Sewing. What's that?

No, I have not done a lick of sewing in almost two weeks.  What's up with that.  The worst part is that my sewing machine in set up in my living room right now.  When I do the quilting it all moves in there so I can have a larger table surface to support the quilt.

And since I have done no sewing, I have no sewing related pictures.

There has been quite a bit of time spent the grandkids.  That included a trip to the zoo with Grace, little A and Jennifer.

                                                               Grace

                                       This is Jennifer and A feeding the giraffe lettuce.

I have been to a birthday party for Leland at the Gage Park carousel.  And no, Allison does not have antlers.  But apparently the animal behind her horse does.

                                           Grace and Allison riding the carousel.


I have been to Salina for an overnight stay for work that involved a golf tournament.  I do not play golf. 

The next few days include at least two more eve/days with the kids. They are so much fun that I don't really miss the sewing when I'm with them.

One of these days I do intend to get back to my sewing machine. I am looking forward to it as a matter of fact.  Now just to find the time. 

Happy sewing,

Julie

I'm happy to say that with everything else that has been going on I have still been able to finish my leader/ender 9 patch top.  And I couldn't be happier with the results.

This is a picture of the 52 Ohio star blocks before they became a border.  I just wanted to lay them out to see it this would be something I'd want to do next.  It's not. 

These are both terrible pictures.  And I couldn't decide which was the better of the two so that left me no alternative but to post both of them.  Be sure to click on the pictures to get a larger view.   I love the way this quilt turned out.  If I started over again I don't think I would change a thing.  This has not been measured yet but is around 86" so will fit on MY queen size bed.  Instead of stewing over it, I've just decided that I'll do yet another quilt with just an all over meandering for the quilting.  That way maybe I'll get this one done.  The quilt rack for unquilted tops is to the point of overflowing. I'm afraid one of these days it will just fall over. So the last thing I need to do is add another top.

Keep my mom in your prayers.  Last Thursday the 16th she fell and broke her right hip.  She has had surgery and is now in Kansas Rehab for a few weeks.  I'm happy to say she is doing much better and is in good spirits.

While at the hospital I actually started working on some hexies.  I really don't expect that project to get very far. But you never know.

I've certainly got a lot of yard work to get to.  Thanks to my sister Joyce for doing Mom's yard.  Just wish she had time and inclination for mine.

Happy sewing,

Julie

 

Saturday was the day we (Mom, sister Cathy and I) head to Quilting on the Square in Holton for our block of the month.  This time I invited my five year old granddaughter Grace to go along.  I don't really think she was very impressed with the hour long ride to get up there but she never complained.  We did read ALL of the signs along the highway for a good stretch on the way back home though.  I think even she was getting bored with reading the mile markers.  When I asked her to go she got all excited because she wanted to buy some fabric to make her sister Allison a "warm, soft" blanket.  Well that meant fleece and I knew we weren't going to find that at the quilt shop.  So a stop in Topeka at Joann's was next.  We went through all of the fleece skipping over anything that wasn't pink.  Surprisingly, leaving quite a bit to select from.  Grace chose the front and back herself. She was smiling the entire time.  Then when we were back in the car and ready to leave she looked through the front window of the store and saw the black and pink zebra stripe.  We had somehow missed it.  After being told she might be able to make another blanket sometime she forgot all about that and moved on to the next thing her five year old mind took her to.

By Monday evening this is what she had.

I understand she had quite a bit of help from mom.  But to me that will always be her first big project.  The next is to be a changing table cover for the baby's room.  We picked out flannel from my stash for that.  She got a little sewing machine for her fifth birthday and can't wait to use it.  I must admit I was a little disappointed to hear that she already had one.  Two years ago during an after Christmas sale I picked up a sewing machine for her.  The box said age seven.  So I was patiently waiting.  Little did I know she'd get the bug at age five.

Happy sewing,

Julie



 

Well, the center of my nine patch quilt is done.  I've been having trouble making a decision about what border I want to put on it.  So I decided to make some blocks, take a couple of pictures and see if that helped.  It did.

Since this quilt is designed around my leader/ender nine patches I was leaning toward putting the nine patches around as a border.  Ignoring the star in the corner this was one of my ideas.  It actually looked better in person than in the picture. But to end up with a queen size quilt was going to take almost 2,000 squares.  I really would have done that if it would have been what I thought looked the best.  Thank goodness it wasn't.

