And a good time was had by all........

I give a lot of scraps  to my friend Rosemary and I give her orphan blocks that I now longer want.  She surprised me yesterday when she showed us what she did with the scrappy Kaleidoscope blocks that I gave to her last time.  Who would have guessed that they would be the same size as the paper pieced log cabin blocks she was working on.  This quilt top is big, about 85" x 100" and the blocks are about 6.75" square.  I will be helping her to baste it soon.

Jerry's quilt top was too long for my design walls (112").  It is the Blooming 9 patch.  It is a LOT of work to make one of these and it is sewn in diagonal rows.  This one is All Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs fabrics.

This is the last Blooming 9 patch that I made (finished the last day of 2009) and I said I would probably not make another one.  After seeing Jerry's finished I think I will do another one.  I modified the pattern in "Tradition with a Twist" by Blanche Young so that it fits a queen size bed and shared my directions with Jerry.   I gifted this quilt to a family friend in October 2011.

Another top finished, more blocks made.....

I finally got brave enough to sew the top and bottom borders.  I had to take in about 6 seams to make the border fit. I don't think it is obvious that some of the 9 patches are narrower. I really like how it turned out and am glad I put the border on.  I need to choose a backing right away and get the seam sewn in it and then it is more likely to get finished.

I made 2 more blocks and decided this one will be square.  I see I didn't get the top right block positioned right, but it was late at night and I didn't want to go back down to the basement to take another photo.  I will look for setting triangle fabric today and audition a few.

Side borders, binding, quilting......

This may look like yesterday's photo but the side borders are sewn on now.  I added 1/3 of a block on each strip and then had to take in 2 seams a tiny bit for it all to fit.  I have pieced the two 2/3 blocks for the top and bottom but haven't sewn them onto the strip yet.

I searched through my green stash to find a binding for this quilt.  I needed more than 1/2 yard so that eliminated a lot of fabric.  This is my final choice and I will cut it today.  I need to get 3 bindings on quilts so I will have an impressive list of finishes for November.

I finished the ditch quilting on this quilt.  There was a suggestion in the book of 2 patterns of continuous lines that completely outlined each cross when it was done.  I need to look for binding for this one today.

Getting closer........

I sewed the border blocks into strips to see how much I need to add to them to make them fit.  I haven't pressed them yet but it looks like 1/3 of a block will finish the 2 side borders and 2/3 block on the top and bottom.  I moved it over to a double design wall and it looks like I put it upside down to the way it was on the single wall.  I guess a throw size doesn't really have a top or bottom so it doesn't make any difference. 

I cut more pillowcases for the church project (every 2 weeks I need a batch) and quilted 2/3 of one of the crosses quilts.  Today is going to be a busy day so I don't know how much I'll get sewn.  Hopefully I'll finish the quilting while I watch 3 hours of TV tonight.

Extras.......

I spent the afternoon yesterday trying to figure out how I could change the configuration of tables in my basement.  The way it was set up it was hard to take photos of large quilts and I had to move a cabinet every time I wanted to baste a quilt.  I made some changes and think it will work out well.  I don't like the brand of daylight bulbs that I have near the new location as well as the older bulbs on the other side of the basement.  There is definitely a difference from brand to brand.  I didn't feel like tackling anything that took a lot of concentrations last night so I decided to sew all of the leftover 9 patches that I had cut about a week ago.  There are 33 in this pile and there will be more as I sew some more combinations this week.

One block.......

One more block for the border.  I cut it from scraps so there was only enough for one block.  I like the combination though and I have more of both fabrics so I will probably make blocks like this.

The little birds love the forsythia bush that is right up next to the house.  They are there especially on windy days.

The birds pick at something on the branches but it isn't the flower buds that have been set for next spring.  I think this one has something in his beak.

I worked at the quilt shop yesterday and computer club at night.  I got one binding sewn on last night.  Saturday is Dad's birthday, 98, so there is going to be a little party at his residence.  Never a dull moment. 

Trying to finish another

Last night I decided I would check out the temperature outside by driving down to the grocery store and if it wasn't too bad, I would go to see a movie at our local theater. I didn't think it felt too bad, even for 17 degrees so I went home and put away my groceries and went back out to my van to leave. The battery was dead! I guess it's a good thing I didn't get there and find it dead when I came out of the theater. My brother is an auto repair guy so he will bring me a new battery later today. My van will be 6 years old in April so I guess I did pretty well on the first battery.

As long as I was home for the evening I decided to finish this quilt top. All it needed was the 4 corner triangles. Rather than spend the time looking for the rest of the pansy fabric, I used 4 leftover setting triangles on the corners. The outside edges are bias on them so I am going to leave them oversized until the quilting is done and trim them when I trim the edges.

I had purchased 8.5 yards of this yellow fabric when a quilt shop was going out of business and having their sale. I had the fabric wrapped on a bolt board so there was minimal pressing needed on it. I got the 3 pieces sewn together and pressed.

Since I will be home all morning I might as well keep working on it.

Sewing for charity and nature's beauty

I started making some pillowcases for a couple different charities. I have a lot of pieces cut but don't have the right combinations figured out for most of them. I got 3 sewn together yesterday. This is the view from my kitchen window. The redbud leaves have all fallen and now I can see my maple tree. I love the red tree in the distance too.

The viburnum is pretty again this year but has lost half of the leaves already.

I dumped the birdseed that was in the bottom of the feeders because it had gotten wet and I was afraid it would get moldy if I just poured new seed on top. This squirrel thinks he has hit the jackpot.

When I showed the quilts from the Disappearing 9 patch class I mentioned that I didn't have a very good picture of this one that turned out so pretty. She brought it to my Saturday class so I could try again. This close up shows how pretty the fabrics are.

I took this picture outside but again I think the beiges look washed out even in the daylight.

Guess what our weather is going to be, more rain! The farmers are never going to get their crops in if we don't get a dry week pretty soon.

Successful class

Here are the students' quilts from the Disappearing 9 patch class. This first one was a beginning quilter who decided to just make a small piece to learn the ropes.This student used patriotic colors. She only had 4 blocks done to photograph so there are 3 of one kind and one of the other kind.

There are lots of cheery colors in this one.

My photo does not do this one justice. It is really pretty but my little camera couldn't capture it. I guess I'll have to start taking the big camera to classes with me. Maybe if you click and enlarge the photo you might be able to see some of the nice fabrics.

The blocks are a little wonky in this one but the owner loves it and I think it really came out well. She is going to add a brown border.

I finished this journal cover that I showed part of a couple days ago.

The photo below is the open cover before I slipped the notebook in.

It rained all day yesterday, mostly light rain but almost an inch by evening. All of the leaves fell from the redbuds in one day. Now I can see through to some of the more colorful trees in neighbors' yards.

Starting a layout

While I was cleaning the basement I saw my pile of strips that I showed you here and I decided to start the layout. I think I will run mine horizontally instead of vertical like Kaffe did. I thought I was going to have to look for a couple deeper tones but the Roberta Horton plaids already have the deep tone I need. I have a few more fabrics that I can cut for this one too so this is just a sample layout.


I finished all of the Disappearing 9 patch blocks that I was working on Thurs. night and then I decided to try a batik block with some of the squares left over from a Double 4 patch that I made last year.

I think this might look good with some machine embroidery on the 2 squares that point to the center. Hmmm, more ideas................