comments and pictures of what you are working on! Have a good week!

No Quilting

I changed my mind about the neutral colours in my Itty Bitty Pinwheels. There is not enough difference between them. I have decided to add a new one. What do you think of the one in the following picture? I think I will replace the one closest to the new fabric. I will have to cut some squares and try it out. I have found taking a picture shows up problems before I notice them when just looking at my design wall. I didn't get any actual sewing done this week. I was too busy working on a crochet project. It is going to be a shawl. It is a dusty blue, that looks nice with blue jeans. The 1st picture shows that it is longer than my bed. The 2nd shows that the ends are on an angle. The 3rd shows the main part of the pattern. I am on row 21 of about 43, so I have about half of the main part done, but after that there are still numerous rounds to add an all around border. This is a project that I picked up at the Creative Festival in Toronto last month. I went exploring Amazon books last week and decided I couldn't do without Yoko Saito's book Japanese Quilting piece by piece (2006), Libby Lehman's Threadplay (1997) and Mary Parker's Sashiko Easy & Elegant Decorative Machine Embroidery (1999). They have all arrived and I am pleased with them. They are the other part of the reason that I didn't get any quilting done this week. I think that I will only be working for another week after this, so should manage to get back to important things like quilting! Have a good week and remember to enjoy whatever you are working on!

Christmas Placemats & Itty Bittty Pinwheels

I played this week with a couple of new projects. The first was the 4 fat quarter placemates. I hadn't planned on doing this but they were in "Quilters World" December 2012. In it they didn't do the easy cutting method, but they look the same. The colours didn't show up true on the picture I just took. They look more orange and light green, rather than red and green, but the picture does give you the idea of what they are. You cut out four 18" x 18" squares, slice them horizontally, rotate the colours and sew them back together. Then you slice them vertically, rotate them and sew them back together, trim the edges and a strip across the bottom (can be added to the backing to make them more decorative). This is what you end up with. I just need to cut out backing and batting sew them together and then quilt them. Very quick and easy! I attended an open class at my local quilt store Tuesday night, and got instructions on how to make a chenille rug from three panels. I finished it late on Wednesday. I love it! This is a Stonehenge panel from Northcott. I am really pleased with the way it turned out. This close-up gives you an idea of the texture you end up with! The other thing I worked on this week was 2 1/2" squares for my Itty Bitty Pinwheels. As usual I got carried away and ended up with 20 x 20 = 400 squares. I will go crazy sewing these together and then cutting the pinwheels out with the little template which is only 1 1/2" square. I played around with the pattern a bit and came up with this layout. I hope it will result in a nice pinwheel pattern when I am done. The print at the side will be my border fabric. Here is a close-up to let you see the border fabric better. I bought it back in May (2012) so it isn't too old! I am back at work for the next couple of weeks. I am hoping to have enough energy to sew a bunch of the 400 squares together and get the border cut and sewn on, but that might be a little optimistic! Then, I have to use my small cutter to cut it all into the 1 1/2" squares and then sew all of those together! Maybe I would do better sewing the sashing onto my blocks of the month? I will let you know next week! Have a good one and enjoy your sewing.

Table Runners

I couldn't post this last night as my youngest daughter's birthday was today and I didn't want her to know that I finished her table runners. They are from Eleanor Burns Day & Night book. I had to change the sizes, etc. and cut 1 cm squares out of the corners for an inset little square that is part of the table legs. It took me quite a while to quilt them and then forever to get the binding right in those corners. There is an outside corner, then 1 cm away is an inside corner and then 1 cm away another outside corner. I did two practice ones and then tried the real thing. Several corners took a couple of tries to get them right. I made good use of my seam ripper! The close up picture makes the corner look crooked, but it is the way it is hanging from my design wall. I couldn't take another picture as I no longer have the runners in my house. They went home with my daughter this afternoon, along with 14 cupcakes and some Yorkshire pudding. She was happy! My next project is going to be a chenille rug, made from several Stonehenge panels. I missed the class for this, so am planning on going to the sewing night at my local quilt shop to get some help. I just have a few questions, like how far apart your sewing lines should be and if you cut between the lines of sewing before or after you bind the edges. The owner has this open class most Tuesday nights, where she will answer any questions you have about quilting. She says it is a fun night with lots of laughter, so I am looking forward to it. I am hoping to have the rug all finished by Wednesday night, so should have time to start something else. I am thinking of my "Itty Bitty Primitive Pinwheels - 1" Finished". The finished size of the project is supposed to be 10" x 10". I think I will make mine a bit bigger than that by using more squares to begin with. It should be fun to play with. I go back to work next week for a couple of weeks, so that will be a good time to get back to the sashing on my block of the month project. After that I am supposed to have another six weeks off, so will have lots of time to play. It sounds good to me. As well as giving me more time to sew, I will also have lots of spare time to get ready for Yule this year, which will be nice for a change! I hope your projects are coming along nicely! Have a fun week!

Nothing To Show

It has been a very busy week for me. Housework, laundry, yard work, shopping for yarn to finish a project of my sisters, a trip to Mount Forest to visit my brother, a girl's dinner out with friends & a bus trip to Toronto to the Creative Festival have all worked against me getting any sewing done. I did get the three table runners for my daughter layered and pinned, all ready to quilt. I have hopes of starting the quilting tomorrow. I will try to have pictures for next week. The festival was lots of fun, with lots to see. I now have a couple of more projects to do, in all my spare time!

Table Runners Get Attention

What a great two weeks! (Sorry I missed blogging last Sunday.) Let's see...I helped with more painting of our deck, went to London & stayed with my sister for a couple of days, including the Ingersol quilt show, finally got blinds for the living room window, did more painting on the deck (It is a big deck, 8' x 16' where you walk out from the kitchen with eight foot wide stairs leading down to our patio and the one end of the 16' lenth joins a 16' x 16' seating area.), managed to cook a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner for company, did part of the Images Studio Tour and even got to sew! I finished sewing the frames around my block of the month squares! Then I numbered all of them (on a paper pinned to them - letter (for the row) & number (for the column) so I would know the correct order they go in. I was finally able to get them off my design wall! After that the table runners for our youngest daughter won my attention. The long one for her coffee table is an Eleanor Burns Day & Night two colour pattern, and the two end table runners are made from the leftovers. She really wants them and has been waiting since we bought the fabric in April (2012). I had to put the year as I have projects that have been waiting much longer for my attention! Anyway, all three runner tops are now complete. This coming week I will try to get the runners layered and quilted, then there will just be the binding to do with the funny corners and I will have them done (hopefully in time for show & tell at my October guild meetings). The "funny corners" have a square (1 cm x 1 cm) clipped out, so when I do the binding I have to make a regular outside mitred corner, then an inside corner and then another regular corner. It wouldn't be so bad if they were spread out a bit more, but they are really jammed together. Hopefully I will have pictures by next week to show how they turned out. I only have three weeks left of my vacation, so I better get moving! So many projects and so little time! Have a great week!