This is what I am going to use. It will take 52 Ohio Star blocks for this border.  As of today I have 20 finished.  I do plan to make more with orange fabrics for the background.  I chose the Ohio star because without the sashing the blocks in the quilt are Ohio stars.  Now if I could just quit making nine patches.  It is very hard for me to make anything anymore without using a leader/ender and since I haven't come up with my next plan I'm still making nine patches.  Guess what will probably go on the back of this quilt:)

Well, those twenty Ohio stars were my weekend in a nutshell. One more weekend like that and I'll have this top done.  Then I can add it to the "needs to be quilted" stack.

Happy sewing,

Julie

 

On The Wall Today

This weekend I was able to get quite a bit of sewing done.  Should have been more yard work and less sewing.  But I am hoping to get the mower going this afternoon.  If I can get it to start.  Batteries!

Here is what I have done so far with my 9 patch leader/ender quilt.  I have one more row to add to it and then it will be 70" without any borders.  It will have a dark brown narrow border and then 6" blocks around that to finish it off.  That's the plan for today anyway.

 

I also finished the twenty five 12" stars that are needed for my scrappy star quilt.  The stars in the back already have the sashing around them.  This would certainly be pretty all on it's own.  Hmmm.  But I'm pretty sure that I'll get back to the ninety plus 6" stars that I still need for this.

Here is a little closer view of some of the fabrics that are in this quilt.  Be sure to click on the pictures to get an even larger view.

Check out all of the terrific design walls at Patchwork Times .  Have a great Monday.

Happy sewing,

Julie

 

 

Design Wall Monday

This is the project I am currently spending my sewing time on.  The small stars are 6" blocks that are set to make a 12" block.  The larger stars are 10" and with the sashing finish at 12".  I haven't decided yet whether or not this quilt will have a border but I am leaning in that direction.  I tried the sashing in a dark blue and that just didn't work.  I'm not sure how I like the light paisley yet either.  What I really think would look great is this done as just the small stars with no sashing.  But that may end up being a whole other project.  For right now I'll just concentrate on the (96) 6" stars I need to finish this layout.  The plan is to have 24 of the blocks using 6" stars and 25 of the 10" stars with sashing.  I have all but six of the larger blocks done.  Most of them still need sashed though.  That layout will make a 84" x 84" quilt top without borders.  Hmmmm, that might just be large enough.

To make these stars I have been using the Easy Angle ruler .  The 6" stars take a 2" strip of fabric and the 10" stars use a 3" strip of fabric.  Easy math. Easy block.   I have not repeated any of the fabrics in the individual stars.  Don't get me wrong the same fabrics are used in many of the blocks.  I have just tried not to use them in the individual blocks. 

                                               

While I have been working on the stars I have been making more 9 patches to go in my latest leader/ender quilt.  I am about ready to see how much farther I can get with the 9 patches I have now.
You can see more pictures of this project here .

Be sure to check out all of the great design walls at Patchwork Times.


Happy Sewing,

Julie

 

Blessed? You betcha!

I had my weekend planned out.  Sewing all day Saturday and Sunday.  Then a full design wall to show off on Monday.  The best laid plans.

This is my Saturday morning design wall.  All lined up and ready for more.

And there are more, just no picture yet.  These blocks are each 6".  Saturday I was able to get about 10 more of these done.  And then I wanted to play with them in a larger size.  So I have several done that are 10".  I will post pictures later.

On Sunday morning I sewed for several hours then headed out for a day with my sister Joyce.  We were just about to our destination when my son Jesse called.  He was taking my DIL Victoria to the emergency room and could I please come get the 3 kids from him.  I was 45 minutes away so I called DD Jennifer who ran to the rescue.  To make a long story short.

Their family of five had been at church when Victoria started to hemorrhage 8 weeks after giving birth.  Before the day was over Victoria's heart stopped and she was resuscitated by a nurse named Dallas.  (Thank you Dallas!)  Several hours later she was given a blood transfusion and she is now at home on bed rest and well on her way to a complete recovery.

I guess what I'm really trying to say is...you really never know what your day might bring.  I don't know why we have to go through all the trials that we do.  But I do know that God works for us.  First of all they were at church.  So she had her entire church praying for her recovery.  Jesse was sitting right next to her when her heart stopped and a big male nurse (yes, a female could have done it too) was right there to perform CPR.  And they had family to step in and take care of the 3 kids.

And this is who I have today. 

                                                                         Easter 2013

Count your blessings.  Because even when you're having a bad day there are still things to feel blessed about.

Happy sewing,

Julie

A Few Things To Show Off

I still have the same thing going on my design wall. The 3" nine patches set with browns and yellows.  I have made very little progress there.  I've just been making more nine patches. There are about 100 more to work with now but far from enough.

I did however, finish my "Easy Street" mystery quilt top that was designed by Bonnie Hunter. You can find the directions to that quilt here .  It did seem like I was never going to get this one to the flimsy stage.  But I took to work on at our sew-in day so I was able to get most of the blocks finished there in marathon fashion.

As can be seen, I used orange, green and purple for my main colors.  It is not one of my favorites but it did turn out alright.  She may have called it Easy Street but there are still a lot of pieces that went into this quilt.

Here is a close up of a section of the quilt top.

I also want to show off the Super Mario Brothers quilt I made for Zach.  Hopefully you can see in the picture how the top three blocks are larger that the other 12.  I, of course, wanted my quilt to look different than everyone else's quilt.  In hind sight that may not have been the best idea.  Since, Mario and Luigi are so large and go right to the edge, when this lays on the bed, they hang over the side.   The other blocks do too.  But it seems to distort them more.  And I'm probably the only one who would even worry or think about that.

 I don't know why I thought this quilt was so huge.  It's just a normal queen size. It's about 92 long by 82 wide.  I probably felt it was larger than normal because it is so heavy with all of those seams.

Forgive my ignorance of ALL things Super Mario.  Luckily I was able to go back to the website that tells all of the characters names.  Top left is Mario himself. In the top middle is Piranha Plant.  On the bottom left is a Treasure Chest. The brown guy is Goomba.

Top right is Luigi. (On my quilt the only thing different about Mario and Luigi is the direction they face and the color of their shirts.) The red thing is called Shy Guy. And on the right is a Cloud.

Here on the top left is a Pipe block. The orange thing is Spiny Shell.  On the bottom left is Mushroom.  And of course that's a Star.

This picture has a turtle called Koopa Troopa.  A Question Mark block.  The bottom left is a Fire Flower.  And the bottom right is a Turtle Shell block.

And there you have it.  If you want to make your own Super Mario quilt I suggest you just Google that very thing.  That's what I did.  The first site that was very helpful to me was Cut To Pieces .
She actually did a sew-a-long for her quilt.  On that site you can find most of the blocks I have here.  As for the other blocks I just looked around the web and found the rest. 

This quilt has quite a bit of color. And of course, you could make it as colorful as you want.  But I must say it was a very tedious quilt to make since it is nothing but squares and matching seams.  I do love how the sashing turned out.  And if you'll biggy size the pictures you can see that I put long strips next to my colorful sashing.  That way I didn't have to match those seams. You'll also be able to see that I quilted it using a cross hatch pattern.  I used a variegated gray and black thread.

On to the next project.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Hi Cathy

My sister Cathy informed me last Saturday exactly how long it had been since I wrote a post.  Too long, I guess.  Anyway, I have a hundred excuses but none of them are any good.  My last post I said I would put pictures up of my finished baby quilt for Allison and the finished Mario Brothers quilt for Zach.  Well, it's not going to happen today.  I have been having camera troubles for one thing. I am hoping that they have worked themselves out and that I can get more pictures.  As for the Mario quilt I still have not been able to lay the whole quilt out anywhere in my house and get a decent picture.

In the mean time I'll show you what I have been doing with my leader/ender nine patches.

Here is a small portion of what I'm working on.  I had over 250 3" nine patches made which seemed like a lot at the time they were counted so I started making 4" stars.  Well, when I decided to use this setting it became very apparent that 250 is not even close.  I think it will take over 400.  In addition to the 400 plus nine patches it will take almost that many hour glass blocks too.  That will make the quilt 81" x 81".   I have not decided what if any border it will have. 

This is a close up of one of the blocks.  I decided to put this together as blocks and not just as rows.  Trying to layout all of those little 3" blocks into rows of 27 would have made me crazy.  So far I have 39 of the 9" blocks done and have made enough of the sashing blocks to figure out that this layout will work for me.  In the picture above you can see the nine patch layout and right next to it is the sashing block which only takes two hour glass and 1 nine patch units.  I like how the hour glass setting gives it a second design with a star.  That star does/will get lost in the quilt as a whole though as you can see in the top picture.  So this would be great with the blocks laid out with a solid sashing between them.  The solid sashing is just not what I want for this quilt.

This Saturday Jennifer and I will be going to our sew-along group.  I'm hoping to make some more progress on this quilt and maybe break out the Easy Street blocks from Bonnie Hunter's mystery.  I seem to have lost interest in it.  No telling why.  I like the colors and the pattern but I sure didn't hesitate to put it aside and get started on this.

Anyway.  Have a great day.  Happy sewing.

Julie
 

Something better than quilting!

I have been doing some quilting.  But I've also been spending time with the newest member of our family. 

This is Allison Leigh.  She was born Sunday February 10, 2013.

Yes, she is as precious as she looks. But aren't all granddaughters?  Her quilt is made but no I don't have pictures of it yet. Just pictures of the baby.  My plan is to get a picture of both.

Happy sewing,

Julie


 

I figured I better get something else posted on here before the month of January is completely over.  I have been doing some sewing just not much to show for it.  Last Tuesday my machine wouldn't stitch right so it had to go to the Janome doctor.  A day there and 75.00 later and it all seems to be better. 

The last thing I showed on here was the Mario Brothers quilt.  Guess what, it's still not finished.  But as of today it is much closer.  The top was finished in time to wrap it up and put it under the Christmas tree for son-in-law Zach.  Now he is patiently waiting for me to get it quilted.  So yesterday I put the back together and this morning I pinned it.  And this afternoon I rested. 

Lots and lots of pins and now to decide exactly how to quilt it.

This is the back.  This red/black fabric has been in my stash for several years.  Now seemed like a good time to use it.  The strip down the middle is just various widths of fabrics used to brighten up the back and make it wide enough for the queen size top without using a third length of fabric.  This still left me with at least four more yards of this red.  It must have been a really good sale for me to buy that much.  Quite a few of the fabrics in the scrappy strip came from a box of trash. Yes, trash.  I walked into one of the near by quilt shops and noticed some wide strips of fabric in the trash.  I offered to buy their trash but they insisted I take that and another bag they had in the back.  From that I gleaned quite a treasure trove of scraps.  Since I wash all of my fabrics before using them it has been a bit of a challenge to get them washed, dried, trimmed and pressed.  I have been using a garment bag to wash them in but it still produces a lot of frayed edges.  I would have to say it has been well worth it in the end to get some new fabrics in my collection.   Oh, and what I didn't use of the fabrics I'll give to someone else who really does want the little pieces to use in dog beds.  So none of it will actually end up in a dumpster.

In the mean time I have been using scrappy 4" stars as my leader/ender project.  I keep trying to end up with a small table topper for the hope chest that I use as a coffee table and this one finally worked out.

 

This top measures 15" x 38".

 

 

Here is a close up.  There are some of my trash scraps in here too.  The sashing is 1/2" wide.

I'm looking forward to getting some quilting in and get started on a baby quilt.  I have a granddaughter due any day now and she needs a quilt.

Happy sewing,

Julie
 

This morning Bonnie Hunter has a post showing the "big reveal".  I'M NOT READY.  Instead of sandwiching and quilting the as yet unshown Super Mario Brothers quilt I have been selfishly working on Bonnie's Easy Street.  As of right now I am through with Part 4 and ready to get started on Part 5.

Here is what I have done so far.  Those colors do look bright in that picture.  I replaced her turquoise with orange.  So far so good.  But silly as it is - until I'm caught up I probably won't chance reading her posts.  I still don't want to spoil the surprise. 

So I'm back to the sewing machine and on to Part 5.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope this year brings us all loads of joy and happiness. For me - I will get a new granddaughter in February. Now that's something to look forward to.

Happy sewing,

Julie


 

Design Wall Saturday December 22nd

Well I finally made it to the last block.  Yes, I have not been posting.  But I knew that someone was peaking and they admitted to it.  So I'm glad that there are a few blocks that I have not shown.  So the end result will be something that they have not seen.  Not that the end result will be done any time near the Christmas holiday like it was supposed to.

I hope this looks like a turtle.  I think its supposed to.  I did take liberty with the colors on this one.  I don't have two different browns so instead of brown in the shell I put in purple.  It just makes for a brighter block.  So it is probably better any way.

Now it's on to the the layout and to get the sashing figured out.  This should work out the way I drew it up, but until the rows are put together I never know.

I do have a finish to show.  My friend's husband asked me a couple of weeks ago to make a pillow for her.  It was to be a Christmas gift from him.  She is a penguin person.  So penguins it had to be.

This is what I came up with.  I gave it to him on Thursday.  And he gave it to her on Thursday.  Funny.  At least I didn't have to wait another week to have something to show.

I feel like I have done nothing but work and sew and yet there has been nothing to blog about.  I am so far behind on Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt.  But there will be time for that pretty soon.  It just may not be such a mystery when I get to it.

Last Saturday I had the grands over.  Grace and Aiden, also my sister Joyce, her granddaughter Iris and my mother Clarel.  We were helping the girls make presents for their parents.  Grace was going to try to keep the secret until Christmas.  She's four.  I'm looking forward to seeing if she's been able to keep it in.  I know Joyce and Grace had a good time.  I'm not so sure about Iris.

I'm off to start laying out my blocks.  And maybe take a nap. Not necessarily in that order.

Happy Sewing,

Julie

A Few More Blocks

I do have a few more of the Mario Brothers blocks done.  They just aren't going very fast.  I'm half done with the 18" blocks.  Then it is on to the sashing and quilting.  I think it should be done by his birthday in May.

I did start making some of the next step in the mystery quilt "Easy Street" as my leader/enders.  That way I'll at least get some of each step done before the next one comes out.

And now off to begin another Monday.

Happy sewing,

Julie

More Blocks

I do have a few more blocks done for the Mario Bros. quilt.  These blocks only measure 18" each.  The previous blocks were 27" each.  Hopefully my layout design will work.  It works on paper.  But I'm still a long way from that.

This block is a cloud.  Yes, it is.  I think maybe the gray is a little dark.  At least it doesn't look like a tooth.  Which is what the pattern looks like.

I think this one is called a Mushroom Head.  There will be one of these in green too. 

The question mark.  I really like the depth this one has.  Wonder if in the game it is in any other colors? 

I did the other large (27") Mario/Luigi. It is done in green.  But is literally pinned under these other blocks.  And will eventually get it's day in the lime light.

While I've been working on the Mario blocks I've also been doing the new Bonnie Hunter mystery Clue #1. It is pretty easy, which is nice, since I have so much else to do.  I had been using the mystery blocks as my leader/enders for the other blocks but figured out that I can use the light blue pieces as my leader/enders and get more done at once for the Mario quilt.  Confusing unless you're the one doing the sewing.

Happy sewing,

Julie

 

Another Project Started

Jennifer and I went to a sew-in on Saturday. We got there at 10:00 a.m. then took about a four hour break for a birthday party (in Burlingame), went back and stayed until 10:00 p.m.  Whew.  It was in Perry which is an hour from Burlingame.  They seem to be a great bunch of ladies.  And I'm glad that they have decided to invite us into the group.  That and the potluck type lunch/dinner is just terrific.

Anyway.  I was able to get another new project started.  Zach if for any reason you actually log onto this blog - GO AWAY until after Christmas.

This block is Luigi or Mario.  I don't know for sure.  And probably never will.

Jenn told me what this flower is called.  It already escapes me.

These blocks each measure 27" square and they each have 324 pieces.  There will be another Luigi or Mario that faces the other side of the flower.  These three blocks will create the top third of the quilt.  At least that is the plan for now.

I don't really have much of a pattern for this.  I Googled Super Mario Brothers quilt patterns and came up with a few sites to look at.  The most helpful was Cut to Pieces.  More on that later.  Now off to work.

Happy sewing,

Julie 

Another short post.

I just wanted to do another short post to show my progress on the cat quilt.  Seems like I should already be done with it but I just haven't found much time to work on it.  This week I've been up an hour earlier than necessary on a couple of mornings so instead of lazing in bed I got up and sat at the sewing machine.  That is the only reason I'm this far with it.

This evening I came home and got my Holton b.o.m. done.  Whew, once again I put it off until the last night.  These blocks go together so nicely.  And eventually they might make a very bright baby quilt.

Have a great weekend.  Hug a vet.

Julie

Productive Extra Hour

I am one of those people who really doesn't like daylight saving time.  It just doesn't make much sense to me in our current world.  But this is the part of it I like the least.  It doesn't help that it gets dark an hour earlier.  Pick a time and stick with it.  Enough said.

However, this morning I put my extra hour to good use.  I'm an early riser anyway, and today was no exception.

This is 1/3 of the center of this baby quilt.  Progress.

Julie